Christ as Head

[00:00:00] Would you turn with me this evening to a number of passages in the New Testament? [00:00:09] In Ephesians, chapter one, the first chapter of the ephesian letter from verse 19. [00:00:25] And what the exceeding greatness of his power to us ward, who believe according to that working of the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and power and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. [00:01:19] Chapter four, chapter four of the same letter, verse 15 and 16. [00:01:30] But speaking truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom all the body strictly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth according to the working and due measure of each several parts maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love. [00:02:03] The same letter, chapter five and verse 23. [00:02:09] Chapter five verse 23. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the savior of the body. [00:02:25] And then the colossian letter. The colossian letter, chapter one, verse 18. [00:02:35] Colossian letter, chapter one, verse 18. [00:02:39] And he is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the first of born from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminent. [00:02:59] Chapter two and verse nine. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily and in him ye are made full. [00:03:13] Who is the head of all principality, power. [00:03:21] The same chapter, verse 19. [00:03:25] And not holding fast the head, from whom all the body being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God. [00:03:47] Shall we just bow together in a word of prayer? Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that as we come to your word, the Lord Jesus said that the spirit of truth himself will lead us into all the truth. [00:04:04] And we pray that we may be granted that spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, that the eyes of our hearts might be enlightened, that we may know these things. [00:04:19] O heavenly Father, we want together to recognize our inability without yourself. We need you. Lord, we thank you for the anointing which is ours, made available to us through the finished work of our Lord Jesus, and made a reality in the person of the Holy Spirit we take that anointing for hearing and speaking together this night. Let your purpose in this time be fulfilled, and we meet with you and your word come to dwell in us richly. [00:04:55] We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. [00:05:02] Now the burden that has been mine in these days that I've been seeking by the grace of God to communicate to you, contained in the words in two corinthians, chapter eleven and verse two and three. For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you a pure virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity which is toward Christ. [00:05:46] The burden I've had is all to do with our relationship to the Lord Jesus in the last days of world history. I think most of us are reasonably confident that we have passed into the last phase of world history history. And if that is so, then we need to take a long and hard look at the values of our lives. [00:06:14] We need to take a long and hard look as to the reality of our service, of our work, of our church life, of our personal christian life. Because the end of all of these things is that we be presented to Christ a pure virgin, that our minds be not corrupted from the simplicity, the singleness, the unaffectedness which is toward Christ, the uncontaminatedness, as it were, that is, toward Christ. [00:06:56] I've spoken about knowing the Lord Jesus in certain ways. There are so many ways that we could speak about. But I have been going day by day by that which the Lord has kindled in my own spirit, I feel is the aspect that I should communicate to you. We have already spoken about Christ as our covering because there is no way that we are going to endure, or more than endure. We are going to overcome and fulfill the purpose of God in the last days of world history, unless we know the Lord Jesus as our covering, as the one who has atoned for us, as the one who has justified us, as the one who is our righteousness, there is no other way to see the purpose of God fulfilled than to know what it is to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, and to have put on the whole armor of God that we might be able to stand in the evil day that is covered. And then I spoke about the Lord Jesus as the baptizer in the spirit and fire. Now, I could have suspected that that would have caused a tremendous amount of questioning on the part of a lot. I am surprised that there have not been some who have berated me for speaking about such a subject. But a large number of you have come to me and told me how frustrated you are by what I said, that I left you dangling in the air. [00:08:39] But that was intentional. [00:08:46] I was not going to get into the three steps or the five steps or the four steps or whatever way that you can come to know that immersion in the spirit. And in fact, my point is this. It is not to get your eyes on the experience. It is to get your eyes on the ones who brings you into the experience. And it is the Lord Jesus who is the baptizer. This is a fact often forgotten. People seek and search for an it, for a power, for a fullness, for something. And they all together ignore the emphasis in God's word. Which is found at the beginning of every one of the gospels, in the beginning of the book of acts. That it is he who baptizes you in the spirit and in fire. [00:09:37] None of those who ask me, but how. [00:09:40] Now, that's a good question. I asked that question for years before I came into an experience of the Holy Spirit. Every time I heard one of these marvelous hymns, I used to think. But how I looked at all those shining faces singing the hymns. And thought I was the black sheep. I was the only one who hadn't got the experience. [00:09:57] They sang things and my chains fell off. Well, I thought my chains hadn't fallen off. And then they. They sang things like be of sin, the double cure. Cleanse me from its guilt and power. Well, I knew what it was to be guilty, cleansed from the guilt. But I didn't know what it was to be cleansed from the power. [00:10:17] I used to think, but how? But how? But how? [00:10:20] It was only when I saw the Lord Jesus in a new and living way. That suddenly heaven opened. And I found myself in a new way altogether with the Lord. [00:10:30] Now, my dear friend, a number of you have said to me. Almost as if you're afraid the walls might be a second experience. [00:10:43] I want to tell you, once a person has been anointed with the Holy Spirit, they know it and everybody else knows it. [00:11:01] If you are wondering, I would say it has to be a second experience. What else? [00:11:07] Thank God. If you can enter right there, beginning into everything. [00:11:12] Brother Starks used to say when he was asked, do you believe in a second experience? You used a second blessing. He used to say, yes, a second and a third and a fourth and a fifth and a fifth. [00:11:24] My dear friends, if you feel in your heart that there is no fire and there is no fullness and that you have not been immersed, then may God open your eyes to see the one who can immerse you both in the spirit and in fire. [00:11:44] Dont be afraid. [00:11:46] I remember years ago there was a sister in the church in which I was. When I was 13. She was a little older than me and she was a staff nurse and she treated us all as if we were student nurses. [00:12:02] She was always putting us right, always telling us where we were wrong, always correcting us both. People said to be a missionary, they normally do. [00:12:13] And she went out and she came back and I remember how she scolded me on certain things and then she went out again. Miss Wyndham Paul and I had never forgotten when she came back the next time. There was a rule on the front door and I went for the front door and there she was. [00:12:35] But there was something totally different. [00:12:41] Blanc, she said, have you got a moment for some fellowship? [00:12:45] I nearly dead in the years coming from above to below. [00:12:58] She came in. There was an inner lady. [00:13:01] I said, I won't give her name because I'm there. But I said, so and so you don't have to tell me. You've had an experience of the Holy Spirit. How in the world did you know? She said, I didn't have to be told. [00:13:18] Oh, the crabbiest days become the sweetest days. [00:13:25] The most straight laced, become the most generous. [00:13:29] Those who've never laughed actually laughed. [00:13:33] Something happens when the Lord Jesus takes the saint and immerses them in the spirit. [00:13:52] There are three things, and they must come in that order. First revelation, then faith, then experience. [00:14:04] There is no other way ever to enter into anything of the Lord than through revelation. That's how you got saved when with the eye of your heart you saw the Lord as the lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. Then faith was born in your heart and you responded and the experience of salvation followed. And so it is with everything else. I won't say anymore. Someone gave me a little poem. I suppose they thought I was so poetic the last time they pinned it on my door. I don't know whether I didn't have the courage to. It's one of those by Isaac Roth. Now this is what interests me. All these great old saints, these great hymn writers, these great leaders in the church of God in days gone by, they all evidently had this same experience. [00:15:00] It's a quote. Him. I can see why we don't sing it anymore, but I will just read it to you. Come, holy Spirit, heavenly dawn, with thy all quickening power kindle a flame of sacred love in these cold hearts of ours look how we grovel here below fond of these trifling toys our souls can neither fly nor go to reach eternal joy in vain we tune our formal souls, in vain we strive to rise a rather anguish on our tongues our devotions die, dear Lord, and shall we ever live at this poor dying rate? [00:15:49] Our love so faint, so cold to thee and thine to us so great. [00:15:57] Come, holy Spirit, heavenly dumb, with thy all quickening power come shed abroad a saviour's love and that shall kindle harmony. Well, my friends, you see, these saints, they all had something of the same experience. [00:16:18] It's marvelous. I'm not bothered how, you know, the immersion in the spirit and in fire, providing you've got a real experience and an ongoing experience. It says in Ephesians, be being filled with the Holy Spirit. And the only way you can enter into that is by seeing the Lord as the one who immerses us in the spirit. And the only way you can go on being filled with the Holy Spirit is by continuing to see the Lord as the one who immerses us in the Spirit. Thank God for that. Now, I won't say any more about that subject. [00:16:58] I want this evening to speak about Christ as our head. [00:17:05] If you and I are going to be presented a pure virgin to Christ, we have got to know Christ as our head. Now, just say a few words about the significance of this term. It is used always in connection with the Bible. Wherever you find in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus described as the head, you will discover either immediately before or immediately following the body. [00:17:36] You will always discover that this term is used not in a personal sense, in the sense that there is one single believer knowing Christ as head, but always that there are a whole number of believers who are related to Christ as him. Now, that's obvious, isn't it? Why does the Holy Spirit inspire the writers of these letters to use the term head and body? [00:18:07] I mean, why not inspire them to use the term king or potentate or ruler or more, why does he inspire them to use the term head? [00:18:21] Because you have never seen a living, headless body, and you have never seen a living, bodiless head. [00:18:33] Now, that is true, isn't it? [00:18:36] Once head and body get parted, all right, ceases. [00:18:43] In other words, the Holy Spirit is using this term head and body because he is illustrating a living organic union. [00:18:55] It's not that the Lord Jesus cannot live without you. [00:18:59] It is true that we cannot live without him. [00:19:03] But nevertheless, the Holy Spirit is using this term to describe the fact that he and we belong to one another in the work of God and in the purpose of God. And that only as we live in the good of our union with him, only as we are living related to him at hand, are we going to see the fulfillment of God's purpose for us. [00:19:34] Let me put it another way. [00:19:36] This union. [00:19:39] There is one phase I've already mentioned in the New Testament. You will have it again and again and again in Christ. [00:19:46] By the grace of God alone, I am in Christ. [00:19:53] And by the grace of God alone, you are in Christ. [00:19:59] Now, are there as many christs as there are christians? [00:20:06] Do each one have our personal Christ? [00:20:11] Of course, it's absurd. There's only one Christ. [00:20:16] I am in the one Christ as you are in the one Christian. So I am in the Christ. Richard is in the Christ. The barn is in the Christ. Stephen is in the same Christ, and Mike is in the same Christ. [00:20:30] But then I say, the Christ lives in me. And Richard says that he also lives in me. And then diverted, but he also lives in me and Stephen, but he also lives in me and my sister. He also lives in me. So what has happened? We are all in the same Christ. And the same Christ is in all of us. Now, I am a jew, but I am in Christ. [00:20:57] And Richard is a gigenta, but he is in Christ. [00:21:05] Furthermore, he is british, and Devon is an American. [00:21:14] Now these two partied some years ago, but now they are in Christ. [00:21:24] Isn't that amazing? [00:21:27] It doesn't matter how many believers there are in the world, there's only one Christ. [00:21:32] And every single believer, of whatever race, of whatever color, of whatever nationality, of whatever origin, is in that one Christ. And that one Christ is dwelling by the spirit of God in men. [00:21:48] Now there is the union. Isn't it marvelous? [00:21:53] This is what the apostle speaks of as the mystery hint from ages. Christ in you all. In the Greek, the you I create in you all the hope of glory. God is building a vessel for glory. He is building a city which is going to contain the glory of God. He is producing a bride that is going to share his glory. Isn't it amazing? [00:22:25] We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. [00:22:31] This union is tremendous. Absolutely tremendous. Now, my dear friends, this matter, this union is called in the New Testament, the church. [00:22:45] It is described in different ways. It is called the body of Christ, the which he is his it is called the temple of God. It is called the household of faith. [00:22:59] It is called the bride of Christ, the wife, the lamb. But however you describe this union in these different ways, it is the same matter, and it lies at the heart of God's purpose. [00:23:20] The Lord Jesus said, upon this rock I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against all my dear believers. We look at all the divisions and all the factions, not only the major institutional, denominational ones, but all the divisions and factions within those of us who are outside of all of that. [00:23:47] We must sometimes wonder, are these words of the Lord Jesus a mockery? [00:23:54] Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. It would seem, if we were to look at things realistically, that the gates of hell have prevailed against it. But, my dear friends, the words of the Lord Jesus are surely to be fulfilled. [00:24:24] Upon this rock I will build my church. [00:24:33] Not any church, but my church. [00:24:40] I will build my church. Now it is over that building work of the Lord Jesus that the whole of hell has come out against the powers of darkness have mobilized to destroy any possibility of the Lord Jesus finally fulfilling his heart's desire and completing that building work of the church. And furthermore, the more we move into the last phase of world history, the more insidious, the more devious, the more subtle, the more terrible will be the works and devices of the enemy. To divide believers, to split believers, to get us into order, to delude us, to shipwreck us. [00:25:31] Only God given faith and heavenly vision will ever bring us into the experience of the completion of this work. [00:25:44] But, dear friends, why should we throw in the grass? [00:25:49] That's exactly what the enemy wants us to do. [00:25:53] Throw in the glove. [00:25:55] Believe that the heavenly vision is an ideal, impossible realization. No, my dear friends, this battle is going to become greater and greater and greater and greater. And thank God, it is the Lord Jesus who's going to do the building now. It said, upon this rock you shall build my church, and the gates of hell shall not. I would be very afraid. I don't know about you, I will begin to wonder. Oh, my. [00:26:33] Upon this rock you will build my church. [00:26:39] No, the Lord Jesus is. Upon this rock I will build my church. And therefore, I have confidence that through thick and thin, through storm and sunshine, the Lord Jesus is going to build his church using the very circumstances of the last days to roll God's people together, to dissolve those petty things that divide us and make us pressurize us into touching each other's spirits in the Lord and moving together into the fulfillment of God's purpose. [00:27:14] How very interesting it is in the Old Testament where we have a picture of this thing in the prophecy of Zechariah and in chapter three and chapter four. I will only touch on this, but I find it very interesting. This whole matter is to do with the house of God. I think everyone is agreed there. In chapter three we have the high priest and his priestly service of intercession, of worship, of standing before the Lord for the fulfillment of God's purpose. And in chapter four we had that building work with that lampstand, all of gold, the seven branched Menorah, the lampstand, all of gold, which for me represents and symbolizes the testimony of Jesus held by the church. Now it is interesting that in that first chapter, to do with that high priestly ministry, that priestly ministry of intercession, it is covering that Jehoshua has to have. He has to know, we put it in New Testament terms, he has to know Christ as covering. The only way he can fulfill his ministry is to have his filthy God has taken over him and to be clothed with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus so that he can unself consciously intercede, so that he can give himself to this ministry concerning the Messiah and concerning this building work. But when we come to the fourth chapter, we find it all to do with building, and we find that this building of the house of God is being contended, it's being challenged. We find great mountains in the way. We find controversy, we find difficulties, we find problems. And then comes the word not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, the Lord of hosts. Now there you have Jesus as the baptizer in the spirit and in fire. There's no way that the fire in the lampstand can be kept going unless you and I know the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And there is no way that the gold can be poured out, as it were, from the olive trees into their lampstand unless you and I know the ministry of the Holy Spirit. There is no way that the mountain can become a prey except by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. There is no way that he who began the work will complete the work except by the spirit. [00:29:45] What an encouragement. [00:29:48] Because it says this and the top stone shall be brought forth with shouts of grace, grace unto it. I've said it probably before to many of you, but I will say it again. I always think it would have been a much more an obvious thing if the saints had shouted, glory. Glory. [00:30:10] Would have certainly been more charismatic, and you never would have thought that that would have been the exclamation of the saints when they saw the top stone going into place. Glory, glory. The Lord has done it. [00:30:24] But the only thing they say is, come, come. [00:30:31] That betokens enormous battle. [00:30:35] In other words, when these saints see the touchstone going into place, the only thing they can say in the midst of all the mess and all the difficulties and all the problems is the grace of God has done it. He's done it. [00:30:49] That's why it has to be not by might nor by power, but by his spirit. We shall give up. If we're looking for some perfect little fellowship, that's what most of us are doing. We're looking for the ideal church, absolute New Testament pattern. We're looking for it everywhere we get into it. To begin with, all we write off letters. I found. I found a marvelous fellowship. [00:31:25] Two years later. [00:31:29] Help. [00:31:38] Aren't we all naive? [00:31:43] We're so naive. [00:31:46] Well, all the time. This is ideal fellowship. That is absolutely what we call New Testament. We forget that in the New Testament there are ananias and sapphiras, jezebels and doctrines and teachings of Balaam and Nicolaithism and division and errors and factions. [00:32:10] There were Apollonians and Petronians and Paulonians and exclusives. [00:32:20] They were all there. But, you see, we don't have those kind of eating spectacles. [00:32:26] We don't see any of that so wonderful in those early days. [00:32:34] We don't understand that when you have the church exactly as it ought to be, downward on earth, all the scum is coming to the surface. [00:32:44] As the law applies the heat and the pressure, so all the dirt begins to come to the top. It's all there in the New Testament, and we don't see that. She said, we're looking for the perfect fellowship. [00:32:59] My dear friends, this method of knowing Christ as our head is all important. [00:33:08] I hope that by the grace of God, I will be able to communicate that to you this evening. [00:33:17] This great battle over the church will be so huge, so fiery, so ferocious, that you and I will be tempted by a thousand demons on every side to throw in the glove and give up. [00:33:37] It will only be an immersion in the Holy Spirit of empire that will keep us going, full obedient to the heavenly vision and believing that he will build his church. [00:33:53] That's what it is to be an overcomer. [00:33:56] God is interested in overcomers. [00:34:00] God would prefer that the whole church be an overcoming company, but unfortunately, that's not so. [00:34:07] And God is interested in those who by the grace of God, will go right through serving their brothers and sisters to fit and to him, until finally they, by the grace of God, stand before him and hear the word well done thou good and faithful servant. [00:34:34] Now I want just to say one thing more about this term. I want just to rivet your attention upon the word head. [00:34:51] You see, the head is never mentioned without its connection to the body, even in that one. [00:35:00] In him groweth all the fullness of the godhead bodily and ye are made complete. In and in him ye are made complete. Who is the head of all principality and power? It still has the believers in mind. [00:35:17] He is plural. In him you all are made complete. Who is the head of all principality and power? [00:35:27] Whatever you turn, you find this term. Head has connection with the body. It's always in view, it's never used without relationship to the body or to the saints. [00:35:42] But I want you to note that I am not talking about knowing the body. I am talking about knowing Christ as our head. [00:35:58] Now this is tremendously important. [00:36:03] I hope this will come over to you, not negatively, but positively. We never create the church, we never produce the church, we never plant the church, we never build up the church by mere knowledge of church truth. [00:36:27] This is a basic mistake that many people make. They think, oh, if we're clear on what the church is, has the church. My defense is not true. [00:36:37] I know people who could sit me down and give me a lecture for 2 hours on the nature of the church, but they're not functioning. [00:36:46] When it comes to the experience of church life. They don't know anything about it. [00:36:53] We so often equate a knowledge of church truth as meaningful that we are functioning as the church. [00:37:04] Sometimes everybody's another way. We sometimes think of knowledge of church pattern, church order. We can have perfect church pattern and it's not the church. [00:37:15] Everything is right according to the New Testament, but there is no life at all. [00:37:23] The only life we ever get is when we get agitated, you know what I mean? We believers agitate the thing, manipulate the thing, push the thing, and then it begins to move a bit, rather like puppets on strings, but it never moves of itself. It doesn't need, it, hasn't got the breath of God in it. [00:37:49] We can have a knowledge of church pattern and church order and think that because we have that and we are adopting it, that we have the church that is not the church. [00:38:04] May I go even further? [00:38:08] I. I pray to God I'm not misunderstood on this. We can get on church ground. [00:38:16] In other words, we can paint the ground that the church in any place consists of all the believers in that place. But it doesn't mean we have the church. [00:38:29] We can drop all labels, all denominational times, all that's institutional, and simply come together. On the other, we haven't got the church. But many people think, oh, my dear friends, if we could only take a look this evening at church history and see the many attempts that have been made to produce the church, to sort of express the church, to create the church. [00:38:54] Let me put it another way. [00:38:57] Neither by preaching the church, nor by studying the church truth, nor by discussing church truth, nor by even praying over church truth will we get the church hope it sees it. [00:39:16] It is always relationship to Christ as head that brings the church in, always a knowledge of church truth is important, a knowledge of church order is important. [00:39:33] But if the church truth and the church ought to become a high bound straight jacket, and we have never broken a relationship to Christ at our head, we are deluding ourselves. [00:39:47] We have a counterfeit church life, because in the final analysis, it is seeing the head with the eye of the heart, it is hearing the head with the ear of the spirit. It is trusting the head with all our being. It is obeying the head that brings about true church life in church, too. [00:40:24] But I want to say this, that unless you and I know Christ as our head, there is no way at all for the church to be born. Now that is really for me the secret. The church cannot be put together. You see, we think, let's all get on church ground and we'll put it together. [00:40:43] How can we put it together? Who will put it together? Well, supposing you say, all right then, and I'll go off to some place, you know, you. You all come and live there, and we'll put it together. [00:40:54] Who's going to put it together? I'm going to put it together. [00:40:58] I'll take you as one living stone and you as another living stone, and you. And I'll tell you exactly what you should do. [00:41:05] I shall tell you what your ministry is. I shall define it, and I shall give you a detailed idea of everything. Don't worry. [00:41:17] Now, do you think you can do this whole thing? [00:41:21] Then the strange thing is this. I hope this won't be considered heresy. But the strange thing is this, there's less life in the group than in the episcopalian church or the Roman Catholic Church. There you find people living in the Lord, loving the Lord, worshipping in the spirit, somehow touching each other in the Lord, moving together, caring for one another. And here we all are, sickening out little mice. [00:41:53] How come they've got so much life and we've got so little? I tell you why. Those folks may not be on church ground, but they're touching Christ's head. [00:42:02] So they've got church features. [00:42:07] Insofar as they break through to Christ's head, they begin to know church preaching. [00:42:16] Let me put it another way. [00:42:19] If Christ is my head and he's your head, what happens to us? [00:42:28] Somehow or other, we come into a relationship with one another. How have we got into a relationship with one another? [00:42:37] Because I am a member and you are a member, and we both. Now look here. You and I, we've got to get together. No, because I have got a relationship with the head and you have a relationship with the head. Suddenly we discover we're meeting together. [00:42:55] You have never seen a head with one member. [00:42:59] Now, can you think of anything more grotesque than a head walking out of this thing with one little foot? [00:43:08] I mean, the whole force of the head is that there are many members but one body, and every one of those members is in a living relationship to the head. [00:43:29] When you begin to see it like that, he's my head. Is it his head? His own head, decent head, my head and your head and your head and your head and your head. What has happened to us? We all have one head. [00:43:42] Can the head be saying all kinds of different things? [00:43:46] I think not. [00:43:48] So in the way that we really move ahead and know the head, we flow together in a marvelous unity. But there's more to it than that. Just because the head is so infinite in his greatness and in his power, in his wisdom and in his knowledge, I will only ever get partially something. You understand what I mean? So I supplement what you do not get and you supplement what I do not get. Do you understand? [00:44:22] In order to balance one another, consider a few of the scriptures that we looked at this evening. [00:44:32] For instance, take, can you take this, Ephesians, and he that is God put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who filleth all in all head over all things to the body which to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fill us all in all. [00:45:14] In other words, dear brothers and sisters, it's only when we continually see that Jesus has been made head over everything to the church, and we declare it, we announce it, we proclaim it, we stand by faith in it, we appropriate the good of it, the power of it, that the church will know what it is to be the fullness of him who filleth all in all. The enemy will see to it that any single company of believers who have started together to see something of this nature of the church and have started to fellowship together and ceases to maintain the unity of spirit together. The enemy will see they are robbed of everything within a year or two, unless they know how to declare that Jesus is head over everything to the church. Now think of it for a few moments. What does it mean, head over all things? [00:46:17] Does it mean head over only good things, spiritual things? No, it doesn't say head of things. Head over all things. Now, what does that mean? Well, I tell you what it means. It means we head over Satan. [00:46:33] It means we head over principalities and powers that stand against the purpose of God being fulfilled. It means that he is head over the world, rulers of this darkness that would frustrate the purpose of God and its fulfillment. It means that he heard over all those hosts of wicked spirits in heavenly places that would seek to undo all fellowship, all progress in the building up of the body of Christ. It means that he is heard over all things. For the church. It means that political circumstances, national circumstances, local circumstances, he heard over it all. Why, with the church in view, with the church in view, he heard over it all, that his purpose concerning his body might be fulfilled. But it's more than that. He's head over it all, that the members of his body might know what it is to be his fullness who fills everyone, everything in everyone, all in all. [00:47:45] Oh, dear fairies, if we could catch this message of foolishness. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, everything is in the overflow once you and I are submerged in this fullness of the Lord. But do you believe that you and I are going to somehow know the fullness of God without it being challenged? [00:48:15] You don't think that we had enemies, just like they had in the old days under the old covenant, the Midianites and the Canaanites and the Jebusites and the Hittites and the Girgashites and all the other ites? [00:48:28] They were all there all the time, waiting to rob God's people, to repossess what they had taken, to take it from them, to bring them into enslavement. Is it half the Old Testament, if not more than half of the Old Testament, all to do with these various forces seeking one way or another to frustrate the purpose of God, to nullify the purpose of God. To rob God's people of their possessions, to rob them of their inheritance, somehow or other, to enslave the people of God, compromise them so that instead of being the head, they become the tail. Instead of being above their beneath, instead of lending their borrowing. [00:49:09] Dear friends, you and I will never know what it is to be wishfulness together. [00:49:18] Who cares? Everything and everyone unless we learn to take our position as united to him of head. Head over all things. This matter of the church is far too precious, far too strategic for the enemy to ignore it. [00:49:41] It has something to do with the wind, enough of the age. Something to do with the summing up of all things. Something to do with the glorious fulfillment of the purpose of God for man. Therefore, all the powers of darkness will come out against this thing. Even if it is a few insignificant saints who have started to see the truth and are fellowshiping together. [00:50:06] Or again, take Colossians in chapter two and verse 19. [00:50:12] Not holding fast the head, from whom all the body strictly plain, from whom all the body being supplied and moved together to the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of garbage. Did you notice it? I find this an amazing thing. We never think of a body growing out of the head doing. I mean, it's an extraordinary picture, the head. [00:50:39] And out of the head comes the whole body. [00:50:43] And the body increases with the increase of God. It grows up, it becomes full grown. How? Only in relationship to holding past the head. Now, this word holding fast is a strong word. It means to apprehend the head, to lay hold on the head, to arrest. [00:51:05] There's nothing passive here. Oh, where we are believers is our head. [00:51:11] Now, those of you who know something about fellowship, not only it's joy, but it's battle. [00:51:22] You will know the need to hold fast ahead. [00:51:28] He lose sight of this so easily. Do you notice? It speaks of increasing the increase of God. [00:51:36] Holding fast ahead, from whom all the body builds, supplied and knit together for the joints and bounds increaseth with the increase of God. [00:51:47] My friends, you and I never build the church by finding one another. [00:51:53] This is why all over the world now, there are disappointed people in church life. [00:52:03] Now, what do I mean? I mean this. 30 years ago, no one ever spoke about the church. [00:52:10] The church was a cinderella. [00:52:13] I mean, did anyone ever give a message on the church? I remember when I used to speak about the church. People's mouths used to drop open. [00:52:23] People come up to me afterwards and say, they can't be in the Bible. What you said. [00:52:29] I said it is. Why haven't they heard about it. [00:52:33] People never heard of the church. The church was somewhere you left your umbrella or your handbag or your bible. [00:52:44] Nobody understood the church of living stones built together as people. [00:52:49] But today everyone talks about the church. Whenever you go, everybody talks about the church, church, church, church, church. And they say the most amazing things. They even talk about the body and they talk about body life and body ministry. And it sounds a bit odd because there's not quite New Testament terms. And people come up to me and say, we've got a body in Chicago. [00:53:14] I mean, that's how father, things gone the other way. [00:53:17] Whereas before they never talked about the body or the church or the house of God as something that was made up of people. Now it's gone right the other way. And most extraordinary use of terms. [00:53:32] And of course, everyone talking about the church, but it hasn't made division or faction any less. [00:53:38] Not as much division, as much faction, as much collision, as much error as before. [00:53:46] My dear friends, there's only one key to this holding, holding fast ahead. [00:53:51] Now, I don't mean by this that you have to stick in something and all life has gone from it. I have to be very careful here what I say. [00:54:02] I believe it is very, very important to stay in something right the way through until we are 100% sure that the Ark of the Lord is gone. [00:54:12] Once the ark of the law goes, we go with it. [00:54:18] I remember years ago, a dear old sister, an eight year old sister from California, and someone was asking her testimony. She said, I can't copy her actions. It was so marvellous. [00:54:30] She said, well, I was. But she mentioned a certain denomination. He said, I was such and such a listen all my life. [00:54:42] And then she said, I, um, I saw something. [00:54:47] But she said, I remain there. [00:54:49] I couldn't see. She said there was any point in getting out to start something else. [00:54:56] But she said, finally the Lord gave me the word and I went. And then she said there was such an eruption and they came to see me, the leaders and the pastor. [00:55:09] And they said, how can you, Miss Fanshawe, leave the sinking ship? [00:55:18] And one of them, in great anger, said, only that, leave the sinking ship. [00:55:25] And she said, when I saw the captain getting into a lifeboat, that's when I knew it was time for me to leave. [00:55:40] Some of us are more faithful than our Lord, you know what I mean? We have got so faithful to it, everybody cannot repeat. [00:55:55] Great jewish thinker Martin Buber once said, without greater insight from the majority of Christians, the whole of the Bible. Okay, he said, is summed up in an I and thou relationship and not an I and it relationship. [00:56:25] Think about it. [00:56:27] Behold, the Bible is summed up in an I thou relationship, not an our and it relationship. [00:56:41] Sometimes we get so loyal to the it that we become disloyal to the Lord. [00:56:48] So, my dear friends, this is very important. It's holding. Pastor hid. I only put that. Insert that as a word of caution. I don't want you to think that somehow or other you're to just sticking something that is absolutely, absolutely departed from the law, or something which is just taken over, as it were, by another force. [00:57:08] This is to destroy yourself in the law. [00:57:14] And then I think of Ephesians in chapter four and verse 15 and 16, that's speaking through to love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, even Christ, and rules the body, fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplier, according to the working due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love. Now, here is another marvellous thing we have that here we are to grow up in all things into him who is the head. [00:57:50] How wonderful that we are to grow up. Not be knocked over, not be debilitated by the circumstances of fellowship, but rather in all the things that we experience, good and bad, grow up into him who is the head. My dear friends, God can use every single experience in fellowship to make us grow up. [00:58:20] Many of us, we want to be little babies carried around, nursed, mollycoddles, cuddles, sort of forever fed by spoon. [00:58:30] Whereas God uses fellowship to make us grow up. [00:58:37] We have to grow up in all things into him who is to herd and then discover that the whole body is there. [00:58:44] Thickly pain. The knit together maketh increase unto the building up of itself in love. [00:58:55] There can be no making increase or building up of the body in love, unless we grow up into Christ as the faith. Now, I don't know if I'm laboring this too much, but I think we better come to an end on this whole matter. [00:59:11] What is the objective of the church in body? I think this is a good question. [00:59:20] When we have some expression of the church, there is some real fellowship, there is a measure of real function, there is a maintaining of the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. [00:59:35] There is a real measure of building up and of caring for one another, ministering to one another, related next to one another, are being built together. [00:59:48] That is not the end. [00:59:52] I think some people sometimes get the idea that once you've seen the church. That's it. [00:59:57] That's the end. [00:59:59] We've got it. And we fall into the same mistake that everybody else makes. There are those who believe that the baptismal spirit. That's the end. There are those who need a second blessing of entire sanctification, or perfect love, as the Methodists used to call it. That's it. You've arrived. Come on. [01:00:20] There are those who seem to think that once you've seen what the jerk is, you've arrived. [01:00:25] That's it. [01:00:27] But there is an objective to being the church. [01:00:32] There is an objective copying built up. What is it? The church is to express Christ on the earth. [01:00:45] What is in general and in particular. [01:00:49] It is to express Christ. [01:00:53] My body expresses my head. [01:00:58] It expresses the personality of my head. [01:01:03] Yours does the same. The way I dress, the way you dress, the way you stand, the way I stand, the way you walk, the way I walk, the way I gesticulate. The way you gesticulate. You understand that word? Over here in America, these terms, they all mean the expression of my head. [01:01:27] My head is wanting to communicate something. [01:01:30] And in doing this, without even thinking, I'm using my body because my body is the expression of my head. And so when you get this term head and body, it really means that the church is to be the expression of the Lord Jesus on this earth. He is at the right hand of God the Father, that we are the body joined to him as head in the person of the Holy Spirit. [01:01:56] And we are to express him on this earth. [01:02:02] In what way we are to express his love. [01:02:06] Don't you think that's one of the reasons why the enemy has as one of his supreme objectives living bitterness, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, anger, clamor, gossip, backbiting into the church. [01:02:28] He had a busted interest in turning the church into something absolutely other than love. [01:02:42] There's no way for you and I to stay in love with the Lord and stay in love with one another unless that love of God is shed award in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. [01:02:52] No other way. Our situations, circumstances and relationships will be too much for us. [01:03:01] I believe the church should be a place of humility. [01:03:05] Even the most proud are broken and become servants of the Lord and of one another. [01:03:13] The church is to be a place of real service, not out of duty, but out of love. [01:03:24] The church is to be a place of unity, of oneness, not uniformity. [01:03:33] Every one of us can be ourselves unaffected. [01:03:38] Originally we are one. [01:03:44] My dear fellows, it's only about holding fast the head. We shall ever know such a thing you know, we can all fall into a morass of bitterness, contrariness and againstness. [01:03:58] Unless we are so in touch with the hood that we hear his word. Repentance. You have left your first love. [01:04:12] It's as we keep in touch with the thing. That this method of love comes again and again and again to the fall. [01:04:20] Because the Lord wants to burn. [01:04:23] He doesn't want a machine. [01:04:26] He doesn't want an automaton, a bigger mechanic. [01:04:32] He goes to God. [01:04:34] That's why this matter of love will come again and again and again to the poor. And it is of the last days that our Lord Jesus said. And the love of the many shall wex cold. Because iniquity shall abound. [01:04:48] Do you think that your love is going to somehow be kept at its present further? [01:04:56] No, it will not. [01:04:58] Because inequitable abound on every side. Your love will be somehow rather worn out, overcome. [01:05:06] Unless you and I keep in touch with the head. And no Christ of our head. Then he'll keep us all the way through. In love with himself. And because he will be in love with himself. He shall be in love with one another. We shall be able to serve one another or again. Another thing I think of when you speak of Christ expressing himself in the church is his will. [01:05:29] The church is to be the place where the will of God is expressed. You know, this whole world now is moving into anarchy. It is moving into a realm of disorder. Everything is anti authority. Everything is against government. The church is to be a place where the role of God is known. Remember, Jesus taught us to pray. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done as in heaven. Show on earth none in one day. Maybe, Lord, but let the kingdom come now. [01:06:04] Let it influence things. Now, every real church is an embassy of heaven. [01:06:13] It is a staking of God in that place. That this belongs to him. And one day is coming back to him. Now, my dear friends, what are our marvellous thing? It is when the church becomes the expression of his will. And when things are ruled by him. I find that just simply marvelous. When there's a fulfillment of his purpose. When we discover as a company of God's children. What his purpose is for our locality. What his purpose is for. The area may be different in different places. But we see it through to fulfilment, rule and reign. [01:06:49] Using the keys of the kingdom of heaven. [01:06:53] Locking up what heaven wants. Locked up. And unlocking what heaven wants unlocked. [01:07:00] And then the third thing is power. [01:07:04] I think the church will be the expression of his power. [01:07:08] I know sounds almost idealistic. But it is the most marvelous thing in the world. When signs and wonders and miracles are done through the church. I don't invaluable people always coming to me and saying, don't want miracles from signs, wonders. It's kindergarten. [01:07:37] But I never call a son kindergarten. [01:07:42] I would never call a wonder worked by God kindergarten. I know very well that you can stay with the miracle and the sign and the wonder and never find out the ways of God. [01:07:54] But what a marvellous thing is when God evidences the fact that he is in the midst of accompanied by doing marvellous things in and through them. When they pray, they get answers. [01:08:04] Those were sick and often raised up, those were bound by the liver. Things happen, people get saved, lives get turned upside down, all kinds of situations get straightened out. What a marvelous thing it is to be in touch with the head. [01:08:21] I always think of it like this. [01:08:24] If Jesus was here now, what would you do? [01:08:31] And if we are the body of the Lord Jesus, does he not want to do that kind of thing for once? Well, my dear friends, think about it, think about it. There has never been a move of the Holy Spirit in the whole history of the church which has not been attended by signs and wonders and miracles. It is the evidence that God is looking. [01:08:56] And so, my dear friends, I had to conclude if you and I are to be presented a pure virgin to Christ, it requires some real experience of church life. [01:09:15] But you and I will never have a real experience of church life if you and I do not have a living direct relationship to Christ as our head. [01:09:32] This simplicity and purity which is toward Christ. I don't think that any place in the whole world where we become more affected than in the church when the thing is not in touch with the head, we all become so affected. But when the head is there, he strips all unreality away again and again and again. He uses our brothers and sisters to bring us life down to reality. [01:10:09] Then we thought the love we had was the love of God and we discovered it wasn't. It was just sentimental, wasn't anything to do with the love of God. Suddenly we discover we've got to know the love of God. Well, we thought was patience. Was not patience, it was caution. [01:10:29] And now suddenly we've got to know the patience of God. [01:10:34] What we thought before us, being strong in the Lord was nothing but our own strength. [01:10:41] Now it's gone, we got to know the strength of the Lord. What we fought before was humility, was nothing of the kind. He was just self conscious pride now strict. [01:10:58] And for the first time we got to know what humility and real modesty is. [01:11:06] But what the Lord does in the church. [01:11:08] Simplicity, which is toward Christ, and purity, which is toward Christ. If it living, real fellowship, we will together help one another to keep uncontaminated, purer, not defiled until the coming of the Lord. May the Lord help us.