Knowing the Lord - His Authority and All Sufficiency

[00:00:00] One Corinthians, chapter one, from verse 26, and I'm reading in the american standard version of 1901. [00:00:14] Well, behold your calling, brethren. Not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame them that are wise. And God chose the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the things that are strong and the base things of the world and the things that are despised. Did God choose, yea, and the things that are not, that he might bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory before God, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who has made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord and I. Brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. [00:01:59] Just a word of prayer. Lord, we thank thee so much that we are found here in thy presence this evening. And, Lord, as we have been worshipping thee and opening our hearts and spirits to thee, we do want to thank the Lord for the sense that thou hast received our worship. But, o Lord, we want now to ask, as we come to thy word, that thou wilt make it Lord, live to us. We need the illumination of thy spirit, Lord. Otherwise it will just be a little more academic intake from thy Bible. Lord, we pray that thou wilt in some way cause it to be the word of Christ, which dwells in us richly in all wisdom and knowledge. Take this written word, Lord, which is thy word, which is truth, through which thou dost sanctify us and make us clean. And we pray, Lord, will thou write it upon our hearts? To that end, we appropriate what we need for this evening of that anointing which is provided for us in the person of the Holy Spirit. For speaking, for hearing. We stand into that, Lord, that thy will for this time may be fulfilled. This we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. [00:03:29] In the 27th psalm. The 27th psalm. There is a very wonderful little statement by David in verse four. [00:03:43] One thing have I asked of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. [00:04:09] And I think it is a tremendous danger for those of us who are beginning to see something of the nature of the body of Christ and something of the nature of the church, that we begin to turn the church into a thing instead of understanding, as David did, that he only wanted to dwell in the house of the Lord, that he might behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple. In other words, he saw the house of God. He saw the temple of God. In putting it in New Testament language, he saw the church of God, the spiritual house of God, of which we are living stones built up with Christ. [00:04:57] He saw that as a place in which we could view the beauty of the Lord, through which we could, as it were, see the Lord and come face to face with the Lord and worship the Lord and know something of the unveiling of the heart of the Lord. He saw it as a place to inquire in. In other words, there he could find the answers to his perplexities. There he could discover the mind of the Lord for this universe. There he could find and discover the mind of the Lord concerning man. There he could find the mind of the Lord for the church. [00:05:45] He could get an understanding of the times in which he lived by inquiring in that temple, and thus be involved practically in the fulfillment of the purpose of God. The house of God was never just somewhere where one could escape from the world and forget everything, but was a place where we not only saw to see the beauty of the Lord, but were to understand the will of the Lord and thus become practically involved in its realization and fulfillment. Now it seems to me that this seeing of the Lord is all important. I dont have to remind you that Isaiahs whole ministry began in the day that he saw the Lord high and lifted up. It is recorded in Isaiah, chapter six. And although it is the 6th chapter, in fact it is his testimony of how his whole ministry began. And he said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. He didnt see the Lord trapped within the temple, limited by the temple, enclosed by the temple. He saw the temple as the means through which the beauty and the glory and the majesty and the holiness of the Lord was revealed. That is a tremendous view of the church. I think not to see it as some kind of New Testament pattern in which we trap God, in which we encompass God, and which, in the end, becomes a terrible bondage to all of us as well, something which becomes the means through which the majesty and the glory and the power and the holiness of God is made known. And then, of course, again we have these wonderful words in Philippians end chapter three and verse ten in the testimony of the apostle Paul, that most remarkable of all testimonies in the New Testament. When he says, talking about counting all things that he had before saw as gain, he counted them to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my lord. Verse ten. He says that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, that I may know him. [00:08:43] I think that that should really be the aim and the motto of every born again believer. And if that was to remain our aim and to remain our practical motto, I do not think we could go far wrong that we might know him. [00:09:05] For the more we know him, the more balanced we shall become, the more full we shall become, the more deeply experienced we shall become, and the more broken we shall become. Because there is a sense in which the more we know him, the more we realize how finite we are and how little we really do know of the. It is a funny thing that if you know the Lord very little, you tend to think that you know a lot, and if you know the Lord very deeply, you tend to feel you know very, very little. It's because as you tasted him, you realize there is so much more to go on into, so much more to possess, so much that is yet unexplored of the Lord. Well, now, I won't say any more in introduction, but I want, in these two evenings to talk about knowing the Lord Jesus. And I want to talk about it in terms that perhaps are often not thought about. I mean, we speak about knowing the Lord in a personal devotion and in our walk with the Lord, which is vitally important. It's fundamental. But I would like to touch on one or two matters that perhaps are not so often spoken about, ways in which we need to know him. [00:10:30] And the first is, I think we need to know him as our all sufficiency. [00:10:37] Our all sufficiency. What a wonderful statement that is in one corinthians, chapter one and verse 30. But of God are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us, wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, that he that glorieth that rather according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. What a marvelous statement. This simply says that if you're born again, if you're saved by the grace of God, God himself has put, placed you in his son. That is your position, my position tonight, by the grace of God alone. So the finished work of the Lord Jesus alone is in him. God has placed me in him. And if you're saved, you also are in him, and then God makes him to us. Wisdom from himself, both righteousness, sanctification and redemption. I mean, you can't get much beyond that. [00:11:55] I mean, when I think of all these theological seminaries, sweating it out, trying to work out these three things, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, it is simply amazing. I mean, righteousness, not my righteousness, it's his righteousness. It's justification. It's an amazing thing to be declared righteous. God himself. Do you know that you've actually been declared righteous by God himself? That's what it means, justified. He has justified you on the basis that Jesus died for you. That's why the apostle Paul says, who is he that condemneth? [00:12:36] It is Christ Jesus who died, who was raised, and who is at the right hand of God the father, whoever liveth to make intercession for us. And he says, who is he that condemneth? It is God that justifies. [00:12:58] Now, this means God says of you, it's just as if you never sinned. That's how one old saint put it, just as if you never sinned. How is that possible? Because every one of us has sinned, and many of us have sinned very, very deeply. The scars and consequences are with us all through life. But the wonder is this, that because the Lord Jesus died in my place, God has transferred the righteousness of his son to me and my sinfulness to his son. Now people say, I can't believe it. I really can't believe it. That is too much. But the Bible says it. [00:13:38] Listen, the lamb. Behold the lamb of God, who taketh away or beareth away the sin of the world. [00:13:46] It's gone, blotted out like a thick cloud, as far as the east is from the west. [00:13:56] That's how far God has removed our sins because he placed it on his son. Now the wonder of it is this, that the apostle Paul, by the Holy Spirit said, him who knew no sin, God made to be sin in our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him, but of God are ye in him who was made unto us righteousness. [00:14:27] Now I have a righteousness that is not my own. It is God's righteousness transferred to me, given to me. And God has declared me righteous on the basis of the death of his son in my behalf. And that is an eternal standing before God. Not anything in heaven, on earth or in hell can accuse me in the sight of God. Because God has declared me righteous. Now, just to put a word of warning in here, this doesn't mean say, because its not my righteousness, I can do anything. Because it must not only be, as we say, imputed righteousness, it must be imparted righteousness. That is, not only are we clothed in righteousness, but the righteousness gets into us. And then we know what it is the Holy Spirit to produce those fruits. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, faith, gentleness, self confidence, all those things. It's not only just a garment of but it is also an imparted righteousness. But isn't that wonderful? I mean, I would be helpless and hopeless, but for that. So God has made the Lord Jesus sufficient. I'll never be righteous. Oh, dear, I don't match you, but I could work on this a million years. I'd never be righteous. [00:15:46] I'd be a neurotic, but I'd never be right. I know people who've done their work, their fingers to the bone, to be righteous. But it's impossible because we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. [00:16:03] So there is no possibility of it. But, oh, the all sufficiency of the Lord Jesus, that he is sufficient righteousness for God. [00:16:12] In other words, God sees me and says I can accept him. [00:16:16] How could he possibly accept me? God sees me because his standard is absolute, not relative. He doesn't say, well, Lance is a bit better than Adolf Hitler and a little better than Brezhnev and Kosygin and a few others like that. I think I'll take him. [00:16:35] No, God's standard is not relative. God's standard is absolute. [00:16:40] If I don't come up to that standard of absolute righteousness, I may be 99%, but God doesn't. Sort of wait, say, well, I'll take him. He's 99%. [00:16:49] God's standard is absolute. If I fall short, I fall short of the glory of God. Now that means we're all shut up to sin. [00:16:58] But thank God, we're all shut up to grace. [00:17:02] Because God has given the Lord Jesus in a sufficient way for this matter so that the righteousness which is mine in him is absolutely acceptable to God. And God opens his arms and embraces me, a sinner, he can absolutely clasp me to himself. And if I say, oh, but, lord, my sins, my sins. He says, what sins? [00:17:30] I see no spot in you. [00:17:32] I see nothing. Do you remember when the children of Israel were down there and Balaam came and Obelak tried to pay him a bribe to say something nasty about the people of God down in the valley? And he said, yes, I've come because he liked money. And he came and stood there and he got the bribe, and then he couldn't. The Lord came upon him and he said, I see Jacob, and I see no spot in him. But my goodness me, a month or two before, half of them were dead because of the sins they'd committed. [00:18:04] And yet the Lord said, in the mouth of Balaam, I see no spot, because they were covered with the righteousness, they were justified in the sight of God. Now, this is the most wonderful thing you see. What does it mean to have sufficient? Well, all of you will, I think, understand this. If I said that you went down to do shopping and you had to get 15, shall we say, dollars worth of goods, and you had only $11 in your wallet or purse, you have not got sufficient. [00:18:46] And when you come to the checkout, or whatever you call it, on this side, being over here, I still don't know what you call it. We say the till. [00:18:55] It is very good, isn't it? Till, the till. [00:19:01] When you get to the till, you're a nervous wreck because you think, now, have I got enough? Have I got enough? And when she wings it up and you suddenly see that you have to start fiddling through taking things out, you have not got sufficient. But supposing you have $20, you've got sufficient. You're not a nervous wreck. You've got enough. You have sufficient for the need. [00:19:32] Now, I find this very wonderful, because we just haven't got $20. We've got fathomless, unsearchable riches in the Lord Jesus. They're just inexplorable. [00:19:44] They're all ours. Now. He doesn't give them all to us at once, but they're all there, and they're all in our name, in him. [00:19:52] They've got to be. The promises have got to be countersigned, and then they're ours. [00:20:00] But the wonderful thing is that it doesn't matter what emergency you come up, what problem you face, what difficulties you have. The Lord Jesus is sufficient for those problems because it goes on to say he's not only made unto us righteousness, why do you think that God's ever going to unveil yourself? Some of you say, Lord, I need to see myself. I need to. I've heard Brother Stephen and I've heard loss. I've heard somebody else and they've talked about knowing ourselves. I need. And the Lord doesn't show you yourself. He can't. [00:20:33] Because if you're not strong on justification, the Lord dare not show you yourself or you would think you'd lost your salvation. [00:20:43] Its only when you know that the Lord Jesus is sufficient righteousness for your eternal standing that God can begin to show you what youre really like. And then little by little, he unveils so that you really see how rotten you are, how hopeless you are. Like the apostle Paul, ive often told you, wrote a letter early on in his life and called himself the least of all saints and wrote a letter just before he died calling himself the chief of all sinners. [00:21:10] He progressed from the least of all saints to the chief of all sinners. So the nearer he got to the Lord and the more he saw of the Lord, the more he felt that he was unworthy. But he knew his standing with God was not what he was or what he was not, but what the Lord Jesus was and what the Lord Jesus had done. And thats marvelous. That is a righteousness which is sufficient and that is an eternal foundation for every true believer. Sufficient, wonderful. But sanctification, all the problems about sanctification, second blessings, holiness, third blessings, fourth blessings, and I dont know what else we have. And the baptism of the spirit, praise the Lord for that anointing of the Holy Spirit, gifts of it all comes in this whole great subject of sanctification. [00:22:00] Well, praise the Lord. It says, in spite of all the many differences of doctrine and outlook and experimental details, it is the Lord Jesus who is made unto our sanctification. So in one sense, it doesnt really matter how we enter into more of him, so long as we enter in. [00:22:19] The great thing is to really enter in, in a practical, living way into what is ours. In the law. Theres always more and more and more and more of the Lord to be known and to be experienced and possessed. [00:22:34] Praise the Lord. Hes sufficient. Do you really think that he saved you? You are his child. And then hes tipped you out into some dark, evil world that he himself says lies in the evil one and said, now, as it were to a six month old babe, get on with it. [00:22:53] The world is a wicked place. [00:22:56] Just pray that I lead you not into temptation and deliver you from the evil one. But you're on your own now. [00:23:06] I don't believe God would ever do. No father would do that with a child of his. No mother would dream of doing it with a child of hers. I mean, the facts of the matter is, do you not think that God has made provision for you? And do you not think that God knows every single thing about your circumstances, your family problems, your inherited trays or whatever else that gets you down? [00:23:34] As if suddenly you discover something about your family and there's a crisis in heaven, as is, like father, son and holy spirit sort of saying, we did. We. We had no idea. [00:23:51] No idea about Lance. He suddenly discovered about his background and it's a terrible shock to him. Well, we didn't know. [00:24:00] Well, we better give him more grace. [00:24:05] Help him before he thinks. No, of course not. I put it very irreverently, almost blasphemously, but you understand what I'm trying to get at. The fact of the matter is this, that when God saved you, you were an open book. Do you know that when you were in your mother's womb, you were known? So all the genes that made you, all the little things that somehow came together to make the person you are, the personality you are, with all your weaknesses and frailties, as well as your strong points, your advantages and bounces, God knew it all when you were in your mother's womb. He knew you by name. [00:24:40] He knew your whole life is an open. Good job we don't know all that's ahead of us, but he does. It's all open in one great open book. The whole. All the chapters through to Feeney, the end. It's all there. [00:24:56] And you mean to tell me that he knows everything about you and hasn't made some sufficient provision for you? If you've got difficult circumstances, you've got peculiar grace, if you've got emergencies, then there's going to be singular power provided for you to overcome at the moment the emergency begins. You won't get it months beforehand. You'll get it when the time comes. Have you ever noticed that? When? When has come a time of great persecution or great toughness in the work of the Lord in some area of the earth, just before there's an outpouring of the Holy Spirit? [00:25:37] It happened in China in 19, 26, 27. It happened just before the Boxer revolt in China, 1901. It happened in Russia just before the takeover of Marxism. It happens again and again. It's as if the Lord is saying, now, here's a special power, a special equipment, a special grace and anointing for them because they're going to go through something. [00:26:06] So I mean the Lord is never taken by surprise and he himself said upon this rock I will build my church. You don't think that he sort of somehow delegated the whole responsibility to others? No, of course not. He knows exactly what he's doing and as a master builder he knows exactly what is coming up in the way of problems and he has made provision. The Lord Jesus is sufficient. Praise God. Some people say they don't need the power of the Holy Spirit. Well if they feel they don't need the power of, let them get on with it. Don't let argue, let them go on. Praise the Lord. Love them. [00:26:47] Some people say to me there's no such thing. Someone said to me just a few days ago, no such thing as a second experience or anything else. Got it all at conversion. [00:26:58] Well I said well praise the Lord. I'm glad you got it all at conversion as long as you're experiencing it. [00:27:09] If you're not experiencing it then of course we're in problems and it's no good just sitting down saying I've got it all at conversion, praise God. When we know very well that we're not in the good of it then we've got to find, we've got to seek the Lord. You know, sometimes people have said to me, I knew brother Sparks very, very well and was with him in many different conferences and came across and we had much really deep fellowship in many things in the years, particularly between 19 51 52 through to about 1965 66. And you know the one thing that gripped me about Mister Sparks ministry for he was really a prophet raised up by God to his own generation that he was always saying go on, go on, go on. There's more of the Lord to be possessed, there's more of the Lord to be tasted, there's more of the Lord to be experienced. And yet I hear many people tell me that Mister spouse said never go on, got it all. [00:28:19] Mister spouse never said anything of the kind. What he did say was you've got everything in the Lord Jesus, now go in and possess it. Thats a very different thing to say that you have everything on the basis of the finished work of the lamb. That is absolutely correct. But to have to go in and possess it and experience it, go on to taste the Lord and possess our possessions, inherit our inheritance as he used to say, that means weve got to go on. Well the Lord is sufficient, there is no problem, no need. [00:28:52] Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. What a wonderful word that is. Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God. [00:29:05] Well, that's a very simple thing to have to overcome the world with. It doesn't just mean up here, it means here. [00:29:14] So I find it's wonderful to think of this efficiency of the Lord Jesus. Oh, how wonderful it really is when I look at that verse in Colossians chapter two in verse nine. For in him that is in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily, and in him ye are made complete or ye are made full. Now isnt that a wonderful word to dwell on? In him ye are made complete, sufficient. [00:29:48] And I find this wonderful. If I look at myself I know I'm not sufficient, but if I look at him I know he is sufficient. Now there are two ways to look at this. I either look at myself and say, it's no good, I can't do it, it's impossible. The problem's too much, the circumstances are too difficult. I have inherited too great a difficult difficulties and so on and so forth. The enemy is so powerful and the Lord's people are so difficult and all the rest of it, you know, and then I think, or I might say, but he is, he is powerful, he, but you know, we can say he is powerful and he is reigning and so on, but he's sort of all up there, you know. Of course I'm insignificant little member of the body and never visit me. And of course I know he reigns. Thank God for that. But I mean he's not going to use little me, some of these big names, of course he's going to use, but not me. But you see, it is a wonderful thing to see that the Lord is in us, but of God are ye in Christ Jesus who was made, who was made unto us, wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. [00:31:13] Well, I found this so marvelous to be made complete. [00:31:18] I can't imagine that anyone's going to be complete in a moment. I think it's going on. You see, you're being filled is related to your spiritual capacity. [00:31:32] Now you can have a very small spiritual capacity and it may be filled to overflowing. Well, thank God for that. If you're a babe, that's all that's required. But if you go on, the Lord will take you through a few difficulties or through experiences, through some circumstances and you prove him and you come out with a bigger capacity. Now what you had of fullness sinks to the bottom, you understand? Before it was fullness, now it's gone to the bottom. [00:31:58] And this is what happens in spiritual experience, you see, you can't rely on an experience you had four years ago. You've got to know the Lord today. [00:32:07] An initial breaking of the spiritual sound barrier. You may have to know, you understand what I mean? But then you've got to know what it is to be being filled with the holy spirit all the time. [00:32:19] And you see. So when the Lord enlarges your spiritual capacity, suddenly you will fall to a flying. [00:32:26] It goes down. And then you say, oh, what's happened to my experience? [00:32:32] And you begin to feel hungry again. [00:32:35] If you don't realize that, you've got to appropriate the Lord and enter into more of the Lord and go on with the Lord till you're full to overflowing again. And then there'll be a time when the Lord will do a bit more with you and your capacity will grow larger. Do you understand that? He is sufficient. [00:32:52] It is really marvellous, isn't it? Do you know that God gives you enough faith for the function you have in the body? [00:33:01] Yes, it is beautiful, actually. [00:33:04] Not because I said it, because the Lord said it. [00:33:07] It's in Ephesians. For it says is that we have a measure of faith given to us according to it says verse seven. But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Now, in Romans chapter twelve, I think it is, if you want to just compare it. Romans, chapter twelve and verse. [00:33:35] Yes, verse three. Last part. But so to thinkest, to think soberly, according as God has dealt to each man, a measure of faith. [00:33:46] Now, does this mean that God has given Mike here and Harrison here and Alan here and me the same measure of faith? No, what it means is this, that if I'm just a helping the body, I shall have enough faith given to me to function as a help. [00:34:08] And if he's an apostle, he'll give enough faith given to him to function as an apostle. [00:34:15] God never wastes. [00:34:17] He doesn't give me faith flowing out of my ears, you know, which is no use. [00:34:23] He gives me grace and faith according to my gift. So it's sufficient. [00:34:29] It's wonderful to have sufficient. You see, when the Lord gave them manna, he gave them sufficient for each day. You know, it would have been so lovely to have gone out and sort of rushed around and gathered it all together like a busy little beaver and then take it all in and say, phew, like a good american housewife. I haven't got to go shopping again for a week. [00:34:53] The Manna in on Monday morning. [00:34:59] But no, you had. You know what happened to the manna? God given. Manna given by the grace of God. [00:35:07] He got worms if you kept it over a day. [00:35:13] Now, I dont want to say that the grace youve got will get worms if you try to keep it. But this is what we all tried to do with spiritual things. We try to get a great abundance where we can put in a deep freezer spiritually, you know, and sort of store it. But you can't do that because God never gives you more than you need till the moment you need it. [00:35:37] When you need it, the Lord is sufficient for whatever it is. So whatever your problem is today, the Lord's grace is sufficient. Tomorrow you may have a much greater problem. You'll have greater grace and greater faith. But praise the Lord, our Lord never fails. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Praise God for that. And then, of course, there's not only this matter of his being sufficient, because the apostle says that John says in John 116 of his fullness, we all receive in grace added upon grace. I've often thought about that grace multiplied upon grace or grace added upon grace. Because what it means is this, that every time we taste fullness in the Lord Jesus, we experience more of his fullness is through the grace of God. And each time we have a deeper experience, it's by the grace of God. And all the grace is there to know all the fullness. So all through life there is grace that you might know the fullness of God sufficient. I praise the Lord for that. But what about this other wonderful thing about redemption? [00:36:47] You see, this matter of being declared righteous has a matter to do with our spirit. It speaks of being justified in the spirit. It speaks of the spirits of just men made perfect, justified men, you see? Marvellous. Really. And this matter of sanctification is all to do with the winning of our souls. Remember where Jesus said, in your patience, win ye your souls or possess ye your souls. That's your whole area of your personality, the whole area of your emotions, your willing and your reasoning powers. That's the whole realm where we have so much problem. That's the realm where somehow it's got to come under the government of the Holy Spirit. [00:37:27] But what about this redemption? [00:37:30] In the 20th century we do so we don't put any emphasis on this redemption. It's very, very remarkable. I suppose it's because we're children that reflect the culture of the generation in which we live and the generation in which we live is afraid of death. [00:37:48] I mean, we have these ten minute funerals, you know, and sort of look the other way. I mean, as if we can't bear to face the fact of death. Now, in the old days, they went the other extreme and they were almost morbidly fascinated by death, you know, of course, you may be thankful to the Lord, but if you're on my side, I could take you to little old parishes going back to the 11th century, just a walk from Halford House. And all round the altar are skull calf out of stone, and all Father time with his scythe, coming with his lantern, and all the sort of souls falling into pits, you know. I mean, can you imagine sitting in a place like that, listening to the gospel, having all this around you? [00:38:38] It's amazing. But they had almost. It wasn't really. You see, death was on every side and they wanted to remind everybody that death was ever present and that the only way to be saved was the Lord Jesus. But you see, because they had this incredible confrontation with death that they were not afraid of, they also put a tremendous emphasis upon the resurrection of the body. [00:39:05] And this is a thing that modern christians have lost. [00:39:09] Do you know, sometimes I almost wonder whether we modern christians believe in the redemption of the body, because, you know, many christians, they just seem to think, oh, I'm not bothered about the body. [00:39:22] I mean, I'm saved. They can do anything with my body, cremate it, do anything they want with it, I'll be gone. [00:39:33] I'm not so sure that you can just take that attitude. I'm sure you'll be gone, praise the Lord, and you'll be in the presence. But it says that they will be raised incorruptible. [00:39:45] Not that when those spirits come with the Lord Jesus, then new bodies will float out of heaven with them, but from the very place where they were buried, where they were, as it were, dust to dust, ashes to ashes, the atoms will come together by the word of God and new bodies. [00:40:02] I think that's absolutely marvellous. I really do, and I'm terribly excited. [00:40:11] It doesn't excite people anymore in the 20th century, does me? I don't know why. I must have a morbid fascination with death, but I just find it so exciting to me. It's an absolute miracle that you see people get so frightened of bombs. And those are very famous author. Some of you may have read some of her books as an english author, has been a chinese missionary for many many years with the China in the mission. Phyllis Thompson, she was in, she was in Jerusalem a little while ago, and the friends were warning her to be very careful about any plastic bags or any other kind of box or bag left around. They said, if you see anything in the foyer or anything just inside a bus or get out quickly, get out. Don't ask questions. Move. [00:40:59] So she said, why, she's a white haired lady and a typically english lady. She why? [00:41:05] And they said, well, we don't want you blowing up. You don't want to be killed, do you, by bomb? [00:41:12] And she turned round and said to them, and I'll never for never forget it. She said, I'm not afraid of a bomb. [00:41:22] She said, I'd much rather be blown into the presence of the Lord than spend the last years in some retirement home. [00:41:32] And I said, well, good for you, Phyllis. [00:41:38] That's the kind of spirit I mean. The rest is just not faith. Personally, I think it might be better to be blown into the presence of the Lord than to spend all. I wonder which is the most difficult, spending two, three years sort of, sort of flaking out in a retirement home. [00:41:57] First your sight going, then your hearing going, then your limbs going, or blowing into the presence of the Lord. There he is in all his glory. [00:42:05] I don't know. What would you choose? [00:42:10] I mean, people sort of say, oh, I don't want a nuclear war. My dear friends, do you think a nuclear bomb is going to blow you to pieces so God can't bring you together again? [00:42:20] Really? You think a nuclear bomb can blow your spirit to pieces? It can do absolutely nothing to you. If you're in Christ and Christ is in you, no nuclear bomb can touch you. You're in the safest deep shelter there is. [00:42:35] And listen again. Let me just say something else about this. On this matter of bodies, you see, we don't think the apostle Paul has been 2000 years in a grave. [00:42:49] Where have all those, where's that dust gone? [00:42:54] And yet, at the resurrection, we're not going to get there. If we remain alive to the coming of the Lord, we're not going to get there first. But the dead in Christ shall rise first, and there the apostle Paul will be with a new body. Well, where does it come from, may I ask? [00:43:12] By the word of God, somehow that dust that has gone everywhere will come back. People say to me, what happens to those, you know, that were sort of buried at sea or whatever else? Burnt in vessels, of course. Exactly. God knows, you know, we human beings may. Electronic brains that can spew out information about everything in a few minutes. And yet God gave the capacity to create and produce an electronic brain. I mean, God's got a brain, an intelligence, if I may so speak, of him, that can sort out anything in a single moment. A thousand questions, all coming to him at the same time. A sort of. Everyone knows exactly the name of each person who's asking the question. [00:44:00] Do you know that at this very moment there must be something like a hundred thousand prayers going up to God on this earth? And God knows every one of them, sorts them all out and knows every person by name? [00:44:15] I think it's wonderful. I'm so glad he's not like us. [00:44:20] I mean, I get irritated with people, quite honestly. [00:44:25] I keep down my taking people on these tours to Israel to one a year, because it irritates me so much. [00:44:32] I'm not saying that I got irritated with the group that last came with me, but, oh, dear, talk about Moses going. [00:44:43] Talk about Moses going to say something and. And then someone says, excuse me, what's that building? You've just been spending five minutes explaining it. [00:44:54] You feel like getting a club and beating them to death. [00:44:59] But the Lord isn't like that at all. The Lord has the most marvelous patience and love and grace with all his children. He knows us, understands us, and he's not like me, and he's not like many others are much more gracious than me. [00:45:17] He is so understandable and so firm. [00:45:22] No, you can't pull the wool over God's eyes. You can't twist him around your little finger. You can't deceive him. He sees clean through you, and he loves you all the same and often understand the very motives that are making you try to twist. Twist him round your finger, but he'll sort you out. There'll come a time when he'll have you around his little finger, but it'll take quite a bit of time. [00:45:51] But you see, this matter of really, of the all sufficiency of the Lord Jesus in the matter of our bodies is wonderful because it means that not only have we been declared righteous, not only are we being sanctified, but we're going to receive a new body. [00:46:08] Now, I find that so exciting. And so I think it goes to the root of all this fear amongst the Lord's people. Now, you on this side, I'm not so sure that you are so afraid about the events at the end, as we are in Europe and in the Middle east and in the far east. [00:46:28] The reason being that we, we have experienced firsthand where we are on our very soil, war after war after war. And people have seen firsthand with their eyes as civilians, the kind of things that come with war. We know what it means, and we know the terrible cruelty and wickedness and privation of war. But you see, I fear sometimes on this side you don't because of a certain isolationism, because of the vastness of the american continent, that you don't always realize what is happening in the world day to day. I wish I could say more about that, but I won't, for fear it may be misunderstood. But I'm amazed how I can go around the state that no one has heard the news, whereas in our part of the world, where everyone listens to the news and everyone will tell you the news within a few moments of anything happening. And although we're a little island, we know what's happening in Australia or India within hours of it happening. [00:47:32] And so we feel we're worried about what's happening. We know where we're on the edge of a precipice. We know we're sitting on a gunpowder that's going to go off at any given moment. [00:47:48] And for that reason, many believers are afraid, and they're afraid to read the book of revelation. I know many who say, I dare read the book of revelation. They say, I'm so afraid of it all those terrible visions of beasts and false prophets and martyrdom and worldwide antichrist, anti God systems and persecution and so on and so forth. But you know, dear friends, the root of this whole problem is the redemption of the body. [00:48:18] Because when you realize that the Lord Jesus said precisely in connection with persecution and losing one's life for his sake and the gospels, he said, and not a hair of your head shall perish. [00:48:36] Now, I have never seen as far hairs on the spirit. [00:48:45] In other words, our Lord was not referring just to our inward salvation. He was referring to our body as well. As if he was saying, now, if I am going to take care of your bodies, so that in the end your bodies will be given back to you, only new ones like unto mine. Resurrection bodies, redemption bodies, don't be afraid. How much more will I take care of your spirit and your soul? [00:49:11] The sufficiency of Christ. We have nothing to fear. You know, it's no wonder to me that some of those Old Testament saints went to their death with such absolute faith. [00:49:26] They knew that even when dying, they were winning, because the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. [00:49:41] Well, now you see, theres so much in this subject and im only just talking about the sufficiency of Christ. Id just like to say something about the authority of Christ. Maybe well end there tonight and then well go on to something else. Perhaps tomorrow. But if you turn to Colossians and chapter one and verse twelve I'll read from verse twelve of Colossians, chapter one. Giving thanks unto the father who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. [00:50:23] Who delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the son of his love in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were all things created in the heavens and upon the earth. Things visible and things invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or principalities, bodies or powers. All things have been created through him and unto him. And he is before all things. And in him all things consist or hold together. [00:50:59] And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. That in all things he might have the preeminence. For it was the good pleasure of the father that in him should all the fullness dwell. And through him to reconcile all things unto himself. Having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him I say whether things upon the earth or things in the heaven. [00:51:26] Theres another way in which I think we have to know the Lord Jesus. And it is we need to know his supremacy. [00:51:35] His supremacy is not enough. Just to know his all sufficiency, we need to know his supremacy. [00:51:46] That is that God has made the Lord Jesus king of kings and lord of lords. He has made him head over all things to the church, which is his body. The fullness of him who fills everything in every now. To know the supremacy of the Lord is something tremendous. Because God has made him absolute lord. [00:52:16] Not a figurehead, but absolute lord. Now, don't you think these words in Colossians are wonderful? It says, for in him were all things created in the heavens and upon the earth. Things visible and things invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. Did you get that? It means everything unseen. All the principalities, dominions, powers, thrones in the unseen were created through him. And it says, furthermore, he is before all things, and in him all things hold to together. And he is the head of the body, which is the church. That in all things he might have the preeminence. Now to have the prominence is not the same as having the preeminence. Jesus is prominent in some things he's not preeminent. Jesus is prominent. In some lives he is not preeminent. [00:53:18] Do you know the difference between something that's prominent and something that's preeminent? [00:53:22] Something thats prominent mean that it has just a portion of that life and is reasonably noteworthy. [00:53:31] I think that in many christians lives the Lord Jesus is reasonably noteworthy. [00:53:38] He has not been allowed to do the work he would like to do in those lives. In many churches Jesus is reasonable, reasonably noteworthy, but he's not been allowed to do the kind of work he would like to do and wants to do there. The difference between him being prominent and preeminent is that when he becomes preeminent, he has the supreme place of authority. [00:54:06] His word is law, his will is not argued or discussed is obeyed. [00:54:14] He is preeminent that in all things he might have the preeminence. [00:54:22] You know, in a tremendous spiritual mouthful, in Ephesians chapter one, the spirit of God through the apostle Paul says this verse nine, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him, that's in Christ, and to a dispensation of the fulness of the times. To sum up all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In him, I say, in whom also we were made a heritage. That is a mouthful. But isn't it marvelous what it says? Let's just take the heart of the matter. To sum up all things in Christ, that means the purpose of the Lord is that in the end the Lord Jesus be the sum of the whole creation. [00:55:19] Oh, I think that's wonderful. [00:55:22] Heaven, earth under the earth, every single realm summed up by the Lord Jesus. [00:55:30] Headed up is the other is the word, literally in Greek, headed up by the Lord Jesus. [00:55:36] And then it says even more remarkably in one corinthians 15, that when he has subjected God, has subjected all things under the feet of the Lord Jesus, then will the Lord Jesus subject himself to God, that God may be all in all. [00:55:54] I think that the prospect is absolutely wonderful. [00:55:59] But you know, we can glory in some future kingdom of God and glory in the fact that Jesus is at the right hand of God the father and not do his will. [00:56:13] In the end, it comes down to the fact that you and I have to do the will of God. What does it mean to do the will of God? Sometimes it very simply means that you and I have somehow or other got to come to the place where we are committed to a company of the Lord's people. [00:56:35] It's as simple as that. That's one of the very practical ways in which this matter of the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. You see, we can all talk about the Lord Jesus being Lord and the flow around as if there is no authority whatsoever in the body of the Lord Jesus. [00:56:54] But frankly, if the Lord Jesus is Lord in your life, there will come a point when he starts to discipline you. [00:57:05] And flitting around, escaping responsibility from group to group is not the way he disciplines you. [00:57:13] In the end, he has to bring you to a place where youre under authority, his authority. And then comes the big problem of his authority in flesh and blood. [00:57:27] Thats where we have all our problems. If we could only find people who were perfect that could express the eldership, it could express the government of God. Oh, it would be so easy. But anyone can pick holes in anybody. And it's a very interesting thing that it wasn't long before they were talking about the apostle Paul. You know, they were saying in his letters are so powerful, but have you seen him? Half blind, little bald, bow legged and stutters. [00:58:02] According to tradition, this is. But we have an intimation in two corinthians because he says, I know what you say. You say, my letters are powerful, but my bodily presence is weak and my diction poor. What did he mean? [00:58:20] Unless people were saying, you know, that man's letters are tremendous, but you get him here, and you know what happened? All the churches in Asia turned away from him before he was martyred. [00:58:39] It doesnt matter who it is, who it is, that is a human being, a fallen human being saved by the grace of God. There will be weaknesses and faults and failings that we can point to and make the excuse for nothing, accepting them, not submitting to them, and not respecting them in the law. But the word of God says, obey them that have the rule over you, not in a slavish manner and not in a kind of hierarchy, if you understand what I mean. But as unto the Lord. [00:59:15] Now, my dear friends, if you were a slave in the old days and the apostle Paul wrote this letter, slaves, obey your masters as unto the Lord, I think you might have choked. [00:59:42] There is a man who owns me, not just my boss, he owns me. [00:59:53] He owns my wife and children. [00:59:58] And yet the word of God says I am to obey him as unto the Lord. [01:00:05] I can imagine many a slave having a little bit of problem. [01:00:18] We are told to obey the powers that be because Jesus is supreme, because the Bible says, every ordinance of man is ordained by God. [01:00:32] We are to honor the king, in your case, the president. [01:00:38] We are to obey, to be subject to the magistrate, to the law of the land. [01:00:44] This is all a matter of the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. Not because those men are born again, but because beyond and above them is the Lord Jesus. You see, the whole crisis is the crisis of authority. [01:01:04] Thessalonians chapter two and verse seven and eight speaks of the mystery of lawlessness which does already work. [01:01:13] Now, the apostle Paul wrote that 2000 years ago. The mystery of lawlessness, which does already work. What did he mean? [01:01:22] The roman empire had an amazing system of law, much of which has been taken over by earth. [01:01:30] I mean, when you compare the Roman Empire and roman administration with what went before, you would have said it was full of law. What did it mean, the mystery of lawlessness? It meant a kind of law that is against the law of God. [01:01:46] And this has always been in the world. Now, verse eight of two. Thessalonians chapter two, says, but there is that which was. But when it is taken away, then will the lawless one be revealed. This lawless one is a human being demonized, who is the Antichrist. [01:02:11] And this lawless one is not a man who has no law but a man who will substitute his law for the law of God. [01:02:21] Now, dear friends, we are in those days. [01:02:29] We are in the very threshold of the appearing of the Antichrist. [01:02:35] It must be within a decade or two. I would not even really put it as much as that. [01:02:42] Somewhere he is born, somewhere he is growing up. [01:02:46] And before very long, this man of sin will appear at a point of tremendous crisis in world affairs to lead the nations into a world government that will prevent war for good. [01:03:01] And the whole world will follow this man. And it says in the book of Daniel, he will change the seasons and he will change the times and he will change the laws and he will wear out the saints because they will not be able in their spirit, to accept the new law and the changes. [01:03:26] You see, the kind of breakdown of law and disorder that you are seeing in your country and which we are seeing in most of the western free nations is just a little indication of the beginning of the taking away of the one who estranged. [01:03:51] Now, you heard some of you at the conference, what Johannes said about Sweden. [01:03:56] Can you believe it? That in the most advanced nation in Europe and one of the most advanced welfare states in which poverty has been banished or I've not seen a poor person in Sweden, oh, for 1516 years that in such a parliament there could come a resolution to make incest legal or the marriage of homosexuals, so that they are allowed to adopt children and bring them up as homosexuals. [01:04:44] This is the way the whole thing is going. Because in our universities, I don't know if you know it, but in our universities in Britain, in Scandinavia, the whole debate is whether there is another fall of society to the Judeo christian concept. Now, the Judeo christian concept is what we call this book. [01:05:07] It is the family as the unit of society, and one man and one woman married together for life, faithful to each other and bringing up children, all that they want to throw over because they say that contraception, modern forms of contraception, have changed the whole face of society and there is no more need to be faithful. [01:05:35] And since the root of it is darwinianism and evolutionary theory, since we are basically animals of a superior sort, why don't we behave like animals? [01:05:50] Now, this whole thing has been in the world from the beginning. [01:05:55] If you read your Bible, the whole of greek society, the whole of roman society, the whole of babylonian society was like this. [01:06:02] It happened. But why do you think the apostle Paul had to spend chapters talking about these very crimes, these very sins, this very kind of lawlessness, and saying, you, you cannot do this and be a believer. [01:06:15] But then the gospel came. And even with all its faults, when it was institutionalized and sort of nationalized, if you like, with all its faults, it meant that a whole concept of society was passed on as official. [01:06:32] And we are now living in what we call the post christian era, fast moving into the last era of the age. Dear friends, the whole question is the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. This is the heart of the matter. Why do the nations rage and the peoples meditate a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the council, the rulers, take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us cast their bonds, break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us. [01:07:11] Now, at the end of the age, when that which restrains is taken away, this whole thing will burst out like a flood of evil, overturning the whole of society, carrying everything before it. Dear friends, you and I need to know the Lord Jesus in a much deeper way. We need to know his supremacy. You mothers, you need to teach your children. I don't know if I said this at the conference, but I'll say it again. Even if I did, I've certainly said it in one or two of the other places I've been. You mothers must teach your children the things of God. Don't leave it to Sunday school. Don't leave it to school or whatever else anymore. Even if it's a christian school, don't leave it. It is one of the tragedies of the christian home. I don't mean that dreary, awful type of beating some truth into poor kids heads, but it seems to me that if a mother's got a bit of love in her, surely she can gather her children around her and instruct them in the most simple and most delightful ways in the things of God. No child ever forgets what its mother teaches him or her, ever. And yet many christian mothers, they seem to think, no, we have no responsibility in this way at all. Of course, I dont mean heavy types of schooling at home, but I mean real loving attention being given to children so that theyre instructed. Therell come a day when those children can be taken away. [01:08:46] I have in the study at home in Richmond, in my study, the addresses of over 200 russian families from whom the children have been forcibly deported, for no other reason than that those families are believers. They were hailed before court for being mentally incapable of rearing children. Why? The charge was, they taught them religion, and it was said that therefore, the parents are emotionally unstable, and the evidence is that they believe in God. [01:09:27] We have 200 cases of Baptist pentecostal families in Russia where the children, in some cases four or five children, have been forcibly taken away from those who homes and sent a Vladivostok, if it was in Moscow or in that region, thousands of miles to the east, and given their birth certificates, destroyed and given altogether new names, they will never be found again. [01:09:56] Those children are not lost. God remembers. [01:10:00] They will yet find the Lord in sovereign ways. God will use dream, vision, and other ways to bring them to himself. He will remember the faith of those parents. But don't you think it will be a comfort to those parents if those parents have taught their children, if in the most loving, living, normal, natural way, they've passed on something to those children about the things of God? [01:10:30] I don't. I hope that America, the United States, will never, ever fall to an alien power and be occupied by the Antichrist. I would have thought, although I don't want to give you any false feeling of security, that with your great tradition of freedom and democracy, you would be one of the last I would have thought, to succumb. [01:10:56] But, dear friends, I would not be at all surprised if, in the years that lie ahead, the lynch mob takes control again in the breakdown of law and order. And that can bring more fear, in the end, into christians than anything else. When a mob suddenly surrounds the place and howls for the blood of those people. No one can save them. [01:11:21] That's what happens when law and order breaks down. A government is unable to keep the constitution as written because the law is taken into the hands of violent men and women. [01:11:40] Now I'm only saying we need to know the Lord Jesus. [01:11:45] We need to know the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. We need to know the authority of the Lord Jesus. Are you doing the will of God? [01:11:54] Can you honestly say before God? As far as I know I am within the will of God. And I am doing the will of God. [01:12:05] Are you able to say before God this evening that your homes are under the authority of God? [01:12:16] Could you say that this company is under the authority of God? Because you see, we are like little colonies of God in a world that lies in the evil one. Do you hear? [01:12:31] And we are. We're not really embassies. Sometimes I want to use the word embassy, but this is a bad word because an embassy is just there by invitation. [01:12:43] We're not here by invitation. This whole world is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. [01:12:49] The whole thing is the Lord's. We're here as a kind of colony, as the guarantee that the king is coming back to take the hole and we're showing the flag. [01:13:02] We're the kind of. Of spiritual gunboat going up the river sort of thing and sort of saying, those powers of darkness, this isn't yours. This is usurped territory. You have usurped the authority of God. But we are here as the guarantee that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and they that dwell therein. Now I'm not sort of preaching universalism in the sense that everyone's going to be saved finally. But what I do say is this. That everything's going to come back to God. That is the earth. And every position which has been usurped and is going to be filled with those who know God. [01:13:45] And then the whole earth will be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. Now, two things only. Tonight I've talked about the sufficiency of Christ and the supremacy of Christ. But they are tremendous that I may know him, know him as sufficient and know him as supreme. [01:14:11] I cannot say Lord, Lord. [01:14:13] And do not the things which he says. [01:14:19] Only God. To make this a living reality in every life. Here this evening, may he do it. [01:14:28] Shall we pray? [01:14:34] O Lord, thou knowest there are areas in all our lives in which we are not proving thy sufficiency. [01:14:41] And Lord, we so long to know that fullness which is in thee. We want to know the grace which is ours and the wisdom which is ours and the knowledge which is ours, the power which is ours, the gifts which are ours, the equipment which is ours. We want to know, Lord, what it is to be clothed with the garment of thy salvation, to have that foundation under our feet of thy finished work. [01:15:08] Lord, wilt thou open our eyes to see thy sufficiency, to see that there is nothing that thou couldst require of us, Lord, that thou hast not provided for us, that there is no requirement in our being conformed to the image of thy son, father, for which thou hast not made provision in him? O father, help us. And, Lord, weve talked about this matter of his supremacy and we want to tell thee that this is. There are areas in this matter, Lord, in which were weak. [01:15:47] There are areas in our lives, Lord, where his authority is not being exercised, where we are not obeying him in the way that we ought to, Lord, bring this whole matter home, not just in ideal and principle alone, but impractical realities. Our homes, our personal lives, Lord, our children, our relationships to one another, husbands to wives, wives to husbands, children to parents, parents to children. [01:16:22] Our relationships, Lord, in the business world, employees and employ our employer, employees. Our relationships, Lord, in the nation, to the president, to the government, to law in the nation. [01:16:36] And above all, Lord, we pray that we may know the Lord Jesus and his authority in practice, in intercession. [01:16:47] We may know how to rule and reign with him, Lord, in a community, in a nation, only thou canst lead us in this way. We are poor material, Lord, and we know it. But, Lord, thou hast saved us and thou hast brought us to thyself and we thank thee. Thou art sufficient for us, Lord, and therefore we make our appeal to thee. Give us grace to bow the knee in a new way before thee this night. Give us grace, Lord, from this night not only to trust but to obey. [01:17:18] And where there are those areas in our lives, Lord, whethers darkness or whethers disobedience or rebellion, Lord, confront us with them by thy spirit and grant that our hearts be melted. We may learn, Lord, to bow before thee and do thy will from the heart. [01:17:42] And so, dear Lord, we commit ourselves to thee with much thanksgiving in the name of our Lord Jesus. [01:17:51] Amen.