From Romans 8:28:
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to His purpose.
For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained, or predestined, to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
And whom He foreordained, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.
From Ephesians 3:8-12:
Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
And to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery, which for ages hath been hid in God who created all things;
To the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God,
According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
In whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in Him.
From Isaiah 46:9-10:
Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none else: I am God, and there is none like Me;
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.
From Job 42:1-2:
Then Job answered the Lord, and said,
I know that Thou canst do all things,
And that no purpose of Thine can be thwarted.
Beloved Lord, we thank You that we have been here together in Your presence. We have sensed Your being with us. We thank You, Lord, for the life You have given us and the way You have led us in our praise, worship, and fellowship.
And now, Lord, as we come to the ministry of Your Word, we know very well that we need You. We need You very greatly. We pray that You will deliver us from routine. Grant, O Lord, that we may really know Your divine enabling, both for the speaking and for our hearing.
We thank You, Lord, that You make, for times such as this, a specific provision of grace and power through the finished work of our Lord Jesus; and You make it a living reality to us in the Person of the Holy Spirit.
Now, Lord, we want by faith to stand in that anointing for my speaking and our hearing, that this may be a time in which we meet with You, which is filled with life, with living power, with Your working in our hearts. Grant, O Lord, that illumination may come to the eyes of our hearts.
And somehow, Lord, things we may know in our heads may suddenly be revealed to us in our hearts. Make it life-changing, O Lord, we pray. And we shall give You all the praise and all the glory, in the name of our Messiah, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
It is these two little passages—one in the New Testament and one in the Old Testament—that have gripped me and somehow sum up the burden that is in my heart to share with you on this occasion.
The little phrase in Romans 8:28 is a very well-known one: “called according to His purpose.” Called according to His purpose. The other little phrase is in Job 42:2: “No purpose of Thine can be thwarted.”
Here are two wonderful little passages. They pretty well sum up the burden that is in my heart. Only the Lord can help me to discharge it.
I mentioned last night, in introducing this subject, that we are called according to purpose. Our salvation is not the purpose; our salvation is the introduction into the purpose of God. God has a goal. God has an aim. God has an end to which He is moving, and our salvation is the introduction into that glorious purpose of His.
It is more than that. It is not just an introduction. Within that salvation, everything we need to come to the end of the Lord—to reach the goal of the Lord and to see His purpose fulfilled—is given to us in that so-great salvation.
Nevertheless, most Christians see something to do with salvation. They see something of the need to be born again, to be saved by the grace of God. Some go a little beyond that and see the need to serve the Lord faithfully and devotedly. But there are so few Christians who see what the end of the Lord is.
In spite of this Book, which from Genesis to Revelation reveals God’s eternal purpose and reveals His goal, so few of us really see it. Then we have yet another problem: some of us see it in the head, but not in the heart.
Over years we have taken in all the theology and all the doctrine, but somehow it has never been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Because of that, it is merely a theory. It is almost a fairy tale, if you know what I mean. It is something that we all believe, but it has no actual impact upon our lives.
Only when the Lord reveals this to us do we become involved. Do we become committed, as it were, to it?
This purpose of God is centred in the Lord Jesus. That wonderful little phrase in Ephesians 3 says, “According to His eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So we know that this whole purpose of God is centred in the Lord Jesus. It is focused upon the Lord Jesus.
We cannot be involved in that purpose except as we are in Christ, except through Christ. You understand, that is a tremendous further matter that has to be revealed to us.
There is an alternative rendering of that phrase, and this is also wonderful: “According to His eternal purpose which He secured in the Lord Jesus,” or, “realised in the Lord Jesus.” In other words, this purpose of God has been secured in the Lord Jesus.
He is the beginning of God’s new creation, the beginning of the new man, as it were. He is the One in whom the purpose of God is secured.
Now, I spoke about this last night, so I am not going over it again. I am only introducing what we want to say this morning.
God intends to fulfil that purpose also in you and in me. It is not simply that He has a purpose for the whole universe and for creation, secured in the Lord Jesus. Having saved us, He wants to involve you and me in that eternal purpose.
As it is said of the Lord Jesus, “He shall bring many sons unto glory” with Himself; and as it says in Romans 8:29, “that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” That sums up the whole thing: God wants to involve you and me in this eternal purpose.
It is a great comfort to me to know that no purpose of God can be frustrated. He can do anything. Nothing is impossible with the Lord. Nothing is too difficult for the Lord—even you. Nothing is too difficult for the Lord.
No purpose of God can be frustrated or thwarted. There are times when you and I have to stand with the Lord against ourselves. We have to say with our lips what is true: that God is going to do this thing in spite of our circumstances, in spite of our failings, and in spite of our weaknesses.
It is not presumption to take this position before the Lord and literally express that we believe God is going to do it. As that wonderful hymn of Wesley says, faith cries, “It shall be done.”
There are three things. If God is going to fulfil this purpose which He has secured in the Lord Jesus—in you and in me personally, in our homes, in our business or work life, in the church, and in the work of God—then first we must give the Lord Jesus the place the Father has given Him.
If we devalue the Lord Jesus, if we belittle the Lord Jesus, if in any way we give Him less of a place than the Father has given Him, we are out of the purpose of God. We have nullified the purpose of God in our life. We have paralysed the work of God in our lives.
It is the simplest way to live a routine, artificial Christian life. It becomes a religious exercise. It is merely religion, like Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, or Shintoism. It is just a matter of going to meetings, believing certain sets of Scriptures, saying certain things, and doing certain things; but we are not involved in the fulfilment of the purpose of God.
Every departure in the history of the church has begun with taking away the place the Father has given to the Lord Jesus. In practical terms, it is a dethronement of the Lord Jesus—whether in the church, in the home, or in personal life.
But the other side is just as true. If you want to remain within the purpose of God, in spite of your weaknesses, failings, circumstances, obstacles, and difficulties, then give to the Lord Jesus the place the Father has given Him, and God will fulfil His purpose in your life. He intends to do it.
The whole predestinating power and grace of God, like a mighty Amazon River, is behind your coming to His end.
The second thing is this: if you and I want to know the purpose of God fulfilled in whatever realm we look—personal life, home life, business life, church life, or the service and work of God—we must give the Holy Spirit His sovereignty.
If we belittle the Holy Spirit, ignore the Holy Spirit, quench the Holy Spirit, or grieve the Holy Spirit, we put ourselves out of the purpose of God. We can know it all up here, but it remains up here. There is no practical outworking of the matter.
The Person of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit are the key to being kept within the purpose of God.
The third thing is that we must recognise the unique authority of God’s Word. God’s Word, from Genesis to Revelation, is the revelation of the heart and mind of God.
It is not a question of our opinions. It is not a question of our circumstances. Those are not the things which determine how we act or what we do. The question is: What has God said in His Word?
All departure begins with contradicting the authority of God’s Word. If we want, on the other hand, to be kept within the will of God, then we have to recognise the authority of God’s Word.
I am tempted to give you some illustrations. You know, in the early church there was a plurality in leadership. There was no such thing as a bishop or an archbishop in the later, singular sense. I do not want to hit any particular person; I am simply saying that there is no such thing in the Word.
There were bishops, and every church had bishops. In other words, each church in a given place had a plurality in leadership: elders, not an elder. There was no such thing as the one-man ministry—the pastor who is the beginning and end of the whole life of the church and who does everything.
There were not seminaries teaching pastors how to keep the attention of their congregation. The church becomes a backdrop to the ministry of the pastor; it becomes a platform for the ministry.
But as the life of God ebbed from the early church and men’s opinions became stronger and stronger, the church became lost and paralysed. Then the church did not know what to do, and they decided that they had to have one man above all the others, and his word was lord.
Almost imperceptibly, the whole method of government that has come down to us through the years developed. It was in the second and third centuries of church history.
If only the church had got on its knees and said, “Lord, we are in a problem. Life has ebbed from us. We are grieving the Holy Spirit. We are not moving in the way that we should,” then the Lord could have quickened and awakened them. There could have been a new coming back to the beginning.
But instead they tried to put something in place. I am sure they found things in the Scriptures. They probably patterned it on Moses, David, the king, or the high priest—something absolutely Scriptural. Then they said, “Oh, this is it. This is the way forward.”
They saddled the church with something that has killed the church down through the years and become an instrument of persecution against believers.
It is very interesting that in every great move of the Holy Spirit through church history there has been a return to plurality. The early Baptists had a plurality of leaders. The early Mennonites and Anabaptists had a plurality. The Bogomils, the Paulicians, the Albigensians, and many others had it. The Quakers had it. Even the early Methodists had it.
It is very interesting when you look into the whole thing. Very quickly, as life ebbed, departures developed.
The same is true with baptism. I think you all know that baptism in Scripture is baptism by immersion. It is the baptism of believers. Baptism, we are told in Scripture, is a sign of faith, as circumcision was the sign of faith.
Now, you do not circumcise a child before it is born. Just imagine! You cannot circumcise a child before it is born. Eight days after the child is born, he is circumcised, and that circumcision is a sign that he has been born into the covenant people of God.
In the same way, you have to be born again, and then you are baptised. That baptism is a testimony that you have been born of God, delivered from the powers of darkness, and transferred into the kingdom of His Son.
We now know that Jewish baptism was very common. Nearly every home of the middle or upper classes had baptistries down in the basement, and people would baptise themselves, if necessary, once a day. In Hebrews, it is called “ablutions,” but it was baptism.
Jewish baptism was by immersion. You get all these pictures of John baptising Jesus by pouring a little jug of water. Oh, my goodness! Why did He go down into the River Jordan when He could have stood on the bank and had John come up to Him? But He went right down into the water. Obviously, baptism has always been by immersion.
One little thing was said concerning baptism: it was always to be in clean, running water. Secondly, if there was not enough water, then a bucket or jug of water could be poured over the person.
Then, as the gospel went northward to Arctic climates and cold countries such as the poor little British Isles, people began to say, “This person is ill. If we baptise this person in cold water, it is too much.” They did not have a means of heating the water in those days.
So they said, “Well, of course, it is allowed for us to pour water on this poor person.” Before long, people said, “Do we have to be baptised in this freezing water?” Then everybody began to have a little bit sprinkled on them. Before long it was just a little glass of water put on the brow, and baptism became what we know today.
The Orthodox Church still baptises infants three times by immersion. That is why I know the baptism of Orthodox children is ever in silence.
Do you see how departure comes? It always comes through the ebbing of spiritual life, and we fall away.
The early church had an enormous problem of drunkenness at the Lord’s Table. Obviously, it was not grape juice. Some people, when they got the cup, took too much and staggered back to their pew.
The priesthood and clergy then said, “What are we to do?” So they got their heads together and said, “We will withdraw the cup from the laity. They can have the bread because you cannot get drunk on bread, but we will not give them the cup. Only the priests will drink the cup in front of the people.”
It was a clever way of getting round a problem of poverty of character and lack of devotion. This is the way all departure begins: through fear. The Scripture says, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
Once we operate on the basis of fear or on the basis of this world’s wisdom, we have started the departure.
If you and I want to stay within the purpose of God, if we want to know that no purpose of God can be frustrated, that He is going to fulfil it and that we are going to be in it, then we have to give to the Word of God its unique authority.
Everything within that Book is there for a purpose, and everything in it is a revelation of the heart and mind of God. It is not our opinion, our fears, the wisdom of this world, or even common sense—which has led the people of God astray more than almost anything else. It is: What does the Lord say? And if the Lord says something, you can trust Him.
I want now to speak about the purpose of God for His church. I realise that you are a well-taught company, but I will treat you like Sunday-school children—not even Sunday-school children. I will teach you like people who have just found the Lord.
So, if we go over some things you know very well, may the Lord bring them home to you in a new way.
What is God’s purpose for a church? It is not merely that we should have meetings, come together to sing hymns or songs, have the Lord’s Table, or practise baptism. It is not merely that we should have a routine or an organisation.
Much of this is, of course, right and necessary. But that is not the purpose of God for the church. It is not that the church should be built as an institution, organised in some way that enables it to perpetuate itself whether the Lord is in it or not.
We are very clever. We can perpetuate an organisation whether the Lord is in it or not. Once it is a piece of machinery, it will go on whether the Lord is there or not. That is not what we want.
Of course the church has organisation. Of course there is a routine. I remember once, in a place in Britain, they became terribly spiritual—terribly spiritual, in quotation marks.
They said, “Is it right that we should come together at one time for Bible study, another time for a prayer meeting, and another time for something else? Shouldn’t we just come together and wait upon the Lord, and whatever He shows us, we will do?”
So they threw out the Bible study and the prayer meeting. They began to meet and just sit waiting. At the beginning it was marvellous, but before long it was a tragedy. People came in tired, having not asked the Lord about the meeting, and sat there. It took at least twenty minutes before they got going.
Every meeting became a trial. There was no real Bible study and no real prayer, because every meeting was unclear. Then they got even more spiritual and said, “Is it right that we should give a time?”
They said, “If people are spiritual, they will know in their hearts what time to come.” Of course, most people knew the meeting had been at seven-thirty in the evening, so they still arrived then.
Then they got even more spiritual, believe it or not. They said, “We will not tell where we are meeting.” This was the end of that fellowship.
I shall never forget all the young people travelling up from a town in the south of England to see me and saying, “Brother, we are so unspiritual.” I said, “You are also unspiritual. We are all unspiritual in one sense. What do you mean?”
They said, “We have been turning up at the wrong place at the wrong time. We are so fed up.” You see, that is not what I mean when I say the church has no routine. Of course it has a routine. The church has specific aims in certain meetings. This is not wrong, but it is not essentially the purpose of God for the church.
The purpose of God for the church is not that we should merely be recipients of church truth, so that we can talk about the church, study the pattern of the church, and understand the functions of the church.
It is very interesting that the supreme illustration in the New Testament concerning the church is head and body. Is that not interesting? Because if you part the head from the body, both die.
When we speak of the Lord Jesus as Head and the church as His body, we are talking about something that belongs together and can only live as it is together.
What is the purpose of God for the church? The purpose of God for the church is that it should be a bride. Actually, there are two things that the Lord has as His goal for His church: first, that she should be a bride; second, that she should become a government.
Why did God create the universe? Why did He create this planet? Why did He create mankind? When mankind fell, when Adam and Eve fell, He did not simply obliterate them and start over again until He got a couple who did His will—which, I would have thought, would have been the best way to do it!
He could have wiped out Adam and Eve and said, “We will start again.” Then, when they fell, He could have wiped them out and started again. He might have done that ten times, but on the eleventh attempt perhaps they would have succeeded. No, no.
The Lord persevered with Adam and Eve because He wanted a people who would be at His Son’s side because they desired to be there and were prepared to pay a price to be there.
He realised that the only way was to persevere with fallen mankind and save them by His grace. He would never pressure them into that place. He would never be satisfied with people beside His Son merely because there was no alternative.
The alternative is hell, so they say, “Oh, if that is the alternative, I would rather be with the Lord.” There is a place for such in the kingdom of God, but not in the bride of the Lord Jesus.
God wants something intimate—something we can only describe as union and communion, something we can only describe as a living relationship. That is the bride.
But He also wants people who can govern. Is it not interesting that the very first thing the Lord ever said to Adam and Eve was not only to multiply, but also to subdue and rule? Later, in the garden, He said, “You are to keep it, guard it, supervise it.” You have the whole heart of the matter there.
When you come through the Bible to the end, you find two things: the bride and the throne.
You have it marvellously summed up in Ephesians 5:27:
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.
Then again, in John 3:29:
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is made full.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
John the Baptist understood the calling and mission of the Lord Jesus. He understood that the end of it all was a bride for the Bridegroom, and he was the best man. He was the one standing in the background, making the arrangements and preparations.
It is even more amazing when you look at the Bible. In the first two chapters and the last two chapters of the Bible—in the first two chapters of Genesis and the last two chapters of Revelation—you have the beginning and the end of the matter absolutely joined together.
In the first two chapters you have a wedding, a marriage between two human beings, Adam and Eve. This wedding is for time. It is until death parts them.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Then, in Ephesians 5, the apostle Paul quotes this very passage and says, “This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.” It is as though the very form of marriage was instituted with a far greater significance than merely earthly marriage.
When we come to the end of the Bible, we have another wedding and another marriage. This time it is between the Lamb and the wife of the Lamb. This is not for time; it is for eternity.
We hear those wonderful words: the former things have passed away—mourning, death, crying, and all those things. “Behold, I make all things new.”
A wedding introduces fallen human history and introduces time; but another wedding introduces eternity. Another wedding is, as it were, on the threshold of the ages of the ages.
The Lamb and the wife of the Lamb go out into eternity, and we do not know what they are going to do. We have no idea. People ask questions: “Will we eat there?”—those who are interested in that. “What will we wear?”—those who are very self-conscious. “Will we recognise each other?”—those with particularly close friends or relatives.
People sometimes ask, “What are we going to do? I mean, forever and ever and ever? We do not need to sleep. What are we going to do? What are we going to sing forever and ever?” Oh, dear, dear, dear! We have reached the limits of human language.
No wonder it says that no one knows what God has stored up for those who believe. Only we know this: God has a tremendous purpose, arrested by the fall of man, and He has never yet fulfilled that purpose.
This universe is just a little shadow of what God intended it to be. Somehow, once He has got His bride—brought not only the bride to the Bridegroom, but also a people who reign with Christ and share the government with Him—then the former things are over and done with, and all things become new.
Is that not wonderful? It excites me, at any rate. I think to myself: if this world is so beautiful, and if this universe is filled with such intricate and complex mysteries of divine power and divine grace, what in the world will it be when all sin and corruption have gone, when death is no more, and God can say, “Now then, let us get on with the job”?
We do not even know what the job is. It is almost as if the Lord says, “The thing you need to concern yourself with is being the bride. Once you know your Bridegroom, once you know all that He is, you can trust Him. Then you can go out into eternity together.”
I was sitting on the deck of a friend’s home in the mountains, not so very far from here. They have forty-seven different varieties of birds that come to their feeders.
There were three little bluebirds sitting literally from here to there, chirping at me. I did not understand what they were saying, but they were trying to say something to me. Their parents—one was on the roof and one was in the tree. There were cardinals galore, wonderful goldfinches, bright canary yellow, and little tiny red birds.
I looked all around and thought, “Isn’t this beautiful?” Then into my heart came the Word: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” And I said, “Oh, Lord, what do You mean, ‘Love not the world’? It is so beautiful. I am not sure I want to go!”
Somehow we think that we would rather have what we know than what we do not know. But if there is beauty in this fallen creation, can you imagine what lies ahead for the people of God?
Can you imagine the tears that there will be when we discover that we have been so stupid, that we never trusted the Lord to deal with us, that we would not have His purpose because we thought it was all pie in the sky?
Dear friends, this world cannot go on for very much longer. We human beings have polluted the earth, the air, and the sea. We are in the process of destroying this magnificent universe that God created.
The things in the Book of Revelation must shortly begin to come to pass: things dying, a third of the living creatures in the sea dying, and the things that we see. It surely has to come.
When they speak about comets striking Jupiter and ask what would happen if one struck the earth, I reckon that is what will make men’s hearts quake for fear, as it says in Luke 21. They will look at the heavens; the powers of heaven will be shaken, and they will wonder what is going to happen.
My dear friend, if you put your whole trust down here, in common sense, in this world, and in the wisdom of this world, you are going to panic when those things begin to come to pass, because your treasure is not in the right place.
There is nothing wrong in having pleasures down here, but it is where our heart is that matters.
When we take the beginning of the Bible and the end of the Bible, we have the most amazing correspondence. Between the first two chapters and the last two chapters are the fall of man and the whole sinful experience we have down here; the coming of the Lord Jesus, His ministry, His finished work on the cross, His resurrection on the third day, His ascension to the right hand of God, and His coming again.
Somehow, you and I have one short life—an average of seventy years, some a little longer. In that short span of life, God has to change us into the likeness of His Son, produce eternal character in us, educate us, discipline us, and bring us to an understanding of His heart and mind. And we are so difficult.
Life goes so fast. When you are young, it does not. When you are older, it does. When I was a little boy, I used to wait for the next birthday. I would always ask my mother, “When is my birthday?” She would say, “Dear, you have just had one.”
A week later, I would ask again, “When is my birthday?” She would say, “You have just had it.” To me it seemed to take an eternity. I used to think, “When is my birthday coming?” My mother would say, “It will come quickly enough.” But it never did.
It was forever and ever. Week after week, month after month, a long summer that seemed to have no end, a long autumn—or fall, as you say—that seemed to have no end, and then a long winter. Then suddenly, my birthday came.
There was all the excitement of the birthday, and then I waited for the next one. The whole wearisome process began again: a long spring, little flowers coming up out of the earth and shining like stars, flowering trees, and all the adults in the family excited by it. But I was waiting for my birthday.
Now, my dear friend, life goes just like that. I think, “Where has this last year gone? I was only sitting in the conference in Richmond last year, and now I am here again.” Before a few days have gone, it will be finished. Then people will say, “Hasn’t it gone quickly?”
Year after year fleets by, and we do not settle the issues or allow God to do the work because we have never really seen, with the eyes of our heart, the purpose of God.
In the middle of the Bible, almost at its heart, is a little book called the Song of Songs. It is the whole thing all over again. It is the story of a bride; it is the story of the education of a bride from being self-centred to being absolutely selfless.
Even there, in that little Song of Songs, you have the same idea of government. Suddenly she becomes so unselfish and so concerned that she turns to the Bridegroom and says, “What shall we do for my little sister?”
The enormous need is growth to maturity. It affects everything.
In Ephesians 4:12-13, we have it:
For the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ:
Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
That is a bit of a mouthful, is it not? But you get one thing surely: fullness, full growth, full knowledge, maturity, the fullness of stature.
The Lord cannot have babies as His bride. He cannot have babies reigning with Him in His home. They have to grow up.
Our greatest problem in the church today is that we are surrounded by babies. It would be wonderful if they were all recently born of God, but many of them have been thirty years in Christ, forty years in Christ, fifty years in Christ, even sixty years in Christ, and still they are babies.
They cannot wage the warfare of the service. They cannot fight the good fight of faith. They do not know how to run. They have to be spoon-fed. They do not know the Word of God. They have no understanding of the purpose of God. It is our greatest problem in the household of faith.
This coming to maturity is not merely an individual matter. It is something corporate. It is a question of fellowship, sharing, and maintaining the unity of the Spirit.
Have you ever considered our Lord’s words to the seven churches? In every message He gave to those seven churches, it ended with the same refrain:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh—
In the church, we have to hear what the Spirit is saying, and we have to overcome. Sometimes there is such a lot that is wrong in the church—so much superficiality, shallowness, faction, division, and empty noise—that somehow we cannot hear what the Spirit is saying.
We have to have an ear attuned to the Spirit of God, for in the church of God the Spirit of God speaks.
Overcoming is very interesting. You overcome within the context of the church. These seven churches, with all their problems, were real churches. They were not theoretical churches, institutional churches, or traditional churches. They were real churches: believers in a given place gathering together.
The Lord, in these messages, never tells them to leave. He says they have to stay and overcome in relation to their brothers and sisters and in their relationship to failure and sin in the church.
There was a Jezebel in one church teaching deep things, yet the Lord did not say, “Come out.” They had to learn to overcome with Jezebel there at that point.
I am not saying that later on the Lord cannot say, “Come out.” What I am saying is that while the lampstand is there, while the testimony of Jesus is still there, while the Lord has not removed the lampstand out of its place, we have to stay.
We have to overcome in our relationship to one another and in the way we face what is wrong, the weaknesses, and the failures.
God’s purpose is that we should be the bride of Christ and His government with Him in the ages to come. Is that not worth suffering for? Is it not worth laying down one’s life for?
No wonder the apostle, who perhaps more than anyone else saw this matter clearly, says:
Our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen:
For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
God has a determination over this thing. His purpose for the church is not going to be frustrated. He intends to fulfil it. I pray that I may be in it.
Dear child of God, God is going to fulfil this purpose for His church whether you are in it or not. He intends to do it.
I am not talking about what happens after death. I am talking about your life now. What the Lord may do afterwards is another matter. Some people have revelation on that; so far, I have not.
But all I know is this: in this one life that is given to us now, if you and I want to be in that bride of Christ, we have to give ourselves to the Lord, for He intends to fulfil it.
Once we lay down our lives and say, “Lord, I want to go the whole way with You,” then we side with the Lord against all the failure, sin, weakness, and breakdown, and say, “Lord, it is going to be done. Faith cries, ‘It shall be done.’”
The Lord says that He declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done. Is it not wonderful that in Revelation 19, in the worst part of all the persecution, when Antichrist seems to be in charge and everything seems so dark, we suddenly hear a great hallelujah chorus?
Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth.
Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto Him:
For the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.
Of course, we know that it is the Lord who has made the bride ready. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that has produced the bride, perfected the bride, dressed the bride, and lovingly prepared her for the Bridegroom.
But it says, “His wife hath made herself ready.” It is as if the Lord is saying, “Do not worry. There are going to be those who follow Me—faithful, called, and chosen—right through to the very end. They are the winners. They are the overcomers. By My grace and through My power, I am going to fulfil My purpose.”
I want to be in that number. As the apostle Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.”
Does the Lord give you any picture, however young you are or however old you are? Does some shaft of light shine into your heart? Does He give you an answer?
What is the purpose of God for church life down here? First of all, it is that it should be a place for spiritual sacrifice.
The church should be a place for spiritual sacrifice. What does the apostle Peter say in 1 Peter 2:4-5?
Unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious,
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood,
To offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
We often stop at “a spiritual house.” We say that we must be a spiritual house, built together. But wait: we are built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
What is the purpose of God in church life? I tell you: it is that you lay down your life as a sacrifice. That is the burnt offering—everything going up in smoke.
Sometimes we speak of consecration as if we are going to put everything on the altar: all our talents, gifts, and personality. We put it all on the altar, and everyone says, “So-and-so has committed himself at last. He has committed himself to the building of the house of God. Look, he put it on the altar.”
But what is the motive? The motive is that I take it off the altar so that I get something too. “I am now a priest. I am now something, you see. I have offered myself.”
But you know, the burnt offering went up in smoke. Oh, dear!
There is no place like church life for people being burnt to ashes. Truly, I am not joking. There is no place on the whole earth like church life.
If you really commit yourself to church life, sooner or later you are going to see yourself and your brothers and sisters. There is no way around it. You are going to have a collision. You are going to find yourselves incompatible. You are going to find a thousand excuses why it is the will of God to go somewhere else.
Spiritual sacrifice. Spiritual sacrifice.
That is not so easy in church life. You suddenly find yourself in charge of the youth work with someone you cannot get on with. You find that you have a class of children and are working with someone who sees things quite differently.
Sometimes we find it difficult even to sit in the same meeting with certain people. We sit over here and they sit over there. Or, as soon as we see where they are sitting, we go as far away as possible. We are all right as long as we do not have to have too close a fellowship with the incompatible person.
Spiritual sacrifice.
The apostle Paul says in Romans 12:1:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
That is the second thing about sacrifice. This house of God which is built is to be a place for spiritual sacrifice and for worship. This is ministering to the Lord. This is where we minister to the Lord.
This is the place where we give the Lord something. It is not what we get; it is what we give the Lord. That is the beauty of the Lord’s Table. We do not come to the Lord’s Table to get something. We come to the Lord’s Table to give something to our Lord.
For one time in the whole life of the church, we do not ask. We do not pray. We just praise the Lord. We give Him something. We worship Him.
There is nothing like real worship. But real worship is more than praise. You can praise the Lord and not be a living sacrifice. Especially when the Lord has done something in your life, it is easy to praise the Lord.
But worship is when you are a living sacrifice. That is your spiritually intelligent worship. Do you get it?
There is a third thing about spiritual sacrifice: you are a holy priesthood. Therefore church life becomes a place where we stand as intercessors. We pray for one another. We bear one another up.
The problems in our homes, the problems with our children, the problems in our places of work, the problems in our town or city, and the problems in our nation—we bring these things to God. We are intercessors.
That is why the prayer meeting is often the most poorly attended meeting of the church. It is a place of sacrifice.
How are you going to learn to govern with Him if you are not a living sacrifice? How are you going to learn to govern with Him if you have never learned what worship really is? How are you going to reign with Him if you do not know how to read His mind with other believers, discern His will, and pray that will of God into being?
The second thing is that we should learn to maintain the unity. This is in Ephesians 4:2-3:
With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
You cannot keep something you have not got. If you are going to keep a dog, you have to have the dog. Then you can keep the dog and give diligence to keep the dog. Do you understand?
This is not a unity that we arrive at, attain, or fight for. This is a unity into which we are born. Now we are told to maintain it. You maintain something that you have; you have to have it in order to maintain it.
What is this unity? It is Christ. We are in Christ, and Christ is in us. Now we maintain this unity. We are very different. You may be Jewish, another may be Gentile, and there may be an Arab brother among us. Yet we are all in the Lord Jesus, and because we are in Him we have to maintain the unity.
It is very hard to do at times. We see things very differently, but the fact remains that we are in Christ. Now we begin to maintain the unity.
With all lowliness of mind—that is the problem. Lowliness of mind. Oh, that is the problem: my mind, my mind, my mind.
We begin to think, “Do you think I am going to maintain unity with Brother So-and-so? That blathering old windbag?” Or, “I am not going to be one with Sister So-and-so. I have never seen anything so superficial, sentimental, carnal.” Yet we are called to lowliness of mind.
Then there is meekness. Meekness is the ability to be taught. It says Moses was the meekest man in all the world, but Moses was a great military leader. How was he so meek? Because Moses was teachable. He was learning, and learning, and learning, and learning.
Meekness is the ability to be taught. Do you know that you can learn from the most impossible things? You can learn from the most dreadful circumstances. You can allow the Lord to use those things to teach you.
Then, listen to this: longsuffering. Most people can suffer for a moment. They can suffer for even a week. But after that, they have had enough.
I am not just talking about marriage; I am talking about one another. “I am finished. So-and-so thinks I am going to be a doormat.” Now, what are we talking about? Maintaining unity.
We are talking about discipline. Everyone says they want to be a disciple, and some people set up a whole system of discipleship. It does not work. It is like a police state.
When we have church life, we have the whole sphere of discipleship. Here in the church you have discipline. You cannot simply run away.
You cannot come home and say, “It is the will of God. The Lord has shown me that I should go to the fellowship down the road.” Such people normally go to the fellowship down the road, stay there for a while, and then discover that the will of God is for them to move on again.
Basically, they are escaping discipline. I have always felt sad that the Scripture speaks of “silly women, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” but I think it is true of men too.
They go from house fellowship to house fellowship, creeping around from one place to another, never coming into truth. Why? Because they are escaping discipline. They dress it up in wonderful spiritual words: “The Spirit said this. The Spirit said that. The Lord is leading me here. The Lord is leading me there.” But the real thing is that they are escaping discipline.
The church has no fire escape. You are caught within it. You have to stay together. Oh, dear! Now we have a problem.
It is so nice when we first come into a fellowship like this. We look at all the lovely faces and think, “Aren’t they beautiful? Look at those faces, shining with the Lord, so full of the Spirit.”
But after we have been there a couple of years, suddenly we discover what is behind those shining faces. Then we are tempted to think, “If only I could get out of here and get away from this place, I would grow. I would blossom.”
You would not. You would jump out of the frying pan into the fire. You have here a place of discipline and a place of overcoming.
The purpose of God in the church is fellowship. What is fellowship? We have it in 1 Corinthians 1:9:
God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
I am sorry that one or two modern versions paraphrase it, “You have been called to fellowship with Jesus Christ, God’s Son.” That is not what it says. It says that you are called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ.
The Greek word really means having in common, a sharing. Put it another way: you have been called into the sharing of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. God is faithful, it says. Is that not wonderful?
Why does it say God is faithful? Because when you come into this fellowship, there is no escape. Now you discover that you are sharing.
We are all different. We have different temperaments, personalities, backgrounds, races, nationalities, and ways of looking at things. There are as many opinions as there are believers, and some of those opinions are held very powerfully.
Now we have to stay together and somehow come to maturity together. Do you understand? It is not so easy.
I learn a lot from you, and you learn a lot from me. The only way you and I can get through is for me to see the Lord Jesus in you, and for you to see the Lord Jesus in me. Now that is hard when He does not show through, and sometimes when I do not either.
The apostle Paul says, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” Do you know to what church he said it? Please listen carefully. He said it to a church divided into four sections.
There was the Apollos section, the Paul section, the Cephas section, and the Christ section—all within the one church, all saying they were the church and that they had the truth.
Then there was a young man living with his father’s wife. There were Christians taking one another to court in that one fellowship, that one church in Corinth. Can you imagine it?
You might say, “This is terrible. We cannot stay here. We have to start a new thing altogether. It is one thing to have division over theological matters, but this?” Then there were people drunk at the Lord’s Table. Drunk! Blotto—absolutely out like a light, flat on the floor.
You say, “I am leaving. I will never come again. This is one more reason why we should have grape juice.” But just wait. It is even worse.
There was gluttony. Some people brought a great quantity of food to the love feast, put it on the table, opened their lunch, and gorged themselves. You can just imagine it—huge stomachs pressed against the table. At the Lord’s Table!
Then there was the beginning of a feminist movement. Some of the sisters threw off the veil and said, “We are the same as men,” which, of course, is not quite right. They are not the same as men, but they are equal.
There was a whole movement within the church: “We are going to have women in everything. Why not? Women are equal. We have souls as valuable as anybody else.” This was a church.
Actually, the Lord called this more of a church than many things called churches in the United States. This was a real church.
Listen to what the apostle Paul says to them. It is amazing:
I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus;
That in everything ye were enriched in Him, in all utterance and all knowledge;
Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye be unreproveable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Do you understand now what I have said to you about siding with God? If I had been Paul, I would probably have said, “I am finished with that church. I will never go there. I am never going to minister there. I am not having my name associated with it.”
But Paul said, “Lord, You have a purpose for church life. You will fulfil it, even in this mess in the church at Corinth. I side with You. Faith cries, ‘It shall be done.’”
Once you begin to see it, it becomes so wonderful.
There is one other purpose of God for church life: witness and testimony.
In Zechariah 4, God showed Zechariah a lampstand. The amazing thing is that the lampstand was a symbol of a building programme—a spiritual building programme.
When we come to Revelation 1, we find the same thing again. At the end of the old covenant is the lampstand; at the end of the new covenant is the lampstand.
In Revelation 1, this lampstand represents seven churches. There were two olive trees on either side of the lampstand, and their branches came into it. They emptied gold—it says gold in Hebrew, not oil—and the gold went along pipes into the lamps and became fuel for light.
Dear brothers and sisters, we have to understand again and again why the church is called a lampstand. It has lamps; in the lamps is fuel; and the fuel produces light. Witness and testimony are the purpose.
What is the whole point of a lampstand? It is to give light. It is not an ornament. Today people have candlesticks in their homes that are basically ornaments. Now and again, in a thunderstorm, they light one when the electricity goes out.
But in the old days there was no electricity. Everybody had to have lampstands. They might be beautiful, old antiques, made of wonderful material, even of pure gold and beaten work—but that was not the point. The point was that they bore light. They gave light.
The purpose of God for church life is that we should be the light of the world. Jesus said in John 8:12:
I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Then in Matthew 5:14-16:
Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house.
Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
What a tragedy when church life is merely a question of church truth, ritual, routine, or the gathering of people. There is no light.
Your life is meant to be light, so that the light of Jesus shines out.
We talked yesterday about personal life, home life, and business life. Now, the church—you are the church. This building is not the church. The church is not a thing. The church is you.
You are in Christ, and Christ is in the church. You cannot de-church yourself. When you go out of that door, you do not suddenly de-church yourself and say, “Now I am no longer the church. I am going home, and next week I will be back in church.”
No, you are always church. You are always a member of the body of Christ.
The church’s life is in many ways related to its many members. If they are not growing and functioning, then heaviness, sluggishness, and darkness come into the whole life of the church.
The church is not one member, but many. All the members, being many, are one body. Therefore, we have to grow in the Lord, go on with the Lord, and progress with the Lord.
Every time you overcome, every time you win a battle, every time you move on with the Lord, every time you obey Him, something more is given into the life of the church. There is a function. You become a joint of supply.
Your home is part of the ministry of the church. Think of every time you win a battle in that home. Every time something happens in that house, something is added into the church.
When you are at work, you have not ceased to be the church. You have not de-churched yourself. You are the church at work. You are still a member of the body of Christ in that place of work. Think of it. Is that not amazing?
Therefore, we should not cast away our confidence, which has great recompense of reward; neither should we forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
The church on earth is a very messy thing. If it is not messy, it is not the church. The church is a very, very messy business.
All kinds of scum are boiled to the surface. All kinds of problems suddenly come out into the life. All kinds of incompatibilities, lack of faith, and fears surface in the church.
Whenever you find something elite, superior, or perfect, you have not found the church.
Lastly, let me say something about the purpose of God for the work. What is God’s purpose for us as workers?
It is not that we should be self-fulfilled, have self-glory, or advance ourselves. Oh, this rise of the self! You see it in the whole American scene.
The American scene is a success story, and at the root of American life is the principle of success. Those who succeed are considered winners and are greatly respected. That is marvellous.
You do not succeed because you have certain blood, pedigree, or class, but because you have ability. That is absolutely wonderful. But the success syndrome has bitten so deeply into the myth that nearly every brother wants to be a minister of the Word, to have a large ministry, because that is success.
Now the sisters, with the whole new movement, say, “We have women generals, women admirals, women in everything.” The whole idea is that all women are going to get to the top, and now their war goes in too.
In Christian work, we have empires built by men to display men. They are marvellous and some of them are worldwide, but it is all man’s work.
We have the making of a name. There are some works I visit where the brother’s name is on every single thing. It is even on the hymn sheet. It is everywhere. It is like a name brand.
What is the purpose of God for the work? It is for the perfecting of the saints, enabling the people of God to come to full growth, full knowledge of the Son of God, full maturity, and full stature.
That is the purpose of God.
In 1 Corinthians 3, it tells us quite clearly that there are only six things that you and I can contribute:
If you look carefully at that, it is not what is in me in the abstract; it is what I put into the foundation and what I build with in church life.
If there is gold in me, I can minister gold. If there is silver in me, I can minister silver. If there are precious stones in me, I can contribute precious stones. Whatever is the quality of the work God does in me determines the quality of the ministry that I contribute.
If there is wood in me, I can only minister wood. If there is hay in me, I can only minister hay. If there is stubble in me, that is all I can minister.
Then it says that every man’s work shall be tried, so as by fire. This is a whole question of ministry, work, building up, the work of God, and workers.
Earlier, Paul speaks of himself as a co-worker, a worker with the Master, a co-builder with the Master Builder, and a co-husbandman with the Master Husbandman.
The character God is building in His servant is forever and determines the quality of his ministry.
God is so concerned about this that sometimes He will take His precious servants and put them through the most inexplicable things to make sure that there is gold, silver, and precious stone.
Sometimes He will take His servants and put them into a place of seeming inactivity for a long, long time, simply to produce quality of character.
In the end, God is looking for something eternal. The Bible ends with this beautiful picture:
And there shall be no curse any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: and His servants shall serve Him;
And they shall see His face; and His name shall be on their foreheads.
And they shall reign for ever and ever.
God intends to fulfil His purpose for the work. He intends to do something in the workers that is forever.
Therefore, when sometimes we are discouraged and depressed by the work God has given us or by the ministry God has given us, we can side with God. Faith can cry, “It shall be done.”
May the Lord make this real to every one of you. God has a purpose, and that purpose is not going to be frustrated. By the grace of God, I want to be in that fulfilled purpose. I want to be where the Lord wants me to be. I want to reach the end that the Lord had in my salvation.
Is that your desire and your cry? May God reach your heart with something more of Himself this day. May He stir and inspire that little grain of living faith in you by a fresh vision of Himself, that you may be able to say, “It shall be done”—in my life, in my work life, in my business life, in the church, in church life, and in the work of God.
Lord, we need You, and we need You very greatly. We praise You, Lord: You are so faithful. When we are faithless, You remain faithful.
We thank You, dear Lord, that You have a purpose. You are not going to be frustrated. There is nothing too hard for You. There is nothing that You cannot do.
Beloved Lord, we pray that You will use these two times of ministry to, in some way, open the eyes of our hearts to see afresh and anew. Grant, O Lord, that the little grain of living faith within us will spring into action and unite us to Yourself.
So, Lord, may we be able to say what is true: “It shall be done.” Your purpose is not going to be broken. Lord, we praise You and worship You in the name of our Lord.