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Roger Tointon—February 10, 2018
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Good Sabbath to you all wherever you may be. It is the time of reprieve in this world we live in. I'm glad to be here today. I have a message of sorts here. I even have a title. I don't like to do titles, but I have a title. You can call it whatever you want after I'm done.
You can turn to the Epistle of Jude, we're going to start there and we're going to go through something absolutely not new. We have gone through these things; everything I'm going to talk about today, we have gone through. Some of you have been through this many, many times over the years, 10, 20, 30 and more. There's a reason why we go through things more than once. That's what we're going to do today.
Jude 1—Jude brings up the process: "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to the called saints…" That's whom he's writing to! Does not that also cover us? We're at the end-time. They were back shortly after Christ was upon the earth. The "…called saints…" are:
"...sanctified by God the Father... [That starts the process; after that, what happens?] ...and kept in Jesus Christ" (v 1). That's another part of the process!
John 17—you're familiar with this. Let's just follow this process, because we need to understand it absolutely thoroughly if we're going to stay in covenant with God and Christ! What does Christ say the night before He died to cover our sins and the sins of all humanity?
John 17:17: "Sanctify them in Your Truth..." Didn't Jude says that we have been sanctified in "…Your Truth…" in the Word of God? That is how we are sanctified.
Sanctified basically means to be made Holy. We don't really like to think of ourselves as Holy, because we are all too aware of our shortcomings. We become sanctified by the Father through the blood of Christ! That's the process. It's got to work that way because it's all got to go through Christ.
Verse 11: "And I am no longer in the world, but these are… [we know that, we are] ...in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name… [Jesus is asking the Father to keep them and us as His people] ...those whom You have given Me..." He is saying what Jude said. We are kept in Christ! That's the way it works.
Verse 6: "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You have given them to Me, and they have kept Your Word."
I hope after all these years that we can say the same thing. We're still here—aren't we? A lot of people aren't that we used to know, but we are. We have, at least to some degree, kept God's Word. That is what Christ is concerned about. He is watching over us. He not only died for us, but He is watching over us each and every day; unless we turn, run the other way and hide, then, He says, 'All right, you want to go over there; do it!' He is there for us.
Let's go to the foundational part of the process, John 6; we've all been there. We all know that very, very well. What does it say in what I call the foundational Scripture? This is Christ standing on the earth, speaking to the people. They saw Him; they heard Him. They saw the miracles that He was doing, because He had to draw attention to Himself. He did that by miracles. The people were amazed! He says to them:
John 6:44: "No one… [that's emphatic] ...can come to Me unless the Father, Who sent Me, draws him..." That right there shows how the process starts!
If the Father does not draw someone, you cannot be a part of the process at this time, in this age. This isn't the only age. There's another coming age, as we know. In this age if the Father, for some reason, does not call you, then you're not a part of the process; you're just in the world. What did Christ say about the called saints? He said, 'They are in the world but they're not of the world!' (John 17).
We know, if we think back in our own life, we were called by the Father and with many of us, it was like a lightning bolt. It was so sudden and so direct. Suddenly you could hear. Suddenly you saw things in the Word that you did not really understand before. You may have read them, but you didn't understand them. Suddenly they made sense. That was the Father drawing you.
So, the process continues, v 37: "All whom the Father gives Me shall come to Me..." That brings in another part of the process. That brings in our response; we have to respond. The Father has called many, but it didn't work very well with some. They saw just enough that they decided, 'No, I can't do that, I can't go there; I have too much to give up.' We all thought about some of those things when we were called. You bet we did, but we're still here! We responded.
"...and the one who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out" (v 37). Christ makes that promise! We have that to depend upon. We can depend upon it every day if we are close to God and trying to draw closer to Him. That is part of the thing.
Verse 45: "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.'.… [one day that will be true, certainly not at the present] ...Therefore, everyone who has heard..." How do we hear? Suddenly!
I was called by the radio broadcast. You heard every night on the radio; Mr. Armstrong would boom out: 'Greetings, friends. This is the good news of the World Tomorrow!' It would boom out! Then he would jump right into whatever he wanted to say. When the Father had drawn us and we heard that, we began to hear what He had to say. We heard all right.
"...everyone who has heard from the Father… [are part of the process] ...and has learned..." (v 45).
What all does that imply? It implies that we didn't turn and run in the other direction, at least not for long! We kept coming back, and we began to learn. God is part of the veil of our mind and we could see. we could hear, we had the wax out of our ears and we could hear. Then we get old and we can't hear any more.
But no! We learned! When we learned, we responded and we accepted Christ. We came to understand Who Christ was. Therefore, Christ could keep us and massage us. We cannot live if our muscle, called the heart, doesn't massage, massage, massage! When God the Father opens our mind, we cannot go forward and we cannot learn unless we massage, massage, massage our mind in the Word of God. That is what we have to do. The process is an on-going thing. It's a journey, too. We are on a journey. I'm calling it today, the process. That about outlines, briefly, the process.
In Matt. 11 Christ is showing how the people then—especially the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the chief priests, those kinds of people—were just absolutely adamantly against God. They did not want to accept Him because they wanted their own power. They had control over the people. They didn't want to lose that.
Matthew 11:25: "At that time Jesus answered and said, 'I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things… [these things that He was teaching, that He was bring out] ...from the wise and intelligent… [of the world] ...and have revealed them to babes."
Who are the babes? That's you and I! We're the babes! We're the little ones!
Verse 26: "Yes, Father, for it was well pleasing in Your sight to do this. All things were delivered to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father… [the Father draws us] ...neither does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son personally chooses to reveal Him" (vs 26-27). He did!
He made it possible for us to come to know the Father, and to know that the Father was not the God of the Old Testament; that He was all of those things that we learned in the beginning of our calling.
Now where are we? Ten, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, some of us? Look at all the 'water under the bridge.' Look at all the trail of carnage of people who could not stick with it. We must not let that happen to us!
When Christ was here standing on the earth He saw the people that He was talking to, that He was preaching to continually. He saw what they were like. He saw that part of them wanted to believe, but they could not truly understand. They were not set up for it, yet. The process had not come into their lives in that way. So, they couldn't understand. Then He looked down through time, to our time, He could see how things just seem to never change. What did Solomon say? Nothing new under the sun! That's true in way too many ways.
What did Christ say? He uttered two things, the first was a statement! The second was a question! I ask a question right after the first, which was a statement. The first statement was in Matt. 22:14; you should know that. He was saying that after the same kind of scenario. He was seeing how the people could not really grasp the process.
Matthew 22:14: "For many are called, but few are chosen." Why are few chosen? There are a lot of reasons for that! The basic reason is because people are not willing to repent and they're just not able to 'walk the walk' and to go the course! "…few are chosen."
Luke 18:6: "Then the Lord said… [He's giving a parable, here for the benefit of the Pharisees] ...'Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And shall not God execute vengeance for His elect...'" (vs 6-7).
Who is His elect? Israel, overall! He always calls them His elect! The elect He's speaking of here, are those He has called.
"...who cry out to Him day and night, and patiently watch over them?" (v 7). He will watch over them if they are crying out to Him day and night, going to His Word, learning from His Word.
Verse 8: "I tell you that He will execute vengeance for them speedily. Nevertheless… [many times we see that] ...Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, shall He find the true faith on the earth?"
Why did He say that? The same reason that He said that few are chosen! He could look down through time. He could see how difficult it is.
Yes, the journey we're on, the process we're going through is difficult. Christ didn't say it was easy. He said, 'No, it's a narrow, hard way. It's not the easy, wide gate.' But, is it worth it, brethren? You're still here! You have decided it's worth it. It's a very, very important thing for us to keep in mind; to keep the process in mind and to keep the warnings in mind.
There are many, many warnings. We'll go through just a few; this is the admonishment of Paul and he says:
Hebrews 10:22: "Let us approach God with a true heart…" [in other words, not filled with pride and vanity, exalting yourself] ...with full conviction…"
Isn't that what we had to have 20, 30, 50 years ago when God called us? We had to be convicted right here or we wouldn't be here today. We wouldn't have been here 10, 20 years ago. We had to be convicted.
"...of faith, our hearts having been purified from a wicked conscience, and our bodies having been washed with pure water" (v 22).
That means we went the route! We came to understand that we had to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit to make this thing work. So, we were, because we were convicted.
Verse 23: "Let us hold fast without wavering to the hope that we profess, for He Who promised is faithful; and let us be concerned about one another, and be stirring up one another unto love and good works" (vs 23-24).
- that's the admonishment of Paul
- that was the admonishment of Christ when He was here
How many times did He say, 'You must have love for your brethren. If you can't love your brethren, how are you going to love Me or the Father?' It won't work! Love has to be full circle in those that God has entered into, or it doesn't work.
Ephesians 5:14: "Therefore, He says… [God says] ...'You who are sleeping—wake up...'" Why would Paul write this? Because he could see what was happening to people there that he was working with!
We have seen it over and over and over in the end-time church, people go to sleep. They get involved in this world. So, God says:
"'...wake up and arise from the dead!…. [if you're sleeping and you don't wake up, you're as good as dead] ...And Christ shall shine upon you'" (v 14). But the process requires something on our part:
- we have to wake up
- we have to go forward
- we have to learn
Verse 15: "So then, take heed that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as those who are wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil" (vs 15-16). Wow!
As we get closer and closer to the end, that statement becomes more and more critical and more and more true. How much time do we have to redeem? We don't know, but we know that we're still drawing breath! Therefore, we have to be doing our part.
Romans 13:11: "Now consider this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour that we should be roused out of sleep; because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed."
Truer words could not have been spoken. We see that. When we see what going on around us today in this world, we should be very, very cognate
Rev. 2—there are three or four verses there that I think really, really makes the point for us today.
Revelation 2:1—this is the message to the Ephesian Church: "To the angel of the Ephesian church, write: 'These things says He Who holds the seven stars in His right hand, Who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands…. [that is Christ] …I know your works...'" (vs 1-2).
Here is His evaluation of these people, this Church. They were literal people at one time assembled in whatever fashion we don't know exactly. They knew God!
Verse 2: "I know your works... [it's good to have works] ...and your labor… [if you're going to have labor, you're going to have works, the two go together] ...and your endurance..."
We're getting down in the time when endurance is a big, big word that we should be cognizance of, because endurance is needed.
"...and that you cannot bear those who are evil; and that you did test those who proclaim themselves to be apostles, but are not, and did find them liars" (v 2).
In other words, you were not deceived by them when they came in to deceive you. We're still here! A lot of people we know were deceived and they're not here, but we were not deceived!
Verse 3: "And that you have borne much and have endured, and for My name's sake have labored and have not grown weary."
We've been weary at times, absolutely, but we picked ourselves up and we've turned to Christ, turned to the Father and we said, 'Hey! I need help.' That's why we're still here.
- Isn't this a good report? Look at all the things they did and how much they endured and what we've gone through!
- Is Christ happy at what we've come through and still here? Yes, He is!
- What's He looking at?
Verse 4: "Nevertheless, I have this against you… [after all those works] ...that you have left your first love."
We've seen too many do that. I saw people do that very shortly after they were called. I've seen people down through time. We all, I think, in the end-time Church of God slumbered and slept for too long. That's why the Church imploded. It couldn't have happened if we'd have been awake all the time.
Verse 5: "Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent..." You could have all these works. You can have all of these years, 50 years and counting. It doesn't make any difference in the long run if you quit at that point and you say, 'I've done all of this. Why do I have to keep doing this?' Do you want to be a son of God?
That's what we have to ask ourselves, 'Do you really want to be a son of God?' Then, yes, we repent. We repent every day. If we're still in covenant with God and are counted as righteous unto God, then we have to repent every day. We're still human and we still have the problems of the flesh and we have a very evil being that wants to destroy us. He can come on you just like that. You can do something and you say, 'Why in the world did I do that?' You let your guard down probably. We let our guard down and Satan is right there in an instant. He inspires you to do something or say something that is totally wrong. What do you have to do? You have to repent of it!
That is the message of the warning connected to the process that is not over. The process is not over until it's over, and that's when Christ returns or we take a 'big nap,' as the Bible shows.
Let's heed the warnings so that the process can continue in our lives and hopefully in the lives of all of our brethren! That is what Christ wants. That is what the Father wants. The Father saw something—we don't know what—when He decided to call us, change our lives and turn them up side down. He saw something.
Let's not go back on what God has done! Let's continue the process!
Scriptural References:
- Jude 1
- John 17:17, 11, 6
- John 6:44, 37, 45
- Matthew 11:25-27
- Matthew 22:14
- Luke 18:6-8
- Hebrews 10:22-24
- Ephesians 5:14-16
- Romans 13:11
- Revelation 2:1-5
RT: nfs
Transcribed: 11-4-18
Proofed: bo—11/6/18
