Fren-01 Lenuage Invisiblede Tmoins (The Invisible Cloud of Witnesses) — Art Katz

The Cloud of Witnesses and the Christian Race

Perhaps we can begin in Hebrews 11 or 12, a very familiar portion of scripture, Hebrews 12, verse 1. Fabulous verse. Isn't that true?

Everything is pinned to seeing that we are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.

The seeing of that is altogether an incentive and a motive for running and completing the race. I have to smile to myself because I think of a remark that I've made so often to American Christians.

It just came back to me as I'm looking at you. This book will only be an object or subject for Bible studies until the conditions come again that are of the kind that were faced by those to whom these scriptures came at the first.

How many of us even think that we are in a race? Or our Christianity is a mere succession of days and services? Can you see how strange these verses are? They are completely out of keeping with our modern temper and the whole tenor of our age.

What Christian thinks of himself as running a race? We just want to keep our noses clean, so to speak, to avoid conspicuous sin.

One day is like another. We are not in this context, but we ought to be.

For example, how many of you believe that we are surrounded tonight by a cloud of invisible witnesses? Oh, brother, don't get carried away. I see you have a flair for drama.

You have a romantic imagination. God forbid.

I fully expect that we should be surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Why else would I be here? I'm not in the entertainment or the performance business. I'm not here to bring a novelty to titillate jaded saints.

I'm on the apostolic cutting edge. And I don't expect to die in a bed. I would suspect that martyrdom is the logic of such a life lived for God. So one of us is wrong. If your view is not aligned with my view, then one of us is out of alignment with God.

So I insist on my view. It's my prerogative as preacher to bring you into my consciousness. To embrace my perception of the faith. Or else, what is preaching for? And prophetic proclamation. Who sees as God sees and speaks His words.

Are you in the faith tonight?

Contending for Apostolic Faith

Once and for all given the saints. Are you earnestly contending for it? I'm not speaking about the correctness of the doctrines. That's kid stuff. I'm talking about the apostolic quality of the faith.

This radical heavenly presence in this present world. That invites opposition against itself. That makes persecution and reproach an inevitability. That lives for the glory of God. Do you have that faith?

Because that faith needs to be contended for. For every factor in the world, the flesh and the devil will oppose it. I'm taking it easy on you tonight. I was not as gentle with the German church. There I made it quite clear that the holocaust was the consequence of an inadequate Christianity.

That had the true faith been maintained of an apostolic kind, there would not have been a vacuum for Hitler to exploit. But of course that's the past. That was the apostolic history. We don't expect its continuation now.

And if we don't expect it, neither will we have it. That's why we are surrounded by a cloud of invisible witnesses. Because they are not yet complete without us. And they are impatient and wringing their hands with hope that we're going to make it.

Because they see more correctly that we are moving toward a conclusion.

Because they see more clearly that we are moving toward a conclusion. An apocalyptic end that eventuates in the glory of God. Do you see that?

Seeing is everything. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed with so great a cloud of witnesses.

Seeing isn't in the French. We'll have to change that.

So just interpret my English. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. That wherefore is the pivot. Something comes because you see this. But brother, how can you see something that's invisible?

What a French question. And it condemns us. It shows how earthly we are. How limited. How unlike Paul. Who saw the things that were invisible and eternal. Who saw the invisible weight of glory. That was not a metaphor for him.

It had present, concrete application and consequence. It made his present afflictions both momentary and light.

We had better see like Paul. Nous ferions bien d 'avoir les yeux de Paul. Ou alors nous serons détruits par nos afflictions. Nous limiterons et nous compromettrons. Nous serons trouvés infidèles et déloyaux au cours des derniers jours.

En prenant la marque de la bête. De quelle autre manière pourrons-nous vendre ou acheter? Il nous faut bien vivre. Il faut bien qu 'on vive. Dieu sait que nous avons des familles à nourrir.

Il faut être pratique.

Et qu 'est-ce que c 'est qu 'une petite marque? Dieu sait bien que nous ne croyons pas véritablement dans ce système. C 'est un simple accommodement préliminaire et temporaire pour soutenir notre vie physique.

Elle ne met pas en danger notre foi. Nous continuons de croire. Et bien il y a croire et croire. Cette façon d 'être là et cette façon de croire là vous feront aboutir dans l 'étang de feu. Pas parce que je le dis mais parce qu 'il le dit.

Chacun qui est trouvé avec la marque de la bête a ce pénalité éternelle.

Ce châtiment éternel est pour tous ceux qui seront trouvés avec la marque de la bête. Ne pensez pas que Dieu sera impressionné par votre logique à la française. La seule marque qui devra être trouvée sur vous, il vaudra bien mieux que ce soit la marque du Père sur votre front.

Et s 'il advient que vous mourrez par manque de nourriture ou par persécution, qu 'est-ce que ça peut faire? Il peut arriver bien pire que cela. Il vaut bien mieux mourir avec honneur que de perpétuer sa vie dans le déshonneur.

Parce que le juste vivra par la foi. Une foi qui voit cette nuée invisible de témoins. Et qui voit que c 'est une immense nuée. Pas tellement par le nombre que par sa nature et sa qualité. Et elle ne nous est pas étrangères.

Nous sommes en relation avec eux. Nous sommes appelés à la même entreprise. Nous marchons vers la même conclusion. Et leur nombre n 'est pas encore au complet sans nous. Frère, quelle folie! Can it be the faith?

Can it be the faith? If we take such a view as this seriously, it will make us strange.

We will be pilgrims in this earth, sojourners passing through. Looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. Exactly. Unless you in fact are such a pilgrim church.

Unless in fact you are a pilgrim church.

Unless in fact you are strange in this world. You cannot move us Jews to jealousy. You cannot fulfill the mystery of the church and Israel.

Vous ne pouvez pas accomplir le mystère de l 'église et d 'Israël. Vous ne pouvez pas être pour nous ce que vous devez être si nous devons entrer dans notre destinée qui est celle du millenium. Quel privilège de prononcer telle parole à Albi.

The Witness of Persecuted Saints

How many places are there in the earth that have such a history as that this city and region has? How many tens of thousands of apostolic saints have been cruelly tortured and burned at the stake and killed for their faith on this very ground?

How many tens of thousands of apostolic saints have been cruelly tortured and burned at the stake and killed for their faith on this very ground?

Do you think God has forgotten that?

And that their blood on the ground does not cry out to God?

That my anointing and my speaking tonight is unrelated to that? Or is that the very wellspring of such a speaking? Do you see yourself in connection with them?

Est-ce que vous vous voyez en relation avec eux? Ne faisant qu 'un avec eux? Eux qui vous ont précédés? Mais dont le nombre n 'est pas au complet sans vous? Et qui marchent et qui vont vers la fin de la course?

Parmi tous les chrétiens, vous, par excellence, vous avez cette obligation plus grande. Qu 'est-ce que nous dirons nous en Amérique au sujet d 'une nuée invisible de témoins? Nous qui n 'avons pas votre histoire.

Alors laissez au Seigneur la question de prendre cet arriviste juif venu d 'Amérique pour l 'amener à Zurich pour dire une telle parole aux chrétiens de Zurich. Je les ai emmenés faire un tour dans Zurich.

Je leur ai montré le lieu où les chrétiens anabaptistes avaient été brûlés sur le bûcher et noyés dans la rivière qui traverse Zurich. Et nous sommes allés dans les bois où ils tenaient leurs réunions secrètes et nous avons vu les fentes dans les rochers qui permettaient aux enfants de s 'échapper quand ceux qui les pourchassaient venaient.

Est-ce que vous vous rappelez ce que le premier martyr a dit aux autorités religieuses qui l 'ont lapidé à mort? Vous faites ce que vos pères ont toujours fait, vous attristez sans cesse l 'Esprit de Dieu.

Il y a une histoire continue de persécution des véritables saints, des véritables chrétiens depuis le début et elle va continuer jusqu 'à la fin. C 'est dans la nature même des choses. Et actuellement c 'est simplement une trêve temporaire.

Ce soi-disant pluralisme religieux. Ce renouveau écuménique, ce renouveau des dénominations religieuses. Le jour viendra où le masque sera à nouveau ôté. Et une hostilité féroce contre Dieu et contre son peuple sera à nouveau exprimée.

Vous ne le supporterez pas et vous ne serez pas vainqueur à moins que vous ne voyez cette nuée. Parce qu 'elle vous encourage à rejeter tout fardeau. Et à participer avec patience et avec endurance à tout ce qui est devant nous en regardant à Jésus comme eux l 'ont regardé.

J 'ai donc pris avec moi ces chrétiens charismatiques suisses et je leur ai montré leur propre histoire. Et eux-mêmes n 'en connaissaient rien du tout. Ils ne savaient rien de ce sang qui avait été répandu dans leur vie le même et de ces adolescents qu 'on avait noyés dans la rivière.

Devant la grande cathédrale protestante, il y a une grande statue de Zwingli, le réformateur protestant, avec la Bible d 'une main et l 'épée dans l 'autre main. Et il l 'a également utilisé contre les vrais croyants.

Connaissez-vous les anabaptistes Ceux qui refusaient de se soumettre, d 'agréer à un système de religion d 'Etat, d 'une église d 'Etat. Ceux qui ne voulaient pas accepter de faire le simulacre d 'une aspersion sur des bébés en tant que baptême.

Ceux qui insistaient pour qu 'il y ait les preuves d 'une conversion réelle avant d 'accorder le baptême. Ceux dont le royaume n 'était pas de ce monde. Ils regardaient au royaume qui allait venir. Ils étaient pèlerins, étrangers, de passage sur cette terre.

Et leur vie avait quelque chose de pur et de radieux. Pourquoi est-ce qu 'on les a pourchassés, traqués et mis à mort sans répit Je suis allé dans les cachots. Où il y a juste une petite fente pour voir au dehors, on aperçoit le merveilleux paysage suivant.

Et tout ce qu 'il y a d 'humain en vous a envie de sortir pour aller s 'ébattre dans cette beauté merveilleuse du paysage suisse. C 'est une liberté qui pourrait être la vôtre. Si seulement vous n 'obstiniez pas à maintenir vos bizarres doctrines apostoliques.

Des communautés de saints, de chrétiens qui n 'ont jamais fait de mal à personne. Et dont le monde n 'était pas digne. Il y a des hommes qui ont pensé qu 'ils n 'étaient pas dignes de vivre. Pourquoi

Parce que même quand ils gardaient le silence, leur visage condamnait ce qui était en face. L 'authenticité de leur vie commune.

Reveal the fraudulence of the state church systems that persecuted them. And so shall it be again in the end. Do you believe that Are you preparing for that

Est-ce que vous êtes en train de vous préparer pour cela Ou alors ne serait-ce pas un message sinistre, de mauvais goût Ou au contraire Ce n 'est pas négatif. C 'est joyeux. De remporter une couronne.

The Coming Kingdom and Eternal Perspective

To consummate the age.

To release the Lord from heaven. The coming of His kingdom. His theocratic rule over the earth and to the nations. This is joy unspeakable and full of glory.

C 'est une joie indécible et glorieuse. Est-ce que vous ne le voyez pas Si vous voyiez cela, vous ne seriez pas déprimé maintenant. Vous ne seriez pas déprimé par toutes ces choses qui vous dérangent à présent.

Je me demande qui je vais épouser. Ou même si je me marierais. Et mon avenir. Ma sécurité. Et l 'économie de la France. De telles pensées déprimantes perdent leur puissance. Lorsque vous voyez ces choses, ils sont invisibles et éternels.

Il ne nous faut pas penser que ceux qui nous ont précédés sont morts tout simplement. Non, présentement, ils sont dans la communion des saints actuellement. Qu 'ils soient invisibles ne veut pas dire qu 'ils ne soient pas vivants.

Parce que tous sont vivants pour Christ. Il est leur tête comme il est notre tête. L 'Eglise militante sur terre est profondément liée à l 'Eglise triomphante dans le ciel. Leurs paroles et leurs œuvres continuent de prendre effet.

Elle ne s 'est pas arrêtée avec leur départ. En fait, depuis qu 'ils sont partis, leur présence n 'en devient que plus incisive et plus lourde de conséquences. Que nous en ayons conscience ou pas. Mais il est bon que l 'on devienne conscient.

Dieu veut que de telles considérations fassent partie de la vie de nos pensées. Les choses invisibles ne devraient pas nous être étrangères ni étranges. Au contraire, ce sont les choses visibles qui devraient être étranges.

Comme par exemple la mode française. Et qu 'est-ce qui se porte pour la saison actuelle. Et comment sont les nouvelles voitures. Tout cet accent qu 'on met dans cette civilisation sensuelle. Quel contraste quand on passe l 'Allemagne à la France.

Vous êtes voluptueux. Sensuel. Vous aimez les choses qui se voient et qu 'on touche. Il va vous falloir lutter contre tout ce qui est visible. Et cela, lutter pour garder la foi. Afin de voir ce qui est invisible.

Et ce qui est éternel. Et ce qui durera. Et faites de ces choses les considérations prioritaires de votre vie actuelle. C 'est lorsqu 'on voit ces choses qu 'on est capable de participer à cette course.

Et même de savoir qu 'il y a une course. Que nous en faisons partie et que nous nous acheminons vers une consommation pour laquelle ils ont donné leur vie. Ils ont offert un sacrifice. Eux dont le monde n 'était pas digne.

J 'ai donc dit à ces chrétiens suisses ce soir-là, comment aimeriez-vous ne faire qu 'un avec ceux qui vous ont précédés. Pour amener les choses visibles dans votre conscience psychologique actuelle.

Et pour être maintenant identifié, pour vous identifier maintenant à ces choses.

Devinez ce qu 'ils ont répondu. Non, merci. And I have not had relationship with them since. You say, well, why couldn't they make that identification? Because they understood only too well that to confess such things is to bring upon your own head what had come upon theirs.

Que lorsqu 'on proclame de telles choses, on attire sur sa propre tête les choses qui étaient tombées sur les têtes de leurs prédécesseurs. Les vrais croyants sont ceux qui déclarent, confessent, qu 'ils sont pèlerins et étrangers sur la terre.

Declare plainly that they seek the country. Verse 14. And you can read 15 and 16. The powers of darkness look down on Albie tonight. And they say, Jesus we know and Paul we know. But the evangelical, charismatic, Pentecostal church of Albie, who?

They are not impressed with our amens and hallelujahs. Better that you should be feared by the powers than you should be respected. Then you are something to be feared. Then you become something formidable.

When you make that confession.

My Swiss friends were unwilling to make it. Because they intuited only too well that to make that confession is to open themselves for the same opposition and persecution.

That made of the invisible witnesses themselves martyrs.

And for that they were unwilling. Charismatic, yes. This far but no further. So I want to ask you tonight. How far are you willing to go with God? Seeing that these are already the last days.

Seeing that these are already the last days.

Eternal Reward and Faithful Works

Are you thinking in terms of your eternal destiny? Will there be a reward waiting for you when the Lord comes?

Because it is said that he will bring his reward when he comes. Have we obtained one?

Can we say with Paul that I labored more than you all? Will you have works that will pass through the fire of God's judgment? That will not be burned up as haywood and stubble. But true works that have had consequence in time.

But true works that have had consequence in time. And that you will have obtained an eternal reward. Are these rhetorical questions, questions of pure form? You do not have to answer me. But I know your answer.

And that will impoverish our present faith. And we will live inadequately in this present world. Because we do not authentically anticipate the world to come.

Because we do not authentically anticipate the world to come. I beg you to have a heavenly mind. But brother, it is said that when you have your head too high in the sky, you no longer have your feet on the earth.

That is what the world says. This world that yields to the power of the clever, the father of lies from the beginning. Did Paul not have his feet on the earth? He was not able to do something on earth because he had a heavenly mind.

He who already saw himself as a citizen of heaven. This place. Did he anticipate the coming of the Lord? Not at all.

That was the key to his apostolic glory. He was profoundly relevant in this life. And occupied with every practical question of the daily life of the church. How do we take communion? How do we behave ourselves in the house of God?

How do we judge an unruly brother? He was totally occupied with the weight of the church daily in the earth. And he could be that because he was heavenly minded. It had a practical consequence in his present life.

It made his present afflictions both momentary and light. Just like Stephen. Who did not even feel the stones.

While he was being stoned to death he saw the heavens opened.

Being full of the Spirit of God. He saw Jesus at the right hand of the Father waiting for him. He saw the glory of God. And he was indifferent to the pain. Suffering in the flesh was not to him what it is to us.

Whose life has lived so much in our bodies. How we look and how we feel. I'm still recovering from the French meal that I had in French speaking Switzerland. My God, it took an entire afternoon. It wasn't a meal, it was a sacrament.

Chorus after chorus after chorus. I couldn't bear to sit so long. But for my host it was customary. First this and then that. And then a long pause. Then the next. All in a smoke filled room. You're going to be apostolically minded.

Have an apocalyptic anticipation that's eternal. Labor for the reward that shall not fade away. You may have to declare war on France. On its culture. On its unspoken premises. On its persuasive logic.

And choose to be heavenly minded. And have your citizenship in that place. Then your life in Albi will be made more consequential. Paul knew deeply the things that were eternal. Eternal reward and eternal punishment.

And we have no greater sense of the dread of hell than we do of the joy of heaven. Therefore we do not persuade men knowing the terror of God. But now there's a now. This is what I love about the faith.

Heavenly-Minded Faith in Present Suffering

All of this consideration of things eternal and invisible has a now. There is a practical consequence in this present world now. It made Paul's sufferings actually momentary and light. He didn't feel it the way others would feel it.

Because he was not living in the sensate bodily world. As the world encourages us so to live. That you need consciously to resist it. Or you'll have no seeing of the things that are invisible nor eternal.

In chapter 10 of Hebrews in verse 34 Paul speaks of other disciples who joyfully took the spoiling of their goods. Could you be joyful if you were stripped of your goods? It's contrary to every reasonable and human logic.

They took it joyfully. Not resentfully. Why? Because they expected a heavenly reward that would exceed everything that they lost in the earthly way. Are you willing to be so stripped? The reformed churches in Switzerland many of them were built over the ruins of the Anabaptist places of worship.

Their farms and their properties were confiscated and the funds went into the coffers of the reformed church to train their ministers and to build their churches. If I'm not mistaken your cathedral in Albi was funded in exactly that way.

If I'm not mistaken your cathedral in Albi.

Was funded in exactly that way. I've had a small taste of this myself, what it means to be stripped. When I invited some questionable brother to come and live on my farm, the Lord had brought.

Our community into death and we had all abandoned the property. We were required to abandon the property, to give it all up to God. We had to taste death. And if you're receiving life tonight, it's because of that.

So he was this man who was divorced.

I found him with a pig and two dogs, living in a hut.

I said, come live on the property and be a caretaker for the property, seeing that there's no one there.

Make the buildings weather-tight and I'll provide your living.

I provided even his divorce payments and payments for his children. But he was an unstable man. And about a year and a half later, he wanted to leave me.

I was then on a ministry trip in Chicago and he called to say, what should he take? By that time we had seven horses, training them for work on the farm and we had bought all kinds of equipment for them and many other things.

I said, take what you think is fair. And came back to find that he had taken everything.

The man, the man who began with one pig and two dogs, all seven horses, the equipment for the haying, even the ropes that pulled up the hay that were in the barn 40 years before he got there.

He not only took the horses, he took the piss-stained boards on which the horses urinated.

There was not a tool to be found, not a screwdriver, not a pair of pliers, not a nut or a bolt,.

Stripped. And the Lord said, don't you express resentment. Don't see yourself as a victim. Don't exert yourself to bring any return.

It was not easy. But these of whom the world was not worthy, took joyfully the spoiling of their goods,.

Knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and enduring substance. Notice the verbs of tonight, seeing and knowing. True faith is much more than the subscription to correct doctrine.

It's seeing what is invisible, the things that are heavenly.

It's knowing that you have in heaven a more enduring substance. Therefore, cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.

Can you live for after? After this life, the life to come, the eternal life, the true life.

This is only momentary and passes away. This is only preparation for that which is eternal. Yes, I know that, brother. But are you living as if you know that? Then are you a witness unto him. For you have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.

Expecting the Lord's Coming

For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Are you expecting his coming? Well, it's doctrinally true, I know. I didn't ask you that. Because the apostate church also will believe what is doctrinally true.

Believing is not subscribing. Believing is expecting.

Believing is not subscribing. Believing is expecting.

And living in the anticipation of his coming. That will be fearful for the unbelieving, he comes as judge.

The heaven and the earth will flee from the face of him who comes. But those who have been faithful to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, and did not take the mark of the beast, and resisted the system,.

Whatever their suffering, he will vindicate them in that day. His coming will be a glory, and a triumph, and a joy.

And he brings his reward with him.

That endures and does not pass away. For he that is coming shall come. Do you believe that? Are you living as if you believe that? Are you witnessing as if you believe that? That's the faith. And the next verse says, the English says, Now the just shall live by faith.

And this is really living. This is freedom. This is joy unspeakable and full of glory. This is an end of fear and intimidation. This is walking through this world like the giants of God. This is freedom from the power and the influence of the world.

This is a separated life.

That obtains a reward. Now, the just shall live by their faith. What faith?

That after you have been patient and fulfilled the will of God, you will obtain the reward. We're not all going to the same place in heaven. There's an outer darkness where a steward was cast, who only gave Jesus back the same things and the same talent with which he began.

You wicked and slothful servant. He was not speaking about a man in the world,.

But one who belonged to him,.

To whom he entrusted a valuable deposit. That's not someone in the world. He was a believer. But he gave back what was given to him at the first without any increase. He was not invited to inherit the kingdom prepared for those who were faithful stewards.

He was eternally cast out from the brilliance and the light and the glory of that kingdom into an outer darkness. We're not all going to be occupying the same place in heaven. Or enjoy the same distinction and rank and reward.

We may not even all be going at the same time. For Revelation 20 says the rest of the dead slept another thousand years.

They were not qualified to rise with the first.

They were not fitted to rule and to reign with Christ in the millennial kingdom. They had to be judged by the first. They had to be judged with the other dead in the general resurrection of the dead. A thousand years later.

Missed the whole glory. And missed it eternally. Even if they were saved out of the fires of hell. If their name was found in the book of life. And had not been blotted out. We have a serious faith, saints.

Pilgrims, Strangers, and the Call to Persevere

And we have either all sinned or fallen short of the glory of God. And God is as grieved with saints falling short of the glory as he is with sinners sinning. Have you confessed that you are a stranger and a pilgrim and sojourner in the world?

For to those who say such things, God is not ashamed to be called their God. And has prepared for them a city. Let's bow before the God of this gospel. We are surrounded tonight by a cloud of invisible witnesses.

Of whom the world was not worthy. Who died for the faith that is being described tonight. And would not need to have suffered if they would have accepted something less. Something more convenient. Something more acceptable and respectable.

So Lord Jesus, Open our spiritual eyes to see What it is to which we are called. Forgive us for having a wrong center and a focus. Our priorities have been worldly and natural. The word heaven and eternity were for us abstractions without meaning.

And we ask your forgiveness for that. We have not lived in the most holy faith. We have not contended for it earnestly. And therefore have lost it. Even when we think to possess it. Call us again to the place of the beginning.

The true and the primitive of the original faith.

The one that might require of us a martyrdom.

Which is also the assurance of a crown. Help us to see these things. Believe for these things. Desire these things. For we tell you tonight. That we confess that we are strangers in this earth. We are consciously looking for another city.

And even if opportunity should be given us to return to our old country. We will refuse it. For we are seeking another kingdom. And want to live worthy of that kingdom and its glory. That we might have share in it eternally.

Is that your confession tonight? We prayed in the back room, Lord, not just a message but a transaction. Are you making it? The time is short. And God is pleading earnestly with his church. To be what we must.

To prepare for the things that must shortly come to pass. And he awaits your consent. For his radical sanctifying work. That you should not be ashamed in the day of the Lord's appearing. So I invite you to go on your knees.

Right by your chair. Make it an altar. And get eternally serious. Settle something with God. For which the cloud of witnesses is waiting. A moment has come for the church of this city. Don't miss it. Cry out to God.

Ask his forgiveness. For an inadequate Christianity. Sufficient for us but not for his glory. Settle something. For eternity. Tonight.