A Call to Walk Together With Others — Phil Beach Jr.

Jesus Christ as Our Righteousness, Holiness, and Joy

Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption. As we were before the Lord, I saw Jesus is all we need. It's as if the Lord was saying to us, He says, are there those here that are seeking holiness? Are there those here seeking to be more holy?

Seek the Lord. He is your holiness. Are there those here that want joy and are seeking joy in things? He is your joy. As we were singing about righteousness, the song was so apt. It's saying, knowing you, He is our righteousness.

Are you seeking to be more righteous? Are you hungering after it? Maybe for some, maybe it's a point right now in your life there's no greater desire that you want to be more righteous. The Lord is saying, Christ Jesus is your righteousness.

And we would be found in Him, not with our own righteousness, which is according to some law, but with His righteousness. He is the answer. God has placed Him. God is pleased in Him alone. And as we are found in Him, God is pleased with us.

Lord, we would have more of you. We would have, Lord, to see you as our holiness, Lord. To see you as our joy. Lord, there is no joy in the things of this world. It is fleeting. Lord, there is no holiness in any standard of living that we might adhere to.

All holiness stems and ushers from the life, your life, Lord. From you, yourself. Lord, you are all we need. Jesus, we just proclaim and we lift you up, Lord, as we have with our song. We want to stand firm, Lord, and say with everyone present, and say, Amen, Lord Jesus, that you are all we need, Lord, for everything that we're going through.

We want to just stand and say, Jesus, you are all we need. Hallelujah. Praise you, Lord. Praise you, Lord. There is nothing that man, there is nothing within ourselves, there is nothing that this world can provide, Lord.

You are everything. Hallelujah. Lord, that you would just strike the axe at the root in our lives that look to things, Lord, that look to a way, Lord, that look to people, that look to feelings, that look to our own energies, Lord, that look to our own abilities, Lord, the wisdom of men.

Dependence on the Spirit Rather Than Human Wisdom

Paul said, I came not to you with wisdom of words. I came in fear and in much trembling. Lord, we look for a demonstration of your Spirit, Lord, for only through your Spirit, not by power nor by might of men, Lord, but by your Spirit, Lord Jesus, only by your Spirit and your work, Lord, will it be accomplished.

And Lord, we are in foolishness today, Lord, for we even in our own lives, in our own selves, in our own speech have been contrary to this truth, Lord. But we proclaim and we hold onto you, Jesus. We touch your garment, Lord, and we say, Lord, by your Spirit, pour it out, Lord, and do that deep work in our hearts that we don't even understand, Lord Jesus, that is even foolishness to the thoughts and wisdom of men, Lord, and even to our own selves, Lord.

Lord, may you lay that axe to the root, Lord, that we would truly be cut loose just to trust you and to walk in you, even though everything in us is just trembling and fearful and just crumbling, Lord Jesus.

You reign supreme. We bless you, Lord. Hallelujah.

Yes, Lord. Yes, we are, Lord. Hallelujah, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Grant it to us, Lord. Grant it, Lord. Help us, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Hallelujah, Lord. Hallelujah, Lord.

Yes, Lord. Grant it, Lord, we pray. Yes, Lord, grant it. Thank you, Lord. Yes, Lord. Jeremiah chapter 32 verse 40. Thank you, Lord. 32 verse 40. Father, we thank you for once again meeting us, Lord, in a most wonderful and humbling way, Lord.

We thank you, Lord, that you are so faithful and relentlessly seeking to lead us to thyself where all that we have need of is found. We pray, Lord, for the next few moments that you would cause us to hear thy word and by the power of grace perform thy word.

Lord, as our dear brother was crying out that we would be able to take the land that is before us, that we would be able, by thy power, O God, to believe that you are with us and that you're able. We pray, Lord, that you would perform thy word and that you would work these divine actions, these divine qualities, these divine enablements in us, Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit.

We look to you to perform this, Lord. We look to the grace and to the mercy and to the power of the Spirit of God. We look to you, Lord, to perform these things. In your presence, Lord. Amen. Jeremiah chapter 32.

If I could ask David if you would assist just in bringing this board. Actually, we can have it catty-corner just like this right here, but we'll flip it around. That's Jeremiah 32, verse 40. For you who are writing, we could bring it up closer, Dave.

We can bring it right up like this. There you go. For you who are writing and taking notes, I want to encourage you to just take down these references here and begin to look into these Scriptures as God will quicken them to you.

God's Covenant Promise and the Beginning of the Hebrews Admonitions

But we're going to begin in Jeremiah chapter 32. Actually, we'll begin in verse number 38. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and of their children after them.

And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not turn away from them to do them good. But I will put my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from me. And I shall put my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from me.

Brothers and sisters, this morning we're going to look briefly at a covenant promise that God made. It is very important that you and I understand that this is a covenant promise. This speaks of the covenant that God has made with His Son Jesus Christ.

And part of the covenant promise that God has made with His Son is that all those who come to His Son by the enabling and drawing of the Holy Spirit will be given by God a holy fear for God. This introduces us into the beginning of the next section of our study in the book of Hebrews.

We have spent a considerable amount of time going through the warnings in the book of Hebrews. Those warnings that have to do with the word lust. And now we're looking at those words of admonition. Those words that the Holy Spirit speaks to us that speak of God's desire for us to be strengthened and empowered in our resolve to follow Him and let Him have His full purpose in our life.

The first admonition of encouragement is found, as we have here on the board, Hebrews 4, verse 1. But before we get into that, I'd like to make a few comments. And I'm praying that God will give us ears to hear.

“Let Us” as a Call to Walk Together

Every one of these words of encouragement, and there's 14 of them, in the book of Hebrews has to do with either the word let us or let. That phrase, let us, is a call to walking together with others. It says, let us.

So immediately we are confronted with God's heart. A vital part of our growing in encouragement and resolve to allow God to have His entire intention in our life has to do with walking together with others.

How well do you walk together with others? How well do you walk together with others? This is not a call from the Holy Spirit to be a lone ranger in your Christian life. Now, in some places, among some groups of people, I think the Lord would lose them right now.

Right now, the Lord would lose their attention. Because the thought of having to do it together with others is threatening to some people. It's threatening to some people because it requires accountability to others.

It requires not only accountability, but transparency with others. Not only does it require accountability and transparency, but it requires vulnerability one with another. Now, I'd like for you to consider those three words.

Transparency, vulnerability, and accountability. These are qualities that must be wrought in our life by the grace of God. If we are going to enter into the fullness of this movement in the book of Hebrews that is characterized by let us.

It's a movement, it's an activity that includes peoples, plural. It is togetherness. You will remember in the book of Acts chapter 2, a very familiar portion of Scripture, this idea of togetherness was quite predominant in the early church.

Togetherness in the Early Church

And I just want to read a few verses here. We're not going to probably even get into the depths of this this morning, but that's all right. We're going to take our time and walk through this slowly. Because as God manifests His presence in our midst, as we just experienced for over an hour, He is ministering grace to us.

He is ministering Himself to us. And as we mention over and over and over again when we get together on Sundays, the reason why God is visiting us in such splendor and such glory is because He intends to come with that visitation.

He intends to bring an enabling of grace to perform His Word. You see, we'll never be the same when we meet Jesus. Never. Every encounter that a man or a woman had in the Scriptures with the Almighty God and with His Son, Jesus Christ, left them changed.

And so what God is doing in our midst, He is showing us the reality, as Alan shared. He's showing us that this Christianity is not about dead doctrine and wisdom of men and ideas and thoughts and all kinds of thoughts and thinking.

It's about a living person, Jesus Christ. It is about a living God who by the power of His Holy Spirit comes and lays hold of a people and apprehends them. But how does that relate to the Word of God?

It relates totally. In other words, when we come into a union with the living Christ and His power and His person, and we begin to feel His heartbeat, and our Christianity is the result of divine revelation of the Son of God, then the Word of God...

This is nothing but the Word of God here. The Word of God then is no longer just a dead doctrine. But we read, Let us fear. We read, Let us labor. We read, Let us hold fast our profession. And suddenly, suddenly, the teaching of the Bible becomes a living Word.

And we realize that Christ has come into our hearts and visits us as we gather so that He can offer in us His fear. He can produce in us the capacity together to fear God. He wants to energize His Word.

Oh my God! This lifts this out of mere Bible study. This lifts this out of mere sermons into the very Word of God being fulfilled in us by the power and presence of the living Word Himself, Jesus Christ.

You want to get excited about the Bible? You want to get excited about this book? You want to hunger and thirst for the things that are written in this book? Have a contact. Have an experience with the author of the book.

Come to know the living Word, Jesus Christ. Let Him win your heart. And brothers and sisters, you'll pick this Bible up. You'll read it. Your heart will pant. Your eyes will tear up. You will hear God speak to you.

You will no longer look at this book as a source of information. No, you'll see it as a book that gathers up all the things that God promises to do. That's what the new covenant is. The old covenant is, Thou shalt not.

The new covenant is, I will put in their heart my fear. I will put in their heart a hunger for me. And then all we do is respond, as our brother was crying out, become receptors of the grace of God. Receivers of the grace of God.

So all, brothers and sisters, this is living. This is powerful. This will equip you. This will strengthen you. This Word of God. And when you touch the living Christ and your life is transformed by Him, this Word becomes a book that becomes living.

You remember that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees because He said, Ye search the Scriptures, because in them ye think that you have eternal life. But it is they that testify of Me, and you won't come to Me.

Do you see that? The danger of being acquainted with the Word, searching the Scriptures, but never coming to God. In other words, if the Bible doesn't lead you to a living encounter with the living Christ, and this teaching that is nothing more than the Bible itself, if this doesn't lead you to a living encounter with the living Christ, and awaken your heart, then it becomes nothing but information to you, and it probably would be better if you didn't even know it.

And that's why the Lord is taking such effort to come into our midst and revitalize us and bring us into an awareness of His living presence. Because He wants that essential element of our Christian life to continue to stay aflame.

Pentecost and the Call to Shared Christian Life

Acts chapter 2. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. They were all in one accord in one place. You see, they were engaging in a let us. They were engaging in a together with God.

Brothers and sisters, the Spirit of God is speaking to us fourteen times in the book of Hebrews. And before He says anything about what He wants to enable us to do, He makes it clear He wants it to be a togetherness effort.

And so God is wanting in your life this morning to bring you to the position and posture where this, listen, this togetherness has to start in the home. You know, there was a pastor many years ago who spoke to me.

And he recognized my zeal for God. He recognized my passion for the Word of God. Getting up at five o 'clock in the morning, praying earnest before God. One day, we went for a jog. And after the jog, strangely, he said something to me.

He said, Phil, don't leave Colette behind. All he said. He didn't expound. He didn't give me a commentary. He said, don't leave Colette behind. Now, most of you know Colette is my wife. We've got to learn to walk together with our family before we learn to walk together with anyone else.

Transparency, Vulnerability, and Accountability in the Family

How are you doing? Now, remember, it is impossible to walk together with people unless those three qualities are being brought in your life. What are they? Transparency, accountability, vulnerability.

If you feel that there is a threat that rises up in your heart, a defense at the thought of walking together with your family, husbands and wives together, along with their children. If you feel there's a threat there and you buck up, then you ought to interpret that as a warning sign from the Lord.

A warning sign that those three qualities have yet to be further developed in your life. I have seen over the years many Christians who had such a heart from God, such a heart for God, such a passion for God, but every time God arranges their life into a position where they're being asked to be accountable to other people, where they're being asked to walk together with others, they buck up against it and they run.

And it seems like these Christians never, ever, ever grow beyond a certain point. Let me say from the Lord this morning, there is that which Christ does in a heart that only occurs as you walk together with others.

And those who refuse to submit to the hand of God when God brings this in your life are deficient, are lacking those spiritual realities and revelations that live in the hearts of other Christians who have come under the harness of God and who have learned to walk together with other people and have experienced vulnerability, accountability, and transparency.

And so the call of the Spirit of God at the very beginning of these wonderful words of promise that God Himself intends to perform through the power of His Spirit at the very beginning, God is saying, let us.

Are you prepared for God to work in your life and to arrange circumstances in your life where you begin to sense that God is putting people in your life so you can be accountable to Him? You see, this accountability is not something that a preacher organizes.

It's not an accountability that comes from a hierarchy. It's not, you know, that shepherding movement back in the 70s. This is something God does in the life of His children. Free will offering. Brothers and sisters, are you prepared?

Listen, God's going to do this. Listen, some of you are terrified at the thought of becoming vulnerable and accountable and transparent before others. And what Christians do is sometimes they have bad experiences in this area and so they go to the other extreme.

Bless God, I don't need anyone but God. I don't need anyone but God, thank you. I'll do this thing on my own. That's not a good quality. That's not a good quality. And so my question again, for the fourth time, are you prepared for God to harness your life?

Bearing Burdens and Restoring Those in Fault

Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. Is that something that you are accustomed to doing in God's times and seasons?

Oh, brothers and sisters, we'll never catch the fullness of these 14 words of exhortation unless we pray, Oh God, deliver me. Deliver me from the fear. Deliver me from the feelings of terror at the thought of becoming related to others in a very real way.

Deliver me, Lord. Help me not, Lord. Help me not insist on walking alone when God brings someone in my life to share it with me. And pray that this begins in your home. Husbands and wives, listen carefully.

You have got to walk together. That might require humility. That might require great, great patience. That might require not doing what you want to do. But it's got to start in the home. And then it grows out of that relationship.

Intimacy with Christ Alone and Fellowship as the Body

There is a place of intimate aloneness, fellowship with Christ. The place where your heart is captured with God, the quiet times, the times early in the morning or late at night. There is that place where you are drawn aside and you're alone before God and God opens up His heart to you and your heart is filled with light and revelation of the beauty of Jesus Christ.

And it's just that sweet communion between you and God. There is a place for that. And that place ought never, ever, ever to be taken from you. But equally, there is a let us, together with other, aspect of our Christian life.

And we must enter into that as well. So that we are enjoying both that intimacy with Christ, alone with Him, and that intimacy with Christ together with others. Such is the divine wisdom of God. The aloneness revelation teaches us Christ is all we have need of.

But the togetherness revelation teaches us we are members of a body and have need one of another. It is not a codependent relationship where, oh, I can't live unless I see brother so-and-so three times a week.

Oh, I can't live. My whole life is going to die if I don't see him. It's not that. And that's not the way husband and wife relationship should be either. It is an interdependent, interrelated relationship where I can live because Christ is my life.

But I recognize in the divine economy of God that there is that which God chooses to give to me through others. We need enlargement here, brothers and sisters. We need our hearts to be enlarged. We are very inclined to be lone rangers because there's a cost.

There's a cost to walk together with others. And it's much easier to say, I'm going to do it myself. There's a cost. There's a cost. You've got to die to yourself. You've got to die to wanting your own space.

You've got to die to it. When God asks of your time, you can't be saying, I want my space. You can't be doing it. There's a cost to walk together with others. They might see your faults. They might see your humanity.

They might see your struggles. Listen, when was the last time you confessed to someone your fault? Talking about carelessly getting up in front of hundreds of people and just blubbering out all of your faults and sins?

No! When was the last time you confessed your struggles to that person in your life that you know God has put there? Huh? When was the last time? If you can't recall the last time you opened up your heart and shared your struggle, then I would suggest to you that there is a warning sign from God.

You need to pray, God, help me Lord. Help me enter into this revelation of let us. Lord, I need others to walk together with. I need others to walk together with. We need the grace of God to walk together with other people.

Forbearing Love and Restoring Fellow Believers

We need for God's love to grow in us. We need forbearing love. We need forgiving love. We need covering love. We need patient love. We need gentle love. We need the kind of love when we start walking together with other people that doesn't give up on people when they don't meet our expectations.

We need the kind of love that God gives when we're walking together with other people. Not to be critical of them. Not to be judgmental of them. Woe unto you that judges. It will come back in your face.

I promise you by the Word of the Lord. Woe unto you that are critical. Woe unto you that always see the faults of others. God will cause your faults to be seen. Yes, He will. We can't go around as our brother's judge.

We can't go around sitting on the place of judgment. There is one judge and one God. We are called to love one another. If any man be overtaken in a fault, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one. In meekness considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

Oh, so you see a fault in your brother. When was the last time you saw that the potential of that fault in you is ten times greater than in your brother? Ten times greater. Oh yeah, you see that fault.

You see that brother's fault. Well, look in the mirror. You'll see a bigger fault. We need to get perspective on this. We need to get perspective on this, brothers and sisters. Are you prepared for God to get in your face?

Yes. Oh yes. Yes. Oh yes. It's a get in your face thing when you say yes to the grace of God. When He starts saying to you, I'm calling you to walk together with other believers. Now this walking together with other believers is not the gathering together in an auditorium.

Organic Fellowship Under the Headship of Christ

This is important. But you know, one day we might have the whole auditorium full. That doesn't mean you're walking together with everyone. There is a place for a gathering of believers, a corporate gathering of believers, such as this, where we come together and worship Jesus and He ministers in our midst and the Word of God is taught and preached.

That is an important thing. But brothers and sisters, that is not walking together with others. Walking together with others is when there's two, three hundred people, God sovereignly begins to walk in the midst of one, two, three hundred people or fifty or forty people and begins to knit one and two and three families together.

And then they begin to walk together during the week and they begin to get involved in each other's lives and they begin to see each other's faults and see each other's struggles. That's when you walk together.

That's when you stay with them. You don't get critical. You don't get bitter. But you pray and you get vulnerable and you look to Jesus. That's what God wants. An organic church all in this area where we're walking together day by day.

Not some organized thing where we're putting together programs and we're organizing all kinds of things and people are accountable to a church program. No! It's a living, organic thing where believers under the headship of Christ are walking together.

Listen, you're not under any obligation if you're part of a fellowship where there's two hundred people to get intimately involved with everyone. That's ridiculous! Who can do that? You can't. You can't.

But you are in debt to those that God brings into your life. You say, well, how do I know that? You'll know. You'll know. He's the shepherd. He'll make you to know it. You'll know. One, two, three families.

Oh, you'll be in casual contact with many more people. How many here are in casual contact with at least fifteen or twenty people? Fifteen or twenty families. But how many of you are intimately involved in their lives?

No way, Jose. That's why pastors are dying. Because they're trying to do what God never called them to do. Pastors got to meet everyone. Got to love everyone. It's got to love everyone. Got to be involved in everyone's life.

No way. No way. Impossible. God wants us to be involved in each other's lives. There's some people, listen, there's some work that God can't do in someone's life until you get involved in their life. Not me.

Not me. Oh, if only a pastor could deal with this. No, forget that mentality. What about you? Who am I? Who am I? A member of the body of Christ with something to contribute. Oh, this revelation is life transforming.

Balancing Solitude with the Need for One Another

And so there is this balance between let us walking together with other Christians and that intimate relationship that we have with Christ in our heart. And this is what God wants to awaken our hearts to.

Even before we begin to... I feel the Lord just wonderfully camped right down on this. And we're going to close on these thoughts here. And I'm going to ask a few questions that I'd like for you to answer rhetorically.

That is in your own heart before God. The first question is this. Are you seeing the need for others in your life? In your family, how well do you take each other's constructive criticism? Parents of older children, how well do you take it when one of your kids point out to you an inconsistency in your life?

Well, you don't know anything. You're just a young kid. Or do you say, pray for me. I think you're right. Once this is raw in your family, begin to look for God to bring others into your life so you can learn how to share your burdens with others.

Let us. Let's bow our hearts for a moment in prayer. We cannot satisfy God's heart, beloved, if we seek to walk in the good of these 14 admonitions in the book of Hebrews alone. We must, by the grace of God and by the direction of God and by the leading of God, enter into a Christianity that is together with others.

A Prayer for Grace to Walk Together

And Father, I pray that You would grant everyone the grace, the awakening to see our need to walk together with other believers in a daily fashion. Father, I pray that You would begin to awaken our hearts to the need for transparency, vulnerability, and accountability.

Father, please do a deep work. Deliver us from fear. Deliver us, Lord, from wanting to buck up against Your provision of togetherness. Heal us, Lord. Free us from pride. Lord, work in us deep, deep works of grace that we might have love to forbear.

Some of you have had friends in the past. And because they have failed you, because they let you down, you've closed your heart to them. And you know when that happens, it's always one-sided. You ever notice that?

It's always one-sided. As if you never did anything to hurt them. You ever notice when someone breaks off with someone, it's all the other person's fault? But they can't see how many times they might have failed, but yet they stayed right in there.

So that whole scenario rots. It rots. God wants to bring healing into your heart today. God wants to bring healing, a deep healing into your heart and restore into your heart the ability to walk together with others.

Now, Father, we commit this word into Thy hands and pray by the power of the Holy Spirit of God You would perform this. Help us, Lord, as we go through these 14 words of admonition that we might be able to receive them by Your covenant promise through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen and Amen. Now, please get a bulletin in the back. If you want to go to the Pregnancy Center banquet, you have got to call the number and make a reservation. Time's running out. It's November 2nd.

But now for a few minutes, let's let God minister to us and work this in our hearts. It's time for togetherness with other people.