If you will turn with me this evening to Psalm 110, we will read it once again. Then we will read two other portions of the Word in the Old Testament.
The Lord saith unto my Lord,
Sit Thou at My right hand,
Until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.The Lord will send forth the rod of Thy strength out of Zion:
Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.Thy people offer themselves willingly
In the day of Thy power, in the beauty of holiness:
Out of the womb of the morning
Thou hast the dew of Thy youth.The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent:
Thou art a priest for ever
After the order of Melchizedek.The Lord at Thy right hand
Will strike through kings in the day of His wrath.
He will judge among the nations,
He will fill the places with dead bodies;
He will strike through the head in many countries.He will drink of the brook in the way:
Therefore will He lift up the head.
And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying, Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, the Lord’s offering; gold, and silver, and brass; and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair; and rams’ skins dyed red, and sealskins, and acacia wood; and oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense, and onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate.
And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and brought the Lord’s offering, for the work of the tent of meeting, and for all the service thereof, and for the holy garments.
And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing-hearted, and brought brooches, and earrings, and signet rings, and armlets, all jewels of gold; even every man that offered an offering of gold unto the Lord.
And every man with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, and rams’ skins dyed red, and sealskins, brought them. Every one that did offer an offering of silver and brass brought the Lord’s offering; and every man with whom was found acacia wood for any work of the service brought it.
And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, the blue, and the purple, the scarlet, and the fine linen. And all the women whose hearts stirred them up in wisdom spun the goats’ hair.
And the rulers brought the onyx stones, and the stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate; and the spice, and the oil, for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense.
The children of Israel brought a freewill offering unto the Lord; every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all the work which the Lord had commanded to be made through Moses.
And David the king said unto all the assembly, Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great; for the palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.
Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold, and the silver for the things of silver, and the brass for the things of brass, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, stones for inlaid work, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.
Moreover also, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, seeing that I have a treasure of mine own of gold and silver, I give it unto the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house; even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, wherewith to overlay the walls of the houses; of gold for the things of gold, and silver for the things of silver, and for all manner of work to be made by the hands of artificers. Who then offereth willingly to consecrate himself this day unto the Lord?
Then the princes of the fathers’ houses, and the princes of the tribes of Israel, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the rulers over the king’s work, offered willingly. And they gave for the service of the house of God of gold five thousand talents and ten thousand darics, and of silver ten thousand talents, and of brass eighteen thousand talents, and of iron a hundred thousand talents.
And they with whom precious stones were found gave them to the treasure of the house of the Lord, under the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with a perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord; and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.
Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the assembly; and David said, Blessed be Thou, O Lord, the God of Israel our Father, for ever and ever.
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of Thee, and Thou rulest over all; and in Thy hand is power and might; and in Thy hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.
Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee. For we are strangers before Thee, and sojourners, as all our fathers were: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no abiding.
O Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared to build Thee a house for Thy holy name cometh of Thy hand, and all is Thine own. I know also, my God, that Thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things; and now have I seen with joy Thy people, that are present here, offer willingly unto Thee.
O Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of Thy people, and prepare their heart unto Thee; and give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep Thy commandments, Thy testimonies, and Thy statutes, and to do all these things, and to build the palace, for which I have made provision.
Shall we just bow together again in prayer?
O Father, we want very simply to bow before Thee, to recognise, O Lord, our absolute dependence upon Thee if we are to hear Thy Word this night; if it is to be spoken, and if we are really to hear it with the ears of our spirit.
O Father, we want to thank Thee for the anointing which is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ. We stand together in that anointing, for speaker and for hearer. Make this a meeting with Thyself, Lord. Make it, we pray, a time when our hearts are stirred by Thy Spirit, challenged by Thy Spirit, where we are brought face to face with the real issues in this whole matter to do with Thy purpose concerning our Lord Jesus and concerning Thine own.
O Father, we give this little time to Thee. Wilt Thou use my weakness, for dust that I am, Lord, somehow or other, to reveal Thyself and speak Thy Word? And grant, O Lord, since we are all but dust redeemed by Thy grace, that we shall know Thy speaking and working in our midst in the most wonderful way. For we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Now this evening, I want to take, by the enabling power of the Lord Jesus, the fourth lesson from this little Psalm 110. It is too late now, I think, to go over the lessons we have already traversed, but we have already looked at three lessons from this psalm.
The first was the absolute victory of our risen, glorified, ascended Head. The end has been secured from the beginning. Thank God. The Father has said to the Son, “Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.”
We are not fighting through to a possible victory. The glorious truth is this: the Lord Jesus has already won the victory, and realised the purpose of God in Himself, and laid a basis and a foundation upon which every single thing required to fulfil the will of God has been given. That is the finished work of the Lamb.
We spent a whole evening on that marvellous lesson, which is, of course, the foundation for all the others.
Then we took the second lesson, which was the eternal purpose of God. We took one little phrase out of verse 2: “The Lord will send forth the rod of Thy strength out of Zion.” “Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.” Out of Zion.
We saw how this amazing name, Zion, symbolises both the mountain and the city. The physical city of Jerusalem, Mount Zion itself, symbolises an eternal and spiritual reality—something that has been in the heart of God right from the very beginning. Not something that He thought up afterwards, or something to which He accommodated Himself, but something which, right back in eternity past, was in the heart of God before He created the universe, before He created man and woman, before ever He started a single planet into its course.
There was in the heart of God this desire to have a home for Himself, made up of human beings joined to Himself, partakers of His own nature, experiencing His divine life and power.
This we call Zion: the habitation of God, the city of God, the bride of Christ, the wife of the Lamb. However you like to describe it, it is the same thing.
That is why every single human being who has been born of God has, in their heart through the new birth, the highways to Zion. They may get overladen with institutionalism and error and much else, but, thank God, in every newborn child of God the highways to Zion have been implanted.
Oh, that we could understand that there is something greater than even our so-great salvation: there is an end, an objective of God, for which He saved us. In other words, He saved us in order to bring us back into His eternal purpose. Our salvation is a means to an end, however tremendous and powerful and great it is. There is an objective toward which God is moving.
We spent another time on the other lesson, also in verse 2: the eternal purpose of God that His home should have dominion, that He and His own should reign. The Lord will send forth the rod of Thy strength out of Zion.
The last picture we have in the Bible is that in the city, the throne of God and of the Lamb is there. It is said, “His servants shall see His face; they shall serve Him; and they shall reign for ever and ever.” Not merely, “He shall reign for ever and ever”—that is the most marvellous truth—but, even more blessed, “They shall reign for ever and ever,” in union with Him, brought into His throne.
We saw in that third lesson that this ruling—this word to the enthroned Messiah, “Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies”—must have something to do with time and place. It has to do with the saints of God here on earth, in time and in place. We have got to learn how to get the dominion here and now.
It is no good just praying for ever. It is no good just working for ever. We have found that out. You can evangelise and evangelise and evangelise, and there is not a soul that comes through. You can have teaching and teaching and teaching, and somehow it never actually gets into the hearts of the people. You can have activity and activity and more activity, meetings and more meetings, and somehow the whole thing becomes just a routine. Nothing ever happens.
It is only when we learn, by the Spirit of God, to lift up the rod in the name of the Lord, that the Lord sends forth the rod of His strength out of Zion, and He rules in the midst of His enemies.
So that we could learn how to take action in the secret place of prayer; how to rule and reign with Christ over the localities in which we are placed, over the nations in which we are found. This is one of the great phases of education into which the Holy Spirit would bring every one of us.
Well now, this evening I want to come to the fourth lesson, which tonight is our responsibility.
Thy people offer themselves willingly
In the day of Thy power,
In the beauty of holiness.
That is how it reads in the American Standard Version of 1901.
Now, you will see straight away that the original Hebrew text has given rise to many difficulties. I think there are almost as many translations as there are versions. It would almost be interesting to ask you all, if you have different versions, “What does your version say?” You will notice that it differs in many of the modern versions, one from another.
That is because the translators have wrestled with some obscurities in the original text; and, I am afraid, in a number of cases there has not been that spiritual understanding of this psalm. They have made corrections.
You will see in the Jerusalem Bible, the New English Bible, and some other modern versions, that a correction has been made. Some of you will have this extraordinary correction about “mountains of holiness” instead of “the beauty of holiness,” or “holy array.” We will come to that in a moment.
Then you have this word: “Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of Thy power.” You will see in the New American Standard Bible, which is probably the best rendering, “Thy people will volunteer freely in the day of Thy power.”
Now, the Hebrew here is of tremendous interest, because it is the word used elsewhere throughout the Old Testament for a freewill offering. Here we have it in the plural: nedaboth; the singular, nedabah. It is the freewill offering we have read about in Exodus 35.
A literal translation, though it does not sound very good in English, would be: “Thy people are freewill offerings in the day of Thy power, in the beauty of holiness.” Most people could not understand what on earth that means: “Thy people are freewill offerings.” That is a very good question.
What is a freewill offering?
The burnt offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, and many of the other offerings were required by the law of God. You could not approach God; you could not be in relationship with God unless you offered those offerings.
But a freewill offering was something you were moved to do of your own volition, above and beyond what was required of you by the law. This was called a freewill offering.
Therefore, dear child of God, if you want to be saved, you have to know Christ as the burnt offering, the sin offering, the peace offering, and the meal offering of God. Perhaps that does not mean too much to you, but let us put it like this: you have got to know the Lord Jesus as your once-for-all offering to God. He won your salvation.
You can weep all day and all night, month in, month out, year in, year out, all the way through your life, but you will not win God’s salvation—not unless you bring the Lamb in your hands; not unless you stand upon the foundation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
The moment you stand on that foundation, however sinful you are, however depraved you are, however unworthy you are, however bound you have been in sinful and evil habits, God accepts you. Because, as we heard last night, “He was made sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Therefore, dear child of God, if we would know the fullness of our salvation, if we would know the power of our salvation, if we would know power for service—if we would know all this—then we have to come on the basis of Christ’s finished work. This is a necessity.
But if we want to see the Lord get His inheritance, if we want to see the house of God built, if we want to see the city of God compact, built up, built together as God’s centre of administration and government—however you like to put it—if we want to be part of the bride, part of the wife, we have to be a freewill offering.
The tabernacle, lock, stock, and barrel, was built out of the freewill offerings of the people of God.
They could never, ever have touched the Lord but for the Passover Lamb. It was the Passover Lamb that won them to God, redeemed them to God, and loosed them from their sins by His blood. It was His power that took them through the Red Sea as on dry land.
But if they wanted God to dwell amongst them, if they wanted to become the habitation of God, then they had to give themselves as a freewill offering. Do you understand?
If you read carefully Exodus 35, you find that every single thing in the tabernacle came out of these freewill offerings. Where did all the gold come from? The gold for the great lampstand—the menorah, the seven-branched lampstand—the gold for the showbread table, the gold for the golden incense altar, the gold of the ark of the covenant, the gold that overlaid the planks and the walls—where did it all come from?
It all came in bracelets, signet rings, earrings, nose rings. Some of them wore nose rings—now, do not take that badly! But all these things they took off and gave.
Where did the silver come from for the things of silver? It came from the arm-bands and ankle-bands and necklaces and earrings of silver. Where did the wood come from? Those who had wood in their homes, cut in the Sinai mountains from the acacia trees, brought it.
Where did the purple and scarlet and blue and fine white linen—twined linen—come from? It came as freewill offerings. Where did the precious stones come from that were set on the high priest’s breastplate? They came from the gifts that the people of God made.
The whole house of God was built out of the freewill offerings of the people of God. Is it not a most remarkable thing—it cannot be coincidence—that when the temple was built, some four hundred years later, by Solomon, the exact same thing happened all over again? It was the freewill offerings of David and of the people of God out of which the temple was built.
Here is a most precious truth: what we get from God, we get through the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ; but what He gets from us is the house of God. Do you understand?
We gain all His salvation. That is our inheritance. He gains us. That is His inheritance. He gains us as His bride. He gains us as His body. He gains us as His Zion, as the New Jerusalem.
Now, my point is this. I am sure some of you already have a question. Some of those offerings were compulsory. Those offerings by which the children of Israel could approach God, come into His presence, be heard of Him, and hear Him, were compulsory. You could not approach God apart from those offerings.
But for the house of God to be built, it was a freewill offering. You did not have to do a single thing. You could still be saved and not make a freewill offering. You could still be saved and not give a single bangle, signet ring, earring, or anything else.
You could hold on to everything that was yours, enjoy your salvation, be in relationship with the living God, be part of His covenant people, and have nothing whatever to do with the building of the house of God.
It was those whose hearts the Spirit stirred up to give themselves to the Lord, to freely give to the Lord, who were involved in the building of the house of the Lord.
Now, in this matter of being built together, of becoming His habitation, of knowing His authority and life, and the exercise of the divine authority which is in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and given to us in Him, we have to be freewill offerings.
Thy people are freewill offerings
In the day of Thy power,
In the beauty of holiness.
God will not compel you.
If you want to be one of those Christians who just flits from meeting to meeting like a dear, sweet little butterfly—coming in here, sucking a little honey out of this; off to this meeting, sucking a little bit there; off to another, getting a little bit there; off to this conference, off to that conference—God will let you do it.
I believe you heard something about CD Christians this afternoon in the workshop. There you are: Christian butterflies. Well, I have never heard that one before, but butterflies I have heard of. Some, by the way, are dragonflies. But still, I mean, they flit from place to place.
There are thousands of Christians who say they have had an experience of the Holy Spirit, and they are flitters. They are never prepared for discipline anywhere, never prepared to take responsibility, never prepared to come under the government of the Lord through His people, never prepared to be built together.
Always they have an excuse why they cannot be committed. But they are always talking in rapturous terms about the works of the Lord and the Spirit of God and His mighty power and work. My friends, it is hot air. It is hot air.
The evidence, the fruit, of a real baptism in the Spirit—a real immersion into the power and fullness of the Holy Spirit—is that a child of God is found in the centre of God’s will, not flitting about all over the place to find at the end of their life that they have nothing but knowledge. They can talk and talk, but have no experience of being built together.
Where is this Zion going to be built? Somewhere up there, in the twinkling of an eye? God will wave a magic wand and it will be done just like that? No, my friend. The gold, the precious stone, the pearl out of which the bride is produced, out of which that city is created, has to be wrought in us by the Holy Spirit in time and in place.
Tell me, dear friends, if you want to be a flitter, God will let you be. God will never compel you to do anything, and that is why you will not feel any pressure.
God scourges every son whom He receives.
In other words, when God sees that you are a freewill offering and you say, “I am a child of God. O God, I want to be a son in Thy house. I want to take responsibility on my shoulders. I want to suffer for Thee. I want to work for Thee. I want to see something done,” God says, “Right, I will take you at your word, but I will train you.”
Now you will be disciplined.
Do not get all jealous and envious of that flitter from meeting to meeting who appears to have the most wonderful time. A butterfly’s life is very lovely. They flutter in the sun, find a flower, and then off they go to another flower. It is a lovely life: no pain, no collisions, no traffic problems, just flitting around.
Insect specialists—at the moment I have lost the correct term for them—tell us that butterflies actually have a routine. They do, in fact, go from the same bush to bush. They go on a kind of circuit. Some believers do too. They have a kind of circuit that they go round year after year, but they never, ever commit themselves to any real building work of God.
Now, my dear friends, if my fingers started to act like this, I would be in a mess. If my feet did the same, my goodness me, I would have some kind of dreadful nervous disease. My whole body would start to work in a totally disorientated manner.
What does it mean that we are the body of the Lord? What does it mean that we are living stones, to be built up a spiritual house? What does it mean that we grow into a holy temple in the Lord as we are fitly framed together? What does it mean?
Unless it means that somehow or other we come home somewhere, and there, on the foundation of our Lord Jesus Christ alone, with other believers, we are prepared for the discipline of His Spirit. We are prepared for that commitment to one another. We are prepared for God to work in and through us.
But now, my dear child of God, the Lord will not compel you. He will not force you in this matter. He loves you so much, but if you want just to enjoy your salvation and enjoy the blessings and everything else, He says, “Very well, do it.”
But remember this: do not blame Me in the day when you discover you have lost your inheritance. You are saved, so as by fire. Do not blame Me, says the Lord, in that day.
It was your free choice. All you wanted to do was enjoy the salvation, and you enjoyed it to a certain extent. All you wanted to do was enjoy the gift, and you enjoyed it to a certain extent. All you wanted to do was taste fellowship here and there, without ever getting involved in the messy side of fellowship.
Of course, it is lovely to come in and just see lovely, sweet people. Any company of believers are lovely, sweet people when you sit there in a seat and smile at them, and then as you go you shake somebody’s hand and someone says, “God bless you.” Oh, what lovely people—and out you go.
But when you get there and are committed there, you find that sometimes some of them are anything but lovely. There are all kinds of awkward shapes and sizes, corners that you find too angular for your liking.
God does not compel you to put up with it if you do not want to. But get clear on this one thing: if you and I want to be part of God’s eternal home, if we want to come to God’s eternal throne, if we want to be part of the eternal government of God, then we have got to be a freewill offering.
In other words, we have got to sign ourselves away.
When that gold and silver, iron and purple, blue and scarlet, fine twined linen, ram skins and sealskins, and all the rest was given, it was given. They could not come back a little later to Jehiel and say, “Jehiel, do you remember those skins? I would like them back.”
Or: “Jehiel, I am also in the family of Gershon. Do you think somehow or other those earrings of my wife—she wants them back—could you just find them?”
No. Once it was made, it was made, and could never be taken back.
That is what God wants of you and me. He will never compel us or force us to be part of this building work of the Spirit of God if we wish to be free, if we wish just to please ourselves, if we wish to be answerable to no one, if we wish just to pick and choose what we like and what we will do.
You know the kind of people who come in and say, “Listen, I will give you a hand with the family-school work, and nothing else.” “I am here to help you. I have a very great artistic gift. I will paint a few pictures for you, but do not expect anything else.”
“You want me to scrub a floor? Well, you have got another thing coming. You think I am going to visit somebody? I am not going to visit anybody. I am just here. I have got a certain thing. I believe I can do this, and that is all I am going to do.”
That is not a freewill offering.
God will let you be what you want to be in this matter. He never brought His wrath down upon those who kept their gold or silver or iron, or held on to their blue material, their fine twined linen, their sealskins, or their ram skins.
Ananias and Sapphira would never have died by the hand of the Lord in the first days of the early church if they had only held on to their money. Is that not interesting?
If they had only been wise enough to hang on to their money, they would not have lost their lives. It was because they gave the money, withheld a certain part, and said, “We have given everything to the Lord.” It was a lie.
There are so many who trumpet aloud about how they are serving the Lord, how much they believe, and how great a contribution they are making to the service of God—and it is a lie. Thank God, He does not deal with us all today as He dealt with Ananias and Sapphira, for there would be a large number of funerals.
But you know, dear friends, to be free to please yourself, to be free to enjoy your salvation only for yourself, to be free to pick and choose what you do, is the most terrible bondage. It is not freedom. Let us get clear on all this: it is bondage.
Some people come to me sometimes and say, “Oh, brother, I am so happy because I have been delivered and I am free.” When I inquire a little more, I find out that it means they are free in every single way. They never, ever do any of the chores to do with the meeting of the people of God. They never feel in any way encumbered by the need to give financially. They feel, “Oh, I am free, I am free.” I call that bondage.
I do not think that freedom is bondage. What is real freedom? Real freedom is to be able to lay down my life for you. That is real freedom.
The day that I can let go of my reputation, let go of my pride, let go of my life, let go of my rights, let go of everything—that is the day I become free. The day that I can lay down my life for you, that you might be built up no matter what happens to me. The day that I can call upon God and say, “Blot me out, if You must, but build them up”—that is the time when I have reached true spiritual freedom.
When the Spirit of the Lord came upon our Lord Jesus in the waters of baptism, He came as a dove. We are often told that this means that He was gentle and meek and harmless and undefiled. But I have found great problems with that, especially as very shortly afterwards He took a scourge of cords, overturned all the money-changers’ tables, and caused a terrible disturbance in the temple.
Of course, our Lord Jesus is meek and mild, undefiled and harmless. But, my dear friends, the dove was the commonest form of sacrifice for the vast, vast majority of the people of God. Too poor to offer a bullock, they brought two turtle doves. It was the turtle dove, the dove, that was the symbol of sacrifice.
When the Holy Spirit came upon the Lord Jesus in the day that He was baptised, in the day that He committed Himself to the death of the cross—those waters symbolising the death of Calvary three years before He came to Calvary—in that day that He committed Himself to the work of His Father, the work of our salvation, the heavens opened.
God said, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” It was as if God was saying, “Like Father, like Son. I see Myself in Him. He wants to give Himself completely.”
The Holy Spirit came upon Him to empower Him to lay down His life daily for three years, and that is what He did. Day in, day out, all through those three years, Jesus laid down His life.
Do you think Calvary was just one point in His life, at which He had to make a final decision? No. It was written into His very life, into His very character. He lived a crucified life before ever He came to Calvary. The Spirit of God came upon Him so that He could endure the gainsaying and contradiction of sinners, so that He could give Himself secretly, untiringly, to the people who were in need.
That was a freewill offering. He did not need to do it, but He did it.
You see, then, this true freedom is to be the prisoner of the Lord. I have always been so interested when you read in the Ephesian letter, in Ephesians 3:1: “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus.”
When he wrote this letter, he was in fact under house arrest and probably had a fetter either on his wrist or certainly on his ankle, and he had a guard nearby. But he did not say, “I, Paul, the prisoner of imperial Rome; I, Paul, the prisoner of Caesar, the Kaiser, the emperor.” No, he said, “I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus.”
You would have thought that with a man chained to him, not able to do all the normal small things of life without someone else there all the time, day in and day out, that would have been the most impossible context in which to write some of the most incredible truths the church has ever received.
But it was precisely there that the Spirit of God took that flesh-and-blood, fragile vessel of clay that was the apostle Paul, and gave him revelation upon revelation upon revelation.
You would have thought He would have taken some beautiful log cabin up in the Rockies, or, going back to the good old age, some lovely Roman villa overlooking the blue Mediterranean in some idyllic spot, where someone sweet—perhaps Aquila and Priscilla—waited on him and helped him and looked after him, becoming father and mother to him.
They would keep everybody away and make sure there was absolute peace, so that he could write and write. “Paul, we are going to pray day and night for you.”
You would not have thought that these letters—the Ephesian letter, the Colossian letter, the Philippian letter—could have been written in such circumstances as they were. They were written in imprisonment.
And you know what he called himself? He said, “I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ.” He refused to look merely upon the political side of it. He refused to look merely upon the physical side of it. He looked beyond this and above it all: God is, and I am the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why am I here? If I had not been a freewill offering, he might have said to us tonight in testimony, I would never have been in chains. But it was because I gave myself to the building up of the house of God, because I committed myself to the purpose of God, that I became involved.
I became the scourge of my own people. I was a reason to them because I saw that God wanted to bring the Gentiles into the commonwealth of Israel, because I saw that the purpose of God was that from every tongue and kindred and people and nation there should come a great innumerable multitude into the kingdom of God.
Because of this, he was in chains. Therefore he said, “Listen, dear ones, I am as free as a bird. Here, chained to the Roman guard, I can dictate things by the Spirit of God concerning a height and depth and breadth and length that no one has been able to fathom.”
Such is true freedom. Would you not like to have that kind of freedom, instead of the weary bondage of self-sensitiveness—spiritual self-sensitiveness? “I first, I second, and I last. I am the centre of this little spiritual world of mine, around which everything revolves.”
“God loves me so much, He saved me. Christ loves me so much, He gave Himself for me. I am the centre of the whole thing.” Oh, that you might grow up.
When we are young, we feel father and mother are there for our benefit. I remember when I was young, I thought they were there—why, they were my own personal servants. Father to provide all the money, and mother to do all the work.
Well, are you not honest? Did you not all think about father and mother like that? Who ever thought of trying to do something to lift the load? Really, of course, you could not do it when you were young.
When you are young, there is a place for self-centredness. Everything goes around you. Uncles and aunts come and coo over you and clap over you. They would not normally be doing such things, but when they come, they take something and dandle you, and all the rest of it. Oh, you are the centre of everything.
The first step you take is greater than the bicentennial celebrations or our Jubilee celebrations. They go wild with it. You feel the centre of everything. The first lesson you bring home from school—so exciting. “Why, look at so-and-so’s copybook. Look!”
So we grow up feeling that the whole world centres around us. When we are young in the Lord, we are just the same. We think the other saints are there for us. Everybody is there for us. The Lord loves us, He saved us. God, that is true. There is not a word untrue in it. God does love you so much, and Christ loves you so much that He gave Himself for you. It is all true.
But there comes a point when you must grow up spiritually. When, as we get into adolescence, suddenly for the first time we begin to think of taking responsibility for others. We begin to take some of the burden on our own shoulders.
Perhaps father suddenly dies, and a boy has to become father almost overnight. Mother dies, and the eldest girl has to become mother. She suddenly becomes responsible. Suddenly, the whole world changes. It is no longer what I get, but what they get. It is no longer what pleases me, but what pleases them. That is responsibility.
It is a wonderful thing to be a prisoner of the Lord Jesus. But look at Ephesians 4:1: “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called.”
Do you see the change? “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord Jesus.” Here is something even more wonderful than being the prisoner of the Lord Jesus: here is a prisoner in the Lord Jesus.
Are you a prisoner in the Lord Jesus? It is one thing to be a prisoner of the Lord Jesus, another thing to be a prisoner in the Lord Jesus. In other words, to say, “I will not go outside of Him. I will not go beyond what He wants. I am in Him, imprisoned.” That is true freedom.
The house of God can never be built by anything other than freewill offerings.
Come back to Psalm 110 and this verse 3: “Thy people are freewill offerings in the day of Thy power.”
Will you have a look at this little phrase, “in the day of Thy power”? It is in the day of His power that the people are freewill offerings.
Now, this word again in Hebrew has been translated in different ways in some modern versions. In some of them you will find that it is translated “His army.” That is why the New American Standard Bible has “Thy people will volunteer freely in the day of Thy power,” because there can be this idea in this Hebrew word. In fact, this word, chayil, in modern Hebrew is the word for army.
But it is much more. It also means strength, power, or wealth, as well as army.
Think of that: “Thy people are freewill offerings in the day of Thy wealth, in the day of Thy strength, in the day of Thy army.”
If God has said to the Lord Jesus, “Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool,” His army is to go out. Who will be volunteers in His army for the purpose of the Lord, to make those enemies the footstool of His feet, to see the finished work of Christ truly registered everywhere the powers of darkness are?
Or think of it this way: in the day of His power, Thy people are freewill offerings. Why, O dear people of God, there is an outpoured Holy Spirit—infinite power given to us in the outpoured Holy Spirit, the exceeding greatness of His power to usward.
This exceeding greatness can overcome every single obstacle confronting the purpose of God being fulfilled: every single kingdom, every single difficulty, every single antagonism, every single foe—whether principalities or powers, world rulers of darkness, or hosts of wicked spirits in heavenly places. It does not matter what it is.
In the day of His power, when His people are freewill offerings, His purpose gets done. The Lord sends forth the rod of His strength out of Zion in the day that His people are freewill offerings. You get it?
You see, what I am saying is this: what is the point if God has an army and we are not in it?
Make no mistake about this. God loves us, just as He loved Israel. He will wait. He will wait. He will wait, and He will wait again. But in the end, if we will not, He will find others who will.
This is the whole story of church history. Every time He appeals to something established, an institution, and it will not listen, will not change, and will not allow His power to flow right through it and make it flexible and organic, then He speaks, and He speaks, and He speaks again, and then He moves on.
But God will not be frustrated, nor will He be thwarted. In the end, if He has to raise up children from the stones, He will do it. But His purpose will be fulfilled.
Now, my dear friends, the fact of the matter is this: this is the day of His power. This age, beginning with Pentecost and ending with His coming, is the day of His army. It is the day of His power.
But we must be freewill offerings if we are going to see the rod of the Lord’s strength go out of Zion; if we are to see Him ruling in the midst of His enemies; if we are to see the kingdom of God advance; if we are to see the purpose of God in our day and generation fulfilled.
Oh, there is infinite power. People are full of panic that this latter-day power cannot stand. It is so nonsensical.
I go all over the place, and I find the choicest servants of the Lord put out of missionary societies because they have been filled with the Spirit of God. Not because these people got wild and rolled over the floor and did the most ridiculous things and started teaching everyone and all that—I well understand that. But many of these people, I know them. They are the most beautiful people I know, the meekest people I know, people from whom the fragrance of the Lord comes.
What can we say when missions and societies put them out? What is wrong with them? There must be something wrong somewhere if you say people who have been empowered by the Spirit of God to do the job God has given that work to do, “We do not want you.”
Why are we afraid of the power of God? Of course, there is much that is counterfeit, much that is artificial. But, my dear friends, we can never, ever do the will of God and see this building work completed apart from that exceeding greatness of His power.
We have got to know the power of His resurrection. We have got to know the infinite power of the Holy Spirit. If we do not, we shall fail, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.
In the day of His power, in the outpoured Holy Spirit, thank God there is a portion for me and there is a portion for you. Praise the Lord.
It is in the day of His wealth—all the unsearchable riches of Christ. But what is the point of talking about the unsearchable riches of Christ if we never discover and experience them?
In the day of His wealth, His people are freewill offerings. Do you want to know the unsearchable riches of Christ? You will never know them until you let go of self. While your hands are full of yourself, they will never be full of the riches of Christ. While your heart is full of the things of this earth, you will never be full of the riches of Christ.
We have to be emptied before we can be filled. But it is the day of His wealth, dear ones. God has not cast us out in this world to somehow get along as best we can against a terrible array of satanic forces. He has given us the resources. He has given us the gifts. He has given us the equipment. He has given us the riches. All of it is ours.
It is the day of His power, and thank God we are still in it. Even when Antichrist comes, we shall still be in the day of His power. Thank God that everyone who wants to discover power to overcome, power to endure, power to persevere, power to be in the centre of the will of God right through to the coming of our Lord—it is the day of His power.
Praise His wonderful name.
The authority of this enthroned Christ is made a practical reality through the outpoured Holy Spirit. See the book of Acts. Here were one hundred and twenty people, so frightened of the Jews that they shut and bolted all the doors and hid behind them. They had wonderful times inside, but it reminds me of many of our meetings.
We get inside, bolt all the doors, and speak in a whisper. Somehow or other, we are almost afraid. Yet, my friend, the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof. The devil is a usurper. We are the rightful heirs to this earth—not him.
It is the Lord Jesus to Whom this whole planet belongs, not only through creation, but through redemption. We are here as the church of God to guarantee that this earth is coming back to its rightful owner. We are here to make sure that the kingdom of God is expressed and manifested down here on earth, in time and in place.
When you look at the book of Acts, these one hundred and twenty people who were so frightened that they bolted all the doors—look what happens when the Holy Spirit gets upon them and into them. They unbolt all that. They cannot help it. Out they come.
Peter stands up, and there is no squabbling now: “Who is going to be right, left of the King?” No. Peter stands up, and the other eleven stand up with him. No one says, “He is hogging all the platform. Has he got the right to speak all the time? What about our beloved John? He was always resting on our Lord’s breast. He should be the one.”
Of course, we know they all spoke, but the fact is Peter took the prominent place. Is it not interesting? When he stood up, the others just stood up with him. Three thousand people belonged to the Lord within a matter of a day or two.
All kinds of things were happening—the same things as when Jesus was here. A man at the gate called Beautiful sprang up because of the name of the Lord spoken over him in faith, through prayer and declaration. Then the number of believers grew to five thousand men. They put them in prison, but they were out in a few moments.
You have never heard of such things. What happened to these one hundred and twenty frightened, disillusioned disciples? Something happened.
No one is going to tell me that they just went through a theological seminary. No one is going to tell me that somehow or other they started a church membership roll and got them all duly registered.
Something happened inside them by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, and it transformed them from a congregation of one hundred and twenty units into a body of one hundred and twenty members.
They belonged to one another. They flowed with one another. They could manifest only the Lord—His beauties, His glories, His wisdom, His knowledge, His power, His salvation.
They turned Jerusalem upside down, and Judea and Samaria; and in the end they turned Rome upside down. Rome sought to crush them by feeding them in their thousands to the lions, but it was Rome that tumbled into the dust, and the church which has gone on triumphing.
No, dear friends, in the day of His power, when His people are freewill offerings, then it is as if the Lord sends forth the rod of His strength out of Zion. He rules in the midst of His enemies. God says the word, and it is done.
It is not that the church is doing things of its own accord, using keys and then saying, “Now back us up, heaven. Lord, be behind us.” No. They knew the will of the Lord by the Spirit, and then they could do it.
So it must be. Every move of the Spirit in church history has been a day of His power, and the realisation of His purpose has been dependent upon His people being freewill offerings.
It does not matter where you turn—whether it is the Reformation, the Puritan movement, the Quakers, the Methodists, the Moravians, the Brethren, or whatever else through the history of the church. Every real movement of the Spirit of God has been a day of His power, and it has been a day in which His people have been freewill offerings.
In the day when His people have been freewill offerings in the day of His power, the purpose of God has touched the earth.
This is the record of the history of the church. There is yet more of the purpose of God to be fulfilled. You do realise that, do you? There is yet more of His purpose to be fulfilled. There is yet more of the wealth of God to be exploited. There is yet more of the power of God to be appropriated.
What is required is for you and me to be a freewill offering.
Will you please note this little phrase over which we have so much problem: “in the beauty of holiness”?
You will see in some modern versions, “in holy array,” which does not mean a great deal to many people. In some they have corrected it and made it “on the mountains of holiness.” But really, this word is found in two or three places.
We find it in Psalm 29:2: “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness,” or “in holy array.” Again, in Psalm 96:9: “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: tremble before Him, all the earth.” You get it again in 2 Chronicles 20:21, if you want to make a note of it.
What does it really mean? This Hebrew word comes from a root—you may be a little distressed to hear this—but it is believed by the rabbis that it comes from a root meaning “to swell up” or “to inflate.” Therefore it meant, really, to adorn oneself. Do you understand? To make oneself, as it were, beautiful.
Like a bird puffs up its chest—that is what the gentlemen do. The beautiful male bird puffs up its chest so that you can see its glory. That is the root of this word.
It is to do with the garments of salvation.
In other words, it means this: “Thy people are freewill offerings in the day of Thy power in the garments of salvation and holiness.” That is how we could best put it: in the beauty of holiness.
When the high priest went before God, he put on first the garment of fine linen. That was the garment of righteousness, or salvation. Then came that magnificent robe, the garment of beauty, the beautiful garment of the high priest. Then he could go into the presence of the Lord.
In Isaiah 61:10, we read:
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decketh himself with a garland,
And as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
Is that not beautiful? In the beauty of holiness.
My dear friend, you can never be a freewill offering if you are not properly clothed. Do not think that you can come and just offer your thoughts to God, all your resources to God, all your talents to God, or whatever else you have, as if by doing that you can win the favour of God.
No, dear friends. If you would come, you must come as a sinner saved by His strength, who feels that they can do no other than give themselves for ever to the Lord.
Come in the beauty of holiness. There is not a person here tonight who could not come in this way, if you know the salvation of God, if you have been born of the Spirit of God. There is not one of you disqualified. If you have been saved by God and are ready to put away any sin in your life, then with the garments of salvation and the garments of praise upon you, you can give yourself as a freewill offering.
Then you can know the infinite, exceeding greatness of His power, and you can know the unsearchable riches of Christ. Then you can be a good soldier in His army.
Now let me close. I am sure you are tired.
What can we say finally, in drawing this lesson to a conclusion?
This is no small challenge to us over trivial and passing matters. It is the challenge as to whether you and I will come to the throne of God and of the Lamb. That is the challenge.
The challenge is not that you might just be of some help in some local company of believers, that you may be of just some little help somewhere or other down here. The real issue is this: are you going to come to the throne of God and of the Lamb to reign with Christ, or not?
The Lord Jesus said, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit down with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne.” That is the challenge.
It is inescapable, dear child of God. It is inescapable.
You have to, in your own heart, know this challenge of the Spirit of God tonight: are you a freewill offering in the day of His power, in the beauty of holiness? Are you, or are you not?
The question as to whether the purpose of God may be realised fully in my life or in my locality is dependent upon my being a freewill offering.
Dear child of God, dear fellow member of the body of Christ, would you make His desire your desire? Would you make His pleasure your pleasure? Would you make His purpose your purpose? Would you make His suffering your suffering? Would you make His way your way?
That is the issue.
Long ago, the psalmist said it beautifully in words that many of you will know, in Psalm 132:
Lord, remember for David
All his affliction;
How he sware unto the Lord,
And vowed unto the Mighty One of Jacob:
Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house,
Nor go up into my bed;
I will not give sleep to mine eyes,
Or slumber to mine eyelids;
Until I find out a place for the Lord,
A tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob.
This is the same psalm in which those wonderful words come:
For the Lord hath chosen Zion;
He hath desired it for His habitation.
This is My resting-place for ever:
Here will I dwell; for I have desired it.
Would you be like that? That is the kind of freewill offering God wants.
The same thing we get from the words of David himself in Psalm 27:4:
One thing have I asked of the Lord,
That will I seek after:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
No wonder when the apostle Paul had spoken of our so-great salvation, and then spoken of a much deeper experience of resurrection life and power in Romans 6, 7, and 8; then spoken of the great electing purpose of God from the beginning, beginning with Abraham and going right through all the fathers and through the prophets, right through to the godly remnant of Israel, out to the great innumerable multitude of every kindred and tribe and tongue and nation, and finally bringing back Israel, the Jewish people, into their own olive tree—no wonder that then he sums it all up, saying that God is the source and the end of all things.
He says:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
To present your bodies a living sacrifice,
Holy, acceptable unto God,
Which is your spiritual worship.
Dear friend, what is the point of having a conference like this if all we do is learn a few more doctrines?
Now, my dear friends, I am not against doctrine. God forbid. Pure doctrine is a very great prize. It must never be despised or devalued. Just as true theology—you can never do without it. Never despise it.
But, my dear friends, there are other conferences that can do this just as well. But not that.
What is the point of a time like this if all we are going to do is learn a little more doctrine?
No, friends. Here, by the Spirit of God, we have seen the Lord Jesus afresh in these days. If we have seen something more of the eternal purpose of God for His Son and for the redeemed, then, dear people, the point is whether we are in it.
It is just a tragedy if, having heard what we have heard in these days, at the end, when the Messiah comes, we find that we are not in His purpose—saved, so as by fire, with all that we knew. Still, we did not come in.
Oh, then, enough. Better if we had never heard.
But oh, the joy, if by the grace of God we have a little tiny niche in God’s eternal temple—just a little tiny paving stone somewhere, some little brick, somehow or other, quite small and obscure. Oh, the cause of praise it will be.
It will be worth it, will it not? Worth all the collisions, worth all the misunderstanding, worth all the laying down of one’s life, having to fall into the ground and die. It will be worth all the valleys of the shadow of death. It will be worth all the thorns in the flesh. It will be worth every bit of the fellowship of His sufferings if, at the end, not for time but for all eternity, we are part of the bride.
The tragedy would be if we were to discover that by the finished work of the Lamb we had a place prepared that we never appropriated.
May God help us. Shall we pray?
Father, even the apostle Paul spoke of his fear that he might be rejected, having preached to others. O God, we do pray that by Thy Spirit Thou wilt challenge our hearts.
O Lord, save us from thinking that because we hear these things and believe them, we are safe and secure. O God, make every one of us know in our hearts whether we really have become a freewill offering—fully committed to Thyself, committed to what Thou art doing, committed to one another, committed to Thy building work.
O God, O Lord, do this work, we pray, in our hearts this night. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus.