Your Sons & Daughters — Robert B. Thompson

Bob Porcelli, did you hear back from him? Okay, alright, I need to know that. Alright, so I got my ducks in a row then. Alright, well that's the Lord to help us then. Lord, as we come unto you tonight, it is with praise and thanksgiving for your wonderful love and your goodness to us.

And Lord, there has been so many answers to prayer lately. It's spectacular. And Lord, we do praise you for each and every one. It's a miracle, miracles, miracles. Lord, that you do, and we appreciate them.

And we pray for those that are here, Lord, that you will hear the cry of their heart. Where there still is knotty and unresolved problems, we pray you'll hear and answer prayer. Heal the sick, Lord. Bring in those that are outside the camp of safety into your fold, Lord.

Hear and answer. And Lord, we do pray tonight, Lord, that as we proceed, that you will just guide. I don't know the hearts, Lord, you do. And I pray the Holy Spirit will add what's necessary and make it clear.

In Jesus' name, amen. All right, Dave, we're ready, I guess, for Eddie's question. You're the singer, aren't you? Aren't you the singer? Yeah, Stan, you should have nabbed him, man. Sing tonight. All right.

Becoming God's Servant and the Covenant to Others

Week 11 to 23, December 97, tape 4051. Title of the tape is Becoming God's Servant. The recommended reading is my book, The True Nature of the New Covenant. Question one, short answer. Despite popular belief, not all Christians are called to be evangelists.

However, those who will return with Jesus as part of the servant of the Lord are called to be a covenant to others. From Isaiah 42, verses 6 and 7, what three things characterize the purpose of this covenant?

Isaiah 42, verses 6 and 7. Is that correct? I don't know. Well, I'll have to look it up then. It caught me cold, I don't know. Is one of them right? The first one is to be alike. Isaiah 42, 6 and 7. To open blind eyes.

Isn't it Christ in the body? One of the aspects. Okay, let's see now. 42, 6 and 7. Is that what you mean, Eddie? The first one is to open the blind eyes? Is that it? To be alike. Okay. To bring out the prisoners.

Alright, it's a light to open the blind eyes and to bring out prisoners. Okay. Any question about that? In what way... Now, a covenant is an agreement between two people. And in Isaiah 42, verse 6, it says, I will appoint you as a covenant.

Living Epistles and the Body of Christ

The members of the body of Christ. I will appoint you as a covenant. And then, these three things obtained. Now, how did that go? Explain that to me. How are we a covenant?

If you haven't been here. It's 2 Corinthians 3. And what does that say? Well, it goes back to Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 10. I will write the law in their hearts and minds. And Paul says that you are... You are our epistle written in the hearts of men.

Well, he says two things. He said, you are our epistle written in our hearts.

And I went into that. That gets kind of deep. And then the next verse says that you're living epistles known and read by all men. Now, someone read Philippians 4 .9, I believe it is. Philippians 4 .9.

That kind of lays it all out there. Philippians 4 .9 kind of lays it out. Alright, now there's the covenant. There's where Paul himself is a covenant. See, people can't see God. They can't see Christ.

And Paul says the things you have seen in me. You have heard. Read those four things again, Michele.

No, I want you to go. Wasn't there four things there? Learn.

Receive. Heard. And seen in me. So, then he says that's your part of the covenant. He says practice these things. That's what you do. Then the last half of the verse tells what God does. What does it say?

And so God gives you peace. That's how you become a covenant. Now that's very important. Because we're talking in Isaiah 42 is about the servant of the Lord. The servant of the Lord is Christ head and body.

We are the body of Christ. And to this point in history we haven't been challenged to the extent that we're being challenged today. We're being challenged today because the spiritual pressures in 1998 will be greater than ever before.

Maturity Under Spiritual Pressure

But God said in his word that when the tares come to maturity that is wickedness the wheat also will come to maturity side by side. So, if I'm hearing from the prophets correctly, and I've heard one, two, three recently, plus what I'm hearing from the Lord myself 98 is going to be a year of intense spiritual pressure more than we have known.

And we are going to have to grow at that pressure. The body of Christ will come to a maturity in our day that it has never before attained in history except for a few isolated individuals who are kind of out ahead of the wagon train.

The body of Christ comes to maturity by that which every joint supplies. And so the pressure will be on us this year. Each one of us Christine included age imposes no limits on what God is requiring. Each one of us is going to have to find our ministry our gift.

We're going to have to seek Jesus until we find out our place of service. And I think our model for this church will be serving Jesus in 98. The Lord is putting an emphasis on service. Service to the body.

The ministries are given to the body for the body, till we all come to the stature of the fullness of Christ Ephesians 4. And so the body cannot be built up to maturity until every member finds his ministry, his gift and ministers to the body.

There's no other way in which the body can be built. That's the way that God has ordained that the body shall be built up by that which every joint supplies. That's in the fourth chapter of Ephesians.

And be built up by that. So, you if you're a member of the body of Christ are obligated this year to seek the Lord until you find out what he would have you to do. I mean, the monkey business is over.

The monkey business was over. I noticed in tonight's paper it says in the San Leandro high school, the teachers are wearing little pink triangles on their clothes and what that tells the students is someone that you love is a lesbian or a homosexuality.

It's their diversity week. Inculcating in a public high school a recognition that this is a way of life. I was just I wasn't even intentionally reading it but I noticed and I can't even remember where it was it was just a couple hours ago I was going through some chapter 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy it was and it lists homosexuality along with every ungodly sin you can think of.

Barry?

A large company at ASD and she was shocked and disturbed because there was a poster out that day that was inviting all the gays publicly right there in the building.

Well, the reason this was in the paper tonight is because one of the teachers in the San Leandro high school proclaimed her problems and it got some of the parents up in arms and then it came out about these pink triangles but whatever the world does, it does.

But we Christians must understand that this is a sin that is condemned in the Old Testament and the New Testament but my purpose tonight is not to labor on that. I'm not going to major in minors here but what I'm telling you is that this is the direction that society has taken and never in history has God permitted a thing like that to go on for any length of time but what it does do when a nation takes that stance legally, that this is acceptable it invites every demon in the world to come and so our country I mean we have demon oppression now it's going to get worse and so what God is saying to us is it is time for the members of the body to come up to full stature and the only way that can happen it cannot happen through the ministry it cannot happen through me or any other pastor or any other evangelist it can only happen as you as a member of the body of Christ that includes Christine includes the youngest and the oldest age imposes no limits on what I'm talking about.

Becoming a Light and Covenant to the Nations

We must, we must I mean there is no alternative we must spend time throughout this year and we'll begin tomorrow night seeking Jesus seeking Jesus to find out how we as an individual member of the body are to function in building up the body because, first of all so that the Christians themselves will be able to stand and secondly so that they will provide a light as Eddie was pointing out a light to open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners.

And what was the third one? Isaiah 42 .7, what was the third one? Light open the blind eyes and bring out the prisoners. You see there's a lot of people in the world who are good people they're just plain righteous people and they don't know anything about the Lord or very little they believe there is a God and they probably reverence Christ but they don't know much more than that.

But when they see these things going on in our nation they feel terrible about it and they don't know what to do and they're confused and their children go to school and they're taught these things and it throws them in an uproar.

And you see it's the purpose of the church to show not to tell about how ain't it awful but to show in themselves what is right to be a covenant to the people so that the things that they see and hear in you that they will practice and then God will give them peace.

Does that make sense to you? Can you see how important that is? Can you see now like Barry or who did you say was on the job was telling you? Irenia see now it will be up to Irenia. She doesn't have to go around tearing posters off the wall saying isn't it terrible and all these people are going to hell or anything.

All that she has to do is to become a full stature in Christ. And that will depend on the church where she's going to do that. It's the function of the members of the body to build up the body. And as Irenia is built up into the fullness of the stature of Christ then people will see in her and hear in her.

And if they practice that God will give them peace. If they do not practice that they will have no peace because there is no peace to the wicked. Now can you see what it means when it says that we become a covenant to the nations.

Can you see that? They can't see God and they can't see Christ. So how can they have a covenant? God makes his covenant with Israel. The new covenant is made only with Israel. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Judah and Jacob after those days.

The new covenant is not made with an unsaved person. The new covenant is made only with God's elect no one else. And so that leaves the world with no covenant. There is no use telling them about it. They have to see it in us.

Paul didn't say I'm going to tell you about something. He said what you see in me what you hear from me. Practice this and God will be with you. And that's what God wants you to be able to do. We've made a kind of a a strictured thing out of the four steps of salvation.

I've been reading Oswald Chamber about his life and he ran into that. And he said that's no way. That is not the way you do the four steps of salvation. It has to go way past that to people they've got to see in you the presence of Jesus and the glory of God.

You have got to become a living epistle. You have got to become a living epistle. You're the only bible that many people will read. And if your testimony is not righteous if you lie if you criticize the boss if you're immoral if you swear you are of no use whatever you can talk about God till the cows come home.

Tell the four steps of salvation to people. Tell them to come to church. It's all wasted. The American people are looking today. And Oswald Chamber tells you the same was true in his day. He was over in Egypt as a chaplain for the YMCA when all allied troops were going through there at the first stages of World War I when they were fighting the Turks.

And he said the men didn't. They didn't want to hear about the gospel as it customarily is what they wanted to hear was about righteousness just as we found in the jail. That was true in 1917 and 16 he said the soldiers flocked to him by the hundreds and he taught them a course called Biblical Psychology.

He was teaching them how to live as a Christian. They were from Christian England and Christian Australia and Christian New Zealand. And they'd heard the gospel and it was coming out their ears. That is not what they wanted to hear.

They wanted to hear about God and how you live with God. And the same is true today in America. We've had gospel gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel. And it's all necessary. It's all good. The Bible says preach the gospel of every creature.

Well it's been preached. But what Americans are waiting to see is somebody who shows in himself the life of Christ. Do you believe that? Living epistles. Your life speaks a million times louder than your mouth.

And people are spiritual even though they're unsaved. Every person has a spirit in them. And they can sense when you have God. When you get enough of God people come around you. You don't even have to say you're a Christian.

They'll stop swearing. And some of you have experienced that they sense it. You don't have to go and say I'm a Christian. Live it live it live it. Pray seek Jesus read your Bible live it. Because America the gospel has become a laughing stock.

Christianity has become a laughing stock in this nation with all the gospel preaching because the people aren't living it. They know that Christians lie and steal and swear and fight with their wives and husbands and molest their kids and everything else.

They know that. And they say well so they go join. They become a Muslim. Or they go into yoga or the Hindu religion or transcendental meditation or one of the many African sects that at least have principles and preach righteousness.

Even the Jews preach righteousness. The only religion that doesn't preach righteousness is Christianity. We preach grace instead of righteousness. And so we're confused. The world wants to see the righteousness of Jesus Christ expressed in you and me.

And then the Bible says the Bible says they'll ask you. They'll ask you when they see it. They'll ask you for a reason of the hope that is within you. And then you answer them with meekness and fear not with you know we's the people gangbusters with meekness and fear.

You know trembling. I fear God. You know worship God with me. That is not to say there's not to be evangelist. I'm not saying that at all. That's understood. I mean everybody's preaching that we need more preaching of righteousness of godly living.

Because the covenant is not in words. I will make you a covenant. I will make you a fisher of men. You know the Lord didn't say to Peter and Andrew go fish for men. He didn't say that. He didn't say go fish for men.

What did he say? Follow me. And I will make you fishers of men. And there's a vast difference between somebody going out and trying to fish and somebody following Jesus and let them. He will make you a fisher of men.

And you'll do it in a million different ways. Not one little way but in a million ways by what you are. What you say. The kindness that you show. The honesty the integrity the honor. That's what is missing in our nation.

Missing in our government. Morality. No I don't do those things. I don't do drugs. No I don't want to do anything nasty. That's not where it is. Kids. You don't even have to say you're a Christian. You can do honest things.

And then you don't have to say well I do this because I'm a Christian. It gets so phony. Move it. And somebody will ask around what's wrong with that dude? He's a Christian. Makes sense? Living epistles known and read of all men.

That's what America is waiting to see the gospel in shoe leather. Somebody that they can see. Somebody that's not a phony. A religious phony. Somebody that is living it that knows Jesus that changes people.

You can't look at a you can't come into the presence of someone who's full of God. Without being changed. You change. You see the glory. You don't realize it. But it will impact on you. And it will change you.

And the more of God they have the more it will change you. That's why it's contagious. Any question about that? Does that make sense to you now. And the three things was be light. Open the blind eyes.

And bring out the prison. There's a lot of people in prison today a lot of people in prison with drugs and all kinds of things and that's your job not to go and lecture at them just to be. Be the covenant.

Be the covenant and God will show you how to fish. Barry? I was on the job in a construction environment you can probably guess how construction workers are. But there was a day when we decided we were going to tell a joke about Jews and so they prepared everybody that the joke was going to be about Jews and they expected everyone to laugh and I decided that I wasn't going to laugh at the joke I wasn't going to do it and they noticed that and stopped.

So it's just interesting to me that I didn't get snubbed after that by the people in that job or anything. In fact when I left when that job was over and I left the job the foreman of that job came up to me and said God bless you Barry.

And you know I was really encouraged you know that will happen with kids in school. If some kid dares to live the Christian life the other kids will make fun of him and everything. But pretty soon one or two will come up and they want to be friends.

It's an amazing thing that people just need a leader. They may mock and everything but there's people in the crowd that are thinking boy I wish I had the guts to do this. God needs leaders. God works with leaders.

That's how he works. OK we all set so far? Alright. Short answer. With regard to the communication of the covenant it has been stated the new covenant cannot be written on paper. What does that mean?

The old covenant had tablets of stone which symbolized being written on paper and it says that the new covenant is written in the hearts and the minds of those who are born again and who are disciples who follow after Christ as they are changed the things that they do and the things that they say become guidelines.

But the people themselves are the actual covenant and so if you try to follow what is said according to Paul it says the letter kills and you can't follow it unless the spirit of God is driving you or giving you guidance on it.

But you are actually the living covenant yourself and the things that you write down to others are what are called guidelines not the new testament.

Yes that's true. In Hebrews the 8th chapter it says I was not pleased with the people under the old covenant. I made a new covenant with the house of Israel and Jacob and Judah and Jacob or whatever. And he says I will write it in their mind.

Very important to understand those two different things. It affects your mind it affects your mind so that you begin to think have the mind of Christ. And it affects your heart your feelings and your emotions.

And the source of your will. And what's put in there is God's eternal law. It's written there cannot be written on paper. It's only written within the human being. God's covenant with us is only written within the human being.

Any question about it. That's Hebrews the 8th chapter. The old covenant was written on stone and on parchment and paper and on the walls of your house. But the new covenant is written in your mind and on your heart.

And it's written there as you live. When is it written in my heart. Well it's written there line upon line line upon line as you live. Let's say you become a new Christian. Ok. So you don't know your arm from your elbow about Christianity at all.

But somebody tells you you've got to forgive somebody. Well it's hard. So you pray and God helps you and you're able to forgive them. That's written in your mind and in your heart. That's the beginning of the writing.

And then something else comes up. Maybe the Lord tells you to put away your cigarettes. And so you pray and you get the strength to do that. And then that cleanliness is written in your mind written in your heart.

And as you go on and you pray and overcome each day. Now if you're not overcoming there's nothing being written there. If you're not overcoming there's nothing being written there. It's only written there as you gain the victory over sin.

It's little by little. You should be a stronger Christian tonight than you were last Tuesday. Between last Tuesday and tonight there should have been some things happened in your life that challenged you that took you to prayer.

And you prayed and as you prayed and said Lord you're right and I'm wrong. Then Christ was able to write his law in your mind. So you'd have understanding and in your heart so that you would want to do it and have the motivation to do it.

Now if the challenge came last week to forgive somebody or to be honest or to be patient or whatever it was and you just come out in your natural man throwing flesh all over the place. Nothing was written in there.

You didn't grow. You're still a baby. And that's what it says in Hebrews at this chapter that I can't talk to you about Melchizedek because you're still a baby. Because you can't discern between good and evil.

You don't have your senses exercised to discern good and evil. That's the sign of being a baby. When you can't tell good from evil. I don't know whether this is right or I don't know whether I should forgive or be patient.

Or what's wrong with blowing off at somebody once in a while or a few swear words. You're a baby. You're a baby. You're not a covenant of God with anybody. You're a baby. You've accepted Christ. Yes you've accepted Christ.

But you're not in the pathway that leads to life. You see Jesus is the path that leads to life and that's straight and narrow. He's the gate that enters in and then he's the pathway. He's the way I am the way he's the way and you have to walk in him.

If you're not you're not. Growing occurs as you struggle against sin. You remember in Hebrew it says you haven't as yet resisted unto blood struggling against sin. You have to struggle against sin because it's fight.

Did sin fight with you today? Were you challenged today? The challenge is to your fleshly nature. See am I going to do what I know the Lord wants or am I going to give in to my emotions and my fleshly nature.

And you decide that there's a choice you make. And you're going to be judged on those choices to judge and see to Christ. You're going to be judged on those choices what you did. And if you're a determined Christian and a disciple and you're going to have to be in 98 you're going to have to mean business with God in this coming year.

Now remember what I'm telling you. The evil is going to get worse. And the only way you're going to survive is by growing in Jesus Christ and serving Him. Which we ought to do anyway as a Christian. So if you overcame today you were honest when you attempted to be dishonest.

You were courteous when you attempted to be rude. You spoke right things when somebody was trying to get you to gossip. Gossip and slander are condemned in the New Testament as being worthy of death because it's the nature of Satan to slander and criticize.

Satan is the accuser of the brothers. It is of the nature of Satan to slander and gossip. And if you've got a gossiping tongue and you pray to God to burn that thing. See there's James says the tongue is set on fire in hell.

And you pray to God say get this hell out of my mouth. Because it's set on fire in hell. Your tongue is when you're criticizing people. I know it's hard especially if you're used to it. There are people who are accustomed to being critical and gossiping.

In fact their chief joy in life is gossiping about people that's their chief joy. There are people whose chief joy in life is to gossip. And if you could see into the spirit realm you would see a snake wrapped around that person and coming out their mouth worthy of death.

1st Romans 1. They do such things including gossip are worthy of death. Not so bad gossip. Everybody does it. Hey for coming Christians don't gossip. Call on God. What do you think he's there for? Call on the Lord.

Lord get this dough out of me. To get rid of any sin. You have to make up your mind. It's sin. You can't fool around and say well everybody's doing it. And I don't think it's so bad. And if you want to take it Lord fine you're going to get nowhere.

You got to say this is a demon. It belongs in hell in the lake of fire and God it doesn't belong in your kingdom. I want it out of me. You mean business with God. God will take it out of you. Take that snake right out of your life and you'll grow.

That's how you grow. So there's always something going right? Linley? Always something working. Always something working. Challenge down to your painted toenails. I don't know if they're painted Linley because you have your shoes on.

In case they are you're challenged right down to your painted toenails. You haven't yet resisted unto blood. Striving against sin. It says in Hebrews because Psalm did resist unto blood in those days.

And so he's talking to the people. Quit whining. Don't be an American baby. Well they weren't Americans in those days. Don't be a baby. Quit your whining. You haven't resisted unto blood yet. Just keep up the battle.

Straighten up your back. Straighten up your knees. Walk as children of God. It'll be over someday. You don't remember him. You're too young. But he's a famous prize fighter years ago. And after every fight which he won every one after every one he said it's a hard fight.

He was talking to his mother on the mic Madison Square Garden. He says hard fight mom I'm glad I won. Hard fight mom I'm glad I won. Well I heard that so many times. I remember. Hard fight mom I'm glad I won.

Well that's what you want to be able to say when you meet the Lord. Hard fight mom I'm glad I won. And you can because you've got Jesus to help you. But it's not a time for foolishness. It's a time for war.

Ok. You can't write the covenant on paper. You can the old covenant. You can carry it around under your arm. But the new covenant is only written in your mind and your heart as you battle through your daily challenges in Jesus there's always evil given to you each day sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

And there's always grace given for that day to overcome that evil. So each day you've got an exercise in growth. If you move to another state it will move with you. If you go on vacation it will go with you.

God wastes no time. Every day there will be evil given to you and every day there will be grace to overcome. Because there's no time to waste. And God wants you to grow as much as possible while you're alive.

When God is through when your life means nothing anymore He'll take you. You don't die when you're old. You die when you're ripe. Ok age has nothing to do with it. When God is through with your learning.

And I think he took Oswald Chambers at the age of 43 because he had influenced thousands of people but his wife took shorthand took down all of his sermons and then spent the rest of her life publishing them.

And instead of reaching thousands he's reached many, many millions. But he lived to 43 and he was a fantastically successful soul writer in a fine and deep, comprehensive sense. And he reached thousands of people but through his wife's writing and still is she's better known today and God knows what he's doing.

You took this man in the prime same way with Peter Marshall. He died and then his wife wrote a man called Peter and reached many times what he ever would have reached. So God knows what he's doing. It doesn't take you when you're old when you're ripe want to be with the Lord?

Sure you do. You'll be panicked when you face death. But when it's all over it's just like a tooth pulled. You'll be so happy. Oh you'll be a happy camper now. I wanted to just to amuse the children to read you something that came over the email this morning.

It's from Roberta in Israel. Roberta in Israel and she says pastor the following statement is so true and she's referring to something that I had written it appeared on the internet the day before Christmas 1224.

It's called the servant of the Lord. And she took a paragraph she's commenting on this paragraph and she says the following statement is so true. See I'm going to ask you about this paragraph and this is what she says.

Now she belongs to forums. If you're not a web buzzer you don't know much about forums but there are forums of people at forums like clubs on the internet and they all post stuff and they read each other's stuff and comment on it maybe 20, 30, 40 people depending on the forum.

Well Roberta is part of several of these and she's got people that are on the forum reading my material. So this is what she says. Confusion upon confusion in our forum because no one understands this concept.

And I am not so old only tired. Now you'll understand that in a minute I am not so old only tired now she's tired. She's expecting again. I expect. That's why she's so tired and she'll be hearing this tape now this is the paragraph that appeared the day before Christmas that I wrote and it caused great confusion.

And she said it is so true because she understands. Roberta is very keen until you come to realize that God's elect are one anointed company with the Lord Jesus as the head and that they as a governing priesthood are forever separate from the saved nations of the world.

You will understand neither the Old Testament nor the New. I know this sounds arrogant of me to make such a statement but I am too old and tired to waste time trying to be humble. Alright now this is this is the concept and I want to raise it with you because there's probably people here that maybe don't understand it or would challenge this which would delight me because then I can bring out some scriptures for you to think about and see what you think.

This is it again. God's elect are one anointed company with the Lord Jesus as the head. God's elect are one anointed company with the Lord Jesus as the head body of Christ. Any question about that? God's elect are one anointed company with the Lord Jesus as the head.

Ok. They as a governing priesthood. Now Christ head and body. Is it a priesthood. Does the Bible say we are a priesthood. Does the Old Testament say that Israel was a priesthood. You know where? In Rome you are a kingdom of priests.

A holy nation. A royal priesthood. Does the New Testament say that we are a priesthood. Where? Peter 2nd chapter. 1st Peter 4 is about judgment and suffering. 1st Peter chapter 2. You are a royal priesthood.

Yeah. You better look that up. Because this is a chosen generation. It's the same thing that was spoken to Israel. Now he's writing to Gentiles. Peter's writing to Gentiles. We can tell from the internal evidence of the text of the epistle.

Alright now make sure you know this. Because this all hangs on this. This whole confusion hangs on this. You have got to be persuaded that we are a priesthood. You all know what a priesthood is. I'm sure Tony knows.

Because he was at one time a member of the Greek Orthodox Church. He knows what a priesthood is. Some of you may have been Catholic. You know what a priesthood is. Okay? You know what a priesthood is.

Now you can go visit St. Mary's. There's St. Mary's National City.

St. Mary's Catholic Church. Alright. Somebody read the verse 1st Peter 2 something or other. A royal priesthood a people for God's own possession that ye may proclaim the excellencies of Him.

Now I ask you boys and girls well let me put it this way does the New Testament say we are a priesthood? I think that's undeniable. Alright that being the case what is the role of a priest? Well this is a priest per se.