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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] We have been speaking about some of those characteristics that God looks for in those who would really serve him. And we've spoken of an utter devotion to Christ, leading to worship and service and testimony. We've spoken of an implicit faith in God and in his word. We have spoken of a clear understanding of God's purpose, objective. And last week we spoke of an ever increasing experience of all that God has provided for us in and through Christ. If we are going to serve the Lord, we cannot afford to become static.
[00:00:52] We have got to have an ever increasing extent experience of the Lord. Not just merely an ever increasing knowledge of the Lord, but an ever increasing experience of the Lord. Now, last week we covered some ground. We spoke first of all of this point that God has made everything ours, he has made all provision for us in Christ.
[00:01:24] Everything we need for our personal life or for our corporate life has been provided by God in Christ. There is nothing necessary, essential to the christian life or to the church which God has not provided in Christ. It is all there. And we secondly spoke for some time about the secret of abiding in him, remaining where God has placed us in Christ. The root cause of nearly all christian breakdown, corporate or personal, is that people do not abide in Christ.
[00:02:15] They do not learn to distinguish those things that draw them out of Christ as it would entice them out of Christ. And they often go out to meet the enemy, or they go out after some thing, as a thing, an experience, as an experience. And without realizing it all seems so good. The devil comes to us to minister a righteous, an angel of light. It seems so wonderful, so good. And we are found outside of Christ. And the enemy's whole objective is to divorce us practically and experimentally from Christ. So abiding in him is the secret. And the Lord Jesus said a lot about abiding in him and he in us. Well, I must leave that for that's what we spoke about last week. And we also spoke about the fact that if everything is provided for us in Christ, and we have been placed in Christ, and all we've got to do is remain or continue where God has placed us, then, while we often so defeated, why are we often in such a superficial way? Why are we so poverty stricken, spiritually so powerless? Why is there so much that is weak in a wrong way about us? Who are God's children, so much else? Why is there so much contradiction? The simple point of the matter is that we need to appropriate what is ours in Christ. God has provided it all, but it is to be appropriated by faith. In other words, until you see it and you believe it and you take it, it's not yours. Now, that was so of salvation until you saw that Christ had died for you and that you were a sinner and needed to be saved, until you believed that he had died to save you and that he was able to save you. And until you took your salvation by faith, you cast yourself upon Christ, you weren't saved. And it's the same with every other step in the christian life. It has to be appropriated by faith. And this, again, is the little key into everything. For, you know, we can be in Christ. Christ can be in us. We can be abiding in Christ, we can have learned to abide in Christ, and still we are impoverished, and we can't understand why. It's because our eyes perhaps are not open to all that is ours, you see? And so we just wonder, and we're not appropriating. So, of course, you can understand that the devil has a vested interest in spiritual eye diseases.
[00:05:05] I think this is the biggest need amongst God's children, is the healing and the cure of eye disease for everything, in the end, goes back to it. Now, we lastly spoke last week of the fact that all that God has provided in Christ is given to us in a fourfold way through Calvary and Pentecost. And that's the explanation of this little diagram on the board which you remember.
[00:05:43] It's very simple. Christ, our full salvation. This rectangle stands for Christ, and we have divided it into two. This is our salvation, which is Christ, and he has given to us first through Calvary and then from Pentecost, first through the cross and then by the spirit. And there are two sides to the work of Calvary. First, we are justified, and secondly, we are crucified. And there are two sides to the work of Pentecost. First, we are indwelt, and secondly, we are empowered. Now, it is also very interesting that being justified and being indwelt are often linked together. These two are brought together often, and being crucified and being empowered are brought together. So you have these two sort of. They complement each other. One side of the cross is complemented by one side of Pentecost. On the other side of the cross is complemented by the other side of Pentecost. Well, now, that's where we're going to go on this evening. I believe I ended up last week by saying something about never letting theology stop you from seeking more of Christ.
[00:07:16] There's a great mistake when theology gets in our way when just simply because we have some conception, and it may be a right conception because of a kind of clinical approach to spiritual things, we are stopped from seeking the Lord for something more. For even with the most correct knowledge, there is sometime in experience, some very real lacks, and we've just got to. God has to be sovereign in the way that he brings us into all that is ours in Christ.
[00:07:56] Now, as I said, the need is not head knowledge, but it is revelation, so that faith can appropriate. For it is when the eyes of our heart are enlightened that faith spontaneously springs into action.
[00:08:14] You cannot force yourself to take a faith position if you haven't seen. No amount of coercion will get you into it. All you'll do is try desperately to take some position which just won't work. And in the end you'll think, well, it doesn't work. No, it doesn't work with you, because you've not seen the whole question of revelation is vital. And this is where, in fact, we have to be very humble indeed. For, you see, we may have great brains, or we may have a lot of knowledge, or we may have great wills, or we may have great feelings.
[00:08:57] Zeal for the Lord, devotion even for the Lord. But in the end, we all have to come onto our knees like little children and ask the Lord to open our eyes. This is the safety of it all, the security of it. We all have to come like little children, from the greatest to the smallest, and ask the Lord. Lord, enlighten the eyes of my heart. Give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation, enlightening the eyes of my heart, that I might know that I may see. And you know that brother knee has pointed out that before we can reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, we must first know that our old man has been crucified with Christ. And this is so important, for it is not knowing here, but knowing here. It is the heart's apprehension of what God has done at Calvary, so that the eyes of our hearts see, suddenly see, and we're in the good of it. Now I can only give you my own little experience in this matter. I was brought up in a very keen company. I was saved in 1943. But it was in 1949 that I came in for the first time into an experience, the cross and the Holy Spirit.
[00:10:23] I must I look back upon it many, many times. I must have heard the indwelling of Christ, and the spirit emphasized again and again and again. But in spite of the fact that I must have sung about it and read about it in the word and heard it preached and gone to Bible studies on it. It never dawned on me, never until that day in 1949, in January 1949, when it just broke upon me and the eyes of my heart saw it. And when I saw it was just as if I'd never seen it before. I hadn't. It was as if I'd never heard it. And I really did look upon the company of christians I was in as well. Frankly, I almost looked upon them as spiritually. I couldn't think how on earth I'd never heard it, but in fact it was me.
[00:11:17] They might have been shouting it from the rooftops to me, but I hadn't seen it. So it didn't mean anything, you see, to me. Well, I want to make that very clear. Once we've seen something, we go out to it in faith, spontaneously. Faith goes out and appropriates what is ours. Now, this is of the utmost importance. That's why Paul is always praying that we might see and know.
[00:11:52] Now we want to look this evening, particularly at these four points more closely. Remembering that they in fact do overlap on the other side of the board, I've put them more, more clearly.
[00:12:13] These four points justified, crucified, indwelt, empowered.
[00:12:22] We want to look at them a little more clearly. They overlap each other. Of course they do. You can't be clinical about these things. You can't actually wholly define them. It's interesting. Galatians 220. Paul brings these two together. He says, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me indwelling. So we have in fact, three. And then he says, and I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me justification. So in fact, he brings all three together in one point. But sometimes it helps us to analyze and define these things a little more. For it may be that we shall discover there is an area, particularly in Christ, an area of need which God has provided for in Christ for us. And it may help us to go back and really start to seek the Lord, that he will open our eyes to this matter. Well, now, you see, the first matter is to be justified, and I have very simply described this as Christ for us, Christ for us. Now, shall we look up a number of scriptures? By the way, the word justify literally means to declare right.
[00:13:56] That means you are declared right, or you are made right to make right, or the other word is to acquit. You are acquitted.
[00:14:06] Now let's just turn up some of these scriptures first. Galatians, chapter two, verse 16.
[00:14:24] Yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ. Chapter three, verse 24. So that the law is become our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
[00:14:52] And then Romans, chapter five.
[00:15:02] Romans, chapter five, verse one. Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. It's interesting to note in those two verses, three things. We have peace, we have access and we stand.
[00:15:32] So those are three things connected with justification. We have peace, we have access, and we stand.
[00:15:41] We have standing.
[00:15:44] And then in Romans, chapter eight and verse 33, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. So there are these three things connected with our justification. Christ died, Christ was raised, and Christ intercedes for us. These are the three great points to do with our justification.
[00:16:35] Now this is absolutely fundamental. And although every single one of us who is a child of God in this room tonight has had experience of justification, you've got to have some knowledge of this. Otherwise you can't be a child of God. You've got to have some knowledge of it. Yet it is amazing how weak an appreciation you can get through on. It seems the Lord falls over himself to save us. And if we had the weakest appreciation, the slightest glimmer of understanding in this, he saves us.
[00:17:09] And one of the weaknesses of so many christians is that we are not absolutely clear as to our justification. What has God done?
[00:17:23] I think you can. It comes out in a lot of our preaching.
[00:17:28] Very few people can preach the gospel because they have very little real appreciation of what it means to be justified. You can ask people to come to Christ and some. I notice in my own ministry that I found it all often the most peculiarly difficult thing to preach about the grace of God and the justification of God. And yet I see more and more that this isn't just a kindergarten, a spiritual kindergarten matter. It is absolutely fundamental to every part of our spiritual well being. And there are many christians who know a lot about the cross, but because they don't know enough about justification, are tormented, tormented by feelings of unworthiness and feelings of darkness and feelings of uncleanness. And you know, when the Lord starts to work and remove what we are, when he really starts to get to grips with our self life, woe betide us if we haven't a strong appreciation and understanding of our justification.
[00:18:42] I think all of us here need it. It needs to be understood much more than it is and appropriated. Oh, if everyone were to go home tonight and appropriate something more, what God has provided for us in our justification, it would be a tremendous thing. This Sunday morning, time around the Lord's table would be filled with praise, and there would be people who haven't opened their lips for years who would be bubbling out in praise, and some possibly who would be held back just a little. I don't know. But certainly there'll be a lot of people who are not praising the Lord, who would suddenly find themselves overwhelmed by the love and the grace of God. It is a tremendous thing. Now, very, very swiftly, just let's look at what we have listed under there. These are the things that we have, the main points of our justification. We are pardoned. Pardoned. Well, now, one John, one nine. You all know that if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How beautiful that is. Not if we confessed our sins, but if we confess our sin, he is faithful. Not he was faithful, but he is faithful and just. Not faithful and loving, but faithful and just. In other words, this question of justification is absolutely legal.
[00:20:23] Absolutely. It's not that God's trying to get around something because he loves us. He has legally, legally cleared away our sin. And when God himself legitimately, legally clears away our sin, who can bring it up?
[00:20:41] The great law giver himself has found a way of cancelling out all our sin and blotting it out of the record altogether, then who can bring it up? What an amazing thing it is to be a child of God. Pardon? What a wonderful thing. And then, of course, if you look very swiftly at the same letter, one John, chapter two, verse twelve, we I write unto you, my little children, because your sins are forgiven you. For his name's sake, your sins are forgiven you. What a lovely word. Forgiveness is forgiveness. God has forgiven us.
[00:21:26] That's very, very wonderful. And of course, I often think that it's only when you and I begin to understand what our sin is that we are putting appreciate what God's forgiveness is. She that has loved much, she who has been forgiven much, will also love much.
[00:21:44] And this is a great law. Well, there are many other things. Ephesians one seven, where we are told we have the forgiveness of all our trespasses. And then psalm 32 one blessed is the man whose sin, whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is covered. I think let's look it up. Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Verse five. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity did I not hide. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sins.
[00:22:26] Oh, what beautiful words. Pardon, pardon and cleansing. One John one seven. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship, one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanseth us from all sin, all sin. But we've got to walk in the light. But there's cleansing if we walk in the light. In other words, don't hold it back, don't try and bury it, but come out into the light. And there's cleansing. And then Isaiah 118. Come now, let us read, because this is like a gospel meeting, isn't it? Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. What a wonderful thing it is to have sin like scarlet made white as snow.
[00:23:17] Most remarkable. Cleansing. Only the blood of Christ can cleanse scarlet into white.
[00:23:26] And then again, revelation one five, that beautiful verse where we have this other rendering in the revised version, which I think is correct.
[00:23:36] Chapter one, verse five.
[00:23:39] Unto him that loveth us and loosed us from our sins.
[00:23:43] The authorized version has washed us from our sins, but loosed us is much stronger. The word is to dissolve.
[00:23:52] Who has dissolved our sins or freed us from our sins? Or even it can be destroyed. Our sins. What a wonderful word. He has freed us from our sins in his blood. They're gone, absolutely gone. You'll never see them again. Some of us, you know, we rake them up and we. They're like antiques, you know, we keep them all beautifully polished and so on, all draped around the room and so on, so we can look at them and we take them to other people and show them to them. And now and again, we have a bad time about their state and condition. But God has got rid of the lot, and he'll never make mention of it. Some Christians talk so much about their sins, but one day in glory, it's a word that's taboo as far as God is concerned. They're blotted out. There's no record of them. It's almost as if you say sin, God would say to you, sin, never heard of it in connection with you. Never heard it. So God, whatever are you talking about?
[00:24:56] He only knows of righteousness, the righteousness of his son. You see, Christ became our sin.
[00:25:06] So God is, if you circle the sins of Christ, God will say, yes. Oh, I know all about that.
[00:25:12] I know all about that. But if you speak about yours and it's got. I don't know anything about that.
[00:25:19] I've got no record of it.
[00:25:22] No record at all. Go to the books, go to the archives, go to the registry office.
[00:25:29] You won't find anything there. It's all cancelled out and blotted out, cleansed. Now, I think that's simply wonderful. And one John, chapter two, verse one says, if any man sees, we have an advocate with God, with the Father Jesus Christ, the righteous, an advocate. Do you know the word is comforter, one who comes alongside if any man sin. This is, of course, no ground for carrying on in sin, but it is wonderful to know that there is cleansing from sin and then there is covering. Romans chapter three, verse 22, we read there these even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all.
[00:26:22] Isn't that wonderful? The righteousness of God unto all and upon all that covering, it's given to us. It's upon us, the righteousness of Christ. And two Corinthians, chapter five, verse 21, that we so often quote, for him who knew no sin, God made to be our sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. You and I have become the righteousness of God in Christ. We've been placed in Christ, and we've been covered in his righteousness. We've become the righteousness of God in him, covering. I must go on. And reconciliation, that's another thing to do with justification. We're not only covered, dear child of God, you're absolutely clothed in the righteousness of Christ. If you abide in him and walk in the light, your garments will not be soiled, for they are the robes, the garment of his righteousness, and we are reconciled. Two Corinthians, chapter five and verse 19.
[00:27:31] Listen to this.
[00:27:34] God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses.
[00:27:43] God was reconciling. Now, this word means being made, being brought back into oneness, being brought back to God. Reconcile. Reconcile.
[00:27:57] And of course, Colossians 121 22, if you want to read it, where it says that through the body of his flesh. We who once were alienated from God have been reconciled to him now. It's very wonderful, isn't it, to be reconciled. Now all this is provided for us in our justification.
[00:28:17] If you feel distant from God, if you feel somehow or other there's a gulf between you and God, well, look here, dear brother or dear sister, God provided for you in your justification. There's no reason for it, no reason at all for it. You might be the blackest criminal in the world, but if you will only confess and you will only walk into the light, God will not only cleanse you, but you've got your reconciliation.
[00:28:43] It's yours, God's provided for you. And so when people hang their heads, say, God won't speak to me. Well, usually they need a bomb put behind them, because normally there's something they won't put right at all. They won't walk in the light. Of course, God, it's their fault if there's a gulf, if they won't move. But the provision's there. Take one step into the light and the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse you instantly. Instantly. If you get into the light, you'll be cleansed. So they are reconciled. Not one single person has got to come into any gathering, distanced from the Lord with any barrier, with any gulf. Well, I leave it like that and standing.
[00:29:31] This is a tremendous thing. One Corinthians, chapter three. One Corinthians, chapter three, verse eleven.
[00:29:39] You know this. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ, our foundation that's already there. You might put on it wood, hay and stubble. But praise God, the foundation's there, and you can't do anything about that. If you're in Christ, you're on the foundation. And the foundation is absolute acceptance with God, Jesus Christ. And then, of course, Hebrews ten.
[00:30:08] I think we should add that to this matter. Hebrews 1019. Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way, which he dedicated for us a new and living way, and having a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near. And then it goes on about having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and so on and so on and so on. But you see, we have a standing with God. Now, listen. Every single one of us who's born of God's spirit has a standing with God. God has given us a standing, and no one can take it away from us. No one, not even the devil. He cannot take it away from us. No one can take it away from us. We've got a standing, this grace wherein we stand. Oh, how wonderful it all is. Well, anyway, that's justification. Now, the second thing is crucified. The second aspect of the work of the cross of Calvary is crucified. We are crucified. And I have just entitled that Christ as us.
[00:31:17] Christ as us. Christ was not only for us, but Christ died as us. He not only died in our place and bore our sin, and bore away our sin, and bore the penalty of our sin and the wrath of God upon it. But when he died, he died as us. And when he was buried, he was buried as us. And when he was raised, he was raised as us. And when he was enthroned at God's right hand, he was enthroned as us. Now, you see, this is tremendous.
[00:31:59] And this is the other side of the work of the cross. Well, now, one or two scriptures, Galatians 220. I've already quoted that I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me in the life which I now live. I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And in Romans six, verse six, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin. For he that hath died is justified from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more death, no more hath dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died unto sin once, but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Even so, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
[00:33:08] Well, now, there's something tremendous. Again, Galatians 614, I think. Again, you know this.
[00:33:19] Galatians 614.
[00:33:24] But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified unto me, and I unto the world. A twofold crucifixion. The world has been put on a cross, and I've been put on another cross, so we can't touch each other. Well, now, that's a place to be. Not many of us are there, but that's what God has done in the cross. And then colossians two, and verse 20, we ye died with Christ. Verse twelve of the same chapter, having been buried with him. So we've died with Christ and we've been buried with Christ. Chapter three, verse one. If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek those things that are above where Christ is, and so on on to verse four. I leave you to read it.
[00:34:16] Now listen this.
[00:34:21] In this matter we come up against the problem of the self life and the self nature. Our old nature, you see, we may be pardoned, we may be cleansed, we may be covered, we may be reconciled, we may have a standing with God, that we've still got an old nature.
[00:34:44] And that's the problem. So what is it? What's going to happen? Says Paul, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? See, he's got it. He understands only too fully the nature of the problem. You see, if we had only justification, well, we'd just go unhappily sinning, as it were, and, well, grace will abound.
[00:35:05] But you see, Paul says, you can't just do that. There's another side to the cross. How shall we continue in sin? We who died with Christ?
[00:35:18] And we've got the whole problem of our self life. Now, our self life is a problem. I don't know whether you've discovered that yet, but the biggest problem in the christian life is the self life. And the biggest problem in the church is the self life. There's no doubt about it. We whine and we groan, but it's our self life that's the problem all along.
[00:35:43] So having justified us and covered us, the painful work of removing what we are begins when, once we see it now, we don't have to have it removed. Now we can wait, but sooner or later that operation takes place if we're going to go into the presence of God. For without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. So we can wait for it. And I don't know exactly what will happen, but will be saved. So as by far, something tremendous will happen. We'll get through, but saved by the skin of our teeth.
[00:36:22] But God has made provision for us down here so that this whole life can be an education, this whole life can be, as it were, a sphere in which the self life is dealt with and removed and Christ brought in. You see, God doesn't want to just remove a self life and leave us a kind of negative vacuum and emptiness, a void.
[00:36:47] He wants to bring Christ in, in place of what we are.
[00:36:53] And this is the whole work, the cross. The other aspect of the cross is the removal of the old for the bringing in of the new, the removal of this, of self for the bringing in of Christ.
[00:37:09] Now, God has already done it at the cross. He has already done it. And you can't try to do it yourself. You try. Try to mortify your body, try to put your members to death, do your best and you'll find that you'll get into a worse and worse state until in the end, you just give up all together. You can't do it. You see, the whole point is God has done it.
[00:37:34] Now, brother Nee used to use a beautiful little illustration, which is the most helpful one I know. If we take that little bit of paper and we put it in that Bible and we close the Bible and I send that Bible to the other side of the world, the bit of paper, and it has gone in the Bible. Everything I do with that bible, the bit of paper is all. It's also done to the bit of paper. I lift up the Bible. The paper's in the Bible. I put the Bible down. The paper is in the Bible. I put the Bible on the lectern. The piece of paper is in the Bible. I put it on the chair. The piece of paper is in the chair. God has put us in Christ.
[00:38:11] And when he crucified Christ, he crucified us. And when he allowed Christ to be buried, we were buried. And when he raised Christ, we were raised. And when he enthroned Christ, we were enthroned. You see, God has put us in Christ.
[00:38:27] It's so simple. But once the eye of the heart opens up to it and you see it, it's the beginning of something altogether new. In your experience. You see, we are dead, we are buried and we are raised.
[00:38:47] Now, it's one thing to know that you've been crucified.
[00:38:52] It's another thing to know that you've been buried.
[00:38:57] Some people know they've been crucified, but you see, they're still there.
[00:39:03] I don't want to be vulgar, but, you see, they're there, putrefied, a corpse.
[00:39:11] And everyone around them is only too well aware that they're crucified.
[00:39:16] You understand what I mean? You see, they've got the smell of death about them. They've got the whole atmosphere of death about them. It's all negative. It's all sort of drab. It's all sad, dark colours. You see, and all you can see. You can't see Christmas. You can only see them crucified.
[00:39:36] And whenever you touch them, you feel your touching crucifixion. It's not the beauty of Christ, it's them.
[00:39:44] Oh, said Paul, when he saw this, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
[00:39:51] And he had the idea of the gladiators bound together, one of whom had killed the other, and he couldn't be free from. He had to drag the dead body out with him.
[00:40:01] Awful, awful picture. But, you know, it's like a lot of us, we know what it is to be crucified. We've got that far. But, oh, dear, dear, dear. The smell of burning to change the illustration. The smell of burning that is upon us when we come out of the fiery furnace. Everyone knows within a radius, oh, I was going to say a few miles, that we have gone through a bad time. And somehow or other the Lord has been taking us into the way of the cross. Listen, my dear friends, God is not only crucified, sees, buries. It's not play acting. It's not play acting to hide the fact that we've been crucified. When you bury someone, you put them out of sight.
[00:40:48] You put them under the ground. They're out of sight, they're gone, they're finished, they're out of the way. You can only see the flowers and the daisies on the top. You can't see them. They're gone. They're buried. And that's the wonder of it. Now then, God has not only crucified us with Christ, buried us with Christ, but he's raised us with Christ.
[00:41:14] We've been raised to walk in newness of love.
[00:41:18] That means a freshness of life, all that are perennially fresh. Now, few of us know this. I mean, we know something of the cross. Many of us know something of the cross in this way. But, you know, you see, what I'm trying to get at this evening is, you see, there's a vast amount more for us yet to appropriate in what we've already appropriated, even some of us who've seen it, and not all of us by any means have seen it, but those who have seen it, you know, we've got much more to see and to understand and to claim and appropriate. Lord, I'm not only crucified, I'm buried now then cover it all. Be the help of my countenance in this matter.
[00:41:59] What does God do with all that we are?
[00:42:02] This is the problem. What does God do? Some of you are going to serve the Lord. You've told the Lord you're ready to serve him anywhere in the world. What's going to God going to do with you?
[00:42:12] Is he going to crucify the bad part of you? And polish up the good part of you is the part of you that's failing and sort of base going to go to the cross, and the rest God is going to refine. So it's a thing of beauty. What's God going to do with your talents and your gifts? What's he going to do with your zeal and your energy? I'll tell you what this aspect of the cross means. It means that everything, all that you are, comes to the altar and goes up in smoke.
[00:42:51] God terminates you at the altar. Your talents, your gifts, your good points, your bad points, all are crucified together with Christ and buried with him. It's gone.
[00:43:06] God brings everything to zero at the cross. Yes, everything.
[00:43:12] And all that God is going to use has got to go through the cross and through the grave into resurrection and victory. Now, let me explain very simply what I mean. You've got a gift for playing the piano, and this is a talent. You give it to the Lord, you're going to serve him, so you give it. I just use as an illustration. You give it to the Lord and you don't know anything about the cross. And then one day you see it and you say, oh, I'm crucified with Christ. And then, slowly but surely, your gift for playing the piano comes under the hammer of the cross. God starts to break all your self confidence. He breaks all that you are and you lose everything you've got. You're a talented person, but you've lost it all now. It's gone into the grave, finished.
[00:44:04] Now, God doesn't leave it there so often. He'll bring it through into resurrection and victory. And there is something about Christ in that talent that was never there before.
[00:44:15] Before the cross, it was you. After the cross, it's Christ.
[00:44:20] So you've got a man like Paul with a brain, a genius of a blade.
[00:44:27] And what does God do with it? He breaks that man to pieces. He blinds him. He makes him look a silly old fool being led by the hand into Damascus. He goes out into the desert. This man who sat at the feet of Gamaliel, he goes out into the desert like a hermit.
[00:44:47] And in the end, Paul comes back and he has lost a lot of his eloquence and he has lost a lot of them, of the power of his mind. But now God uses his mind. It's Christ. And God can use that man's brain to give us the letters. We've got. We've got to accept it. There's a brain there as well, but it's Christ in and through the brain. It's a crucified brain.
[00:45:10] And so you've got zeal, you've got energy. You've got natural talents and gifts. Everything has to go to the cross. Everything. All has to come to zero if it is to come through. Now, this is what we mean by the work of the cross. It's all got to go through death, burial, to resurrection and victory. It's the only way.
[00:45:34] So we must see it, and then we must act. Why did the Lord say in Matthew 16 24 25, if any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me?
[00:45:50] Why did he mean that? You have a little problem, and that's your cross? Not at all. Even though Luke actually says, let him take up his own cross. What the Lord means is this. Each one of us has got to deliberately take up the cross.
[00:46:07] God will never put the cross on us.
[00:46:10] It's provided God has put us on the cross, but he'll leave it to every one of us to step into it.
[00:46:19] You and I have got to step deliberately. Luke puts it even more emphatically. He says, let each man take up his cross daily. Now, that's a deliberate act. You know, those crosses were heavy things, and the people going to the place of death had to carry them on their shoulders, drag them up the hill of Golkon. It was a deliberate act. They didn't just fall into it. They didn't drift into it. They had to really shoulder them. And you and I, once we've seen it, we've got to say, lord, I'm committed by faith. I'm committed to the cross, to the grave, to resurrection.
[00:46:58] That's the secret.
[00:47:00] Now, you see, the whole point of this being crucified is that we might know what it is to be raised. And you cannot know resurrection till you're dead and buried.
[00:47:11] So until you've let go and gone down there, you won't know anything about resurrection. So cry as you will, plead as you will, study as you will, work as you will. You'll never know anything of the resurrection, the power of his resurrection. Till you're prepared for the cross and the grave, never.
[00:47:30] It's an absolute. There's an absolute veto. Everything until you're prepared to go through the cross and the grave. Take that step, and God will say to you immediately, I'll raise you. You let yourself go, and I'll raise you. Even the Lord Jesus had to learn that lesson on the cross. And there is something else, too. For there is a law of spiritual life, an increase in this matter of being crucified. We read verily, verily, I say unto you, a grain of wheat. If it abideth, if it accepted and died, abide alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much through John 12 24, 25.
[00:48:18] Now, there's a law there, and in two corinthians, chapter four and verse four to six, you will find the whole law in its outworking. Death in us, life in you. Now, that's a law for servants of God. It's an absolute law.
[00:48:35] Even if you know everything about the power of the Holy Spirit, you'll still know a lot about carrying in your body. The death of the Lord Jesus is going to be life in other people.
[00:48:43] Otherwise, all people will seize a lot of balance. That's all. You've got it all, but they haven't. But if they receive from you something, it's because you know death that they may know life all the time. It's an absolute law. And again, this is connected with the fellowship of his suffering, which, so that I may know him, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.
[00:49:09] And Paul speaks about filling up what lacks of the afflictions of Christ.
[00:49:16] What an amazing thing that is all to do with this being crucified. Now, I must leave that. But I hope I have said enough about this side of the cross to touch a lot of problems, perhaps as many problems as there are people in this room this evening. It's provided for you. You hate yourself. Life. Do you? Do you? Have you got to the place where you loathe yourself life, yet, but you can't get rid of it. You haven't seen what the cross is. God's made provision for you. You won't get anywhere first till you loathe yourself. But once you begin to loathe what you are saying, well, why doesn't the Lord deliver me?
[00:49:55] And in the end, you'll see only you ask the Lord to enlighten the eyes of your heart. Now, the third thing. The first aspect of the work of Pentecost is indwelt.
[00:50:07] Now, here, Christ in us. This is the fourth part of our great salvation. Christ for us. Christ has us. Christ in us. Now, very quickly, let's look at these scriptures. John 20, verse 22.
[00:50:25] John 20, verse 22.
[00:50:30] And when he said this, he breathed on them and saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Spirit. Receive ye, the Holy Spirit. Romans eight, verse nine.
[00:50:47] Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so, be that the spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies, and so on. Verse 16. The spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that is within, that we are children of God. Verse 26. And in like manner the spirit also helpeth out infirmity. For we know not how to pray as we ought, but the spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. That's within.
[00:51:32] And then. Colossians 127. You know it well. We often quote it Christ in you, in you the hope of glory. And then I want you to look something as we don't quote as much. Ephesians chapter three.
[00:51:49] Ephesians, chapter three, verse 16. Now this is very interesting.
[00:52:00] That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inward man, that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith to the end, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God indwelt. There can be nothing truly practical and experimental without a knowledge of Christ's indwelling. So you can have it all up here until you realize that Christ is within, until that moment arrives in your life. It's head knowledge.
[00:52:46] Everything is bound up with a knowledge of Christ within, practically. In other words, you can be saved legally, you are truly saved. And don't just despise that because it's legal. It's a true, actual, literal salvation.
[00:53:03] But before that becomes practical and experimental and you begin to taste what salvation really is, you know it is to be being saved.
[00:53:12] Until you actually know Christ within, you can't know any of its practical outworking. Now, I believe this is very, very important for christians. Many christians are woefully ignorant of Christ within. Oh, everywhere, especially on the continent in this matter, you find people who know what it is to be justified, but they don't know anything of Christ within.
[00:53:38] Christ is our life and how vital it really is. We can know the work of the cross and become merely negative.
[00:53:50] Merely negative. If we don't have a large appreciation and experience of Christ within.
[00:53:58] Now, you can't be clinical about these things. You can have someone who's really seen something or what it is to go to the cross, and yet they haven't really fully appreciated what it is to have Christ within. So consequently, there is a sort of heaviness about it all, because there's not that way for the Lord to bring them into the realization of what it means to be raised in Christ.
[00:54:23] Now, that I say is very important.
[00:54:26] You see, the only way that you and I can be brought into the realization of all that God intends and promises, the only way is by the indwelling spirit of God.
[00:54:42] Have you ever thought of all that Christ, all that God intends for us? Have you ever read in God's word, this is what a Christian should be? This is what God has promised? Look at this. That he's shown us. That's all. That God intends me to be conformed to the image of his own son.
[00:55:00] And then you wonder how, how. How the only way it can be done is by the indwelling spirit of God.
[00:55:10] You know, I must tell you a story. I can't tell you all the facts, but I must tell you a little story about husband that I knew who was very concerned about his wife because she was getting very tired, you see, and no one in the company here, so none of you need worry.
[00:55:30] He was very, very concerned about his wife. He was an older man. He was very.
[00:55:34] And we must get a cleaner.
[00:55:38] He said, you're far too tired. We must get someone in to help with the cleaning. So they got someone in to help with the cleaning. But do you know what happened? The wife used to get up an hour early to go all over the house and clean because she didn't like the thought of the poor lady working too hard, so she used to do the cleaning early. In other words, you see. You see, it's so silly. The woman was paid to do the work, but she was trying to do it for her.
[00:56:07] And it may seem a very silly illustration. That's exactly what happens with many of us. God has put the Holy Spirit, spirit within us to live the christian life, and many of us are desperately trying to do it.
[00:56:19] We're getting in the way of the Holy Spirit trying to do what he should be doing.
[00:56:23] And you see, unless you and I have seen what it is to be crucified with Christ, we get in the way. I can't put it more simply, but do you take Galatians chapter five and verse 22, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self control. Against such there is no law. And. Go on. And they that are of Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof, you see. Well, now, it's one thing to crucify the flesh with the passions and lusts thereof. But what about the fruit? The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace. Now, you see, the whole point is this fruit comes from within.
[00:57:13] I know there's a lot else that happens to bring it into fruit, but it comes basically from within the tree. And you cannot make an oak tree bare apples.
[00:57:24] You can give it lots. And you can. Suppose you just tried. I mean, you could give it bags and bags and bags of fertilizer. Oh, you could waste pounds and pounds pumping in fertilizer around the tree. And so say, now, this ought to do it. This ought to do it. This old tree will bear apples anytime. Now I'm giving it plenty of rich food. It won't do any other kind.
[00:57:47] It can only bear acorns. Now you could get down and you could pray, oh, please, make this tree have apples. But your prayer won't be answered. For the tree is an oak tree, and God abides by laws in that matter.
[00:58:01] And you might plead and try, but still it won't bear apples. You see, the whole point is to bear apples. It's got to have apple life.
[00:58:10] The tree's got to be an apple tree. It's got to have apple life. Then it'll bear apples.
[00:58:16] And you see, in many ways, this is where we make our great mistake. We try to think that the old man, the old nature, the old lifeliness can somehow or other bear the fruit of the spirit. But it is the fruit of the spirit, which is love, joy and peace. Not the fruit of me, but the fruit of the spirit in my spirit, which is love, joy, peace. So you see, the thing I've got to understand very simply is that Christ is within me. If I can see it, if I can commit myself to it, God can do the rest. Realization, reproduction is another thing to do with indwelling reproduction of Christ. Two Corinthians, chapter three, verse 18. The Lord is the spirit. And as we behold in the mirror the glory of the Lord, we are changed. We are conformed to the same image from glory to glory as by the Lord the Spirit.
[00:59:12] Now do you see what's happening? You see, in fact, we are being changed. How? By Christ within. That's how I wish we could say it more and more. Clearly. But we are changed into the image of Christ by the Holy Spirit within.
[00:59:36] He's doing it. He's inside. You can't do it. I can't do it. All we can do is trust and obey, but God will do the work. Once we've seen it, we've got to see it. And then union and communion, that's another thing bound up within. Do you know what it is to be one with Christ, really one with Christ? Do you know what it is to really walk hand in hand with Christ? What? You cannot walk hand in hand with Christ until you've seen that he is within.
[01:00:04] But when you've seen that he's within, you are always. There's a comradeship, there's a fellowship, there's a union, communion. Oh, the tragedies that there are amongst us. Who are God's children, this matter. I know folk who tell me, oh, no. Would you pray for me about. So why can't you pray? Oh, well, I don't know whether the Lord. And when you get down to it, they say, the Lord won't speak to me.
[01:00:33] The Lord won't speak to me. Jesus is my sheep. Hear my voice.
[01:00:38] There are some pretty poor sheep, but he is my sheep. Hear my voice. All the flock can hear his voice. Got a right to. They're his sheep.
[01:00:48] Oh, if only every one of us would really get to the Lord and see the question of his indwelling transform our lives. We'd get to the Lord directly. We'd go to him directly in prayer. We'd listen for his voice ourselves, as well as having fellowship with others. Oh, it would make such a great difference, this whole matter of union and communion.
[01:01:09] And then lastly, there is this matter of being empowered.
[01:01:15] I put Christ upon or Christ with us. It's rather difficult, I think, to get the right words. It's how rather archaic. Christ upon us. But that's really what it means. Christ upon us. I was going to put Christ behind us, but I don't want to give the impression that I am with the Lord's help. No, it is really Christ Tabernacle upon us. Enveloping us absolutely as it were, taking us in. He's upon us. This is what we call the empowerment. Now, just let's look again at a few scriptures very swiftly. Acts, chapter one, verse eight.
[01:01:54] Acts, chapter one, verse eight. Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you. Now, will you notice that in John, chapter 20, verse 22, Jesus had already breathed upon them and said, receive ye the Holy Spirit. Now, why did he say that the Holy Spirit would come when he had already breathed upon them and said, receive ye the Holy Spirit. I don't believe they did receive the Holy Spirit when jesus breathed upon them. But what I do believe is this. The Lord Jesus was trying to differentiate between two vocal sides of the work of the Spirit. The indwelling when you receive the Spirit and the Holy Spirit coming upon us, two distinct sides to the work of the Holy Spirit. When he came at Pentecost, of course, it was the first time he came to dwell with him, but it also came upon them, and the two things went hand in hand. But the Lord Jesus, to make this clear distinction for our sakes, said to them before the Holy Spirit was even given, receive ye the Holy Spirit. He wanted them to be quite clear that there was this twofold side to the work. The Holy Spirit. Then Ephesians 320, that little phrase, according to the power that worketh in us now, this is very wonderful unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. How few of us know anything of that?
[01:03:22] Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. What to have an experience of God like that according to the power that works within us, the appreciation of the power that's upon us and in us, that's going to help us to know something of exceeding abundantly above what we ask or think. And then I want you also to look at romans 15 and verse 13.
[01:03:49] Romans 1513.
[01:03:55] Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit. Now there again, there's joy and peace connected with the power of the Holy Spirit. Philippians chapter four, verse 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me or makes me powerful. Makes me powerful. And then again, Matthew 20 819 20. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. And lo, I am with you always. Now what do you think the Lord Jesus said there a little text to put up on walls.
[01:04:42] See it everywhere. Lo, I am with you alway. What do you think Lord Jesus meant? No, he said, look here, this is the service. This is your commission. This is your service. You are to be witnesses unto me. I am with you.
[01:04:56] The risen Christ, the authority of Christ, the enthroned Christ. I am with you now. This is the power of our service, and very few of us know anything about it.
[01:05:07] We are so quaking, we are so fearful, we are so retiring, we are so self conscious. And yet jesus go.
[01:05:14] And I am with you, Christ with us, not just behind us, helping us, but empowering us to go into the whole world with the gospel. Very few of us, no I understand, know anything about this side of the work of the Holy Spirit. Empowered.
[01:05:36] Now this is often called the baptism of the Spirit and because so many people talk about it in the eyes of many in erroneous way, the whole thing shall and forgotten. And yet, you know, we bypass a vital truth if we, if we just try to get around the question of the baptism of the Spirit. Yes, maybe you and I have the Holy Spirit. We have both his indwelling and his empowering the day we believe. But do we experience it?
[01:06:07] And if we don't experience it, what's the point of quibbling over words?
[01:06:12] We've got to get into it, we've got to find it, we've got to discover what it is. We've got to appropriate it.
[01:06:18] You see the whole point is you can have the Holy Spirit within and yet be so fearful and so powerless and so self conscious. You know you've got Christ with it. You've seen it by the eye. The eyes of your heart have been lying, you know, and yet still you tremble like a leaf. Look at these men in the upper room. They bolted all the doors and they were quivering in fear, 20 of them behind you. Fear of the Jews. It said. Even with the risen Christ they didn't unlock the doors. Have you noticed that when the risen Christ stood in their midst they were only more fearful. They all shrank away and so they thought they saw a spirit.
[01:06:57] Then he comforted them but they didn't unlock the doors until that day. The Holy Spirit came on. I don't think anyone said brother unlocked the door. Someone had already done it, possibly the Holy Spirit himself, I don't know. But the doors were open and out they went.
[01:07:13] And the whole of Jerusalem heard. And that fearful man Peter, who denied his lord with oaths and curses and had wept so bitterly afterwards, now he stands up and preaches this great message. It's not much of a sermon frankly. If you look at it as sermons are supposed to be preached, it's a very poor sermon. But my word, 3000 people get saved. That's the kind of message it is. The man's got the Holy Spirit and this is what you and I need. It doesn't say. It almost doesn't matter what the man says.
[01:07:48] However he uses scripture, the Holy Spirit uses it. People get saved left, right and center. And that's just really what we need now. This is what you and I need. Now, one other point about this. If anyone quibbles with me about this question of the empowering of the Holy Spirit, I want to point you to one other thing, which is, I believe, is most significant. The Lord Jesus Christ, who was without sin, was born of the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit was within him from the day he was born. Yet when the Lord Jesus entered upon his ministry at 30 years of age, the Holy Spirit came upon him.
[01:08:28] If the Lord Jesus had to know such an empowering of the Holy Spirit, how much more you and others, if one who is sinless, I knew all about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If he had to know the baptism of the Spirit, how much more should you and I know it?
[01:08:48] It's a very, very big point.
[01:08:51] You see, all these people say to me, I'm talking in February. Never hear you pray. I couldn't pray.
[01:09:01] I pray at home, but I couldn't possibly break the gathering. Oh, my dear brother, ideas is you need the Holy Spirit.
[01:09:10] It's as simple as that. You need the Holy Spirit. Get on the inside of you, empower you, really empower. You may know all about the indwelling of the holies, but you've got to know all about the empowering of the Holy Spirit so that you, no longer self conscious, you're carrying out of yourself into Christ. Now, of course there are dangers. Of course there are traps and there are snares, and that's why we need to know what it is to be crucified with Christ.
[01:09:38] Otherwise, there are such dangers. That's why we need to know deeply the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, for there are such dangers in the empowering of the Holy Spirit. It's not for nothing that they were called men who were drunk.
[01:09:56] This seems to carry people almost out of their depths, out of self consciousness to such an extent. They don't really hardly know what they're doing.
[01:10:05] Well, I'm not advocating that kind of thing, but I think it could do some of us a lot of good.
[01:10:14] I'm just saying that really and truthfully, we have all this in Christ, but have we got it experience? And it's no good just sitting forever in our seats saying, I've got it all praised the Lord. Christ is mine. He's done it all. When in fact, the Lord looks down from heaven and says, poor, poor, poor, so and so.
[01:10:36] Sing there. They got all. I've given them all because I've given it all to them. But they haven't got it. They haven't got it. They haven't stepped into it. What are they talking about? What are they saying about? They're not really in the good of it.
[01:10:52] God wants to see us in the good of it. So, very briefly, there are these three things to do with the empowering of the Holy Spirit. The first is service.
[01:11:02] Ye shall be witnesses unto me. Ye shall be witnesses when the Holy Spirit is come upon you. Ye when you receive powerful on high and the Holy Spirit has come upon you, shall be witnesses unto me. Isn't it interesting that the moment people receive this empowering of the Holy Spirit, they become witnesses.
[01:11:21] They become witnesses. You see, it's to do with witnesses. Witnessing and testimony and service. Now, if you look at one corinthians twelve and verse four to verse eleven, I'm not going to read it. I just leave it to you to look at. You will find that every one of the gifts in the church is connected with the Holy Spirit. Everyone.
[01:11:48] It's all by the Holy Spirit that you function. And if you don't know the empowering of the Holy Spirit, there's going to be a weakness of function. People are all going to be holding back. That's just what's happening in this company. There are gifts amongst us, gifts of ministry, many other kinds of gifts, and everyone holding back, they're not empowered.
[01:12:10] And one corinthians twelve, 411 tells us that the Holy Spirit is the key to this power to make us, those who conserve the Lord service. If you look at Exodus 35 30 31, you will find there was a man called Bezaleel. And Bezalel was the man who, who was going to do all the cunning work, as the authorized version puts it so sweetly, the cunning work. And it says, the Holy Spirit filled him and all his workers, and it was all to do with the house of God. Service they were filled. And in the Old Testament, again and again, when any man had a ministry or work to do, the Holy Spirit came upon him. Him. Now do distinguish between the Holy Spirit within and the Holy Spirit apart. That's all. That's all I'm asking you to do this evening. There is a distinction, and within that distinction lies something so vital to us all. Service. Acts two onwards. Just see the triumph now of service that they, they had their, they had their ananias and survivors.
[01:13:28] They had Peter making dreadful mistakes publicly and being rebuked. A little public row with Paul. I bet that caused a lot of gossip amongst them all as they all talk. The day they heard Paul tell off Peter publicly. Can you just hear them? Well, human nature is human nature. They had their church at Corinth with its wickedness and much else. They had their divisions at Philippi where the two ladies couldn't get on together. And many other things happening in various parts amongst God's people had all these problems. But the power of the Holy Spirit was so great that that church went right through in one generation till it had turned upside down the roman empire. And when in their thousands they went into the arena, the evil one could not destroy them. It had to be from within that the devil got the church down through Constantine from within. But when the Holy Spirit was empowering them, Christ was with them, and they could go to their martyrdom joyfully because he was with them.
[01:14:41] And then again, I believe it's the key to overcoming possession and victory. I leave that with you again in Joshua. When Joshua is at the beginning of possessing all that God has promised, he meets outside the walls of Jericho the captain of the Lord's host.
[01:14:58] And he has a dawn sword. And we believe that's the symbol of the Holy Spirit, isn't it? The Holy Spirit said, now look here, Joshua. I want to get this abundantly clear. Who is in charge, you or me?
[01:15:12] And Joshua bowed his head, took off his shoes and bowed his head and said, Lord.
[01:15:18] And they went forward and possessed. And it's a picture for you and me. The Holy Spirit's got to go with us. And before us in the possession of the land. Overcoming is linked with all this and so is victory. We cannot possess God's fullness and purpose without the spirits empowering. I wish I could say more about that. And a sorrow.
[01:15:40] Yes, look at acts chapter three and verse six. When Peter says to that man, the Peter just denied the Lord and run away from him. He says to the man with John, he says, silver and gold have I not, but such as I have, give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Get up and walk. There's authority. The man who gone into the depths of despair was now experiencing the authority of God's Christ. How? By the empowering of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost had changed that man, absolutely changed him. And so you can go on. Acts chapter four, verse 30 and 31. It says, the church prayed and they said, lord, you know what they're doing? They told Peter he's not to speak anymore. Now, Lord, stretch forth thine arm and let signs and ones be done in the name of thy holy child Jesus. And the place was shaken where they were, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. God said, all right, I'm with you. I'm with you. And they had another little Pentecost.
[01:16:50] That's all. Just another little taste of Pentecost. And on they went with Christ.
[01:16:58] And I could say so much why I'm going to leave it. There is the fourth thing in our salvation and for the want of it in our experience. I believe many of us are, as it were, very conscious of much that is lacking a powerlessness and a fearfulness. We need it. Well, now, what can we say to all that? We can only say we have got to experience more of Christ. There's always more of Christ for us. God has given us Christ. Not part of Christ, not most of Christ, but all of Christ. And we can know him in this fourfold way. Christ for us. Christ has us. Christ in us, Christ with us.
[01:17:49] He's there to be known, there to be experienced.
[01:17:56] If you want to know the fullness of God, then you've got to experience all four. And you've got to experience all four of these matters in an ever increasing way.
[01:18:08] You'll come back to them again and again. Don't think that you can have a blessed experience 25 years ago that will take you right the way through your life. It will not do anything of the kind. You'll have to go back again and again and again and learn more deeply and appropriate, more fully what God has done. But in the end, listen to this. Those of you who are going to serve the Lord in any way, in the end, it's not what you preach, and it's not what you teach that matters so much. It's what you're experiencing and what the world wants to, to see.
[01:18:49] And what young believers want to see are not people who can preach so much as people in whom they see something. Of what those people believe being worked out, they are experiencing it with all their failure and with all that they are, naturally, they are experiencing what they put.
[01:19:14] May God give us all a very, very high calling and well make us fear. But God has made all, given all the provisions, made the provision. It's our let's go in and possess what is ours in Christ. Let's get back to the Lord and say, Lord, whatever you know what your need is tonight, maybe it's for all four. I don't know. Certainly there may be one thing here that stands out in your heart and knows. That's what I need. That's what I need. Go back home and get on your knees and say, Lord, open the eyes of my heart to see this matter. Really help me to appropriate my faith, what is mine. Shall we pray?
[01:19:56] Lord Jesus, we do pray that thou hast not allowed this to be just a study. But we pray together, Lord, that by thy spirit thou wouldst help every one of us really to go back and be honest with thee.
[01:20:10] Lord, open the eyes of our hearts that we might really see these things.
[01:20:15] We ask thee, makers of people who really appropriate what thou hast given and provided in Christ, and we ask it together in thy name. Amen.
