Sermon Transcript — May 5, 2007
We begin the sermon today with a quote from an American luminary, who shall remain unidentified for a few moments. Please consider his words. "I wander alone and ponder. I muse; I mope; I ruminate. We have not fit men for the times. We are deficient in genius, education, in travel, fortune, in everything. I feel unutterable anxiety."
Some of you may think that I use this particular quote to describe the United Church of God today. If you think that, you're absolutely correct. The theme at this conference is: "Build the House." I've chosen today to adopt a portion of that theme for this sermon and to address the issue of building God's house from perhaps a slightly different perspective than we usually use. But first, I want us to understand that whether we're talking about the Council of Elders, the administration, the whole ministry, or the entire Church of God, the truth of the previous quote applies. We have not fit men for the times. We have not fit men and women or children, for that matter, to build the house of God.
Now lest you think I just finished a course in how to offend people without even trying, I will use the rest of the sermon to explain my premise. I think we can solve that problem. Turn with me first to I Corinthians 1. You all know it well. I Corinthians 1:26.
I Corinthians 1:26 — For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
Verse 27 — But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
Verse 28 — And base things of the world, and (the) things which are despised, God has chosen, yesand things which are not, to bring to nought the things that are.
Verse 29 — That no flesh should glory in His presence.
Verse 30 — But in Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
Verse 31 — That, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord. We know the passage well. We understand it. Often do we ruminate, wander and ponder on that scripture.
Companion scripture in II Corinthians 12. You might not as quickly recognize this one, but most of us will. II Corinthians 12:9. The apostle Paul, of course, speaking of himself, Verse 9.
II Corinthians 12:9 — And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, Paul says, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Verse 10 — Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. There's a vast difference between our weaknesses and the weaknesses of the individuals described in the quote. The other comforting scripture that goes along with this of course is Philippians 4:13.
Philippians 4:13 — I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That might be the only line we need today. I suppose it might have been more eloquent just to come up and read that line and sit down. But I know what would have happened. Some of your would have thought I couldn't read, that I had just memorized that line, so I chose not to do that.
Paul said he could do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens him. That means each of us can say, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Which means that if each of us can say, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," then we can collectively all say together, "We can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens us." That of course is the solution to the problem of not having fit men, as described in the quote, to build the house of God. Isn't that what Jesus Himself said in John 15, a scripture that we read virtually every Passover. John 15:4. Jesus, of course, talking to His disciples and talking to us.
John 15:4 — Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in Me.
Verse 5 — I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit. . . Weaklings, unfit people, bringing forth much fruit, not because of anything we are, or anything even that we do, but because the power of God through Jesus Christ works in us and through us to produce that fruit. Last line of that verse: . . .for without Me you can do nothing.
Jesus Christ, the Head of the church, has not been working in ignorance all these years. Jesus Christ is not devoid of understanding of the weakness of the flesh. Jesus Christ doesn't expect anything great out of us. He knows better than to do that. He knows that we are weak and useless of ourselves. He also knows that through Him we can do all things.
The quote is correct. We have not fit men for the times, but guess what? God has never, ever started anything through fit men. We might look at them as fit today. We look back at Noah or Abraham, or any number that we can talk about, but if you study them carefully, neither God, nor in most cases, they themselves, considered themselves "fit men." I'm a man of unclean lips. I can't talk. I'm a child. All these various examples that flowed, God didn't start with fit men or fit women, or fit children. God started with just plain old raw human flesh. But flesh created in His image, and about whom He cares a very great deal.
But God has taken the weak of the world and used them mightily to accomplish wonderful things, to accomplish His will and His purpose for a given time at a given place and a given situation, over and over again, all the which we then to a much bigger picture of God fulfilling of God fulfilling and performing His will and His purpose through all time. We tend to get a little bit tunnel vision and think of ourselves right now, in this place, at this time. But it's much bigger than that.
God doesn't care that we are unfit to start with. What He cares about is whether we are willing to yield ourselves to Him and into His power and His hands knowing that without that, we can do nothing, but with that we can do all things. And lest you think I am here to berate the qualities of our ministry or our leadership or our brethren throughout the world, perhaps I should give you the source of the quote. Some of you no doubt identified it. The source of the quote is President John Adams, the second president of the United States, years before he became president.
John Adams was in Philadelphia for the Continental Congress, preparatory to helping craft the Declaration of Independence, and later the Constitution. John Adams was a very well-educated and stable individual, not flamboyant at all, but described in many ways as a bit pompous, and so forth, but very, very concerned about the fate of the colonies and the future nation.
He's writing to his wife, Abigail, back home in Massachusetts, and he says, "I wander alone and ponder. I mope. I ruminate. We have not fit men for the times." With our history, we look back now at a new nation that has begun to grow a little old though, but not by world standards in one sense. We are, of course, the world's oldest living democracy.
A new nation was founded at that time, and the men of whom John Adams was speaking were nobodies, like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock. Scores of others we could take time to name, and John Adams said, "We have not fit men for the times." Do you suppose he included himself in that? I've read enough of his history to believe that he absolutely did include himself in that. He was simply saying, what, brethren? He was saying, "This job is too big for us." With apologies to our international brethren, I'll remind you there were "haves and doers" for over two hundred years, getting close to two hundred and fifty years soon. Whether they had God's help or not, I will leave you to judge. That is somewhat irrelevant though I think we all have our opinions about that.
But what John Adams was saying is, "This job is too big for us." And what I am saying with him today, and with his quote is, "This job at hand for us, the building of the house of God, is too big for us."
But where God's purpose is concerned, that's always been the situation. As I've already mentioned, yet God in His wisdom and mercy has used frail and feeble human beings over and over again to do wondrous things. We could spend all day recounting those miracles. Let me just recount one that we're all familiar with in Exodus 35. Here, of course, one of God's houses was being built, in this case a physical house, if you will, an actual tent to be called The Tabernacle, God's dwelling place with ancient Israel at that time. Exodus 35. We must skim here very quickly:
Exodus 35:4 - (And) Moses spoke unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, "This is the thing which the (Lord) Eternal commanded,, saying,
Verse 5 - 'Takeyou from among you an offering unto the (Lord) Eternal: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the (Lord) Eternal; gold, and silver, and brass,
Verse 6 - And blue, and purple, and scarlet. . .'" And he goes down this long list of things that God required to give to Moses for the building of this house, the building of this tabernacle. And he says, "We're going to make this thing that God has commanded us to make." Dropping down to Verse 21, if you will:
Verse 21 - And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the (Lord's) Eternal's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service, and for the holy garments. And it goes on to describe those things in detail, earrings, and you know, gold, and hides, and badger skins and on and on it goes.
And, as you also know, the workers later came to Moses and they said, "The people bring too much. We don't know what to do with the rest of it. They bring too much." Was that the natural inclination of the people, or did we not have at that time, "fit ancestors for the job?" I don't think it was all their mind and their hearts that made this happen. Dropping down to Verse 29:
Verse 29 - The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the (Lord) Eternal. . . That's not human nature. That's not the natural way of man. Something miraculous was taking place here. Something was happening that motivated and inspired these Israelites to bring and give for the development of the tabernacle. So they had a willing heart. . . .whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the Lord had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses. Now we get into a little bit more specific description of what's actually happening here.
Exodus 35:30 - And Moses said unto the children of Israel, "See the (Lord) Eternal hath called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah." God has called him by name. God said to me, "Moses, use this man."
Verse 31 - And he has filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship. We're talking about physical talents and skills here, and yet this scripture says God chose the man; God filled him with spirit and with wisdom and with understanding. God gave him what he needed to do the job. Let's read Verse 31 again. And he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship;
Verse 32 - And to devise curious works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,
Verse 33 - And in the cutting of stones to set them, and in carving of wood, to make any manner of cunning work.
Verse 34 - And he has put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.
Verse 35 - Them has he filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any work, and of those that devise cunning work. God took people right out of the tribe, inspired, motivated, implanted in their minds and their hearts and their hands both the desire and the ability and the capacity to do marvelous things that were of significant value to decorate the elements of the tabernacle. Of course, you have to ask yourself, based upon the scriptures, and you know the answer. Was the tabernacle then somehow fit for God because of its excellence? Was the temple that later was built by Solomon somehow worthy of God because of its physical excellence? The answer, of course, is, "No."
Those physical things never reached the standard that God would have done by Himself. They don't approach the throne of God. Paul makes that clear, but they were accepted, and they were used, because God had inspired human beings to do it as a part of what He was carrying out, and He was committed to having a relationship with them that would produce the fruit that He wanted to produce. And so God came and dwelled in the cloud in that tabernacle.
God brought forth the raw materials, if you want to look at it that way. God brought forth the raw materials, and then worked through human instruments to accomplish the work of building the magnificent environment from a human perspective to represent His presence among them. And God can, and God will, use feeble human beings today, the skill and wisdom and the understanding to build His house. If we don't believe that, we might as well not believe God.
The good news is that we do not need the kind of fit men that John Adams referred to in terms of the physical traits and the characteristics, the talents and the skills that John Adams referred to: fortune, education, travel, intelligence, he mentioned lots of things. We don't need those things because God doesn't need those things. God has called the weak of the world to confound the things that are mighty. What we do need is the willing heart. We need the willing heart which is stirred up by God in those who surrender themselves into His hands. And it is my personal conclusion that He will only stir up and use those who willingly surrender themselves into His hands.
Now let's talk about the house of God for a moment. When we talk about the house of God generally, I am very well aware, that we talk about the house of God in reference to the tabernacle or the temple or even to the church, and so they are so described by God Himself. But I would like us to think for a few moments of the house of God in a different perspective.
The word house is used in the scriptures to refer to a number of different things, and it's basically always the same word. But it's used to refer from such things as simple as a simple dwelling, a tent, for example, all the way to the magnificence of Solomon's temple. It's also used to describe our physical bodies. It's used to describe families and tribes as in the house of Israel, or the house of Jacob, but let's remember that it's also used to denote a heritage of rulership, in other words, a dynasty. God refers to the house of David, for example, or the throne of David to refer to His ruling dynasty, to the relationship he had with God that permitted his family, his descendants to rule until Christ returns. You no doubt understand that, but let's just look at one of the many references that provide real proof of that. II Samuel 7:12. I have to remember here that I don't have my small congregation sitting just a few feet away who are looking up at me like, what verse? Dummy. So, I have to remember to hesitate a little bit to give you that verse so people can look it up because I know how frustrating it is for some of them when I don't. But I can't see them today. I can not see you either, for that matter. You're kind of hidden out there in the darkness.
II Samuel 7:12 — God says to David, And when your days be fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, which shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He's talking about Solomon specifically in this case. Coming down to Verse 16, if we can skip a bit.
Verse 16 — And your house and your kingdom shall be established for ever before you; your throne shall be established for ever. When God refers to David's house, and his kingdom, He refers to them somewhat interchangeably and simultaneously here. That David is promised rulership. His family is promised rulership even as we today are promised rulership as co-heirs with Jesus Christ. So let us think for just a few moments of the kingdom, I'm sorry, of the house of God as, in fact, the kingdom of God, that is the spirit family of God ruling as an eternal dynasty.
Let me say that again. Let's think about the house of God as the kingdom of God, that is, the ruling family of God. If we think this way, we will see some new dimensions to building this house for God is building that house. He's building His house which is His ruling family, which is the spiritual kingdom which we then can call the house of God even as God calls David's dynasty the house of David. So we must look at the house, not just as something physical, not just as something temporary because it is to that end of the long term, eternal, spiritual family of God that God is once again working through frail, incapable human beings to bring about a magnificent result. He's using the church to proclaim the gospel of His kingdom. And that's the house that ultimately we all want to be a part of. What did David say? I willdwell in the house of the Lord forever at the end of Psalm 23.
Psalm 23:6 — ... and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's the house that God is currently building through feeble human instruments. Matthew 28, please. Matthew 28. I don't know how often we repeat this, but it bears repeating many times. It deserves repeating many times as we go forward today and every day for the rest of our lives.
Matthew 28:19 — Go you therefore, and teach all nations. . . I'm reading from the King James. Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and (of) the Son, and (of) the Holy Spirit (Ghost):
Verse 20 — Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the (world) age. Yes, we're people. Yes, we're unfit. Yes, we're incapable. Yes, we're weaklings. But we have a statement here from Christ that says, "Go and do this and I through whom you can do all things will be with you even to the end of the age." That's the only hope of accomplishing it. It's the only way that it can be done.
God is using the church today to gather the raw material, if you will, and again, there are numerous examples, not only the tabernacle, but you find Solomon going to Hiram, and Hiram bringing gold and silver and trees, and virtually everything necessary to build the temple in the same way, and of course, having the skills stirred up by God to be able to do many of the same things that Bezaleel did in the time of the tabernacle.
So God is using the church to gather the raw material to build that family which will become His house, His eternal ruling family. What are those raw materials? They're more people, just like you. They're more people, just like me. They're more people. They're brethren. They're the members of the church of God who will become members of the family of God. They're the raw material, and they're out there now. I don't have time to go to this scripture, but you all know the scripture well. We use it, when Christ said, "Lift up your eyes for the fields are already white to harvest. Pray for laborers that go into the harvest." It's kind of an enigmatic scripture, in a way, because none of those people appeared to have been called at that time, and yet He said the field was white to harvest. There's a long process involved in the process of planting and watering, cultivating and ultimately harvesting that crop. And yet Christ said, calling those things that are not as though they were, I suppose, the field is already white to harvest.
But it's the church's responsibility to go, not only to plant, and to water, but to harvest the increase that God provides. In other words, we are building on God's behalf, not a physical tabernacle, not a temple, and not even just a church organization. God is using us to build that latest element of the church organization. It's far more than that. God is allowing us to share in His work of building His own kingdom, His eternal kingdom, His eternal dynasty, God's house.
Our vision must therefore, be a little bigger than perhaps it is. Preaching the gospel is not an isolated short-term project. It's a . . . of the transition from this world of Satan's kingdom and Satan's rulership to an eternal world of God's kingdom that is perfect and right and good for every member of it. We're engaged in the greatest work of all time. In fact, it is the work of all time, as God put man here and built him in His own image, and planned to bring him into His family, and that has not yet occurred. Only Christ, the firstborn among many brethren, has achieved that goal. God is bringing in the raw materials and preparing for a wonderful, beautiful, eternal house, His kingdom. It is what God is doing in the world today because it's always been God's great purpose for man.
We can take some assurance from lots and lots of scriptures, but obviously I can't read all of those. Let's go to Isaiah 46:9.
Isaiah 46:9 — Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; That's a simple statement. . . .I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like Me,
Verse 10 — Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:" It's God's work. It's God's purpose. It's God's plan. It's the meaning of life. We sometimes talk about doing God's work, and that's, of course, a technicality, but in reality only God can do God's work, and He does a lot of it through us. Right? We can't do God's work for Him. God does His work in us and through us because He's chosen to do so. But He said He could raise up stones to Abraham. He could raise up stones to do the work. We would rather He not have to do that. We would rather yield ourselves willingly into His hands and have our hearts stir us up to do the work of God as He lays it out for us to do whatever part He delegates. Thankfully, He doesn't delegate it all. He delegates a small amount of it to us and then backs it up and supports it so that we can achieve what He intends we achieve.
I can look around me, not only in this room, but any day of the week, anytime I am among friends and brethren, ministers, the church of God, the Feast of Tabernacles, I can look around me, or I can look squarely in the mirror. I'd rather not have one as big as that screen, but I could look squarely in the mirror and I can say, with John Adams, "We have not fit men for the times." We are deficient, in genius, education, in travel, fortune, in everything. But there we must diverge from John Adams who said, "I feel an unutterable anxiety." Because you and I need not feel any unutterable anxiety.
We must leave John Adams and say, "I feel unutterable peace. The peace that passes understanding because of my absolute faith and conviction in the promises of God who said, 'All My counsel shall stand, and I will fulfill all My purpose.'" God will do what He's going to do. God will finish what He's started. God will bring members into His family. God will build His spiritual house. Ultimately that spiritual house will be His eternal ruling family, the dynasty of almighty God and Jesus Christ as King of kings.
So then, rather than unutterable anxiety, I would much rather, and I trust that you would much rather say, "We can, through Jesus Christ who strengthens us, do all things."