I am so thankful to the Lord for your open hearts. It is a very wonderful group to speak to. I confess that yesterday afternoon I was not sure I was getting through, but from the comments and the way you have been sharing with me, I thank the Lord for His speaking and for opening your hearts to receive my burden.
I was saying yesterday, just by way of review—and I know there are some who were not here yesterday—that this universe, as God designed and planned it, is person-centred. Out of His personhood, all the principles that govern follow. Because these principles are wonderful, they are going to fulfil the purpose that God has had.
I need to say to you that we who speak and are working together have a confidence in one another. I am so glad to come to a group like this because I know I am not alone. I have brothers whom we have known for years, and if I were a little bit off or something needed adjustment, I know they would come to me. We just sort of have a common understanding. We do not correct from the pulpit, but we come to one another.
That is a confidence you can have, and it is a confidence that I have because we are not all-knowing and we are not all-understanding. We believe that God can help us adjust. So, if from service to service there seems to be a little difference in emphasis and so forth, we trust that God is speaking and that He will work.
I have a lot to cover this afternoon, and we have a lot of time, so hang on. Turn to Hebrews 12, if you will, please.
We bow for a moment.
Father, we acknowledge that You are the One who speaks to our hearts. The voice of a man may come forth, but we pray that it will be the voice of the Lord, portioning out to each one something that can be encouraging, instructing, edifying, and adjusting. You know us this afternoon. I repeat once again, Lord, I look to You in helplessness, but in the confidence that You will speak to Your people. So we thank You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
One of the things that has been very helpful, following along from what we were saying yesterday, is the fact that God has a way of completing and putting together things that always need to be together.
I think I will use as a title this afternoon: Divine Completions, Divine Counterparts—things that God puts together that must never be separated.
I need some further help. I dropped my voice yesterday, and if I do, somebody in the back just kind of wave your hand. Will you do that? Thank you, way back there, sister. You be my waiver. I have a tendency to drop my voice, but I want to be understood. Thank you for your help.
Divine counterparts. We are going to look into a portion of the Word here in Hebrews 12 and see some things that God puts together that I believe we need to keep together.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us 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.— Hebrews 12:1
I need a little background before I introduce the first counterpart. It is interesting that when God placed Adam in the garden, I believe He had a wonderful purpose that He was going to work out through Adam as the progenitor. In some ways, I like to picture the fact that Adam stood at the gateway of choice.
Adam could give himself to the purpose that God had to work out through him. Because God is Who He is, He allowed Adam to make a choice. We call it free moral agency. We know that Adam made a choice to go his own way.
Not only did Adam turn to his own way, but it says that all we like sheep have turned to our own way. Adam could have given himself to fulfil the purpose of God, but he turned to go his own way.
In due time, God devised a way by which, through the work of the cross, He could rescue man, bring him from his fallen condition, and bring him onto the racecourse.
I bring this up because the first counterpart we are going to look at is what we call the rescue and the race. Man, in his fallen condition, needs to be redeemed, rescued, and brought back to the line of purpose so that he can begin again to fulfil that which God planned.
It is very important to remember that man needs rescue, but he also needs to run the race of life. I have met many people through the years who assume that they can run the race, fulfil, and accomplish that which God wanted; but they do not realize that first they have to be rescued.
Now, may I say, only Adam started there. We all start down here in our fallen condition. God, through the work of the Lord Jesus and all the many aspects of the rescue, redeems us. He brings us out of our fallen condition that we might move to the racecourse in order to fulfil the purpose of God.
So the first thing we get hold of is that He says we run the race. You cannot run the race until you have been rescued. Amen.
May I acquaint you with my peculiarity? I forgot yesterday. When I want you to talk back to me, I put my hand in my ear, and you say, “Oh me,” or “Oh my,” or something. Thank you.
We recognize that it is impossible to run the race until you have been rescued and brought to the racecourse. But my quarrel with so many people is that they want to be rescued but not run the race. It is so easy to settle down and say, “Thank You, Lord. You saved me. You got me out of my condition.”
Now, I do not want to make this too simple, because in this whole rescue operation there are so many things. We receive forgiveness, reconciliation, justification, sanctification, and all the other aspects. There are a lot of things. In some ways, we are always reckoning back on the cross, always reckoning on a deeper rescue work in our lives. We never get through that.
But in another way, once we reach the racecourse, we are ready to run. We are going to see a little bit later that this is by the grace of God. A little bit later, we are going to see that there is another kind of grace always available in fulfilling the racecourse.
The first two things, then, are rescue and race. I was in Japan a number of years ago, and a lovely brother from Finland was my interpreter for four days. It was such a shock to him that God had a twofold picture. He said, “I always just thought it was like this, and one day I would run the race and get to heaven.”
For four days, every time he interpreted, he would say, “Now let me give them my new revelation. I just discovered both the rescue and the race.”
Many of God’s children have never realized that while the rescue is all-important, fulfilling the race is also essential. This is why I believe Paul is saying:
Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
— Hebrews 12:1
You go back to 1 Corinthians 9, where Paul says we all run in a race and there is a prize to win. But I want to quickly move on, because there is another counterpart that I think is interesting.
He says:
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,
despising shame,
and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.— Hebrews 12:2
I knew this verse and pondered it many times before I came to realize that here is another thing that I believe needs to be made clear for us. For my first thirty or thirty-five years of ministry, I emphasized endurance.
In fact, as I saw it on almost every page in the Bible, if you are going to really run and finish the race as good soldiers, you must learn to endure. I see it all over because it is a very important thing that, in our perseverance and endurance, we come to recognize the disciplines that the Holy Spirit works in our lives.
So I would have to say that my early ministry was pretty much with one emphasis: endure. Then one day God spoke to me and said, “It would be all right to enjoy Me.”
I almost said, “I rebuke you, devil.” That cannot be. Enjoy?
But it did not take long before God began to open things up, and I saw it from Genesis right on through. Adam was in a garden. God said, “Adam, all these trees…” You know, eating is enjoyable. We have been kind of proving that, have we not?
I began to see enjoyment every place I turned—the enjoyment of the Lord. But it was so foreign to me that I did not feel easy about it. I honestly felt like, “No, I am not really spiritual unless I am enduring.” Do I have any company? Not many, anyway.
For quite a period, God began to develop this whole enjoyment side because I was so completely lopsided. I have been told that when a bird has one weak wing, it flies in circles. I have also been told that the reason people walk in circles when they are lost in the forest is because sometimes one leg is shorter.
It is very easy to go round and round and round until God builds the divine balance into our lives. My plea for us this afternoon is this: when God joins things together, let no man put them asunder. Both the rescue and the race are necessary. Both have their divine place in the divine economy.
The same thing is true with enduring and enjoying. I recognize that because I saw so many people over here who had gotten into the ditch and were in a happiness cult. The only thing in life was being happy. Because they were in the ditch over there, I had my own ditch. I had the suffering cult: “If you are going to really make it through, it is all suffering.”
Now, either ditch is wrong. Either emphasis is wrong. When we react, we usually overreact toward the ditches, do we not? You see the extreme. But when God has His way in working in our lives, He is going to bring the proper enduring as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and the enjoyment that is involved.
We do not need to worry about the ditches if we are looking unto Jesus. Look at the principle:
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
— Hebrews 12:2
I have such confidence this afternoon that if I am really keeping my eyes focused—yesterday we talked about being principle-centred, and a lot of folk are principle-centred—they emphasize only the principles without realizing that God is always the One Who governs, the One Who controls every principle.
Somebody is here this afternoon saying, “Lord, maybe I need balance. Maybe I need to enjoy some more.” Do not take my word. Ask the Lord what He wants to do in balancing out your life. Do I need to enjoy more? I do not think too many of us need too much more enjoyment. Many of us need to endure a little bit more. You follow?
Only God can meet that need in your life. I have been interested in the way God begins to develop a principle once you see it. It begins to expand and unfold.
I remember a number of years ago when we were in Aeschi, Switzerland. One afternoon, Brother Sparks walked into the fellowship meeting place. He looked over the group and said, “What is glory?”
We thought it was a rhetorical question, so we waited for him to tell us. But he did not. He waited. I thought, “Well, maybe he wants an answer.” I thought glory was some gigantic, stupendous, colossal, enormous unveiling of the character of God. My cogs were working, but I did not say anything. I am thankful.
When nobody was responding, he finally said, “I will give you one word. Glory is satisfaction.”
That was not too meaningful to me at the time. But in the years that have followed, I have come more and more to appreciate that when all things come to finality, the fullness God has planned will represent the glory that brings satisfaction to His own heart.
The unique thing about this is that God could never be satisfied just having things alone. That is why the Father, from the beginning, longs and plans to have a vast family, all of them conformed to the image of His lovely Son.
I believe that when that finality comes—a many-membered family, all conformed to the likeness and image of the Lord Jesus—that which was in His heart will bring a great sense of satisfaction.
That brought me to recognize that satisfaction is not something you can experience alone. Enjoyment always requires mutuality—others involved.
Let me illustrate. Many years before I was married—I was married at thirty-three and a half—I travelled the country. We drove most of the time, over a hundred times to the West Coast. I would go through various areas and think, “Oh, my mother would like that.” She loved scenery. She loved new places.
I waited for the time when I could bring her to see it because I could not enjoy it by myself. To me, that is a built-in mutuality that God has placed within us. To this day, when I am in the midst of some enjoyment, I think, “Oh, if so-and-so were here. If so-and-so were here.”
I was privileged to take Mother to many places—Canada and other trips. Oh, how she enjoyed it. I enjoyed it, Mother, because she enjoyed it. Do you think that might be something in the heart of God?
Are you enjoying? He wants to bring us, I believe, to the enjoyment of all that there is. In that enjoyment, there comes a satisfaction back to Him.
That has been growing in my heart ever since, because I began to realize how much of the time my emphasis was like one short wing, going round and round in endurance. All I can pray this afternoon is that none of you will get hold of one principle, but that you will let God develop both wings in your bird. Amen?
Both enduring and enjoying. I believe that brings us to the place where we can run the race and fulfil. Since I got hold of some enjoyment, I have been interested in how many folk come and say, “You enjoy being a Christian, do you not?” I do. It is not hard all the time.
There are times when you come back to work on this wing a little bit. There is some enduring. But if God can so work in our lives, I am convinced He will make us a lovely specimen, even here—a lovely example of two counterparts that must be working in our lives.
Well, we need to move on. Verse 3:
For consider Him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against Himself,
lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin;
and ye have forgotten the exhortation which reasoneth with you as with sons,
My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou art reproved of Him;
for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons;
for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?
But if ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers,
then are ye bastards, and not sons.Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us,
and we gave them reverence:
shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them;
but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous;
yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby,
even the fruit of righteousness.— Hebrews 12:3–11
Let me just take a moment to introduce our next counterpart. I think Paul is saying that for those who are going to make progress on the racecourse and fulfil the thing God wants, there is a need for child training. Chastening is kind of hard, so let us just call it child training.
The disciplining that comes, the training in our lives, is necessary. It is that which God is continually doing by the Holy Spirit to bring us to maturity. Along with that, there is another counterpart that we need to recognize.
If I understand the Word of God, there is a distinction between those who are children—tekna, little ones—and those who are sons—huios, the Greek word. This is very descriptive because I believe that when we are redeemed, God brings us back to the racecourse, and in one sense, as we reach this place, we are children, little tekna, just learning the way of the Lord.
But God wants, by the Spirit of adoption working in our lives, to bring us to a fuller maturity. One of the problems we run into when reading this is that we have a conception of adoption that is strictly Western and not necessarily biblical.
In the biblical conception of adoption, when we are born into the family, we have a relationship with Him. We are tekna; we are children. As we learn to walk, are led by the Spirit of God, and follow into maturity, that sonship grows and develops in our lives, and we come into adoption as the Spirit of adoption works.
Our Western conception is that you go to an adoption place and bring somebody in. That is not biblical adoption. Biblical adoption is not a matter of relationship but a matter of positioning.
Let me illustrate. In Greece, Rome, and Hebrew culture, a child would be born into a family. That father would often select a noble pedagogue, sometimes a slave who had come from a very wonderful place and had lots of ability. He would put that little child under the tutelage of a pedagogue—a child trainer, a teacher.
It was the purpose of that pedagogue to train the little child in the ways of the father, to embrace the spirit, mind, and purpose of the father, and to bring that child to the place where he could finally be placed in his fuller sonship rights.
A son, yes; but the spirit of the pedagogue working in that life was to bring that little one to the place where he could finally be placed. Interesting, is it not?
Isaiah said:
For unto us a Child is born,
unto us a Son is given;
and the government shall be upon His shoulder.— Isaiah 9:6
There is something of preparation in this whole thing we call adoption. This is not mine. You can look in the Scofield footnotes and other places and recognize that relationship is in the family as a child, but positioning into the maturity that comes in adoption is another thing.
Here we have the two words: teknon, the word for child; huios, the word for son. The word adoption in Greek is huiothesia. I do not know much Greek, but I know a couple of words. Huiothesia means son-placing.
What would happen? The time would come when this child had reached the place where the tutelage of the pedagogue had been working in his life. The whole family would be gathered into the ceremony, and the little child would be brought into the middle. His robes of childhood would be taken off, and robes of sonship would be placed upon him. It was the placing—the huiothesia.
The father would say, “This is my beloved son, in whom I take great delight.” Ever hear that? Someone told me that was a common thing that was said, not just in Scripture but commonly.
Unto us a Child is born, a Son is given, and now the government shall be upon His shoulder. God is working in your life and my life, and one of the things He is doing in child training, chastening, and disciplining is bringing us to the time when there can be a placing in our lives.
Someone says, “If the Spirit of adoption is working, that is the pedagogue teaching, training, disciplining, and working in our lives. What is it for?” It is unto the placing as mature sons.
I have such a longing for this to be clear in the church today because so many individuals are thinking, “Well, one of these days when I get there, I will get to reign with the Lord. It will be wonderful.”
Years ago, walking out of a morning service in Oregon, two sweet little sisters were ahead of me in line. The man who had been speaking that morning was talking about rewards and reigning. I heard one of them whisper, “Can hardly wait. How many cities do you want to reign over? I will take five.” The other said, “Well, I could handle two.”
I thought to myself, “Oh, God, I am so glad You do not hand out reigning without preparation—without some child training, without some disciplining.”
Beloved, all that we are speaking about this afternoon is simply the fact that God wants the discipline, the child training, that which the Spirit of adoption is working in us, to bring us finally to the place where there can be adoption: full placing as mature sons.
A question is going to come before we leave: “How much adoption can we have now?” My brother Kong can answer that. I really do not know.
But I think I have watched the lives of some individuals who have gone through the disciplining and the working of God in their lives, and I see God giving more authority, more discernment, and more understanding of His ways. When we come to know His mind and His ways, His Spirit begins to become our spirit controlling. I believe there is already some placing taking place.
One of these days, we will put off this body of flesh. We will be clothed with our tabernacle from above, and at that time probably the full adoption will be manifest. In the meantime, there is child training and disciplining going on.
I pray, “Oh God, do not let us separate this placing from the child training.” Somebody is going to say, “Thank you, brother. I am going home and pray for more child training, more scourging, more discipline.” Let me tell you, that is one thing you do not need to pray for.
Why? My loving Father says, “I love you too much to leave you the way you are. That is why I am working in your life.” He marks all along the way. “Oh God, do I have to?” No.
But there is something that rises in my spirit and says, “Oh God, do not let me settle down and be comfortable, so that I resist Your disciplining, Your child-training work.”
If you understand that the chastening, disciplining, and child training are unto something, your heart can say, “Yes, Lord.” I think even our Lord Jesus, Who learned obedience by the things that He suffered, could look down the corridor and say, “For the joy that was set before Him, He endured.”
What was the joy that our Lord Jesus saw? What was it that moved and motivated Him to be willing to give Himself so fully to the Father? I believe, in simple terms, it was the joy that it would bring to the Father.
God wants Father-pleasers. “Father, if You are pleased, if You are satisfied, it is not so much what we get; it is that You are pleased. If You are pleased, then it brings satisfaction back to me.”
A lovely sister came last night after the service and said, “I have a little problem. Brother Kong so wonderfully talked about us being self-centred and the whole universe revolving around us and our selfishness. I said, ‘Oh God, I really need to know that kind of working in my life because I am really selfish.’”
She said, “Then Lance comes along and tells us all that we can get in the inheritance, and my selfishness goes out the window. Can you explain?” I said, “Yes, I can.”
In God’s reckoning, He wants us to understand all our inheritance that is in Christ, all that has been made available in our rescue. The more He opens our eyes through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, the more we begin to see all that we have as an inheritance in Christ.
I want to say, “Hallelujah, I never realized that I had that kind of inheritance—much more than Mrs. Williams got.” Is that what her name was?
But Paul prays further in Ephesians that the eyes of our understanding may be opened to grasp the fact that there is an inheritance that God gets in the saints—His inheritance.
Here we have two things: our inheritance and His inheritance. Which do you hear the most about today? Ours.
This is not to say that it is wrong to speak about our inheritance. God will balance out the whole conference. I prayed for that little sister, and she said, “Well, I need some help because I sure feel selfish, but I am sure glad to get more inheritance.” We all have that feeling. You just hang on. God is going to balance things out before it is over with. Amen.
Let us move on a little further. Verse 12:
Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down,
and the palsied knees;
and make straight paths for your feet,
that that which is lame be not turned out of the way,
but rather be healed.
Follow after peace with all men,
and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord.— Hebrews 12:12–14
I have pondered this and watched it in operation for a long time. I have come to the conclusion that this matter of following peace with all men is a wonderful thing: learning to relate, learning to be peaceable, learning to follow peace with all men.
The difficulty is that sometimes you are in an office or in a worldly situation where it is very difficult to follow peace. It is important to recognize that God adds two things that must always be together.
Somebody says, “I can appreciate holiness—God working this reality into my life. I could really be holy if I did not have to work in that office. I could really be holy if I did not have to live in that home. I could really be holy if I could get separated and away from circumstances.”
But here are two things that are always working: following peace and holiness. Very difficult.
I read the story some years ago of a mother and father who sent their son away from home. He had just graduated from high school and was going to university. He had been reared in a Christian home and a good church.
He was in school for about three or four months, and he wrote home: “Having a good time, lots of friends, enjoying people. I want to bring my roommate home for Christmas. I know you will like her.”
You can believe Mother and Dad looked at that word, her. Dad said, “That is him.” Mother said, “No, I can read clearly. It is her.” They wondered, “What has happened to our wonderful son?”
Can you see what develops in the home when Mother says, “We will just let them come and have peace with all men,” and Dad, out of real background and conviction, says, “Holiness. They will not come to my house”? So you have a little conflict between peace and holiness.
In our world today, we often just play it safe in situations. They could not understand how their son, with that background, could do this. We can understand that young people can put on pseudo-clothes, take on vocabulary, and perform before us. Our sweet little children look wonderful because they are riding the momentum of what they have been in. Suddenly, the reality of what is inside begins to be exposed.
What do we usually do as individuals? I mean folk who say, “I just always,” or, “I never.” When I hear those two words from God’s children, they ring red flags for me.
Somebody says, “We never go to family reunions because you do not know our family. There will be drinking and a lot of things, so we just never go.” That is playing it safe, is it not? Going to be holy.
Then I meet somebody who says, “I always go.” We are headed for something. This is something we need to get hold of, because the “never” and the “always” are moving by policy. I do not inquire of the Lord.
Somebody says of the office, “I never go to those office parties.” We can become so separated and isolated that God cannot break through and bring the gospel into a situation. You think you are going to keep peace with everybody?
Mother and Dad were reading one morning, still struggling: “Do we invite our son home? What do we do?” When they came to this verse, “Follow peace with all men,” Mother shouted, “Hallelujah, that is it!” Dad read it again: “Follow peace with all men and holiness.”
What do you do in situations? I am stretching you now. How many always play it safe? You have a policy. You have a principle. How many are never? You play it safe.
I would like to stretch you this afternoon to believe that God could move you into a family reunion and give you an opportunity to give a testimony for Him. People who thought you were strange and queer might suddenly see something of reality and say, “They are not so bad after all.” But all they know is what they see from a distance.
One of the most difficult things is to follow peace and be involved with people, because I much prefer separation. Yet, at the same time, there is a separation that comes, as we were speaking about yesterday, in holiness.
If you get what I am after this afternoon, you will realize how easy it is for us to live in our principles and our policies: “I never,” or, “I always.” God is always crowding us to Himself. “Lord Jesus, do You want me in that situation? Could I be Your testimony?”
Some folk are so separated in our religious world today that they do not even get involved. They do not touch. How do you know? I have been in that safe place a lot of the time, until God shakes and burdens my heart.
You say, “What did they do?” I am not going to tell you, because you would take it as a policy or get another principle. Only God can shut you up to Himself. What they did was right, and it worked out, which is all we are interested in.
Looking again now:
Follow after peace with all men,
and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord:
looking carefully lest there be any man that falleth short of the grace of God;
lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you,
and thereby the many be defiled.— Hebrews 12:14–15
We started out in Hebrews 12:2 looking unto Jesus, being person-centred and preoccupied with Him. Now we read, “Looking carefully, lest there be any man that falleth short of the grace of God.” Here is another couplet that always needs to be together. I call it the root and the fruit.
He spoke in an earlier verse of the peaceable fruit of righteousness. That fruit comes out of a life only because there is the root of righteousness.
Let me illustrate that with a full story. I was in Hagerstown, Maryland, a number of years ago, teaching in a Christian high school. One morning—I think it was Friday; we had been there five days—the headmaster said, “Would you come into the office after chapel this morning? We have a senior boy who has been acting so strangely. We do not know what has happened to him. We found him behind the building smoking this morning. It is so out of character. We cannot figure out what has happened.”
After the morning message, I slipped into the office. He came in, and typical teenager-wise, he slouched down. You could see rebellion and withdrawal all over his face. He did not say anything. The headmaster tried to draw him out and get him to speak, but he was not going to.
Finally, he blurted out, “You would be angry too if you had a father like mine.”
The headmaster said, “What do you mean? I know your father. Explain.”
He said, “About a month ago, you see, my dad boards horses for people. The haymow was full of hay for them, and my pet pigeons were messing up the hay so the horses could not eat it. My dad shot all my pigeons.”
He said, “Last week, my little dog walked down the aisle of the barn. My dad shot my dog. I have a right to be angry with a father like that, do I not?”
He had convinced himself by reasoning that he was justified in reacting toward his father and now toward the school. His reasonings were in control. He looked around for some support. When you hear of a father shooting pigeons and a dog, your sympathy goes out.
I listened for a while and finally said, “I think I need to draw a little picture for you. I would like you to see something. You are going to have the privilege of discovering in a new way the enabling grace of God.”
Every one of us who is born of the Spirit of God is planted like a tree with roots that can go down to the river of grace. There are going to be difficult things that come along in your life—things that you can understand and things that are not fair.
You will be offended unless you learn to take the desire and the power of God to forgive your dad for what he did. He said, “No way.”
I said, “God has planted you. The initial saving grace, this grace wherein you stand, is like a tree that is planted. You belong to the Lord. You are planted by the river of grace.”
Lots of people here today know they are standing in grace, planted, as it were, by the river of grace. It is one thing to be a tree standing in it; it is another thing to know how to appropriate the desire and power that enables you to fulfil the will of God in all of life.
Every one of us, if we run the race, is going to learn this. He sat there unmoved. I said, “Let me show you what your tree is going to look like in a few years.” It was kind of a barren thing, and the roots were going like this.
“Instead of allowing your roots to go down to take desire and power, to receive from God the enablement to forgive your father, you are withdrawing. I do not justify what your father has done. I do not understand it. I do not think it is right. But your problem is not your father; it is you facing what God wants.”
He gives to every one of us, as His children who are planted, the enabling grace—the desire and the power to respond to every life situation according to the will of God. So I said, “Take your choice. You are developing these kinds of roots, and your life is going to be barren and unfruitful.”
The good news is that in a couple of minutes he turned and knelt by the chair. He cried out, “Oh God, I do not want that kind of roots.”
The principle that operates at this point is this: if we humble ourselves, God gives more grace. Both James and Peter speak of it. Humble yourself under the hand of God.
The moment he humbled himself, he said, “God, I do not understand.” I was telling him that we learn to cast down reasonings and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Your reasoning says, “Dad was wrong. I am right.” Your reasoning says, “It was not fair. He should not have done it.” All these things leave you offended.
You continue to be offended until you are willing to humble yourself and say, “God, I need to forgive. I cannot forgive. You give the desire.” He giveth more grace to the humble.
I am learning more and more, as we move around, that the critical issue is the pride and reasonings that come up in the lives of people and keep them from bowing and saying, “Oh God, I do not have the desire and power.”
The good news is that in just a couple of minutes he got up from his knees and said, “Yes, I forgive my dad, and I will go home right now and tell him.” He had the desire and the power to respond according to the will of God.
That began a train of thinking in my own heart because every time you turn around, you find how your reasonings rise up—reasonings, high thoughts, things that justify yourselves and excuse yourselves.
As I said yesterday, how easy it is to become offended because of things that happen that are unfair. I am going to prophesy without any fear this afternoon that everybody here is going to be offended sooner or later, if you have not already.
What do you mean? Somebody has been unfair. Somebody has done something to you. Your whole reasoning says, “They are wrong. I am right.” Besides the point.
Over and over, week after week, we deal with individuals who come to realize that they might be a tree standing, but they do not know the root life that goes down to the river of grace and takes the desire and power that God gives.
You see this whole picture of being offended, and the world is filled with it today. Every time you turn around, you find people who were in the church or running with you. It felt like everything was moving, and suddenly they are quiet. Suddenly they do not come around. Suddenly they are gone. You wonder what happened. It is so easy to be offended.
Let me illustrate. Jesus came along and began to work His ministry while John was finishing his ministry. John had said at one point, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” I do not know if John knew what that meant or what would be involved, but he was going to find out shortly.
John was in prison, and little by little Jesus was increasing and taking over. John was all alone in prison, and he started to reason. “Is He really the Christ? Is this really the Messiah? Should we look for someone else?”
He sent a couple of his disciples to ask Jesus. They said, “John is wondering, are You really the Christ?” Jesus said, “Go back and tell him the miracles. Go back and tell him these things. Then tell him, ‘Blessed is he whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in Me.’”
How many think John, in his reasonings, could have said, “He is my cousin. Cousins ought to visit cousins in prison”? They were cousins. There is no record that Jesus visited John. I think He should have—well, maybe—except that God was working things out.
Here is John, liable to be offended. Oh, how wonderfully the Lord works when there is a willingness simply to say, “Lord, I cast down reasonings, every high thing that exalts itself.”
I do not know if there is someone here this afternoon who may have slipped into this. It is so easy for us to allow reasonings and rationalizations. We need to cast them down. You need to say, “God, they were wrong, but that is not the problem right now. What is my spirit? What is my attitude? Do I have roots that can go down to the river of grace?”
The issue this afternoon is this: Is God developing in me a root of righteousness, that I might have the fruit of righteousness?
He says:
Looking carefully lest there be any man that falleth short of the grace of God;
lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you,
and thereby the many be defiled.— Hebrews 12:15
This has nothing to do with salvation necessarily. Failing of the grace of God can mean a root of bitterness springs up, troubles you, and thereby many are defiled. I think I have defiled others by picking up the offence of others. It is so easy to happen.
But I thank God that there has come a whole new burden in my heart: “Lord, I want to know the ability to humble myself under the hand of God, that my roots can go down to the river of grace and You can bring the fruit that comes.”
A lot of the religious world today wants the fruit without developing the root. “I would like to claim this, Lord. I have got a verse. You have got to prove it. You have got to fulfil it.”
There is the root life that God develops within us as we humble ourselves before Him. How many times have I had someone come to me and say, “I have got a verse, a promise, and I am insisting that God fulfil it.” That sounds spiritual, and I bought it for a long time.
Then I began to realize that it is the Lord Himself Who quickens a verse and a promise to us, and He alone develops the root life within us. We say, “Oh God, if this is Your mind, if this is Your heart, if this is something You can work out…” The humility of your heart allows a root to go down. God gives desire and power to respond, and then He can bring the fruit.
Thank you for being patient. Let me close with one more little picture this afternoon. I have been amazed through the years to see how God wants to enlarge our window. Some of you are getting the book The Larger Window.
Let me just say that it is not quite as generous as it may seem. How many of you have seen the advertisement, “I bet you cannot eat just one”? A potato chip. Ever go into Meijer’s, and they hand you one great big potato chip? What do you do? You go buy the whole box.
I have discovered that when somebody reads a couple of the stories in The Larger Window, invariably they say, “I need a whole carton.” You go to our printer, and they are just amazed at the cartons people are ordering. I am praying that you cannot eat one chip.
I am just being transparent with you. When you read it, you will say, “Oh, there are some answers here.” I can give you some of the amazing stories from the last few weeks. It has only been out since April. Folk said, “Oh, I bought a whole carton, gave them away, and now everybody is buying cartons.” That is what I call a book explosion.
The reason is because the price is down. Two dollars is not too much for that kind of a book. If you go to the publisher, the one who distributes it, they think ten dollars is a cheap price. But you are on the inside today.
What I want to get around to is another window. For years I lived with a touchstone. I had been reared in a background that had a certain concept, a reckoning point in God. As long as I lived in that, it was kind of a closed-box reasoning.
I do not know how to tell you how many times, under conviction of sin, I went back to the altar at the close of a meeting and got saved over again, and over again, and over again. Until I finally got weary of it and said, “Lord, all I need is ten minutes at the end to get right, because I cannot hold out anyway.” Foolish reasoning.
You see, I was starting from a certain concept in God. Then I discovered one day the grace of God, and it exploded a whole new box of reasoning. I discovered that God was sovereign. That which had been given to Him, He could keep.
I moved from my Arminian moral box up to a sovereignty box. My whole reckoning in God was that God is sovereign. He is going to work everything out.
The only problem is that when you follow this to its finality, it often leads to futility: “Well, what will be, will be.” Are you with me now?
You start with the fact that God has given moral choice and freedom to man, which He did, and you follow this through, and you come to humanism—man on the throne.
We have in the religious world today two controlling concepts. If you make this real extreme, you get off in the ditch here and have the whole Islamic world: one word, submission—the authority of God, submission, hard and cold submission.
You move over here to the Western world, and it is: “Man is the master of his own fate. It depends on us.” Both of these are ditches.
Fortunately, there are many of God’s servants who struggle between this touchstone of the sovereignty of God and the touchstone of the moral freedom God gives. They finally work their way through a middle zone. You ask them, “Are you a Calvinist or are you Arminian?” They say, “Well, sort of both.”
Years ago, I shared this with pastors all over the country, and I think it has been a help to them. One day God gave me the larger window. That is why we started where we were yesterday.
I saw that if you start with a concept, an attribute, or a principle in God—“Is God sovereign?” No question. “Does God give free moral choice?” Absolutely—what do you do with the two? If you stay in either one of these, you have closed-box reasoning.
You start with sovereignty as your touchstone, and you are going to end with futility. You start with moral freedom as your touchstone, and you are going to end with man on the throne.
One day, when I saw that we were not principle-centred or concept-centred, but that I needed to move back and start with a person, I discovered that my Father, as a person, is the One Who can bring both of these into their proper place.
Suddenly, it was as though the Holy Spirit said, “The only safe sovereignty is paternal sovereignty.” Let me run that through again. The only safe sovereignty is a Father Who is sovereign.
He can work with His children. He is sovereign. He can break their arm or their foot; He is sovereign over them. But what conditions His sovereignty? His paternal nature.
It limits what sovereignty exercises. Is He totally sovereign? Yes. But His paternal nature limits what His sovereignty exercises. I thought, “Oh, thank God. Paternal sovereignty.”
I am not starting with a concept. I am not principle-centred. I am person-centred, starting with a Father Who limits Himself. He could do otherwise, but He limits Himself. I start with a Father Who exercises freedom and His choice, but He knows that it is limited moral choice.
I am just dropping this with you this afternoon because it brought such rest to my own heart to say, “Oh God, I am so glad I moved into the larger window.”
No longer am I just starting with a concept, an attribute, or a principle in God, but I am starting now with His person. No wonder Paul said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
I can look up and say, “Father, I know Your heart is moving, crowding, doing all that You need to do. You are sovereign, but You go so far and You limit. I know how much freedom You give, and then You limit.”
The only safe sovereignty is paternal sovereignty and paternal moral freedom.
That is just the postscript added because I am trying to say, as we close out my time with you, that I pray God will enlarge our understanding. We are not playing down principles; we are not minimizing them. But sooner or later, you come to the place where you wonder, “What am I, really?”
When I came to recognize some years ago that I was neither a Calvinist nor an Arminian, but a paternalist—I was starting a new branch, a new denomination. Join it.
It is interesting. I will close with this. I have been meeting with some brothers for eleven or twelve years every Wednesday morning—very keen men in Indianapolis, men who have rather responsible positions.
Larry came to me about fifteen weeks ago and said, “We are going to go through your book, A Life’s Ultimate Privilege, week by week. We will be teaching and discussing it, and when we get to the last chapter, would you come and speak to the group?” I said, “Yes, I would like to.”
I had no idea who was in that group of about twelve or fifteen couples. I was amazed at the CEOs and other people of Indianapolis, and at what God had wrought in some of their lives and their testimonies.
The next day, they asked some questions. One of them said, “I just really wanted to ask Brother Vern, from all that we have heard, is he a Calvinist or an Arminian?” I was so pleased when Larry said, “Neither. He is a paternalist.”
I do not think I have ever said that out loud, but you heard it now. Anyway, I leave it with you because maybe, after a while, there are men whom God is really dealing with and working in their lives. They have heard of the chastening, disciplining, and things I have been going through, and of holding steady because a faithful God is working fatherhood in them.
A friend of mine called Jeff Haeckner the other day and said, “What is the main theme of the Bible?” He said, without hesitation, “It is fatherhood and sonship.” You read that in Knowing God.
What are you saying this afternoon? We may be a small little group here, but God has a much bigger thing going on out in the world. When Francis Schaeffer started with the person of God—not just a power, not just a force, but Somebody—and began to unfold this, it encouraged them to realize that I believe we are in step with what God is doing.
I would just like to add my part in saying, “Thank God for the Father.” He is one day going to have a vast family of sons, every one of them conformed to the likeness and image of the Lord Jesus.
The degree to which He can take us down the middle stripe is the degree to which both of these operate. Jesus learned obedience, yielding to His Father and submitting, yet exercising response.
I would put this on that picture: the divine initiative and the human response, always in balance. Father.
Father, I have tried to share my heart this afternoon with a very precious, precious group of people. We thank You for the theme that is before us these days: the eternal purpose in Christ Jesus.
We thank You, Father, that it all began in Your Father-heart. You want a vast family conformed to the likeness and image of Him. One day You will put on display Your lovely Son and many sons, all conformed.
The great satisfaction that it will bring to You will be because we enter into the enjoyment also—enjoying with You all that You are making for eternity.
Oh, I claim this afternoon that You will make this real to some hearts, some who may be feeble and weak in their knees. They have just been wondering and questioning, “Is the race worth it?”
Help them to realize this afternoon that You strengthen feeble knees. You lift up the hands. You will bring us through. You are more concerned than we are to bring us to the final fulfilment that will bring honour, glory, and pleasure to Yourself, to Your lovely Son, and to our privilege of enjoying.
We thank You. Amen.