The first reading is from Zechariah 1:14:
So the angel who was speaking with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion.’”
Haggai 1:5-9:
Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways.
You have sown much, but harvest little;
you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied;
you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk;
you put on clothes, but none is warm enough;
and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.”Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways.
Go up to the mountains, bring wood, and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord.“You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; and when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?” declares the Lord of hosts. “Because My house lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.”
Second Chronicles 3:1:
Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Luke 6:40:
A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.
Matthew 1:1:
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.
Lord, we thank You for this conference, for Your blessings, Your lovingkindness, and Your faithfulness to us. Now, Lord, again this afternoon, we ask You to help us—to help the speaking and the hearing, to anoint us all.
Lord, we are all in Your anointing this afternoon, believing that You are here in the midst, that You will give us what we need, and that You will gain glory for Yourself. Lord, we pray all this in Your precious name, looking to You. Amen.
By way of a quick review, our burden for this conference, for this time, and for everyone here is that young people—young adults, mostly young adults—would be delivered from a life of wandering, on every level, and brought into a life of fruitfulness.
Our burden for each other today is that none of us would leave this weekend without being arrested, captured, and fully empowered by the Lord to live a life of fruitfulness—real fruitfulness, things that will last forever.
It is not enough just to get things done in this life. I appreciated the brothers talking about their fathers, and Chip saying that his dad told him the only thing that really mattered—even if he pumped gas—was that he loved the Lord with all his heart.
I cannot say for sure what I would be like if I had children, because I do not have any. But I believe, concerning those with whom I am close—in all of you—that this is my heart’s desire: the thing I care about most is that you love the Lord with all your heart. No one will do that and regret it. No one will sell out to the Lord now and be sorry. That I can promise you.
We talked the other night about the fact that we are on a spiritual journey. It is a journey of training, and the end of the matter is a call to build. Build what? Build the house of the Lord.
The brothers have all added something very specific. Matt, of course, was very specific this morning. Now you know why we usually think of Matt by a street name around here: the velvet hammer. Well, we are glad we got that out of the way. Now you are going to get it without the velvet. May the Lord help us all.
We talked a lot about Abraham, a little about David, and we are going to talk some about David and some about Paul. These three men relate to three words that have been on our hearts: vision, discipline, and obedience.
This spiritual journey involves training and discipleship that lead to building. Abraham was delivered from Mesopotamia, both literally and spiritually—from living in the land between reasoning and tradition. Every one of us begins our journey somewhere between reasoning and tradition, and the Lord simply says, “Move on.” He takes us to a different place. That is part of our journey from wandering to walking and into a fruitful life.
I wrote myself a note: “The spiritual tree bears spiritual fruit, and trust and obedience come before sonship.” That is what happened with Abraham on Mount Moriah. Trust and obedience were exercised before there was sonship.
The fruit of that was Isaac—not merely Isaac as a person, but Isaac as a picture of one in sonship, one who was the fruit of faith and obedience. Abraham is the spiritual type and picture of faith; he is the father of faith. The fruit of faith is sonship, and that is what Isaac, in part, represents: the true son.
What does all this have to do with the house of God? We have been talking about all these things, and the brothers have been specific about some matters. Unfortunately for me, they stole a lot of my message, so you will hear some of the same things, perhaps in a different voice.
The history continues in 2 Chronicles 3:1: “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.” Is that not interesting? The same place.
Here is Solomon, the son of David—the spiritual fruit. You can have good fruit or bad fruit. Abraham had perhaps both. David had both. But here is good fruit, the right fruit. In both cases, their fruit had something to do with Mount Moriah: the sacrifice on Mount Moriah, and now the temple’s foundation place on Mount Moriah, at the place David had prepared.
Brothers and sisters, your life is building and preparing something in the house of God. Everybody is building something. Everybody is building something. Not everybody is building the house of God.
The question is whether we will be those who find out what it is to add something to the house of God and have our part in it. Maybe we will; maybe we will not. It is not a given. It will not happen by magic.
Everybody is doing something with his life. Everybody is contributing to something, but not everybody is contributing to the house of God. Yet everybody in this room can. We believe we are called to it and empowered to do it. Now it is simply a matter of doing it.
Let us look at 1 Chronicles 21.
Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.
I will paraphrase the next verses. David commanded that the people be numbered. Joab—David’s close friend, faithful partner, general of the army, and coworker—objected. In my modern-day terms, I believe these Old Testament heroes were God-fearers. Theologically, that may not be exactly right, but you understand what I mean. David was a God-fearer, and I believe Joab was part of the family too.
Abraham was perhaps the first person to make a contribution with his own life and heart in such a way that you could say that the building of the bride began with Abraham. The bride is not merely composed of people presently on the earth. Abraham is part of the body, and I believe he is part of the bride.
In my story, Joab is a Christian, but he is a carnal Christian. Some people think that is an oxymoron. Well, it is an oxymoron. Unfortunately, it happens sometimes. Salvation is a gift. You did not do anything to earn it, and none of us deserved it.
You can be a saved person and still be carnal—selfish, self-centered, and living by your own life. It should not be that way, but it is possible. Joab was selfish. He was always looking out for himself. He was a manipulator and a murderer. He never dealt with the issues in his own heart.
Kit talked to us about relationships. It is a real matter. The Lord Jesus says that if you hate your brother, it is murder. I am not sure some of us are any different from Joab. He simply carried it out physically; some of us do it in our hearts. Joab was jealous of people who got in the way of his personal ambitions, and he murdered them.
Even Joab, this carnal person who was not a spiritual man, was wise enough to say to David, “May God increase the number of the people, but why do you want to number the people? Do not do this thing.” But David insisted.
Why did David miss this? Why do we miss things in our secret hearts? Sometimes there are ambitions, hopes, and plans that we have not really surrendered into the Lord’s hands. We sing, “All my ambitions, hopes, and plans, I surrender these into Your hands.” Oh, really? Are you sure? It is a good day to find out.
David had ambitions and pride. Perhaps he took personal pride in an ambition for the Lord’s accomplishment or in the number of the people. The Lord was displeased with this thing. But David did a wonderful thing: as soon as he realized it, he repented and asked for the Lord’s forgiveness.
Gad the prophet came and spoke to David on the Lord’s behalf. I believe that as soon as David brought his sin to the light and said, “I have done this. Forgive me,” he was forgiven. Any sin that you commit, if you repent and ask the Lord’s forgiveness, is forgiven. I do not care what it is, apart from blasphemy against the Holy Spirit—and if you worry that you have committed that sin, I guarantee that is proof you have not.
When we confess our sins and ask forgiveness, we are forgiven. Yet there are consequences for our actions and for our sins. There can be forgiveness—there is forgiveness—but there are consequences for some behavior.
The Lord struck down seventy thousand men of Israel in one day. Sometimes your consequences affect other people. If a husband is unfaithful to his wife, or a wife is unfaithful to her husband, and then realizes what has been done, repents, and confesses that sin to the Lord, there is absolute forgiveness. It is forgiven and wiped away.
But the consequences of that behavior may continue for a while—sometimes for years, sometimes for a lifetime. Forgiveness is one thing; the consequences of behavior are something else. Repentance is always the right thing to do.
It is also significant that David did not blame this on the devil. Satan tempted him, but when David was caught in his sin, he did not say, “The devil made me do this. You cannot hold me accountable.” He said the exact opposite: “Lord, do not punish the people. Put it on me. I did this.”
That is walking in the light. We are so tempted to blame other people when we are caught out. We are tempted to blame God for making us this way, to blame others, or to blame everything on the devil. Here Satan initiated something, but David bore the consequences and the guilt himself.
The Lord told David to go to the threshing floor of Ornan. Ornan the Jebusite and his sons were threshing wheat there. What is the significance of the Lord choosing a threshing floor as the site where the temple would be built?
Brothers and sisters, when you signed on, you signed on for threshing. I believe, in our case, it is a lifetime commitment. Threshing is the separation of wheat from chaff—the separation of that which is valuable from that which has no value.
This will go on in your life and in mine, at the hands of the Lord Jesus, for all our days. I am not sure we will ever be finished with this matter of threshing and separating. Some people are more mature, more threshed, than others, but it is something to which we have agreed. We have agreed to let the Lord work in our lives.
This is the foundation of the building site of the Lord’s house: repentance, walking in the light, taking responsibility, and being threshed—having something separated. This is the foundation of the building site.
Ornan tried to give the place to David.
Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do what is good in his sight. See, I will give the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering; I will give it all.”
But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing.”
There is a personal cost if you want to be involved in building the Lord’s house. There is an underlying teaching in Christianity that says there is no cost: become a Christian, and the Lord will make you rich, you will never get sick, and everything will work out wonderfully.
Well, I am batting zero so far on getting rich and never getting sick. Sometimes it seems unfair. Some Christians seem to get the good job, the good spouse, and the beautiful overachieving children. Everything seems to work out for them. Then there are others of us who cannot get a job driving a forklift in a teeth factory.
That actually happened to me. Sixty people interviewed for a job at a teeth factory. It came down to me and one other guy, and I desperately needed a job. The lady who owned the company said she would go home and pray about it. The next day she said that she and her husband liked both of us and knew we would both do a great job, but she felt the Lord told her to choose the other guy.
Sometimes there is a test in this life, and things do not work out exactly as you want them to. Eventually I did get a job, and I have lived happily ever after.
There is a cost to be paid for those who decide to be involved in building the Lord’s house. There is a real cost. It may cost you more than it costs other people. Some Christians never receive the call, never receive the vision, or perhaps choose not to accept the call to build the Lord’s house.
But if you give your life to building the Lord’s house, there is a cost involved. The Lord has empowered you to pay the cost. Nothing is impossible, but there is a cost: pride, self-achievement, career, marriage, children, and even ministry.
How can ministry be part of the cost? Abraham put Isaac on the altar. Here is the question: Is everything on the altar?
The hardest thing for some brothers, especially, is to put their ministry on the altar. “Lord, You have given me this gift. You have given me the ability to speak. Sometimes I go places, speak, and people give me money—more than the price of the plane ticket. I can make a living doing this.”
Not only that, but when you go places, you get rock-star treatment. This is personally my testimony. People treat me really well. They hang on every word. They come up after a message, sometimes crying, and say, “That was the best message I ever heard in my life.” You say, “Praise the Lord,” but it is pretty fun. It is nice.
Then the brothers slip a check in your pocket. It is a pleasant deal. But then you come back home: “Oh, here he is again. Where have you been?” You start to speak, and people’s eyes roll back: “Oh, there he goes again.”
It is much more fun to be in ministry somewhere else. The only problem is that if you do not live at home and bear the burdens—if you do not really live at home and surrender the ministry and its opportunities and die to them—you will never be qualified.
The only reason we have anything real to say when we go elsewhere is not merely because we have studied the Bible, though we should. The real reason is because of what we have learned while rubbing shoulders with the other living stones where we live.
There is not much cost when you are the guy from out of town. I am not speaking about the cost of travel, such as Chip driving up from Houston. I mean that when you go somewhere else, there is often not much cost. But there is a great cost in bearing the burden where you live.
I know some of the situations where you live, and it is hard. But that is where the Lord teaches you, trains you, builds you up, equips you, and gives you what you need to build His house. The real building work is done where you live.
In order to have real and fruitful ministry, something has to be put on the altar. If we do not do it, we will not have the ministry.
Abraham’s journey, David’s journey, and our journey are a progressive revelation. If there is no commitment, there is no building.
How much you add to the house of God is directly related to commitment. If there is no commitment, there will be no building. Do not fool yourself. If you cannot commit to the people with whom the Lord has placed you, you are fooling yourself if you think you are building anything eternal or fruitful.
You will never become trained if you flee from discipline. Preparation for building takes place in the school of affliction.
I actually found a long-sleeved T-shirt at the mall that said “Affliction,” but it was the wrong size. It was so tight I could barely get it on, so I did not buy it. It was only five dollars too. They were practically giving them away. I was going to wear it and then rip open my shirt.
Affliction sounds like torture. When I was a young Christian in California, we were living together in community, hearing wonderful messages, and it was exciting. One brother said that we were ready to be machine-gunned down for the Lord. We would take it for our testimony.
Of course, we would. That would be a good way to go—only lasts for a second. It is easy to be machine-gunned down for the Lord. What is hard is living with you guys. That is affliction. And you having to live with me—that is affliction. Having to live with Kit and Matt—you think they are so sweet. They are sweet, but the Lord has chosen us for one another in a practical way. It is the school of affliction.
One test in this school concerns leaders. It is not a test for them; it is a test for you. The leaders where you live may seem to be the sorriest lot: “How did these guys ever get into leadership?” I am being facetious, of course, because that is probably what some people say and think about the leaders in Memphis.
We have problems with leaders. It is inevitable. That is part of the school of affliction: learning how to submit, learning how to love, and learning how to trust the Lord. Did the leaders where you live become leaders by accident? Did they somehow slide under the radar of the Lord Jesus? I do not think so.
When people are aggravated with the leadership where they live, I often ask them this question: “How much do you pray for them?” Have you prayed for them and asked the Lord to bless them, change them, deal with their hearts, show them something, heal them, give them ministry, and work in their lives?
I do not have any right to complain if I am not going to pray for people. Dispositions and personalities are part of the test. We want to abandon difficult people and seek another group where things seem sweeter.
Every group I visit seems, in some ways, more pleasant than the place where I live. Every place you visit has a certain pleasantness because it is different from where you live. Yet the place where you live may be the place the Lord has chosen and placed you in. He knows what He is doing.
I am not a prisoner of Memphis. I am a prisoner of the Lord Jesus. But it is real: I am a real prisoner. Of course, we will go wherever the Lord sends us. I trust that if the Lord tells me to move to Africa, India, or wherever, I will go. I trust that I will simply do it.
But, as Matt said, we are slippery. We have a built-in idea that our plans, desires, and likes must be God’s plans, God’s desires, and God’s likes.
I knew a missionary who lived most of his life in India. He was Caucasian, but he was born and raised there. His father had been a missionary in India for forty-five years. The only time he did not live in India was when he went to Canada for four years of college. Then he and his roommate began an organization that became Operation Mobilization.
He told me that where his father lived in India, there were no missionaries because it was the poorest part of India. People went out in the morning and saw dead bodies in the street. His mother, and eventually his wife, had to wait at a well to get water in one-hundred-and-ten-degree weather.
He said that missionaries who went to India usually went to Bombay—now Mumbai—or somewhere cooler or more civilized. Sometimes we mix God’s call with our own desire. We try to have it both ways.
Sometimes we slide out of the very school of training in which the Lord has placed us. We find a way to escape while stamping it with “God approved.” We are fooling ourselves.
The Lord Jesus said difficult things:
“If anyone comes to Me, and hates not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.”
I believe He said difficult things because if He had made them softer or easier to accept, we would have dismissed them. Sometimes, if the Lord does not get right in our face, we dismiss His word as meaning nothing.
Why did we read those Scriptures at the beginning of the conference? Why has every brother alluded to them? Saints, if you do not commit to that, you are fooling yourself. Do not think you can build the house of God or contribute something eternal without being a disciple.
We are not talking about salvation. Salvation is a gift. We are speaking about our contribution to the house of God—something that is here and now and also lasts forever. There is a test, a big test.
Now we come to the negative page. Sorry about that. But after a few minutes, we will come to the positive page.
We are talking about spiritual intimacy. This house being built becomes a bride, so we are dealing with spiritual intimacy.
Matt talked about Babylon. I will say a little of the same thing, but briefly. In Scripture there are three types or pictures of the world:
Egypt is, in a sense, the rock-and-roll world. Sodom is the world on the ground of self-love. Babylon is the religious world.
Babylon was a real, geographical place, but it also represents a spiritual power. Babylon took the Lord’s people captive, and the Lord allowed it when His people were unfaithful. Daniel and Zerubbabel, great men, were slaves in Babylon. Zerubbabel was born there and later returned to help build the temple.
Being a slave in Babylon was probably a fairly good deal. It was not like being a slave in Mississippi, being whipped in the hot sun while picking cotton. I imagine many slaves in Babylon thought, “We hit the jackpot here: wide streets, good schools, air conditioning.” Babylon was civilized, safe, and orderly. It was probably a good place to live and raise a family.
There was likely no great rush to return to dusty, desert Jerusalem, where there appeared to be nothing. Babylon takes the Lord’s people captive, and it would love to take you captive. It may already have taken some of you captive.
Babylon promises more ministry. It says, “Come and join us. We could use a person like you. We will give you opportunity and a broader audience.” Babylon will recruit you whenever it can.
If you can play guitar or preach, you are someone of accomplishment. They want you, and they will offer opportunities for ministry. The emissaries of Babylon have contacted me and said, “Sonny, we want to give you a broader audience. More people need to find out about your ministry. Let us print things for you and arrange meetings.”
I said, “No, thanks.” They said, “More people need to hear about you.” I said, “No, they do not. I do not need anybody to hear about me. People may be better off if they do not hear about me. I may damage and wreck people’s lives.”
The Lord is fully capable of bringing people along if they need to meet me. I do not need to advertise. By His grace, I am not going to. But the temptation is great, is it not? And they pay. They pay.
Babylon swallows the Lord’s people. Will we recognize the difference? The Tower of Babel was built of bricks. Bricks are man-made. Jerusalem is built of stones. Stones are God-made.
Babylon is man’s idea. The Tower of Babel is man’s idea. The greatest stumbling block to the house of God is human reasoning. We are prisoners of reasoning. It is amazing how we lean on our own understanding and are intercepted repeatedly, while still being saved and blessed. The One who suffers is the Lord, because He does not receive what is on His heart.
The Scripture says, “Come out of her, My people.” Babylon is “her.”
Let us consider part of the life of Lot as compared to the life of Abraham—two close relatives.
We will begin with Abraham in Genesis 18. What we see is the difference between two pictures of Christians: both called by the Lord, both blessed by the Lord, but one abandoned his self-life and one did not. One loved the Lord; one loved himself.
The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre. Mamre means fullness. Abraham was living in the place of fullness. He was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. He was alert, awake, and engaged.
Why the heat of the day? The sun is directly overhead. Spiritually, it is the time of maximum light. The Lord appeared to Abraham in the time of maximum light.
If the Lord appears to you, will you recognize Him? That is always a major question. He may not appear to us as He appeared to Abraham, but He will appear to us in our hearts and spirits in some real way. I believe He is appearing this weekend.
When the Lord appeared, Abraham recognized Him immediately, ran to meet Him, and wanted to minister to Him. He wanted to wash His feet, prepare bread, and provide a meal. Abraham had fellowship with the Lord.
The Lord was about to bring destruction on the earth. Something was coming. Chip told us yesterday that he believes something is coming, and I say amen. I know everyone in Memphis has heard me say it for a while. I realize I am apocalyptic; I did not do my homework in the seventh grade because I thought the Russians were going to blow us up. But I believe something is coming. Sooner or later, Chip and I are going to be right.
In Genesis 18:17, the Lord said:
“Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do?”
The answer was no. He did not hide from Abraham what He was about to do. Brothers and sisters, will the Lord hide from you what He is about to do? He wants you to know—really know—what He is doing in these days.
John 14:21 says:
“He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him.”
The Lord says that those who love Him and keep His commandments will know Him. The Greek word carries the thought of revealing oneself, allowing oneself to be intimately known and understood. The Lord Jesus will allow Himself to be known and intimately understood by those who love Him.
You would be a fool to allow yourself to be intimately known by someone who did not love you. There are circles of people who know something about me, and those circles become smaller and smaller until they come to my wife—the person who knows everything, the person with whom there are no secrets.
I do not walk up to someone in an airport and say, “Hello, I am Sonny Bradley. I would like to tell you about my life and my current problems.” You would be a fool to do that. Sometimes people ask me questions on a plane, and I do not immediately answer them.
They ask, “Where are you going? Is this business or pleasure?” When I am traveling to Asia, I tell them, “Neither. I am going to visit my children.” Then they ask, “You have children who live in Asia?” It creates another opportunity. But the point is that the Lord reveals His secret self to those who love Him.
He has a need to reveal Himself. You have a need to share your life and express yourself. You need to share your joys and sorrows with someone. That is one wonderful thing about a good marriage: I can share my deepest joys, and they become better; I can share my deepest sorrows, and they become more digestible.
Now consider Lot. The New Testament calls Lot a righteous man whose righteous soul was vexed. But when you read his story, you see little that seems righteous. He did not become righteous by magic, as though nothing he did mattered.
There is a movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Three men escape from jail and come upon a river baptism. One says, “Well, I’ll be. Delmar has done been saved.” Delmar comes up out of the water saying, “All my sins have been washed away—even that Piggly Wiggly I robbed.” Someone says, “I thought you said you were innocent of those charges.” Delmar answers, “The preacher said that sin has been washed away too. Now neither God nor man has anything on me.”
Delmar was a little carnal. If he got baptized and believed, perhaps he was saved. But there are selfish Christians, and Lot was one of them.
The Lord appeared to Abraham, but at the beginning of Genesis 19 two angels came to Lot. They came in the evening—the time of declining light, when vision is decreasing. Lot should have been seeking the Lord, but where was he? He was in the gate of Sodom.
He was in the place of self-love, personal life, and self-life. The angels did not come to fellowship with Lot. He invited them into his house, but his invitation was shaky: “Come in, spend the night, and in the morning you can leave.” They said they would spend the night in the square. He insisted, and they came, but they came to warn him.
Lot was righteous because he was saved. The Bible does not say he was good or that he had good fruit. It simply says he was righteous. I believe that is a picture of being saved—a carnal Christian.
I do not want to say too much against Lot. I believe he is my brother, and we will be together in heaven. I am serious. I believe the things that happened to him were allowed by the Lord for our benefit and understanding.
With Lot, David, Abraham, and every hero in the Bible, their sins and mistakes are fully recorded. God is no respecter of persons. Salvation is by grace. We are not talking about salvation; we are talking about obedience, vision, discipline, and commitment.
The wicked men of Sodom came to Lot’s house, and Lot went outside and called them brothers. That makes me crazy. Saints, the world is not our brothers. The people you work with, the people at school, and friends in the neighborhood are not our brothers in the same spiritual sense.
We are family, and it is real. It has boundaries. Our spiritual relationship is something special. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. It is not merely a metaphor or a sweet saying.
Lot escaped, barely. The angels told him what was coming. He warned his future sons-in-law, the men who were going to marry his daughters, and said, “Get out of town. God is going to destroy this place.” But they thought he was joking.
What does that mean? When you are a selfish Christian, living by your self-life, seeking to preserve your life, and remaining carnal, then even when the Lord reveals something to you and you want to help others, you have no testimony.
You cannot produce spiritual fruit unless you are a spiritual person. This should be a fearful matter to us. We need testimony from one another so that we can help one another, but it will not happen by magic. It happens only as we receive the discipline of the Lord.
Lot then argued with the angels concerning where he should flee. They told him to go to the mountains, but he said:
“Oh, not so, my lord… I cannot escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die. Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one. Oh, let me escape thither.”
Lot acknowledged God’s lovingkindness and the fact that his life had been saved, but instead of obeying, he argued. In effect, he said, “Grace, grace, grace. I do not have to obey. Let me go to the place I think is better.”
Many people do not know what grace is. Grace is not magic. Grace is the power to live the Christian life. We have received grace; we have received power to live the Christian life.
The Lord will not judge you based on your limitations, your disposition, or your natural human weaknesses. That would be unfair. He does not ask us to overcome by our own natural ability. But at the judgment seat of Christ—not a judgment of salvation—the question concerns the power He gave us: did we trust and obey?
He has not asked us to do anything He has not empowered us to do. Lot argued with the Lord. Do not argue with Him. When He tells you to do something, He has already empowered you to do it. Let us trust Him and obey Him. Those two things are absolutely connected.
A brother told me that some people are offended by the teaching that we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Only Christians go there. It is not a judgment of salvation; saved people will be there. He said, “I would rather be offended now than ashamed later.”
Praise the Lord for His conviction, His faithfulness, and the circumstances that pierce our hearts. He orchestrates circumstances to bring us into the place where we really want to be but do not know how to reach.
Lot escaped. His wife became a pillar of salt. Lot had impure relations with his daughters. The fruit of his life was two sons, Moab and Ammon, who became two tribes that were thorns in the flesh of God’s people for generations.
That was the fruit of Lot’s life: bad fruit. I believe he was a saved person with bad fruit, fully saved. Let us not be saved people with bad fruit. Let us be saved people with good fruit. We can, and we ought to.
Babylon is about man’s glory versus God’s glory. Years ago, a sweet sister sent me a Christmas card. It pictured a beautiful woman holding flowers, perhaps with little lambs in the foreground, and she had large, beautiful wings.
A friend saw it and said, “Those look like stork’s wings to me.” I said, “So?” He said, “A stork was an unclean bird. Furthermore, there are no good women in the Bible with wings.” I had never thought about that.
Turn to Zechariah 5, beginning at verse 5:
Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, “Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth.”
And I said, “What is it?”
And he said, “This is the ephah that goeth forth.” He said moreover, “This is their appearance in all the land.”
And behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead; and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah.
And he said, “This is wickedness”; and he cast her down into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.
Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there came forth two women, and the wind was in their wings; now they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between earth and heaven.
Then said I to the angel that talked with me, “Whither do these bear the ephah?”
And he said unto me, “To build her a house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.”
The land of Shinar is where the Tower of Babel was built. Babylon is not merely man’s idea. It has much to do with human reasoning and man’s ideas, but it is actually a satanic idea.
It is the attempt to intercept God’s will with something that seems good. It is all for the glory of man and the glory of self. It seeks to make a name for itself. It is supposedly about what is good for man, but it is not good for God, and it destroys intimacy.
Babylon is mixture. The problem of foreign women in Scripture is not about nationality. It is a spiritual heart matter. It has to do with mixture.
Israel was a blessed people, but after receiving all the blessings, they turned and said, “We want to be like the people of the land. We want a king. We want a god. We want this, and we want that.”
For young people who have grown up in Memphis, a major difficulty is that we do not have a name, we do not have a building, and we do not exist. Hallelujah. We almost had a building. But we do not have a building, we do not have a name, and we do not exist.
Sometimes I am on a plane, and someone sees me reading the Bible and asks, “Where do you go to church?” I say, “I meet with a group of people. We meet in homes, and we live in the University area of Memphis.” They ask, “Who is your pastor?” By the time I explain it, they probably think I am in a cult or some strange group.
People have asked, “Can we just get a name?” Recently, someone in Memphis asked leaders from various churches and movements to meet together. Somehow they got my name. They listed everyone by title and organization, and then wrote, “Sonny Bradley from the something-or-other Street Fellowship.” Later they apologized and said, “Sorry, Sonny. I did not know what else to call you.”
But this is the problem: we want to be like the peoples of the lands. When we pursue that, mixture comes in. The Lord has blessed us with the real thing, and we do not want to be mixed.
Ezra 9 says that the people had not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, and that the holy people had intermingled with them, taking their daughters as wives. Mixture leads to a loss of spiritual intimacy.
The women in the Old Testament were real people, not fairy tales, but they also represent spiritual affections. Some affections are spiritual, some are natural, some change from one to the other, and some are misplaced.
When we go after foreign things or other things, those are misplaced affections. If you look outside—whatever “outside” is—and especially if you go to the world to seek a husband or wife, that is mixture. You are seeking a foreigner in the spiritual sense.
The idea that any of us could have a boyfriend or girlfriend who is not a Christian is incredible to me. How could that even be a consideration? That is a foreigner. Do not do it.
When we do that, we do not believe in God. We are Christian atheists. We do not trust in the Lord’s sovereignty, His love for us, or His ability to choose for us. That is mixture, and that is choosing foreign things.
Now for the positive page. Zechariah 1:14 says:
“I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion.”
What is the difference between Jerusalem and Zion? Many people think they are the same, but they are not. I have it on good authority from Stephen, who has actually been there, that Mount Zion is inside Jerusalem. They are two different places.
Jerusalem is the place of peace. Salem means peace. Jerusalem is almost more than a name; it is a title—the place of peace.
Zion has the sense of a sunny mountain, a high or elevated place. It would be possible to go to Jerusalem and miss Mount Zion, though it is inside Jerusalem. You can go to one place and miss the other geographically, and you can certainly do it spiritually.
Many people are in the church and saved but have no idea what Zion is. Do not feel bad if you are unsure. I once spent two days with a concordance, looking up every Scripture that mentioned Zion—perhaps sixty-two references or so. I read the verses before and after each one. At the end of that two-day Bible study, I said, “Now, Zion—I am not sure what it is.”
But it is something spiritual. It has to do with spiritual elevation. We used to sing:
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
In the city of our God, in His holy mountain.
Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.
Mount Zion is something spiritual in nature, something on the Lord’s heart for Himself. He is jealous for Zion. It has to do with higher, intimate spiritual fellowship. It is something the Lord longs to have with His people, but most people never find it. It is available to everyone, yet most people do not bother to go there.
Psalm 76:1-2 says:
In Judah is God known:
His name is great in Israel.
In Salem also is His tabernacle,
And His dwelling place in Zion.
Judah speaks of government. Israel is a place with boundaries. Salem speaks of peace. Zion speaks of the sunny mountain of fellowship.
Psalm 48 says:
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
In the city of our God, in His holy mountain.
Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.God in her palaces hath made Himself known as a stronghold.
“Her palaces”—the city is female. What is the significance? It is a love matter. It is an intimate heart matter. It is deeply spiritual and intimate.
You can visit Jerusalem, be part of Israel, and never know Zion, because it is a secret place. We need to dwell in the secret place and discover what that means.
At the end of Judges, it says that there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. One question for us is this: Is He King?
Isaiah 55:8-9 says:
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” saith the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Notice that He does not say His thoughts are merely better. He says they are higher. It is about spiritual elevation and intimate spiritual relationship. That is what “higher” means.
Again, a major problem in building the Lord’s house is human reasoning.
As we said at the beginning, a call to build is actually preparation for a bride. This preparation runs through the whole Bible. The Bible begins with a marriage, and it ends with a marriage.
Revelation 21 says:
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
She has been prepared. Is it not interesting that David prepared the place on the threshing floor of Ornan? Rebekah, a picture of the bride for the son, was prepared in secret. When Isaac finally met her, she was already prepared.
The bride is being prepared right now. The question is whether we are having a part in the preparation process. It is happening now, and we are all called to have a part. The building is becoming a bride. It is all connected.
How is she made ready?
I think everyone here would say that he loves the Lord. We sing that we love the Lord, and I believe we do, at least in measure. But if we love the Lord, why do we resent His training and discipline, which are the result of His love?
Why do we resent His choice of people and circumstances in our lives? We say, “I love the Lord. I just do not like the body of Christ.” In essence, that is what we sometimes say with our lives.
Psalm 132, beginning with verse 1:
Lord, remember for David
All his affliction;
How he sware unto the Lord,
And vowed unto the Mighty One of Jacob:
“Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house,
Nor go up into my bed;
I will not give sleep to mine eyes,
Or slumber to mine eyelids;
Until I find out a place for the Lord,
A habitation for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Notice that there is no “me” in building the house of the Lord. It is not about me. David says, “There will be no rest for me until I find a resting place for Him, a dwelling place for Him.”
It is all about relationship, commitment to that relationship, and heart-love. You would never deny yourself sleep, food, or other things unless something were important to you. Yet you might deny yourself for your children, your wife, or your husband—those whom you love the most.
The Lord created us in His image. That is why we have a need to give and receive love: because He does. He made us so He could give us love. We love to concentrate on that: “Oh, He loves me!” But what about Him? He wants love back.
If I came to you every day and said, “I love you,” perhaps giving you a kiss if you were a sister—or a holy kiss, if you were a brother—and you never showed affection in return, eventually I would stop. It would not be because I was withholding my heart. I need affection; I need to give and receive. The Lord made us that way because that is what He wants for Himself.
Self-denial is a hallmark of vision. People who have vision of what is on the Lord’s heart are willing to deny themselves.
Psalm 132:13-14 says:
For the Lord hath chosen Zion;
He hath desired it for His habitation.
“This is My resting place for ever:
Here will I dwell;
For I have desired it.”
It is a resting place for Him. This is His eternal purpose. Is your purpose—are our purposes—aligned with His eternal purpose?
I want to conclude by speaking about some well-known Christians who have touched my life. As I have read their biographies and studied their lives, I have noticed that they all share the same theme. Their lives were touched and changed in the school of affliction—through chastisement and difficult relationships.
Margaret Barber is one of them. Many of the saints who have touched me most personally have been women. Margaret Barber greatly affected Watchman Nee.
Margaret Barber was a missionary from England who went to China and had success. Some people became jealous of her. Scripture says that all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. You do not have to look for it or try to drum it up. It is coming.
If you never experience any persecution, you may need to ask the Lord why. Margaret Barber was called back to England because false accusations were made against her. She had ministered successfully to many young Chinese brothers, teaching them the Bible.
She went to a difficult mining community, I believe called White Tooth Rock. It was not a romantic place or a vacation spot. It was a place where most missionaries did not want to go.
She lost her support. Talk about a test. Yet she went back anyway, with no substantial support. She received some physical help and some assistance from relatives who stayed with her from time to time. She died alone after a successful life of ministry in that place.
She paid a cost. Margaret Barber put something into the house of God because she paid a real price. She was there because the Lord had sent her there.
Amy Carmichael is another example. Her writings have become popular in recent years. When you read the songs Margaret Barber wrote, such as “Keep the Incense Burning,” and when you read Amy Carmichael’s poetry, you know you are in the presence of people who knew the Lord deeply and in a real way.
It should make you jealous for what they had. They did not merely know about the Lord Jesus; they knew Him. They lived lonely lives, knew mistreatment from others, and knew danger and hardship.
Almost everything Amy Carmichael wrote that became widely known was written during the final years of her life, when she was bedridden and in pain. It appeared that all ministry was over. She fell, injured her leg, never recovered, and gradually worsened until she died.
At first she thought, “Lord, how can You do this to me? This is the end of my ministry.” It stopped much of her public ministry and the things she had wanted to do. But it became the doorway into intimate ministry with the Lord Jesus. Now we are all beneficiaries, and the Lord is a beneficiary also.
Andrew Murray had a real effect on Amy Carmichael’s life. When she first went to the mission field, she went to Japan and had a nervous breakdown. Japan is not an easy place for missionary work. The gospel has never taken off there as it has in Korea.
Humanly speaking, she failed. She returned to England embarrassed and humiliated. While she was there, she attended a Keswick Convention. Andrew Murray was one of the speakers and happened to be staying in the same house.
Andrew Murray was thirty-eight years older than Amy Carmichael, but for that short time God sovereignly arranged for them to be in the same house. At the convention, Andrew Murray was criticized and hurt because of teaching about the Holy Spirit that people had not heard before, or perhaps had misunderstood.
Amy Carmichael asked him over tea how he was dealing with the matter. He wrote something down and gave it to her. I keep it in the back of my Bible. It changed her life forever. Someone recently gave me a plaque with these words:
First, He brought me here; it is by His will I am in this strait place, and in that I will rest.
Next, He will keep me here in His love, and give me grace to behave as His child.
Then He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow.
Lastly, in His good time, He can bring me out again—how and when He knows.
Is that your testimony? Will you trust the Lord in your difficult circumstances? Will you trust Him to work in you in this opportunity? This may be the only chance you have for the Lord to work something eternal into you—something eternally good for Him, for others, and for you.
Will you escape, or will you allow the Lord to have His way?
When Margaret Barber died, she did not own anything. The brothers close to Watchman Nee were away when she died, and one brother, known as Faithful Luke, hated that she died alone and that no one was with her.
The only thing she had left was her Bible. She left it to Watchman Nee. Written in that Bible were these words:
Oh God, grant me a thorough and unlimited revelation of myself.
These people knew something about building the house of the Lord and making a contribution to the bride. They knew that building becomes a bride. They had intimate relationship, not merely romantic ideas, and they suffered.
You and I have the same opportunity. Will we build? Will we have a part in preparing the bride and making her ready?
That is the issue before us today: Will you stay with the people with whom the Lord has placed you, love them, forgive them, minister to them, build them up, and allow the Lord to work in you everything He desires?
Will I stay in a strait place and be delivered when the Lord says it is time? That is trust. That is obedience. The Lord has empowered us to do it.
Lord, we ask that You would take these words. Cause the right ones to remain and the wrong ones to fall away.
Lord, what can we say? What can we do except give our hearts to You, present our lives and circumstances to You, and say, “Lord, we love You. We trust You.”
Lord, help us to love You more. Lord, help our unbelief. Thank You for all Your goodness to us and Your faithfulness to us. You are not giving up on us.
Lord, help us personally and individually to understand the circumstances of our lives and to overcome to Your glory. Show us what it means to have a part in the preparation of the bride and in the building of Your house.
In Your precious name, we pray. Amen.