93-19 – Do You Know Your Spiritual Birth Line? – A Living Organism

In this scripture-packed series, Dr. Betters discusses regeneration, effectual calling, conversion, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance and glorification. Come along on this journey and find great joy in discovering many treasures in your journey along your spiritual birthline. Peter’s spiritual journey is a clear picture of a man intrigued by the Messiah, but not converted. In this message we watch as God removes Peter’s spiritual blindness. Peter’s journey helps us see our own spiritual birthlines unfold.

Transcript

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Welcome to In His Grip with Dr. Chuck F. Betters, produced by Mark Inc. Ministries. Each in his grip message is designed to help turn your hearts toward Jesus and equip you to walk by faith. Let's join Dr. Betters as he preaches the series Do You Know Your Spiritual Birth Line?

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We have been talking about the birth line. That is the wonderful process of salvation. And it has to begin to make its way into not only our thinking but into our application. We need to begin seeing the work of the Holy Spirit as a process that begins when the Spirit of God takes that which is dead, a depraved, wicked human heart, and unites that dead spirit with his spirit. That moment of conception, that moment of quickening, that moment of regeneration begins the process whereby the blood of Christ is applied to sinful hearts like yours and like mine. And then during that effectual calling, the Spirit of God begins to quicken us in new ways, in different ways, making me think differently about my sins, renewing my understanding of Scripture, bringing home the message of conviction concerning my sins. And taking the faith faculty that was implanted at my regeneration and developing that into an understanding of the things of God and the things of Scripture, so that I can come to the point of expressing as an act of my will that He has enabled me to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, to turn in faith and to believe the message as it is revealed in Scripture, and to repent of my sins and be converted. And for some that may be a very dramatic moment. And for others it may be somewhat of a process moment that you can't quite put your finger on. But nonetheless, the fruits or evidences of faith and repentance must be there. And then once converted, two things happen legally. You stand before God as an acquitted sinner because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you against the backdrop of law. And you are adopted as his son and as his daughter, grafted into his family by the blood of Jesus Christ. Last week we began to talk about the sealing of the Holy Spirit. That is that moment where the Holy Spirit brings all this to bear, and it may or may not happen at your conversion. It is something that may happen later, after your conversion, where you come to understand and have assurance, absolute assurance that is never shaken, that the Spirit of the living God has indeed grafted you into his family, that you are a son, that you are a daughter of Christ. Sonship. Understanding sonship is the most powerful and liberating thing that can ever happen to a believer. It'll change your life forever to know who you are in the sight of God, to wrestle with your identity, and to conclude that God, before the foundation of the world, chose you to himself and now in time has grafted you into his family. There is nothing more liberating than to know you are a son or a daughter of the living God. Assurance. We started talking about different levels of assurance. There are some who can read scripture and gain an understanding of who they are and deduce from scripture that because the Bible says so, I must indeed be a child of God. And there is a certain degree of assurance that you can gain from simply reading the scriptures and believing the promises as they're recorded in the Word. But as I suggested to you last time, that's the lowest form of assurance you can have. First John speaks of the tests of life. That is the fruit or evidences that work their way out of my life. What is inside of me is expressed in behavior that's changed behavior and marked character qualities, fruits or evidences that the Spirit of God is at work in my life. And you can gain assurance by looking back on your life and saying, This is what I used to be, and here is where I am today, and this is where God has brought me. And to come to an understanding of the power of the Spirit, convicting and challenging and changing your life, you can gain assurance that way. And that's a higher level of assurance than simply deducing from Scripture your understanding of the gospel. But then we talked about the highest level of assurance, where in Romans it tells us that we are led by the Spirit of God, that we are the children of God, and that the Spirit Himself testifies in our spirits that we are indeed the children of God. That, in my opinion, is the highest level of assurance you can gain when the holy self seals you with that assurance. Granted, your salvation is not dependent upon it, but your understanding of sonship very well may be. You need to come to understand who you are as the people of God. You are a unique people, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the wonderful praises of Him who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. I hope you believe that this morning. You know, there's something very intriguing about the evidence that we have been sealed with the Spirit. Not only do we have a higher level of assurance of who we are, but once you have been sealed with the Spirit of God, there is a sense of God's power and God's presence that brings forth a joy in the midst of pain. Imagine that. To experience joy in the midst of pain. I want to read something in Romans 5. Therefore, verse 1, since we have been justified through faith, Romans 5, 1. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice. What's that word? Rejoice in our what? Are you nuts? Are you crazy? We rejoice in our sufferings. Paul, are you schizophrenic? We rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character. You got any character this morning? Character. And character? Hope. You have any hope this morning? You see, if you don't have any hope, you haven't seen your trials in the proper context. You have to begin to see that suffering is a part of the program, it's a part of the way in which God edifies you, builds you up, develops your character, teaches you how to trust Him. And hope does not disappoint us. Isn't that the truth? Isn't that what the world's looking for? Hope. And they're trying all sorts of things in all different ways to find it, but they're not finding it, are they? We supposedly, as a nation, looked at an economic picture in our country and said, Well, we need some hope. It's time for a what? If I hear that word one more time, I'm gonna need about 10 buckets. We need a change. And so we begin to think in terms of, well, this can bring something to us that we're looking for. Maybe this will bring us peace and joy and contentment and happiness. It's not gonna work, it's not gonna happen. But notice that next phrase: because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us. What are we talking about here? We're talking about a sense of God's power and presence that brings forth joy in the middle of pain. And that's how you get assurance that God can transcend your suffering and bring you joy, even though you're suffering hard trials and temptations, even though you're experiencing significant pain, you can still have the joy of God and the joy of the Spirit of God in your heart. Some critics of this doctrine say that nowhere does the New Testament command us to seek the outpouring of God's Spirit. I want to tell you the reason why you don't find that command in New Testament scripture. Because in the New Testament scripture, Christians lived in the norm of the outpouring of the Spirit of God. They didn't have to be commanded, it was normal. Today we have to be commanded because it's not normal. We don't have the Spirit of God resting upon us in the way it was in the New Testament. You say, Man, I wish we could return to New Testament days, and we try to model some of our churches after the New Testament. We have the first apostolic church of the second apostolic faith, of the first apostolic power, meeting with apostles and their prophets and their pulpits and what have you, and on and on we try to recapture the days of the New Testament church. Do you want to go back to the New Testament church? Then you better be ready to die. Because that's the kind of context in which the New Testament people lived, with the prospect that any day they could suffer persecution and martyrdom. And through all of that, the Spirit of God had been poured out on them, and they had hope. Hope. Whenever and wherever revivals have landed in the history of the church, throughout the history of our faith, the evidence and authenticity of such revivals has been that the people of God have returned to the model of the New Testament. That is, the hope of the Spirit indwelling them and the willingness to suffer and, if necessary, die for their faith. We don't even know what we believe. How are we going to suffer and die for it? How are we going to suffer and die for it? We're so theologically confused. You know, I want to tell you something. When we really get a hold of the New Testament model, the Spirit of God is going to begin to break down all kinds of barriers. You know, we had a great reformation under Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and Knox and Melanchthon and people like that. Men who were able to stand up and say, This is what the scriptures teach, and to struggle through their faith. Read about the great events that took place when Martin Luther stood before Charles V, who had all of his books that Luther had written in response to and in a polemic sort of way against what the Church of Rome was teaching. And as this young to Charles V obnoxious preacher who stood up, this monk, if you will, who struggled all of his life with meaning and identity and came to understand the great doctrine of justification by faith alone. The doctrine of sola scriptura scripture alone. And stood before Charles V with his knees knocking, and Charles says to him, Do you believe this stuff that you wrote? And all the people were sitting around waiting for the answer, knowing that if he said yes, I believe that persecution was going to enter, and that he might very well die or be assassinated for his beliefs. You know what Luther said the first time he was asked the question? Can I think about it? You don't believe me, that's what he said. Give me a day to think about it. So they dismissed the meeting. You see, we have these images of our forefathers as men and women who were not human. I want to tell you, his knees were knocking. This man was scared. Let me think about it. Goes back to his hotel room at the Marriott and contemplates about what's going to happen here and comes in the next day and the books are laid out in front of him again. Do you believe this? You see, the whole system of religion was going to be challenged at that point. The whole system of doctrine where state and religion had become one, the whole system was going to shatter at that moment. As this wise guy, little monk, was going to declare what the scriptures teach and stand on it. We know the great statement that he made that he would not recant, that he could do no other. That here he stands, and this is it, this is what I believe. The great reformation was born. Two things were supposed to happen in that reformation. Number one, you and I were to be given an understanding of our priesthood in Christ. We didn't need a priest anymore. I didn't need somebody else to mediate for me. I could go to God myself. I didn't have to go through a system of indulgences. I didn't have to go through a mass, I didn't have to go to a confession box, I didn't have to pay my dues, I could go directly to God myself because there is no other mediator between God and man except the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to tell you. Put up with my shenanigans for a minute. I want to tell you something. You see that pulpit right there? You know what that is? That's a $1,200 piece of furniture. That's all it is. That is all that pulpit is, is a $1,200 piece of furniture. There is nothing at all sacred about that piece of wood. And there's nothing that makes it even more sacred when I come up here and stand in front of it. I am just a human being. I am a priest in the same sense that you are a priest. This does not become sacred because I'm standing here. What makes it sacred is when this is standing here. And when this book stands here, this desk becomes sacred. You have Genesis 15 yet? Let me show you something. God had a covenant that he had made with Abraham. A covenant that he made with Abraham. And you know what Abraham did? He began to doubt the covenant, the same way you and I begin to doubt our salvation. And he waited and waited and waited, and God had established this covenant. I am going to make of you a great nation. And Abraham in Genesis 15, verse 8 says, O sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it? You know what God did? He said, Take some lamb, take some sheep, cut them in half. Now imagine this. He takes some lambs, takes some sheep, cut them in half. Half goes over here, and half goes over here. Now, in those days in those pagan lands, God adapted himself to the pagan custom that Abraham was used to. Because in those days when there was an agreement made, and you began to doubt the sincerity of the one who made the agreement with you, the one who made the agreement with you would do what? He would take some animals, cut them in half, and walk through the middle of them. And then you would go and walk through the middle of them. And that became a legally binding contract, affirming that what you had agreed to beforehand was actually going to happen. Now notice what he does there in verse 9. So the Lord said to him, Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two, and arranged the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in the country, not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. You know what he's doing? He's saying, Abraham, I'm going to show you the end from the beginning. This is how it's all going to work out. Your people are going to go into slavery. They're going to be there for 400 years. Then I'm going to bring them out. You're going to die a ripe old age. But the covenant promise is going to begin with you. Then notice this. Verse 17. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, To your descendants, I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, the land of the Kenites and Kenesites and Cadmonites and Presbyterians and Baptists, etc., etc. In other words, God said, I'm going to pass through the cut pieces. And that is going to affirm who you are. And what does he send? He sends a smoking furnace with a torch on top. A pillar of cloud, if you will, and a pillar of fire. And this is the assurance that you have. I am going to pass through the midst of you, and I am going to affirm as I pass through the midst of you who you are. You are the people of God. We are the people of God. You see, there's no difference between you and me. The only difference between you and me is God lays his hand on me and says, Get up there and teach the people the scriptures. But when I stand before him in heaven, he's not going to say, Well, Pastor, it's nice to have you here. Because I'm not going to be pastor when I get there. You know what I'm going to be? Sinner, just like you are. Sinners saved by the same grace that you are. And you see, the Spirit of God is going to pass through the midst of us. And I think we've got to get this message. We've got to break down these barriers. These barriers of worship that you're sitting there being entertained. You haven't come to a theater. We've got to get out of the mode of being an institution and start realizing we are an organism. And there's a vast difference between being an institution where we have our little ladders that we climb and a viable living organism where the Spirit of God passes through, begins to raise people up and touch people in their hearts and say, You do this. You see, I believe he's touching some of you to get behind the sacred desk and handle the scriptures. I believe he's speaking to some of your hearts to do that. But dare not rise into that pulpit and somehow think yourself to be some higher sort of priest than anybody else. You're nothing but a sinner saved by the grace of God. You better walk up there with a little fear and trembling, especially. When you handle this book. But God can speak to different people, different ways. Look at what he's doing in our midst. Look at what he's doing in the body. Look at the gifts that he's given to us here. And what does he say? Here's the covenant. Part the sacrifice. Let me walk through the middle of it and I'll touch your hearts. It's a pulsating, beating, living, viable organism where God gives gifts to the body, different gifts to different people for different purposes, so that we may be built up and edified in the faith. And what do we do? What do we do with these gifts? We institutionalize them. Yet we say we believe in the priesthood of all believers. Do we really? Do you believe you are a priest in the sight of God? That you are a part of an organism that's beating and pulsating. Where's your baby? Go get your baby for me. Bring your baby down here. I want to tell these folks something. You see, God did something over here. He got a hold of a priest right here. She didn't know I was gonna do this. Right here, he got a hold of a priest. You know what he said to her? I want you to go into the prisons. Did you say, Yes, Lord, I'm gonna do that because I have all those gifts and all those abilities and all those strengths, and I'll go ahead and do that, or did you go in there with fear and trepidation? But she went. She went. God gives this man back here the gift of evangelism, right here, qualified to do all kinds of things, but God has gifted him in evangelism and said, I want you to stand up and show others how to do that. Raised him up as a priest and said, I'll equip you. See, this is the organism pulsating and beating, and God calling people to himself. Brand new Christian right here, brand new child of God right here. Just recently came to know the Lord. Just recently came to know and experience who Jesus Christ is. Living, viable, beating organism. You ought to hear this girl's testimony over here. You ought to hear what she has to say. How the Lord got a hold of her. Not only was she taking drugs, she was dealing them. She got so excited one day and came to understand what faith in Christ is all about. The Spirit of God began to excite her so much so that she didn't have a whole lot of common sense. She'll be the first one to tell you that. Got caught up in the moonies. Got caught up in the moonies. I remember one day going to her house when a relative of hers who didn't know the Lord said, She's gone off the deep end. She's packing her bags, moving to Florida to join the Moonies. Went over to her house and she wasn't there, and I got in my car and drove around. Found her walking on the streets, rolled down the window, said, Get in here. She'll tell you that story. Then God got a hold of her life. She teaches your children now. She teaches your children. Why? Because the Spirit of God said, Move aside. I've got a work to do. And the pulsating organism began to work again. And he's doing it to all of you who know him. You see, you just don't know it. Why? Because you're too busy watching the program up here. But the program's not up there, the program's over here. You see, the Spirit of God is beginning to touch different hearts in different ways. Give me this baby. Stay asleep, please. This man's a doctor. The baby's father is a doctor. This baby was born. A neonatalist specialist told him this baby has cystic fibrosis. He said, No, it can't be. Is there another option? Yeah, there's another option, but it's worse. It's worse. So they went to another neonatalist specialist and they said the same thing. This baby's future and fate is sadly marred. And I remember because I was having surgery myself, this congregation began to pray. We began to pray for this family. You know how they came to our church? Through the phone book. Nobody comes to this church through the phone book. Through the phone book. And Christians all over this place were motivated to pray. Some of you have gifts of faith that lay hold of prayer in a way that none of the rest of us can. And we began to pray and pray and pray. Doctors come in the next day. Oh, you're looking at me now. Doctors came in the next day. Guess what they said? There's nothing wrong with this child. Nothing wrong with this child. Did God work a miracle? Did he work a miracle? Huh? Coincidence, right? We're the schafers. You up in the balcony? See that family back there? I sat with that family in an intensive care unit with their two-year-old little girl a few years ago. And we watched and watched. A baby went in with a sore throat, went into a coma. And we watched and watched and watched. I sent them home. And I said, You go home, get some rest, I'll stay with the baby. And I stayed there all night with that little baby in that coma. And I sang to her. And I prayed with her. And I prayed for her. And I took her by the hand and I talked with her as her parents did because we didn't want her to be alone. You see, just as he worked the miracle of healing over here, he worked another miracle for them. He took the child home. He took the child home. But there they are. The miracle of organism, the spirit of God getting a hold of this couple. And what a message and ministry they have had to so many for years. Get them to talk about it. They still choke up. They still weep. Why? Because it still hurts. But I preached a sermon at that baby's funeral. The sermon was called It's Friday, but Sunday's coming. It's Friday and it's dark, and the cross is there, and it doesn't look good. But Sunday's coming when that child and you will be reunited. And the greatest miracle of all will be when you see Jesus face to face, but part the ways. Let my spirit come through and let my spirit pulsate and beat and bring the organism to life. Gifts within the body. Gifts of music. This man over here gets a hold of a bunch of kids and their parents. I gotta tell you, I've sat up here. I've sat right here in this chair. And you know what I've heard? I've heard sour notes. It's not coming out of the kids either, it's coming out of their parents. And you know what I say to that? So what? Are they here to entertain us? Are they pulling out those horns and tubas and drums and everything else to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever? But you see, it took the pulsating, beating, power-moving, power-driving force of the Holy Spirit to get a hold of a man's heart and say, Here's a vision. Now you run with it. What's this man done with our ministry of music in this church with a vision? I couldn't do that, I don't have those gifts. And I've heard some of you sing, and you don't have those gifts either. But others do. And you know what's so sad? Some of you who have the same gifts are sitting there and abusing the moment of the Spirit in your lives, and you won't use them to glorify God. The Spirit of God says, Part the ways, part the ways, let me come through, let me show you the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. Skills, talents, abilities that God gives to the body. Gifts of service. Behind the scenes stuff. I'm looking around and I see different people who do work in this church that nobody else knows about. Nobody gives them thanks, nobody pats them on the back and says, good job, but they do it, and they do it without complaining, they do it without moaning and groaning, but they do it. This man here has cancer. Right here, his wife has one lung. You won't find two more godly people than these two people constantly praying. They're here all the time. You get a little ache and pain, you don't show up. You don't show up. How can you ever experience the blessings of the Holy Spirit and rip down these walls? Rip them down. We need a new reformation where the body pulsates and the Spirit of God moves. That woman up in the balcony had a vision, had a great vision one day. She came and said, You know, all these other churches are in these prisons. They're all there, but there's no reformed voice. And she dared to trek where nobody else would trek. Began to reach convicted killers. I stood there and preached to them. These are the people you read about in the newspaper. There they are sitting in front of you, in need of Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of God gets a hold of one person in this church. One person and gives her a vision. Imagine if she had sat there insensitive to the movement of this organism. Imagine if she had seen this as an institution where we have to perform for one another. That's not what God's called us to be. That's not who we are. We are priests in the sense that Christ has broken down all the barriers, and we are now a part of that organism where the Spirit of God can say to me, This is what I want you to do. And by the way, dare none of you sit there and say that the Spirit of God has equipped you with nothing. He doesn't save and leave you empty. He saves and equips. All of you have gifts. All of you have been given the same Spirit of God. If you know Christ, you've been given that same spirit. Now you can sit there and you can be part of the institution, and you can pay your dues, and you can come and put your offering into the plate and occupy the pew and sing the hymns and say, My, my, wasn't that good? And rot on the vine. Or you can say, Lord, here I am. I'll do what Luther did. I can stand here and I'll take my stand. I can do no other. This is where I am. This is where I am. Then watch the Spirit of God part the sacrifice. Watch him part the church and say, I will ratify my covenant. I will establish that I am the head. How many of you said this morning, I'm going to go to church? Raise your hand. Isn't that what we say? I'm going to church. You know what you usually mean by that? I'm going to 2880 Summit Bridge Road. I'm going to walk into that building that we've built. And that's what I mean by going to church. But how many of you realize I am the church? I am the church. I am a priest in every sense of the word. I am a priest. You know, until we understand this, until this new reformation of body life, where we experience the overflowing love of God and all these barriers between clergy and laity. And I might even say, between elders and non-elders. You see, some of you have an image of our session. That is wrong. It is wrong. You know one of the things that the session always has to do? It's part of the problem of being a member of the session. You know what it is? Oftentimes we have to interact with negative situations. I want to tell you, that gets old after a while, but it's something we have to do. It's something we have to do. But some of us have this image of, well, we've got clergy and laity. I can get past that. We'll say, okay, that's Chuck up there. Not the right Reverend Father Charles Betters up there. Not the Monsignor or the Cardinal. But old sinful Chuck, just like you and me. He just happens to be equipped to do something that the Spirit of God equipped him to do. I flunked public speaking in high school. That's the truth. You don't believe me. The key is I did it on purpose. You say, Well, how'd you get up there? I don't know. When I get to heaven, I'll ask him, Why did you do this? I haven't figured it out yet. But he equips you the same way. Some of you he's calling to do this. You need to cut bait and do it. And quit arguing and debating and get on with the business of what God's called you to do. These walls, these entertainment walls and these models of ministry that are institutionally based need to go right out the window. Francis Schaefer wrote a book called The Great Evangelical Disaster. And you know what he says in that book? He says that the church today is in the midst of theological confusion. We don't know what we believe. And he says the reason we don't know what we believed, and he mentions one word, is because of accommodation. You know what accommodation is? Back in the early 1900s, the word fundamentalist meant something different than it means today. C.S. Lewis wrote a book called Mere Christianity, which is simply laying out the gospel in its barest form and saying, this is the message. Jesus Christ came, died, was buried, rose again, is coming again, and has offered sacrifice for your sins on the cross. And that's the gospel. And in order to believe that gospel, you have to believe in the inerrancy of scripture. And what has happened? Back in the 1930s, let me tell you what happened. In the 1930s in Germany, the theologians got their heads together and started thinking and reasoning to themselves that the Bible can't be believed. Forum criticism and higher criticism, along with the theories of Charles Darwin, merged together into a religious socio-political system of secular humanism and godless atheism, but it was in the church. And that was imported into this country. And in 1930, the Northern Presbyterian Church defrocked a man who believed in the inerrancy of Scripture, and that became the catalyst, according to Schaefer, that opened up the whole door, barring belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. It became the improper, unacceptable thing to say, I believe in the inerrant, inspired, infallible Word of God. There was no groundswell of protest, so that today we live 60-some years later, and we have in every mainline denomination an embracing of secular humanism and godless atheism rooted in a disbelief in the inerrancy of Scripture. They don't care. Then you got people like Bishop Spong who come right out of the pit of hell and stand behind their pulpits, and our denominations have gone down the tubes. We don't know what we believe. So what happens? The people who were raised in the 50s, you know what you used to do? You went to church because it was the thing to do. In the 50s, you went to church because everybody went to church, right? Then we come to the 60s with all the radicalism and the 70s with our me generation and our human rights movement, in the 80s with our materialism, but now the same people who were wearing the tunics and the sandals and driving the Volkswagen Beatles with their peace signs on their buses. The same people are now carrying briefcases to Wall Street. And they're coming down into the churches and they're saying, Have something to say to me, but don't make it controversial. Meet my needs. Don't make it controversial. Don't ask me for any commitments. Don't tell me to do anything. Entertain me. Go ahead, perform. But don't ask me to do anything. And what do preachers do? We develop, as John Miller calls it in his book, Outgrowing the Ingrown Church, a religious cushion. You know what a religious cushion is? We say just enough to get by, but nothing that offends. You see, we become user-friendly churches. That's a term that's used today. User-friendly churches. What does God say? Part the sacrifice. I want to walk right through the middle and I want to beat on your door. I want to move my spirit inside of your spirit and pulsate and pulsate and pulsate and convict until you stand up and say, I will obey. Don't preach that, preacher. You won't reach the baby boomers. Careful what you say, the busters could be offended. We have demographically isolated different groups of people. I got news for you. You're going to come to this church, you're going to hear the whole gospel. You're going to hear all bits and pieces of it. You're even going to hear the H word. You're going to hear that there is a hell to be shunned and a heaven to be gained. You're going to hear the S word. Sin, not maladjustment, not psychological quirk, but that which is offensive to God. Sin. Then you're going to hear about the gifts of the Spirit. And I'm not afraid of the gifts of the Spirit. No, I'm not charismatic. What I do believe is we need to shatter the institutional myth of the church. If we're ever going to really understand the Holy Spirit. And he doesn't have to speak to me to speak to you first. He doesn't have to say it through me to you. He can speak to you and will speak to you personally and directly. What's he calling you to do? What's he calling you to be? These people I've pointed out. I gotta tell you. These people were afraid. First time I ever preached a sermon, I preached it to an empty congregation. Wasn't anybody there? Except my wife and my brother-in-law. Oh, they were so kind. Sure you don't want to go into medicine, Chuck? I think she said. So kind. That first congregation that I served, so kind. I gotta tell you something, friends. Let the Spirit of God get a hold of where you are. And you will begin to shatter the myth of an institutional church. And you'll catch a vision that Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and Ox caught when they spoke of the priesthood of every believer. Every believer. I could do things that you could never do. But if I say to you, You, I don't need you, or you say to me, I don't need you, and the eye says to the hand, I have no use for you, and the hand says to the foot, I have no use for you. Then we've missed the whole point of an organism. Living, pulsating, viable organism. We are to weep with those who weep. We are to rejoice with those who rejoice. We are to pray for those who are sick. We are to pray that the Spirit of God would bring revival to our church and then from our church to this world. You know, we got so many backgrounds represented in this church. Some of you have Lutheran backgrounds, some of you have Presbyterian backgrounds, Baptist backgrounds, Catholic backgrounds. We got so many ites in this church, we've got them all. But I gotta tell you something when we come to the cross. Guess what? Guess what? When we come to the cross, what does he see? When we stand before him one day, what does he see? My Presbyterianism, my Lutheranism, or the imputed righteousness of Christ in me. You got to catch this message, friends. We come now to the Lord's table. We're going to take the bread and the cup together. And what are we saying by doing so? We're a body. We're a living, viable, breathing organism whom the Spirit of God has said, step aside, let me walk through the midst. Let me pulsate and ratify my covenant in the midst of your people, let me touch people where they are. I'll do my work. He is the head, we are the parts. Break down your walls. Is that what Greg Ogden called in his book, The New Reformation? A new reformation. Because that's what we need. A whole new perspective of what God has called us to in the ministry. Are you a priest? In every sense of the word, if you know Christ, you are. Thank you, Lord, that you are indeed a Savior who came, ruined sinners to reclaim, bearing shame and scoffing, taking guilty, vile, and helpless people like us, and giving us the very spotted lamb of Calvary, the very Son of God, crying, it is finished. It is finished. And then you move in our midst. This is your church. You will build it your way. Against your church and the kingdom work, the gates of hell cannot stand. So build your body, speak to each of our hearts.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

Now may the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit abide with each of you now until Christ comes again and forevermore. And all God's people said.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

Mark Inc. Ministries exists to offer help and hope to hurting people by pointing them to the promises of God and the comfort of his word. Through In His Gript, Ask Dr. Betters, Daily Treasure, and Help and Hope, we provide free, faith-based resources for those walking through suffering, grief, confusion, and seasons of deep need. To learn more about Dr. Betters, explore our resources, or contact us, visit M A R K I N C dot org. May you rest today in the assurance that God can be trusted, even when we do not understand his plans.