Living According to Divine Purpose - 1

[00:00:00] Read two portions in the Word. I'm going to read it in the new international version. [00:00:11] In the Book of Revelation, chapter 21. [00:00:21] And 22. [00:00:25] Revelation. [00:00:38] Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. [00:00:48] I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. [00:00:59] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. [00:01:09] They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. [00:01:15] He will wipe every tear from their eyes. [00:01:19] There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. [00:01:30] He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Then he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. [00:01:43] He said to me, it is done. [00:01:46] I am the alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. [00:01:51] To him who is thirsty, I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. [00:01:59] He who overcomes will inherit all this. [00:02:03] And I will be his God, and he will be my son. [00:02:07] But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. [00:02:28] This is the second death. [00:02:32] One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came, came and said to me, come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God. And its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a Jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great high wall with 12 gates and with 12 angels at the gates. [00:03:08] On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south, and three on the west. [00:03:19] The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. [00:03:26] The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and. And its wall. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with a rod and found it to be 1400 miles in length and as wide and high as it is strong. [00:03:49] He measured its wall and it was 200ft thick by man's measurement, which the angel was using. [00:03:59] The wall was made of Jasper and the city of pure gold. As pure as glass. [00:04:05] The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was Jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. [00:04:33] The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. [00:04:42] I did not see a temple in the city because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. [00:05:07] The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of Life. [00:05:21] The angel showed me the river of the Water of Life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of Garden of the Lamb. Down the middle of the great street of the city, on each side of the river stood the Tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. [00:05:44] The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his son servants will serve him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever. The angel said to me, these words are trustworthy and true. [00:06:13] The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place. [00:06:28] Then. Verse 16. [00:06:30] I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. [00:06:36] I am the root and offspring of David and the bright morning star. [00:06:43] The Spirit and the bride say, come. [00:06:48] And let him who hears say, come. [00:06:53] Whoever is thirsty, let him come. [00:06:56] And whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. [00:07:05] And then in the Ephesian letter, Chapter five. [00:07:24] And we will read from verse 5, Ephesians 5:5. [00:07:32] For of this you can be sure, no immoral, impure or greedy person, such a man as an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. [00:07:46] Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not be partners with them. [00:07:58] For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth. [00:08:11] And find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. [00:08:27] But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said, wake up, O sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Be very careful then how you live. [00:08:45] Not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. [00:08:53] Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. [00:09:01] Instead, be filled with the spirit. [00:09:04] Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord. Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything. [00:09:16] In the name of our Lord in Jesus Christ. [00:09:20] Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. [00:09:26] Now shall we just bow together in prayer? One further word of prayer. Lord, we've already asked Thee to be really with us. And as we come to Thy word, Lord, we know that thou canst make it live to us. And this is what we ask. Lord, very simply, let Thy word through. The person of the Holy Spirit in our midst do its own work in our lives. We need, Lord, that divine illumination, that divine revelation, and that only comes from Thee. Lord, we do confess that our natural mind cannot receive the things of Thyself. They are somehow foolishness to us. They are just confusing, perplexing. They don't make sense. Sense. [00:10:11] But Lord, when Thy Holy Spirit illuminates Thy word, we see light in Thy light. And Lord, we pray together that Thou will cause such an anointing to be on our time this morning. That even though some of us may think we know some of these things, they may come home to us in a way that they have not come home before. [00:10:35] We pray that it may come with divine revelation and illumination, enlightenment. That will mean, O Lord, that Our hearts begin to be stirred. Thy spirit moves upon our being. [00:10:48] Lord, do this we pray, and we shall give thee all the praise and the glory. We give thee thanksgiving for hearing our prayer. In the name of our Lord Jesus. [00:10:59] Amen. [00:11:05] Well, now, that was a long reading. But I've read it deliberately, all of it, because I think it has quite a lot of bearing, although it may not seem so to everybody at the start on this theme that we have living according to divine purpose. [00:11:25] If you will turn back to that last reading we had the letter Ephesians. We read this in chapter four and verse one. [00:11:35] I therefore the prisoner in the Lord beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called. [00:11:47] I beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called. [00:11:58] Now there is a calling with which every born again believer. If you're a nominal Christian, you may bear the name Christian, but your whole experience is secondhand. You may appear to belong to the kingdom of God and to the family of God, but you don't. [00:12:19] And for you another word has to come. Make your calling and election. [00:12:25] Sure, but if you had the witness in your heart that you are born of God, that you belong to the Lord, then you are not only saved, but you have a calling. [00:12:40] And the emphasis of God's Word is not on merely being saved, but upon the calling that is inherent in our salvation. [00:12:57] In other words, when you begin to read carefully the New Testament, you find that the emphasis which the Holy Spirit places is not upon being saved, as if that is in itself an end, that's all that is necessary, but rather having been saved to realize and fulfill the calling of God. [00:13:30] Now, how can we walk worthily of the calling wherewith we have been called if we don't even understand it, or if we think it's old hat, or if we think it's irrelevant, or if we think that somehow or other it's something we have known from childhood and somehow it just flows over us like water off a duck's back. [00:14:01] It doesn't have any effect on us. It doesn't have any meaning to us. It doesn't have any relevance for us. [00:14:09] How on earth can we walk worthily of such a calling? [00:14:15] It is quite impossible. [00:14:18] Now, many of you may well have good and seemingly legitimate excuses. You may feel, well, I've had this kind of thing since I was born. [00:14:33] But don't think that you're going to get away with your excuses. [00:14:37] You may get the way with me or with some of the others. You can tie us up in knots on these things. [00:14:46] But there will come a day when you will have to answer for yourself directly to the Lord. [00:14:57] And then you will suddenly realize that so much, if not all of our excuses are, are not legitimate. They were a sham. [00:15:08] They were an excuse for prevaricating, for sort of dithering, for not settling issues, for not, as it were, seeking the Lord with all our heart. There is incumbent upon every born again believer a responsibility to seek the Lord for himself or herself and to discover what really God wants of you. [00:15:41] No amount of phony Christian living around you, no amount of the flaws and failings you may have seen in parents or in family life or whatever, or some other Christian that you feel is a hypocrite or dull church meetings or routine that you feel somehow or other is mechanical can be an excuse for you not discovering for yourself what is the meaning and significance of your salvation. [00:16:16] Every generation has to find its way with God. [00:16:21] And every generation that's born of God has to know for itself what really is the significance and meaning of their salvation. [00:16:33] Now the apostle says, walk worthily. I beseech you to walk worthily. Here he speaks in the first century. A very different cultural background, a very different sort of way of life. [00:16:49] But he appeals to that generation of believers to. To walk worthily of the calling wherewith they have been called. [00:17:01] And then he goes on and he talks about church life, about being built together, about being members of a body, about building up ourselves in love, the body building up itself. He speaks of apostles, of prophets, of pastors, of teachers, of evangelists, as the kind of instrument that God uses for the building of the body. But then he says, it's only one end. These men are not to be made something in themselves, as if they are the key to everything that happens in the church. [00:17:36] The real key is that the body should build up itself in love. Then he goes on to personal life. It's interesting. He puts church life first, and then he goes on to personal life. Those that are stolen, let them steal no more. [00:17:49] He who lies, let him no longer allow anything false to come out of his mouth. [00:17:57] All these personal things. Love is to be without dissimulation. [00:18:02] He then goes on to family life, married life, the married relationship, husbands, wives. [00:18:11] He goes on from there to business life, employers, employment, employees, the whole gamut of life. [00:18:19] Church life, personal life, family life, business life, workaday life. The whole thing is covered in this. [00:18:28] And in the middle of it all, he says, therefore, be not foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is we can't possibly walk worthily of the calling wherewith God has called us. If A we don't understand what that calling is, and b we don't understand the will of the Lord for us in relation to it, there's no way of being able to walk worthily. [00:19:06] Now, has God a purpose? [00:19:12] Can I know that purpose? [00:19:16] And how do I become involved in its fulfillment? [00:19:25] If God has a purpose, is God some fatalistic Islamic being who sits far above the universe and is totally unmoved by the pains and sorrows of the creatures he has created? But he has got a purpose. He foreordains everything, he predestines everything. But he is totally impersonal. [00:19:57] Is that the kind of God we know? [00:20:01] Or is the God we know a God who loves us, who cares for us, who knows us by name, who understands us, and who yet has a purpose? [00:20:18] If God has a purpose, surely I can know it. [00:20:25] And if I can know it, surely I ought to be involved in its fulfillment. [00:20:35] Now, today we are, as most folks are in each generation, the children of their own generation's culture. [00:20:53] In days gone by, by and large, even the movements of God's spirit have had some relation to the kind of way of thinking of the generation in which God moved. Today, humanism has affected nearly every single aspect of education and life. [00:21:18] And the tragedy is that humanism has very largely undermined Christian life. [00:21:28] We have evolved, we are part of matter, and therefore we need just to make the best of life and do to others what we would like them to do to us. [00:21:49] Let us enjoy ourselves. [00:21:55] It is all part of 20th century culture. [00:22:00] It is really quite old. [00:22:03] Let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. [00:22:11] And this has very largely influenced our Christian way of thinking. In fact, I fear that it's one of the things that destroying the charismatic, that it is becoming a question of simply enjoying ourselves. [00:22:26] It's a prosperity gospel. [00:22:29] We enjoy ourselves, let's be happy. [00:22:37] This is a quite different call to the call of God, which is that having been said, we have one short life. [00:22:50] And in that one short life God would not only save us, but he would produce character and train us. [00:23:02] And if we throw away the opportunities that are divinely given to us, we will suffer. [00:23:16] Now, some of you, because you're young, you think, well, I have years ahead, you know, by the average sort of statistics, I I can wake up slowly on this thing, I, I can wait another 10 years and find out what happened and start, you know, it is not so in five years time, it will be interesting to know how many in this room will not even be here on the earth. [00:23:51] We have no idea. [00:23:53] But we have one short life. [00:23:56] And in this short life, thank God, we've been saved. [00:24:02] We've been born of God. [00:24:04] Now, in the time that only God knows is given to us, there are two absolute and absolutely strategic necessities. [00:24:19] The first is the producing of character in us, and the second, spiritual character. And the second is the training. [00:24:31] Now, why did I read that passage in the Book of Revelation? Because it is extremely interesting. Do we really believe that this book from Genesis to Revelation is God's word? [00:24:50] Or have we been affected by the general attitude to everything that this book has got? Some parts of it which could be called inspired and could be the Word of God, but there are other parts which are myth and legend. They are valuable in a certain way for portraying or illustrating certain somewhat abstract truths. But basically, we can't say that the whole book from Genesis to Revelation is the Word of God. [00:25:25] If we accept that God, in His wisdom and in his grace and in his power, has not left things to us in a subjective way, but has clearly defined His Word, given us what we call the canon of Scripture, the rule of Scripture, the cutting off, as it were. Beyond that, it may be genius, it may. It may have much that's helpful, but it's not the Word of God. But within this book, the canon of Scripture, we have the Word of God. Now, if that is so, and I suppose most would accept that, if not all of us, we then come to a very interesting thing that we find this Book of Revelation. [00:26:12] Now, the Book of Revelation, most of you will probably accept as the last book of the Bible. [00:26:19] But for many centuries, it was the cause of great controversy, and it did not occupy the final place in the divine record until about the fourth century after Christ, when finally it came by divine ordering, to be the completion of the canon of Scripture. [00:26:43] Now, when we see that, I think, I'm not going to go into it, because there, I believe, tapes and there are other things which you can go into. But it is amazing to me that the last chapters of the Book of Revelation correspond with the first chapters of Genesis. You have the most incredible interlocking, so remarkable that it cannot be coincidence. [00:27:06] I think there are a list of about 15, 16 relationships, the beginning and the end of a matter. [00:27:15] When we come to these last chapters of the Book of Revelation, we have some problems. I'm not going to dwell on those, but we do have some problems with it. [00:27:25] So much so that some Find it very hard to understand that this could be the end. They have to put it somehow in the millennium or something else. Never mind. [00:27:36] The fact of the matter is the Bible ends with three things. [00:27:43] The first is a bride, the wife of the lamb. The second is a city, the holy city, New Jerusalem. And the third is service. [00:27:57] And they shall serve him. And they shall reign forever and ever. [00:28:05] The first word that God said to man was multiplying. [00:28:14] Have dominion and multiply and subdue the earth. [00:28:22] This word have dominion means rule. [00:28:26] And the last word, almost we have. And they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their forehead. [00:28:35] And they shall serve him. [00:28:39] And they shall reign forever and ever. [00:28:45] Three things, the bride, the city and service. [00:28:58] Now it seems to me that that sums up the calling with which you and I are called. [00:29:12] In other words, putting it another way, what are these three things? [00:29:22] First, character. [00:29:26] Second, government. [00:29:30] Third, training. [00:29:36] I don't think I imagine, although I have seen it happen, that most would be husbands would want some empty headed, stupid dumb woman for a wife. [00:29:55] I have seen it happen. [00:30:00] But generally speaking, a man would look for somebody who has some character. [00:30:12] Not just facial beauty. [00:30:19] Or beauty of form, but some character. [00:30:26] This wife of the lamb is to be, as it were, the queen with the king. [00:30:37] She is to join him in the throne. [00:30:42] She is to be his other half. [00:30:46] She is to be his complement. [00:30:52] She is to be, as it were, the one in whom he finds delight, in whom he finds rest, with whom he can share the secrets of his heart. [00:31:08] It's a matter of character. [00:31:13] Now, when we think of a wife or of a bride, we speak or think of that which is the most intimate and the most. [00:31:26] The nearest to the heart. In human life, we think of a union which is total. [00:31:37] It should be ideally, the union of minds, the union of hearts and the union of bodies. [00:31:50] Right at the very beginning of the Bible, we had this. [00:31:55] God created man. [00:31:58] Male and female created he them. No inequality. [00:32:06] Male and female created he them. [00:32:11] And he created them in his image and after his likeness. [00:32:23] In other words, right at the very beginning of the Bible, before the fall, before sin, before corruption and death had done its terrible work, God's original thought for man was that man, man should be in his image after his likeness. Male and female. [00:32:42] That's the first chapter of Genesis and verses 26 and 27. [00:32:50] In the second chapter of Genesis we have marriage and we have the most amazing story. [00:32:59] I always find it amusing. [00:33:04] The story is that God took Adam. I have no doubt that it is historically true because God has Great humor, as most of us have found out anyway. [00:33:16] Our humor is only the palest reflection of the humor that's in God. [00:33:22] There is a divine laugh, divine chapel, and a divine joke. At times, you only got to go to the zoo and look at some creatures to see the divine jokes. Only God could think out some of them. [00:33:42] Now God takes Adam and causes all the animals to come before him. No great matter. [00:33:51] The animals at that time had no fear of man, and man had no fear of animals. [00:33:55] There was a relationship between them. God just caused the animals to come before Adam. And he said, told Adam to name them. [00:34:04] And I always find this very interesting why God said to Adam, name the animals. I always thought, surely it would have been more reasonable for God to have named the animals. [00:34:12] Since, I mean, he knew them, he had created them. He could say, now, Adam, this is an elephant. Elephant, Adam. [00:34:21] Here comes a giraffe, Adam, a giraffe. [00:34:26] And here comes the next animal. [00:34:31] Well, whatever it is. Orangutan. [00:34:34] Orangutan, Adam. [00:34:39] But God doesn't do it at all. God leaves Adam in a kind of embarrassment. In one way, perhaps not so much an embarrassment as rather like a child, rather delighted at each creature that comes by thinking out, what shall he call him? [00:34:53] What will you call this, Adam? I will call that an elephant. Elephant. Elephant it shall be, Adam. And the elephant rumbles on. Up comes the giraffe. What are you going to call this? And he looks it up and down and says, a giraffe. Now, what on earth is God doing? [00:35:11] It is very interesting that if you look at Genesis chapter two, you will see that this passage, this paragraph is preceded by this little word. And there was no help meet found for Adam. [00:35:27] And in Hebrew, it is a very beautiful thought because the word used is something that answers to him, rather like a face in water, something answering to him. So Adam was sinless, but not perfect. [00:35:43] He was only half a person in one sense as far as God was concerned. And what God was doing was he wasn't going to sit Adam down there and say, now, Adam, you are only half a person. [00:35:55] Your other half has not appeared. [00:35:58] Let me instruct you. [00:36:00] What God did was to bring out a need inside of Adam. [00:36:05] So that as these animals came, it was almost as if God would say, now, Adam, could you live with the elephant? [00:36:11] No, no, no, elephant. And off it rumbles. He likes the elephant. He may use the elephant as a domestic creature, but he will not live with the elephant, the giraffe, or whatever else came before him. Both the beasts of the Field and the domestic animals, he names them and they go on. Even the orangutan that I am told by so many who believe in evolution is the nearest to the human species. [00:36:44] You would have thought he'd never seen anything else even remotely like himself. He might have said, oh, maybe I could have fellowship with this. [00:36:56] Maybe I could share my heart with this. [00:36:59] Maybe our minds could meet. [00:37:03] Maybe there could be a union, a mind of heart and of body. [00:37:09] Can you imagine it now? You find it almost disgusting, but it was something that God was trying to do with Adam. [00:37:18] And Adam at the end of it all, Adam had named all the animals, but must have felt more lonely than he had ever felt since the day he began life. [00:37:32] He probably didn't understand it, but he suddenly realized that he could name all those creatures. He could even love them, he could appreciate them, he could admire them, he could marvel at the power and wisdom of God, but he could not live with them. [00:37:53] He could not share his inner being with them. And then, you know the story, it ends again. There was no help meat found for Adam. That's how the whole paragraph begins and ends. Then God caused a deep sleep to come upon him and opened up his side and took out bone. [00:38:11] And with that bone and flesh, he fashioned woman. And then Adam woke up and the story is he didn't say ah and called her some queer name and said goodbye. He said, this is me in Hebrew, his name is Ish. And he called her Isha out of me. [00:38:38] So she was him. [00:38:42] So at the very beginning of the Bible, you have this amazing matter of first man being created male and female in the image of God and after his likeness. And secondly, you have this question of marriage. [00:39:01] When you come to the end of the Bible, you have the same thing. [00:39:08] You have a new man created after God. After the likeness of God, in the image of God, this man is saved. [00:39:22] As if there has been now almost no fall. [00:39:25] God has finally obtained what he first originally conceived when he created man and woman. [00:39:35] Isn't that interesting? Is it not? Even more interesting when Jesus died and John the apostle, who was nearest to the Lord Jesus and understood him perhaps more, more than anyone else understood the mysteries of God in the person of Jesus. [00:39:52] When he sat down finally to write that gospel, he alone records that Jesus at one point, having, at one point, at the end cried, finished. [00:40:09] And in that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two. In other words, John was saying to us, that was our salvation. He finished our salvation. He obtained our salvation. There's not a t to be crossed or an I to be dotted. Every single thing required for a man, however depraved, however fettered, however sinful, however captive to Satan, to become a child of God has been one and obtained. It's been finished. And then he said Jesus died. [00:40:50] He fell asleep and a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance, with a spear, and out of his side came blood and water. [00:41:11] And then John makes a lot of this. He says, and he that bears witness, his witness is true. [00:41:24] Well, what is he talking about? Someone says, oh, of course, he's talking about our salvation. No, he's not talking about our salvation. [00:41:32] Our salvation is already won. [00:41:34] The blood has already been shed. What then is he talking about? Isn't he speaking about the second Adam? [00:41:43] He's gone to sleep, put to sleep by God. And now his side has been opened and out of it has come blood and water. Now you may understand a very mysterious little word in 1 John and chapter 5. [00:42:16] And we will read from verse 4. [00:42:19] For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world. [00:42:24] And this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith. And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. [00:42:51] And it is the Spirit that beareth witness. Because the Spirit is the truth. [00:42:56] For there are three who bear witness. The Spirit, the water and the blood. [00:43:06] And these three agree in one. [00:43:13] Now maybe that's been a very mysterious little passage to you, but what really John is saying is don't stop at salvation. [00:43:22] Don't stop at salvation. [00:43:24] The Spirit, the water and the blood. How does the book of Revelation end? The Spirit and the Bride say, come Spirit, water and blood, out of his open side abide the church. [00:43:51] You got it. [00:43:53] Now you see, all this speaks of character. You see, God isn't wanting some empty headed dimwit to sit with him forever and ever and ever and ever. As if that's going to glorify the Lord Jesus in all the ages to come. What kind of Sunday school conception have we got? [00:44:17] Do you really think we're just going to sit around for all eternity just doing nothing? Rather like this sort of half bored, not lovely golden ceiling. [00:44:35] Only this time we'll have a golden floor. [00:44:39] And when we go out for coffee, angels will serve us, which is more than we can say. [00:44:49] Yeah, I mean, what kind of concept have we got of eternity? Do we really believe it you see, the trouble with most of you, and especially those of you brought up in Christian families, is that we really don't believe what we believe. [00:45:10] We've still got this weird little concept that God sent his son into the world to forgive us and that's it. [00:45:23] Frankly, I would have thought God would have been better to have blown the whole thing up at the start and begin all over again if that's all there was. [00:45:34] But you see, there is an eternity to come. And in that eternity God has tremendous ideas, tremendous purposes, tremendous thoughts that are yet to be realized. [00:45:48] And if this wonderful world around us is the thought of God in action, if it is a little of the concept of God, of the Word of God fulfilled in its fallen state, what, may I ask, will it be when finally the former things, the old order of things, has passed away and everything has become new? And it's as if God is saying, now, now, at last we can get on with my original thoughts. [00:46:19] We don't know what they are, but it's worth suffering for. It's worth being trained for. It's worth going through the problems and difficulties of life, isn't it? If once we begin to see it, oh, of course the Marxists will say to us, there you are, religion, the opiate of the masses. [00:46:38] Turn their eyes away to eternity. [00:46:41] Tell them it's all going to happen in eternity. [00:46:44] And this kind of thing has got so into the Christians that we don't even want to think of eternity. I don't want you to be like those old ladies who sing about golden streets and pearly gates and their lives don't seem always to have too much of the reality in them. Of course, we don't want that either. But what we want is a vision of the end of God which has a relevance and a practical power for our life down here. [00:47:20] Character. Do you mean to tell me the Christian character, spiritual character is going to be produced like that? [00:47:30] If God had wanted to do that, he could have done it at the beginning with Adam and Eve. [00:47:36] Spiritual character can't be produced like that. It needs you to will to do the will of God. It needs you to will to be a sacrifice for him. It needs you to will to lay down your life for him. It means that you're prepared to put up with the humdom and the routine. You're prepared for God's dealings with you. That's the only way spiritual character can be produced. [00:48:02] There is no other way. There is no shortcut. [00:48:07] And you need Father, Son and Holy Spirit. [00:48:12] If this work which the enemy thought he had so frustrated and foiled, is finally to be fulfilled. Do you think that all that's going to glorify God is the salvation of millions of dimwits all there with little empty heads, Sunday school conceptions, nothing else, God forbid. And if you think Christian character is just a question of being convert, converted, well, what about the problems you have with one another? [00:48:53] What about the problems you have with yourself? [00:48:58] Being converted doesn't actually produce spiritual character like that. It means we're born of God. But a baby has to feed, it has to grow, it has to breathe, it has to exercise its muscles, it has to grow and develop, otherwise you remain a babe. [00:49:16] And there's something very sad about a human being that's remained a babe. [00:49:26] The family of God is two thirds babes, as if that glorifies God. [00:49:35] Two thirds little babes in army. [00:49:38] They remained like that 40 years after their conversion, still singing hymns and doing the thing or whatever. [00:49:47] It's tragic because there's such an ignorance about the end of God character. So that's one thing. [00:49:54] And then the two other things I've just briefly underlined and finish, and that is this. Well, all right. That's the bride. Well, God, the Lord Jesus is looking for those who are begotten of him, begotten of the Spirit, who have the same nature as him and who are going to grow. [00:50:18] And this is why the whole New Testament talks about growing. Growing, growing, going on, moving on, allowing God to deal with you. Having deals. You can't do it through me. [00:50:30] It's one of the reasons why I've opted out for a while. [00:50:34] The point is this, that you've only got to have people in and such a ministry, the ministry, I'm nothing, but the ministry is something that God has given me. [00:50:45] Can plaster over a whole lot of cracks. [00:50:50] People sit, oh, wonderful. [00:50:53] And they sing a hymn a little better after because they feel, oh, wasn't that marvellous? [00:50:59] But it doesn't go down into them, they don't obey it. [00:51:08] So there has to come a time where we have to be chucked out. [00:51:12] Now, you've got to face it also, though, you say, well, some of those folks at Halford House, I mean, I could write a catalogue of their weaknesses. Yes, of course, that finds you out. [00:51:30] Finds me out. [00:51:33] I can say, oh, dear, dear, dear. Look at so and so. [00:51:38] I'm shocked. [00:51:40] Or so and so, dear. [00:51:44] They got it all up there and nowhere here. Burlette, is no excuse for you. [00:51:50] You are responsible to see it doesn't happen with you if you see it in somebody else. [00:51:56] But don't think you're going to be able to say to the Lord, well, Lord, you know, I saw so and so that finished me, Lord. [00:52:05] So the Lord says, I saved you personally and I made special grace for you and you opted out. [00:52:18] The message to the seven churches never tells anybody to leave because those companies are based on Christ in their localities. [00:52:30] What he tells them is to overcome. Even though there's a Jezebel there, even though there's teaching of Balaam there, even though there's any colitonism there, they are to stay there because they're on the right basis, primarily until the lamp stand is removed. Then it may be a different matter now character. But there is also the city, which is this matter of government, isn't it? What is a city? A city is a center of government. It's a place where the throne is a capital city. London is where the palaces where the government is. In the old days, the king or queen and the government would have been synonymous. [00:53:14] It's the seat of national government. [00:53:20] And this capital city of God is not in itself anything. It is a capital city, the hub of a kingdom that extends over the whole universe. [00:53:39] And if we look very carefully, we shall find this whole matter of the throne is a very big thing because you cannot learn to reign overnight. [00:53:50] Human. Our human problem with government is very simply that we have people sometimes in history who have reigned who are absolutely incapable of reigning. [00:54:04] They're there simply because of a pedigree, because of a title and because of a background. But they are not there because they have got the kind of qualifications they should. [00:54:16] If you and I are going to come to the throne, then it seems to me that we're going to have to reign. [00:54:22] Now. [00:54:24] Now I'm going to say one or two hard things. So just steel yourself for a moment and no doubt provide you with some questions. [00:54:32] First of all, once a person sees this, God is prepared to do humanly inexplicable things with them. [00:54:47] For instance, you are getting on marvellously in your job until you give yourself over to God Holy. [00:54:59] And then a shadow comes right across your whole career. [00:55:06] You believe in healing and an illness comes to you that will not yield. [00:55:18] Sometimes you may have some other accident or something else that seems to be a denial of the love of God. [00:55:31] God can take a watchman leave and put him in solitary confinement for 20 years. [00:55:45] Now you say to me this, this disillusions me. This. This gives me big problems. I mean, if God is really God, and God is so interested in things, then why on earth doesn't he get Watchman Knee out round the platforms of the world and put Lance Lambert in prison or something like that. Shut up. Some of those who could do with a little bit of suffering and affliction and get round on the platforms of the world, those who've got so much to give. [00:56:12] I don't suppose in the history of the early church there was ever a point where the apostle Paul was more required than when he was martyred. [00:56:23] It was at that point that his voice, his counsel, his wisdom, his influence was more needed in the growing churches through the Roman Empire. But God took him. And you know how he explained it? I am being sacrificed on the altar of your faith. [00:56:41] He saw his premature going, seemingly from the human point of view, at only 66 years of age, as a sacrifice, a burnt offering. [00:56:55] There can be only one explanation. God is qualifying him for a high post in the government, in his eternal government. Only one reason for shutting up watchmani like that is that somehow he's going to occupy a position in the government of God in eternity that he could not have occupied any other way. He had to come that way. [00:57:21] Now some of you will immediately say, oh dear, I don't think I would like this. It makes me afraid to say anything to God. Yes, that's why Jesus said, if any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. [00:57:47] Not his salvation, but the significance of his life. [00:57:54] And whosoever will lose his life for my sake and the gospel's the same shall find it. [00:58:06] So you see this matter of the throne, of coming to the throne of the city of God. It's a matter of precious stone. It's a matter of pure gold, transparent as glass. It's a matter of pearl. If you look at any of those materials, you find they all come to some suffering. Gold, to be transparent as glass, must be refined and refined and refined pearl comes out of a bit of grit in the softest part of the shell. [00:58:33] Think of that. [00:58:34] How else is a pearl produced? [00:58:37] And precious stone is formed in the deep, dark parts of the earth by intense heat and press. [00:58:49] God's going to have no one in his eternal government who's there just because of pedigree, because of title. They're all going to be there because they're like the lamb. [00:58:58] They're going to be there because they've gone the same way. They've learned through experience how to understand human beings, how to appreciate human beings, how to bear with human beings, how to bear and forbear, how to love the unlovable. [00:59:22] And the other thing, the last thing was service. [00:59:27] This is not a word like today by the new generation so much. [00:59:35] It used to be a kind of sort of hallmark of all evangelical preaching when I was first saved. So we used to, we all reacted against it. We heard so much about service, service, service, service, service, service, service. Everything was service. [00:59:54] Well, you can't just serve God if you can't enjoy God and if you can't worship God. It's wonderful that we've come this way around to see what it is to worship, to see what it is to enjoy God, to see what it is to be the church of God. But there is such a thing as service. I wonder what it will be. They shall serve him and they shall reign forever and ever. [01:00:23] The very beginning of the Bible God put them in a garden to guard it and to tend it so and at the end of the Bible they shall serve him forever. These are bond slaves. [01:00:43] They are not hired servants. They are bond slaves. They have given up everything. [01:00:49] They shall see his face. They shall be in such a proximity to him that they can see his eyes, the color of them. [01:00:58] They can actually see him, hear him and they have his name engraved in their foreheads. [01:01:09] They shall serve him forever. I don't think there could be anything more wonderful. [01:01:14] I'd love to be involved in the creation of new stars, new planets, new universes. [01:01:19] I'd love to be somehow involved in the whole working out of the schemes of God and all the new ideas of God that are going to come into fruition forever and ever. I can't think of anything more. Why some of you go to university. What to do to push a pen as a civil servant in some God forsaken spot in Her Majesty's bureaucracy and others. [01:01:43] They go through college, I don't know what to do. [01:01:48] Engineering things, this and that. Others you go what you become a housewife. [01:01:56] Training is all part of life, isn't it? It has to be. [01:02:01] And we do all this for a little life. We don't even know when we'll be taken. [01:02:09] And we snort sometimes inwardly if not outwardly at the thought of God asking us to submit to training. [01:02:21] Training. [01:02:24] What does it mean? [01:02:27] The humdrum, the routine. [01:02:31] That's training. Here we are on two days and what do we hear? The very first thing he has to say when he stands up yesterday almost is something about everyone being on a rota to go into the kitchen, why do the people have to do washing up? So the rest of us can enjoy ourselves. [01:02:52] And if people say, I'm not going to do it, then it means that you enjoy yourself that much less. [01:03:01] Because in the end, everyone has to do the chores and the routine and the humdrum so that everyone can enjoy themselves. And so it is on a much vaster scale. Only we don't quite see it like that. Well, now, that's enough, I think, for that of the small. Shall we just bow in prayer? [01:03:23] Dear Lord, we've said really quite enough this morning in this matter. [01:03:30] If the Holy Spirit were really to illumine our hearts. [01:03:35] And what we pray, Lord, is that thou preserve all this from misunderstanding and misinterpretation. [01:03:42] But Lord, we pray, bring it home to us in such a way that we begin to see life as we're living it, with new eyes, the problems, the difficulties, the technicalities, the routine, the dullness, the chores, as well as the excitements and the joys. [01:04:08] Now, Lord, help us to see it all in a new light. Help us to view it in the light of Thy calling, Lord, reveal this to us. We pray so that, Lord, when we talk about more practical things, Lord, all this has real bearing. [01:04:25] We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. [01:04:30] Amen.