Genesis Chapter 3, please. Verse 9 only:
Then the Lord God called to the man, and said unto him, Where art thou?
And then 1 Samuel Chapter 3, Verse 4:
The Lord called Samuel: and he said, Here am I.
And then in Verse 10:
The Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel said, Speak; for Thy servant heareth.
And then just familiar phrases in John Chapter 14, beginning in Verse 4. Jesus is speaking:
And whither I go, ye know the way.
Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; how know we the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
Father, we thank You for these precious times we have had together. Even tonight, we sense the glow of God Himself here, present with us. We hear the call of God being extended once again this evening, as the Spirit moves about our lives and calls out to us, “Where are you?”
Thank You for these times we have had together. We have come to share the Word of God, and You have already been here. In breaking up the bread of life to us, You have disclosed Yourself to us.
So we pray that You would help us in this last session now, just to gain some further encouragement in pressing on in this new and living way. For that purpose, we commit this time into Your precious hands. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
We have been talking about these two great theme matters: the testimony and the way. The testimony always is the truth about Who the Lord is. It remains the same. It is true.
Jesus said, “Even if I speak of Myself, My testimony is true.” Everything that He has said, everything the Word has revealed, will be proven to be absolutely true, whether man receives it or not; whether man believes it or not. The testimony of God is true.
But the Lord desires that there be some people who would walk in the way of this testimony. That is where we come in, as earthen vessels, yet bearing precious treasure—even the testimony of Jesus.
It is this matter of walking in the way that needs to be recovered, and that the Lord desires to recover in our midst.
We introduced this subject, at least when I was speaking last time, by talking about the tragedy of the unanswered call: that God has called out to all men. Every man is in Adam, and He has called out to every man faithfully down through the centuries. Even today, His voice is heard in the consciences of men: “Where are you?”
God created man with a great purpose—oh, to be a little lower than the angels and yet to have dominion, and to co-rule with God and with His Son. But since sin entered into man’s life, man has not been able to answer that call.
So, down through the history of man, there is a tragedy. Then, in the last days, these sorrows will increase, because as we draw nearer to the end, God’s Spirit more fervently goes out, saying in the last hour, “Come, and be saved before the judgment comes.”
In one sense, we could simply say that judgment will be the day when every man, one by one, will answer the question before God: “Where are you?” Every man, fully exposed and with no excuse, will stand before God in judgment.
Because of that fact, there is a sorrow, a burden. Those who hold the testimony of Jesus are to be faithful to lift up this lamp of the Lord Jesus before a world that lives in darkness and say, “This is the way, the truth, and the life.”
This tragedy has affected New York City. It is a tragic place. This tragedy has affected Israel, defaulting in her calling because of sin. This call is even felt tragically in the church, where, even though the church is called by His grace, we come to such a position of idolatry and worldliness that when the Lord calls, He has to say, “Let those who have an ear hear what the Spirit is saying in these last days.”
There is this tragic sound, and all creation groans and joins in this tragic sound, until there is a new song and the Lord’s way is realized in a new heaven and a new earth.
But we also know—and we thank the Lord for this—that there is not only a tragic song, a tragic sense, in this world. That tragedy has been tempered with another song. Even in the midst of tragedy comes forth the song of mercy.
Mercy has a different tune. The reason that mercy can be heard throughout the world is that when God called out to Adam, “Where are you?” His own beloved Son could not stand the silence of man’s default by sin. Jesus came to earth to say, “Here am I, Father. Send Me.”
That Son of Man came and fulfilled all the heart of the Father—completely, as it were—fulfilled all of the purpose that we see in Psalm 8 and in Genesis, but then even more so. In order to bring many sons to glory, He went and died on the cross, rose again, and went back to be with the Father.
Now there is a song of mercy in the air. You can hear this song. It does not say, “Where are you?” It now says, “Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden. I have made a way for you.”
You see, mercy is a particular love word that is always in the context of impending judgment. You understand that. We deserve judgment, and then mercy comes forth: “You can be forgiven. You can be delivered.”
When the Lord pronounced judgment on Nineveh, they repented and God showed mercy. Habakkuk prayed, even as he saw the Chaldeans coming and capturing Judah, “In wrath remember mercy.”
Now, because Jesus has come, died on the cross, come victorious, and answered the call, there is a way through in mercy. That way is to come to Him Who is the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father; no one can answer the call except through Him.
I do not know if, in this large auditorium, there is not somebody here who is hiding in the bushes—not responding to God’s call, even though you hear it. You feel disqualified because of sin, because of what you have done, because you have failed the Lord, because you feel you have blasphemed the Lord, or for whatever reason you feel you must hide from Him.
Mercy calls and says, “I know your name. Come unto Me. Come unto Me.” One day it is too late, but now there is mercy for those who will come.
We want to share, and have been sharing, on the seriousness of this whole thing. Praise God, Jesus became the last Adam, the life-giving Spirit. Now this mercy—we have a message to declare.
The matter of the way is this way of walking in the testimony of Jesus. Now, there are advantages and disadvantages to being the last one to share. The advantage is that you can get out of town right after you are through. The disadvantage is that other people pick and speak on salient points you were going to give.
I found that our brother Stephen pretty well exhausted much of what I wanted to say regarding the way of fulfilling our calling. I would say that we will talk about two aspects of it tonight, and it is very simple.
There is the individual response to the calling of God in our lives, to go in the way of the testimony. Of course, then there is the corporate way that needs to be recovered in bearing the testimony of Jesus. So I want to touch on these two dimensions of this call.
Keep in mind what I mentioned on the first evening: this is a tremendous thing, to be called to walk in the way, bearing the testimony of Jesus. The Lord is willing to entrust us, as earthen vessels, with a glorious treasure.
For us, who were sinners saved by grace, to be able to say, “This is Jesus,” and for somebody to be able to see Him because He is real in us and in our words—what a tremendous calling this is. But we must respond to this call individually.
The Lord is faithful, and He calls us each by name. Do you remember when the Lord first called you? Did He call your name? You may not have heard some name being called in your ear, but it is a wonderful thought, is it not? He calls us by name. He knows us so well. He calls to the conscience.
As our brother shared with us this morning, when He calls us, He says:
If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
The way is always through the cross. If we hear the call, we have to respond to the call, and there is always some cross sitting right before us.
We did not read the whole story in 1 Samuel, so I would like to go back, just so we can see what the Lord told Samuel when he said, “Speak, Lord; Thy servant heareth.” I think you will see there was a cross to bear in hearing the voice of God.
In 1 Samuel Chapter 3, as we come to the story again, let us read on where we left off, where Samuel said, “Speak, Lord; Thy servant is listening,” in Verse 10. Let us read the rest of the chapter, because this is what the Lord says to this young boy.
Now, I actually cannot imagine him three years old and receiving a message so grave, but he was a young boy. This was a call to understand the tragedy of Israel and to speak it forth faithfully.
The Lord said to Samuel, Verse 11:
Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle.
In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house, from the beginning even unto the end.
For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse upon themselves, and he restrained them not.
Therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated with sacrifice nor offering for ever.
Now Samuel—wow, what a message, huh? This little boy goes and lies down after that. So Samuel lay down until morning, and he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. But Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. Can you imagine? “Okay, now go tell Eli.” There is a cross there.
He could not do it. He was too afraid. So Eli helped him, saying, “Boy, what did the Lord say to you? Now you tell me.” Samuel was very reticent. In Verse 17, Eli said:
What is the thing that He hath spoken unto thee? I pray thee, hide it not from me: God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide anything from me of all the things that He spake unto thee.
So Samuel told him everything; he hid nothing from him. Eli said, “It is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good.” Thus Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground.
All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. The Lord appeared again in Shiloh, because the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.
Here is all of Israel, and the only one they have who is hearing from God is this little boy. But this boy is going to bear a cross, and he is going to live a lonely life. He is going to end up being an intercessor who, in the Bible, is equaled with Moses, according to the Psalms and Jeremiah, when it comes to intercession.
There was nobody like Samuel and Moses before God’s face. But Samuel lived a lonely life, and he lived a suffering life. When you bear the testimony, people suffer. People go through hard times. People cry, and people are alone.
Many of these wonderful songs that we sing, even as we sang tonight, were written by people who knew a life of loneliness—a life that they sacrificed for the sake of the testimony of Jesus, even when some of them did not really see that in their own midst.
There was a cross in Samuel’s call, and there is a cross in all of our calling.
Our brother shared this morning so wonderfully about how, when there is a call, there is a cross upon Adam—whether in Peter’s life or John’s.
If we held a popularity contest, Peter would win the fall election. But if we said, “Now, who is the nicest guy?” I think we would probably pick John.
Jesus said, “If you would be My disciple, John, Peter, Adam has to go to the cross.” We heard that this morning, did we not?
If we would bear the testimony of the Lord, we have to understand one thing: Adam cannot respond and rise up to that call. The old man has been crucified with Christ, but now we need to put to death the deeds of the flesh, because that flesh cannot bear the testimony of Jesus.
In our lives, although it is a discomfort to us, the Lord deals with us so that we might carry that testimony of Jesus. It means a lot to Jesus.
That is why there are many Christians who are Christians, and they know the Lord, but when you look at their lives, you do not see the testimony of Jesus. There is just so much flesh there that you cannot see.
This call is very individual. I just wanted to add one aspect here, because I think Paul shares about it, and I know we have all touched on it in the past.
Paul is looking at the Ephesian Christians, who are Christians and who have manifested faith, hope, and love in Jesus. But, as we all know, in Paul’s great prayer in Chapter 1 of the letter to the Ephesians, Paul has a burden on his heart. What is that?
“I want the Ephesian Christians to accept the call—that high, upward call, that heavenly call, that holy calling. I want them to walk worthy of that calling, bearing the testimony of Jesus.”
I know one of the ways that will help them to do it: if their eyes could be opened to see what is the hope of His calling.
Do you notice that in Ephesians Chapter 1, Verse 18? I think you have all read those verses many times: that the eyes of our heart might be enlightened, that we may come to a revealed knowledge, the full knowledge of Jesus Christ, that we might see what is the hope of His calling.
Unfortunately, this is where Bibles drive me crazy—when Bibles start retranslating it so that it makes sense to them. Some people take this, which literally says in the Greek that we might know “the hope of His calling,” which is obviously referring to Jesus’ calling, and some translations change it to “the hope of your calling.”
Now, that is not what it says. Although our calling does come from His calling—our calling is derivative—Paul is saying something very crucial here. It is our seeing His calling, the greatness of His calling, that helps us to see and walk worthy of our calling.
You will remember in Ephesians Chapter 4, Verse 1, he says, “I urge you, please, walk worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” What is that calling like? What does it mean to be called, to be walking according to that call?
Look at the calling of Jesus, because that is your hope. He walked as a nobleman, as a wise man, as a powerful man. He walked in love. He walked in humility. He walked in meekness. Do you see Him? Do you see Him walking?
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be opened so that you can see the hope of His calling. He walked right into glory through Calvary. What a hope. He is now King of kings, Lord of lords, all things given unto Him. He said, “I am bringing many sons to glory.”
Now, that is our hope right there. Do you hope in yourself, that you are going to be so good you are going to make it? I would rather hope that Jesus said I am going to make it, and base my hope on His calling success.
Out of that, then, we see the nobility of our calling. So what does Paul say? “I urge you to walk worthy of your calling.” Then what does he say? How should you walk worthy?
“I want you to be powerful, to heal many people, to preach all the time in the streets?” Well, he does not say that kind of stuff. What he says is, “Walking worthy of that calling, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit.”
Wow, that is a high calling. Only somebody like Jesus, somebody filled with Jesus, can have patience with the brethren. If you have patience with your brothers and sisters now, it is only because you are newly arrived in a fellowship.
It is only the patience of Christ within you that can maintain the unity of the Spirit, where every ounce of Adam in you wants to call down fire on that person. Jesus says, “You just do not know what spirit you are of.” And I say, “Oh yes, I do.” He has to deal with us.
The higher calling, the higher road, is humility, gentleness, longsuffering, endeavoring to keep the unity. There is a high calling. How many do you know who are fulfilling that calling? Blessed is such a person. Blessed is such a person in the body of Christ. They are fulfilling a noble, noble calling.
Paul mentions this because he wants to help the saints understand what we all speak and talk about. Here it is: the only way that we, as vessels who have answered the call, can bear the testimony of Jesus is when Christ is our life.
When it is Christ in you, that is the hope of glory. As we realize there is a life given us within, there is a noble life. The Lord breaks, by circumstances, sometimes our outer vessel so that precious life can come through. What a high calling this is.
As the Lord speaks your name, as you walk with Him in this living way, as you become His disciple, the Bible has so many secrets it wants to reveal. It is a precious thing to be a disciple of the Lord, though it costs much and you suffer much.
If He gives you a nickname, what it really means is this: “I know a lot more about you than you think I do.”
I think sometimes of Saul, who on the road to Damascus saw that vision of Jesus. One of the surprises he must have gotten from that whole saving incident was this: Jesus said, “You know, Saul, I know everything you have done in the past. I have had My eye on you.”
“I have seen all that you have done.” Jesus did not even tell him what was wrong. Any good parent would say, “You are wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Nasty, nasty.” But Jesus just let Saul know, “I know everything you have done. I also know something about your heart. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
What a surprise. Saul had no idea Jesus knew everything about him—everything in his past and everything in his heart.
Jesus knows you, if you are His disciple, a lot more than you think He does. Maybe you think you are hiding. Well, your cover is pretty shabby.
He not only knows your past, but, like Peter—as we heard from our brother yesterday afternoon so wonderfully—He knows what is going to happen to you and your future failures. He says, “Peter, I know you are going to fail. I just want to let you know: I know you so well. I have already made provision for you.”
“Now, when you get things sorted out and come back to Me, restore the brothers.” Jesus said, “Peter, I know a lot more about you than you think I know. I know your future. I know how you are going to mess up. And I tell you what: I love you. You are My disciple, and I am going to use it for good.”
Now, that is an amazing thing. Brothers and sisters, the Lord has called you. Have you responded to His call? Are you walking in the way?
He will come to you at times and give you a nickname. “No, no, no, no, no. Your name is Cephas.” Peter says, “Jesus, hmm, that rings a bell.” He had no idea what it meant; he found out later.
He has a nickname for you. I am not telling you to go and pray for a nickname. I am just saying, get to know the Lord, as our brother shared yesterday, in the secret place, and you will discover He knows a lot more about you and has already planned things for your life.
He knows. He knows where you are. He knows where you are.
So we walk in this individual way, and along the way we bear this testimony. Oh, what a wonderful convergence: all those accidents that happened in your life that brought you to meet a brother; all the times that a Joseph of Arimathea met a Nicodemus; and he ended up going to a fellowship because you got a phone call.
You know how the Lord weaves these miraculous events—how you meet somebody, and it is the Lord’s provision, and all of this. Oh, my, my, my. What a Lord we come to know as we walk along the way and bear this testimony. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He knows all things.
The more we know that, the more we bow before Him. The more we bow before Him, the more we become fathers who know Him Who is from the beginning. He gives us a confidence that He will work all things out, no matter how bleak things may look right now, because our hope rests in Him as disciples.
But I wanted to touch on this matter: the corporate testimony, or corporately walking in the way.
Jesus spoke to the disciples, and there was Thomas. As Jesus was talking about going away, going to the Father’s house, and preparing a place, all that did was upset Thomas. He said, “Lord, I do not know where You are going.”
Thomas reversed the thing, you see. Instead of the Lord saying, “Thomas, where are you?” Thomas was saying, “Lord, where are You? Where are You going, Lord? I do not know the way.” Jesus said, “I am the way.”
Here is my quiz for the night. It is a one-question quiz. You just put yes or no down on your piece of paper: how many of you think the disciples had any idea what Jesus meant by “I am the way”?
They had not a clue, until the Spirit gave them understanding about this. What does He mean, “I am the way”? What is He getting at? We thought He was the way; we were following Him. We thought He was the Messiah, and now He says, “I am going.” Now that kind of ruins the way.
They only knew the outward way. Jesus said, “No, I am the way.”
Then He began to say, “All right, now I want to tell you before I go: this kingdom I am telling you to build, the church I am saying I am going to build—here is the way I am going to build it.” Then John Chapters 14 through 16 explain to the disciples the way of the church.
Did Jesus say, “I want you to build a church on the model of the temple. You need a high priest; that will be you, Peter. Then you need other priests, Levites, singers, and a whole hierarchy. I want you to have a sort of big wooden thing up in the front where you do hocus-pocus and offer sacrifices. I want everybody who is a big honcho in the church to be wearing a smock with some colored bands”?
Is that what Jesus said? “Now, that is how I want you to build the church.” Is this what He said? No, He did not say anything about that.
Did He say, “I want you to build the church like a synagogue. I want you to have a bunch of elders and have one rabbi”? But, you see, it seems to be the model people have chosen today. Take your choice.
Jesus said, “No, no, no, no. Here is the church: I am going to go away, and the Holy Spirit is going to come back. He is going to dwell in you, and He is going to disclose Myself to you and My Father to you. You are going to be My house here on earth—a living house where I dwell and you dwell. That is the church. So abide.”
The disciples must have wondered, and until the Holy Spirit came, I am sure they lacked clarity about all of this.
The reason I bring that up is that, as we look on the map of Christendom, it is a pretty tragic situation, just to be really honest about it. In most organizations, you have some people who sing, some people who preach, some people who witness—but they all get paid.
That is what the Lord wants: Levites, people who get paid. Listen, we get up here and we have Ben; he comes up here and leads a hymn. We could do much better. We could hire a man—guys, guitars, drums, the whole thing—pay them, and they will do a much better job than him. Maybe not to the Lord.
Maybe the Lord wants some individual to pop up his voice and say, “Could we sing, ‘Jesus Is King’?” and sit down. Maybe the Lord wants that. Hmm? No, not when we have the whole thing worked out.
I tell you, you could go into some places today where they do Christian things, and it is a regular show. Sit down and enjoy it. Get you some popcorn. Kind of a tragedy.
It is that kind of tragedy that Jesus speaks into and says, “Well, you sure have got this thing together on your own. But where am I? I am knocking on the door on the outside of the church.” There is something wrong.
The whole aspect of this matter of calling has been specialized. When most Christians hear “calling,” they immediately think of a calling to full-time ministry.
That makes the whole concept of the calling that Jesus places on every brother and sister captive to a few people. It is a tragedy. The Lord’s testimony—He does not want it to be that way.
We have seen the church, and when you look at its history, if you look at it in the Book of Acts—can I put it to you? Perhaps this is overstating it—in the Book of Acts, they did not know what they were doing. They just were, and they were the church.
Today, everybody has a theory—an ecclesiological theory—of how the church should be built, and nobody has any idea what the church really is. We live in such a day.
Church history proves the fact that the church loses the way in the midst of doing, in the midst of walking in the ways of the church. Does that make sense to you? The church can do the ways of the church but lose the way of the church.
The ways of the church are things you learn, things you find out from the Bible that you should do. There are all kinds of ways in the church.
Most of you have heard my testimony, but I was saved when I was twenty years old. At twenty-two years old, I went to a seminary and studied to be a minister. I learned the ways of the church, and I did not know the way.
I went out in Missouri—a pastor, a missionary—utilizing the ways of the church. I had books about how to do the church. All the ways: good Bible ways, Bible-based ways.
Today there is a multiplicity of ways. You choose the way you like. Which way do you like? Which brand? Honey Nut Cheerios? Sugar Shredded Wheat? There are all kinds of ways, teachings, emphases, and experiences.
The ways are multiplied, and all supposedly based on the Bible. Yet so much of it misses the way. We have lost the way, and we are busy in the ways.
But the Lord wants to recover that which satisfies Him: the way—the way of the church that bears testimony and can bear the testimony of Jesus.
We find out that the way is not a road, is not a message, is not a blueprint. It is a Person.
The church is a Person: the Christ, Jesus Christ and His body. It is a living organism. It is not some thing that we have constructed.
So often we, perhaps even we who begin in the way, lose the way in the midst of the ways. When the way is a Person, we see that the church is found in a flow of life.
From the Head, Jesus Christ, a life is poured out upon His church, the members of His body. The church begins to live and function by this heavenly life from the throne.
It is interesting: down through history, as we say, the church often lost the way. But when groups of saints recovered the way, or rediscovered the way, it is interesting that no matter where they were in history—the seventeenth century, nineteenth century, twentieth century—it makes no difference.
When they rediscovered the way, it had a strange similarity to the way the Pilgrim Church has known down through the centuries of history. There have always been some people standing in the way.
Perhaps a remnant, perhaps not so large a group, perhaps many scattered groups, but there have been people who have stood in the way. When that way is rediscovered in any century or decade, it resembles, strangely in spiritual characteristic, those churches down through the centuries that stood faithfully.
Suddenly you rediscover the way, and you are there with Martin Luther, John Wesley, Count Zinzendorf, and J. N. Darby, because they all had this heart of enthroning Jesus.
The way is always marked by some simple characteristics. It is always a Christ-centered and Christ-glorifying way—very Christ-centered. It is always a simple way, not all complicated. Very simple.
There is a oneness and a love among the saints that is tangible. There is a fullness of the Spirit that pours out in gifts and ministries. There is light on the Word, fresh light on the Word, revelation, when they study the Word together, and they touch the kingdom.
In those seven churches in the Book of Revelation, there was Philadelphia. Well, a small group, it sounds like—not too powerful. But they were holding fast to the Word of God, loving one another with brotherly love, and honoring Jesus as Lord over them.
The Lord did not rebuke them. He said, “I have opened a door for you. Now go, bear My testimony. He who overcomes will rule and reign with Me.”
Down through history, there have been such who recovered the way and were able to hold up that lamp of testimony. The life of the company became real enough with the reality of Jesus that He could shine in the midst.
Oh, how the Lord longs for those who are willing to walk in the way. What a price is paid by an assembly willing to walk in the way. Every form of Adam will come in and try to undo the way. Every kind of man with ambition will come and try to destroy the way.
Every way the evil one can try to get in, he will try to destroy the way. Of course, it is ironic, because often the way is not a particularly strong group. But somehow the Lord protects them as our eyes are focused on Him.
There is tremendous continuity down through history. When you read these moments in history where God—where the Lord Jesus—was rediscovered as the church, it is really quite wonderful to read the testimonies.
I know you have all heard the story of Zinzendorf. I have studied some things about his life, and I want to tell you one little tidbit that maybe you did not know.
Zinzendorf was a count and a nobleman. In Germany, he took a large tract of property that he owned, and in the end three hundred houses were built on this property. Christians from various different backgrounds began to meet together there, basically refugees from persecution all over Europe.
They gathered there in this place, and they were meeting together. Well, of course, it is tough when you have Italians and Germans together. It is tough. Throw in the French and some from Bohemia, then you have the Moravians and the Germans themselves. It is tough. They are going to fight in one thing or another.
In the end, they had to sit down. They had a several-day powwow, and they drafted up a list—I forget how many points were in the list—of how you live in love with one another in this community. The people all signed this list.
This was about two months before the Spirit came down and fell in the Moravian town of Herrnhut, back on August 17, I think, 1727. A few months before that, they had signed this document.
Now Count Zinzendorf, being a count, had to go visit his relatives. He went to Poland to visit some of his count-lords, or relatives. They went to some palace and stayed with family.
While he was there, he went to the library in the city and started reading some documents. As he read them, his eyes opened up, because he read about a man named Comenius, who was the last bishop of the Moravian Brethren Church.
As the Moravian Brethren Church was being absolutely crushed and martyred in Moravia, he stood on a hillside and said, “Lord, all of our people are dying. It is the end of us as we know it. But let the seed of the martyrs be spread across the world and sprout up somewhere else.” See, a prayer or something like that.
When Zinzendorf read this, the reason his eyes popped out of his head was that this prayer, offered more than a century before, was being fulfilled in his backyard, because that is where the Moravians landed and joined. That is the Moravian revival we talk about.
When he realized that link of continuity between that which had gone before—these dear Moravian brethren who, just because they believed the Bible and believed that everybody should be able to take the Lord’s table, were killed by the thousands by the Holy Roman Empire—and yet the seed of these Moravians popped up in Herrnhut, Germany, Zinzendorf just about had a heart attack.
He realized he was fulfilling something that God was doing down through the ages: raising up faithful testimonies of those who would bear the testimony of Jesus in simplicity. The Lord wants to do that today.
When this happens in an assembly, and there is such a recovery, that is when the Alpha and the Omega gets to be the Alpha and the Omega.
If you were the Alpha and the Omega, would you not like a place where you could exercise your alpha-ness and your omega-ness—to be everything to these people, from beginning to end?
These wonderful assemblies of God’s faithful ones, even today unknown to us—probably most of them—are dotted all across the earth. There are people who meet in simplicity around the Lord, and He is with them.
There is something about His largeness, the Alpha-and-Omega-ness about Him, that is experienced in that gathering. There is something timeless about it. Because He is Alpha, you will make it.
When you read the histories of groups that have stood faithful for the testimony of Jesus—if you have read that wonderful book, The Pilgrim Church, or some of the histories of these groups—it is interesting. There are two characteristics I would like to touch on for a moment, because they involve the Alpha and the Omega.
The first thing the saints sense when they are in the way of the Alpha and the Omega, in the flow of His headship and life, is that everything seems fresh, new. It is because He is making all things new. He is the Alpha.
They may be meeting along the lines of Acts 2:42, continuing steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and prayers. There is nothing original about that.
But when they meet, they feel, “Boy, this is like original praying. We have never heard prayers like this before.” Have you ever been in a prayer meeting that is alive, and the Lord is the Head? You say, “Wow, now this is a prayer meeting. I have been to prayer meetings, but this is a prayer meeting.”
Or sometimes you come to an assembly and have the Lord’s table out in front of you. As simple as it may be, you say, “Wow, that was the Lord’s table.” Not just communion, quarterly observed and tagged onto the end of a meeting. “I think I have just touched the Lord’s table.”
Or fellowship in the Spirit, or even the Word of God presented in the light of revelation—oh, so fresh, so new. The Lord is always making all things new.
You can have a prayer meeting that goes on for years and years, but the Lord can keep renewing that with His presence. It is His presence that brings refreshing and makes all things new.
Some of the saints who found the way down through history had no idea it had been done before. They thought they were original. The Moravian brethren thought they were quite original because they were allowing everybody to take communion. They did not know that was the way it was done in the early church, because the church they had been in told them, “No, no, you do not do it that way.”
Everything was fresh. Everything was new, timeless, renewed by the Lord. Oh, may the Lord, if you are walking in the way and bearing His testimony, may you sense that freshness.
I was talking to a brother just today, and he mentioned how we get anesthetized when we come to the Lord’s table and think it is the same old, same old. Then suddenly, we come in another context, like even this morning, take the Lord’s table, and it is fresh.
You know, it should be fresh every Sunday where you and I meet. But it is up to our hearts. Are we alive and fresh? If enough of Adam comes into the meeting, not much fresh is going to happen.
On the other hand, because He is also the Omega, they sense that there is a purpose, an eternal purpose, a glory at the end.
When you read the history of these different groups and people, you find that most of them had a reviving sense of the second coming of Christ. He was coming at any time. They sensed the end was so near. They had the blessed hope in their midst.
The church today gives lip service to His second coming. But when you are in the living way, you see the beginning and the end. You know He is coming soon. He is even at the doors. It is something precious to you, not just a doctrine.
When they gathered, they sensed, “Well, we are just a gathering, but we have an important purpose: to bear the testimony of Jesus.” They sensed that they had an end purpose, a goal.
There are many so-called churches that seem to be on the old cyclical theory of reincarnation. Everything just cycles around, cycles around. The church cycles and goes nowhere.
But when you are in the way, you know you are on the way. There is a goal and a purpose and an upward call, as Paul calls it. Oh, it is wonderful. It is living. It is the beginning and the end in the midst—a small group, large because of the presence of Jesus.
I think the Lord calls to His church. He says, “My beloved, where are you?”
I do not want to come to the end, after we say, “Oh, we have done a lot. We have walked in the ways of the church. We have done a lot of Christian things,” and then the Lord says, “You know, I do not know you.”
He says, “Where are you? Where are you?” He speaks to our assemblies. That is what Revelation Chapters 2 and 3 are all about. He is speaking to the assemblies: “Where are you? Where are you? Where is that love? Where are you?”
“What are you doing inside there? I am on the outside. Where are you? Where are you getting all infatuated with this Jezebel woman? It is Me. I am the center. Where are you?”
You see, the church loses its way. But there are saints—saints I am going to call Thomas saints—who say, “Lord, we do not know the way. Where are You, Lord?”
Of course, He is always right there, but He is wanting to lead the church. Can He do that? Does He have a right to lead His church, His body?
I do not know why we are leading it around this way and that. If we just give Him the true reins—not merely saying, “Jesus is our Lord and the Head of the church.” Is there a church in the world that does not say that? We are talking about reality.
Is He really the Lord of the church, leading it in the way He wants it to go? We are talking about these things because this way is so tremendous. It is such a privilege to walk in the way and bear the testimony of the Lord Jesus. It may be costly, but what a privilege it is. This is a great calling.
Some people say, “Well, you know, sometimes the Lord recovers the church, but it only lasts for a generation at most. It kind of dies off after a while, and the way gets lost in the ways.”
Well, that is possible, is it not? Things go from life to tradition, from the way through the ways. But it does not have to be that way.
The antidote—or I should not say the antidote—but the way for the church to bear that testimony today, even after years, is this: are there those who hear what the Spirit is saying to the church? Are we willing to repent?
Let us say that we have comfortably got everything set up now the way we kind of like it. Let us say the Spirit speaks to our hearts about our condition. Are we willing to repent?
Have done with Adam, however he has gotten into the midst. Have done with traditions or things that are not the Lord’s mind, no matter what it costs. Then we can walk in the living way.
But who is going to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church today? Are we so used to our way that we are sure it must be right? We have been so blessed over the years. But slowly and surely, the way of the Lord gets obscured, and we are just going through exercises that become tradition.
No, no, no—not if there are people praying and hearing what the Lord would say to the church today. Most often, it involves repentance. Not just repenting for repentance’s sake, but something actually wrong that is draining the very life of the Lord out of that assembly.
Who is sensitive to hear that? Is there a Thomas in the midst who says, “Lord, we do not know the way,” or, “We have lost the way. Lord, show us the way”?
The Lord always answers when somebody says, “Lord, please show us the way,” if they are willing to follow in the way.
Even after years, even when we think we have gotten too old and tottery and we are over the hill, the Lord has a plan that we have not quite always understood. It is this: a new generation of those who hear the Lord’s voice, who are willing to pay the price to live in that way with Jesus as Lord.
They rediscover that life before the Lord, the fullness of the Spirit, and the expression of worship that is living. He has a new generation.
If those of us who have been around for a while will pray, the Lord will raise up from our midst, with a brand-new calling as it were, a new generation to carry that torch of the testimony of Jesus.
I want to finish with a Scripture that we all know. To me, in light of this matter of calling, it is a great comfort. It is in 1 Thessalonians 5:24:
Faithful is He that calleth you, Who also will do it.
Faithful is He Who calls you. He will bring it to pass.
As we close tonight, I want you to answer those questions in your heart. First of all, could I ask this: have you responded to God’s call?
Have you come out in the open and said, “Here am I, Lord. Speak”?
Another matter I think maybe you have been thinking about since yesterday: have you come back to your secret place? The secret place you had with the Lord, but lost in the shuffle of business or whatever.
Have you rediscovered that place where you can close the door and He is always there? The secret place. Are you willing to regain the secret place if you have lost it?
Just another thought to meditate: have you heard the call to discipleship? Are you willing to say, “Lord, I rise to follow You. I deny myself. Train me, Lord. Teach me, Lord. I am Your disciple”?
Have you responded to that call beyond what we wrongly call today “the call to become a Christian”? Are you now willing to be a disciple—out in the open, a big L, a big learner letter on your back, so everybody can see you are Christ’s student?
Has there been revealed to you anything of His glorious way, precious way? Are you willing to walk in that way—the simplicity of that way, the Christ-centeredness of that way? Have you seen that? Can you respond to that?
We have such a diverse crowd here. I realize some of you are privileged, and it is indeed a privilege to gather with people who desire to be all that God wants them to be. They have nothing to lose. They do not have much of a reputation or status, but they want to be all the Lord wants them to be.
Oh, may the Lord recover and show His way and reveal His testimony there in your midst. It is such a privilege to be gathered with such people.
But I know there are probably many people here who do not have such a privilege. Maybe you go somewhere where things are pretty much set up in a professional way. Is it possible to overcome in such an environment?
There may be some people here who are actually sort of alone, and you cannot even really find fellowship near where you are. Well, that may be the Lord’s time for you. But do you know you also, as an individual, as a disciple of the Lord, can be a testimony even when you are alone?
Do you hear His voice? Do you respond to His voice?
I think probably most of you know Dale and Helen King. They go over to England a couple of times a year to see Brother Flack. He is now—how old?—one hundred and five years old.
He has been living out in the southern part of England for a while. I think he is pretty much on his own since his wife died. Yet, strangely, it seems like an awful lot of people in town know him.
Why is that? Because a one-hundred-and-five-year-old man is so full of the Lord, everybody knows him. When he talks to you, if you ever got a letter from him, it is all Scriptures.
For years, he has lived out there as a testimony. I do not know if he was ever in an assembly out there in that town. No. But even with that, he would go to this church and that church as he was physically able, and everybody—he would just come in, and the Lord would radiate off the sky.
He bore the testimony of Jesus: a servant, a disciple of the Lord.
Oh, what a privilege it is, whether we are just one, or just a family, or an assembly, or whether you are there overcoming in some larger situation. Do not stop praying. Be a Thomas: “Lord, show us the way. We do not know the way. Show us the way.”
The Lord surely will recover. He loves to answer such prayers.
The testimony, the way—we hear the call. Will we respond?
Our Father, we come to You tonight. We thank You for Jesus, and for the clear knowledge from the Word that He is the only way, truth, and life.
We want to live within the Alpha and the Omega, and to live in that heavenly atmosphere of Mount Zion: to be able to understand what it means to truly have fellowship, to truly know Your Word, to truly break bread together, to truly pray, to truly live for Christ individually and as assemblies.
Oh, recover that which was lost. Lord, restore us if we have gotten busy in the ways and have lost the way. Oh, restore us, Lord, to a living testimony—the new and living way bought by the blood of Christ.
Oh, let us be those who bear that testimony of Jesus and Who He is. Lord, would You have mercy on us in this day of tragedy, and speak to our conscience, our heart, and tell us what You really think.
Speak, Lord. Your servants are here this weekend to hear. For Jesus’ sake, we pray. Amen.