Good afternoon, my dear brothers and sisters. Otaji—the old Portuguese-speaking people, huh? Yes, Lucille.
I cannot express what a blessing from the Lord it is to be here once again. Some of us were mentioning our first time here at Harvey Cedars, and the weather is a little different today than it was twenty years ago. I think we were in the midst of a hurricane. So it has been uphill since then.
We are so grateful to the Lord that He has arranged this time. And you know, my dear brothers and sisters, before He arranges it, He supplies all that is needed. So I trust that we can rest in that today—that we do not have to do something out of our own human energy, but we can trust Him to take this time and do the work that is in His heart, that He desires to do.
Now, the matter of spiritual travail: both of my brothers have mentioned the impossibility of trying to address this issue and share what the Scriptures have to say about it. I just share with you the feeling I had when I began to consider this issue before the Lord.
You know, over here on my left-hand side, there is a bay, and on the other side there is the ocean. I felt like they were requiring me to take the water that is in the bay and put it in the ocean with a teaspoon. So I feel the overwhelming responsibility of seeking to fellowship about this.
But, you know, my dear brothers and sisters, this is a place we ought always to be in: a place of total dependence upon Him. Today, we have a number of Scriptures. We usually do not read this many Scriptures, but so that we would have a sense in our hearts of the magnitude of this issue of spiritual travail, I felt that the Lord wanted us to read a number of portions related to this issue.
For my two times that I am responsible this afternoon, it is in my heart to fellowship about the hope of glory, and, the Lord willing, tomorrow evening to fellowship about the fellowship of His sufferings. I trust that, as we continue, we will see that at the end of the rainbow, at the end of all that we go through, God has something so wonderful planned for us.
We do not have to wait until the end for all of it, but there is a wonderful plan that God has in store for His children. Yet it requires that we go through an experience of travail.
Blessed Lord, we are here this afternoon because of Your mercy. We know from what little history we have had that You are totally faithful. So we want to put ourselves, in this time, into Your hands and ask You to sovereignly rule over our time.
We know that You have sent the Holy Spirit to be here as Your representative. We want to fully submit ourselves to Him and say to You, blessed Holy Spirit, it is our desire that You have total freedom to work here among us this afternoon.
We bless You, Lord, that You have put in our hands a copy of Your written Word. As we read these portions, we ask that there be an anointing even on the reading, and that it will find a lodging in each one of our hearts. Even through this reading, Lord, You will have done something in each of our hearts.
Thank You again for Your great love to us. We are trusting this afternoon that You will find all the freedom that You desire to work among us. We give You thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,
and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church,
in filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.Of this church I was made a minister
according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit,
so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God;
that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations,
but now has been manifested to His saints,
to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.We proclaim Him,
admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom,
so that we may present every man complete in Christ.
For this purpose also I labor,
striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf,
and for those who are at Laodicea,
and for all those who have not personally seen my face,
that their hearts may be encouraged,
having been knit together in love,
attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding,
resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself,
in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Therefore, having been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand;
and we exult in hope of the glory of God.And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations,
knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;
and perseverance, proven character;
and proven character, hope;
and hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
So then, brethren, we are under obligation,
not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—
for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die;
but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again,
but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,
if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly
for the revealing of the sons of God.For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly,
but because of Him who subjected it, in hope
that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption
into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groans
and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
And not only this, but also we ourselves,
having the first fruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
For in hope we have been saved,
but hope that is seen is not hope;
for who hopes for what he already sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see,
with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we should,
but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is,
because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.And we know that God causes all things to work together for good
to those who love God,
to those who are called according to His purpose.
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined
to become conformed to the image of His Son,
so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
and these whom He predestined, He also called;
and these whom He called, He also justified;
and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake,
not only to believe in Him,
but also to suffer for His sake.
Whatever things were gain to me,
those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss
in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
and may be found in Him,
not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law,
but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.
That I may know Him,
and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death;
in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect,
but I press on so that I may lay hold of that
for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet;
but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind
and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal
for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;
we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not despairing;
persecuted, but not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake,
so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So death works in us, but life in you.
Therefore we do not lose heart,
but though our outer man is decaying,
yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
For momentary, light affliction is producing for us
an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
while we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen;
for the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are eternal.
For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down,
we have a building from God,
a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
For indeed in this house we groan,
longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven,
inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked.For indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened,
because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed,
so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.
Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God,
who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.
Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,
for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself,
there was given me a thorn in the flesh,
a messenger of Satan to torment me,
to keep me from exalting myself.Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.
And He has said to me,
“My grace is sufficient for you,
for power is perfected in weakness.”
Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses,
so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Therefore I am well content with weaknesses,
with insults, with distresses, with persecutions,
with difficulties, for Christ’s sake;
for when I am weak, then I am strong.
I trust, my brothers and sisters, that the Holy Spirit will be pleased to bring some of these verses back to our hearts in the days ahead. I do not know what your understanding is of what is happening in this world now, and I do not claim in the slightest way to understand all that is happening.
But we would have to have our heads in the sand if we did not see that there is something of great significance happening in the world—not just in the United States, but all over this globe. There is a shaking taking place.
Brothers and sisters, it is at a time like this that I believe the Lord, in His great wisdom and love for us, wants to address this issue of spiritual travail. As our dear brother mentioned this morning, the issue is not whether or not we are going to have travail. That is going to happen. The issue is: how do we respond to the travail?
Our Lord tells us that all these different things are going to be happening. What does He tell us to do when we see these things happening? To look up. But our tendency is to look at the situation, the difficulties, and the problems. We, as His redeemed people, need to take a different approach to what is happening.
I am not in any way trying to make light of any one of us who has gone through a difficult time, or who is going through a difficult time right now. But, brothers and sisters, I think it is important for us to have the perspective that we are God’s redeemed. We are the ones who love Him, and because we love Him and are called according to His purpose, He makes a commitment to us to take everything—everything that happens in our lives—and turn it for good.
This is a wonderful, wonderful thing to know when we are in the midst of these kinds of situations: to know that He not only sovereignly permits them, or designs them for us, but that the situations are going to come into our lives. We need to understand that this is part of this experience of travail.
This afternoon, I would like for us to fellowship about this statement of Paul in Colossians 1: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Our brother Dana mentioned last night that this matter of hope helps us keep our focus in the midst of travail.
I trust that somehow the Holy Spirit has been able to speak to our hearts in such a way that we understand that travail is going to be a part of our lives. Brothers and sisters, we were born into an imperfect world. We were born into a hostile world, a world that continues to hate the Lord Jesus Christ and refuses His government.
Here we are, His redeemed people. We are a heavenly people, but we are living here. We cannot avoid it. But I think it is very important that we understand that there is a goal, an objective. God is not just meaninglessly allowing us to go through all these things, or sometimes even engineering the situations in our lives.
Do you understand, my dear brother and sister, that the blessed Holy Spirit knows everything about you there is to know? He knows things about you that you do not know about yourself, that nobody else knows. But God the Father and the Son have sent Him here on a mission.
First of all, in the midst of our rebellion, the Holy Spirit apprehends our hearts. He is able somehow to get the truth into our hearts, and He begins to make a change. We believe, and this wonderful experience of becoming a child of God, of being born again, becomes ours. But this is only the very beginning.
It is helpful, I believe, brothers and sisters, for us to remind ourselves that our God has an eternal purpose. He is planning it in such a way that every one of His children can enter in and fully enjoy the realization of this purpose.
A number of years ago, there was a brother, Billheimer, who wrote a book entitled Don’t Waste Your Sorrows. Maybe some of you have read this book. If I had to give something of a title to what I am seeking to share this afternoon, this is what I would like to say: Let us not waste our sorrows.
Let us understand that there is something God is doing, and because we belong to Him, He is going to use everything in our lives to reach that goal. What is that goal? Christ in you, the hope of glory.
For many years, I understood Paul to be talking about a place: glory, gloryland. We have some shallow hymns—sorry, some of these hymns mislead us in our understanding of what this word glory is. But our brother Stephen this morning reminded us that when we talk about the glory of God, we are talking about God Himself.
There is something God has in His heart, and because He is God, it is going to become a reality: you and I, as His redeemed, blood-bought children, have something awaiting us that can only be described through this word glory.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is a big word. We do not intend this afternoon to share all the little understanding we have, except to focus on what it means for you and me to experience glory: Christ in you, the hope of glory. What is this glory that God has prepared for us?
I would like for us to consider it from three aspects, from three angles:
In Colossians 1, after Paul says, “I rejoice in my sufferings,” and that he does his part in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions, one of the ways he did it was through the proclamation of this mystery—the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You remember what he says: “We preach Him.” For what reason? “That we might present every man complete in Christ.” This word complete means brought to a place of full maturity.
From my experience of being a father, and my observation of others, it brings sadness into the heart of a parent when one of their children does not grow up, become mature, and come to a place where they are able to take responsibility.
I think we can say the same thing is true with our heavenly Father. He has made total provision for you and me to grow up, to become mature, and to be able to be responsible in that to which we have been called.
So, first of all, glory means that He is going to make us complete. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely.” Not just a little part of you, or the most part of you, but entirely. This is the objective of God.
This is what the Holy Spirit is here to do: to take you and me in whatever condition He finds us. In the beginning, regardless of what your history was, you were in the same position as everybody else. You were a hopeless, helpless sinner, a rebel against God, and God apprehended you with His love.
The Holy Spirit produced faith in your heart. He gave you the grace to put that faith to work, and you became a child of God. It is all His doing. But please, my brothers and sisters, know that is only the beginning.
It is God’s heart—it is glory for you and me—to be totally sanctified: spirit, soul, and body. We need to experience this to a great degree even while we are here. God is not going to usher us into the age to come until we are fully prepared for that experience.
There is an experience of our being dealt with by the Holy Spirit, so that our spirit, our soul, and our body are entirely sanctified, being made complete until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
First of all, glory means that you and I are brought to a place of maturity—a place where, when God considers all the factors, He is pleased with where we are at that point. We are not suggesting for one moment that all or any of us will attain to perfection while we are here.
But I believe there is a measure of maturity that God expects in the life of every one of His children, and it is glory when you and I attain to that place.
I want to share with you something that happened to me that helps me understand this a little bit. I had the joy and privilege of being in many homes of our Chinese brothers and sisters in many places. Sometimes I would stay in their homes, and especially on Friday night, it was a time for a recital for their children.
Almost every Chinese family—their children play some kind of musical instrument. So Friday night was a night for recitals. They would invite me to go with them, and often I was able to go.
After going a few times, I stopped looking at the children and started looking at the parents. Regardless of how well or how badly the children were playing, if you looked at the parents, you saw glory on their faces. Their faces were glowing.
Even though the children were squeaking with the violin or making all kinds of mistakes, there was glory on their faces—a satisfaction at the progress their children were making.
Well, brothers and sisters, I believe our heavenly Father’s face shines. Our brother Sparks’ definition of glory is when God is satisfied. We need to say amen in our hearts for Him to finish this work, to complete it.
Then we read in Romans 5 about tribulation and these other factors, but I want us to look for a moment at the outcome of these dealings of God: proven character.
My dear brothers and sisters, is it clear in your heart this afternoon that God has something so wonderful planned for you that it is almost impossible to believe? Maybe not for you; I am speaking for myself. Do you know what your destiny is?
Do you know that your destiny is to sit with the Son of the living God and reign forever and ever? Where is He seated? We just sang about it earlier. Where is He seated? Far above all. And we are to be seated with Him there.
But the only reason our Lord Jesus is seated there is because He is the only One qualified. He is not there because His heavenly Father pulled some strings or did something under the table to promote Him to that position. He is the only One qualified to be in that position because He has the character.
He has the ability to fulfill the responsibility of being the ruler of the universe. In Portuguese, we say, Ele é soberano. He is a sovereign Lord over everything.
Do we understand this afternoon, my dear brothers and sisters? There is nothing going on in this world that He is not sovereign over. He permits it sovereignly. If He did not permit it, He would do something about it.
The Holy Spirit, putting us through these different experiences, is seeking to produce a character in every one of us so that the heavenly Father and His Son can place in our hands the responsibility of ruling the universe with the Son of God.
Now think with me: where did we start? Where were we when God began to work in our lives? We were His enemies. Yes, not just sinners—we were His enemies.
Can you believe it, my brothers and sisters, that He so set His heart upon His enemies and won their hearts? For what reason? What did He have in mind? That one day His enemies would sit on the throne of the universe and be involved in His eternal kingdom.
Now this is what God is after. This is the glory. So if we endure with Him, we will reign with Him. Please do not separate travail and glory.
This glory—Christ in you, the hope of glory—has to do with God producing a character in us exactly like His own Son. I do not care who we are this afternoon, my dear brothers and sisters: none of us started out there.
We were totally disqualified. There was not anything in us—not one little thing in us—that qualified us to sit with the Son of God and rule this universe. But hallelujah, brothers and sisters, His intention is to bring us to that place.
That is why we have to go through travail. It is necessary. It is not optional. It is necessary. The Lord willing, tomorrow evening we will fellowship about how we respond to these opportunities of travail that produce this proven character.
In Romans 8, Paul talks about our being heirs of God and fellow heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever stopped to think about that? What does God own? What is He the possessor of? Everything.
We are to be His heirs and fellow heirs with Christ, because everything has been given to His Son. We are being made joint heirs. We are to share the riches of all that God is and all that God has done. This is our glory.
There are no coincidences, my dear brothers and sisters. There are no coincidences in the life of God’s children. He either permits them sovereignly or He arranges them. For what reason? So that we will be in that place of being fellow heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ of all that God has created.
Romans 8:29-30 is very difficult for me not to mention whenever I have an opportunity to share:
Those whom He foreknew,
He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Those whom He predestined, He called;
those whom He called, He justified;
and those whom He justified, He glorified.
Not just forgiven, brothers and sisters, but glorified. God is going to do such a work in us as to fully restore us, so that He can look at you and me and be satisfied with what He sees in us—the same way He was when He looked at His own Son and said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Could you ever dream of that possibility? That God, the righteous and holy God, who sees perfectly everything, can look at you and me and find no fault, find nothing wrong? That is the negative side. The positive side is that He is totally satisfied, as much as He is about His own Son.
Being glorified means we are conformed to the image of the Son of God. Do not take that lightly. Please, do not take that lightly. This ought to be a deep, deep desire in the heart of every one of us.
There ought to be something in our hearts, even right now, that says, “Amen, Father. You have called us. You have predestined us, and we say amen to that predestination. We want to be conformed. We want to learn what our part is in this whole process.”
We understand only He can do it, but He will not do it without our permission and our cooperation. He also gives you the grace to cooperate. So, brothers and sisters, why do we hesitate when He is in the business of taking you and me and fully conforming us to the image of His own Son?
We read in Romans 8 about the adoption as sons and the redemption of our bodies. Maybe some of you had considered this before; I had not considered very much the connection between being adopted as sons and the redemption of our bodies.
As long as we are here, this physical body will not have experienced the salvation that has been provided for us. The glory is that we are not only going to have our spirits fully dealt with by the Lord and our souls fully transformed, but we are going to have a new body—a spiritual body.
This is to be our glory as well: the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Please keep this in mind, that this is part of the glory He has prepared for us.
In Philippians 3:11, Paul talks about attaining to the resurrection from the dead. If you read carefully, you will find out everybody is going to be resurrected, okay? Believers and nonbelievers are all going to be resurrected.
Some have to stand before the great white throne judgment. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, you do not have to stand before the great white throne judgment. You do have a judgment coming: you have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of what you have done with what you have been given.
It is not that judgment is removed; it is just moved to a different perspective as to the place we are going to have in what God has planned for the future.
It has been pointed out by someone that in Philippians 3:11 Paul says, “That I may attain to the resurrection of the dead.” How do you attain to something that God is going to do? There is another dimension here. Someone has suggested it ought to be translated, “That I may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.”
There are two resurrections in the Scriptures. There is going to be a group of people who are raised from the dead, and they are going to reign with the Lord Jesus Christ for a thousand years. We can read about it in Revelation 20.
And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them.
And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus
and because of the Word of God,
and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image
and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand;
and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed.
Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection;
over these the second death has no power,
but they will be priests of God and of Christ
and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
It seems to me that this hope of glory that Paul talks about, this one that he talks about attaining to in the out-resurrection, is reserved for certain people who are qualified.
As they yield to the hand of the discipline of the Holy Spirit, they learn under His direction how to respond to the difficulties and problems that come into their lives. They cooperate with the Lord in producing a work in them so that they can then sit with the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back and sets up His kingdom here on earth for a thousand years.
You can go to Revelation 20 and read for yourself. Not everybody is going to experience the first resurrection. The glory, the prize, the goal, the reward for being faithful, obedient, and enduring through the experience of travail that goes on in your life is that you will reign with Him for a thousand years.
I want to mention one other thing about this issue of the glory of God in terms of the individual believer. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul has this long catalogue of experiences that he went through in chapter 11. One of those would have been enough to totally discourage most of us.
As I mentioned to a group of brothers and sisters recently, the only one I can identify with was “on frequent journeys,” but not in danger of anything. But Paul went through this whole list of experiences. What was the Lord doing in this man’s life?
Here was someone chosen by the Lord, equipped by the Lord, given great revelation, and yet he had to go through all these experiences. You would have thought that out of the Lord’s love for him, He would not have allowed him to go through them. He would have made it possible for him to avoid all of that.
But you can go home and read it for yourself: 2 Corinthians 11, a long list of experiences. You would have thought that would have been enough, but it was not enough.
Because of the great revelations Paul had received, the Lord, in order to keep him from exalting himself, gave him what he called a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, to keep him from exalting himself.
This thing was so severe that he felt he could not go on. He could not fulfill his ministry if the Lord did not remove it from him. So three times he went to the Lord and appealed strongly: “Lord, remove this thing from me.”
The Lord’s response was, “My grace is sufficient. My power is made perfect in weakness.” Then Paul’s response was, “I am therefore content.”
Brothers and sisters, I believe this is a dimension of this glory, this hope of glory: that you and I, even while we are here, can experience a contentedness. We can learn to understand that our God, our Lord, is in charge of everything. He is sovereign. There are no coincidences and no accidents.
Everything is either designed by Him or permitted by Him, and we learn to be content with what happens. That does not mean there is not some responsibility that we have. But some of us, when we go through difficult times, when things happen in our lives that cannot be explained, do not respond very well.
This is what I think Brother Billheimer was talking about when he said, “Don’t waste your sorrows.” The Lord will be utterly faithful in providing all the necessary experiences so that you can have a personal experience of coming into this glory that Paul talks about: Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Let us fellowship for a few moments about this issue of glory and the church. I apologize to those of you who have heard me share about this recently, but, my dear brothers and sisters, it has so gripped my heart that it is hard for me not to fellowship about it.
Paul talks about it in Ephesians 2:10:
For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them.
This word workmanship in the original language is the word poem: masterpiece. Brothers and sisters, please let me make an appeal to you. Let the Holy Spirit make real to you that you, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, are deeply involved in the greatest thing that is happening in the universe.
Do you know what it is? The Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church.” I know sometimes we have used this word church in such a way that it has done something inside of us that is very, very unfortunate.
But, brothers and sisters, there is only one thing our Lord Jesus is doing: building His church. He does many things in order to accomplish it, but let us not forget that there is only one thing on His heart: to build His church.
There is only one thing in the heart of our heavenly Father: that His Son should have a bride. The church needs to understand that there is a glory that needs to be experienced by the church.
The first thing that is good for us to consider is that this glory is related to what Paul says in Ephesians 1: the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
May the Lord help us. May He give us much grace so that we stop using this word church in a way that makes it difficult, because we get ideas and concepts in our minds, and these get in the way of understanding. Then we cannot intelligently cooperate with the Lord in this great work that He is doing.
But the church is to be the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Who is this One? The fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not believe the Lord wants this to be something that just happens at the end.
There ought to be a dimension of this, a degree of this, happening in every local assembly. The world around you should be able to look at you as an assembly of the Lord’s people and see at least a good measure of Christ being manifested in your lives with one another, and in the way you relate to that particular community.
Our God, our Lord, is in the business of producing His masterpiece. In my understanding, it is greater than creation. He is doing something greater than creation.
Some of you may have seen this DVD recently entitled God Is Indescribable. Some of you have seen it? No? You have seen it? How do you describe it? Indescribable. It really is.
They have pictures of the universe that—well, I will speak to the young people—blow your mind. It is almost impossible to believe. How could anything be any greater? How could God do anything greater than what He has done in creation?
Well, in my estimation, this masterpiece that He is producing is greater than the work of creation. And there is another thing I want to say: I think it is greater than His salvation.
Now, you know, the writer of Hebrews says that this salvation is not just a great salvation, but a so great salvation. You know how great it is? You know how so great it is? It can take the worst of sinners and conform them to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is His salvation: fully preparing us for all that the Lord has for us in the age to come. Do not hear me say this afternoon that I am making light of, or making little of, this matter of God’s great salvation. It is great. It is perfect. Nothing else needs to be added.
Everything you ever need for now and in the age to come has already been abundantly supplied for you. Even the faith and grace necessary to appropriate it have been given.
What can be greater than that? I believe this masterpiece—the church our Lord Jesus talks about building. Think about her. Her destiny is to be united to the Son of God.
I do not pretend to understand that as much as I would like to, but, brothers and sisters, in order for her to become the bride of the Son of God, she has to be something special. This is for eternity.
He has to be able to do the same thing that Adam did when he awoke after the Lord put him to sleep and removed that rib that our brother talked about this morning. When Adam awoke and saw that woman—remember, he had never seen a woman before.
He saw a lot of animals, but he had never seen another human being, and he had never seen one like this. When he awoke, I think he opened one eye at a time. When he opened that first one, he could not believe what he saw, so he closed it and said, “I must be dreaming.”
Then he opened both eyes, and I think he stood up and began to sing and dance, because if you read it in Genesis, it is a poem. I think it was a song that he wrote. If I could dance, I would try to demonstrate to you this afternoon what I think Adam did when he saw this.
Now, what am I trying to say? Human history, as we know it, ends with a wedding—with a marriage between the Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus, and His bride, the church.
In order for that union to become a reality, it has to be the greatest thing God has ever done: to take individuals who are rebels, who are His enemies, who have sinned, who have been totally disqualified, and then to come and work in their lives and restore them to a place where they are experiencing the glory of God.
That is glory for themselves. But to me, something even greater is: how does He take all these individuals and then build them together into a perfect unit that corresponds totally to the Lord Jesus Christ?
When He looks at her, what does He want to see? He wants to see Himself. That is the only way the marriage can take place: when the bride fully has the same character that is in the Bridegroom.
Oh, brothers and sisters, think about it. What have we done to His body? What have we done to the church? To me, it is a grievous sin, what we have done by dividing His body.
As our brother mentioned this morning, it postpones and puts off the return of the Lord. It makes it impossible for Him to come until she is ready. Ephesians 5 says that she must be a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blame.
In other words, He has to look at her and see Himself. Taking all the individual believers and building them together into one new man—a new humanity—has the Lord Jesus as its Head.
His life comes forth from Him by the Spirit of God, gets inside other human beings, produces this work of glorifying them, and then builds them together: the church in all her glory.
May I make an appeal to us this afternoon that we take another look at this matter of the church and stop using language that is not represented in the Scriptures? You will never, ever find in the Scriptures talk about “going to church.”
You have no liberty to call it “my church” or “our church.” It reinforces and strengthens in our minds a wrong concept. To me, it is a grievous thing, and we need to take the grace of God and stop doing it.
You and I are caught up in the greatest thing that is happening in the universe: God producing His masterpiece, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a glory waiting for the church. Ultimately, she will not only be His bride, but as His bride, she will have a responsibility to reign with Him—first for that thousand years, and then forever and ever.
I do not pretend to understand all that, but the Scriptures seem to be plain and clear, my brothers and sisters. The focus for the last two thousand years has been to produce a bride for the Son of God.
The Holy Spirit has been sent here, and He is the One responsible to see that all of this is accomplished. I trust that you and I would reconsider our understanding of the church and find a way to more fully cooperate with the blessed Holy Spirit.
Like our brother said, let us not grieve Him. Let us not quench Him. Let us not insult Him. You can actually insult the Spirit of grace. So we need to be careful. We need to be more sensitized to His leading.
Then we find ourselves not only as the material the Lord is using to produce this masterpiece, but we are the co-workers. Is that not amazing? Is that not amazing, brothers and sisters?
He took His enemies, not only made them to rule with Him, but made them His co-workers in producing His great masterpiece.
Let us fellowship for a few moments about glory and God’s creation. In Numbers 14, the Lord says, “As surely as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.”
We understand this afternoon that this earth upon which we live, this planet upon which we live, is not in the condition it was when God originally created it. You may not agree with me, and that is perfectly okay.
But, my brothers and sisters, when it says in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” the God I have come to know in the person of the Lord Jesus could only do a perfect creation.
What we have described in Genesis 1:2 is not the original creation. It is God recovering and restoring to a certain place where man, whom He was going to create, could live here on this planet and be the agent through which He would reestablish the government of God.
The enemy, Satan, had rebelled against God, and the result we have in Genesis 1:2 is the result of God’s judgment of him.
But the amazing thing is that after God recovered the earth to a certain point, He then said, “Let Us make man in Our own image, according to Our own likeness; and let them rule, let them subdue.”
My understanding is that He wants to take human beings, created in His image, and use them as the agents to reestablish His government here on this planet and restore this planet.
You know there is going to be a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. This earth that we now live on is going to be totally restored, and God’s righteous government is going to be perfectly manifested here. It does not look like it now, does it?
But I wonder: is what is happening now related to this matter of restoring and recovering? Paul in Romans 8 talks about the whole creation.
For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly
for the revealing of the sons of God.
Brother and sister, do you see Paul’s understanding here? He saw that the restoration of the creation was tied to the manifestation of the sons of God.
Do you understand what I am trying to say? What God is doing in us individually, and what He is seeking to do in us corporately, is the way He is going to restore His creation. The creation is awaiting eagerly—what? The manifestation of the sons of God.
It is linked to God’s recovery. Oh, my brothers and sisters, if this can get hold of our hearts: do you know how much our heavenly Father, how much our Lord, loves to use human beings to do His work?
All He would have to do is speak, as He did in the darkness, “Let there be light.” He could say, “Let everything be perfect,” and guess what would happen? It would all become perfect. But He has not chosen to do it that way.
He has chosen to take human beings. It brings the greatest joy—it is glory to Him—when He can take human beings like you and me, simple human beings, and so work in them and through them.
This is why He created Adam. But Adam was disqualified. Hallelujah, my brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus Christ is the second Man. We are in Him, and He is in us. We are part of a new humanity.
The Lord wants to use this new humanity to restore this planet. This is what the church’s calling is. It is not just to save sinners—hallelujah, it is for saving sinners, and we need to be about that business.
But what is done with them after they are saved? Are they brought to a place of maturity? Do they learn how to be a functioning member in the body of Christ? Do they learn how to lay down their lives? This is the way the Lord uses them to fulfill this work of creation.
Our Lord is a perfectionist. I do not know how you feel about that, but I say hallelujah. I am glad He is a perfectionist. Why? First of all, I am glad He is going to make you perfect, because I have to live with you for eternity.
Secondly, I am glad He is going to make me perfect, so it will make it easier for you, because you have to live with me. But you know what I am trying to say: our God cannot rest until everything is restored to perfection. This is glory.
Even this creation, though it is groaning in travail, has been subjected to futility. He subjected it. He, in His wisdom, subjected it to futility, to emptiness, to vanity of vanities.
But it is all tied to this matter of the manifestation of the sons of God. This is the glory of this universe. In the same way He created Adam to be an agent in recovery, He has now chosen us in Himself.
We are to be those human beings—redeemed human beings in whom the Spirit of God lives, in whom the very life of Christ abides—the ones He would use in bringing this about.
I do not know what you think about this issue of being called by God. He not only foreknew us and predestined us, but He called us, justified us, and called us. What does He have in His heart and mind? What did He call us to?
First of all, He called us to enter into the full salvation that the Lord Jesus accomplished when He said, “It is finished.” This is glory.
Secondly, as an assembly of His people, wherever you meet with other brothers and sisters, it is in the Lord’s heart to really manifest Himself in a full way, so that His glory—who He is—can be seen in the lives of the people who meet there.
May the Lord help us to remember: the church is not for us. It is not for us, brothers and sisters. It is His, and it is for Him. We are richly blessed beyond measure because we are part of it, but it does not belong to us.
May the Lord deliver us from even thinking of calling it “our church” or “my fellowship.” The whole created order is all tied together.
Many people in the world now are trying to do something about the world condition. People with all kinds of political persuasions and ways of governing people have tried them all. They have even tried American democracy.
It worked for a while, to some people’s satisfaction. But please, my brothers and sisters, American democracy is not the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the kingdom of God.
It means that Jesus is free to fully reign and rule in that situation. It begins in our individual hearts. Is He your Lord? Is He your Lord? Is He the Head of the church, the assembly where you meet?
He is seeking to use this as a way of setting free—setting free into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God. You and I are caught up in this.
I know it was not real to me for many, many years. Maybe you did not realize it, but, brothers and sisters, I remind you once again: you and I, as the Lord’s redeemed, are caught up in the greatest thing that is happening in the universe.
Therefore, I do not hesitate to say to myself and to each one of you: Let us give ourselves one hundred percent to Him.
Today I was standing at the window looking out onto the bay, and there was a seagull out there. I felt like the Lord spoke to me through what I saw with this seagull. He was trying to catch some fish.
The fish were in front of him. He would come up out of the water, fly away, then close his wings, collapse, and go into the water after the fish. He did it twelve times, trying to catch that fish.
I guess eventually—because he stopped doing it—I guess eventually he caught that little fish. But it reminded me how you and I need to learn to persevere. Some of us would have given up after the first try, but he did not.
He came up, flew just a little ways, closed his wings, abandoned himself totally, and went after that fish. But listen, brothers and sisters: you and I have been caught by the living God, caught up in the greatest thing that is going on.
You and I are going to experience the hope of glory—maybe much more than we even find in the Scriptures. I do not know, but we have enough there to really motivate us, to give ourselves one hundred percent, to abandon ourselves.
From the youngest to the oldest of us, I encourage us: abandon yourself fully to what the Lord has called you to, to what you are a part of. Give yourself to it.
Even in the midst of all the other pressures—and we will fellowship more about this tomorrow night—all the other pressures, all the other things happening in your life, you need to abandon yourself and keep your focus.
Your hope is glory.
Lord, I want to ask You this afternoon that You will take these feeble words and somehow use them to speak to our hearts.
Lord, we thank You for the revelation that we have in Your Word, and we thank You for the limited understanding that we have of it. We want to grow in that understanding of this revelation.
Lord, if it is true that this masterpiece You are producing is the greatest thing that You have ever done, then we really are a blessed people, so honored to be a part of it—to be the material You are using.
Bring us to a place of being glorified, of being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, of being qualified and having proven character, where You can entrust us with the responsibility of reigning with the Son of God.
Lord, we ask You to open our understanding in a fuller way as to how we are linked to this issue of Your recovering Your creation.
So, Lord, help us to be faithful. Help us to be diligent. Help us to do the things that You are requiring of us, so that we will not postpone, but can hasten—we can speed up—the time when You can come back.
Apprehend all of our hearts here this afternoon. Give us grace to fully respond to You, to abandon ourselves to You and to this calling that You have extended to us, in the same way that seagull did this afternoon.
Lord, be merciful to us. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.