The Mainspring.

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The message this Sunday morning was drawn from the fourth chapter of the Book of Second Corinthians. As we know, the Apostle Paul experienced much suffering during his ministry to the Gentiles. Paul did not view his many pains as being nothing more than hindrances thrown up by the enemy. Rather Paul saw them for what they were: the means God used to render powerless Paul’s natural abilities so that the resurrection Life of Jesus Christ might be brought to Paul’s listeners.

(4/30/2006) The Apostle Paul was subjected to many pressures. He was perplexed. He was persecuted. He was struck down. Paul had the sentence of death in himself that he would not trust himself but God who raises the dead.

Paul was not crushed, not in despair, not abandoned not destroyed. Why not? Because the Life of Christ continued to lift him up. To slay Paul, Satan would have had to be able to slay the resurrection Life of Christ.

What was the result of this continuing pressure, persecution, bewilderment, being knocked down? The result was, the Life of Christ was revealed in Paul’s body bringing eternal life to Paul’s hearers. Death worked in Paul with the result that life worked in other people.

Here is the true Christian way of bearing eternal fruit. We follow God faithfully as He submits us to pressures, perplexities, persecutions, and various blows of one kind or another. Our own ability to help others is brought down to nothing. Then Christ is able to bring eternal life to people.

All sincere Christians wish to bring eternal life to other people. But eternal life can come to other people only as we are willing to experience the sufferings of Christ. Resurrection life can come only from the cross. Words have their place, but the eternal righteousness and holiness of the Kingdom of God proceed only from those who are willing to bear their cross of self-denial

The thought was brought up by Andrew Palm, and then reinforced by Ron Smitter, that when we are suffering pain or frustration, the only acceptable, profitable response is to praise and worship God. When we have been brought very low, and yet continue to praise and worship God, God is pleased and is able to answer the accusations of the enemy.

There are two reasons why the Church is in the world. The first reason is so we can be changed into the image of God. The second reason is that the spiritual leaders among the angels might gain an understanding of God as they watch what happens to Christian people.

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, (Ephesians 3:10)

Because of these two reasons, our change into the image of God and our being used as an object lesson to highly placed angels, we are going to encounter problems and pains of all sorts. We are to respond with praise and worship, knowing that God is in the process of bringing us to a glorious end.

Judy Fowler added to this by suggesting that we savor the dealings of God, being content to dwell in His Presence one day at a time, even though we do not particularly enjoy what is taking place and do not understand what God is doing with us.

Sometimes believers, when they are suffering or being denied what they fervently desire, question God’s love. Actually we may not know what love is, confusing it with attraction.

To begin with, love is behavior. To love someone is to act in a manner that benefits the other person, even though our action may not always make us comfortable. If we love Christ we will keep His commandments.

If we correct a child for his good, he may exclaim that we do not love him and that he hates us.

As far as the emotion of love is concerned, there are times when God gives us a feeling of love for someone so we can bring God’s mercy and blessing to that individual.

Ordinarily, love between two people is developed over a period of time as experiences, sometimes painful, are shared. This kind of love is based in memory.

And then there is the love of parents for their children.

But romantic love, "love at first sight," and so forth, is a fraud. It soon evaporates in the presence of the fires of our struggle to survive the problems we encounter during this present life.

The mainspring of the Christian life is death and resurrection. Each day a part of us is brought down to the death of the cross of self-denial and tribulation. Each day a part of us is raised in Christ. This is the only path of redemption. This is the only way to the new creation. This is the only means of progressing to the redemption of the body.

People who thus are changed from a living soul to a life-giving spirit are the members of the Body of the Anointed One, Jesus Christ, the members of the Bride of the Lamb.

All other Christian activity is religion. Only death and resurrection in Christ are the means of attaining to the image of God, the method of providing the object lesson to the rulers in the heavens.

At the evening service we progressed further in the fourth chapter of Second Thessalonians and entered the fifth chapter.

Our subjection to the program of death and resurrection brings eternal life to other people.

Our subjection to the program of death and resurrection causes thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Our subjection to the program of death and resurrection achieves for us an eternal weight of glory. That weight of glory is the house being prepared for us, a house in Heaven, as set forth in the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians.

Perhaps due to the influence of the philosophy of Gnosticism, the concept of our physical resurrection has been neglected in current Christian teaching. We may perceive our salvation as being the discarding of our present physical body while our salvation resides in some mystical manner in a spiritual personality in Heaven.

The opposite is true. Our salvation includes, is directed toward, the redemption of our physical body.

There are two bodies involved in our resurrection from the dead. The first body is our present mortal body. This shall be made immortal by being filled with the Spirit of God in the Day of the Lord.

The second body is the body, or robe, from Heaven. This heavenly body, or house, is constructed from the program of death and resurrection that takes place during our discipleship on the earth.

Our body from Heaven shall reveal in itself what we have become through Christ. If our inner nature has been transformed through death and resurrection, this shall be revealed in a body of surpassing glory. If instead we as a Christ chose to yield to the lusts of our flesh, this shall be revealed in a body of corruption. Today we are determining the nature of our resurrection.

Paul wrote that we speak from the spirit of faith that we have. When trouble comes our way we can grumble and complain against God. Or, if we have faith, we can worship and praise God in the midst of our afflictions. We overcome Satan by the word of our testimony, our testimony that God’s Word is true and unchanging.

The true Christian always has the sentence of death in himself, realizing that God will keep on bringing him down to the death of the cross so he will not trust in himself but in God who raises the dead. We rest our hope on God that He will continue to deliver us as He has in the past.

You can hear the morning sermon at morning. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

You can hear the evening sermon at evening. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

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