I would like to read from a few passages in the Word of God, beginning with the one that we have all started with and which is the theme of these days together: Matthew 16.
And I also say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Peter is a small stone, or splinter of the rock; but upon this rock—Petra, the massif of the rock—He says, “I will build My church.”
And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep.
And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have seen, and behold, a candlestick all of gold, with its bowl upon the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps, which are upon the top thereof;
and two olive-trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.And I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these are? And I said, No, my lord.
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the top stone with shoutings of, Grace, grace, unto it.
Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you.
For who hath despised the day of small things? For these seven shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel; these are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks;
and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.
And His head and His hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire;
and His feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and His voice as the voice of many waters.
And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in His strength.
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last,
and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter;
the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks are seven churches.
But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.
Remember therefore whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent.
Beloved Lord, we are so thankful that You do not leave us to our own energies and talents and gifts. But when we come to the ministry of Your Word, You provide us with an anointing of grace and power and wisdom.
We thank You for that finished work of our Lord Jesus that has made that anointing freely available to us. And we thank You for the Person of the Holy Spirit, who makes that anointing a living reality.
Into that anointing we stand by faith for the speaking of Your Word this evening, for the translating of it, and for the hearing of it. Lord, we shall be careful to give You the praise and the worship of our hearts for answering this our prayer. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, I think you all know the theme of these days: “I will build My church,” taken from the passage that we read together in Matthew 16.
I am interested that so many of us who have quoted this and read it have not gone on to verse 19: “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” My contribution in these days is the question: Why the conflict over the building?
I imagine that anyone who has any understanding of the purpose of God in our day and generation, or any understanding of the building work of the house of God, knows something about conflict.
Every child of God is born to conflict. We were born into war.
It is nothing to do with us in the first place. If you think you are so important that the powers of darkness feel they have to focus upon you, trip you up all the time, and do this, that, and the other to you, I think you have got a wrong concept.
It is not you that the powers of darkness are bothered about. It is the Lord Jesus, and it is the Lord Jesus in you. It is the fact that you have been delivered from the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.
Satan cannot get over it. Some people think that if they backslide and do Satan a favour, having once served the Lord, they will get lots of favours. Well, Satan does give a lot of favours to those who backslide—to start with.
But anyone who has the mark of the Lamb upon them—which only the heavenly host see—anyone with the mark of the Lamb is marked out for destruction by Satan, if it is possible. Those who backslide nearly always end up in the most terrible state and condition.
You would think the enemy would favour them very greatly. Not at all. He follows them through to their very last days and will take everything away from them that he can.
If there is a divine Builder, there is also a satanic contender. It is as simple as that.
You and I, born of the Spirit of God, have discovered that we are born into war—a war that is not of our making, a war that goes right back to the beginning of time, even before time. It is something to do with God and His Messiah, and something to do with Satan and the powers of darkness and evil.
If there is one thing that proves to me beyond any shadow of a doubt how important this matter of building the house of God—the building of the church—is, it is the conflict and the warfare.
Have you ever noticed? I do not know whether you have, but some people seem to go through warfare like old war horses. Their ears prick up, they hear the gunshot, and they are quite happy about it. But they do not understand it very much, except that they have been born into it and have got used to it.
But I have noticed in my life that whenever God is going to save somebody, whenever God is going to do something special, everything goes wrong. Have you noticed that? Well, if you have not, maybe you have not seen too many people saved.
When the Lord is about to do something, when there is some special thing coming up—even some person for whom God is going to bring revelation and understanding—it is almost as if everything goes wrong. The baby falls out of the cot, the stove blows up, a thunderstorm strikes the whole area, the dog suddenly goes missing, and that dreadful aunt phones up right in the middle of it with some silly little problem.
The amazing thing is that generally the Lord is going to do something. I have often felt that the coordination of evil is the biggest single evidence for the reality of what we are in. Why is evil so coordinated when it comes to this matter of God’s building programme?
Well, I thought this evening I would speak a little about what it is that the enemy is focused on. Then tomorrow evening I would speak more about the actual gates of hell that the Lord said will not prevail against us, and the tactics of the enemy. And if we have grace and power and life still within us, the third time I would speak about the victory that is ours and how to use it.
I find this very interesting: this simple, categorical, dogmatic declaration of the Messiah, Jesus, when He said, “Upon this rock I will build My church.” It could not be anything simpler. A child ought to be able to understand that. Simple, categorical, dogmatic.
“You are Peter,” a small portion of the rock. “Upon the massif of the rock, I will take you, a small stone, and with others I will build you upon the massif of rock. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
That second part of the declaration is as simple, as categorical, and as dogmatic as the first: “And the gates of hell.”
I do not like this “gates of Hades.” I cannot understand this translation at all. Of course, it is technically correct. Like so many things, when they are technically correct, they are realistically wrong.
When it comes to practice, what are the gates of Hades? What does it mean to the average believer? Something weird—something to do with the place of departed spirits. But the whole idea of “gates of hell” is much better. The old version is better, because that is the idea behind it.
Satan’s great weapon is death.
These gates of death, these gates of hell—this is what the enemy mobilises. You mean to tell me he mobilises all the departed? Of course not. What does he mobilise? What is it that he equips? Thousands of demons, world rulers of this darkness, principalities, and powers. That is what he mobilises. That is the gates of hell.
It is a whole spiritual hierarchy of evil and darkness, mobilised and equipped to frustrate the building work of the Lord Jesus—to neutralise the building work of the Lord Jesus.
Why does Satan see it as so important? Many Christians do not see it as important.
Where do people really ever talk about the building of the church? Most Christians relegate it to something in the attic of their minds—the loft, I do not know if you use those terms in American English. But you know what I mean. Somewhere or other, we just put it where it is not so important.
Satan sees this matter, whether you understand it or not, as so important that he will mobilise the whole hierarchy of evil to overcome the building work of the Lord Jesus Himself—to frustrate it, neutralise it, bring it to a halt, and paralyse it.
From the very beginning, God had in His heart a divine building programme.
That is another strange thing I find about Christians. I have been a Christian now since 1943. That is a long time. It frightens me to even think about it. But I was quite young, of course, when I was saved. I am not a hundred yet.
But I find it amazing that most Christians do not ask questions. They just take the Word of God and, as we say in Ireland, it is like water flowing off a duck’s back. It does not enter in. It does not seem to have any impact. It does not bring about questions.
Why did God create us?
From listening to some Christians, you would understand that God created us to be in a kind of park where there were a lot of trees, and we could eat anything we wanted from all the trees except one.
When we took that apple—some think it was—God got very upset, sin entered the world, and then He sent the Lord Jesus into the world to save us.
Once we are saved, we ought to pray once a day. We ought to read the Word once a day. We should go to a meeting of Christians at least once a week. And if we are incredibly zealous and by nature intense, corner other unsaved people and try to get them saved.
Then, after so many years, we die. Apparently, we float away into somewhere up there, where we play a harp forever afterwards. We sit on some kind of damp cloud in a glorified nightie, with a crown on our heads, and forever and ever we sing.
As if God Himself, who is the great music lover, would be interested in us forever and ever and ever singing! You would have thought it would enter into people’s minds: would you not get tired of all that harp playing?
But it does not enter into people’s minds. For many Christians, that is what it is to be saved. God sent His Son into the world to save us just for that.
But God had, in the very beginning, a purpose. That purpose was to build us together into an instrument, into a house, into a dwelling place in which He would not merely visit, bless, or use, but in which He would dwell, through which He would express Himself.
We do not even know what was in His mind for the ages of the ages. All we know is that sin arrested the whole thing. It arrested the building programme.
Once we are saved, we have come into the divine building programme again. At Pentecost, God initiated the building programme, and the Holy Spirit came as the One by whom the Lord Jesus would build the church.
Everywhere you turn in the Word of God, you will find this matter. I do not want to steal thunder from anyone else, because I have got to talk about warfare—which is a dreadful subject, I might say, to be given.
But everywhere you turn in the Bible, you will find this thing. The whole Old Testament is our picture book, if you like. Of course, in my estimation as a Jew, I think the Old Testament is far more than a picture book. But nevertheless, it is a picture book.
Where shall I start?
Everywhere you turn, you have these figures, these types, these pictures.
Has it ever occurred to you, you who know your Bible a little more, why we have four books that deal with the history of the kingdom and the throne of the king—1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 2 Kings—and then, as if the Lord, like me, forgets things, He says, “Oh, I am going to start again,” and gives us 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, which go back over the whole thing again?
Why does He do that? The interesting thing is that 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles are all to do with a building programme. They are to do with the house of God and the rival to the house of God: the high places, other places of worship.
That whole great portion of the Word is a battle that goes backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards. Every king is judged by how he deals with the house of God.
Or take the little book of Nehemiah. The whole thing is to do with building. They had built the temple, but the walls of the city—the whole thing was to do with building.
I had better not go on more with this, because I shall get too far away from warfare. But it is all warfare. That is the point. Do you remember Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem? Who is Geshem? I remember Austin-Sparks years ago saying, “And who is Geshem?” They all quote, “And Geshem saith,” and he said, “Nobody knows who Geshem is.”
All we know is that Nehemiah said, “You have no part in the building.” We will not be compromised by you being part of this building.
This is very interesting, I think, when you really begin to look at it. It does not matter where you turn. Take Haggai and Zechariah. They were the two prophets at the end, almost, of the old age and the old covenant.
They started the foundation, and then all the work stopped because of conflict, controversy, division, and affluence—because people put other things first before the building programme of God. Then came Haggai and Zechariah, and they prophesied.
Haggai said, “You have received wages to put into a purse with holes in it.” The Lord does not bless you because you are all building beautiful ceiled houses while the house of God lies waste.
Zechariah said the same thing in those first chapters—those first eight chapters of Zechariah. It is all to do with a huge battle that rages backwards and forwards. No wonder, because into that house of God the Lord Jesus was to come. For the Scripture to be fulfilled, that house had to be built.
It was a battle.
Everywhere we turn, we find this battle. Some people think that the New Testament period of the church was wonderful, and they read it with rose-coloured spiritual glasses. They say, “Oh, if only we were in the New Testament period of the church.”
There was enough warfare. If it did not come from without, it came from within. There were Ananias and Sapphira, who dropped dead in the meetings through saying things in testimony that they had no business to say. If God judged all of us like this, my goodness, we would have a lot of funerals.
Then there was Simon the sorcerer, who went to the apostles and said, “How much do you want to give me this gift of the Holy Spirit, so I can lay hands on people?” Can you believe this is the New Testament church?
“Oh,” you say, “that is just a few here and a few there.” Ah, just wait. What about Jezebel teaching the deep things of Satan in one of the churches? Deep things of Satan! Can you believe it?
“No, no, no,” you say, “that is just one church.” All right. What about this other marvellous church in Corinth? They actually got drunk at the Lord’s Table—slid under the table, blotto. Amazing, really, because it was on fruit juice. It is one of the miracles of the New Testament.
They got drunk. They were gluttonous at the Lord’s Table. One fellow was sleeping with his father’s wife, and the saints—some of them—were taking others to law.
You see, we see this whole story of the wonderful power of God, impact on society, everything that happened, and the adding to the church. We see that and think, “That is how it ought to be.” We never see the conflict. We never see the warfare. We never see Satan at work with all kinds of strategies, wiles, and devices to undo the building work of God and destroy it.
It is everywhere you look: Nicolaitanism, clergy and laity. Everywhere you look, you find it.
Beloved brothers and sisters, one of our biggest problems is that we all look for the perfect church. There is no such thing on earth.
There may be saints who are coming to perfection. There may be groups of believers within churches who are coming to perfection. But there is no such thing as the church on earth that is perfect.
Why? Because if the Lord is adding to them every day, then alcoholics, drug addicts, divorcees, homosexuals, and a thousand and one others are being saved and brought into the church. Do not tell me they do not have problems.
I know from my own experience that when an alcoholic or a drug addict gets saved, you have years of problems whilst the Lord straightens them out. Saved they are in a moment; but before they can become a functioning part of the family of God, so much has to happen.
Dear brothers and sisters, there is no such thing as a perfect church. The problem is that Satan comes, and we get this idea: we come together because we are better than the others, more devoted, and more pure.
Well, if you would only stay a little elite holy cluster of saints, you can be pure, elite, and knowledgeable. But is that the church?
If there was a passion for the unsaved, then the house of God has midwifery rooms. If the house of God is where it should be, then the house of God has kindergartens. If the house of God is where it should be, there is a school. And in all of this, there is imperfection.
When you have found what you thought was the perfect church, it is not long before you discover that some of the leaders are not so perfect. Then Satan says, “It is time for you to leave.”
Sometimes we find other brothers and sisters not so perfect. That is not very hard. Most of us have got that lovely façade. We look so sweet, sing so beautifully, do the right things, and open the Bible as if it means everything to us. We only do it once a week.
You know the kind of thing. Before long, you begin to find imperfection. That is one of Satan’s greatest tactics. “Look,” he says, “you see how poor this is. You see how poor that one is. You see how poor that one is. You see, they are all very poor.”
Then you say, “Oh, the Lord has left.” No matter that these imperfect people were there when you first came. Where do you go? To something more perfect?
I do not find that. The church is built on the foundation of the Lord Jesus, and everyone whom He has received is my brother and my sister, whatever condition they are in.
I am not to be partaker of their sins. I am not to get involved in the things that are wrong in our fellow believers, but I have to wash their feet.
Jesus gave us an example when He washed the feet of Judas. Did He not know that Judas was a thief? Did He not know that Judas was a betrayer? Of course He knew. Yet He washed his feet and said, “I have left you an example that you should follow.”
Years ago, in the work in Britain at Halcombe House, we had a very difficult brother. He was the only older brother among us, a self-made businessman. We were all youngsters, except for him and his family.
He wrecked everything. He was a strange spiritual schizophrenic. On the one side, he understood spiritual values and spiritual things; on the other side, it was flesh. He nearly wrecked everything.
At one point, I became ill, and during convalescence Lady Ogle said, “Come and stay with me.” Her home was the most amazing place you have ever seen. Mr. Sparks used to say it was the nearest thing to paradise on earth.
I went to stay there. After I had been there a few days, at lunch she said, “Brother, I think you and I should have a time of prayer together.” Now, this was in a dining room nearly as long as this, with a table where you could hardly see the other end. But we were both sitting at one end, mercifully.
She said, “Brother, I believe we should pray.” I said, “Yes, that is a good thing.” “I think we should pray about this brother,” and she named him. “Oh,” I said, “yes, that is a good thing.”
She said, “I have got it from the Lord that we should pray that he be removed.”
So I said, “Oh dear, my dear sister, I do not think I can join you on this.” “Why not?” she said. “He is wrecking everything. He is wrecking the testimony of Jesus.”
“Well,” I said, “we brothers, we sought the Lord. We wanted to remove him. If you knew the whole story, you would understand it. We wanted to remove him, but the Lord said to us, ‘Wash his feet.’”
“And we have been learning how not to be part of his sin, but how to wash his feet.” “Well,” she said, “will you join me? Because the Lord has not told me.”
I have never forgotten that prayer time. That little lady—Stephen will remember—was probably no higher than this. She got so carried away that she stood up, and I felt as if the whole of that place trembled.
She took hold of that situation and, in the name of the Lord, commanded that something be done. To me, it was keys—something locked. I could not, of course, be part of it except to be there.
It was no surprise to me when, within a couple of weeks, he developed a serious condition, and within a few more weeks, died.
His own family would not sit with him because of what came out of his mouth in his half-conscious condition. But the brother he had so spoken against sat with him to the end. I believe he lost his body that his spirit would be saved in the day of Jesus Christ.
It is a tremendous thing to know the power and authority of God. If you are looking for the perfect church, you have a weakness at the very foundation of your whole fellowship with other brothers and sisters.
I must watch myself on this, or we will never get to where we should get. But this warfare that Satan wages is full of significance. It is the evidence that this building programme of God is vitally, essentially important.
What is it that the enemy focuses upon? What is the reason, as it were? What is the focal point of this intense warfare and conflict?
It is the testimony of Jesus.
This little phrase, which many who have come to these conferences over the years will know well, is for most Christians almost an unknown place.
I find it of tremendous importance that this phrase is used most often in the last book of the Bible, Revelation. You find it again and again.
Who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ.
I was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, that keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus.
And I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
However we interpret the book of Revelation, we have set before us the enormous battle—the warfare over the purpose of God, the Messiah of God, the redeemed of God, and everything else to do with the Lord.
It is a battle between darkness and light, between Christ and Antichrist, between God and Satan. I have no problem with the fact that a large part of this book is predictive, but the fact remains that you have, if in no other way, a symbolic picture of an age-long conflict.
It began when Satan threw away one third of the angels in contention with God and said, “I will be like the Most High. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” The whole battle is here.
Beasts, false prophets, dragons, prostitutes—I do not know what else—and at the same time those who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth; those who are overcomers; those who are faithful, called, and chosen. It is an amazing picture.
You see the throne, and in the throne you see that little Lamb—the Lion of Judah. It is warfare.
What I find so incredible is that the focal point of this whole conflict is to do with the testimony of Jesus.
Where does this word testimony first come? It is in Exodus. It is Exodus 16, and it speaks of the golden pot of manna being put into the testimony.
You will discover that there is an ark of the testimony, which comes again and again in Exodus. There are the two tables of the testimony—that is, the law. There is the tabernacle of the testimony.
Does that give us some clue as to what the testimony of Jesus is?
The ark of the covenant symbolised the very presence of God in the Holy of Holies. Within it are only three things: an unbroken law of God, a golden pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded.
It is an amazing picture of the Lord Jesus. He fulfilled the law of God. Within Him, the law of God was unbroken: tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
He is the bread of life. He said it Himself: “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. I am the bread of life, come down out of heaven.”
Aaron’s rod that budded speaks of divine authority. Divine authority—there in the ark of the covenant. Over the ark was the mercy seat, with those great cherubim. I wish we had time to talk about it, but I have got to talk about warfare.
Testimony: the testimony of Jesus.
When you come to Zechariah, it is very significant that the Holy Spirit selects the lampstand to represent all the other things. Here you had the ark of the testimony, and you had the tabernacle of the testimony. Get it? Because that is where you and I come in.
We are the dwelling place of God. So this testimony of Jesus is something to do with Himself and something to do with us.
When the Holy Spirit selects the lampstand, you find a great conflict. If you know the story of the time of Haggai and Zechariah, you know it was a time of intense controversy and intense conflict.
There was a mountainous obstacle between Zerubbabel, the main builder, and Joshua the high priest, and the rebuilding of the house of God. Then comes the Word: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.”
“He shall bring forth the top stone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace.’ His hands laid the foundation; his hands shall complete it.” It speaks of a plumb line in the hand of God. What does a plumb line have to do with anything other than building? It is to do with building. The whole thing is to do with building.
This lampstand that was in the tabernacle and in the temple has been selected by the Holy Spirit to represent the divine building programme of God, the warfare over it, and the conflict.
I will leave to another time the fact that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Grace, grace unto it—the top stone. His hands, His hands will finish it. Who would despise the day of small things?
Everything begins very small, very insignificant, sometimes with one person: a monk in Germany, upon whom the Spirit of God fell. Would you believe it? He was rather portly, not very dignified, and given to drink. God used him to turn the whole of Europe upside down.
Or I think of John Wesley, by nature a legalist. No wonder he was called a Methodist. That was his nature. Before he was saved, he used to get up before the sun arose for devotions, and did not even know the Lord. Amazing, is it not? Some people who know the Lord find it hard to get up after sunrise.
No, dear friends, when the Spirit of God fell upon John Wesley, millions of people were swept into the kingdom of God. You can never despise the day of small things.
The testimony of Jesus. Now, just in case there is someone here who says, “Well, you know, that is the Old Testament,” that is why I read Revelation 1.
Here, right at the beginning of this tremendous revelation of the purpose of God and the sovereign power of God to fulfil what He has revealed, you have the risen Messiah—ascended, glorified—in the midst of seven golden lampstands.
He Himself says, “These seven lampstands are seven churches.” When you look at the condition of these seven churches, there is a lot there that most of us would feel we would have to get out.
Why lampstands? Because they represent a divine building programme.
Do I make sense? Or is it beyond you?
What, then, is the testimony of Jesus?
Did you notice that there is another phrase in the book of Revelation associated with it? “The Word of God and the testimony of Jesus”; “the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus.” Is that not interesting?
That is what lies at the heart of this whole conflict: the Word of God—authoritative, inspired, inerrant, relevant—and the testimony of Jesus, because Jesus is that Word in living expression, if you understand what I am saying.
In other words, when you see the Lord Jesus, you see the Word of God. Let me put it more simply: the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus are distinct, but intimately related.
Nobody will ever give themselves to the building of the house of God unless they are under the authority of God’s Word. Otherwise, tradition or history will mean more to them than what God says.
In the Word of God, I find the heart and mind of God revealed. In the Lord Jesus, I see the heart and mind of God revealed. Whoever has seen the Lord Jesus has seen the Father.
It is the testimony of Jesus. The Lord Jesus is the whole Word of God fulfilled—all the promises, all the types, all the figures, everything in Him fulfilled. Is it any wonder that this is the focal point of the battle?
My dear friends, that is exactly where we are today. Many in the so-called church are seeking to reinterpret the Bible in the light of modern society.
It is as simple as that. In the end, it will be a rejection of the Word of God and a reinterpretation of it that has nothing to do with that Word of God.
But I must finish. The testimony is also to do with the dwelling place of God. When you look at the book of Revelation, you find at the beginning seven golden lampstands, and at the end you find one golden lampstand. The Lamb is the lamp thereof, and the glory of God is the fire—the light.
Is that not interesting? There is a building programme, and that is what the whole conflict is about.
Satan’s aim is to make such a mess of the church that we believers, in despondency and depression, will simply cease to build.
Now, I am not at all sure that we are not nearing the end of the building of the church and the beginning of the time when we have to endure what is happening in the world at large.
What is happening in North America, and particularly in the United States, can only give cause for very much concern.
The rise of the European Union, growing from fifteen states to twenty-five, every one of them having signed the Treaty of Rome, is, in my estimation, probably the beginning of the beast coming up out of the sea in Revelation 13.
Daniel had always spoken about those four great beasts. When John saw it, he saw the four all rolled into one—a kind of homogenised beast.
It would be a revival of the Roman Empire. Of course, Grattan Guinness and others believed that it would follow the boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire. I myself have never felt able to subscribe to that. God gave Grattan Guinness incredible light and understanding in 1860, I do not have any doubt, but on some of the details I differ.
I think that it is a revival and a rising of the Roman Empire in its essence and spirit, to dominate the world. Your election in the United States is one of the most biblical elections—I would say the most biblical election—you have ever had.
In my estimation, an avalanche of evil will fall upon North America, sweeping everything before it. A new type of human society will emerge, and the world will quickly follow.
Whatever faults the United States may have had—and she, of course, has them like every nation—she has been the last bastion for biblical principles. It is gone in Britain, almost gone. It is completely gone in France and Germany.
For a long time, the powers of darkness have wanted to destroy this last bulwark, because the Antichrist cannot come till it has gone.
That gives an added understanding of the battle over the building programme of God. It is not just that there is colossal conflict; wherever you go amongst dear believers, you find the most incredible factions and the most incredible divisions. And I am talking about those who have understanding.
Satan cannot let this building programme go on. It means his end. He will do everything in his power to frustrate it.
He will fail. He has always failed. He will fail because of that wonderful word in the old covenant: “And the top stone shall be brought forth with cries of, ‘Grace, grace, unto it.’”
If everything was going wonderfully, everyone was clear in vision and understanding, devoted to the Lord, lives laid down, anointed with the Holy Spirit—do you not think we would cry, “Glory, glory”?
When the top stone is brought forth—the Messiah, the Chief Cornerstone, the Head of the corner, the top stone—would you not think that we would just say, “Glory”?
But so difficult will it be that when the top stone is brought forth and the building is completed, we shall only be able to say, “It was grace.” It was the grace of God that began this work. It was the grace of God that kept it alive and preserved it through all the years. It is the grace of God that has completed it.
There are more things to say about this matter of warfare, I have to tell you that. Whilst I have said Satan will fail, I must tell you that unless you and I learn to use the keys of the kingdom of heaven, we shall discover that we are out of the building.
We have to learn how to use eternal authority by the Spirit of God through faith.
May the Lord help us and give us an understanding that we have not had before.
Beloved Lord, pardon me.
Beloved Lord, we do just want to ask that by Your Spirit You will touch us this night. We are all in a warfare. We are all in conflict. Lord, all around us we see the evidences of the enemy at work.
But, dear Lord, we want to tell You that our trust and our faith are in You. You are the One who said, “Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Lord, we want to tell You that our faith and our trust are in You. When the enemy comes in like a flood, You can cause the Spirit of God to raise up a standard against him.
Do it, O Lord, and help us. Help us to learn how to war the warfare, how to be able together to seek You, and how to use those keys—Your authority—in a right way.
Lord, hear us. We commit ourselves to You. Let this word, spoken in weakness, find by Your Spirit a place in our hearts. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.