Morning, brothers and sisters. Let us have another word of prayer.
Lord, we do just come unto You as the deer that panteth after the water. Lord, as we come to Your Word this morning, we do have one desire: it is to behold Yourself in a very living way.
And, Lord, we thank You that You have equipped us to behold You. You have cleansed us with the blood of the Lamb. You have anointed us by Your Holy Spirit for speaking and hearing. By faith, we lay hold of the fullness of Your provision, Lord, that You could accomplish within all of our hearts what You desire.
Lord, we would leave this morning as satisfied deer, satisfied in the presence of our heavenly Father. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Can we turn this morning? I would like to read a few Scriptures, the first from the book of Acts—very familiar Scriptures at this point. Acts Chapter 1. We will read Verse 1, and then skip down and read Verse 8.
The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach.
The words we would like to focus on in that verse are, “all that Jesus began to do and teach,” as Luke refers back to his Gospel.
Then we see in Verse 8:
But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you:
and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
The call of the Lord there is for us to be His witnesses, whether in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, or the remotest part of the earth.
If we could turn over to Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, Chapter 3—Ephesians 3:17-19. Paul writes to encourage the brethren:
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge,
that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.
In the middle of Verse 18, it speaks of comprehending with all the saints the breadth, length, height, and depth. The Lord has a desire that we not just comprehend by ourselves, but comprehend with all the saints the fullness of Himself.
Finally, over in Revelation Chapter 5, we see Verses 9 and 10. These verses are a song being sung:
Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof:
for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,
and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests;
and they reign upon the earth.
My heart today, as we gather and see what the Lord is doing in our midst—and we are thankful for what He is doing—is that we would also, in a fresh way, be reminded that we are involved in a great work that He is doing throughout this earth.
As He is doing a work here among many lives, and among us as an assembly, that is not the end. We are just part of a great work that He has been doing, is doing, and will continue to do until His return.
That is really the burden I would share today: that we would see beyond ourselves. We are very thankful for what we have, and for the way the Lord has moved and led, but we would also see beyond to the vastness and greatness of what our Lord is doing during this time and upon this earth.
I am very thankful for the privilege we have of being part of the work locally here. But it is also a tremendous privilege to be involved in the great work that He is doing throughout the earth, and in all of the relationships He has given.
It is amazing—all of the contacts and relationships that we, as a small assembly here, a few people brought together, have throughout this earth. It is a marvelous testimony of His grace and mercy, of how He is calling a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation unto Himself.
He is calling us all together. Why? That He can show forth the excellency of Himself throughout all eternity. May the Lord give us a glimpse of this.
We thank the Lord for how He has been speaking to us here locally. I am very thankful for the recent ministry, how we have been reminded to lay hold of all those precious and magnificent promises.
As we lay hold of those individual promises, they lead us to the promise: that eternal kingdom and that heart He has of bringing many sons to glory—of having a people in His kingdom throughout all eternity.
We thank the Lord for how He has reminded us that He has put before us a narrow gate and a narrow way. He calls us to walk that way. Many things in this earth are pulling us in so many directions, but the Lord says, “Look, I have set a path before you. Walk in that.”
The joy is that, as we enter into this narrow way and go through this narrow path, we find, as soon as we put our foot on it, that it is vast in its riches. This path, which when we were outside looking in seemed so narrow, becomes a place where we see, like Paul, the breadth, the length, the height, and all the things we never imagined.
The only ones to whom that path looks narrow are the ones who are not on the path. When you are on the path, where the Lord desires us to be, there is a breadth, a length, a height, and a width that is indescribable. We thank the Lord for that.
We thank the Lord for how He has encouraged us by showing that He has made each one of us kings and priests unto Him. It is unto Him. We did not have to qualify. We did not have to be born of a certain family.
But He, with His great love, has redeemed each one of us and made us kings and priests unto our God. That is our livelihood now. We live each day as kings, and He wants us to enter into that—not as the kings of this world, but as kings modeled after His kingly character.
He has made us priests to serve Him. The livelihood, the occupation, is being priests unto Him—not just putting on a fancy collar and a title, but a life being lived out.
I thank the Lord also for the way He has been working among us as we have sought Him for direction for the assembly. It is very precious that the brothers met week after week, after week, after month after month.
But the wonderful faithfulness of the Lord was that He spoke. He showed us the direction. He showed us His heart for the group. As we waited upon Him, He brought to the surface this whole matter of shepherding, of caring for one another. Praise God for that.
We have worship within our hearts. And now, as we are starting to study the book of Acts, I am so thankful that we are studying this book. I knew this was what we should study all along. It just took you all this long to get to it.
But I am thankful because, even in those verses we read, Luke showed us in his Gospel all that Jesus began to do and teach. Then, as we see in Acts, we see all that Jesus continues to do and teach throughout His body.
Brothers and sisters, we know that the book of Acts is still being written. He is continuing to do and to teach throughout His body, throughout this earth, today and until His return. What a great work we have been able to enter into. What a great privilege we have set before us.
Now, when we use this phrase, “great work,” what are we saying? Is this just a cute little phrase? Actually, the Lord uses it several times throughout the Old Testament.
In Deuteronomy, He summarizes all that He did in getting the nation of Israel out of Egypt: “You can see My great work I did in Egypt to deliver you.”
The book of Judges speaks of how, when Joshua was getting ready to pass on, there was a generation that knew the great work of the Lord. But after that there came a generation that did not know the Lord or His great work.
The call upon us in this day is to know the Lord and His great work.
There is a tremendous testimony in Nehemiah. When they were in the midst of rebuilding the wall, the enemy was trying to distract them and trying to get them involved in things they did not need to be involved in. What was Nehemiah’s testimony?
He said, “We are doing a great work.” We are doing a great work. It looked like a crummy little wall around a little city, but Nehemiah had seen the heart of God, and he knew they were involved in a great work.
So what is this great work? In one sense, we need to be careful when we start defining the things of the Lord, because when we start to define His character and nature, we end up limiting or confining them.
Have you ever tried to describe the love of Christ? Paul, in the letter we read to the church, starts to describe it; but then all of a sudden he is caught up in the breadth of it. There is a length, there is a width, there is a height. You cannot fully describe the character and the things of the Lord.
Try to describe the glory of the Lord, and you will only limit it, because there will always be more. So, whenever we try to define things, we are probably better off describing the things of the Lord. This is what Paul does for us throughout the New Testament.
In a broad sense, we could say that this great work is the Lord preparing a people to be His eternal companion. That is a very broad description, but His great work is so magnificent that even as Paul, through the Holy Spirit, is trying to describe it, there is not one word that can define it.
Throughout the New Testament, this great work is described in many ways. At times, it is described as a bride being made ready. And it is not like a bride—it is a bride. These are not similes. These are not “as ifs.” This is a bride being made ready.
Paul says it is a house being built together. It is a body growing up. We have Christ the Head, and we are His body. We have a family loving each other and going through the process. We have children maturing into sons—not just remaining as babes, but growing up and maturing.
We have a mighty warrior being trained. In Ephesians 6, we have a picture of a mighty warrior learning in the school of prayer, being trained to do combat. We have a kingdom being made ready. We have a city being made holy.
All of this work is going on in our lives day in and day out as the Lord’s people. We have other descriptions too: a priest being trained, one new man, a people for God’s own possession. You can go on and on describing His great work.
We know, as we see in Revelation 21 and 22, that in the end we have that eternal companion. If you go back and read Revelation 21 and 22, you see the bride; you see the holy city; you see kings; you see priests. Scripture is still trying to describe the fullness of it.
How is this bride made? How does this process work? It is through the working of the cross in our individual lives. The cross speaks of the blood of the Lamb—our very foundation.
We have the blood of the Lamb being applied to our hearts and lives day in and day out. How did they overcome? They overcame by the blood of the Lamb.
Brothers and sisters, if we desire to be formed into this eternal companion, how we need to allow the daily working of the cross in our lives. We thank the Lord because He is the One who has saved us and called us with a holy calling.
Who saved us, and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works,
but according to His own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal.
This is 2 Timothy 1:9. He has saved us and called us according to His own purpose, which He purposed in His Son, Christ Jesus. Praise the Lord, brethren.
This is my heart today: that we would see not only the great work the Lord is doing here, but that we would also see the vastness and greatness of the work He has been doing and continues to do.
I thank the Lord, as I look around this room, for how He has brought us together from so many places—from every tribe, tongue, and nation. But why has He done that?
We have contacts from so many places around this earth, and they are used to show us the reality of this great work. As we see them, they enlarge our vision and encourage our faith as the Lord works upon this earth.
We thank the Lord that we have opportunities, particularly on Wednesday nights, to hold these matters before Him in prayer. But again, why has He done this? Why has He brought us together? Why has He made us aware of these contacts throughout the earth?
These are the two questions I would like for us to consider: why we are together, and why we have these contacts.
First, I want to stop and see how the Lord has brought us together. How many people in this room were born in Richmond? Raise your hand.
Now, if you eliminate those under twenty-five, you get that generation out there. But really, it is not that many. Put them up again—born in Richmond. All right.
Now let me ask: how many were born or have lived outside the United States?
If we stop and look around, we see ones the Lord has brought together from Germany, Ireland, Yugoslavia, originally Romania, Palestine, South Africa, India, Japan, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines—so many wonderful places.
It is the Lord who has brought us all together, that we might see what He is doing. Is this just a coincidence? Did this just happen by chance?
Brothers and sisters, I would say no. It is no coincidence. It is the sovereignty of our precious Lord who has brought us together with the desire that we would be a testimony unto Him.
We are a testimony unto the One who has loved us, the One who has died for us and called us unto Himself, that we might be a living expression of how He has purchased ones from every tribe, tongue, and nation.
We are here in Richmond, that we might express His life in this particular locality. But let us be clear about something else.
Are we the church in Richmond? No. We are not. We are only a part of that church. We know that the church in any locality is made up of all the believers in that locality.
Are we the testimony of Him in Richmond? No. We simply gather unto Him in His name with a desire to be a testimony unto Him.
We gather with the desire to be a testimony unto Him—a testimony to the oneness we share with all believers. Even with all our imperfections, weaknesses, problems, spots, and wrinkles, we have that desire: that His life would be expressed in our midst, that we could be that testimony unto Him, and that we would be faithful in our generation.
This is what He is calling us to. We thank the Lord, and we want to praise Him for all He is doing, for all He has done, and for the encouragement of all He is going to do.
I am so thankful to be part of this great work. It shows us how small we are, but it also lets us see how great and how big He is.
As we have looked at what He has done locally, I want to take time now and look at the vastness of this great work He is doing. In one way, we could say we have seen the local, and now we want to look more at the universal.
But as we consider this, there is something we need to keep in perspective. We need to keep in balance, because as human beings, we have this built-in tendency to swing to one extreme or the other.
Why do you think diets are so popular? What if somebody came out and said, “I have this new diet for you: just eat three balanced meals a day, not too many calories, from all the food groups”? Do you think that book would be a bestseller? No.
But if you buy a diet that says, “Eat all the protein you want,” everybody buys it. Or, “Eat all the complex carbohydrates.” You have to have a grapefruit diet or a rice diet—the extremes. We spend billions of dollars because we are so fickle.
The same is true with exercise programs. If someone says, “Exercise twenty minutes a day, three or four days a week, and you will be fine,” how many books do you think they would sell? Yet people buy every gadget. It is amazing how many different ways they can make that little wheel for your stomach.
I am not going to ask how many people have one of those in their attic. But we go to these extremes one way or the other.
In our Christian life too, we allow this extremism to come in. That is why, when we are talking about this matter of local or universal, it is not an either-or question. We can focus on the local, or swing over to the universal, but there is a fullness of life that the Lord wants us to enter into.
I hesitated even to use the word “balance,” because in the world that can mean compromise. Probably, for us, we should use the word fullness. It is the fullness of life that He is calling us to enter into.
In the world, when we try to achieve balance, we often end up compromising. We either add something to one side that should not be there, or take away a vital ingredient from the other side to bring it down.
What is the ecumenical movement throughout Christendom? People try to bring everybody together, and then say, “We have to eliminate this so everything is equal,” or, “We will add that, even though they are not what we call Christian.” We begin using broad, generic terms to try to get balance. It is man’s way.
But with the Lord, balance is achieved through fullness. It is the fullness of Christ in our individual life and the fullness of Christ in our corporate life that allows us to live a balanced life. It is the fullness of Him.
There has only been one balanced Person on this earth, and that was our Lord. But praise God, now we have the balanced life—the full life—within us, and He wants us to live that life out.
We have such tendencies. We can focus on our individual life: “I have got to get my life straightened out. I am going to read all these things. I am going to spend this time alone. I need to get my individual life together.”
We try to get all muscle-bound in our individual life, to the neglect of the corporate. We end up being, as some people say, spiritual butterflies—out there only for ourselves. We get a little bit here and a little bit there, but we are not related.
Or we can look so much at our corporate life that the individual is left out. We can go so far in emphasizing corporate life that we even leave Christ out. Then it can become communal living, and it can become cultish.
Brothers and sisters, in the fullness of the Lord, He wants the fullness of Himself expressed in each one.
We can get into matters such as predestination and free will. We have a tendency to go one way or the other.
If we get involved in predestination, or even divine sovereignty, we can devolve into fatalism: Que sera, sera—what will be, will be. But while the Lord has a wonderful plan for us and is sovereign, He also wants us to be responsible.
We can swing so far in the other direction, emphasizing responsibility, that we get into our own self-will and self-righteousness, and we have gotten away from Him.
The same thing is true with rest. We say, “We have to rest in the Lord,” and then we can become passive. “Oh, I am resting in the Lord.” No, you are not. The Lord is saying, “Wake up, O sleeper,” and you do not even hear Him hollering, “Wake up.”
Then we can go the other way, and it is all outward works. We can see how we have these tendencies within us to go to one extreme or the other. Quite frankly, a lot of it is determined by our own personalities.
If you are a practical person, you may lean toward diligence, good works, and responsibility. The practical person will tend to lean that way. Then there are the dreamers: “Oh, the Lord is so good. He is in control, and we are just dreaming along.”
But the Lord wants us to be both. We study the book of Acts, and we say, “Oh, I am just going to sit here, and the Lord is going to open this book to me.” His Spirit will speak to us, yes, but there is also this other side. We need to enter into this fullness of life.
As I was reading a sermon by Charles Spurgeon, he was speaking about predestination and free will. But the principle applies here as well.
A friend came to him and asked, “How do you reconcile these two differences? How do you reconcile predestination and free will? They are against each other.”
Charles Spurgeon said, “No, you are all wrong on that. Enemies need reconciling. Things that are against each other need reconciling. But best friends never need reconciling.”
These are best friends because they are both of our Lord. They are best friends because they come from His heart. They are of Him.
Some have described these truths as two rails. We stay on the two rails, continue on, and reach the great goal we have. The problem is that we get on one rail or the other, and then we get derailed.
But when our Lord looks upon these two rails, He turns them on their side. When you turn two rails on their side, what do you see? You see one. He sees His Son. He sees Christ. It is just a different perspective.
The Lord is trying to get us to see things from His perspective, not just our own perspective. He is calling us into that.
When we consider this matter of locality and universality, it is not an either-or question. If we focus only on the local, we can become exclusive.
There was a group that became known as the Local Church. They became exclusive and felt they were the church because they focused so much on locality that they could forget about the universal work the Lord is doing.
But if we focus only on the universal side—the great work and the universal church—we can lose perspective on the local work He is doing.
What happens with those who focus only on the universal church is that they cannot deal with imperfections. This heavenly church is so perfect that anything imperfect could not be involved; it could not be the Lord.
To me, that is one of the beauties of studying the book of Acts. From the very beginning, we see God doing a great work, but we also see how He uses imperfect vessels. He always has.
Sometimes we can read the book of Acts with rose-colored glasses. But the beauty of Acts is that we see imperfect vessels like us finding the perfect One to handle their problems and situations.
In that, He really shows forth His glory. He manifests Himself in situations like Ananias and Sapphira, and when the widows were in trouble because they were not being cared for. In these situations, we see His wonderful way.
When we speak of the church—local and universal—it is one church. This has been said many times, but it is one church. The Lord says, “I will build My church.”
This one church consists of all those from the day of Pentecost, from that first church in Jerusalem, all the way up until now and until the Lord returns.
I am using the term “universal church” as a description, not as a definition. You do not see that exact term in Scripture. It is simply a description of the vastness of it. We are so limited by words.
You may not see the phrase “universal church” in Scripture, but you see it described in its universality.
How is this church built? It is built in each locality, as brothers and sisters come together and find the Lord’s life in each situation. They allow the Lord to come in, and His character and nature are developed and built within brothers and sisters.
The Lord and His church are being built. Thank the Lord that we do not have to choose either the local or the universal. It is all one work—His great work.
Again, why has the Lord opened all these doors and windows for us to see His great work throughout the world? We have already touched on a couple of reasons.
It reminds us locally that we are involved in a great work—that this is not all there is. It expands and enlarges our vision, enlarges our capacity, and increases our faith because we see the great work He is doing.
But there is another aspect: it increases our burden for prayer.
As we see this great work the Lord is doing, it increases our burden for prayer. We realize that, just as we pray for ourselves and desire to be built together here, brothers and sisters throughout this world are going through similar problems and need to be built together.
They find themselves in similar circumstances. When we pray for ourselves to be built together, we can also pray for them.
But we also see, as we hear from many places, that people live in quite different circumstances because of the countries in which they live. Therefore, we pray for those different ones.
We here in the States live in a country of affluence, and we have so much of everything. Yet much of the world has such a lack. The Lord wants us to be praying for one another.
We not only support one another as the Lord does this work, but we can support one another as He works in specific localities.
For time, I will simply refer to a couple of verses. In Mark 11:17, the Lord speaks of His house:
Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?
A house of prayer for all the nations. In Ephesians 6, we see the training in this wonderful ministry of prayer:
With all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit,
and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
The prayer in Ephesians 6 is for all the saints—for supporting one another in prayer.
Even in 1 Peter 5:9, we are reminded of our brethren throughout the world:
Knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished in your brethren who are in the world.
Our brothers and sisters around this earth are going through many of the same things we are going through, and they are going through many different things as well.
I would like for us to consider some of the places where we have contacts. We pray for them on Wednesday nights and at other times. We support financially, through the tape ministry and transcripts, and some from these places have visited us while some from here have visited them.
We are very thankful for the wonderful way the Lord has opened doors. One of the ways the Lord has opened doors and established contacts over the last year is through the website.
These shaded countries are the countries that contacted the Christian Tape Ministry website last year—over nineteen thousand downloads. Throughout South America, Africa, and every continent, there is representation. We thank the Lord that He has provided contacts throughout all these countries.
One of the great vehicles the Lord has used in opening doors is the family conference here. Years ago, over twenty-five years ago, there was a burden among some brothers here locally that there would be a conference through which the Lord could share a prophetic word related to His eternal purpose.
That has really been the theme and overall burden for this family conference for many years. There are many wonderful conferences throughout this country and throughout the world, but the Lord had burdened ones here many years ago for a specific conference related to speaking forth that prophetic word concerning His eternal purpose.
It was started by faithful ones here in Richmond. As it has grown over the years, we thank the Lord that there are now over fifteen different assemblies, primarily from the East Coast, sponsoring this conference together.
We have gathered for years at the University of Richmond. It was announced last week about opportunities for everyone to serve during that time. The announcement was not made this week because, I know, everybody went up and volunteered, so there are no more needs. Isn’t that an ideal? It is all so naive.
But I hope you get the point. There is still time and opportunity to serve.
One of the riches of this conference is how ones come from all over the world. We have opportunities to be enriched by them and their fellowship, and to see what the Lord is doing.
I am going to stop here in a moment. The next time I share, we will look at specific works that the Lord is doing throughout this earth, such as in Russia, China, and Cuba, and at specific ones who have gone from here.
It is very precious. The other month, missionaries were martyred in Yemen at the hospital in Jibla. A few years ago, we had a brother from here who was there, and he knew those ones.
That is a contact. Here is a little group in Richmond, Virginia, and through the grace of God and His sovereignty, He allows us to have a contact there. There are many such wonderful testimonies, and I am very thankful for them.
Next time, we want to share not only about some of these works, but also about the lessons we can learn as we are involved with our brothers and sisters in these different places.
This map shows all the various areas throughout the world with which this little assembly has contacts and relationships. That is pretty amazing. I am sure there are more that I have left off; if anybody has one, let me know, and next time we can put that in there.
We have contacts throughout North America, South America, Europe, Russia, China, India, Papua New Guinea, Borneo, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Yemen, and Bahrain.
We thank the Lord for how He allows us to have these different contacts. Why has He given us these contacts? That we would allow them to expand us, enlarge us, and help us see His great work, giving us a greater capacity for prayer.
He desires that His house would be a house of prayer for all the nations. As we are trained in this school of prayer, as we give ourselves to it, as we give ourselves to this work of prayer, may we allow Him to show us the vastness of Himself and His heart.
May He allow us to see beyond our little worlds into the greatness of what He is doing. We are very thankful to the Lord for so great a salvation. We are thankful to the Lord for His great work.
May He use even what we have shared today to allow us to see how He wants us to enter into the fullness of His life. If we have been unbalanced individually, may He bring us into balance through adding more of Himself.
As we decrease and He increases, the fullness of His heart and life comes out, and we see the wonderful testimony of His life. So may we pray.
Lord, we do worship You today. We thank You, Lord, for how You have called us with such a holy calling. You have set us apart, Lord, for such a great work.
Lord, we confess that so often we limit You because of the smallness of ourselves. But we simply desire that, as You are working in each one of our lives, we could also have the eyes of our hearts enlightened to see the greatness of the work You have been doing through the generations, that You are doing now, and what You will be doing until You return.
Help us, Lord, that we could be those who would hasten Your return. In Jesus’ name, amen.