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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/john-fitzpatrick/six-days-of-the-christian-life/
Father, we draw an eye and thank Thee for our beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank Thee for our gathering together unto Himself, and we thank Thee for the truths of the Holy Scriptures to guide us and to guard us and to help us to walk in the right ways of the Lord.
Give help through this morning session, we ask, in the worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. This is the first time I have ever spoke in an assembly in Iowa, so it's kind of a new thing to me, if you want to label it that way, and appreciate the privilege to be here very much.
I would like to touch on six days in a believer's life, and I appreciate very much the comments that have been made by my brethren. We all know that doctrine doesn't divide, doctrine unites. A little lad one time was asked by a man, he says, can you tell me what bad doctrine is?
And the lad had an answer I never would have been able to as a lad, and he said, bad doctrine is when the doctor gives bad medicine to the patient. You know, what we need today is, people say we need change and all those technical ramifications.
Well, I want to say the only change we need, and I'm speaking to myself, beloved, is that we obey what the Word of God says. But I want to look at simply six days found in the believer's life, 1 Corinthians chapter 4, 2 Corinthians chapter 6, and verse 2, I actually moved to Phoenix two years ago, we'll get you up to date later on, 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 2, For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted in a day of salvation, I have succored thee, and behold, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.
I'm not going to do all my reading at once, but I want to try and touch on quickly the six days I want to label in a believer's life. And the first one is the day of salvation, I'd like to touch on baptism, lordship, the truth of gathering to his name, the day of adversity, and of course, the judgment seat of Christ.
What a wonderful thing it is to be saved and know him whom to know his life eternal. As Brother Scott was telling us, and everyone that knows him whom to know his life eternal, we want to mention that this so great salvation, this having salvation, the Lord Jesus is our savior, it's not a dull, dreary life.
You haven't begun to live until you've come to know him whom to know his life eternal. But as we weave on the word of God, I find the beginning where we began was when we came to know him whom to know his life eternal.
We're living in a day today in different areas, different places, and I told the brethren at home on Wednesday night, I had the Bible reading and I says, you know, we're living in a day today at times where we do not hear a clear gospel.
And I says, if I brought somebody in from the outside in the community I live and they went through the meeting, they'd go away saying, I got a few Bible facts. The gospel message is that Christ died for the ungodly.
We're not here to give a political message, politically correct you might say, but a biblically correct message guided by the spirit of God with the power of God, we will see men and women come to know him whom to know his life eternal.
The gospel is a lifeline of the assembly. And sometimes, you know, we all get discouraged and I've learned very much if anybody comes to be very thankful for it, but that's the lifeline of the assembly.
That's how assemblies grow. That's how assemblies are planted. And did you know it's not an intellectual process? It's not one plus one equals two and therefore you're saved. I remember listening about a brother one time, Mr. Lloyd Boldhagen, labored in Mississippi.
I've never been there, but I've got a grandfather from Alabama. And he said he used to raise ducklings. Now, I've never had ducklings and he used to listen to them scratch in the shell. And he decided that he would help the little duckling become a duck.
And so he decided to help the birth process and he helped crack the egg open. Do you know what he found out? Every duckling that he tried to help was a dead duckling. So when we preach the word of God, we need a preach, we need a pray, and we need a back away for the spirit of God to work or we're going to have dead ducklings and we're going to have false professions.
I can't talk you into salvation. And you believe that? I believe that. You believe that? Well, then you're saved. That's not salvation. Salvation is illumination from the God of heaven. What the Lord Jesus has done for us on the cross at Calvary.
You can label it in Ephesians, they first trusted. You can label it in John's gospel, they received. You can come into the book of Acts and they believed or they trusted. And so the number one day and the most important day in a person's life is the day of salvation.
Can I just ask you a little question? I know it's not a gospel meeting, but can you remember that day in your life? Not only when you were awakened in your need, not only awakened in your danger, but you found out wonder of wonders and marvel of marvels, the son of God loved me and gave himself for me.
Matthew's gospel please, chapter 28. Truth of baptism. I'm just going to touch on a few verses. I don't see a clock, but I have a watch and it's not doing too good. I remember Mr. Gordon Williams one time.
He said that he had a wonderful experience, the battery in the clock broke. And I remember one time the saints were relieved when the battery in the clock broke and I looked at my watch because they wanted me to end earlier than I wanted to end.
Well, Matthew's gospel chapter 28 on verse 19, great commission, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy ghost, teaching them to observe some things.
Now Scott's class is just about popped off his head. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I'm with you always unto the end of the world. I want to suggest that one of the great big outward steps in a believer's life is that day, that night, that evening, that afternoon, when you went into the waters of baptism to obey the Lord Jesus Christ, it won't give you any special power, but I come to first Peter chapter three in verse 21, I find you get a clear conscience before God.
It's not an optional truth. It doesn't give you a salvation. What does it really mean is I am hoisting the flag. He is my Lord and my savior. And by his grace, I have died to the world. It's once and it's wishes.
I remember a meetings in castle guard, BC, little Mary, she was 81 years of age, sat in the front row of the tent and we talked to her and said, how come you're coming to the meetings? Well, she says, I'm, I'm on that broad road and I'm old and I need to get on the narrow road.
Thank the Lord. She got saved teaching meetings in the home, develop it a new area. And she says, I want to be baptized. I want to follow the Lord Jesus. So a couple of days before I knocked at the home with Linda hearing, how you doing?
And she had the biggest sniffles you could ever find. And she says, you know, John, I've been doing some serious thinking and I think I'm getting a cold and I think I should put the baptism off until the spring.
Oh, really? So I decided probably unique approach. I went to the sporting goods store and I knocked at the door with a bathing cap. I got a pink one and I'm there at the door and I says, now, Mary, you know what?
I've been contemplating this. And if you wear this bathing cap and you keep your mouth closed during the baptism, you know what? I don't think you're going to get sick at all. We went through with the baptism.
She had the heebie-jeebies over it, however you want to label it. And you know what she said? I'm sure thankful I obeyed the Lord. I'm sure thankful I didn't put it off to the spring. Every one of us.
And if you don't, you can tell me, I've talked to doctors. They say there's no such thing, but I think there is. I call it a chicken gland. Inside us, we kind of know what we ought to do. And all of a sudden there's a hesitancy factor.
And I don't know if it's going to work and I don't know if it's the right time. We miss out on blessing and we miss out on living the Christian life and enjoying the joy of salvation. Mr. Sidney Maxwell used to teach us there's two things to look for in baptism.
New life in Christ and death to the world in its wants and its wishes. Romans chapter 12, the watch is moving too fast. Lordship. What does it really mean and how does it apply and what is the significance of it in my life?
We all know he's either Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. Some maybe it occurred in baptism, or in baptism when they were baptized or when they came into the assembly. But most that I meet in my own life, there was a crisis, you might say.
What world am I going to live for? Am I willing to attempt by his grace to surrender all for the namesake of the Lord Jesus Christ? Or am I going to go after this, that or the other? Romans chapter 12 and verse one.
Now I beseech you, I beg of you. It behooves you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove that it's a good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
C .T. Studds said, because of his great sacrifice for me on the cross, there is no sacrifice too great for me on my part. You can't serve two masters. You can't stay on two sides of the fence any way you want to develop it.
And I want to suggest that in a believer's life, there can be a crisis time that occurs. It may have taken place at your salvation, I'm not to say. When all of a sudden there's a wrestling with the spirit of God and the word of God, and am I willing to yield this life to him?
Am I willing by his grace that he will be Lord and to let him lead me and guide me and direct me and enable me in some little way, in some little measure to exalt the lovely man of Calvary who gave himself for me?
Now I'd just like to ask you a question, maybe because I do gospel work mostly. Can you remember that crisis time in your life when you came to that point, take me, use me, make me, mold me for thy honor and glory?
It might've been changing companions that was involved. It might've been leaving a career behind. There's always a cost, never a regret. So I just want to ask you, not when you were saved, not when you got baptized, good to go over, but can you remember when you surrendered all that he would be Lord?
Well, can't call him Lord and not obey. I want to touch on for a few minutes, you can jot down the verses. What is the local assembly about? What does it really mean to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ?
I didn't have the privilege to grow up in a Christian home. Father was one religion. Mother was another religion. And all of a sudden this fellow came along and I was christened at three days of age. They tell me, I don't remember it.
In the fifth grade to join mother's church, they had me immersed in water and a man was called the reverend with a robe and stained glass windows and in 1959 I got saved by his grace in the fall and things were different in the home and they thought I was off the rocker.
What do you want to be baptized for? You've already been baptized and well, you must just be getting a holy roller or maybe there's something wrong upstairs. I know I lived in Yonkers, New York, but I wasn't bonkers, I want to assure you.
And college applications, well, what are you going to put down for your religion? Your dad's got this and you've got that. What are you? Well, I says, I'm a Christian and I'm gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't know what it mattered, but my mother was always on this like, well, if I have to bring you to the hospital and they got to know what your religion are, you haven't got anything to put down. No, I haven't got a religion, got a faith in the crucified one, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Genesis chapter 49, I just going to give you the verses because naturally not growing up in the Christian home and not having the privilege of many dear ones, I wrestle with truth through the years. Is the assembly really the place?
Can I really find it in the holy scriptures? Absolutely. Now, I'm going to start in the Old Testament. Don't get nervous now. I know that the local assembly is not in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, they gather to a place, but you know what?
We gather to a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you want to study a subject, look for the first mention, look at all the mentions and you'll be able to come to a conclusion on it because the word of God wants to guide us in the right ways of the Lord by his gracious spirit.
Genesis chapter 49 and verse 10, the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh, the peace bringer, come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. That's the first mention in the holy scriptures of gathering unto the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our gatherings not to one another, our gatherings not to a system or sex or anything you want to label that. We gather together unto him. He's the magnet. My personality might rattle you, my apologies.
Yours might rattle me, but God will give more grace. We gather unto him. Deuteronomy chapter 12, please. Did you know the local assemblies are planted by God, that they're planted in the gospel and souls become teachable to the truths of God?
Chapter 12 and verse 5. But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose. I thought it was where I wanted to choose. No. I remember a brother told me one time, he says, I would love for assembly to be in Santa Monica, California.
I love the ocean. I love the beach. And I love the climate. I says, well, you know what? There was one years ago, but it didn't continue. It's not our choosing, which the Lord your God shall choose out of all his tribes to put his name there.
There's a separated place. There's a sanctified people. There's a sacrifice involved and there's a simplicity involved in just carrying out what the word of God says. Verse 11, there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
Verse 14, in the place which the Lord your God shall choose. Verse 21, if the place which the Lord your God has chosen to put his name there be too far. Verse 26, only the holy things which thou hast and thy vows thou shall take and go on to the place which the Lord shall choose.
Let me just ask you a question as I come along in a few verses. Why are you in the assembly? Mom and dad there? Grandma and grandpa there? That's good, but friends there? Or can you remember when you had the illumination from the Holy Spirit?
This is where he is and this is where I belong. That's essential. That comes from God and it will hold us and it will bind us and it will gird us and it will make us want to appreciate the truths of God, the doctrines of God.
Doctrine never divides. Doctrine always unites. We find that as we weave in the unerring, unalterable word of God. Psalm chapter five, please. Now, if I was in a gospel meeting, I'd tell you it's about in the middle of your Bible and I almost said that, so I said it.
Psalm chapter five, or it's actually Psalm five, forgive me, and verse 11. And I know my scholars are going to say, I think you missed it, John. Well, we'll get there. But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice, let them ever shout for joy because thou defendest them.
Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. You say, what'd you read that for? That's nothing about gathering. There's no two-name system found in the book, beloved. We're Christians, we're saved by his matchless grace and we gather outside the camp unto the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank God for everyone that's saved by his grace in attempts to carry out the word of God. There's no two-name system. Nehemiah, please. Chapter one, Nehemiah chapter one. I'll just read the last part of verse nine for the sake of time, Nehemiah one and nine.
And bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. Second Thessalonians, please. New Testament, local church, local church teaching. Second Thessalonians chapter two, verse one. Now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together one another.
No, it doesn't say that. You say put your glasses on, you're reading it wrong or you got it wrong in your head, John. Our gathering together unto him. That's what the assembly is about. It's where he is.
He's the magnet that draws us unto himself, unto him shall the gathering of the people be. It doesn't matter whether it's a small group or a large group, it's not for social entertainment or so, but that we might be a band of men and women, brothers and sisters whose hearts the Lord has touched, moving on in the right ways of God to bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, one of the greatest advertisements for the things of God, by your love to one another. How does that happen? We're in love with the word and we obey the word and we love one another. Shall all men know that ye are my disciples.
Matthew chapter 28, Matthew 18, excuse me, Matthew 18, and I found through the years that sometimes this verse is quoted exceedingly well and not always understood well. Verse 20, 20th verse, 18th chapter, Matthew's gospel.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Now you've got to get the context. You're going to have to go back to verse 15 and you're going to find there's a technical problem between two brothers or sisters who are developing how you want and it says you need to have two or three witnesses.
It's not what you heard, it's what you've seen. And then it tells us to bring it before the whole church. So it's not just two or three believers here. You can do the arithmetic and tell me how many prophets there might be.
I come in Philippians chapter one and I find there's the saints, I find there's the deacons and I find there's the elders or the overseers or the bishops. And so this is not just two or three and all of a sudden we're going to set up a table and we're going to start breaking bread.
But notice as you weave in this verse here, it says for where two are three, the first in I'm accredited as to Esau, I never took the time in Strong's, is a different word in the original than the second in.
And the first in is a point of time reach. That's when the assembly began. And the second in is a fixed position of rest. That's where he is. We find this, it's often been called, it's a perfect passive participle, a past act with present continuing results.
When the assembly here was planted was the point of time reached and he is in the midst of fixed place. Why would I want to come here to the assembly? It's where he is. Why would I want to be at the prayer meeting?
It's where he is. Why would I want to be at the gospel meeting, the Bible, all those ramifications? Well very simply, that's where he is and we gather unto him that we might appreciate the simplicity and the depths of the truth of being gathered outside the camp unto the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He called me out, the man with garments died. I knew his voice, my Lord, the crucified. He showed himself to me and though I could not stay, I had to follow, to obey. It cast me out this world when once it found that I within my rebel heart had crowned the man it had rejected, spurned, and slain, whom God in wondrous power had raised again.
And so we, without the camp, my Lord and I, but oh his presence sweeter is than any earth and any time, from which I counted greater to his claim, I'm out unto his name. Proverbs 24, I know the time is just about gone unfortunately, or maybe you're saying fortunately, I can't answer that one.
Proverbs 24 and verse 10, we touched on the day of salvation, the day of baptism, the day of lordship, the day of God showing us unto him shall the gathering of the people be. And in Proverbs 24, verse 10, if thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.
I don't want to disappoint you, but man is born into trouble as sparks fly upward. And every one of us at different times and different seasons, we don't get to pick it, we don't get to choose it. We have days of adversity when you maybe don't see the sun, though you do, and the clouds are high and the boat's filling with water, yet he's in the boat.
I want to encourage you that he's with you. I want to encourage you he'll never leave you, he'll never forsake you. I want to bring you the name in chapter one in verse seven. He's a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him.
It took me many years to be able to comment on that verse because 45 years ago, our van rolled coming down the Alaska highway. Linda was in the hospital, our oldest daughter with a broken thigh and the youngest one three weeks old.
And I was a family in the land of white horse who didn't know us all. And I learned the truth of that verse and I know my beloved brethren, you've learned it in many ways more than I ever have. He's a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in thee.
His grace is sufficient. They were in the boat, but they were in the will of God and they were in a terrible storm. John the Baptist was beheaded, the disciples came, they got the body. And Paul teaches us and the word of God teaches us, my grace is sufficient for thee.
He'll never leave us, he'll never forsake us. Whether in the valley or whether on the mountaintop, he's the one who gives courage. He's the one that gives strength. He's the one that's right alongside though we can't see him or we can't touch him.
And he wants us to walk by faith and to rest in him and rely on him by faith, knowing he doeth all things well. Second Corinthians chapter five and verse 10, just for a verse and I'll be done because the clock is a couple seconds after 12 if my watch is right and adjusted to the right time zone.
Second Corinthians chapter five and verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. That everyone may receive the things done in his body accordingly done, whether it be good or bad.
Every one of us will give an account out of our sin, how we lived, how we served, how we treated, you develop and how we want. But in that day at the Bema, every one of us will give an account, how we obeyed the word of God, how we loved one another, how we carried out the truths of God, that God might help us to appreciate six days in a believer's life, five of them present, one more to come in his will.