For which cause I suffer also these things: yet I am not ashamed; for I know Him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
Hold the pattern of sound words which thou hast heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
That good thing which was committed unto thee guard through the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us.
Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit; speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.
Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not: but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, Who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
Beloved Lord, we are so thankful that we are here, gathered in Your presence this evening.
We have been asking You in song that You revive us. We want to thank You, Lord, that You are far more ready to revive us than we are to be revived.
Beloved Lord, will You take this time and fill it with Yourself? Tabernacle upon us, Lord. Let Your power and Your glory touch us all.
We thank You for the anointing which You have won for us at Calvary. We thank You that You make it a living reality in the Person of Your Holy Spirit.
Therefore, Lord, we stand by faith in that anointing, grace, and power for this evening: for the speaking of Your Word, for the translating of it, and for the hearing of it.
We are all together, Lord, unworthy—speaker, translator, and people. But we praise You that You have justified us in Your sight through the finished work of our Lord Jesus.
Lord, we need to hear You. Speak by Your Spirit into our hearts. We ask it in the name of our Messiah, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
I do not think there is any need for me to say that the theme of this conference is centred in 2 Timothy 1:12-14. If someone has missed that, they must be dead.
Every session here in this auditorium has been based upon those words in 2 Timothy 1:12-14. My responsibility has been verse 14:
That good thing which was committed unto thee guard through the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us.
Last Wednesday night I spoke in general about the Person and the work of the Holy Spirit. Yesterday morning I spoke about the practical side: being filled with the Spirit.
To me, the most amazing thing in this universe is that God has placed eternal, incorruptible treasure in earthen vessels. Only God would take such a risk.
One would have thought that if He were going to pour eternal, incorruptible treasure into something, He would make it a vessel of gold—or at the very least, a vessel of bronze.
But He takes the most fragile of all materials: earthenware. Not even porcelain or china—cheap earthenware, easily cracked, easily broken, easily disposed of.
That is you, and that is me. Some of us may have slightly more paint on the earthenware, perhaps a little more beautiful; others are very plain. But it is all earth, nevertheless.
Can you believe that God, by His Holy Spirit, places eternal treasure in such vessels?
We are told exactly why He does it:
That the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
The whole invisible world looks on, marvelling that God should place such treasure in such vessels.
When you look at this passage, you will see that it includes everything: we who have been saved by the grace of God; we who are being transformed, changed into the likeness of the Lord Jesus; we who are absolutely worthless. He is putting treasure into us.
Some Christians think that they are precious. I have lived long enough to find that we are all worthless. Only when the Lord saves us, only when the Lord begins to work within us by the Spirit, only when we are changed from one capacity for glory to a greater capacity for glory, is there something precious in us.
What is this preciousness? This good deposit, this good thing, this treasure? It is the Lord Jesus. It is Christ in us, the certain hope of glory.
There are only three materials out of which that city at the end of the Bible—in Revelation 21 and 22—is produced: gold, precious stones, and pearl.
Christ is the gold. Christ is the precious stone. Christ is the pearl. That is what the Holy Spirit is producing in these fragile, worthless vessels of clay.
I marvel at the way the Lord puts up with us. Having saved us and brought us to Himself, we give Him endless trouble: arguing, murmuring, resisting, rebelling, grieving the Spirit, and sometimes quenching Him.
The word quench is such a strong word. The Greek word translated in most of our versions as “quench” means to erase, to obliterate, to blot out.
It is amazing to me that the Lord perseveres with us. This treasure has been placed in us—those who are members of the body of the Lord Jesus.
When you come, as our brother spoke about this morning, to Revelation, the last book of the Bible, we find that this sixty-sixth book sums up everything in the whole Bible.
We discover the risen, glorified, triumphant Messiah in the midst of seven golden lampstands. We are told that those lampstands represent seven churches.
The Holy Spirit has selected seven churches to symbolise the whole church of God on earth, in time and place. Whether we look at the whole of church history until today, or simply the church of God on earth in time and place, the message is the same.
Listen to what the Lord says:
I counsel thee to buy of Me gold refined by fire.
In other words, those seven churches were earthen vessels into which God had placed eternal treasure. The book of Revelation begins with these seven churches and ends with the holy city, the New Jerusalem. They are related.
What God is doing in the church, expressed in place and time, is directly related to the fulfilment of His purpose.
Someone says, “No, no, no, you have got it wrong. The church is the body of our Lord Jesus.” Of course it is. But listen: everyone is looking for the perfect church. You will never find it. It is impossible.
The church down here is, by its nature, imperfect. It has to be. If you think the church is an elitist group of going-on saints, wait until God answers somebody’s prayer and saves unsaved people.
Within a matter of days or weeks, the church that was so perfect and elite will become imperfect and not at all elite. The one hundred and twenty may have been perfect; within hours, they became three thousand one hundred and twenty.
The alcoholics, the drug addicts, the pimps, the prostitutes—saved by the grace of God—come in, those who have enormous problems. They may not have been in the three thousand, but they certainly joined before long.
These seven churches: only one of them is not rebuked. Even the church which had received the greatest revelation of the eternal purpose of God heard Jesus say, “I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.”
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place.
What does it mean to remove the lampstand out of its place? Does it cease to be a church? It seems to me that the lampstand holds the testimony. Just as our brother said this morning, the lampstand holds the lamp.
The church holds the testimony of Jesus. What happens when the lampstand is removed? The testimony of Jesus is gone. Then the church is just a matter of routine: Bible studies, meetings, breaking bread, evangelistic outreach—all kinds of things. But the real meaning and significance have gone.
I have known our brother Stephen for fifty-one years. I have never heard him as clear as in the last two sessions in which he has spoken. If anyone leaves this conference and does not understand what God has entrusted to this church, they must be dumb.
Look at Laodicea. This was not an institutional church, a traditional church. It was an assembly, a born-again people.
They had the breaking of bread. They had their Bible studies, their prayer meetings, their evangelistic outreach. And the Lord Jesus, the Head of the church, was outside the door.
Neither the elders nor the workers, it seems, had any idea that He was outside, knocking on the door.
This is the story of the church. If you look at church history, it has happened again and again and again. On the face of it, the church rumbles on; it has its routine. But the Spirit is absent, and the Word of God is contradicted.
In my estimation, the words of the Lord Jesus in Revelation 3:19-20 are among the most plaintive words the Lord has used:
Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.
Let it sink in to every person in this place. Here is the Lord, the Head of the church, the Saviour and Redeemer, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the Amen. He is saying to a church of born-again believers, “If any man hear My voice.”
Is it possible to have the Lord’s table and ignore His voice? Is it possible to have Bible studies and ignore His voice? Is it possible to have prayer meetings and ignore His voice?
Now we come to my responsibility: that good thing, that treasure entrusted to you—guard it by the Holy Spirit who dwells in you.
If you and I do not guard, by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, that treasure, we shall lose it. We shall become poor.
Listen to the Lord Jesus:
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
What has happened to the treasure which has been given to the church? Could the Lord be saying that of you and of me?
So tremendous is this matter: that treasure, that good thing, that good deposit entrusted to you—guard it by the Holy Spirit.
I understand that some people got a bit fussed up about what I said about being filled with the Spirit. Well, I would say it all over again.
The fact of the matter is this: unless you are filled with the Holy Spirit to overflowing, you will never guard the treasure entrusted to you. You have a terrible enemy, even a thief who will rob you, spoil you, and destroy you. These are the words of the Lord Jesus.
Do not make little of being filled with the Holy Spirit, as if it belongs to fanatical people or those who are overboard and nuts. There is no way to guard the treasure, keep it, and watch over it except by being filled with the Holy Spirit.
No wonder in the early church they never appointed anyone to any position, however mundane or menial, who was not full of the Spirit.
When they had a problem about money—certain Greek-speaking Jews were not receiving what they should have while the Hebrew-speaking Jews were receiving it—what would we have done? We would have looked around for somebody with a degree in economics, or a businessman.
What did the early church do? Even for matters to do with money, they sought out men filled with the Holy Spirit. No wonder some of those became evangelists and teachers.
When a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, Christ is the centre and circumference of that person’s life. Christ is everything to them. He has the pre-eminence in everything. He has the priority.
When you are only half filled with the Spirit, you will be half filled with self. When you are only half filled with the Spirit, you will be half filled with this world—with what the world wants and what it seeks.
When you are half filled with the Spirit, business will completely take you. Do not despise being filled with the Spirit. There is no other way.
How can you subject yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ? Only by being filled with the Spirit. Where do our divisions come from? Our factions? Our infighting? They come when we are not filled with the Holy Spirit.
This matter is so important. When the nucleus in an assembly is filled with the Holy Spirit, Christ becomes the centre and circumference of that assembly. He is everything.
No wonder the apostle said, “The treasure entrusted to you guard by the Holy Spirit who dwells in you.”
There is so much more one could say on this, but I do not want to kill it with too many words. When a person is filled with the Spirit, they are led by the Spirit.
The Word of God is very clear on this:
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
That is Romans 8:14. You cannot be led by the Spirit if you are not filled with the Spirit. You will be led by your own soul, by the fashion of this world, by the philosophy of this world, and by many other things.
Only when you are filled with the Spirit can you be led by the Spirit. In Galatians 5, it says, “Walk by the Spirit.” It is a progress: step by step by step. The first step by the Spirit, the second step by the Spirit, the third step by the Spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters, dear family of God, I pray daily to be delivered from some people who all the time tell me what the Spirit is saying to them, because it is patently clear that it is not the Holy Spirit speaking to them.
Let me tell you: in Jerusalem we have one Jeremiah, three Elijahs, and three Virgin Marys, all of them claiming that the Spirit is speaking to them. It is demons that speak. We have so many of the two witnesses that I could fill this whole building with them.
Is it possible to be so deceived? The voice of your self-life becomes the voice of the Holy Spirit. Yes, it is—unless, by the Word of God through the Holy Spirit, your soul and spirit are divided.
When that happens, you can see what is yourself and what is the Lord. Nevertheless, we need to be led of the Spirit.
Why does the Spirit of God say to the apostle Paul, “Those that are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God”? Note carefully: He does not say “children of God”; He says “sons of God.”
Mr. Sparks used to get into a lot of trouble over this. He felt there was a difference between when the Word of God speaks of children of God and when it speaks of sons of God.
You may be a baby, but you cannot take over your father’s business. You may be a kindergarten child, but you cannot take over the family property. You can inherit it, but you cannot administer it. Why? Because a son can.
I think there is something here. Do you know what it says in Revelation 21:7?
He that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.
In other words, only by being truly led by the Spirit can you walk by the Spirit, spiritually grow, and become a son who can rule and reign.
I think of another matter that has to do with being filled with the Spirit. You find it in Revelation 2:7:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
And in Revelation 3:22:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
I find this very, very important. In this last book of the Bible, all to do with what is entrusted to us as the church, we hear the risen, glorified Messiah saying to each of those seven churches, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”
Why did He not say, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what I am saying”? Of course, it is what the Lord is saying. But every child of God has a spiritual organism within their spirit that can hear the voice of God.
Do not tell me, “Oh no, no, no, that is all right.” No, that is not right. Listen to what the Lord Jesus said in John 10:27:
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
It would be totally abnormal not to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus. He takes this Book and, by the Spirit, makes it alive to us.
Surely every one of you has had your own experience of a word of God leaping out of the page. It becomes yours. The Word dwells in you; it is an implanted Word. It is the Spirit that gives life.
This matter of hearing is all-important, especially as we move into these times of turmoil and confusion. We need to hear the voice of the Shepherd. We need to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
We must never get so caught up with the routine of the church—the meetings of the church, studying His Word, even having times of prayer—that somehow we never hear His voice.
The health and functioning of the body of Christ is in hearing the Head. When elder brothers do not hear the Head: lifelessness. When workers in the work of the Lord do not hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches: lifelessness. We can only fall back on routine.
Beloved brothers and sisters, this matter of hearing is the most vital matter and is directly an evidence of being filled with the Spirit of God.
Do you remember the pictures we have in the old covenant? Do you remember the cleansing of the leper? The leper is always a picture of you and me—sinners.
What did the priest do? He took blood and put it on the ear, on the thumb, and on the big toe. Then he took oil and put it on the ear, on the thumb, and on the big toe.
Why the ear first? We work with our hands. What about the feet? If your feet are disabled, how can you do anything? You cannot walk.
It is as if God is saying, “If I do not have your ear, I do not have you.” You will do your own thing. However much you know of the Bible, you will still do your own thing unless I have your ear.
The ear has to be born again. It has to be spiritual.
Do you remember the bondslave? When he did not want to go out free in the year of Jubilee, the law gave a provision: if he wanted to remain with his master forever, he must go to the master and say, “I love you, and I want to stay with you.”
Then the master was to take him to the doorpost and pierce his ear. Why not his hand? A bondslave is always working with his hands. What about his feet? He cannot do anything with his hands unless his feet carry him.
But the Lord says that feet and hands may be important, but if I do not have his ear, his service is worthless. It is so simple.
Therefore, this matter of hearing is vital. If you do not grow up, you cannot be one who can guard the treasure entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit.
Babies do not guard; they have to be guarded. Babies do not keep; they have to be kept. You have to grow up.
You cannot guard the treasure deposited in you except by the Holy Spirit. If you do not hear the voice of the Lord, you cannot guard that treasure.
It is very interesting that hearing what the Spirit says to the churches is linked to overcoming.
Many years ago, I asked Mr. Sparks, “What is overcoming?” It was in his Scottish home. I remember him thinking for a few moments, and then he said, “Overcoming is being in the will of God and on course at the end.”
Even if you have got out of the will of God, even if you have strayed from His purpose, overcoming means being brought back—on course and in the will of God at the end.
I got into trouble when I mentioned this at the Longwood Christian Family Conference. The English say buoy, but apparently in American English it is booey. I never know how Americans get that. How do you get an “e” out of “oy”? I do not understand it. They make everything so simple, but they chase a salad with a fork. It would be better to eat a salad with chopsticks.
But anyway, overcoming is like buoys. They mark danger for boats and mark a channel into the harbour where there is deeper water.
When you have storms, those buoys go under—you do not see them—then they come up. Then they go under, then they come up. That is overcoming.
It does not mean that you are continuously above. It means that when you go under, by the Overcomer in you, you come out on top.
There is a wonderful little word in Ephesians 3:20: “according to the power that worketh in us.” When that power is in us—the Holy Spirit who dwells in us—no matter how much the storm crashes over us, by that power in us, we come out on top. That is overcoming.
It is very interesting that in the message to every one of the seven churches, Jesus links hearing what the Spirit says to the churches with overcoming.
All those churches selected had problems, some of them serious, because they were real churches. The Lord never said, “Leave.” He said, “Overcome.”
There is nothing like an imperfect church for overcoming. Try it. There is nothing like an imperfect church—with Nicolaitanism, with Jezebel, and I do not know with what else—for overcoming.
By the grace of God, through the indwelling Christ and the Holy Spirit, we are overcomers. We shall guard that treasure, that good deposit entrusted to us.
Beloved Lord, we ask You to save this word from being misinterpreted or in any way misunderstood. By Your Holy Spirit, indelibly engrave it in us. Lord, make it unavoidable, inescapable.
We are the inheritors of a tremendous and good tradition. It goes back to the beginning. We can trace it, Lord, all the way through the history of the church.
Lord, You know that we can make the same mistake that has been made again and again and again.
We sang, “Revive Your work, O Lord.” We ask You again: revive Your work, Lord. It is time to renew and quicken and bring us back to our first love, to bring us back to the power of Your Holy Spirit.
Lord, in these days of turmoil and confusion ahead, may we be a witness and a testimony. Hear this prayer, Lord, for we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.