I want to thank everyone who has known about my condition and prayed for me over these last months. I am so grateful for your kindness.
Isn’t our Lord lovely? His ministry and love through the saints is wonderful—His care. I’m grateful to Him, and grateful to you.
Let’s pray one more time.
Lord, You are the One who is always calling to us, “Come to Me.” And every time we’ve ever taken even the smallest step toward You, You pour out for us from Your immeasurable grace. Oh Lord, we depend upon it.
Lord, how inspired we are by Your words to us:
Be of good courage, little flock;
it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Oh Lord, we want to ask You for it. We don’t want just a little more of Your kingdom, Lord. We want the kingdom.
Lord, You know the things that would hinder us. Lord, would You remove those things? Or would You be working in each one of us tonight, and in this whole conference—speaking, convicting, illuminating, Lord, all the things that You do—so that we might come after You and follow You wherever You go?
Lord, tonight release Your words, Your message. Give us ears to hear and hearts that receive Your words. And Lord, we’ll give You all the glory. We ask it in Your precious name. Amen.
I have a small prelude before I get to my message. I’m just going to tell you what I’m going to be speaking about and how I came to this place.
Some months ago, after I found out that I was going to be sharing on, “How is it built?”—how is this building work of the Lord built?—I began meditating before the Lord: “Lord, what shall I give the saints?”
I didn’t want to just go back to all I know about “how” and come up with some messages. Sometimes there is a temptation to do that. But that’s not what we want in this time and in these days. We want the Lord’s living, present word to us.
As I was before Him, over a period of time, a Scripture came to me. It is in John 8:25. The Pharisees said—and this is interesting in the light of Kenny’s ministry to us last night—“Who are You?”
And the Lord said, “What have I been saying to you from the beginning?” So, over and over in my heart as I was before the Lord: “Who are You? What have I been saying to you from the beginning?”
I said, “Lord, shall we go back to the beginning?” I was thinking that, usually, if you enroll in a mathematics course—let’s say college algebra—the first few days they will say, “We’re all here for college algebra, but let’s go back and review the numbers. Then we’ll review adding and subtracting.”
Well, in the world, knowledge is like that. It just never ends. But in the Lord, sometimes you come to something foundational, and you see it and grasp it in a sense. Then the Lord comes at another time and reveals that whole thing to you like you never saw it before.
You know, the most advanced among us see through a glass darkly. And the Lord has so much to show us.
So I was before Him and said, “Lord, I’ll go back to foundational things.” I began to meditate on that, and I began to think about Christianity.
You know, Christianity—if I might call it a religion; it is not a religion, but we don’t have a word for it—a way, a living way. Christianity is unlike any other religion. It has almost no outward form.
Now, I’m not talking about what you might find out there in the world that calls itself Christianity, but biblical Christianity. What you find in the New Testament is not filled with form and outward things.
In fact, we have almost no outward things. We have no special places to meet—no cathedrals, no temples. We have no special clothes that we wear. We don’t have special language that we speak. We don’t have a professional class of people who wear and receive distinguished greetings and honor. We’re all brothers and sisters.
I’ve often thought that if the assembly that I gather with in Memphis were to close down, within three days we could erase any trace of our existence. Archaeologists a thousand years from now would say, “Well, we know that they never existed. There was a rumor, because we’ve searched and we couldn’t find anything.”
So, we don’t have much. We don’t burn incense. We don’t light candles. We just have the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and one another.
The Lord has given us, though, two things. It is very interesting, and I think very significant, that the Lord has given us two things that, if you look in the dictionary, the dictionary would probably call rituals. We’ll call them testimonies.
The Lord has given us baptism and His table.
I began to meditate upon these things because I mused a little bit about that first day of the church at Pentecost. I put myself in the place of one of those pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem for the feast.
Perhaps it was about nine o’clock on Sunday morning. I was out in the street minding my own business, and suddenly there was this great noise pouring out of the upper room. Then the door opened, and down came all these saints into the street, speaking in different languages and saying all these things.
We were riveted there. Some people thought maybe they had been drinking, so Peter stood up to give an explanation: “No, these people are not drunk as you suppose. It’s early in the morning.”
But he began to explain what was happening, and his explanation turned into this wonderful gospel message.
When they heard it—and if I were one of them, when I heard it—when it got to that part about the Lord Jesus being raised from the dead, and the Holy Spirit came into my heart and said, “This is the truth,” I knew it was the truth. I believed, along with about three thousand others. I was one of the three thousand.
“What shall we do?” “Repent and be baptized.”
Probably in the Kidron Brook, or someplace where they had water, within a few hours—several hours, perhaps; I don’t know how long it takes to baptize three thousand people. I’d like to find out—we were all baptized.
Then that night, perhaps eight or nine hours after I was saved, I was with some of these three thousand one hundred and twenty. Maybe thirty of us were having a meal. Someone broke the bread and blessed Him again, passing it out, and then likewise the cup.
In the first eight or nine hours of my salvation, I had been baptized and partaken of the Lord’s table.
Now suppose you had asked me what it meant. “Brother, what does this mean for your baptism?” “I don’t know. He said to be baptized, and I knew I should do what he said, so I went out and was baptized.”
That brother spent the rest of his life finding out just what all of that meant, beyond being dunked in water and brought up. That’s a testimony, but what was it testifying of? The rest of his life, he would be searching out the riches of this table, this provision of the Lord for His people.
If you think that you know the long and short of baptism and the Lord’s table, give me your name for the meeting. I’d like you to tell me what you know, because I think that I, for myself, have just experienced and understood a little bit. So I want to know what you know.
Oh, the Lord’s provision for us is great. It is an eternal provision. These were first things.
So I began to say, “Lord, I’m supposed to be speaking about, ‘How is it built?’ And now here You have me contemplating baptism and the Lord’s table.”
As I continued to fellowship with Him, I understood what I am going to speak about, God willing. Tonight, I am going to speak about how it is built through the cross. The next time, I will speak about how it is built by the Spirit. The third time, I will speak about how it is built in love.
Now, I’m telling you that on the front end so, in case I get lost someplace, you’ll know where I was going. You can go there and probably come up with a better message than I could.
Could you turn with me to Matthew 16?
Do I have your permission? I would like to take you and myself tonight and, for just a little while, put us between a rock and a hard place. Then, after we’ve just experienced a little bit of it, if the Lord will help me, I’d like to show us an escape.
We will all leave together from this uncomfortable place between a rock and a hard place. I’ll start reading from Matthew 16:13.
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He began asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
And Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to thee, but My Father who is in heaven.
“And I also say to thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.
“I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, after He had been baptized by John and driven out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit—and greatly tried there for forty days—He began His ministry.
The Lord Jesus had a body that expressed Him perfectly. It did not give Him terrible problems. When He wanted to go to Nazareth, it took Him there. When He wanted to go to Jerusalem, it took Him there.
When He expressed love to little children, His body perfectly expressed that love. When He disciplined the people selling trinkets in the temple, He did that also. He made scourges, drove out the money changers, and turned over the tables.
His body perfectly expressed its Head.
He spoke. He had many things to speak to Israel, many things to speak to the Lord’s people. If you had eyes to see and ears to hear, you understood that this was the Messiah.
If you did not, you were like those Pharisees that I read about earlier: “Who are You?” Over and over again, “Who are You?” They would see signs and wonders that only the Messiah could do, and still they would say, “How long will You keep us in suspense? Tell us who You are.”
He could not please them. A few did have eyes to see and ears to hear. Nicodemus did. Joseph of Arimathea did. But many, many people could not understand.
It was not the Lord’s fault, because He expressed Himself exactly as He desired. Not only that, when you came to Him and saw Him, He said, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.” He was the perfect testimony and expression of His Father.
“The words that I speak, they are not My words. They are the Father’s words. As I hear Him, I speak. The things that I do, they are not My works. I see the Father working, and I work.”
Now, in the fullness of time, the Lord Jesus went to the cross. He ascended into the heavenly places. He actually said that it was to our advantage that He would go away so that He could send the Spirit.
And He said, “I will build My church.”
You know, the church is the Lord’s testimony. It is His body.
This is a little bit of a problem for us, I think, if we want to be honest. If we look at the world—the whole world—and see what the Lord’s people are doing and how they are expressing this Head of theirs, perhaps we think that the Lord’s body today is not expressing Him as perfectly as it did when He was on the earth.
That would be the kindest way I could put it. If I was going to put it bluntly, perfectly honestly, I would say, “No wonder the world doesn’t know who the Lord Jesus is.” They get every sort of message from His body that is not accurate.
Why? Because there is no headship. The body of Christ, if you will, has sort of a spiritual Tourette syndrome. Do you know what that is?
I do not know what it is in a deep way, but I knew someone who had it. That is my only experience with it.
When I was working, I used to be in the building business. The people who owned my company also owned another distributorship, and the two companies were right there together. One of the men who worked for the distributorship had Tourette syndrome.
They would send him down often to borrow our forklift. He was a nice enough person, but he would be walking along and suddenly, out of nowhere, he would do some wild gyration or say something that you could not repeat.
I did not know what was going on, so I asked someone. They said, “Well, he has Tourette’s syndrome. He just does this. He goes off like this, and he can’t help it. It is like his head temporarily loses control of his body, and his body just does whatever it does.”
Sometimes he would almost fall down, and sometimes he would say things and yell things. I was always hoping that when he came to borrow the forklift, we would not have any customers there. If I saw them, I would say, “Come this way,” and try to get them out of harm’s way.
Well, the body of Christ is like that. We have a living Head on the throne of the universe, and yet the body goes this way and that way according to its own whim. It is not rightly related to the Head.
But our brother read to us that it is through the church that the Lord is going to reveal the manifold wisdom of God—not only to the powers and principalities, but to the whole world, the whole creation. The church is the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
I am thinking, “Oh, these are the last days, and there is so much to do.” I see, when I look around—and I am not being too critical; in fact, in a little while I want us all just to look at home—I look around and say, “Lord, how is it that we can be this way?”
How is it that Your purpose is going to be fulfilled, and that Your manifold wisdom, and all that You have purposed, and all that You have been doing through the ages, is going to be expressed in its fullness? Everyone, everywhere, every creature will say, “Oh, that’s what it was about. All along, that’s what it was all about.”
That is the rock. You should feel a little uncomfortable, or a little frustrated at least, I hope, just in considering this: what you have been called to, what the Lord’s intention is, and what the truth is on the ground. I mean, it is frustrating.
Now, let’s see if we can get the hard place. Ephesians 4.
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints for the work of service,
to the building up of the body of Christ.
Before I go further, let me explain that. The apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers do not build the body themselves exclusively. Their job is to equip the saints—like all the ones in this room—and the saints build the body.
Now, since those brothers are also saints, they get to build also. But their job mainly is to prepare other brothers and sisters for building.
Let me go a little further. Verse 15:
But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies,
according to the proper working of each individual part,
causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
Every member of the body has a supply to give. It is as though, if the body does not get its supply from every member, there will be something missing.
Each one of us has a supply for the body of Christ that only we can give. If we do not give it, there will be a lack.
But then it says, “according to the proper working of each individual part.” You cannot just give something and say, “Well, okay, if I have to give something, let me see if I can come up with something.”
No, it is according to the proper working of each individual part. The Lord has built this body and put it together. Each member has a function and a form, and has exactly its place.
It does not do any good just to give something. It has to be the proper working of each individual part.
So now, let us sum up so far. I am in a room filled with saints. Every brother and every sister in this room is a member of the body of Christ.
We ought to say that each one is a body part of the body of Christ. “Member” conjures up membership. It is sort of like saying, “Yes, I’m a member down at Blockbuster.” No, you are a body part. You are a vital part of this functioning, living body.
The body will not grow if you and I, and all of us, do not give our portion. That giving of our portion has to be according to our proper working and function, not just something that we come up with.
Okay, let us go a little further. We will go to 1 Corinthians 3, verse 10.
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it.
But let each man be careful how he builds upon it.
I do not know if I will have time tonight, but I would like to find a way to tell you how Paul received that grace and walked in that grace to become a wise master builder.
You may say, “That would be interesting, but what would it have to do with me? Since he is Paul, of course he is a wise master builder.” Well, you are a builder. You might not become a master builder, but don’t you think it would be good to be a wise builder?
I think you become a wise builder the same way you become a wise master builder: by grace. But there is a process.
For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire.And the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.
If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward.
If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.
“Let each man be careful how he builds upon it.” That sounds ominous, doesn’t it?
The man who poured out his life for eighteen months while he was living with these people—and every day that he was away from these people, his heart was burdened about them, and he was on his knees before the Lord—had gotten some report of difficulties there.
He was writing this letter from Ephesus. He said, “Now, I laid a foundation, and another is building on that foundation. Only let everyone be careful how he builds on it.” That gets me thinking twice.
Now, that is enough to make you think, “Maybe I should rethink this proper-working, individual-part sharing. Maybe they will not miss my portion.”
Because if I decide that the body of Christ needs the functioning of its members, but then I look at the risk of building something—the fire of God is going to come upon this building, yes, at the day of the judgment seat of Christ, but it even comes today as we are building—the fire of God will come.
Everyone’s work will be tested. If I function according to the proper working of my part, there will be gold, silver, and precious stones there, in whatever portion the Lord has given me to put. But if not, there will be a big blaze, and I will suffer loss.
Maybe I should just sit this one out.
Now, the rock and the hard place. Let me make the rock a little heavier.
Remember, the hard place is this great building work that the Lord desires with an eternal desire. He is passionate about it. He saved you. He died for you. He purchased you. He brought you to the building site.
You are both a living stone to be built into it, and also a royal and holy priest on this building site to build. You are there for being built, and you are there for building.
Then you realize that if you build in the wrong way, it could be great loss for you.
Now, the world is made up of two kinds of people. The first kind are the people who say, “Where is that building site?” and they are rolling up their sleeves already.
They say, “When I left the religious system and came back to God’s foundation, I just cannot wait to get in there and start building, and start having an effect for God on His building site.”
Then you have the other types of people in the world. The world is always divided into two groups: those who divide it into two groups and those who do not.
In this case, the other group are people who say, “You know, this is a very nice fellowship of Christians, and I am enjoying being here. But I think I’ll just stay right back here, sort of on the periphery. I don’t want to get too close.”
“I come here every week and bring my little bucket with me. In this wonderful love feast and sharing and life, I fill it up, and it is enough for the whole week. Then I come back. Put my name on the phone list so I feel grafted in.”
“I have my place right back here on the back row, and I have as much as I want right now. So I think that is enough for me. Thank you.”
Remember, Paul was a wise master builder, and we all want to be wise builders. Well, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So first, let us have fear for that sister.
Matthew 25 speaks of the Lord giving a parable about a man who goes away and leaves his servants with talents. I am sorry that he used the Greek word talent, because immediately in Christianity everybody thinks, “Oh yes, that is my ability to play the piano, sing, dance, and do things for the Lord.”
But really, those talents are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. A talent was a wage of money, and the Lord gave to each one just as He desired. He gave one five talents, another two talents, and another one talent.
The one with five talents went out and was faithful, and got five more. The one with two went out, was faithful, and got two more.
You might expect that the one who got five and gained five more would receive a greater reward, but the Lord gave those two the same reward:
Well done, good and faithful servant;
enter thou into the joy of thy master.
Why should He give one more than the other? He gave one more than the other. They both did the same thing: they doubled it.
Then He came to this person who had the one talent. I think she had it—she dug a—he; I’ll get off the sisters. He dug, and he put it in the sand. He buried it. That is what you do with dead things: you bury them.
When the master came, he said, “Here it is. I’ve got it. It was buried the whole time.” And there was great loss.
Or we can go to Luke 19, the parable of the minas. This one is a little different. That master gave ten servants all the same amount.
This speaks not of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but of the Holy Spirit Himself. The Lord gives the Holy Spirit without measure. Isn’t that wonderful? If you belong to the Lord, you have as much of the Holy Spirit as Paul. He gives the Holy Spirit without measure.
He gave each one of these the same mina, one mina, and they went out and did business with it. The first one said, “Lord, Your mina has gained ten more.”
The Lord said, “Well done. Be over ten cities in My kingdom.” Another said, “Lord, Your mina has gained five more.” He said, “Well done. Be over five cities in My kingdom.”
In other words, He rewarded them commensurately with what they had done. Then here comes the other one: “Lord, here is Your mina. I had it wrapped up in grave clothes.”
Some versions of the Bible say “handkerchief,” but really it was the same thing that was over the Lord Jesus’ face in the tomb. “Here it is. It is Yours.”
And He said, “Take that away from that one and assign him a place with the unbelievers.” Great loss.
So now, you can build and build wrongly, and there will be great loss. Or you can not build at all, and there will be great loss.
Now that is a heavy rock. The Lord’s testimony still lies, as it were, in waste because the Lord has shown you something about this building—this heart’s desire of His.
This body must be built up in love and come to full stature. This house must be built and completed. This bride must be made ready. The Lord has touched you with something about this.
Is it enough for you and for me just to know about it? “Oh, do you have the revelation of the bride? And the body? Do you have that revelation?” As if some revelation from the Lord was just something to have.
If you have light from the Lord, be fearful, because the Lord said, “To whom much is given, much is expected.” The Lord does not give you something for your amusement. He gives it to you for purpose.
He chose to give it to you. You did not get it at a cattle call. He did not say, “Anybody want revelation down here?” and you just accidentally were there and it hit you with everyone else. No, the Lord chose you and said, “I am going to give this one some understanding, some light.”
Sometimes the Lord gives us light, and we receive it with joy. Then difficult things happen to us, and we lose our way. I am going to talk more about that tomorrow, so let me continue with this.
Brothers and sisters, we all are to make up our minds to build. Whether you are one of those people who is chomping at the bit to get down to it and do something for the Lord, or whether you are one of those dear saints who says, “No, it is too much. I need to sit back here. I am really not cut out for this.”
Let us all decide that we are going to obey the Lord in this matter. He has given us light. He is speaking to us today in this conference again. There is much work to do.
The question is this: What is going to prevent me from bringing wood, hay, and straw into the house of God, to the building site of God, into the body of Christ, and building with it?
You know, I am not very bright. Sometimes I cannot tell the difference. Lance always tells us about the coconut palace that he went to. Very interesting, but surely that is a combination of wood, hay, and straw altogether. What a blaze that place would make.
I bet they search everyone at the door three times in three different stations, to make sure no one has a lighter or a match or anything like that. It could be fatal in such a place.
What is going to prevent me from bringing everything of my self-life into the house of God and rendering it for building? What will prevent me?
You do not think that you would do such a thing? Why is the building of God in these days in such terrible condition? It is because men who had fire in their souls for building brought in all sorts of mixed things—some good, some very bad.
Little by little, the building work of the Lord became a mixture, polluted, completely deviated from its original intention, from the Lord, ruined. What will stop you and me from doing the same thing?
You say, “I love Jesus. I love Him so much that I am going to depend on this love that I have for Him to keep me from doing such a thing.”
Well, I am so glad you love Him, but you will fail. The Lord has provided something to rescue us from building with wood, hay, and straw, and it is not your love for Him, as commendable as that is.
You say, “I have the blood of Jesus that cleanses me. I depend on the blood of Jesus, and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to prevent me from bringing any foreign thing—anything of man’s self-life, self-nature, Adamic ways. The blood of Jesus is going to deliver me from this.”
Praise the Lord for His blood. Where would any of us be without it? But the blood is not what the Lord Jesus has provided to stop you from bringing these things in.
What will happen is that you will bring every sort of foul thing into the house of God, it will pollute it, and then the Lord will forgive you by His blood. But it will not stop you from bringing it in.
“You do not understand, John. I have resolve. God gave me free will, and I am choosing today. I am choosing to follow the Lord, and I am choosing not to bring anything in like that.”
That is not what the Lord has provided for you. Everyone who ever brought something in never chose to do it. They were probably deceived about something.
The Lord has provided something for us that will keep us from destroying His house. Do you know what it is?
It is a glorious death.
The most destructive thing in the universe, He has applied to you and to me. When did He do this?
Lord, give us ears to hear things we have heard before. But Lord, fresh and new, make it living.
I have been crucified with Christ;
yet I live;
and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me.
Now, Christians have wrestled with these verses for years, for centuries, because we know that the Bible is true.
We know that I am dead and my life is hidden with Christ in God. We know that we have been crucified with Christ. Yet I detect sometimes, on a bad day—or maybe every day—something in here that is less than Christ.
How can this be? How can it be that I have died and my life is hidden with Christ in God, yet there seems to be a contradiction of that in my life? Did He do it, or did He not do it?
When you were saved, you received the Lord Jesus. He came into your spirit by the Holy Spirit, and you were saved instantaneously—wonderfully, instantaneously saved.
I have been saved.
When the Lord comes back—or if you go to be with Him before He comes back—this physical body will be changed on the day of resurrection into a glorious spiritual body.
We might recognize one another, but it will be because we have the wisdom of God, I guess. It would be like looking at an acorn and looking at the biggest oak tree you ever saw. They say, “Well, actually, one day that oak tree was an acorn just like this.”
“In fact, there is nothing there that was not here. We just planted this acorn, and this came up.” You say, “Well, surely something else came into it. There was another tree grafted into it.” No. Everything, all the life, was hidden in there.
When it was planted and fell into the earth and died, it came up this beautiful tree. I believe that is what our immortal bodies are going to be like, compared to this one that has given me trouble lately.
But that is in the future. You shall be saved.
Spiritually, you were saved at the beginning when you believed—instantly. Physically, you will be saved at the end—instantly. But there is another part of you: this soul of yours.
The Lord loves your soul. He created Adam, breathed the breath of life into Adam, and Adam became a living soul.
How the Lord delights in the soul of man that is rightly functioning according to its proper working.
And how grotesque it is when the soul of a man or woman takes that place that it has in Adam: independent, proud, selfish, self-serving—everything that the Lord Jesus is not.
The Lord saves us. He gives us His Spirit. Here we are with this soul-life that has been so strong, so independent.
Then we find out that His death on the cross, in the most wonderful way according to the Word of God, included us in Him. That is our death also.
Do you remember when the Lord gave the land of Canaan to Israel? It was filled with giants. The Lord said from the very beginning, “I have given you this land. Go in and possess it.”
If it had been me, I would have gotten on the highest hill close to Gilgal, looked around, and said, “I claim You, Canaan, in the name of our God, for His glory.” Then I would run back down the hill and back to the camp.
I would want an instant victory. But the Lord said, “No, that is not the way you are going to claim this land that I have given you. I want you to conquer it.”
“Here is what I want you to do: walk all over it. In every place that the sole of your foot falls, not ‘I will give you,’ but ‘I have already given you.’”
“But what about the giants?” “They will fall before you.”
Now, in the natural, this is foolish. I was thinking today, I wonder in some of those battles how long some of the hand-to-hand sword fighting and that sort of thing went on.
I do not think it was unreal warfare. I do not think they came and the giants turned around and ran off. I think they lined up, drew close, and there were shields and bucklers and swords.
At the end of the thing, in the most miraculous way, Israel was standing and the giants were dead. Place after place after place, it was real warfare, real struggle. But the Lord made the difference.
In the same way, the Lord says, “This death of Mine is going to be appropriated in your life by My Spirit, day by day by day.”
“Not only that, I, by My Spirit, am going to construct your circumstances in just such a way that every Adamic giant who is living in here is going to be exposed. It may take a lifetime doing it.”
“But every day, if you will take My provision, immediately take My provision, and trust Me for this glorious death…”
You know, death is not annihilation. We say, “The Lord said I died, but I am still here.” Death is not annihilation. Death is when you cease to function in your normal place.
It is also separation. Before, you could never be delivered from your soul-life. How could you be delivered from something that was you? But the Lord, in His most powerful, wonderful, marvelous way, has severed the connection.
Now, day by day:
If any man would come after Me,
let him deny himself,
and take up his cross,
and follow Me.
Your cross—the cross upon which you were crucified in Christ—is powerful. The Lord has provided it for you: a glorious death, a victory over the old man, victory over the world, victory over temptation.
It is real fighting. This life lived by the cross is real warfare. It is not as though you can just look at some giant in you and say, “Be gone,” and he goes. Sometimes it takes weeks, months.
But you keep cleaving to the Word of God. Keep cleaving to His victory and what He has provided for us. The victory is ours.
The Lord has provided this cross as a way to keep us from building in vain in His house.
You say, “But if I am going to be fighting these giants my whole life, one victory after another, what about what I build tomorrow?”
The Lord Himself will see that you do not build in vain. “What if I should make a mistake?” If you are following Him, believing Him, trusting Him, and you make a mistake, He will use your mistake to His own glory.
Brothers and sisters, how is this house built? First and foremost, by the cross.
I wonder what that man who was baptized on the day of Pentecost could tell you about his baptism the day after it happened. I wonder what he could tell you ten years after it happened, as he began to understand.
We need to see the truth of the Lord’s provision for us, begin to trust Him for that, and walk in the reality of it. Because you cannot have what you do not see.
It is interesting. The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are you if you know these things and do them.” He also said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Walking in the reality of what He has provided for us is the only way that we are going to be able to build His house and not bring every sort of wood, hay, and straw into it—either innocently or because of our stubbornness, pride, ego, or something.
We have to build through the cross.
Let me give you a story. First, let me give you a testimony.
When I was a young man, I began first meeting with the saints that I gather with today, some of whom are in the room. I first understood something wonderful.
I understood that I was washed in the blood of Jesus, all my sins were forgiven, He put His Spirit in me, and now I could gather with His people and begin to build.
Now, that is true, but it is not accurate. There was something I did not know about. I did not know that on the day He saved me, His Holy Spirit took me and plunged me into Christ.
I became a new creation, a new creature. He did not just make me sort of like that bionic man: “We can make him better, bigger, faster.” The Lord made me a whole different creation—a different species, if you will.
Physically, the Lord says, “Now you are in the world, but you are not of the world.” We try to walk in such a way. You know what that really means? Physically, I am in the world because I am still occupying this body.
But other than that, I am not supposed to be of this world. The world is not of the same character as I am. It is not of the same essence.
I did not know that the Lord had done this for me. When I found out, oh, I was so thankful. It was already the truth. It happened a few years before. But I did not know about it, and it was like I could not trust Him for what I did not know about.
Then I saw: “Oh Lord, You have made a provision for me.” I kept wondering why I kept failing. I might do something that I thought was good and helpful in His house, then I would mess up, and everybody would tolerate me.
I was thinking, “Why is it this way with me?” Oh Lord, You made provision for me, and I did not even know it.
It is almost like Jacob. When he went to sleep in that place, he thought he was pretty familiar with it—Luz. You know what happened to him that night. He woke up the next morning and said, “How awesome is this place! This is the very house of God, and I did not know it.”
Something so awesome that the Lord had done, and I did not even know it.
Let me give you an example. Acts 18.
Let me set this up for you. Paul had gone to Corinth, and he had been there a year and a half. That was his second journey. He had always wanted to go to Ephesus. He had a burden for Ephesus.
I do not think he was the man to go to Ephesus earlier, but he was a growing Christian. Now I think he realized that his next journey would be to Ephesus.
So he leaves Corinth and goes back to Jerusalem, then back home to Antioch, and then he is going to come back. He takes with him Aquila and Priscilla, two dear saints.
They go to Ephesus. He is there just a week or so. On the Sabbath day, he speaks in the synagogue, and they say, “Tell us; we want to hear more.” He says, “I have to go. God willing, I will come back.”
He leaves Priscilla and Aquila there. I think probably he had lived with them, and they were of the same trade. When he came back, if they had already established a storefront and had a place to live, he would hit the ground running.
Now let me pick up the reading. Acts 18:24:
Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures.
This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John.
And he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
For some years, I thought about this fellow that, until he met Priscilla and Aquila, if he was not born again, he was not a Christian; he was just a follower of John the Baptist. I do not know why I thought that. I probably just did not read very closely.
It says that he was acquainted only with the baptism of John. Well, this is what it says about him: he was an Alexandrian, he was eloquent, he was mighty in the Scriptures, and he had been instructed in the way of the Lord.
Look, this is at least twenty-five years after John the Baptist. If he was mighty in the way of the Lord, teaching accurately the things in Scripture concerning Jesus, John the Baptist did not have that much.
The most accurate thing John said about Jesus was, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Or he said, “One is coming after me, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. I baptize you in water; He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire.”
What else did he say? “Get ready. The kingdom was coming.” John had a very powerful message, but this man was instructed in the Scriptures and fervent in spirit. Fervent in spirit—in his dead spirit?
I believe Apollos was a Christian. You say, “He was from Alexandria. What sort of church was there?” We do not know what was going on. This story follows Paul around. We do not know what was happening.
What if that Ethiopian eunuch whom Philip led to the Lord went back down to Ethiopia and started preaching the gospel, and it got all the way up to Egypt? What if Apollos heard it and believed?
What if some of the apostles, when the Lord Jesus said, “Go to the ends of the earth,” actually did that and went to Egypt? We do not know how this man heard the gospel.
But the Scripture makes a point of saying that he was only acquainted with the baptism of John. What does that mean?
If you are thinking of water baptism, I do not see how exactly it would make that big a difference whether, when he was baptized, someone said, “Now I baptize you for repentance,” as opposed to someone declaring, “I baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ.”
I believe it was the same thing that happened to me when I was born again and did not know about the baptism of Jesus Christ.
“What do you mean by that?” I mean I did not know that I had been baptized into Him. The baptism of Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus said, “I have a baptism to undergo, and how straitened I am until it is accomplished.” I did not know about that.
I did not know. I thought that what He did on the cross, He did. It was in the Scriptures. I did not understand that I was crucified in Him; that when He died, I died; that when He rose from the dead, I rose with Him and was seated with Him in the heavenly places.
I did not know any of that. I guess you could say that I was sort of like this fellow: I was only acquainted with the baptism of repentance.
But this man was so gifted. It says he was an Alexandrian. Alexandria was the place of that great library, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.
There were hundreds of thousands of volumes—all the learning and wisdom of the world there. He was a great speaker, a great communicator. He had Scriptural knowledge.
When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they heard wonderful things, but perhaps they saw that he did not really understand this glorious provision of the Lord Jesus for His people.
This is not a provision for secret, special overcomers. This is what every Christian ought to know. Every Christian ought to walk in the light and reality of this glorious death—this death that delivers us from so much.
After they explained the way of God more accurately, it says:
And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he helped greatly those who had believed through grace.
For he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
Now, we could use some of those in the church, can’t we?
While Apollos was there, Paul came to Ephesus. Then, after Paul had been in Ephesus for a little while, he got letters from Corinth. They were having difficulties.
I will not go into all the difficulties, but one of the difficulties they were having was division. Some people were saying, “Well, I am of Apollos.” Others were saying, “Well, I am of Paul.” There were other sects—divisions.
Now, it is true that the Corinthians were acting like mere men. But do you suppose there was anything in Apollos that, when he went there and found these eager brothers and sisters who were so desiring his ministry, he did anything to foster some sort of sectarian spirit?
Was it all the Corinthians who took this man, who was purer than gold, and did some divisive things with his ministry?
Again, Paul said:
I, as a wise master builder, laid a foundation, which is Christ.
No man can lay any other foundation.
Another man is building on this foundation, but let each one be careful how he builds.
Well, what was the problem? He was fervent. He had zeal. He had knowledge. He had gifting—probably five talents, a number of talents.
What was the problem? Well, he probably had a big ego.
I know that may not be in here tonight. We have all been dealt with so wonderfully about the cross. But if it is not in you, maybe there is a little bit of an ego in me.
What else did Apollos have? Brothers and sisters, he had all the weaknesses that anyone in Adam has that have not been dealt with by the cross.
It is not enough just to be gifted, fervent, knowledgeable, and willing. It is not enough.
Otherwise, we will build, and without even knowing it, we will build in such a way that it will be wood, hay, and straw.
You say, “Oh, but that word was so wonderful.” I do not know what it is. I think that if the Lord has not been working in that area, even if it seems wonderful, it will end up being divisive, or bringing in a party spirit, or establishing a personality cult, or whatever.
Every one of us is different. Every one of us is different. Not only that, many of us see things differently.
We say, “Okay, you see this that way, and I see that a different way. Let’s walk together. Let’s deal together.” There are things that we disagree on. I cannot think of anybody—I cannot even agree with myself all the time. I am changing my opinion.
He was only acquainted with the baptism of John. So how could he have been trusting daily, again and again and again, for the grace that says:
If any man would come after Me,
let him deny himself,
take up the cross,
and follow Me.
If you did not know that you had been crucified with Christ, how could you do that? What would that mean?
Well, we are a room full of builders. The work to be done is a great work—the most important thing in the universe.
Do you have anything else to do? Do you have anything else to do rather than give your life to the building of the house of God, the building up in love of the body of Christ, the bride making herself ready?
Do you really think that you have something very important? “I will be right back. I’ve got something important. I will be right back, and then we’ll get to this.” Drop it, if you think you have something else.
Find a way, in whatever your circumstances are, to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the things that you need will be given to you.
Don’t despise the work.
Will you get before the Lord tonight and say, “Lord, You saved me, and You made me a member of the body. Lord, You made me a holy and royal priest, a builder.”
“Lord, I want to build in such a way as to be approved. Lord, I want to build with gold, silver, and precious stones. Lord, I know that the way is through the cross.”
“Lord, this cross of Yours, this powerful death, must be working in my life. Lord, it must be so actively cutting out, x-ing out, bringing to zero this Adamic nature.”
Well, that is the first way. I think we will have some more practical things in times to come. But without the cross, I think everything else is superfluous.
Actually, that man on the day of Pentecost—the first thing he experienced was water baptism, which speaks of this. Something happened to him the very first moment he got saved.
Today, someone gets saved and we say, “Oh, you want to be baptized? You will need to go to the baptism classes, of course. We would not want to baptize you and have you not know all about baptism and what you were doing.”
But I never saw anybody in the Bible who got baptized and knew exactly what was happening to them. They were just being obedient to what people were telling them to do, because most of them were baptized within a few minutes after they believed.
Think of that Ethiopian that Philip was running along beside the chariot. He was reading Isaiah. Philip said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He said, “Well, how do I, unless someone helps me?”
So Philip climbed up in the carriage, or chariot, or whatever he was in, and he preached Christ to him. The man looked up and said, “Look, water. What prevents me from being baptized?”
Philip said, “Nothing, if you believe with all your heart.” He said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” They went down to the water, Philip baptized him, and Philip disappeared from his sight, translated into some other place. The man went on rejoicing.
Now, what did that man understand about baptism?
But the Lord has given it to us not to be ignorant about these things. I want to spend the rest of my life learning about this matter—not just learning knowledge about it, but learning about it because of the effective work that the Lord is doing in me.
He is appropriating this death to every giant in this land, every uncircumcised Philistine that the Lord gives into my hand. It is real battle, brothers and sisters.
Some of these things do not go easily. But if you will stay in the race and keep saying, “Lord, I am going to build my life on what You said and not on what I feel.”
What if we treated the blood like that? “Are you forgiven?” “Yeah.” “What about when you do not feel forgiven? Are you still forgiven?” “Well, yeah.”
Do you always feel forgiven? Do you always do everything right? Do you never come under one little ounce of condemnation? Have you never done something and said, “Oh, I think this is too much. I don’t know if the Lord can forgive me for this. I have done such a lousy thing”?
For a moment, you are thinking maybe it is the unpardonable sin. I do not know. It does not make any difference the way you felt.
The fact is that this precious blood cleanses you from all unrighteousness. This glorious death is what God has provided for your transformation.
Daily, live in it. Trust it. Walk in it. Dwell in it. Claim it.
Lord, we want to commit these words to You.
Lord, You are so wonderful. Your provision is so complete for us. There is nothing lacking, Lord. Open our eyes.
Lord, let us walk in the good of all that You have made for us. Lord, You have done it all.
Lord, we do want to be Your disciples. Lord, we intend right now—we just intend to be those who take up our cross daily and follow You.
Oh Lord, build Your house through this cross. Amen.