I would like to turn you to a small passage in the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians: Philippians 4. I shall read just a few verses, beginning at verse 10.
But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at length ye have revived your thought for me; wherein ye did indeed take thought, but ye lacked opportunity.
Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.
I know how to be abased, and I know also how to abound: in everything and in all things have I learned the secret, both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in want.
I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me.— Philippians 4:10-13
Shall we have a word of prayer?
Beloved Lord, we want to thank You this evening that, when we come to the ministry of Your Word, You have not left us to our own talents, gifts, or energies. You have provided us an anointing, and it has cost dearly.
We thank You for the way the Lord Jesus laid down His life, that we might not only be saved, but that we might know that anointing, grace, and power upon us. We ask, Lord, this night, that we may experience, both in the speaking of Your Word and in the hearing of it, the anointing of Your Holy Spirit.
We know that, with that anointing, Your purpose in our time will be fulfilled; and we shall be careful to give You all the praise and all the glory. We ask this in the name of our Messiah, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Just a word of explanation. I was asked, as I think a lot of you know, to speak to the fellowship in Richmond on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. The only word I had in my heart was a very simple word.
I thought it very strange that I should have come such a long way to deliver a word that any one of the brothers could have delivered with equal power and clarity. But it was the only word in my heart.
I discovered later that the brethren had been seeking the Lord the week before, and Hinden had shared with the whole fellowship that they felt the Lord was leading them back to consider foundations and foundational truths.
I had on my heart what I entitled “Secrets of the Christian Life.” Of course, there are many secrets. The Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Philippi, tells them that he had learned the secret both of how to be abased and how to abound.
It is much easier to have the secret of how to be abased, because when you have nothing, you have to depend on the Lord. When you have no money, or you have an enormous problem, you either go under or you come through. If you come through, you come through with the Lord.
The fact of the matter is, you have no other alternative as a believer. But the secret of how to live in abundance is much more difficult. When you have everything, you can do what you want. You can go your own way and attach the Lord’s name to any number of things.
So here is a marvellous secret. The Apostle says, “I have learned this amazing secret: how to be hungry, how to be filled, how to be abased, and how to abound.”
In some believers’ vocabulary there is no place for being hungry, and no place for being abased. They feel that such things do not belong to the gospel. But the Apostle tells us that whether we are hungry, abased, or abounding, there is a secret: we can do everything in Him who strengthens us.
In other words, the Lord has the key. And there are many keys.
The first secret we considered was repentance—a totally unheard-of subject amongst believers today.
Our gospel is so shallow and superficial that you would almost think it was an American presidential campaign. People are asked almost to vote for the Lord, to decide for the Lord, because He will do you better than the devil. He will get you out of hell and into heaven, clean up the messes in your life, and all the rest of it.
It is a shallow gospel. It is a gospel that has no call for repentance. But when you look at the New Testament, you find that wherever the gospel is preached, the first word is, “Repent.”
Some people think repentance is all to do with initial conversion. But whoever wrote the letter to the Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 6:1 that repentance is foundational. You cannot lay that foundation again; it is once laid for all time.
When you look through the Book, you find the most amazing thing. When the Lord Jesus speaks to the seven churches, which cover the whole church throughout history, eight times He says to the churches, “Repent.”
This means that the question of repentance is as valid for believers as it is for unsaved people. It is a foundational secret—an essential secret.
Wherever I go, I find people coming to speak with me, or phoning me, or writing to me. They have been, as they put it, “bamboozled.” Some big name in the Christian world has deceived them, taken their money, led them into false experiences and even false teaching.
Now they have a whole tirade against the person whom they once worshipped. They cannot say a single good thing about him. He is demonised from the top of his head to the sole of his feet. He is evil.
These sweet, dear, naïve, loving, pure, gullible believers were completely bamboozled by these wicked servants of God. But the fact of the matter is, as I always say to such people, unless you repent, you will be deceived altogether.
You were deceived because there was something deceivable in you. The Word of God clearly tells us that little children have an anointing in them that tells them what is right and what is wrong. If you listen to the anointing, you will not get into the deception that most of us do.
But there is no repentance. Because there is no repentance, I have known precious friends who have gone from deception to deception, following one big leader after another, getting into mess after mess.
There is a secret. What is repentance? Repentance is simply owning up. It is saying:
God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
That was the first secret we considered.
The second secret was living, working faith.
The Word of God is quite clear that without faith it is impossible to please God. It says something even stronger: all that is not of faith is sin. That is a very severe statement.
Faith is not something natural to human beings. There is a kind of Christianity which teaches that you have something inside you that you can pump up. If you can visualise it and pump it up enough, whatever you want will be yours.
That is not biblical faith. Biblical faith is the gift of God, and it thrives in very untoward circumstances. You do not have to have lots of outward encouragement to believe. All you have to do is see the Lord and hear the Lord.
When you see the Lord and hear the Lord, you do the impossible.
Peter had this experience when the Lord Jesus deliberately did not get into the boat with the disciples. They went out on the sea, a great storm arose, and to their great shock they thought they saw a ghost walking through the spray and the storm-tossed sea.
Peter said, “I do not think it is a ghost. I think it is Jesus.” He cried through the wind and storm, “Is it You, Jesus?” Jesus said, “It is I.” Then Peter said, “If it is You, tell me to come.” Jesus said, “Come.”
Peter did an extraordinary thing. He had not been to Bible college for a course on how to walk on the sea. He had never read a book on the prerequisites for walking on the sea. He did not sit down and ask whether it was possible for a human being to defy the law of gravity and walk upon a storm-tossed sea.
He heard the Lord. He saw the Lord. And living faith immediately sprang into action.
That is always the same with living faith. It is a secret. The question is: are we hearing the Lord, and are we seeing the Lord? It does not matter how difficult the circumstances are. If you are seeing the Lord and hearing the Lord, the spontaneous reaction will be living faith. You will do the impossible.
People always say, “I need more faith.” You do not need more faith. It is absolute nonsense to say that you need more faith. What you need is to exercise the little grain-of-mustard-seed faith that is in your heart.
It is not great faith that does anything. People place all the emphasis upon great faith: “Oh, you have such great faith. I wish I had great faith like that.” It is your great Lord who does everything.
Great faith never moved a mountain. It is the Lord who moves mountains. But faith as small as a mustard seed in a human being unites finite man to the infinity of God, and then the impossible happens.
The third secret was sacrificial giving. I have always been very afraid of this subject because there is a great deal of fraudulence in this area. Everyone is told to give, and they will get back more than they gave—put this in the collection, and you will get back ten times as much, and all the rest of it.
But it does not alter the fact that there is a principle, a secret of the Christian life. It is not just money. What you give is always given back to you, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.
You give time, and somehow in your life you will have more time. You give your energy, and in the laying out of your energy for others, God will give you more energy. When you give money, God honours you. It is as simple as that.
I use the illustration of the Dead Sea. In our land there are two lakes: the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee teems with life, absolutely teems with fish of many kinds.
It receives water from the mountains and the snows of Lebanon, and it gives. As it gives, it receives; and it is full of life. The Dead Sea takes the lot and gives nothing. Not a single thing—not even reeds or any kind of weed—lives in the Dead Sea. It is sterile.
So it is with many Christians. They spend their whole lives receiving, receiving. They are like sponges: they take it all in and give nothing. The result is that they take all the life-giving power and grace of God and turn it into sterility.
The fourth secret is total Christ-centredness. The Christian life is basically Christ.
The Apostle Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” In other words, he said that the Christian life and Christian service are summed up in terms of the Lord Jesus. It is knowing Him, following Him, and experiencing Him.
He is the foundation. He is the topstone. He is the power, and He is the goal. He is everything. When I die, it will be more of Him.
Few believers have such an attitude to life. Yet God has given us everything in the Lord Jesus.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus took upon His lips the great, unmentionable name of God: “I AM THAT I AM.” He said:
I am the bread of life.
I am the light of the world.
I am the resurrection and the life.
Before Abraham was, I am.
He took this name upon His lips and said, “You can experience Me as the I AM. I will be in you everything you need—from sustenance and salvation to the way of knowing the Lord, your growth, and your progress. Everything is a question of the Lord Jesus.”
It is extraordinary how difficult we find it to make the Lord Jesus everything. If we gave the Lord Jesus the place God has given Him, all our troubles would be over. We would still have an enemy, plenty of problems, opposition, and obstacles—but then it would be the Lord’s business.
Most Christians spend a large portion of their lives arguing with the Lord. They want to be saved. They do not want to go to hell. They want to go to heaven, but they do not want Him at all. They want Him as Saviour, but they do not want Him as Lord.
What is the principle of the fall of man? Rebellion. It is the spirit of rebellion.
Nearly every normal young person goes through a phase of rebellion. Some remain in it for the whole of life. We rebel against our parents, against the morals of our peers, against society. It is a spirit that has come right within us.
Most Christian lives are ruined by this rebellion. The key is simply to make Jesus Lord.
Is it not extraordinary? The only One who loved us and gave Himself for us, who sacrificed Himself for our salvation—we fight against making Him Lord, as though He needed us. He does not need us. It is nonsense to say the Lord needs you or me. We are a load of trouble.
Yet He has laid down His life to save us. If we would only do what He says, we would experience all the fullness of salvation and all the power of the Holy Spirit, and we would be changed in this life.
Instead, we have an enormous argument with the Lord. We do not really trust Him. We think we are safer in charge of our own destiny, and so we make a mess of our lives, our marriages, our children, our relationships, our careers, the church—everything.
We do not seem to learn the simple lesson: if we were centred in the Lord Jesus, we would be safe.
The Lord Jesus, speaking about His coming again, used the word deception again and again: “Let no man deceive you.” “Take heed that no man deceive you.” It is almost as if the Lord said that the greatest problem for His people in the last days of world history would be deception.
The only way you and I can be preserved from deception is by giving the Lord Jesus the place God has given Him in our lives, in our families, in our work, and in the church. Give Him His place, and we will be safe. An alarm bell will ring loud and clear whenever we are in danger of deception.
Another secret is taking up your cross.
Whenever the Lord Jesus spoke about the gospel, He also said:
If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
To deny yourself is to give up all right to yourself.
Some people think of taking up the cross as a migraine, an arthritic hip, a difficult husband, an impossible wife, screaming children, or a perfectionist boss. These things may be included, but that is not really what the Lord meant.
Jesus did not bear the whole cross upon His shoulders. He bore the crossbeam. The upright stake was already in position. The man sentenced to death carried the crossbeam, and around his neck was the sentence of death—the crime for which he had been condemned. He went to the place where others crucified him.
That is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said that we have “the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead.”
We have seen something. We are following the Lord. We understand that we have to live a crucified life, but we cannot crucify ourselves. Do not worry about that. Once you have seen that in Christ you are crucified, your dearest friends will do the job for you.
Your husband or wife will nail you to the cross with glee. The church will certainly do it. We will always find those who will crucify us.
People imagine that they can go to conferences in mountain huts, have some ecstatic experience, and angels will appear with hammers of gold and nails of silver and nail them to the cross while they are in ecstasy. Nonsense.
Once you have seen that in Christ you are crucified, tomorrow morning someone will crucify you at work. It will be very quick. If not at work, then in fellowship tomorrow evening someone will drive a few more nails through your hands. We die daily in this matter.
The amazing thing is this: you only know life through death. We are saved, and that is not of ourselves; it is the Lord’s work. But for the fullness of the Christian life, we have to lay down our lives.
The sixth secret was humility—a very rare commodity.
It is interesting, when you look at the Scriptures, that God always says, “Humble yourselves.” People say, “I cannot humble myself. The Lord must humble me.” No. The Lord never says that. He says, “Humble yourselves.”
He that humbleth himself shall be exalted; and he that exalteth himself shall be humbled.
I remember someone who wrote to me after having a huge argument in a Christian work. He was one of the executive officers, and he was incompatible with the president. He ended his bitter letter by saying, “You know that I am the most humble man in this world.”
We all knew that was exactly what he was not. It is strange how we get wrong ideas about ourselves.
I remember a lady in a fellowship many years ago. She always said, “You can tell me anything. You know that I know how to keep confidences.” We all knew that if you told her something in confidence and said, “Do not tell anyone,” within an hour the whole town would know.
She could not keep her mouth shut, but she believed she could keep secrets. It is a strange thing about human beings: we all have an idea that this is our strong point, while everybody else knows how weak we are.
The Scripture says simply that God dwells with the humble. It also says, “God resisteth the proud.” That means that if you are a believer and you are arrogant and proud, God actually resists you. That is not pleasant news, is it?
The answer is to humble yourself. You humble yourself, and you will find that God is with you.
Now I would like to add a few more secrets to the list. The first is being filled with the Holy Spirit.
And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit.
— Ephesians 5:18
In Acts 6:3 we read:
Look ye out therefore, brethren, from among you seven men of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
If we had time, I could take you through the Book of Acts, and you would find that the qualification for everyone who serves the Lord is that they must be filled with the Spirit.
I find this interesting because it is something we do not always follow in church life. Here were seven men who were going to look after the money side of the church’s affairs and distribute the money. We would have said, “Let us find accountants—at least men who can count.”
But the first qualification was that they must be full of the Spirit and wisdom, not merely that they had degrees in accountancy. What a mess we have made of church life in this matter. We search out people who are clever at organising, and they organise the church to death.
They kill it with organisation. Someone once said, “It is the gifts of God’s people that destroy the church, not their weaknesses.” I have lived long enough to see that it is true.
Whatever gifts you may have, if they are taken to the cross, then God can use them. But when it is an uncrucified gift, it becomes the destruction of the church.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit means that you are enabled to lay down your life. Have you ever thought why the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus in the form of a dove?
Most Christians think, “The dove—sweet, meek, gentle.” But to the Jew, the commonest form of sacrifice was the dove. Two turtle-doves were brought to the temple by those who could not afford more costly sacrifices.
When the Holy Spirit came upon the Lord Jesus in the waters of Jordan, when He was baptised, it was as a symbol of sacrifice. Though He knew no sin, the Holy Spirit came upon Him that He might die daily for three years and finally offer Himself to God without spot through the eternal Spirit.
Being filled with the Spirit brings joy, power, gifts, and a thousand good things when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. But when you try to be crucified in your own strength, you end up with something dark, heavy, and religious.
When the Holy Spirit tells you that you can lay down your life, all people will see is the Lord Jesus. They will not see your affliction or suffering. They will see the beauty of the Lord our God upon you—His character seen in you.
There will be fruit in your life and power in your life. There will be abundant life expressed through you.
Many Christians are afraid of the work of the Holy Spirit. Some speak only of the Holy Spirit and even pray only to the Holy Spirit, as though the Father and the Son did not matter.
I believe in the person of the Holy Spirit. I believe the Holy Spirit is as much a Person as the Father and the Son. You have to know the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit’s whole work is to glorify the Father and the Son. His whole work is to turn you away from yourself to the Lord Jesus, to the Father, and to the Son. He never speaks of Himself.
You can know absolutely nothing of the Christian life without the Holy Spirit. Nothing.
You cannot know conviction of sin without the Holy Spirit. You cannot know the gift of living faith apart from the Holy Spirit. You cannot be born again unless you are born of the Spirit. You can know nothing about being made alive to God apart from the Holy Spirit.
You cannot know Christian growth without the Holy Spirit. You cannot be changed into the likeness of the Lord Jesus apart from the Holy Spirit. You cannot know eternal life as an experience apart from the Holy Spirit. You cannot serve God, be gifted, or overcome apart from the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
The Lord Jesus is God located. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. In the Lord Jesus, we see God with a human face—with eyes, complexion, and a body—for ever.
The Lord Jesus lived for thirty-three years upon this earth and ascended to the right hand of God. He is the same Lord Jesus. He has not grown an inch or aged at all. He has a spiritual body, but He is actually located at the right hand of God.
Someone may say, “Do you mean that when I say, ‘O Lord Jesus, live in me,’ He cannot live in me?” No, absolutely not. He can live in you—but how does He live in you? By the Holy Spirit.
God has not given us things. He has given us a Person, and in that Person He has given us everything. But apart from the Holy Spirit, it is all theology.
There is no such thing as the church without the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Day of Pentecost, one hundred and twenty separate individuals became one hundred and twenty members of a shared life.
The Holy Spirit turned a congregation of units and individuals into a body joined to a Head in heaven. When the Holy Spirit revealed and expressed the Lord Jesus through those one hundred and twenty members on earth, Jerusalem was turned upside down, then Judea, then Samaria, and then the world.
The moment the church became proud, divorced from her Head, and became an organisation and an institution, her power to change the world ceased.
In John 20, Jesus appeared in the midst of the disciples. He said, “Peace be unto you,” and He breathed on them and said:
Receive ye the Holy Spirit.
— John 20:22
Thomas was not there. Eight days later Thomas was present, and Jesus showed him His hands and His side. Thomas said, “My Lord and my God.” Yet the Lord did not then breathe on Thomas separately and say, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
I believe the Lord was teaching the disciples something in picture form. When the Holy Spirit comes, two things happen: the Holy Spirit comes within you, and the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
There are two aspects, just as the work of the cross has two aspects: Jesus died for me, and Jesus died as me. They happened together at Calvary, but many of us are saved through the first truth long before we enter into the experience of the second.
The indwelling Holy Spirit is very quiet. The fruit of the Spirit is very quiet. You never hear fruit growing. You do not hear, “Bang, bang, bang—there is an apple.” It all happens quietly, from blossom to fruit.
Character, fruit, and the indwelling life of the Lord Jesus are quiet, consistent, and progressive. But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, everybody knows: wind and fire.
The Lord Jesus said:
Tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high.
— Luke 24:49
When you are properly clothed, you are unselfconscious. You do not have to think about yourself; you can think about the work you have to do. The Holy Spirit comes upon us to clothe us for service, so that we can get on with the work and not think about ourselves.
We need the Holy Spirit indwelling us for fruit, character, and transformation into the likeness of the Lord Jesus. But we also need to be filled with the Holy Spirit for service, anointing, gift, and overcoming.
I know people who cannot open their mouths in prayer after being believers for twenty years. I know people who cannot participate in worship after being believers for many years. No one doubts that they are born again, but they cannot open their mouths. Why? Because the Holy Spirit has never filled them.
When the Holy Spirit fills you, you do not become a loud, obnoxious, vulgar person, showing off wherever you go. That kind of thing is flesh. When the Holy Spirit fills you, the beauty of the Lord our God will be seen upon you.
You will become a contributing member of the body of the Lord Jesus and of the work of God in the world. It is a vital secret for Christian life, Christian growth, Christian service, and church life.
Here is another secret: the fear of the Lord. Do you ever hear about the fear of the Lord today? I think the twentieth century knows very little about it.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
— Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
That one may depart from the snares of death.— Proverbs 14:27
The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom;
And before honour goeth humility.— Proverbs 15:33
I very rarely hear of the fear of the Lord, and I very rarely encounter it. We live in an age in which people are so familiar with God that it is unbelievable.
What is the fear of the Lord? It is not terrible, gnawing terror of the Lord. It is sensitive reverence and awe. It is a sensitivity to the feelings of the Lord and to the Person of the Lord.
Ecclesiastes says, “God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few.” It does not mean that we should merely have an economy of words. It means that if you remember that the One to whom you are speaking is infinite, while you are finite, half the words you use will not be necessary.
Elijah said, wherever he was, “As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand.” Whether he was on Carmel, in Sinai, or elsewhere, he always said, “The Lord before whom I stand.”
What does that reveal? It reveals that he was conscious of being in the presence of the Lord. He was conscious that he was a servant of the Lord, waiting upon the Lord. That is the fear of the Lord.
This unbelievable lack of the fear of the Lord is leading us into terrible disaster.
I remember a fellow with whom I was once speaking. He was pontificating about some subject, and suddenly he took out his Bible and said, “What is this book? It is only printed words.”
Then he threw it on the ground and sat on it. I said to him, “There is no fear of the Lord in your eyes, and God will judge you.” In some strange way, something entered into that proud young man and frightened him to death.
This idea that we can handle the Holy Spirit, manipulate God, take the name of the Lord in vain, and be familiar with the things of God—it is stupid.
Uzzah touched the ark of the Lord and died. There are many Christian believers who touch the presence of the Lord and spiritually die. They are familiar with the things of God, but you cannot be familiar with the things of God.
The fear of the Lord is a secret. It is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is not knowledge. Knowledge is to do with facts; wisdom is to do with what you do with the facts—how you handle and apply them.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding how to approach your life and how to approach your problems.
Psalm 25 gives us a beautiful word:
What man is he that feareth the Lord?
Him shall He instruct in the way that He shall choose.
His soul shall dwell at ease;
And his seed shall inherit the land.The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him;
And He will show them His covenant.— Psalm 25:12-14
If you fear the Lord, He will instruct you in the way that He shall choose. Your soul shall dwell at ease, and He will show you His covenant. Is that not a beautiful word?
Malachi gives us another beautiful word:
Then they that feared the Lord spake one with another;
And the Lord hearkened, and heard,
And a book of remembrance was written before Him,
For them that feared the Lord,
And that thought upon His name.And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts,
Even Mine own possession, in the day that I make;
And I will spare them,
As a man spareth his own son that serveth him.— Malachi 3:16-17
This speaks of the time of the end. In the last days, when people will not fear the Lord, those who fear Him will be so precious that the Lord will have a register, and every one of their names will be written in it. When the time comes, they will be a special treasure for the Lord.
Here is another secret: committed fellowship.
Sometimes, when you are hurt in the fellowship of God’s people, it is easier to retire and become a hermit. I do not mean that you sit on a pole or go into a cave and wall yourself up, but spiritually that is exactly what we do.
We get hurt in church life. People say things and do things, and we become upset and wounded. Then we become hermits in the midst of the church. We spiritually wall ourselves up in a little cave. We come to the meetings and sit there, but we do not want to be committed to the brethren.
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
— 1 John 1:3
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
— 1 John 1:7
Fellowship is not merely a spiritual relationship with the Father and the Son. It is also horizontal, not merely vertical. We have relationships with one another, and this is where our problem lies. The whole of Christendom is filled with problems on this horizontal level.
God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
— 1 Corinthians 1:9
We have been called not merely to fellowship with His Son, but into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. What is this fellowship? Paul describes it as a body. It has many members, yet it is one body.
The members are all different, but they share one Head, one Name, and one Life. This is the church.
You may say, “That is wonderful, but where can I find such a church?” Yet Paul said this to the church at Corinth. I doubt that most of us would have stayed there.
Some at the Lord’s table got drunk and fell under the table. Others were taking one another to court. A man was living in immorality with his father’s wife. If you read through that letter, you will be shocked to your foundations.
Yet Paul said, “I thank my God always concerning you.” He said that they came behind in no gift, and that God was faithful, through whom they had been called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
This does not mean that we become partakers of other people’s sins or that we do not deal with sin. But it does mean that there is ground upon which we stay together. This is committed fellowship.
We are all capable of unbelievable sin. We are so quick to judge others when they fall into sin, but given the right conditions, every one of us is capable of terrible failure.
God knew what you were capable of when He saved you. By the grace of God He keeps you, and with every temptation there is a way of escape. But we must remember that we judge each other harshly and judge ourselves mercifully.
For ourselves, we have a very merciful standard; for others, we have a perfect and righteous standard.
What is the basis of real fellowship? It is not that we all have a common view or that we all feel the same. We certainly do not.
The basis of fellowship is that you are in the same Lord Jesus in whom I am, and the same Lord Jesus who is in you is in me. We may have different backgrounds, temperaments, cultural backgrounds, standards of living, and ethnic origins, but it is the same Lord Jesus.
I am in Him; you are in Him. He is in me; He is in you. That is the fellowship of His Son.
My body is a fellowship. I have fingers, toes, feet, hands, arms, ears, and eyes. They are all different, but they share my life, my name, and my future. If my head tells my feet to move, they move. If I want to take a book, my hands move. They are members of one body.
That is how the body of Christ is meant to function. We share His life, His Name, and His future. We are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.
This is why 1 Corinthians 14:26 says, “Let all things be done unto edifying.” It is a simple law. If it cannot build up, do not do it. If it does not build up, do not contribute it. Let everything be done for the building up of the body.
First Thessalonians 5 tells us to exhort one another and build one another up. What does it mean to build one another up? It means to love one another and care for one another.
Sometimes we think it is merely a question of giving a little word. I have suffered many of these little words in my life. People come with some wonderful spiritual word from Jonah or Obadiah and impose it upon you.
Sometimes I wish they would come and mow the lawn, cook a cake, or do something practical. Sometimes all you need is something very simple, and it brings Christ to a person.
I am not saying that we should never use the Word of God. But sometimes we can give cold little words that exhibit our knowledge of the Lord but do not build anyone up. A simple act of love—minding a baby, mowing a lawn, taking a cake—can build someone up and release them in a new way.
Some of us are unlovable. By nature, we are very prickly people. Yet we have to overcome this. The Lord loves me; if the Lord loves you, I have to love you as well.
There is security in fellowship. Consider Colossians 3:15:
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also ye were called in one body.
— Colossians 3:15
The word rule means “arbitrate.” Let the peace of Christ arbitrate in your heart when you need to know the will of God.
The high priest had the Urim and Thummim—lights and perfections. We do not know exactly how these stones functioned, but in Jewish tradition they were understood as stones that shone when the Lord was saying yes and clouded when the Lord was saying no.
Whether that is exactly what happened or not, it is a perfect picture. Let the peace of Christ arbitrate in your heart. When there is life and light, the Lord may be saying yes. When there is death, darkness, or disturbance, the Lord may be saying no.
But some of us are very strong-willed. We get a false peace because when we get our own way, we have peace. When we go the way we want to go, we have light. Anything contrary to our will feels like darkness. So we can go wrong.
Check out your guidance with your brothers and sisters. Do not go only to those you know will agree with you and say, “Oh yes, do it.” Check it out in the body of Christ. There is your security.
Do not just move away, take another job, buy another house, change your career, or suddenly go to Timbuktu. Check it out. We would be saved from a thousand tragedies if we learned this simple secret of fellowship.
We often live as though there were no other members of the body. We pray in a completely individualistic way. Yet the Lord Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father.” When you pray, you are praying for me as well. Fellowship means that we bear one another before the Lord.
The final secret I leave with you tonight is genuine worship.
Psalm 34 makes an amazing declaration:
I will bless the Lord at all times:
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.— Psalm 34:1
Do you know that you were made to worship? When God created you, He created you as a worshipper.
Every human being worships, including atheists. They worship something. Many worship themselves. Every day they bow before the shrine of themselves, honour themselves, and see themselves as the centre of everything glorious in the universe.
Others worship friends, sport, careers, or a thousand other things. Everyone has to worship something. You were made to worship.
God constituted you in such a way that only when you worship are you truly happy. You can know much, have fellowship, be loyal, zealous, and active, yet remain unhappy because you have never learned the secret of worship.
“I will bless the Lord at all times.” Someone says, “That is impossible. That is ridiculous. How can you bless the Lord at all times—when you are down, sad, and difficult things have happened in your life?”
The issue is this: are you praising the Lord only because of what He has done for you? That is a self-centred way of looking at it. Are you worshipping the Lord only when He does something for you?
The enemy comes and says, “Do not praise the Lord. You have had a bad day. You have done things of which you should be ashamed. Keep your mouth shut and be humble for once.” Then you say, “That is right. I do not want to be a hypocrite.”
And the devil will make sure that there is always something to stop you praising the Lord—an accusation, a circumstance, a difficulty, something arranged to keep your mouth shut.
But worship is not based upon whether everything is going right. We bless the Lord for what He is. His praise is in our mouths.
I have learned bitterly at times that the thing to do is to worship the Lord and say, “Lord, I feel awful, but You are wonderful. Your throne is established.”
I used to have the strange idea that, by being honest and true, I should not praise the Lord if I felt bad. Then the enemy made sure I felt bad. I would get out of bed on the wrong side, and he would say, “Now do not praise the Lord. You cannot praise the Lord. Do not be a hypocrite.”
Then one day I woke up and thought, “No, I will praise the Lord.” I am not going to say, “Lord, I feel wonderful,” when I do not. I will say, “Lord, I feel awful today, but You are absolutely wonderful.”
Is it not ridiculous to think that, because you got out of bed on the wrong side, the kingdom of heaven has had a crisis, the government of God has abdicated, and the whole work of the Lord is paralysed?
His truth remains the same whether you are down or up. His throne remains the same whether you are down or up. The Lord will fulfil His purpose whether you are down or up.
Now you can worship the Lord. You can say, “Lord, Your truth is for ever. Your throne is established. You are wonderful.”
The Lord Jesus said to the woman at the well of Samaria:
The Father seeketh such to worship Him in spirit and truth.
— John 4:23
When you worship the Lord in a bad time, the Lord says, “Now this is worship.”
Worship is such a secret. It lifts you up. You begin to see things in a different light. It is marvellous.
Romans 12:1 says:
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.
— Romans 12:1
What is spiritually intelligent worship? Your body—a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.
Here is a marvellous secret. It will bring you into a whole new way with the Lord and give you a new way of facing the problems, circumstances, and difficulties that come to us all.
We were made to worship the Lord. When people truly worship, they touch something primeval, something that goes right back to the beginning—to the way God constituted the human being.
Something is released in your spirit. It is almost as though you are in harmony with God and with the very universe He created. It is amazing.
All these are secrets—not mysteries beyond our understanding, but secrets that God gives to us who are born of His Spirit, that we may enter into a real experience of the Christian life, Christian growth, Christian service, and the life of the church.
Praise the Lord. So help us, Lord, and teach us. Shall we pray together?