He That is Not With Me is Against Me (Conf.)

Introduction: The Importance of Proximity to Christ's Word

0:00 In moving in, I've often said in conferences, I don't need to say it to our own people, they've been schooled in this, but someone goes to a prize fight, I hope you don't, I don't, but I know the most expensive seats are the ringside seats. And if you go to a hockey game or to a basketball game, courtside, rinkside seats are the most expensive. In the one place, you get the best seats free, and people take the worst seats. I don't understand it.

0:28 I thought, if I could take a year off to do nothing worthwhile, I'd like to do a master's thesis on the mentality of back row church attenders, and we might come up with some very interesting things. But it is good to be here with you, and I trust that in this place, in the hours that we spend together, we will know something of the livingness of the presence and the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ speaking to us. And if you've brought a Bible with you, I would urge you to follow with me as I read from the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew, and I'm reading from the old 1901 American Standard Version, and I do not say that to disparage you, my Canadian friends, but I got married to this version close to fifty years ago as a young Christian, and I've had no desire to divorce myself from it, although when I read it, I drop the Elizabethan endings, and so it becomes a Martinized version of the 1901, and people will often ask, what version are you reading from? So lest that question get your mind distracted, I tell you that at the outset. And now follow, please, as I read from Matthew chapter 12,

1:49 beginning with verse 22 and concluding the reading at verse 30. Matthew 12. Matthew 12 and verse 22. Then was brought unto him one possessed with a demon, blind and dumb.

2:05 That is, kids, he couldn't talk. Didn't mean he was stupid. He didn't have a full load upstairs. Dumb means he couldn't talk.

2:13 He'd look at you and nothing would come out. So this demon made this man both blind and unable to speak, and it says that Jesus healed him insomuch that the dumb man spoke, and saw. And all the multitude were amazed and said, Can this be the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This man does not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons.

2:45 And knowing their thoughts, he, that is Jesus, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself, how then shall his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges.

3:19 But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you. Or, How can one enter into the house of the strong man and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house? He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters. It is these words of our Lord Jesus that I want to set before your minds and consciences this evening.

The Setting: Jesus' Miraculous Healing and the Multitude's Response

3:57 The Lord Jesus, speaking in this setting says, He that is not with me is against me, and he that does not gather with me is scattering. And it's important as we come to these words that we first of all try to get a sense of the setting in which our Lord spoke then. It's not as though the Lord was walking along the road being followed by His disciples, and all of a sudden turned and said, By the way men, do you know that He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters? No, our Lord spoke these things in a setting that is given to us in some measure of detail that we might understand the significance of those words when we hear them coming from the lips of the Son of God in that particular setting. So spend a few minutes with me thinking through and using this marvelous faculty that God has given to us as human beings, the faculty of imagination, and seek to bring before the screen of your mind the picture that is painted for us here in this portion of the Word of God. It is a period in our Lord's ministry when He is doing mighty works, manifesting all the credentials of the promised Messiah. And in that setting, people having heard that when He speaks to demons,

5:24 they leave their victims, they exit the bodies and the minds and the souls of those whom they possessed. Someone, some unnamed person or group of people, they bring to Jesus someone who was possessed with a demon, and this demon made this poor person both blind so that he could not see and dumb so that he could not speak. Now as you know, these demons most likely are angels that joined with Lucifer, son of the morning, in that initial rebellion against God. And it is these demons that with the prince of demons, the devil himself hates God, hates Christ, hates everything that reflects God and magnifies God. And as I've pondered the passage, why would a demon make a man such that he could neither see nor speak? And could it be that this demon didn't want this man with his eyes to behold the glory of God manifested in the created world? For the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows forth his handiwork.

6:35 And how this demon, in obedience to his chief, the devil, would love to make someone blind so that their eyes could not drink in the wonder of God's handiwork, smothered with his fingerprints wherever he turned. And perhaps the demon made him dumb, unable to speak, because he didn't want another creature to speak forth the praises of God. His eyes could not drink in the wonder of God's creation. His mouth could not give thanks and praise to God.

7:07 And this was no pathological thing with him. This was not a matter that he had some physiological problem, some congenital deformity. And even though the scripture says that he healed him, it is very clear in the parallel passage in Luke chapter 11 that he was healed by Jesus casting out the demon. Well, you can imagine what it would be like to be in a crowd of people, and a man, a person that you've known perhaps for months or years, whose mouth has never...

7:41 He's had to use perhaps a crude form of sign language. Maybe he's been able to write out his thoughts on a tablet. But never once had they heard his mouth articulate words and communicate ideas. And this poor man had to be led around.

7:57 He was blind and he was dumb. And suddenly, can you imagine what would have come out of his mouth when suddenly his tongue would function and when his brain would form words? The nerve impulses would go to the tongue and to the larynx and to the diaphragm and out from his throat and from his tongue would come words. For the first time perhaps in years, one can only imagine, what would you do if you hadn't been able to speak till this hour tonight and suddenly you began to be able to speak?

8:30 I doubt we'd keep you quiet. You'd go running through this place. I can talk. I can talk. Listen to me.

8:36 I can talk. We say, yeah, yeah, shush up. I know you can talk. We can hear you.

8:40 And for the first time, this man could speak for a period of time. And this caused a stir through the entire crowd so that what Jesus did, the text says that the multitude that the multitudes were amazed. They were literally bamboozled. They were astounded.

8:59 They were dumbstruck by this mighty miracle that the Lord had performed. And in response to that miracle, notice what the text tells us. There were two groups of people whose response is recorded by the Holy Spirit. One group called the multitudes who were amazed.

9:20 They began to say to one another, can this be the son of David? And for these Jews, the son of David was not so much a title to trace the genealogy of Jesus back to David, though it was that, but this was a messianic term and title. We find later on when Jesus is confronting the Pharisees in the temple, and he says, whose son is Messiah? And they say, son of David.

9:55 So even they understood that the term son of David was a messianic identifying term. And so the multitude, when they see what Jesus has done to command this evil spirit to leave this man so that the man who had previously been both blind and speechless now sees and now can speak, they begin to nudge one another and say, can this really be? Messiah? Is Messiah actually among us?

10:27 They had not come to the place where they were prepared with one voice to say as Peter did in Matthew 16, you are the Christ. You are the Messiah, son of God. But they are prepared to wrestle with this at a new level of openness and inquiry. Can this indeed be?

The Setting: The Pharisees' Accusation and Jesus' Rebuttal

10:50 Messiah, son of David. But now in verse 24, we have the record of what happens to the other group, the Pharisees. These professional religionists with big heads and with narrow shriveled hearts who knew everything that Rabbi Ben so-and-so said and Rabbi Ben so-and-so said, but they twisted the scriptures and they nullified the word of God by their man-made traditions. And they were constantly dogging themselves in the steps of our Lord Jesus wherever He went.

11:23 They were sitting there or standing in the crowd squinty-eyed and narrow-hearted trying to find something they could pick on and distort and twist because their jealous, envious hearts couldn't stand the fact that the multitudes were leaving these dry as dust. Rabbi so-and-so says, preachers, and they were listening to this unlettered Rabbi who's come out of Nazareth and speaks with authority. When He speaks, the voice of God is heard. And out of envy and their jealousy, they're already plotting to try to get rid of Him.

12:02 And so when they hear the multitudes saying, this could possibly be Messiah, they say, oh no, no. You poor ignorant people that don't know anything. We'll tell you who He really is. Yes, we can't deny that a man who hitherto has been unable to see and to speak is now seeing and is now speaking.

12:25 But you know, this is not a Messianic credential. This is an indication that Jesus of Nazareth is in cahoots with the devil. But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this man does not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons. Imagine it.

12:46 They said the only reason the demons jump when He speaks is because He jumps when His master speaks. His master is Beelzebub, the prince of the demons. So when His master speaks, He speaks. And when He speaks, the underlings do what their demons come out.

13:08 Because the demons recognize their superior. And beyond Him, the chief honcho, the devil himself. Now the text says, Jesus knowing their thoughts, not Jesus overhearing their words, but Jesus knowing their thoughts. Sitting here tonight, He knows every thought you've thought from the time you entered this place.

13:39 He knows every thought you're thinking now. John chapter 2 says, Jesus did not need that anyone testify of men, for He knew what was in men. And Jesus, reading their thoughts, responds not to the multitude, but in the presence of the multitude, He responds to the Pharisees. And notice how He responds in verse 25.

14:04 Knowing their thoughts, He said to them, that is the Pharisees, in the hearing of all the multitude, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. When you have a mutiny within a kingdom, you have a crumbling kingdom. Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. And every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.

14:30 That's a common observation of human experience. Marxists know that. Divide and conquer. It's an obvious axiom of observable human experience when a kingdom, when a house, when the city is pitted against itself, it cannot stand.

14:49 It stands in its unity. It falls in its division. Now the Lord says, there's an application of that principle that I want to highlight. If Satan is casting out Satan, what is he doing?

15:03 He is divided against himself. How then shall his kingdom stand? You see the conclusion Jesus draws? He says, look, if you people know that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, a city divided against itself cannot stand, a house divided against itself, don't you think the devil is as smart as you are?

15:23 And of course they have to answer, well of course he is. Well you see, if Satan is divided against himself, if as you say, I've cast out this demon because I'm in cahoots with the devil, then I've made the devil relinquish one of his subjects, his kingdom is divided, how in the world will it stand? In other words, the Lord Jesus said, the devil is not so stupid as to cut off his own fingers and shoot himself in the foot. That's a Martinized paraphrased 2001 version.

15:56 But that's what Jesus was saying, and they would have understood that. But he said there's another alternative. He said, but, but, if I by the Spirit of God am casting out demons, if that demon obeyed me because I am Messiah and the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me and I am opening the prison to those that are bound, then there's another conclusion to draw. If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God, the reign of God in grace and power, he says, is come upon you.

The Setting: The Strong Man Illustration and the Kingdom of God

16:40 Now think what this would have meant to these people. They had such carnal, crassly, materialistic views of the kingdom that for them when Messiah comes to establish his kingdom, he comes in on a white war charger with the entourage of his mighty armies and he crushes oppressive pagan rule, he puts the Romans to flight, and this unimpressive carpenter's son from Nazareth has the audacity to say, if the other alternative is true, that I have made that demon obey me, because the Spirit of God is resting upon me as the Messiah, then the very reign of God in grace and power is in your midst. And then the Lord uses an illustration to show that that's the only logical conclusion to draw. Listen to how he then amplifies it. How can one enter into the house of the strong man and spoil his goods, that is, take his stuff, except he first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house?

17:55 Now, I think your professional football league up here is the CFL, right? Canadian Football League? We have the NFL, National Football League, down in the States. Now, I want you kids to think with me.

18:08 You've heard that somewhere nearby one of your Canadian teams is having their training camp. It's still pre-season, so let's go back a few weeks. I don't know what your framework is here. And you know that there's a certain interior lineman for one of the teams at their workout and practice place.

18:29 They go to one of the colleges, one of the universities, use their athletic facilities. And you've heard that this guy is known for wearing three or four gold chains that around the neck of an ordinary mortal would pull him down to the ground. I mean, he's got all these thick gold chains. He's reputed to have earrings that are three carats of high-class diamonds.

18:52 I mean, his jewelry alone is worth more than most of us would make in five years. And you get into your head, you know, I'd like to have some of that gold and some of those nice diamond earrings. Now, none of you would ever want that, but you're just imagining. Let's imagine, all right?

19:09 And so you find out where he's staying, what particular dormitory at that university where they're using the sports facilities. And you get into your head, that you want to take his gold and take his diamond earrings and all of his other jewelry. So you come up, bang on the door, and this dude from inside says, who's there? You say, it's me.

19:29 What do you want? I'm going to come in and take your jewelry. Who are you? Well, my name's John.

19:36 What do you look like? Well, I'm 5'2", 120 pounds. You know who's on the other side of the door? 6'5", 295 pounds of bone, sinew, and muscle.

19:48 And if he hears 5'2", 120 pounds on the other side of the door, you know what he's going to do when you say, I'm going to get your jewelry? He laughs and says, get out of here, kid, before I squash you into a little pool of oil on the rug. You can't get his earrings until you first of all get that big dude on the floor, tie up his hands and tie his feet. Only when you bind this wrong man can you take his stuff.

20:18 That's what Jesus was saying. How can you take the stuff away? You can't take the stuff of the strong man unless the stronger than the strong man comes in. Now, suppose it was Shaquille O'Neal the other side.

20:32 7'1", 320 pounds. And this guy says, who wants my jewels? He says, it's Shaq, bud. He says, come in, Shaq.

20:43 Take anything you want. You see the illustration? That's what Jesus...

20:49 He wants us to think. He wanted those people to think. If the devil is casting out the devil, he's shooting his own foot, he's cutting off his own hands, the devil's too stupid to do that. So if this demon has split and gotten out of this man, it's because I am stronger than the strong man.

21:11 And I am Messiah. And I've come to dismantle the kingdom of darkness and because I have authority over the devil, I can spoil his goods. You see this man who couldn't speak, who couldn't see, he now speaks and he sees, I have spoiled the devil's goods because I am the one who has bound the strong man. Now that's the setting of our words.

The Meaning of Jesus' Words: No Neutrality in Cosmic Conflict

21:39 Now we've painted a picture from the text using our sanctified imagination. Now in that setting, Jesus goes on to say, he that is not with me is against me. He that gathers not with me is scattering. Well having looked at the setting in which the Lord spoke the words, now we come to open up the meaning of these words.

22:07 What did Jesus mean when in that particular specific setting he said, whoever's not with me is against me. Whoever does not gather with me is scattering. What was our Lord saying? Well the most simple explanation I can give is this.

22:30 Jesus is saying that there's a great cosmic conflict between two kingdoms. You notice how the word kingdom is used twice? A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. If Satan is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?

22:52 If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the kingdom of God is come among you. Jesus said there are two opposing kingdoms. There is a kingdom of Satan over which that foul fallen fiend is king and master. And there is the kingdom of God in which Jesus is the king of grace and of power.

23:21 And he said there is this cosmic warfare going on between these two kingdoms. And I have now come manifesting that I am binding the strong man and spoiling his goods. And for all of you who hear my voice, there is in this cosmic warfare that warfare which began in the Garden of Eden when God said to the serpent, the first word of gospel promise is spoken to the serpent. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.

24:01 And her seed will crush your head, but in the process you will bruise his heel. And that cosmic warfare has unfolded over the centuries until now. The seed of the woman has come in the fullness of time. God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law.

24:20 And he comes now as the messianic king, the stronger than the serpent, strong. And he is dismantling the kingdom of darkness. And he says to all who can hear his voice, in this great cosmic warfare, there is absolutely no neutrality. You are either aligned with me or you are against me.

24:48 You are either gathering with me or you are you are scattering. Now what do the words gathering and scattering mean? We are trying to grasp the meaning of our Lord's words in that particular setting. Let me attempt to open them up briefly.

25:11 Jesus says the one who is not with me is against me. That is, you cannot be neutral to my person. I am the messianic king. I am David's son.

25:24 As well as David's Lord. And in the light of who I am, you cannot be neutral to me. Furthermore, I am on a messianic mission. I am dismantling the kingdom of darkness.

25:38 He is that one described in John 12, the thief who comes to steal, to kill, to scatter. I am in a mission of gathering to myself. If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself. This fake he is signifying by what manner of death he should die.

25:59 Jesus said my death will let loose this certain gathering to myself of men from every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and nation. And he dies to secure their salvation. And now he says to these people who are not openly opposed to him apparently, they are willing to discuss. Who is Jesus?

26:22 Could it be? Could this really be? Son of David? Could this be Messiah?

26:28 You see what Jesus is saying? He is saying I don't need your thoughtful consideration. You do me no favor nor honors to stand around discussing whether I am who I claim to be. I have more than validated my claims by my works.

26:46 And if you are not aligned with me, you are against me. And furthermore, I am in the work of gathering. You have seen me gather this one whose life has been twisted and hindered and constricted by the devil, and I have loosed him. And in that work, you are either gathering with me or you are scattering.

27:12 Now they are saying, well, let's weigh this whole matter. Could this be the son of David? And he says to those squinty-eyed people, Pharisees, the official religious leaders, he says to them all, he that is not with me, if you are not aligned with who I am and what I have come to do, you are against me and you scatter. That's what Jesus said to those in that crowd on that particular day.

Application 1: An Infallibly Accurate Description of Every Person

27:43 Now having spent a little time sketching in the setting of the words, lesser amount of time, the meaning of those words, now thirdly, what is the significance of those words to those of us sitting here in this place tonight? Here we are in the first night of the St. Lawrence Family Conference at Silver Lake in the last day of August 19, no, 2001. When you've been saying 19 since 1934, it's hard to switch, so be patient, kids.

28:17 You'll catch up someday. What do they say to you? What do they say to me? Is this just an interesting, interesting exercise in trying to see what Jesus said, when and in what setting?

28:33 An interesting bit of Biblical information. No, my friends, I believe the living Christ leaps over the centuries and by His transcultural, timeless Word, the living Christ stands among us tonight by His Word and Spirit through His servant. He says to every one of you, you kids, young people, teenagers, fathers, mothers, He that is not with me is against me. He that gathers not with me is scattering.

29:06 And I want to bring three very specific lines of application in terms of the significance of these words for us tonight in this place in particular. First of all, these words constitute an infallibly accurate description of each and every person, every person in this auditorium, starting with the preacher. These words of Jesus in Matthew 12, 30 constitute an infallibly accurate description of each and every one of us here, now, tonight, sitting where you sit and standing where I stand. Now suppose for the sake of giving up the conference into teams, we were to stop and say now we want everyone to say one, two, one, two, one, two, all the way through until everyone was a one or a two. And then I were to say, all right, all of the odd numbers, all the ones, get over on the left side of the auditorium, all of the even numbers, two, all the way up, or we could number ourselves sequentially up to 200, how many there are here, and say all the odd numbers here, even numbers there. And unless you were too young to understand what I was saying, no one would stand in the middle aisle scratching his head and saying, I don't know what that crazy preacher is talking about. I'm not an odd or an even.

30:36 Yes, you are, my friend. You're either an odd or an even number. If we all numbered off one, two, one, two, one, two, or numbered sequentially, all the one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteens would be on one side, all the two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, on the others, there'd be no middle ground. Odd numbers, even numbers.

30:59 We could divide ourselves up according to our God-given identity as male and female. God made only two genders. He didn't make burls and goys. He didn't.

31:14 In the image of God created He them Him. Male and female created He them. All the men, women, boys and girls, hear me, boys, girls, boys here, girls here, women here, men there, anything in between. Men and women, boys and girls, male, female, no equivocation.

31:34 I can make an infallibly accurate description of this congregation tonight and say it is composed, and I'm going to be as infallible as the Pope claims to be, of males and females. Anyone want to argue with me? Anyone want to tell me I'm presumptuous? No, I think you'd be willing to be an infallible prophet as well.

31:57 But now all kidding aside, Jesus says there is a very clear, infallible distinction with every single one of you. You are either one described by these words, He that is with me, with Him, or you're against Him. You are either gathering with Him or you are scattering. That is an infallibly accurate description of every single person in this building.

32:32 Now I'm thankful that the organizers have not strapped me with the kind of schedule I often get when I come to these conferences. I usually preach six times between Friday night and Lord's Day evening. And I hope to get to know some of you as I have already on the grounds and get a chance to interact with you. But you see, in this area, I will not know more about you at the end of our conference than I do tonight.

32:59 You're either with Christ or against Him. You're either gathering with Him or you're scattering. Jesus said, He that is not with me is against me. He that gathers not with me scatters.

What It Means to Be 'With Christ' and 'Gathering'

33:14 You cannot escape that line of demarcation made by the Son of God. You say, Pastor Mark, what's it mean to be with Him? Well, let me tell you, none of us is with Him by nature. We're in Him by nature.

33:28 The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not suffering. It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be.

33:36 Our wills are set against the sovereign will of Christ. We love ourselves supremely. We do not love Christ naturally. We want to do our own thing.

33:49 The language of our hearts is the language of those citizens described by our Lord in Luke 19.10 and His citizens hated Him and said, We will not have this man to reign over us. We're not with Christ by nature. We are with ourselves.

34:08 Our own wills, our own plans, our own lusts, our own desires, our own standards, our own goals. We live unto ourselves, 2 Corinthians 5.15 tells us. The only way we become with Christ is when by the Spirit showing us the perfect suitability of Christ for what we are as sinners and showing us through the Word the loveliness of Christ.

34:37 Our hearts are attached to Christ in faith, a faith that immediately draws within itself love for the person of Christ. And then that faith and love are operative in a life of meticulous principle, conscientious obedience to Christ. That's what it is to be with Christ. It is not simply to pass by and point the finger and say, well, yeah, it could be.

35:08 He just might be all mom and dad and the preacher say he is. I'm not going to join these Pharisees saying he's in cahoots with the devil. But you see, Christ doesn't need you standing off at the side and evaluating Him. He evaluates you.

35:27 And He says you're either with me or against me. And I ask you, boys, girls, teenagers, are you with Him? Has God by the Spirit through the Word shown you He is just the Savior you so desperately need that left to yourself and to what you deserve, you would join the chorus of the damned in outer darkness? Has the Spirit of God persuaded you Christ is just exactly the kind of Savior you need?

35:59 In the glory of His person, true God, true man, join in one person perfectly suited to bring to His saving work all of the reality of a true human being who suffers under the wrath of God, who feels the abandonment of His Father when He cries out, My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me? As one of us, He enters in to take the full weight of the wrath of God. But we need more than a mere human Savior. We need one who brings the arm of omnipotence to the saving mission.

36:42 And He's just such a Savior. As much God as though He were never man, as much man as though He were never God. And you become with Christ when by the Spirit through the Word you see that's just the kind of Savior I need. And the Spirit of God shows you that He's worthy of the whole soul trust of all that you are.

37:05 Faith is self-commitment to Christ in the glory of His person and in the perfection of His work as He is revealed in the Gospel. To be with Christ is to see He's just the Savior I need. And having seen He's just the Savior I need, the heart goes out to Him in utter abandonment to Him. There's no talk about, Well, I'll picket His saving mercy and later on I'll see whether I want a king to rule me.

37:32 All this nonsense about saved but not surrendered, taking Christ as Savior not as Lord, it's sheer Biblical nonsense. Faith is embracing the Christ who is. He's the Messianic King. And if you're with Him, you've embraced the King.

37:50 He is the saving King. He is the Sovereign who when He brings people into His kingdom, brings them joyfully kissing His scepter. Kiss the Son, is the cry of the Psalmist lest he be angry. And you perish in the way.

38:08 And what's it mean to gather with Him? It means that your attachment to Christ is such that the influence of your life and the proclamation of your lips points people to Christ. To be with Him and to gather with Him is to be an instrument in union with Him to show others the utter vanity of living for themselves. Living for the latest stock and the latest trials and the latest fads and the latest pop tunes and the latest obsession of this or that segment of society.

38:44 Here you won't, quote, do the things they do to have fun and yet they've got to acknowledge you've got a joy that eludes them. At this stage in my life where I'm pushing my three score in ten more and more when I preach, I tell young people, I say, now look at me. Do I look like a sour bitter old man? I think I look like a reasonably happy man.

39:07 And you know why I do? Not because I'm a good actor, but because I am. I've served a gracious Master. He said to me in the Gospel as a seventeen year old pimple faced insecure kid, He said, come, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

39:28 And He's been a gracious Master to me. He has been. And we gather with Him when in the joy of communion with Him in fellowship with Him, in the way of radical attachment to Him, denying self, taking up the cross, our lives validate the utter emptiness of living for stuff and for things and for the praise and the acceptance of our peers. That's what it means to be with Him, to gather with Him.

Application 2: The All-Embracing Purpose of the Conference

40:00 And every one of you in this place, Jesus infallibly, accurately describes you. You're with Him or you're a guinea. You're gathering or you're scattering. My second line of application is this.

40:14 These words announce in plain terms the all-embracing purpose of my being here to share in this conference. If you were to ask me, Pastor Martin, what do you hope God will do through your preaching of the Word in this weekend conference? I can tell you in the language of this text, I hope some of you who are against Him, will be found at the end of this conference with Him. And some of you who are scattering will leave this place gathering.

40:47 We're not trying to make reformed Presbyterians out of you. We're not trying to make communicant members out of non-communicant members. We want to see you attached to Jesus. That Christ Himself through the Word and the ministry of the Spirit would become so all-absorbing as an object worthy of our idle allegiance.

41:14 And you'll be with Him. And you'll gather. And for those of you who are with Him, that this weekend, God will stir you up to have a deeper, more passionate attachment to the Person of Christ. And that you will be determined as never before that in the circle of your influence, your wife, your husband, your children, your work associates, your classmates, your buddies, your girlfriends, whoever they are, that when you leave this place, they'll scratch their head and say, I don't know what happened on that weekend.

41:49 You say you had a lot of fun, but something else happened. Well, what do you mean? You're different. Well, what do you mean I'm different?

41:55 And just smile as they try to explain. And then you tell them. Say, God gave me a new sight of Christ. God gave me a new taste of the sweetness of being with Him even more than I've ever been with Him in experiential, heart, communion and fellowship with Him.

42:16 I've tasted what it is to be able to say in a new way, for to me to live is Christ. You think of the Apostle Paul and that profound mind that he had through which God gave us portions of Scripture over which I have puzzled now for coming up on 50 years. And I still puzzle over them. I read the prayer of Ephesians 3, 14, to 21.

42:43 And I say, Oh, God, what are You saying? That we be strong to comprehend what is the height and depth and length and breadth and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. How in the world do You know the unknowable? And He says that He would give you the spirit that you may be strong to comprehend that love.

43:07 Back a couple of years ago, I said, Lord, I'm determined to find out what that means in a new way. And I limited my devotions for a whole month to reading through that passage, studying it in the original, reading every commentary. And at the end of the month I said, Oh, God, I feel I'm farther away from knowing it than when I began. Dear people, Christ can become far more precious to us than He is, so that our being with Him will be undeniably evident.

43:38 For he that believes on me, Jesus said, out of his inner being shall flow rivers. Rivers of living water. That's the purpose of this weekend. Yes, to have fellowship, to enjoy God's good gifts of the lake and all of the activities.

43:55 Yes, but at the end of the day, my responsibility in bringing the word to you is not to impress you with this or that passage. God forbid that it should ever be to try to impress with anything else but this. Christ is worthy of more attachment than any one of us presently has. And His work of gathering to Himself His own is worthy of a greater devotion and passion than any of us is known.

Application 3: The Sobering Reality of Final Judgment

44:25 And then thirdly, my final word of application. And this is what makes preaching so serious. You've already seen that unplanned humor in a message I don't believe grieves the Spirit. And I've indulged in a little unplanned humor tonight.

44:41 But as I sat on my couch in my little cabin down there, on the hill, and I read after supper tonight or just before, Matthew 25, the Son of Man shall come and He shall sit upon the throne of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered all the nations and He shall separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He shall say to them on His right hand, Come, you blessed. And to those on the left hand, He shall say, Shout my name You say.

45:18 crooked. And now, come, you wounded. And to those on the left hand, God's own Book will speak. And He'll say.

45:40 Mayurai mayurai beech me to be with him in the last day if every angel including michael the archangel and gabriel and all of the host of the redeemed from the first redeemed one in genesis to the last one brought in before the return of christ if they were all to rise up and say but jesus he is all over he is the appointed arbiter of my eternal destiny and of yours and he will not confess you to be with him in that day to have been one who gathered unless you're with him and gathering now in this life death makes no change in your relationship to christ it simply seals it for its public declaration in the day of judgment dear people amidst all of our wholesome enjoyment of the things god has given us richly to enjoy ask yourself before you drift off to sleep tonight if that day you you were to dawn before morning and christ were to come in his glory sit upon his throne as the

47:00 arbiter of the destiny of every one of us would he own me as his if not what good would it do if mom and dad think i'm his if my peers think i'm his if the pastors and elders think i'm what good will it do he's the only one who can say come you're blessed come you're blessed new kids struggling with you said man if i get serious about christ even this week i'll do some of my friends so what are they going to take your case and persuade christ to say he or she's one of mine in the last day don't let any friendship rival the friendship of the only one who can say come you blessed and he will say that or say depart you cursed it's a sobering thing to be a human being to be marked for everlastingness in heaven or in hell i talked with a person once who said i wish i'd been conceived as a dog because then i know i'd just die and that'd be the end of it and i can't shake the haunting realization when i die that's not the end of me and it won't be the end of any of us

48:22 hear the words of christ leaping over the centuries christ present in the word and by the spirit and he says he that is not with me is against me he that gathers not with me scatters may god grant that ere this weekend is over each of us will be able to say with a well-grounded biblical basis to what we say by god's grace i'm with him and i'm gathering with him let's pray our father we thank you for the words of our lord jesus we thank you for your presence with us as we have sought to fix our minds upon those words works and we pray that the holy spirit who gave them to us through the pan of your servant matthew who has been present to bring them near to our consciousness into our hearts all we pray lo whether they that word be a word of life and salvation to some in this place tonight jesus jesus let him rest if he mods his cup For those who are your people, who are with you by grace and who are gathering with you, O Lord, may we be stirred up as a result of our time together,

49:50 that we will be with you to a degree we have never known before, and that we will be committed in new levels and in practical ways to gather with you. Seal then your word to our hearts, we pray, for your praise and for our good. Amen. Amen.