I am very glad to be able to be with you once again and to share from the Word of God.
If you will turn with me to a probably well-known passage for most of you in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 6, from verse 10.
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles, or stratagems, of the devil.
For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against hosts of wicked spirits in the heavenly places.
Wherefore take up the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; with all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, and on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me, in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
Just a further word of prayer.
Beloved Lord, whenever we come to the ministry of Your Word, we recognise that without You we can do nothing. We can speak a lot of words, outline truths; it can all be very biblical. But Lord, unless that anointing, grace, and power are upon the speaking and the hearing in full measure, nothing goes into eternity.
We want the whole of our time to be redeemed, not wasted—not in any single part. Therefore, Lord, by faith we stand into that anointing, grace, and power this evening, that You will be mightily upon both the speaking of Your Word and the hearing of it.
We pray that You will help us in our spirit to hear what You are saying. Lord, let there be some kind of outcome in our lives individually and in our lives corporately as a result of this time. We commit it to You. We trust You, Lord.
We thank You: You never waste time. You always take every moment and fill it with Yourself. We are the ones who are the problem, Lord. We often do not recognise You; we do not hear You, and we just treat it all as one more meeting.
Now, Lord, change that, we pray, and make our time this evening a time when we hear You knocking on the door. Enable us to open the door, because You have said, “I will come in, and will sup with you, and you with Me.”
We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Amen.
Last year, I believe, when I spoke to you, I spoke about spiritual warfare—warring the warfare. I want to take it again; it is the only thing in my heart, so I make no apology for it.
I thought, having heard that I had already spoken about this matter before, that maybe it was rather ridiculous to come back a year later to the same matter. But it is not quite the same matter. It is one step further. There must be some reason for this burden that so clearly came to me for this evening.
I want to underline this: putting on the whole armour of God, that you may stand against the stratagems, or strategies, the devices of the devil. Putting on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against these wiles, these devices of the devil.
You are some Christian if you have never yet experienced the wiles of the devil. These stratagems, these plans—the devil is not some empty-headed fool who runs around trying to trip up believers. He has been at this job for thousands of years, and he has tremendous experience of the weaknesses and frailties of human beings. He has a whole host that work with him.
It is quite remarkable how Paul concludes this incredible letter. By general recognition, the letter to the Ephesians is one of the most extraordinary revelations of the heart and mind of God in the whole Bible. It is a revelation, almost one could say, of that which is in the heart of God for this universe—and for you and for me, for the redeemed.
It is interesting how he concludes the letter. He could have said so many things which are absolutely vital and essential. He could have said that we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I have no doubt that that should find an echo in every heart, because if you are not filled with the Holy Spirit, you will be filled with something else. If it is not demonic, it will be yourself.
Only by being filled with the Spirit will we ever be able to see fulfilled this eternal purpose of God that we so often talk about. But he does not conclude like that. Nor does he conclude with, “You must get to know your Bibles.” That is absolutely essential, and if he had said it, it would have been absolutely right.
If he had said that we need to have our lives deepened spiritually, we would all have agreed with him. It is no point having a revelation of God’s heart and mind unless, somehow or other, it affects us; it changes us.
If he had said we need to lay down our lives—that there is no way that this whole purpose of God can be fulfilled in practical, relevant terms in each of our lives, in our families, our businesses, in the church of God, in our assemblies, in our fellowship, in the work of God—we would have absolutely agreed with him.
But instead, he says, “Stand. Withstand. Stand, and having done all, stand.”
That seems quite ridiculous. It almost seems anticlimactic that, after this tremendous letter, the way the apostle concludes it is:
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
And then he says, “Stand therefore.” I mean, it seems almost ridiculous. In one way, when you talk about it, it seems kindergarten to talk about it to folks like yourselves.
What did he mean? In what are we to stand? On what are we to stand? Do we know how to withstand? And, having done all, stand.
It seems to me that somehow, in this simple little word that a child of three or four years of age could understand—stand, withstand, stand—we have the total victory of the Lord Jesus.
The victory needs to be enforced, experienced, manifested. It is not just theology; it needs to be enforced. We are the people of God, and we are meant to see that the total, complete victory of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, is enforced in our lives and experienced amongst us—relevant to every situation we face.
Within this little word, stand, the whole victory of the Lord Jesus is focused when it comes to practice. For me, this is of tremendous importance.
The fact that the Holy Spirit led Paul to conclude this incredible revelation of God’s heart and mind to His redeemed people in this way means that there is an incredibly real danger that we lose everything the Lord Jesus has won for us if we do not learn to stand—if we do not learn how to withstand.
“And having done all”—is that not an interesting word? “And having done all, to stand.” We stand to lose. We have an enemy who robs, who spoils. He is out to paralyse the people of God on every level: personal life, family life, business and workaday life, church life, and the work of the gospel.
We stand to lose so much if we do not hear what the Holy Spirit is saying. So, in this incredible letter, Paul ends with only one note: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand.”
He enforces it even more by saying, “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day.” In other words, every assembly of God’s people will have an evil day—and not only just one—when everything seems to be given over to Satan, when he seems to be supreme, and when it appears that the very powers of darkness have the upper hand in everything.
But in that evil day, we are to learn to withstand. Now, it is interesting: we do not go back; we do not go forward; we do not go one way or the other way. We stand. We withstand, and, having done all, we stand.
That is by way of introduction to what I really want to say. The first thing I want to underline is the necessity of learning how to stand and withstand.
Will you note that we are to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might? It is not a question of your becoming Churchillian in yourself—sort of obstinate, stubborn, and ready to take on anything. You are no match for the enemy. You may think you are, but you are no match for the enemy.
Peter thought he was something. Peter only ever said what the rest thought; they were clever and never opened their big mouths, but Peter was always opening his mouth and expressing what the rest felt.
You remember the day when he said, “Lord, we will never let You—never. We will go the whole way with You.” And the Lord said to him, “Simon, Simon, Satan has obtained you by request, that he may sift you as wheat.”
It is a most remarkable thing. Satan obtained the great apostle because he uncovered himself. He did not know himself.
The Lord Jesus said, “I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.” In the moment when it seemed that Peter’s faith totally failed, his genuine faith—which was the gift of God—sparked into life. It took only one look at the Lord Jesus. When their eyes met, Peter wept his way back to the Lord.
Everything in his life was blown to pieces: his claims, his status, his understanding. It was all gone, like a spiritually nuclear explosion. It cleared the ground of everything and allowed the Lord to do a work in Peter, that he might become the chief apostle.
Peter was strong in himself. His strength was his own strength. But that is not what this wonderful concluding word of the Holy Spirit through Paul says:
Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles, or devices, of the devil.
So it is to be strong in the Lord. Now, here is the second thing: what is this armour? “Put on the whole armour of God.” It is the Lord Jesus.
Some of you may have heard me say this before. I always remember Dennis Clark, many years ago, saying that one of his friends was quite neurotic. Well, there were a lot of neurotics in the church, let us face it. He had some dear brother who was quite neurotic.
The brother said, “I stand every day in front of a mirror, and I put on the helmet of salvation, and I put on the breastplate.” He was so afraid that he was going to leave something off and then the enemy would get him.
But there is no need to get into a neurosis over this thing. All you have to do is abide where God has put you. God has positioned you in Christ. If you are in Christ, He is the whole armour of God. You do not have to worry about the rest.
In a moment, we will talk about the different aspects of the Lord Jesus that He is to you as the whole armour of God. But the fact of the matter is: it is the Lord Jesus.
Can you imagine it? Just think for a moment. May it sink into your head. If you are in Christ, can the devil get you? If you are in Christ, is it not obvious that even if you have an enormous battle, a long battle that you have to endure, the victory is already won?
If you are in Christ, what can anything do to you? The secret is to know that you are in Christ.
No wonder the Lord Jesus said, in that tremendous last great claim, “I am the true vine.” He said, “Abide in Me, and I in you.” Remain. You do not strive to get in; you do not fight to get in. You are already there. That is your position. It is God the Father, by the Holy Spirit, who has positioned you in the Son.
Putting on the whole armour of God simply means that you are in Christ and that the Lord Jesus is to you everything you need for the war, for the strife, for the conflict. Everything. Put on the whole armour. Jesus—the Lord Jesus—is the armour.
When you begin to look at these verses from Ephesians 6:14 onwards: “girded your loins with truth”—that is the Lord Jesus, the truth as it is in Jesus; “having put on the breastplate of righteousness”—who is our righteousness? The Lord Jesus; “having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace”—whose gospel is it? It is the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
“Withal taking up the shield of faith”—where does faith come from? It is the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. Or again, take the helmet of salvation. The very name Yeshua means salvation. What is the helmet of salvation? It is the Lord Jesus. That means your mind, your thoughts, are protected—so important in these days in which we live.
“The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, with all prayer.” Is this not tremendous when you begin to think about it? It is the Lord Jesus—all these different aspects of our armour.
Please note: armour. I know I am treating you like a Sunday school, but never mind. Think for a moment: what is armour? Do you cook in the kitchen with armour? God help you if you do. Do you try to look after the children with armour on? Oh, Lord help the children if you do. Do you take the dog for a walk with the armour on?
Think for a moment: what is armour? Why does the Holy Spirit use the idea of armour? Because it is to do with warfare. It is all to do with conflict.
There are many other ways we can think of the Lord Jesus: as our covering, our righteousness, our life, our fullness, our power. But when we are told to put on the whole armour of God, it is talking about war, strife, conflict—devilish strategies to undo us, to take us captive, to compromise us.
When you read through these wonderful verses with which the Holy Spirit concludes this incredible revelation, it is all to do with warfare and conflict.
Do you really think that this revelation God has given us through Paul is just going to fall into place on some bright and sunny day, with twittering birds and peace everywhere? Of course not.
If there has been an enemy of God from the beginning in this matter, he is not going to rest until he has frustrated the purpose of God. He cannot get at the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is beyond his reach. Praise the Lord. The Lord Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. He has won.
So Satan has only one possibility: the saints on earth. He cannot even get at the saints in glory. They have passed through into another dimension; they are safe. He can only get at us, and he will leave no stone unturned to deceive us, destroy us, spoil us, compromise us, and depress us.
That is why the apostle says, “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles, devices, stratagems of the devil.”
What do we stand in? Obviously, I think now you will have seen it: it is Christ Himself.
Satan’s whole strategy, or device, is to get us out of covering—to entice us out. There was a book very famous in China many hundreds of years ago called The Art of Warfare. That extraordinary man said that one of the greatest strategies in war is to feign a retreat. Then you can get them to come out from the fortress, and you can destroy them.
Satan does that again and again with us. His whole way is to try and get us to come out from covering—come out from where you are safe; come out and meet him; come out and deal with him.
That is why it is “stand, withstand, stand, and having done all, stand.” It is standing. You have to stand in Christ. Do not, for one moment, be enticed to come out from that place of absolute safety in the Lord Jesus.
So, in what do we stand? It is not what, but in Whom do we stand? It is the Lord Jesus.
That is why I always say to anyone, if you are dealing with a big problem, or a group of people are dealing with a problem, and it is demonic or satanic in its origin, power, and energy, first and foremost make sure that you are hidden in the Lord Jesus.
Never take on anything in yourself, in your spiritual knowledge, or in your biblical knowledge. Never take anything on. Only make sure that you are in Christ. I myself use these words: “My Father, I am in the Lord Jesus by Your grace, and I am abiding in Him in facing this situation.”
Here is the second thing: in what do we stand? We stand in Christ. We stand in His finished work. Please, this is kindergarten. Please let it sink in: in His finished work, not in your knowledge, not even in your experiences of the Lord.
Where do you stand? In the finished work of the Lord Jesus. How did they overcome Satan in Revelation 12? By the blood of the Lamb. When you speak of the blood, it is an emblem of the finished work of the Lord Jesus—the complete work of the Lord Jesus.
Putting on this whole armour of God and standing is to stand in Christ and on His finished work. Do not try to stand on anything else—only His finished work.
Here is the third thing: stand in and on the purpose of God centred in the Lord Jesus. Nothing else, nothing more. It is the purpose of God to sum up all things in the Messiah—everything, things in heaven and things on earth, and you also, all summed up in Him. That is the purpose of God. Stand in that and on that purpose of God centred in the Lord Jesus.
Then one other thing before we move on: how do you stand? You stand in the Word of God.
I am very sad that so many Christians who ought to know better do not study the Word of God. Wherever I go, I find people reading books on the Bible. Now, I am altogether for reading books, but I do not understand when we come together and read a book on the Word rather than get to the Word itself. That is like having regurgitated food.
Someone else has enjoyed it, it has come out, and now you are going to eat it. It seems weird to me. To read books that are a confirmation of what we ourselves see in the Word of God is something quite different. But to study somebody else’s words on the Word of God, to me, is incredible.
Now and again it might be explicable, but to do it all the time—I find it amazing. Wherever I go, I find it happening: not just in circles that you and I know, but in lots of other circles—charismatic circles, Pentecostal circles, evangelical circles. I find it extraordinary. What is wrong with everybody? Why do they not get to the Book itself?
When you are dealing with something else, it is not quite the same living power as the Word itself. I always remember Canon Phillips, when he made that translation of Paul’s epistles, and then went on to the others and finally to the whole New Testament.
Someone asked him, “What was your experience?” He said, “It was incredible. I felt I was rewiring a very old house, and every now and again I put my fingers in the socket and got a colossal shock—an electrical shock.”
You will not get that by reading something written on the Word of God. But if you get to the Word of God itself, it is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing spirit and soul.
I cannot understand why you younger people do not memorise the Word of God. You only have your youth once. Listen to me: I was once young. You only have it once; you cannot relive it. When you are young is the time when you have got a memory.
Do not let the devil tell you that you are busy. Wait until you are much older; then you can talk about being busy. Of course, some of us ought to have retired long ago, but there is no such thing as retirement for servants of the Lord, in my estimation.
I certainly get tired now. I cannot even remember some people’s names. I look at them, and I know them very well—really well, close friends—and I cannot remember their name. Why are you young people waiting until your memory is gone? Why do you not do it now?
Hide the Word in your heart. Memorise it. Learn it. You will never, never regret it.
When you memorise the Word of God, it gives material for the Holy Spirit. When you are in a terrible situation, or a tremendous trauma, or some enormous problem that is almost too much for you, suddenly into your heart will come back that word which you memorised. The Holy Spirit will bring it back because you hid it in your heart.
I could tell you many stories along this line, but then I would digress. When we are standing in Christ, we are standing in the Word. The Lord Jesus is the personification of the Word of God.
He is the Alpha and Omega—the A and Z, if you speak proper English; if you speak another kind of English, A and Z. People tend to think this means the first letter and the last letter of an alphabet. But the Lord never meant, “I am A and nothing else, and I am Z and nothing else.” He meant, “I am the alphabet—the whole alphabet of God. Every time God speaks, it is through Me. I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
He is the way God speaks to us. He is the alphabet of God. When you understand that, the Lord comes to you in the most wonderful revelation of His heart and His mind.
There is no way that you and I are going to be able to stand in the strife and conflict of these last days if we do not know how to stand in the Messiah, in the Lord Jesus, in Christ; if we do not know how to stand on His complete and finished work, through which He has destroyed and beaten every demonic principality and power in this world, including Satan.
It is a complete work He has done. We have to learn how to stand in it and on it. We have to learn not to be diverted from the purpose of God centred in the Lord Jesus. We need the Word of God.
It is no wonder to me that Satan tries to stop us from really getting to know the Word. It is funny: we do not have any problem about newspapers. People will read the newspaper from the first page to the last page every day. We have no problem about reading novels—unbelievable. We have no problem about reading other things, but it is strange that we have an inner kind of thing about the Word: “Oh dear, I am too busy today.”
But that Word of God is your lifeline. We need to learn how to use the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
It is interesting that in this whole armour there is only one single offensive weapon: it is the sword. It is not the big sword; it is the small sword that was often used for dispatching your enemy.
Is that not interesting? Coming back to standing, withstanding, having done all to stand—stand therefore—you have one small weapon that finally deals the death blow to the enemy. It is the Word of God.
Why the sword of the Spirit? Because the Holy Spirit, of course, is the Author of the Bible. I do not belong to these new, what they call “broad evangelicals,” who seem to think the Old Testament is not quite in the same category as the New Testament—as if God got more authentic or more complete as He got older.
It is quite ridiculous, really. Something two thousand years ago is to be trusted, but something three or four thousand years ago is not to be trusted? It is the Word of God, or it is not the Word of God. If it is the Word of God, you can trust it, and the Holy Spirit can take it.
Why is it the sword of the Spirit? Because the Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and applies it to your situation—whether it is a corporate situation in the church, a situation among servants of God or workers in the work of God, a family situation, a business situation, a workaday situation, or a personal situation of an individual believer.
The Holy Spirit can take something from the Word of God, and He gives it to you. In that moment, you have the weapon in your hand.
You remember last year when I spoke about the weapons of our warfare, mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds. That is 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.
We have strongholds in our lives, strongholds in our families, strongholds amongst our relatives, strongholds in church fellowship, and strongholds in the work of the Lord. There is no way we can cast them down except by the weapons of our warfare. The weapons of our warfare are all in this Book.
There is one little phrase, variously translated because it is difficult in the Greek, and I like this rendering best: “The weapons of our warfare are mighty in the presence of God to the casting down of strongholds.”
I think that gets to the root of it. You cannot just use weapons anywhere, like “bang, bang, bang,” shooting them all over the place. You need to have weapons that are under the government of God, when the Holy Spirit enables you not only to know the weapon for this particular conflict but how to use it.
That is why we need one another. It is interesting that in this concluding passage in Ephesians, it is all in the plural. It is not individual; it is in the plural. It is the church that is meant to rise to this situation.
Of course, it can be applied to the individual and to individual families, and so on. But the fact of the matter is that it is something corporate.
The Holy Spirit applies His Word to personal situations. Have you not all had that experience? He takes the Word of God and applies it to family situations. Have you not had that experience? He takes the Word of God and applies it to fellowship situations, or to the work of the Lord.
When we have got that sword of the Spirit, we have the weapon by which victory can be enforced. The victory is already won. It is not as if we are fighting because maybe we will get victory, maybe not. The victory is already won. Jesus has sat down at the right hand.
You have three wonderful Scriptures that I will just underline. The first is Psalm 110, the most quoted psalm in the New Testament—more than any other psalm.
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand,
Till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.
Then the Lord goes on to say:
The rod of Thy strength shall go forth out of Zion:
Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.
Of Whom is the Lord speaking? It is the Father speaking to the Son. He says, “Sit at My right hand. You have finished the work. You have completed the work of salvation. You have beaten the powers of darkness. You have despoiled them. You brought the one who has the power of death to nothing. Now sit down.”
“Let the rod of Your strength go out of Zion.” Oh, for ears to hear! Let the rod of Your strength go out of Zion. In other words, the Lord Jesus is reigning. Oh, for ears to hear what He is saying—ears to hear His commands. “Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.”
Then He says:
Thy people offer themselves willingly
In the day of Thy power.
Is it not the day of His power? He has beaten the enemy and sat down at the right hand of God. It is the day of His power.
Now we come to it: freewill offerings. When God’s people rise to this and say, “Here we are, Lord. We want to be instruments, agents, the means by which You can put those enemies of our Lord Jesus, through His complete finished work, under His feet.”
He is ruling in the midst of His enemies. I do not know whether this means anything to you, whether it is just theological, but the fact of the matter is that it is life-transforming.
If any assembly of God’s people were to catch a glimpse of this, it would transform our times of prayer.
What do you think it means?
For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood,
But against the principalities, against the powers,
Against the world rulers of this darkness,
Against hosts of wicked spirits in the heavenly places.
What in the world do we think? Is this a fairy tale? Who are these principalities? Maybe tomorrow I will say more about that. Who are these powers? Who are these world rulers of this darkness?
Wrestling—not a tennis championship. Not just something going backwards and forwards while we are all looking at it and someone is calling out. This is wrestling: contact sport, vulgar, smelly, all to do with sweat—not perspiration. Something really down to earth.
“We wrestle not against flesh and blood.” I think it is very sad that some modern versions say, “We struggle.” The reason is that they say, “How can you stand and wrestle?” There is no way you can stand, withstand, having done all stand, and wrestle. You have to go forward; you have to go back; you are thrown out this way, thrown out that way, and then you come back again.
So they put “struggle” because it sounds as though somehow you can stand and struggle. You do not have to move quite so much if you are struggling. I think that is ridiculous. It is wrestling.
As always, Paul, with his incredible Jewish imagination, uses all the things that most conservative Jewish rabbis would never dream of using. Wrestling was very much part of Hellenic and Roman life.
Here he says, “We wrestle.” I just want to ask: what does this mean? This standing has something to do with principalities, powers, and world rulers of this darkness.
Can you tell me any prayer meeting that really has some contact with these principalities and powers? I do not want you to get uncovered. I do not want you to think that you can take on these things. But in Christ, putting on the whole armour of God, we are meant to touch the invisible.
If we do not touch the invisible world around us, our prayer meetings are useless. They are just theological hot air. We are making nice sounds and using all kinds of scriptural phrases—Canaanite phraseology, as I remember hearing when I was first saved—biblical phraseology with no real, effective, relevant outcome.
But a prayer meeting is meant to be something that turns the invisible world upside down—not by the power of the members of that prayer meeting, not by their eloquent oratory, not by their biblical knowledge, but by being in Christ, standing on the finished work of the Lord Jesus, centred in God’s purpose for the Lord Jesus, and using the Word of God.
Satan cannot bear it when once the Word of God is used as given by the Spirit of God.
This is not a fairy story. You here in the States are facing the greatest crisis your nation has faced, and most Americans have no idea. They think it is just a political election, another question of Democrats or Republicans. It is something far more serious.
These terrible fires, terrible droughts, and terrible floods are all evidence that God is trying to say something to the church of God in America. By and large, the church of God in America is absolutely deaf.
Too late, they will wake up to discover that the freedoms so dearly won for them by the blood of martyrs will be taken away.
That is why this matter is not some interesting exposition of Ephesians 6:10-20. It has something to do with the church of God in any nation at a point of crisis.
It is interesting to me that when the writer of Hebrews speaks of this matter, he puts it in a slightly different way. In Hebrews 10:12-13, he says:
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.
That is a very interesting little word, “expecting.” In the Jewish context, it is a midrash, a commentary, because Psalm 110 says, “Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” But here it says, “Henceforth expecting.” He is not doing it; it is the Father, the Holy Spirit—now listen—through whom? The church.
There is something tremendously wonderful in this. I want to give one other Scripture: Matthew 28:18. Listen to the words of the Lord Jesus:
All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.
This is a fallen earth. In heaven we understand, but on earth? That means our Lord Jesus, when the Father said to the Son, “Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies,” has all authority—not only in heaven but on this fallen earth.
Why should we be afraid of Ahmadinejad, or a thousand and one other human leaders, demonised or otherwise? Why should we be afraid? The real authority is in the hands of the Lord Jesus.
I think I should begin to close. But all I want you to see is how wonderful this whole matter is. We are to take the reign of Christ to this fallen earth.
You know what the Lord Jesus taught us to pray. It is the pattern:
Our Father Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
Did He mean, “Lord, we hope Your kingdom will come one day”? Or was it a declaration: “Your kingdom come”? We are here. We are citizens of that kingdom. We are actually here to see that the reign of the Lord Jesus is relevant.
We are the salt of the earth. We are a light in the darkness. We are a city set on a hill that cannot be hid.
It is something tremendous. I am not saying we should all be triumphalist. Satan will see to it that we have enough problems not to be triumphalist. But the facts still remain: we are here as representatives of another kingdom, of the throne of God, of the Lord Jesus seated at the right hand of it.
If you want a little study, some of you younger people, take your Bible and look up every reference in the New Testament to “seated at the right hand.” It is really amazing how many times you will find this little phrase, “seated at the right hand of God.”
This victory of the Lord Jesus is to be enforced and manifested by the people of God on this earth.
I have said it again and again, and I will say it once more. When the Holy Spirit turned one hundred and twenty units in a congregation into one hundred and twenty living limbs of a body, whose Head, joined to the body, was at the right hand of God, the world was turned upside down.
They did not need great crusades or great fundraising organisations, or whatever else. Those one hundred and twenty people, within hours of their being turned into the body of the Lord Jesus, joined to a Head at the right hand of God—three thousand were saved.
Within a matter of months it had reached five thousand; within more months, eight thousand. Then persecution came. What happened? They were spread through the whole of Judea, from Jerusalem out; then they went to Samaria, and then out from Caesarea to the ends of the earth.
There is nothing you can do against a heavenly body joined to a heavenly Head—an organism that is born of God.
Of course, Satan will touch the members of the body. That is why the Lord Jesus said to Saul, “Why do you persecute Me?”
Saul could easily have said, “I am not persecuting You, Lord. I am persecuting all these people who are called by Your name.” But the Lord did not see it like that. He said, “You are persecuting Me. When you touch any one of these members of My body, you are actually touching Me.”
Well, I think it is enough for one night. But this is tremendous, because I think we are now moving into an era of unparalleled turmoil and instability.
If you do not believe me, you can wait, and you will see. I am pretty sure that I am reading the situation aright.
Whether the Lord will rapture us, which I personally believe, remains to be seen. But I think we are nearer to the rapture of the saints than at any single time since the Lord spoke about the matter.
I believe in a partial rapture of those who are ready, the rest going through the tribulation and being cleansed, purified. May the Lord help us.
Once we learn how to pray together, once we learn how to take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, our prayer meetings can become one of the most exciting sessions in church life.
Nothing boring about it. Nothing mundane. Nothing just sort of ticking over. It becomes commandment.
I remember in the early days at Halford, when folks got saved, they had to choose because of their work business: “Should I go to the Bible study, or should I go to the prayer meeting?” To my amazement, they used to choose the prayer meeting.
I used to say, “Why have you chosen the prayer meeting? You are just saved.” They said, “Because it is so exciting.”
I used to rush off home to turn on the television and see if prayer had been answered. Sometimes it was answered in the most incredible manner.
May the Lord help us. This is not a time to be squabbling. This is not a time to be factious, divided, or critical of one another.
This is a time for us, in a period of enormous conflict coming, to be one with the Lord and with one another. We should be enabled, poor as we are, to be those instruments which He can use in the battle that lies ahead.
Do not be afraid. Jesus has won the battle, and He sat down. I read nowhere in the whole New Testament that He is fighting. He sat down.
And we are the body. We are facing the problems on this earth. The enemy can only get at us. The rest of the saints who have gone on are with the Lord; they are beyond the reach of the enemy. So he is angry about us.
May the Lord cleanse us, enable us to forgive one another, and, above all, empower us to be the means by which His kingdom comes and His will is done—as in heaven, so on earth—here in Richmond, in the United States, and wherever we come from. Thank you.