Good morning, brothers and sisters.
For those of you who brought relatives this morning, I want to wish them a happy Resurrection Day. But every day is a happy Resurrection Day—a blessed Resurrection Day.
If you came here to hear an Easter sermon, I’m afraid you may be sadly disappointed—in a way. But really not, because the subject matter that we are going to address this morning has to do with resurrection life.
So, let’s go to the Scriptures and take up our text: John 17, starting with verse 20.
If you’ll forgive me for just a second, let me find my eyeballs. The hazard of becoming a grandfather.
Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on Me through their word;
that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us: that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.
And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as We are one;
I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and lovedst them, even as Thou lovedst Me.
In reality: perfect oneness.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, we come to You by the power of the resurrection of Your blessed Son, who rent His body, tearing the veil, that we may enter into Your presence and that we may dwell with You.
Lord, as we take up this subject matter, we pray that Your words of life come forth; that You say what You want to say, Lord, and nothing else would take preeminence but Your life.
Lord, we want You to be blessed and honored and glorified this day and every day forevermore. We praise Your name. Amen.
All right. When we last left off—and I’m going to go through the points that we went through; believe it or not, there were actually some points there—we talked about the premise by which this prayer of the Lord Jesus came forth.
It is a partaking of the divine character and a partaking of the divine life. It was with a purpose that He prayed this prayer. He prayed that we would be witnesses of the Father and of the Son: that the Son was sent from the Father, and also a testimony of the Father’s love.
We spent a good deal of time talking about the power by which this comes about. It is not a power of our own making. As I said, this prayer can only be answered, and this life can only be lived, through the divine life of the Lord Jesus Christ lived out in us.
Any other way fails to yield a testimony on the face of the earth, because it is man’s work.
This was basically what we went over last time. I can entitle this the ethereal part, because it deals with heavenly things. It lays the foundation for what we’re going to talk about today, which is immensely practical.
I hope I can bring it to that level, because we’re going to deal today with the reality of this being lived out on the face of the earth. We’re going to come to the place where, if you’ll pardon the phrase, the rubber hits the road.
We’re going to talk about having a testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ amongst us, but not only amongst us—also amongst all God’s children, all that are called by His name.
For this message was not just for us. It is not just the will that two or three be gathered together, even though that’s enough. It is not just a matter that one assembly be gathered together. The Lord’s heart is that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be one.
So, let’s go into what we need to cover today. I’m going to start off with a humorous story, or a joke. I’ll take some of the particulars out of it because it was told to me in a denomination by someone in a denomination, and I will just use the word denomination for that. People know where I come from and can figure it out.
So, this young Christian dies and goes to heaven. The Lord takes him on a tour of heaven, and He walks him down this corridor. As he’s walking, He says, “I’m going to show you My prize treasure.”
As they walk down this corridor, the young man passes by a room and hears wailing and tremendous prayers going up:
“Lord, save them. Lord, let them come. Lord, save them so that they can be in Your presence today.”
The Lord keeps walking on. Finally, the room opens into this expanse, and there is a multitude of people—a Google of people, if you will. “Google” was actually a word before they made it up; it means an abundance more than you can count.
They look around, and there are people from every nation, every tribe, every tongue. They are praising the Lord. The Lord says, “Now, if you watch very carefully, you can sort of tell where they come from, but they’re all blended together.
“We have some brothers over there. He was from Catholicism, by the way—he’s praising. And this one over here, you see the one jumping up and down? Well, he’s from the assemblies. And the ones over there—the movers and shakers in the back—they were the Quakers. Watch them guys. But they praise Me.”
This brother says, “Lord, this is more glorious than what I can ever understand. But I do have one question: What was the room that we passed on the way, with all these people?”
He said, “Well, those are the—insert whatever denomination you want there. They think they’re the only ones here, and they’re praying for the rest of them to join and arrive.”
Brothers and sisters, in the Lord’s eyes there are no denominations. There is not a chosen people other than the ones that have been redeemed by His own blood. That’s it. That’s the mark.
Now, I tell that joke in seriousness—that would not happen. But sometimes we think that we have all the truth.
I’ll tell you, I grew up in a denomination—another denomination besides the one I just mentioned. I joined another denomination, and that’s another story. But the denomination I grew up in, the preacher stood up every Sunday morning, gave his sermon, and chased rabbits all over the place. He preached from Genesis to Revelation.
But the thing that always came out at the end was, “You know what? You’re in a place that has the truth, and we’re the ones that have the truth, and we’re the only ones that have the truth.”
When I joined the other denomination—if you can keep track of this without names—my mother and I were ordained. By the way, my mother said, “You know, I really wish that you would come back and teach and preach in our denomination.”
I said, “Mom, I can’t do that. I have to follow where the Lord is leading me at this time. I have to follow the truth that has been given.”
She said, “But we have the truth.”
I looked at her and said, “What is that truth? I heard about it all my life growing up—that we had the truth. What is that?”
She couldn’t answer. She couldn’t answer at that point in her life. Thank the Lord, she started searching after I said this:
“Now, I’ll tell you what the truth is. The truth is found in One: the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s it. And we must follow Him.”
I tell you all that—I don’t know why—just to kind of set the stage. What we’re going to deal with is setting some things in proper context from what we were taught last week.
I’m going to go through some points. Some of them will be very quick. Some of them are going to be very long. Some of them, I’m going to ask you to read Scripture again because, in the words of Bilbo Baggins, “Adventures make you late for dinner.” If I read long verses of Scripture, it will be an adventure. So, unless y’all want to be late for dinner, please assist.
From what I said last week, I want you to understand some things. One—oneness does not mean that we will become God, nor does it mean that we are God.
Now, that is a point of confusion. Our brother Stephen addressed this in his messages on spiritual exercise. What the Lord Jesus Christ is saying here is not that we will become God, nor are we God.
But we have the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ dwelling within us by the Holy Spirit, and that is the authority and the power by which He wants a testimony on the face of the earth.
I think that needs to be stated so that we’re not drifting out into, as I said, the ethereal, and thinking, “Well, you know, we’ve got this power in ourselves.” Well, we do, only it is by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not in ourselves. It is in the Person of the Holy Spirit, who illuminates us, who gives us the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The second thing I want to bring up is this: We are not looking for an ecumenical movement. We are not looking for fleshly agreement, nor are we looking for false harmony.
I learned this term in management class. We had to go through a series of exercises because we were all sitting there like little bobbleheads gathered around in a meeting. They said, “No, you’re sitting here doing this, but you don’t agree.”
This guy took us through some exercises, broke all that down, and actually created a team that got some things accomplished. That’s in the earthly sense.
How much more does the Lord Jesus not want false harmony in His church? He doesn’t want a bunch of bobbleheads sitting here going, “Yes, I agree,” and the minute we walk out the door saying, “No, I don’t.”
That’s not what the Lord is looking for. To quote Brother Lance, what starts in the flesh ends in the flesh.
If we’re looking for an ecumenical movement, if we’re looking for a bunch of brothers to get together and agree together in the flesh about these things, put some points together, and say, “This is what we agree in,” and then come up with a creed and a motto, it is starting in the flesh and it is going to end up in the flesh.
This is why there are such divisions among the Lord’s people in these days. This is not the heart of the Lord Jesus.
Let me talk to you a little bit about the flesh and what the Lord revealed to me about the flesh. It’s kind of a neat thing. Someone has already come up with this because I’m not that smart.
If we live in the Adamic life—and I love breaking down words—break down the word Adamic: “a-damn-ick.” It just hit me. The Adamic life is a life that leads to damnation, and like a little girl: “Ick, I’m not going to touch that.”
That is what living in the flesh does. Stella got tickled.
This is what living in the flesh does, and we see the results of it in God’s church—or, let me rephrase that: we see the results in that which has been called the church, not necessarily what the Lord is trying to do.
There’s a lot of Adamic life going on, and it’s leading to a lot of problems. This is not the way the Lord wants us to operate.
What He does want is the unity of the Spirit in union life. Even that word has been mangled to mean all sorts of programs and literature and all that, so I’m going to say it this way: oneness.
That which is divine cannot be accomplished by earthly endeavors.
Someone read for me Psalm 133.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious oil upon the head,
That ran down upon the beard,
Even Aaron’s beard;
That came down upon the skirt of his garments;
Like the dew of Hermon,
That cometh down upon the mountains of Zion:
For there the Lord commanded the blessing,
Even life for evermore.
I’m not going to break that down. Many brothers have taught on this and said it more perfectly than I can. I believe Brother Mac shared on this not too far back, and we can find that.
Let’s also pick up Ephesians 4:1-16—someone who has good lungs and can articulate.
This is what the Lord Jesus meant by this prayer. And I’m going to say this: this is not ethereal. This is what His plan for the church is.
I’m not going to go into detail on this because we’ve been taught these things many times before.
What I am going to say is that it is not about getting there. We tend to think, “Well, we’ve got to build up to this.” It is not about getting there.
It is about maintaining the victory that has already been won for us.
If we walk in the thought of, “Well, we’ve got to get there,” that’s human effort to reach God. It is not about that. Jesus has won this victory already.
What He has asked us to do is stand and maintain that which He has already won.
It is sort of like when I was in school. I was thrilled when I heard this for the first time: “You don’t have to earn an A. You’ve already got an A. You already walk into this class with a hundred. It’s just your work that will maintain that grade.”
I think that’s a very poor example, but it is somewhat of the thought that I’m trying to convey about what the Lord has done for us.
This is not a pipe dream, brothers and sisters. This is the will of the Lord for us: to function this way.
Now, I’ve heard some things, and I’ve talked to some brothers and sisters, and they’ve brought up some points: “Maybe this is for a future glory. Maybe this is for the millennium.”
Go back to the original text. Will there be a need for a testimony of who the Lord Jesus Christ is on the face of the earth? Will people need to believe the Lord Jesus Christ is from the Father? I don’t think so.
I think they’re going to know, as He sits on the throne in Jerusalem, that He has all power and authority, and it is given from on high. If they don’t, He can most certainly demonstrate that for them.
So, I really do, in my heart, believe this text is for here and now, in the age that we live in.
Brother Moring—I want to give due credit to our brother, because this is the best picture I’ve ever heard of this.
The problem is that we are looking for the complete and finished, perfect work. The problem is, it is like a tapestry.
We’re sitting on the backside of the tapestry, seeing all the knots and where the needle has gone through, and all this, going, “This is a mess. How can this ever bring glory unto the Lord?”
The problem is, the Lord is looking from the other side of the tapestry. He looks at it and says, “Ah, this is glorious. This is wonderful.”
We keep going, “Lord, You hadn’t seen the backside.” He says, “I’m not interested in the backside. I know what’s going on there, because I’m the One forcing the needle back through. I’m the One tying off all the knots. I know what’s going on.
“What you’ve got to understand is, I’m creating a garment.” Let me borrow it from my brother: “I’m creating a garment for the church—pure and spotless, white linen embroidered with beauty. Don’t worry about the knots on the backside. Quit focusing on that.”
Concentrate on Me—what I tell you to do and how I tell you to live. That is what I’ve commanded you to do. I’ll take care of the plan.
Heaven help us that we try to take the Lord’s plan and make it our own plan. If we could understand what the Lord was doing—I’ve said this to people who don’t believe, when they try to explain God to me—I say, “You know what? God I can’t explain to you, because if I could explain God to you, He would not be much of a God, would He?”
I can’t hold Him in my infantile mind. I can’t comprehend the full depth of who He is, but what He has given me testifies that He is alive and true.
So, it’s not about getting there. It is about preserving the victory that is won—about letting the Lord do His work amongst us and not letting the enemy come in and tear us apart based on some trivial misunderstanding or some other problem.
Just holding on to that victory as good soldiers of the cross.
This isn’t in my notes, but I’ve spoken before about those verses in Ephesians concerning the whole armor of God.
I was tempted to bring in some illustration material, but I was prevented from doing so because my dear wife—who is going to kill me for mentioning her name again—said, “You know, bringing what you’re talking about bringing may not be good.”
My son bought me, for my birthday, because I mentioned something about our Scotch-Irish background, a plaque that tells our family name. He also bought me an Irish claymore—there is no such thing as a Scottish claymore, but it is a sword. It stands about this tall. It’s huge.
When we think about using the sword of the Spirit in the armor of God, we think about it being this huge, gigantic, double-edged sword.
The truth is, Paul was looking at a Roman soldier. I will horribly mispronounce this; someone who knows military history can do this better. I think it is a gladius. It is a short sword.
I have an instrument about that long. It is my grandfather’s World War I bayonet. It is about that long, except it is double-edged. It is a short sword.
Roman soldiers did not go out in these heroic ways that we think about, swinging a sword and screaming at the top of their lungs like Conan: “I have the power!”
They didn’t do that. They were very disciplined. They marched together, shields locked together, sword in their hand. Actually, they had a spear. The spear is not mentioned; the Holy Spirit left that out for a purpose.
When the spears were emptied, they took their shields, locked them together, and had the short swords in their hands. When the enemy came up, they opened the formation.
The phalanx pattern that the Roman soldiers had was an undefeatable military structure that stood until the time firearms were invented.
Actually, the only troops that had any type of success against the phalanx were Hannibal’s: he brought elephants.
The truth about it is, as long as the phalanx stood together, the elephant said, “I’m not messing with that. It’s got sharp points. It’s like a giant porcupine. I’m not fooling with that,” and would run off the other way.
It was only when the phalanx broke—when men broke rank—that the elephant came in. Well, you get the picture.
That’s a picture of what the Lord wants the church to be like. It is not us individually.
It is not each one having the shield of faith, having the gospel shod on our feet, having the helmet of salvation, and having the blessed breastplate of righteousness for our own self, going out saying, “Yeah, you do that.” You’re going to get mowed down.
It is us interlocked together, standing—not running, standing. Stand.
That’s one of those shoes. Roman soldiers had shoes that were the forerunners of cleats. They locked down. They couldn’t be pushed; they couldn’t be moved. That’s what the Lord meant when He gave Paul that vision.
We don’t need to break rank. We need to function as we have properly been put together by the Lord.
I want to go to a couple of verses speaking about functioning. Again, someone read Acts 5:12-16.
I’ve got a question for you. This sounds great, right? Sounds like the proper function of the church.
Go back a minute. Go back to verse 13:
But of the rest durst no man join himself to them: howbeit the people magnified them.
This event happened right after the sin with Ananias and Sapphira, where Peter stood up and proclaimed what the Holy Spirit was doing.
He told Ananias and Sapphira, “The Lord is going to take you. You’re lying to the Holy Spirit.”
The first great sin in the church, by the way, that I remember—and I will probably get corrected because I don’t remember things correctly—but this is the first sin I can remember in the church, the first major sin.
It was dealt with swiftly by the Holy Spirit. “You’re lying.” Boom.
Peter was the instrument of the Holy Spirit to proclaim God’s word on the face of the earth. Right after this come these words.
Our brother Kenny shared on Peter, and he encouraged us to read Acts. That’s why I came across these verses. When I came across this, I got the picture of Peter weeping.
They would not associate with them anymore.
I got the picture of Peter crying because—and I may be wrong—but I think this is the second error. They would not associate with them anymore. They started to be this.
Sounds great, but let’s go back a little bit. What about Acts 1:14? That’s short enough; I’ll read that one. We won’t have any adventures there, hopefully.
These all with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.
Someone read Acts 2:42-47.
Do you see a difference between those two verses of Scripture? They were all together, including the apostles, the apostles serving in their correct function.
Then, after the sin with Ananias and Sapphira, there became this division.
Like I said, I saw Peter weeping because this started the error that started clergy and laity.
There are many denominations that point to this and say, “See, God approved of this.” No.
Where did this error come from? Did the apostles want this? No. It was the people. They became afraid.
Love casts out fear. They became afraid of the very people that the Lord Jesus handpicked to teach them about love.
There is a good reverential fear we should have, but not this—not a fear that leads to classifications.
Let me point it out in another way. There is another group in Scripture that thought they had it all together. They really did. Paul had to come in and say a few words to them too. Can you guess where I’m going?
Starts with a C: Corinthians.
Now I beseech you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
For it hath been signified unto me concerning you, my brethren, by them that are of the household of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
Now this I mean, that each one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
When I first read this, I thought, “Well, yeah, they are all—no.” What’s wrong with being someone who says, “I’m of Christ”? Because it negates what the Lord prayed: that they be one—He with the Father, they with Him, and they with one another.
They thought they had it all together. They thought they were real spiritual doing this. And so do we, as God’s people, sometimes think that we are real spiritual by saying, “Hey, we got the truth.”
Oh, we do. But when the truth becomes a barrier between God’s people who also have a portion of the truth, there is a problem.
The true nature of the Lord Jesus Christ can only be seen on the face of the earth when His people gather together in a local assembly and universally as His church. That is when the testimony of Jesus is manifested on the face of the earth.
All these divisions, rumblings, and fussings that go on—“Well, I believe this, and I believe that”—most of the time, people are looking at a coin. One side says, “I see heads.” The other side says, “I’m seeing tails.” The Lord says, “It’s one coin. It’s Me.”
“You’re fussing and quarreling over seeing Me in different aspects. Instead, you should be talking together and saying, ‘I see heads.’ ‘I see tails.’ Ah, I’m starting to see a better picture of who the Lord is.”
Now, there are sects that run off in directions we do not want to go, and we know that. I’m not saying that. Again, we are not talking about ecumenism.
We are not talking about us all getting together, putting all our knowledge together, being one big happy family, and putting up with people denying that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, denying that Jesus Christ ever walked the face of the earth, or saying that He was merely a spiritual entity.
No, I’m not saying that.
What I am saying is that there are splits among people over things that are so trivial, it is not even funny.
We had a joke in the denomination I was in: there were more splits over the color of the carpet than there were about the word of God.
You laugh about that. It’s really true. There can be a misunderstanding between two brothers, and they go separate ways and never talk to one another again over something that the Lord forgave by His death on the cross—wiped it out and obliterated.
In the example with the Corinthians, let me get to this point. There is a certain brother I want to read this because I know he carries a Darby. Hint, hint. First Corinthians 11:17-19.
But in giving you this charge, I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better but for the worse.
For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and I partly believe it.
For there must be also factions among you, that they that are approved may be made manifest among you.
I’ve heard this very Scripture used as proof for why there should be denominations, why there should be differentiation, and why clergy and laity should exist.
Paul said it this way—this is my translation, so hang with me: “I hear that there’s quarrels among you. Not good.”
Let me put on my good Southern English: “This ain’t good, folks. Ain’t right that y’all are quarreling amongst one another.”
“I hear that you’ve got cliques going on, and I partly give credit to it. I have to say, yeah, you’ve got to have it, because else how could there be anyone leading you guys?”
I think that’s the spirit Paul was talking about here. He wasn’t giving approval to this. But he said it has to be because, why? We are not in unity. We are not one.
We are not gathering together as one people, each serving the function that we should have.
Time is going to fail me if I ask someone to read this, but go back and read 1 Corinthians 12:11-31. That is the proper function of the body.
The hand cannot say to the eye, “I have no need of you.” The hand has a proper function. The nervous system has a proper function.
For brothers and sisters who say there should not be any leadership in the church, try living as a body without a nervous system.
The heart says, “Well, I’m going to run ninety miles an hour.” The lung says, “I’m taking the day off.” The left foot says, “I’m going left,” and the right foot says, “I’m going right.” The hand is sitting there going, “Guys!” And no one is listening.
For those that don’t believe in leadership, that is the functionality of leadership in the church. They are the nervous system.
They take the message from the Head and relay the message back—not in the sense that we don’t have a direct relationship. I’m not saying that.
But in the analogy of a body, that’s where I see leadership. They are the nervous system. They take orders from the Head. They relay the messages.
People cannot deny that our brother Stephen hears from the Lord. He gives what the Lord has given him to us, that we can walk worthy of our calling.
As I said, time is going to fail me. I’m running over, so let me go on and get to the next part. These are the proper contexts in which we need to be thinking.
Let me say a couple more things real quickly. We should never think that we have made it. We should never say it is impossible.
Without the ethereal that I told you last week, the practical is a work of the flesh. Without the practical, the ethereal is just a mental exercise.
We have to walk this out, and we have to believe it is true.
Let me go to this preparation work that we need to have. Some of this is going to be very familiar, and we should get through it rather quickly.
How do we do this? I said it was divine. “How? Okay, it’s divine. Now you’re coming back and saying I’ve got to go do something. You’re confusing me.”
Well, yeah, there are things that we have to do so the divine life comes forth. First of all, there has to be a work of the cross.
I’ve heard many messages on the cross. I will not be able to fully give you what that means. But there are brothers whose heart is for this and who understand it more perfectly than I do.
But I will offer this one verse of Scripture. When I talk about the work of the cross, I am talking about this: 1 John 3:16.
Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
The first time I really paid attention to this, I was flabbergasted. I thought, “What? No, I need to lay down my life for Christ.” No. I need to lay down my life for you, and you need to lay down your lives for one another.
That’s what the Lord gave to the apostle John. That’s a work of the cross.
The second thing in this preparation is that we need to contend for one another.
My brother Stephen used this text in the last message that he gave, and I’m going to reiterate it: Hebrews 10:23-25.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for He is faithful that promised:
and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works;
not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh.
Now, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. What’s that promise He made? What’s that prayer that we’ve been thinking about? He is faithful.
The words consider how to stimulate are really contend. We should be in contention with our Lord—not against Him, but with Him—joining with Him in contention for one another and contending against the enemy who is coming in trying to destroy the work the Lord is doing.
To love and good works—not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but encouraging one another, and even more as you see the day drawing near.
Does that have any relevance now? Do we see the day drawing near?
Should we be abandoning one another and going our own way? No. Forsake not the assembly of yourselves together. Contend for one another, because He who made the promise is faithful.
I’m going to link it back to what the Lord prayed. I don’t think this prayer is in vain. He who prayed it knew what He was doing.
If I prayed this, you might have some doubt. He who prayed this had all authority, all power. He knew what He was talking about.
He came to the Father and said, “I want My people to be one. Father, make it so. I give them My glory. Give them the way that the world would know who I am. I want them to know who I am.”
This is the only way.
Do we believe that to be a true statement?
Matthew 13:58 contains this sad commentary:
And He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Brothers and sisters, if we sit on the sidelines and say, “I’m not sure. I don’t really believe that is for now,” I am afraid the Lord’s power is going to be hindered.
There are many things in Scripture I struggle with, and there is a certain thing I’m struggling with right now. I have to wonder if it is because I don’t believe that it is possible, or I believe that is not what the text means, that I have never seen it happen.
So, I’m asking the Lord to help me. If it is true the way it is being presented, then, Lord, I want to see it.
I’ll admit it: the question is household salvation. I struggle with that. But if it is true, I want to see it, and I don’t want my unbelief to stand in the way of it happening.
Is our unbelief in the prayer the Lord Jesus Christ gave to His Father before He went to the cross of Calvary to seal that which He prayed for—and was raised in power for it to happen—the reason we do not see it on the face of the earth?
Is it because we do not believe?
But we believe in personal salvation. I wonder.
Is there a desire for His glory to be manifest?
Someone do me a favor: read Ephesians 1:10-14. While you’re looking it up, someone else start looking up 1 Corinthians 15:23-28.
Ephesians first, please. Then someone read 1 Corinthians 15:23-28.
But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; then they that are Christ’s, at His coming.
Then cometh the end, when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
For He must reign, till He hath put all His enemies under His feet.
The last enemy that shall be abolished is death.
For, He put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He saith, All things are put in subjection, it is evident that He is excepted who did subject all things unto Him.
And when all things have been subjected unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subjected to Him that did subject all things unto Him, that God may be all in all.
This is the end that the Lord is looking for: that everything that was given to Him would be rolled up into Him, and He Himself would be rolled up into God, that in the end of time God would be all in all.
That we would be hearers of His word that has been said and be to the praise of His glory.
Do we desire His glory, or is our personal salvation and our personal walk enough?
I’m not saying that personal salvation and our personal walk are not important. They are vital. But I’ll suggest this to you: if we are not all walking in the same direction by the Head, then we become free radicals.
I think, in medical terms, when a cell behaves other than its duly appointed function, there is a term for that. I may be wrong, but I think it is called cancer.
Our individual salvation is precious, but unless we are of the body of Christ, walking together as the Head directs, in one, then we are out of order.
Lord, forgive us.
The last thing I want to say is this. There’s a last point. You always have to have three points—three points and a poem. I’m no poet, so no poem, but at least three points.
The last point I’m going to make is not a point at all. It is simply this:
If we believe that this is for now, if we believe this is the word of the Lord Himself, if we believe this prayer is real, if we believe that the only way to have a testimony is for us to be one, and we believe that this is only accomplishable through divine life, there is only one thing that we need to start doing right now.
We need to join in the Lord’s prayer and say, “Lord, make us one. We can’t do it. We don’t have the strength. But You do.”
“You gave us the very power to accomplish this on the face of the earth, that that lost and dying world—that world that went into rebellion—would see You through us and believe that You are who You say You are.”
It’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to be a picnic.
Lord, You’re worth it.
It’s worth being a testimony.
If this is in any way reflective of the Lord’s heart, I pray that we will start praying and asking the Lord to do this—for the Lord to maintain this, for His resurrection power to be manifested amongst us, and not only amongst us but amongst the whole body of Christ.
For the days are short.
I don’t know if it is a year, ten years, seven years, or a hundred years. It really doesn’t matter.
What matters is that we have this moment today to live this.
The question is: What are we going to do with this so great a salvation? Live it for ourselves, or live it together in oneness with Him who redeemed us, as a testimony of who He is?
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, we come to You because of what Your Son has done. Again, He rent His body. He yielded Himself as a sacrifice. He spilled His blood that we could enter into that holy of holies and be before You.
Lord, I believe this is Your heart. I believe in Your prayer.
The only thing I can do is ask that it be fulfilled. Lord, it is not one person; it is all of us together, Lord.
Lord, may we believe in You and believe in what You are accomplishing on the face of the earth. May we be a testimony for You. May we not fail You.
Lord, we have unlimited power in You through Your Holy Spirit to be everything You want us to be.
Lord, help our unbelief. Help us to overcome. Help us to hear from You. Help us to love one another as You were loved by the Father.
Lord, I ask this for Your name’s sake. For Your name’s sake, I pray. Amen.