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[ Music ] I believe in a view called Mount Calvary. I believe whatever the cost. And in time I'll surrender,

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♪ And earth is no more ♪ ♪ All's still clean ♪ ♪ To the old rugged cross ♪ ♪ There are things ♪

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♪ As we travel this earth ♪ ♪ Shifting sands ♪ ♪ That transcend ♪ ♪ All the reasons ♪

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of man. But the things that matter the most in this world they can never be

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held in our hands. I believe in a hill called Mount Calvary. I'll believe whatever the cost.

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And the triumph of surrender on earth is no more. I'll still cling to the Oregon Cross. I believe that the Christ who was slain on the cross has the power to change lives today.

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For he changed me completely. A new life is mine. That is why by the cross I will stay. I believe in a hill called Mount Calvary.

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I believe whatever the cost. ♪ And when time has surrendered ♪ ♪ And earth is no more ♪ ♪ I still cling to the Oregon Cross ♪

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♪ I believe in a hill called Montgomery ♪ ♪ I'll believe whatever the cost ♪ ♪ And the tribe must surrender ♪ ♪ On earth is the home ♪

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♪ I'll do clean to the old rugged cross ♪ ♪ As you cling to the arrogant cross ♪ - Amen. Hear this word recorded in

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Philippians, the fourth chapter and a portion of the 22nd verse. "All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

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All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. The subject, saints in Caesar's household, saints in Caesar's household.

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This word which is the basis of our message is a part of the concluding paragraph of a love letter written by the Apostle Paul to the church at Philippi.

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Under house arrest, denied freedom of locomotion, And deprived of many of the things that we take for granted, Paul gives us a glimpse of the unwavering loyalty of first century Christians

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in the midst of adverse circumstances. Paul ends the letter with this comprehensive greeting. "Greet every saint in Christ Jesus." "The brethren who are with me salute you."

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All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. The early Christians were called saints. We shy away from the word saint today.

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Many who call themselves Christians do not wish to be called Saints. Or there are some who belong to some charismatic groups who address each other as Saints. But that is somewhat rare in the world in which we live. Because some think of the name or title saint as being reserved for those who have been promoted to the rank of sainthood after their death.

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Sainthood is regarded for those who receive the high honor of being canonized by the church because they have been instrumental in performing a miracle, a miracles have died a martyr's death. Today, there are those who claim to be disciples

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of Jesus Christ, who take pride in saying, you know, I'm no saint. For them, saint implies perfection. But in the New Testament church,

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followers of Jesus Christ were called saints. Time and time again, the disciples are referred to in the early church as saints. Paul in writing to the Corinthians says to them,

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you are called to be saints. And now he says to this band of believers in Philippi, greet every saint.

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All the saints greet you. Now to be a saint is to live a life dedicated to Jesus Christ. It is to be called and set apart. It is to be holy. The word saint comes from the Latin "sans santus," be holy. So holiness is

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the special quality of the fateful remnant of Israel. You are a holy people, God says to them. It refers to the loyal nucleus of God's people, especially those who remain steadfast

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in the midst of persecution. We are focusing on being a saint when we sing, consecrate me now to thy service, Lord, by the power of grace divine,

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let my soul look up with a steadfast hope and my will be lost in thine. So to be a saint is to live the good life, regardless of our surroundings.

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Paul says here, "Saints in Caesar's household salute you." There are saints in Caesar's household. There is a difference in the demands of Caesar

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and the demands of Christ. As Baptists, one of our cardinal principles of belief and practice is the separation of church and state. Jesus said, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's

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"and unto God the things that are God's." We have civic responsibilities and we have what we call religious responsibilities. We are citizens of heaven and earth.

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We have souls and bodies to be nourished. We are to vote and we are to work toward the coming of the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

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We are to work with God in ushering in the new order. We are all sinners called to be saints, saints in Caesar's household. This word describes our situation, our predicament in the world. You see Caesar's

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household is not a reference made just to the imperial family, rather it refers to the Emperor's servants, those who watched over his wardrobe, those who were in charge of tasting his food and drink. In fact, Caesar's household included all government workers, not only in Rome but throughout the Empire. So we may assume

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that Paul adds particular reference to the saints in Caesar's household that were in Rome. It may be well for us to consider Caesar, then we can better appreciate what it really means to be a saint in Caesar's household. Now Nero is the Emperor. He rules Rome with an iron hand. As the ruler, he wishes to be

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honored as Lord. One of the things that the early Christians had to contend with and against was the fact that some wanted them to embrace the creed that Caesar is Lord. And they said, "No, no, Caesar is not Lord. Jesus is Lord. Christ is Lord." And so as the Emperor Nero is guilty of numerous crimes, he had a monstrous appetite. In fact,

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he tried three different ways of butchering his mother. So you know a man who would murder his mother is a terrible man. Nero is said to have set fire to Rome and to have fiddled while the city burned and then charged the Christians with the crime. He tortured the

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Christians. He was a mean person. It reminds me of that story of the little, one of the young lady who said, "Well, they're gonna appoint a Ways and Means Committee." And she said, "Well, if you're gonna appoint a Ways and Means Committee, put my daddy on there because he knows more ways to be mean than you

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can think about." Well, it seems that Nero knows more ways to be mean than we can And think about it, he tortures the Christians, he dresses them in skins of wild animals to provoke dogs to tear them to pieces.

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He wraps their bodies in clothing smeared with pitch and he sets fire to them to light up the Roman night. It was dangerous. It was dangerous to be a Christian in those days.

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Under Nero, and certainly it was dangerous to be a saint in Caesar's household. But here is a word in that dark period and under those dangerous conditions,

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here is a word that sort of leaps out before us in this epistle, Paul says now, the saints in Caesar's household salute you. To be saints in Caesar's household

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is to be in a strange and unfavorable field for the cultivation of the Christian life. You know most of us would like to live the Christian life under the most favorable circumstances, but this is not the case with these servants. They are saints in Caesar's household.

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They dare to live the dedicated Christian life of love, hope, and faith in the household of an arrogant and heartless monarch. You know, it's relatively easy to live the life of a vile sinner in Caesar's household, Nero could not have done the awful things attributed to him

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without willing and obedient servants. But to be a saint in Caesar's household, ah, that's a different matter. To be a saint in Caesar's household

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is to hold to that which is sacred when you are surrounded by that which is profane. I don't know whether you've ever worked on a job where, you know, when you come,

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there are always some people who greet you with the latest dirty joke that you're supposed to enjoy. You know, that's rather common on many jobs. They don't care whether you're Christian or what,

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they just go, "Look, let me tell you this." And then the next day they may have another one. And you, you know, many times, many times we go right on and we laugh and we go to get along, we go along.

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But really to stand up for what you believe, it's not easy to be a saint in Caesar's household. Because if you stand up for what you believe, well, she thinks she's this, she thinks she's this,

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so this and that, and she's on a pedestal he's on a pedestal. But to be a saint, Caesar's household is to stand up for our convictions. What I'm really suggesting my brothers and sisters is that we do not have to succumb to our environment. No matter what our

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environment is. We don't have to succumb to that environment. You know, one lady said, "You know, if I send my child to that university, my child with all the things going over there, I'm not gonna run that risk." Well, it's really wherever your child goes to school, there's some risks involved. And it really depends on

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what's in the child and the kind of convictions because to be a saint and Caesar's household means to stand firm, stand tall no matter where you are, what your environment may be. So to be a saint in Caesar's household means that we can live in such a way that no matter what our environment may be we can engage in

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a conquest over our environment. In other words, we don't have to go along to get along. Oh I'm sure that they would say now look look you're in Rome and when you're in Rome you must do as the Romans. No, no, here they are, people of God in the household of Nero, a bloodthirsty, ruthless tyrant. But they're saints in Caesar's household. There may be a polluted pond all around

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but in the midst of the polluted pond there grows a lily. A lily. So in our environment we may be living in the ghetto but we can rise above the ghetto. We can be saints in Caesar's household. We can be different. We can be different. So it's not just what's outside, but what is inside. You see, Christ in us is

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stronger than the devil in our pathway. Saints in Caesar's household cost, it's a great price to be a saint. It cost something then, it cost something now. there's a dear price to pay because some of those who were saints in Caesar's household were made living torches to illuminate Nero's gardens. They were made

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sport for the crowd. Some were made food for lions. To be saints in Caesar's household may cost us death, but it is death through which comes life. Life which is eternal. And so what it really suggests is that the Christian religion, the Christian movement was not crushed because of Nero's actions. There were

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some saints even in his household. This is a word that sounds a note of triumph and vindication. Be a saint in Caesar's household. It means that the Christian faith cannot be destroyed by Caesar. Amid opposition, the religion of Jesus Christ thrives. The darker the night, the brighter the stars. There are

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saints in Caesar's household. In spite of Nero's cruelty and misuse of his power, the religion of Jesus Christ is alive and well. There are saints in Caesar's household. In the midst of opposition, God has an effective ministry among his people there is triumph in the midst of disaster. So be not ashamed. You know some

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people are ashamed to witness. Maybe on a job, on a college campus, or you may be in an environment where you may feel there's so much going in the other direction that I don't want to say anything. You may be ashamed to witness, but don't be ashamed. Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel even though I am humiliated,

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I've been beaten, I've been placed in prison, but I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ." So don't be ashamed. No matter what may be the situation, no matter what may be the condition, don't be ashamed and don't apologize for your faith. Saints in Caesar's household salute you. In other

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words, they're not trying to hide the fact, they want to share the fact that here in Caesar's household Christ has a witness in us. Saints in Caesar's household? Well, a little boy asked, in the church he said, "What is a saint?" He was asked, "What is a saint?" He had seen the pictures in the windows, the picture windows with the saints there. And when he was asked to give a definition of what is a saint, he

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He said, "A saint is one through whose life the light of God shines." So just as he saw the sunlight shining through the pictures of those saints, he was saying that a saint is one through whose life the light of God shines. Well, no matter how dense the darkness, the light of God shines.

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There are saints in Caesar's household. Saints, martyrs for the faith. They embraced the faith. They died for the faith.

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And John, who was being persecuted for his faith, was placed out there on the Isle of Patmos. And while out there on the Isle of Patmos, he has a vision. He has a vision of the future.

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God pushes back the curtain and lets him get a glimpse of what's happening in eternity. John said, "Well, I saw the souls that had died for the faith and they were underneath the altar and they cried out to God, said, 'Lord, how long will it be for those who are still on earth, who are suffering on earth?'"

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And the answer came back, said, "Just a little while, that they too must suffer the things that you have suffered, and then the time will come." John looked, kept on looking, and he saw another host. He saw a great host.

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He saw the 12 tribes of Israel, each had 12,000, and he counted them. They were 144,000. And as he kept on looking, he saw a horse that no man could number. And the question said, "Now, who are these?"

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And he said, "Oh, Lord, you know. These are they who have had their robes washed and made white in the precious blood of the Lamb. They are now waving promulgues of victory that if you're a saint in Caesar's household,

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The day will come when you'll wave palm leaves of victory, because the victory will be ours. And that's why I think our forefathers long ago gave birth to this wonderful spiritual,

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oh, when the saints go marching in. When the saints go marching in, Lord, I want to be in that number when the saints go marching in. And then it goes on to say,

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when they crown him Lord of all. When they crown him Lord of all, Lord, I wanna be in that number. It means that in the here and now,

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we too, in our own way, in the challenges we face, must seek to be in every way saints in Caesar's household. Door of the church is open as we sing the hymn of invitation we invite you.

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to unite with the people of God. (piano music) You may come by letter, by Christian experience. (piano music)

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♫ Savior more ♫ Than life to me. I am clinging, clinging close to thee. Let thy precious blood ♪ Of light ♪

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♪ Keep me ever ♪ ♪ Ever ♪ ♪ Near ♪ ♪ Thy side ♪

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♪ Every day ♪ ♪ Mary, I ♪ ♪ Let me hear ♪ ♪ Thy sins ♪

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♪ Sin thou ♪ ♪ May thy kin ♪ ♪ Know love ♪ ♪ To me ♪

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♪ Find me closer ♪ ♪ Closer ♪ ♪ Lord ♪ ♪ To thee ♪

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♪ Truth is ♪ ♪ Changing ♪ ♪ World below ♪ ♪ Lead me gently ♪

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♪ Gently ♪ ♪ As I go ♪ ♪ Trust in thee ♪ ♪ I can, I cannot stray ♪

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♪ I can never, never lose my way ♪ ♪ Merry day ♪ ♪ Merry ♪ ♪ Merry ♪

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♪ Feel ♪ ♪ The kinsmen come ♪ ♪ Oh, may my ♪ ♪ I wonder ♪

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♪ Love to you ♪ ♪ I want it ♪ ♪ Find it closer ♪ ♪ Closer ♪

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♪ Love to you ♪ to me. Let us... [BLANK_AUDIO]