Meeting Together #12 – The Cross and the Spirit

[00:00:00] Now shall we take the word of God? And we're going to go for rather a ramble through scripture. Beginning at the book of Genesis. [00:00:10] And chapter twelve and verse seven and verse eight. [00:00:18] Genesis, twelve, seven, eight. And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said unto thy seed will I give this land. [00:00:30] And there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Beth el. And pitched his tent, having Beth el on the west and AI on the east. And there he builded an altar unto the Lord. And called upon the name of the Lord. [00:00:58] Then chapter 35. [00:01:02] Chapter 35. [00:01:05] And verses one to three. [00:01:11] And God said unto Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. [00:01:19] And make there an altar unto God who appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau, thy brother. [00:01:27] Then Jacob said unto his household and to all that were with him, put away the foreign gods that are among you. And purify yourselves and change your garments. And let us arise and go up to Bethel. And I will make there an altar unto God. Who answered me in the day of my destroy stress. And was with me in the way which I went. [00:01:52] And then I want you to turn back to chapter 28. [00:01:57] Chapter 28. [00:02:01] And verse eleven. [00:02:06] And he lighted. This is Jacob upon a certain place and tarried there all night because the sun was set. And he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth. And the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac. The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth. And thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee. And will keep thee whithersoever thou goest. And will bring thee again into this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken. Spoken to the arm. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep. And he said, surely the Lord is in this place. And I knew it not. And he was afraid and said, how dreadful is this place. [00:03:22] This is none other than the house of God. And this is the gate of heaven. [00:03:32] Now that, of course, was Bethel. Verse 19. He called the name of that place Beth El, house of God. That's what Bethel means. Now if you will go back again to Genesis 22. Now we're going to take another. You probably won't understand quite what we're doing just now, but I trust you will later. Genesis 22, verse one and two. [00:04:02] And it came to pass after these things that God did prove Abraham. And said unto him, abraham. And he said, here am I. And he said, take now thy son, thine own son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac. And get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. [00:04:26] Verse nine. And they came to the place which God had told him of. And Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took a knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, abraham, Abraham. And he said, here I am. And he said, lay not thy hand upon the lady. Neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son. [00:05:13] And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah jireh. As it is said to this day in the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. Now that was Mount Moriah. Now if you turn over to one chronicles, chapter 21, one chronicles, chapter 21, verse 15. [00:05:44] And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it. [00:05:50] And as he was about to destroy, the Lord beheld. And he repented him of the evil and said to the destroying angel, it's enough now. Stay thy hand. And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshold of ornan the jebusite. [00:06:04] And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. Verse 27. [00:06:25] And the Lord commanded the angel. And he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof. [00:06:34] Chapter 22, verse one. Then David said, this is the house of the Lord God. And this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel. Now that was Mount Moriah. Again it was exactly Mount Moriah then if you will turn to two chronicles, chapter three, verse one. Two chronicles, chapter three, verse one. [00:07:07] Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, which he made ready in the place that David had appointed in the threshing floor of all and the Jebusite Mount Moriah. Now I want you to go back to Exodus, chapter 40. [00:07:29] Exodus chapter 40 and verse six and seven. [00:07:34] Exodus 46 and seven. And thou shalt set the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. [00:07:45] And thou shalt set the labour between the tent of meeting and the altar, and shall put water therein. [00:07:53] Then you'll see, I trust, that everything is to do with an altar and the house here. All these scriptures we're looking at now. Ezra, the book of Ezra, chapter three, verse one. [00:08:13] Ezra. [00:08:14] We'll find that the end of chronicles for Nehemiah. [00:08:22] Ezra, chapter three, verse, verse one. And when the 7th month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. Then stood up Jeshua the son of Josadat and his brethren, the priests, and Serubabel the son of Shealtiel and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. And they set the altar upon its base, for fear was upon them because of the peoples of the countries. And they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening. Then verse six, from the first day of the 7th month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. [00:09:15] Now really we should read quite a bit more, but we'll just read perhaps from verse. Now, in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel of Jeshua, the son of Josadac, and the rest of their brethren, the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity into Jerusalem and appointed the Levites from 20 years old and upward to have the oversight of the work of the house of the Lord. Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together to have the oversight of the workmen in the house of God, the sons of Henadad, their sons and their brethren, the Levites. And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord. They set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with symbols to praise the Lord after the order of David, king of Israel. [00:10:08] And they sang one to another in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord, saying, for he is good, for his loving kindness endureth forever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers houses, the old men that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice. And many shouted for joy so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people. For the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off. [00:10:49] And then two last references. [00:10:54] Ezekiel, chapter 40. [00:10:58] Ezekiel, chapter 40, verse 47. [00:11:11] I know this is all about the house of God again, and the city. [00:11:16] 40 47. And he measured the court a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits broad, foursquare. [00:11:24] And the altar was before the house, and then the last. 147. [00:11:31] Ezekiel 47. [00:11:34] In verse one, we will only read the first verse, but really ought to read quite a lot of the chapter. And he brought me back into the. Unto the door of the house. And behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house. Eastward. At the forefront of the house was toward the east. And the waters came down from under from the right side of the house on the south of the altar. [00:11:59] So this great river of life came from inside the house, from the altar and flowed out through the city into the whole land, so that everything was changed by this great river. [00:12:14] Well, now, this evening we come to the conclusion of these studies on why you at Halford House? Some years ago, when we considered this matter, we also considered the matter of missions, missionary societies, missionary organization, and so on. But we decided this time not to. To look at that sometime when the Lord leads us separately. [00:12:45] Now, we've said a lot yet in answering the the question we have asked ourselves, why are you at Halford House? [00:12:59] We have still not touched the real key to everything. [00:13:07] We have said that the headship of Christ is vital. We have said that the church's body is a heavenly thing, something out of heaven, of a different order altogether to anything down here. We've said that his church is an organism and not an organization. [00:13:27] We have said that the church is the fellowship of Christ and so on and so forth. But we have still not actually touched the key to the whole matter. [00:13:43] We have answered the question, but the point is, how does it all come to pass now? We can go to theological courses, we can go to Bible colleges. We can come here on a poorer level and learn something about the church or some other matter. [00:14:12] But the fact remains, in the end, the practical question is how? [00:14:21] Not only why, but how? [00:14:28] We may have given a good explanation and a good answer to our question. Why am I at Halford House? We may have satisfied ourselves about it all, but we must be very careful that in answering our question accurately and soundly and scripturally, we are still in a fool's paradise. [00:14:54] The how, in the end, is the almighty question, if you like, it's the million dollar question. [00:15:05] How can we see the church recovered in practical expression? [00:15:15] How can we see the testimony of Jesus that we have considered in the last few weeks, recovered and restored? [00:15:27] How can we see God, God really moving in such a way as to express himself in terms that are found in the New Testament? [00:15:44] What is the secret, the key to the source of the life of God, in which everything lies inherent? [00:16:00] Now, the key is twofold. [00:16:05] It is the cross and the spirit. [00:16:12] The cross and the spirit. [00:16:18] Now, when we say the cross and the spirit in that one simple sentence, we have encompassed the whole of the New Testament. [00:16:31] Indeed, you can go further and say you've encompassed the whole of the Bible. The how is answered in that one simple statement. The cross and the spirit. Not the cross alone, nor the spirit alone, but the cross and the spirit. [00:16:54] The church, the body of Christ, is a spiritual organism. It may have a tremendous amount of organization, but it's the original source of its organization that counts. [00:17:09] It is an organism, and its organization develops from the life of God that is within it. It cannot be put together, as we have seen in our studies, by man. [00:17:24] It cannot be set up by man. People talk about my church, my people, my prayer meeting ministers often talk like this, especially ministers, fraternals, my pulpit, and so on and so forth. [00:17:43] But it is quite foreign to the New Testament that the apostle Paul, who perhaps more than anyone might have felt acclaimed to talking about my churches, never refers to them as such or my people in that sense, not at all. You cannot be put together by man. [00:18:05] I remember a young man coming a while ago and asking us about how we run the place, and we asked him what he was, or at least Michael Fishbuster asked him what he was, and he said, oh, he was the same as us. He ran two or three churches that in that simple statement that gave everything away. [00:18:34] No need to say another word. [00:18:40] Indeed, I think we have to say that not only is the church spiritual organism and cannot just be put together or set up by men, but, and this is tremendously important, that the Holy Spirit reveal it to our hearts and not just to our heads. [00:18:58] Man as he is has got to be removed entirely by the work of the Holy Spirit through the cross. [00:19:17] And he's got to be thoroughly dealt with. Far from putting people into some kind of Bible college just to refine what is in them, naturally, the Holy Spirit's work is to destroy and break up what is in us, naturally, to remove altogether what we are so that what we are can be used. [00:19:43] That's the paradox. [00:19:46] The apostle Paul is broken up in the desert, completely broken up. Yet in the end, the Holy Spirit uses his mind in an unparalleled way. [00:20:00] The old Paul's mind couldn't have been used. With all its native wit and intelligence, its native genius, it couldn't have been used. But when it was broken, when he was removed, when he was broken up, then the spirit of God could fall upon him and use him. [00:20:18] How different. Too much of our modern method in training one another for the service of God. You've got this capacity, you've got that ability. Come on, then. Consecrate it to the service of God. Dedicate it to his service. This is the idea. And of course, the tragic results are seen in the church, where we've got man's work instead of the spirit's work. And what if it appears to be so much God's work, but it isn't. [00:20:47] It's wood, hay and stubble. The wood and the hay and the stubble, though perhaps gilded, of our own nature, and not the gold or the silver or the precious stone of the nature and character of Christ. [00:21:08] Before the church can be expressed in the simplest way, the Holy Spirit has got to remove man. That's you and me as we are all together. Now, that is the crux of the problem. [00:21:24] Make no mistake about it. The crux of the problem isn't getting people interested in the matter of the church. The crux of the problem isn't getting people to meet together. Though I must say that the flesh finds it tiresome after a while, after a few years, we got used to it. All the flesh wants to be straining to get away, get out of it, or find something new and novel. [00:21:52] But that's, believe me, there's no problem in getting people together. [00:21:57] The problem is to get people to present their bodies a living sacrifice to God, which God can break open and then the Holy Spirit can fall upon and really use. I say one life like that is worth a million. [00:22:16] You can have conference after conference after conference. You can have missionary society after missionary society. You can have all the Sedd ranks of christian workers, but have one man like the apostle Paul, one man like Timothy, one man that is devoted to God in such a way that he can be broken open and used, and he's worth all the rest put together. [00:22:36] Never before in the history of the church have we had as much money as we now have. Strange enough, in spite of all the appeals we see on every side, we have never had as much accumulated money in christian hands as today. Nor have we ever had so many councils, committees, boards, cluttered up with titled and wealthied people, moneyed people. Never in the history of the church, never in the whole history of the church have we ever had so many christian workers. Did you know that never, never have we had the media that we have today. [00:23:17] Printed page recordings, television, radio, means not only of communication, but of transport, which brings the whole world into a small area that can be easily encompassed. We have never had anything like it before, and yet we're losing the battle. [00:23:48] You've only got to open any missionary magazine, read any survey on statistics, and everyone will tell you we're losing the bet. The population explosion, mudgels, what's the difference between us and the early church? 120 unlettered, untaught people never been to university, no councils, committees, boards cluttered up with titled people or moneyed people, nothing of the kind, not any Bible colleges, theological courses, or anything else. [00:24:25] They didn't even possess a principle of a theological seminary in the 120. [00:24:33] And yet these 120 were destined to turn Jerusalem upside down, and indeed to turn the roman empire upside down, and, comparatively speaking, to take the gospel over the whole world so that within a hundred years of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, there was a church in India, there was a church in China, there was a church in these islands. [00:25:07] It is an incredible story. [00:25:11] The secret to it all was that they knew something of the cross and the spirit. [00:25:21] The church knows, after all, no uncrucified man. [00:25:28] There is no such thing as an uncrucified Christian. [00:25:34] Every single man or woman who's been saved and placed in Christ is crucified. That is inherent within their salvation. [00:25:44] It is not a question of trying to crucify yourself. You and I are crucified, and that's a fact. Don't argue with it. It's a fact. Now, you may not be in the experience of it, but it's a fact. Why? Because who was crucified? Not you. Jesus Christ was crucified and God put you in Jesus Christ when he was crucified 2000 years ago. Therefore, there is not one single person, by the grace of God and the foreordination of God who is in Christ, who's not been crucified. [00:26:14] Whether you've entered into it or not the fact is inherent within your spiritual birth is your crucifixion. [00:26:26] That's the fact. That's what baptism's about. [00:26:31] The church knows no such thing as an uncrucified person. We were all crucified with Christ and thank God, we were all buried with him. And thank God more than ever. We were all made alive together with him, within him. He's the new man risen from the dead. The firstborn from the dead. [00:26:55] The firstborn among many brothers. [00:26:58] This is the whole meaning of the church. And furthermore, we're not only alive in him, but listen. We are living members of him. We are the fellowship of Christ. [00:27:13] Living members, living parts of him and of one another. So amazing is the whole nature of this thing. Now, of course, I do understand. That is the fact. Have we entered into it? That's the point. [00:27:27] Have we entered into it? We can only enter into it by the cross and the spirit. So it is the measure in which we possess what is ours in Christ will be the measure in which we know this and experience. [00:27:41] The measure in which we are prepared to allow the cross to work in our lives will be the measure in which the Holy Spirit is able to bring us in. So, my dear friend, take great note of what we have to say this evening. The church, the house of God, all that we've talked about here lies inherent within the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. It is within the life. [00:28:07] Can I put it this way? It is the very life of Jesus Christ. [00:28:12] Born at Nazareth, tested through 33 years. Anointed by the Holy Spirit when he was baptized in the river Jordan. [00:28:26] Tempted of the devil, transfigured in glory. Coming down finally to go through to the cross and into the grave and out on the other side. That's the life that's in you and me. It's no different. It's not that we've got another degree of life, another kind of life, another type of life that when the Lord Jesus died suddenly another kind of life came into existence. Not at all. Do you remember the words of the Lord Jesus? Oh, how I'm straightened. [00:28:57] The life was in him. But he couldn't give it. There they all were. Eleven faulty, failing disciples. He wanted to give them himself. He wanted to get into them. Don't you see? He could see. They could do nothing else but fail. They were learning it all up here. But oh, what a mess they got into. And how quickly they could deny what they learned up there. Like you and me. [00:29:23] We can come to Bible study after Bible study on a Thursday evening. We can get it all up here and blame the preacher, poor thing, as if he's able to get into you. He can't get into you any more than anyone else can. [00:29:39] The fact of the matter is we can learn and we can learn and we can learn and we can learn. But until the cross came as a fact, there was no possibility of that life getting into us. But when the cross came, the life was made available to us. Now that's the secret of the cross, from the spirit. [00:30:05] In other words, many of us live in a kind of pre Calvary christian experience. [00:30:13] We're walking around with Jesus, listening to his words, watching his acts, being excited by his miracles, as it were, all the time wanting this, wanting, oh, if we could only have a sign, if we could only have this. If we could only have that following, following. But the thing's not in us. [00:30:31] It's not in us. The reason it's not in us is because we're not prepared for the cross. That's why it is inherent within the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ. These seven points we have considered are in fact all the evidence of the life of God, the spirit of life, unchecked and unhindered in his people. [00:30:58] When the life of God is unchecked and unhindered, when the spirit of life can move freely, then these seven things are immediately expressed. [00:31:10] You can't help it. [00:31:13] And that is the unfailing way in which you and I contest things amongst the people of God. [00:31:26] Now the key to that life is the cross. [00:31:31] And we don't always like this. [00:31:33] People speak of it as being heavy, but I don't think there is anything very light about the bloodiness of the cross. [00:31:48] It is, after all, a gibbet. It's a scaffold. What do you expect it to be? Something light, something you can dance about? [00:31:58] Of course not. [00:32:01] The cross is a scaffold. It's a guillotine. [00:32:05] It's a place of death. [00:32:08] How much easier it would be for us if we didn't have to go that way, if we could jump into Pentecostal without Calvary, if we could get all the glory and all the excitement and all the fullness of Pentecost without the scaffold, without the stench of blood, without the smoke, the smell of burnt flesh. [00:32:36] Oh, it would be wonderful if we could get into Pentecost. And that's why there is so much counterfeit experience and so much strange fire. [00:32:46] Because people want to get away. They don't want to pay the price. They don't want to face the facts. They don't want to face reality. They don't want to face themselves. [00:32:57] They want to just jump into Pentecost without calvary. [00:33:02] Can't be done. [00:33:04] The cross is the secret of the birth, the growth and the expression of the church. [00:33:13] It has ever been the only way to the house of God. Go right back into the beginning, and you have Abraham building an altar. [00:33:23] And where does he build the altar? Between AI, which means a heap or a ruin, and Beth el house of God. [00:33:37] He's got the ruin of his old nature himself behind him. He's got the house of God in front of him, and between it, the altar. [00:33:47] Oh, so many people. [00:33:49] They want to try and make the ruin the house. [00:33:56] God won't have it. [00:33:59] He won't have it. This is God's argument with his people all the way through the centuries. He just will not have it. [00:34:09] Go all the way through the different scriptures. What about dear, dear Jacob? What does he see? He sees a vision, and he sees a ladder going up into heaven. Most people think of it as a kind of lovely picture. But do you know what it is? Angels going up and coming down. They're not coming down and going up. They're going up and coming down. What is it? It's a picture of the house of God, the Lord standing above it, the sort of midway, as it were, between heaven and earth, the means of communication, communion, union, communion. [00:34:48] Jacob may have been a twister and a deceiver and a supplanter, but he saw the point. He was spiritually shrewd. He said, my goodness, this is none other than the house of God, the gate of heaven. [00:34:59] He also said something. Being an honest man, he said, how fearful is this place? [00:35:05] And once we begin to see really what the house of God is, it's a fearful place to our flesh. [00:35:12] Later on, it says in Hebrews that Jacob worshipped at the end of his life, the fear had gone. [00:35:20] There was only the fear of the Lord of the right kind there. [00:35:23] His flesh was devilish. So he was a worshipper. A worshipper. [00:35:29] Worshippers are never critics or murmurers. [00:35:32] We can always tell the flesh by the children of Israel because they continually murmured against the Lord, that's the flesh. [00:35:48] Worship is a sign of the spirit. [00:35:52] Well, we can go on. We can go on wherever you look. Doesn't matter where you look. Take Abraham. [00:35:58] Dear Abraham, he takes his only son. God says, offer him up. He goes up onto a mountain called Mount Moriah. And there he offers him. And suddenly the Lord appears. [00:36:10] His son is saved. And in his place, a ram is offered on an altar. Later on, that that very place was to become the site of the altar. The burnt offering. The altar of burnt offering in the house of the Lord. The temple, that very place which you can see today, that very place became the spot for the house of God. [00:36:38] We read it in Exodus. See that you put. See that you put the altar in front of the tabernacle. In other words, if we were all Israelites and we were to come in through the door and the well, of course, there was the big courtyard. The actual tabernacle was the size of this room. Just about the size of this room. Now, when we went outside near outer courtyard, you come in the outer gate, see, and we come to. And I see. Now, stop. Stop. Now what do you see? What do you see? From here, just inside the gate, you say, I don't see any of the adobe city out there. You see something? Well, I don't see any of the tabernacle. No no no. That's all right then. What do you see? I see a wacking great altar. [00:37:16] It barks everything. [00:37:18] Right. That's it. [00:37:21] It obscures everything. Before you can get to the tent of meeting, before you can get to the tabernacle, before you can get to the house of God, the altar blocks away. But just wait. When you've come to the altar and accepted all that the altar means, what next? Do you see? A laver. And it's the laver of regeneration. [00:37:41] It's the washing of the word. In other words, one thing is the removing of man. The other thing is birth from above. [00:37:52] One thing is that dealing with what we are naturally. The other is a new nature and a new life from God. [00:38:00] One earth, the other heaven. So before you can get into the house of God, before you can even get into the church, as it were, before you can see it and know it in experience and all the wonderful and blessed ministries of the church, the show bed table, the golden altar of incense, the lamp stand, all of gold. Before you can even get into it, the first thing is the altar. The second thing is the laver one is negative, the other's positive. [00:38:26] One clears the ground, the other brings in what is of God. [00:38:31] You can't get away from it. When they rebuilt the temple again in the days of Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah, why, the very first thing they did was to set up the altar. Why, you would say, now, don't be silly. Don't be silly. [00:38:45] What's the point of having an altar? First thing to do is to get the walls up, get the foundation, get the walls up, get the roof on, and then we'll have the altar. Because, I mean, we can't offer things on the altar till we've got the place done, can we? But no. The Lord says, the first thing, altar. The second thing, the foundation. The third thing, the building. [00:39:04] How full of spiritual principle it is. [00:39:08] God starts with the cross, and once the altar is in its place, the holy spirit comes in, and the work on the foundation starts, and the building goes up, and the whole book of Haggai and Zechariah are woven into dead. Now, it doesn't matter where you go. You come to Ezekiel's great vision. You've got the same thing again. [00:39:30] Soon as he's there, a great altar right in front of the house. And then after we've seen everything so marvelous about this new house, this new temple that's going to be built, he's taken back, and what does he see? A great river beginning. Like a little trickle. So silly. A little tiny bubbling stream. Where is it coming from? From the altar. Where is the altar? In the house of God. Before the gate, the door of the house of God. There it is, bubbling up. [00:40:03] That little stream becomes an Amazon like river that changes everything by its fertility. It's life giving power. [00:40:18] All from the altar. No altar, no other. [00:40:28] Calvary produced Pentecost. [00:40:32] Pentecost did not produce Calvary. [00:40:40] Calvary produced pentacles. [00:40:48] Now, it doesn't matter. A gate. Where you turn, you will find it. [00:40:53] Find it? [00:40:55] Well, in the notes that you'll get. You'll find in those notes a number of scriptures that you can look up. I'm not going to go into them. Now. In Ephesians and elsewhere, speak the calvary side of it. The blood of the lamb, the blood of Christ. And then suddenly and immediately, the work of the spirit in one spirit. And then what? Built together, growing into an holy temple in the Lord. [00:41:22] It doesn't matter where you turn, you will find this kind of matter. The Lord Jesus said, destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up he spake of his body. [00:41:38] We know that. [00:41:40] Of course, the greatest example of it all is when the Greeks came. They were gentiles. They weren't even God fearers. They were absolute gentiles. They came and they said, we would see Jesus. And because they were fearful, they thought the law, being a jew, would not have anything to do with gentiles because of ceremonial uncleanness. They went to the Greek. The Greek named one Andrew. And they said to him, philip, father. And Philip went to Andrew. They said to Philip, who had a greek name, philip, we'd like to see Jesus. Philip went to Andrew, and they both went to Jesus. And the Lord Jesus said to them these wonderful words. Verily, verily, I said, you accept a grain of wheat, fall into the ground and die. It abideth alone. But if it die, it beareth much. Now, wouldn't you think that's a rather extraordinary way of answering a quite simple, straightforward question? [00:42:34] We would like to see the Lord. And then we get all this talk about falling into the ground and dying. [00:42:42] What's it about? Surely he can either say, no, I'm too busy, or he could say, yes, I'll give them two minutes. [00:42:51] Why does he say this? Why? Because it's this whole medal again. The Lord Jesus was saying, wait, wait, wait. [00:43:00] They can come and see me. They can come and talk with me. They won't get anything. They'll know me after the flesh. Just you wait. When I've fallen into the ground and died, there'll be thousands of Greeks in my body. [00:43:13] Not only greeks, gentiles from all over the world will come and become fellow members of the body. [00:43:20] When I fallen into the ground and died, if you go on in that passage where we often do, you will find the Lord spoke of his death, saying, I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto myself. How could it not be clear to us? It's the cross. [00:43:41] Then the spirit draws. [00:43:46] Well, as I've said, Calvary precedes Pentecost. [00:43:50] And it's not only historical, but also in collective and our individual experience. [00:43:57] We cannot come into any real understanding and experience of the church until we first come into a real experience of the cross. [00:44:10] Now, if you feel out of it, don't blame others. [00:44:18] We all get into this terrible port of the children of Israel in the wilderness. Murmuring it's always so and so or so and so or so and so. And the Lord hears every word. [00:44:38] He knows where there's dishonesty, and he knows where we're causing trouble. [00:44:45] Now we want to be done with that, it's better to own up to it and say, I'm in the fault in this matter. [00:44:56] There may be faults in others, but the fact of the matter is that if the Lord can get his way in me, there could be a great change, a great change. [00:45:10] And this matter of the cross is so tremendous. Just here we say we feel out of it, we feel excluded, we feel this, we feel that. It's amazing what happens. Some people, sometimes I've heard of, who feel that things in messages are just endless. [00:45:34] The most extraordinary thing is that sometimes. Sometimes people come to us and say they've been aimed at us. And, you know, to tell the absolute, honest truth, you haven't even seen them there. But, you know, you daren't say it. If you were to say, I didn't even notice you there, that would be the end. [00:45:52] That would be the end. [00:45:56] But all. Anyone. That is the trouble, again, with the old employee. Employee or any kind of relationship. You see, the problem is, for any of you who have ever done any speaking, you know as well as I do, sometimes you don't notice people at all. Nurse does that. [00:46:10] You're only conscious of a message that God's given you. Give it. [00:46:15] It's amazing, this kind of thing. [00:46:18] People say, well, they all feel so. So again and again, we've had this can be. They all feel surfs. And we've said to them, they all. [00:46:30] Have you asked them? No, I know it kind of thing. [00:46:39] They're all so narrow. [00:46:47] Well, we can give many, many examples of this kind of thing. And we spend the whole evening going into a rather humorous vein, because really untruthfully, it is rather funny when it comes down to it. [00:47:02] The fact is this, that we have only ourselves to blame if we don't really come into it. People say, oh, they're so. They're so unfriendly. But lo and behold, this dear person. Person never does a thing, doesn't even say boo to a goose. [00:47:28] They expect everyone to come instead of going out doing something. Such simple little things. [00:47:37] The root of the whole thing is this. We, I. You must first come into a real understanding, a real experience of the cross if we're going to know the church. [00:47:50] Now, there are just a few things I'd like you to note. The first is this. [00:47:55] In the light of this, as we sum up all these studies, first is this. The tragic result of bypassing the cross and setting up the church can be seen only too clearly in the complex situation which we believers face today. [00:48:17] Why look at it. [00:48:21] Do we honestly believe that all these isms and it snights and everything else that go by the name of the church are really God's mind? Isn't it rather extraordinary that they all claim to be built on the pattern in the New Testament? [00:48:39] No wonder the agnostic says, does God know his own mind when we've got complete opposites claiming fervently to be built on the pattern in the New Testament? What a complex situation. What's gone wrong? Why hasn't that organic something come into being? Or again, why is it that we have around us everywhere in Europe and in America? I think in America more so than here, not so much the age old traditions, but oh my, all the encrusted denominations under the sun, once great works of the spirit of God. But what has happened to them? What has happened to them? [00:49:25] A work that began in the spirit, it ended in the flesh, and everywhere there are the monuments to be viewed. [00:49:39] That's a complex situation, isn't it? May I say something else to ourselves? [00:49:44] Got many groups that claim to be really New Testament and have left everything sort of thing to start again. [00:49:55] And what do we find? [00:49:57] We find soundness, but deadness, a stultifying organizationalism as great as anything that's been left. [00:50:10] That's the complex situation that has resulted from bypassing the cross. Now listen. The cross would cut that out in its entirety. [00:50:21] Why? It would smash up the very root sympathy by striking the source, which is man, so that the spirit might come in. [00:50:36] It would strike at the source that keeps it going, misguided loyalty to things rather than crimes. [00:50:48] The second observation I would like to make in closing this evening is the absence of the church in practical expression causes all the gifts, the functions and the ministries to lose the greater part of their meaning and purpose. [00:51:08] It also means the dissipation of spiritual values. [00:51:15] For the most part, they are so often not concerned. [00:51:23] Well, you take the Billy Graham crusade. There's a good example of what I mean, tremendous evangelistic. Wouldn't it be glorious if the church was in its right place and everywhere, all over Britain, that could have seen. Of course there would be those who would go back. Of course, the scripture itself tells us there will be those who fall. By the way, DMAs loved the present world. You can't stop that. [00:51:54] It's as old as Adam. [00:51:56] People have always loved the world and put the world before Christ and gone back. I'm sorry to say it, it's a fact. You'll never stop it. You'll always get some spurious conversions, you'll also get superficial conversions. Theyre not necessarily spurious, but they dont go deep enough. [00:52:22] You always get debt. But dont you agree with me that the absence of the church means that so many of the gifts take the teaching ministry, take the prophetic ministry, take so many other ministries by many other gifts, take just the gifts that are in each one of us, for the most part, they lose their place. [00:52:45] The third thing I would like to make as an observation this evening is this. The knowledge of the doctrine of the church, though sound accurate and even full, does not bring it into practical expression. [00:53:02] We all know groups that have got it absolutely tied up in here could give you a clear definition of the church and anything else. [00:53:18] I don't know the first thing about it in practical experience. [00:53:24] That's because no amount of knowledge means necessarily means that the church is there, nor does any amount of trying. Oh, have we all not met people trying to build the church, desperately wanting the church to come into being? [00:53:49] Well, that's my third observation. [00:53:53] My fourth is this, we shall spend just a little longer on this one. [00:53:58] The church lies inherent within the life of Christ. Now, we've said that already, that life is made available by the spirit. The church lies inherent within the life of Christ. It is not in his death. [00:54:18] It is not in his death. [00:54:20] That death of his was the judgment of God upon our sin. It was the propitiation by Christ for our sins. [00:54:34] That death spells redemption for us, the forgiveness of our sins. [00:54:42] We are justified through his death. [00:54:45] We have an eternal and legal standing with God through his death. [00:54:53] And further, that death means the removing of fallen man altogether. [00:55:05] The clearing, if you like, of the ground for God. That's what the cross means. The death of Christ means he's cleared the ground of you all and me. Hallelujah, we're gone. [00:55:17] God says, out with you. [00:55:20] First thing I'll do is save you. And the second thing I'll do is remove you. [00:55:27] We can talk about the cross, but do we understand the burial? [00:55:33] You bury the person out of sight. [00:55:38] The body is gone. [00:55:40] Gone. [00:55:42] God says, I've saved you to remove you. [00:55:47] Now, anyone who's unsaved is not removed. They're very much there in the sight of God, in all their ugliness, in all their sin, in all their iniquity, in the abomination of their iniquity. They are there in the very sight of God, blatantly to be seen. [00:56:07] But you and I, we've been saved and removed. [00:56:14] Blessed be his name. [00:56:18] The church is not in his death. [00:56:21] The church may have been produced by his death, but it's not in his death. [00:56:29] In the notes, you'll find some scriptures for that. [00:56:34] But the church is in the life of Christ. [00:56:39] That life will develop, will expand, will grow, and the result will be the house of God. You can't stop it. [00:56:52] If that life can get into two or three believers on the same foundation in Christ, in the same place, linked together, then once that life starts to flow, it will result in the house of God. You can't stop it. [00:57:13] It's the new man. [00:57:16] The new man is not the dead man. [00:57:20] The new man is the one alive from the dead. [00:57:24] Everything is in the life of Christ. So it is not knowledge or trying that counts that can end in a substitute for the real thing. [00:57:39] I can get it all up here, be saved, and then try to produce it. And the more I try, the more possibility I put it all together according to the planet. And the more organizing ability, the more capability I've got in the things of God, the more possibility there is of such a thing resulting. [00:58:04] This is what it means when it says, every man's work shall be tried so as by fire. [00:58:11] Every one of us, we just learned what we've done. Whatever we've done in this place, or whatever we've done anywhere else, it's all going to one day be tried by not one of us is going to say, I know, to escape. [00:58:22] We'll all be equal. Then the fire will try us. [00:58:27] And what comes through is what is of God, not what appeared to be of God, but what is of God will come and what's myself out. [00:58:43] Well, now you see, it's an ever increasing experience of his life, individually and corporately, that counts. Not knowledge, experience. [00:58:55] Furthermore, this is very, very important. It is the Holy Spirit alone who can bring the resurrection life of Christ into us and express it through us initially and progressively. [00:59:10] No one else can do it. Look at Romans eight. [00:59:14] It is impossible. It is the spirit of him that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead, dwelling in us. [00:59:21] Then what happened? By the spirit we put to death the deeds of the body. We put to death the deeds of the body. We put to death the deeds of the body. And all the time looking for to be delivered from it. We have to do something by the spirit. Then what happens? We are joined ears with ice. [00:59:40] The spirit of adoption. [00:59:44] It's the body. [00:59:49] Find it in Ephesians 119 twin, when it says exceeding greatness of his power to ask for who believe. When he raised Jesus Christ from the dead, is the spirit again? [00:59:58] Lord Jesus was raised by the spirit of God. What happens? Listen. Made him head over all things to the church, which is his body. The fullness of him that filleth all in all, everything under his feet, his head over all things. We are in between. [01:00:14] Everything is under his feet, his head over all things where the body it is glorious. [01:00:22] You've got it again in Zechariah four. And that great vision that Zechariah saw when he saw that great lampstand all of gold. And he was very concerned about the two olive trees on either side and the olive branches. And he was most bothered about that. Why? Because Zechariah is like us. [01:00:39] He wants to see where we come into the picture. And the Lord said, zechariah, shut up. [01:00:45] I don't want where you come into the picture. All of you are the same. Aye, aye, aye, aye. The olive tree. [01:00:53] What's the olive tree, Lord? What? The two olive branches, Lord? Of course. Zechariah had some inkling. See, we've all got intuition. [01:01:03] Oh, Zechariah had some inkling. I don't know what that is. I'm quite sure I know what that is. Trees stand for men in scripture. [01:01:13] Is it either side? Oh, I wonder who they are. Will he say one is rubbable and the other is Joshua? Or will he say one is Zechariah and the other is haggai? [01:01:30] Who is he doing? [01:01:32] No, says the Lord. I'm not going to tell you. The angel of the Lord said, no, no, no, it's not where you come into the picture. It's where I come into the picture. Now, now. Sacrilege. What have you seen? You've seen a lampstand. That's me. [01:01:48] Then he talks about rebuilding. That's what I get. Then he comes back to the branches and you know what they're doing? They're emptying gold out of themselves. The material for what I'm getting, says the Lord, to get a different basis, a quite different basis. Well, we cannot overestimate the fact that it is impossible to know the life of Christ apart from the Holy Spirit. [01:02:19] Through the finished work of Christ at Calvary, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is able to make the life of Jesus Christ eternal life, the very life of God himself, available to every saved sinner. [01:02:39] It doesn't matter who you are who are saved sinners. The life of Jesus Christ is made available to us by the Holy Spirit. [01:02:47] You cannot know it apart from the Holy Spirit. You can only know your own life with all its pentacles and bills and everything that you can get into a state. But my dear friend, it will leave you empty and neurotic. [01:03:04] But if you know the life of Christ, you'll be carried sometimes into the third heaven and hear things perhaps unspeakable. [01:03:12] It is not even lawful to utter. And that will be the sign of it, that you'll shut up instead of running around talking, talking, talking, exposing yourself and others. [01:03:28] It is something of God. [01:03:34] When the Holy Spirit really works. My word, it's a tremendous thing, tremendously. [01:03:41] There's nothing more wonderful than to know the Holy Spirit. [01:03:44] Really. [01:03:46] He was the one who brought light out of darkness. He was the one who brought form out of emptiness. [01:03:53] He was the one through whom man was created in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who's watched over the purpose of God from the beginning of time until now. It is the Holy Spirit who brought to birth our Lord Jesus Christ, having already inspired the prophets at all different phases in the history of God's covenant people. [01:04:20] It was the Holy Spirit who fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ at his baptism and anointed him. It was the Holy Spirit through whom he was transformed, figured in glory on the Mount Tabor. [01:04:38] It was the Holy Spirit who enabled him to offer himself up on the cross for us all. [01:04:49] It was the Holy Spirit who brought again our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep from the dead, raised him up from the dead. And then listen to this. [01:05:06] It was when the Lord Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father, that he received for sinful men and women like you and me, saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. By the grace of God, he received the promise of me, that holy spirit, God the Spirit, and poured him forth. [01:05:33] That's Pentecost. [01:05:36] My dear friend, you've got an altogether poor idea of Pentecost. If your idea of Pentecost is just and only a little flame of fire, a little bit of fullness jumping up and being able to preach, gifted. [01:05:56] Is that your idea of Pentecost? [01:06:00] You need to revise it. [01:06:04] God's idea of Pentecost is nothing less than this. That God the spirit fell upon saved human beings. [01:06:12] Now none of us know the fullness of it. If only we did. If only our poor eyes could be open to see what happened at Pentecost. If only somehow, by faith, we could claim what has happened for us all at Pentecost. [01:06:30] It was the making available of the life of Jesus Christ to every saved sinner by joining those ones so redeemed, by joining them to the one Christ in one body, through himself the one spirit, by that making real in them and through them the authority and power of the head. [01:07:03] The gifts of the head. He ascended on high. He gave gifts unto men. [01:07:09] Why, there's a gift for every one of us because we're joined to the head. Who's given the gifts? [01:07:16] It doesn't matter what it is. It's there. Take it. It's in you. By the Holy Spirit, it's there. [01:07:24] The gifts and the ministries of the head. [01:07:29] It's the head, dear friend, that counts. [01:07:35] He's given it. [01:07:37] It's more than that. [01:07:39] He is making available to us the character of the head. Oh, that's more than gifts. You can have a thousand gifts, and one day it will mean nothing. [01:07:51] What you need is the character of the lamb. [01:07:55] And that's where we all fall short. [01:07:58] We all know what it is to have a gift. You can judge me a thousand times on this. You can have a gift. But the character is lacking, for the gift is mine. And even if I'm a good cover up and get away with it, they'll come a day when I won't. [01:08:17] And the character will be seen for what it is against the gift. That's what the apostle Paul said. Having preached to others, I myself might be a rich Egypt. [01:08:28] Terrible. [01:08:30] Well, now you see what I mean? [01:08:33] It's tremendous, isn't it, really? [01:08:36] He makes the very presence of a head wheel in that body. Now, that's the meaning of Pentecost. Don't you see it? Don't you see it? What happened on the day of Pentecost? Do you really think that all that happened was that a few people spoke in tongues, 120, and that everyone got excited? Oh, they're drunk. Is that Pentecost? Never. [01:08:59] Pentecost was this. And I will die on this issue. Pentecost was this. [01:09:06] That. That moment the Lord Jesus, who had been straightened in himself, in one human body, suddenly became 120 human bodies with the possibility of infinite multiplication. [01:09:24] Suddenly. [01:09:26] And this is the book of acts. The authority and power of the Lord Jesus crucified, raised by God, is once again walking on the earth. Listen to them. By what name have you done these things? Says the government. [01:09:43] In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye slew. And God raised up authority, gifts. Why, they go round. Why even now and again in one place a few handkerchiefs are taken from the apostle Paul and sent, and they get healed. [01:10:05] Even the Lord Jesus didn't do that. [01:10:07] He said, greater things shall ye do. [01:10:10] It's the book of acts. You see what I mean? [01:10:14] Character. Why, look at Stephen. Look at him with the face of an angel. Even the Lord Jesus stood up to receive him. It was so beautiful. [01:10:27] What's happened? [01:10:29] These poor people. Are they religious fanatics? No. [01:10:33] Something's happened. [01:10:36] Well, now, that's really what we mean by the church. [01:10:40] What can we say? All these seven points are bound up there. Wouldn't you like to know the Holy Spirit like that? I would. [01:10:48] I would. Not interested in all this other business. Oh, my dear friend, a lot of it's kindergarten nonsense. [01:10:56] If you want it, go and get it. Have it, doesn't matter. The Lord would be perfectly happy. [01:11:04] But let me tell you this, that if you want what he wants, you're in for something. [01:11:13] You're in for it. You're in for it. Why? [01:11:17] Because it's the cross. [01:11:20] It's the cross. The Holy Spirit, in all his glorious power and infinite fullness, refuses to fall on anyone until the cross is there. [01:11:32] Oh, he'll give you experiences. He'll give you blessings. He'll give you all kinds of things. He'll even give you gifts. [01:11:40] But he will refuse to do any building work for the city. [01:11:45] Nothing's going to get into that city which hasn't gone the same way as its master, and that's Calvary. [01:11:54] And don't you think, dear child of God, that that's right, I do. I tell you why I think it's right. It'd be much nicer if I could say to you, like some say now. Then you can just jump into it. [01:12:10] Just jump into it? Just like that. [01:12:15] Nonsense. I say it's nonsense. [01:12:22] You can jump into it, but if it's of God, you're paying for it. [01:12:30] The Lord has never allowed anything to get into the house which hasn't gone by way of the altar. [01:12:36] Never. And don't think you, my dear friend, are an exception. [01:12:43] None of us are exceptions to that. None of us at all. If you want to be used of God, if you want what's your. What you've got in you to be eternal, if you want to find it in the end in the city, you've got to go the cross. Now, don't you think that's right? I do. I'll tell you why. Well, this is the reason why it requires faith. [01:13:03] If I could just take a great jump and have a glorious excitement and then feel marvelous. [01:13:09] There's no faith in it. It's feeling. [01:13:14] But if I come up against a scaffold with all the blood, with all the smoke with all the slaughter. [01:13:28] And God says to me, this is the way you come here. [01:13:33] You go this way and you'll know glory that requires faith. [01:13:39] I shrink back. Oh no, Lord, not that. Not that the Lord Jesus did, if it's possible. [01:13:51] Oh, surely there's some other way. Surely, surely. But there isn't. There isn't. You've got to go that way. If you really would know the spirit of God. [01:14:07] I'm sorry, you have to be absolutely clear, but there you are. Well now then, we must, I think, end. [01:14:20] But it says in the book that everyone who goes that way shall know a committing of God to them such as others will never know, both now and in eternity. [01:14:39] At the end you'll find it all there in the city. [01:14:46] We come then to the end of this matter. [01:14:49] You want to see the church in practical expression on earth in our day. [01:14:55] We want to see the testimony of the Lord. [01:14:59] Got a covered and a stored. [01:15:02] We want to see God's original thought and concept. [01:15:06] Not merely thought and concept, but factual reality. [01:15:12] We want to see the glory of the latter house exceed that of the former. [01:15:19] Then we must face it. [01:15:24] The cost is all inclusive. [01:15:30] All that you and I are, all that we are must be brought to the cross, to the altar as a living sacrifice. It means the end of what we are and what we want. [01:15:50] That he might have what he is, what he wants, quite simple. [01:16:03] So that he may bring in what is of himself and establish it. We have got to know what it is to be rent, to be broken, to be reduced to ashes, to fall into the ground and die, to decrease. [01:16:31] If he is going to increase and multiply and be glorified and exalted? [01:16:42] Now then, do you want merely the success and prosperity of your own home, of your own career, of your own circle? [01:16:58] Is it only your own spiritual growth and fullness and satisfaction that you seek? [01:17:11] Are we content to centre everything in our own sealed houses whilst the house of God lies waste and in ruin? [01:17:23] Do we want position? [01:17:25] Do we want ministry? [01:17:28] Do we want comfort? [01:17:31] Do we want friendship? [01:17:34] Do we want fellowship? [01:17:38] Do we want popularity? [01:17:43] Then we must go our own way. Goodbye. [01:17:48] We must go our own way. The house of God will never be rebuilt by such. [01:17:57] That's the very reason why for so long it has lain waste. [01:18:06] No, if we would see the house of God rebuilt, we must face and accept the cost and by the grace of God never go back on it. [01:18:20] It will be rebuilt in the measure in which you and I die. [01:18:29] Now that's no comforting message unless you've got faith in your hearts. [01:18:38] That's the message that came to the people when they went back to the land. [01:18:43] Blood, toil, sweat. [01:18:47] You've got to lay down your lives, but this is your glory. You shall have an everlasting name. [01:19:02] You will be instrumental in bringing the Messiah back. [01:19:10] You will be instrumental in the purposes of God, even though it may seem so humdrum and ordinary and routine. [01:19:20] You will be the precious material out of which God will build his city, which will be forever and ever and in whose light the nations shall walk. [01:19:36] And I tell you this, and I really do close. [01:19:40] The house must be built. [01:19:45] Ah, the. My friend, no matter if I die tonight or you die tonight, no matter if every one of us became apostate this night or if out of hand, we rejected the Lord, no matter what happens, the house of God is going to be built. It will be built whether you're in it or not. Whether I'm in it or not. [01:20:18] That we can say with absolute and dogmatic certainty. [01:20:27] We have seen enough in world history to see that God never forsakes his purpose. We have seen miracles worked before our eyes. [01:20:37] Do you think that the thing that lies nearest to the heart of God, more near than anything else to his heart, is not going to be fulfilled? Do you think that he can take back an earthly people to a place, a plot of ground in the earth according to his word, which he promised thousands and thousands of years ago, and not fulfill this other thing which is lain on his heart from before times eternal and give significance to eternity to come? [01:21:11] No. [01:21:13] The house of God is going to be built. It must be built. The top stone will be brought forth one day with shouts of grace, grace to it. [01:21:26] I pray God that I may be there. [01:21:30] I pray God that you might be there. [01:21:33] Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were all there to see the top stone slide into its place and to know that we're not spectators but part of it? [01:21:48] Oh, my friend, I'd rather go through hell to be in that, then bang a tambourine for the rest of this time and dance for glory. [01:22:03] Really, I'd rather be in the city. [01:22:08] I'd rather have gone into hell itself with him and come out in eternal values. [01:22:22] It will be accomplished and it will be fulfilled, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. [01:22:40] Just as the mountains stand round about Jerusalem as a perpetual reminder of the faithful of God, just as the sun that shines by day and the moon that shines by night is a perpetual reminder of the faithfulness of God. [01:23:00] Just as the rainbow in the day of storm and trouble is a perpetual reminder of the faithfulness of God. [01:23:10] Just as these things will last throughout time, so will God be faithful to this, his purpose and will do it. [01:23:23] May God give us grace to come to the altar that the Holy Spirit may fall upon us. The word of the Lord is this him that seeks my glory, that one will I give my power to and will fill with my spirit. [01:24:00] Lord, hasten it in its time. [01:24:06] Let's pray, shall we? [01:24:18] Now, Lord, there is not one of us that doesn't shrink from anything like an altar. [01:24:28] We would much prefer lorne to just know that light hearted and carefree existence. [01:24:40] But, Lord, we know that thou art seeking for those that will be good soldiers of thine. [01:24:48] And we pray together, Lord, that thou wouldst, o by thy spirit, give every man and woman in this place faith, Lord. [01:24:58] Faith to die so that Lord the Holy Spirit can commit himself in an unparalleled way to every one of us. [01:25:15] O Father, thou knowest our need of thy Holy Spirit, our need of his power, our need of his fullness, us, our need of his dynamic, his impetus. [01:25:29] Dear Lord, we look to thee, since thou art the one who watches over all things and knows all things, that thou wilt, Lord, in thy mercy, bring every single one of us to the place where we are prepared to come to thee as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto thee. [01:25:57] We ask it together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [01:26:02] Amen.