I would like to say how very glad I am to be with you, especially in the autumn—or the fall, as you call it—in this part. I normally come in the hottest part of the year, and it seems to me it is always like being in a slow cooker. So it is rather nice to come at a time when it is cooler.
I would like to turn you to a little portion of the Word in the Philippian letter of the Apostle Paul, Philippians 4. I will read from verse 10.
But I rejoice 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
Father, we want to thank You that You have provided that anointing for our time together, especially the ministry of Your Word. And, Lord, we want very simply, by faith, to stand into that anointing, grace, and power—for my speaking and for our hearing.
Lord, make this a true meeting with Yourself. We have already asked that we might see You, hear You, and meet with You. And, Lord, we know that Your desire is exactly that we should see You, hear You, and meet with You.
Therefore, Lord, we want very simply to give ourselves to You, that You will take the whole of this time and make it live with Your own presence and working. We shall give You all the praise and all the glory, Lord, for fulfilling Your purpose and design in bringing us together. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Amen.
As I thought about this evening and tomorrow morning, only one thing has been in my heart. Very simple, I must say, and I have almost been tempted to feel that it is ridiculous to speak about such simple things to you. But since there is nothing else alive in my heart, I have to believe that it is the Lord.
The thing I want to underline in the time that we have together is what I call secrets of the Christian life. Not mysteries—that is something else—but simply those keys to Christian life, Christian experience, and growth: the kind of keys that somehow or other so many Christians do not find.
It is one of the saddest things today, moving around the world, to find so many believers who do not understand what the Christian life is and certainly experience very little of it. So that is the simple little burden in my heart. I feel as if a thousand others could say exactly the same thing, but since the Lord has made it alive in my heart, I believe He must have some purpose in it.
The apostle, in this wonderful letter to the church at Philippi, says:
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 4:11-13
I do not think anyone can be content in a condition of great need unless it has been learned in the Lord. That is a secret. And I have often thought that it is easier to be abased than to abound. When you are abased—that is, in narrow and straitened circumstances—you can only depend on the Lord. There is no other way through.
If, for instance, I get an invitation to go to Tahiti, and I have always wanted to go to Tahiti, and I have plenty of money in my account, I can go to Tahiti. No problem. But when I have nothing in the account, I really have got to find the Lord, and He has to provide.
So, in one sense, it is almost safer to be in need than to abound. When you abound, you can do anything you want. Do you understand? To be able to say, “I have learned the secret, not only to be abased but to abound,” that is something.
Many of us know something about being in need—being in straitened circumstances, having to find the Lord in those circumstances, having to overcome in those circumstances, having to endure and know the Lord in those circumstances. But when we come to a period of abounding, then we go to pieces.
So often the self-life in us enjoys the abounding so greatly. It has only been straightened in straitened circumstances. The self has never been dealt with; it has simply been restricted and has had to depend on the Lord. But when you come into a period of abundance, then to know the Lord is truly a secret.
Now, I have one or two secrets. I do not know how far I will go this evening. I will probably go until I see you all asleep and then stop, and go on tomorrow. But I have one or two secrets that I want to talk about. One or two you will have heard many times; one or two you will know in your head, but they are hardly ever emphasized or underlined.
The first secret of the Christian life I want to talk about this evening is repentance. It is virtually an unknown subject amongst believers today.
For one thing, the gospel that is preached is not a gospel calling men and women to repentance, but a decision gospel—almost like your present presidential election campaign. One or other of the candidates will do you better if you will only put him in office.
So much of our gospel preaching today bears very little resemblance to the gospel preached in the New Testament. If you make a study of this, you will discover that everywhere you turn in the New Testament, the key word to the preaching of the gospel was: “Repent.” Where do you hear such a word today?
Because of the lack of understanding—and indeed, the lack of experience—of repentance, there is something seriously lacking in so many of us in our concept of the Lord.
Perhaps I should read a few Scriptures. For instance, turn to Luke 24:47. These are the words of the Lord Jesus to His disciples:
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
— Luke 24:47
Let us read it again:
That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
— Luke 24:47
Then turn to Acts 20:21. These are the words of the Apostle Paul to the elders at Ephesus:
Testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
— Acts 20:21
Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. While you are in Acts, turn back to Acts 2:38. This is the first time, after the cross, that anyone preached the gospel. This is Peter:
Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
— Acts 2:38
Then Acts 3:19:
Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.
— Acts 3:19
You may feel that repentance has to do only with initial experience—with sinners getting converted and saved. But I want to point out to you that when our Lord speaks to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, to all but two of them He says, “Repent.” He uses the word repent eight times in these messages.
Therefore, I understand that repentance has something to do with believers and something to do with church life. It has something to do with Christian life, ongoing Christian experience, and Christian growth. It has something to do with being conformed, or changed, into the likeness of the Lord Jesus.
To relegate repentance to our conversion is to do a grave injustice to the Word of God.
Take, for instance, Hebrews 6:1:
Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God.
— Hebrews 6:1
Do not think that we leave behind repentance. It is a foundation which we cannot lay again. It is a foundation upon which the whole structure is built, whether it is the structure of our Christian life or the structure of the church. It is built on this foundation, and there is no other foundation.
Finally, one other Scripture, and then we will look a little more into what it all means. In 2 Corinthians 7:9-10:
I now rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye were made sorry unto repentance; for ye were made sorry after a godly sort, that ye might suffer loss by us in nothing.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, a repentance which bringeth no regret: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.— 2 Corinthians 7:9-10
What does this mean? Why do I call this matter of repentance a secret? I think many of our Christian lives are blighted by the absence of repentance.
What is repentance? I would put it very simply: it is owning up to your own responsibility in any given failure, sin, transgression, or whatever. I am not giving you the theological explanation of repentance. I am simply saying that repentance is when you say, “I am the problem.”
Now, dear child of God, is this not our problem? I wonder just how many of us blame circumstances, parents, husbands, wives, employers, employees, and a thousand and one things for whatever is wrong in our Christian life.
We say, “Well, if I had not had the childhood I had, I would be a different person. If I had not had the kind of father I had, I would be a different person. If only I had had a different mother, I would be a different person. If I had a different husband”—I have heard this a thousand times—“I would be a very different person.”
Of course, if you are someone a little more spiritual and pious than the normal average, you will at least say, “Well, of course I know I am wrong, but.” That is where it all comes in. “I know I am wrong. I know that I am in a mess, but it is so-and-so. You have no idea what kind of person I am living with. You have no idea what circumstances I am in.”
It is as if God does not know anything about the person you are living with, or anything about the circumstances you are in. Somehow or other, we feel these are the things molding us and forming our whole difficulty and problems. Basically, it is a refusal to say, “I am the sinner.”
Do you remember the story the Lord Jesus told in Luke 18? Two people came into the temple. They were both apparently children of Israel, both belonged to the house of Israel, and both were in covenant with God.
One came in and stood up and said, “Oh God, I am so thankful that I fast, and I tithe, and I do this and that and the other. I am very thankful I am not like this fellow over here—a publican.” Not meaning that he ran a pub, by the way. You all know that, do you not? He was a tax collector, considered to be among the filthiest of all professions.
He said, “I thank You, Lord, that I am not like this man over here.” But this tax gatherer did not even lift up his eyes. He never lifted his head, but he said:
God, be Thou merciful to me the sinner.
— Luke 18:13
In the original, it is very interesting. It is really, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.” I imagine that tax collector could have said, “Lord, I am a sinner, but have mercy on me. Look at my circumstances. Look at the kind of background I had. It was my father who got me into this job. Such-and-such pushed me into this.”
“I know that I am at fault, but, dear Lord, have mercy on me, because really and truthfully I would not be here but for circumstances. In other words, dear Lord, I am nearly quite a nice chap and nearly not as bad as everybody says. But circumstances all around me have completely engineered things for me, and now I am in this mess.”
You see, that is not repentance. Why did the Lord say that the man who went out of the temple justified by God was the man who said, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner”? The buck stops here. I am the one responsible. That is repentance.
I do not know whether I am talking into anyone’s situation or anyone’s heart, but I want to tell you something: your life is blighted by a lack of repentance. If you do not learn this initial and foundational matter of repentance, you will never get anywhere in your Christian life.
There will always be ground for Satan to come in and tie you up in knots because you are blaming others. Of course there were others in your circumstances. Who has ever lived a life apart from any other human being?
Every one of you came into this world through a woman and through a man. Every one of us has family circumstances. We have all got a genetic history that only God knows. We all have various kinds of circumstances differing from one person to another. The fact is: are you making those things an excuse?
Repentance is being able to say, “Lord, I am in this mess because of me. I should have been able to overcome these circumstances because Your grace is available to me, Your power is available to me, and Your wisdom is available to me. Everything that I need to triumph in these circumstances is available to me. Therefore, I am responsible for this mess.”
Once you begin there, that is true repentance. For the first time, you are on a basis of reality in the presence of God.
Let me take you a step further. Everywhere I go, people come up to me and say, “Brother so-and-so deceived me.” This is some big name. “I was hoodwinked.” Dear, sweet, gullible you.
Now you spend your whole time running down Brother So-and-so. He is the most demonized, dark, evil man; there is nothing good about him. Whereas once you thought he was the greatest apostle in the whole world and the most powerful figure in the work of God. Now he is nothing but a demonized man living in error, and he has deceived dear, sweet, gullible, loving you.
Now, I want to tell you that you were deceived because you had something in you deceivable, and because you did not listen—as the Apostle John says in 1 John 2—to the witness of the anointing that was in you, which tells you whether something is right or wrong.
You are responsible for this thing. Do not run down this brother. God holds you responsible. You cannot be deceived unless you are prepared to be deceived. Most of us go in for this kind of thing because there is something very nice about some of these preachers. They offer us lovely things. There is a lovely atmosphere.
Sometimes there is an elitist thing in a lot of us. We love to feel that we are in something elite—special, the best of the Christians. “We are special. This brother has something very special, not known to any other brothers, revealed to him. Now we are in on the secret.” You see?
Wave after wave of these things has come through Christian circles. Everywhere I go, I meet people who are ex-disciples of this movement, ex-something else, and they say, “Oh, it is terrible. I was deceived.” You were deceived because there was something in you deceivable.
It is a very interesting thing, if you study the Word carefully, that when John writes to the brothers and sisters, he speaks of fathers, young men, and little children. You would have thought he would have said, “Fathers, you have an anointing from God that you know what is good and what is evil.” But he says, “Little children.”
In other words, no one has any excuse for being deceived. My experience has been exactly that. I have known people who have just been saved who are as clear as a bell, and some older folks in the Lord who get deceived.
Please listen to me on this matter. In the old days, if you read some of the writings from the Reformation and earlier, all the way through the Puritans and the Moravians, you hear of people who spent days in conviction of sin before they were saved. You hardly ever hear of it today.
This foundational stone in Christian life and experience is no longer there. We think, “Well, repent is a word in the Word. Of course it has something to do with getting converted, and we are all converted.” Something has fallen out, not only of our vocabulary, but out of our experience. Therefore, I believe we have blighted Christian lives.
Some people blame demons. Now, I personally believe in demons. I have no question about it. I believe demons can trouble believers. I have seen demons go out of real believers, so I have no doubt about it at all.
Because of the poor gospel we preach and the very poor teaching that is received, there are times when people are only half-born, if you know what I mean. I have known people who come to me and say, “Pray for me. I need deliverance.” “What is the problem?” “Well, it is a demon.”
They tell me that it was thrown out three years ago, came back two years ago, was thrown out again, and now it is back again. In other words, the demon is responsible. “I am the sweetest little thing in the whole wide world, but I have a demon that makes me lust for pornography,” or, “I have a demon that gives me a very bad temper.”
Dear child of God, that is not repentance. There are times when you have got to know how to discipline yourself. You have to know something about what the Word of God calls self-control. You have to do all things in Him who strengthens you.
There are demons—do not get me wrong. There is no doubt that demons trouble believers. There is often demonic activity over church life. You would expect it, would you not? If the Lord is really doing something, one would expect hell to be mobilized.
Here is a secret that I believe is tremendously important. You and I have got to face things squarely. Am I blaming circumstances? Am I blaming people? Am I blaming relatives? Am I blaming whatever has gone wrong in my life and putting it on somebody else?
There is no way through that way. You and I have to come finally to it: “God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I am the one responsible for this thing. Help me, Lord. Meet me, Lord. Deliver me, Lord. Take me on, Lord. Enable me to overcome, Lord.” This is a secret in the Christian life.
The second secret I would like to talk about tonight is living, working faith. I have talked about this before, but I am going to talk about it again, and I am going to pretend that none of you have ever heard me speak anything about living and working faith.
There is no other kind. Can I say it again? There is no other kind. There is only living, working faith. As far as the Bible is concerned, all other faith is religion. If it is only up here, in the head, it is not faith. Faith is real only if it works.
Luther was very upset with James and actually put the letter of James at the end of Revelation in the German Lutheran version. He made the famous comment that it was only fit for lighting the fire. Terrible, is it not, when you think about it?
Look at James 2:20-25:
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?
And in like manner was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?— James 2:20-21, 25
This is very interesting. What did James mean? He is not actually contradicting the Apostle Paul. Paul says that we are justified by faith apart from works; James says that faith apart from works is barren. But actually, they are saying the same thing.
When Abraham offered up Isaac, it was his faith in action. Do you understand? It was living, practical faith. He did not simply sit there and say, “Well, I think the Lord will do something. I believe the Lord is in charge of this. I am going to have to sacrifice Isaac, but I do not know.” It was all in his head.
He offered up Isaac, and Hebrews says that he believed God was able to raise him from the dead if necessary. It was an expression of his faith.
Let me take it one step further: all real faith has a concrete expression. It is always expressed in your behaviour, your conduct, and your life. Otherwise, it is not faith.
Go back to Ephesians 2:8:
For by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory.
— Ephesians 2:8-9
Living, practical faith is the gift of God. Some people tell us that faith is a natural thing in everybody, and that you simply use this faith. This is the basis of cultic faith, Christian Science faith, Unity School of Christianity faith, and, I am very sorry to say, quite a portion today of charismatic faith.
It is a faith that is something inside. You visualize it, you work it up, you inflate it, and it happens. It is mind over matter. It is a totally natural thing, something within the human psyche. You get hold of that something and inflate it; you do everything you can to help your faith, and slowly you pump it up. If it reaches a certain point, whatever you are believing for will happen.
This, to me, is not real faith. I think we see the best example of faith in Abraham, when God left him until he was a hundred years of age, and dear Sarah until she was nearly the same, and then the promise was fulfilled. In other words, faith is truly the gift of God.
There are two Scriptures that I find quite horrifying. One is Hebrews 11:6:
And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto Him.
— Hebrews 11:6
This is not merely something in the head. This is living, practical, working faith. You cannot please the Lord without possessing such a faith. You can have all the knowledge of the Bible from Genesis through Revelation. You can be sound in doctrine. You can say the right things. You can do a thousand and one other things. But if you do not have this kind of living, working faith, you cannot please the Lord.
I am talking about the kind of faith that unites you to the Lord. It is something that actually brings you into relationship with Him, into union with Him.
The other word horrifies me even more. It is Romans 14:23:
Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
— Romans 14:23
That is a hard word. All that is not produced by living, working faith is sin. That is a terrible word when you think about it.
What has the gift of living faith done for you? If it has done nothing else, it has made you alive to God. Is that not true?
Turn again to Ephesians 2:5-8:
Even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), and raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
— Ephesians 2:5-6
What does it mean to be made alive? Think of when you were first made alive and were born. What happened? Your eyes opened. What was another thing that happened when you were born? Your ears opened.
You were made alive. Suddenly you were alive to your surroundings, and particularly to your mother. Your poor mother knew very well that you were alive. Before very long, your little eyes focused on your mother’s face and could tell her from all the other doting women surrounding you. Your little ears could tell your mother’s voice from forty other female voices.
Such is the amazing nature of being made alive. I find it very strange that so many Christians are born but stillborn. In other words, they never see the Lord and they never hear the Lord. There is something terribly wrong.
How can some believers say to me, “I have never really seen the Lord. I have never heard the Lord”? The whole idea of being made alive to God is that you are sensitive to Him. You have a relationship with Him. The Holy Spirit has been shed abroad in your heart, crying, “Abba, Father.” It is a tremendous relationship.
Some people say, “Well, it will never happen to me. It will happen to so-and-so because they are special people.” That is your problem. That is where you need living faith. Do you not believe that God loves you, however poor you might be and whatever problems you might have?
He has made you alive to God. Therefore, if you are alive to God, you can hear the Lord in His Word by the Holy Spirit, and you can see the Lord with the eyes of your heart. Do not shut yourself out from the circle of God’s covenant people as if you are a special case.
Every child of God is born with sight and with hearing, yet many of us seem to be born, as I said, stillborn. We are not alive. Oh, dear child of God, think for a moment of the damage we do because we have not this gift of living faith—living, working faith, made alive to the Lord.
The enemy has a wonderful propaganda machine and an enormous intelligence service. He knows everything about you, and he beams into your heart this kind of thought: “Now, do not be big-headed. You are small fry, very small fry. It is all very well for Brother So-and-so and some of the other brothers. They are big brothers. But you are very small.”
“Do not think that you are going to get anywhere. You do not have enough faith.” And you say, “How true that is.” The devil—or one of his smaller millions—says, “Absolutely right. Do not be presumptuous. Do not be big-headed. You have very little faith.”
“There is only one thing you can do: go to the fellowship, sit in the chair every time they meet, and wait. Gradually, as you are instructed and learn, you will get more faith. When you get more faith, you will be able to do more. You will become alive to the Lord as you get more faith. You will see the Lord, hear the Lord, and experience the Lord as you get more faith.”
And you say, “Oh, how right you are. I must be humble. I am a small guy. I am just very little. I cannot expect the Lord to do big things in my life. So I will go along to the fellowship and sit there. Maybe, in the Lord’s grace, He will increase my faith, and one of these days, when it gets big enough, something will happen.”
“I will hatch myself a Watchman Nee. I shall suddenly become an Amy Carmichael. Suddenly there will be a John Wesley, or Charles Wesley, or Count Zinzendorf, or somebody else.” And the devil has got you. He has got you for the whole of your life, for you will never, ever have the amount of faith you think you need.
Our Lord put it so simply in Matthew 17:20:
If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
— Matthew 17:20
It is not the amount of your faith; it is the exercise of your faith. That is the key. If you will exercise the little mustard-seed faith you have—so small, so small—the Lord can work.
Most of us are saying, “Lord, I want an egg-sized amount of faith, something at least as big as that.” The Lord says, “No.” Someone says, “Well, a walnut-sized amount will do.” Someone else says, “An almond, just an almond. That will be enough.” And the Lord says, “You do not need anything at all. You need faith as a grain of mustard seed.”
Some of us say, “Oh no, we could not possibly do anything with one grain of mustard seed. We must have a number of grains all put together in a little heap.” Stupid, is it not? The Lord says that if you have faith as one grain of mustard seed, you shall say to the mountain, “Be removed,” and it will be removed.
All this talk about faith can make us faith-centred instead of Christ-centred. It does tremendous damage because we tend to think that if we have a problem, we must have at least as much faith as the problem. If we had faith as large as the mountain, we could move the mountain with our amount of faith.
Whereas, in actual fact, faith never removed a mountain. God removes mountains. Faith has never solved a difficulty or a problem. It is God who solves difficulties and problems.
Your little faith, as small as a grain of mustard seed, will unite you to God Himself. Let me put it this way: your finite faith will unite you to the infinity of God, and nothing will be impossible. That is a secret.
I really need to say a good deal more about this because it is so tremendous. Look at Hebrews 12:1-2:
Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith.— Hebrews 12:1-2
That is very interesting to me, because it means that you will never have faith unless you look to Jesus. It is only when you see the Lord Jesus that the spontaneous reaction in your heart is faith.
How do you get the gift of faith? By seeing the Lord. There is no other way. How did you get saved? By seeing the Lamb of God with the eyes of your heart, perhaps very imperfectly. But suddenly it dawned upon you that you had a Saviour. He was able to save you, and suddenly you had faith to believe.
I always tell the story of the Lord on the stormy lake. There was this terrific storm, and the Lord was passing by the boat. He deliberately did not get into the boat. They looked through the storm and thought it was a ghost. Then they cried, “Jesus, is it You?” And Jesus answered, “It is I.”
Then Peter said, “Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee upon the waters.” The amazing thing is that Peter did not sit down and think, “Now, do not be stupid. How can I walk on this water? Is there not a law of gravity? How do you overcome the law of gravity?”
He had never been to Bible school and had never taken a course in walking on water. He simply climbed over the boat without thinking. He had heard the Lord. He had seen the Lord. He did the impossible.
He walked on the water. It was only when he lost the Lord—could not hear Him, could not see Him—that suddenly he thought, “What am I doing? I am walking on water. How is it possible for a human being to walk on water?” And he sank.
But when he saw the Lord, heard the Lord, and obeyed the Lord, the immediate, spontaneous reaction was living faith. He did not look inside and say, “Now, have I got enough faith to get over the side of the boat and walk on the water?” He would have been finished if he had done that.
He saw the Lord, he heard the Lord, he obeyed the Lord, and he did the impossible. This is the key to every real work of God in the earth. It is also the key to every overcomer. You hear the Lord, you see the Lord, and you do the impossible.
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. It is the same thing all over again. Living faith comes through the Word of Christ. You have to hear. That is why being made alive to the Lord, hearing the Lord, and seeing the Lord are absolutely vital in every believer’s life and every servant of God’s life.
What about the Word of God and faith? Dear child of God, we are living in days when the Word of God is being devalued on every side—not just in charismatic circles, but in evangelical circles. Everywhere I go, the Word of God no longer has the place it once had.
This is the beginning of apostasy. I have no doubt about it at all.
I believe that is why the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, his beloved child in the faith, in 2 Timothy 3:16-17:
Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness:
That the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.— 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Do you believe that? Listen again: the whole Word of God is inspired by God and given by God—for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness—so that the man of God, or woman of God, may be completely furnished unto every good work.
It is not just that you may be taught, but that you may be enabled—completely furnished for every good work.
In Hebrews 4:2 we have a very interesting little word:
For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard.
— Hebrews 4:2
In other words, they did not have within them the kind of faith that united them to the Word of God. I do not know how to explain this, but I believe this is the root of the matter. The Word of God has got to become flesh and blood.
The only way the Word of God can become flesh and blood in us is when there is a living faith that unites us to the Word of God. It brings the Word of God and ourselves into union.
Dear brothers and sisters, I wish I could put it more clearly to you. I think that the psalmist, in that wonderful and greatest of all psalms, Psalm 119, understood this well:
Deal bountifully with Thy servant, that I may live; so will I observe Thy word.
Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.— Psalm 119:17-18
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and light unto my path.
I have sworn, and have confirmed it, that I will observe Thy righteous ordinances.— Psalm 119:105-106
What is your attitude to the Word of God? Do you change it as it suits you? Do you bend it somehow or other and adapt it to your circumstances?
I believe that every departure in church history began with this: not being united to the Word of God. Every great movement of the Holy Spirit in church history began with a uniting to the Word of God.
Now, I am going to get into something controversial for a few moments, so sit back and do not get all upset with me. I am not getting at anybody or anything.
If the Word of God says that sisters should wear something on their heads when they pray or prophesy, do you not think they should? You say, “Well, that is very well for you if you are a man.” It is not the custom today. I quite agree—it is not the custom. But I am not talking about custom. I am talking about the Word of God.
Someone says, “It was only married women who had to wear something on their heads.” Or someone says, “If you wear a wedding ring, that is all that matters.” But there is one little phrase that puts the whole thing into another dimension: “For the sake of the angels.”
You may say, “Is that not some kind of idea Paul had in his day, that there were angels everywhere? We do not believe in angels today, do we?” All I am saying is this: I am not getting at sisters. Here is a good example of something we do not all understand. Why is it there? Should we not at the very least inquire of the Lord, “What does this mean?”
I do not want anyone to come under condemnation and feel, “Oh dear, you have destroyed the whole message this evening by saying something like that.” The fact of the matter is that there is something in the Word. If the Word says it, is it just custom?
That is exactly what they say about baptism. They say it was the custom in the first century to baptize by immersion, but as time went on it was changed into a more sophisticated way, where water was sprinkled, often in a cross on the head. It is much nicer, much more cultured, much more sophisticated. “After all, that is also baptism, is it not?”
No, it is not. I do not think so. I do not think anyone has any right to change what the Lord has ordained, certainly not to say that because we are living in the twentieth century, it has all changed. What else has changed? Where do we stop in this matter?
Why do we not sprinkle people with Sprite, or something else? What does it matter? On one occasion I was in a place where, instead of wine, they had milk, and instead of bread they had cake for the Lord’s table. It was a pleasant time, but I thought it was ridiculous.
If a loved one of mine had said, “I am going to leave you something. I want you to understand that these symbols will remind you of me and bring me to mind every time you take them,” would it not be strange if I changed them?
That is why I have a real problem when people argue about having grape juice at the Lord’s table. It does not have the same meaning. It is not the soul poured out unto death. Wine is fermented; it is living, active. “Oh, but you cannot do it today. It might cause people to stumble.” What kind of salvation have they got if that is how little deliverance is?
All departure begins with very clever and sophisticated explanations. That is where it starts. We begin to explain: “Look, we are living in very cold areas in northern Europe. You cannot immerse people in water. You will kill them.”
But, my dear friends, I do not see that we have any right to do such a thing. That is another baptism, another kind of baptism. For me, it is not baptism. Who has a right to change it? And it is the same for me with the Lord’s table.
Do not get me wrong. I drink all kinds of things all over the world—from Ribena to cranberry juice and I do not know what else—in fellowships I visit, and still I have fellowship with my blessed Lord. But it saddens me. Something unbelievably precious has been glossed over.
Something that the Lord has left to us of immense significance and value, nobody has any right to change—not for any reason whatsoever. If we can change it, it is the beginning of departure, because we can change a thousand other things as well.
If the Lord designed the body of Christ to be led by elders, it seems to me very strange if we have all women leading us. I have nothing against ladies. You may think that, because of what I said about something on the head, I have a vested interest in lady-vacation. But I have no such interest at all.
I think the sisters are tremendous. They have such a powerful part to play. Indeed, I would say the sisters have the most powerful part to play. But if the Lord has given us certain things, and we are talking about recovery, then those things are extremely important—whether for my personal life or for the fellowship of the church.
If we can change all these things from what the Word of God says, then I think we can also have gay marriage. If you say, “Oh God, I have never heard such a thing. That should not be allowed to be said in such a place as this,” there is no difference between that and changing anything else in the Word of God.
Once you start, you can change anything. The Word above is the Word of God. It is authoritative. It is inspired, and it is for our reproof, correction, and instruction, that we may be completely furnished unto every good work.
Here is my last secret for the evening, and I will not spend so long upon it. I very rarely speak upon it because, in these days, there is so much fraudulence in this matter. I want to talk about sacrificial giving.
Did you know that sacrificial giving is a secret of the Christian life? It is a secret to growth. It is a secret for multiplication. It is a secret to going right on with the Lord into all His purpose.
Let me give you some Scriptures. Luke 6:37-38:
And judge not, and ye shall not be judged: and condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: release, and ye shall be released:
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again.— Luke 6:37-38
Is that not a wonderful word? “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Now, this is true of everything. It is not just money—not just money. It is true of energy, time, and literally everything.
What you give, you will always receive. Let me put it another way: God is no man’s debtor. You will never be able to get to glory and say, “Well, Lord, I gave this and this and this, and I got nothing back. You are basically the loser in my debt.” The Lord is no man’s debtor.
Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 9:6-11:
But this I say, He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
Let each man do according as he hath purposed in his heart: not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
And God is able to make all grace abound unto you; that ye, having always all sufficiency in everything, may abound unto every good work.
As it is written, He hath scattered abroad, He hath given to the poor; His righteousness abideth for ever.
And He that supplieth seed to the sower and bread for food, shall supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness:
Ye being enriched in everything unto all liberality, which worketh through us thanksgiving to God.— 2 Corinthians 9:6-11
I think that is one of the most marvellous passages in the Word of God. You sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly. You sow bountifully, you will reap bountifully. Very simple, is it not?
Listen to this: God is able to make all grace abound unto you, that you, having always all sufficiency in everything, may abound unto every good work. I would love to know that. Oh, what is the key? The secret is this: give.
If you want to know all sufficiency in everything and always abounding unto every good work, give. I do not just mean money—do not get me wrong. Maybe you have no money to give, but you have yourself to give.
Some people will not even give themselves to fellowship. They will not commit themselves. Therefore, they become colourless, anemic pew-warmers. Of course, it is difficult here, but you know what I mean—chair-warmers.
When we commit ourselves, we always receive. The principle is very simple: give, and you shall receive.
Sometimes people say to me, “This is very good, but if you have not got anything to give, you cannot give.” But that is not what the Lord said. He said, “Whatever you have, give something of what you have, and you will receive.”
We have a wonderful illustration of this in Israel. All the life-giving water rises in Mount Hermon and flows down in the River Jordan into the Lake of Galilee, which is full of teeming fish.
It flows out through the river, right down through the Jordan Valley, to the Dead Sea. There is nothing that lives whatsoever in that water—not a shrimp, not a crab, not a fish, nothing. If you drink that water, you are dead.
You can float in the Dead Sea. In fact, it is impossible to sink in the Dead Sea. You can lie there reading a newspaper in the water, full as it is of minerals and I do not know what else. But that is by the way.
This is the lesson. What is the difference between the Lake of Galilee, the Sea of Galilee, and the Dead Sea? Why is one the living sea and the other the Dead Sea?
The living sea takes and gives, takes and gives, receives and gives. Do you understand? It teems with life. The Dead Sea takes everything and gives nothing, so everything dies.
You would have thought that all that life-giving water pouring into the Dead Sea day after day, 365 days a year, would do something. It does nothing. The Dead Sea kills it.
Oh, how many believers take all the life of God and turn it into death. How many believers take everything in ministry, everything in the Word of God, and somehow or other it is blighted with death. Nothing alive. You have not learned the simple lesson: give, and you shall receive.
This very simple lesson is tremendous, and it is one that every one of us needs to learn. Sometimes, when we have very little, we feel we cannot give because we have so little. But learn the lesson, even financially: if, as the Lord shows you, you give what you should, you will find that the Lord will honour you.
He will honour you. I have never known anyone whom the Lord has not honoured this way. I have spoken to many workers who are in pressed circumstances, and they say, “I do not know why the Lord meets your needs and does not meet ours. Maybe you are better than us.”
But that is not the question. The question is that very often you have not learned to give. Even the servant of the Lord, the worker, has to learn how to give. It is a principle from which no one is excused.
We all have to learn this simple little thing: what we give, we shall receive back—not the same, but pressed down, shaken together, and running over. When you get the next lot coming back like that, give more.
Have you ever seen anyone’s garden? Of course, here in America the gardens are utilitarian, but Britain has beautiful gardens. I see people who plant one little plant here, one little plant there, and it looks so pathetic. You should throw it all around, and the whole thing becomes a riot.
I remember a sister who used to go into her garden and cut down a great bunch of flowers. She would say, “Take it all.” They would say, “Well, you have left the garden without anything.” “By next week it will be full.” And it always was full. The more they cut, the more it bloomed.
It seems to be a principle with the Lord: he that sows sparingly reaps sparingly; he that sows bountifully reaps bountifully. You cannot take seed and say, “Now, I must be Germanically precise. I will put every seed perfectly so that it will grow, and we do not waste anything.” That is not the principle.
You have to sow bountifully. When you sow bountifully, you harvest bountifully.
May the Lord teach us some of these little secrets. They are very simple secrets. I think anybody could have told you these things, but this was the only thing that was on my heart to share with you this evening. Of course, there are a few others too, if the Lord gives us strength and power and life to share them.
I believe these are secrets of the Christian life and of Christian growth. If God could touch our hearts on these three things alone, it would transform our Christian life:
Beloved Lord, we bow here in Your presence, and we do respond to worship You, that You are so faithful. We thank You, beloved Lord, that You can take this word this evening and make it live in every one of our hearts, applying it as You will to each of our lives and circumstances.
O Lord, help us to be real people who honestly face up to things in our lives. Give us true repentance, Lord—not that kind of miserable, lonely, inward-looking kind of experience, but, Lord, those who own up to our own transgression and our own foolishness, and face it squarely.
Lord, help us to know what it is to have a living and working faith that unites us to Yourself and to Your Word. Give us an attitude to Your Word, Lord, that is absolutely faithful.
Lord, we commit ourselves to You, and help us to be a people who know something about giving—in time, in energy, in money, in every way. May we be people who know how to give, that we may be those who receive and then give even more.
Lord, make us those believers who have an overflow all the time, in which others find You. Bless us, Lord, this night. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.