Address—C. Hendricks
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To turn with me to Hebrews 3 for a verse, we're going to look at several verses. First one.
Wherefore, holy brethren?
Partakers of the heavenly calling.
Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.
I'm just interested in that expression. Partakers of the heavenly calling.
First Corinthians, chapter 15.
Verse 46.
Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven.
And here we have the Lord from heaven, the second man, the heavenly man brought before us. And immediately following this statement the apostle says, as is the earthy. Such are they that are also that are earthy.
And as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. We were once before we were saved earthly. We were of Adam. We belong to this scene down here. We now belong to a heavenly scene.
We're partakers of the heavenly calling, and we are heavenly, as it says in that 48th verse. Such are they also that are heavenly. And then we have the future aspect in the 49th verse, as we have borne the image of the earthy. And we do right now, every one of us, the bodies that we walk around in.
Are still earthy bodies. We cannot inherit the Kingdom of God in these bodies.
Flesh and blood does not inherit the Kingdom of God. The apostle tells us we need a new body, but he says as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. This is our future. This is our blessed hope to be with him like Christ in that coming day of glory. But now.
We are partakers of the heavenly calling. Now we are.
Heavenly.
Now let's look at the last epistle that Peter that the apostle Paul wrote Second Timothy chapter 4. I just want to read a few scriptures.
To bring before us.
Our portion.
Second Timothy 4.
Verse 18.
And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work.
And will preserve me unto his heavenly Kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever.
Amen.
The apostle expresses the confidence of being preserved unto his heavenly Kingdom. We know that Israel was an earthly people.
Call to an earthly inheritance. We are a heavenly people.
And all. How precious that.
Turn to Philippians chapter 3.
Verse 20.
Well, I'll read verse 18 for many walk, Paul says, of whom I have told you often and now tell you, even weeping.
That they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame?
Who mind earthly things?
Not just worldly, but who mind earthly things for our conversation.
Is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who shall change our vile body, or our body of humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto His body of glory?
That word conversation, most of us I believe understand to mean associations of life and I think literally it is our politics are in heaven, could be rendered our citizenship, our politics are in heaven, all our associations of life are there. Our Kingdom is a heavenly Kingdom. Our Calling is a heavenly calling.
We are a heavenly people, and I'll turn to Ephesians 1.
To establish these precious truths which are true of those who form the Church, the body of Christ.
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In Ephesians one verse 3, blessed be the God and Father.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings.
In the heavenly places, in Christ here we have that our blessings.
Our portion is spiritual instead of temporal instead of.
Having to do with natural things down here, and they are heavenly. All spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ, a heavenly calling, a heavenly people, a heavenly citizenship, heavenly politics.
Heavenly associations of life and heavenly blessings.
Then turn over to the.
Just a little bit farther on in chapter 1, verse 20 of the apostle in his prayer to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.
He prays that the eyes of their heart might be enlightened, that they might know three things, the hope of His calling. And what is the hope of His calling? It's to be with and like Christ in glory, to be there where He is the man in the glory.
I've enjoyed recently that in Acts Chapter 7, Stephen the first Christian martyr.
He begins by saying, the God of glory appeared unto our Father Abraham, and he ends by seeing a man standing in the glory of God Jesus, blessed one.
So that chapter begins with the God of glory calling Abraham out from his country.
And from his.
People and from his father's house.
Unto a land that he would show him, as he's called you and me.
To heavenly things, not to be an earthly people down here, not to strive for a place of recognition and distinction in this world.
We're here, but we belong to heaven. I know how precious that is.
As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. The Lord Jesus, the second man, is the Lord from heaven.
And he's gone back to heaven and taken his seat at the right hand of the majesty on high. And we belong to that scene above. We're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly. Sometimes you hear it said of a brother who's prospering down here in his business. The Lord has really blessed him. Not necessarily so. That would have been true under the Old Testament Jewish economy.
But today, blessings are heavenly.
And blessings are spiritual, and a soul might be very much.
Not blessed spiritually, not enjoying his heavenly portion if he's getting on down here.
It is not a sign today of God's favor resting upon us.
When we prosper in earthly things.
Are you prospering in your soul? Am I prospering in my soul? Am I going on in the enjoyment of that which is really mine, of that which I'm called to a heavenly calling, a heavenly people, a heavenly inheritance? Well, in the.
The first thing he prays for is that we might know what is the hope of Our Calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints. Are you looking for something down here, an inheritance down here? He's going to inherit all things by virtue of what he has done, that blessed man, and we're associated with him. And when he takes possession of the inheritance, it's going to be in the persons of the Saints.
You and I are going to take possession.
And then we're going to add her in to all that has heart of love is provided for us. What a day is before us. And then the third thing he prays for. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us? Word who believe according to his mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised him from the dead.
And every name that is named not only in this world, but in also in that which is to come and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all we complement, we feel full that blessed one. There is a sense in which he though he's infinitely perfect as to his person.
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There's a sense in which He's not complete without us. We are His bride, we are His body, and we are the fullness of Him that filleth All in all. Notice the same expression is used in the second chapter of Ephesians describing us. That was used by the Spirit of God to describe him.
In the sixth verse it says, well I'll read the fourth verse, God who is rich in mercy.
For his great love.
Us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.
By grace you are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places.
In Christ Jesus we are seated as to our position.
In heavenly places where he is in God's presence.
He's been exalted to the highest seed in heaven.
And we are seen in him seated there in all the acceptance and perfection.
Of the one that has done a work for God's glory.
An eternity of Adam innocency could not have equaled. All the work that he did in the cross has brought such glory to God.
That you and I have been brought into this portion, this immense blessing which has been reserved until now.
There isn't a time when you and I could have been born.
It is more wonderful than the Day of grace in which we live.
We are associated, think of it, with a heavenly man.
Who's up there, exalted above all the heavens? And we're seated in Him in all the blessed acceptance of Himself. In the 3rd chapter of Ephesians we have.
The third mention of the heavenly places, and it's in verse 10 to the intent that now under the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God. Just think of God's manifold wisdom that He could take the likes of us.
Guilty, lost sinners of the Gentiles who had to stand outside crying, unclean.
Unclean, without God and without hope in the world. That's what He brings before us in the 12TH verse of the 2nd chapter, that He brings us in now into a place of blessing that far exceeds anything that Israel ever, ever had or enjoyed.
A portion in the heavenlies, so that those heavenly beings, the principalities and powers.
In the heavens themselves, gaze upon us, see us.
Associated with that blessed man, one with him. And they wonder, they learn God's manifold wisdom. They learn it as they're not part of this wondrous mystery. Christ in the assembly, but oh, we are.
Such immense grace.
Turn over to the 6th chapter of Ephesians where we have the.
5th Mansion of the Heavenly Places.
Verse 10.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places or heavenly places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God.
That you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Our warfare is not an earthly one, as Israel's was. We're not an earthly people. We're a heavenly people, as we've seen, destined for a heavenly Kingdom called with a heavenly calling.
And made.
Heavenly people now and soon will be conformed to the heavenly man.
But now we have a heavenly warfare and all. How subtle the enemy.
It's it's so solemn.
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And I've been so burdened.
As I consider how Satan is doing his best.
To disrupt what God is doing in this present day, to nullify it, we are not ignorant of his devices, the apostle Paul says to the Corinthian Saints.
How many of us realize the true character of the warfare that we're engaged in?
Warfare in the heavenly places.
Paul says to the Corinthians in the 10th chapter.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Bringing into captivity. How can that ever be, if this precious book, the Word of God, which we have we hold in our hands this afternoon, is not made good to your soul and to mine?
If we don't take it in, if we don't make it our daily, everyday occupation, as our brother was telling the children this morning.
To read it, to be engaged in it, to eat it, to make it our own.
To have God's thoughts.
But think of what we are.
Think of what God has brought us into. Think of all our blessings.
Now that establishes the position that we've been brought into in blessing in Christ. Nothing can touch you, nothing can change it, nothing can disrupt it. All the power of Satan cannot disturb it. First mention of the church is in Matthew 16.
The Lord Jesus asked the question.
Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, AM?
And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, or Jeremiah's, or Elias, or one of the prophets. But he said, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answering, said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And then the Lord Jesus says, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.
And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter. He just confessed Jesus to be the Christ.
The son of a living God. That was the rock upon which Christ could build the opinions of men. Some say they are John the Baptist. Others Jeremiahs or Elias are one of the prophets. These are the opinions of men. And as we go around in the world today, we can ask men and women what thinking of Christ.
They'll give us all kinds of opinions, just like the opinions existed in those days and were reported by the Apostle Peter.
By the disciples, but all the answer of Peter, a revelation from the Father.
Blessed art thou Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee.
But my Father, which is in heaven.
A revelation from the Father, and everyone of us in this room who belongs to Christ, has had the Father revealed to us who He is. The world knows not who He is. Their thoughts of Him are all together insufficient for the glory of this Person who He is. The Christ, the Son of the living God, brings before us resurrection. And he says upon this rock that confession, Peter, the precious truth.
Of what you've just confessed. I'm going to build something here in this world, the church.
He's building it. It was still future in Matthew 16.
It's been going on now for nearly 2000 years. The building which he is the builder of.
And justice, Think of it, we're part of that, a revelation from the Father. In this assembly, the opinions of men have no place, only what is revealed from the Father, only what is, according to this book, has any place in the Church of the living God.
And if they speak not according to this word, it is because there's no light in them. So we've been brought into blessing.
But as we look around.
As we look around.
We see the divided state.
Of the Church of God on earth.
We see how that, as Paul told the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, that sparing the flock, and also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
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This has happened.
And always we look around.
We see the sad result of Satan's work.
I want to ask you a question.
In the Old Testament, Jeremiah was the weeping prophet.
His eyes wept with tears as he saw the havoc that the enemy had wrought in Israel, and as they were about to be carried captivity to the Babylonians as Nebuchadnezzar was about to ascend the.
About to be given the headship times that we're about to begin. And Nebuchadnezzar would be the head of gold.
Jerusalem.
Would be taken captive.
Jeremiah.
Laments and weeps.
We've read about the Apostle Paul in Ephesians, in Philippians.
Weeping.
Weeping over those who were earthly minded.
Enemies of the cross of Christ.
And when he wrote to the Saints at Corinth.
He wrote with many tears.
Jeremiah was the weeping prophet.
The Apostle Paul was the weeping apostle. I want to ask your soul and mind.
How many times have you gotten on your knees as you viewed Christendom?
As you viewed those for whom Christ died to gather together into one, the children of God that were scattered abroad, He gathered. He died to gather us together into one. And you view that and see it's divided, scattered all over. The enemy has done his work. How many of us answer before the Lord in your own soul?
How many of us have shed tears?
Over the ruin of Christendom.
Over the havoc that Satan is wrought in this wondrous heavenly.
Church that he's called out of this world as you look around and you see Christians.
Pursuing.
Everything down here trying to get ahead in this world, taking part in the world's politics, in the world's social reform, in the world's carnal conflicts, trying to set the world right when we're called to be a heavenly people, when our associations of life are up there, the Lord Jesus and his high priestly prayer in John 17 says.
They are not of the world.
As I am not of the world.
You would certainly say that slavery was an evil that came in because of man's departure from God, and yet the Apostle Paul doesn't touch it.
He doesn't. He doesn't exert any energy to abolish slavery, which existed in his day. He doesn't do one thing to change the course of this world. He passed through it as a heavenly stranger. Associations of life were above.
Is that what you're doing? Is that what I'm doing? Are we true to Our Calling?
Oh, how we're striving for something here. So often I speak to my own soul.
Everything I say applies to me more probably than anyone else in this room.
How carnal we are.
And how self seeking and oftentimes earthly minded.
We've been going through in our Bible studies.
In Addison, IL.
The Epistles to the Corinthians.
And I have been struck in my soul as never before.
How that the second Epistle to the Corinthians is unique?
You don't find the truths in any other portion of the Word of God.
Where the heart and the yearnings of the Apostle Paul.
Are brought out.
The heart of that man.
And I'd like to look at it a little bit. We've looked a little at some scriptures that bring before us.
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The church what it is according to the mind of God.
But now let's get down into the way we really are.
And there we saw the we see the assembly at Corinth.
Oh, there was so much wrong there. Let's just very briefly.
Found through the 1St Epistle to the Corinthians.
I don't believe that any of us.
Well be able to say that any of our assemblies from which we come.
Have all have all the things wrong in them that were wrong here at Corinth.
And this ought to encourage us. The Lord did not leave the Saints here.
The Apostle Paul did not forsake them. He labored with them with a love.
With a fervor. With a zeal.
That goes beyond anything that I've ever read or considered from a mere mortal.
The most profitable to look at the apostles dedication.
How he was willing to be made absolutely nothing of.
The Apostle.
Who had Apostolic authority? Who could have used it with these Saints at Corinth? But he didn't.
Though he said he would if he had to.
But he held back.
All the heart of this man. But let's look a little first.
One Corinthians, one verse 12. Now this I say that everyone of you saith I am of Paul and I have Apollos and I have Cephas and I have Christ. Is Christ divided? He asked the question, is Christ divided? And yet we see in Christendom today.
What do we see? Divisions on every hand. And we can raise the question again, is Christ divided?
Everyone belongs to the Lord.
Belongs to the assembly which is, which is the chief objects of his affections.
He loves the assembly so much.
The Apostle Paul loved it so much.
That when a door was opened to him at Troas to preach the gospel.
He had no rest in his spirit at not finding Titus his brother, and he left that open door, that open gospel work, and he sought out Titus because he needed to hear tidings.
Words of how the Corinthians had received his first epistle.
Well.
He put the assembly first.
And all. How precious.
To think that you and I belong to that which is precious to Christ.
What kind of conduct becomes us beloved Saints of God?
To walk on together.
To go on together so that the truth of what we are before God might be realized in our midst.
He brings before us at the end of the first chapter that God hath chosen.
The foolish things of the world to confound the wise the Corinthian assembly was a very wealthy.
Prosperous.
Assembly, it says in verse 7 of chapter 1 They come but you come behind in no gift.
No gift. They had all the gifts.
But all they had spared.
He labored there for 18 months with Corinth, with the Corinthian Saints.
In all what a condition verse four, he says, while one saith, I am of Paul, and another I am of other palace. Are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believe?
Now it's interesting that in this case the apostle says, who's Paul?
If you're going to make something of Paul, then he says, who is Paul?
We are just ministering servants.
But later on when they were despair.
Reminds them that he was an apostle by the will of God.
He was called to that position. It meant that to reject him.
Was to reject the testimony of God, and that was most serious.
Had the enemy succeeded amongst the Corinthian Saints to turn them aside from the Apostle Paul, and this is what he was seeking to do?
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They would have been robbed of all of the distinctive truths that we spoke of at the beginning of the meeting.
Our portion as heavenly.
Our heavenly hope, our heavenly calling, our heavenly blessings.
Our heavenly citizenship.
All of that they would have been robbed of.
I would say the enemy has succeeded quite well as we look about in Christendom today.
That he has robbed the Mass of the Saints of God throughout the world.
Of these precious truths.
So when someone wanted to make anything of Paul, he says, who's Paul?
But if they were going to discredit him, if they were going to nullify his witness?
Then he says.
We are ministering servants through whom you believe.
Then he says that we are an apostle by the will of God.
He has to apologize in the second epistle.
He calls it folly.
I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's quickly go on to the 4th chapter.
Verse 8 he says now you are full.
Now you are rich. You have reigned as kings without us.
They know how that applies today.
The Saints of God, reigning as kings, prospering in this world.
When we've been called to these strangers and pilgrims here, a stranger is one who is away from home, and a Pilgrim is 1 who's on his way home, and a heavenly man is one who has his interests altogether outside of this world.
The ones that opposed Paul's ministry because it was heavenly where the Jews, that is the ones that opposed it the most vehemently.
So when they were reigning as kings before the time, and then he asked to say, I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last verse 9 as it were appointed to death. For we have made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels and to men.
Then in the 5th chapter we have the case of insect. We have the case of.
Of wickedness, Fornication.
And they were puffed up.
They had all the gifts, you know, that's so solemn to me and that's so serious.
We might be very well taught.
We might have all the gifts, we might know all the passages of Scripture to which to turn to answer anyone that speaks to us.
There might be a state of soul with us with which he is not pleased.
And oh, how solemn that is.
In the 6th chapter they were going to law with one another.
And he says, Dare any of you having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the Saints?
Do you not know that the Saints shall judge the world, and are young worthy of the smallest judgments?
Taking your legal matters and your.
Problems and your grievances to the world.
And not having it settled in the assembly, he rebukes them in the fourth verse by saying, If then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life.
You're going to judge angels.
He says if you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set those to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
You don't need the most spiritual to judge carnal things.
In the 7th chapter he gives instruction as to the marriage relationship.
In the 8th chapter he corrects the liberty that they were using.
In connection with idol feasts.
They were using their.
To stumble others in the 9th chapter they were calling in question his apostleship.
And he says, am I not an apostle?
Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? I'm not ye my work in the Lord. If I'm not an apostle unto others, doubtless I am to you, for the seal of mine apostleship are ye and the Lord.
They were the proof of it, he says in those 13th chapter of Two Corinthians. Examine yourselves. If you be in the faith, prove your own selves. You are the very proof of my apostleship. If I'm not an apostle, you're not saved. You receive the truth of God through me. They were seeking to discredit him.
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The flesh will stoop so low.
The flesh in a Christian is just as bad as the flesh in the unregenerate because it hasn't changed when we get saved.
In the 10th chapter, he has to correct them as to their.
Going on with.
Idle feasts.
Eating at the table of demons.
And he says you can't do that. You can't drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and at the table of demons. The 2 are mutually exclusive systems.
The one speaks of Christ and his things and the other of the enemy and his things, he said. You can't go on together with those two things.
In the 11TH chapter, they were mingling the Lord's Supper with their love feast to the point where they were drinking and eating to such excess.
That when they partook of the Lord's Supper, some of them were drunken.
Some of them were in a state of soul that was unsuitable to the proper remembrance of the Lord.
And in the 12TH chapter, he sets before us the gifts.
In the 13th chapter.
As often has been said, the lubricating oil, the love that is so necessary for the proper functioning of these gifts.
And in the 14th chapter.
He brings before us.
Corrections. There were all kinds of things going on at Corinth. Women were speaking in the assembly.
They were making much of their sign gifts, speaking in tongues.
They were not concerned so much with edification as with.
Vaunting their gift in the 15th chapter.
They had wrong thoughts about the resurrection.
And he says, if Christ be not risen, you are yet in your sins. Well, that's just a very quick summary.
I want to read a verse now in the 4th chapter of First Corinthians. The apostle Paul loved these Saints.
He says in verse 19, I will come to you shortly.
If the Lord will.
And we'll know not the speech of them, which are puffed up, but the power.
For the Kingdom of God is not in Word, but in power. What will ye?
Shall I come unto you with a rod?
Or in love and in the spirit of meekness.
The second Epistle, the 23rd verse of the first chapter.
Yet Paul said in that verse we just read, Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and in the spirit of meekness?
Now he told him he was coming. He was coming again to Corinth.
He says in the second epistle, the chapter one, verse 15. And then in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before, that you might have a second benefit, that they might be blessed by his being with them a second time.
And to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my way towards Judea. But he didn't come. And so they charged him with likeness of purpose.
He wasn't one to follow through with what he had purposed. He was fickle.
They charged him with this, he says in verse 17. When I therefore was thus minded, did I use likeness? Are the things that I purpose? Do I purpose according to the flesh that there should be with me? Yay, yay, and nay, nay.
He tells them in the 23rd verse why he didn't come. It wasn't because of lightness of purpose. It wasn't because he changed his mind.
Because he didn't really have a purpose to go.
It was because of their state.
Verse 23 Moreover, I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you, I came not as yet unto Corinth, not for that we have dominion over your faith, but our helpers of your joy. For by faith ye stand. For I determined with myself that I would not come again to you in heaviness.
He purposed, he yearned and long soul for the Saints at Corinth.
And for they're going on well.
The man who says in First Timothy 1.
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That he was, and I'm going to read it. Please turn to it and then we'll come back to 2nd Corinthians. But this is such an important verse, but I believe we should look at it.
12.
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord.
Who hath enabled me?
For that, he counted me faithful.
Putting me into the ministry who was before a blasphemer.
And a persecutor.
And injurious In the new translation, that word injurious is rendered an insolent, overbearing man.
But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief. Think of it, this man, who before was a blasphemer and a persecutor, and an insolent, overbearing man, has now been turned into the apostle that was gentle among them, as a nurse cherishes her own children.
What?
A change the grace of God wrought in that man Saul of Tarsus. I was looking recently at the three mansions in the book of Acts of Pauls conversion.
In Acts Chapter 9.
It says when he was on the road to Damascus with letters from the chief priests, to bind all that called upon the name of the Lord Jesus and to bring them to prison.
It says a light from heaven.
Appeared. And when he's telling the Jews in Jerusalem in Acts 22, he says a great light from heaven.
And in Acts 26 before Agrippa.
He says a light from heaven brighter than the noonday sun.
Notice how the intensity of that impression of God, the Lord Jesus, I should say, meeting him on the road to Damascus, increased in his soul. First it's a light from heaven, then it's a great light from heaven, and then it's a light from heaven brighter than the noonday sun.
The impression on his soul.
Of the precious truths, the heavenly truths that he was brought into, the first truth he learned.
Was from the Lord in glory Saul saw Why persecutest thou me?
And he learned that those down here below were his body, members of himself, of his flesh, and of his bones. To persecute them was to persecute Christ, to persecute the Saints.
And all if you and I only had the thoughts that Christ has for His beloved Saints.
If we only.
God imbued with the spirit of grace.
That filled Saul of Tarsus and changed him into the apostle Paul.
Another three mentions.
That go in the other direction in First Corinthians 15.
The apostle says he was not me to be called an apostle because he persecuted the Church of God.
In Ephesians 3, farther along, he says he was less.
Than the least of All Saints.
And in one Timothy, 21 Timothy 1, he says.
He was the chief of sinners.
The opinion he got of himself.
Increased in intensity as he realized how evil.
The natural heart is.
There is nothing good in us. It's all in Christ. We sing in that hymn.
No good in creatures can be found all. All is found in thee. We must have all things in a bound through thy sufficiency.
We have had before us in our readings in Hebrews 10.
The Lord Jesus was here to do the will of God.
I thought of the account in John chapter 4.
Where he ministered to that poor Samaritan woman.
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And the truth, the light of the truth that he brought to her first, He won her heart.
Then he reached her conscience, and then he brought her into blessing.
Oh, he was sitting there. The disciples came back from their trip to the city, to the village.
If any man brought him aught to eat, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
For my need is to do the will of him that sent me into finish his work.
The most wonderful.
Part of the Gospels As you read the four gospels, you see a man that never did anything for himself.
You see a man who lived altogether and completely for his father, He says in John 6, I live on account of the father. Even so, he that eateth me shall live on account of me.
Do I live on account of him? Do you live on account of him? Is he your all? Is he your every motive?
You see mine searching questions.
The Apostle Paul had to say in Philippians 2.
About his beloved Timothy, a young man.
I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state, or as a new translation puts it, who will care with genuine feeling how you get on? Do you care how the Saints of God in your whole meeting get on?
If you see a young brother or a young sister straying, going in a wrong path, do you care?
Do I care? Do we go after them?
He holds us accountable.
We have been brought into such immense blessing.
That we might be used of Him to bring others into blessing and to keep them from straying. We often say when one is put away from the Lord's table, that's an act of discipline.
I believe it means that all disciplinary dealings with that soul.
Have come to an end and have failed.
How many times when one is put away?
We have to hang our heads in shame.
Because we haven't sought them.
They haven't sought to help them.
We may be flooded with a volume of truth and I speak to my own soul.
How self seeking we are.
I think of the word to Jeremiah, of Jeremiah, to Baruch, his amanuensis, his secretary, who wrote down what he wrote, what he spoke.
In Jeremiah 45, time is running out. I'll just refer to it, he says. Seekest thou great things for thyself.
Seek them not.
Beloved, if there's ever been a day, it's always wrong to seek things for ourselves. But if there's ever been a day when it's especially wrong, it's today. It's when the church is in ruins.
And when the twos and the 3S gather to the precious name of the Lord Jesus.
Are in a state of weakness, Need that pastoral tender shepherding care Where the shepherds amongst us, where are those with a real heart for the flock?
All we need this.
We need this, he had to say to Timothy. All seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ.
Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. You can't be of service to him if you're seeking your own things.
The Apostle Paul was one, and he says it.
Let's turn over to the 10th chapter of Two Corinthians. Time is about run out and I just want to touch.
A few more things he says in the first verse. Now I call myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. The world doesn't think much about meekness and gentleness. The world thinks a lot about one who has a lot of strength and one who asserts himself. Stand up for your rights. Do your own thing. Show that you're a real man.
But he besought them by the meekness.
And the gentleness of Christ.
They didn't think much of that.
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But Christ thinks everything of that.
He had Apostolic authority.
He could have come to them with a rod, he says.
Verse 8 of 2nd Corinthians 10 For though I should both somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed his authority was given for their edification.
Not for their destruction.
I have a I as a father, have authority in my household, and I can use it to assert myself and subject my children and turn them away, turn them out into the cold, Dark World. And how many of us have made that mistake?
Without the love and compassion and the feeling for them that we need.
Paul said you have many though. You have 10,000 instructors.
You have not many fathers.
He says I have begotten you through the gospel. You are my beloved children.
We feel this way about our brethren.
Do we? I remember a time when I was all upset.
Because another brother and I.
See things the same.
And I was very upset with him, and the Lord finally said to me.
He wants to do the will of God just as much as you do.
And I said, Lord Jesus.
That's right. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry I had such thoughts.
Yes.
As I look upon your faces.
I see those who are precious to Christ.
And.
John says.
The sentiments of the apostle Paul, John says I have no greater joy.
Than to see my children walking in the truth.
Paul wanted to see them go on.
He could have used his authority.
Harshly, he held it back.
In the 11TH chapter.
He says in verse 15, time has run out.
I will very gladly spend.
And be spent.
For you.
Though the more abundantly I love you, the less.
I beloved, are you, Am I willing to do that?
Are we willing to spend and to be spent for the good of the Saints?
For those who are precious to him.
There are a lot of young people here.
All that we might have some Timothy's.
Who can care with genuine feeling how the Saints get on?
Do we care?
I think it's a terrible departure.
Very low ground.
When we have to be comforted by the fact that.
Well, we've dealt with evil in our midst.
And.
The evil has been put away.
That's true. That's necessary.
That's absolutely essential.
Thank God for faithfulness.
But the Lord Jesus says to the Saints at Ephesus.
And you read it. If you read the account, you'd say that's a perfect assembly.
I'm going to read it to you and then we'll close.
Revelation chapter 2 Unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus. These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the 7 golden candlesticks. Now notice what he says. You say this is, This is a model church. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil.
And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and has found them liars.
The apostle Paul had to deal with with that in Corinth. He says such are false apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of light. No wonder that his ministers are transformed likewise.
And so they dealt with this. They didn't bear evil.
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As born and has patience, and for my name's sake hast labored and hast not fated. Nevertheless I have against thee leave the word somewhat out that mitigates the passage.
All this was important I have against thee, because thou has left thy first law.
And I want to ask my own soul as I look back to those first days when I.
Came to know the Lord Jesus and I wish you'd ask your own soul too.
As the fervency of first love.
Has that initial.
Love that you had for him, where he was everything to you.
You could go out and speak before 1000, or before, or to one, it wouldn't matter.
Because you were so filled with the love of Christ.
That first law.
Doesn't say they lost it.
Says they left.
They left it.
Well, we each have to answer before the Lord, Paul says. I will most gladly spend and be spent to be poured out as a drink offering for the Saints, though he realized the more he loved them.
The less he would be loved.
May God help us.
To go on together in peace.
The Lord Jesus, when he appeared to his own as the risen man, the first thing he communicates to them is peace.
Be unto you. Jerusalem means a dwelling in peace. At every local assembly should be a little expression of that where Christ is a dwelling in peace. Are you following the things that make for peace, and the things whereby one may edify another?
Are you following those things where you can build? Christ is the builder today.
Are you building with him or are you tearing down?
Searching questions for my own soul and for each of us.
May God help us.
Not much time remains. It may be the year the day ends, we'll hear the shout and we'll be home to gaze upon Yonder man in glory, upon his blessed face.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall bear the image.
Of the heavenly, I think of what Brother Darby said. I'll close with it.
You say you are in Christ, then Christ is in you. Then let me see Christ and nothing else. All that it might be. So shall we pray?