First Born Among Many Brethren 1975

It really shocked me and surprised me in years gone by when I would often see that a man or a woman who, for years and years, seemed to show no interest at all in the Kingdom of God, suddenly becomes intensely interested and begins to try to serve the Lord and gets fellowship and makes all kinds of changes in his or her life, and then within a year, boom, he's dead. Almost as if somehow the Spirit of the Lord stirred that person and prepared that person for things that were lying ahead that he was not aware of. And I have a similar sense as I look out over this flock today and see faces that I haven't seen for a long time.

Not that you're going to die, don't misunderstand, but that it's as if the Spirit of God is stirring right now in our hearts, making us conscious of the fact that things are in the offing, and I think we all sense this in our inner being, that are just going to be tremendous. Tremendous not in a good sense, but in a bad sense. And somehow as we come to the very edge of the eschaton, the end, things just breaking loose all over the earth, including here.

I said Bible studying some months ago, people get all excited as soon as some new thing happens in the Middle East. Oh boy, now the bottle of Armageddon is going to be here. They get all excited, it's going to be wonderful, but I'm going to tell you, I'm convinced that the next time war breaks out in the Middle East, it's not just going to be in the Middle East.

And then it isn't going to be so interesting. If it suddenly becomes something that we suffer, it's all very well to look at our TV sets and watch people being burned to death, and cut up to pieces by machine guns, and be right on the edge without having to experience any of the dangers and the pain of this. But the ones who have a hobby of Bible prophecy are going to be really shaken.

Don't be too eager to see things happen, because when they do, they're going to affect you and me. But anyway, I just thank God for all the faces that are here today, and may the Spirit of God work to prepare us for the things that we are, all of us, going to be facing, I believe, very soon. From Romans 8, 29, we looked at the first half last Sunday, I'm going to look at the second half of this verse this Sunday.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. There's hardly a person in this gathering right now who is not carrying around in his or her life a hidden volcano. From the outside, our lives look like serene mountains, everything seems to be under control most of the time.

But down inside the mountain, there is a place where the lava is boiling and seething and churning. And every so often, usually without any warning, there's an eruption of this volcano. And out of us comes a river of things we didn't even know existed inside us.

Suddenly. All kinds of vile things, venomous things spew from our mouths. Or we catch ourselves speaking the most gross exaggerations, the most farfetched excuses for why we didn't do this or that.

Or somebody's in trouble and instead of running to their aid, we run the other way or we find ourselves committing some compulsive act of greed. Or lust. Or spite.

And we say. How could I ever have done such a thing? How could such words ever have come out of my mouth now beneath this seething cauldron, which is inside our inmost hearts? Our three distinct flames that keep it boiling all the time. And the first of these flames is called sin.

And it's important for us to understand that sin is not just some bad thing that you do. Sin is a disposition of evil, an evil principle, a disease of a will which causes our deeds to always come short of our good intentions. The good that I would, I do not.

And the evil that I would not, that I do. Again and again, we resolve that we're not going to let our tongues go loose anymore. And boom, off they go again.

Or we really want to serve God, we want to please our heavenly father, and then we catch ourselves going to any lengths to please ourselves. Sin is to be wrapped up in self. And the most pitiful sinners of all are the religious sinners.

Who are so sure that they are right and so utterly blind. To how barren. And vain.

And empty and arrogant and evil their inner hearts are. The second flame that keeps that pot inside us, that volcano boiling is called Satan. Now, Satan is evil that comes from outside us, just like sin is evil that comes up from within us.

And his primary method is the lie he wants to deceive us into believing things which are vanity already, just wants to believe anyway, you're such a wonderful person. You're so brilliant. Meyer, oh, it's just such a pleasure to know you, he said.

Go ahead. That's all right. God understands.

Indulge yourself. And then when the dream is smashed, as it always is, he comes around with some more lies. You're no good.

You're never going to be any good. You're hopeless. Nobody cares about you.

God despises you. Why don't you give up now? His objective, his objective is to get us any way he can sidetrack from reality so that he may have the pleasure of being served by us in the kingdom of the unreal, which is Satan's kingdom. And it doesn't make much difference to him whether your delusion is that everybody is your enemy or whether your delusion is that everybody is your friend or whether you believe that God is your spiritual sugar daddy or whether you believe that God is out to really get you.

As long as you believe a lot and stay away from the truth and the third flame that keeps this volcano cooking. Is that. There's not a nerve in our bodies that isn't on continuous alert against that our own death haunts us, plagues us, hangs over us, laughs at us, mocks us.

And eats at our hearts from the days of our childhood. Because we know that one day we're going to open the door and their death will stand. And when death says come.

There's not a thing we can do, but comply, sin, Satan, death, any philosophy of life which fails to take into account these three realities may be beautiful and may be popular, but it isn't worth a dime. And any form of Christianity, and there are plenty which fails to actually exercise authority over these three realities in daily living is a fraud. We can go to meetings, Bible studies, prayer groups, retreats, conferences and what have you until doomsday.

We can run around ministering, we think in the name of Jesus, we can be teaching the Bible seven days a week. But if this volcano continues to boil inside, if these three flames are very much alive in our hearts, if we are not having any success at all in bringing this volcano down under and transforming it into a spring of living water, then there's got to be something wrong with our relationship with Jesus. Because Jesus came to deliver us from these three things.

And promises to replace them. In us with his life, Jesus entered into this world for the specific purpose of conquering these three flames. Notice how he began his ministry when he began his ministry, the first thing he did was to get baptized.

What does this mean? This means that at that point, Jesus identified with our sin. He who knew no sin came down into those same waters that have to wash us, became sin for us. The second thing Jesus did after his baptism, he is driven by the spirit into the wilderness.

He received the spirit and is driven by the will by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. In other words, now he takes on flame number two, Satan, and he engages in battle with him from that point on. And the third thing we see Jesus do in every one of the gospel accounts, he then goes forth from the wilderness to preach the kingdom of God and heal the sick.

And in his words and by the means of his signs, he is now engaged during this phase of his ministry in a warfare with death. And what is he doing every time he heals somebody, he's driving death back some steps. And so this warfare, this threefold warfare continues until he comes to the cross.

And when Jesus gets to the cross, suddenly these three flames, which normally remain hidden, boiling underneath the volcano, spring out and they literally lick him on all sides and come down over the top of him. Sin. Behold, the lamb of God, he takes away the sin of the world.

He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him.

See, and the weight that tore down on those nails was not just the weight of his body, his marred, bruised, beaten body, but it was the weight of the sin of the race under the judgment of the holy God, which tore at those nails and drove the breath right out of his lung. Satan had we the eyes to see. We would have been able to spot somewhere nearby that cross gloating over the torture of Jesus of Nazareth, the twisted face of the father of lies who had entered into Judas, inspired the chief priests, changed the Passover pilgrims into a vicious mob and added strength to those Roman soldiers as they laid those lashes on him and as they kept beating him until his face was nothing but a bloody pulp and death.

Soon it was all over, his head drops to his chest, his bloodshot eyes roll back into his head and he's dead, but when he died, Jesus of Nazareth took down into the grave with him. Sin, Satan and death in the same way that Samson pulled all the Philistines down on top of him in his death, carried them with him. So now the son of God exercises mastery over these three enemies at the moment of his death and remains their master.

And the proof that he is their master arrives on the third day. When the earth shakes and the stone rolls away and there steps forth from that tomb, a man. Who, for the first time since the fall of Adam, is invulnerable to these three flames.

The man who steps forth from that tomb can't be touched by sin, can't be touched by Satan, nor can he be touched by death. But the good news in all this, he's the firstborn of the new creation. He's the firstborn from the dead.

But more than that, who, for those who before knew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren, so that now he is to be followed by brethren, others, by you and by me, if we will see. And the proof that we can indeed and literally follow him out of death into that life, which is invulnerable to these enemies. The proof of this does not come after you die or in some other world.

What good is that? The proof comes in this life of flesh and blood. Now, if Jesus is in fact victor over sin, Satan and death, if he is indeed able to transform the volcano inside our hearts into a spring of living water, you have every reason to expect some evidence of this now, some experience of it right now in this life. If you want to know for sure that Jesus rose from the dead, the firstborn among many brethren, and if you want to be one of those brothers or sisters.

Praise God in the kingdom, there will be no sex. I think that's boring. It's going to be wonderful.

It's going to be he's going to have thrills for you that you never dreamed. But if you want to know that you're one of those. Step number one, admit the truth of your present condition.

There are people who have been apparently following Jesus for a long time. And yet there's absolutely no sign that they've ever brought these flames under control, you know, and they had their periodic volcanic eruptions in their lives. Some do it every day.

If this is the case, if the volcano is still cooking inside, you admit it. Best thing you can do, the best thing you can do yourself is admit the truth. See, it's not just the people who are standing at the doorway of the kingdom looking in who need to meet Jesus today in the power of his resurrection, but it is also believers who've been living low grade, half-baked, unloving, undisciplined, fruitless, self-righteous, vain lives who also need to meet Jesus today in the power of his resurrection.

Followers of Jesus who have been laying on others burdens that are hard to bear and never even touch those burdens with their own fingers. People who say they're following Jesus, who say, Lord, Lord, all the time. And yet when Jesus himself tells them to forgive their brother, their sister, they absolutely repudiate.

When we come to the place where we have admitted the truth of our present condition and may God not give us any leeway on this, let us face it. And only when we get to that place that we truly acknowledge this, then there are three things that we can do right now. First, come to Jesus for forgiveness of your sin.

And you can do that now. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Lord, forgive. Are you too proud to say that? Are you too proud to get down on your knees and receive his forgiveness? There's not one person in this place who truly opens and bends and repents before the living God who will go out of here today without forgiveness. Second thing you can do.

Come to Jesus and let him be Lord of your inner life instead of the father of lies who's been pulling around, pulling you around by your vanity. Come out of the unreal and enter into the real. Leave that web of lies, which has been your home so long with all its fears and all its fantasies.

And enter into the spirit of truth and submit to the spirit of truth who is Jesus. And don't tell me you haven't been listening to voices. You've been listening to voices that have cleverly told you just the things you wanted to hear, just the things that would suck you in.

Now, listen to the voice of the shepherd. My sheep hear my voice. And I know them and they follow me.

And I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone ever pluck them out of my hand. And the final thing you can do if you mean business. You come to Jesus and ask him to replace that death in your soul by pouring out upon you the life of his spirit.

It is the spirit that quicken it, the flesh profited nothing. The words that I speak to you, says Jesus, they are spirit and they are life. As many as received him as believed on his name.

So then he gave power to become sons of God, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. They're different. God, help us to come to that place.

Help us, Lord God, to open up our hearts and cry out for the life of your spirit. There are enough Christians around. Who are able to quote the Bible and talk about Jesus and make one another feel guilty.

The need. Is for men and women. Who buy their living manifest the fact that they are Jesus brethren, that by his grace.

The fire underneath their heart has now been put out that threefold death and that they have been changed into rivers of living water. Who give life to those around them instead of death only when we are such people. Do we have any business to expect that some of those to whom we talk will believe when we say.

That Jesus is Lord, only the Lord knows who of us is serious and where we are with him right now. But if any of this makes any sense and if there are people here who need to repent, let's do it. Let's wait upon God in prayer.

You do whatever the Lord chose you to do. We just pray, father, that by the miracle of the working of your spirit, we may have some way of comprehending with our hearts as well as our minds, the awesome things that lie ahead and that by your grace, father, there will be some vision of the difference between heaven and hell. And what death and the second death really are above all, Lord God, that you, by the light of your spirit, would show us what we are right now before you and where we stand and what our need is.

By your grace, father, that we may get our eyes off brothers and sisters and this one in that one and see where we are. And give us, oh, Lord, give us this day a spirit of genuine repentance that is able to bring forth fruits, meat for repentance. Beginning this hour, we ask it in.