Services/Sermon in Cokato 10.11.2019

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, let us unite our hearts in opening prayer and thanksgiving.

Our dear Heavenly Father, as Thou hast yet granted unto us this time to gather here around the feet of Thy beloved Son to hear what He has to say unto us. Dear Father, we thank You for these times, and we pray and ask, dear Father, to preserve within us a hunger for Thy Word. And we ask, open Thy Word unto us through Thy living Holy Spirit that dwells here in Thy kingdom, wherever Thy Word is heard even this evening.

Dear Father, we are so small before You. We have so little understanding and knowledge. We often struggle with sorrow and difficulty, affliction of this life, and also the sin that besets. We ask, dear Father, remember us. We ask that You would keep us as little children. So when that sin comes, that we make those footsteps there to Your grace throne. And we ask, dear Father, in this way, to increase our faith, that we would, even in a small, small way, comprehend the mystery and miracle of living faith that Thou hast gifted unto us.

And we pray, dear Father, as Thy beloved Son has taught us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, that will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

I thought to read this evening one of the epistle texts that has been set aside for this Sunday, the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, or the 20, well, November 10th, Reformation Day. And the theme for this day speaks unto us of the foundation of faith. And my dear brothers and sisters, I do have to, and I do marvel. In recent times, these last couple of years especially, I have marveled greatly at the wisdom of God. And even as I review the text for each Sunday, and even as you can do there at home with your church calendars, I marvel how they speak so clearly unto us in this time that we're living.

And so for our text, I will read from the epistle of Paul to the Romans, from its first chapter, I'm going to read from verse 15 through 17. And these words are in Jesus' name as follow. So, as much as is in me, or so as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Amen.

When we think of the Holy Bible, it's miraculous words of wisdom. And how the Old Testament is the book that has been written unto us of the prophecies of the coming of the Savior, our Savior, Jesus Christ. And the New Testament books, of course the Gospels, are preserved unto us, so that we get a small taste of that work of God's beloved Son here upon the earth for that short period of time that He lived here. And the writings of the Apostles are written unto us to be reminded and to learn of those first early believers that lived in the New Testament era and time.

And yet, well, the New Testament is the fulfilling of the promise of God of our beloved Lord Jesus as He lived here. And also, very important, the beginning of the New Testament era where that Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one, the portion of that New Testament life of the believers and how they were led after Jesus visibly arose into heaven, into that cloud as those disciples saw. And also, it's important to remember the last thing He did is He blessed them and He ascended into heaven.

And then began the time of the New Testament era where the voice of the Good Shepherd was heard through the living Holy Spirit, through the children of God here upon the earth. And God, as the Scriptures reminds us, chose some to be teachers and prophets and apostles and ministers and so on. Nothing has changed. Now it is 2,000 years later. And even this has not changed.

Because I dare say in every generation that has lived here, and I would even go back to the beginning of time when sin came into the world because of the envy of the devil, there has been a struggle with the believers in every generation. There has been a personal struggle, the personal battle of living faith to endeavor to preserve faith and good conscience. And among those believers of every generation, Satan has brought wrong understanding and doctrine and has deceived the children of God away from living faith through this sermon of unbelief of the enemy, Satan himself.

The sermon of the flesh is not as the Bible says, there is nothing new under the sun. And then, of course, there are those periods of time where this personal wrong understanding that a child of God has had and even been deceived into unbelief has spread among his children, having itching ears and seeking for a teacher. And then, those times have come when God has needed to cleanse his kingdom and even as the scriptures say, and there will be heresies among you.

So that the pure word of our Heavenly Father, spoken through the living Holy Spirit, is pure. That the message that Jesus brought here onto the world of grace and truth, that it would not be defiled, that the truth would not begin to be washed, or swayed one way or the other. And also of grace, that grace would not become to something of which a child of God clings to and is not concerned of the truth.

We need grace of God, and we need the truth of God. We need both. And the more one reads, the more one visits with the children of God, God's word, the more one comes to the Bible class, or at youth presentations, or wherever the believers gather together, where two or three are, Jesus said, I am there with you. And the voice of the Holy Spirit speaks. It speaks there in your home.

And yet, we are children of joy. God created man to live, to be immortal. And so it was in the beginning. In the garden, it was as if in heaven. For there was peace and joy and the righteousness of God that dwelt there in that garden. Everything was in perfect harmony. Even God's creation was in perfect harmony. For you boys and girls, you can remember that the little lamb was not afraid and could lie down before the lion and go to sleep. Love.

And then because of the envy of the enemy of soul, sin came here. And with sin came distress, came sorrow, came affliction, trials of life, hardships, pain and anguish, and death. And now we are living this time of creation, 2,000 years after Jesus was here. And isn't it a miracle when you think about it, that here you sit, listening to that same voice of the Good Shepherd, listening to the voice of our Lord Jesus today, 2,000 years later.

So simply we trust and so simply we believe. Jesus told his disciples, there are those examples in the Bible. The one is when he sent those 72 by two into the different villages and cities to preach the message of the gospel, to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. And he told them, prepare not any script that I will give you words, God will give you those words. And so they went with that faith and they preached the message. And they returned.

Oh, the return. Oh, they were rejoicing and praising God when they two by two returned from those mission trips that Jesus had sent them out on. And they were rejoicing to Jesus, explaining to Jesus that even that devils were subject unto us. Jesus. And Jesus listened. And then Jesus reminded them, where is the greatest reason to rejoice and to praise God? He's reminding us tonight. And he says to you tonight that your names are written in the books of life, in the Lamb's book of life.

This is the reason to rejoice, that God has preserved you and me to this day here in living faith. Is that not a miracle of miracles? And thank God that we've been able to throw into that great, vast, depths of that sea of mercy, all those unforgiven sins, they've been thrown behind us into that great sea, never to be pulled up again. They are forgiven here on earth.

And isn't that even a mystery? That they are first forgiven here on earth through the lips of his beautiful messengers here when you preach that gospel and forgiven in heaven then. But unless they are preached forgiven here on earth, or if they're not forgiven here on earth, they're not forgiven in heaven. If you don't hear that audible voice through the living Holy Spirit, my son, my daughter, brother and sister, your sins and doubts are forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood. You will never get to heaven.

That is why the Apostle Paul says, I live of the gospel. That is why we say, where would we be today without the gospel? Where would we be today without the grace privilege and the grace gift of confession? We had a youth evening here, Friday evening. I spoke on the... Well, to be honest with you, I was asked to give the presentation and I don't remember the title, but we spoke about the fellowship and the unity here in God's kingdom. Spoke about many things and one of the youth then asked the question again of name sins.

I had already spoken about how the Apostle writes unto the believers in Corinth and the believers in Galatia and he goes into great detail that, and I'll just give you that example from the Galatians where he reminds us, yes, it reminds us, for this Bible has been written and preserved for the salvation of our souls. And where he reminds us now, he says now, now the works of the flesh, the works of unbelief, or we could say the works of Satan actually, because our flesh is sin corrupted, and if we would follow our flesh, and if we wouldn't mortify the deeds of this flesh, we would fall into spiritual death. We would fall into spiritual death.

If we followed the lust of the flesh, or the pride of life on the right side, and we don't put those sins away, we would never get to heaven. Never get to heaven. But it says here now, the works of the flesh are manifest, and he goes on to relay of them, and often we've termed these as name sins. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like.

And then he says here something that, well, listen to what he says. And of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. This was a message of God sent to the believers in Galatia, sent to the believers in Galatia, not to the unbelievers, to the believers. And it's sent to us here this evening, that if we do such things, we don't put those away, we will not inherit eternal life.

Now, God's kingdom is not a kingdom of do's and don'ts. It isn't. We don't have a list of things that we can do, another great list of things that we shouldn't do. We have something much, much greater than that. And there you see a small portion of the wisdom of our Heavenly Father. For He has gifted unto you the living Holy Spirit. That voice of God that speaks to you personally. When temptations come, it warns you.

And believers have been confused. They have been confused throughout the history of the world. And there was even a heresy here in North America. And I think it touched over in the old country, too, years ago, where they came to this carnal understanding that we're children of God. We have the righteousness of faith. We have such perfection, this gift of righteousness of faith. God's love. And this gift is so incredible, so they said, and so they thought, that even all of our future sins are already forgiven.

That is what those believers thought. And it affected even in Cocado. Believers, when God's time came, gathered together in a little church there in French Lake. Part of that polar heresy. Many, many years ago. My father-in-law, I think, was a little child when that came. And so they believed. And there were believers before that time that believed that way. And I ask you, is there anything new under the sun?

And so the Apostle Paul says, so as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you. Think about it. That old sister, and always since from a child, she never knew so much as the teachings of the Holy Spirit, raised in an unbelieving home. She called her believing sister. She was troubled. And that sister preached the gospel that night to her.

And the devil came at night to both of them. To the sister who preached the gospel, the devil came. She didn't understand. And to that dear sister who received the grace of repentance, doubts came. Does that gospel belong to me? And she didn't even know so much as to say, can I hear that gospel message? She called her sister the next morning and simply said, can I hear those beautiful words again? And that is what the gospel is.

But it's much more than that. Even as the apostle Paul here says, it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. There we have the key. It's the power of God unto salvation to you who believes that word.

It was interesting visiting with that dear speaker brother who visited in our midst. He had related to me of something that often happens to children of God who get deceived by Satan. They fall into those named sins and which I wanted to add. Any sin that is bothering your conscience becomes a named sin. Not a sin unto death, but a named sin. The Holy Spirit is speaking to you to put that sin away. There is grace and forgiveness. There is forgiveness.

And he spoke in this way that often when a child of God believes or is deceived into those sins of the flesh, those sins on the left side that when one goes there, they know they have sinned. There is no question. And yet if they listen to the sermon of Satan, don't worry, don't put that sin away, you're okay. If they don't put that sin away, at some point, that sin either becomes a part of their life or but they go from that left ditch and Satan very gently picks them from the left ditch, places them into the right ditch, and the child of God begins to justify their sins with the wisdom and knowledge of man.

They begin to read the scriptures and now they read it, not with the heart of a child, but they are reading the scriptures in a deceitful way. They are seeking for a cover for their sin. And so that one who has lived in the filth on the left side now begins to grow in himself on the right side and becomes very knowledgeable and wise in the scriptures. And from that lofty position, then, he justifies his sins.

And that is one way to justify them as those did in that heresy of the polarism, where the righteousness of faith is so perfect that even my future sins are already forgiven today. And yet, that is very deceitful. It is from Satan. And as we all know, when one is in on the right ditch, the difficult place to crawl back down from, because one goes higher and higher in his own knowledge and his own wisdom, and he looks at the other children of God that you don't understand the scriptures, that you must understand this and this and this.

The poor timid child of God becomes frightened. Their very sensitive ears become alarmed at what they're hearing, because it's the sermon of the flesh. And I was reading from that book of Ecclesiasticus, it speaks of wisdom of God. And the apostle Paul spoke of that, and he reminded us in this way, that the wisdom of man is but foolishness before God. That is how small we are before God.

And yet the writer here tells us that all wisdom cometh from the Lord, and is with him forever and ever and ever. Then he asked us, who can number the sand of the sea? God can. Who can number the drops of rain? God can. Who can number the days of eternity? God can. Who can find the height of heaven and the breadth of earth and the deep and wisdom? God can.

Wisdom has been created before all things, and the understanding of prudence from everlasting. The word of God most high is the foundation of wisdom, and her ways are everlasting commandments. Then he says, to whom hath the root of wisdom been revealed? Or who hath known her wise counsels? Unto whom hath the knowledge of wisdom been made manifest? And who hath understood her great experience?

There is one wise and greatly to be feared, the Lord sitting upon his throne. He created her, he saw her, he numbered her, and he poured her out upon all his works. She is with all flesh, according to his gift, and he hath given her this wisdom unto them that love him.

In another place, it asks, how can we know the wisdom of God? And God answers that through his Holy Spirit. He opens it unto us. God but only as he sees that we need. And I think every one of us would say and lament how little understanding and wisdom I have.

And yet, here you sit this evening, a child of God, heavenly angel living here upon the earth. Every one of you personally, endeavoring to preserve faith and good conscience, endeavoring to cling to this gospel message, and the Holy Spirit opens unto us that which we need at that time, in all simplicity.

Eternity. It also, it reminds us also of deceit, that the Holy Spirit flees from deceit. Think about that. If Satan has caused one to become deceitful, the Bible says, the Holy Spirit flees from that.

And yet, the Apostle Paul reminds us here, so much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel unto you. This is the message of God's kingdom. He is writing now to the believers in Rome, who have received the precious gift of living faith. They came from unbelief. Many of them, many of them had fled from Jerusalem, and ended up there, fled Jerusalem as children of God. But that message is to the believers.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. We have so much reason to rejoice.

I love that in that 118th psalm, where he reminds us that the voice of rejoicing and salvation is heard in the tabernacles of God. And it is. Many times our hearts are rejoicing when we sit before God's word. Here at services, there in your homes.

We've experienced now many days, gathering together in homes, carrying one another's burdens, the sorrowful and longing children of God. God and the flesh, the flesh which is so close to us, questions and demands answers and brings doubt. And yet we've gathered night after night, day after day, comforting one another, uplifting one another, singing songs and hymns of Zion, carrying one another's burdens.

And as Jesus reminded us, we rejoice that our names are written in that Lamb's Book of Life. But even the Apostle Paul, when he was writing on to those early believers, there in Corinth, already in the beginning of that second letter that he sent on to them, where he writes in this way, he says, for our rejoicing is this, that the testimony of our conscience, God, it's in the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you word.

So we rejoice in this simplicity of God. Living faith is so simple, for our rejoicing is this, and the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, we believe, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, and so we have our fellowships, one with another.

The apostle Paul reminded us that when he was writing to the Corinthians in the first letter, he said that I and I brethren, when I came to you, came not with the excellency of speech or wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God, for I am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in a demonstration of the spirit, the Holy Spirit, and in its power. And then he says that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. In the power of the gospel.

That you who have endeavored in your personal place of watching to be vigilant and watchful as Jesus has reminded us again and again. And yet you who have fallen, sin and trespasses have come. And yet this evening you can believe your sins and doubts forgiven in Jesus name and precious blood.

And God says this is the power of God unto salvation. But he adds unto you, you personally who believe the message. If a child of God does not need the gospel, does not believe the gospel, it doesn't do any good. It doesn't do any good.

I was going to mention, and I'll just briefly mention here, of those former saints who have gone before us. Because the Bible, the Bible also is of the lives of the former saints, and the lives of the former believers, of both. It is about those believers who did not preserve faith and good conscience, and the wages of sin is death, and they fell into spiritual death, and then into temporal death, and then into eternal death.

It relates of them, right from the beginning, Cain, and Esau, and the prophet, and the wisest man that ever lived. How they were deceived by the deceitfulness of Satan into unbelief. The deceitfulness of sin, and by their unforgiven sins, they lost living faith.

But the book unto the Hebrews, you know, the letter unto the Hebrews, the believers, the Jewish believers there, in that 11th chapter, the entire chapter speaks unto us how by faith, by living faith, the elders obtained a good report. And he goes by faith, Abel, by faith, Noah, by faith, Abraham, by faith, Isaac, by faith, Jacob, by faith, Joseph, by faith, Moses, and so on.

They obtained that promise of God, eternal life in heaven. They preserved faith and good conscience. And he goes on to say that, and what should I more say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephthah, of David, also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.

And then he explains who through faith subdued kingdoms, they wrought righteousness, they obtained promises, they stopped the mouths of lions, they quenched the violence of fire, they escaped the edge of the sword, and out of weakness were made strong. God.

The Bible reminds us, beware he who thinketh he standeth, lest he fall. Women received their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, preserved faith to the very end. They were told to deny Jesus, deny living faith. And their mouth remained closed, and they were martyred to death.

Their endeavor of living faith ended here. They were experiencing the joy of heaven. And others had a trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, literally asunder. They were tempted, they were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted and tormented.

Today they're in heaven, every one of them. Why? Because they preserved faith and good conscience. When sin came, they wanted to believe those sins forgiven. And so the apostle very simply even speaks of the remission of sins through the reconciling blood of the Lord Jesus for those sins that are past.

It says nothing about those sins of the future, but Jesus reminds us. He says, don't worry about tomorrow. Don't worry about today and this moment. That you're believing as a little child. He says, sufficient is the evil of this day. Don't be worried about tomorrow.

And we often so so often so often look into the future and we tremble and we fear and we're doubt ridden. And doubts destroy hope. And yet our heavenly father reminds us, no, just, just believe, just believe now for this moment. That's it. Just this moment. Preserve faith and good conscience and believe that your sins and doubts are forgiven in Jesus name and precious blood. God.

And I need to hear this gospel too that I believe my many sins and doubts and worries and forgiven. Can I hear that gospel? And as I have been reminded often by you, my dear brothers and sisters in faith, through your little text messages, your emails, phone calls, and face-to-face visits, as have our other dear speaker brothers here in Cocado.

The battle is the Lord's. It's not our battle. We have enough. We have enough on this battle front right here that my personal endeavor, this battle that I have every day against this sin-corrupt flesh, endeavoring to preserve faith, good conscience, and how you've reminded me do not lose the joy of believing. God's love.

It's good for us to remember that in the midst of battle. And to remember the battle is the Lord's, and that we don't go ahead of God's time, but simply believe for this day, with many, many prayers unto one another, that God would preserve us in living faith.

Faith. And if one has veered off from that narrow way, from that simple teaching of the Holy Spirit, we pray, God, grant them grace to return. And so we pray for one another that God would preserve each one of us in living faith.

We have nothing but love for one another. And if we didn't have love, where are you? Where are you? If you don't have love for one another. The Bible reminds, do good unto all men, but God reminds us especially unto them of the household of God, our dear brothers and sisters.

Living faith that we carry one another, uplift one another, even in this way that we have these last days, carrying one whose flesh has brought many doubts and torments and questions, and yet we approach them in all simplicity and remind them, what is the most important thing in this life? That we will preserve faith and good conscience.

Faith cometh by hearing. One never receives living faith through the private interpretation of the scriptures, through one's own study, through one's own knowledge, because without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, God's word is not a living word. And it is only then when the grace, Son of God, approaches one, and one receives the grace of repentance, that the word begins to be a living word, a powerful, comforting, uplifting word.

Lord, and so we pray, we pray for one another, and we carry one another with much love, so that not one would be lost. Christ. And so we say, in Jesus' name, Amen.

Our dear Heavenly Father, we simply say, increase our faith, grant unto us understanding and wisdom, so that we may help one another. To that place of a little child, dear Father, preserve us here and speak on faith.

We have so much reason to thank you and to praise your name. And we ask, dear God, our Heavenly Father, our Lord, to bless us and keep us. And the Lord, make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us. And the Lord, lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.