Now this evening, shall we read the seventeenth chapter of John?
The seventeenth chapter of John.
These things spake Jesus; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee:
Even as Thou gavest Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He should give eternal life.
And this is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only true God, and Him whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.
I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.
And now, Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
I manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me; and they have kept Thy word.
Now they know that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are from Thee: for the words which Thou gavest Me I have given unto them; and they received them, and knew of a truth that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me.
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine:
And all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine: and I am glorified in them.
And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.
While I was with them, I kept them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I come to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in themselves.
I have given them Thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that Thou shouldest take them from the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them in the truth: Thy word is truth.
As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so send I them into the world.
And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on Me through their word;
That they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us: that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.
And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as We are one;
I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and lovedst them, even as Thou lovedst Me.
Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world knew Thee not, but I knew Thee; and these knew that Thou didst send Me;
And I made known unto them Thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou lovedst Me may be in them, and I in them.
Just a word.
Lord, now as we turn to this study, we do so in faith. We thank Thee for those words: life is given through Thy name. We are looking to Thee that every one of us, Lord, in this little time may know just that—life given us through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We need life, Lord—more life; a fresh discovery of the power of Thy life. O beloved Lord, then meet us in this little time. We abide by faith under the anointing that is on the Head, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Grant, Lord, that we shall hear Thy voice and receive from Thee. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
You will remember that, for the last two weeks, we were speaking about the danger of getting uncovered, or becoming uncovered. We looked at a number of things that were just representative of very many other things through which, or by which, we can get ourselves uncovered.
Now, I am sorry for any who have not been with us in previous times, to launch, as it were, into the deep end of this matter. But I am sure the Lord will help, and you can always listen to the tape.
There were a number of things that we just mentioned in the last two weeks that represent very many more ways in which we can get uncovered. Just to remind you of them:
There is divine order, and if we set it aside, we uncover ourselves.
This list of things which we have dealt with in the last two weeks represents multitudinous ways in which you and I can get ourselves uncovered, and ways in which the enemy seeks to entice us away from our position of absolute safety and security in the Lord Jesus.
The devil knows only too well that in Him we are absolutely safe. Our life is hid with Christ in God. Satan knows that he cannot touch us, he cannot harm us, he cannot get at us whilst we are in Christ. Therefore, he has got to get us out of Christ. He has got to entice us to leave our position. He has got to get us to uncover ourselves so that he can waylay us.
Well, there was very, very much that we could have said more last week, but I just want to underline one point that we hardly touched. We have, for the most part, talked about the danger of the individual believer getting uncovered.
But let us say this evening, and say it with great emphasis, that it is just as possible for companies of believers, churches, and works to get uncovered.
Now, you may wonder quite how a whole company of believers could get uncovered, but it is quite possible. Sometimes those inexplicable times of heaviness, darkness, insinuation, and shadow are because, unwittingly, there has been an uncovering—a corporate uncovering.
There are so many ways, again, in which this can happen. But in fact, basically, it is quite the same as the ways in which an individual gets uncovered.
For instance, take this matter of not loving one another. Oh, it is perfectly possible in a company to get to such a pitch where there is no real love, where there is absolute division and an againstness. The whole company is uncovered before God.
Now, it takes two to make division. It takes two to make division. You cannot be divided from someone who will not be divided. You withdraw—that is all. You know the device: it takes two to make a division.
Where you get people absolutely up against each other, all taking sides, all fighting, all seeking to influence one another, then you get a corporate uncovering. I know of work after work which has foundered and broken, church after church, believers that have simply broken up on that one simple level.
Then again, another thing that I could mention would be no fear of the Lord. Oh, what a need there is in all these house meetings all over the country for a new awareness of the presence of the Lord.
In the very places where there has been such an awareness of the presence of the Lord, and such an experience of the presence of the Lord, there is all the danger of there not being any fear of the Lord.
I have seen—I have been in some companies where people almost put their feet up at the Lord’s Table. I remember in one particular group I went to, I was horrified to see people slovenly sitting down with their feet up.
You see, the idea was, “This is a kind of house meeting. This is a home meeting. We are just here to learn.” But, you know, there was no fear of the Lord.
We would not even dream of meeting royalty quite like that. And we are here to remember what the Lord Jesus did for us—no lounging for Him when He sacrificed Himself on the cross; no sitting there with our feet up when He gave His body and blood for us. No fear of the Lord.
Again and again, that kind of thing results in uncovering, and the whole work, unwittingly, gets waylaid by the enemy. Deception and delusion come in because there has first been uncovering through no fear of the Lord.
Or there are many other ways I could mention: presumptuous claims. You can almost be certain that if a group or a company makes a presumptuous claim, they can get uncovered.
You know the kind of thing: “We are it. We have something. Come to us; we have got it.” Now, once that is corporately claimed in that kind of way, there is an uncovering, and you can be almost certain the thing will be knocked to pieces—knocked to pieces—because of presumption, presumptuous claims.
It is not that, when God is at work, we can deny that the Lord is at work amongst us. We cannot say that the Lord is not doing something perhaps singular or unique. I think of some works where the Lord is doing a singular and unique work.
It is no good folks saying, “It is not unique; it is not singular; this is quite normal,” when it is not. But it is the way it is said. To give the glory to God and say, “Well, we do not quite understand. We are the stupidest crowd in the world, but God is doing something amongst us and with us that is different”—that is one thing.
But to say, “We are something. Come to us. We will tell you everything. If you want any instruction or help, we will put you right”—you can be perfectly sure that before long it will be knocked to pieces.
“We have got a great deliverance ministry here. Bring anyone to us; we will deliver them all.” What happens? You find again and again, after a few years, they are shot to pieces. Many a work which claims such big things is shot to pieces.
“We are going into enemy territory. We are going to give it to the enemy.” And what happens? A few years afterwards, they have disappeared in the storm. You cannot find a trace. Presumptuous claims.
Or, again, I could mention not heeding and obeying the anointing. Oh, it is perfectly possible corporately to know that inner voice speaking to a company about a particular thing or another: “That is danger; danger is there,” and not to heed it.
If that is not heeded, uncovering results corporately. Now, we have learned this bitterly, bitterly—at least on two occasions in our history. We have learned that we have corporately got uncovered because there was a warning voice, or bell if you like, ringing in many of our spirits, but we were pushing it down, suppressing it, feeling that it was something else, making excuses not to heed and obey the anointing.
Better not to touch a thing if you have doubt about it. Better not to get involved with something if you have a question than to go in with that inner alarm bell ringing, because you get uncovered.
As ye are taught by Him, abide ye in Him.
As it says in 1 John 2:27, as you are taught by the anointing, so you abide in Him. So you go on abiding.
Then again, disobedience. Oh, how perfectly possible it is for a company to be disobedient. God is calling for a fresh step forward. God is calling for some new expression, as it were, of His power and glory, and a company teeters on the brink of it, wondering, wondering, wondering: “Should we? Shouldn’t we? Should we? Shouldn’t we?”
You always get those who sort of say, “Oh no, there are reasons for not going forward.” Disobedience in a company.
Oh, I think of works which are now nothing—absolutely nothing—but at one time the glory of the Lord filled the whole company, where you knew that the Lord was powerfully and mightily present. And now it is gone.
You can almost trace it at a point when God sought to take that company onward with Himself, and there they faltered.
It has been a most interesting study to me to see that God often speaks twice on the same thing. Isn’t that interesting? I think of a particular work known to me where, twenty years previously, the very same message came. Twenty years later, the same message came and was rejected, and the whole work foundered.
I think of another place where I once went and spoke. As I was there, I thought I had never heard so much noise in all my life. Oh, the noise—and it was not a joyful noise either.
The more I watched—it was in Europe—the more I felt inwardly, “There is something wrong here. There is something wrong. This company somewhere has lost the way.” Yet I felt they had been on the way.
Now, you go into some works where you never felt they had been on the way. Corporate place—great blessed book. But this company had been on the way.
Well, after all this noise they quietened down. Finally I was asked to speak, and I spoke, and I believe the Lord was there. Afterwards, the brother who was pastor came up to me. He did not speak a word all evening, but he said, “Brother, I have had such a strange experience this evening.”
“I have been listening to you, and it is as if you disappeared, and I have gone back to 1938, when we heard almost word for word this message.” Now, I had been speaking of Christ as our life corporately.
“Really?” I said. Then I thought, “Ah, my feeling—that sense I had in the time of prayer.” I did not say anything too much, but I said to the brother, “Well, I am very interested.”
He said, “It was a high-water mark. It was simply tremendous.” “Who was it? You would not know him.” “Oh?” I said. “Why?” “Oh,” he said, “he was a Chinese.”
“A Chinese?” I said. I thought to myself very quickly, there cannot have been too many Chinese preachers wandering around this part of Europe.
“Yes, he only had one night here in the capital city, and he came here.” “Really?” I said. “Yes, but you would not know him. He is not a known man.”
I said, “It was not Watchman Nee, was it?” Of course, he could not speak English, so at that time The Normal Christian Life was not in that particular language; it was only in English. His mouth dropped open. “Why, good gracious me! Yes,” he said, “he came with a certain missionary here.” That was the explanation.
All those years later, God sent me back, and I did not even know the history, with the same message. Twice. God, in His mercy, never judges a work or a company before He speaks to it at least twice.
That work is nothing today. That was about ten years ago—seven or eight years ago. It is absolutely nothing.
God speaks to us, as He says in His word: “See that you do not harden your heart. Today, if you will hear My voice,” says the Lord, “do not harden your heart as the people did at the waters of Meribah.”
But anyway, that is how uncovering comes corporately. Another point we could just make on this matter of corporate uncovering is the setting aside of divine order.
Oh, how easy it is to set aside divine order—to override someone’s ministry or function where they have been placed in the body; just set it aside, as if it is not there. In this way, we uncover ourselves.
I remember some years ago a particular sister walked into this place one morning with another sister. No one was here. They saw a mirror hanging on the wall and thought to themselves, “That mirror should not be there.”
So they took it down and put it up over the Lord’s Table, and took down a picture over the Lord’s Table—or notice board—and put it up over the chair. They left a little notice, simply saying, “By order of Mrs. Soames,” pinned in the thing.
It was, of course, a declaration of war. So we did not do anything at all. We just left it exactly as it was whilst we prayed about it and got the word, “You shall reverse it.” Then, together, we reversed it.
That sister died later, some years later. But it was the beginning of uncovering.
Now, you cannot do those kinds of things and get away with it—not on church ground. You may get away with murder in a congregation, but you will not get away with it if there is any expression of the church at all, because you have come face to face with the living God, and you have come face to face with divine order and government.
However weak the people may be, however fragile and frail they may appear, however sometimes stupid and dim, the fact is that it is divine order. We have to be very, very careful of divine order.
Well now, those are things we could go on talking about and talking about. I want to go on to the subject this evening. I wanted to say that much more, to add to last week, on the corporate side.
We have only to look around tonight to see the tragic evidence of this uncovering in so many companies and groups of believers that began in the right way and somehow or other have completely foundered.
Here is the evidence for this terrible danger:
Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
Let them that think they stand take heed lest they fall.
How do we get back under covering when we have become uncovered? When we begin to see the many ways in which we can get uncovered, how real the danger is, and just how much evidence there is of it on all sides, what a precious and wonderful thing the intercession of the Lord Jesus is.
I do not suppose anyone who thinks he stands feels any need of the intercession of the Lord Jesus. But once you begin to realise the dangers that lurk, once you begin to realise just what the enemy’s devices and designs are, how wonderfully precious the intercession of the Lord Jesus is.
I am here tonight because of the intercession of the Lord Jesus. You are too. You may not know it, but you are.
That is how wonderful and precious the intercessory ministry of the Lord Jesus is. He, more than any other, sees the danger, knows our fragility and our weakness, and prays for us.
Now, we know that the Lord Jesus does not spend all His intercession at the right hand of the Father praying for us as individuals, or just that we might be covered. We know that the intercessory ministry of the Lord Jesus reaches right back before times eternal and on to the ages to come.
He is praying for the fulfilment of the purpose of God. He is praying for the preparation of the bride. He is waiting, reminding the Father that His work is finished, that His triumph is complete, till every enemy has been made the footstool of His feet.
We know that the intercessory ministry of the Lord Jesus is far bigger and far more comprehensive than just praying for our covering.
But He did pray for Peter personally, and how lovely that was. I hope you all noticed it last week in Luke 22:31-32: when He said Satan had desired—or obtained—you by request, in the Greek it is plural: “you all.”
You will see in your New English Bible and your Phillips version that it says, “You all. Satan has obtained you all”—all twelve, all eleven of you, all of you. He has obtained you by request.
Then He turned to Peter and said, “But I have prayed for thee,” singular, “that thy faith fail not.”
Now, it is quite clear to me that the Lord Jesus prayed for every one of the others. But what a wonderful word it was to Peter, who was to be the one who fell so terribly—the leader of the twelve, who fell perhaps most devastatingly—that the Lord Jesus gave him this word:
But I have prayed for thee.
Now, if we turn and look at a few Scriptures, very briefly: Romans chapter 8.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth;
Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Who also maketh intercession for us.
Turn over to Hebrews chapter 7, verse 25:
Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Now, you see, the emphasis here is “to the uttermost.” He is able to save to the uttermost, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession.
However terrible the circumstances, however complex the background, however difficult the temperament or constitution of the person, He can save to the uttermost, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession.
He got Mary Magdalene out of the fix, out of all that background of evil that was right in the woman. He got others out, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession.
Now, if God could do this in the first century, cannot He do it in the twentieth? Is the twentieth century more than the first for God? Is God’s power less able?
See verse 24:
But He, because He abideth for ever, hath His priesthood unchangeable.
So the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ that was able to get these folks in the first century through is exactly the same today—exactly the same today. He ever lives to make intercession for them.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? Who is he that condemneth, or accuseth? Christ maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Now look at another wonderful Scripture: Hebrews chapter 9, verse 24.
For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us.
Now, is that not wonderful? That little phrase, “for us.” He appears before the face of God for us.
Let it sink into you. But whatever we say about how to get recovered when we have got uncovered, we have got to understand what the Lord Jesus is doing. Understand what lies behind all this.
Then again, turn back to Hebrews chapter 4, verses 14 and 15:
Having then a great High Priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
For we have not a High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but One that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help in time of need.
Oh, how often we are tempted to believe that He cannot be touched. We have not a High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
Why does it say that we might receive mercy? Is it not the fact that somehow or other, in all our frailty and weakness, we have got ourselves uncovered?
Do not stay away from the throne of grace because of that. Go before the throne of grace, that you may receive mercy and grace to help in time of need—mercy to cover the failure, grace to get through.
Isn’t that wonderful? That is the intercessory ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, touched with the feeling of our infirmities. “Peter, I prayed for you.”
Touched with the feeling of our infirmities—as if Peter’s own heart beat in the heart of the Lord Jesus; as if He knew from the inside the frailty and weakness of His dear disciple Peter; as if He somehow knew the inside depths of which he was capable; as if He knew how he walked on a tightrope.
He was touched with the feeling of his infirmities. He knew what was in Peter. He knows what is in us. He knows from the inside.
Dear friend, do not ever forget this: the Lord Jesus is not just up there; He is in here. He sees us from the inside. He sees us; He understands the inner workings of our minds, our imaginations, our conceptions, the motive forces that govern us. He knows us from the inside.
Touched with the feeling of our infirmities—not judging, but interceding. “Peter, I pray for you.”
Oh, would it not have been easy for the Lord to say to Peter, “Peter, Peter, empty tin can! You are just a windbag, full of big words, and in My hour of need you are going to let Me down. What kind of disciple are you? You are just a ratbag. The sooner you know it, the better. Then, when you have discovered it, perhaps you will get converted and I will receive you back.”
No, not a single word. The Lord was absolutely true:
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not; and do thou, when once thou hast turned again, stablish thy brethren.
What faith? Where is the faith in Peter? No, where is the faith? In the Son of God. The Lord has faith—absolute faith concerning Peter. He is going to come through. He has prayed for him. He is going to come through.
The Lord Jesus can say just this of you and me tonight as He looks at us: “Oh, you do not understand how the enemy wants you, how he seeks, like a roaring lion, whom he may devour. But I prayed for you. I know you. I know your circumstances. I know the complexity of your nature. I love you.”
Well, I say there is something absolutely wonderful here, for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. The same Jesus yesterday who said, “I prayed for thee, Peter, that thy faith fail not,” is the same Lord Jesus tonight.
He knows you so well. He knows us so well. He knows our corporate aspirations, the longing of our hearts corporately. He knows where we want to go and what we want to do.
Well, I think it is in the high-priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 17, which we read last week and this week, that we see the most blessed intimation of this intercessory ministry of the Lord Jesus concerning covering.
Now, you may not have noticed it, but just look at these verses, will you?
First of all, I want you to notice verse 6:
I manifested Thy name unto them.
What a wonderful phrase: “I manifested Thy name.” Now, we all know that this term, “the name of the Lord,” means covering. It does not only mean authority; it means covering.
The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.
“I manifested Thy name unto them.” Now look in verse 11:
Holy Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me.
Now, this name—“Thy name which Thou hast given Me”—what is that name? Jesus. Thy name which Thou hast given Me.
Keep them in Thy name. Keep them in Thy name. Now, what did the Lord Jesus mean by that? What does it mean to be kept in the name?
It means kept in all that the name stands for: kept in the Person of the Lord Jesus; kept abiding in Him; kept hidden in Him; kept where God has put us—in the Lord Jesus.
Keep them in Thy name.
Then look at verse 12:
While I was with them, I kept them in Thy name.
If the Lord Jesus could keep those eleven hopeless disciples without the Holy Spirit even in them, do you not think you are subject to His keeping power? Do you not think He can keep you?
I suppose those eleven were just like us. Sometimes we can even take a superior position about them and feel they were worse than us. “Well, if we had been with the Lord those three years, we would not be quite like that, surely.”
But if the Lord could have kept them—He said after three years of their failure, their inability to reach the level of understanding and revelation—“I have kept them in Thy name.” Here I am at the end of three years; I have still got them, except the son of perdition.
The only one who would not love Me. But the eleven I kept in Thy name—guarded. He covered them.
What was He doing sometimes when He prayed, if He was not praying also for their covering? He kept them. Nights of prayer that He might keep them in His name.
Then I want you to notice in verse 12 another little word:
I guarded them, and not one of them perished.
Isn’t that lovely? “I guarded them, and not one of them perished.”
Then again, I want you to notice in verse 15:
I pray not that Thou shouldest take them from the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.
This is the prayer the Lord Jesus taught us to pray. I mean, it is the pattern prayer; we should never forget this:
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
That Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.
Now, here we have an intimation of something. We have an intimation of the kind of prayer that the Lord Jesus is praying for us now. For if you look in verse 20, He says:
Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on Me through their word.
That is you and me. So we know that our Lord Jesus, at the right hand of God the Father, is praying like this:
I manifested Thy name to them. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me.
You see, in verse 26:
I made known unto them Thy name, and will make it known.
Isn’t that wonderful? Not only all that He had given to them, but He was going to make it known to the disciples. He was thinking, of course, of Acts, when for the first time these dear old disciples—so dim, so failing—suddenly saw what the name of the Lord meant.
They went everywhere doing all things in the name of the Lord Jesus. They turned the world upside down by the name of the Lord Jesus. They knew it meant both covering and authority.
Oh, how wonderful that is. He prays tonight, “I guard them. I guard them. And not one of them shall perish.”
I say all that is so wonderful, but there is one other point we ought to look at in this prayer, and it is the question of unity—our unity with the Father and with the Son, and now unity with one another.
Look at verse 11:
And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.
Even as We are.
Now look again at verse 20. We have read that He prays for those that believe on Him through their word. Verse 21:
That they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us: that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.
Then again, verse 22:
That they may be one, even as We are one.
Verse 23:
I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and lovedst them, even as Thou lovedst Me.
You see, the prayer of the Lord Jesus is over this question of keeping us abiding in reality—in the Father and in the Son by the Spirit, and therefore in unity with one another.
Anything that divides, anything that destroys that unity, anything that injures the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a plague. It will cause uncovering.
So the Lord Jesus prays that we may be one, that we may be kept in that unity, and that it may be exactly the same as the unity between the Father and the Son. We may be kept together, as it were, in the bundle of life.
How serious, then, when you begin to understand what it means in 1 Corinthians 11:30:
For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.
Why? Because they have eaten judgment to themselves, not discerning the Lord’s body.
Here it is. The Lord’s body is not just a physical thing. The Lord’s body is that great spiritual, eternal reality of which you and I, by the grace of God, are part. We have been joined to the Lord and are one spirit.
Therefore, because we are one with Him, we are one with one another. So the easiest way for the enemy to get us uncovered is to destroy that unity—and the Lord Jesus prays for it.
Oh, if that is so, what intercession the Lord Jesus must be engaged in this evening—to keep us in the unity of the Spirit.
Well, may I go on and say something more about all this? The basis for such intercession is unshakably sure.
In the offering of Himself once for all, Christ has made provision for every single one of us to be covered, to stay covered, and to get recovered when we become uncovered.
Now, let me just say that again. The basis for this intercessory ministry of the Lord Jesus is absolutely unshakable—sure. What is it? Does it depend on your zeal and my zeal? Does it depend on your devotion and my devotion? No.
It is founded upon His own finished work—what He has done in the offering of Himself once for all.
He has made provision through the sacrifice of Himself once for all time that every single one of us—from the dimmest child of God in the whole world to the most spiritually intelligent—may stay covered. If anything should happen, we may get back under covering.
Let me just read to you two Scriptures. First, Hebrews chapter 10, verses 12-14:
But He, when He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
Henceforth expecting till His enemies be made the footstool of His feet.
For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
All the provision is there—not only for our salvation, but for our sanctification; for our being presented before God without spot.
Turn back to Hebrews chapter 7, verses 26 and 27:
For such a High Priest became us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
Who needeth not daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people: for this He did once for all, when He offered up Himself.
Now verse 25 says that He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near unto God through Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession. The basis of this intercession is that He has offered up Himself once for all.
You remember, in one of the first or second studies in this series on uncovering, we spoke of the fivefold offering of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we find it in Leviticus chapters 1 through 7.
There we find that in the old economy there was a fivefold offering: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering.
Every single part of the believer’s life was covered by that fivefold offering—whether it was worship or service, whether it was humanity, whether it was fellowship and communion, whether it was sin wittingly committed or unwittingly committed. Every single part was covered by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Covered.
The Lord Jesus would keep us from falling.
It says in Jude 1:24, “Keep us from falling.” Listen to it in the Amplified:
Now to Him Who is able to keep you without stumbling, or slipping, or falling, and to present you unblemished, blameless, and faultless before the presence of His glory with unspeakable, ecstatic delight,
In triumphant joy and exaltation—to the one only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord—be glory, majesty, might and dominion, power and authority, before all time and now and forever, unto all the ages of eternity. Amen.
Oh, for the Lord Jesus to be able to present us before His Father’s face with ecstatic delight—unspeakable and ecstatic delight! Even the Lord Himself speechless because He has got us there.
Well, if He is speechless, we should be. We shall stand there dumbfounded—just the very thought that finally He has got us there, faultless, without spot or blemish.
How can the Lord Jesus get you and me there without spot or blemish? Have we not all got spots and blemishes? The only way He can do it is through the sacrifice of Himself once for all.
He has not only saved us to the uttermost, but He has sanctified us. Oh, that we would go in by the Spirit and possess what is ours; that we would take what is ours, that He might have that ecstatic, unspeakable joy of finally bringing us before His Father’s face.
Oh, I find it so wonderful, just the very thought of it—how the Lord could get such a vile creature as I, so difficult, so rebellious, such unlikely material, into His Father’s presence and present me. Think of that: presenting me.
Why should He present you or me? Are we so presentable? Why, we would shrivel up in the presence of His Father when the glory of God were to appear before us. But, oh no, not through His sacrifice. There is covering—covering and provision—that we may be changed into the same image from glory to glory.
Now, you see, I think the Apostle Paul had many faults. There are people who think that the Apostle Paul had no failings or faults, but I think that in the book of Acts, when you take your rose-coloured spectacles off, you see that he is there, warts and all.
It is not one of these beautifully touched-up photographs. The Apostle Paul is there. When you read his letters, the apostle is simply marvellous. He is so much himself that he gives the game away every time.
Again and again we find him saying, “Oh, now you pushed me into boasting. I should not have done it.” I mean, we would say, “Now, a godly person would not write that. Cut all that out. Do not talk like that.”
Then he is talking about having such a bad time because he had written a letter rebuking them, and then he spent sleepless nights because he thought he had done the wrong thing—until he got back a letter saying it had humbled the whole lot of them, and then he was glad.
Little did he know that it was all Scripture. If the dear old apostle had known that it was all Scripture, and was going to be read by countless saints down through the ages, he would have cut out half of what he had written. He would have got so self-conscious: “Cut that out, cut that out, cut that out. Cannot have them all reading all that kind of thing. That is too private.”
He put himself on the page. He put himself on the bed.
But you know what he said in his last letter. In 2 Timothy 4:7, he said:
I have finished the course.
Now, for any man like that to be able to say, “I have finished the course. I have not got off the course. By the grace of God, I have finished the course”—oh, the believers we know that have gone off, have not we all? Gone off, had to be put back.
The apostle could say at the end, “I have finished the course”—and absolutely on the board, exactly where I should have been, by the grace of God. He did not think, “This is the great Apostle Paul. I have done it. Goodness!”
Oh no, he said:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth. What a wonderful position to get to.
Here, only in the previous letter, he said he was the chief of all sinners. Now, if the chief of all sinners can finish the course, what about you and me?
I think the apostle got his faith well and truly focused and centred in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as the One who not only offered up Himself for him, but was interceding for him. He was keeping him on course, like one of those wonderful compasses that immediately tells the slightest degree of moving away.
So the Lord Jesus can keep us absolutely.
Well, I think, therefore, we have two unshakably sure things: the finished work of Christ, through which we can be saved to the uttermost; and the Lord Jesus Christ as Intercessor, Mediator, and Advocate.
Remember, the Apostle John says in 1 John 2:1-2:
If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
And He is the propitiation for our sins.
Two things: He is both Advocate and sacrifice. We have got these two unshakably sure things.
How wonderful that is. No wonder the Apostle Paul said, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Then he goes on to a great list. He says, “I am persuaded that neither height, nor depth, nor this, nor that, nor the other, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
It is in Him. Whilst we are there, nothing can separate us. We are in the place of absolute safety.
Nevertheless, although there is no need whatsoever for us to get uncovered, and indeed every encouragement not to, the sad fact is that most of us do get uncovered sometime or another. So do most companies of God’s children.
What should we do when we know that we have got uncovered? The moment we become aware that we have got uncovered, what should we do?
We must learn to take immediate action.
Now, when I say immediate action, I mean it: immediate. The moment you become aware that you have got uncovered, do not leave it for minutes—let alone days. You have no idea of the danger you are in while you are uncovered.
The moment you know that you are uncovered, take immediate action. Never leave such a condition, not even for minutes. Why do I say that? Because it only takes, say, a minute to deceive.
That is right.
Your salvation took place, for many of us, in a minute. Suddenly light dawned. Suddenly we saw. Suddenly the things of God lived to us. One moment we were dead; the next moment we were alive.
Spiritual things are like that. When you have got uncovered, do not leave it.
Now, do not all start getting into an introspective state, sort of saying, “Oh dear, dear, dear. I have left it for weeks, or weeks, or weeks—months.” Now listen: get this clear. When you become aware, the Holy Spirit is the most wonderful Person.
He is not the accuser, as many believers think. He is the Advocate, and the Advocate within. He is the One who comes alongside—the Paraclete, the Counsellor, the Comforter.
The moment He knows that you are uncovered, you will hear that gracious voice of the Spirit of God just saying, “Get back, get back.” He never says, “You are uncovered.” He says, “Get back, get back. Something has gone wrong. Something has gone wrong.”
Oh, the gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit! As soon as you know that, do not say, “Well, I will go and see Brother So-and-so tonight,” or, “I will have a time of prayer tonight,” or, “Well, I will be seeing So-and-so next week. I will do it then.” No! Do not leave it.
Once the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart about this matter, take immediate action. Get under covering straight away.
Now, how do you do it? If you have got a pencil, there are four things that you may like to note down somewhere, so that you will always know what to do. Remember, there are just these four basic things.
The first: recognise that you are uncovered.
Now, this may seem so utterly simple, but you know many people have a terrible battle over this. Oh, the excuses people make! They say, “Well, you know, I was pushed into it. I mean, really, I am—”
Or people say, “You know, it is my circumstances.” Or they will not simply say, “I got uncovered.” We all get uncovered. I get uncovered. We all get uncovered. We do not need to; we are encouraged not to; but the sad fact is, we do.
You must recognise the fact. Recognise that you are uncovered. The need is for absolute and strict honesty with yourself. Now, if you do not have this strict honesty with yourself, you cannot get back under covering.
Oh, I can think of case after case of folks in my own experience, going back over a few years now, where something has happened and those dear folks just cannot recognise it. They cannot simply say, “I got uncovered on that point.”
I think of that sister who would not. I remember when she was so ill she asked me and some of the other brothers to come and lay hands on her. We went in fear and trembling. We knew that to lay hands on that sister in that condition would work the opposite way and would bring death, not life.
But what could we do? We went. We prayed so much about it beforehand. We said to her, “Have you anything to confess?” She looked straight at us and said, “Nothing at all.”
Then we knew that the sentence was confirmed. We laid hands on her, and I think it was a week or so later she passed away. Every time we prayed for that dear sister, a new attack came.
Now, the fact of the matter is that we must recognise. It is so simple to say, when you think of it, “I have got myself uncovered. I said something I should not have said. I did something I should not have done.” It is as simple as that.
Walk in the light as God is in the light. Do not reduce it to greyness, to twilight, to the in-between dusk. Do not put up a great smoke screen of excuses.
“Well, you know, I was pushed into it. So-and-so was saying so-and-so to me, and so-and-so poured this story into my ear, and I was pushed into it.” You can make excuse after excuse. The fact is, you got uncovered. Do not make excuses. Recognise the fact.
Walk in the light as God is in the light. What does that mean? Just come out into the light. When you come out into the light, you see things as they really are. When you are groping around in the dark, you cannot see things as they are. But when you come out into the light, you see it as it really is. Suddenly you see.
You know, if you go into a dark room that you do not know well, you do not know where anything is. You are groping around, finding, “What is that now?” Then there is something else. Put on a light, and suddenly you see, “Oh yes, there is a table; there is a chair there; there is a plant stand there,” and so on and so forth. You see it when the light is on.
Walk in the light as God is in the light.
In this matter, this is all part of this one point of recognising that you are uncovered: confess clearly and concisely. Be absolutely clear and concise.
If you have said something, retract the very words that you said. Do not try to make out that you did not say it. Simply retract the very words that you used. If you have taken a position against something, retract it.
That is repentance. Repent. Some people think repentance is only for those who are not saved. It is not. When we have got into trouble, we have to repent; otherwise, we will get back into the same trouble again and again and again. We have to see it for what it is and call it by its name.
“I did not, Charles—no, please forgive me. I have been stupid.”
The Holy Spirit, as I have already said, is our Advocate within. He will give us the understanding and the help we need in this matter.
Some may say, “Well, I am not quite sure. I know I have got uncovered, but I do not know how.” You ask the Holy Spirit. You will find, without accusing you, He will bring to your memory the exact point at which uncovering came.
The Holy Spirit is the One who guards us. His job is to keep us covered. His whole job is to keep us in Christ, abiding in Christ. Now, the Holy Spirit knows exactly where uncovering came, and He will give you His help and understanding if you will only be honest.
He will just say to you, “No, it was so-and-so,” and it will click. Oh, we have got a spirit in us. The Holy Spirit is in our spirit. When it happened, you knew it. “That is it. That is it. I knew it. That is it.”
If you have not had an experience like that, perhaps you are not quite so bad as I am for falling. But, I mean, when you have had an experience like that, you know it. Something inside just says, “Ah, how stupid of me. Of course, that is it.” Your whole being is flooded with light. You are back, and you know it.
Second thing: by faith, retake your divinely given position in Christ.
First, recognise that you are uncovered. Secondly, by faith, retake your divinely given position in Christ.
Do not just confess and say, “Well now, that is all done.” Say, “Lord, I take my position again in Thy Son. I take my place in Him.”
No matter what the accuser roars, as it says in one of our hymns, however much he says your case is hopeless and God will not hear you or listen to you, by faith retake the place which is yours through the finished work of Christ and the grace of God.
Remember, that place in God’s Son was given you through His finished work, not because of anything in you. God did not say, “Oh, you know, I have watched So-and-so. So-and-so is rather sweet and decent, so I think I should extend My saving grace to So-and-so.”
He did not save you on that basis. He saved you as a worthless rebel, a bankrupt. He saved you.
Now, the only way you can retake that position is not by saying, “Now, Lord, I am all polished up now. You know, I am learning something. I will go from house to house on Wednesdays, and I will go out fishing on Sundays, Lord, and I will spend an hour or two in prayer. I will join that intercessors’ business. What else can I do, Lord?”
“Well, of course, if You really want me, Lord, I will offer myself for service somewhere. I will go cleaning on Friday evenings, Lord, as well. I never did like that. And, well, I might even do stewarding, Lord.” I mean, all those things may be right.
But do not think for a single moment that that is the basis for taking your position again in the Lord Jesus. If you make that the basis, you are on the basis of works.
Then you will have an evil conscience all the time. Satan will come and say, “You are not doing good enough. You are not doing good enough.” He will drive you, and you will think it is the Lord who is driving you: “You are not up to scratch.”
That is not your basis. Your basis is that the Lord Jesus died for you. Your basis is that He laid down His life for you. Your basis is that He sacrificed Himself. That is your basis.
When you come, you say, “Father, I got uncovered. Forgive me, Lord. Here is the reason. This is what I did, Lord. Forgive me. Cleanse me, Lord. Now, by faith, I take my place in Thy Son again through Thy grace, through His blood, through His finished work. I hide myself, Father, in Him.”
You are back again, to use the name of the Lord.
Now, the third thing is: put right whatever is wrong, no matter what the cost. Now, this is where most people stumble.
Put right whatever is wrong, no matter what the cost. Sometimes this is very costly to our pride, especially when it involves others or the whole church. But there is no back door to covering.
Now listen carefully to that: there is no back door to covering.
There is an “if”:
If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
We have got to walk in the light. Now, this sometimes involves us in putting something right.
Some people say, “But is that really necessary? After all, the finished work of Jesus Christ has dealt with it.” You will never learn your lesson till you are prepared to humble yourself.
If you have said something or done something—one of these things we have talked about, ways in which you have got uncovered—you will never learn your lesson if you say, “I put it right with the Lord. Put it up, Lord.”
Sooner or later, you will fall again on the same thing, because it is not dealt with—not really.
You have got to go and say, “Lord, to whoever it is, I am very sorry. Lord, give me the grace. I will go. I will just put this right.”
Now, when you have done that, it is hard, but it is burnt into you. Something is written indelibly in your spirit. You think twice again before you ever go through that experience again. “Oh, I could not bear to do that again—have to go to someone else.”
But, you see, it is just like little children. I mean, I know there is not much discipline these days, but this is how we were taught when we were young. We were told that if we did so-and-so, we would have to do so-and-so. If we had good parents, they stuck to it, and we had to do it.
Oh, the agonies we used to go through as kids! I remember I wrote a letter to a particular person down the road about their son, whom I disliked very much.
My father said that unless I went and actually apologised—oh dear, dear, dear, I went through agonies. Of course, that family thought it terribly funny; I found it years afterwards. But they would not tell you.
When they opened the door, the severity of it all! He was Dutch, the way he looked at me, you know. I went trembling, and he took me into his study. That did not help. He did not take me into the lounge room; he took me into the study and listened to it all.
Then he said, “You know, this kind of thing causes war.” Oh!
But you know, I never wrote a letter like that again in my life. It was not that I was not tempted to write a letter. Oh, two or three times I could have sat down with great ease and written just the same kind of letter, but I could not go through all that again.
Oh, the humility of it, the humiliation of it, the sort of being broken down of it all. No, that is how we learn. We learn it does not pay.
So, put right whatever is wrong. Remember, there is no back door to covering.
And lastly, learn the lesson. When we have got uncovered, there is always a cause. No one slides; it does not just happen. We are absolutely safe in Christ unless we have got uncovered.
So we must learn the lesson. What is the cause?
Some people all the time realise, “Oh, this has happened. Now, Lord, just forgive me and cleanse me.” The same thing happens again and again and again because they will not learn the lesson.
Now, the Bible has some very harsh words to say about fools. It says that the fool is someone who will not receive instruction.
A fool is not someone who makes a mistake. A fool is someone who makes the same mistake again and again and again. That is what the Bible says.
Now, the basis of that folly is the inability to learn—or, if you like, an unteachable spirit. “I am not going to listen to that. I know it anyway.” But you do not.
You cannot teach anyone unless they are ready to say, “Well, yes, all right. You are wrong there. All right—how should I have done it?”
Learn the lesson. It is much better to learn how to stay covered at all times than to have to continually get back under covering.
Therefore, we must learn the lesson. Why have I got uncovered? Let me learn the lesson. I will not do it again. That is the way of progress.
Those who refuse—do listen to this last little word—those who refuse either to recognise that they have become uncovered or to learn the lesson invariably go off course.
I can say that quite dogmatically: they invariably go off course, because they will not recognise the point of departure. So they are off without any possibility of the Lord bringing them up; a deviation has started.
Oh, we want to be those who have learned how to stay in Christ at all times, to abide in Him.
When we have become uncovered, we want to be those who learn that we must take immediate action—not to stay in a condition of tremendous danger one moment longer than our having become aware of it.
Everything is in Christ: all the fullness, all the provision, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all the grace, all the power—His fortress, stronghold, strong tower, rock of defence, refuge, temple and sanctuary, covert, hiding place.
Oh, that we could learn what it is to stay in the place where God has put us—absolutely.
May God teach us this simple lesson. If you were expecting something more involved, it is not. These spiritual things are very simple:
Shall we pray?
Now, Lord, we pray that Thou wilt indeed teach us this lesson. Write it on our hearts, Lord. All of us, in one way or another, need this message.
We need, Lord, to know how to take immediate action. Oh, write it, Lord, in practical terms, in every one of our lives.
Where there is any uncovering, Lord, here tonight, we pray that we may know what to do. And, Lord, may every one of us who is covered learn how to stay covered.
May we know what it is to have our life hid with Christ indeed. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.