Address—Bruce Imbeau
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We're going to sing part of Him 137.
And if we could sing.
Versus 1/3 and four, someone start that please.
Our God and our Father, we just do thank Thee that we can open up Thy word this evening.
We just do pray that we might have thoughts that are from thy heart.
And that they might be communicated to our hearts.
We might consider our Lord Jesus Christ the one who has died for us. So is to set us free.
We just do thank Thee that the whole theme of Scripture is Christ Himself. And we just do pray that we might learn more of Thee, and that we might be molded and formed by Thy love toward us and Thy thoughts toward us, Thy actions toward us, that we might be more in conformity to the image of the Son of God.
In Thy name we do pray and give thanks, Lord Jesus.
Amen.
This has not been.
What most of us would call a normal week.
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And death has.
Affected our thinking this week.
Every Lord's Day, it doesn't necessarily have to only be on Lord's Day, mind you, and someone I hope will ask about that, but we have following a pattern that was established in New Testament times.
We take the opportunity on Thursday mornings to remember the Lord Jesus in his death.
And you might recognize that the two subjects.
Are obviously related.
Mike's there and the Lord's death are related.
If they were not related, I could not have said that last sentence and finished it with a smile.
But I could.
Our afternoon was not all smiles, as you might imagine.
There were quite a few tears this afternoon.
As we visited with the bill of Solis, with the with the van Holsteins who married a bill of salary.
And so these things are so fresh in our minds.
As they should be.
As they should be.
Before I get any further.
I would like you to make some observations.
Perhaps put them in your mind.
And.
Think of them later.
You know I am right-handed.
OK, not everyone in this room is right-handed. We have some left-handed people.
But if you watch a speaker.
A right-handed speaker will tend to go more towards their own right and to look more at the people on their right.
So if you like to be a little bit more invisible when you're in a meeting, sit towards the left because most people are right-handed and now that'd be the speaker's left. OK, so it'd be your right.
Also.
It is often very difficult, especially when.
A subject becomes very intense, such as gospel subjects often.
It's very difficult to make eye contact with your audience.
Because as a speaker, you absorb into yourself so as to properly, you know, get things across in a right kind of way.
You may have noticed that actually before the meeting actually got going, I tried to make eye contact with every person in the room.
To wire this little brain up here to try to do that, to try it doesn't work, mind you, all the time. But to try to resume that habit during the meeting.
But you notice, probably already, even though I've wandered back and forth, I've actually, if you've noticed, spent more time on this side of the podium.
Let's turn to Genesis chapter 2, please.
Genesis chapter 2 and verse seven. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
A living soul. You are tonight a living soul. You have inherited it from your parents and all the way back to Adam and Eve.
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God breathed into Adam.
The breath of life.
And he became a living soul.
Now people spend a lot of time debating about evolution and so forth.
And.
Evolution is simply putting together components.
Of an animal.
Now think about that.
Mr. Darwin was actually.
Apart from being wrong, he was right in titling his thing origin of the species. He did not call it origin of life. In that he was wise.
But for those of us that deal with this subject on a regular basis.
Let me throw this out at you.
Since evolution is really but the evolution of components, putting things together in a bigger, perhaps more complicated fashion is the concept. OK, we all know that.
You take a sheep.
Where all the components are there.
And you watch that sheep come to the end of its life, either through slaughter or through natural death.
And when you feel that that animal has died just to brink of death, if you can do something to resuscitate it, if you can impart into that animal life.
Do so.
Try it.
You will find that you will be remarkably unsuccessful.
And all the components are there. Why write textbooks about putting everything together when you can get everything together and three minutes after death try to get life back into all those components? You can't do it.
You can't do it. You go, well, hey, this should be easy. This has got to be the easiest thing you could do in biology. If this thing evolved through millions of years and getting all the components together, then surely if all the components are together to start with.
I can certainly put life back in after two or three minutes after quote UN quote, death.
You can't do it.
There's something else.
It's this verse.
Breathe into his nostrils the breath of life.
And quite frankly, that's what God He didn't necessarily breathe into the animals, but he gave the animals life. Humans are special. We are specially God breathed, and he calls us a living soul.
Not just having a soul, but we're a living soul, so we're special. We're not animals.
And this is what God has done.
And this has become God's business.
To give life.
Now you say we're going to pass away, and this week we know that Mike passed away. There was no way to resuscitate him. There was no way in his case, he even put the components back together.
But.
God did something special in a human being and that is to give them a living soul.
There is a life that is in particular inside of us that has a connection with the Creator in a special way beyond the animal world.
So close, so close actually, that when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, he did not come as an elephant, He came as a person.
The connection is that you personally have a connection with your creator, and when he came into the world, he looked like you.
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People struggle over race issues and I still have a question why in the world we do but.
Let's be helpful on that subject. If Poss.
We have a whole gamut of colors in this world, and if you take a look at what color the Lord Jesus probably was.
Was he's right in the middle of that color spectrum.
And so he can put his right hand out to those who are darker than he was and he can put his left hand out to those that were lighter in color than he was. And it is a crack up to me that if you've ever picked up a Bible that is sold as a Bible of color and they have pictures in it that that show.
People more accurately, quite frankly, and a lot of storybooks that I grew up with.
And they have more color. And lo and behold, I have actually picked up books with that title and they show the Lord Jesus Christ as basically Snow White. And I'm going, huh?
How did they do that?
The Lord Jesus is for all.
And he was, remarkably, born in the middle.
The breadth.
Of life and man became a living soul, and with that living soul, not only are you special in God's sight, but you are responsible.
Your little pet mouse dies and it has no responsibility towards God.
Mike dies and he had responsibility toward God.
Because he was a living soul, in particular a special infusion from the creator God himself, the God of love, who was not only interested in creating things, but he was interested in having a relationship with you.
And that relationship can only be generated through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who is mediator between God and men. He can put one hand on God and one hand on a human.
And he is a mediator, He can bring us together, and so he brings us to God.
Is that amazing? That's the gossip.
That's the gospel that's preached every day in this world somewhere.
That God has come into this world and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that he could put his hand on you and draw you to Himself.
And make a connection between you and your Creator and make you a worshipper and give to you an eternal life, just not a living soul that give you an eternal life in the presence of God forever.
Your pet dog.
Does not have that advantage.
But you do.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's how you can respond to the entreaties of the Lord Jesus Christ, who says, come unto me, all of you that labor nor heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
You can say yes, I want that.
If you are not saved tonight, tonight is the night to come to Jesus Christ. He loves you.
He has an arm around you.
To bring you to himself.
Come, is what he asks you to do. Just come.
If the Lord Jesus Christ were to come back right now and what we commonly call the rapture, this room would be empty.
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What it?
Oh really? Would it?
Can you imagine how boring this camp would be?
If you were the last person.
To leave.
Because everyone else had disappeared.
Do not be left out in the cold.
Come to the warmth of the love of Jesus Christ who loves you.
Let's turn through the Gospel of John.
And we'll read quite a few verses from John.
John chapter one and verse 4.
Let's read verse 3, John chapter one, verse 3. All things were made by him.
And without him was not anything made that was made.
That's pretty specific.
In him was life, in him was life.
And the life was the light of men.
It's that life. Life has been infused into the human race by the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is the light of men. It's what gives you soul and a spirit, emotions. It gives you the ability to think about God.
Your dog does not think about God. Even though if you spell dog backwards you get God, that doesn't help the dog much.
In finding anything out about God.
But you do.
As a matter of fact.
Even humans that want to forget about God spend an extraordinary amount amount of time talking about God.
Strangely, if God is not real, why would people be writing these things?
About why there's no God. What a waste of time. I mean, do something constructive you might tell them.
But instead they go around giving lectures on why there's no God. There's people like Dawkins and you know, there's a whole list of people. They just waste their life trying to tell people there's no God.
Someone has even gone so far over in England, at least I haven't seen any such thing in the United States yet, and I think it's Dawkins or one of those people. They have ads on the side of buses and it goes like this. Relax, there is no God.
Now who would waste advertising money to put that on a bus?
To drive the streets of London.
I mean, really.
If he thinks Christians are goofy, you kind of wonder what makes him tick.
You can pull pictures down to that ad if you want.
Let's look at chapter 10, verse 10, John chapter 10, verse 10. These are all very familiar verses.
I am.
I'll get to that in a second verse. 10/10/10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and they might have it more abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Well, I thought he already gave life, and here he says I am come that they might have life.
And that they might have it more abundantly.
You know, a dog dies, a squirrel dies, elephant dies and they're dead. I mean, they are dead, gone.
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A human dies.
And soul and spirit continue on. Now animals have a soul.
But that goes along with its body, and when it's dead, it's gone.
But we have a soul in the Spirit that has a connection with God and when we die.
Those two things continue.
So depending on your point of view, you might think that's very special, or you might think, oh.
This could be a problem.
I trust tonight that everyone of you realizes that that is something special because God loves you so much, He's given you a life that goes on forever. But what He really wants to give you is what Bible calls eternal life, which is life with God.
And let's turn to chapter 20.
Chapter 20 and verse 22.
And when he had said this, that's when Jesus had said this. He breathed on them, and Seth unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost.
At the beginning, the Creator breathed into the nostrils of Adam.
To give him a special life that was beyond the animal life.
Now the Lord Jesus Christ has come to give us.
Something even more than that.
And he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Ghost.
He wants you to share.
With himself.
So that we have a life and a nature that is in conformity is has a smooth transition, transition to God himself.
We will not become God.
Or, gods no, we will remain who we are.
As a matter of fact, I take it from scripture that will pretty much be distinguished.
Just like we are now, we look at each other and we say, oh, that's, that's Julie, you know, that's Nadine, that's you know, we.
Will still be able to do that. Apparently we will still be individuals.
But God has an interest in attracting us to Himself.
And so not only do we have a soul and a spirit, but now there's a spirit that has a connection.
Directly, in a positive way, with God himself.
And this we call salvation.
You say, well what a deal God made us. Did you do a bum job? They had to come back and he has to kind of give us something else to make us complete and whole.
This is a very.
Good question.
And what kind of answer would you give to someone who challenges you that way?
This is the approach I take.
Well, you know what God makes is outside of his person.
OK, so he creates a universe.
He said, well, where was God? I mean, if there's no universe, where the world does God live? You know, and that's exactly the point. He lives outside of what we call a universe. And so he created this universe, and in this universe he created humans. And all of this is outside of God. And so when Jesus came into this world, he came from wherever his home is. We call it heaven.
And he purposely came into his own universe that he had created, and comes into this world that he had made for his own glory, and he came to people.
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OK, did that make any sense? In other words, because of what creation is, creation is not sitting around making new gods. No, creation is making things which are not God himself.
He did not make an extension of himself. That's not possible. He is who He is, but He made us with the purpose.
With a purpose that he could then bring children into his home.
Into his heaven.
And this is the joy of the Father, that he would bring children into his presence. And not only that, that this is also the joy of the Father, that we would become what is called the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, and that the Son of God would have companionship.
Forever.
With those of us that are called humans.
Wasn't God happy with himself? Wasn't the triune godfather, Son and Holy Spirit? Was not that totally sufficient for himself? How could you be more complete than being a God?
Think about that for a minute.
The answer is quite simple. It's called love.
And love is something that goes.
Out of yourself to someone else, to make that connection with someone else. And this is what God has wanted to do. He has wanted to shine his love out to you and bring you to himself. And so that's why he created the universe. Look up into the whole sky and look at those stars out there. And we have no clue how far those stars go, but they're sure beautiful. And if you get a telescope and you look.
Further out in space, there's more and more out there. We have no idea how big this place is.
And the goal and the purpose of all of that was, believe it or not, was to take you, who stand about 5 or 6 feet tall.
So that he could take you and bring you into His heaven.
That seems like an improbable thing that a God would do.
But the creation itself tells us of the nature of God, because if God.
Didn't care.
OK, that's impossible to think about, but OK, he wouldn't have made a universe to start with, because what would be the point of it?
But the fact that he did create shows the nature of God that he was looking outside of himself. He was. He wanted an object for his own love outside of himself so he could attract it to himself.
And bring his son a bride.
It's amazing.
So the next time you look up in the sky and you look at the stars, all those.
Neat things that are out there. Just remember God did it so that ultimately He could bring you into His heaven.
God wants to populate his heaven.
With his children, and they happen to be you if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And death has come into this universe, and it comes through sin.
Sin was might sound odd to say, but sin was inevitable.
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We might go Well, why did God let sin happen?
Now think about this for a minute.
Everything that you see around you is outside of God.
Only God is perfect.
Anything that is outside of God will sooner or later fall apart.
And really, that's what sin is. It's a falling apart.
Death by sin.
Certainly Ecclesiastes, Chapter 11.
Ecclesiastes, Chapter 11.
And.
Verse three and justice drop down. It's not quite halfway down the verse, but Ecclesiastes 11, verse three. And if the tree fall toward the South or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.
That's a pretty serious reflection on death, really.
Man who'd been blind, he said. I see men as trees walking.
And there's other parts of the Bible like Nebuchadnezzar was shown in a vision as being like a tree, so.
God has that little picture that humans are sometimes viewed as treason. You know, as a tree follows, so shall it lie.
When you die when the tree falleth.
The direction that you die is how it's going to be.
Toward heaven or toward hell?
Job Job Chapter 14.
Job 14 and verse 14 it says if a man die, shall he live again?
All the days of my appointed time. Will I wait till my change come?
Well, Joe figured that he would live again. There's something special about the human.
And that had been communicated through God to man in that he came into that garden right to begin with, to commune, to speak with, to set up a conversation with Adam and then Eve when she came along.
God has had an interest in humankind.
But if a man dies, shall he live again?
And the answer is.
Yes.
Ephesians chapter 2.
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 12.
Kind of.
Considering the dilemma of the lost.
That at that time ye were without Christ.
Being alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise. Having no hope and without God in the world.
And that was really the position of all people actually of Israel as well.
But for sure the Gentiles who had wandered off and they had gotten into their own thing and they built their own gods and they said we can do it ourselves. And it was the whole notion of Cain who went out from the presence of God. He built himself a city. He was going to make it on his own. And that is the position we are in.
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We're without Christ, aliens from the Commonwealth, Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise.
Having no hope and without God in the world, that God was going to change, that He was going to come and preach peace.
To all and it was going to be through the death of Jesus Christ as the foundation, the shed blood.
That was going to bring in blessing.
And so if you turn to the Gospel of John and we'll read several verses there.
And they're all familiar. You probably quote them pretty much.
John 10 and verse 10.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come.
That they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Give us his life for the sheep.
Why did Jesus have to die? Not really. This is an important question. Why do you have to die? Why isn't God strong enough to just pick you up and say wow I want you in heaven, come on brother and put you in heaven.
There's a very strange principle that now that this creation has got going and it has fallen.
And it's falling apart.
The principle is this, that all blessing that comes from God.
Is on the other side of death.
All blessing, you cannot work your way to God.
Because if you die trying to do that, well, that's kind of the end of the story.
Or if you die before you succeed.
Just out of luck.
But you see, all blessing is on the other side of death, it so happens.
That it's not your death, but the death of the Lamb of God.
That's the only way. There is no other way for there to be blessing in your life except on the other side of the death of Jesus Christ.
All bless.
We cannot make New Year's resolutions. We cannot do this. We cannot do that. To attain or acquire blessing in the presence of God, it has to be on the other side of death. And our death is useless because as a tree falls, so shall it lie.
It's the death of Christ.
In chapter 14 of John.
In verse 19.
In John 1419 yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more. But ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also.
And so to get onto the other side of death is what we call resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ came into this world. He died to take away sins, to be in atonement, to be the sacrifice, to be the Lamb of God.
And now we have this.
Because I live, ye shall live also. It's on the other side of death.
Make no mistake about it, you cannot attach yourselves to your parents. You cannot come to meeting, you cannot say the verses at Sunday school and decide that you're pretty good or good enough. Because it so happens that you have to have a life that's on the other side of death. And that's why we have to be seen in Jesus Christ.
Chapter 17.
And verse 24 Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, and that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
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I'll read part of it again. I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me.
Heaven, that would be useless without the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a funny little expression that goes like this. It seems like everyone wants to go to heaven.
But nobody wants to die.
Well, let me tell you, you don't have to die. Christ has died for you.
This is the blessing of the Gospel.
This is the purposes of God that we read about in Ephesians.
That Christ will be glorified in his people.
You are the fullness of him that filleth all things. That sounds like the most improbable statement in scripture. How can you take someone who fills all things?
And add something so that there's more of a fullness. How can you add to God who's infinite?
But the way it is.
God has brought blessing to you.
And in doing so, he has brought joy to himself.
And this is.
What we call the Church of God, this is the people of God.
Have you ever wondered if it's special at all that a Lord's Day morning, like tomorrow morning, some people are going to come together very quietly and remember that Christ died? Now think about it.
All blessing is on the other side of death.
If you feel that, you are blessed.
Through the salvation that God has given you, you would be very anxious to remember the Lord Jesus Christ in His death tomorrow, because there is no other way for you to be blessed except that there was death.
It is absolutely central. We say central Christianity, and for sure that is, but it is absolutely central in God's thinking, in God's thoughts. You want to think like God thinks, then remember the Lord Jesus Christ in his death, because that is absolutely central in God's thinking. It is not a peripheral thing. It's like, oh wow, how can we kind of fix things up? Oh, well, I guess we'll have a sacrifice of Jesus.
The Son of God.
Who died?
That's far more important to think about that than to think of some sort of lecture on how to live good for the next week.
Far more important.
This is absolutely the hugest thing in an already huge universe that we live in. It is much larger in scope than the universe that we live in. That the very Creator would come and bring you as a people to himself so that he could enjoy you and you could enjoy him.
Forever.
And so we get together to break bread. Can you break bread more than more often than once a week? You can.
You might inquire about that and just think about that a little bit.
If I remember right, story goes there were some brothers who got together and had to do with the translation. If I understand it, Mr. Darby translation.
And as they were pondering the scriptures and trying to.
And get things across in the right way into the English language. They would pause every morning, every morning, and break bread together.
So that their focus was correct, so that they saw the wonder and the magnitude of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that all glory belong to Him.
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And that they would put down on paper with ink pens.
That they would put down the right words.
That communicates the mind of God to his people.
And they would spend time breaking bread every.
Morning.
Do you break bread even once a week?
You might go. I'm too young.
That's for my parents or my older sister, you know, She's 17 now and she breaks bread, so that's cool. But I'm not 17.
Are you a Christian?
Do you appreciate the love that God has shown to you? Do you see what a wonderful thing that God did in loving you and giving you eternal life?
You might want to think about Breaking Bad.
To remember the Lord in his death.
The most important thing that has ever happened in the universe, in the history of the universe, that the Son of God would lay down his life.
And we have the opportunity of remembering that event.
Because it is completely fresh in the mind of God and will be for all eternity.
The death of Jesus Christ, his Son, will forever be fresh.
In the mind of God and it should be fresh in our minds.
Skip, thanks.
Our God and our Father, we just do thank Thee.
For the wonders not only of this created universe, but the wonders of the love of God that would shine out.
Of darkness shine into our hearts. We thank Thee for a plan of salvation. And that God himself wanted companionship. He wanted a bride for his son. He wanted to populate his house with children.
And so Christ came into this world to die, to bring blessing.
To bring eternal life, to bring people into the very presence of God and into the Father's house.
And we thank.
For the way of salvation, we thank thee for the joy believing, we thank Thee for the opportunity that we have while we are still on this little planet Earth.
To pause, to relax.
To sick, quiet, and to consider the death of Jesus Christ and what it means and what it has done.
We just do pray that Thou must give us hearts that would flow forth in praise.
To the very Son of God.
Who would give himself a ransom for many?
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.