View Full Transcript
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] The second of these special studies that are really enshrining a little bit of advice to those who would serve God. You will remember that as a result of the weekend two weeks ago, a number have offered themselves to the Lord and to his people to go anywhere that the Lord should direct them. And you will remember that last Thursday evening we spoke about two things only. The first was that God looks for certain characteristics in those who would serve him. And in a sense, of course, we're all serving the Lord, but there are those who are called to go forth and serve him in his work. We all serve him in our office, in our home, wherever God has placed us. But some are called to serve in a special way, and God looks for characteristics in them. And the first one that we dealt with last week was an utter devotion to Christ, leading to worship, service and testimony. And the second thing we spoke about last week was an implicit faith in God and in God's word. Now, if you have a pencil and a bit of paper, I suggest you put down the next characteristic that God looks for, and I shall give you a number of references in a moment.
[00:01:37] The third characteristic is a clear understanding of God's purpose and objective. A clear understanding of God's purpose and objective. Now, God has an eternal purpose.
[00:02:01] He has an objective of the ages. All down through the ages, before even time began, God had a purpose. He had an objective. And when time started and the fall came, that has not altered that purpose and objective of God. And this is very, very important for us to understand. Now let's look at a number of scriptures. First of all, two Timothy, chapter one, verse nine.
[00:02:45] Who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal. Let's underline this phrase.
[00:03:05] According to his own purpose, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal. Now, that's the phrase, his own purpose in Christ Jesus for four times eternal. Now, when you turn back to Romans, chapter eight, verse 28, we know that to them that love God, all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose.
[00:03:41] We are called according to his purpose.
[00:03:47] Now let's see if we can find anything else in scripture. Ephesians one.
[00:03:55] Ephesians one nine.
[00:04:02] I'm going to read this in the american revised standard version.
[00:04:07] I think it puts it very, very clearly indeed. Listen. Ephesians, chapter one, verse nine. For he that is God has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth, in him according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will. We who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory. Now here you have a fuller explanation of this phrase. His purpose. It is evidently, we are told, it is the mystery of God's will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ.
[00:05:18] And what is it as a plan for the fullness of time? To unite or head up or sum up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. Then we discover that we are in him. In him. Verse twelve. We who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory. Now, there you are. Let's put it in a nutshell. Now, let's look at Ephesians, chapter three.
[00:05:53] Ephesians, chapter three, verse nine.
[00:05:57] And to make all men see. I'm reading again from the american revised standard version. And to make all men see, what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in in God, who created all things, that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
[00:06:22] This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[00:06:32] According to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now note again the plan of the mystery, the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God according to this eternal purpose, realizing Christ. Now let's look on Romans, chapter 16, verse 25.
[00:06:59] Romans, 1625. Now unto him that is able to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept in silence through times eternal.
[00:07:20] Now I want you especially to underline the word mystery, the revelation of the mystery which has been kept in silence through times eternal. We have already read in Ephesians, chapter three and verse nine, to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God. Now here we have this phrase again in Romans 1625, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept in silence. Now turn on to Ephesians again.
[00:07:56] Ephesians three.
[00:07:59] These are all, as it were, interpretation of one another. These scriptures. Ephesians, three, verse three.
[00:08:10] How that by revelation was made known unto me, that this is Paul speaking unto me the mystery as I wrote it before, in few words, whereby when ye read ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men as it hath now been revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit, to it that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus Christ through the gospel.
[00:08:51] Now, just by scripture alone, you're coming to perhaps an understanding of this phrase, eternal purpose. It is the same as the mystery. And what is it that we might be? Fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise.
[00:09:07] That's tremendous. Now another scripture. Look on to Colossians, chapter one, verse 26.
[00:09:22] This mystery which has been hid for ages in God.
[00:09:28] Now here we are again. Even the mystery which hath been hid for ages and generations, but now hath it been manifested to his saints, just to the holy apostles and prophets. Now that's to all to his sense, to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, or in you all Christ in you, the hope of glory.
[00:10:03] Now, this word mystery, most interesting, because it really. It does not mean what we mean by mystery. When we talk of something being a mystery, we mean it's hidden, it's veiled. You just can't understand it's a mystery. I say, well, honestly, he's a mystery to me, and I mean by that, he's impenetrable.
[00:10:28] You just can't get to know him. He's. He's a mystery, or she's a mystery. Or we say that place is a mystery. And what do we mean by that? We mean it's completely veiled, really. It's impossible to discover what really is in it. It's a mystery. But the scriptural use of this word mystery is quite different. And it means literally what is known only to the Initiator. In other words, it is something which is a secret to all, from all others, but is revealed to certain people.
[00:11:11] In other words, to the initiated, they understand. But to the uninitiated, it is nonsense. It is veiled. It just doesn't make sense.
[00:11:24] Now, when you begin to understand that, you get to the root of this whole problem of the purpose of God. Why is it that so few people understand what God's purpose is? I'm going to just read a little bit from vines New Testament Dictionary of words because I believe it will help you. Now listen very carefully.
[00:11:45] In the New Testament, this word mystery denotes not the mysterious as with the english word. But that which, being outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension, can be made known only by divine revelation, and is made known in a manner and at a time appointed by God and to those only who are illumined by his spirit.
[00:12:20] In the ordinary sense, a mystery implies knowledge withheld. Its scriptural significance is truth revealed, truth revealed.
[00:12:35] Now just bear that all in mind, will you? God has an eternal purpose, it realized in Christ Jesus, and which is called the mystery hid from ages and for ages and generations.
[00:12:56] And what is it that we are? Fellow heirs or fellows in the inheritance, fellow heirs, fellow members of the body and fellow partakers in the promise which is in Christ.
[00:13:14] It is Christ in us.
[00:13:20] Christ in us.
[00:13:21] Now just a few more scriptures that may help us to understand the eternal purpose of God and his objective.
[00:13:30] One Peter, one Peter, chapter five, verse ten. Now here's a very interesting word indeed.
[00:13:45] The God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ.
[00:13:57] The God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ. Now just turn back, will you? To Ephesians, back to Ephesians, a phrase we've already read, and it's a commentary on this.
[00:14:21] Ephesians 112. To the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory.
[00:14:32] Now, you see, we have been called unto his eternal glory in Christ.
[00:14:39] And Ephesians, this is Peter speaking, the apostle Peter. Now Paul says to the end that we might be unto the praise of his glory. Now will you turn to a revelation?
[00:14:50] Revelation, chapter 21.
[00:14:56] Revelation, chapter 21, verse ten.
[00:15:03] Last part, verse, showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.
[00:15:14] Now, end of verse nine says, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the lamb, the holy city, Jerusalem, having the glory of God. Now connect up these phrases. The God of all grace has called us unto his eternal glory in Christ.
[00:15:33] What is the point, the objective of God's purpose to the end that we might be unto the praise of his glory. Now, what does this mean? Does it just mean that we should all sort of have a bit of glory to revel in? No, it's clear here. We're told the last time this word glory is used in this connection is in revelation 21 and 22. And it's all connected with the city, the city of God, the bride of Christ, the wife of the lamb, having the glory of God. She's the vessel of God's glory. God's glory has filled.
[00:16:12] Now, one last scripture in this connection, back to the second letter of Paul, to Thessalonians two, Thessalonians, chapter one, verse ten.
[00:16:33] When Christ shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at in all them that believe. Well, that's going to be a wonderful day, when Christ comes to be glorified in all his saints. Now, isn't that wonderful? Glorified in his saints and marvelled at in all them that believes. Now, if you put these scriptures together, you will come to a conclusion. If you study them, you go away, go home and look through them in your quiet time. Seeing you tomorrow or through the next week, I believe God will show you something that is absolutely vital, and it is all in connection with God's eternal purpose. It's vitally important that we should know clearly what that supreme purpose of God is. Now, I wonder, if I were to ask you, do you know what God's eternal purpose is? How you would answer if I were to say to you, look, take a brief piece of paper, a piece of note paper, a short, I don't want a huge, full scatter, just a small piece of paper. And will you write down in a sentence or two, what is God's eternal purpose and his objective? Now, could you do it?
[00:18:12] Could you really do it? I would be most interested.
[00:18:17] I must say that this is the thing that appalls me, the ignorance that there is over the eternal purpose of God.
[00:18:24] People say they know what it is, or they say the eternal public. Wonderful, wonderful. But when it comes to put it into black and white, they can't do it.
[00:18:33] Some of them have got to almost write a book, which when they've written, is almost unintelligible.
[00:18:39] What really is the eternal public you ought to be given. You ought to be able to give a reason for the hope that is within you. You ought to be able to put down in a few brief words exactly what God did to us. Purpose is and what his objective is. And if you are amongst those whom God is putting his hand on, and you're going to go out, as it were, into his service and work, well, I cannot stress enough how utterly and vitally important it is that you should know and not know in a way that you can waffle on for hours about it, but that you can put in a few confounded, precise words. Exactly what is the heart of this matter, Michael, if we are not absolutely clear, there is a very real possibility of not only being lost in detail and in much activity, but of being sidetracked altogether. If a man doesn't know what the objective is in his work, he can easily get sidetracked, can't it?
[00:19:51] If I ask a man to come here, I say, I want you. I've given him a whole lot of bricks, and I say, I carry on. I want something built.
[00:20:02] And I say to him, now, I've got a plan and a purpose, but he never bothers about it. And he starts out there in the garden building.
[00:20:10] It's quite clear that he's easily going to get lost in an awful lot of activity. He might build a beautiful great wall with the bricks, which I don't want.
[00:20:19] He might spend all his energy making a very beautiful little sort of fireplace in one corner, which is no need at all. It's going to be a chicken house.
[00:20:29] That's the purpose of it. I might not even want it now, don't get your ideas. It's not. I'm only giving a little space. I can have chickens, but you know what I mean. See, if you've got a purpose, if you've got an objective, the man's got to know what the material's for, and he's got to conserve his energy so that his energy is, as it were, channeled into exactly what is going to produce the best result. If he doesn't know what the design is, if he doesn't know what the purpose is, if he doesn't know what the objective is, then there's every possibility he's going to make a lot of unnecessary mistakes. A lot of energy is going to be mistaken, and a lot of valuable material as well is going to be put in the wrong place. Now, my dear friends, that's a perfect description of christendom today, for there's a tremendous amount of misspent energy, valuable material, misappointed, as it were, misplaced.
[00:21:32] Why? Because there is this terrible ignorance, this terrible ignorance as to the purpose of God and as to his objective.
[00:21:44] Of course, you can get sidetracked altogether.
[00:21:50] The man might build me a summer house when I want a chicken run, he's got sidetracked altogether. And there may be many features about a summer house which are very beautiful, which he's done very beautifully, but which of no earthly use to my chickens at all. In fact, they might be positively harmful. So you see, this is all very important to get it absolutely clear. What is God's purpose? I cannot understand why in every other, every other aspect of life, every single sphere in life, men and women are expected to know what they're about.
[00:22:32] They are expected to be able to say quite clearly, generally speaking, if they've got positions of responsibility, exactly what the purpose of their being there is. What is the objective of their work?
[00:22:47] Don't think much of having a manager, do you, in a firm or a factory who can't put into a few words exactly what the objective of the factory is.
[00:22:57] It's an amazing thing that in every sphere of life, you're expected to know what the objective and the purpose is, except in the christian realm.
[00:23:07] And there, evidently, you can do anything.
[00:23:12] You rarely ask, what is this? The best answers I've had to date, the most general sort of answers I've ever had to this question, have been things like this. Well, we are saved to serve.
[00:23:28] That's true.
[00:23:30] It's far too broad in one sense.
[00:23:33] And often when you inquire into exactly what that means, it means very little.
[00:23:39] And then again, you have another question. Someone goes and, you know, really feels they've scored. They say, oh, well, it's not only safe to serve that's important. But beyond that, it's the glory of God.
[00:23:54] Glory of God. But if you ask them, what is the glory of God? What does the glory of God mean?
[00:24:01] They can't tell you.
[00:24:03] So it is in many ways a type phrase just simply lifted out of scripture.
[00:24:12] Now, this is all very important, and I'm putting it forcefully because I believe it needs to be put very, very forcefully indeed.
[00:24:21] For instance, take a building site up in London, a big building site. Say there are 500 men working on that building site.
[00:24:30] Now, of course, not all those 500 laborers, those 500 workers on the building site. Will know precisely and in detail the plan and design of the building. It stands to a very good chance that quite a number of them don't know exactly what is happening. They are told to mix cement, and they're mixing cement. They're told to bring it from there and put it there, and they do that. But every single person on that building site with real responsibility knows the plan and is working according to plan. And is responsible to see that everyone else under them is working according to plan, even if they don't know it.
[00:25:18] The man's told to mix up the cement and bring it here. He might not know quite honestly, what it is doing, except that it's something to do with the foundations or possibly to do with the brickwork. He doesn't know much more. Depends possibly on his intelligence and the interest he has. But the person who's directing him and supervising him does know, and this is very, very important when it comes to God's work. For you see, in a sense, service is like scaffolding around the house of God. It's all the workers and the scaffolding and all the instruments being used to build the house. And everyone who's responsible has got to be a builder. And those builders have all got to know, especially the master builders. Paul said, I'm a master builder, he called himself. They've all got to know what is the plan, what is the design? And then everything can be coordinated and it all flows together because they have an understanding.
[00:26:28] Then again, I wonder whether we sufficiently realize that we have all been placed on a wharf.
[00:26:37] I sometimes. I know, of course, there is a side of the christian life, and it should be so, a triumphant, joyful and restful side. But, you know, let us make no mistake about it. The whole church has been placed on a war footing at Pentecost, and it's been on a war footing ever since. And that's really an explanation for the battle that rages backwards and forwards over. Over the true church. It's on a war footing as far as heaven is concerned. Well, look again at Ephesians. In this letter of ephesians, you have a tremendous exposition of God's eternal purpose. And how does Paul end up? Well, verse ten.
[00:27:25] Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against, against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against hosts of wicked spirits in the heavenly places. Now, that is war.
[00:27:49] War. And here, as it were, you have the whole setting ranks of a satanic army that are geared up to war.
[00:28:01] And when we least expect it, they can trip us up. And if the evil one can lull us into thinking that we are in peacetime, when we're in fact in wartime, he has won a great victory, for he can take us unawares we are on a war footing, and that war will not end until Christ returns. Only when the Lord Jesus returns from heaven will that war be finally ended, thank God, but not till then.
[00:28:37] And this battle of the ages focuses upon God's purpose.
[00:28:44] It cannot be sufficiently clearly understood that this whole battle focuses on God's purpose. The salvation of God, of course, is something that the evil one seeks to undermine and blind people, too. But it's really the purpose of God that is the focal point. It is because God said, I will that the devil said, no, I will.
[00:29:13] And we have a great clash of will over the purpose of God. And we human beings are in the maelstrom of a huge conflict that we rarely understand, that one day will be finally and forever settled. But only then shall we understand exactly how far and how deep it went.
[00:29:41] Satan has a vested interest in keeping us blind to God's purpose.
[00:29:47] If he can't stop a man or a woman being saved, then he will stop them from coming to any understanding of God's purpose. It's obvious.
[00:29:58] For in war it is essential that we should all be clear as to the supreme objective.
[00:30:06] Do you remember in the war, some of you anyway, will remember, there was a gentleman called William Joyce that we all nicknamed Lord Haw Haw because he used to whore so much on the thing, you know, and he always used a Germany calling. He was a traitor. And his whole objective was somehow or other to sow ideas into our minds, to make us fear the might that was against us, to tell us that really there was little on our side and that once the might of the Nazis came, well, England would crumple like a pack of cards. And he called upon us all to support Germany and to support Hitler because of what was coming. But of course we all enjoyed it. We all used to listen to haw haw even as a little boy. Remember haw haw, because we all laughed so much about the things that Lord Haw haw said. But you know, there are a lot of spiritual lord haw haw.
[00:31:21] And you know, many christians are tuned in to these spiritual lord whore. Whores. And all the time they're just saying to us, you know, you're going to go down like a pack of cards when the enemy comes. You won't stand. You don't honestly think that the Lord's returning to you? You don't believe all that rubbish, fanatical, that's unbalanced? No, no intelligent person believes that type of rubbish. And then about a hell, there's no such thing as hell. You don't have to bother about the man in your office, the people that live next door to you. Course not. That's all middle aged nonsense, Lord Haw haws. And what we do is we all listen to them and somehow or other we start to believe the rubbish that's put out by satanic propaganda and after a while we get lulled into sleep. Well, of course, if the Lord's not really going to come, if it's really not so near, well, then what does it really matter? And if this and that and we're finished, if that, the spiritual Lord whore, whores can get our minds off the eternal purpose of God and his objective. If by a lot of ideas, some mixed half truths and much else, they can just somehow or other get our spiritual minds cluttered up so that we haven't room to receive this revelation of God's eternal purpose.
[00:32:54] He'll do it. He'll do it.
[00:32:56] Now, it's very, very important in war to have a clear understanding of the objective. We want to understand what this war's about. We want to realize that there can be no trap at all with Satan or with any evil, however small, no truck at all, no compromise. And we've also got to understand, we've got to see something of God subjective, see not only what Satan's out to get, but we've got to see what God's out to get.
[00:33:28] And that'll give us heart in the metal. It's even more important in a day of breakdown and confusion such as ours.
[00:33:37] We should also note the apostle Paul's concern that all should fully know and understand this. Now, just a few examples. Ephesians, chapter one.
[00:33:52] Listen. Verse 17. Isn't the apostle Paul's concern that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge? And this word is an interesting word. There are two words used for knowledge in the new testament, and this is a fuller knowledge than the other, a fuller knowledge that he may give you unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye might know. And if you go on right down to verse 19, you'll find the things that Paul wants us to know.
[00:34:38] And there are a few christians that know them because the eyes of their heart have not been enlightened.
[00:34:44] And then again you turn over and you come to Philippians chapter one and verse nine. And here we have Paul again praying. It's very interesting to watch the prayer life of the apostle Paul. And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge. And the word again is full knowledge, in full knowledge and all discernment.
[00:35:10] Now then, turn on and come to Colossians chapter one, verse nine. Listen, he's praying again for this cause. We also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray and make requests for you, that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the full knowledge of God?
[00:35:41] The apostle of Paul is very concerned turn over to chapter two, verse one. Now listen to what Paul has to say, for I would have you know how greatly I strive for you and for them that lay odyssey. And for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, now mark the words, I strive for you that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all which is of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ.
[00:36:17] This was the burden of Paul's prayer. And I have no doubt in my own mind as to why it was the burden. It was the burden of the Holy Spirit.
[00:36:27] Later on, Paul was to see that this beloved church that he had been used so much in bringing into being, was to slide away.
[00:36:37] And what was the beginning of its departure? Blindness.
[00:36:44] Blindness.
[00:36:46] People knew that they were saved, and they still believed in their salvation. They still proclaimed the salvation of God right through to the fourth century.
[00:36:55] But they lost any real understanding of the eternal purpose of God and his objective. And so they were lost in a labyrinth of ways of methods and organizational activity, which has been the bugbear of the church from that day to this. The whole thing started there. And Paul, you can see his whole prayer was, oh, Lord, that they could be preserved from this. How can they be preserved by the eyes of their hearts, being enlightened, having full knowledge? Now, you whom God has been putting his hand upon, well, you need to understand these things. You really do. And it's not just that here we make a lot of it and we stress it a lot. You ought to go back to the Lord, and you ought to get on your knees, and you should say to the Lord, Lord, I will not rest until I begin to understand what your purpose is and what your objective is. Make me a person mastered by thy purpose.
[00:38:01] Now we have to ask ourselves very simply, what is that purpose?
[00:38:05] We've said a lot about the need of knowing it. What is it? I'm not going to say too much about it this evening. I'm going to leave you to find out yourself. But I'm going to give you three very clear clues.
[00:38:16] Ephesians five.
[00:38:20] It's all in ephesians. Ephesians 525. Now listen carefully. Last part of the verse. Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it, that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. That's the core of the matter. If you go away and pray about that, God will give you a lot of understanding as to what this objective is. Now turn back to ephesians two, verse 19.
[00:39:08] By the way, we could just describe that verses, those verses we've just read. Is a bride for Christ. A bride for Christ or God. Now chapter two, verse 19. So then ye are no more strangers than sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom each several building fitly framed together, groweth into an holy temple in the law, in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the spirit. Now we can describe that. A home for God, a bride for Christ, a home for God. It's the same thing in another way. And now turn back to chapter one, verse 22.
[00:40:07] And he that is God put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him to be headed over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. I think we could describe that as a body for Christ.
[00:40:27] Now in those three phrases you will discover the heart of God's eternal purpose, the heart of it, a bride, a home body.
[00:40:43] Now one other thing I think we ought to say about this. I think we should note that everything and everyone has as its objective this matter.
[00:40:57] Now look at ephesians again. We've taken those three things from ephesians, chapter four, verse eleven. Now this is very interesting if you understand it.
[00:41:10] And God gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints and to the work of ministering and the building up of the body of Christ.
[00:41:28] Now isn't that interesting? If God has made, if God makes you an evangelist, evangelist, what is the objective of your evangelism?
[00:41:40] The building up of the body of Christ, your supply material.
[00:41:45] If God makes you a teacher, what is the objective of your teaching? The building up of body of Christ. If God makes you a prophet or an apostle, what is the objective of your ministry? The building up of the body of Christ. If he makes your pastor the building up of the body? Question it doesn't matter who you are. You may be a great apostle, you may be a humble pastor, but in fact, whoever you are, whatever you are, you have the same objective.
[00:42:13] Now I also would like you to turn that to one corinthians, one corinthians 1412.
[00:42:27] So also, ye since ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may abound unto the edifying or building up of the church. Same thing again. Doesn't matter what spiritual gift you've got, tongue or prophecy or interpretation or exposition, whatever the gift is, it is to the building up of the church. Verse 26.
[00:42:52] What is it then, brethren, when ye come together, each one hath a psalm, the teaching of the revelation, the tongue hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto building up such a simple little law, and it is the key to everything.
[00:43:06] Now, I don't think we can sufficiently stress all these things. I would like to say that it's not enough to get people saved.
[00:43:16] We must know to what they have been saved and the clearest, straightest ways to secure God's objective. It is even more important if we are called to be fellow workers with God. You look up one corinthians 3910 and you'll find Paul says, we are God's fellow workers, ye are God's husbandry, God's building. I says, paul as a master builder laid the foundation. Now if you're a master builder, if you're a fellow worker with God, in this whole matter of God's husbandry, God's tillage or God's building, it is important for you to know what the plan is. You must know what your building. And then the second thing is to see that you're putting good material in. That's an important thing. We won't talk about that this evening. That comes in another sphere. But it is important to know that you're putting in good stuff that comes out of spiritual character. You may have Christ in giving Christ, but the first thing is to see the plan and the design. Now I'm going to read to you a little portion from a book, and I suggest that all of you who are thinking about God's service get this book. It's not very well known. Secret of his purpose by John Kennedy.
[00:44:38] It's very, very good indeed. The only book I know that's written other than brotherly's books that comes anywhere near real understanding of God's. Very good. Now I'm going to read to you just a little portion.
[00:44:50] In the light of the prevalent confusion of understanding on the nature of the church, a word must be, must here be said on this subject.
[00:45:00] Christianity today is a vast conglomeration of so called churches, some of which are large federations of local groups, diverse in many respects. It contains much that is good and much also that is evil. Those who are truly the people of God and those who are not, rival creeds and rival practices. What relation has all this to what the scriptures call the church?
[00:45:24] The fact of historical and organized Christianity, in its obvious difference from the simplicity and spiritual vitality of the churches of the New Testament, has given rise to the widely held distinction between the church visible and the church invisible. The church visible, we are told, is all that appears in the world as Christianity, with its mixture of good and bad, righteousness and corruption, truth and error, children of God and children of the world. On the other hand, the church invisible, we are told, is the sum total of God's children, those regenerated by the working of the spirit, whatever their connections in the church visible may be this distinction, which has no foundation in scripture whatsoever. Amen, I said, that has effectively relegated the church to a place of powerlessness in the minds of many of God's people. The church visible is a testimony to man's fallen nature rather than to the glory of God. And the church invisible is a mere theory whose consummation awaits eternity. But the church in the mind of God transcends the ages. It is a great and powerful fact, not only of eternity but also of time. It is no mere theory. It is a visible reality, and can be known now as surely as it will be in an eternity to come. Our Lord, in that striking series of parables recorded in Matthew 13, likens the church to a pearl. A pearl increases in size with the passage of time, but at whatever stage of its development it may be found, it is no less a pearl, a thing of glory and beauty. So is the church. It is true that there are many to be added to it, but wherever and whenever it is found, it is complete and an expression of the glory of God. The layers of naked which compose a pearl must be together, crushed to a powder, and scattered to the four winds. Their beauty is gone. So it is with the church. The only expression of the church on earth recognized by the scriptures is the coming together of the people of God. The local church, a visible company of people, through whose actual and practical relationship with the Lord and with one another the glory of God can be expressed. It is with this local church that the epistle to the Ephesians deals. Force of this truth will become more clear in subsequent chapters, but what has been said will suffice to emphasize that any mention of the church or assembly in succeeding pages should be taken to me, not some theoretical company of the elect, but an actual and visible company of the people of God. Now I read that because, although we do believe in the church of God, which comprises all the saints, of all time, of all ages, in the glory and on earth. Yet we have got to understand that the eternal purpose of God is tied to actual conditions and people down here.
[00:48:25] And it is just here that many of us come unstuck. For if you're going to serve the Lord, this is the thing that's going to have so much to do. You're going to have so much to do with.
[00:48:38] You've got to realize that the church, the eternal purpose of God, the objective of God is to get that eternal purpose secured down here in people who are redeemed of God and brought together and built together so that the material is produced in them for the eternal. I can only stress all this and leave it with you, but you've got to go away to the Lord and you've got to ask him about these things because they're very, very important indeed. This whole question of the eternal purpose of God in the end comes down to place. It comes down to geographical locality, it comes down to where God calls you and appoints you, where he places you and there. It's no good being mixed up in all these other things. You really got to give yourself to God's purpose in our day and generation. Now I would like just to say that there is a tremendous need of the right kind of missionary today. A tremendous need. I don't suppose there's ever been such need for the right kind of missionary as there is today.
[00:49:53] You see, the days of pioneer work have largely gone. There is, of course, still place for some pioneer work in different parts of the world, but they have largely gone in many, many parts of the world. Now there is to some degree an indigenous church, and we, as I think most of you know, it is now some hundred and 50 years since this great era of missionary activity began. For in one generation the gospel has been carried over the whole globe.
[00:50:30] Do you know that 200 years ago, except for a few scattered outposts of this world, the gospel was an unknown factor.
[00:50:38] Today it is being carried to nearly every single part of the world. It's going out of the television, it's going out of a radio, it's going through literature, work. Everywhere. The gospel is being carried forth, proclaim, and this is the time for missions. That is one side we have got to underline, the fact that thousands, yes, thousands have gone out and laid down their lives and they will undoubtedly receive their reward.
[00:51:10] There are some mission stations where it was said in the early days that there were more graves within a few years in the little mission cemetery than there were missionaries in the station.
[00:51:23] People died one after another after another, to be replaced and died. You've only got to read the story of Hudson, Taylor and others to realize the sorrow and the suffering and the sacrifice. My dear friends, you and I, we are just luxury loving christians. We are truly Laodicea when it comes to it. Can't be bothered to get out for a prayer meeting. We prefer our soft chair. We don't like to go out into the streets to meet people. The cost of it is all is to it. Yet the triumph of missionary endeavor has been this, that men and women left everything to live almost near Mother Earth. Cultured people, intelligent people, many of them people with good background. Some of them found it cost them all to leave and go. This is the triumph of missions. But on the other side, we must also record the failure of missions.
[00:52:22] And this is the sad side of the picture. For today we have reproduced all over the world the mistakes, the mistakes and the mistake of the homeland.
[00:52:38] Not only this country, but the scandinavian lands and Germany, all those that are called the homelands, the mother countries of the mission. We have reproduced our own kind.
[00:52:53] And the result is that we divided up God's children abroad into Baptists and Anglicans and Lutherans and Presbyterians and brethren and Pentecostals. And I don't know. What do you know? When I phoned up the World Evangelical alliance and asked them how many denominations there were in the world, the lady said, phew, I couldn't possibly tell you. Wait, I'll go and get the book. She got the book and she said, oh, she said, there are about 36 pages of them here. I can't possibly count them for you. That was an index of them. This is the failure of missions. We have split up God's people.
[00:53:27] I can't say too much about the failure of it. Even where there has been non denominational work, we have organized the Christians. We have foisted upon them our own organized type of Christianity wholly unnatural to them, and then wondered why on earth they can't grow with it, and how in many ways they're cramped and restricted and limited by it. This is the failure of missions. And now what has happened? Well, you see, God's holy spirit is sovereign. Whatever else happens, he's absolutely sovereign. And he has raised up men in spite of it all. And of course, unfortunately, there's been a collision with the missions. And now all over the world we have this unfortunate position that we have great indigenous works of God's holy spirit in China, spread over the whole mainland of China, wherever there are chinese speaking people overseas, we have what is called little schwark. In India we have the great assembly, all the assemblies that are gathered around those staunch men of God headed by Bakhtzim and elsewhere. It's happening in other parts, in the Congo. We've had Brother David, Pastor David with us. It's happening there. They've had to leave a mission, and it's happening everywhere. They're all coming into collision with something that they themselves know to be foreign and alien, not only to them, but to God's word.
[00:54:58] And now, for the first time in the home countries, we are sitting and listening to those who got something to teach us.
[00:55:11] Brother knees book, I was told by a man who ought to know, is almost the best seller and has in America in spiritual books, and has in fact displaced Henry Drummond's classic, his great love is displaced.
[00:55:31] God has so raised up these men of different lands that in spite of the fact that many missions did not like to be on an equality with them, God has done exactly the opposite and made them superior to us, so that now we are the ones who have to sit and listen.
[00:55:51] And now what happens all over the world, in the western world, people are reading Brother Ni's book concerning our missions, the normal christian church life.
[00:56:02] For we who have sent missionaries to China now have to learn what the church really is, because these people have been raised up by God's holy spirit and the new day has dawned in the world.
[00:56:17] Now you can see the need for the right kind of missionary. What is needed today are men and women who see what God's purpose is, who've really seen what the objective of God is and can give themselves unreservedly to it, who can work as equals with the nationals of other countries, no, more than that, they can put themselves at the disposal of the nationals. And I hate the word of other countries, but I'm using it to make for purpose of distinction.
[00:56:55] That's what we want, not people who go out and think that we are whites and we've got something we can teach the blacks and the yellows and all the rest of it.
[00:57:05] That day's gone.
[00:57:07] If you want to work in that sphere, then do. God is still blessing it. Multitudes are still coming to Christ through it. But I want to say this. If you want to be where the candlestick is and the candlestick of God has been somewhere in every generation, then you've got to see what this eternal purpose of God is. And you've got to give yourself unreservedly to God for that.
[00:57:32] When we're in the glory, what a joy it will be to find those who in every generation were with what God was doing, always been despised, always been thought to be a bit queer and peculiar. I mean, the Puritans were in their day, they're respectable now. But in their day, everyone had something evil to say about the Puritans. A lot of people still do. The Quakers, in their day, were despised by everyone.
[00:57:57] Some of the Wesleyans, so were the brethren. Even Spurgeon said some very unkind things about the brethren and the Pentecostals.
[00:58:10] We live near enough to them to still hear a lot of very evil things said about Pentecostals. There's always ground for a certain amount of the criticism, but the whole point is, when you and I are in the glory, we shall find the most amazing harmony and cohesion and unity between all those who have been with what God was doing in their particular generation always.
[00:58:32] And so, dear brothers and sisters, and especially those of you who have been called to serve the Lord, don't, whatever you do, stick to what belongs to another generation.
[00:58:46] This is a truly natural quality in us all. We're all conservative at heart, and we like to hold to something established a hundred years ago.
[00:58:57] God is called I am, that I am, and he wants to express himself to every generation in an absolutely contemporary way.
[00:59:14] What have we got today? Well, I mean, you've got the whole thing. You've got. You've got some people trying to speak the language of the reformation, and they still wear the sort of uniform of those days, contemporary language in that day, and contemporary uniform or dress. But now it's out of date. How can you reach today with that kind of dress and that kind of language? And you can come all the way down and you find that people are still holding to the principles, not the principles, but to the sort of regulations and the rules that belong to another day. Oh, to. God doesn't want that. He wants a body.
[00:59:53] Now, the wonderful thing about my body is this, that some decades ago it was absolutely new, and tonight it is absolutely new. I feel a little bit about now, the passage of time, just a little. But it's new because my body is organic. It's geared to 1964, not 1936.
[01:00:27] I'm not giving anything away.
[01:00:30] It's not. It's geared. It's geared, you see, through 1964. Now listen, now listen carefully. If I had a car of 19, as I believe some here have, if I had a car of 1934. Would it be geared to 1964?
[01:00:51] No, you can't do anything about it. It's a car built for 1934. It was brand new then and it was. It was a marvelous model then, the absolutely contemporary. Now it is 30 years out of date.
[01:01:08] 30 years out of date. Now my body is not 30 years years out of date, thanks God. It's absolutely contemporary because it's a living thing. Now you see, God's church is supposed to be just like that. It's supposed to be just like that, that principle of its being in its constitution, that it should be absolutely contemporary at any given time to the world of its death. But you see, because we don't understand God's purpose, because we don't understand the nature of what we're in all the time, we're crystallizing it, we're cramping it, we're restricting it so that God cannot move. And so you have these great successive movements of God's holy spirit when he does add to something absolutely fresh in that day.
[01:01:55] Now I only want to say to you that there is a very, very great need, therefore for men and women who've seen something or what God wants. There is still a place for pioneers, there is still place for that if God so called you. But the greatest need today is for men whom God has done something in and who have seen so clearly that they can go out to help and go out to lead, to steer, to share.
[01:02:34] This is the great need, and it's this that you and others ought to ask God about.
[01:02:43] You can't get this, and I say it advisedly, you can't get this in any Bible college.
[01:02:51] Important sometimes, as Bible college training is, you can't get it in any, any course of lectures only. Can you get this by revelation, by the eyes of your heart being enlightened by the holy spirit of God and you not only seeing it, but you being brought into it.
[01:03:18] Now you'll never get it unless you start to.
[01:03:23] For those that seek God, they shall find him not only in a first way, primary way, in the initial way, but in every other way. At whatever stage you are, you'll never come into anything more of the Lord unless you seek him. God never hands round blessings in a cheap way.
[01:03:42] He watches and he waits and he prepares us and he gives us grace to serve, seek him, until finally he answers us and invites us. But this is the need of our day. Let me close by saying this.
[01:04:00] I don't suppose that this evening there have ever, in the whole history of the world been more missionaries than there are on this planet tonight.
[01:04:14] And I don't suppose there have ever been more missionary societies or missionary works of one kind or another, radio, film work, literature work as well as evangelistic work, medical work and much else. Never.
[01:04:38] And yet, you know, I think you all are aware we are losing ground everywhere over the whole world, we are losing ground.
[01:04:51] In the first century, it all began with 120 in an upper room.
[01:04:58] They've never been to a Bible college.
[01:05:01] In one sense, they'd have very little real training. The only training they had was by being with the master for three years.
[01:05:11] And even then, they hopelessly misunderstood him.
[01:05:16] Yet when the Holy Spirit of God came that day, that hundred and 20 went out, and in one generation, they had evangelized the whole of the roman empire. And we believe that they had probably even got the gospel to Britain. And it is certain they'd taken the gospel to India.
[01:05:43] Within a century, the gospel had got to China with the Nestorians.
[01:05:49] They did something that we've not been able to do.
[01:05:54] And let me put it this way, it wasn't that they made the mistake we made at the beginning, for everywhere over the whole inhabited world, the church came into being.
[01:06:10] It took time for the evil one to counteract it, to overcome it, to divide it, and finally to submerge it. But, you know, there was a secret, and I believe the secret was they knew the cross, they knew the spirit, and they knew the purpose of God.
[01:06:36] They. It was within them. And they went out, and I think of men like timothy and so on. Where did he learn these things? Well, Paul used to take him around with him, and that was really how he learned it. He was like an apprentice, for want of a better word. And he watched Paul and he did all lots of odd jobs. But gradually he learned not only by instruction, by listening, but by observation.
[01:07:11] Now, I think you and I have got to understand today that we need to be brought into a new place altogether with the Lord. And we want to see something happen in our day and generation as great as anything that's happened before, if not greater. It's not that we want some place. We want it for the glory of the lamb. This old world can't go on for much longer like this. We want to bring back the Lord, and the only way the Lord can be brought back is by this last. If it is the last step, let's put it this way, the next step being taken, it may be the last step. There is a further step, La Tourette, in his history of the expansion of Christianity has pointed out that there is a very apparent ebb and flow in church history. There is a movement of the spirit that takes something up and something is recovered that had been lost after Pentecost. And then there is the end.
[01:08:16] And then there's another move of the spirit, and it takes it up, and something else is recovered. And then there is the end. So we got the Puritans, the Quakers, the Wesleyan, the brethren, the Pentecostals. Each. Each flow takes us farther up the shore.
[01:08:43] And he points out that in the end, it is probable that there will be one last great flow of the spirit of God, which will carry us right up the shore.
[01:08:58] And at that point, the lamb will come, carry us right into the kingdom.
[01:09:06] Now, I don't know where we are. I wouldn't like to say we're that last one. I have my own strong feelings about it.
[01:09:15] But I will say this to be absolutely safe, that there is another step needed, and it is that for which we pray and that which we do believe. We see the first sign in this country and elsewhere of something beginning to happen. We bleed. The tide is turning. Something is happening. Men and women in different denominations are being quickened. Strange things are on the move which betokens something supernatural, something out of our kevin, beyond us that God is doing what we want to be in. Now, listen. When that flow comes, there is always the possibility of you being carried with the flow without understanding what is happening. We need men, women, who know.
[01:10:07] And when the flow comes, when the move comes, they know what it's about. It's not. They're mastering it. It's mastering them. But they have discernment, they have wisdom. They can distinguish, and in a right way, they can channel the load.
[01:10:27] Oh, may God help us so to understand. It is a fact in church history that within one generation of every move of the Holy Spirit, the rot hath set it.
[01:10:42] May God help us then in our day may help you. Those of you who. Who are seeking the Lord in this way, to be prepared of him, go home now. And in this coming week, seek the Lord earnestly, that he may enlighten the eyes of your heart that you might know.