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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Now we turn to the ephesian letter, chapter four, the fourth chapter of the ephesian letter.
[00:00:19] We'll read from verse one. I'm reading in the new american standard, the Bible.
[00:00:27] I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another, in love, being diligent, to preserve the unity of the spirit. In the bond of peace, there is one body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling.
[00:00:59] One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is over all and through all and in all, but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
[00:01:19] Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. Now, this expression. He ascended. What does it mean, except that he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is himself also, he who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.
[00:02:17] As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love. We are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
[00:03:09] Well, now, this evening we come to this concluding session on the training course which we have had running over. Now, I suppose, quite a few weeks. I've not actually counted up the weeks, but I suppose it must be something like weeks in which we have dealt with a whole lot of practical things in our life together as the people of God. So, for those of you who here and have not been on any of those times, I trust that you'll get something out of this evening. But really, we are going to draw the threads together of the whole time and seek to sum it all up.
[00:03:58] Weve covered a lot of ground, not only in the matter of exactly why we meet together, but things like what we call the open time spiritual gifts, ministry of gods, word, evangelistic outreach, evangelism, soul winning follow up work, teaching the young the relation of the home to the teaching of the young, and so on and so on. So many, many subjects we have covered in this time. And, of course, the ministry of the sisters mustn't forget that as well.
[00:04:41] We've covered, I think, a very large range of matters, all to do really with our life as the people of God. Now, what can we say in conclusion, in summing up all the basic lessons which we have sought to underline, there are just few things I would like to say. If you like to take a pencil and a piece of paper, you might like just to note down these five, six things, which I believe will sum up everything that we've been seeking to say. At least get to the root of the matter. That's the point. We come to the end of nothing that I'm going to say this evening, which we haven't really said before. But sometimes when we come to the end, it's as if we can define it just that little more simply and clearly. And also for us, as we hear sometimes, everything suddenly falls into place. It's funny how we can hear the same truth again and again, and then all of a sudden there comes a point where it suddenly springs into life and we see it. And once we see it, it begins to work in our lives. Now, here is the first point I make this evening. The building up of the body of Christ is not only related to the main ministries, that is like the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor and teacher, but to the proper working of each individual part.
[00:06:32] It's not just that there are these great ministries which are for the building up of the body of Christ, the building up of the church, but the building of the body of Christ, it's building up is related very much to the proper working of each individual part. Now, we've read ephesians four from verses one to 16. I've read it in the new American Standard Bible. And would you note particularly verse twelve and 13 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ, till we all attain to a mature man, full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, or as it puts it in this version, until we all attain to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, till we all attain to a mature man. So all these main ministries are given, and what are they given for? They are given for this one ultimate objective. Till we attain all attain to a full grown man, the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, a mature man, a corporate man, by the way, not an individual man, a corporate man, the new man in Christ. Till we all attain to a full grown man, mature man, an adult man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Now, if you turn to revelation chapter 19 and verse seven, this is put in quite different words, but it's the same truth. Revelation 19 seven let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him. For the marriage of the lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And his wife hath made herself ready till for the marriage of the lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. Now this is just putting it in another way. Till we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, an adult person, ready for the marriage, to the measure of the stature of the which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
[00:09:49] So all these gifts, whether they are apostles, whether they are prophets, whether they are evangelists, whether they are pastors or teachers, that is, whether it is church planting ministries, whether it is bringing in, as it were, all the whole mind and counsel of God, whether its teaching or whether its evangelism, that is the calling out of a people for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, or whether it's the shepherding of that people called out. All these different mainline ministries, all have this one ultimate goal, to bring the people of God to that place, that measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
[00:10:39] And they are all for this other point in verse twelve, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service. Now this is what is so tragic in Christendom, and I might say so tragic in a very large part of evangelical Christendom.
[00:11:03] These great mainline ministries, instead of equipping the saints for the work of service so that the body may be built up, have in fact become like a cancerous growth, so that the whole body exists for the display and the fulfillment of these ministries.
[00:11:27] Now, do you get what I'm getting at? I wonder, really what I'm trying to say is this, that the very things God gave so that the whole body of Christ may come to that place of fullness, of full growth, have now stopped the body coming to the full growth.
[00:11:48] Instead of equipping the saints for the work of service so that the body might be built up, it has gathered the body around itself.
[00:12:04] You got it.
[00:12:06] I mean, you see, in other words, you've got a kind of preacher congregation mentality.
[00:12:13] Preacher congregation mentality. You see, the people support the preacher, the people are gathered round the preacher, that the people are there really to help the preacher fulfill his ministry.
[00:12:27] Whereas in actual fact, God gave the preacher in order to get all those saints building up one another so that they could all get on with the work. Do you understand now what I'm trying to get at?
[00:12:41] You see, the immediate objective is to enable the body to build up itself in love. That is the immediate objective. Now we must judge all ministry along those lines. Is it in fact having the effect on me that I am being equipped for the work of service, or am I just like some stuffed chicken?
[00:13:11] I just come along and sit there and sort of take it all in and I get more in and I get more weird, and I get more in and I get more in. So the point is, you see, it's all related to getting on with the job.
[00:13:25] And the whole point of a time like even this evening is that it might help us to do the job. Now, the job may be very small, it may be in our eyes very insignificant, but it's helping us to see our place in the body of Christ, helping us to fulfill our ministry in the body of Christ. Christ helping us to share Christ with our brothers and sisters, helping us, as it were, to get on with the job. Now, if we can just underline that the immediate objective then of all these main ministries is to enable the body to build up itself in love, unless we are functioning. Knowledge, even true and sound knowledge, profession, even genuine profession, profession, even position, genuine position given to us by God in the body of Christ, means very little.
[00:14:19] It's only as we function that it all begins to come into its own.
[00:14:26] Now, if your mind goes back to our sessions, you will know that we've said it's not just a question of platform ministry, not even just a question of meetings. There are multitudinous ways in which we are sharing Christ with each other, multitudinous ways in which we're building one another up, supporting one another, caring for one another. That's only one side of it. The other side, of course, is the whole outreach of the church to the dying world around.
[00:14:53] And the whole point of ministry, again, is to equip us so that we have a living testimony. We are empowered and anointed and qualified, as it were, by the spirit of God to be able to speak to others about Christ, to witness to him, to our neighbors, to our business colleagues, and so on and so forth.
[00:15:20] Unless we're functioning. All that knowledge is just a dead weight in one sense, if I may put it like this. Truth, of course, is truth, whether it gets into us or not. We must always remember that truth is objectively, truth is truth.
[00:15:41] I can leave it or not, but it still remains truth. It's not just truth because it gets into me, but nevertheless, truth has no real influence in my life until it gets into me, until it begins to mold me, change me, and produce christlikeness in me.
[00:16:01] People who think that they can just sort of have any kind of freedom that enables them just to float along here and float along there and there. It's not the freedom of Christ. The apostle Paul began off by saying, in ephesians three, one, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he has a great sort of digression, which is one of the most tremendous digressions in the Bible about the mystery. And then he comes back in ephesians four, one back again to his. But then he makes a very significant change. He says, I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord Jesus and real freedom is to be a prisoner in the Lord Jesus real freedom is that we obey his commandments. His word dwells in us.
[00:16:54] Something happened.
[00:16:57] Well, that's the immediate objective to get us moving. The immediate objective is to equip us for the work of service so that the body may be built up.
[00:17:10] And then the ultimate objective is the bride being made ready. The ultimate objective is to enable the bride to make herself ready. Ready.
[00:17:24] Let us be glad, rejoice, let us rejoice, be exceeding glad. For the marriage of the lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. She has made herself ready. Now, the ultimate objective of all these ministries is that the bride be made ready. The immediate objective, the body building up itself. Now, there are four points, then, in this first lesson I would like to underline out of these times, and I think they're very important. They're all found in verses 15 and 16. If you remember, when we started this training session, we began in these two verses, particularly verse 16.
[00:18:13] Here are just four things. First of all, truth in love. Verse 15, truth in love. Now, this is a difficult sentence and you will find in all your versions, I don't know how many different versions we've got here, that they are all rendered perhaps a little differently. Some say dealing truly in love. Some actually say walking in the truth in love.
[00:18:48] It's quite a wide writing and I found this very beautifully put in the amplified. This is how it puts it rather let our lives lovingly express truth in all things. Speaking truly dealing truly living truly enfolded in love let us grow up in every way into him.
[00:19:14] Speaking truly dealing truly living truly truth in love.
[00:19:25] You can have all the knowledge in the head in this world.
[00:19:30] You can have the whole bible in one sense in your head.
[00:19:33] You can know all about the church, the nature of the church and the way it should work and its functions. The ultimate objective and the immediate objective. You can have it all. But if truth in love doesn't characterize the whole of your life and your contribution, it's worth nothing.
[00:19:53] It's worth nothing at all.
[00:19:58] Speaking truly dealing truly living truly truth in love how often this speaking truth in love has been made the excuse for all kinds of evil things. You know, people are always going to one another to speak truth in love. What they really want to do is have a little dig.
[00:20:19] Much of it's not in love and some of it's not in truth.
[00:20:22] It's not truth and not love.
[00:20:26] We can be delivered from that kind of thing. On the other hand, we must be always speaking truly, dealing truly and living truly. In other words, absolute honesty.
[00:20:44] Absolute honesty in love that must characterize us. Will you notice? Verse 14? As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by ways carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love.
[00:21:10] Well, now, that's one point I think we ought to make, that our whole life, personal life, family life, home life, business life, our life together as the people of God, must be truth in love.
[00:21:26] And if it is not that, then God has got to deal with us on this very basic level right at the start.
[00:21:36] The second thing I want you just to note about this matter of the body building up itself is that it not only must be truth in love, but it must grow up in all aspects into him who is the head.
[00:21:51] May grow up in all aspects into him who is the head. Verse 15. Genuine movement. That's what growth is. Genuine increase. When the thing grows, it's real growth. There's growth, it's movement. Movement now, we can't all be perfect, but we can all be moving.
[00:22:16] The trouble with many people is that they make the same mistake again and again and again and again. It's like the 40 years in the wilderness. They're just going round and round and round around the old cycle.
[00:22:27] God wants us to move. All of us make mistakes. And isn't this one of the things we've said? No one can contribute in the life of the church without making a mistake. I'd like to meet a single member of the body. Who has gone through the whole of life without making some mistake. Both corporate as well as personal. We all make mistakes. But providing there's real growing up into him in all aspects, it doesnt matter so much. A fool is not someone who makes a mistake. A fool is someone who makes the same mistake twice.
[00:23:03] Now, take that to heart.
[00:23:06] A fool is not someone who makes a mistake. A fool is someone who makes the same mistake twice.
[00:23:11] Then you are called in scripture a fool.
[00:23:17] Because why? Because you are not learning the root problem. Your root problem, what it is that's the thing. That's the cause of your making the mistake.
[00:23:29] Grow up in all aspects. Now, will you notice this? In all aspects, in all things. It is in the older version, they grow up in all things. Into him. What a lovely thought it is. Into him. Into him. Of course, we are in Christ, and yet we are to grow up into him in all things. So all the many aspects of our life, personal life, workaday love, home love, church love, every aspect, we are to grow up into him. Anything in which we cannot grow up into him, we must get rid of.
[00:24:06] And we all know whether there's something in our lives, home life, personal life. Where we just can't grow up into him.
[00:24:16] Grow up in all things into him. Now, what does this really mean? It speaks of relationship, and I think of Colossians 219, where it says, holding fast the head, from whom the whole body fitly framed and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.
[00:24:34] In other words, how do we really get together? We don't get together by looking at one another and trying to come together on that level, on that line. We just get into sentiment and into trouble, and we can all go off the rails together.
[00:24:48] We get together by holding fast ahead. I hold fast ahead. He holds fast ahead. We come together.
[00:24:56] It's as we each have a clear, pure, living relationship to the Lord that we come together.
[00:25:04] It's as simple as that. Growing up in all aspects into him. Who is his relationship to Christ. So never we must always be clear on this. We must never let the corporate destroy our relationship to Christ.
[00:25:21] Now, the real corporate life of God's people cannot destroy our relationship to God. It's only when it begins to get force or our attitude to it is false that it destroys our relationship with Christ. Then thirdly fitted and held together. Verse 16, fitted and held together. So here we have a third point, genuine relatedness. Fitted and held together. Do you feel like that?
[00:25:54] Fitted together.
[00:25:56] Do you feel that you've been fitted together?
[00:26:00] What's wrong with a Christian who doesn't know or feel that he's fitted together? Something's very, very wrong. God has put the solitary in families. It says in scripture.
[00:26:10] He has placed us in the family of God. We are living stones built together with him who is the living stone, into a house, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up sacrifices unto God. Fitted together and held together. Oh, sometimes we don't like that.
[00:26:31] Don't mind the being fitted together, but it's being the held together that's the problem. We get a kind of spiritual claustrophobia, sort of, oh, I want to get out.
[00:26:44] It's always because our self life is getting touched.
[00:26:48] So if there's anyone here who feels like sort of, I must get out, I must get out, I must get away from them.
[00:26:54] It's a sure sign that your self life is being touched. And when God first starts to touch our self life, we long to be some individual prophet in the wilderness where we can go out and stand for the Lord without being any feeling or being held together. But this whole work of the building of the body is a matter of being fitted together and held together. And indeed, this city which God is producing, is so fused together that it's like transparent glass. The whole thing has been fired into a unity so that we're all one in him. And through us comes the glory of God, fitted and held together. That's genuine relatedness, genuine fellowship. Now here we've got our relationship to one another. Whereas before growing up into in all aspects into hims, our relationship to him which is supreme, now we find our relationship to one another as we get our relationship to the head right and grow up in all aspects into him. So we should get our relationship with one another right.
[00:28:07] There can be no individualism, although there's every kind of originality.
[00:28:13] We never lose our individuality. But we do lose our individualism, and there's a difference. And fourthly, the phrase we have underlined earlier, the proper working of each individual part. Also verse 16, will you note, through every joint of supply, through that which every joint supplies through, literally through every joint of supply, according to the proper working of each individual part. Now, what a wonderful thing it is when every one of us is a joint of supply instead of a crack joint.
[00:28:50] Some of us are sort of arthritic joints in the body. And you know what arthritis does. Now, some of you are too young to know anything about arthritis, but those of you who are perhaps a little older, or shall we say, mellowing, maturing, you know a little bit more about arthritis in a joint.
[00:29:12] Arthritis, by the way, is just little crystals that sort of develop in the joint, and they don't half cause a lot of stiffness. People get up when they get up, they get up, and then they have to sort of walk a bit. You see, it's all very stiff. When a person's got arthritis of their arm, they find it hard. Just they have to sort of. It's not easy. It's not easy. Now, when we are arthritic joints, that's what we do to the church, and we say, oh, it was heavy, but we are sometimes the cause of the heaviness. We are arthritic joints instead of a joint of supply, instead of being one of those lovely movie easy to move joints that's just getting the whole body moving, we are sort of an arthritic joint through every joint of supply. Are you a joint of supply? And what is it you supply, may I ask?
[00:30:11] What is it you supply?
[00:30:13] It's not yourself you supply. In one sense, it is the spirit of Christ. The supply of the spirit of Jesus.
[00:30:21] You are supplying life. Life. I don't mean if there's death in you, that's why, so long as there's life in others, it's when there's death in others that we have the problems.
[00:30:32] So it doesn't matter if you're having a bad time, as long as everyone else is getting life out of you.
[00:30:37] Death in me. Life in you. That's what the apostle Paul said.
[00:30:41] Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Get used to it. Get used to feeling dead in order that you might give life to others. But, oh, may the God preserve us from all, giving death to everybody. Oh, you know, more, more. I'm here, and it's.
[00:31:00] God's got me here by his grace.
[00:31:04] There won't be much in this meeting. I know there won't. You know, that kind of attitude. We all have to things and so on. What are you going on for? Don't help us. We've heard it all before anyway, you know, that kind of thing. And of course, a great pall of death comes onto everything. Joint of supplies. When we come in, we may feel a bit down. But we say, thank God the Lord's here.
[00:31:26] And the Lord is going to have his way in this time. He's going to give something of himself. I'm a joint of supply. Proper working according to the proper working of each individual part. According to. According to. You see, God has put over you a little word. Almost a little word. According to the proper word.
[00:31:50] In other words, what's written over you. Though you may not always see it, is according to your proper working.
[00:32:00] Well, now, think about that. Each part functioning, every part a joint of supply. You're taking something from the Lord, deliberately passing it on.
[00:32:11] You're by faith, you're receiving. Now passing on. Do it as I'm speaking. If you haven't done it up to now. If you've been a dead weight on the dime, just say now, Lord, in my heart. Taking of you and passing it on. Taking you passing on. And we as a whole company are joined. Supply. That's another lovely thing. See, the whole church is only one church on earth. And so we as a whole company, we pray always every Sunday morning. Make us a joint of supply, Lord, to the body. Those who are suffering in Russia. Those who are suffering in China. Because a joint of supply. Because the body's only one. Spiritual things are not geographical. They're not a great distance.
[00:32:49] So we're only one family. Spiritual is only one spirit. He's here now, right at this moment. And he's in Russia at the same time. And he's in China at the same time. And he's in South America at the same time. And he's in Alaska at the same time. He's everywhere at the same time.
[00:33:04] Rather wonderful when we see it like that. And this means that we can be, as a company, a joint of supply. So as we meet together in freedom. We can, as it were, be the means of spiritual life coming to them. And suddenly someone who's a company or a group or attacked by the enemy. Is suddenly lifted up.
[00:33:24] They don't really know why. Have you ever felt like that?
[00:33:27] Well, it's probably someone else you see having an effect on you. Someone on the other side of the world. Remembering this wonderful truth. And saying, Lord, make me a joint of supply. To those poor people on the other side of the globe. And so it happens anyway, there we are. Now, that's the first thing. Then we must understand that the building up of the body of Christ is not only related to the main ministries, but to the proper working of each individual part. Now, the second thing which comes out of it, all these things are linked. The second thing, second great lesson we must underline is every single member of the body of Christ is answerable to God for what he has entrusted to them.
[00:34:09] Every single member of the body of Christ is answerable to God for what he has entrusted to them. Every one of us is responsible to God, from the apostle to the simplest believer in the church.
[00:34:28] Now, of course, our measure of responsibility may differ if I am just a very simple member of the body of Christ, and shall I say I'm just a help, I hardly know what my job is in the church except that I want to give Christ and I want to praise the Lord and I want to worship him. I want to love my brothers and sisters and share him with them. I don't know anything else. I'm very simple.
[00:34:53] But the Lord says, now you have got something to answer for. Now what have I got to answer for? I have got something of Christ. Is Christ in me? Is there something of the Lord in me? Now I am answerable to God for what I have of Christ. Maybe my gift is small, but I am answerable up to what has been given me. Do you understand? So now if you are a teacher of the young, one day you will actually answer for your teaching of the young.
[00:35:29] Don't think that one Lord. And so we're not bothered about little things like that.
[00:35:36] If we have had a class of young children, we are answerable to God for that.
[00:35:44] In the same way, an apostle like the apostle Paul is answerable to God for a worldwide ministry almost.
[00:35:53] And the Lord will, he has a much heavier responsibility upon him, or will say, now, look, you were caught up to the third heaven. You saw things, you heard things. I wouldn't even let you utter them. Now, you have a heavy responsibility. What did you do about these things? What did you do about the things which I told you, the things I told you to teach, the things I told you to pass on?
[00:36:15] All right, he has a heavier responsibility, but every single one of us is answerable to God for what he has entrusted to us to be responsible. Do you remember the Oxford dictionary definition? Liable to be called to account.
[00:36:34] Liable to be called to account. Answered.
[00:36:37] You are liable to be called to account. We know, of course, that every one of us will give account of himself before the judgment seat of Christ. This isnt the great white throne judgment, but every one of us must give account of himself. What does that mean? We shall be asked to account for what the Lord gave to us. Now, if you turn to ephesians again, chapter four, verse, we read this one sentence.
[00:37:10] Ephesians four, seven.
[00:37:13] But unto each one of us was grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
[00:37:22] Each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. So if Christ has given us a small gift, well, we've got grace to operate and fulfill that gift. If it's a huge gift, we've got grace to fulfill and operate that huge gift. Do you understand? So we are answerable. You see, God doesn't say, well, now, look here, Lance. You had some quite responsibility there in Richmond, and I understand that you failed. I really do. They were a difficult part, and there were many problems. I understand it entirely. I understand it entirely that you left this area fallow and you left that area fallow and you left the other. I quite understand it, of course. I mean, some of the others that had very little, I shall take it out on them.
[00:38:21] They had very little. And because they had a little gift, they should have been able to do something. No, none at all. Not even if God gave me a worldwide ministry could I get out of it, because the Lord will say to me now, lance, why did you fail in this matter? Answer. Answer. Give account.
[00:38:39] In what way did you fail?
[00:38:41] I made available to you grace.
[00:38:45] Grace sufficient for the fulfillment of that ministry, grace sufficient for the gift that I gave of Christ to you.
[00:38:54] Why didn't you fulfil it? Now, this is the explanation of the parable of the talents, why the Lord was so hard upon that one man who buried his little talent.
[00:39:07] I think we have to understand it. We also understand those words of Tim, of Paul, to Timothy, Timothy. He says in one Timothy six, verse, verse 20, guard the deposit.
[00:39:21] Guard that which is committed to thee. Guard the deposit. Literally. Or again in his second letter, two Timothy 114, where he says, I better just read that. Two Timothy 114, the deposit committed to thee. God, through the Holy spirit which dwells in you, that good thing which is committed unto thee, guard through the Holy Spirit.
[00:39:47] We must not only guard what the deposit that's been given to us, we must see that it works. In other words, the man who had the four talents, he got eight. The man who got two got four.
[00:40:01] We are to, as it were, exercise what God has given, to exploit what God has given to us, to every one of us, God has entrusted something of Christ. Now we must all answer for five things. There may be others, but five things came to me out of all that we've said over these sessions. Here are the five things we must answer for.
[00:40:23] Every one of us is answerable for the building up of the body of Christ. One corinthians 1426 let all things be done unto building up.
[00:40:34] Even a psalm, a hymn, a revelation, a tongue, an interpretation, all be done unto building up.
[00:40:42] Every one of us is answerable on this matter. Have I built up my brothers and sisters? Have I built up the body of Christ? There's no good saying, oh, but I prayed. I prayed so much for the church of God in China. God says, but what did you do about the saints that were living in the next street?
[00:41:00] What about those things where you actually live locally? Did you build them up? Did you bother? Did you contribute anything?
[00:41:10] One corinthians 310 15 if someone says, I'm not quite sure about what you're saying, but it's absolutely clear in one corinthians three, from verse ten to 15. I won't read all of it, but I will read this last part of verse ten. Let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ. If any man buildeth on the foundation. Gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble, each man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire, and the fire itself shall prove each man's work of what sort it is. Now, this isn't what you've got in yourself. This is how we often think of this. It's what you put into the building.
[00:41:53] Got it? What have you put into the building? If you look very carefully at this, most people understand it. What I did to myself.
[00:41:59] Have I got gold, silver present? No. It's what I contributed to the building of the body.
[00:42:08] Woodhey, stumble.
[00:42:11] Gold, silver, precious stone.
[00:42:16] We answer for this. Each man, as work, will be tried so as by fire.
[00:42:23] Secondly, we are answerable for the testimony of Jesus. Whether we understand it or not. We are answerable for the testimony of Jesus. We hold the testimony of Jesus in revelation 19 and verse ten.
[00:42:37] It says, and I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith unto me, see thou do it not. I am a fellow servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Now this comes immediately after this wonderful vision. Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad for the marriage of the lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And the word comes after that, I am a fellow servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus. That hold the testimony of Jesus. What does it mean? Well, you may not understand the testimony of Jesus, but this we can say, it is something to do with our relationship to one another, isn't it? For we know that the lampstand speaks of each church, not the church itself, but the testimony of Jesus in the church. And that is the meaning of the church. Once the lampstands gone, the church might as well cease, stop altogether. We hold the testimony of Jesus. And what does it mean? It means surely, first of all, purity. Purity.
[00:44:00] It means that we walk in want before God, and we shall be put to the test by our brothers and sisters in this matter. There's nothing like other fellow christians to besmirch us or to get us to besmirch ourselves. We all do it to each other. Oh, dear. We rub each other up the wrong way. We collide with each other, things we do, things we say. There's nothing like the church for bringing out the worst in us.
[00:44:29] It really is wonderful in this matter. And if you think that you are wonderful, well, first get into the church and you will soon find out something different. You will soon find out someone treads on your favorite corn, and then someone else will cross you in another way. And then something else, then something and all that sweet, gracious humility and love, and everything will suddenly crack up in an instant. And then for the first time, you're seen for what you really are. And then you've got to prove the Lord. That is church life. There's no such thing as stained glass saints. You know, people's idea of the church is that it's all made up of people with a beautiful little halo, very pale, milk white faces in hand.
[00:45:19] There are no such things, such saints. Theyve never existed, they never will. All real saints are quite ordinary, normal human beings with all the normal feelings of human beings, but theyre saved by the grace of God. Thats your position as a saint. And the second thing is to have to come to self revelation to understand that in ourselves we have nothing, but in God we have everything.
[00:45:42] The testimony of Jesus, purity. And I think that in this matter we have answerable, you see, for a pure spirit, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
[00:45:57] And this is actually related in revelation 22 five with the city, the servants that have the mark upon his name written on their forehead, they shall see him and they shall serve him. It's a special promise to certain hopes. Well now that's another testimony of Jesus. I think we are answerable to God for overcoming and contribution. Overcoming. You don't overcome by running away. Some people think they do. They can get away from the saints or get away into some other place. They'll overcome. You never will. You'll only overcome by staying with them. Let them trample all over you and you'll come out on top, farther down you go, the more up you come. This is the paradox of the gospel. If you will only let go of your name and your reputation and everything else, let everyone walk over you. God puts you up on top, and the lower you go, the higher you will come. And the higher you try to be, the lower down you will come. Now this is the wonderful thing about the church. Anyone who tries to be something, you can be perfectly sure if it's the real church, they'll pull in down in the end, and then they'll walk all over.
[00:47:09] I'm sorry to say it, but it's absolutely true, I found out.
[00:47:15] But if you go down, you will come up and the more down you go. Because this is the cross, the more down you go, the more up you come.
[00:47:30] And then I call that overcoming. It really is the matter of overcoming. It's the testimony of Jesus overcoming and our relationship to holding that testimony.
[00:47:41] And then thirdly, care for one another.
[00:47:45] If you want a verse for that, it's romans 14 from verse one right through to 15, and verse seven. And the whole chapter is on caring for one another, those that have got a weak conscience and so on. What we should do in it. In the middle of it it says, every man shall give account of himself to God as every believer, every one of us shall give account of himself to God. And the whole thought is, if you love your brother, you can't stumble him, not for food or for drink. You can't do it if you really love him. We care for one another, and I believe we're answerable to God for the way we care for one another. No good you saying yes, but I did understand it all, I really did. The Lord says, but how did you care for the saints? Did you love them? Did you care for them? And not only caring for them spiritually, but physically and materially, we have to care for each other in every way, love each other again. I think this matter of being answerable is a question of outreach.
[00:48:47] The Lord Jesus said, go and make disciples of all nations. Though I am with you always.
[00:48:54] And he said, if we don't warn them, their blood will be required at our hand.
[00:48:59] Now, this means we're answerable to God. I'm answerable for the people I work with or brush shoulders with, who I have not warned. If I am able to warn. Now, this doesn't mean that you go around being an absolute nuisance and blowing a huge trumpet in the office or somewhere else, or to the. And really appearing to be a crank, but it does mean that by your life, you become a warning to everyone and a beacon to those who want to find God. They can. And those who are going headlong in the wrong direction, they receive a warning from your life as well as your lips. And lastly, the matter of stewardship. One corinthians four, verse one to five. Really, basically, I put it in. In the word of the Lord Jesus in Matthew, freely ye have received, freely give, stewardship. Now, in all these ways, we are answerable. We can't get out of it. Every one of us here is answerable.
[00:49:58] And in all these matters, every one of us has an account to make to the law. We have to account for these matters.
[00:50:09] Now, you may say, but just wait. Building up the body. I haven't got a great gift of teaching.
[00:50:14] I haven't got a great amount of money that I can give one way or another. We're not saying that. We're saying this, that you may have the simplest contribution possible to make and the smallest contribution to make, but God will judge you on whether you have made that contribution or not. That's the point.
[00:50:32] That's the point. It's not that you said, well, I can't do it. It's that you've got a small contribution to make, which may be only scrubbing a doorstep or polishing a floor or doing some of this very small thing. But in doing it, God has taken note. You've done your part.
[00:50:51] You've discharged your responsibility.
[00:50:55] Then, thirdly, here's the third thing. A lesson also comes out of the other. The way we discharge that responsibility and behave in the church will determine our eternal service and position. Now, some folks don't like this too much, this idea. They'd much prefer to believe that there's going to be a kind of communist sort of equality in heaven. You know, everyone's going to be the same. But it does not say that. It says, one star differs from another star in glory. And there's very much in the scripture about this matter. And of course, we've already quoted Matthew 25, verses 14 to 30 the parable of the talent. I only give you two other scriptures in connection with this. Romans eight, verse 16 and 17. Romans 816 17. The spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. Theres an if that doesnt have any effect on our child, our relationship to God as children, but it has a very real relationship to our to the matter of being joint heirs with Christ.
[00:52:16] In other words, an heir is somebody who comes into everything.
[00:52:20] Were still children, but we may be disqualified from the inheritance.
[00:52:25] You all got it? I'm always a lamboat. No one can ever make me not a son of my father. But he could have disqualified me.
[00:52:36] I could have been disinherited, but he could never make me not a child of his. That's impossible now. We're all children of God, but we can be disinherited.
[00:52:50] This is what the apostle Paul said, having preached to others, fearful lest having preached to others, I myself might be a reject, not meaning salvation, but a reject over the inheritance. Then again, we have the same thing in two Timothy and chapter two, verse eleven and twelve. Faithful is the saying, for if we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer or endure, we shall also reign with him. The Lord Jesus said, he that overcometh will I grant to sit down with me in my throne.
[00:53:32] Our overcoming here our overcoming is here in the church on earth, in time and in a given place. We learned that from revelations, revelation, chapter two and three only this last weekend.
[00:53:49] The whole question of our overcoming is related to the church, not in eternity, but here on earth, in our relationship with each other, in the place where we live.
[00:54:02] There everything is put to the test. The gold, the precious stone, the pearl out of which the city is produced, is actually produced here in our local and personal situations. Where else, may I ask, is it produced?
[00:54:19] Does it just materialize somewhere up there like a fairy story?
[00:54:24] Where is christian character produced and developed?
[00:54:30] Where are the qualities of Christ wrought into a human life?
[00:54:36] Are there no down here? And they are. And it is worked in us and through us, in our situations which are personal and local, are they not? Those difficult circumstances at home, those difficult circumstances in the office, those difficult circumstances in the church? They are the very circumstance where God brings out hidden treasures of secret places, treasures of the darkness.
[00:55:10] Remember that wonderful promise of the Lord to the prophet. All thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted. I will lay thy stones with fair colours, marvelous bonds.
[00:55:29] Well, now its all down here that its worked out. Why is there always a man in these visions running around measuring everything wherever you go? In Ezekiel or Daniel or later on in revelation, if you want to look at it, revelation 20 115. Theres a man running around measuring something, but God knows very well the measurements. He doesnt need someone going measuring it here and then measuring it there. Another interesting thing is that he's measuring what is all of gold.
[00:56:02] What is this little man doing, this angel whatever? He's running around measuring everything up on every way all around. We always find him in the visions.
[00:56:14] Oh, what's he doing? He is seeing that not a single thing but Christ gets through.
[00:56:21] It's symbolic. What he's really saying to you is, look here, not a single thing other than what has been produced by the spirit of God in you is going to come into this building.
[00:56:38] Thus the smallest, most insignificant job or position becomes our probation. I've often wondered about the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of.
[00:56:49] I often thought that if only it had been more sensational in Hollywood style, maybe Adam and Eve would have woken up. But God doesn't do it that way. God finds us out in routine ways.
[00:57:05] Have you ever found that? Finds it out in the routine ways. In other words, he said, I think his perm, some people say, well, it's completely symbolic. I'm not sure I'm coming more and more to blame that the trees were literal, but that they stood for something literal trees, but stood for a tremendous spiritual reality behind them.
[00:57:25] Because I think that's just how they fell. The seven just came to where Eve and said, let that be silly. What? An apple?
[00:57:36] It wasn't an apple, but I mean, you know, fruit, whatever it was. Peach, apple, orange, lemon.
[00:57:42] I suppose it was a lemon.
[00:57:45] But I suppose you don't think that taking that's going to do anything. Do you think big God in his infinity is bothered about taking an addict should you die? Oh, don't be silly.
[00:57:59] God's. I mean, God's got the whole heavens to think about. The universes, if universes to think about. They all hold together in him just to bother him about some little bit of fruit.
[00:58:12] It's nice, isn't it? Looks very nice, doesn't it? Look, Father luscious. Go on, have it. You won't die. God knows very well when you take it, you'll be just like himself.
[00:58:24] Now, the point I've often thought is this. Don't you think that sometimes we are put on probation. We're asked to polish off the.
[00:58:33] And we don't realize it's just like the tree of life or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
[00:58:40] Think about that.
[00:58:42] We think, silly little thing. We're asked to be poetry. Oh, don't be silly. As long as I'm there. I mean, I've had an awful job to get there, that I'm late every single Sunday. I mean, God knows me.
[00:59:01] I did get up.
[00:59:06] But I mean, you know, really, we don't realize that. Sometimes it's the little things of which we're observation. We don't realize that. And it is those little things. As I've often said to you, a straw tells which way the wind is blowing. It's those little things. Have you noticed that Moses was keeping the sheep in the backside of the desert when God appeared to him?
[00:59:29] Gideon was threshing out wheat for his family. When God appeared to him, David could have easily got the kingdom. When Saul fell into his hands, God was actually testing him. If you look at Deuteronomy, chapter eight and verse two, it says, and thou shalt remember all, all the way which the Lord thy God hath led thee these 40 years in the wilderness, that he might humble thee to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or not. Now, the Lord knew very well when he thundered forth from Sinai, the people all stood back. And when the covenant, moses came down the covenant, and he read it to them, they said, we will keep it all.
[01:00:16] God wasn't taken in. You think God said, oh my, what consecration?
[01:00:23] What consecration? He knew very well it was not at that great dramatic point. That wasn't the point where he found them out. Where he found them out was when they got tired of the manor day after day after day.
[01:00:36] Where he found, that was when they kept on murmuring against the leadership and authority. That's where God found them out. The tree of life, tree of the knowledge of good, of evil again, and the routine thing. And it's interesting that in the big things, they did it after all. When Moses put the rod forward, they all went forward.
[01:00:54] No disobedience there. They all went forward on the big things. They were wonderful because it was easy to be.
[01:01:00] And evidently, every time the pillar of cloud and fire went on, they all packed up and went. No one said, I'm not going to go.
[01:01:07] It was too dramatic. Same with all of us. Every time God comes in with great blessing, everyone says, oh, it was wonderful. Marvelous. Absolutely. And then we start grumbling, and not then another week or two, and then we start, you say, oh, why should I?
[01:01:30] They just want drudges there, that's all. And anyone, no one ever paints me, and I shall never have my name up in a brass plaque in that place.
[01:01:47] You know, the kind of thing.
[01:01:49] So really what I'm saying is this, that in the most practical situations, often seemingly quite small, that God is conforming us to the image of his son. And just there he's. Whether there is love in our hearts, whether there is humility, whether there is loyalty, or whether there is faith, whether there is obedience, whether there is a keeping of the unity of the spirit. And all these were found out. Now, I said this to myself. Were all found out in the routine things, not in the big things.
[01:02:22] And God is not, interestingly enough, God is not taken in by the big things. Hes taken in by the small, small thing.
[01:02:29] God is not taken in by the big things. God finds us out in the small things. He tests our spirit in the general, routine, normal way. That's when we are found out. Now, there's a fourth point, the vital importance of a practical outworking of all that we've heard during this course. Now, of course, I mean, we ought to say that we need always to be doers of the word and not hear hearers, only deluding ourselves. I'm amazed at the way we can hear all these practical things and still go on in an impervious manner. Now, you don't know what I mean by being impervious, don't you?
[01:03:11] Sort of as if it's not there, as if we've never heard it.
[01:03:17] When we become doers of the word, we not only have a solid foundation under our feet, but the structure that is being built is strong and safe as well. Now, the Lord said this in Matthew 724 27. He said, he that heareth my word and doeth them, I will tell you what the kind of man he is like. He is like a man who built upon the rock. And when the floods came and the storm came, and the wind, it did not fall.
[01:03:55] But the man who heard and did not do was the man who just built on the sand.
[01:04:00] And when the floods came and the waters came up against it, it fell, and great was the fall of that house. Now, we just need, I think, to be teachable not only in the great principles, but in the small practical points. Now, again, you see, most of us, I think, are teachable on the great principles. We all sit there with our mouths open for. Wonderful.
[01:04:26] Wonderful.
[01:04:28] That was terrific. On Friday evening, all about the eternal purpose of God. Marsh, when it comes to the actual principles, we are mostly, most of us are teachable, but I mean, generally speaking, most of us are teachable when it comes to the big. But it's the practical details that find us out.
[01:04:57] We sort of shrug them off sometimes we're blind to the. As I've said, I won't say a lot about. But, I mean, we've still got people who pray into their hands.
[01:05:10] We've still got people who bury their head into a seat. I mean, I've said it now I don't know how many times I feel as each time I mention it, it's like being a parrot.
[01:05:23] It's amazing, isn't it?
[01:05:26] All other kinds of things, too. I could go into a whole lot of things.
[01:05:31] But do you know why? It's because. Because the attitude is this. It doesn't really matter so long as you are basically right toward the Lord.
[01:05:41] Yes, that's the attitude. As long as you've got the essence of the thing, it doesn't really matter. I mean, God's not bothered, is he?
[01:05:56] The Lord once told a story about five foolish virgins.
[01:06:05] When the bridegroom came, it wasn't any point that the five foolish virgins had got the thing. In essence, they had. If you look carefully at the story in Matthew 25, you will see that their lamps were going out. Not as many people think had gone out.
[01:06:25] They were going out. They still had oil in their lamps. When the Lord came. That's the interesting thing. But they had no reserves.
[01:06:34] But the Lord didn't say, well, I mean, in essence, it's okay, and they've got the thing. In essence, when the mop of the point came, the Lord came, and they were found out.
[01:06:44] While they went to get the reserves, the Lord came.
[01:06:52] You see, it's no good just saying, as always, it doesn't matter as long as you've got the thing. In essence, that's the thing that matters.
[01:06:59] Supposing when the Lord said, through the two spies to Rahab, now, wahab, you've done us good.
[01:07:08] When Lord gives us Jericho. And she believed that, and ere the whole walls of Jericho fall down, and she had an apartment on the walls, remember that your apartment will stay up by the power of God.
[01:07:27] But don't forget, hang a little red thread in the window. Now, don't forget that, Rahab, you know, the scarlet sword swear was the secret, but the enemy could have come to Rahab and said, rahab, dear, don't put up the scarlet thread in the window.
[01:08:00] I mean, it's inviting attention, isn't it? All the neighbours will say, something wrong with your kurt. And with old Rahab's curtain.
[01:08:08] Bit of stuff hanging down, ever, is it? You'll invite attention and they'll start asking you, what does it mean? And they'll go on and on asking you, you'll have a lot of trouble.
[01:08:20] I mean, after all, hasn't God made you a promise? And haven't you done the right thing? Isn't that the thing that matters? Not scarlet thread. Do you mean to tell me that your whole salvation depends on a little bit of thread? Course not. It depends upon the fact that you took in the spies and looked after them. That's what it depends upon. That's the essence of the matter. And the fact that God is going to display his power in keeping your apartment up on the walls. When the out west come down, your bit of the wall's going to stick up, stay up.
[01:08:57] Perhaps Rahab said, wonder. But they did say scarlet thread. They did say scarlet thread.
[01:09:02] I mean, she probably had relatives and others who said, what on earth? That little bit of stuff hanging up there in the window. Rahab, take it away.
[01:09:14] Maybe the devil said to Wahab, wahab, the Lord sees everywhere. You don't have to hang it in the window, dear.
[01:09:21] Hang it under your bed.
[01:09:24] He sees. I mean, of course, but that's what matters, whether the Lord sees, and he sees everything.
[01:09:30] Hang it under your bed. You still got scarlet thread. He knows and you know.
[01:09:36] But it was the scarlet thread in the window.
[01:09:41] She obeyed the Lord to the point, to the point of detail, right down to the smallest detail.
[01:09:50] She did. Supposing Moses said, it doesn't matter about the rod, Lord, does it? I mean, after all, it's your power that's splitting the Red Sea in two and so on. Doesn't worry about the rod. And anyway, you know. So anyway, I have to get out there, though. These people might get funny ideas about it. They might think Rod's a bit of magic.
[01:10:11] I mean, if I hold my hand up, it's more dignified, really, in that sort of rod, piece of wood in my hand.
[01:10:18] That's not what. That's not what is splitting the see into. But you see, the point was that they did what God told them to do, and so must you and I. We must be teachable. Sometimes, on some small little practical correction, hangs a whole new spiritual phase.
[01:10:37] Just a small point of dress, just a small point of behavior. Just a small point of the way you control, contribute in the gatherings or whatever it is. And upon that a whole world of blessing for you depends obedience. In some point there, do take it.
[01:11:00] So many things could have said. You remember when the lady was in great debt and she came to Elisha and she said, I'm in great debt. They're going to come take my son, sell the house over my head. And he said, have you got anything in the house? Oh, no. She said, nothing at all. Well, I've got a little pot of oil, you know, for cooking.
[01:11:24] So he said, well, now then, you take that pot and get every single pot and pan you can together and then pour out. Shut the door and pour it out.
[01:11:38] So she went, man, I suppose she got every pot and pan she could. I suppose she went to her neighbors and said, have you got any pots? I mean, any ditch you're not using. Could I just have them?
[01:11:48] And she got all her pots and pans. Crack pans?
[01:11:53] Yes, crack pots, all kinds of things. Didn't matter. What's the point of having a beautiful gold pot that's got something else in it? Couldn't take what God was going to do. What she wanted was empty pots. And she got all her empty pots, spread them over the whole floor and every part and the shelves and every single part she could. Now, the interesting thing is this, that when she started. When she shut the door and started pouring out, so the oil came and came until there wasn't a single pot that could take more. Now, someone has said, I wonder if there were more pots she could have taken. She could have become, in her own little way, quite a rich woman.
[01:12:30] For the oil would have gone on, according to the word of the prophet, till there were no more vessels to take it.
[01:12:39] Some of us are like that. We're not bothered about the details.
[01:12:43] We're just bothered about just getting a few things. Getting a thing, you know. The Lord is so marvellous. If he says the oil will not stay until there are no more vessels. You could have got every vessel in Judea into that place. She would have been a millionairess, an oil millionairess.
[01:13:04] She would. She would have had a lot in oil.
[01:13:09] The point is that I think sometimes that we don't take much note of small things. But it is often the small things that ruin a whole testimony or ministry. Dead flies, as we've said in the apothecaries, I cause it to stink. An unpleasant odor. The ointment's all right, but it's the dead flies. That are in it. Now, these dead flies could all be gnats, but you get enough in. And the beautiful perfume has a very unpleasant smell.
[01:13:42] All those little flop foxes that spoil the vines when they're in blossom.
[01:13:47] It's just these little playful foxes that come into divines. When they're all just at the point of blossom for pollination. And they play and they destroy the whole crop, whole harvest.
[01:14:03] We need, therefore, I think, to help one another in love, in loyalty. Now, we must be careful we don't all go around with sledgehammer, spiritual sledgehammers, or, you know, sort of taking a swipe at one another on these things. But it is also sometimes good and helpful in real love. After prayer, some of us are not aware sometimes of our mistakes, the mistakes we make.
[01:14:28] I've been amazed that I've been going around so just quietly saying different things. People say, one after another, someone's quite glaring things. People are not the least bit aware of it.
[01:14:43] And then we can put it right. We have to help each other in real prayer and fellowship. The last thing I just want to say is the necessity of a complete and utter giving of oneself to the Lord.
[01:14:57] Romans twelve one. It says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your spiritually intelligent worship.
[01:15:15] Now, just note that out of that giving of oneself completely to God comes the whole functioning of the church.
[01:15:27] All the verses from verses three onwards. All come out of this presentation, as it were, of ourselves to God. And nearly all our problems are half heartedness or being of two minds, are they not?
[01:15:44] Nearly all our problems in church life are because we really are not.
[01:15:49] We haven't got a single eye.
[01:15:52] We've got two minds on subjects and so on. What real use is our worship, our service, our contributions, unless it flows from a living sacrifice? And I think if we were, people sometimes said to me, oh, I wish I could really be what I ought to be. Well, in one sense, you never will be that until, by the grace of God, you settle it and become a living sacrifice. Now, a living sacrifice is exactly what it means, a living sacrifice.
[01:16:27] Once you settle it, then God can start to do so many things.
[01:16:35] And I think it's out of that kind of sacrifice that all the functioning of the body and all the many other things, right down to really what is spiritual character in the end, flows out.
[01:16:50] Well, now, there we are some things summing up. I suppose if we were to put it all in a tiny word, I think I would put it in two.
[01:17:07] Follow me.
[01:17:12] That's how I put it if you wanted it. In the end, everything in crystallized simplicity.
[01:17:21] Follow me.
[01:17:25] I think if we follow the Lord, we shall find the cross.
[01:17:29] If we follow the Lord, he will instruct us and make us to become fishers of men. If we follow the Lord, we shall come to the place where we find the cross. We either have to deny ourselves or love ourselves. If we love ourselves, we no longer follow him, deny ourselves, give up right to ourselves, take up our cross and go on. We go into something much deeper. And if we go on, we shall come to the spirit.
[01:17:58] Know something of the power, mighty power of the Holy Spirit upon us. And we shall also come to a real experience of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. All there. And follow me. I think if we had Peter the apostle here with us, or John, they would say, yes, it's all in those two words. Follow me. We followed the Lord. We thought we were so big, we thought we got something. We thought we could do things. We even went out sometimes, healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons. But we hadn't got it in ourselves.
[01:18:33] And then we began to make our mistakes. And we collapsed. We went down, down. In the end, we all forsook him. We all fled and forsook him. We were absolutely desolated. We were devastated. We didn't know where to turn. But then at that point, we began to see what the cross really meant. And a little while after that, after we'd found and met with the risen Lord, we were gathered together in that upper room when the Holy Spirit came.
[01:19:06] And when he came, suddenly, we, who were 120 units in a congregation, became 120 members of a body.
[01:19:20] And then it was as if the whole world started to get turned upside down. First Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria. And to the uttermost path.
[01:19:35] I always wonder whether the traditional story of the way Peter died is not, in fact true, that he, as you know, the apostle Paul was beheaded as roman citizens. But Peter was crucified. But when they came to crucify him, he said, crucify me upside down, because I am not worthy to be crucified in the same way as my master.
[01:20:06] And so tradition tells us, Peter was crucified upside down in Rome. And thus fulfilled the Lord's words to him. They shall carry you whither you would not.
[01:20:19] Whether it's true or not, we know he died, and we know that he followed his lord right through. It was following him that took him from being one who was a coward when it came to it and forsook his law to one who finally died a most terrible death by the grace and power of God then the Lord can do the same for all of us in whatever lies ahead in the future. May we know then what it is to follow him. Shall we pray?
[01:20:55] Lord, we can only ask thee in the words of the psalmist.
[01:21:00] Teach me thy way, o Lord.
[01:21:03] I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy name o dear Lord, we pray that we may all prove to be teachable to thy spirit.
[01:21:19] May it be, Lord, that every one of us shall, Lord, go on from this point with thee.
[01:21:27] May we really know what it is to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head. Even our Lord Jesus Christ fitted and held together through that which every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part. We ask it, dear Lord, for thy glory.
[01:21:55] Amen.
