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Dr. Irwin "Rocky" Freeman
Ephesians 2, I appreciate all of you being here tonight, and let me just say that I am grateful also for those that have been here each evening, taking time out to come and just study God's Word together.
I want us to read in just a moment from Ephesians 2, from verse 4 through verse 10, and then begin reading with verse 14 and read through verse 18. And the blood, just talking about the blood. We talked about Monday, about being reconciled through the blood, how through the blood of Christ you are reconciled to God.
No more separation, you are at one with God now. You have a unity as a Christian. You have a harmony with God. I mean, you don't have to worry about it, it's been done. It's already accomplished, thereby you have complete pardon from your sin.
You've already been pardoned, you're not going to get it later. You have already been pardoned because of the blood of Christ. Then we talked about how you are cleansed, and the cleansing was that inner effect that took over, that thing that got the stain and the pollution of sin out of our lives that tainted us and contaminated us because of our being separated from God.
And then we talked about how you are sanctified, you are set apart. Tonight I want to talk about fellowship with God through the blood, access to the presence of God. It's utterly amazing. Listen to the Scripture.
Follow along with me. If you don't have your Bible, look on with someone close to you until you can get out and buy you one. Ephesians 2, verse 4, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive together with Christ by grace are ye saved.
Grace you are saved. Now that doesn't mean works, does it? Huh? So that means that everybody that believes in salvation by works has got to say that verse means something else. What I'm saying is there's one saved, always saved right there.
Because you are saved by the grace of God, not anything you want to do. It just says by grace you are saved, and watch it, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
As a Christian, spiritually, every Christian is lifted and spiritually we are made to be seated in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus. And once a Christian gets there, you can't get out spiritually. Once you have access to that spiritually, you cannot lose it.
You don't have that access for a while. Look at verse 7. That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, and you just can't miss that one now, can you?
You just, you say, why do you keep harping on that every night? Because in your area of the country that is one of the biggest problems. In this area of the country, that's one of the biggest problems.
Look at verse 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Now jump down to verse 14. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall, our petition, between us.
The veil of the temple has been written in two, no more barrier. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, he's abolished the Ten Commandments as far as you having to keep them or living under them.
I don't care what garner Ted Armstrong says, you don't have to keep the law. Read John 15, you'll find where Jesus said, he kept the law, he said, you keep mine. He said, I kept the Father's and I abide his love, you keep mine, you abide my love.
He gave you two. Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and the loving neighbor like yourself. Those are the two Christ gave, and they'll take care of the Ten Commandments if you do them.
But let's continue on. And to make in himself of two one new man, so making peace. And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to them that were near.
For through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. And so I direct your attention to verse 13, the one we bypassed. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off are made near by the blood of Christ.
We who are separated from God have been brought near. And anytime you find in the scripture the word near in reference to being near to God, it is talking about the very presence of God himself. Let's pray.
We pray, Father, I ask you once again to bless the teaching of thy word. I thank you that the Holy Spirit will illuminate our minds. I thank you, Lord, that you'll cleanse us and purge us if we allow it to be so.
Father, we thank you for the cleansing and the purging power of the Holy Spirit. We thank you that we are reconciled, that there's no separation, that we are all Christian people. Every Christian is in unity with you.
We need to walk in harmony with you, but we do have union with you. We are one in Christ, Christ in us, and thou art Christ or the one, and yet you're separate. And so, Lord, we're all in one another.
And so, Father, we thank you for the goodness that has placed us within Christ, that you've made us to be seated in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus, because we are in Christ Jesus. And so, Father, we thank you for the cleansing.
We thank you for sanctifying us, setting us apart. And now, Father, as we look into the subject of having fellowship with thee, I praise your name that we have access to the presence of a holy, righteous God.
Teach us, because we ask it in Jesus' name until he returns. Amen. Now, in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off, were made nigh by the blood of Christ, are brought near. Again, in Hebrews 9, 14, it says, how much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience to serve the living God?
So we are brought near in order that we might go out and serve the Lord. We come into the presence of the Lord. That's what church is all about. You come to church to draw close to the presence of God.
You get in a worshipful attitude. And this old stuff about you can worship God as well at home as you can in church, you just can't prove it. History proves just the opposite. You can't worship God on the golf course like you can in church.
Church is the one place that is geared for worshiping the Lord. And a lot of young people, they only think, well, I ain't got in the woods and worship the Lord. Yeah, you probably could if you would, but you won't.
And I've yet to meet one that would. Every song, everything that's done inside this building is conducive to the Lord speaking to your heart. And it's geared to draw hearts and minds into worship. And we come to church as our home base to worship God and to draw close to him and get the strength that we need.
And we go out into the community to serve the Lord. Now, how can one, I ask a question, I pose it for your contemplation. How can one who is unholy have fellowship with a holy God? How can people who are unholy like we are and who've lived such an unholy and ungodly life as we have all lived, how can we have fellowship with a holy God?
This is the highest and the perfect blessing for man. It is the one that God created man for, to have fellowship with himself and to enjoy the love of God. And the psalmist said, blessed is the man or blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts, Psalm 65, 4.
Blessed is the man that you choose and that could come into your presence who can approach a holy God. That man is blessed, the Bible says. And in the nature of the case, consecration to God and nearness to God are one and the same thing.
Consecration to God and nearness to God, as far as we human beings are concerned, is exactly the same thing. Now, we've been talking about the sprinkling of the blood, and I told you that spiritually the blood of Christ was being sprinkled upon you day by day, moment by moment.
The sprinkling of the blood which sanctifies man unto God and takes possession of him for God bestows at the very same time the right of fellowship, R-I-G-H-T. You have the right to fellowship with God.
Now, that's bold, isn't it? That's a bold statement, but why do you have the right to fellowship with God? We have the right to fellowship with God. The Scripture says, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.
The high priest never went into the holy of holies without the blood. We said that if he did so, God would have killed him instantly. Nobody else could go. The Bible says he always entered, he entered in, but not without blood.
And we can never enter the presence of God without the blood of Christ. We have access to God. We can pray to God. We can talk with God. We can walk with God, have constant fellowship with him because of the blood of Christ.
You can come to God boldly asking what you will, asking what you desire. He said, well, you don't have because you don't ask. And when you do ask, you ask amiss. He said, you don't have because you don't ask.
You have not because you ask not. And when you do ask, you don't even ask right, you ask to consume it on your own lust. If we ask for something for self-gratification and self-glorification and self-lifting and self-exaltation and all that, you can forget it.
But if you go to the Lord and he'll glorify God, he'll give it to you. He'll give it to you. You bet your life. Our whole job is to glorify God. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiness by the blood of Jesus that goes on.
Here's more. Let us draw near having our hearts sprinkled. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, Hebrews the 10th chapter verses 19 and 22. Having your heart sprinkled with what? With the blood of Christ.
Your being is constantly spiritually being sprinkled. And the word there, I want you to notice, is the word E-N-T-E-R, enter. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter in. And the word enter is a peculiar word in the Bible and in this instant, it is the word that is peculiar to the priest entering into the holiest of holies and that's the only time it's used.
It is only used in reference to the priest. You say, well, why does it say, how does that apply to us? Because in the revelation, chapter 1 verse 6, it says, he has made us kings and priests unto God.
To him be the glory forever. You are a holy priesthood. A holy priesthood. That cuts out Father McGuire's New Baltimore Catechism, which says that in the confessional section at the bottom of the page, in bold print, that the priest is to be considered quote, another Christ, end quote.
Check it out. Read it. I've got a copy of it. He is to be considered another Christ. It's in Father McGuire's New Baltimore Catechism, which is one of the most reputable and one of the most respected Roman Catholic high school textbooks.
Check me out on it. It's in there. It's in there. It's on the right-hand side of the page, the last two words at the bottom. And it's in big bold print. You check me out on that. I know it's there, but what I'm saying to you is that you are a holy priesthood.
You have access to God. You don't need anybody else to talk to the Lord. You can go to him anytime you desire. Now one of the most glorious blessings made possible for us by the power of the blood is that of drawing near the throne of God into the very presence of God himself at any moment, anytime you are ready to go.
I don't care what the condition of your life is. I don't care what your attitude is. I don't care what your environment is. It doesn't make a difference about your circumstances. You can enter the presence of God anytime you desire because of the blood of Christ.
If you are a Christian, if you are in a backslidden state, you still can come to the throne of God because you are a child of God. When your child is disobedient, you don't kick them out and forget about them, and neither does God.
You let that child come back, and if that child will do what you want, then you're blessed. You'll do things for it. But if it doesn't, you get it, and God does the same thing. So that leads me to say that we have a right to dwell in the presence of God.
We have a right to live in the presence of God. Why did I say that? Well, let me go back to the Old Testament with you. The priests of Israel were to dwell, to abide continually in the presence of God.
The priests of Israel lived in the temple. The priests of Israel did not live anywhere else. They lived in the temple. They had underground passageways. They lived there, and they ate there. They ate the showbread, and they partook of the sacrifices, the meat that was left.
They consumed it. And the priests lived in the tabernacle. The priests lived in the great temple in Jerusalem when it was built. That's where they stayed. Their job was to abide, and their abode was in the presence of the Lord.
They were to abide in close proximity and fellowship and relationship into the very presence of God continually. The priests never could leave the presence of God. They stayed in the temple. That's where they lived, and that's where they existed.
And it was because of the manifested presence of God there that believers in those old days longed after the house of God with such a strong desire. That's why you read it through Proverbs. You read it all through the prophets.
You read it through the Psalms. They longed for the temple of God. They longed for the house of God. And you need to long to be in the house of God to stand in the presence of Almighty God. You ought to want to long to come and worship your Lord.
It ought to be a driving force in your life to come and worship the Lord. But most people think they, as Christians, they can choose to come to church or not choose. I mean, they can just choose to worship God or not choose.
They can choose to serve Him. If they choose not to serve Him, that's all right. But you don't have that kind of choice. Once you become a Christian, you lose all choice in your life. Once you become a Christian, you're either going to serve God or you're going to serve the consequences of not serving God.
But you're going to get it one way or the other. You're going to do what God says one way or the other. God's going to have His way. And because some finite being worth about $3 .95, being about 90 water, stands and says, well, I'm not going to worship the Lord today.
That doesn't bother God. That doesn't change His purpose at all. God's going to accomplish His purpose. You ought to want to worship the Lord because you're a holy priesthood. The scripture says, they understood something of the spiritual meaning of the privilege of drawing near to God.
They knew it was a blessed and holy privilege to draw into the presence of God. It represented to them the enjoyment of the love of God, fellowship with God, and the protection of God, and the blessing.
And if you don't think that's so, you study the Temple of Jerusalem. They had a gate. It's called the Eastern Gate. And the Bible says that the Eastern Gate would remain closed until the Messiah came and opened that Eastern Gate.
Did you know that there have been all kinds of attempts throughout history of the Temple that the Eastern Gate, they tried to blow it open, they tried to batter it down. And it seems to me like somebody could open a stupid gate.
I mean, it would seem to me like any number of men could open a gate. But that gate has never been able to be opened in all the history of the Temple. The people have tried all kinds of people, banded together.
Why? Because the Bible says that it won't be opened until the Prince comes and opens it. The Savior himself will open the Eastern Gate of the Temple. It'll be rebuilt, and it'll be rebuilt right around the same site, and the Eastern Gate remains closed.
It remained closed when it was standing after God put his judgment down on it. Why did the priests know? They just knew that once God said something, that was it, dear people. And there's nobody going to bother them while they're in that Temple.
God wouldn't allow it until they just totally corrupted it. And when they totally corrupted it, then, of course, they got out of fellowship with God and they got out of the protection of God. And that leads me to say this.
You have the protection of God as long as you walk in fellowship with God. But when you get out of fellowship with God as a Christian person, you lose the protection of God. God doesn't protect you in rebelliousness.
When you rebel against God, you get out of his protection. And that's why Satan attacks instantly, in full force, to ravage the life, just totally destroy it if he can quickly, because he knows that there's a possibility of somebody witnessing to a person, or they're hearing a song, or hearing a sermon, or reading somewhere in the Bible, and have a chance of coming back to the Lord in full fellowship.
But these people knew about the fellowship and the protection and the blessing of God and enjoying his love. And they could say, Oh, how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee.
Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence. Psalm 31 verses 19 and 20. Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence. When I learned about the joy and the protection and the authority and the love and the blessings of dwelling in the secret of the presence of God, it revolutionized my Christian life.
It totally, completely changed my Christian life when I understood what it meant to be under the wings of the shadow of the Almighty God. If you've never read the little missionary book, In the Shadow of the Almighty, about the missionaries who were beheaded by the Aucklandians, you ought to read it and you ought to think about your own life.
Don't think about how God blessed them. Think about why you don't have the same kind of life they had. We read all the missionary books and how God blessed them out of the jaws of the lion and all these other doctors were killed and Bill Wallace of China lost all.
It's wonderful how their faith, why don't you have the kind of faith they have? Why don't I exemplify the kind of life they exemplify? What's the difference? There is no difference in them and us. The only difference is they live what they believe and we talk about what we believe.
That's the big difference. We've never learned to dwell in the secret of the presence of God. But I say to you tonight that the blood of Jesus Christ has opened the way for every Christian into the God's presence and fellowship with him is a deep spiritual reality.
It's among the deep things of the scripture and you don't get it by superficial Christian life and you don't get it by skimming through the scripture and you don't grasp it and understand it by just reading around on verses, loads of daily Bible readings that take you back and forth in the same books.
You find out about it by getting into the word of God and digesting it and studying it and reading it and finding out what God has to say to you from the word of God. Some of you don't even have your Bible with you tonight and that's why you don't know all that God has to say to us from his precious word that we can use.
And he who knows the full power of the blood of Christ is brought so near that he can always live in the immediate presence of God and in the enjoyment of the unspeakable blessings attached to it. He lives daily in the friendship and fellowship with God.
I said lives daily, moment by moment, day by day, hour by hour, he can live in the experience of constant fellowship with almighty God because of the blood of Christ. His spirit and his soul is kept in perfect peace and rest.
If you can't rest good, something's wrong. If you don't have peace, something's wrong. If you don't have peace of mind, peace of heart, peace within your soul, if you don't rest in peace every moment of your life, something's wrong with your spiritual life.
It's not God. There's nothing wrong with God. There's nothing wrong with the church. There's nothing wrong with the pastor. There's something wrong with your spiritual life. Don't blame it on the pastor.
That's the first one everybody wants to run to and they got spiritual problems. It's the pastor, it's the church, it's the song leader. It's God, it's the Lord. God's forgotten me. Why don't you admit the fact that maybe you've forgotten God but I hear that all the time.
God doesn't hear, God, he's forgotten me. And you start checking out that life and you'll find all down in that life, they forgot God. Had no time for him and no place for him. And dear people, that's why they don't have perfect peace and rest.
God is ever directing the kind of Christian who will walk in the presence of God constantly. God directs him, he teaches him, he guides him and fellowship with God exercises a tremendous and wonderful influence on his life and character and it produces God-like dispositions.
It gives him the dispositions and the attitude that Christ had and that's what the Bible talks about when we're to be little Christ and we talked about being Christians. We'd have the same disposition and the attitude and the only way you can get it is to walk in the presence of God.
You can't do it and walk your own way. You can't do it and govern your own life. It's an impossibility. The psalmist said, it is good for me to draw nigh to God. It's good for me to draw near to God, Psalm 73 around verse 28.
That's what he said. What about we as Christians? That's what the psalmist said 1 ,000 years before Christ was ever born. He said, it's good for me to draw into the presence of God. It's good for me to draw near to God but we as Christian believers have 1 ,000 times more reasons to speak thusly.
Now that the veil of the temple is rent asunder and the way is open for every living creature to always live forever in God's presence. We ought to be 1 ,000 times more rejoicing. We ought to be 1 ,000 times more joyous in the fact that we can have open access to God.
They couldn't go into the presence of God because they had to let the high priest do it for them. Only he could go in once a year on the day of atonement, Yom Kippur. Only he but not you and me, we can go to the presence of God and stay in the presence of God.
We can live in the presence of God. You can walk in the presence of God. You can exist and abide constantly, moment by moment, second by second in the presence of Almighty God. They ought to make us rejoice instead of looking like you've been to a funeral service.
It is impossible. I'll say to you, it is impossible for a Christian to be satisfied with any less. You will never be satisfied with your Christian life until you sell out and completely surrender your life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You're never gonna be satisfied. You're gonna hunt. You're gonna be gripey, grumpy, irritable. You're gonna be critical. You're gonna gossip. You're gonna spread rumors. You're gonna backbite. You're gonna make God promises and break them.
Gonna be covenant breakers, truth breakers. All these things are gonna permeate your life. They're gonna come up and keep cropping up in your life until you learn the secret of committing all that you are to God through Jesus Christ and abiding in his presence.
Well, it opens the door if you do it. It has a responsibility. You see, that's a blessed privilege, but with every privilege, there's responsibility. Now, many churches today are making the gross mistake of preaching privilege without precept.
They're preaching how much we got in Christ and all this, and there are a lot of churches that are just growing with people who come in here, oh, how God loves them, and all this stuff, and oh, God just loves you, and oh, God will bless you and all that stuff, but they do not understand that there is a holy responsibility that comes with that.
You see, with all that, it opens the doors of service, so we need to consider the job of offering spiritual sacrifices to God or the vocation of offering spiritual sacrifices to God. It is a job you and I are called to do is to offer spiritual sacrifices to God.
The priests of Israel drew near to God as servants in the holy place. That's what the priests were. They were servants of the people. They were servants before the Lord. They were servants for God. They were servants to God.
They were servants for the people, and they were servants to the people. They took the blessings from God and shared them with the people. They were the avenue. Back in those days, they served, and their service consisted basically in the bringing in of the blood of the sprinkling.
Also, they were involved in the preparation of the incense to fill the house of God with its fragrance in the ordering of everything, making the provisions according to God's word that pertain to the arrangement of the temple or the tabernacle.
They brought the sacrifices in. They killed them. They offered them. They brought the incense in and burned it as a special incense that was lifted up as a fragrance to God as it spiraled up. It was pleasing unto God.
And they ordered the provisions that were to be made. They made sure everything was correct and clean. They made sure nothing was broken. Everything was taken care of in perfect order. Now, if the blood of Jesus Christ brings us as near to God, it is to serve him and to bring to him spiritual sacrifices which are pleasing in his sight.
Now, I wanna give three contrasts or three analogies, perhaps. The priest brought the blood into the holy place. They came walking in with the blood into the holy place and offered it to God. No offering is more pleasing to God than our coming with a believing honoring of the blood of the Lamb of God.
If you reject the blood, God will reject you. No man can curse the blood of Christ. I believe that that'll get you into more serious consequences quicker than anything I know of, and that's taking lightly, making a mockery of, ridiculing, taking for granted, or abusing the blood of Christ.
That's why any time you take the Lord's Supper, I've preached it to you, your pastor's preached it to you, you better make dead sure that every sin in your life is confessed that you know about, and you better make it a holy moment in your church.
When most people think it's just some little ritual they go through and they treat the Lord's Supper just like they treat baptism, it's just nothing, and yet both of them were given by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we take them as nothing when it's precious lies and the Lord's Supper is holy and it's sacred. But we Baptists who do believe it's just symbolic have believed that so much so that we've gone the other way and it's just nothing now, it's just some grape juice and a little wafer that you can play games with.
And I watch young people and adults alike sit and put that wafer in their mouth and look at each other and grin and smile when you ought to have your head bowed and your heart tuned to God. You better read 1 Corinthians 11th chapter, read it again, I've told you about it this week, read it again.
Many are weak physically, Paul said. Many are sickly physically and many are dead because they took the Lord's Supper with sin in their life, read it. God will take your life. Many of your friends and relatives are dead because they play games with God in the matter of the Lord's Supper, Holy Communion.
God will not tolerate anybody abusing the blood of Christ. I believe that no offering is more pleasing than that we honor and believe in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we Baptists have been ridiculed and criticized throughout our history for being a, quote, blood-bought religion or a slaughterhouse religion, as some of the old people used to say back in the early days, the Camelites and a few of the others.
You say, oh, you got a slaughterhouse religion. I thank God for the blood of Christ. And every denomination that's turned away from the blood of Christ, God has annihilated them eventually off the face of the earth.
God will destroy any people that turn away from the blood of the Lamb. But also, we said the priest brought incense into the holy place for fragrance. It was a fragrance unto God. Our prayers are a delightful incense to the Lord.
Read the book of Revelation. The prayers were a fragrance unto the Lord. In a deep sense of dependence upon him, grace is sought for, expected, and given by God. Another duty of the priest was to attend to the cleansing or the providing, the provision, as was necessary in the ministry of the house of God.
About now. Well, I thank the Lord that there are no outward nor exclusive arrangements for divine worship. There is nowhere in the Bible are we told how we ought to run a church service. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that you've got to sing three hymns and then you've got to take an offering.
There's nowhere in the Bible that says you can't take the offering last or first. There's nowhere in the Bible that says you can't take the invitation money at first or last. There's nowhere in the Bible that it gives you an order of service.
And I'm convinced in most of the churches I go to, they are so geared to a particular order of the service that the Holy Spirit of God has no leeway whatsoever. I was in a church. I may have shared this with you in January.
I don't know that I did, but I'll share it with you again at this point to illustrate. I was in a church and I felt very strongly that night, a large church, much larger than your own. And I felt in my heart that God didn't want us to take an offering that night.
And I realized it was costing me money. It was the offer was gonna go to me and I understood that. And I just leaned over and I said, pastor, I really feel in my heart that God doesn't want us to have an offering tonight.
I just don't think we ought to take one. So if you just pass that over to him and we'll let him sing the song and I'll go ahead and preach tonight and we won't have an offering. He said, we got to take an offering.
I said, well, I just feel like we ought not to. He said, but he's already, he said, he's already passed the word. He said, he's got it on that little card. He's wrote out a three by five card. He said, he's already passed it to the ushers.
He said, they're ready to come. The organist and the pianist get. I said, well, just stand up and change it. And he wouldn't do it. And they took the offering and nothing from that night until Sunday, nothing happened in that church, nothing.
I preached my heart out. Some of the faithful people were praying their lungs out and nothing because we disobeyed God. And I told the people when I stood to preach, I said, I'm shocked, stunned, and amazed that I could stand in a church and lean over to anybody.
And I said, I feel like God didn't want us to take an offering tonight. And I so stated, but we had to take it because it was in your service. You already had it written down on a stupid little three by five card and the Holy Spirit couldn't change it.
I probably won't go back to that church as long as the staff is there, but that doesn't bother me that much because it's the truth. It's the truth. And when God gets ready for me to go back there, he can send two funerals and get me back there in a hurry.
It doesn't take long for God to get you where you want, as long as you want. He'd settled that. I learned that a long time ago. He gets you there and that you'll probably go back too. I wouldn't be surprised to go back there.
I might go back next year. I don't know. It doesn't take long. One good heart attack, you know, things change in a hurry. It's surprising what kind of changes take place, but what I want you to know is, dear people, that there is no divine.
So when your pastor stands and if he changes things around a little bit, you just let it alone. Let it alone. If he stands and says, I think we'll just have testimonies of song and praise tonight. Let it alone.
And if he's not the man of God that you believe he is, then he ought not to be your pastor. It's that simple. And he'll tell you one. If you don't believe he's the man of God, he don't want to be your pastor.
I know him that well. And I'll go get another one. If you don't get behind him and serve him, you're going to lose him. I'll get him. God won't let a man like this run around loose. Uh-uh. There are too many people that need a man like this.
You better pray. You better think. You better go get in some of those 375. Round them up plus. God won't let a man who loves him stand around in a place that's stagnated. You get stagnated, boy, God can move him out of here in a hurry.
Just remember, I told you so. Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10, 31. Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
And in this way, all our actions become thank offerings to God. Everything we do is a thank offering to God because we're doing it as unto the Lord. We're doing it to the glory of God. You teach Sunday school, you ought to be doing it to honor the Lord, doing it for the Lord Jesus.
I ought to come and speak to you to do it for the Lord. I ought to not do it for myself. I ought to do it to honor the Lord and give him the glory for it. And this is what it says, how little Christians realize or recognize the glory of a life of complete consecration.
Now, I hesitate to make that statement because I want you to know that I do not put myself up as your example. I understand that. Christ is our example. We measure all ourselves up to him. But I am convinced from experience, because I've been there, and from people that I've observed who've lived there, I'm convinced that most Christians do not recognize and are almost completely ignorant of the blessings of a life that is completely and totally consecrated to God.
They just know nothing about it. They know nothing about it. Most Christians live in the flesh world. Most Christians live in the realm of the soul. That's the realm of your emotions and your feelings.
And what you feel and what you sense and all this, that's where most people live, in the realm of their feelings and their senses. They live in the soul realm and not the spirit realm. And there's a difference in living in the soul realm and the spirit realm.
Most people are there. And the highest blessing of the priesthood is that the priest appears as a representative of others before God. That was his job. He appeared before God as a representative of the other people of Israel.
And so I say to you that they had a power to procure blessings for other people. And I believe that Christians have a power given to them to procure or get blessings for other people in their lives because of our access to God.
In Israel, the priests were the mediators between God and the people. They carried into the presence of God the sins and the needs of the people and they prayed for them. They obtained from God blessings for the people.
I believe that we can exercise our priestly dignity in two ways. One of them is intercession. I don't believe there's any greater blessing for a Christian than to intercede on behalf of another Christian.
I don't believe there's any greater need than that. I'll give you an example. We were talking the other night. He came up and asked me, he said, I want to know about your family. He said, I've been praying.
And he said, some of us men said, we've been praying for your family. And many of you know the story about my family that I have no contact with them because I'm a Christian and haven't had for some time.
And I made this statement when it first happened in a church. A lot of people criticized the buses. They don't want to spend the money for the buses and they don't want to do this. Well, it just so happened that my sisters, two little Jewish boys were out playing one Sunday.
Sunday, you know, that's a play day for the Jews, you know. And they were out playing around. And they were playing with a bunch of kids. And a bus come pulling up to the stop and it happened to be a bus from a little Baptist church over in Nashville, Tennessee.
And they asked some of the kids, said, what are y 'all gonna get on that bus for? And they were kids about nine or 10 years old. And he said, where are you going? And they said, we're going to this place.
And he said, man, they give you hot chocolate. They give you punch. And said, they give you cookies. Said, you get to make things. And said, you know, they tell stories. And said, boy, they got little dramas and they act out all these things.
They didn't tell me nothing. These kids never been to church in their life. I mean, they're just like I was. I never been to church in my life. Didn't know anything about it. So they went on down there.
Well, they came home and they found out when they got there that it was a church. Well, they couldn't come home and tell her that. But next Sunday, they out there again. And they playing around at the same bus stop.
And that Sunday, they went down there and they got saved, both of them. So they came home and nobody said anything, but the pastor came to visit. He wanted to baptize the boy. So he came to talk to the parents.
And they went up the wall. I mean, I can imagine what it was like. I can imagine in my mind, I don't believe he's ever grabbed hold of anybody like he grabbed hold of when he walked into that home. So she went down to check everything out.
And it wasn't long after that she began writing my wife. She began writing her. And one of the first questions she asked, she said, they said this place, she told her the whole thing and said, this place is supposed to be of God.
I want to know why they don't ever talk about Abraham. Said they never talk about Moses and yet it's supposed to be of God. She couldn't understand. And she started writing questions. And my wife started, she doesn't write me, she just writes my wife.
My wife starts answering all these questions. And then in about two letters ago, just a short time ago, she told my wife, and I read the letter. She said, you know, she said, your letter seems so full of happiness and joy and contentment in life.
And she said, if that's what this brings to you, sometimes I wish I could be a Christian. Now that kid has access to that entire family line. Well, not long after that, I got word that my kid brother had had some tragedy in his life, some problems and difficulties.
And he was contemplating just ending life, just cutting it all off, just doing away with life. We got worried about it. And so we called him, found out where he was and called him long distance and began talking with him.
Again, I got my wife on the phone. I couldn't get anywhere with him. And I got her on the phone and she has a way. And she started talking to him and we played with him and asked him to come and spend two weeks with us.
And then at the end of those two weeks, if he decided he wanted to end everything, it'd be a, you know, whatever you want to do. He's an adult, he can do it. He came and when he left and I put him on that plane to go back to our home, his home now where he lives and teaches school, I said, I've got to know now.
We've talked about many things and we got into the brass tacks of life. And I said, do you really have the Lord in your heart? And he said, I know I do. I know I do. And I've got people across this country that have been praying and praying and praying and praying and praying for them.
Now, if she finds it, it won't be long. It won't be long. I called home two nights ago. She said, I just got a letter from your sister. I said, what'd she say? She said, your mother just came to visit her.
And my mother hadn't been to visit her in months. The Lord's drawing everything around. And if the Lord just hangs on long enough, if he doesn't come, then they'll all get saved. But if he does come, they might get saved during the tribulation.
But what I'm saying to you basically, dear people, out of this is that we have the power through praying for people to get a blessing for their life. I could have given up a long time ago. Some of you have been praying for them.
You could have given up a long time ago, brother, or you could have quit and gotten discouraged. But because people didn't quit, they're finding Christ. And not only them, I could name you thousands of people that I get letters from them.
Around this world that are finding Christ. I received a letter from Nigeria. Finding Christ. India, finding Christ. Because somebody's praying. That's the great thing about praying. You can't get over there to them, but I guarantee you, you can pray in the Lord and get to them in a hurry.
You can get to them just like that, and it doesn't take long. And get them a blessing in their life. I believe that intercessory prayer. And I know people who have that ministry. I know there are some people who that God just laid on their hearts.
They spend hours a day in just praying for other people. Now, you know what most people say about that? Well, all you do is sit around and pray. You ought to be out here doing like I do. Well, maybe God don't want them doing like you do.
Thank God for that. Maybe God wants them praying. Now, you have to let a man choose what the talent God's given him. I have a man on my board of directors that I don't have that man praying for me and anybody I know.
And he does, he prays all the time. He prays three or four hours and he quit. He'll go and do something. He'll go pray three or four more hours. I don't see a man who prays like it. He prays all the time.
Every time you get around him, he wants to pray. You say, let's go eat lunch together. And he says, well, can we pray before we go? You got to go out an hour early to get him before you pray. He just, the way he is, a guy don't do nothing.
He just prays all the time. And he has this ministry. But dear people, I believe that in true prayer of faith, that the intercessor must spend time with God. You've got to spend time with God. I'm not talking about a few minutes.
I'm talking about hours. Praying Hyde spent 40 days and 40 nights on his knees before God. 40 days and 40 nights. That man never got up off his knees. Read his life, praying Hyde. Read about that great man of God's life.
George Mueller, who had those great orphanages throughout the world, prayed one time. He prayed for $3 million, didn't tell anybody about it. Just talked to the Lord about it and he began to get it. I found the same thing in the smaller ways true in our ministry.
We have many needs in our ministry. We're praying for office machinery. We don't have the finances to get them. We're praying for this. And my secretary, every day she prays and I pray. And we've seen God move it in.
We just got a new office machine into our office, a beautiful thing. And we've been praying for some time. And I was telling Goldie about the other day. I just, I said, I don't know how we're going to pay for it.
We got it. But Lord, you know, and boy, that night I got a phone call from an attorney in another state. He said, I've sent you a little gift. Two days later, got a check for $400. That thing only cost me 700.
In the mail that same day, I got about 150 more from people. $550 in one day. That thing don't cost me seven. I'm amazed every time I see him do something. And yet I've seen him do it all the time. But every time he does it, I just get more amazed.
And what'd he done? Well, pastor, I don't think we ought to spend that much money, you know. We don't need a sign like that out in front of the church. We don't need our church paying. Pastor, that's a little waste of money.
And on we go. God's got all the money in the world here, people. If you walk in with the Lord, he'll give you all you need. He'll put it to you. Just walk with him. He'll give it to you. Pray, pray, pray.
And in the promises of his word, be taught of the Lord. We need to get along with him, be taught by him. How to pray and whether the particular promise that we're praying for can be applied to that particular case.
And the only way you learn that is spend time with God. To learn whether, you can't just pray loosely and pray everything for everybody. You gotta get along with God and determine from God's word and the leadership of his spirit, whether or not a particular promise will fit that particular case.
And let Lord put upon you the burden of the sin and the need which is in the other person's life or that's the purpose of the prayer. And lay fast hold of the promise concerning it as though he were praying for himself.
To have that kind of a burden for somebody else that you'd pray for them like you would have to pray for yourself if you had a particular burden and need. And that person remains in the presence of God until God by his spirit awakens the faith that is in them in the matter of the prayer that is being prayed.
And then the second thing I find that we can procure blessings is instrumentality. Intercessory and instrumentality. We not only obtain some blessings for others but become the instruments by whom it is ministered.
I said the priest went in and they took the blood and they prayed for the forgiveness of the sins of the people. The high priest went in once a year, prayed for the sins of the people. Every time the people offered a sacrifice the priest prayed for the forgiveness of sins of people.
But then there were other times whenever they brought the blessings to the people. They came and told them your sins are forgiven. And the people watched for that high priest to come out on the day of atonement.
When he went into the presence of God in the tabernacle with the blood, they waited because if he didn't come out then they knew that God didn't honor them. They knew that their sins were not forgiven.
They watched him and brother when he came out there was the blasting of the silver trumpets and they were shouting for joy and glee and happiness and there was a good time in Jerusalem. Because they knew when he came out that God had heard and God had answered and God had forgiven and God was going to bless them further and the great and wonderful thing about it is he always came out.
I don't know why they ever warned him he wouldn't but he always did come out because he went in with the blood. And that's why you'll always know that when you go in God always blesses you because of the blood.
As long as he had that blood God's obligated himself to bless you. As long as you got the blood on your life and you always do as a Christian. But you see every believer is called and feels himself compelled by love to labor on behalf of other people.
He knows that God has blessed him that he might be a blessing to other people and the holy life giving power of the blood, the life giving power of the blood will create in him the same disposition or attitude as that is which is in the Lord Jesus and that caused him to shed his life the sacrifice of himself to redeem other people.
Self-giving from our word and example blessings will flow because we dwell with him who is pure total blessing himself. Now for those who truly desire the blessing of a consecrated life of fellowship with God we need first of all to lay hold fast that the life of fellowship with God is for me.
You have to stop thinking about everybody else getting right with God for a while and you got to start thinking about yourself. That that life of fellowship with God is for me, for me. You see when I studied the Bible I have a great tendency to always be looking for something to preach to somebody else.
I got to watch that. I mean I can read books, anything and I said boy that's a good sermon. Boy and I write a note down. I said boy that's a good illustration that'll really get them, all that. And then I said now what am I reading this for?
I'm reading it primarily for myself. I say Lord now teach me something. He'll take that illustration and say well does that one fit you? Oh no, it don't fit me. I get on the, I get back over here in Psalms.
I like those you know. Then I get back over here in Luke or somewhere and I get to read, no, no, no. But you see you have to be very careful that we have to understand that the life of fellowship and we must declare that it is for me.
And the father does not wish that one of his children should live far off from him. God doesn't wish that we live far off from him. Also you let your heart be filled with faith and the power of the blood of reconciliation.
By that I mean that you understand that sin has been so completely atoned for in your life and blotted out in your life that its power to keep you away from God has been completely taken away forever.
Sin has been so completely atoned for in your life as a Christian. It has been so completely blotted out dear people that it has no dominion over you whatsoever and it cannot stop you. It cannot separate you.
It cannot keep you from the presence of God for one moment. That's how powerful the blood of Christ is in dealing in your life. Live in the joyful profession that sin is powerless to separate you one moment from God and believe that you have been fully sanctified and that you have a righteous claim to a place in the holy sanctuary and you have a right to claim it and you ought to claim it because the blood of Christ gave it to you and you need to claim it.
It's yours. Christ will reveal himself then to you by the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the life conforming to the word of God. The blood of Christ was shed to unite us to God. The blood has accomplished its work and it'll perfect it in you.
The blood has unspeakable virtue and glory in God's sight. The mercy seat sprinkled with blood is the chosen place of God's abode and is his throne of grace and the blood has irresistible power. The Bible says washed and made white in the blood of the lamb.
Therefore, are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple and this word about eternal glory has a meaning here and now. You've been washed white in the blood of the lamb. I don't care what kind of life, you've been washed white in the blood of the lamb.
You are white, pure, clean in the blood of the lamb. That's who you are in Christ. You've got it. It's yours. And the fuller our faith and the fuller our experience of the power of the blood of Christ, just the closer the fellowship and the more sure abiding near the throne, the wider the entrance to the unbroken ministry of God in his sanctuary and here on earth, the victory to serve the living God and just the richer, the priestly blessing which you will spread around everybody that comes in contact with you.
Fellowship with God. You have access to him anytime you want it. You belong to him. You can talk to him. You can walk with him. You can live with him. You can fellowship with him. Even on this earthly plane, moment by moment, day by day, every moment of your life, you can live it by abiding in the presence of God.
How do you do it? Keep the sin out of your life. When you sin, confess it. If you do, you don't even break fellowship with God. You don't even break fellowship with God. If we judge ourselves, 1 Corinthians 11 says, if you judge yourself, then God doesn't judge you.
If you judge yourself, it says God won't judge you. Read it. Learn the last couple of verses in 1 Corinthians 11. You are a child of God and you've been washed white in the blood of the Lamb. That's who you are.
That's who you are. Clean in the blood of the Lamb.