Well, I’ve already had an interesting morning. It’s unfortunate I missed worship this morning. I was on the way home to get my notes. I started to do it without the notes, and I just couldn’t.
Anyway, I had a good time. I was listening to a Christian station on the way home, and it was just a time of worship. It was good. So, the Lord bless.
Lord, we come to Thee this morning. We ask that You speak to us this morning. Lord, lift the veils on our hearts that we do not even know are there—veils that hide Thy face from us, Lord Jesus; veils that keep us from really pressing in close to Your own heart; veils that cause us sometimes to go our own way instead of Your way.
Lord, in this hour, we are challenged to become warriors of the King—not for our sake, Lord, but for Thy own great name’s sake. Lord Jesus, we need to know this aspect of our life in Christ together: not only as the house of God, but as the army of God.
So we come to Thee this morning, Lord. We ask Your blessing. We ask for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Jesus Christ. We pray. Amen.
Well, last week, as I got into this matter of prayer and spiritual warfare, I was reminded of how Paul, in his last days, as he was in prison, wrote to Timothy and told him to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. It seemed to be quite on Paul’s heart—that attitude, that sense of urgency, that passion that Paul had from the time he met the Lord on the Damascus road until his very last breath.
He was sharing his passion with his coworker, Timothy, his younger brother, and he encouraged him, at that last hour of his life, to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Our brother Paul himself, when he was summarizing, his very last words almost were:
I have fought the good fight.
I have kept the faith.
It was such a challenge to my heart to be able to touch the depths of those words and what so impassioned our brother Paul.
As we get into this area of spiritual warfare, we really need to understand what it is all about. I do not know if any of y’all—and some, I know, do not watch movies—but I saw the movie The Thin Red Line. That whole movie was about the frustration of war and the fact that it made no sense.
Many of the soldiers were out there fighting, and in the midst of the battle they came to the conclusion that they did not really understand what they were fighting for or what the war was all about. All they sensed and knew was that many of their closest and dearest friends were being killed, and that they were being tested to the limits of their own mental capacity. Many could not handle the intense warfare.
In a sense, it was a very sad movie. But the more I thought about it, I said, “Well, Lord, we do need to know what this great battle is about that we are in.”
So often the enemy individualizes us and sets us aside. Like those poor soldiers, all we know is that we are having to face the guns. We are going right up the front. We are having to challenge the enemy. Many are getting hit, and we do not know what is going on.
But, brothers and sisters, there is something great about what the Lord is doing. Paul caught the vision, and it gripped him all his life. He said, “Look, from the beginning to the end, there is this issue of warfare for the Christian life. From the beginning to the end, we have to be good warriors. We have to be soldiers.”
I like the word warrior because I think it gives more of the sense of what we are called to in Christ.
So let me begin this morning. I feel like I need to continue along this line, because what the battle is over is extremely important. When we tend to get isolated in any way, or feel adrift from our brothers and sisters in any way, the enemy really goes on a serious attack.
All of a sudden, we feel like we are fighting alone. We have been thrown into a pond of alligators, and we are the only one there, and there is no way out.
Let’s go to the book of Ephesians. Remembering that Paul had earlier had this confrontation with the Lord Jesus on the Damascus road, let us begin in Ephesians 2:19.
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner stone;
in Whom each several building, fitly framed together,
groweth into a holy temple in the Lord;
in Whom ye also are builded together
for a habitation of God in the Spirit.For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus in behalf of you Gentiles,—
if so be that ye have heard of the dispensation of that grace of God
which was given me to you-ward;
how that by revelation was made known unto me the mystery,
as I wrote afore in few words,
whereby, when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding
in the mystery of Christ;
which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men,
as it hath now been revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;
to wit, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs,
and fellow-members of the body,
and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.…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.
Ephesians 2:19-22; Ephesians 3:1-6, 10-11
A few key verses: “For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ.” “I was given to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose in Christ.”
Here we see Paul declaring that he is a prisoner. Indeed, he was a prisoner. He was in prison. But Paul said, “I am a prisoner of Jesus Christ.”
The point is that, frankly, those bars did not hold the apostle Paul. He did not consider himself imprisoned by man, but he declared that he was a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Therefore, our brother Paul was a free man—free in Jesus Christ—even though he was in a jail cell.
He was a prisoner of the Lord, and I think that speaks volumes. Whose prisoner are we?
Brothers and sisters, I would say to us all today that when we are born into this world, we are born into a prison. There is only one way to be freed in this world, and that is through Jesus Christ, Who has the keys of hell and death—our Lord Jesus.
Paul had been gripped by this vision on the Damascus road, and the Lord revealed a mystery to him. That mystery was the church, through which all the unsearchable riches of Christ would be revealed.
The church is the vessel through which, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, the wisdom of God—the manifold wisdom of God—would be made known. Think of that. God has a purpose and a plan in Jesus Christ.
It is His desire that all the fullness, all the unsearchable riches of Christ, be revealed. The vessel through which He intends to do that is His church. Not only that, but the church is to be a testimony to the principalities and powers in heavenly places of the wisdom of God.
We already know that the cross is not considered wisdom by the world, but it is wisdom in Jesus Christ. The principalities and powers looked on as our Lord Jesus was crucified because of your sin and because of my sin. But praise God, on the third day they also witnessed our Lord risen from the dead, and forty days later ascending to the throne of God.
By grace, what a testimony.
The Lord Jesus says, “But My testimony does not end there. My testimony will be carried on through the church, and all the riches of Christ will one day be revealed through My church.”
Paul said he was a prisoner. He had become a prisoner of Christ. The conflict, brothers and sisters, is over the revelation of Jesus Christ. The conflict is over the revealing of all the riches of Christ through His vessel, the church.
Anywhere that Christ is manifest, anywhere that Christ is revealed, there is conflict. “Where the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together,” or the vultures, as it says in the Scriptures.
Paul had a vision of our Lord Jesus Christ. I can only say that it must have been such a tremendous vision, because Paul was blinded for three days from the vision he had of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was not the type of revelation we get where we just get excited and abound and say, “Hey, hallelujah! You know what I’ve seen?” Oh, it put him to his knees. It made him a prisoner of Jesus Christ—this vision.
Last week I also mentioned that Abraham had a vision. Abraham saw a city. From Hebrews, we know that he saw a city that had foundations. That vision gripped Abraham and carried him through his whole life and all the battles that Abraham went through.
The Lord said, “Leave everything, Abraham, and get into this promised land.” What is the promised land? It is Jesus Christ. He is our promised land.
The reality of Jesus Christ in your life is the promised land. We are told that we are to possess our possessions in Christ. You have to apprehend Christ. It is not enough to have a mental apprehension of Jesus Christ. That is not, brothers and sisters, what brings to us eternal life.
Even the devil believes that Jesus is real. It takes more than that. It takes a revelation.
Peter said:
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Matthew 16:16
Can you say that in your heart with all faith and belief? If you can, then the Spirit of the living God has come into your life, into your heart, and dwells in your spirit. Somehow you can say, “Abba, Father. He is my Father. I know Him. He is real to me.”
We need that reality in our lives. We need to have a vision of Jesus Christ. Usually, in the beginning, our vision is limited to Him as a Savior. But, brothers and sisters, He is the Lord of lords and King of kings. All the riches of heaven dwell in our Lord Jesus Christ, and He wants to bring us into possession of all those riches.
Salvation is glorious as it is, because we know that without it, brothers and sisters, our destiny is not too bright. But with it, what we have is amazing. We get little glimpses of our Lord in our lives together and in our personal lives, and it humbles us. It brings us to our knees.
We see Him, we love Him, and we come on Sundays and share around this table. We have fellowship with our Lord Jesus right here, and we are able to say, “Thank You, Lord.”
We are able to lift up Who He is before the principalities and powers. Do you think that makes a difference? It makes a tremendous difference, brothers and sisters, because the Lord says that He is enthroned in the praises of His people.
He says:
For where two or three are gathered together in My name,
there am I in the midst of them.
Matthew 18:20
Abraham had this vision, and what he saw was a city. The God of glory appeared to Abraham and told him to leave everything. It was basically saying, “Abraham, there is nothing in this world for you, really. You need to get to this special place, this promised land. There is where My heart is.”
The land later flowed with milk and honey, but the Lord said, “You have got to get there.” It is Christ. There is a testimony in that to me.
Peter had a revelation of Jesus Christ, and immediately Peter was gripped by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is interesting that the Lord immediately began to share two things with him: one was the church, and the other was the cross.
The cross is God’s way. The church is God’s means to reveal the riches of Christ. But the riches of Christ will never be manifest in the church without the cross.
Not only the cross for our salvation, but the cross daily. The Lord encourages us to take up our cross daily. Do you know why that is? It is so that the riches of Christ can be released in our lives.
Christ, when we accept Him as Lord and Savior, comes in. But it is like a seed that has to grow in our life. Much has to be gotten out of the way in our lives, and that is the work of the cross—God’s means and God’s way.
Peter’s revelation expanded. Later, we know that he had a sheet coming down. Before, he thought only the Jews would come into this great salvation. The Lord showed him all these unclean animals—the Gentiles. We are the unclean ones.
The Lord said, “What I have cleansed, Peter, you cannot refuse.” That revelation began to expand in Peter’s heart.
Later on, Peter says that we are living stones, built together—a holy habitation unto God. Living stones built together to be a spiritual house for the Lord. Not just for the Lord as if it is something given to Him, but a place where the Lord is in the midst of His people, where the Lord is satisfied and can dwell.
Built together: that is a key word.
Paul saw the mystery of the church. In Ephesians 3:10, he says that unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. In another place, he says that the church is the body of Jesus Christ, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all. And you are complete in Him. What an amazing thing to say.
So: Peter, Paul, Abraham, and then John. John, the apostle, had a vision of the Lord of lords and King of kings in the book of Revelation. What was He doing? He was walking among the candlesticks—the churches. He was walking among His church.
Brothers and sisters, He is looking. He is saying, “Is My bride ready?” He is looking for a bride, and she is not ready. He is admonishing His church.
The standard by which He judges His church is Himself. When He looks, He wants to see Himself there. He wants to see something of Himself. He wants to see bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh.
When the Lord Jesus brought Eve to Adam, Adam looked at Eve, after he had looked at all the animals, and said, “Bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. This is me.” He did not recognize that in any of the other animals. That is the way it is with the Lord. He is looking for His bride.
Brothers and sisters, we see all the failure. We know those seven churches were not perfect. We know they had not arrived yet. We know that the Lord is still working today.
But we see the finished product in Revelation 21. The Lord brings John and says, “John, behold, the bride, the wife of the Lamb, coming down from heaven.”
What did John see? Did he see a woman in a white dress? No. He sees the city.
How many of you guys want to marry a city? I am not too interested in the city of Richmond. I mean, you know, it is a city anyway. But John sees the city. Strange, isn’t it? This revelation of the bride is actually a city.
The church has finally come into His completion. The only way John can describe what he sees is a city—this marvelous city. What are some of its features?
The city is clear as crystal. It is all gold, but you can see through this gold. Gold, we know, represents the nature of God. It is just pure God. Yet it is crystal clear, and you can see through it.
That means there is no blemish or flaw in it. We know that in diamonds, if the flaw is big enough, it ruins the whole thing. No blemish. Crystal clear.
It speaks of fellowship—absolutely unbroken, unblemished fellowship, not only with the Lord, but with all brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. It is all Christ. That is what they are fellowshipping about: Christ. It is all Him.
The street of gold goes everywhere in the city, but it is one street. You cannot really get that in your mind, can you? We are limited by three dimensions. The Lord Jesus, I think, is really the fourth dimension—or the fifth one, I do not know.
But here is this one street, and it goes everywhere in the city, and it is all gold. Our daily walk will be in Jesus Christ. Our daily walk will reflect the life of God with all of our brothers and sisters.
There is the throne there. In other words, all authority is vested in our Lord Jesus Christ. His authority will be over everything, and everything will be subject to His authority. All the flesh that we have that is not subject to Christ’s authority in our lives will be gone. Praise the Lord.
The river of life is there—life, resurrection life, the same life that raised Jesus from the dead. It is the only life that will be there: His life everywhere, the river of life throughout the city.
This river flows from the throne. In other words, life and authority are one. In fact, life comes from the authority of God.
Brothers and sisters, today so often in our own lives we fail to be under the authority of Jesus Christ daily. But there, we will obey Him perfectly. What a life together.
There are gates of pearl—gates of pearl, speaking of the suffering of Jesus Christ. We know that a pearl in an oyster is formed because a grain of sand gets into the shell. In order to take away the pain, the oyster secretes a solution, layer upon layer upon layer, until a beautiful pearl is formed.
The only way into the city is through the gates of pearl. The suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ has generated a beautiful pearl. In the parable of our Lord Jesus Christ, He speaks of the man who goes out and finds the pearl of great price.
Often we say, “Well, this is the Lord Jesus,” and there is no doubt that if there is anything precious, we know it is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only One we want to call precious in our hearts and lives, because He is so far above everything else.
But in this instance, the man who is searching is the Lord. He is searching for this pearl that has come out of His sacrifice on Calvary’s cross, brothers and sisters, and that pearl is the church.
So it is through the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ that this whole thing is built. The foundation is built upon precious stones.
Precious stones come about through tremendous heat. They say that a diamond is formed from carbon—a chunk of coal. That is what we are, other than water: carbon. But it is through the pressure, down in the belly of the earth, through the pressures of time, that this great diamond is formed.
Precious stones are formed that way. They are formed in the hidden place. They are formed through pressure. Brothers and sisters, that is what the warfare is about. It is pressure upon our lives, no doubt about it. But the Lord is looking for those precious stones to come forth.
That whole city is built upon a foundation of precious stone, of which Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. In this case, it means that all the stones come out of that one Stone.
He is the light of this city. There is no sun anymore, no moon. The Lord Jesus Himself is the light of it. He shines throughout this whole city, and He dwells in the midst of His people.
Let me show you something to help explain what I am talking about. This is a very simple example, and not very dramatic. The Lord Jesus Christ desires to manifest Himself through the church today.
This crystal city is going to be marvelous. The light of our Lord Jesus Christ is a brilliant light. It is the glory of God.
Remember when He went to the Mount of Transfiguration? It said He began to glow. His glory was veiled by His physical body. That is why men could behold the Lord Jesus as He walked on this earth.
The humanity—the human flesh—of our Lord Jesus Christ veiled Him in such a way that we could behold Him. John says:
And we beheld His glory,
glory as of the only begotten from the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
We were not destroyed by His Shekinah glory, which Moses could only turn his back to. We were not destroyed because He had taken on humanity.
In this city, the Lord Jesus will reveal Himself in fullness. It is a crystal city, so I brought a crystal with me. Actually, this is from Brazil, from my trip down there.
Now, this is a very poor representation, but you see this bright light right there, brother? It is kind of bright, isn’t it? You do not want to look at it for too long, do you?
The point is, if you see this light, you do not want to be glaring right into it. It is a brilliant white light—not nearly as brilliant as the sun, obviously, or as the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a spot on the wall, and it is a brilliant white light. This is a very poor representation, but we think of this as the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ shining forth. When we put this crystal in it, you begin to see those little rainbows appearing.
There is a little red in it, a little blue, a little white. You see all of those different colors and reflections. It is the light refracting through this crystal.
We see different hues and colors beginning to come through. This is not a perfect crystal; therefore, we do not get a perfect manifestation of that light.
What has happened is that the brilliant white light has been manifested in such a way that now you begin to see different shapes and different colors. White light is a combination of all its other colors.
We could only see a couple of colors up there, but do you see what the Lord is trying to do? He wants to manifest His glory in all its brilliance, with all the various colors, all the various shades. In other words, all of the life of Christ.
However it is manifested, you might be a little blue. Some of us might be brown. A little red, a little green. But all of this life of Christ—once the glory of the Lord shines through this crystal and shines in the city—will manifest to all the principalities and powers, and to the worlds that will be made for eternity, the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What I did here today is no different than when you go out on a spring day after a thunderstorm, look off in the sky, and see a rainbow. What has happened is that the sun is refracted through those crystals of water, and the light begins to show its different colors.
It has all been hidden in this bright white light. We almost take the rainbow for granted, but it is a divine thing.
I believe there is a rainbow around that throne. It was a promise that He would not destroy the earth again, but it also gives us a glimpse into what the Lord’s heart is: to reflect all the glory of the light. Jesus Christ is the Light.
What have we seen? Abraham saw a city. Peter saw the house, the temple, the dwelling place of God—living stones built together for a habitation of God. Paul saw the body of Jesus Christ, the vessel of testimony. John saw the bride, and when we see the bride, we see that it is really a city.
Do you see that this is all part of the same vision? It is all a part of the same vision. It is a vision of the fullness of Jesus Christ.
Men are trying their best to describe in some way what they see. But, brothers and sisters, the Lord is looking for a temple, a house, built together in Jesus Christ, where He can dwell in the midst of His people.
He is looking for a body, a vessel through which He can manifest all of His wisdom and all of His glory. He is looking for this bride, one who can join with Him not only in life, because our life does come from the Lord Jesus Christ, but one who has union with Him in heart.
He wants a union with Him where what He is pleased with, we are pleased with; what He desires, we desire; what His purpose is, is our purpose.
There is a battle over it. There is a battle over every manifestation of this vision.
This vision and revelation that John has is not something that is just going to pop out of nowhere. It is not that we, as brothers and sisters, can live our lives as we choose, and one day it will just happen.
It has been happening all along. It has been growing all along. It has been maturing all along. As broken as the church may appear today to us, God is still moving. God is working toward His eternal purpose, and He has been throughout the ages.
Everywhere there has been a testimony of Jesus Christ to His life, the enemy has attacked it. If you are going to be a warrior, you need to know what the warfare is over.
Adam was put in the garden. The garden was a perfect garden. Even the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in itself, was not wrong. The problem was that Adam chose to live that way on his own, instead of by the tree of life, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Adam and Eve were in a perfect place. They were perfectly innocent, but sin came in, and they were put out of the garden. The Lord had daily fellowship with them in that garden. He was meeting with them every day, sharing with them. The garden had all the provisions.
But He set an angel there with a fiery sword to guard the way of the tree of life.
The enemy immediately attacked the Lord’s heart and the Lord’s purpose. But thank God, He did not give up. He said there would come a seed. They had Abel, and Abel gave testimony to the fact that Christ would be the sacrifice, the Lamb of sacrifice.
He sacrificed the lamb, and it says his sacrifice was pleasing to God. What Cain brought was not pleasing to God.
Some may think that Cain was treated a little unfairly, but let me say this: the cross is God’s way. It is God’s means; it is God’s way. Through that sacrifice is the only way.
Abel gave testimony to that fact. Really, he was giving testimony that Jesus would be the Lamb of God for the whole world. The enemy attacked Abel, and he used Cain to do it. In fact, he used Cain to destroy Abel.
But the line was continued through Seth. The line of Christ was continued through Seth. The enemy began to work, and the Bible says it got so bad that the Lord decided He would destroy the whole earth with a flood.
But He found one family acceptable to Him, and that family was Noah. Think of that, brothers and sisters. I do not know how many people were on the earth in those days, but none of them would God choose to go on into this new earth that He would bring forth after the flood—except Noah and his family.
Noah spent a hundred and some years—I do not know, it was a long time—building a boat. This boat is called the ark.
The way through judgment is Jesus Christ. One day God will judge this earth and judge everything that is not of Jesus Christ. The only way to escape the judgment is Jesus Christ. He is our boat of salvation. He is the ark of salvation.
Noah had this tremendous testimony on earth. I am sure Noah and his family were greatly criticized, because there had never been rain up to that point—just heavy dews in the morning to water the earth. He was testifying of coming judgment and of God, and no one would listen.
But there was this ark that he was commissioned to build. Brothers and sisters, today we are commissioned to be the house of God, to be the body of Christ, to be the coming bride of Christ. What a vocation we have been given.
Though Noah and his family were saved and started to multiply, the enemy continued to work in men’s hearts. Then God chose Abraham.
What a work of grace. Abraham’s father made idols. He was an idol maker—a maker of idols. Abraham certainly did not have anything in his personal circumstances to bring him to God, or to give him any interest in God. I would assume that he helped his father build and make those idols.
Abraham is called the father of faith. God’s work will be a work of faith, not of men’s hands, but a work of faith. That is the way we will know God.
The Lord of glory appeared to Abraham. He said, “Leave everything.” What was the purpose of that? What was He doing with Abraham?
Somewhere along the way—and we do not know where—Abraham began to see what God was after. He knew that he had to get to this promised land. He got into the promised land, spent all those years there, went down to Egypt for a while, and then came back.
In the end, as I mentioned last week, we know that he had a revelation from God of this city. Hebrews says that Abraham looked for a city that had foundations.
Somewhere along the line, Abraham began to realize that God was after something far greater than merely the earthly thing he was looking for: this heavenly city that God was going to build. Somehow Abraham had a part in that.
He got into this land, and I do not know what Abraham’s expectations were, but in the end all he had, brothers and sisters, was a gravesite, which he purchased for four hundred shekels—first for his wife, and then, of course, he was buried there.
That was all he had. But Abraham served God in his generation. Abraham had his part in the full purpose God was after—this great city. It became a great part, but at the time I wonder what Abraham must have been thinking: “Lord, what am I doing here? I left my family. I left all of this. I came into this land, expecting glory and milk and honey and all these great things, and I end up with nothing of my own except a place to bury my wife and myself.”
Abraham’s testimony was something, brothers and sisters. He did not let go of what he had seen. It gripped him his whole life, and he stuck to it.
There is one other Person I know of Who came into this world, born in poverty and raised in poverty. At the end of His life, after He was crucified on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea had to give Him a grave. It was a borrowed grave for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you not think that Abraham’s testimony is something of the coming One Who would walk this earth, give His life for everything, give His life for His bride, and end up with only a borrowed grave?
But something marvelous happened on the cross of Calvary. When that soldier pierced our Lord’s side, blood and water came out. John makes a great issue of the fact that he testified that there was blood and water coming out of the side of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The work of redemption was finished, because the Lord had already said, “It is finished.” It is a finished work. “I have done it. All men need to do is believe in Me now, because I have done this work of redemption on your behalf. I have become your sacrifice.”
The Lord Himself becomes our redemption.
Just a gravesite for our Lord. It seemed like He had missed it, did it not? It seemed like He had missed it. But blood and water came out.
What I understand—and I do not know this to be absolutely true—is that perhaps, as our Lord was hanging on the cross, the sack around His heart filled with water from all the pressure of hanging there. When the soldier pierced His side, it went into the heart of our Lord Jesus, and out of His heart came blood and water.
It was to be the beginning of the bride: the water for the life He was to give us, eternal life; the blood for the redemption of our sin. Upon this, the church is built, brothers and sisters. We know the actual birth took place at Pentecost.
There was Abraham. After that, through the history of Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses, we see how the enemy worked to keep them from God’s purpose—to keep them out of the promised land.
Remember Joseph? Joseph had visions. Remember the tremendous attack Joseph faced when he began to share his vision? His brothers dug a pit, threw him in it, and sold him into slavery.
They were so upset by what he had to share. Of course, they took it as pride on Joseph’s part, as if he were trying to be the big man by saying, “My sheaf is going to eat up all of your sheaves.”
But Joseph had a good heart. All he was doing was sharing this vision that he had. And it brought warfare on. The warfare just continues.
We see all the warfare that occurred in trying to get the people into the promised land, where God’s heart was. Before they got there, the Lord brought Moses to Mount Sinai.
What did Moses do on Mount Sinai? He was up there forty days; he had to do something. We know the Lord gave him the law, the Ten Commandments.
We tend to focus on the Ten Commandments. After all, they are a testimony to the nature of God. They let men know what He expects and something of Who He is.
It takes about half a chapter to talk about the Ten Commandments in the book of Exodus. It takes four chapters to discuss the other associated laws. Then there are twelve other chapters about something God showed Moses while he was on that mountain during those forty days.
The Lord gave him all the details of the tabernacle—every detail. He said, “I want you to build it exactly like I tell you, Moses.”
What was God doing? He wanted to live in the midst of His people. The Lord Jesus was not satisfied that one day there would be a city that would pop out of nowhere. No, He started right then. He said, “I am going to build a tabernacle.”
Everything in the tabernacle spoke of Jesus Christ. It was a testimony to Jesus Christ. The tablets of the law were put in the ark, representing the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was the candlestick, the light from God—Jesus Christ. There was the showbread: Jesus is the bread of life.
There was the laver, the water and cleansing we receive through our Lord Jesus Christ. There was the brazen altar where the sacrifice was made—the cross of Calvary.
Everything about that temple speaks of the Lord. It is a testimony in the midst of a people to the Lord Jesus Christ. God Himself was able to take some of His glory into the Holy of Holies, where the ark was, which is Jesus Christ.
But there was a curtain guarding men, because if men looked in there without the Lord’s provision, they would be immediately destroyed—vaporized, probably.
The point is that the testimony of Jesus continues down through the ages, all the way from Adam, Abel, and Seth. It just keeps going. This testimony is expanding in various ways.
We get to this part of Exodus, and we see the Lord builds a tabernacle. It is more of a revelation of Jesus Christ on this earth.
We know what happened in all the intensity of the enemy against that testimony on the earth. Eventually, the people got away from the Lord. The ark was captured and set aside for many, many years.
The enemy thought he had done his work in destroying the testimony of Jesus on this earth. But God raised up David—a man after God’s heart.
What was the first thing David did when he became king? He took the stronghold of Zion. Zion is a mountain in Jerusalem. It speaks of the authority of God. David took that stronghold, found the ark where it had been put, and brought the ark there.
Then David went to the Lord and said, “Lord, this is not right, that You have to dwell in tents. I want to build You a house, Lord.”
The Lord said to David, “In all of My history with man, I have never told man that I had this on My heart. But you have discovered My heart.” That is why the Bible says David was a man after God’s own heart.
The Lord said, “You have discovered My heart, David.” Then He said, “I will build you a house. I will set a King upon the throne Who will be an everlasting King”—our Lord Jesus.
We see David’s permanent temple, a glorious temple lined with gold. Once again, everything about that temple speaks of Jesus Christ and is testimony in the earth.
But eventually that temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Later Persia conquered Babylon, and King Cyrus was raised up—a Gentile king.
The Lord laid it on Cyrus’s heart to allow the people of God, whoever was willing, to go back and rebuild the temple and the wall for their God. That is pure grace, brothers and sisters—absolute grace and mercy.
Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Joshua returned, and later Nehemiah. Fifty thousand, out of all the nation of Israel, returned to do this work: to raise up a testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ.
When they built it, it was such a small replica of what Solomon had built that the older ones who had seen the old temple cried. The young men, who had never seen the old temple, rejoiced for joy because a testimony was there.
But I want you to know something: it was the same temple. The same temple. It was a part of that city. It was a small manifestation on earth of what the city will be.
Once again, the enemy worked, and that too was destroyed. But God was not finished. God sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, and all the fullness of God dwells in Jesus Christ.
He came upon this earth and took on the form of humanity. He took on a physical body like you and I have today.
He was a revelation of God in fullness—or as fully as He could reveal Himself in that body. But remember, He was limited in that body. He could only see a few people. He could only talk to a few people. He could only go here and there.
In Luke 12:50, the Lord Jesus said:
But I have a baptism to be baptized with;
and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!
Luke 12:50
He was saying, “I am locked up in this body. I need a body through which I can manifest Myself.” The baptism He was speaking of was the cross, where His whole life would be poured out.
Today, brothers and sisters, you have the life of Christ in you. He needed a body through which He could exhibit His fullness, and the one He had while He walked this earth was very limiting to Him.
The enemy worked to destroy Jesus Christ in that body, and on Calvary’s cross He was crucified. But our Lord Jesus rose from the dead.
On the day of Pentecost, one hundred and twenty were gathered in that upper room. I know you have heard this before, but it is so significant: they were baptized by the Holy Spirit into one body.
They were no longer merely individual brothers and sisters, individual Christians looking unto the Lord. They were put together by the Holy Spirit in a special way, and they became one body.
There are not many bodies. I want to be very clear on that. There are not many bodies. There is one body, and it is the life of Christ.
The Holy Spirit did a work on that day. He created a new body for our Lord Jesus Christ. When this body finally matures, Christ will have His bride. Christ will have that holy city.
Peter said we are living stones built together, a spiritual house. Living stones—each of us—built together as a spiritual house. Paul said the church is the fullness of Him Who fills all in all. Do we believe that?
In Ephesians, Paul says that Christ gave His life for the church. The church is to be His bride, to be in perfect union with Him, to share His heart with Him.
The Lord Jesus will have the city that has foundations. He will have His bride.
The enemy has been attacking the testimony of Jesus—the church—down through the ages. Just as at Calvary it looked like he had won, today, brothers and sisters, when we look at our midst and look at the church universally, we may say that it appears the enemy has won.
But I want you to know that he has not. The gates of Hades will not prevail.
I do not know if you believe that or not, but brothers and sisters, I think I do. I say that very cautiously because you will be tried over that. You will be tried over whether you think His words are true: that the gates of Hades will not prevail.
Obviously, it means that the gates will try. The gates of Hades are the full panoply of all the enemy’s work on this earth.
By revelation, we see that God is calling His people in this last hour to overcome. In the book of Revelation, in every church, He ends with the call to overcome.
What does that mean? It means today that we are to stand. Remember, in Ephesians it says, “Stand” and “withstand,” and it is mostly done through prayer.
We need to stand as a testimony on earth in this hour, to be a small part of what the Lord is doing. We need to stand that He will have many sons come to glory. We need to stand that the house will be built—this house made without hands, this house of living stones.
We still have to stand for it, regardless of its condition.
Even when the fifty thousand went back, the condition was awful. But they got rid of the rubble. Somebody asked me what I meant by that not long ago, because they thought I was talking about brothers and sisters. I was not.
I said, “No, it is the flesh in us. That is the rubble. It has got to go. It is what keeps the house from being built: the flesh.”
We need to stand. We need to stand that the bride will be made ready, or matured, and that takes the work of the cross. We need to stand on God’s Word that the gates of Hades will not prevail, and that His city will be completed.
I will end here today, but I hope that God will give us revelation. I think I began by saying it is not enough to have a mental apprehension of these things. God has to show it to us by His Holy Spirit.
It gripped Paul’s life, and he said, “I have fought the good fight.”
Brothers and sisters, I do not know when I get to the end if that will be my testimony or not. I know I have failed a lot.
But the worst thing about failure in our lives is to go on in that failure. God would never have us do that. God would have us rise up.
God would have us rise up by His own grace, not by the grace that we have, not by our own strength, not by merely gritting our teeth. We are to rise up in the grace of God—the life that raised our Lord from the dead.
We are to rise up and say, “Lord, we have got to build Your house. You have got to have this testimony.”
“Lord, I do not know why You are working this way, but I look back. I see Abel giving his life. I see, when everything seemed to come to an end in the days of Noah, You had the ark. You brought the people out of Egypt, finally out of bondage. What did You do? You built a tent of testimony.”
There was tremendous warfare over that tent. Through their journey, everything went fairly well for these folks until they built the tent of testimony.
The Lord fed them. The Lord gave them water. But when they had the tent of testimony, everything broke loose. The people turned on the Lord. The people turned on one another. Everything was going wrong.
It became so bad that the enemy thought he could bring the prophet Balaam in and testify against these people before God, saying, “Curse them.”
I believe the enemy was convinced at that point that these people were so bad that God would curse them. Sometimes we feel like that, I think. But I want to encourage us, because that is not what God wants us to do.
What did God say at that point?
He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob;
neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel.
Numbers 23:21
How could He say that? Do you know how He could say that? He saw the tent of testimony there, and that testimony represented Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ, He knew the blood was there, and He could say, “I see no iniquity.”
That is what the Lord has done for you and me, brothers and sisters.
We should not continue in failure. Sometimes we fall into sin. There is something that grips our lives. We have seen something of the Lord and what He wants, and it has gripped our lives, but there is something there that keeps saying to us, “Give up, give up, give up.”
I want you to know what the enemy is always doing. The enemy is always trying to put you in a place where, if you are going to stand for the testimony of Jesus Christ, you are going to have to die for it. He is going to put you in that place.
The best example I know is Daniel—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We all know the story. The king built this great statue and said, “You have got to worship this statue.”
The enemy said, “There are three of your princes in the kingdom, rulers in the kingdom, who will not bow before this.” The king brought them up, was extremely angry, and said, “You will bow or die. I will throw you in the fiery furnace.”
They said, “No, we will not bow, king.”
Our God Whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace;
and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king,
that we will not serve thy gods,
nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
Daniel 3:17-18
They said, “The Lord can deliver us, but if He does not, we are not going to bow. We will go into the fire.”
You see what the enemy was doing? He wanted these three to give up. He wanted them to deny the Lord in their lives. They would not do it. They would not give up. But the enemy put them in the place where they thought they were going to die. If they kept the testimony of Jesus in their lives, they were going to die.
The king heated the furnace seven times hotter. It was so hot that the strongest men in the kingdom took hold of those three, wrapped them up in their clothes and tunics, and went over to throw them into the fire. The men who threw them in were consumed by the flames.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell into the furnace. They did not deny the testimony of Jesus, and they fell into that fiery pit.
The king looked down and said, “What is happening? I see one like the Son of God in the midst of the fire.” We call Him the fourth Man in the fire.
I want you to know, brothers and sisters, anywhere there is a battle over the testimony of Jesus, the fourth Man in the fire is always there.
The fourth Man was in the fire. The king told them to come forth. Nobody was going in there to get them, but they came out. They came out of the pit.
Listen to this: they were bound in their clothes, yet they had not been singed anywhere. Not even the smell of smoke was on them.
The Lord defends His testimony, brothers and sisters, and He will have it. But the point is that sometimes in our lives, we are put in the place where the enemy is saying, “If you keep the testimony of Jesus in your life in this situation, I am going to destroy you.”
We feel it. We know it. But the Lord raised them up.
He did the same thing for Daniel in the lions’ den. The enemy tricked Daniel, and Daniel had to be thrown into the pit. If Daniel would give up the testimony of Jesus, he would go into the lions’ den. He did, and the lions fell asleep. Thank God.
Lord, we come to Thee today. I pray that You will open up our hearts and our eyes to see You, to see what You are after, that we can be a people, Lord, joined in union not only in life, but in purpose and in heart.
Lord, as weak of vessels as we are, with all of our failures, we look to the blood of Jesus Christ this morning. Lord, we give You all the glory.
Lord, we know and have confidence in the fact that the gates of Hades have not prevailed against You, and they will not prevail against Your church.
Lord, thank God that one day there will be a city: no more sin, no more self, no more sorrows, no more tears—just Jesus Christ. Amen.