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1 Corinthians 1:1,9 -The Saints- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-01-14
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First Corinthians chapter one. We're in the book of first Corinthians. Please turn to the book of first Corinthians. We finished up the book of Romans last week, and we're gonna look at verses one through nine this morning. First Corinthians one verse one through nine. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes, our brother, under the church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you and peace from God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. That in everything, you are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that ye come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you under the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called under the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our lord. Father, thank you for your holy word. Thank you as as we're seated here, lord. We're reminded of all the people you've healed in our fellowship over the last year or so. And Shannon posted that, lord, and little Ruthie and Mike and so many people, Cora, and we just thank you that you're the great physician and many of these people we love. They get in precarious, place, physic physically and Lord, with the doctors, the nurses, with the prayers with you. Lord, you bring them through it, and we're just so so thankful, rejoicing that Sally's at home and Alan's at home, and, Alan's gonna get more care and and and and Sally, and they're gonna figure these things out. And, God, we pray for your healing touch upon their bodies. Comfort them, keep them warm, give them rest, and just help their bodies to recover from all these things that are taking place. And, nourish us as the body of Christ. Nourish us this morning. Cause your word by the power of your holy spirit to feed our spirit, to calm us of any fears, to calm our hearts of any struggles that we're going through. Give us your peace that surpasses all understanding, guards our heart and minds through Christ Jesus. And Lord, help us to leave here rejoicing, excited, as excited about Cheryl is, these baby Christians, Lord. They're so excited to watch their zeal for you. We pray you bless her in her baptism, and that she not get hypothermia, that she not fall down and get hurt, that she not have her heart stopped, that none of those bad things, but Lord, she'd just be so stoked, so excited about testifying, shouting from the rooftops, her love for you, Lord. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Would you please be seated? This letter that the apostle Paul is writing, he's in the city of Ephesus at the time. It's about fifty six AD. The population of Corinth is about 600,000 people. It's a commerce, a place of commerce. The, the the commerce that would take place is there, near this this peninsula. Rather than go around it, there was a city named Corinth that Julius Caesar revamped that rebuilt after it was destroyed previously. And and so the sailors would take and offload their boats with carts and stuff, and they take these boats and they take them across the peninsula to get to a safer side. And so this was a place of a lot of sailors, a lot of commerce, a lot of wickedness and evil, just just horrible things going on here. There's a temple to Aphrodite, a thousand priestesses in the cult of Molech that would offer themselves, to anybody around. There would be people painted painting themselves and offer themselves for sodomy all over the streets. Very, very wicked city, so much so that the apostle Paul in Acts chapter 18, when he's there, the Lord Jesus appears to him. Paul says, don't be afraid the Lord tells Paul, don't be afraid, Paul, because he's fearing. This is a wicked, wicked city. Muggings, killings, all these different things, and debauched. So if we were to describe it, it's definitely like Sodom and Gomorrah. It's the Sodom And Gomorrah of Greece, and places like today, maybe like Louisiana, you know, New Orleans type of things that go on there, the occult and stuff. Maybe LA, maybe Epstein Island, I don't know. All these different places where this evil evil evil takes place. So Paul addresses problems ranging from some of the those in the church were developing factions. So they were saying, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, I'm of Christ. And so they were dividing, getting in these little groups. You know, like we today would be careful of denominational groups. We're in these little, I'm of Calvary Chapel, I'm of Rick Pastor Rick. Well, how good is that working for you? But so you wanna be careful, you know. You name drop me. Oh, I'm sorry. They'll say, oh, I'm sorry, you know. Develop factions. To incest within the church in chapter five. To litigation in chapter six, people suing each other. Problems in marriage, chapter five, and also in chapter seven, problems, in marriage, immorality, improper observance of the Lord's table, that of communion. They were having difficulty, And so Paul, this is a corrective letter to correct many of the problems that he'd heard, that were taking place. Paul planted this church eighteen months in Corinth, spending eighteen months watching the Lord, save many people, and then now he's over in Ephesus, and he's writing a letter, gonna write a previous letter that was missing, and then the third letter would be second Corinthians that we'll get to after this first one. But basically dealing with problems, Paul wanting to correct these things. As I said, the the city is very prosperous, Grecian city located strategically on an isthmus that divided the country, and so her prosperity was due to the overland traffic as I said with the with the the ships that they brought about. So north to south, 45 miles away, and Athens was 45 miles away. Maritime travel east to west, sailors avoided the dangerous 250 mile journey around the Palapanenas, and so they'd come across instead of going around the horn, and so to drag their boats across. Today, there's a canal that's dug that's built. They don't need to do that anymore. So the procedure was safer by taking them across more economical. As I said, Corinth benefited from all the different commerce that was taking place, and the apostle Paul went to this people center, 600,000 people, and he wants to preach the gospel. And the Lord told him in acts 18, I have many people in this city. So you look at a city like that and you say, no, I'm not going there. That's a wicked wicked licentious horrible horrible city, and no way there could be anybody, you know, that would get saved there. What kind of church would you have there? Maybe like going to Las Vegas to plant a church in Vegas. But people do, and the churches do well in Vegas and and and such. And so where sin abounds, grace does much more abounds. Super abounding grace where God is able to reach any of us no matter how far we've drifted, you know, from him. And so that's kind of the background of this city. It was famous also for the Ithmian games, so kinda like the Olympic games. They had, as I said, the Temple Of Aphrodite. And the third thing was their lewd, licentious behavior. When I was growing up, there was a they're also famous for their their their mines. They had mine, they had a way of dealing with brass and different types of metallurgy that made them famous for dealing with that. They had slaves, tons of slaves, and some of these slaves would go deep within these caves, these caverns, children as slaves, and they wouldn't see the light of the day. They'd be, you know, getting sprayed upon and the metallurgy and all, and so people's lives were cheap in the Roman Empire, 60, I think, 60, million or sixty sixty thousand slaves in Rome, people that didn't have their, you know, the freedom that the apostle Paul said he was he was freeborn. The centurion said, at great price, I purchased this freedom. So they take these slaves, these children, and the offspring thereof, and they'd work within these mines. Also, I was growing up, they were advertising a Chrysler LeBaron and Ricardo Monteban. And he would get up there and he would tell you about the seats. They were made of fine Corinthian leather. I remember that. I can still see that guy. So maybe famous for their letter their leather work, you know. So acts eighteen eleven, Paul spent eighteen months planting the church. The date was a d fifty six and from Ephesus. And so Paul begins by reminding them who they are. The saints are, number one, elected by God. Notice verse one, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes, our brother. The word apostle here is is his office. It's not just like with Barnabas, an indicator of one that sent. I believe Barnabas also saw the risen Christ, but that was one of the criteria is that you need to see the risen Christ. So when people today say, hey, I've got the office of apostle. No. They don't. They have not seen the risen Christ. Secondly, they have to be chosen. God has to choose you, to be, an apostle. And thirdly, you're a teacher. God's called these guys to be teachers. Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep, tend my sheep. Paul spent three years in Ephesus and provided the full counsel of God to those in Ephesus as a teacher. Notice he says the apostle of Jesus Christ, nine times in nine verses, we read Jesus Christ. Nine times in these nine verses, Paul describes or names Jesus as Jesus Christ. There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved in acts chapter four we're told. And so Galatians one one, Paul said, an apostle not of men. So Paul didn't get his apostleship from James or Peter or any of the men. Paul's apostleship nor going online, people going online getting, you know, I'm a pastor. Look, I got the degree for I went online. I can marry you now. I've got the got the whatever the license. So not of men neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the father who raised him from the dead. He says in first Corinthians 15 verse eight, last of all, he was seen of me also as one born out of due time. So he's there at the stoning of Stephen, you know, after the resurrection and all, and Stephen's all bold in the early church in chapter six and seven, the book of acts, and, they're laying the coats at the feet of one Saul of Tarsus. And so he was consenting to these people's death, and by chapter nine, the Lord's intervening, the Lord's apprehending Paul. Paul didn't want to identify as this great intellectual of the past, that of Saul of Tarsus, changes his name to Paul, and he's he's a new creation in Christ Jesus, a whole new world opening up to him, but he says, I was one that was born out of due time. So in Acts nine is when the Lord appeared unto Paul, the Shekinah glory of God shining brighter than the than the noon sun. Saul Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who art thou Lord? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. Can you continue to kick against the goads? And I believe Jesus is alluding to Paul was haunted from the vision of Stephen, his face shining like that of an angel looking up into heaven and, you know, as they're as they're stoning him. And Lord, lay lay not this sin to their charge, he prayed, and I believe it haunted Saul of Tarsus so much so that when the Lord arrested him, delivered him from himself as he's heading toward Damascus to arrest more Christians. And so later, he describes himself as the chiefest of sinners because of this. A guy who wasted the church, a guy who was a blasphemer, blasphemy mean the holy spirit and causing people to recant of their faith and stuff. And so, last of all, has seen to me also as one born out of due time. He says, Sosthenes, acts eighteen seventeen. Sosthenes was the chief ruler of the synagogue and he was beaten by the Greek Jews and he describes him as our brother. Let's turn to Acts 18 and read a few verses there to to give us an idea of what Paul is talking about here. Acts chapter 18. He he's had it rough. He's been stoned at Lystra. He goes right back into Lystra and Derby and all. He's been at Athens, and they call him a babbler and all that. Now he's in the area of Corinth. There's no church in Corinth yet. It's a very, very wicked city. Verse one, after these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontius, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. So we see Aquila and Priscilla, they have home churches that they established. They're in Rome, now they're in Corinth, they're later in Ephesus, then they go back to back to Rome, and they were the same craft as the apostle Paul that have used in that fine Corinthian leather to build stuff with, to sew stuff, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. Because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves, ain't that interesting, they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean from henceforth, I will go into the Gentiles. One thing I've been read hearing over and over again as I'm going through pastor Chuck's tapes is that pastors are not paid commission. You don't get paid for everybody to get saved. You get paid salary. And so we're all paid salary. We share the good news. Some will oppose themselves. Some will respond. One man sows, another waters. God's the only one that can bring the increase. God's the only one that can turn Kitsap County upside down. Our job is to be faithful, faithfully sharing the good news of his coming kingdom, faithfully sharing prophecy, sharing the glorious gospel, and, and the ball is in their court. I'm clean from their blood. Not that we wanna be, you know, done with them or wipe the dust off our feet, but, we cannot save one single person. Only God can save. So your blood be upon your own heads. I'm clean from henceforth I will go into the Gentiles. And it departed thence and entered into a certain man's house named Justice, one that worshiped God whose house joined hard to the synagogue. So he gets kicked out of the synagogue, he goes right next door to Justice's house and they're gonna they're gonna have a home bible study there. And and Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue believed on the lord with all of his house and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. Hey, we're gonna do a baptism today. They believe and then they are baptized. How about that? Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, be not afraid. So that means he was afraid. When the Lord says be not afraid, it's because you are afraid. Right? Fear not. When he comes when he comes he says, hey, fear not. It's because you're afraid. Right? He hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. Now, Calvary Bremerton, as much as I I wanna try and describe, my heart here, I never wanna succumb to be in a church of fear. A church of faith is what we're we're headed toward. No matter what adversity, no matter what happens, if you're afraid that Cheryl's gonna get sick today, going in the in the trough and it really bothers you or whatever, bring a blanket. I don't know. Whatever you need to do, but I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid, not one bit. I'm not afraid of COVID, not afraid of jab, I say no to the jab, not afraid of being arrested, none of it. I can't operate in fear. I cannot possibly operate in fear. I can't operate in unbelief. I have to go for it and keep saying God's for us, and let's just keep going till we're stopped, you know. Just go as hard as we can. Some of the guys, you know, I'm hearing people describe me as being old, and I'm not old, you know. And I like I like, you know, Joshua fourteen eleven, where Joshua Caleb says, you know, I'm you know, I'm 80 and six years old this day, And I'm as strong today as I was when I was in my forties. And you remember what Moses said, Joshua, that I'm gonna I'm gonna be able to have this area near Hebron, and there are giants in the land. There's the Anakin that are there. So what Caleb's saying is, I wanted to go in and take them out forty six years ago. But the 10 unbelieving spies were so filled with fear, they held me back. I don't wanna be held back. I don't wanna be a sissy Christian and afraid and afraid to go for it, you know. I hope you don't wanna be one either. So he says, I'm as strong this day as I was in my forties, and, in order to take the land, he not only had to wait, but, then he had to remove the giants. And and he did. And I don't think the Lord's done with any of us yet, no matter how old you are, how young you are. Just go for it. The Lord says right here, be not afraid, but speak and hold not your peace. Don't hold back. Why are so many people holding back? Why are they afraid to talk about the elephant in the room? COVID is a genocide. The jab is a genocide. Your children are in jeopardy. Your grandchildren are in jeopardy. All society's in jeopardy, and it's a launching pad for everything else they're wanting to do. And the church is silent about it, complicit with it, taking the money for it, and still silent. It's mind boggling to me. You're just gonna sit there, die suddenly, die suddenly, die suddenly, die suddenly, and you can't even talk about it? A friend of mine that took the jab had heart surgery the other day. It's commonplace now. Three years later, young people are getting cancers. It's commonplace. Turbo cancers, your immune system's shot. Doctor Sherry Tenpenny told us this would happen, you know, and Judy Melissa said it would happen within three years. It's happening. People who had their cancer in remission are getting their cancers back and dying very quickly. The m n r n a m n r it's it's compromises your immune system, changes your body. And you know what else? It wasn't warp speed in the sense that they made it from the time that Trump realized the difficulty. It was premade. Premade with the Department of Defense being involved. He's just the salesman for it. Does he take ownership of it as people are looking to reelect him? Does he ever come up and say, was wrong? How many people have died? Can anybody talk about the people that have died from the jab? And why is it when people get sick or do die, why is it everybody so afraid, afraid to say anything? I'm a lose my social credit score. Your family member just died, and you're gonna be quiet about it? Where's the outrage? Be not afraid, but speak and hold not your peace. For I'm with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. You being a Christian, you're a target. You're a target of the wicked one. All throughout history, Christians have been target of wicked men and women. We fight not against flesh and blood, but against spirits and principalities, and they're their emissaries. They hate you. They hate you because you're a Christian. You stand in the way of the new world order. They hate you. They gotta get rid of you. And he continued there a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. And when Galileo was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat. Saying this fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, if it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness or all you Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But if it be a question of words and of names and of your law, look ye to it for I will be no judge of these matters. And he drayed them from the drove them from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Galileo cared for none of these things. And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while and then took his leave of the brethren and sailed thence into Syria and with him Priscilla and Aquila having shorn his head in Shentria for he had a vow. And so as we come back to our text, we're introduced to this Sosthenes, this guy that was beaten and, Paul describes him as a brother, chief ruler of the synagogue, beaten by the Greek Jews and Paul says, hey, he's a brother now. He's a believer. Verse two, under the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours. And so the word church is the ecclesia, the called out. You're called out from the world. You've been elected by God. You've been chosen by God. Jesus said, you didn't choose me, but I chose you in ordain that you bring forth fruit. And so we are fruit bearers. We abide in the vine, he's the branch and we abide in him and our lives are to be fruitful. Our lives are to bear spiritual fruit which is which is loves love. And so the ecclesia, those that are called out of the world. So called out of the world, the world a place of rebellion, of men warring with God. I would hate to have my life be such that my life's objective is to war against God. To try to present a Luciferian, demonic, utopian society with with no Jesus Christ. Instead, you're gonna come with an impostor in place of Jesus Christ, the antichrist. I would hate to be these guys fighting against God. A place of pride, men aspiring to be God, glorified as God. A place of hate, The hatred, iniquity abounding, the love of many grown cold, Jesus said. Men murdering each other, innocent babies, millions and millions and millions of innocent babies in the name of pleasure, in the name of a woman's choice in the abstract. But we're not allowed to use that argument when we say no to the medical procedures that they're wanting to impose upon us or mandate us. We can't say, hey, wait a minute, it's my body. What happened to that argument? That was your argument in the abstract, a choice. When is murder ever a choice? So you lose the argument if you recognize this as a child, it's a life, it's murder, but if you can convince people that, oh, it's just a a piece of flesh, fetus, doesn't know what's happening, and hey, we can we can, dissolve that little baby with a saline abortion. We can introduce salt into the under the child, burn the child to death, or we can hack them up. We can go in there and cut the little baby up in little pieces and pull them out, or we can we can, cut the baby's little head as it's there ready to be born, and we can vacuum the brain of the baby out. That's reality. That's the reality of the world in which we live. The God haters, they hate children, they hate the population, they hate the amount of people that are on the on the planet. It's a satanic, luciferian genocide that's in play. Upon this rock, I'll build my church and the gates of hell not prevail against it, Jesus said. So in spite of all that, in spite of all that opposition, Jesus doesn't need anybody's help. He says, this rock upon myself, I'll build my church and the gates of hell are not gonna prevail against it. In acts two forty seven, the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. So he's the one that's adding to the church daily. His church, the ecclesia, those who have been called out. So for two thousand years, the Lord has been calling out people, electing people, inviting people to come to know him. He's been revealing himself to certain people, that's you and me. We should treasure the fact that God revealed himself unto us, that he drew us, that he opened our eyes, he opened our ears, that he gave us that measure of faith to believe in him. What a treasure. What a what a blessing to be a Christian. I wouldn't want to navigate this world, especially in its present condition as an unbeliever. We would lose hope. We'd be suicidal. We'd be crazy. We would just be filled with such such torment that we'd need to self medicate or medicate just to calm our nerves with all the perplexity that's facing the planet with no way out, no solution. No solution for what's coming. And so Jesus said this time that's coming, the tribulation periods, a time that the world has never seen before nor ever see again. It's gonna be so cataclysmic. And we see the birth pangs of that that period, that epoch of time, that seven year period of time. And so the church age is going to end when the fullness of the Gentiles be come in at the rapture. That's the end of the church age. And sometime thereafter, that next period of time is the tribulation period, the seventieth seven of Daniel 09/25 through '27. And so we see the birth pangs. We see the beast system starting to emerge. So we're looking up knowing that our redemption draws nigh that we're gonna be raptured. We're gonna be taken out before that even happens. And so that's our that's our hope. We're called out from the from this world and he's gonna build his church and he's saving those he wants to save. The church of God which he has purchased with his own blood in acts 20 verse 28 when Paul's in Ephesus and get ready to leave there after three years, they're established church in Ephesus. He's meeting with the elders, the pastors, and he let them know, take heed. Take heed because you're gonna have wolves that come in among you and some from the outside, and they're gonna try and, you know, divide and destroy these saints. So take heed. You guys take heed. God's left you responsible, and remember that these are blood bought, that these saints have been purchased with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. So you guys take heed. A warning. He says, I'm innocent of the blood of each and every one of these people because I, for three years, ceased not to give them night and day with tears the full counsel of God. He gave them the word of God and the balls in their court. They're responsible. And so he says, notice sanctified. The word sanctified means to make holy. Those made holy are the saints, Hagios, and so those sanctified are the saints called to be saints. So you are called from being a sinner to be a saint. If you're not a saint, you're an aint. Right? From a sinner to a saint, and you think about your life prior to coming to Christ, what a prolific sinner you were. Maybe you were the harder person to reach, the good person, a person that sees himself as good, And you're thinking God grades on the curve that well, I'm not as bad as Rick Baudry is, you know. And, he's a really bad dude and and, I'm better than him, so I must be going to heaven because I'm a good person, you know. Well, God doesn't grade on the curve. God says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Why is that? So God can be gracious. Salvation is by grace through faith alone, not based upon your performance. You can never perform. If you try to perform six hundred six hundred thirteen precepts of the old testament, you have to be perfect from from the womb all the way to the tomb. You've gotta be perfect because if you're guilty on one point, the wages of sin is death, which is eternal separation from God. So all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And we remember the Romans wrote, don't we? The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But God commends his love towards us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. So we reversed those. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Salvation a free gift. And you and I responded because we saw our abject poverty. We saw our inability to be holy, to be good, to be good enough. And he calls us saints. He calls us holy. So the Lord that in Romans eight, the Lord that foreknew you, he says, Jeremiah, before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you and I ordained you a prophet of God. Paul later, when he saved, he says my, he says in Galatians, he says, God separated me from my mother's womb. It was God's plan all along. I was the most brilliant Pharisee of Pharisees at one time. Saul of Tarsus was more brilliant than Einstein. More brilliant than the greatest minds Beethoven throughout all of history is how great this man was in the natural. But it had to all go by the wayside just as Moses so that he could be transformed. That's why he changed his name, but there's still that brilliance there, that that understanding of languages, that understanding of the of the word of God and such that God was able to to speak through him, but the chiefest of sinners and and made to be a saint. And and he gives the glory unto God that, you know, before, you know, he separated me, he separated me, he foreknew me. He predestined me. It's his idea. He called me. He justified me. He's even glorified me already. I'm a saint. He's glorified me already. Five verbs in the aorist tense, in the past tense, completed action. That's you. That's me. I'm not trying to become a saint. I already am a saint because God chose me. He elected me, and he's gonna complete the work he's done in me. And boy, what a work. What a work, you know. What a piece of work you are, you know. Called to be saints, appointed, elected, chosen. Peter says in first Peter two nine, you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. Yeah. We're peculiar that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. We're called out of darkness into his light, which in times past you were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy from sinner to saint. So if you're John Newton and you're a slave owner, and you're hauling the these people from Africa to Britain and all over to be slaves, and finally, you get convicted by the holy spirit. The holy spirit convicts your heart. The holy spirit saves you. You look at these men, these women, these families in a totally different way, and your heart is just overwhelmed with your sinfulness. Incredible sinfulness. And God whispers in the ear, but I'm making you a saint. And then you hear some words to a song, a song that we still sing, Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace, what a wretch, you know, it was me. I was once this wretched man, but God by his grace reached down and saved me. And John Newton went on to become a a pastor and sharing the gospel with others. So how does God see you this morning? He says you are his church. You're the called out. You're the ecclesia. And we during COVID, when they wanted us to shut the church down, the church is not essential, can't worship, can't have communion, and all that. We're saying, wait a minute, the church is an assembly. We're called out. We're called out of the world, and we're called to be together, to come together, to be as one in John 17. We're not called to be solo Christians just to name and watch on Zoom, or we're thankful for Zoom, or we're thankful for Facebook, we're thankful for the social media, the people that are sick today can watch and tune in and such. Clovis has been doing a great job of getting the sermons out on podcasts and stuff and Vicky's podcast, and we're seeing a little blip, little little more people watching, and people that different parts of, you know, geographically, which is very surprising to me. And I always laugh and say, oh, it'll go away, but I mean, it's just a little blip. But in any event, we're doing our part to try and get the gospel out, to try and share with people. And and it's exciting. It's exciting to think that the gospel can go beyond just this little, you know, this little room here, and, we're into that. But it doesn't negate the fact that we, as Christians, are called to gather together. We need to be together. That's what fellowship is. You take one coal out from the fire and you set it aside where it's alone, the fire goes out. We need each other. We're the body of Christ. So whenever we're feeling well enough, we need to get, you know, get together, be together on a regular basis. And it's not a legal thing. If you don't wanna be here, then of course, you're not gonna be here. There should be just such a desire in your heart you hate to miss. You just hate to miss. You just love being with the saints. I wanna be with the saints. I've been with the aints all week. Now I get to go be with the saints. You know? I've been with the sinners all week. They're vile. They're filthy. And, you know, I wanna I want my I want my Jesus fixed, you know? I'm addicted to Jesus. I'm addicted to serving him. I love Jesus, you know. That's the life of the Christian. Woe is me if I don't preach the gospel. There's this desire within your heart that's just inescapable. Jeremiah at one point was so angry at God that things weren't working according to Jeremiah's plan. As he wound up in a in a dungeon in a in a pit, he's, I'm not gonna speak in your word anymore. You go get somebody else. And the word of God burned within his heart that he could not refrain. That's what it's like. You try to refrain. You try to backslide. You try to walk away from the Lord, and you watch what happens. Nothing compares. Nothing comes even close. I mean, you gotta try really long and hard to walk away from the Lord, because he's not walking away from you. It's something you need to persist in over and over and over in your thoughts, and then the action of backsliding. You don't just wake up one day, you know, as you've been you're sober and in love with Jesus and following him, wake up one day and just say, well, I'm gonna go back to the bars. I'm gonna go back to being a drunk. No. That's something you're thinking through. You're thinking through. And you're reaching, you're dabbling, you're playing with it. But as you gather together with the saints and the holy spirit ministered to you, it's all of a sudden, why would I do that? That's like that's like that's like eating garbage. You know? And, why would I why would I do that? And so God presents something so much better. He presents himself that's so much better than anything that Corinth has to offer. No matter what they have to offer for pleasure or to meet these sailors or meet these people or, you know, make them feel whole or whatever it is, nothing compares to just simply being a Christian. I thank the Lord every day for saving me. Thank you, Lord, for saving me. Thank you for saving Kathy. Thank you that we have an eternal, you know, place in your kingdom. And Lord, it was your idea. I went to church that night for a concert. I wasn't looking for God. I didn't need God, but he arrested me. He let himself be known and and he says, I'm gonna make you I'm gonna make you a saint, man. You're elected by me. It's my idea. I planned this when your mom was 15 years old, Rick, and got pregnant with you, rather than an abortion, I allowed you to be born, and I allowed you to live the first twenty years of your life as a heathen. And then I saved you. You're a trophy of my grace. And I wasn't as big a sinners as you guys, because you guys, a lot of you, you sinned a lot longer than me. You you sinned into your forties. You became prolific at sinning. You you perfected the art, you know. I was I was just a babe in the art of sinning. I I didn't even do the bar scene yet. I got saved at 20, you know. Imagine what damage I could have done if I had to got in there, you know. So from sinner to saint, I just thank the Lord. You're his church, those called out. Then he says, you are sanctified, those made holy. So you are called, those appointed, chosen, elected by God. He says verse three, grace be unto you, grace and peace, Siamese twins. Grace is God's unmerited favor. Peace, and you and I have peace with God now. We were enemies of God, at enmity with God, and when he saved us, we surrendered to his authority. He's Lord of our life. There's we have peace with God. And then as believers, as we walk in fellowship with him, now he gives us the fruit of the spirit, a peace Paul describes in Philippians four that surpasses all understanding. Intellectually, humanly speaking, with your faculties, with your ability to reason, you should be freaking out. You should be running around shouting chicken little chicken little, the sky is falling. But instead, you're at peace. You're like Peter. James has been executed the day before. They've apprehended you and you're the guy that wimped out at the time at crunch time. You know, I don't know the man three times, but now you're changed transformed individual after the holy spirit's come in upon your life, after the evidence of the resurrection, and now you can sleep. You're so at peace, can sleep. You're not pacing the floor. Oh my god. In the morning, I'm gonna be executed. Oh my god. They're gonna kill me like they did James. No. You're asleep. Just trust in the lord. He prophesied also that you die when you're old, in Peter's case, you know. If I will tell that he tarries till I come, what is that to you, he said. Peter was worried about John the beloved. What's gonna happen to him? Peter, when you're young, you go where you want. When you're old, another's gonna grab hold of you and take you where you would not. You're gonna be crucified. Tradition says Peter didn't wanna be crucified head up. He wanna be so he was crucified upside down. He wasn't worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord. But he knew from that encounter in John 21 that he was going to reach in that of an older person, and I'm not old, remember that, but somebody's older than me. I don't even take a senior discount, I'm so young. I refuse it, you know. I've refused to identify as an old person. So that's it, man. But Peter, he knew that he was gonna be old and he was young at that time, so he he had peace. He he believed the prophecy that the Lord gave to him, and and praise the Lord. And so grace be unto you and peace from God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're elected by God as saints. Secondly, we're enriched by God as saints. Verse four, I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. So grace not guilt. If you're living a performance lifestyle being a maybe a Catholic or a Mormon or whatever it may be, it's always performance. It's always you reading your bible, you praying, you giving, you serving, you doing all these things and then somehow you can achieve peace of mind. Hey, I'm a good person. I'm good. You're good. Well, for you and I, we don't rely upon our performance to approach God. We rely upon grace, which is his unmerited favor. We can boldly come before his throne, not of judgment, boldly before his throne of grace to help us. Why? Because when Jesus was crucified, the veil of the temple was rent in two, cut in half. The priest, one time a year, could go beyond the holy of holies to present the atonement on behalf of the nation. If the priest didn't prepare himself, the high priest, they'd put a a rope around his his ankle with these pomegranate bells around his robe. And if they heard a thud, they couldn't just go in there and drag him out, get him out of there. They're not holy. They they weren't prepared. God's holy. He's unapproachable. So they just pull that old boy out, know, just pull on the rope. You can't approach a holy God in your in your sinful condition. But because of Jesus dying in your place, his blood being the payment for your sin, now you can boldly come before his throne of grace. You have access anytime you want in prayer right now, in your in your prayer closet, as you worship the Lord, and your thoughts, and your mind, you have access. He's never gonna say, hey, wait wait wait wait. I got three calls ahead of you. I got three calls. You have access. He'll pick the phone up. If you call me, I'm gonna see who it is. It isn't worth answering. Don't you love it? Don't you love human nature? But not God. Oh, they're they're not important enough. They can call me later. Yeah. But we have access. We have access to God. We are enriched. I thank my God always on your behalf. Paul's thinking to them, I thank God for that person, praying for that person. I I I'm just so thankful. I spent, you know, eighteen months with you guys. I'm here in Ephesus and every time I think about you, I could just thank God for you. Do you do that? Do you thank God for people in your life, Christians in your life? And just just, Lord, thank you for that person. Thank you for them. Thank you for what they what they mean to the body of Christ. For the grace of God which is given by you, by Jesus Christ. Remember nine times he's coming back and back and back and back in nine verses to the name Jesus Christ. That in everything you are enriched. You're gifted the charisma, the charismata, the blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus. You're enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge. So this word enrich means to make wealthy, rich. You're plutocrats. Paul uses this word to the church of Ephesus also. The riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. We're not paupers, we're not poor, we have spiritual riches that the world can't even even come close to. Just simply peace of mind that you and I have is a gift from God. People are looking for peace of mind. We have peace of mind. I don't need to take medication to be able to go to sleep at night because of anxiety, because of worry, because my mind won't shut down. There's nights where I can't sleep Saturday nights before we're coming here, but that's more of excitement. My mind's racing. My mind's thinking about gathering together with you in the sermon and what God's been teaching me, and I I I can't sleep. I'm ready to go. And then after a service, I wanna cherish it. I don't wanna go to sleep. I wanna I wanna revel in thinking about how Cheryl gasped when we put her underneath the water. And and you're just laughing. You lay in bed and you laugh. You think of the kids when it came out of their mouth, and I'm still thinking about, little Ruthie pulling the white little things off of Bella's coat at Christmas, you know. I see those pictures, it's hilarious. These children are just amazing. And then each of you and us and this this little fellowship. I mean, we prayed, you know, New Year's night or whatever we prayed in in such a way, what's on my heart is Lord, we wanna fulfill our calling. We wanna justify, Lord. We wanna be able to justify the reason for our existence. Why are we even a church in Kitsap County? Why are we here? Lord, what is your plan? What is your purpose? In this next year, help us to be able to justify why we're even here. If we can't justify why we're here, then what are we doing? But God's called us here. God's called us unto a work. Our little our little little spot, our little place that we fit in, and where I'm not a Paul or Apollos or Cephas, it's there's a lot of people doing a lot of good things out there, but we have to be able to understand why are we here? What is it God has me to do, has you to do, us to do? What's our role in the body of Christ? Where do we fit? Because he's enriched us. He's gifted each of us. He's given at least one gift to each and every one of us as we get through the gifts, severally as he wills. But he's gifted here as as these guys are saying, with with knowledge, utterance and knowledge. The eighteen months that Paul spent there, he's bringing Christ to them. They're getting to know the Lord and they're able to express that with utterance and sharing the gospel or exercising their prayer language or prophecy exercising in that way. They're plutocrats. God gives us everything we need to enjoy him. And that's what I wanna I wanna I wanna hone in on that. I wanna I want you to plant your feet. You are lacking nothing. You lack nothing in regard to getting to know Jesus. He's given you everything you need has been given to you to get to know him. He's given you the holy spirit to live and dwell within your heart. You're no longer body and soul, you're body, soul, and spirit. And you have the comforter, you have the paracletus that that's upon you, empowering you for service in you and upon you. All you need to do is pray. All you need to do is ask, utter, speak, pray. You have access. Lord, give me wisdom. He'll give you the wisdom. Lord, teach teach me, Lord. Open the scriptures. Lord, speak to my heart. He'll speak to your heart. He'll direct your steps. You're lacking nothing. The world wants you to believe that Jesus is inadequate, that you need Jesus and something else, and therapy, and a pill, or a bigger house, a bigger this, a bigger that. Jesus just isn't enough. That's baloney. He's given us everything we need for life and godliness, Peter said. Everything we need has been given to us for life and godliness. The life of the spirit, the life as a Christian. But if they can get you believing Jesus is weak and wimpy and lacking and, oh, that was written two thousand years ago. We've got new knowledge. We've got secret knowledge. We got different stuff that you've never heard of. Come over here and try this. Jab this. Toke on this. We've got a new hybrid marijuana. This one will really, really get through to you. We got gummies now. Gummy for every emotion. Amazing the church made it this long without the gummies, you know. I like gummies. Not those gummies, but I like gummies. I grew up with candy Still love candy. It doesn't love me. But now they have adult candies. Here's a gummy. You need to go to sleep. Here's a gummy. You're anxious? You got anxiety? You don't need Xanax. You can have a gummy. Eat this gummy. So as you're doing the gummy, are you learning to pray? Are you learning to read? Are you learning to point you to Jesus to get to Jesus? If you have a physiological problem with pain, great. Take the gummy. Get rid of the the edge of the pain better than the oxy. But when it comes to your mind, when it comes to your emotions, when it comes to your inner man, and you're looking for man to solve it through therapy or pills or this or that or the other, you're mistaken. You have everything you need for life and godliness. That depression you're going through, that discouragement you're going through, one of the monikers of it is selfishness. Could be it's bothering you so much because you're so obsessed with yourself. Well, if you die to self, it may be that you turn to Jesus and now he's able to minister to you. We all get depressed. We all get discouraged. We all go through hard times. But what do we do when we're facing those problems? Do we turn to Jesus? Or are we like paupers? Have we won the lottery, but we're still living like a homeless person? You you won the lottery, gang. You're plutocrats. You have everything. Why are you living like a spiritual pauper? Because you don't know what's yours in Christ. You haven't been taught. Because the gatekeepers have kept you away by not teaching his word. They have all these little therapeutic feel good little sermonettes for Christianettes, and it lasts but a moment, it's gone. You have no stability, you haven't been established. True riches, the unsearchable riches of Christ, unfathomable riches. Moses is a great one in this regard. In Hebrews eleven twenty five, it says that Moses chose to suffer afflictions with the people of God than to enjoy the splendor of Egypt. Why would in his value system would he do that? Why would he go from being the son of pharaoh's daughter, eligible for all that Egypt had to offer, all the wealth, the fame, the everything, the best of Egypt, and choose to suffer affliction with the people of God. Why? What are you thinking, dude? It says his value system was he esteemed, he's esteeming, he's evaluating. He esteemed the reproach of Christ as greater riches than all the splendor of Egypt. Why? Again, because he had respect under the recompense of the reward. Moses was thinking eternal. He was thinking, I'm not gonna live just a few short years in Egypt when I can live for all eternity in the splendor of God's holy kingdom. What a value system. Paul said this light affliction which is but for a moment, it's working a far more eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So as we go through affliction, as we go through difficulty, we say, it's only gonna last a moment. It's only gonna last at the most eighty years. Oh, that's a long time. Well, how would you like to spend eternity in hell instead of heaven? It's just a moment compared to heaven. The best is yet to come, Joel. Yet to come. Why didn't the riches of Egypt hold Moses? How can he give it all up? His desire to know God was greater than his desire for the riches. He was enriched like the Corinthian saints in all utterance and knowledge. God revealing himself unto us. Paul says in Philippians three eight, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ. Paul lost everything that he gained as a pharisee of pharisees when he came to Christ and he says in my value system, it's always dung. It says refuse for the excellency of knowledge of Christ. I was searching for God. He was sincere. Oh, that's a sincere person. I think they're gonna go to heaven. He's sincere. He goes to church each week. Well, he's sincerely wrong. He shouldn't be out there killing Christians, but he's looking for God. Paul says, man, when the light bulb went on, when I finally realized that Jesus is God, that he's the Messiah, man, that's when life changed. That's when I really started living. He says, verse six, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you so that you you come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so seventeen years earlier, the lord Jesus Christ ascended. So Paul in fifties '55, '56 is writing this book. He'd earlier his first epistles, first book was to the church of Thessalonica. And what did he write? What's the theme of his book in Thessalonica? Eschatology. He taught this three week old church, baby Christians, prophecy. Oh, I can't teach prophecy. It's too hard to understand. Too hard for the saints to understand. Can't teach the book of revelation. You know? It's a really tricky book. Can't talk about the rapture, you know. Who can understand that? So what are you gonna talk about? Giving. We need more money. We're a Christian business, and we deserve their money. So every week, we're just gonna keep begging for money and we're gonna tell them the good things we're doing to make the world a better place because now we got your money to spend. That's the theme. That's the theme of all the churches. It's a business. And along the way, yeah, people get saved. Some do in spite of the idiocy of this current model. It shouldn't be the way. Seventeen years earlier, he's waiting for the coming of our lord Jesus written in 8051 that of first and second Thessalonians. He says in Ephesians one verse three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. You've been enriched. You're not a pauper. You're a plutocrat, the plutos, the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. We like to measure each other by how big our houses are, how much retirement, how much money we have. And God says the least of us in here who's a saint has more riches than Bill Gates or Bezo or any of them. Unsearchable riches of Christ. Jesus said it this way, a value system. What's it profit a man? Profit loss. What's it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what would a man give in exchange for his life? Bill can't buy his way into heaven. His blood, only the blood of Jesus. Bill's gotta come the same way as you and I have come on our knees, on our faces. God be merciful to me a sinner. And when you do, then our big brother Jesus, you become a joint heir with him. All that he's bequeathed, all that he's going to receive, you too are a beneficiary. You too are joint heir with Jesus Christ. The riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. And even presently, you already are receiving a part of that blessing, the riches, the spiritual riches, the quality of life. The thief comes not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy the devil. The Luciferian system is to destroy, to depopulate, to genocide people. But I've come, Jesus said, that you would have life, eternal life, numerical, and that more abundantly, quality of life. The quality of life as a Christian is far greater than the quality of life of the unbeliever. If it's not, then remain an unbeliever. If we don't have something that's better, why would anyone wanna get saved? Why would they want what we have if we're all miserable and bummed out and dissatisfied with with Jesus. I'm tired of the manna. I'm tired of the bread of life. I want savory food. I want bigger house, bigger this, bigger that, bigger that, that, that. And then they got what they thought they were lacking, and he gave them leanness in their heart. They couldn't enjoy the quail. They're hitting homers of quail till it's coming out their ears. They couldn't enjoy it. You're not gonna be able to enjoy anything until you first enjoy Jesus. He can bless your life with all those things, but those are way beneath your walking relationship with him. If he were to take it all away, Job, you'd still say the Lord giveth, the Lord take it away. Blessed be the name of the Lord because you're in love with Jesus. And nobody can ever take Jesus from you. The saints are elected by God, enriched by God, and thirdly, established by God. Verse eight, who shall also confirm you under the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. That word confirm means to establish, strengthen, guarantee. You need to be established. You can't be milk toast. You can't be wishy washy being moved here and there all over the place. You need roots. You need to be grounded in the faith. Proverbs thirty seven seventeen says, the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. We're gonna get through this. If the economy crashes, we're gonna get through this. If they steal all the food and poison all the food, we're gonna get through this. They're trying to kill us. Rob was telling me the other day that part of their strategy is something I've been saying quite for quite a long time, and that is to all of you two a guys, us two a people with all of our weapons, grain, you know, every blade of grass, the Japanese said. We're being sold out by our own government. Our own government is selling us out to foreign governments. They're infiltrating America and guess what? They're gonna bug spray you. They're cowards. They don't wanna go door to door and meet what you have, what you've been preparing, all that ammo you're storing up. They don't wanna meet that. They know you're serious. And you've been gentle, and you've been civil and you haven't overreacted. You haven't taken the bait to engage in a civil war. You're waiting. And you're gonna protect your country. You're gonna do what's right. You're willing to die for what's right, but they're cowards. They're gonna send drones over your house, you that won't go into the smart cities. They're gonna give you thirty days to get into a smart city. They're gonna send a drone over and spray you. Bug spray you. You're the bug. And then they're gonna come in twenty, thirty days later, they've been inoculated or they got their suits, whatever, with trash trucks and incinerators like in China. And they're just gonna throw your bodies in the back of the trash truck and or the incinerator. And then they're gonna go into your house and say, look at this safe. Look at all the gold in this safe. Look at all the silver. Look at these weapons. Look at this ammo. Oh, we can use it to to subjugate more people. The FBI, all of them are, you know, getting weapons presently. One guy said the reason all those agencies of government are stockpiling weapons is to give to all these foreigners that are coming in. If you don't have Jesus, if you don't know him, you're not gonna sleep like I do like a baby. To be asked when the bodies be present with the Lord. Is that the best you got? You're threatening to kill me? Well, know, I I I gave in to you when you said, I'll lose my job, but, you know, now I don't know about this, you know. People that gave in, I tried to tell them, well, what about three years from now? How are you gonna support your family three years from now? I don't know anybody that's regretted not taking the jab. I never hear somebody, oh, I wish I'd have take the jab. I wish I'd have got the boosters. I feel really vulnerable. You know? I'm feeling sick. I better go get a booster. But that's what they're doing. They're trying to convince people your children need it. These are genocidal maniacs. And if you got the job, we pray for you that you got the placebo. Any of us can be deceived. Certainly, now we know the truth and we trust the Lord. But when they're threatening you with evil, when they're threatening you that we're gonna, you know, use your employer to force this upon you, We didn't we didn't force you, the government saying to take these shots. We we incentivized your employer. It's your employer that said you have to do this or you lose your job. In some cases, people receive cash amounts by their employer for taking the job. God will sustain us. Faithful is he that calls you who also will do it. It's about faith. Being established in the faith is about faith. It's about going through these tests. These tests that come, the threats that come, the lies that come, and taking these lies and bringing them before the Lord and comparing it with the word of God and saying, Lord, what do I do? What do I do, Lord? He's always gonna tell you, trust me, walk by faith. He's never gonna want you to acquiesce and give in to threats from evil. He's gonna always say, hey, hey, you might be able to escape the unpleasantness for a few years, Moses. You could you could stay, you know, in Egypt there and enjoy Egypt a little longer, Moses. You keep your job, Moses. But I've got something far greater, Moses, if you'll step away, if you'll trust me, if you're willing to suffer with the people of God. Moses on into eternity, you're gonna be on the mount of transfiguration, Moses. Exactly. Amen. You won't get there, Moses, if you're gonna be trusting in the pharaoh, trusting in that system, that worldly system. Oh, yeah. You you can have pleasure for a little while, but it's a vapor. It says a moment compared to the eternity of pleasure in my presence. Being confident this very thing that he that has begun a good work in us that he will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calls you who also will do it. First Thessalonians five twenty four. We cannot just do it. A Nike commercial. I cannot just do it. I can't be a raider and just do it. I need God's help. I need God to do it. He can. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can do all things. Paul said before that verse, said, whether I'm abased or whether I'm abounding, I've learned, I'm learning the secret of contentment. How many of you, how many of us as Christians can say, we're content? That's the whole draw of salesmanship is to try and identify something in your life that makes you feel discontent, but we're gonna sell you this and boy these shoes, you're gonna never have sore feet again. It's always a marketing scheme. I've learned to be content whatever study I am, whether abased or abounding and then he goes on say, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's not me. As I rely upon the Lord, that's the secret of contentment. Relying upon him, no longer me living, but Christ living through me. Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a Greek word apokalupsis, the appearing, the revelation. So this is not the day of the lord. This is the coming of our lord Jesus Christ. And so this is the rapture. This is when Jesus is coming. You and I are looking for the apocalypsis. We're looking for the appearing. The coming of our Lord where Jesus said or in Luke, we're told to look up for your redemption draws nigh. Pray always that be kind of worthy to escape these things and stand before the son of man. So in Philippians one verse 10 and Philippians two sixteen and one verse six and first Corinthians five verse five and second Corinthians one verse 14. Write that down. Get the tape. All alluding to the rapture. When you see the definite article, the day of the lord, that's the tribulation period. This is not the tribulation period. We're not looking for the tribulation period. We see the tribulation period. We know our redemption's drawing close. When we see the beast system being being made, we're not surprised. We're children of light. Our eyes are open. These are the birth pangs. We know that we're not subject under wrath. We know that Jesus is coming soon. We know the time frame, the clock, the appearing, the revelation. In first John three verse two, beloved, now are we the sons of God. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. We're gonna see him as he is. And he that has its hope in him, it's a purifying hope. Every man that has hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. Being a saint means you're living like Jesus. Being a saint means you're holy. I'm not there yet, but I know that when he appears, then I'm gonna see him and I'm gonna know even as I'm also known who he's made me. He already sees me. He's already glorified me. And he that has this hope, what hope? The hope of the soon return of the Lord. He's coming. That hope, if I don't think he's coming, if I think we're going through the tribulation period, why look up? I gotta prepare. I gotta get more ammo. Get more bullets, more food stored up. Nothing wrong with that. You might go through a period of communism. Not the tribulation period, just simply communism, fighting communists. Be ready. They're here. They're in your government. They're selling you out to the globalists. You don't need to prepare for the tribulation period. You can be raptured, be taken out, coming soon, coming real soon. A purifying hope keeps me on guard. I'm watching. First Corinthians thirteen twelve, for now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face. It's not real clear yet what I'm gonna be. What's gonna be happening? But when I see him face to face, now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also me. My father's house are many mansions. I believe that word mansions is your new body. If Cheryl dies today being baptized, she's got a heart condition. If she dies today, what a good way to go. Right? She can be with Jesus. Bath and body, be present with the Lord. Anybody afraid? Anybody afraid wanna call it off? Wanna wear a jacket? But in that moment, Jesus said, I go prepare a place for you. If I go prepare a place for you, in my father's house are many mansions. For words, so I tell you. New bodies. New glorified body. So what was your perfect weight? What was your perfect look? What was your perfect hair? What was your perfect you got big ankles? You got cankles? You got a little too much in the back, you got need to move some stuff around. Yeah. Bald in a little bit. What what's on? What's going on? What's going on? Age is taking its toll on all of us. Think anybody's gonna regret seeing Jesus and being in their new glorified body? Anybody, I need to go back. I wanna go back. Lazarus had to go back. And tradition says that Lazarus never smiled again. Just a tradition. He'd he'd experienced the joy of the Lord in heaven, the splendor of heaven. You want me to go back? Yeah. You're gonna be witness of testimony as I told him, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though he are dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Believest thou this, Mary, Martha? Yeah. We believe. Well, check this out. Lazarus, come forth. Good thing he said just Lazarus because otherwise, all the dead people would come forth. That's how powerful he is. Destroy this body. In three days, I'll raise it up. He's no pretender. And so Jesus has prepared a new glorified body. I will come again and receive you onto myself that where I am, there you may be also. Location, location, location. Pray always that you'd be accounted worthy to escape the tribulation period and to stand before the son of God. To stand before Jesus. Known by God in the past and the present and in the future. I'm gonna know even as I am known, the saints. Four groups of saints. Four different groups. All saints, but four different groups. You have to keep your distinctions if you're studying the bible and you wanna understand expositionally, you need to distinguish between is the context of who is the writer speaking of. For instance, in Matthew 24, except those days be short, no flesh should be saved, but for the elect's sake, if you think the elect is the church, you're missing out. If you understand according to Revelation 12, the elect is the nation of Israel, you get it. Jesus is returning to save that one third remnant, and except those days be shortened, no flesh should be saved, but for the elect's sake, Jesus intervenes to the area of Petra, the people in Petra, the remnant, the one third remnant are crying out, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And Jesus returns at that point. If he'd waited, no flesh should be saved because man would kill everything upon this planet during the tribulation period. So Jesus intervenes. So if you don't make that distinction, if you have the church as the elect, you're not gonna be able to properly interpret Matthew 24 and have a eschatology, a last day understanding to make things right. So four types of Old Testament or four types of saints. One, old testament saints. Old testament saints are not the church. John the Baptist is the last of the old testament saints, but he that's least in the kingdom of God is greater than John. Why? We have a greater revelation, greater understanding, greater position. John the Baptist is the friend of the bridegroom. Nation of Israel is the wife of Jehovah. The church is the bride of Christ. So the next group of people who are saints are the church saints, those that are in Christ. You're a saint in the church age. The church age closes with the rapture. After the rapture, we have another designation or group of saints. They're called the tribulation saints. They're in chapter six and seven, the book of revelation. They're in chapter 20 verse four where they lost their lives as they were beheaded because they refused the mark of the beast. They're sitting beneath the throne of God in chapter six and seven. An innumerable multitude of people, the greatest revival in the history of the world is gonna be in the tribulation period as people's lives are narrowed down to one decision, Jesus or the devil, heaven or hell, saint or an aide, you choose. And they choose to say no to the mark of the beast. They're willing to die. They overcame the beast. They overcame the antichrist by the blood of the lamb, the word of their testimony, and they love not their lives unto death. Be careful when you mimic psychology and say, I'm just loving myself. No man ever yet hated himself, nourishes himself. The problem is the love of self. In the love of self, I would seek to save myself by taking the jab, by taking the mark of the beast or whatever it may be that they're leveraging me. I would sing to King Nebbe every time the dulcimer and sack button all of it goes off. I'd be I'd be wanting to save myself. I wouldn't have the symmetry. I wouldn't have the faith. I wouldn't have the courage of a Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego would be willing to die for my faith because I'm in love with myself. I gotta save myself. If you be the son of God, save yourself. Come down from that cross. No man takes your life my life from me, Jesus said. You have the power. He says, I have the power to lay it down, power to take it again. And you by faith, you trust to be absent the body to be present with the Lord. In fact, you believe I'm already crucified with Christ. No longer I live him, but Christ living through me. And the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. When Cheryl goes down, that Cheryl's gone. Typologically, she's done. We're done. We're in the grave. Come up out of the grave, no longer me living, but Christ living through me. Amen. That's the witness. That's the witness we declare. Identification with his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, and he's coming again. Jesus said, lo I'm with you always even to the end of the age. And then we have the fourth group, the millennial saints. People get saved in the millennium. The thousand rule and reign, thousand year rule and reign of Jesus. You and I are kings and priests during that time, the church. Very important distinction in Ephesians is those who are in Christ, in Christ Jesus. That's a distinction. You are those in the church age who are in Christ. Your life is hid in Christ. Behold the Lord cometh with 10 thousands of his saints. Jude one fourteen. When the Lord Jesus comes again in the second coming, he's coming with us. We're coming back with him as his bride. We're not coming back to fight for him, fight with him. We're coming back because he's he's culminating the tribulation period. He's saving the Jews. He's going to have a seventy five day interval. He's gonna make a trek from Basra on up into the city of Jerusalem. It's gonna split in half at the Mount Of Olives. He's gonna enter to the city in this triumphal entry and you and I are gonna be there with him as the bride of Christ. The old testament saints, John the Baptist is the friend of the bridegroom. We're gonna have the marriage supper. We're gonna have the reception there that starts the millennial reign. You have the old testament saints, those in Christ. Tribulation saints are gonna be resurrected from the dead. Old testament saints be resurrected from the dead. But you and I who are in Christ, Jesus is gonna descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Praise God. That's the rapture. That's your hope. That's the hope. The glorious Titus two thirteen, that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior. Jesus will return with his spotless bride, his glorious church saints. Verse nine, God is faithful by whom you were called under the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, the Lord. Nine times. Jesus Christ, the Lord. Jesus Christ. Jesus. Nine times. This is who we have in common. Jesus. Jesus will never divorce you. You've been rejected. You've been divorced. You've been thrown aside. Irreconcilable differences. I don't love you anymore. We got married too young. Oops. A mistake. I found a new model, old model, whatever. Whatever excuse people come up with. Jesus will never divorce us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is faithful and he's called us under fellowship. What's he called us under? Under fellowship. Communion. Those he foreknew, he predestined. Those he predestined, he called. Those he called, he justified. Just as if you've never sinned. You're standing before god as out of a saint, not of an aint. You're holy because he's also glorified you. Completed action a or stands verbs. Jesus said in John seventeen twenty two, the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them that they may be one communion, come into that union, that oneness even as we are one. God's given you his glory. You're a saint. You're holy. God's desire is that you might know him, enjoy him for all eternity. That you know him and enjoy him for all eternity. It never gets old with him. He never gets tired of you. He never makes a whole new creation. Said I'm into these guys now. I'm not you know, that whole that whole thing of transhumanism and all that, I'm tired of that now. I got something else I'm getting into. Do you know him? Are you his saint? You're either a saint or an ape? Which will it be for all eternity? You must decide, you must choose, you must be born again to become one of his saints. What's it mean to be born again? Your body and soul, you need to be body, soul, and spirit. Adam and Eve died. Your federal head, your representatives, they died spiritually. Nicodemus, you must be born again. What's it mean to be born again? You receive Christ into your heart and life. He comes into your heart and life. You're no longer body and soul. You're body, soul, and spirit. The holy spirit comes into your heart and life. You're sealed by the spirit. You're gifted by the spirit. Your name's written in the lamb's book of life. Now you have the faculties, the spiritual faculties to read the bible and understand, to get to know God. Apart from that, the natural man, he understands not the things of God neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. The natural man, body and soul, as much as he tries, Jesus said, he that is eared to hear, let him hear it, can't hear. Doesn't have spiritual ears to hear. What's he talking about? Nicodemus, how can a man that is old go into his mother's womb? Nick, you need to be born born of the water and of the spirit. Born of the water, the water breaking the natural birth, you need the new birth, the life of the spirit. You come by faith, by grace through faith alone. Dependence upon him, reliance upon him. You cry, oh god, be merciful to me a sinner. He hears that prayer. He answers that prayer. You must decide. Jesus said, all that the father gives me shall come to me and him that comes to me, I'll know why he's cast out. You've been elected. You've been enriched, and he wants to establish you. He wants to write your name in the lamb's book of life that you can go from being a sinner to a saint, from an aint to a saint. The saints are elected, enriched, established for all eternity. Why be lost? Why would you choose to be lost? Why be an aint when you can be a saint? Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for your love, Lord. Thank you for the simplicity that's ours in Christ Jesus, the simplicity of Jesus Christ and him crucified for the remission of sins. Lord, we thank you that even on our best day, Lord, our righteousness is filthy rags. Thank you that we don't need to depend upon and rely upon our own performance, our own ability to live a life that's pleasing unto you. Lord, thank you that our life is pleasing because your son's life. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, and our life is hidden Christ, and that you're molding and shaping us into his very image. Lord, as we desire to live like Christ, to be Christians, Lord, we thank you for the empowering of your holy spirit, to yield to the spirit, to be transformed from glory to glory into the image of Christ. As we fail some tests, Lord, we retake it. As we come through some tests, some trials, some difficulty, we grow, we're established, our roots grow deeper onto you. Lord, evermore help us to grow. Help us to grow evermore, Lord, to be like you, to be like Jesus, to be set apart from this world, to be holy. We can't do it without you, Lord. Pour out your holy spirit upon us, empower us as we see in the book of acts. They say silver and gold have we numb, but in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. Lord, we don't wanna be a part of a business, church incorporated. Lord, we want to be a part of the the church, the ecclesia, those that are called out from the world. Lord, you're able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we ask or think according to your power that works in us, Lord. That's what we're holding out for, Lord. A genuine authentic moving and working of your holy spirit in our lives, in our homes, our families, our community, and the world today, People need Jesus. And if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus, Christianity is a relationship, and you want to get to know him, we're giving you an opportunity here now to just lift your hand up. We wanna lead you in a prayer as you pray and you invite Christ in your heart and life as you surrender to his his lordship in your life. You're surrendering yourself. You're submitting to his his call upon your life. He wants to make you a saint. He selected you to be a saint. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up. We can baptize two or three more. No problem. Father, thank you. Thank you for what you're doing in our hearts right now, Lord. Right now, the work of your holy spirit that you're doing in each of our hearts as we approach you with a thankful heart, worshiping you, thanking you, Lord, for saving us. Lord, thank you so much for sending your son. Thank you for saving me, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
