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Sound of Liberty
7286 Hwy 53 West
Dawsonville,
GA
30534
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Submitting Yourselves One to Another
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SUBMITTING YOURSELVES
ONE TO ANOTHER
Message Transcribed and Edited from Audio Tape #2
Delivered November 09, 1980
By Ben Howard
Dawsonville, GA. (USA)
I want to speak on something this morning that is
only for the Bride, and entitle it, “Submitting
Yourselves One to Another in the Fear of God.” The
Bride is the only one that can qualify for this and
really make it work. This isn't for the church
ages. This isn't for those that are going into
tribulation. This isn't for those that the 144,000
will call out of organizations. It's only for one
selected group, and that is the Bride of Jesus
Christ. Now that's what we want to be, isn't it? I
believe that is what we are, the Bride of Christ.
God has got something in there [in His Word]
especially for us that other people cannot qualify
to be part of, and this is one of those
things--submitting yourselves.
Now this is in the Book of Ephesians, chapter 5,
and the scripture that we're reading here, I've
looked at it for a long time, and I've thought about
it. Last night the message we spoke on showed that
this early church (Ephesus) was to a place where
they could almost qualify and come into this, and
make it a reality, and be ready for the coming of
the Lord, but the Bible says, “Thou art fallen,”
doesn't it?
The thing is-- we've got to come to a place where
we really become the Bride of Christ, and in order
to really become the Bride of Christ we've got to be
married to Him. (Not to “them.” Because there's
only one of Him; there's not three in the Godhead.
There's only one God, one faith, one Lord, one
baptism. How many know that? There are not two or
three Gods), and if we are going to be married to
Him, then we become part of Him. Then we've got to
be washed by the water of the Word, and that's what
a whole lot of folks don't want to get washed by--
the water of the Word.
The water of the Word washes you from one thing,
and that is from any ideas, any opinions, or
anything that is contrary to what God wants done.
Now the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all
sin, but coming through what we've come through and
growing up in God, we have to get washed by the only
thing that will wash us, and that's the Word, and
the Bride is the only one that is really going to be
washed by the Word, to the extent that we're going
to be speaking of today.
Now I want to read our starting verse of
scripture in Ephesians 5:21—“Submitting Yourselves
One to Another in the Fear of God.” Now let's bow
our heads in a word of prayer:
Heavenly Father, we thank You, Jesus, for Your
mercy to us, and for Your goodness, and for this
privilege that we have to come here to worship You
in spirit and in truth, and to look at the promise
of the Word and realize that there is a Bride, and
that Bride is not just a regular Christian. That
Bride is a special group of people that is literally
married to Christ by the revelation of the Word, and
that Bride becomes one with Christ. Father, that's
what we want to be. That's the high calling, and
there's going to be a few people in the world that's
going to reach that high calling. I realize, Lord,
as we stand here this morning, that there are many
people that don't have the heart to make the high
calling; they are satisfied with something else.
But, Lord, You put within a group of people a desire
to reach that high calling. and, Father, I pray this
morning that every one under the sound of my voice
will have a desire in their heart to reach that high
calling. Now as we look at this scripture, Lord,
that can only be applied to the Bride, we pray that
You will give us the understanding, give us the
wisdom, and give the congregation ears to hear, and
may the things that You have ordained for us sink
deep within our hearts and our ears, and become part
of us, and we will be careful to give You the praise
in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear
of God.” I noticed when Brother Gary was speaking
that he brought in that the tares were to be
separated, and then the children would shine forth
as the brightness of the sun. Well, that's where we
are coming to. We, as a church and as a people,
might as well be getting in our minds that we are
not in a denominational realm, we're not in a church
age, and we're not just a regular tribulation saint
Christian, but we are the Bride of Christ. God's
got some special things for the Bride that's not for
anyone else. I want to read, also, in scripture
concerning submitting yourselves one to another and
show the relationship between Christ and the Bride.
I want to skip on down to verse 26 of this same
chapter and read the scripture about the washing of
the water of the Word and on down where Christ and
the Church become one.
Ephesians 5:26—“That he might sanctify and
cleanse it (talking about the Church) with the
washing of water by the word,” Now, I want to stop
on this verse before we go on. This is not talking
about sinners getting saved. This is not talking
about those in the seventh church age that's in the
kingdom of heaven age that's living where wheat and
tares are growing together. This is not talking
about that. There is a kingdom of heaven age, and
in that age God suffered or permitted wheat and
tares to grow together. He permitted the Christian,
the hypocrites, and etc. to sit right together and
worship right together. The Bible says that the
rain falleth upon the just and the unjust. That has
been going on, but then there's an age of the
kingdom of God where we really come into the kingdom
of God, and the kingdom of God comes into us, and
God sends forth His angels, and His angels begin to
separate the tares from the wheat.
This is the thing that many people do not
understand, because they still want to look at
church, and measure church, and measure our services
by what was taking place ten years ago, or by what
some other church groups are trying to do. They are
trying to bring in everybody, and bring in a false
unity, and put together a unity among the people by
the wisdom of man. They say we've got to have
both—wheat and tares have got to grow together, and
let God take care of the separation, and so forth.
They want to present it like that and try to pull
everybody in. Well, that's the wisdom of man and
God has blessed that and used that throughout the
ages, but now we are coming to a time when we are
approaching the greatest thing that man has ever
experienced in a salvational way. We are coming
close to the rapture of the Church.
Now, when we come to the rapture of the Church
there's only going to be one group raptured. We
want to understand that. There's only going to be
one group that is changed in a moment and in the
twinkling of an eye to be caught up to meet the Lord
in the air. We know that is the Bride of Jesus
Christ. So since we're coming to that, God begins
to do a peculiar thing among us. He begins to
require us to come to certain principles, and
believe those principles, and hold on to those
principles, and turn everything else loose, and when
we do that, naturally those that are not ready to
sell out to the Word of God will draw back and make
all kinds of excuses why they should not do this,
but the Bride is not looking for excuses; she wants
to go into what God has for her. There is a high
calling, and those that go into the high calling
must meet certain qualifications, and the main
qualification that they must meet is to become one
with Christ, and to become one with Christ is
becoming one with the Word that God has for us now
and whatever time we've got in the future.
Click here for the full text
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