Well, uh, this evening I asked Brother Alan
Martin to share.
If you would, I guess maybe I could
pray here.
I just thank the Lord.
You know, I've been blessed all day long
to be fellowshipping with many of you, and
we serve a wonderful, wonderful God.
Father, we love you tonight.
Thank you for Jesus.
We know that apart from you, we can
do nothing.
Teach us the truth of your word, Lord,
that we have not yet resisted sin, we
have not yet resisted this world, we have
not yet resisted the devil to the point
of shedding our own blood, at least most
of us here.
Pray, Father, that you just shed abroad your
love in our hearts tonight.
Give us a greater revelation of your love,
and teach us to love.
Father, teach us to be patient in affliction,
to be joyful in trials.
Help us to look, look toward Jesus so
that the things of this world will grow
so strangely, strangely dim.
We love you, Father.
Thank you so much for allowing us to
gather here and for bringing those whom you
will bring here, Lord.
We thank you.
Pray that you bless Brother Alan.
Give him words to share.
Give us ears to hear.
And we want to be changed, Father.
We want to be changed with ever-increasing
glory into the image of your Son, the
Lord Jesus.
It's in His name we pray.
Amen.
Well, I kind of feel like one of
the disciples coming back from the road to
Emmaus.
Hopefully what I share with you tonight is
just what it took someone foolish of heart
and slow to believe to hear, but yet
I really truly believe that the Lord has
opened my eyes to this.
And I believe it's been despite myself.
It's been despite my own efforts and despite
my own striving to know it.
I still find myself hearing of Christ's resurrection
and bitterly disappointed at times, you know, seasons
of my life.
But the Lord has been faithful to come
alongside me even when I didn't recognize Him.
And speak to me and open the Scriptures
to me.
And I didn't even realize it, you know,
what His mysterious work at times.
And then hopefully how it relates to you
and I is hopefully I'll be coming like
running back excited to share with something you've
already seen.
But if that's the case, praise the Lord.
Then it'll be confirmation to you.
But it goes along with what was on
Jason's heart this morning about unity.
You know, believing that Christ desires to be
glorified in the church and that through the
unity of the Spirit that we strive to
preserve.
And I think we should know the Scripture
says, what Paul says, that what is going
to bring about the unity of the body
of Christ?
Till we all come to the unity of
the faith and the full knowledge of the
Son of God, becoming mature, attaining to the
whole stature of Christ.
What's going to bring us about?
Let's read in Ephesians chapter 4.
There's a movement, brothers, I think we need
to be careful of that perhaps myself being
one, a bad leader, I can say that.
Perhaps my own failings as one who's tried
to lead has caused others to not believe
we need leadership in the church, that all
the brothers are equal.
But if we believe what Paul says, speaking
by the Spirit of God, look here in
Ephesians chapter 4, and look at how he
says the unity of the body of Christ
is going to be brought about.
Verse 11 of chapter 4, And he himself
gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the
equipping of the saints, for the work of
ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ, till we all come to the unity
of the faith and the knowledge of the
Son of God, unto a perfect man to
the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ, that we should no longer be
infants.
And if anything is upon the heart of
God, I believe, it would be that among
all of us, there would be no longer
any infants.
Because if the church is going to achieve
unity in the Spirit, it's going to be
from mature saints, that by the grace of
God have grown up into the fullness of
the stature of Christ.
And from my own failure, my afflictions caused
by my own self-created difficulties, my own
failure to understand, I've received comfort.
And so I can say, Praise be to
the God of comfort who comforts us in
all of our afflictions, so that why we
may comfort others with the comfort we ourselves
have received.
So this is my comfort.
I just want to share with you my
comfort, and it has to do with why
I was continually having strife and division in
my own life and relationships.
This was the comfort to me, and since
these things have begun to be shown me,
I see in part, I know in part,
so I'm going to confess right up front,
I'm only going to tell you part of
the truth.
That's all I know.
There's no way I can tell you it
all.
But this part has been enough to bless
me.
You know, Jesus said about faith, if you
have faith, a grain of what?
The mustard seed.
That would be enough to move a mountain.
So if I can give you enough faith,
if by the grace of God that's working
in me, like Paul said, he said he
longed to see the Thessalonians, that he might
supply unto them that which was lacking in
their faith.
If you receive faith in this area, of
striving to walk towards the unity of the
Spirit and the bond of peace, then I
will rejoice in the grace of God, and
it will help me, knowing that He's not
chosen to stick me on the shelf, that
He has been very longsuffering and patient with
me.
And this is kind of where it began
for me.
If you'll turn with me to 1 Corinthians
4, starting
in verse 6.
Now these things, brethren, I've figuratively transferred to
myself and Apollos for your sakes.
And of course the things he's talking about,
he's talked from chapters 1 to this point
of 1 Corinthians.
And here's the reason he's applied them to
himself and Apollos.
He says, so that you may learn something
in us.
See, they were having problems, and they needed
to learn something in order for their problems
to be resolved.
Well, the problems they were having was division
and immaturity.
And so he's going to address what it's
going to take to solve these problems.
So that you may learn, first of all,
it says in verse 6, not to think
beyond what's written.
And secondly, and more importantly what applied to
me, that none of you may be puffed
up on behalf of one against another.
And then it's verse 7 that struck me
when it hit me just this way, for
who makes you differ from another?
And what do you have that you did
not receive?
What first hit me is I didn't realize
something.
I stumbled many times and for many years
in the thought that what I had made
me different.
The knowledge I had.
The scriptures I had.
The standards I had.
The convictions I had.
The what's deceived me.
Because Paul clearly says here, who makes you
different?
And what do you have that ye did
not receive?
And if you received it, why do you
boast as though you did not?
What is the danger of thinking you have
something because of what you've done, what you've
studied, how you've prayed, the stances you have
taken?
What happens?
Ye become puffed up.
One over against another.
I'm a follower of Brother Jason.
You can say that.
If I agree with what Jason agrees, obviously
he's studied as hard as I have.
Obviously he's read the scriptures as much as
I see.
If you think that way, you are carnal.
If you think you know what you know
by your own discipline and diligence, ye are
carnal.
That's carnality.
Not one of us here would pray apart
from the grace of God.
Not one of us here would have a
heart to study the scriptures apart from the
grace of God.
All we like sheep have gone astray, and
each of us has turned to our own
way.
And God has placed upon him the sin
of us all.
And in order for there to be unity
in the church, first of all, something is
going to have to happen in the hearts
of all the believers.
And what's going to have to happen is
they are going to have to awaken to
the reality of the grace of God.
That it is Christ that makes us different.
Not convictions.
It's Christ that makes us different.
That is why 1 Corinthians is what it
says.
Especially chapters 1, 2, and 3.
Look back with me.
Look in chapter 3.
And I, brothers, was not able to speak
to you as spiritual people, but as to
carnal.
As to mere infants in Christ, I gave
you milk.
Indeed, not solid food, for you weren't ready
to receive it.
Even now you're still not.
For are you not still carnal for where
there are envy, where there are strife, where
there are divisions among you?
Are not you carnal and behaving like mere
men?
For when one says, I am of Paul,
and another says, I am of Apollos, are
you not carnal?
What is carnal about thinking, well, I'm a
follower of Paul.
I agree with Paul.
What's carnal about that is not realizing it's
one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one God,
one Spirit working through whatever messenger He chooses.
The messenger is nothing.
It is the Spirit.
If truth comes through a man, it is
by the grace of God and the Spirit
of God.
And the messenger is nothing.
So Paul says, so then, brethren, no more
boasting about men.
And then he says how he himself should
be regarded.
Look in chapter 4, verse 1.
Let a man so consider us.
He's talking about those in leadership.
Let a man so consider us as servants
of Christ and stewards of the mystery of
God.
What is a steward?
A steward is something given responsibility with something
not his.
This truth is not mine.
The words of truth are not ours.
It didn't come from the steward.
It was given to him by the owner.
God is truth.
God is revelation.
And when He gives it to a man,
the man is merely a steward of that
truth.
And he should hold it that way in
a humble position.
And Paul uses a word here, our English
does not do justice to men ought to
regard us as servant of Christ.
Most of the time in the New Testament,
servant is doulos.
But this time it's huperatus, an under rower.
When the Greeks had their ships and the
Romans had their ships, they had three rows
of men rowing an oar.
And this is all they did.
Heave, ho, heave, ho.
It doesn't take a lot to do that.
And you don't even get credit for choosing
your own timing to do it.
When someone is standing there telling you, pull,
back, pull, back, pull.
All you're doing is simply following instructions.
And Paul is saying, until we come to
this place where we so see Christ as
being everything.
And giving His knowledge to men.
As a steward, just to pass on to
His people.
And no one regards any man as anything.
So you don't run across the country for
a man.
If God is with a man, it's so
rare these days we do tend to do
this.
We do tend to run because the word
of the Lord is so rare these days.
But it is the Lord, not the man.
What happens?
What happens when we fail to see the
revelation that it is God Himself that gives
all wisdom and is all wisdom and it
only comes by His grace?
It does not come by our study.
It does not come by our diligence.
Because, back up in Corinthians again, just a
little bit to chapter 3, verse 18.
Let no one deceive himself.
By how?
If anyone among you seems to be wise
in this age, let him become a fool
that he may become wise.
What's he meaning by that?
And he goes on to say, For the
wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,
for it is written, He catches the wise
in their own craftiness.
And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of
the wise if they are futile.
Not many were called noble, were they?
Not many were called wise.
Why is this?
Why, if you consider yourself wise in the
eyes of this world or in this age,
should you become a fool?
How do men become wise in this age?
Study.
Study, diligence, discipline.
They read, they read, they read, they memorize,
they organize, they put it in.
And if that's what we think produces wisdom,
we are carnal.
For the Lord giveth wisdom.
And you know, I didn't know that.
I thought to be a man of God,
you just need to study.
And I'm not saying I don't study.
Don't hear that.
But I can fill the jars with water.
I can fill a thousand of them.
I can't turn one into wine.
There is no way any amount of our
study will produce revelation.
No amount of our prayer will produce eternal
life and minister a life-giving spirit to
the body of Christ.
And if we're not careful, and what has
happened is when we attain unto knowledge, something
happens.
What did it say when we first read
here?
So that ye may not become puffed up.
We should all know that word.
Where does that word come from?
Especially brothers and sisters here that would probably
study the Scripture.
What puffs up?
Can you look at your own spiritual life?
Can you see when most of the problems
begin?
When in your excitement and your study, you
begin to have your eyes awaken to how
bad the church was?
How ignorant they were?
How bad the system was?
And you discover this wrong, and this wrong,
and this wrong, and this wrong.
Because you were reading your word, and you
were seeing these Scriptures, and all these ignorant
people were around you, and insincere people.
And the more you grew in your knowledge,
the more puffed up you became in your
head.
That's why Paul said, Let not a novice
be put into a position of authority, lest...
What happened?
Lest, becoming conceited, he fall into the same
condemnation of the devil.
See, it takes a while, I guess, by
the grace of God.
For someone to realize that it is the
grace of God at work in them that
is giving them a hunger and a desire
to know the Father through Jesus Christ.
It is not of themselves, it does not
come from themselves.
It is the mercy of God at work.
And if we were ignorant, didn't Titus tell
us to think this way?
For we too were what?
Foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved, living in malice and
envy, hating and being hated of one another.
But when the kindness and mercy of God
appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous
things we had done, but because of His
own mercy and grace.
And yet we forget this, when we begin
to grow in knowledge, we begin to think
we grow in wisdom by our study.
And when this happens, we eclipse the grace
of God and we begin to boast in
men, as we boast in knowledge.
Look in Colossians, you'll see this in Colossians
2.
I'm so weak in my own natural self,
I forget things, so I have some reminders
up here for me.
But in Colossians 2, verse 18, it
says, Let no one cheat you of your
reward, taking delight in false humility and worship
of angels, intruding into those things which he
has not seen.
What's he vainly puffed up in?
His carnal mind.
The carnal mind is simply the mind of
the man who thinks he's discovering all these
things by his study.
And what is he glory in?
He begins to glory in the new things
he's discovered.
And he begins to preach these new things.
And you know what they become?
The Greek word is they become seekings, disputes.
What they do is they become things that
you just need to know.
Now that I've discovered this for myself, you
just need it.
And you begin to share these things, and
what they do is they are not the
things that lead to peace and mutual edification.
They are not the things, as the Apostle
Paul learned, what did Apostle Paul say?
I have resolved to know one thing.
What's that?
Christ.
And Him crucified.
You see, Paul was a safe person to
be given this revelation to for a reason.
Why was Paul a safe person to be
given these great mysteries to?
Because he knew, he knew he himself was
a persecutor, a blasphemer, and a violent man.
And he knew when the Lord Jesus Christ
appeared to him and gave him a revelation,
it had absolutely nothing to do with his
worthiness.
Instead, he says what it had to do
with, look in 1 Thessalonians, or 1 Timothy,
chapter 1, he tells Timothy what it had
to do with, verse
16, I'll read verse 15 with it.
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of
all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief.
However, for this reason I obtain mercy, that
in me Jesus Christ might show, what?
All longsuffering, as a pattern to those who
are going to believe on Him for eternal
life.
It's amazing what happens when we lose sight
that it is the longsuffering of God, and
the grace of God, and the mercy of
God that we know anything.
We suddenly start acting and believing like the
first time we communicate, or the first or
second time we communicate truth with someone, they
should wake up, hear it, if they have
a sincere heart.
Were we, were any of us really that
way?
None of us were.
And for maturity to happen in the body
of Christ, we're going to have to mature
in longsuffering, forbearance.
Charity suffereth, what?
Long.
And if we listen to the Apostle Peter,
what he has told us, he says, the
Greek would say, fix it in your mind
that it is the longsuffering of God that
leadeth unto salvation.
The longsuffering of God means salvation for us.
But if we forgot this, would this scare
us?
Do we show contempt for the riches of
God's longsuffering and patience?
Look in Romans.
Are we afraid to look at this?
I had to look at this in my
own life.
Romans chapter 2, I'll
read verse 2.
But we know that the judgment of God
is according to truth against those who practice
such things.
God is just to judge men for such
things.
And do not think this, O man, that
you who judge those practicing such things and
doing the same, that you will escape the
judgment of God.
Or do you despise the riches of His
goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the
goodness of God leads you to repentance?
I'm assuming, as probably all of you would,
that the Gospel, the book of Romans, the
letter of Romans was written to believers.
So is Paul saying that it is the
goodness of God, the kindness of God, that
leads us to repentance?
If you seek this revelation from the Lord,
and one of the reasons it caused me
to go seek this is the words of
Christ struck me so wonderfully.
But first go and learn.
Do you remember that statement?
But first go and learn.
That's what Jesus said when He was questioned
about the fact that He was eating with
probably those who repented at John's preaching, some
of the publicans and Pharisees and tax gatherers.
I believe they had repented at the teaching
of John, and they were there to listen
to Jesus.
But the Pharisees and the Sadducees could not
see Christ with these people, and they struggled
with it.
Why is He interacting with them?
And He said, first go and learn.
Do you remember what He said?
First go and learn.
I desire mercy.
You see, God will judge.
But why would He say, go and first
learn, I desire mercy?
Because He will judge, but He'll take no
delight in it.
He will judge the world.
And all the ungodly and all the wicked
and all the sinners will be destroyed.
All who refuse to come to Christ will
be destroyed.
But it will not be His desire.
He desires mercy.
And if we have not learned, He takes
no pleasure in judgment.
How much pleasure can He take when you
separate yourself from someone and you have not
learned?
He desires mercy.
And how is God in this?
Have we really learned the Father in this
way?
Without compromising at all, look in Luke 6.
Without compromising at all, look at how our
Father is.
And we want to be conformed to His
image.
Luke 6, verse
32.
And if you love the ones loving you,
what credit is that to you?
For sinners love the ones loving them.
If you do good to the ones doing
good to you, what credit is that?
Do not sinners do the same?
And if you lend to those from whom
you hope to receive it back, what credit
is that to you?
For sinners, do sinners lend so that they
may receive the same things again?
Love your enemies.
Do good and lend nothing, hoping to receive
back nothing in return.
And great will be your reward.
And ye shall be sons, mature ones, of
the Most High.
Because how is He?
Look how He is to the unthankful, the
ungrateful and the wicked.
How is He?
Hmm?
He's kind.
God is kind to the wicked and the
ungrateful.
So evidently, it does not disturb Him at
all, though He regards them as wicked, though
He is angry with the wicked every day,
and though that those who do not have
the Son, they have not life, and that
the wrath of God abideth on them presently,
those upon whom His wrath is abiding, those
whom He considers wicked and disobedient, deceived and
foolish, He is kind to every day.
And He causes the sun to shine upon
them.
And He causes the rain to shine upon
them.
And He actually, it says this in His
Word, what does it say about Israel?
What did He do to a disobedient and
obstinate people?
What did He do?
All day long, He didn't tire Him to
hold out His hand.
All day long, to stubborn and disobedient people,
God is willing to hold out His hand.
Isn't that awesome?
It doesn't disturb heaven.
It doesn't take away, He doesn't compromise an
ounce of His holiness or His character.
He doesn't change one bit of His Word.
But He shows Himself blameless in His kindness.
His tender mercies is over all His works.
And if we want to walk worthy, if
we want to walk worthy of the calling
we have received, what did Paul tell us?
What were the first things on his list?
He said, I urge you, brothers, to walk
worthy of the calling you have received.
And if you know the Scripture well, and
I know I'm sure many of you know
the Scripture well, it should be conspicuous what
is absent from the first of the list.
For He did not begin with, I urge
you to live worthy of the Lord in
all holiness.
Not on the list.
Neither is righteousness on the list first.
In all lowliness.
The first thing on the list to walk
in worthy of the Lord is to be
lowly.
Is to think nothing of yourself.
Is to realize I've learned nothing but what
the grace of God has not enabled me
to learn.
I've received nothing but what the grace of
God has given me.
I know nothing of myself.
I have nothing of myself.
This must be learned.
Because what comes to the lowly?
Grace is given.
Why are we wrestling sometimes without the grace
of God?
Because when the grace of God is abounding
in a life, joy is abounding, peace is
abounding, freedom is abounding.
There's no more strife.
It takes two to strive.
And if you don't strive, it's not possible.
When the grace of God is in your
heart, you're cursed, you're blessed.
James made it very clear to us.
With our mouths, who do we bless?
And with our mouths, who do we curse?
The word for curse is speak against.
Whom?
And what do they follow that by?
Brethren, this ought not be.
How can out of the same mouth come
blessing and cursing?
The same spring cannot produce fresh and bitter
water.
But see, law has no problem gendering strife.
Because law rewards men according to their what?
Deeds.
And so if they don't study, you can
treat them like they're ignorant.
You can speak evil of them.
Not a person full of the grace of
God.
What Isaiah said, how will our healing quickly
appear?
One of the ways he said your healing
will quickly appear is when you put away
the pointing of the finger and malicious talk.
Isn't that what it says?
How many of you would see good life?
Psalms 34.
Whoever of you would love life and desire
to see good days, keep his tongue from
evil and his lips from deceitful speech or
strife.
Let him turn from evil and do good.
And then what does it say?
Let him seek peace and pursue it.
Why is it when we hear this verse
quoted from Hebrews, without this, no man shall
see the Lord.
What's the this?
That's why every man quotes it.
And that's not the verse.
That's not the verse.
It says pursue peace with all men and
holiness.
Holiness is second.
Pursue peace with all men and holiness.
Without which?
No man shall see the Lord.
We're quick to say no one's going to
see God without holiness.
Why don't we put it upon all of
ourselves without peace?
No one shall see the Lord.
The Prince of Peace.
He came and preached peace.
And it didn't bother Him at all to
preach peace to wicked, stubborn, deceitful, disobedient, foolish
men.
His message was peace.
Because when He came, He said, for God
sent His Son into the world not to
condemn the world, but that the world through
Him might be saved.
Look what it says in 2 Corinthians 5.
It says, for God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to Himself.
And it goes on to say, not imputing
their sins against them.
That's the key.
No one sees sin more clearly than Christ.
But He did not come to count men's
sins against them.
And we had better all be grateful He
didn't.
In the word there is legitimized.
He did not impute.
The same word is imputed righteousness.
And it was credited to Him as righteousness.
He did not credit our sins against us.
And that's what it says in 1 Corinthians
13.
The same word.
Love does not impute a wrong suffered.
It doesn't even take it into account.
Can you see why it says this?
Look in Colossians 3.
Verse 12.
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and
beloved, put on compassion, kindness,
humility, meekness, and longsuffering, forbearing with one another
and forgiving yourselves, if anyone has anything against
anyone, just as Christ forgave you, so also...
What?
You forget?
That's one of the reasons division is in
the church.
Because we have not been clothed with.
We have not put on the bowels of
compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing with one
another.
Particularly in this way.
This is one of the areas I feel
I fail so miserably.
But look in Matthew.
And you've heard this.
This is not new to you.
I know it's not new to you.
But still, may the Lord make it real
to us tonight.
Matthew 11.
Verse 28.
It's interesting that this follows his pronouncement of
woes and unrepentant cities.
That was always the most interesting part to
me that he was pronouncing his woes on
the unrepentant cities.
I like verses 20 through 24.
I knew them real well.
I didn't know this very well.
Verse 28 of chapter 11.
Come unto Me, all ye who are weary
and heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn of
Me.
And what do you learn?
When you really learn Christ, if you are
really going to learn Christ, why did the
Sovereign Son of God name these two things
about Himself that you're going to learn?
Learn of Me.
For I am, first of all, meek.
And second of all, I am lowly.
It's very difficult to get someone who is
walking in the meekness of Christ and in
the lowliness of Christ into an argument.
He'd rather be wronged.
He knows that God must grant repentance.
And he remembers how stubborn, how foolish, how
disobedient he was for how long.
And like Paul told Timothy, the servant of
the Lord must not quarrel, strive.
It's logos machia.
He must not word fight.
Word fighting is putting faith in your words
as if God needed your mouth for anything.
God may use us as messengers, but what
you need is not the knowledge my puffed
-up mind has come with.
Instead, He must be kind to all in
meekness.
In meekness instructing.
I've just done so poorly at this.
I've just not known the lowliness of Christ.
And I know that the Lord has given
me His mercy so that I can share
through confession.
And they overcame Him by the blood of
the Lamb and the word of their testimony.
Well, I want to tell you what the
Lord has done for me in His mercy.
He's shown me that I did not know
lowliness of mind.
You see, it says in Proverbs, Brother John,
help me know this.
When pride cometh, then cometh shame.
But with the lowly is wisdom.
And when God says who is the man
that He esteems, who is esteemed in God's
eyes?
He that is of a broken and contrite
heart and who trembles at the Word of
God.
I think maybe we have the wrong view
sometimes of how the prophets were.
I don't believe that it took aggressive men
to speak the Word of God.
I believe that when your faith is in
Christ and you know that He must grant
repentance, if repentance is going to be received
by anybody, you can keep yourself as simply
a witness and not a lawyer.
What does a lawyer do?
A lawyer uses words to try to convince
people of the truth.
A witness just simply testifies to what he
has seen and heard.
I want to learn to be a witness
myself.
It says something about the virtuous woman.
It says it in the King James.
And may we learn it if we want
to be the kind of crown to our
Lord Christ, the kind of bride that He's
worthy of.
What does it say about the mouth of
a virtuous woman?
The law of kindness is in her mouth.
And oh, that we would have the law
of kindness, brothers, in our mouth.
Yes, the truth of it is the world
is walking in wickedness.
Rebellion, sin, self-deceived, ignorant.
It's true.
But what does that have to do with
us except an opportunity to seek redemption, to
stand in the gap and plead for their
souls?
And so I just want to encourage you.
Look at our Apostle Paul, and I'm done.
Acts 20.
Verse 19.
I'll go ahead and read from verse 17
so we don't come right in the middle
of a sentence.
And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and
called for the elders of the church.
And when they had come to him, he
said to them, you know, from the first
day that I came to Asia, in what
manner I have always lived among you.
And look what he puts first.
Serving the Lord with all lowliness.
May we learn this.
May God in His great mercy mature us
in this area.