Steve Whitfield May 25 2008

The Lord went through such a process, as we sang, from “the grave to the sky,” so that He might gain us! Why? Because man had become totally out of the picture. But God did not give man up!

If you cross me, perhaps I will cross you out in return. But God did not cross us out! Instead, He saved us, because He has a purpose, a plan.

To begin with, I would like to read to you Genesis 1:26: “And God said, 'Let US...” Seems He went into a council with Himself. He created everything already and it was good. Then He said, “Let US...” This excites me. “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.” He wanted man to look like Him, to feel like Him, and to be everything in His image, holy and righteous. God wanted man to look like Him! “...let them have dominion...” This hasn't changed. God still wants a man in His image and likeness so he might represent Him.

When we look in the mirror, we should be happy. We are human beings! This means God can get His purpose with us, for we are in His image and likeness, so we can represent Him on the earth.

When we look in the mirror, we might say, “Sorry, God, I do not represent You in holiness and righteousness.” But God has created us for a purpose. When man fell, it is true that it seemed he lost his ability to even make a move toward God. You may have good intentions and want to straighten up your life, so that you might draw near to God. We may think if we get something cleared up, then we can run after God. But when it comes to God, it seems we are cripples. We can't do anything. It seems we don't have the energy to go before Him.

The gospel is good news to those in the darkness without God, and to those who do have God, because even after we receive the Lord, we still have a problem with our flesh.

Read Mark 2:1-12. (story of paralytic brought to Jesus, who dug through the roof to get to Him. Jesus, seeing their faith, said, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Some of the scribes were offended by this, and thought Jesus was blaspheming as if He were God, to forgive sins. Jesus knew this, and asked them why they reasoned thus. Was it easier to say his sins were forgiven, or to tell him to pick up his bed and walk? Jesus said to him, that they might know the Son of Man had the power to forgive sins on earth, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” He did, and the people praised God and said, “We have never seen anything like this.”)

In Romans 3:23 we are told “All have fallen and come short of the glory of God.” God's glory is for Him to be expressed, as seen in Genesis 1:26. But ALL of us have fallen and come short. To an older person this means more, for they have had more years of falling.

When Adam missed the mark, all men fell short of the glory of God. This falling short puts us into a lethargic mode. We can't seem to do anything, even though our whole being WANTS to follow God.

When I was little, I remember there was a big Bible in the middle of this table in a relative's house, and I used to read it, and got condemned. Everyone wants to know God. Some say, I want to know God, but I don't understand Him. Something drives us to know this One, because this is the way we were created, and there is nothing we can do about this. Even an atheist calls on God when his life is threatened. There is something innate in us from birth that says there is a God and that we need to believe in Him.

There is also something within us, however, that stops us. We think we have to be a certain way first, and thus we cannot even move in God's direction, because we can never satisfy this requirement we think we must meet first. Thus we have no feeling that we can move towards God.

Some may think even as believers we should have a time before the Lord, so we wake up to have such a time. The alarm rings, you get up, hit the snooze, and go back, because there is no energy to have such a relationship to come to God. This is a paraplegic. Crippled from head to toe.

The first thing the Lord has to do before He can bring us into the kingdom is to forgive us of sin, for it weighs on us so heavily that under its weight we cannot function at all.

Someone may say, “I'll go to church this weekend” when I share the gospel with people at work. When I hear this, however, I don't believe it, and normally they don't come. Why? Because they lack the strength, just like this paraplegic had no strength. He was carried by four men.

We need others to bring us before the Lord. That may mean visiting someone, or praying for them, or just showing concern for them. Seems they couldn't break through, but then they were able to break through! There may be a lot of “roofs” for us to break through to get to the Lord. Sometimes we may have to do something drastic to break through. We may have to apologize to somebody, or be honest about something when it is not easy. There are many things we have to break through, and do something drastic, that we may get to the Lord, for apart from Him we are stuck in our sins and in our inability to get through to Him.

These verses are really packed. First, we have to see that our condition is that of someone who has no strength or ability. Sometimes we don't even have the desire! So we need someone who has heard the word about Jesus. (Those who brought the paraplegic must have heard of Jesus, or heard Him directly already. Thus their feet became the “beautiful feet” of those who bring the gospel (Romans 10:15).

If we don't believe that the Lord is going to do something, He may not! You may have invited people to this gathering, but if we don't believe, but only “check the box” that we did our duty, they may not make it. We have to bring them to the Lord, by prayer. Who is in our heart? These are those we take to the Lord in prayer, like those men brought that paraplegic to the Lord.

Before we can get help, however, is that the Lord has to take care of forgiveness of sins. Sin plays with our mind. Too often people think they must get ready before coming. But no one can, or else they would be ready already! Still, people use this as an excuse. The Lord is looking for some to bring these people before Him so they can first get their sins forgiven. (If we say we do not sin, we lie, and the truth is not in us! 1 John 1.) We all sin, and have offenses. So the first thing we need is for our sins to be forgiven. If we confess, however, He forgives. Therefore, we need to confess!

Often we are sincere in our desire for the Lord. But the Lord tells us, “First, you need to confess.” Even in His example He prayed, “Forgive us our offenses, as we forgive those who have offended us.” Sometimes we don't forgive. Do we realize this is a sin? In Matthew it talks about stumbling brothers, which means not forgiving. Don't think we need to go through a long list to check, just ask whether you have offended anyone! Before the Lord can give us any help, we have to confess before Him.

According to the Lord's word, that man's rising and walking means he was forgiven of his sins! You may have heard the word, “You make your bed, you lie in it.” We bring circumstances upon ourselves. This man was caught in his bed of circumstances. Everywhere he went, he had to go in these circumstances. Jesus, when He forgave this man's sins, he was released from his circumstances!

Jesus did not tell the man first to rise and walk, but first that his sins were forgiven. He released him from his sins. If we want to go on with the Lord, we need to get our sins forgiven. Without a doubt, each of us has something we need to take care of before the Lord. What do you do? Just take care of it. Find four men, so you can be released, so the Lord can deliver you from your bed of circumstances. He came carried, and left carrying that bed.

There is only one who can forgive us. I am not telling you to go in the back room, so Raymond might hear your confession, and then Steven can give you the holy water. No. If something is hard to break through, then we need to get four men to carry us, and we need to get forgiveness from the Lord.

We who have been around for awhile, may have had something in us for all this time. Just because something is on the back burner, doesn't mean it isn't on the fire! Eventually it may boil over, and you may ask, “Where did that come from?” O saints, forgiveness of our sins is the first step for our Lord to be able to help us.

This is why in Romans and 1 John and elsewhere that confessing our sins is stressed. Sins are those things that make us miss the mark, yet our God is our forgiving God. In Matthew 18 there was a man who was forgiven of a big debt, and he went and shook down another man for what little thing that man owed to him.

This story of the paraplegic man is about us, who are helpless as sinners to go before the Lord. We need someone to bring us. So when we invite our friends, don't assume they can come out of their own strength. They are crippled, and need their friends to bring them. And, as Christians, there are times I will need to have such a breakthrough. The first thing that is needed before the Lord can bring us into the enjoyment is that we need to be forgiven of our sins, big or small. How we treat others might be very offensive to God. If we fall short in something, we need to ask the Lord to forgive us, who will, and also give us what is needed. Whatever the Lord gives us will be a help.

This gospel is good news to us. We do not have to be paralyzed before the Lord. He has made a provision for us. Our cooperation is to ask, and to forgive those who trespass against us.

We need saving everyday.

Will: We need to believe and have faith in the Lord. Even with the sharing this morning, this is one of the earliest stories I can remember as a child. In coming to the meetings, we need to have faith that the Lord can show us something new, not something we have heard over and over. The Lord is refreshing us. I also appreciate the four men, how they believed, and how they were desperate for the Lord's move. They wouldn't take no for an answer, even if it meant taking the roof off. As a sinner, sometimes we might need four men, or we might have to get four people to help us in our situation. If you are the one bringing someone, you need to have that desperation to get that person before the Lord. You have to say, “We have to rip the roof off to get this person to the Lord.” If you are paralytic, you need to believe. Sometimes we are one of the four men, sometimes we are the paralytic. So we have to be desperate before the Lord.

Paul: You have to have the faith in the Lord to do these things. You have your brothers and sisters. It is not to say, “I have problems with my marriage,” or “I am not getting business,” there is no experts in such areas to help us. It doesn't work like that. The Lord has worked in my life so much. He has torn me down and shown me that He is who I have to go to. He will show me the path and put me on the path, and then I have to just follow it. But the brothers like the four men who helped, are here to pray for me and give me support. I have to know what is it that is given to us from those four men. First, we have to know the Lord is the one who we are going to. They have the faith the Lord can do for us. Once we have that faith and know it is true, then they are there to carry us.

Brother: It is crucial in the Body of Christ to see this matter of forgiveness. Often we carry things around for us for years, and it gets left until something happens and then pops out again. But we are made in the image and likeness of God, and we have His life. We have the ability to live out His righteousness. It is our daily living that the Lord is looking for. I have had experience in the last years of being outside the camp, during which I was stripped and consumed. We have to learn how to ask for forgiveness, and to forgive. Our part is to ask, and to forgive. The rest is up to the Lord. When you ask someone to forgive you, as long as your heart is right, you are free! That is a blessing to the Body. Therefore be sure nothing is hindering your being a blessing. These four men had faith. Their faith gave the way for the Lord to heal this man. We need to love others to that degree, that we take them to the Lord. There is nothing we can do except to take others to the Lord.

Sara: Sometimes we do something wrong and then we feel paralyzed. Confession is what you feel bad about, you tell the Lord. It is not we feel bad about it. I don't know why confession works, but it does. It is to admit. He wants to hear those words come out of our mouth. It is not just to say, “Sorry.” It is to specifically tell the Lord what it was we did, and to ask His forgiveness. For 20 years I did not understand this. There are many things in our hearts that we can tell the Lord regularly, and then we are not paralyzed. When we get forgiven, we can walk! Forgiveness gives us energy. To get it, we go to the Lord.

John S: The paralytic is usually the focus, but the four men are impressive to me. These four men looked at this paralytic and took time to realize his need, rather than thinking what they would do for the Lord. We may want to get together with some others who have a living spirit to enjoy the Lord, but instead they saw someone who needed the Lord, picked him up, and took him to Him. Our thought shouldn't be just what we can do for the Lord, but rather what we can do for the brothers. There is always a paralytic among us. Four to one? Maybe the reverse. But we need to consider how we can bring others to the Lord.

Raymond: For the church to have a breakthrough, there has to be forgiveness. Scriptures say the Lord saw THEIR faith and said “Your sins are forgiven.” There are a lot of things in us that we know we need to deal with. We may not be knowledgeable in how to help others in certain things, but we can lift them up to the Lord. The man couldn't do anything but lie on that mat, it was the other four who had the strength and willingness to drop everything to pick this one up. It was their faith that caused this individual to walk again. What is in our heart for someone else? Are we willing to strip away whatever was necessary? Are we that desperate to get to the source? Sometimes obstacles seem insurmountable. Then, how much of a price are we willing to pay? Like in a store, if there is a long line, we drop it. But tomorrow the opportunity may not come. Forgiveness is a gift from God for today. This is where we pay the price to take care of one another. This is the church life. I shouldn't be happy if everything is going well for me, but not for another brother! Then we have to go to the Lord to ask what price we must pay for that one so he might be recovered. We don't want to see anyone crippled, for there is no cripple in the Body. Every member should be a functioning member in the Body, for that life is not a crippled life. The Lord saw their faith, not his. Then He could tell that one, “Walk!” There are a lot of things we may not want to lay our hands onto, but in order to have a breakthrough, we need to lay hold of them so the Lord might have a way to operate that we could have the breakthrough He desires, and then we can begin to express Him in His glory.

Tedario Smith, May 18 2008

Mark 1:1,14-15: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God...After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God. "The time is fulfilled," He said. "The kingdom of God has drawn near. Repent and believe in the gospel!""

Ask yourself, "Who am I, as related to the time being fulfilled?" Even now, where are we? We might say, "On the third planet from the sun, on the North American continent, in the USA, Ohio, Lorain county, Lorain city, west side, Oberlin Avenue, here in this building." But for a believer, these are not the real answers.

When John and then Jesus began preaching in this way, it became the time of a transition. Something was going to happen.

The gospel is found throughout the Bible. It is much more than the four books called the Gospels.

In Isaiah 6:1-9 we read, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

He said, "Go and tell this people:" 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'

A promise was made to this man who realized who he was. In the next chapter, a promise God made to Adam in Genesis, is fulfilled here. He says, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a time." This is the gospel. "Behold a virgin will conceive and bear a son and call His name Immanuel" (v. 14). In chapter 9 we are told, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (v. 6).

Tell me something about Christ. ("He loves us so much.") ("He died for me.") ("He gave me my mom and dad.") ("He gave me His life.") These things are the gospel, and He gave this gospel to someone who was unclean and who lived among a people who were unclean. Seven hundred years later, He says, "The time is fulfilled." It was time for a change. God began His work with Abraham and his descendants, giving them the promise, but now the reality has come.

In Matthew 8:22, Jesus says, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury the dead." One issue or component of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is that the Lord has a word: "Follow Me." This is my burden today.

This matter of following the Lord is in the Bible a number of times. Some may think that to follow means to follow in step with someone. Many of those following Him around the Sea of Galilee had a concept about who the Messiah was and what He would do when He came. They wanted to be witnesses of that great work and perhaps even participants in it. They were following Him as perhaps sheep would follow a shepherd. That is one sense of following.

Another sense of following is a consequence of some action. In other words, "It follows if this takes place, then that will happen." If I were to drop something, it would hit the floor. The Messiah had come, so some felt it followed that those who were lording it over them should be toppled. Rome should be pushed out of the way.

The real meaning of following the Lord, however, simply means to serve Him! In Luke 9 there was a rich man who wanted to follow the Lord. He asked the Lord, "What must I do that I may enter the kingdom of God?" The Lord said to him, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind." and "Love your neighbor as yourself." The rich man said, "I've done all this since my youth." The Lord said to him then, "You lack one thing yet. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and take up your cross and come follow Me." Here was a man probably accustomed to being served, and here he is being asked to serve. That was a hard word.

If you think you have accomplished something, you feel you are somebody. If you get a some position, you think you deserve others' respect. Others get college degrees and put that in front of their names, such as "Doctor Tedario Smith," or even "Pastor Ted" instead of simply "brother Ted." These things are riches to such people. The Lord tells us to sell anything we consider to be our wealth and come serve Him.

When the Lord began ministering and John the baptist was imprisoned, Jesus went through Galilee preaching the gospel. He saw Peter and Andrew casting nets beside the Sea of Galilee. Why would He go there, among the "blue collar" people, instead of the center of the Jewish world, which was Jerusalem? In Galilee, most people were "worker ants." But the Lord went to such common people. The rich man had a hard time surrendering what he had. He had a lot, so it would have cost him a lot to follow the Lord.

Some say that we who have less created this "gospel" so we might have something to hope in, since we don't have all that the upper crust has. The people, we are told by Isaiah, were dull of hearing and couldn't see. But the Lord went to a fishing village and spoke to a man named James and John, sons of Zebedee. This family was struggling to eke out a living for themselves. They were struggling to make it, to the extent they were fulfilling the "Galilean dream" of having their own business, and having people work for them. They did have hired servants they could leave the boats with (Mark 1:20). They left their boats and followed Him.

The Lord called them to set aside what they had in order to serve Him. The Bible says they did so immediately, that is, without waiting or wavering. They stopped what they were doing and gave it up to follow the Lord. Hallelujah!

I considered this matter. How often have I considered what the cost would be to stop what I am accustomed to do to follow the Lord? In Jerusalem, there were those who were the rich or the established. Yet when revolution starts, it typically starts at the fringes of the society. Do you feel there could be a revolution among us today? The Lord is looking for a people, perhaps even some "working stiffs," to start a revolution with. With these people, the Lord started a revolution that changed not only the course of a nation, but even the course of the world.

If you read the paper or listen to the news, you know that there is nothing good in the world today. For instance, I read that Ellen Degeneres is getting married to another woman in California. This is the environment we live in, full of unclean people. We are unclean, living among the unclean. In China, I also read that the whole earth shook. In Mayamar, a cyclone also killed many, but rather than allowing people in to help, they let thousands more die due to their suspicion. What a world we live in!

Now, a righteous Man came on the scene to display the righteousness of God, among an unclean people who would eventually reject Him. In Matthew 18 we are told "From that time Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised." He knew Jerusalem was from where the persecution was to come. From the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and rise on the third day. Peter took Him aside and said, "Be merciful, Lord. This shall by no means happen to You." Then the Lord told Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men." When I hear this, I feel there should be a strong protest the things happening in society at large. There should be a protest from the people who know the righteousness of God. Paul writes we are luminaries in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation. We who have the light of life, we should be holding forth the Word of God as luminaries. But most are silent, and those who do speak, often speak nonsensically, and we get lumped with them.

Jesus says to His disciples, "If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me." Peter struggled in his endeavoring to be with the Lord. The Lord eventually asked him about his pursuing to be with Him. Peter foolishly said, "Lord, we've left all to follow You." But, was he looking for something in return? How about us?

The good news is that there is still hope for us. There is today, another opportunity to say, "Lord, the circumstances are dark and I am weak. Often what I think of as following you is following some good intention or religious system. Yet you make so clear to us here, that those who were Your own received You not. You came to the fringes, to individuals." He did come into the synagogues. But mostly He came to individuals. And we whom He came to, we come together so He can get what He is after.

The Bible tells us, "Repent!" We are going to change the age. Here in Lorain, we should be thinking about changing the age. We may not be able to change the whole world, but we can speak to those where we work, or to those in our own households. Many things we cannot change, yet in so many things we can affect a change in. And what if the Lord did this through all forty of us?

In the Gospels, John the Baptist comes before the Lord, and there were those who became His disciples. Then came the Lord came and He and John were both baptizing, and they both had disciples. Some of John's disciples left John to follow Jesus, even before John was killed. There was a transition. How different the kingdom of God would be if all of us would let this little light of ours would shine! We have our concepts. God wants to do something in individuals.

When I went out with a sister in the gospel, I felt how much I hindered the Lord. I had to repent. In my own home, because I let things go, what God is trying to do to change the age is being frustrated in me. As we read in Isaiah, the times are already fulfilled. God is ready to change the age. The need today is to serve God, but not according to our concept, but to serve according to the Lord's goal and intent. May the Lord have mercy on us all, that we might let Him shine out from us, and that He might be able to do through us what He intends to do, as the continuation of the spreading of the glad tidings, that we all might be lifted up and encouraged to speak for Him in the midst of this crooked and perverted generation. We are not of this world. We belong to the heavenly kingdom, so we do not participate in certain things, and we speak out against the dark things, for we are the people of light.

Steve: When we were growing up, there were certain things that were definitely abnormal. Those things are becoming normal. We weren't so clean back in those days ourselves, but for some reason the Lord came to us and said, "Follow Me." Prior to that time we were following something else: our opinion perhaps. We served that. When someone said something else, we disagreed. When the Lord called us, and we began following Him, we had a repentance from those things. We follow not as I did my leader in the army, over hill and dale. The Lord told that man, "Let the dead bury the dead." The Lord's word was, "You have to serve ME." God wants us to serve Him. We cannot say, "I have to do something else first." In Mark, it is "immediately" they left their nets. When He appears, we have to immediately follow.

In my own household, I might be considered a mean person. Because we see the world the way it is, we are different in the eyes of others. Our kids say, "We don't get to do nothing, Dad! What's wrong with me wanting to do this with my friends." I'm following. I'm serving. It is not following a template of how to live our life. We were talking about how much the age has changed. How abnormal will things be when my youngest is grown? Jesus comes to each one of us. We believe, and yet He is going to continue to come to each one of us. Our response should be that immediately we follow Him.

Will: I want to read from Romans 8: "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for sonship, the redemption of our body." Often we get carried away by the rat race. But we rarely think about is that we have the life of God in us! That life in us is working. He wants to do something, and it is by this life in us that He does it. All creation is waiting for this. Every time you see a bird, that bird may give you a look. Animals see things we don't see. They know earthquakes are coming, for instance. They see something. They know you are a child of God. All creation is waiting on me. Those turkey vultures in the air, they are looking at you. Praise the Lord for the life that is going to be manifested in us.

Karin: There was a person in my family who was homosexual. There was such a great difference between us in our lives, and in the spirit they had and the spirit we had. In the end, they did get saved in the last year of their lives. Back then it was really "closet," but today it is spoken of openly. Praise the Lord we have the Lord, He is living in us!

Arnold: The Lord didn't go to Jerusalem to preach th gospel. I went to Case Western Reserve, and that is a hard place to preach the gospel. Everyone is dedicated to be in their mind. The brothers saw me there reading a National Lampoon magazine, so I was in a mindless state. The brothers saw the opportunity to speak to me, and immediately something happened in my being and I received it. It is funny how people are. They get this stuff in their head, and they consider that to be real. How great a thing when the Lord can speak a word to us! When we are out preaching the gospel, it may seem a rare thing for people to have that faith for the Lord's word to come in, because everyone is so filled with everything else. So we have to be faithful to speak all the words of this life. If you have the gumption, I encourage you to go out and share.

Olvin: There is a verse in John 12 that says "unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit. He who loves his life shall lose it, but he who hates his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life. If any man serve Me, Him will my Father honor," Mark is good news. Good is a relative term. If there is nothing to compare it to, hard to say what it means. John was baptizing outside Jerusalem. The well-educated, religious people were in Jerusalem. There was this idea of ritual washing and cleansing. The religious people knew about this, and the wealthy had places for washing in their homes. They had the term "living water," which was fresh rain water coming into their stagnant water. They knew John's baptism as a ritual cleaning, but he was baptizing them unto repentance. He said the one who is coming after me is mightier,,,,will baptize you into the Holy Spirit. He was preparing the way to put men into Christ. Who are we? And where are we? We are men of unclean lips and dwell among men of unclean lips. All John's washing could not change their condition. But the Lord said, "If you want to follow and serve Me, first I have to go someplace. Are you able to follow Me there? Unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die... unless a man lose his life in this world, he is not going to gain his life." We have to follow the Lord to the termination of our souls and all our efforts at making ourselves better. Homosexuals are sick just like you and I. The only way we get healing is if we follow the Lord all the way into death.

Ray: Our standard should be different. We shouldn't let the world or media to set our standard. The Lord leads us into the kingdom of God, where the lifestyle is totally different. The age would conform us to think abnormality is normality. The situation is totally upside down.

May 11 2008   Raymond Hudson

What is the gospel? The gospel is the way God saves us. If we have a narrow view of the gospel, it seems scary. But the gospel is how God is going to save us. It goes from regeneration until our body is transfigured. We need to talk about the gospel, or else we may take it for granted.

We need all of God's speaking. How is God going to save us? Paul told the Corinthians, “You are an epistle read of all men? The Spirit's ink has been inscribed into you by my ministry.” When others see us, they should realize the Spirit has been doing some writing. We need to open ourselves to see this realm called the gospel. All the Lord's speaking is the gospel. It is not just when someone stands up to speak. We shouldn't think of it as something that is a weight upon us as something to do that we are not comfortable with.

When we have a baby, it is wonderful, but we shouldn't be still holding that child twenty years later as a baby, saying “Isn't he cute?” No, because there is an expectation that there will be growth. It should be the same with us and the gospel. We should expect that we will not stay the same, but that we will grow in the divine life. This is part of the gospel.

For this time of sharing, let us read Mark 1:12-20 and Hebrews 10:7-9.

Also let us read Acts 19:1-14. Here we read that what distinguished John's baptism was that it was a baptism of repentance. People were coming out to John to flee the coming judgment. But... why did Jesus have to be baptized? He didn't have to flee from the coming judgment. He didn't need to repent.

Repentance, however, means more than regret. The Lord's baptism was a termination. Even if you are not wrong, you still need to repent of anything that has to do with being in yourself.

Sometimes our view can be narrow, but we all need the gospel, not just the unbelievers. The Lord said, “I come to do Thy will, O Lord” (Hebrews 10:7). When the Lord was being baptized, He wasn't doing anything of Himself, but only the will of the One who sent Him. He terminated everything.

It is easy to say “I'm sorry.” and “I forgive you,” but how real is that when it comes out of your mouth? After the Lord was baptized, the Lord terminated all desire to be anyone in Himself. He was very submissive, and therefore the Spirit was able to thrust Him out. He did not resist. He was put to the test to see whether He would act in God, who thrust Him out. Everything we face today was thrown at Him. We know He passed the test.

The Lord had a will. But He came to do the Father's will.

We need the gospel to save us because we ourselves are living epistles read by all men (2 Corinthians 3:3). Therefore we need to allow the Lord to continually write upon us, so that others might be attracted to the God who is operating upon us and within us. If we are fighting to live the gospel in this way, our preaching it will not be so difficult. The gospel is here for us! WE need the gospel. When I speak to others, it helps me to realize I need Him also. When I am telling others to repent, it reminds me, “Am I repenting? How submissive am I to the Spirit?” The Spirit needs to have a way to work in us. Where I am today in my salvation is based upon how others have helped me. Based on how the gospel is operating in you has an effect on me as well.

The Lord passed the test in the wilderness, and He started His ministry. Galilee was a despised region, because it was a place of mixed multitude. Isaiah said of them, “Land of Zebulon and Naphtali, where people sit in darkness... Galilee of the Gentiles by the sea” (Isaiah 9:1; Matthew 4:15). Jesus was preaching in a region that was not desirable to many.

If you have terminated yourself, you have the ability to go to such a place and preach the gospel. Our going is really a matter of how much the Spirit is operating in us. The harvest is white, but the laborers are few (John 4:35). Once we really submit to the Lord and go, and say, “Amen, Lord, I am here,” the Lord has a way to save others. Others can be gained by the Lord as we repent and confess, but we have to give ourselves to the Lord. Day by day we should fight to enter into the reality of our salvation. We were baptized and now we need the Spirit to daily bring us back to the reality of our salvation. We are not here for what we like; we are here for Him.

This is the gospel. This is the good news. This is the best thing God has for you! We may not feel so sometimes, but it gives us Christ, and Christ is the one with no will and without opinion. He was the one who said Amen to the Father. This is the One we have received. He is the Christ of God. He is the One we go out with to others. So we need to have a broader view of the gospel. How much are we allowing the Spirit to work in me to do what He has to do?

When the Lord went out in Mark 1, you see those sick, demon-possessed, leprous... that's just who we are! When you see the gospel working in someone else, that gives people hope! If you live in a ghetto, and you see someone get out of there, that gives you hope! Others realize they can make it. If you see the Lord do something real in someone, that causes you to feel Jesus could do it for you too! We can talk to others about this One who is working in us, and we have this One who has no concept about how things should be. Jesus in us gives others hope! They don't need you to condemn them. Instead, you should come as life to them!

We don't need to judge anyone. We are also those with leprosy, but we are being cleansed. So we realize the Lord can do the same in any other person we speak to. The Lord can save anyone from whatever is possessing them. It doesn't matter where we are from; we all need Jesus. We all need to repent and believe in the gospel. The gospel is Christ. When we believe in the gospel, we are believing in Christ. Without Him, there is no gospel.

If I am judging someone, Christ is not operating. I have a problem, so I need the gospel to operate in me! We all have our flaws. The more we are in the gospel, the more the Lord has a way to save us.

We need to ask then that the Lord would open us to the gospel, to the Lord's operation in us. The gospel is that every day I am receiving more of this Christ, and every day He is saving Me. It is not a matter of being right or wrong. Jesus was baptized, so His will could be the will of the Father, not because He had anything wrong in Him.

If we are still in bondage, it is hard for us to preach to others about release from bondage. We become the gospel to those we meet. We are able to help others according to how the Lord has operating in us. We can always bring people to Christ, but every day we need the gospel in us, sanctifying us, causing us to grow unto full sonship. Then, how rich is our gospel to others!

In the past weeks we have begun to go through Mark. We have made a little dent in the first chapter. As other brothers, I would like to begin by speaking a little bit about John the baptist.

We don't hear a lot about John the baptist compared to many other great people in the Bible, yet Jesus said of him, “Of everyone born among women, none is greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11). That is an amazing statement! This means Moses is not greater, David is not greater, Ruth is not, Esther is not, nor anyone you can name. Even Abraham was not greater than John the baptist! I feel sorry for him, because compared to other great people in the Bible, John doesn't get as many stories in the Bible about him, but he does get one thing that is beyond what every other person was privileged to do: to him it was given to introduce Jesus Christ. He was the one chosen to be the Lord's forerunner (and His cousin). This is why you cannot say anyone is greater than him. All the Bible up until that time was for that moment when Jesus would come. Peter tells us even the angels wished to know, standing on tiptoe, stooping to examine the mystery of when God would come in the flesh. Of all the people ever born until then, John was the unique one chosen to do that job. He was the culmination of the entire Old Testament. He was the one who introduced the purpose of the Bible. He was the one given to say to mankind, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

There is a famous verse: “He must increase and I must decrease” (John 3:30). That was John the baptist who said that. He said this because his disciples were bothered that many were going to join Jesus. John said, “I am the friend of the Bridegroom, not the Bridegroom. Therefore I rejoice.” John should have told all his disciples to go to follow Jesus! He should have said, “Why are you hanging around me anymore? Go after Him!” He was still human. When he was in prison, he even sent to Jesus saying, “Are we to be looking for someone else?” He was still a fallen human being. Everyone in the kingdom shall be greater than him. Eventually John's head was cut off by Herod. That was the end of his ministry. But praise the Lord for that Introducer! He was given the greatest honor of all those born up until that time: he was given to introduce Jesus to the world.

When Jesus started His ministry, after John introduced him and after he baptised Him, the dove descended, and the Lord said from heaven, “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.” Then Mark says Jesus was thrust into the wilderness to be tested. He was pushed in by the Spirit. It was there that Satan tempted him. He was God's answer to Satan and everything Satan had done. It was like God gave Jesus to Satan to test Him out. “Don't be gentle with Him. I want you to see what He really is.” We know from other books that after Jesus had not eaten for those forty days, Satan's first temptation was to say Jesus could turn the stones into bread. Jesus replied, “The Scriptures also say that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.”

Jesus, at this point, when He was starting His ministry, being thirty years old and having been hidden until that point, he must have been so on fire with the realization of who He was! In Hebrews it says, “I came to do Your will O God. This is why I have a body!” (See Hebrews 10:5-7.) The Lord knew by then the reason He had a body was to go to the cross as the unique Sacrifice. He had told His disciples in John 6:57, “As the Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, he who eats Me shall also live because of Me.” Jesus, in order to fulfill His mission, had to walk in total oneness with the Father. He could not deviate, or that would be sin and He would no longer be qualified to die on the cross for our sins. Therefore He had to walk in oneness with the Father 24/7, 365 days a year (even second by second). The reason He did not turn the stones into bread like Satan suggested was simply because that was not what the Father was doing! He only could do what the Father was doing.

(Jesus also told His disciples in John 6 that it was the Spirit that gave life; the flesh profited them nothing (v. 63) because the disciples were confused, thinking about cannibalism. What Jesus meant was that His living by the Father's speaking, even by every word that proceeded out from the mouth of God, was a matter of the Spirit. The way He lived off the Father was the way we need to live off of Him today. Right now something is coming out of God in us. We have to be living on that. If we are not living on it, in the eyes of God we are sinning. Sinning is just to do things separate from God.)

Jesus was living His life according to the Father. He had to live His life in such a way all the way until He was on the cross. If He failed, God did not have another Son to send. If Jesus had sinned, God could not resurrect Jesus. He could not send another Son to die for us. And we would be in hell. That is how close it came. Jesus had to live this life.

In Hebrews we are told Jesus was heard and resurrected by God because of His piety (Hebrews 5:7). Piety does not mean religiosity; it means circumspection. (Circumspection simply means to take care to watch all around you. In Jesus' case it meant He never deviated nor was drawn off from the pathway God had for Him.) Jesus lived a life that never deviated, therefore God heard Him and raised Him from the dead. In Romans we are told Jesus was raised for our justification.

Now in Mark, we see Jesus, who now has a body, and He is on the move on His mission from God. He has been baptized by John the baptist, He has been tempted by the devil and has passed that test. Now He is on the move and He is picking up disciples, and He is healing people, and He is casting out demons. The kingdom of God has come! He is on the move, and He is heading somewhere. He is heading to that cross, and doing a lot on the way, or the Father is doing a lot, and He is doing what the Father is doing. This is the picture of Mark 1.

There is a famous verse in Hebrews in which we are told that Jesus Christ was tried in all respects like us, yet was found to be without sin (Hebrews 4:15). To be tested in all respects like us, in the context of Hebrews, does not mainly refer to moral temptation. It shouldn't mean that Jesus saw someone's wallet lying on the ground, and He was tempted to steal it! The context of the book of Hebrews is that the Hebrews were tempted to go back and leave the pathway they had begun in walking as Christians whose faith was in Christ and His sacrifice. Their family members were begging them to come back to the synagogue or to accompany them to the feast in Jerusalem and to offer again the sacrifices. The writer of Hebrews tells us that to go offer again the blood of bulls and goats would be to trample underfoot the blood of the Son of God (10:29)! Like Jesus' family members, they would have been concerned and asked the new believers, “What has happened to you? Who are these people you are meeting with? We have a sacrifice here for you. God told us in the Bible to offer this. What are you doing?”  [See also Hebrews 10:25-26, where "sinning willfully" refers to ceasing to meet as Christians, presumably by returning to the Jewish gatherings with their practices.]

For Jesus to say, “I have been temped in all respects, and yet without sin” had to do with this. He had been tempted by the devil and his family and others to knock Him off that course and yet He was not knocked off that course the Father had set for Him. Jesus was able to fulfill His mission for which He had been given a body by dying on the cross as the sacrifice that could fulfill all of God's requirement.

Jesus walked that path, and in Mark 1 we see Jesus beginning to walk that path in His ministry. In that path, many things began to happen. Mark 1:12 onward. Jesus preached that the time was fulfilled and that people were to repent and believe in the gospel. He also called Peter and Andrew and James and John from their fishing. These are the top four disciples. James was the first to be martyred, and John was the last to die. Jesus also began to cast out unclean spirits and He also began to teach publicly.

What were unclean spirits doing in God's country anyway? Something wasn't right.

The picture in chapter 1 is clear. Something new had begun on the earth. There was a Man walking on the earth with a few others joined up with Him, and things were happening wherever this Man went. If anything was out of order, it got put in order. If anything is in rebellion, it gets headed up. If anything that needed fixing, it got fixed. This is the kingdom of God moving on the earth. And if Jesus is with us, and He is moving in our hearts, if He is on the move in us, it should be that things are happening in us, that things are getting fixed, that things that are out of order are getting put in order.

Now, Jesus may have His time and way of handling things that is not according to our speculation or expectation. Jesus did not make it to every town in Israel at the same time. He went one by one. He had His time and His way and His schedule in how He dealt with things. It wasn't haphazard. It was very much according to what God was doing at that time. Within us, I think it is the same story. Jesus is on the move in us. Parts of us are joining up! Sometimes the religious parts in us cause problems, like John the baptist's disciples or the Pharisees did. But, as long as Jesus is on the move in us, that the kingdom of God has come in us, we have to know that the leprosy is going to be dealt with and that the evil spirits are going to be cast out! We have to know that there is going to be healing, and that eventually God is going to get what He is after in us. And that we can live on Jesus the same way that Jesus lives on God, which is on every word that proceeds out. I believe this “every word” is not just the word in the Bible, but also what is going on in you right now that Jesus is doing. If we know how to be with that and stay with that, we will walk that line Jesus walked, and is still walking in us, to accomplish God's will on the earth.

No doubt Jesus will eventually have His way in every one of us, but the main thing we have to ask ourselves is, “Is Jesus on the move in me today?” Can we say of this past week that Jesus was on the move in us? Can we say, “I saw something going on in me this week”? If not, we need to find a way to link ourselves to Him, to give ourselves like Peter did or John did, leaving everything else to follow Him. We must consecrate ourselves to Him and tell Him, “Jesus, I give up everything to follow You and move with You. Now You must move in me! However You move, that is how I am going to move. Whatever You are speaking, that is how I am living. Lord, allow me to abide in Your speaking in me.”

Anything else is simply not what God is doing, and is rebellion and sin. O, how we trust the Lord in us to bring us into what He Himself is doing!

Steve Whitfield      April 20, 2008

Mark 1:1-13

Before this time the children of Israel worshiped God by bringing animal sacrifices to the temple. They had everything related to God. I was inspired to consider whether or not God was tired of that! In Malachi I did read that God said something like this. At that time you had to examine the lamb before Passover. In Malachi they were withholding the best, and giving crippled or defective animals. The Lord said, “I don’t want that stuff anymore.” Here we hear this is the beginning of the gospel. God said I have a perfect offering. Forget about all that other.

After we get saved, we get complacent. We think God isn’t paying attention. Things become ritualized. The Israelites just came in three times a year for the feasts, that was it. But today God has brought us to himself, and yet we also become complacent. Hasn’t the Lord shown us so much? What makes us different from everyone else? Why, out of all the Christians in Lorain, has God shown this to me? When we begin to get complacent, we have to say, “This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ!” We need a beginning every day. We shouldn’t think that just because you are saved, that’s it. God might get tired of your sacrifice too. You might feel, “I am extra tired today. I won’t go. No one’s going to call and check on me anyway.” Our sacrifice isn’t acceptable anymore that point, so we need a new beginning.

John the baptist, from his birth, was separated from anything that was complacent. In Luke, Zechariah, John’s father, saw an angel while he was serving in the temple. His wife was barren. They had been praying. They were both old. This angel said, “You are going to be blessed with a child.” God was going to turn everything upside down. We get a certain way. Hard to spring forward, fall back, and that is only one hour! The Lord needs to turn us upside down! Everything was going along smoothly. Then something happened.

The angel told Zechariah all about what John’s life would be. Then Zechariah said something in unbelief, the angel said he wouldn’t be able to talk. God was so determined to get what he was after! He would even, in spite of Zechariah’s unbelief, continue to carry out his plan with him. He determined this would be the means for Christ’s forerunner to come, and nothing would stop him. When John the Baptist came, he came to prepare, or straighten the way. The crooked places would be made straight and the rough places plain. The high would be brought low and low lifted up. Sometimes we are too high. I pride myself in being the “network man.” This week I got that mountain knocked down; it took me eight hours to find the problem. Sometimes in our complacency we think we have everything. We need the Lord to come to level things. Sometimes he does it through another believer.

Other times we get into a valley. We feel we are terrible. We think, “Doesn’t the Lord ever get tired of forgiving me?” We get that comforting. The Lord fills in the low places. This is also a preparation for the Lord to come. Often when we are discouraged, a brother knocks on our door, or someone calls, and the valley is filled in. This is a preparation for the Lord to come.

I talk to people at my job, and I find there are a lot of “ways.” They say, “We are all going to get to heaven eventually.” So the Lord comes to straighten the way. “One way… Jesus!” There’s really only one way, and that is Jesus. John let the ones who thought they knew everything had to come down a little bit, and those who put themselves under needed to lift themselves up a little bit, and those who were all over the map in their reasoning needed to straighten their understanding out.

John was a forerunner. That’s what you are if you share the gospel. You can’t save people, but you can be his forerunner to prepare the way. Many times we share and it seems nothing happened. John’s birth was of the Lord, not of Zechariah. If people don’t fall down and cry out they want Jesus when you speak to them, don’t worry about it. Keep knocking down the high places and filling the low places and cutting straight the way for the Lord to their hearts.

God has a desire. He said, “Go ye therefore, disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” We are going to knock doors these days. At first it is scary. This is why we need to be Johns. John was a descendant of

Why did John come out like that? If you are going to bring in something brand new and disconnect from something old, you have to be so far from that thing. This is why we can say the Lord initiated this. He gave John the strength to live in the wilderness. He had the right to wear the priestly garments, and to eat of the sacrifices. He had the right, but he chose, based on God’s supply, to live in the wilderness dressed in unclean camel’s hair garments. Think of how the religious people must have looked at him. “And he is telling US to repent?” (Repentance means to have a change of mind.) He was saying, “Have a change of focus, pursuit, understanding!” and His whole being said “change.” They saw a man as far out there as he could be, who was a priest’s son.

We bring that religious stuff back on ourselves, often. Among the Jews, it had become their culture. Do we not also have a culture among ourselves in the church life? We developed into something. How do we feel when we have some people come? Are we on that mountain? Are we like the Pharisees, criticizing? The thing we are trying to say is that we need to be open to prepare a way so we can have a new beginning in Him every day. We need to repent! Even in our living, others should see us as a “repented” person. There is evidence in our lives of change, according to a certain understanding. The direction of our lives, pursuing, based on repentance. We all need to repent!  We find ourselves in complacency, and frustrate the Lord from having His way. Thus the Lord has to have a new beginning in us.

When Jesus came up from the water after his baptism, what a scene! The grass was greener, the sky was bluer! When we are under a dense cloud due to religiosity, we cannot see this beauty. When we are repentant, our eyes are opened! The heavens are opened. We begin to see things we never saw before, for the Spirit descends upon us. When the offenses, etc., are cleared up, everything becomes clearer. The Lord is waiting to forgive us!

In Judges, we were reading how rotten everyone was. Yet every time when the people would turn to the Lord, he forgave them. We have the Spirit coming to us afresh. Don’t think everything will be a utopia. But we will have joy.

The Lord is our pattern. We are following Him. Right after the heaven was opened, we see everything is so wonderful. You notice the birds. You see the saints in a different light. They are our treasure! But get ready, because the Spirit will lead you. It thrust Jesus into the wilderness. John prepared a way for the Lord to come, and the Spirit led him once he came.

Even the Pharisees came to hear John, and he wondered about that. The need was to have a repentant heart, to give the Lord a new beginning. But also realize it will not be a utopia. Sometimes it is hard. In the wilderness, the Lord was there 40 days being tempted by Satan. How long will be our forty years? It will be our lifetime. We will be tested and tempted. Not only by Satan, but even by God’s creation. You might have a little dog. Everything in this creation Satan uses. Satan will use everything to work on you, if he can. That wilderness experience helps you realize who you are. In Matthew we find the devil tempted the Lord by saying, “You’re a Son of God. Tell these stones to become bread.” Prosperity. “Won’t he give you a hundredfold?” This is a temptation. You might win that one, saying, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Or you might say, “If I only win the lottery I will be OK.” We learn where we are at when we are tempted. Perhaps you might receive a job opportunity. It may be something that the Lord allows to test you. You may feel the money is too good, or you may stick with the Lord, if that is not what he is doing.

John’s proclaiming was the start of the New Testament gospel. People were complacent. We all need a beginning. Don’t think you are OK from yesterday. Therefore we need a heart of repentance. We need the Lord’s forgiveness. Then the sky becomes clear. We have already been terminated. Now it is a matter of germination. The Lord wants to gain us. He wants to gain who we are and add himself to who we are. The Lord waits for the opportunities. A lot has to do with how we go through things. But if we fail, he will wait for another opportunity. If you are doing well, you think, a tempting may come. If we fail, the Lord will come to us again. We can repent and receive Him afresh.