Address—C. Hendricks
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I chose to sing that hymn because it.
Brings before us God's thoughts, not man's thoughts.
His thought, His wondrous thought concerning Christ.
And his church, you are part of that, everyone of you.
Believers, young, older ones, mostly young here today, you're part of that heavenly company that is united by the Spirit of God to Christ the man in the glory, and it's God's wondrous thought to have us with him.
The most?
Intimate object of his heart's affections.
His bride now his body and.
That coming day will be displayed as his bride, that that company that he loves soap and has shed his affections upon so wondrously, our brother Ron. I think what I remember as the most significant statement that he made was that success.
In life.
Is measured by.
One's obedience to the Word of God not by results here.
Because we don't see all the results of obedience to the Word of God here.
They will be seen in the coming day of glory. So true success is not necessarily seen here, but it's measured by obedience to the Word of God, to apprehend His thoughts, to know His mind, and then to be obedient to the Word of God.
There are three kinds of corruption in the world.
There is ecclesiastical corruption, there is moral.
Corruption. And there is political corruption. Moral corruption effects society. Political corruption is against the government, against the authorities over us. Ecclesiastical corruption, which is the worst because it is corruption against God himself.
I'd like to talk this morning about Ecclesiastical.
Corruption.
And the way to meet it, ecclesiastical corruption is corruption of that which God has set up down here, his assembly, and the enemy has come in and he has affected that. We know that moral corruption has come in, in a in a staggering way.
To affect individual lives and family lives and we know that political corruption is everywhere rampant it's quite common to speak of politicians as those who are devoid of any kind of real integrity and.
And yet when we think of the ecclesiastical corruption, corruption that has entered into the things of God, the Church.
How man has introduced his thoughts. How man has introduced his way of doing things.
I'd just like to start with a verse in Exodus 25. In fact, there are two verses there we might read Exodus 25, verse 8. God says to Moses, let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. Notice verse 9 according to all that I show them.
Show thee after the pattern of the Tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof. Even so shall ye make it. And then the last verse of that chapter, and look.
That thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the Mount. Now what he's saying to Moses and to you and to me is that we do not have the right.
To interject our thoughts when God has given us His thoughts.
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The Israelites had no right to change anything in the construction of the Tabernacle. Everything was laid down, Jehovah gave it to Moses, and there were men selected of God to build every article of furniture in the Tabernacle according to the pattern, according to the word and will of God.
That's the most important thing, as our brother Ron was telling us.
To do the will of God, to learn what it is to submit to Him and to lay aside our own thoughts and our own will and to just be obedient, to walk in a path of obedience to His revealed word. I think we're all very much aware of an athlete from Canada.
That won the gold medal in Johnson, but he was stripped of that.
And I couldn't help but think of a verse in Two Timothy 3 which says 2 Timothy 2 verse 3 which says.
One who strives for the masteries is not crowned unless he strive lawfully.
When we look around us and see all that has come in to the Christian profession, the way Christians meet.
The order of their church government, the very way in which they carry on their meetings.
Things which have been invented by men's minds, which are not after the pattern which has been shown to us in the word of God. Now that's all going to be tested, that's all going to be tried.
And young people.
It's so important we saw a clear case. Here's a man that won the gold medal. He came in first.
But he violated the rules, and so he was stripped not only of the gold medal, but of many other things, his honor, and so on.
The only way that we're going to be crowned when we have to do with the things of God and not disqualify and set aside is to follow the rules, so to speak, to strive lawfully.
In Leviticus chapter. One more verse before we get into the New Testament. I believe it's chapter.
5.
Verse 15. Verse 14. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, If a soul committed trespass and sin through ignorance in the holy things of the Lord.
Now here we have a sin, says a sin through ignorance. There are many today.
That are going on with things in the Christian profession and they're ignorant.
They're not even aware that what they are subscribing to and what they are going on with.
Is not according to the word of God.
It's one man. Ministry is an instance of that.
Ornate decorated buildings.
Patterned after the the old order of things in Judaism.
Stained glass windows, choirs, vestments, priesthood.
All the trappings that go along with a religion after the flesh that was Judaism and what has happened in Christendom is that.
Judaism and a lot of paganism by the way, has been brought in to the Christian testimony and it has been clothed with a veneer of Christianity. Christian names have been placed upon it. For instance, I'll get, I'll be very specific they have taken.
Of Pagan holidays and festival days. And they have clothed these days with Christian names and they have Christianized them. The Church of Rome has done this, and they make a lot of money on those days. One of the days is about to come in December and they make a lot of money on those days.
I remember.
One was working in a bank.
In Wilmette, where we used to live, and she reported that the income of.
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The Roman Catholic Church on Christmas Day exceeded by many times the total intake in our little assembly in the city of Chicago for a whole year. So you see why those days are promoted. They're great money makers.
That's one of the reasons.
These are things that have come into the Christian testimony.
Paul says to the Galatians he observed days and months and times and years. I'm afraid of you. They had abandoned in principle Christianity. Beware lest any man corrupt you from the simplicity which is in Christ, young people.
We want to remain simple. I don't mean by that simple tons, I mean we want to be simple. We don't want to embellish things with all kinds of trappings for the flesh, instrumental music and choirs and all the things that we see out there which are so attractive to the flesh.
A brother made a very significant statement when I was in his home in La Revere just recently.
In Manitoba and he said one thing.
Keeps our numbers small. One word.
Separation.
And another added to that when I was in another place.
Discipline, that is, to deal with evil when it arises and to put it out, because if we do not do that, if that ceases, we are saying that the presence of the Lord.
Were gathered to his precious holy name, where two or three are gathered together unto my name.
Jeremiah in the midst of them, we're saying that the presence of the Lord and no one allowed evil are compatible. They can coexist together, and that's really a denial of the holiness of the Lord Jesus. Holiness becometh thy house, oh Lord, forever.
Now let's turn over to 1St Corinthians chapter 3.
One Corinthians chapter 3 verse.
10.
According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, this is Paul speaking. I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon, but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
You know that you are a builder.
Everyone of us is making some contribution to the assembly, to the local assembly, where you live, where you reside, you're a builder. Let's see the kinds of things that can be built. The apostle issues a warning immediately. He says let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. And let's think as we view these verses of what the Lord said to Moses that they should.
Take heed to follow explicitly the pattern which he had showed Moses on the mount.
And the pattern we have right here, we're holding it in our hands, the Word of God.
It amazes me. It astounds me how?
Christians, believers, real believers, I'm talking about those who are really the Lords, can have such a an attitude that some have towards the Word of God, as though we are at liberty to change it, or to ignore it, or to add to it, or to take from it. And yet that is being done, or to explain it away so that the the keen edge of the truth no longer cuts us.
No longer touches our conscience.
Woe be to us if we ever get into that state.
Where we only hear what we want to hear.
Two Timothy 4 says they heaped to themselves teachers.
Having itching ears and are turned away from the truth and they've turned aside to fables. Now that's true of some true believers they've they've gotten themselves into a company of professing Christians and by and large they have gotten rid in that particular church I know of instances where this has happened they've gotten rid of a faithful.
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Pastor. By faithful pastor, I mean one that basically.
Brought to them the truth of God, the gospel, at least in its purity. And they didn't want to hear some of those things. So they have elected him out, voted him out and brought in a modernist one that would preach smooth things, things that they wanted to hear.
Sometimes we hear things that we don't like because it touches our conscience, and I believe that if we ever sit in a conference.
And there is no ministry given that touches the conscience, that speaks to the conscience.
Something is drastically wrong because we all need that ministry. We all need.
To be reproved and rebuked and corrected and instructed in righteousness. That's what the word of God is for. So Paul issues this warning, verse 10 at the end. But every man take heed how he buildeth thereon for other foundation. Can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now all of these different groups in Christendom begin with this basic foundation.
In whom do you believe the answer would be in Jesus Christ?
That's the basis.
That's the foundation upon which everything that is Christian is built.
Jesus Christ is the foundation. No one could lay another foundation.
Any other foundation would not be Christianity. Now verse 12 if any man build upon this foundation.
Gold, silver, precious stones.
Wood, hay, stubble. You see, there's two kinds of materials. The first kind will pass the test of the fire. The gold, the silver, the precious stones, the fire. Speaking of the holiness of God.
In judgment executed against.
What trying, you might say everything, whether it is according to God or not, but the wood, the hay and the stubble will be consumed and burned up. We have two different three different kinds of builders in this passage. We have the builder that builds upon the foundation, gold, silver, precious stone, gold would speak of what answers to the righteousness of God.
And silver that which is in accordance with the redemptive work of Christ.
And the precious stones, that which speaks of all the glories of Christ.
And all that he is in his varied.
Glories and aspects that we can view him in.
At All is for the honor and the glory of that foundation.
The Lord Jesus Christ himself. But then there's wood and there's hay and stubble. It gets more worthless as you go down the list.
Wood, hay and stubble and that would suggest material.
Which has been built on the foundation, which is Christ, which will not stand the test of the fire. It's going to be burned up. Now there are that. There's that kind of a builder in the Christian Church, and I use that term in the broadest sense, the Christian Church, that is that which professes the name of Christ.
The House of God, it's called in two Timothy, a great house.
He's no longer given the term the House of God. It's called a great house.
Because that's what the House of God has become. Man has introduced over 2000 years of church history. Man has introduced his thoughts, his ways of doing things, things, you know, young people.
A common thought is that moral evil is the worst.
And then political evil, that is sin against the government. And then ecclesiastical evil is looked upon as really not very important corruption. That's the worst because that's that's directly opposing God and it's it's attacking.
It's corrupting, it is. It is bringing in foreign elements.
Into that which is the most precious and dear object of the heart of Christ. That's the Church.
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And if the if the enemy can just get that corrupted and he's succeeded magnificently succeeded as far as he's concerned to corrupt the thought of what the church is. You talked to 95% of the Christians in the world that you meet with. What is the church? Ask them.
So what does it mean to Christ? What is its order of government?
How should Christians meet?
Is I had a young lady I was talking to recently.
She's Baptist and she's much exercised about some of the things that are going on in the church where she is, but I'm not singling out that God denomination. It doesn't matter what denomination you pick out, but sisters are there. Their heads are not covered. The Word of God says that they sister should wear the sinus objection on her head when she prays or prophecies.
And even when she's under the sound of the word of God, she should.
Hear the word of God with all subjection. How can she be hearing it with all subjection if she's not even wearing the sign of subjection?
On her head.
That would be a violation of the principles of Scripture.
She was concerned about that. She was concerned about women speaking in the church. And then she asked the pastor.
I don't think one man ministry is according to God. That's not the way I read it in the scriptures. But the prophets speak two or three and let the others judge. Now there were an Antioch, certain prophets and teachers and then five are mentioned. Acts 13.
Barnabas is the first one mentioned, Saul is the last, and then there are three others.
And there were 5 Not one man, not one man over the congregation. The Word of God is so abundantly clear that he has given gifts in each local assembly to function under the lead and the guidance of the Spirit of God. And what has man done? He's taken his own thoughts. He's placed one man over the congregation. He says you. They said you are our leader, you are our pastor, you are our minister.
And.
That is, that's a sin in the holy things of the Lord.
That's ecclesiastical corruption bringing into the church all those things borrowed from Judaism. The beautiful ornate buildings, millions of dollars spent on erecting a place of worship, the holy place of worship, they'd call it. And then they go to hear a sermon.
Worship at all Worship is the outflow of the redeemed heart to God.
It's a priestly function. We function as holy priests to OfferUp spiritual sacrifices to God by Jesus Christ.
I was just reading the other night, having come home, picked up the Christian treasury that had just come.
And there was a question in there about why is worship more important than service. I thought the answer was excellent. Excellent. Read it if you haven't read the article. Excellent answer to show how that the outflow of the redeemed heart to God takes priority. And then there's the service which flows from that. So our exercise of our priestly function.
Where do you see that?
In system, where do you see true worship? They say, come worship with us. And then you come there and sit down and all you hear is a sermon. That's not worship, that's ministry. What you're hearing right now is ministry. That's God speaking through the servant, the vessel to you, Christ speaking through the vessel to his members and edifying them, building them up in their most holy faith. But that's not priesthood. Tomorrow morning we'll be here around the blessed Lord.
Function in our priestly character, every heart overflowing with praise and adoration and worship to the One who has loved us and given himself for us. How did this come in? How did this corruption of divine order come into the church? Why is it that such a great percentage in Christendom has deviated from the divine order?
As soon as.
And has been placed in a position of responsibility and held accountable to be obedient in that he fails. So it has happened in the church, he has failed.
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Now verse 12, First Corinthians 3.
If any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble.
Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. That is the day. There's a day coming when everything that has been done in the Christian profession will be tested by the fire.
And everything that is not according to this book.
Will be burned up.
Everything. Now there are those that are very prominent in the Christian world and they are supporting, they are endorsing, they are giving all the weight of their gift to some things which are a departure from the pattern of the Word of God.
Basically what I want to plead with you young people about this morning.
Is that you take heed to the word of God. You do not sit idly by and allow things to be introduced which are not according to the word of God.
That that we hold fast to what we have. That we hold fast to the truths that have been recovered to us.
And that what we build in our lives, what we lend our support to, what we pray about.
Are gold and silver and precious stones, not the wood, hay and the stubble, which will not meet with his approval? Every man's work, verse 13 shall be made manifest. There's a day coming.
Beloved young brother and sister, that every one of us, every one of us, all our work, whatever we've done for the Lord is going to be made.
Manifest is going to be clearly made manifest. What does he say for that? They shall declare it. There is a day coming when everything will be brought out into the light as to what we have supported and what we have refused to support. I know one young believer was witnessing to a fellow believer at his work.
And invited this other Christian to come out to the meeting.
And he did, and he observed and said he enjoyed it.
And then that other Christian invited the brother who was gathered out to the Lord's name, to come with him to his church.
Then he declined.
And the first Christian said, well, I came to your church, now you come to mine.
And the young believer said that's not my church.
That her language is a mistake in our thoughts. I don't have a church. Christ has His church, and He has given instruction in His Word. How Christians are to meet, how we are to assemble. That we should give liberty to the Spirit of God to use whomsoever He will in the ministry of the Word.
We see that so beautifully brought out in the reading meetings when he uses various ones.
To unfold the precious things of the word of God. But it's not a one man ministry. It's not a designated ministry appointed by the church or by an election of elders or what have you. It's leaving the Spirit of God free.
To use whomsoever he will, whether it is in worship, in prayer, in the ministry of the Word, in the administrative functions of the assembly. The Spirit of God has been set aside in practice by so much in Christendom. Young people, you're going to meet.
Other Christians. If you witness, especially if you're faithful, if you give out tracts, if you speak faithfully for your Lord, you're going to meet other Christians.
Let me say this, if any of us older ones, I'll make it very personal. If I have ever, and I know I have, I shouldn't say it. If I know I have given the impression that we are a little bit better than Christians out there in system, let me say to you, I sincerely apologize.
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For ever giving that impression, if I've ever given it.
Or if any of us older ones have given it, that's wrong.
That's wrong. We're not one whit better than any other believer. It's not a question of us being better than anyone else. We're all sinners saved by grace. We were all far from him, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in us on account of the hardness of our hearts, who, being past feeling, had given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all on cleanness with greediness. That was our state. We were all in that state.
And God called us out of that darkness into his marvelous light. No, we're not any better. We're all trophies of the grace of God. And Christ doesn't love the gathered Saints one bit more than He does those who aren't gathered. He loves us all with the same love. It's a question of obedience to the Book.
Someone could say of Ben Johnson.
He was a great runner. Yes he was. Yes he is.
But he violated the rules.
It's not a question of being a true Christian.
It's not a question of do I love the Lord? We don't question that. We don't, we don't. That's not for us to to decide upon. Sometimes I've heard it's said, shaking the head. I don't see how they can go on with that.
Well, when we think of some of the things that we go on with in our lives which are not pleasing to the Lord, we can shake our heads at ourselves too.
That doesn't change the principle that we have before us here to follow the rule book.
To build according to the word of God.
And if we present the truth to some who are outside of it, just leave it with them and with the Spirit of God to bring that home in power to the soul.
You know everyone that the Spirit of God works in the heart of will be brought to the to the Lord and we don't have to add man's way of doing it.
In order to do that, just present the Word of God and the Spirit of God will use His word for the glory of Christ.
But our responsibility is to build according to the rule book.
According to the word of God.
Notice what it says in verse 13. Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it that is, the day shall be revealed by fire or in fire, and the fire shall try every man's work. How much it is? No, no, no. Of what sort it is, is it according to the word of God?
Well, in order for us to try everything, prove all things, hold fast that which is good.
Or right is to know this book young people, let me tell you this you'll never.
Have as much time to read the Word of God, to study it, to make it your own as right now, in your young years. Use those young years. Use those moments with the Lord. Use those moments that you have right now before you get married, to read the Word, to study it, to ponder it, to make it your own. Because when you get into a family and children come, you will find that you have less and less time.
To read and study the Word of God. What you make your own when you're young stays with you your whole life.
And I'm so thankful that when I got saved as a boy of 19, I got into the word with intensity and studied it and studied it. And oh, how how much blessing that has been to my soul through my lifetime.
Verse 14.
If any man's work abide which he hath built, thereupon he shall receive a reward. So there are those that build according to the word of God, and they're going to be rewarded for that. Their work will abide. It will be according to the Scriptures. Then he says in verse 15, if any man's work shall be burned.
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And how much has been built? Which is called Christian? That is not Christian at all. It's given the name, but it's not according to the word of God. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss.
But he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire that ought to read through the fire. He's not saved by the fire, but he's saved right through the fire. He goes through the fire and his works are burned, but he's saved. That's the point. So you have two kinds of builders here, The first who builds according to the Word of God, and he gets a reward. The second one who builds the kinds of materials which come from men.
There really are not. According to the scriptures, those things will be burned up, but the individual is saved.
They're safe, he's saved, and then there's a third kind of builder.
Verse 16 No ye not that ye are the temple of God.
And that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now he's not talking about it us individually here, but he looks at the the the the Christians in their collective character and he says you collectively at Corinth are the temple of God. You are where God the Holy Ghost dwells. And recognize that in your comings together, know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.
We're not going to turn to it, but in the 6th chapter of this same book, he says that our bodies.
Are the Temple of the Holy Ghost we're not our own. We're bought with the price now there.
It's the individual believer.
The individual believer's body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, but here it's the local assembly is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and according to Ephesians 2, the whole church universal is the dwelling place of the Spirit of God.
I remember speaking on that subject once and someone came up to me afterward, a young believer, and said, does the Spirit of God dwell among the the denominations?
To and I said absolutely, the Spirit of God is there where the name of Christ is professed.
The Spirit of God is among all Christians, individually and collectively.
Now being gathered to the name of the Lord is another subject, and there He promises His presence to those who are gathered to His name. That's another matter. You would not say that that was true of those who are not so gathered, but the Spirit of God.
His habitation is the church universal and the church, of course, in a locality, which is what we have in First Corinthians. They were the temple locally of the Spirit of God.
And he says in verse 17, If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. Now that word defile and the word destroy exactly the same word in the Greek if any man defile or corrupt.
Or destroy the temple of God, that is, destroy its true character.
As being holy by bringing in doctrine, which.
Attacks the fundamentals of the faith.
He actually corrupts the temple of God. He actually destroys it in its true character of holiness.
It says him, shall God destroy, destroy.
Now there's one who builds in the professing church, but he's not real at all.
He's going to be destroyed. So you've got three kinds of builders. You've got a true believer who builds gold, silver and precious stones. That's what we want to be to build according to the word of God. You've got true believers who build wood, hand stubble, true believers. But what they're building and what they're lending their support to, the weight of their gift to is not according to the pattern which has been given to us.
And that's going to be burned up. They'll be saved, but that'll be burned up. And then there's the one who corrupts.
The temple of God introduces that which is positively false to the foundation, false to the foundation truths of the gospel.
His hymn Shall God destroy. I trust there's no one in this company.
That is in that third category.
For the temple of God is holy.
So to introduce principles or doctrines which.
Corrupt and thereby destroy the true character of God's temple, which is holiness.
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To introduce that it says him, Shall God destroy the temple of God?
Is holy which temple ye are the Saints of God are viewed down here as the.
Temple of God, and notice how he ends this chapter. And then we close. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, Brother Chapter Brown used to say, and I repeat it often, we are never wiser than Scripture, never wiser than Scripture.
If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, I have a thought I want to introduce into our local gathering this and that thing. I heard that from someone that was preaching over the radio or whatever it might be, and I think that's a good idea.
That's not the question. It's not a question whether I think it's a good idea. It's a question is it according to the pattern which has been shown to us in the Word of God, how important that we follow the Scriptures in all that we do?
For instance, this gathering, someone asked me recently, you know, what scripture do we have?
Just to have young people together.
I can't. To me, it's it's I. I've wrestled with the question.
I I think that whenever the Saints of God, regardless of what class, age group they might be in, can be over the precious word of God as we are today. How can anyone find fault with that?
I think we have to be very large in our in our hearts and I think it's such a joy and a delight to my heart to see so many of you young ones that are here to be over the word of God together with some of us who are a little bit older too, How good that is.
Any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world.
Let him become a fool. That means. Let him take the place of knowing nothing.
That he may be wise. How do we get wise by this book, by this precious book, And if we follow the principles of this book?
That's where we'll get wisdom, that's where we'll get understanding and let us take the place.
Of knowing nothing. Let us take the place of the fool, if you will, in order that.
We can be wise in what God has given us in His precious Word. May God help us.
As we realize, not just in our individual lives, I know so much ministry is given to young people about their individual pathway and it's so important. I think probably the most important that we go on with the Lord individually first of all. But we also have responsibilities in connection with the testimony of the Lord that which.
Is precious to him. The assembly, God's thought is not just to save a bunch of individuals and bring us to heaven.
But he places us into one body. We're members one of another. We all are intimately connected with one another, just as the members of my body are to one another, so that we can help one another and we can function together as members of that one body.
Let's close by singing 327.
Lord.