View Full Transcript
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Just turn to a number of script. I'm going to have one reading but a number of scriptures this evening. First of all, Ephesians, chapter one.
[00:00:13] Ephesians, chapter one. And verse 22. Ephesians 122.
[00:00:26] And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body.
[00:00:44] Chapter five, verse 23. Chapter five, verse 23.
[00:00:55] The husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the savior of the body.
[00:01:09] Colossians, chapter one, verse 18.
[00:01:15] Colossians, chapter one, verse 18.
[00:01:19] And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
[00:01:39] And then one corinthians and chapter eleven.
[00:01:46] One corinthians, chapter eleven.
[00:01:50] From verse three.
[00:01:53] But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.
[00:02:06] Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. But every woman, praying or prophesying, with her head unveiled, dishonoureth her head then. John, chapter 16.
[00:02:29] John, chapter 16, verse 13.
[00:02:35] John, chapter 1630.
[00:02:41] Howbeit when he the spirit of truth is come, he shall guide you into all the truth, for he shall not speak from himself but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak. And he shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine and shall declare it unto you. All things whatsoever the father hath are mine. Therefore said I, that he taketh of mine and shall declare it unto you.
[00:03:28] Then one John, the first letter of John. And chapter two, the second chapter of the first letter of John.
[00:03:43] And verse 20.
[00:03:47] And ye have an anointing from the holy one, and ye know all things.
[00:03:59] Anointing. Ye have an anointing from the holy one, and ye know all things. Verse 27. And as for you, the anointing which ye received of him abideth in you. And ye need not that anyone teach you, but as his anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is true and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in him.
[00:04:40] And lastly, Matthew, chapter 23, verse eight.
[00:04:54] Matthew, chapter 23, verse eight.
[00:05:01] But be not ye called, rabbi, for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren, and call no man your father on the earth, for one is your father, even he who is heaven. Neither be ye called masters, for one is your master, even the Christ.
[00:05:37] Now, this evening we come to the second of the series.
[00:05:46] We are taking the question we have asked. Why are you at Halford House? Why are you at Halford House? Now, for those of you who are not here last week, I am afraid we cannot go over what has been said. I can only suggest to you that you listen to the tape. I fear for you otherwise, because I don't. I wonder whether what we've got to say this evening will make so much sense.
[00:06:24] In one way, these times are all related. They come one out of the preceding time and therefore all of them are peace. So it is important for you, if you're going to come to them, to hear the first of the question. Why am I at Halford House? Is it just an evangelical church? What are we here? Are we a kind of open brethren assembly that allows sisters to take part? Or are we a kind of evangelical church whose minister wears normal clothes and is called mister?
[00:07:01] Or are we a mission to those who have some kind of trouble in the background and so on, what are we? Are we the propagators of a special truth or a special type of spiritual experience?
[00:07:20] We are to imagine that some leading evangelicals approached us and asked us why we're here at all. Why don't we join one of the other groups, a denomination, sound denominational group? Or if we don't like denominationalism, an interdenominational group or a non denominational group. And if we don't like organization, the Quakers or the open Brethren. And we've thought to introduce this series last week in this way we have spoken about the problem that confronts us as Christians today. The fact that in the New Testament things were very simple and straightforward. They were clear cut.
[00:08:07] When a person became a child of God, they were immediately known to be within the family of God, and in every locality, the family of God. Those who'd been born again of the spirit of God through the preaching of the gospel, they gathered together and they were called the church. There was never two churches in one locality. It's as simple as that. So there was. You were either in it or you weren't in it. It was exclusive of all, however good or decent or knowledgeable, even biblically, who are not born of God. But it included every single one who professed an experience of God's saving grace. Now the problem we confront today is a very much, a very complex one. In any given locality, that are hundreds and hundreds of churches, national and state, denominational, inter denominational, non denominational fellowships, missions, gospel halls, the lot of every kind. And our point is, what shall we do? All, in some measure are organized, institutions set. Nearly all are built on the unity of the faith rather than the unity of the spirit.
[00:09:42] Well, now, we covered all that last week. Now, what I would like just to take up this week is where the last point we made, you will remember, we said, we believe that the Lord will never admit defeat over his original purpose for and in his church, and that at the end of this age, if only in a remnant worldwide, he will once again recover something of the nature of the church and express something of his power and his life and his glory. Now, of course, this we will have to take up in the course that we're taking extra to this time, about the history of the church. If we can trace in the history of the church the successive movement of the spirit of God as he has sought to recover something which has been lost.
[00:11:00] But suffice it to say that we believe that there will be an expression throughout the earth of his original thought and concept, and that his purpose in and for the church in this age will be carried by his grace to a glorious consummation.
[00:11:18] And we find it all comprehended in the little phrase in revelation 19 seven, where it says, rejoice and be exceeding glad for the marriage supper or the marriage feast of the lamb is come. And the bride hath made herself ready.
[00:11:40] Hath made herself ready.
[00:11:45] Now, this needs the cooperation in utter devotion and faithfulness of every single one whose heart is set on the Lord.
[00:12:03] We must give our loyalty without any shadow of the reserve.
[00:12:14] We must give our loyalty first and foremost to Christ.
[00:12:22] And if by giving our loyalty to Christ first and foremost, other loyalties to people and to things are shattered, they must be shattered.
[00:12:36] Now, there is an awful lot of talk about loyalty to things. I have often had it put to me like this. Why do you lead the sinking ship?
[00:12:48] Only rats lead the sinking ship.
[00:12:53] I will never leave the ship while the captain is still at the wheel.
[00:12:59] But if a thing that should never happen. But if the captain's got away in a lifeboat, I'm going with him.
[00:13:10] I'm going with him.
[00:13:12] If the captain gives up the ship, I'm not staying on that ship.
[00:13:21] Let me put it in New Testament terms. If the candlestick is removed from the church at Ephesus, I'm going with the candlestick.
[00:13:33] Let me put it in terms that once our dear brother watchman knee put it when he said, there came a time in the history of the people of God when the Ark of the covenant and the tabernacle got separated.
[00:13:47] In one place there was the ark of the covenant, with a few priests who worshiped the Lord. And in the other place there was the tabernacle, with all its furniture and accessories, with most of the people. And he said, where would you have worshipped?
[00:14:03] Then he said, in days of decline and departure, follow the ark of the covenant and forget the tabernacle.
[00:14:14] For the Ark of the Covenant represents the sovereign presence of the living God.
[00:14:24] Now, you know, those of you who are always here, that we do believe in loyalty. We believe in loyalty to one another. We believe in loyalty to that which God has shown us and given us the faith once and for all, delivered to the saints. For that we must die. We must be prepared to die. We believe in that loyalty with all our hearts, but we do not believe in any loyalty to man or things which takes the place or precedence over loyalty to Jesus Christ.
[00:14:59] And it is, in my estimation, nearing blasphemy to even suggest that we should be loyal to other things if it means disloyalty to Jesus Christ.
[00:15:16] Thus we've been led by the spirit of God to take the ground of the body of Christ.
[00:15:25] Now, last week when we put up those various points that people might say, why in answer, why are you at Halford? Friendliness and fellowship, freedom of the Spirit, good spiritual food or measure of Christ. Find more of Christ there. These things, some of them good things, or I was saved there.
[00:15:51] We said they were all really wrong, or the last was the will of God. I believe it's the will of God that I should be there.
[00:15:58] And in the end, we put at the bottom the two words, because I am in Christ. That's why I'm there because I am in Christ. I don't want Christ plus a denomination. I don't want Christ plus organization. As such. I don't want Christ plus anything. I just want to be there because I am in Christ. And I want to open my my arms to every other person who is in Christ, whoever they are, Catholic or Protestant. I just want to simply open my arms if they are in Christ.
[00:16:31] I want to receive them as Christ has also received me in Christ. Now, to put it another way, a more technical, it means that we take the ground of the body of Christ. How are you and I in Christ? What does it mean? Because you and I are in Christ. We're in the body of Christ. He is the head. We are the body. We're in the body. The body is joined to the head. It is part of the head. It shares the name of the head.
[00:17:08] All the members of my body are sharing the name of Lance Lambert. No one else's name. My name they share.
[00:17:17] They're in my body. And that's why the scripture speaks of you and I as members of Christ, members of his body. You can see that in one corinthians, chapter twelve, verse twelve. Romans, chapter twelve, verse four and five, one corinthians, chapter 617 and 18 and so on. You'll find it in a number of places. Members of Christ, limbs of Christ, parts of Christ. That's what you are if you've been saved by the grace of God. So we have been led by the spirit of God to take the ground of the body of Christ.
[00:17:55] We do not believe that there is any other excuse for meeting separately on that ground.
[00:18:06] For to meet on any other basis is to be another division.
[00:18:13] But if we can find a ground upon which we can receive every believer as a believer and not have to ask a whole list of questions, that is a ground that ends division.
[00:18:30] And if we are to leave things, surely we must find something that is not itself going to be split and split and split and split, like the old story of the Quaker meeting that broke up into two, and then the two broke up into two, and then all those parts broke up again. And finally there only was the old lady and her chauffeur, and you know the story, it's an old one. And as she was on her way to the meeting, she said, you know, all the world's queer save thee and me, and even these a little queer.
[00:19:21] But that's how we can end up. Once you start on the ground of making truth only the basis for fellowship or spiritual experience other than the initial one of new birth, you end up by thinking everyone is peculiar.
[00:19:40] Now, what does that mean to take the ground of the body of Christ? We're going to deal with one point this evening, and I hope next week we shall be able to deal with two points. But this evening, the one point we're going to dwell on, I suppose, is perhaps the most fundamental of all. What does it mean to take the ground of the body of Christ or to take church ground, as sometimes we put it, church ground. What does it mean? It means this. Firstly, the headship of Jesus Christ over his people by the spirit.
[00:20:21] The headship of Jesus Christ over his people by his spirit.
[00:20:30] The absolute headship of Jesus Christ over the church or to the church.
[00:20:40] Now, first I want you to mark the term body.
[00:20:45] Mark the term body. Now, you will see from last week, and I'm sure. Even if you've only been a Christian for a week or two, you have surely noted that the term body comes again and again and again in the New Testament, in reference, with reference to the church.
[00:21:06] Now, mark that term body.
[00:21:08] A body is only a living, functioning, developing, growing thing when it is joined to a head.
[00:21:24] And if you want to, as I said last week, conduct an experiment. You can cut your head off, and you will soon find out bodies die the moment they're separated from the head.
[00:21:38] Because for the body to be a living, functioning, operative thing, it must be joined to the head. But it must be more than that. It must not only be joined to the head, it must be obedient to the head. If there is the slightest trouble in our nervous system, from the brain to the body, we're paralyzed. We can have the most beautiful head in the world with the finest features in the world. We can have the most beautiful body in the world with the finest physique. But if there is anything wrong between the brain and the body, between the head and the body, there is paralysis.
[00:22:18] There's no point in the body.
[00:22:23] The head and the body belong to each other. They need each other. We think of a head and the body as a person.
[00:22:33] You're all here, and there's not one of you here. Think of it without a head.
[00:22:39] Not one.
[00:22:42] Furthermore, there's not one of you here without a body.
[00:22:47] Every person in this room has got a head and a body joined together.
[00:22:53] Yes, I hope that you'll use them.
[00:22:59] Now, if you turn to Ephesians chapter four and verse 15 and 16, we read this.
[00:23:08] But speaking truth in love, he may grow up in all things into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love. Now, what I want you to see is this, that it talks about the body developing and growing and being built up in love of itself.
[00:23:49] But how does that come about? It comes about when each member of Christ grows up into him as head.
[00:24:00] Got it?
[00:24:02] The head is the vital factor in the functioning of the body.
[00:24:07] The headship of Christ is the vital factor in the functioning of the church. There can be no development, no functioning, no growth, no movement, no manifestation and expression of Christ in the church. Until it knows the headship of Christ. Inexperience, you may only have to know it very, very simply what it is to bow the knee to Jesus Christ as Lord. Not just one, but all of us, everyone ready to accept the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in any issue, over any matter.
[00:24:47] But until you've got that, there can be no functioning of the church. Turn again to colossians and chapter two and verse 19, where it says, colossians 219.
[00:25:05] And it says, and not holding fast the head, from whom all the body being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God, holding fast the head, not the body, holding fast the head, from which the whole body increaseth with the increase of God.
[00:25:33] So you see, there can be, as I have said, no function, no growth and no building together.
[00:25:39] No fellowship, real fellowship, what the Bible calls fellowship, which isn't just chatter.
[00:25:45] There can be none of that until we know the head, until we hold fast the head. Each one has a personal relationship, a clear cut, open supply line to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:26:06] The headship of Christ. Now I want you to note very carefully one important point. We do not experience the church by trying to hold fast the body.
[00:26:22] We don't come into an experience of the church by saying, now I must try to hold fast all these dear people. I must try to get close to them. I must try to sort of agree with them. I must try to somehow move with them. You see, this is the idea so prevalent. This is where the exclusive brethren went right off the waves.
[00:26:41] Everyone held fast the body and forgot the head.
[00:26:45] And gradually the whole body veered away from the truth. Until now, they're in the saddest plight it is possible to be now that. That you will never ever, however young you are or however old you are, you will never ever experience church life or fellowship by trying to hold fast the body.
[00:27:12] The way it comes is holding fast the head. We discover the body as we keep, as it were, our link with the Lord Jesus Christ. As king and master. Absolutely clear, we find the body. Now, isn't that true? Every time you take a step in obedience, haven't you found yourself closer to the church? It's true. And every time you've got an issue of in your life, isn't it true you've got a battle with the saints.
[00:27:39] You say, all those people, you can say this about them and that about them, and you pull them up on this and pull them up on there and they're wrong here and they're wrong there and the meetings are too long or this is too bad or this or that, that and that and that.
[00:27:54] When you've got an issue with the Lord, but suddenly you settle the issue and, oh, you suddenly feel so free with all the things. Now, why is that?
[00:28:03] Is holding fast the head? You hold fast ahead, you find the body.
[00:28:09] It's as simple as that. Now, what do we mean by this word headship?
[00:28:17] Why does the Bible speak of Christ in all these scripture, quite a few of them. As head of the body. What does it mean? Well, we associate a person's mind, their will and their intelligence with their head, don't we?
[00:28:35] We think always when we speak of so and so has a mind, what do we think of in our, in our, in our imagination? We think of their head.
[00:28:46] Or we say, so and so has got such a will. We think of their head.
[00:28:53] Intelligence. We think of the head. We think. We say a person's got a thick head.
[00:28:59] We mean they're not too intelligent.
[00:29:04] See what I mean? We say a person is hot headed. That is, they've got a strong will and their feelings will carry them through onto something. It's the head we think about in these things. See, right. Now then, the Bible takes this term, this symbol head, and it speaks. Now listen to this. It's. It speaks. What means that authority, government, leadership, teaching are all wholly centered in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:29:46] That's why we read that scripture. Don't call anyone a rabbi, even if he is an apostle. Don't call him Rabbi, so and so. And don't call him father, so and so, the word of God. The Lord Jesus himself said, and don't call him master.
[00:30:04] He's plain mister in the sense that he's just a brother in the Lord. You're all brethren.
[00:30:16] You've only got one teacher. You've only got one master. You've only got one father.
[00:30:20] Do you see what I mean?
[00:30:24] So you see, we must get this quite clear, that in this matter, what we talk about, the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ, all this is wholly centered in him. There is no other authority in the church other than Jesus Christ. There is no other government in the church other than Jesus Christ. There is no other leadership in the church other than Jesus Christ. There is no other teaching other than the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us get that quite clear. It also speaks the headship of Christ, of the supremacy and centrality of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. Now, the head is supreme in the body in the sense that it is the headquarters of the body. It is, as it were, the. The telephone exchange of the body.
[00:31:21] Everything comes into the head. Everything goes from the head. The head is the operative centre.
[00:31:33] So the Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely supreme and absolutely central.
[00:31:43] He is the heart and the centre of every thing. Now, anything that cannot give the Lord Jesus Christ the place which God has given him has got to go.
[00:32:00] Has got to go. Now that's the reason why there is in christian faith, the enemy has engineered us into all of us into such a position that we are unable to let go of all that would have to go in order that the Lord Jesus Christ could have the place which God the Father has given to him.
[00:32:25] But it's, we've got to be absolutely clear and definite in this matter. Anything which cannot give the Lord Jesus Christ that place of absolute supremacy and centrality has got to go. That is the standard by which we judge everything.
[00:32:45] For what does the word of God say in Colossians three, nine and ten? It says, christ is everything and in everyone, supreme and heart.
[00:33:00] And if there is anything in which he cannot have the glory, he cannot have his place. It must be wrong.
[00:33:08] It belongs to another realm. It belongs to another kingdom.
[00:33:14] It belongs to another sphere.
[00:33:20] You must note, of course, in scripture that it's not only head that comes under this term headship, but king and Lord. These are titles that the Lord Jesus is given. Now when we say that taking the ground of the body of Christ means the headship of Jesus Christ, the absolute headship of Jesus Christ, someone says to me, but how is that practical?
[00:33:42] I mean, we can't see him and with our physical ears, we can't hear him. So you say there is to be no other authority, no other government, no other leadership, no other teaching but Jesus Christ. That. Rather mystical, isn't it, really? Rather abstract, rather vague.
[00:34:01] Now this is just the point.
[00:34:04] The Father has enthroned the Lord Jesus Christ at his right hand with all power and authority, as king of kings and Lord of lords. And the moment the Lord Jesus took his position, took his seat at the father's right hand, that moment the Holy Spirit was released. Do you remember? The Lord Jesus said, if I do not go, the Holy Spirit will not come, but if I go, I will send him unto you. The moment the Lord Jesus sat down on the throne of God, all authority and all power in heaven and on earth in his hands, the moment the Holy Spirit was released. And what is the work of the Holy Spirit? The work of the Holy Spirit is to make practical, concrete and real. The position, the authority, the mind, the will and the life of Jesus Christ to the church.
[00:35:06] So what happened on the day of Pentecost? Suddenly 120 units of a congregation became 120 members of a body. How did it happen? How did it happen? The Holy Spirit came. And what happened when the holy spirit came? He came. There was like the sound of a mighty rushing wind. And then it was like fire, a furnace of fire. A ball of fire fell on the 120. But what happened? Suddenly the fire split up. It was one fire, but as it were, a tongue of flame settled on each single member of the 121 spirit. In 121, life in 121, head made real to 120. The 120 became 120 members of a single body.
[00:35:59] What happened?
[00:36:01] The next moment we find the apostle Peter stands up and all eleven stand up with him. What are they all doing?
[00:36:12] Only one of them speaks. But they feel so much with him that they all rise up with him and they all remain silent, all eleven of them. And Peter does all the preaching, and they stand the whole time he's standing. They feel so much part of him.
[00:36:28] What has happened to these quibbling, divided, disillusioned, disappointed disciples? These were the men who would always argue who should be first.
[00:36:39] Why, if it had been just a year before, they wouldn't have stood up with Peter. Some of them would have said, who does he think he is?
[00:36:47] And if John and James mother had been there, she would have been starting trouble.
[00:36:54] My sons are better than that, Peter, any day.
[00:36:59] You know the scripture. I'm not just joking. It's true.
[00:37:03] They're always quibbling about position, about where they were. They were not really together. The only person who kept them together was the Lord Jesus, pouring oil on troubled waters all the time. But after the day of Pentecost, something happened. They were all one. What happened? What happened? The Holy Spirit came. Oh, someone says, ah, that means power. That means fullness. Yes, of course it means power and fullness, but those are subsidiary things to do things.
[00:37:31] I'm not saying that they're not vital in a personal and corporate way, but what I'm saying is this. The Holy Spirit came to make the position of our Lord Jesus Christ enthroned at the right hand of God, far above all principality and power, to make it real to the church so that this body becomes invincible.
[00:37:56] Now, my dear friends, it is the measure in which the Holy Spirit has freedom to make real the position and the authority and the mind and the will of Christ in us. The measure in which he is free to do that. That is the measure in which we know the life and power of God.
[00:38:12] Every single revival in the history of the church, every great movement of God in the history of the church, which has recovered anything for God has begun with a re enthronement of the Lord Jesus Christ by the spirit of God. And every single backsliding, every single departure, every single decline has begun with the dethronement of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:38:41] That's why we read that the scriptures in John 16 about the Holy Spirit.
[00:38:47] He will take the things of mine and declare them unto you. What are the things of him? His position? His authority? His power? His incorruptible lithium? Life.
[00:39:00] Why, my dear friend, think of it.
[00:39:04] You can even take it for your body, for your mind, if you have faith.
[00:39:12] That's a personal thing.
[00:39:14] It's not the first thing by any means, but all the glorious little second things. That there are the little sort of fruits that fall, by the way, from the tree that's laden in this matter of the coming of the, of the Holy Spirit. Well, I am simply saying to you that the Holy Spirit came to make real the invincible, incorruptible authority, power and position of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:39:49] If you and I are going to see anything happen in this world in the end time when darkness is going to cover the whole earth and when those evil, foul spirits are going to create a suffocating atmosphere of vileness and wickedness, it will not be by might nor by power, but it will be by his spirit that the house of God shall be completed, that the bride will have made herself ready.
[00:40:21] So, my dear friend, let's get this clear. If you and I want to know the mind of Christ, if we want to know the will of Christ in any given situation, if we want to know the authority of Christ in any given situation, if we want to know the position of Christ, and we're in that position, don't forget that within it, then the Holy Spirit is here. He's not up there. He's here. He's in this room. He's here in this place.
[00:40:52] He's in this company.
[00:40:54] He's here.
[00:40:56] And his job is to make real all that to us. So don't you say that it isn't. It's mystical, vague, abstract. My dear friend, history, at least in a very poor and failing way of this little company, has been simply, we've heard the mind and will of God again and again and again.
[00:41:18] We are, after all, the stupidest crowd in the world that God has brought together. Someone said we sang the hymn with great fervor and meaning last week. This glad shower.
[00:41:33] It is absolutely true, we are just a terrible crowd. But we have learned a one simple lesson that the Lord Jesus Christ is hate and lord of us all, and that his mind can be transmitted to us by the spirit of God, and that we may be the dumbest crowd in the world, but if we have an ear for the spirit, then the Lord, as it were, will do anything. He will fall over himself to do things, to provide, to do everything he can.
[00:42:14] My friend, this clears the ground of all those substitutes, all those things which become substitutes for the headship of Jesus Christ would so effectively frustrate its practical outworking. Oh, Christianity. Christian circles, evangelical circles, are cluttered up with things that effectively New Testament and non New Testament, which effectively paralyze and frustrate the outworking of the headship of Jesus Christ, so that with all the devotion in the world, the Lord cannot have his way. We may be devoted, but he can't have his way.
[00:42:56] What are those things? Human selection and appointment. When I think of what goes on behind the scenes, and I'm not going to start on that, my word, we could have a time this evening when I think of them, nomination and election and all the things that go on, incredible.
[00:43:21] Councils, committees, boards, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I remember when I was first said, I heard Lindsey Glegg say, you put twelve men together and you'll produce. You put twelve men's heads together and you'll produce one boat.
[00:43:44] It's so true. Isn't it true?
[00:43:50] I remember he was once asked how the work that he was in was run, what kind of committee they had, and he said, oh, we have an extraordinary committee. It's limited to three. It's always in session and they're always one. And they get everything done. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost always get it. Well, the fact of the matter is this, all these things can be. We're not going to argue whether right or wrong. The fact of the matter of New Testament or non New Testament.
[00:44:25] If they become if, and I underline the if, if they become substitutes for the practical outworking of the headship of Christ, they're wrong. Congregational business men, business meetings, presbyteries, diaconates, New Testament setups sparkling with their rigidity.
[00:44:57] If they substitute their heads for the headship of Jesus Christ, they are wrong. I say more than that. The point we need to make, and to make emphatically, is this, that these things, whether they are right and scriptural or not, if they become a substitution for the headship for Christ's government, for Christ's mind, for Christ's will, they are not only utterly wrong, they are perniciously evil.
[00:45:42] Let me shock some.
[00:45:45] But I say it before God. They are not utterly. They're not only utterly wrong, they're perniciously lethal.
[00:45:53] Why?
[00:45:54] I'll tell you why.
[00:45:56] For they not only thrust straight Christ, they contradict God's order, and they substitute man's thoughts for God's thought.
[00:46:08] Therefore, I say they are perniciously evil.
[00:46:13] And if there are a lot of things one day I have to be put right on when I stand before God, I'm sure that will not be the one.
[00:46:25] There is no greater pernicious evil amongst evangelicals than this utter frustrating of the will and mind of God.
[00:46:35] So that you can have zeal, you can have devotion, you can have love, you can have sacrifice on the part of so many believers. But at the heart of it, everything is paralyzed.
[00:46:50] To me, that is the devil's main objective, to divorce, by all means, even scriptural things, to divorce the church from her head, and so to frustrate God's mind and paralyze the body.
[00:47:15] Now, to me, the headship of Christ means in its practical outworking.
[00:47:23] Listen to this. It may explain some of you who are young here why we do this such a lot.
[00:47:29] The headship of Christ and its practical outworking means much prayer, much prayer, not many words, but a spirit of prayer from us. Why? Because that's the way we find the mind of Christ. Do you get it?
[00:47:56] As we get on our knees, as it were, as we bow our heads to his head, as we inquire of the Lord, as we seek his face for wisdom and understanding as to what his mind is, he gives it through his word, by his spirit, he gives us an understanding of what it means. It means much corporate prayer.
[00:48:23] Now, I don't mean by that, just a meeting where a lot of petitions are made. God bless so and so in Indonesia, and God bless so and so in Brazil. And God bless the big meeting up in London tomorrow night. And God bless sister Annie's leg and heal it.
[00:48:46] These may be right, these things. But the fact of the matter is, that's not the kind of prayer I'm talking about. I'm talking about the kind of prayer meeting which is a throne room meeting with God where we're in the holiest place of all and where we're inquiring of the Lord as to what his will is and what his mind is. If the Lord is head, surely, and if the Holy Spirit has been given, surely he means us to be practical and concrete in our attitude. Surely he means us to get on our knees and say, Lord, what shall we do about this situation?
[00:49:24] Not we'll all put our heads together in the aggregate of what we all feel will do. But what does the Lord say? And can he transmit this feeling of his will in through us all?
[00:49:39] I believe that means that there must be, in any company that takes the ground, the body of Christ, a refusal to do anything without first inquiring of the Lord. And don't we know it.
[00:49:54] If there's one thing the Lord is more jealous over than anything else, it is if we do anything without first asking him.
[00:50:03] And you can go through the whole Old Testament and you will find that born out in incident after incident after incident. And in the New Testament, if we just do things because that's the way they normally are, if we just do it because that's the traditional institutional thing to do, if we do it even because we find it just in the word, we think that's the way we ought to do it, we make a mistake. We've made those mistakes, haven't we? So what we say from our own histories, we've learned we once had the whole old setup. I'll be talking about that now that we have good, really good New Testament setup. You couldn't pick holes in it, but it was all wrong.
[00:50:41] There are other things we've done as well.
[00:50:44] You see, the point the Lord wants is that people are in touch with him, not you've just got a little blueprint they can hang up on the wall, and every time any goes wrong, go look at the blueprint. Now then, that's not it. The Lord wants the people in touch with him so that he can communicate with them, so he can put over to them what really is in his mind, a refusal to do anything without first inquiring of the Lord, and further, a readiness to pray and to wait on the Lord until we are certain that the Lord is showing us all what his mind is waiting.
[00:51:28] That's the headship of Christ. In other words, if the Lord says go, we go. If he says stay, we stay. If he says wait, we wait. If he says do nothing, we do nothing.
[00:51:40] We just act like that.
[00:51:43] Do you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is a lie?
[00:51:47] You do. You're a Christian. You believe he's alive. Do you believe that he is king of kings and Lord of Lord? You do.
[00:51:56] Do you believe it as the scripture says, he is at the right hand of God, the Father, the majesty on the high? You do.
[00:52:05] Now tell me, do you not think the Holy Spirit that he has sent would make real in us all together as a company corporation. What that will and that mind is.
[00:52:21] Don't you think that.
[00:52:24] Think it out.
[00:52:26] Why should any man stand in the place of Christ and tell us what he thinks?
[00:52:32] All right. We don't mind anyone making their suggestions.
[00:52:37] Everyone is free to make their suggestions and give their opinions, providing everyone will bow to the absolute lordship of Jesus Christ. In the final and ultimate analysis, I believe also this matter of the headship of Christ. Not only means much prayer, but it means executive action can be taken in the name of our head.
[00:53:09] That's wonderful.
[00:53:11] Executive action can be taken in the name of Christ. So that the will and the word of God are realized.
[00:53:19] In other words, woe betide any company that come on what we call the ground of the body of Christ. If they don't know in the end how to take executive action in the name of Christ, they'll be undone.
[00:53:34] That's why the Lord said, upon this rock I will build my church.
[00:53:40] Thou art Peter. Upon this rock I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. To thee. To thee, Peter, have I given the keys of the kingdom? Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. In other words, Peter, if this church is to be built in spite of your shaky, unrocklike, impetuous nature, in spite of all that, you've got the key.
[00:54:10] Got it. You've got the keys. Do you think the Lord will entrust such as we with the keys of the kingdom?
[00:54:18] But if the church is not being built upon the rock, it's because we're not using the keys.
[00:54:24] And the only people who can use the keys are those that are on church ground.
[00:54:29] The keys are not given anywhere else.
[00:54:32] They're given to the church.
[00:54:38] So you look at it. I've quoted Matthew 16, verse 18 and 19. Look at Matthew 18.
[00:54:46] Matthew 18, 1920. Again I say unto you that if two of you, if you read the whole thing, you'll see the same thing comes again, that discipline. Then he says again, I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching, anything they shall ask shall be done for them of my father, which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, into my name, there am I in the midst. Executive action.
[00:55:12] Executive action. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at John, chapter 14. Listen to this wonder. Wonderful words of our Lord. Chapter 14, verse twelve. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also. And greater works than these shall he do. Because I go unto the Father.
[00:55:37] You know, the Lord fed 5000 in one place. He fed 4000 in another place. He preached the sermon on the mount to enormous multitudes. But you know, he could count almost the converts, the real converts. At the end of his life there were 120.
[00:55:53] But after the day. On the day of Pentecost Peter stood up with the 11th and they preached. As one great theologian has put it, one of the most terrible sermons in history.
[00:56:05] Five disjointed and 3000 people were saved on the spot and baptized.
[00:56:16] Greater works than these shall ye do. Listen to this. And whatsoever, because I go unto the father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. That the father may be glorified in the son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do. Executive action. Glory. Ah, it's marvellous. Acts, chapter one, verse one. Listen to this.
[00:56:43] The former treaties I made, o theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. Have you ever noticed that? Began both to do and to teach. In other words, the writer of the act is saying, now look here. I am going to write the second part of my work. The first just called the gospel according to Luke. Now I am going to write the second part. The former was what Jesus began both to do. So the inference is that acts is what Jesus continued to do and to teach. But how did he continue to do and teach them? He was not there.
[00:57:22] He did it to his body.
[00:57:25] Do you see?
[00:57:27] So Luke and acts are two volumes of one work and we could entitle them. The new man, part one and part two.
[00:57:39] Part one. Jesus Christ the head. Part two.
[00:57:44] Jesus Christ the head and the body.
[00:57:49] Simple executive action. Now I've given you. You'll find them in the notes. When you get them duplicated you'll find two references out of very many in the book of acts of executive action. One is when Peter said with John, when he said to the man who was lame, silver and gold have I known, but what I have give I thee. Rise up in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And he rose up and leapt.
[00:58:17] And then the other wonderful occasion when they'd been put in prison and came out miraculously, remember, and went to their own company and they found them praying. And what a prayer meeting they had. And it was executive. They didn't say, please, please.
[00:58:33] They said, lord, stretch forth thy hand with signs and with wonders in the name thy holy child Jesus. And the place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
[00:58:53] Evidence of executive action. Well, now, finally, we need to see the right place. Our man in the headship of Jesus Christ. We've said an awful lot about what is wrong. We've said human selection, human appointment, councils, committees, boards. And some might say, well, dear goodness. It's a little extreme, isn't it? I mean, he's wiped the whole board clean.
[00:59:23] A lot have gone.
[00:59:25] What are we going to have? Of course, I have tried to put ifs in.
[00:59:30] I said, if they substitute, they become substitutes for the headship of Jesus Christ.
[00:59:36] What is the right place of man in the headship of Jesus Christ? Well, to the church it is direct. The headship of Jesus Christ is direct to every single believer. You don't have to have a mediator. You don't have to have a priest or anything else. You can go direct to the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to those wonderful words. He have an anointing. Where is the anointing?
[00:59:58] On the head.
[01:00:02] On the head of Jesus Christ. Ye have an anointing from the head of Jesus Christ. From the holy one.
[01:00:08] From his head you have an anointing. His anointing on his head's come to you, dwell within you. You don't need anyone to teach you. Now, does that mean we can give up teaching? We can sort of despise anyone who has a teaching? No, of course not. But it means you don't have to be told what is right and wrong. You've got the Holy Spirit within. You've got an anointing within. You've got a direct link with the heads.
[01:00:33] You don't have to depend on the kind of clergy to tell you this is right now, and that's wrong. And you just close your ears and say, I won't think about it. If they say it's right, it's right. If they say it's wrong, it's wrong.
[01:00:44] That's quite wrong. You have an anointing. No one needs to teach it. You know what's wrong. You look in the context, you'll see it immediately. You know what is error? You know what is false. You know what is Antichrist.
[01:00:59] Individually, there is the direct lordship of Jesus Christ. To every one of us, holding fast ahead. Now, if you look at that verse, colossians 219. You will see it's personal.
[01:01:12] It's personal. Every man, it says, not holding fast. Speaking of the man who has a fleshly mind in the singular and not. He doesn't hold fast the head.
[01:01:26] Every one of us has a direct holding fast to the head.
[01:01:31] We can go direct and we must go to. We mustn't get our direction from the church. We must get our direction from the head and test it in the church.
[01:01:40] That's why when you come, that's why, if you don't ask us to bring something for prayer to the company, we don't bring it. So don't think that you can be sort of very humble and modest and sort of saying, I don't want my little matters brought to the church. If they think about it and were to mention, we never will because we respect your right. If you don't want to test it in the church, we'd never bring anything of yours to the church. But if you come and ask us, we bring it to the church.
[01:02:09] But we will never say anything to you till we're sure that you've got something from the Lord.
[01:02:15] Because we're not here to direct you as to what you should do. We are here so that you can test out whether what you got from the head is right, save you from mistake or collapse.
[01:02:30] But what is the place of man corporately in the headship of Christ? Now, let's say this clearly. Whilst his headship is direct to every believer, it is not vested in every believer. There's a difference. It's direct to every believer, but it's not vested in every believer. In other words, there are certain ones in the church, equipped, qualified, chosen of God, and appointed by God, that are the ones in whom the headship of Jesus Christ is vested.
[01:03:03] Vested, expressed. They represent the government, the Lord in the church. Now just let's look at the scriptures very quickly. One Timothy, chapter five, verse 17. One Timothy, 517. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor. Double honor means double wages, especially those who labor in the word and in teaching.
[01:03:38] Let those elders that rule well, rule well. Now, mark the word rule, not advise.
[01:03:47] Rule. It's a strong word.
[01:03:50] Now look at one Timothy, chapter four, verse 14.
[01:03:56] Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, that is the eldership. The elders. The presbytery again. One Peter, chapter five.
[01:04:10] One peter, chapter five, verse one. The elders. Therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, whom also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight. Supervision. Supervision. Interesting, isn't it? Ruling supervision not of constraint, but willingly. Don't be pushed into it. So that rather puts a bomb under the false modesty that sometimes you find in some quarters, but willingly, according to the will of God. Nor yet for filthy lucre, don't do it for cash, but of a ready mind, neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.
[01:05:07] All right, you can look up the other verses there. And then again. Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 17. Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 17. Obey them that have the rule over you. Sink into everyone. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them. For they watch in behalf of your souls as they that shall give account that they may do this with joy and not with grief, for this were unprofitable for you. So one day, the Lord is going to ask the elders of each company about everyone who was in the flock.
[01:05:50] Now, you see straight away that there are certain men chosen of God, prepared by God and appointed by God, that are called elders. In the local church, they are called elders. Now, in the notes, you will find a number of references that I hope will settle it in your mind. You will find bishops, and there was always a plurality of bishops. In the New Testament center church, you will see I have given you scriptures so that you can see that elders and bishops are synonymous.
[01:06:21] Synonymous.
[01:06:24] You will see Philippians, chapter one, verse one. When he writes to the church of God, which is at Philippi with the bishops and the deacons, elders and deacons. So in the local church, this headship of Jesus Christ is vested in the elders or bishops. Amongst the churches, it is vested in what we call apostles or prophets.
[01:06:49] And I'll give you, you'll find in the notes a number of references that you can look up on that. Now, people say to me, but surely apostles have died out.
[01:06:59] Didn't they go out with the first church? Yes, of course, the twelve apostles are unique.
[01:07:07] And then we have Paul, who is unique. Now, some people say he should have been the 12th in place of Judas, and it was a mistake to put Matthew Matthias instead. But, well, that may, may not be, but how do you explain scriptures like in revelation, chapter two, verse two, and ye have done well that you have tried. Those that call themselves apostles and are not.
[01:07:34] Anyone knew the twelve apostles, so how could people go around saying, we are apostles if there weren't many more apostles? How do you explain Timothy, who was an apostle? How do you explain Sylvanus, who was an apostle?
[01:07:49] I could bring you a lot of scriptures. You'll find them there for you to look at. There is such a thing as apostolic authority even today. All it is is what we call an authority wider than the local church. Now, Peter was both an apostle and an elder. He says in this, I also am a fellow elder, yet he was an apostle. John called himself the elder, yet he was also an apostle. He was an elder in the local church and apostle when he was out, however, leave that for a moment. What we can say is this. It is absolutely essential that such men have a truly spiritual character. They must be chosen of God, apprehended of God, prepared and trained by God, and finally, empowered by God, appointed and empowered by God. There are two things, I think, that are essential in any who take any small part in the headship of Jesus Christ, in its actual practical outworking in the church eldership, or in any other way. And that is the cross must be the principle of all their service. And if a man can't know something of the brokenness of the cross, he cannot be an emperor or anything else. And the second is, he must know the spirit. Those are two essentials.
[01:09:22] Otherwise, our heads in his place, of his head, if the cross doesn't work, our head instead of his, we can't help it. See, it's the natural thing to use your head.
[01:09:36] I know that goes against a lot of what you're told at school, but it is the natural thing for all of us to use our heads.
[01:09:45] But unless we know the cross, we use our heads in the wrong way. We're all the time putting our heads in the place of cross. We mean well. We mean well. We can't help it. It's only when the cross breaks us. We still use our intelligence, we still use our mind, but we bow to the headship of Jesus Christ.
[01:10:07] We are his bond slain.
[01:10:09] And, you know, it's not just the cross. It's a terrible thing to be just negative, broken, ready to bow, ready to submit, and yet not have the power of the spirit of God to know the mind of God. By the spirit. We know the things of God and the deep things of God.
[01:10:25] So those who exercise eldership or apostles or anything else in this way, they've got to know the spirit of God in an increasing measure. That's why everyone who was chosen by him was full of the spirit.
[01:10:41] We must finish.
[01:10:43] Listen to this. I'm going to finish by reading this. I have put in the notes that you will find that the book of acts is the perfect illustration of all that I've said about the headship. Of Jesus Christ from beginning to end. It is thou enthroned Lord who goes, right? He's the one who deals with Ananias and Sophia and everyone else.
[01:11:07] Marvelous story. Book of acts, picture of the headship of Jesus Christ to the church and everywhere. The result? The church, churches everywhere, over the whole roman empire, right? In Rome itself.
[01:11:20] And what has happened? Rome's collapsed and the church is still here.
[01:11:26] Isn't that amazing?
[01:11:29] And of course, there are two testaments. The testament is of the laying on of hands. Whenever we lay hands on someone, we express the headship of Jesus Christ. That's what we do. When you're baptized, we put hands on you, don't we? And that means you're under the headship of Jesus. You're in the body under the head. Lovely picture. Whenever hands are put out, when. When princes I go, or someone else goes, we lay hands on them and they go out. It means, we say, this runs part of the body under the head.
[01:11:53] Goodbye. If you're in the same body, you're not going. You're not leaving the body, you're going from the body to the body. You're going with the hate. See, even when people are sick and the elders lay hands, that's what it means under our risen head, who's anointed to do anything, drive out sickness if necessary. And the other is ladies wearing hats. Now, I won't go any more into that, but it's all there in the works, and you can ask the Lord all about it.
[01:12:24] It's a testimony to this very thing that we're talking about, the headship of Jesus Christ. And as one brother once said, once you've seen it, you'd wear a million hats piled one on top of the other. It's so glorious. Now, listen to this little theory. This is from a private letter written by the late Reverend Evan Hopkins, who was the founder of Keswick.
[01:12:46] I have a vision of the kind of meeting that will be held. Do you remember? Because Evan Hopkins was minister here in Richmond a hundred years ago, I have a vision of the kind of meetings that will be held in the near future.
[01:12:59] God's people will meet together, not primarily for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the world, as for the manifestation of his power in and through his church.
[01:13:11] They will meet together, not so much with a view of realizing their union in Christ as of seeking their unity in the Spirit.
[01:13:20] They will come together not only in one place, but really and indeed in one accord.
[01:13:26] Then there will not only be union, that is oneness of life, but the unity, oneness of heart. Let that point be reached and the demonstration of Holy Ghost power will be seen.
[01:13:41] They will come together seeking the Holy Spirit, not as if he were an absent lord, but as one, verily in the midst, one who is waiting to put forth his power.
[01:13:53] This is the vision I seem to have of what is not far distant, of the character of the meetings that will be held in connection with prayer for a worldwide revival. The Holy Ghost who is in the church, but who is grieved and hindered in his work because of the lack of this unity amongst believers, will then put forth his power through the church and work mightily among the unsaved. There are just a few copies of that. You know to whom it was written. It was written to a lady who lived in a house just opposite here. And it was written to her when she was in Richmond, when she was in a big conference in the north of England. Misses pen Lewis.
[01:14:40] Isn't that amazing?
[01:14:42] Well, you see, the great thing is. Well, thank God. I often wonder whether misses pen Lewis prayed for the old school of art when she saw the people coming up the road and coming in here.
[01:14:52] It's amazing, isn't it, in one way. Shall we pray together?
[01:14:59] Beloved Lord, thou knowest all the weaknesses in our life together as a people and in us individually in this matter of thy headship. But, Lord, we do want thee to be lord. And we know, Lord, from the little experience that we've had, that the greatest glory and power and life and fullness comes from being in touch with thee and doing thy will and being obedient to thyself. Lord, teach us thy way, and above all, work in us so much, Lord, that we're ready to do thy will. Ready truly to do thy will together. So, Lord, we thank thee. And if there is anything that's been hard to understand on the part of any o father, by thy Holy Spirit, reveal and illuminate. And we ask it in the name. In his name. Amen.
