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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You will remember that in the past two weeks we have been taking some special studies for those of you who have responded to the Lord's challenge and committed yourself to him, ready to go anywhere that he should direct you. And although there is a sense in which every one of us are servants of the Lord, and wherever God has appointed us to be, there we serve him in the spirit we serve the Lord. We're his witnesses there. Yet there is a sense in which some are called in a peculiar way into God's work, and it is to those we are addressing ourselves. Although, of course, what we're saying has meaning for every single one of us. Now, we have already dealt with one or two matters, those characteristics that God looks for in those who would serve him. We have already spoken of an utter devotion to Christ, leading to worship, to service and testimony. And secondly, the second characteristic. God looks for an implicit faith in God and in his word. And last week we dealt with that characteristic which we've entitled, a clear understanding of God's purpose and objective. Now this evening I want to add a fourth and possibly the last. An ever and ever increasing experience, experience of all that God has provided for us in and through Christ.
[00:01:58] An ever increasing experience of all that God has provided for us in and through Christ.
[00:02:13] Perhaps we could look at one scripture first in Colossians chapter two, verse nine and verse ten. Colossians chapter two, verse nine and verse ten.
[00:02:30] For in him that is in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily, and in him ye are made full. Who is the head of all principality and power. What a word for those who would serve the Lord. For in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily, and in him ye are made full or complete. Who is the head of all principality and power? An ever increasing experience of all that God has provided for us in and through Christ. You know, the path of the just should be as a shining light which shines more and more unto the perfect day. It's not always so.
[00:03:39] I am afraid that Christendom is littered, littered with people who've started off on the road and somehow or other have got sidetracked. Lot's wife has.
[00:03:55] What happened to Lot's wife has happened again and again and again in christian circles and all along the way you can see those who have stopped, those who become static in their christian life or have got into side paths, into side postures and settled down.
[00:04:20] God looks for as a characteristic in those who would serve him an ever increasing experience, experience not just a blessing you had so many years ago, but an ever increasing up to date experience of all that he has provided for us in and through Christ.
[00:04:45] Now, God has provided completely everything necessary to the christian life and to the church in Christ.
[00:04:59] He has provided everything.
[00:05:02] He has provided all that is necessary for the initial stage of the christian life, that is, new birth. He has made every provision for it. All we have to do is to accept.
[00:05:15] He has made every provision for going on and for living the christian life, for its development, for the reproducing of the character and nature of Christ. God has made completely all provision necessary to the christian life. He has made all provision that is necessary for our being transformed from glory to glory.
[00:05:42] And he has made all the provision for our being made perfect in the end. Now, believe it or believe it not, God has made complete provision for all this, that we may be transformed and conformed until at last we stand before God without spot or blemish or any such thing.
[00:06:11] It is the most wonderful, a wonderful subject to deal with, to recognize that God has made provision like this. That's one thing. God has also provided completely everything necessary for the church.
[00:06:28] Everything, everything necessary not only for its being founded and planted, it's being brought to birth, but it's development. For all its gifts, for its functions, for its service. God has made all the provision for it completely. He has made provision for its triumph, its triumph, its perseverance, its increase, its multiplication.
[00:06:54] God has made complete provision. There is not one single thing that God has not forethought.
[00:07:02] He has, in his foreknowledge, provided for every possible emergency, both in the personal believers life and in the church life. All is completely provided in Christ now. That is the only condition.
[00:07:25] It is provided completely in Christ now, dear child of God, if you're looking outside of Christ, you will look until kingdom come, but you will find no provision. You will become more and more tired, you will become more and more weary. You will become more and more unhappy. You will become more and more disappointed and disillusioned, for you are looking in the wrong place.
[00:07:51] God has made all provision in Christ. And if the church starts to look outside of Christ for its power, for its influence, for its organization, for its gifts and service and all the rest of it, then you see it will bewail its condition, for it may have a million servants, it may have a 1001 great campaigns, but it will still bewail its condition. For it will discover that all that it is seeking to do and all the resources it's seeking to draw upon will not somehow other, bring it into what it sees in the New Testament as its condition and character.
[00:08:42] Now, this is very important. Let's put it another way. We must be absolutely clear on this matter. There's no point in your going to serve the law getting muddled or confused here. We're going to take a little bit of time in just absolutely underlying this. Let's put it the other way around so that it becomes, I trust, even clearer.
[00:09:05] There is nothing essential to the believer or to the church which is not provided in Christ.
[00:09:19] That's as simply as we can put it. There is nothing essential to the believer that's to you or me, necessary to our going on to our birth, spiritually or development or perfection, our triumphing personally. Nothing that is not provided by God in Christ. And the same with the church. It's all there.
[00:09:46] All is ours in him and given to us with him. When God gave us us, he gave with him everything we could possibly need.
[00:10:04] And if we had a life down here that stretched for a million years, we still would not come to the end of what God has provided in Christ.
[00:10:15] Immeasurable, inexhaustible power and lust is in Christ. Now let's look at some scriptures.
[00:10:25] Romans, chapter eight.
[00:10:29] Romans, chapter eight, verse 32.
[00:10:36] He that heir, not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?
[00:10:47] That's the first thing Paul's argument is, if God has given Christ, then he has given everything, and so therefore all mess is lavished upon us with him.
[00:11:00] Now the second scripture, one corinthians, chapter one, verse 30.
[00:11:12] But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us. Wisdom from God, both righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. But according as it is written, he that glorious, let him glory in the Lord. Now will you notice two things. First of him, that is, of God, are ye in Christ Jesus. God has put us in Christ Jesus. And when we are in Christ Jesus, we find that God has made Jesus to be righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Now these three, I believe, is described as the wisdom of God. Righteousness, sanctification, reducing cover the whole christian justification, sanctification, glorification, all is covered. Therefore, Christ has made to us completely all that we need. Now, colossians, chapter two.
[00:12:21] Colossians, chapter two, verse two.
[00:12:31] That their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love and unto all riches of the assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom, and knowledge.
[00:12:50] Now will you notice that it says all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge of history? God has placed all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ.
[00:13:06] Now turn on ephesians, chapter one, verse three.
[00:13:17] This ought to raise some questions for a lot of us as we go on.
[00:13:22] Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Now will you notice verse the 10th, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Secondly, will you notice it is every spiritual blessing. So every spiritual blessing is already in Christ for us.
[00:13:54] That is a tremendous thing when you just think about it. Every blessing. What blessing do you want? There are people who talk about second blessings.
[00:14:03] Evidently, therefore a first blessing. And there are many other blessings that all kinds of things that we could call blessings. Every blessing God has given us in Christ, all there for us. Now turn on to Philippians 419.
[00:14:23] My God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
[00:14:34] Every need of yours met. Every need of yours met according to his riches in glory. Now that's the condition of according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now turn back John 16. Of course, you could be here all the whole evening just looking up references, but this is just one of a large number of references that deal with special qualities or special virtues that the Lord gives to us.
[00:15:14] This one's to do with peace. Listen, these things have I spoken unto you that in me ye may have peace in the world, ye have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. That's rather wonderful, really. The Lord Jesus said, in me, you have peace. And the idea of the peace here is triumphant peace that comes through a war being successfully concluded. I have overcome the world. So in me you've got peace. In the world you should have tribulation. And there's a sense in which we should know both things at the same time. In Christ we should have perfect peace. But all the time we're in the world we've got tribulation.
[00:16:00] But now, of course, it stands to reason, if you're a Christian and if you're not centering in Christ, then you're going to have more tribulation and peace.
[00:16:09] The peace is there for you in Christ. So the more you get into Christ, the more peace you will know.
[00:16:16] It's just a little point. And then to romans chapter eight and verse 37, I'm going to read that in the new English Bible after this tremendous catalogue of things Paul says. And yet in spite of all overwhelming victory is ours through him who loved us.
[00:16:46] In spite of all overwhelming victory is ours through him that loved us. Now listen, if all is ours in Christ, and if we are to have an ever increasing experience of him, we have got to learn the secret of abiding in him.
[00:17:17] Thats the key to everything.
[00:17:21] Do you know that? The whole, the key to stability, the key to spiritual poise and balance is this matter of abiding in Christ? I'm convinced of it and more and more convinced of it, that until a person learns through faith to remain in Christ, they can be knocked all over the place. One day theyre this, next day theyre that they can be up and they can be down. But when youre rooted in Christ, you can go up and you can go down. But somehow or other, theres a balance. In spite of it all, youre abiding in the Lord.
[00:18:07] Lets again look at one or two scriptures. John, chapter six, verse 56.
[00:18:18] He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me and I in him. Thats the way that you come to abide in Christ, by receiving the Lord. And the way you remain in Christ is to open up to him all the time. Its so simple. How do you eat and drink? Well, every day you have so many set times when you have a little meal or even in between, you nibble things, but you are taking something and you are eating it. You are receiving it into yourself.
[00:18:56] You desire it, you appreciate it and you appropriate it. You take it and you make it your own, both for food and for liquid. You eat and you drink. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me and I in him. How do we stay in Christ? By continually opening our hearts to him. How do we do that? Well, just how we began. How did we do it? First we started. We said, Lord Jesus, I open my heart to thee. I will see thee. That moment I entered into Christ, and Christ entered into me, although in one sense I said, I receive you. In fact, God said, no, I place you in Christ and then I place Christ in you.
[00:19:46] You see, you step into Christ, and Christ steps into you the moment you receive him.
[00:19:53] And, you know, it's so simple really, how to go on every moment when you're in need. Open your heart to Lord Jesus. I take more of you. That's all you have to do. That's how you feed on the Lord. It's as simple as childlike. Just say, Lord Jesus, I take more of thee every time you do that you're triumphing in a strange way because you're taking more of Christ. And it seems so silly, it seems so foolish, for what can that do? But in some strange way, it's the way through.
[00:20:27] You're abiding.
[00:20:29] I've learned it. Brother Lee was the first one to teach me the secret. I'd heard much about it. I'd read much through Andrew Murray and understood quite a lot from him. But it was Brother Lee who first, when I asked him a question about ministry, and he said, my dear brother, all you've got to do is get on your knees and say, lord, I cannot give anything of life to these people, but I open my heart and I take more of thee.
[00:20:55] And every time you do that, he said, there'll be love. Well, I've proved it. That's all I can say. I just simply proved it. That when you feel dead and you feel anger, all you've got to say, lord Jesus, I take more. Thieves are so simple. You're feeding on the Lord. Your spirit is eating his flesh, and your spirit is drinking his blood, and you're abiding in him and he's abiding in you.
[00:21:19] Of course, there are many other ways. We say we do it through prayer. That is prayer. Simplest form of prayer. Lord Jesus, I receive more of thee. I open my heart, I take more of thee by faith. That's prayer. Of course, it comes through God's word. When you. When you're chewing over God's word, when you take on God's word, it's in your heart. You think about it, and you don't understand it. That you ask the law for more of himself so that you can understand his word.
[00:21:49] Well, I just pass this on. And then John, chapter 15.
[00:21:54] Now, in John, chapter 15, it's a step further. John, chapter six tells us how to begin and how to continue. John, chapter 15 is service in the church. The vine is Christ. The church. Now listen from verse four. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him the same beareth much fruit. For apart from me can do nothing. If a man abide not in me is cast forth as a barge and is withered, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will and it shall be done unto you. Now, this is a very interesting side light on prayer, that if we are abiding in Christ and God's word Christ is abiding in us, then we can ask whatsoever we will, and it shall be given to us. It's abiding. That is the key.
[00:23:10] God hears prayer when we're abiding in Christ. That's what we mean when we say in the name of Jesus. Really, all I'm saying is, I'm abiding in Christ, and so I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now, this word abide is interesting because it means to dwell.
[00:23:31] That's one meaning. It also means to remain and it means to continue.
[00:23:37] Now, the best way we can see and understand it is by turning to acts, chapter 27.
[00:23:47] Acts chapter 27 and verse 27. Now, I'm going to read this story. It's a very short portion of the story I'm going to read in the new english version, because I think it's easier for you to get the point. Now, listen. The 14th night came and we were still drifting in the sea of Adria. In the middle of the night, the sailors felt that land was getting nearer. They sounded and found 20 fathoms. Sounding again. After a short interval, they found 15 fathoms. And fearing that we might be cast ashore on a rugged coast, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight to come. The sailors tried to abandon ship. They had already lowered the ship's boat, pretending they were going to lay out anchors from the bows.
[00:24:43] When Paul said to the centurions and to the centurion and the soldiers, unless these men stay on board, you can none of you come off safely.
[00:24:57] Now, stay on board is abide in your authorized versions. Abide.
[00:25:04] Here's the word, stay on board.
[00:25:08] So simple, isn't it? Here's got an illustration. Beautiful. Stay on board and you're safe.
[00:25:14] There's a great storm waging and you're getting so frightened about it, you think, oh, dear, I'm going to go down, something terrible is going to happen. I think I'd better try and meet this. So you get the little boat out because you think somehow or other, if you could get off to the coastline, you'll be safe. You must be sensible. I mean, when these great big spiritual storms come, somehow or other, you've got to meet them with common sense, haven't you? But you see, the answer is to abide.
[00:25:43] That's the secret. Now, this is not so. This is not so childish as it may seem.
[00:25:50] Right through the Old Testament. This is the lesson that many of the patriarchs had to learn and others. You see, God told Abraham to abide in the land, in the promised land. And you know what happened? A famine came. Now, we might say, no famine should come if you're in the center of God. But a famine did come and Abraham was in the center of God's will. And so Abraham said, now look here. We've got a whole great retinue of servants. We've got flocks and herds. The simplest, most common, sensible thing we can do is to go down into Egypt where there's plenty the Lord knows. We won't stay in Egypt. We'll just go down into Egypt and we'll stay a little while. And as soon as things are better, well, come back. Surely the Lord wants us to do that.
[00:26:35] But you see, a moment Abraham stepped out of the promised land and went down into Egypt. He was out of Christ, as it were. And he got himself into a great mess. And the interesting thing is that when he came back to the land, he had to go right back to the very point from which he had departed before he could go on with the law. Now, it's only a little lesson, but this question of abiding is simple but profound. It is the key to the whole christian life. Listen, you and I have got to remain where God has placed us.
[00:27:14] God has placed us in Christ and we have got to learn to abide there. The whole christian life and the church is bound up is explained in two things.
[00:27:29] Our being in Christ and Christ being in us. Do you know that's the christian life? Tonight I've got the christian life because God has placed me in Christ and he has placed Christ in me. That's the christian life. Do you know that we are the church simply because all of us have been placed in one Christ, and one Christ has been placed in all of us?
[00:27:58] Now, if we will only learn to abide in Christ, we shall both find the secret of the christian life and the secret of the church. What is the secret? Well, the secret is Christ. If you abide in Christ, you will find Christ is in you. That's the secret.
[00:28:14] First get into the sphere, and then you'll find the power.
[00:28:19] Get into Christ and you'll find Christ is in you.
[00:28:24] It's the same with the church.
[00:28:26] I can't put it any more simply. I'm going to explain things as we go along, but I want just to underline this. First of all, God has made complete provision for us both personally and corporately in Christ and God. Through new birth and our faith in the Lord, Jesus has placed us in Christ. Now the secret is abide.
[00:28:54] For as I abide in Christ, Christ abides in me.
[00:28:59] Now that's the secret.
[00:29:02] Now I think if you will look at Colossians chapter two, you will find this is very simply explained.
[00:29:12] Colossians chapter two.
[00:29:15] I think I'll read that again in this version for it is rather remarkable.
[00:29:24] Colossians chapter two, verse six and seven.
[00:29:29] This is most remarkable.
[00:29:31] Therefore, since Jesus was delivered to you as Christ and Lord, live your lives in union with him, be rooted in him, be built in him, be consolidated by the faith you were taught.
[00:29:51] Let your hearts overflow with thankfulness, be on your guard. Do not let your minds be captured by hollow and elusive speculations based on the traditions of man made teaching and centered on the elemental spirits of the world and not on Christ.
[00:30:11] Now the thing that I want you just to note is that as therefore we received Christ Jesus the Lord, so we ought to walk in him. We have to be rooted and build it up in him and established by your faith. Now faith is the key again. You've got to remain where God has placed you so that you can be rooted and built. In other words, don't move.
[00:30:46] This is so simple. Don't move, stay where you've been placed and get rooted and built up, established by your faith in him.
[00:30:57] Now the devil's immediate objective in us all is to get us out of Christ. He can do it in a thousand ways and usually he seems, through our ignorance of his devices, he seems to win. But his direct, not his supreme, but his most immediate and direct objective with you and with me is to get us out of Christ.
[00:31:22] And he can do it in a million ways. He can suggest that we're unworthy, he can bring up past sins, he can bring up some present failure. And immediately we start to dwell on it. And gradually he sort of teases us almost. He entices us out of Christ to we're out without Christ.
[00:31:43] His whole objective is to practically divorce us from Christ.
[00:31:50] He knows he can't do it officially and legally, but practically in experience he can divorce us from Christ. So we're Christians up here and nowhere else.
[00:32:01] We are true Christians, saved with the blood of the lamb, but we have no experience whatsoever of Christ. It's all stopped for we've stepped out of him and there's a divorce taken place. And this is exactly what Colossians is about. People who have gone back by stepping out of Christ now, if you look in Ephesians, chapter six, you will find that this battle is exactly what that is described there in chapter six, verse ten.
[00:32:36] Finally, finally, says Paul, after this tremendous letter, be strong in the Lord. Now mark it in the Lord. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Now mark verse eleven.
[00:32:58] Put on the whole armour of God.
[00:33:01] I understand that's Christ.
[00:33:03] We're to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God.
[00:33:11] Then listen that ye may be able to stand.
[00:33:16] Stand then, verse 13. Wherefore, take up the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand and in the evil day, and having done all to stand.
[00:33:31] Verse 14. Stand. Therefore, it is quite remarkable, isn't it, that this should all be to do with abiding. You see, God has put us in Christ and our whole job is to stand. Now, why stand?
[00:33:48] What is the idea of this battle? Well, you see, the whole point of the devil is to move us out of Christ. And Paul says, look, whatever happens in the battle, stand with. Stand, having done everything. Stand. Don't take a step forward. Don't take a step back. Just stand. Don't let the devil get you out. Don't let himself so come out. Come on. Come on. Don't. You can take Christ, can't you, to come out?
[00:34:13] Just stand.
[00:34:16] Don't go back. Don't go forward. Stand.
[00:34:20] Now, the battle there is one of getting us outside of Christ. So you see, this question of being in this matter of being in Christ is all important, and abiding in him is the key. How do you abide in him? As I said, through simple faith, continually opening your heart to receive more of the Lord. Now, in this connection, let's note carefully that it has all been provided through the cross and the spirit, that is, through Calvary and Pentecost. It has. Have you noted that in nearly all the tenses in those verses that we first went through are in the past? It's all ours.
[00:35:03] God has provided it, blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.
[00:35:10] And it is ours the moment we put our trust in Christ.
[00:35:18] Let me illustrate. Have you ever read in the paper of someone dying and leaving a large sum of money, and they have some young relatives, either young children or they have some young nephew or young niece, and you read in the paper they have made in their will, their money was put in trust until so and so should reach the age of 2021 or 22 or 23. Sometimes it's 30, sometimes some people so distrust their children. It's not till 40, but it's some age in which they had actually put it down. They've said at such and such an age, this whole fortune, whatever it is, will become theirs practically.
[00:36:05] Now listen.
[00:36:07] At Calvary and Pentecost, God gave us a spiritual fortune. He provided for us every single thing you and I will ever need.
[00:36:21] And it was all held in trust till the day you and I were born of God.
[00:36:28] The moment you and I were born of God's spirit, we inherited. In one sense, we came into it. It was ours. The provision was ours.
[00:36:38] It was held in tusk. You see, it's all passed. God gave it all at Calvary, Pentecost. It's all there. It's all just held in touch. Now, the moment you and I simply put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the born of his spirit, then that moment God says, it's yours, you can start using it now. You can start using it. You're only a babe to begin with, and you won't need so much to begin with. But it's all yours now. You get on with it and use as much as you can.
[00:37:10] We can never over stress this fact that it is ours at spiritual birth because of Calvary and Pentecost. I don't think you'll be overstressed enough.
[00:37:23] Everything is ours. You don't have to go looking for it is ours. It has been given to us. It was Calvary and Pentecost that were the two great movements of God in this matter of giving to us everything that is necessary to the christian life and the church. Now here we come to the practical problems. If. If this is true and all is ours, everything is ours in Christ, why the spiritual poverty in so many of us? In that the majority of it?
[00:38:06] Why the defeat?
[00:38:09] Why the failure?
[00:38:12] Why the absence of fullness, the weakness, the emptiness, the shallowness?
[00:38:25] We have to face the simple fact that although all may have been provided for us in Christ, few live in the full good and enjoyment of it.
[00:38:42] Now let me ask you, I wonder this evening how many of us in this room are actually living in the full good and enjoyment of everything that is ours in Christ?
[00:39:01] Are you.
[00:39:03] Are you even abiding? Have you even learned the first simple secret in this matter of the christian life in the church of abiding?
[00:39:13] I wonder if I'm right in saying that. I suspect that nearly 99%, if not a higher figure of us are just simply not, in fact, anywhere near living in the full good and enjoyment. And yet God has made provision that we should live in the full good of. It's no good blaming it on God. It's no good saying that somehow that's the times in which we live. God has made the provision for us. It's all in the past. It's done. Calvary and Pentecost are sufficient for the 20th century.
[00:39:49] They're sufficient for overcoming hell.
[00:39:52] Quite sufficient. We've got no excuse.
[00:39:57] Well, now, why?
[00:39:59] Why the discrepancy?
[00:40:03] Well, I think we've got to put it very simply. Why? Because it must be appropriated.
[00:40:13] It must be appropriated. Well, let's look to Joshua. Joshua, chapter one.
[00:40:24] Joshua, chapter one, verse four to six.
[00:40:33] From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river euphrates all the land of the Hittites and unto the great sea, toward the going down of the sun shall be your border. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of good courage. For thou shalt cause this people to inherit the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Now, if we were to stop there, that's what most of us have got. We've got a Bible. We've got a great salvation. We've got a greater God. We've got a tremendous promise.
[00:41:17] And yet there's a secret. Listen. Verse three.
[00:41:22] Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon to you have I given it, as I spake unto Moses. In other words, all this. No man will be able to stand before thee. All this great territory from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, from the Nile up beyond Syria, this whole great area is yours. No one will be able to stand before you. But the key to it all is as it were, traversing it or taking it. For God, the Lord will do everything. But you've got to put your foot down now. It's just as if we were to say to Joshua, Joshua, Joshua, everything is yours. Everything is yours, JOSHUA. Canaan's yours and Mesopotamia's yours and Babylon's yours and Egypt's yours. And oh, we could go on and go. It's all yours, Joshua. And what's more, Joshua, God has made a provision for you in every way. He'll not only give it to you, but you'll be able to get all the wealth out of it. And you'll be able to live in it and become as it were. You'll be able to get established in it all. And then we could say, to listen to this, Joshua, there's not one single person, whoever it is, however great, be the pharaoh or the emperor, the pharaoh of Egypt or the emperor of Babylon or Assyria, not one of them will be able to stand before you, Joshua.
[00:42:58] The moment you step in, JOSHUA, they'll collapse just like that. Just as simple as that, JOSHUA. It's all yours. And then supposing JOSHUA sat down on the other side of the river Jordan and waited like most of us do.
[00:43:14] Oh, yes. Used to sing lovely songs about the whole land, from the nile to the Euphrates being his. He used to sing wonderful songs praising the lord that all the enemies of God would be smitten down and destroyed. He sang wonderful songs and had wonderful prayer meetings about the purpose of God being to establish a people in this wonderful land that he was giving them. And then perhaps one day he began to wake up. Perhaps one or two of the younger ones began to prod him and say to him, well, Joshua, we've been here for years and we've not gone over the land and nothing's happened, Joshua. And I mean, apart from having it from the Nile to the river Euphrates, we're still living in tents and we've just got a little tiny area which is ours in the desert. Are you talking about, Joshua? The whole key. The key to the whole thing is this. Joshua's got to step over that Jordan. It's got to split into two. That's the only way ever. Get over the Jordan. If you said, now, God, send down the nature and split the water, split the water. When we see that happen, we'll go over in triumph. The law would never have done it. Joshua had to tell the priest, go forward and step into the water. And the moment the soles of their feet touched the water, it split into two and the people went over. The moment the soles of their feet went round, air went round, Jericho again and again and again without one single thing. On the 7th time, on the 7th day, the walls fell down.
[00:44:50] You see, it was the soles of their feet that were the key to it all. As I believe someone read to us the other Sunday morning, Seti started, thank God I've got big feet.
[00:45:01] See what I mean? It's really a question of possessing. It's such a simple secret. Do you think Joshua felt marvelous as he watched those priests going down to the waters of Jordan in flood tide? Don't you think he felt butterflies in his stomach and just wondered, well, aren't we a lot of fools? Look at us. Look at us. Those poor, weak men going down to the water to put their feet on it. What a silly thing to do. What do you think the people called down from the battlements of Jericho? One of the most wonderfully wonderful ramifications in the whole land? It was the fault that protected the past into the promised land. What do you think the people said as they saw this crowd of idiots in their eyes going round and round the walls, blowing trumpets on the last day and silently the other days they must have thought, what a, what a crowd of fools.
[00:45:59] And you know, this is just when our faith fails. You've only got to have a snicker from the world. And even worse, you've only got to have a snicker from christians and your faith collapses. You don't want to be silly, don't want to look a fool, don't want to take in, make any advance. Everyone's fighting with everyone else. If they're all junk together, it's all right that everyone's fighting. That advice.
[00:46:25] No, you see, the only way the thing can be possessed is by the soles of your feet. They've got to go down and they've got to take it. And during, the devil will see to it that in one way or another we're all way laid. It can be difficult husbands or difficult wives or difficult children or difficult circumstances, or it can be health or many other things. And the devil only has to just raise these things and somehow other way. At the beginning there may be a real case for it. It becomes counterfeit after a while. We take it all and we get frightened of it. We're on no treat.
[00:46:56] The real secret is, is to put our feet down and claim the thing for God. And what is of the devil disappears.
[00:47:05] And what is absolutely genuinely physical or genuinely belonging to circumstances remains until the Lord wonderfully overcomes them or changes us.
[00:47:17] But all for this secret, you see. Now, what does it mean to appropriate, really?
[00:47:25] You see, someone here might say, well, that's a very hard word for me to understand. Well, now, look here, I'm thirsty.
[00:47:33] And here on this table there has been provided a decanter and a glass and it's full of water provision.
[00:47:41] Full provision for a thirsty speaker on the table. Now, supposing I were to say to you, I'm getting more, I don't know what's going to happen, but I must go on until finally my throat dries up altogether, then I can't speak to you anymore. You would say, what's wrong with him? There's a whole canterful of water on the table. But, you see, I haven't seen it. And if I hadn't seen it, I don't appreciate that there is water for my thirsty throat and lips. I can't do anything about it. I don't see it, so I suffer. But the moment I see water, hallelujah, provided I take the glass. You see, I take the decanter and I appropriate it. You see, I've appropriated the water. There you are, it's appropriated. Now, isn't that a simple thing? What does it mean to appropriate Christ? There you are. God has made all provision for your need. All you've got to do is say, lord, I take thee, I appropriate what is mine, and I take it by faith, that's appropriation. We may be in Christ. Christ may be in us, we may be abiding in him, but we need our eyes to be open to see what is ours in him. Do you realize you can be in Christ and blind?
[00:49:05] You can be in Christ, and Christ may be in you, and you may even have learned to abide thereby faith. But you have the eyes of your heart open, so you see him as your salvation, but you may not see him as your love until suddenly one day, you see God has provided Christ as my love. And immediately, like I'm taking that glass of water, you take Christ as your love. You've got the secret.
[00:49:30] You can do it in all other kinds of ways, whatever your need is. Now, let me illustrate it again.
[00:49:37] Supposing I have a fortune in the bank.
[00:49:42] Supposing tomorrow morning I find a letter awaiting me to tell me that 200,000 has been left to me by some dear old aunt somewhere or other we never knew existed. And she has made it all over to me. And the bank asked me which bank I love. I get a bank account, open a bank account, the 200,000 pounds goes in. I'm given a checkbook. Now, what happens if I've got a fortune in the bank? The first thing is I've got to appreciate it.
[00:50:14] That's the first thing I got, to appreciate the extent of my fortune. Supposing I need a rolls, and I think I've only got 500 pounds in the bank. It's no good, is it? I can't get a rolls on 500 pounds. But supposing I've got 200,000 pounds. The bank. I can get a rose.
[00:50:36] I take my chequebook, and I write out a check for 10,000 pounds, and I've got my rose, I have appropriated what is mine in the bank, and I've met the need. Do you understand?
[00:50:51] How do you. How are you and I to live in Christ? How are we to exploit and appropriate the provision which is ours? It's all there for us. God has given us the checkbook. We've simply got to appreciate what is ours. See, most of us have got a horrible idea that the Lord has been very niggardly with me in particular. You in particular. You just feel that. And you feel. You see, Lance has got a spiritual fortune in heaven's bank. But I. I've got justice, a few hundred. Of course, he can do this and he can do that and he can do the other, but I can't. But you see, God has made no distinction. He's given us all a fortune in Christ. It's for every one of us. And you see the things. You've got to appreciate it. If you don't inwardly see what you've got in the bank and appreciate it, you'll never start using it. The moment you inwardly see what Christ can be to you, what he is, what God has made into you, and then you begin to appreciate the extent of his fullness. Then you'll start to come and draw, and you don't need to worry about how much you draw from the Lord Jesus. You can go on and go on and go on and go on.
[00:52:08] It's all there.
[00:52:10] All that God has provided in Christ is made over to us in a fourfold way through Calvary and Pentecost.
[00:52:22] Now, both these main peaks of our full salvation are two sided. That is, the work of the cross is twofold, and the work of the spirit is twofold. Now, I wonder if I'm making it clear.
[00:52:38] We can say that our salvation is fourfold or four square, if you like.
[00:52:49] Does that make any clear? I hope. I. I think sometimes it's helpful, though we can't be clinical about our salvation, to break it up a little, because it may help you to understand where in what area of our great salvation you are lacking.
[00:53:08] You see, this is what has always helped me anyway. You see, just to understand we've got a great salvation is one thing, but just to analyze it a little, to break it up a little, and you suddenly discover, that's my weakness. That's the area of my weakness. Now I've got to ask the Lord to open my eyes there so that I can see. Now I want to say this evening, our salvation is fourfold. There are two main peaks in the work of our, of our redemption, really.
[00:53:37] There's Calvary and there's Pentecost. Calvary is twofold or two sided, and Pentecost is twofold. Its work is twofold or two sided. It's as simple as that. There are these four points. First of all, Calvary, we are justified. That's one side, the work of Calvary, of the cross, and we are crucified. That's the other side of the work of the cross. Now, Pentecost has two sides. One side is we are indwelt.
[00:54:12] That's one side of the work of the spirit. The other side of Pentecost is we are empowered.
[00:54:22] Now, I wonder if I do a very simple diagram on the board. It's a very simple. Whether it would perhaps help you to keep it in your mind. Supposing we put this up here, Christ, our full salvation.
[00:54:45] Now, without being irreverent, we will say that this is our salvation.
[00:54:54] That's Christ, stands for Christ. And under here, we'll quote this scripture, ye are complete in him.
[00:55:13] Now, this work about salvation is, first, there's a major division in it. There's Calvary and there's Pentecost.
[00:55:33] All right.
[00:55:34] Now then, the first side of our salvation, the first point of Calvary, this first side of Calvary's work is that we are justified.
[00:55:46] That is absolutely essential.
[00:55:50] The second side of the work of Calvary is that we are crucified.
[00:56:01] And the first side of the work of Pentecost, of the spirit is that we are indwelt.
[00:56:12] And the second side is we are empowered.
[00:56:17] Now, you will see straight away we have an absolutely full salvation. That's all God's provision for us. Every single thing you require is found somewhere there. Everything. Everything. There's not one thing that is not found somewhere here. Do you want peace? Do you want love? Love? Do you want patience? Do you want forbearance? Do you want joy? A lot of it is bound up with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Do you want to be free from yourself, free from all its power and its energy? Then you've got to know something of the cross, this nature of the cross, being crucified with Christ. Do you need to be released from your conscience? You want to know something of pardon and forgiveness and the peace and the joy that comes from that? Then here it is to be justified. And do you need to know what it is to be lifted right above oneself and out of oneself, to be able, really to serve the Lord in an almost supernatural way? Then you've got to know that empowerment of the Lord, the anointing of.
[00:57:28] Of God. Now, I put that very, very simply like that. There's another sense in which we could draw another diagram. For it is also interesting that this side of the work of our salvation, this part of our salvation, we can say, is in Christ.
[00:57:49] We are justified in Christ, and we are crucified in Christ. But this is very wonderful. For here it is, Christ within, indwelt by the spirit of Christ and empowered by the spirit of Christ.
[00:58:12] I don't know whether that maybe you'd like some of you to ask some questions about that a little later. Now, all. All of us in this room must have some experience. If we are children of God, of the first part of the work of the cross. Every single one of us has some experience of justification. Otherwise we couldn't be children of God. Though I'm amazed what a weak experience so often it is in those of us who know the Lord.
[00:58:44] It's not so much belonging to infancy. The question of justification is absolutely foundational to everything. But you see, now, look, this is the point. I have said this evening, that everything is ours in Christ. Everything. Now, all of us must have an experience of this, of the first side of Calvary. But we can stop them.
[00:59:13] We can stop just there. And though we have pardon, and though we have forgiveness, and though we have the remission of our sins, and though we know Christ as our righteousness and our salvation, we are absolutely ignorant of anything more.
[00:59:31] It's rather like living life with only one love, you know, you can get through.
[00:59:38] But I mean, for a good, full, strong life, you need two good lungs.
[00:59:45] And many christians are doing, as it were, on one lung, on half an experience. They know what it is to be saved. They know what it is to take on the blood of Christ for their sin. But you see, there is this other side. Now, if I may just say also, whilst all of us must have an experience of being justified, we can stop there. Or we can have an experience of this plus this, or this plus that. Or we can have. Plus that. We can have three of these four. We can have two of these four. We may have only one. The first one.
[01:00:26] Now, I know that people will say to me immediately, this time is, oh, but just wait. Do you really mean to tell me that someone has be justified and no one used to be empowered without being crucified? The strange thing is, it is possible.
[01:00:41] You just cannot be clinical with spiritual experience. It is a most remarkable thing. You see, this question of the baptism of the spirit. People can get baptized with the spirit, because they don't know anything about the inclusive Bible. With Christ, they can get into the most fearful excesses, get all over the place, go shooting around doing stupid things because they've become so bold and so empowered. But they're not broken.
[01:01:08] So there is something of God in them, but they're not broken. Do you understand?
[01:01:13] This is most interesting. You can know what it is, of course, to be crucified, and you can know what it is to be indwelt. And in this sense, you have a real knowledge of the Lord, but you're absolutely filled with fear because you have no experience of the empowering of the Holy Spirit. So every time you come to pray, you're so full of fear, you don't know what to do. That shouldn't be every time you come to speak to someone about the Lord in the office, we just don't know what to do.
[01:01:47] You feel really sick. Do you know, some Christians come to me and they say to me, I really felt. I thought I had to go out.
[01:01:56] Is there anything less New Testament?
[01:02:00] You don't hear of Peter sort of running out and saying, have a breath of fresh air, because he felt so sick?
[01:02:08] You see, there's something wrong. You see, when the Holy Spirit empowered them, all the bolts on the doors came off. The doors were open and out they went for that. Where were they? Frightened men. Though they knew a risen Christ and though they knew what it was to be justified, yet they were frightened when in an upper room, frightened because of fear of the Jews. But the moment the spirit came out, they went and they stood up and they preached to that crowd. And then the ruler said to Peter a little later, we forbid you to speak in this name. And Peter stood up and said, I'm afraid.
[01:02:46] I'm sorry. Sorry, I can't. I can't accept that. I shall go on speaking in the name. They put him in prison and he wasn't the least bit afraid. James, they took out and executed. Peter was delivered by an angel. They took it all so calmly.
[01:02:59] These are ordinary men like us. They were as frightened as us. They were as fearful beings as us. In fact, I can well imagine that because they hadn't got a kind of university education, they must have been frightened. They would have been terribly frightened to speak before many of those cultured men in the temple on the day of Pentecost. But something so happened that even the people who watched it, these men, must be drunk to speak like this. Now, you see, this is our fourfold salvation.
[01:03:35] Now what I want to ask you is, where have you stopped?
[01:03:40] I know all of you, I believe, in this room, have an experience of justification. But do you know anything about the cross?
[01:03:50] Do you know anything about the indwelling Holy Spirit?
[01:03:55] Do you know anything about the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
[01:04:02] Never let theology, never let theology, so called, stop you from seeking more of Christ.
[01:04:13] Theology in itself, truth in itself, can become a curse when it becomes bondage.
[01:04:21] And do you know that because we all say it's all ours in Christ.
[01:04:26] The moment we were saved, it was ours. Then there comes this bondage. You mustn't ask, you mustn't inquire, you mustn't seek it. Ours. It's ours.
[01:04:36] You see, the point is absolutely true. It's ours. But we've got to possess it. We've got to put the soles of our feet down and say, lord, this which you have done, this which you've given, this which you've provided has got to become mine, corporately and personally. And until you and I do that, we won't experience it. It's faith that does it, not that you feel better. So good that you start to say, you know, dear brother, I do believe I'm crucified.
[01:05:07] I really do believe I'm crucified. I've been feeling better and better this week. And I think at any moment now I'm going to pass into the experience.
[01:05:15] Oh, my dear friend, it'll never come like that. Never. You'll never go out and say, do you know, I've. I feel so wonderful. I felt so marvellous this last week that I do believe I'm on the verge of an experience of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You'll never feel it like that, not in your life.
[01:05:32] I reckon that's something you've eaten or something that belongs to you temperamentally. You're just up, that's all. You're up.
[01:05:40] You can be absolutely down, absolutely down. And yet, by faith, you can step, because you've seen it. You've seen it. The eyes of your heart have been enlightened, and you see, and you stepped into it, and it's yours. And from that moment, it becomes yours. I'm not going to go any farther this evening because I've got a feeling that perhaps it would be very helpful next week to talk a little more about the distinction between these four. Perhaps it would help us if we were to look into the scriptures and talk a little more about it. But let me say this in closing.
[01:06:18] We never. We cannot be clinical in our approach to spiritual things can't be clinical.
[01:06:30] The great need is to be in the good of all that God has provided us for us in Christ. And if one person comes through it through the baptism of the church, or another one through an experience of holiness, or another one through a deep experience of the cross, or another one through an experience of something else, I don't know what. I thank God if all of us come into the good of what is ours in Christ. I used to be very much against this baptism of the Spirit because I had been taught from the beginning that the baptism of the Spirit was ours at birth.
[01:07:07] The Holy Spirit came into us at birth, and I believe it. It has come into us at birth, and it is ours. The empowering from high is ours at birth. But how many christians, may I ask, enter into it at birth?
[01:07:22] I know perhaps just one or two in my whole experience who have entered into it at birth.
[01:07:29] It was theirs, but they didn't enter into it. There's a lot of excess attached to it sometimes. But nevertheless, I have to confess this, that many people who had a very real second experience of the Holy Spirit have had their lives transformed because of our theological conceptions. We are not going to turn a blind eye to that. Thank God for it. Thank God. Everyone who can be changed, let's have them all changed. We want them to be changed the right way. We want to get into the good of it the best way. But if it has to come sometimes through some odd ways, let it, so long as we're in the good of all that is ours in Christ. I heard of a scots lady who had a Sunday school class a little while ago, and I think sometimes some of the children were very near to a very terrible fact. She had taught her Sunday school class that chorus, I will make you fishers of men. I will make you fishers of men. And to her horror, when they stood up to sing, she heard that they'd got it quite well before. She had sung it to the neighbor, to the play, and they all sang. I will make you vicious old men. I will make you the vicious old.
[01:08:48] But, you know, although it's. There are many christians, I am afraid, of whom, it must be said, they have become vicious old men and old women. Vicious old men and women. Well, I know it sounds terrible to say it, but dear brothers and sisters, some parts of the mission field are wrecked and ruined by vicious people, and so is the church by people who've got all of it up top. They know Spurgeon, they know Murray. They know this. They know that they take the Westminster record often and many other things, and yet. And yet there is not one wicked difference in their lives.
[01:09:32] I could give you so many illustrations, but I think we must be. We must end. When I was a lad and first say, I was brought up on victory teaching, and I'm afraid that because I was brought up on victory teaching, I had a thing in the end against it.
[01:09:47] For everyone was victorious. And everyone who ever entered the pulpit used to tell us about the victory life. And I used to sit in the congregation and think to myself that I was, of all men, the most miserable, for I was the only one in the vast congregation who wasn't living the victory life. For they all had. They smiled so sweetly when they sang these hymns about victory living and so on. And the preacher and I found out once in talking with many, that one after another had no experience of victory at all. But the greatest shock I ever got was to find out some years later when speaking to a dear friend known to you all, that the brother that I had heard that day, he had challenged one. And that brother had said to him, he said, did you really know this victory? Oh, no, he said, I preach it by faith.
[01:10:42] So we all were all living in a decepTion.
[01:10:46] We were being preached. Victory was being preached to us, and we all thought they'd all got it, and none of us had got it at all. Now, this is the kind of thing I remember once, dear Mister ReDpAtH, he had a man go up to him and said to him, after one of the big meetings, one of the big campaigns at Richmond, and I was first said, a young Gish man went up to him and said, ah, brother, he said after the meeting, quite loudly, in front of quite a few people who were in the inquiry meeting, he said, brother, I was saved two years ago. Hallelujah, he said. And one and a half years ago, he said, I received the baptism of the Holy spirit. And he said, half a year ago, I was made perfect.
[01:11:24] And I never forgot. Mister Redbarth, he often uses an illustration in his preaching. Mister Edpart looked at him and said, my dear young man, he said, I am very glad to meet you indeed, for you have got somewhere where the apostle of Paul never got in a whole lifetime.
[01:11:44] I've never forgotten it. He was perfectly sinless.
[01:11:48] They perfectly sinless. Ron was telling me the other night that someone went up to Moody and told him that he was perfectly sinless and moody. Said, I would like to have a talk with your wife, however you get this kind of thing again and again, people who deceive themselves into believing that they've got an experience. You see, we have got to be careful. There are things and experiences which are erroneous, there are things which are counterfeit, there are things which are, well, to say the least, they're a pretense. We've got to be careful.
[01:12:27] But, you know, if we're abiding in Christ, abiding in Christ, and we are discerning what's coming and yet open all the time for what is ours, taking it by faith, you see, we shall be going on into an ever increasing experience of all that is ours. In him, the need is not head knowledge but revelation, so that faith can appropriate head knowledge. It puts it up there, but we don't have it down here. But when the eyes of our hearts see, faith leaps out and appropriate what is up. Well, I hope that this evening has been of some value to you. I hope that you will go away this evening and you'll ask the Lord now, Lord, is there any area in my great salvation, the salvation which thou has given me, in which somehow I'm failing to appropriate? Even if we haven't experienced a more, we have to come back again and again to discover there's more, more of Christ in everyone. I'm coming back to find there's more in justification than I ever thought when I was first saved. I don't even know whether I really realized it then. Now I understand it more and more, and I receive Christ.
[01:13:56] Oh, I think it's a more, more wonderful thing to understand what God has done, done with our sins, how anyone can preach the gospel. I feel it's a weakness with me. Until you've seen the wonder of being justified, I don't know, for it is the most marvelous thing, and yet few of us appreciate it, so we need our eyes open. I. I was saved in 1943, but it was in 1949, for the first time in January, that I came into an experience of the spirit and the cross, the indwelling of the spirit and the cross, of being crucified with Christ. And you know, it had been mine in 1943 when I came to Christ. And yet all those years, from 43 to 49, six years I lived in a wilderness, really desperately trying to live the christian life and failing so terrible, until one that one day I read a little book entitled, but how? Because so often I said to myself, but how?
[01:15:06] I listened to Mister Edward and others, Keswick speakers in Richmond. I used to say how?
[01:15:14] And we used to see my chains fell off and I used to think to my heart, but how?
[01:15:21] And so many other things. And I used to, but how? And when this little book was sent to me by the pastor, I assumed. But how?
[01:15:31] I thought, my bad. Someone else has asked that question. And I spent a whole afternoon on my knees reading that book with, it was only a little tiny, so he got about six or seven pages, I suppose, perhaps 15 little tiny book. But I spent the whole afternoon on my knees. And it was just as if an angel wedded to me, or it was as if heaven just opened. And what really happened was the eyes of my heart saw for the first time. And you? I've never felt such an incredible fool.
[01:16:02] When I saw that the Holy Spirit was within, I thought to them, what a fool I be. He's there to live the creature christian life. And I just simply ignored him and tried to live it without him.
[01:16:17] Oh, thank God. From that day to this, with all my own thoughts and failings, I've never ever tried to live the christian life since then. To this day, I can say that truthfully, I've just left it to the Lord and trusted him moment by moment. I believe I've got something more to learn from this as well. And I might say more about that next week. But the great thing is we need the eyes of our heart.
[01:16:45] And don't think. Don't get disillusioned. You think, oh, it doesn't work with me. I can't understand it. What's wrong with you? Is it you've got it up here, but you haven't got it there. So go away and say, lord, enlighten the eyes of my heart. I need to see it. I need to be in the good of it so that I can see what is mine and start to appropriate it. May the Lord help us.
[01:17:07] Lord Jesus, we do ask thee that thou hast used this evening to bring a number of us to a knowledge of our need. Thou has made such a great provision for us in our Lord Jesus. Our salvation is so great now, Lord, we pray together that thou wouldst, Lord, open the eyes of our heart to see what we need. One of us may need to know thine indwelling. Another one to know what it is to be crucified and buried and risen. Another one needs to know more about being justified.
[01:17:43] All of us surely need to know more about the anointing, the empowering of thy spirit. Lord, we bring this all to thee. And we ask thee that thou hast help us to be spiritually intelligent in our seeking of thee. That we may begin to see where we have areas of need and may begin to say, Lord, open our eyes to see what is ours. Lord, you've done it all. Calva is a fact. Pentecost is a fact. The cross, the work of the cross, is finished. The Holy Spirit has been given. O Father, we pray that thou wouldst bring every one of us into the full good of what thou hast done. Through Calvary and Pentecost, we ask it in thy name. Amen.
