Sermons - Cornerstone Christian Fellowship

What Shall I Do - Part Six

Nov 27, 2022 by: John Herbert | Series: What Shall I Do...

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Ro 6:3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

We will continue today to look at that taught through the picture of baptism.

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Sunday November 27th 2022
What Shall I Do……..
Part 6

1). Re 3:17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

We had seen last time that every Christian, including those of us who are living at the end of this dispensation when the leaven placed in the three measures of meal has almost completed its most damaging work, have had, and still have, the opportunity to hear the Lord’s voice. To have the opportunity for a change of mind concerning our spiritual condition in relation to the coming Kingdom of Christ and receive the wisdom that is brought forth out of God concerning it.
	a). And because, contextually, the Laodicean church is lukewarm with respect to one thing, the Word of the Kingdom, it is the Word of the Kingdom that the Lord continues to speak about from above, and it is this Word of the Kingdom that those who are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, need to hear and change their minds about if they are to produce the fruit necessary to enter the Kingdom. And as we know this is a message that can only be received by those already in possession of spiritual life.
	b). But to hear the Word of the Kingdom, allowing the child training of the Lord to follow, the individual Christian must be separated from the wisdom from below that is earthly, sensual, and demonic. He must be brought forth out of water and the Spirt, as he follows the leading of the Spirit to the land of his inheritance. That which is pictured for us in part through the ordinance of baptism. Something seen in the type of the Red Sea crossing and set in foundation in Day Three of the restoration in Genesis Chapter 1 – Ro 6:3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

Ro 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

And for ourselves over these past weeks, we have seen one major aspect of this separation from the wisdom from below having to do with rightly dividing the word of truth with respect to the Word of the Kingdom as we are led by the Spirit. Searching out those Laodicean leftovers that may still impact our thinking, that may prevent us from correctly understanding the Scripture and therefore finding confusion in the reading of it because we view it apart from a correct perspective – Jas 3:16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.

This verse we know from James Chapter 3, and we know where the wisdom spoken of here comes from, and no doubt we would want to distance ourselves from any idea of self-seeking. But in the Laodicean leftovers, self-seeking can take on a religious façade that we can find an example for at the Lord’s first Advent – Mt 6:5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

What we pray for, and how we pray for it, may well open a window for us to see if we are self-seeking. What do the Scriptures say? – Mt 6:6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

The focus of what has come to be called ‘the model prayer’ or ‘the Lord’s Prayer’, is the Kingdom of the heavens. The focus is that which God has set in place from the beginning, the Seventh Day, and our prayers should be in alignment with God’s purpose with respect to this. Within the Laodicean context though, prayer after this fashion cannot be made as the Kingdom and the Christian’s place in it are not recognized. Rather, prayers within the Laodicean context will likely be in line with being rich and wealthy and having need of nothing – Jas 4:2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

To focus on v3, we see here the Christian whose prayers are not in line with God’s purpose for the Seventh Day, whose prayers consequently fall into the category of self-seeking, prayers made according to his own desires. And as we consider this it would be as well to remember – 
Eph 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

‘We are His workmanship’ and we have been ‘created in Christ Jesus’ within the context of His purpose for the Seventh Day, for ‘good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.’ And God in His omniscience, has invited us to participate with Him in His purpose for the Seventh Day and is presently training sons who have accepted the terms of this invitation, to be the heirs of the Kingdom.
	c). And what we must be clear about in this, is that God has invited us to participate in His plan and purpose, with Him, God is not waiting to be invited to participate in our plans with us – 1 Co 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

Our Lord has paid the price for our redemption. And having bought us, we now belong to Him. And as we consider not only what we have been delivered from by this purchase but more importantly what we have been delivered for, our desire should be total submission to His will and purpose, regardless of the cost to us – Ga 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

What is in our hearts? To please men or to be a bondservant to the One who bought us at a price? Because we can’t do both. And it is interesting to see what those who the Lord selected to write instruction for us in the race of the faith, except for John, record about themselves – Tit 1:1 Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of life for the age which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, 3 but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior;

And let’s note the connection here between being a ‘bondservant’, having ‘hope of life for the age’, and the manifestation ‘of His Word through preaching’, the preaching of the gospel of the glory of Christ, the Word of the Kingdom – Jas 1:1 James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ……

2 Pe 1:1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ…..

Jude 1:1 Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ……..

And accepting the role as Christ’s bondservant was not just for those who wrote the epistles – Col 4:12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

And in Epaphras, the Christian from Colosse, who had heard the Word of the Kingdom, we see not only his commitment to being a bondservant of Christ, but also the focus and the substance of his prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. And in this he labored fervently.

2). Php 2:13 ………for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

It is God who is constantly at work in us to give us both the desire for, and to do, that which is His good pleasure, that which is the purpose for our Christian life, the reason that the one new man in Christ has been called into being – 2 Pe 1:3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And His good pleasure, which we are to do, the reason we are here, is presented in the previous verse from Philippians Chapter 2 – 
Php 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

It is God’s good pleasure that we should ‘work out’ the salvation of our soul ‘in fear and trembling’, so that we should inherit this salvation and the accompanying regal position with Christ in His Kingdom. The Kingdom that is offered to those who produce the fruit of it through the good works that we have been created for, those who will receive the Divine work of the child training of the Lord, as the Lord’s bondservant, to bring about the metamorphosis within them.
	a). And in accordance with working out our own salvation, and in conjunction with what we have learned in the past few weeks, there must not only be a continual separation from the wisdom brought forth from below through receiving and believing the wisdom brought forth from above, but also separation from the place of death, and separation from the Gentile nations, all of which, as we have seen, are interconnected.
	b). In one respect we have already been removed from the place of death as it applies to our eternal destiny, but this is not what is dealt with on Day Three in Genesis Chapter 1 or pictured in the Red Sea crossing as both come after events that describe our eternal deliverance. The place of death then, from which we must be separated, has an inextricable connection to the salvation of the soul. It is that death with respect to the age to come that remains an ever-present possibility and that death with respect to the age to come that we must be separated from. 
c). It is imperative then, for us to realize that our removal from the place of death deals with matters beyond our eternal deliverance, dealing instead with something that is to be the continual and consistent practice for the one who is already saved, if he is to enter the Kingdom of the heavens. We are to choose continually and consistently to keep the old man underneath the waters which are below, in the place of death in a figurative sense, by dying to self. By not being self-seeking but being a bondservant of Christ – Col 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. 5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. 8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him……..

Ro 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

And as the old man is kept in the place of death through putting to death the deeds of the body by the power of the Spirit through the Word of the Kingdom, so the new man, who receives the wisdom from above, can grow with respect to the salvation of the soul and be fruitful – 1 Pe 2:1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

‘The pure milk of the word’ in these verses should not be confused with that which is not the meat of the Word, described as milk, seen in Hebrews Chapter 5. Rather the pure milk in 1 Peter is the unadulterated Word of the Kingdom, that which has not been tainted by the leaven. And according to these verses in Peter, it is the ‘pure milk’, the unadulterated Word of the Kingdom, that is the only means by which we can attain the spiritual growth necessary to lead to the salvation of our souls. 
d). The ‘pure milk of the word’ in Peter then, is synonymous with the ‘implanted word’ in James – Jas 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

And I am sure we will note the way 1 Peter Chapter 2 begins and the way James 1:21 begins. They are the same. Leading to the same end-result. And with that end-result in view, we know what the next verse in James tells us – Jas 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Now, although this verse has a broad application for us with respect to all that the Scriptures say about how the Kingdom seeking Christian is to live, let’s apply it here for the moment, to the final part of that pictured through baptism, separation from the Gentile nations.
	e). We know by now, that at the time of our spirit salvation we became part of the one new man in Christ, a new creation, part of a unique division in the human-race that is neither Jew nor Gentile – Ga 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. 16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

Not only then, are we to receive and believe that we are a new creation in Christ that is neither Jew nor Gentile but we are also to ‘walk according to this rule’, to organize our lives then, from the standpoint that our perception of our position in the world can no longer the same as it was previously – Col 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

We are to receive and understand that our allegiance has now changed. We are no longer a part of the kingdom of this world under the power of darkness, we look instead to a heavenly Kingdom and the light that has shone into that darkness – Eph 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light………

Although we remain in the world, physically within the kingdom of this world controlled by the rulers of the darkness of this present age, we are not of the world – Php 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ……..

It is interesting to note in this verse that the wisdom brought forth from above of ‘our citizenship…in heaven’ is intimately connected to eagerly waiting ‘for the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Could we say then that we cannot eagerly wait for the Savior unless we have had the revelation of where our citizenship really is?
	f). We will call to mind those individuals we have seen in Hebrews Chapter 11 – Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

And as we look at these verses, we can clearly see why these individuals confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, it was the faith they had in the promises they had been given, promises that they had seen ‘afar off’, promises they ‘were assured of’, promises they had ‘embraced’, promises that had separated them from the countries in which they lived. Such great and precious promises that dispelled any thought of return. And a return to the country from which they came out is not just about a physical journey, but a spiritual abdication of rulership pictured in Orpah – Ru 1:15 And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods…..

To look to the Gentile country in which we live as ‘our country’ and to be concerned over which political party over another would be best for ‘our country’, means that we have never left or that we have taken the opportunity to return, and such a mindset would place that individual in the third part of the Parable of the Sower, being overcome by the cares of this world. The Governance of every Gentile nation, every nation that is not Israel, comes under the jurisdiction of the god of this age. And because of this, that governance falls outside the remit of our heavenly citizenship, outside of the scope of our calling and is antithetical to seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness.
	g). A part of the Laodicean leftovers may be to still see the country in which we live as a Christian country, but such is not possible. Every country, apart from Israel, is a Gentile country, and the number of Christians found in that country cannot alter what it is. Those Christians in that country, no matter how numerous they may be, now have a different citizenship. They are part of the ‘new nation’ that is to find its homeland in the heavenly country. The heavenly country is the only country that we have and the country we should desire more than anything else.
	h). And we find ourselves today scattered among the Gentile nations in much the same ways as the Jews are. And as the Jews will be, the Day is coming when we will be physically separated from the nations in which we live to Christ’s Judgment Seat, at which time, those who have separated themselves spiritually from those nations in which they live will gain access to the country of their citizenship and those who have not made that separation will, like Lot’s wife, be consumed along with the nation upon which their focus was set.
	i). On the one hand, we are during this time to be like David’s four hundred men – 1 Sa 22:1 David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.

We are to gather ourselves together with Christ, separating ourselves from the kingdom of this world, comprised of the Gentile nations and to wait for the Day when Satan will be removed, and Gentile world power overthrown, and Christ and His co-heirs will take the Kingdom – 
Re 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”

On the one hand we are to wait, and on the other hand, we are to make the three days journey, not allowing our enemy to stop us – Ex 8:27 We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as He will command us.” 28 So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away…..

As with the Jews, our enemy does not want us to make the separation pictured through the three days journey, that seen in the fourth part of the Parable of the Sower and the fruit production of the Third Day I Genesis Chapter 1. He is quite happy for us to ‘sacrifice to the Lord your God’, providing it’s done within his jurisdiction. Providing we don’t make the separation and wholeheartedly embrace out heavenly citizenship. As always of course it remains our choice.

We will continue with this next time if we remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed.

What Shall I Do - Part Six

Refresh A Recap from the Sermon

What Shall I Do - Part Six

Nov 27, 2022

Speaker: John Herbert

Series: What Shall I Do...

Category: Sunday Morning

Refresh
A Recap from the Sermon