Sermon: Christ's Responsibility, Resurrections, and All in All

#1647-AM
John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 16-Apr-22; 78 minutes

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You may as well be opening up your Bibles to I Corinthians. That seems to be the book that we are in today, at least for a good bit of the time. We are going to go into I Corinthians chapter 15 and I am going to read the first eight verses because the sermon is primarily going to be concerned with what is in these eight verses.

I Corinthians 15:1-8 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which was preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen [here is some key verses pertaining to the sermon] by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as one born out of due time.

I read those scriptures because I wanted to make clear to you what the issue is in the sermon material that we are going to go into. The issue in I Corinthians 15 is not resurrections, per se. It is the resurrection of the body that is the issue.

Gentiles were very confused and those in Corinth were very confused with them and that is why Paul is going into this. They needed to get the material straight in their minds so that they were not in doubt as to whom it was that they were worshipping. They were very confused regarding a bodily resurrection. So, it is no wonder church members there in Corinth, in its Gentile city, which was a long way from Jerusalem, were becoming confused because of the local confusion that was there.

If we deny Christ's bodily resurrection (here is the heart and core of this), we deny Christ's importance to this awesome truth. For many of those people, back in the time that this was written, this was something that was new, it was something that was argued about from country to country as to whether there was a bodily resurrection.

Now, that awesome truth appears in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I read those scriptures so that you have ample proof that He was seen bodily by many, many people after He was resurrected. Because a bodily resurrection was not truth to the overwhelming majority of the people living at that time.

Follow me now to the book of Acts, chapter 23. We are going to come right back to I Corinthians, but in Acts 23 notice how clear this is. It was not just something that was believed in Gentile situations.

Acts 23:8 For the Sadducees [who certainly were Jews] say there is no resurrection—and no angel or spirit; but Pharisees confess both.

Sadducees and Pharisees may be attending in the same synagogues, but they believed different things in regard to a bodily resurrection. The Sadducees did not believe in it, but the Pharisees did.

Back to I Corinthians again. We are going to look at verse 20. Paul says,

I Corinthians 15:20-21 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. [Paul is very positive. It was a bodily resurrection that Jesus Christ experienced.] For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.

Remember what he is talking about. He is talking about a bodily resurrection. He is not talking about somebody rising from the grave and then being seen by 500 people at the same time. He is talking about people who experienced a bodily resurrection, and in this case, Jesus Christ. Do you understand that if this point is not made, nobody will ever be sure. Paul was removing all doubt. Because the Bible is true, Jesus Christ experienced a bodily resurrection, and as I have already shown you, the Bible reports that there were way, way more people who may have believed in a resurrection, but it was not necessarily a bodily resurrection.

I have given this sermon before, but I believe that it is time to give it again, because it was given quite a while ago. I gave it for the first time in June of 1994 during the afternoon service on Pentecost. And again, I gave it in the year 2000. But that time I gave it on the last day of Unleavened Bread.

I Corinthians 15:24-28 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For "He has put all things under His feet." But when He says "all things are put under Him," it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

Here is the title of my sermon after that opening: "Christ's Responsibility, Resurrections, and All in All." All three of these are very significant events and every one of them applies directly to us, personally.

When I was giving this sermon back in 1994, though it was the Day of Pentecost, I felt it was better suited for the Days of Unleavened Bread. And I mentioned this during the sermon one of those times. I have altered it somewhat, but I believe that it needs to be heard again because of the times that we are living with. We are living in unusual times and I feel sure the events of these times are going to intensify even more strongly against the church as we move forward in time, and that we may need to be reminded of these particular truths in order to buck us up against the forces on the outside of God's purpose, because they are going to be challenged.

Of the three doctrines that I gave you, the one we probably have the most doubts regarding is "all in all." It is probably the specific event that we know the least about. And it is the one reason, maybe above all the others, that I am going into it. It is very rarely ever mentioned in any of our sermons. I honestly have never heard it mentioned even one time here, except by me. I am not saying it has not been, but I cannot remember. It is rarely even mentioned in our sermons though it identifies a very meaningful time in God's purpose for us and for all others who are being saved. I do mean very meaningful.

I will tell you right now, so that you at least keep it in mind, everything in God's purpose is moving in the same direction toward "all in all." Everything! I will show you how the scriptures show the monumental importance of "all in all." now, it must become even more meaningful to you and very truly vital to your life because we are now called. It is that simple. Everybody who is truly called and is going to be in God's Kingdom is going to experience "all in all." We certainly do not want to lose out on the opportunities that God is opening up to us, and "all in all" is definitely something that we should look forward to being fulfilled in our life.

However, if you do know anything at all about it, you also know a fair amount of time, and yes, a number of fantastic mankind-shaking events must occur before God fulfills it. Though you may not understand many details regarding it now, you can be sure that it is impacting on you every day of your life. It is a major reason why I gave those sermons on distractions. Brethren, we do not want to be distracted away from what God is drawing us toward. And we better be on the ball spiritually if we are going to fulfill the responsibilities that God has given us to commit ourselves to.

Though you may not be much aware of it by its given name right in the Bible, we must turn some attention to it. We need to be much more aware of it, anticipating its arrival, and working toward being a part of it.

The phrase "all in all" appears in only two places in the Bible. Here, in I Corinthians 15:28, as well as in Ephesians 1:23. Now, it appears here because the apostle Paul is correcting misunderstandings regarding the resurrection of church members because some in the Corinthian congregation had been deceived by false ministers. Notice, according to verses 22-28, when "all in all" literally occurs. I am going to read it again.

I Corinthians 15:22-28 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's [hopefully we are all in that group] at His coming. Then comes the end [notice Christ's coming is not the end, there is more after Christ returns], when He [does this] delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For "He has put all things under His feet." But when He says "all things are put under Him," it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. [that is, Christ does that] Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God maybe all in all.

There it is. Everything is heading to that place where all things are under God and that does not occur until Christ does it. It is, we might say, the very last act that He performs in this creation that God has going now, and the Father becomes all in all. So you see, there is something after Christ's return. This has to be done because God Himself has determined that the end does not come until He is all in all.

Direct aspects of "all in all" have been parts of Christ's specific assignments from the Father beginning in Genesis the first chapter and that labor still has a long way to go until it is completed, when there will be no opposition, no opposition whatever in all of creation of God's rule.

Thus, as I began today, I am going to briefly use a variation of a Paul Harvey story. I wonder how many of you have ever heard Paul Harvey. You have to be fairly old, have gray hair, in order to have heard Paul Harvey so many of you are not old enough to remember him or to have even begun hearing of him. He was a very fine coast-to-coast radio news broadcaster in his day and he had a very large listening audience. Besides news, he sometimes told interesting and informative stories during his broadcast. These stories were not necessarily the news of the day, but they often touched on things happening that were in the news and they added a touch of color to his broadcast.

Here is what he would do: he would fairly often begin a story near its conclusion. But once he created a bit of interest in his subject through curiosity, he would revert back towards the beginning of the story in order to piece everything together. I am going to loosely follow that pattern using this Paul Harvey speaking characteristic to hopefully give us a better sense, a better feel about our own personal journey toward "all in all" and the Kingdom of God.

Evelyn and I did not realize what I am going to tell you until many years after it literally occurred. But she and I were actually called together, at the same time on the same day in January of 1959. She had just turned 28, I had just turned 27. It was a Sunday afternoon. We had stayed home from the Methodist church that we were attending and we are sitting in the living room, when I just randomly got the idea to turn on the radio, and we heard Herbert Armstrong giving a sermon. Just boom, just like that. We did not know who he was until he identified himself at the end of the program. But I will tell you, even though we had no idea idea who he was, we heard what he said and we were really impressed. I kid you not. I sent for two booklets and the Plain Truth magazine the very next day.

Well, we were baptized by Robert Hoops in September of that same year. (This was in Pittsburgh.) We were baptized in Wayne and Doris Cole's basement after Sabbath service. But here we are. I should not say we, but I am including you in the "we" with me, now observing the Days of Unleavened Bread for, I believe, the 63rd time.

Now, we are in the Days of Unleavened Bread and this festival symbolically frames a very important, critically essential part of the process of God's spiritual creation in us. I am telling you this because time inexorably moves on. This is the sermon, brethren, regarding what we must do to avoid distractions. Do not let them pull us down. The Days of Unleavened Bread's seven days portray the longest single-time-portion in the process of our personal growth towards salvation. It is the time picturing coming out of sin in our life and preparing for the Kingdom of God. It is that period of time given those called for spiritual growth, overcoming sin, and literal spiritual creation is taking place within us. Do you believe that?

It is the time when the holiness of God literally begins to become ours because we are living it. This creative process is titled within the Bible as sanctification. Listen attentively to the description of that term drawn from Unger's Bible Dictionary. They say that "sanctification is the cooperative and progressive [it has to have both of those qualities] work of God and man during which the image of Christ is created in us." (emphasis ours) The English term sanctification is translated from the Greek term hagiasmos, which simply means "away from" or "setting apart" or "separation." Basically hagiasmos indicates a spiritual movement of conduct and attitude from one state or quality of life and into another. Out of one, into another.

Let me make that a little bit clearer. Applied to Biblical usage it indicates a movement of heart, of mind, of attitude and conduct and dominance away from carnal worldliness and into godly holiness as a way of life. That is why it takes us 50 years to get us over the track. Now understand this: sanctification absolutely will not occur in our life unless we cooperate with God! This is one of the things that is going to keep us away from distraction. If we are cooperating with Him and doing it willingly and throwing ourselves into it, we are going to do what He says to do—and that is exactly what we need to do.

Now, why is it that way? Because God must see, He must witness that we are actually applying His words. He is not going to just take our word for it. He wants to see it happen. Do you get that? Are you aware that God is actually looking at you because He wants to see if we are really applying?

Once the defeat of all enemies of God by Jesus Christ is accomplished, Christ then turns everything over to the Father. In a sense, we might say His job is done. But He has been doing it now for almost 6,000 years! Christ's last act in this particular portion of His operations is to more formally submit Himself to the Father as well. That is the last thing He does and His job for right now is over. He is going to continue in another position of it, but right now we are His job. It is up to Him, in a sense, to get us into the Kingdom of God and to do what He only can do as a Spirit being like this, in getting us to change our mind and avoid distractions that will keep us from doing what we need to do. Our way is patterned by the path that we are on.

"All in all" is that point when all living not only recognize God as such, but we are actually living it to the best of our ability. We are not living it like God is living it, but at least we are living it. We might make an awful lot of mistakes, but we are at least living it and He can testify to the fact that we have lived it.

"All in all" is an alternate phrase indicating (this is a little bit more technical) all things are brought back to God as their beginning and end in order that everything may be closely bound to Him. And in one sense brethren, this is the end of the Bible. There will be more after that. But "all in all" is probably one of the most important end of a process that is given in the Bible for us.

Now, let us take a simple look at some timing of a few events because it is not just going to happen out of the blue. It is going to be led up to step by step. That is the way God does things. It is for us to be able to observe what is going on. Let us go to the book of Zechariah and we are going to go to chapter 13

Zechariah 13:1-2 "In that day a fountain [remember that word, we are going to come back to it for just a second or two] shall be opened [notice, for a particular person] for the house of David [a particular number of persons, Jesus Christ is in that family] and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem [it is located in one place], for sin and for uncleanness. It shall be in that day," says the Lord of hosts [that day, a particular day], "that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. [Boy, that is an endpoint] I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land.

You know what land he is talking about. It is going to be Jerusalem, that particular land there.

I chose to begin this section of the sermon with these scriptures mostly because of a comment that appears in Barnes Notes commentary (some of you are familiar with that) regarding these two verses. And if those researchers' judgment is correct then these two verses regarding these events becomes the trigger for what follows. This is why I began here regarding this particular section. Now, Barnes translation committee wrote this because apparently Zechariah used a unique writing style here. That is what they emphasized, it was a style that they are using here. And they said, "When Zechariah states in this manner as he does regarding these two verses, the setting is not approximate but fully known of God and therefore established in his mind." (emphasis ours)

Now, we do not know. It is not revealed to us and God does not reveal it to us. But that is one reason why I started here. It is because we are going to be so close to all in all by that time that we are going to know that it is right over the horizon.

This comment does not mean that they, that is, the translation committee that Barnes had there, it does not give us an exact time, but rather that God seems to be showing something more exactly and that He knows when He wants to conclude things. That is what they say it is showing. That He wants to conclude things. And if we see these signs appearing somewhere in the world, and it is going to be in Jerusalem, we know that we are awfully close. He is giving us a little hint here. So this does not mean that it gives us an exact time, but rather that God seems to be showing something more exactly and that He knows when He wants to conclude things.

This prophecy is beautifully placed for this sermon subject because of the fountain mentioned in verse 1. What comes out of a fountain? Water. What comes out of the water? Something to clean things up. Jerusalem is going to undergo a cleansing. So He is announcing something is going to pop up there that is going to involve a fountain because the fountain suggests a cleansing will occur in the Jerusalem area, in which the family of David will be involved, thus suggesting clearly his family line will be involved in some major way in this cleansing. He is even telling us who is going to do the job. It is going to be the family of David and who do you know who is in the family of David? Jesus Christ! And there are going to be others as well.

Let us go back to Genesis 15 because something is connected there in verses 1-6 with what we just read in the book of Zechariah.

Genesis 15:1-6 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward." But Abram said, "Lord God, what will you give me [this is a prophecy that is connected back here with Zechariah because Abram has not received it yet], seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!" And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come out from your own body shall be your heir." Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

Now, what is Abram going to receive? He is going to be king over an awful lot of people. His whole family is going to be spread out before him as, in a sense, coming from him. And the reason I am going to this in Zechariah 13 is because this is the beginning of the fulfillment of that prophecy. What is going to happen there in Jerusalem. I will not go into all that, but the commentary filled it in beautifully. But what we are looking at here is that the cleansing is timed with this prophecy.

Now, let us drop a little bit further at this point in time.

This cleansing appears timed with an earlier prophecy that deals with that day, where the fountain appears, Abraham desired to see. If you read along with me in in Genesis 15, you will find that Abraham desired to see (follows the words perfectly) and God enabled him to see it. When Abraham was yet alive and living on earth, Abraham was given a witness, a vision, the fulfillment of his family becoming great nations, apparently by means of a vision. But this is definitely an end time piece of information that is going to occur not long after the fountain appears in Jerusalem, cleaning the place up so that the family of Abraham, all spirit beings, are going to be resurrected, to fill that area. Things are beginning to build to a head when these prophecies are fulfilled.

Let us go to chapter 14 of Zechariah. I am just going to just going to read a few verses here so that you can see that chapter 14 continues on with the theme that is in chapter 13.

Zechariah 14:1-5 Behold, the day is of the Lord is coming, and your spoiled will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. [God has it all planned out what He is going to do once this thing is triggered. We are heading toward "all in all." Of course, the place that has to get cleaned up above all others is the city of Jerusalem.] Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. [You can begin to see why that area is going to need to be cleaned up. But in a sense, God is luring all of these people into the city so that they are prepared for what He is going to do so that "all in all" can come pass.] And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south. Then you shall flee through My mountain valley, for the mountain valley shall reach Azal. Yes, you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.

This chapter and these particular verses look forward to the beginning of a literal fulfillment of the "all in all" events. It is going to be focused on the city of Jerusalem.

The events of this chapter are major steps toward its fulfillment. We are not going to go into chapter 14, I just wanted to touch on it, that is all. Chapter 14 briefly covers these five events leading into "all in all."

1: Who are the destroyers of Jerusalem.

2: The coming of Jesus Christ does not take place until the situation is prepared for Him.

3: The plaguing of Jerusalem's enemies.

4: The remnants, those who are left over in Jerusalem, shall turn to the Lord. That is interesting.

5: The spoils that result from that battle shall will be holy.

So, it just touches on these things, gives us a little bit of insight.

Now, all of that is somewhat encouraging, but the reality is what we must face on a daily basis is that we are not even to the beginning of the events of either Zachariah 13 or 14 yet. We are on the path and everybody in here who was converted has their own separate path. God did that. Because the path begins where God calls us, and they are going to lead to Jerusalem in the end. But how long are we going to be on it? I have been on it for a long time. There are probably some in here that have been on it longer than I have and I know that I have not learned the lessons that I need to have for what God is calling me to in His Kingdom. But He is watching me and of that I am certain.

I am giving this so that you understand that God is looking at you too. And if there will be anything that keeps us from being distracted away from what God has given us to do, it has to be something else. I do not know what it is.

But as I mentioned here, we are not even yet to the beginning of the events of Zachariah 13 and 14. We are on the path but there is still a long way to go and we are going to have to fight it to keep from being being distracted because of boredom or whatever it happens to be. But in order to go forward, we must take stock, brethren, of what we must do now. It is not going to change for the better out there. We are in it and we are going to experience it. Be assured of that.

Now, if there will be anything that will keep us awake, it will be the combination of God's Word and the reality that we see building on the outside of this building. We have much to do because this is looking forward to the time when virtually all remaining mankind will not only be reconciled to God, but everyone and everything will be in total agreement and harmony with each other. "All in all" presents a pattern that we must get into harmony with now during our sanctification period. We are living during our only, what shall I call it, chance for salvation. If you are concerned about the future, I mean the future in terms of being in God's Kingdom, you do not want it to get any later than it already is because we have a lot to do.

Let us go to John the 17th chapter and I am sure that you recognize immediately that this was Christ's prayer. Let us look at this a little bit more closely so that we understand what He is saying here.

John 17:6-22 [Jesus prays] "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They are Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You, for I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. [Brethren, we are a gift, as it were, from Jesus Christ to the Father.] And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.

Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep through Your name those You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. [Did you just see what He said there? "Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me." That is Christ's prayer. He is praying for us! Now look at this, "That they may be one as We are.] While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name [Look what He is doing for us. He is working constantly to keep us in the name of the Father and the Son, so that we can be part of "all in all" when it occurs.] Those whom You gave Me, I have kept [What assurance there is there! What confidence can be built in us as a result of Christ's prayer for you and me.]; and none of them is lost [None of them is lost! What confidence we should have.] except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. [Do we worry about whether or not Christ loves us? Do we worry that He is working in our behalf? In one sense, this ought to fill us with confidence regarding what we are a part of here.]

But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. [Brethren, this is for all time, before "all in all" actually occurs. He is working in our behalf to make sure we make it. What more do we want?] I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [Was Christ hated? And what they hated was what He said, what He did.] I do not pray that You should take them out of the world [Listen to this. This prayer from the Son to the Father.], but that You should keep them from the evil one. [Does Christ's prayer have any strength to it with the Father? What more can we ask for? We cannot.] They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [We are like Him!]

Sanctify them by Your truth. [sanctify means set them apart, separate them away from others] Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. [We have been sent into the world. We have a job to do.] And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word [What more can we ask for?]; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which you gave Me I have given them, that they may be one [look at this last phrase] just as We are one [Can you have anybody better than Jesus Christ praying in your behalf?]: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me."

Brethren, did the Father love Him? I will tell you, we are in an exclusive category. There is nobody who has received what we have received except others who are part of the same group. I will tell you, brethren, that ought to be a confidence. I am not saying that it is going to fly on us and that we are full of all kinds of confidence, but we have a step up. I mean, a great step up.

Let us go back to the beginning of this chapter again, just to summarize. Beginning in verse 6, Jesus prays specifically for the apostles. However, in verses 20-24, Jesus switches His focus of attention to the church members in general and makes the request that we be one. He is requesting this of the Father. Is the Father going to turn Him down? There is nobody that will get His prayers answered like Jesus Christ will. That we be one with the Father as He, Jesus, is one with the Father. Brethren, that is awesome!

Do not put this off. This is where we are headed on our way to "all in all" and there is so much to get prepared for. We have to yield to the Father and to the Son so that They can make of us what we need to be made off for what They are preparing us for. This looks forward to the time when all of mankind will not only be reconciled to God, but everyone and everything will be in total agreement and harmony with each other. And when everybody and everything is subject to God, "all in all" will be accomplished.

Now, let us look at an expanded view in the book of Romans, chapter 8. I am mostly just going to read here because it is, in a way, self-explanatory. But it is promising us so much, drawing pictures so that we should be able to relate to this.

Romans 8:1-6 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. [God is expecting a great deal of us because we have such a massive amount of power behind us in Himself and Jesus Christ.] For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. [Paul was saying there I am not going to die. He was confident of it.] For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned [Christ did] in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Where do we stand? We stand in the midst of a unique group. That is what we are. We are unique because God chose us. He did, not the Son. The Father did it. Then He sent us to the Son to work on. We need to get that in our heads—the Highest Authority in all of creation knows you and me! We are not in any way not part of His thinking processes. He cares because He and the Son are, in one sense, one.

Romans 8:9-15 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. [I take it that we do have the Spirit of God in us. I know my life changed a great deal in 1959.] And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you [brethren, He does], He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. [I mean, that is really written positively. Is it not?! The apostle Paul knew that God was going to fulfill this because he recognized the Spirit that is in us. Now he turns to something serious in verse 12.]

Therefore, brethren [since this is a reality, since the Spirit of God is in us, the same Spirit that is in Jesus Christ and is in the Father], we are debtors [here is what we have got to do with our life]—not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. [What more could we ask for? You cannot go any higher than that.] For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."

So there we are. "All in all," brethren, is the conclusion of the new creation, the one that we are part of. This new creation is the work of Jesus Christ and juxtaposed as the focus and the cause of the oneness. We might say, it is the Father who is driving Him or guiding Him or assisting Him or whatever. He is assisting Jesus in drawing "all and all," which is the complete restitution of all things in that new creation that began in Genesis 1. And it concludes with Jesus turning over all things to Him. In one sense, it is the endpoint, an exclamation point that draws the attention to the Father, because up that period of time, most of the time our interaction is with the Son.

We have not reached that point yet. In fact, brethren, we are at least 1,000 years from it. We have to go through the Millennium. We do. I could put it this way. We have an awful lot of time to waste, do we not? I am giving this so that we do not waste it. I am trying to give you a clear picture to where the Father and the Son are drawing us. It is not just the return of Jesus Christ. It is "all in all" that They are drawing us towards—everything, because our work is going to go on when "all in all" occurs because God will not stop. He is going to start something new and He is going to use you and me, if we are prepared.

Do not ever forget this. We are preparing for something and what we are preparing for is the next step in God's plan. First we have to make it into the Family more realistically than we are right now. We are already in the Family and we are being taken care of and we are being prepared for that time when the work comes down to you and me, hands on, a lot more than we have it right now. We are being prepared for "all in all." We do not want to stop at the return of Christ because something big happens after He returns. That is going to happen then. It is going to go from one big thing to another, bigger thing that we are going to be part of.

Let us not forget John the 15th chapter, verse 5.

John 15:1-5 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me [that is you and me] that does not bear fruit, He takes away [we can be taken away]; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes [Ooh, that hurts! And it will from time. But He is doing it for our good. He is inflicting pain in order to make us wake up and yield ourselves to the Father and the Son. Why does He do this?], that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch [we are branches] cannot bear fruit of itself [this is a reality] unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."

The term "without me" means the same thing in English as "apart from Me." Let me put that translation in there. You cannot abide unless you are a part, attached to Me.

I would like you to consider a question that I believe will help illustrate Jesus' importance. We just talked here about how we can only produce fruit by being a part of Him. We need to produce fruit. These verses here in John 15:1-5, illustrate to you and me our dependence upon Christ's assistance. Without Him we cannot produce a thing. We have to keep close to Him. We are no more able to produce godly works in our conduct than a branch cut from a fruit tree limb is able to produce fruit. We have to be a part of Him. How far towards the Promised Land would Israel have gotten if God, through Jesus Christ, had not parted the sea, provided the manna every day, and brought water out of rocks whenever needed? The hardest trial that Israel faced in the wilderness was caused by their lacks of faith.

I believe that our hardships have the same basic causes. Our toughest trials, brethren, come from ourselves.

Now, here is what we have to work with. I will just go through this quickly. I want you to turn to I Corinthians 1. We will end with these verses. Maybe it is a bit of a downer. I just want to remind us as we leave this subject. Well, we started on I Corinthians and we are going to end with I Corinthians too, but we are going to look at verse 26, because God is describing you and me. We have to work through this circumstance.

I Corinthians 1:26-29 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. [God knew that when He called us.] God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise [He did that on purpose. He took a bunch of weaknesses. He is going to make something out of us, but He wants us to respond to Him the best we can.], and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put the shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen [He did it deliberately. He knows we are weak! He is not being surprised by the way we respond to them. He is awfully, awfully, awfully patient. He knows ways to get things out of us.], and the things which are not, to bring to nothing [He did it, brethren, to humble us! Because if we were not humble, we would not yield. He knows we need a lot of help. He is willing to give it.], the things that are [the reason?], that no flesh should glory in His presence.

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