Saul & Stephen | Bro Jimmy Shook | Paul to Colossians | Bill Moseley | 6.7.26

Bro Jimmy Shook: Acts 7 | Bill Moseley Colossians 1-3

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Well Steve, I appreciate that humble, beautiful prayer. You know, there's some today we hear say, well thoughts and prayers, that's that's not that important. What else is there? What else is there? James tells us how important that prayer is. The righteous man. The subject I have on my mind, I want you to continue to pray, is uh over in the uh sixth and seventh chapter of Acts concerning a man named Stephen. And we'll start over here in the sixth chapter. This is all good. I'm not going to try to read all of it, but I would encourage you to go back and look at it if you like. But in the sixth chapter of Acts it says, and in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmur of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily administration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, It's not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. So these elders saw that they needed someone to take care of the business of the church, and that's what deacons do today. Said, and the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and then he goes and names the others, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And we know how that ordination of the deacons goes about, would have a laying of the hands. And the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Brother Mike, I don't believe we deacons today can do those miracles, but but it says Stephen could. So then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, the Caverninians, the Alexandrians, and them of Cilicia and of Asia disputing with Stephen. And when they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake, then they suborned men which said we've never we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And I thought, you know how how true that is today. If if if people can't win an argument against people that are preaching God and preaching the truth, if they can't win the then they want to f they want to do something to hurt them, to get rid of them, or we've even seen to kill them. So this is nothing, this is today what's happening today is nothing new. It's nothing that wasn't done to Stephen. And said they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council. And they set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against the holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. Well, they they took that as false and as bad, but that's just true, Brother Bill. Jesus told him, he said, You destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up again. But he wasn't talking about the stone building, he was talking about the body of the temple, his body. So that's that's true, that wasn't blasphemy. And also he says he'll um he'll change the custom which Moses delivered us. Well, that's that's true too. You know, uh the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So when Christ was crucified, gave up the ghost, that veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom, signifying the end of the law and the beginning of grace. So Jesus did tell them he was preaching a new covenant, a better covenant, a grace dispensation, not the law dispensation. We were no one longer under the law. We were freed from the law by the death of Jesus Christ. So what they were saying about him was actually true. And it says, and all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. You know that that ought to told him something right there. So then the high priest said, Are these things so? And so then Stephen began to give an account. And if you ever wanted a summary of the Bible, here it is right here. He he I was trying to think back when we were going to school, you know, you'd get assigned to read a book, but you could go to the store and you could buy these little summaries. I forget now what we called them, but cliff notes, that's what I was thinking. You could buy those cliff notes, and it you could try to fool the professor in saying, yeah, I've read the book, here it is. But after a while they got where they didn't ask you what happened in the book. They'd go to ask you particular things to make sure you had actually read it. But but here's a here's the cliff notes of the Bible right here in this seventh chapter. And and uh Stephen tells them about how God made a covenant with Abraham, and then how he gave him his son Isaac, the child of promise, and how then Isaac had Jacob, and Jacob had the twelve patriarchs, and one of them was Joseph, and how Joseph was sold by his brethren into slavery, went into Egypt. He found favor with the Pharaoh because God had showed him that there would be a great drought. And he told him, he said, You've got to store up all the corn now because the drought is coming. They did so, and all the people didn't starve. All of Joseph's family came, his father and all of them, and they all survived because of what he had done. But then there was a new Pharaoh came about. And during this time, when when Joseph had favor, the Hebrews, they uh prospered greatly because the Lord blessed them. But then there came a new a new Pharaoh, and he's and the people saw, the Egyptians saw how well God had had blessed these Hebrews, and said, we gotta, you know, we gotta do something about that. So we know they put them into slavery and and made their burdens harder and harder. So then God chose out Moses to come and lead them out, lead them across that Red Sea, lead them through that Red Sea, Dry Shod, promised them what he had what he had promised Abraham in the beginning, that Abra he told Abraham that he would have Canaan's land, the land flowing with milk and honey. And so Moses brought them out of Egypt and into that land of milk and honey. But Stephen goes on to say then that the people disobeyed God. They broke that covenant, that law covenant, and they returned to the gods of Egypt, worshiping them. And let's see, I'm gonna start here in the 51st verse of seventh. He says, He's addressing these people in the temple. Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so ye do. Says they were circumcised in the flesh, but not but not in the heart. They were uncircumcised in the heart. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them, and which showed before of the coming of the just one, of whom we have been now the betrayers and murderers, of whom ye have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. They violated this first covenant. And when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God in Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And I guess this is what's kind of put this on my mind. And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord. They cast him out of the city, and they stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. You know, if you those that believe that we're saved by our works and our good works, Saul just blows that all to pieces. We know what Saul was doing. He was persecuting God's people. He was imprisoned them, round them up. He was holding he was uh helping them here when they stoned Stephen. He was holding their coats while they did the stoning. So we know that Saul, which Lord named Paul, was a child of God and was a chosen one of God, but he certainly couldn't have been saved by his works because he was definitely a sinner like we all are. But I I want to look what I want to look at is is Stephen. He said, and they stoned Stephen, he was calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, and he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this to their charge, just like Christ did when he was being crucified. And then, and when he had said this, he fell asleep. But he says, He said, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. You know, I don't know this, but I'd like to think when every elect child of God presses that dying pillow, and before he takes that last breath, would see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. I'd like to think that. And in and in and when they was when they would see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God, and they would hear the words of Jesus over here in the 25th chapter of Matthew, when he says, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world. What a wonderful blessing that would be. It happened to Stephen, and I'd like to think it happens to every elect child of God when they come to that point when they're on their last breath, that they would see the heavens open. They would see Jesus Christ standing at the right hand, sitting at the right hand of God. What a wonderful blessing that is. Stephen believed that. He saw that, he believed that, and I believe it every child of God would see that as well as they go to meet their father. He was saying, you know, he was talking about the sheep and the goats, and he was talking to the sheep, said, Come ye to me. All ye blessed of the Father that were named before the foundation of the world. What a what a blessing that we believe that. Thank you for your time.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

I'm glad Brother Jimmy is here today, and I'm glad for what he brought before our attention. We uh we have the two offices, one of the ministry and one of the deacons. Both were given by God and uh given authority by God. The ministry and the deacons have their particular work in the church. There's qualifications for a minister, and there's a qualification for a deacon. It's different callings. One called of God at large, as it were, not particularly tied to a location. Deacons were added as I'll call it grassroots servants. They're given to look out for the business of the church. That's what the apostles said, that we might appoint them to this business. Sometime, well, one of the qualifications is the that the deacons be full of the Holy Ghost. Stephen showed that he was a man full of the Holy Ghost. Just because you're a preacher don't mean you can't serve the church and the business of the church as far as getting things done or whatever. Ministers can just still do that. It doesn't mean just because a man's had the laying of hands for the deaconship doesn't mean he can't preach a sermon. And I saw a deacon this morning preach a sermon. So that still is happening in the church, is when we see those things verified before our eyes. Brother Jimmy has given us much to think about in that occasion of Stephen. Stephen being one of the seven. There was another one called Philip. He was finally later called the evangelist, went over, and he did some preaching too. This man Stephen gave his testimony, and I believe under the direction, well, I know, under the direction of the Holy Ghost. It's even recorded by the inspiration of God, all scripture given by inspiration of God. So his sermon is recorded in Scripture. So I know it was of the Holy Ghost, and Stephen took that message to those people exactly where they were at. And every one of those that he mentioned, he could have said, and that's your heritage. That's you. That's where you are. When they resisted, that's the kind of resistance he's going to finally get to. The sum of his sermon, Brother Jimmy, was you do always resist the Holy Ghost. And that thinking that you are saved by your works, or you bring God to you by your works, is a resistance to the Holy Ghost. And that's what Stephen was talking about. And Saul was there. I don't believe he saw the Lord standing at the right hand of God like Stephen did at that time. Stephen saw that vision of the Lord, and I do believe, Brother Jimmy, that the moment we passed, maybe before, I have been with a couple when they died, and it was a spiritual moment. In both cases, it was a spiritual moment. And I believe they were under the influence of the Holy Ghost at that moment, from what I could see. I couldn't see what they saw. But I could see the vision on their face and the things that I experienced. But I do believe that at that moment of death, as he told that thief this day, thou shalt be with me in paradise. I believe that is the first thing that we see when we pass from this life, and our soul escapes the bonds of this world, and we fly to that place or be carried to that place. That the first thing we see is what Stevens thought. The Lord standing. Our very pleasure is in him. Saul did not see him at that moment. He was holding the coast of the mob. He was the mob boss. He was given commissions, and he was terrorizing the children of Israel in their desire to worship God. And when he found one giving that testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, he would persecute them, some even unto death. That's what was going on in Saul. And Saul later would say something about that. He received mercy for those things that he had done, and that he had done them in unbelief. He confessed that. That he had done that. But he also said, I received mercy. And Brother Elton, that's the only thing that could save a man from that kind of memory, from that kind of realization that I had done that to God's people. That I had terrorized them for their witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul, Saul didn't see him at that point that he was holding the coat. But he would go down to Damascus with commission to go and find them and to deal them great harm if they confessed Jesus. This man that they considered, as Brother Jimmy said, they were accusing him of being a trump, a seditioner against the law. The Lord said, I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. And he did say, I uh you destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up. Talking about his body. And Paul would learn that later. That they weren't talking about that physical brick and mortar place. He was talking about his very own body. But he wasn't ready to receive that at the moment. But later on, he was on his way to Damascus, and the one that Stephen saw standing at the right hand of God met Saul on that road to Damascus and did a work upon him. That uncircumcised heart that Stephen identified was circumcised. It was quickened. It was changed and made alive unto Christ. No longer with that same feeling of flesh, but that heart that now was now touched by the things of the spirit. That warfare had started, and now he had the flesh to contend with, but he also had that spirit within him. Christ in him, the hope of glory. Now the ones that he was preying upon was the ones that he would pray for as he would go through his journey. I want to take us for a moment now concerning this man Saul, who had gone through his change. There's not many, I don't think, that can identify a point in their life that they were born again. Maybe there's a few that can say, I feel reasonably sure where I was at when that happened. Maybe. But I can tell you three. I can tell you three that were born again at a particular time, and we can pretty well identify when it was. John the Baptist in the womb, that thief on the cross, and Saul on the road to Damascus was quickened and changed. So that we get a lesson that it can happen whensoever the Lord is willing and it's his desire to do it, he'll do it. And he is not shortened in any way to reach into the womb and touch one. Or even at the very last breath before they die upon a cross. Where there's nobody there to bring that man along to repentance and quickening and new birth. But it happens according to the work of the Spirit that says, live and they live. Or whether it be a Saul, I'm gonna tell you, my friends, of the law, he thought he was doing the will of God. But in reality, my friends, he was resisting the Holy Ghost. He was in resistance. He didn't, at that point, he was enemy against God. But God, my friends, reached into that heart on the way and spoke to him. Saul, Saul. I'm gonna tell you, my friends, when the Lord speaks, it's immediate. And he speaks to that heart. This, I want to go and read something in a moment in the book of Colossians. Because Paul would use some language that identifies this work of this regenerating, quickening work, as he would tell the Ephesian brethren. He would tell them about it, and you hath he quickened who were dead and trespasses and sin. He understood that because he remembered that moment on the road to Damascus, hearing the voice. Now he had been with him on that road to Damascus. And he said they heard the voice. They heard a sound of the voice, but they heard not the voice that spake to me, because it was particular to him. He said to Saul, Saul, and immediately Saul would say, Lord, Lord. He knew it was the great voice that was speaking to him. He knew there was power in that voice. This wasn't a preacher calling him out. This wasn't some friend trying to get him there. This was the Lord of glory. This was the one that he was seeking after people calling upon that voice that were that were worshiping that voice. That's who he was after, but my friends, that voice spake to him. And it spake to him in particular to his case. Saul. You know what? It's akin to the voice that says, Lazarus come forth. It was particular to Lazarus come forth. That's what happens in the new birth, friends. It is you that he speaks to. And when he speaks, my friends, it's not an invitation. It's not a question. It's a command of life to happen. It is a conception of life. That voice hits that heart and it circumcises that heart. Removing that old stony heart and replacing it with a heart of feeling. Writing it not on tables of stone that Saul had been worshiping, but writing it upon the fleshy tables of the heart and impressing it upon the mind. And Saul would say, Lord, what would you have me do? Lord, what would you have me do? My friends, that is an indication of submission. It wasn't a matter that he had a choice here. My friends, the Lord commanded him to live. And he answered that with a passive agreement. Because he was worked upon with the operation of God. He was having we're praying for your friend with the heart surgery of the flesh. My friend the Lord did a heart surgery of the spirit. He went into that, and this was a fail safe, this was a no-fail operation. When he touches that heart, he infuses that life, and it begins to live. And it answered there, and that was an answer of confirmation that he was alive. Lord, what would you have me to do? Sounds a lot different from that one that held the coat of those that sick him or sick him voice to go get him, to stone him. No, my friends, this voice is Lord, what would you have me to do? Let's come over here to Colossians. Now Colossians is an interesting book. As you start looking at background of this book, Colossian, these are people that are, they're situated in a metropolitan area where there is a city called Heropolis and Laodicea. You read about Laodicea in the book of Revelation, it's the one that says, We're rich and have need of nothing. That's that church. But they're right there in that area. And it's thought that Colossae was finally overtaken by Laodicea, and it really kind of went away by the time the seven churches were written to by John. But Colossae is a place right there in that area, and that is a place where it is on one of the main trade routes. This is a trade route where there's a lot of merchandise going back and forth. There's a lot of activity going back and forth. And in places of large activity and money flow and all that kind of influence, there's a lot of diversity of ideas and thinking. There's a lot of flow of thought that would lead to bad conclusions that would be confounding to some and the things that they believe. I tell you, my friends, this is relevant to us today because we live in a place of high volatility of information. A lot of things you're going to hear and see. You just do a little looking here and there, and you see all kinds of ideas, all kinds of philosophies, all kinds of ideological differences, and it can get extremely confusing. It can take our minds into thinking things that are just not true. Very deceiving through slight variations of ideas. Not that ideas are bad, but bad ideas don't get any better. And they will take your mind away if we're not careful to rightly divide and understand what is truth and what is not truth. Now, at this point where Paul writes this letter, this is one of the four letters that he writes to churches while he's in prison in Rome. He's down there in a jail cell, locked away. No, it didn't stop him. He wrote letters, and those that were visiting with him would take them and they would send the letters back. And Colossae is one of the four places that he would write letters from that prison cell. There was Ephesus, Philippi, and there was Philemon, and then there was Colossae. Those four church groups is where he wrote from the prison cell in the latter, very late days of Paul's life. Saul had gone through many things to get to this point. He had seen a lot of places. He had been to Ephesus and he had established that church. He had been to Philippi. He had been put into jail at Philippi and he got out. And he had been over where Philemon is. He knew those people and they knew him. Brother Mike, they had met Paul. He was known to their face. They had seen him. He wasn't somebody made up. They knew him. Well, there was a young preacher, Epiphras. If I said that wrong, I'm sorry. And he was the pastor at Colossae. And Epiphras evidently had taught them of Paul's writings, and he was preaching Paul's doctrine. At least what was given to Paul was laid down beside Epiphras, and Epiphere would teach the Colossians the things that God had given Paul. Epiphras had made a big influence upon this church by the preaching of the gospel to them. And they had received it, but as this place is the place of great activity, there are things being come that are coming in that are undermining the things that Paul had taught to Ephesus, and Epiphras had taught to Colossi. And so this letter is there to shore up what Epiphere had been teaching. It was given as a reinforcement. And my friends, we need reinforcements. Many times we need to rehearse the same things over and over. Because if we don't rehearse it over and over, we will forget it. Or it will become polluted in our mind and we'll start. You know, you add a little bit to the truth, and it becomes an untruth. But listen here, let's go to the second chapter. The first is a very great chapter because Paul tells him what, tells these brethren what he thinks about them and his concern for them, and he establishes some great truths. And one of the main truths is in the 18th verse, and it says, talking about Christ, and he is the head of the body, the church, not Epiphras. He's not the head, and I'm not the head. Paul had never met these people, not them either. But he's letting them know, look, the church answers to the head. It answers to its main source, and that's the Lord. He said, and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that is, in all things, he might have the preeminence. That's the underlying key to Paul's beginning here with the church of Colossae. That's one of the very first things we must understand as a church is that we must have Him, the Lord, as the preeminence before our eyes. He is the main pinnacle. It's not the preacher, it's not the deacons, it's not the sisters, it's not anything else. It's not the building, it's not brick and mortar. It is the Lord that is to have the preeminence over all things. He is first priority in everything that we're to do. That is the first key to a healthy church is that he, Brother Jimmy, is the head of the church. And we as the church, as the local body, answer directly to that head. Men come and men go, mothers come and mothers go. The Lord is the key to the church. Now he would he would come on over. And he would, in the second chapter, he talks about being rooted and built up in him. Remember, he's the head, and we're to be rooted. Our spiritual roots must sink in to him. We must surround ourselves as roots with dirt. The dirt surrounds the root and gives the nutrients to the root, and the roots draw from the dirt. That's what we are to be with the Lord is. We're rooted in him and built up in him and established in the faith. That is a constant seeking isn't being stablished in the faith. We're established, but we're to stablish ourselves even more. Being stronger and stronger through the roots, through the building of our faith, and established in the faith as ye have been taught according therein with thanksgiving. He said, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. Those are things that appeal to the flesh. Those are the things that will undermine the roots and chip away at the building and make uneven the establishing of our faith is these philosophies and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. That is, but Jimmy Christ is no longer at the preeminence. Now the philosopher, the uh the Socrates and the all of these big philosophers that you might hear from, that will take start taking more preeminence in your thinking. No, come back to your roots. Come back to your established. He said, for in him, for in him, that's Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Paul is establishing here, that's who we preach, that's who we follow, that's who we're rooted in, that's what we're built upon, and that's where our establishing is. And beware of the false things that'll come in. And he says, and you, he not only the fullness dwells in him, he said, and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. That's why those other things have no credibility against him, because he is before all them. They don't exist because of themselves, they exist because he was before them. He created all things. People want to worship the stars. Guess what? He made all the stars. He put them in their place and named them according to his self. He says, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. This is not natural circumcision, as they were trying to make the law. And that's what confused many of them because they were bringing in, like they did over at Galatia, you must be circumcised in order to be saved. You have to have a natural work. You have to have a natural condition in order to be recognized. No, friends, it's not a circumcision made with hands. It's made without hands. How then is it made? It's made by the Spirit. By the Spirit. He says, not a circumcision made without hand, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Then not only circumcised in the heart, made without hands, but buried with him, buried with him in baptism, and that's not water baptism, friends. That's not water baptism. We don't believe as some that you have to be baptized into the old Baptist Church in order to be saved or any other church to be saved. Baptism is, again, a natural occurrence. Like circumcision with hands, baptism in water is a natural thing that we do. We actually go down in the water. We are submerged, brought back up. That is water baptism, and there is a place and a purpose and a reason that we have water baptism. But this is not that. Buried with him in baptism, wherein ye also ye are risen with him. Now watch this real close, rightly dividing the word of God, truth from truth. I'm not saying baptism doesn't have a place or a purpose, but baptism here is this, or risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, not water. That's a, this is a submersion in Christ, buried with him. My friends, Paul says, I am crucified with Christ. I am crucified with Christ. I was in him. When he was crucified on the cross, you were included. You were there, you were baptized in Christ. When he suffered on the cross, you were there with him in spirit. You were there with him, included in that desire for him to take your debt and to pay your price that you owed. Through this operation of God who hath raised him from the dead. So therefore, when he died, Paul says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. That's how we are buried with him in baptism of his crucifixion. You were verily, you didn't exist. We didn't exist at that time. But my friends, we were there when he hung upon that cross and your sins were paid. You were in him. So that when he died, you died with Christ. And therefore you are freed from your sins. Now listen, I've got to go real quick. Buried with him in baptism, with also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins and uncircumcised of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinance that was against us, which are contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross, and having spoiled principality empires, he made a show of them openly triumphant over them in it. Come on down here, tell us go. That, my friends, is what he left us to do. We rose with him that day, that they went and they found that empty tomb, the stone rolled away, and the cut the grave clothes are there and they're folded neatly and put in their place and left there as a testimony that this wasn't a place of robbery where somebody stole the body. But they he neatly folded up the coat, the clothes, and he left them there as a testimony that I have risen unto life, and he would be seen of many witnesses after this passion. So what are we to do in that? If you therefore be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Let me go back to the first chapter. Seek the one that has preeminence. Seek after his teaching. Seek after his word. The word makes us free. And if the Son make you free, you're free indeed. That, my friends, is a life worth living. That's a reason to get up in the morning. That's a reason to continue through the day. That is the reason to lay our head down and rest at night. Because he lives. We live also. We live in him. And yes, Brother Jimmy, at the last point of our death, I believe we do. We do open our eyes, we shut our eyes in death, and we open our eyes to the embrace of that one that has preeminence. He's got preeminence in our life, he's got preeminence in our death. We live because he lived. And we continue to seek after the things which are above. The Lord has been so good to us that he proves over and over when he says, I'll be with you always, I keep finding him in my path. I keep finding him. All of my path, of my past, was my life to this point, and I found him throughout my life, and to now, why should I think that he's not going to continue with us? He said, I'll be with you all.