Mystery of the Church, No. 50

Colossians 1:25-29

COL-235

1 Timothy 3:16: "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work."

I Corinthians 2:9-10: "But just as it is written things which eye has not seen, an ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him. For to us God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God."

Romans 15:4: "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction that through perseverance and encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope."

"The Mystery of the Church", segment number 50, Colossians 1:25-29.

We have been learning that being a mature Christian spiritually is determined by the quality of one's personal holiness. That's why a person can attend Church for years and years and never become spiritually mature because he never makes progress in the realm of separation from the world unto God.

That is not an easy thing to do and yet it is a fundamental calling of the Christian and his whole local Church is designed just for that. There's no other purpose for a local Church except to help people to finally make that transition from the world system into the holiness of the God system. Holiness is separation from the world's way of life unto God's lifestyle as portrayed in scripture. This is a deliberate life choice to turn from evil and flee to God and what Christian maturity is all about. That's it. Fleeing from evil and turning to God that's Christian maturity. And we all choose to imitate Satan or God our Father, in our dress, in our morals, in our goals, in our speech, in our focus on heaven or on the things on earth.

This is a choice and the world has nothing to offer us but to degrade us. I'm have an article by Cal Thomas, Christian newsman, commentator, syndicated writer, and a solid Christian wrote an article entitled 'For the Spice Girls there's nothing Sugar or Nice'. He says, people looking for causes of the cultural decline, including why girls are engaging in sexual activity at every younger ages might wish to consider the Spice Girls. At a recent Washington area appearance of the four, formerly five women, a near capacity crowd including mostly female children, some as young as four dressed up in leopard print miniskirts, platform shoes, midriff bearing tops and hairdos that emulated the performers on stage. The stage names even the real names of the Spice Girls are less important than the messages they send to the mostly prepubic audience. Even more disturbing is what is going in the minds of the parents and other relatives who take them to the concerts.

I called my 13-year-old granddaughter to see what she thinks of the Spice Girls. I don't like them, she said because of the way they dress, and I hear how they behave off stage. Suddenly the cost of a private school and benefit of parents who provide direction and don't let her follow whatever her glands might appear is paying off. One of this minimally talented group's popular songs is called Naked. The women sit behind four chairs and perform in a way that suggests they're wearing no clothes. Do parents think that is cute? Other songs such as Do It and Two Become One, have sexual overtones. Still others such as Sisters are doing it for Themselves, have feminist connotations. A Washington Post story on the group's appearance mentions 20-year-old Lisa Pillow who apparently suffers from acute maturation disorder. She calls herself Kitty Spice and is dressed in baby blue fur panties and matching cropped top while white fishnet pantyhose and a white marabou boa.

She has brought her five-year-old niece who is similarly dressed to the affair. Reporter says Pillow's outfit might be cute if she were 10, but on the 20-year-old one can't help think Centerfold, Centerfold, do you have a coat? Someone should have arrested this woman for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Spice Girls are a long way from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and similar wholesome entertainment available for people of this age group when I was a child. But then our generation mostly stayed together in families. Only one parent worked outside the home. Drugs were bought at the local pharmacy with a doctor's prescription and sex was too private to be talked about outside the locker room where more fiction in fact was told. Also attending the performance where an assortment of drag queens and other adults adorn in various costumes so that an uninformed observer might take the event for a Halloween party.

How did parents explain that? One writer said that adults transformed the Spice Girls from earnest representatives of young girls needs to feel powerful, appreciated, and cool into high camp. I don't know about the powerful and cool parts, but children used to count on appreciation coming from their parents. Apparently this is another privilege that has been seated to culture and daycare workers because two income households no longer have time and lack the moral authority to properly train their children. We interestingly teach young girls to adopt the culture's image of what they should be. Judging themselves by their level of coolness, attractiveness, and abilities to sexually manipulate boys. Parents who are co-conspirators in this cultural rape of their daughters ought to be ashamed of themselves. But they obviously have no shame, or they wouldn't take their kids to see the Spice Girls.

Too many parents have surrendered their child rearing responsibilities. They think that having a pouty face and a bad attitude are the worst things that can happen to their daughters. They aren't. Out of wedlock pregnancies, STDs, and broken homes are far worse. Parents who take their young daughters to see such things as the Spice Girls are accessories to eroding their daughter's innocence in complicity with the sex educators in many of the government schools. Girls are being herded at earlier ages into attitudes and practices far from sugar and spice and everything nice we used to think or at least wished that little girls were made of.

That's a grim picture of the society's world. And even among Christians, we have an uphill fight with parents saying, don't let your daughters and sons follow the customs, the practices of the world system. Don't let them be premature. That is a problem. Parents are just itching to have their teenage kids take on having boyfriends and girlfriends. Having a steady dating teenage children. The dangerous territory of dating. Parents just can't keep themselves from wanting to see that the kids go on as fast as they can to things that they're not ready to cope with. Self-destruction seems to be the desire. Well, we're talking about holiness. None of that is holy. None of this is holy. This is all unholy and the world because it is designed by Satan the great liar has nothing but unholy things to tell us in unholy ways to teach us. Mature Christians we have seen are characterized by certain features of holiness.

They obey God's moral laws. That's being holy. They're true to their marriage vows till death. That's being holy. They do not serve the Lord's interests ahead of God's service. That's holiness. They're occupied with Christ so that they can live the will of God. That's holiness. They rear their children with a mother in the home and the father in employment. That's holiness. There are some other ways that the Bible spells out for us that constitute holiness.

Point number one this morning the Holy Christian acts as a faithful steward of God's money which God has placed under his care. This is a very tough one for most Christians. It takes a great deal of maturity spiritually to handle your prosperity as a good steward of the living God. Some Christians never make it. This is the quality of holiness they never achieve. Their interest is always not how much I can give God, how generous I can give God to the Lord's work, but how much I can give so that I pay my vow and do my duty and I can have the rest for myself.

That's Old Testament stuff folks. That's not New Testament stewardship. I Corinthians 16:1-2 says, "Now concerning the collection for the saints as I directed the Churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week that is a Sunday, let every one of you put aside and save as he may prosper that no collection may be made when I come." In this context, Paul was taking up a special offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem and he was telling the Christians he's going to take that money to Jerusalem himself personally and every Sunday when they bring their offerings there to give part of it to this collection as God may lead them. But the principle was every week you give to God. Now you don't actually have to literally give it every week, it means that from your income on a regular basis, God is treated as your master and you ask him from week to week, this is what I now have. What needs to be done? What do you want me to do?

I Timothy 6:17-19, "Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future so that they may take whole of that which is life indeed." My son Steven and his family, were talking about people being rich or being poor. My granddaughter Rachel had been on a tour to Latin America in Christian groups, helping Christian groups and Churches there. And she saw what poverty is. She saw what people had to live with, how astoundingly different that is from the normal American lifestyle. And my grandson Jordan interrupted the conversation and said, are we rich in our family? Are we rich? And Rachel said, oh Jordan, I can tell you we're rich. And yet we have Americans who talk about being poor. The poorest American is nothing like what the poor people of other countries are. And we have Americans who treat themselves as if they were poor when they've got everything in the world they could give to God.

Now the world's religious systems, they do it. They don't hold back. And the heretical Christian groups, they don't hold back. You never have to encourage charismatics to give money. They can't wait to give it right down to the last dollar if necessary. Instruct those who are rich in this present world that includes all of us not to be conceited. Oh, I've got the money, all is well with me. No it isn't. One of the neighbors on our block died last week and periodically I've been seeing trucks pull up to the house three times now. One truck after another, things are being moved out, the person is gone, whatever was left is now being taken off. Somebody else will have it. Somebody else will become the beneficiaries of that. And I must ask in my own heart, how are things with that lady today? How much hope did we fix? How much hope did she fix on that wonderful house full of all those wonderful riches?

But that's not the question. How rich are we with God who supplies us with all things to enjoy and instructs them to do good, to be rich in good works. How can I be doing good? How can I be rich in good works? That's what's going to count in heaven to be generous and ready to share. That's the only way you get rich is by giving things that God has given you to hold in his behalf as the need comes up. When the need is there, and you have it now you know what to do. Why is this good? Because you'll store for yourselves your treasures with a good foundation for the future so that you can take hold what life is indeed. What life's going to be.

Life is going to be at the Judgement seat of Christ and God saying this is what you did good and faithful servant here is your reward. Take a look at this. And those of you who have considered yourselves not how much you had to give but how much you could give your eyes are going to be bulging with your amazement as what you'll have to enjoy your eternity with. In other others will say, I wish somebody had taught me how this works and what is really involved in being rich. Hebrews 13:5-6 on this principle of holiness says, "Let your character be free from the love of money being content with what you have. For He himself has said, I will never desert you nor will I ever forsake you." We refer to that in military terms as logistical Grace. God will always supply what you need. "So that we may confidently say the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid what shall man do to me." To be a faithful steward of what God has given you and material needs above your needs for your livelihood, your care and your things that are legitimately your expenses. What you do with that can be left for some truck to come along and haul away after you're gone. Or you can haul it away with you by sending it ahead into heaven. That's reality and that's holiness.

Point number two, the holy believer does not absent himself from the local Church services of instruction and doctrine. These are principles of holiness you notice that I'm reading out of scripture. These are not things that I'm making up because I want you to do something that's good for the organization. Hebrews 10:25 says, "Not forsaking our own assembling together", that's what we're doing now, the assembling together. The Greek word for Church is ekklésia (ek-klay-see'-ah), E K K L E S I A. The ekklésia is the called out ones. That's what the word means. Another translation for ekklésia beside Church is assembly. The group that gathers. Don't fail to gather together in the Church services as is the habit of some but encourage one another and all the more you see the day drawing near. What day? The day of the rapture when it's all over and report card time is coming. Why must we plead with believers to come to Church? Well, there's some Churches. I can see why. I can see why.

I sat next to a pastor who's in the liturgical Church at a social event one time and we were talking about what we're doing in our ministry, and I happen to say that we have a morning in the evening service. He said, you have an evening service. He said, do the same people come? And I said, well, yes. And he was kind of puzzled and I was puzzled. Then I realized in his Church it's liturgical. He says something at the altar, and they say something back at the altar and he says something at the altar, and they say something back at the altar and it's all a routine. Then he gets up and he gives a little sermonette for Christianettes and that's it. You go home, shake hands, Sunday's over. That's the only way to have a ministry I think. One service early as you can 6:30 in the morning, get it out of the way and we can go golfing and go to the afternoon movie, all kinds of things. One can go, you can go to Kmart now Walmart on Sunday afternoons.

The reason he couldn't understand that people would come to the second service. He didn't understand that what we do is have a whole new meal for the folks. It's a whole new spiritual meal every service. And when you're not there to eat the food, you miss it. So the holy Christian realizes this holiness is structured upon his instruction in principles of doctrine. Without it you'll never make it in this world. His life will be wasted. He does not absent himself from the local Church services. And Churches have increasingly encouraged people to treat the Lord's day as something other than the Lord's day. They knock out those pre-services like we have of train union. That's gone. And then they shove down as close as they can away from the evening television hours the Church service so everybody can get off and get home and spend the evening that should be spent in the upper room with the people of God somewhere out there with the world system. Or with their old sin natures. That is not holiness. That is ungodliness.

Point number three of the holy Christian he does not violate God's lines of authority in the family and in society. He does his duty. Ephesians 5:22-33 extended passage, "Wives be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord", that's authority, "for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is the head of the Church. He himself being the savior of the body. But as the Church is subject to Christ so also wives ought to be to their husbands and everything", will you always agree with your husband? No. Can you have creative alternatives to what do you want him to do? Yes. Can you discuss what he wants you to do? Yes. And I remember one of our young wives one time I thought a gave a splendid example of that she was talking to her husband, he wanted do something and she wanted to do something else and they're debating this back and forth and she finally said, well, I don't like it but we'll do it your way. That's lines of authority because you have to have one head that calls to play and makes a decision. Now that husband, if he called to play wrong, which he could when he finds out he makes correction, but you don't override even if you got a better judgment. "Husbands love your wives", agape love, no bitterness, mental attitude goodwill, "love your wives just as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with a word." God cleanses us with the word of God as he is cleansing us now. Husbands are to love their wives with that sacrificial love that Christ demonstrated. That's what agape love is putting yourself out for the other person that he demonstrated on the cross for us. "that he might present to himself to Church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies, he who loves his own wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ also does the Church because we are members of his body for this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I'm speaking with reference to Christ and the Church, nevertheless, let each individual among you also love his own wife even as himself and let the wife see to it that she respect her husband."

His wife isn't even told to love her husband. She's told to respect him. She will have a love for him, and she will have that emotional rapport of philos (fee'-los) too. But she might find herself married and she's married until death do impart with somebody that she finds that she's not very fond of. But the word of God says you may have the edge of your affection cut off that you still respect that husband's authority. That husband's authority who makes the final decisions for the family, which incidentally men includes going to Church and seeing that your children are there in Church not someplace else. And seeing that they're not in a religious operation that is destroying them spiritually. But one where the word of God is proclaimed so that people can be fed. In Titus 3:1-2, "Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one. Yo be uncontentious gentle showing every consideration for all men." This is the nature of respecting proper lines of authority and certainly in Romans 13, we have the respect of authority for government. Respecting lines of authority is what holy people do.

Point number four, the holy Christian does not live in the state of carnality as a hypocrite. Ephesians 5:5 here we have a description not of unsaved people but a Christian who's out of temporal fellowship, who has unconfessed sin in his life. He's out of step with God his Father. He is not God's friend. He is not walking with God. He is not after God's own heart. He is a carnal Christian. Ephesians 5:5 Paul says, "For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God" He is saved but he's not going to have a throne of ruling authority. He's not going to have a position of authority in the millennial kingdom as a Christian. Christ is the king, and we are his consorts because we're his bride. We'll be reigning and ruling with him. But what you'll be doing in that kingdom is determined by the lifestyle that you live. Live as a carnal Christian, which is what people in the world are doing as Christians, then you may expect something else. You're being a hypocrite to your calling.

Ephesians 5:6-11, "Let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them. For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the light consistent in all goodness and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord and do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness". If you're part of the world system, that's the only thing you can participate in is the unfruitful words, the unfruitful deeds of darkness, "but instead even expose them." That's even harder. Some of us like to tiptoe through the tulips about the unfruitful and deceitful deeds of darkness in the people among whom we move because especially if we're young, we want to be accepted. We want to be part of our peer group. We don't want them to think that there's something strange about us when we call them and say, that's a wrong thing for you to do. That's a bad sinful thing for you to do. Please be sure you read those handouts today. You'll get some good perspective on this point. Ephesians 5:12-13, "For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret, but all these things become visible when they're exposed by the light. For everything that becomes visible is light."

So the word of God very explicitly clear, do not live in the darkness of the world system of carnality. And when you are out of that temporal fellowship, you're not a holy Christian. When you're not a holy Christian, you're not mature. Now at the heart of all this of course is the principle of being filled with the spirit.

Point number five, the holy Christian does not grieve or quench the Holy Spirit and he walks by means of the Holy Spirit through life. Ask the average preacher what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? He'll wander all around the countryside. You'll be lucky to get anywhere near the right answer. Ask the average Church member, he's in the total fog. I hope that you know that there are three factors involved. That's it. No more, no less. You want to be filled with the Spirit? The Bible is not a confusing book. There are two things you don't do and one thing you do. The first thing you don't do is you don't quench the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit lays upon your heart something that you should do. You don't say no to him. You don't throw cold water when the Spirit of God says, Hey, here's a need in the local Church, you may serve it. You have the ability, you have the time, you have the means.

Now, I don't want to do that. Here's a witness that you may have. You don't quench the Holy Spirit by telling him no. I walked out in our playground yesterday going out to the academy building. There was a Hispanic man with his two children playing soccer on the field there by the slide. After I was through in the building, I went out, came back out, I was going to lock the building. Spirit of God said, give him a brochure, the Spanish brochure on evangelism and I'm going for the key in the lock. I've got a lot to do here today. Wait a minute, I'm not going to quench the Holy Spirit. You lay that on my heart. I walked back in, unlocked the office, got a brochure, went out and said, Senor, there's something you may like to read. Oh, thank you sir. Thank you. Perhaps he will be saved. Terrible if I had quenched the Spirit of God and that man will now be able to be saved and know how to kick around the ball with his sons in a significant way for life. You don't say no when the Holy Spirit lays a burden on your heart because you're too busy with the trivialities of life.

Second thing you don't do is you don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Now that's holiness. See, you don't do the things that the world does. You don't go around looking like them. You don't talk like them. You don't go to the entertainments they go to. You don't play the games that they play. You're separate. You're a prince, you're a princess. You're part of the body of Christ and you don't grieve the Holy Spirit with sin. If you do confess it, get back into the inner circle.

The third thing, the positive thing is you walk by means of the Holy Spirit. If you do those three things, you'll have the exhilarating experience of finding God the Holy Spirit, directing, providing, conducting, leading your life. Ephesians 5:18 says, "And do not get drunk", do not get high with wine, "for that is dissipation but be filled with the Spirit." Not the spirits of alcohol but God the Holy Spirit and you will have a genuine real high. Then Galatians 5:25, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." Let us walk by means of the Spirit. This is what holiness is all about and that's where it begins.

We don't say no to God. We don't choose to walk in sin. We learn doctrine. That's the only way you can walk by means of the Spirit. See the problem. So if your preacher is not teaching you through a book of the Bible, verse by verse doctrinal principles and summarizing them, just forget about walking by the Spirit. You're not capable of doing it. Walking by means of the Spirit means to know His ways so that you can do the things that are the commandments of God. If you don't do that, if you are an unholy Christian, then your life will not be invested in the things of eternity. There'll be in the things of this world. That is the principle of godliness.

Point number six, the holy Christian supports the propagation of Bible doctrine by supporting those who teach it and its Church organization. I Thessalonians chapter five principles of holiness and God tells us again and again what they are and I'm just walking through some of them. I Thessalonians 5:12, "But we request of you brethren that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you", your spiritual leaders, "and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction." You need not appreciate the preacher who does not give you instruction and doctrine. It's a very limited scope here. Appreciate the one who gives you doctrine, who teaches you what the Bible has to say and gives you some idea of applying it. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little Isaiah 28:10 says. You build it up.

1 Thessalonians 5:13, "And that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work, live in peace with one another." The ones who feed you. Throughout this ministry, we have all kinds of men and women who feed you and your children on spiritual things. The principles of the work of God. That teacher, whoever he may be, whoever she may be is to be esteemed and respected as especially when they show that they prepared. They're not coming in teaching a class off the top of their heads. They couldn't say what they're saying unless there's been a great deal of study, research into the word of God covered, focused by their own experience in walking with God. Respect esteem them highly in goodwill love because of what they're doing for you.

I Timothy 5:17-18 says, "Let the elders", the pastor-teacher elder, "who rules well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching." You know what double honor is? When somebody comes and I'm absent from this pulpit and they speak for me, we give them an honorarium, we give them a financial gift. It's an honorarium. Here's where it comes from. We honor them for their spiritual service. Now, if you have a pastor-teacher who rules well, directs the organizational structure, and holds it all together with all its competing claims and competitions at times is worthy of double honor if he works hard at preaching and teaching. If you got somebody who runs the show, the organization properly with responsibility and he also is commendable in quality of instruction in the word of God, you should pay him twice what he gets. You may want to go home and think about that. Unless you're already paying him too much and you don't want to do that. But the whole point is back to the same principle, the thing I face in the academy when it comes salary time, the workman is worthy of his hire. We don't hire you to do something then we don't come across for you. I Timothy 5:18 Paul says, "For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing, and the labor is worthy of his wages." Then there's Galatians 6:6 says, "And let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches,." So it is quite proper that the pastor-teacher as the one who shares the word should be paid for his services.

That's what the Apostle Paul says. He said to the Corinthian Christians, he said, I had a right for you to supply me with funds for the ministry I was doing for you, but I chose because of your carnal attitude as a group. I chose not to take any money from you, and I earned it myself until you came around a spiritual quality that I was willing to accept your gifts. And then there's I Corinthians 16:15-16 the holiness of supporting those who teach the word and of the organization that sponsors them says, "Now I urge you brethren, you know the household of Stephanas, that they were the first fruits of Achaia and that they have devoted themselves for the ministry to the saints, that you also be in subjection to such men and to everyone who helps in the work and labors." Stefanus was one of the first Christians in Paul's ministry. He said, I want you to remember them. That household, they devoted themselves to the ministry of the saints. They're knocking themselves out for you people. Respect them, care for them, treat them. It's not just the pastor-teacher, it's all the folks in the ministry that make possible the word of God to our families.

Point number seven, the holy Christian does not use crude vulgar language of the world. Ephesians 5:4, "And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or course jesting which are not fitting but rather giving of thanks." Some Christians think it's cute to talk like the world, use the foul language of the world. To use the cruelties of the world. They're unbecoming a Christian. Would Jesus talk like that? I think not. Ephesians 4:29, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word is as good for edification according to the need of the moment that it may give Grace to those who hear." That's the principle. When we speak to one another, if we are holy Christians, our language will not degrade people. It will ennoble people. We'll stand there and say, that was a good conversation. I feel cleansed by the spiritual we talked about. You don't have to show that you're incapable of using the English language to express yourself forcefully by using vulgar curse word type of language.

Point number eight, the Godly Christian, the holy Christian does not neglect prayer. One of the easiest things for us to neglect everything under the sun. The harder things get that is the busier we get. The first thing we leave is prayer, and that's the first thing we should stay with. Colossians 4:2-4 this is what a holy Christian does, "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I have also been imprisoned in order that I may make it clear in the way that I ought to speak." Please pray for me so that God will make it clear to me how I am to speak for our teachers in the Berean ministry. They deserve your prayers. They will know how to do the job of speaking for God. A holy Christian has a prayer life. Then there is I Thessalonians 5:17 a very succinct statement, "Pray without seizing." Yes, you have stated times of prayer and that is good and proper to do. You have stated times of praying at meals, praying in your personal devotions, but this verse is saying more than that throughout your day. Every situation that comes up, you need to be a prayerful person and the more of a holy person you are, you'll be less dependent upon your own capacities. Less dependent upon your own physical abilities and wisdom. Less dependent upon your intelligence and certainly less dependent upon the world around you. You will not look around you for what you need to do and for the guidance you'll look to the Spirit of God who's ready to tell you what to do and give you the means and the direction. That God who lives in you because you are his temple. You do not neglect prayer.

Point number nine, the holy Christian is a witness to the Gospel and to doctrine. Colossians 4:5-6, "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with Grace. Seasoned as it were with salt that you may know how you should respond to each person." People will make you mad. People over societies because they do not understand the wisdom of God, they speak like fools because they are fools. And consequently we tend to be very irritated by them. We have to treat them with a gentle hand that God treats them to give them a chance to know better.

Whatever else you're called to in life you have been called to be His witness. On the last thing Jesus told the disciple before He ascended to heaven, but you shall receive, in Acts 1:8, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth." God has told all of us to be his evangelists to do the work of evangelism. The Apostle Paul told Timothy, who is a pastor-teacher leader, and he reminded Timothy, he said, do the work of an evangelist. You're going to be teaching doctrinal principles to people, but you want to teach the Gospel, so people know how to present the Gospel and to those who need it.

My own fulfilling in part of that admonition to do the work of an evangelist is why I wrote the book on the 'Hell or Heaven' brochure, the book on the Gospel. The book on evangelism and made it available for all of you to take and be able to give the Gospel as one preacher of a very large Church recently who it fell into his hand and read it and he was amazed what an accurate presentation exactly right this was of the Gospel, no cutesy poo pop Christianity, invite Jesus into your heart, give your life to Jesus and all that the sophisticated world system of religion does but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and by George you will be saved. And that evangelism brochure was written so that you could do the same thing. Take the seed and plant it.

Got a letter from the Muan's in France yesterday in it was a Diskette and the final translation into French. We've got the thing into French. We're going to hand it over to our people in the tape ministry to get it down in form and as soon as we can, we're going to put it into print and get as many of them up to places like Canada, Quebec, French Canadians that we can get them to. The one in Vienna is being worked on for German. Who knows what God may do when somebody has enough sense to put enough of the Bible together to be able to tell the Gospel in such a way that God the Holy Spirit can really save a person with it. But that is what we are supposed to be doing. And you'll notice in Acts chapter 20 along with that Gospel verse 27, Acts 20:27, Paul says, "I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God." Paul is telling these pastor-teachers who have gathered with him at Ephesus bidding him farewell as he's on his way to Jerusalem. He said, I want you men to remember, go back to your house Churches for I did not shrink from declaring you. The whole purpose of God was he taught me the thing. We're talking about the mystery of the Church. That secret doctrine with all that connotes the specialties of Christianity and the lifestyle in God the Holy Spirit. All things we've been talking about for weeks and weeks now. Paul said, I not only give you the Gospel of the Grace of God, but I told you how to live by Grace. I told you how to be a monstrous, wonderful winner. And of course God the Holy Spirit has made this very clear to us. The holy Christian pays attention to evangelism.

Matthew 28:19-20 I read to you the last two verses of that book Jesus says to his disciples and unto us, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you and Lo I'm with you always, even to the end of the age." There it is pretty simple, pretty clear. We are to reach out to make followers of Christ in all nations. That's disciples when they come to salvation by the Grace of God, and they're genuinely saved. Then we go through the ritual of water baptism as a public declaration. We put them down to that water to indicate they've gone into the grave with Christ. We bring them up to indicate they came back out with newness of life. And then we proceed to teach them the doctrine's pertinent to the Church age and all that He has commanded us so that we can love God. If you love me, keep my commandments. How can I love you Father? I don't even know your commandments. I go to Church, and I hear all kinds of things, but I don't hear your principles of commandments. The witness to the Gospel that is the holy Christian. These are some of the things, but we have not yet finished with what the Bible says. Don't kid yourself if you think you're a holy man, you think you're a holy woman, match yourself up against these guidelines, against these checkpoints and you'll get a truer answer

Dr. John E. Danish, 1995

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