Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. Please turn with me to the book of Luke, Luke Chapter 19. We will read verses 12 and 13.
A certain nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return.
And he called ten of his slaves and gave them ten minas and said to them, “Do business with this until I come back.”
Then the book of Galatians, Chapter 5, verse 13.
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
But if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
And then 1 Corinthians Chapter 9, verse 19.
For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.
Finally, the book of John, Chapter 17. We will begin with verse 1.
These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee.”
Verse 11:
And I am no more in the world, and yet they themselves are in the world; and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.
Verse 17:
Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth.
As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in 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.
Verse 22:
And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.
Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world.
Let us bow for a word of prayer.
Our Father, we thank You this afternoon that we gather under Your name, the name which is above every other name. We thank You, Lord, that we can read in Your truth. Lord, we can read something that has been true from the beginning.
Lord, we thank You, for You are our King of glory, and all of our hope of glory is in You. So, Lord, this afternoon, as we come before You, may You speak to us. Lord, would You quiet our hearts down in the speaking and in the listening, so that we can hear what You have to say?
Lord, we are very thankful to You for all of Your grace toward us. Lord, we pray that You would be glorified in our midst. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, our theme verse for the conference was in Luke Chapter 19: “Occupy till I come.” We shared on this parable yesterday evening, and it is a parable regarding this one question for us. Rather, it was a command: “Occupy until I come.”
We shared that we have a freedom, that our Lord Jesus, when He came, set us free from the punishment of our sins. But we posed a very critical question: What shall we do with the freedom that we have been given?
We remember that the bondservants had already been purchased. They were saved ones, as you and I are. It was after they had been saved, after they were bondservants, that the master came to them and said, “Occupy yourself with these until I come.”
Now, brothers and sisters, our salvation was the beginning of a wonderful journey. The question that we ask this weekend is this: a freedom has been won for us, a hard-fought, high-cost freedom. What shall we do with this freedom that has been won for us?
Yesterday, we shared about Peter—what Peter had written in 2 Peter. Peter had said that our freedom is unto being bondservants. The example that we used was that of Philemon.
We remember that Philemon was a wealthy man, and he had a slave named Onesimus. Onesimus was truly a slave; he was owned by Philemon. But somehow, in some way, Onesimus escaped, and he ran for his life. He ran away from his slavery, and he came to Paul.
Paul, at this point, had been imprisoned. Onesimus came to believe in the Lord whom Paul believed in, because he saw this man. This man had nothing of freedom. He could not go where he wanted; he had to stay in house arrest, chained. But when Onesimus met him and talked to him, he realized that in Paul was a man who was more free than he could ever be.
Onesimus was no longer a slave physically, but he knew in his heart that he was not a free man. So, as he shared with Paul, Paul wrote a letter to Philemon, and it was to be delivered by Onesimus. Onesimus was going to go back. He was going to choose to be a slave for the Lord rather than to be free without Him.
Brothers and sisters, in these days what we realize is that the Lord is after a victory. It is a huge victory. The enemy, in his mind, tempted Eve to set her free. When Eve was set free, in quotations, we were all released. We were released from what humankind—what the flesh—perceived to be a life in which we had no choice.
Our eyes were opened. But what happened to Eve, and what has happened to us, is that we were never set free. We actually became slaves. We became slaves to our flesh. Our Lord came to die for us, that the flesh would no longer have power over us and that we would no longer be held hostage to our sin.
The enemy thought, “Now man, their eyes have been opened. Men and women can choose on their own. In them is something of me: a fleshly life. I have always chosen for myself, as will they. So the victory will be mine.”
Our Lord could have changed the rules. He could have made it so that we had no free will, so that we had to choose for Him. But that would not have brought about the victory. He knew, through His wisdom, that He was going to open up a way for us.
When that way was opened, men and women who believed in Him would see in Him a glory, and we would be won over by a wonderful Savior. When we were won over by Him, we would choose for Him despite the fact that we had to choose against ourselves.
So He did not change the rules. It was according to this freedom to choose our own way. The Lord is after His victory, and that is that those who have been made free to choose their own way will not choose the way of pleasure of their flesh, but will choose for Him. In the end, the victory will be the Lord’s.
Now, brothers and sisters, the question we have is: how, in these days, shall we occupy ourselves? How can the Lord obtain a victory in us?
Today, we would like to shift our attention to Paul. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians Chapter 9 and in Galatians Chapter 5—we just read it together—“I am a free man, but I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.”
He said, “I am a free man, but I have chosen to serve one another.” He was saying something just as Peter shared: our freedom is unto being a bondservant to Christ. Paul was saying that in our freedom, we are to serve one another.
One spoke of His lordship, His headship: that in our freedom we would choose to make ourselves bondslaves to His headship. Another speaks of the building up of the body of Christ unto a full maturity, a bride made ready. Today, by the Lord’s grace, maybe we can share a little bit on how we might occupy ourselves with this.
Brothers and sisters, this was a very dramatic change for Paul. Saul was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was trained under Gamaliel. According to the law, he was blameless. He was the finest, the highest, the most well educated. He was the next great one.
One day, he met a man named Stephen. Stephen, of all things, was a waiter. He served food, and he believed in the Lord Jesus. Saul’s anger, and the anger of all the Pharisees, burned against him. They deemed that they were going to kill him.
As Stephen was being martyred, they could not break his spirit. They watched him, and they saw in his face this peace that none of them knew. Saul’s anger burned even more. How could this waiter—with no formal training, not a Pharisee, not blameless—have such peace in his face?
His heart burned against them, and he began to breathe threats and murder against the house of God. He set in his heart that he was going to destroy this movement. So he obtained permission, and on his way to Damascus, a bright light shone down around him. He was struck down, and he heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
Who was this? Saul was struck down, and he could not see. He said, “Lord, who are You?” Saul had never met Him this way. The Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
Saul was struck blind, and those who were with him led him into town. There was a street called Straight Street, and there was a man who lived there named Judas. They brought Saul to his house, and Saul began to pray.
He knew the whole Scripture back and forth, and all of a sudden it was opened to him. All of the truth from the beginning of time was made real to him. He saw it. He had persecuted many Christians and, thus, persecuted the body of Christ.
Nearby there was an ordinary man named Ananias. He had a vision, and the Lord told Ananias, “I want you to go to Straight Street. Go to Judas’s house. Saul is there. He is praying. He is blind. You need to go there and lay hands on him so he can see again.”
Ananias said, “I know this Saul, Lord. He has done great harm to Your people.” But he went. When he arrived, Saul was praying. The Bible tells us that Ananias came near to him and said, “Brother Saul, receive your sight.”
I think this was a nice moment for Saul, because he was his brother. When Saul tells the story from his own account—not from Acts Chapter 9, but when he was before Agrippa—he said, “And I looked up at him,” meaning Ananias. The first thing he saw when his eyes were opened was his brother.
Saul had his eyes opened, and he told King Agrippa, “I have been faithful to the heavenly vision.” For the rest of his life, he was not unfaithful to that vision that he saw at the beginning.
Yesterday, we shared that before the Lord entered Jerusalem for the last time, He shared one last parable with His disciples to crystallize in their minds what it was to be occupied with the things of His heart.
After entering Jerusalem, He gathered His disciples together in the upper room. He went down on bended knee, and, to the shock of His disciples, He girded Himself with a towel and began to wash their feet. Then He instructed them, “Serve one another.”
When He was finished, He prayed. What did He pray for? Brothers and sisters, the prayer of the Lord Jesus is a powerful and effective prayer. I think we would all agree. Our Lord prayed that we might be one.
When I was preparing for the message, I asked the Lord, “What does this have to do with being occupied?” Sometimes we think that the story of the minas is not a perfect illustration. It is not perfect because there is a separation between the master and the slaves. The master departs.
Because, in the parable, he is a man, he cannot be in two places at the same time. So it speaks of a physical separation. But we remember that when the Lord and His disciples were at Caesarea Philippi, the Lord said:
I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
As we are occupied in these days with the things of His house, brothers and sisters, He is still at work, and He is doing a great thing. In this passage, His last prayer speaks of a work that He is continuing to do, and we are somehow occupied in what He is doing.
It is by His strength, and it is through His vision. It is from Him, and it is unto Him. He prayed for this, and what He prays for cannot but happen.
Sometimes our problem is that we cannot keep our fingerprints off the things that the Lord is doing. We want to do it, and we know the best way to do it, and that is my way. We think, “Lord, You will build Your house. Can we help You in some way?”
We have a heart to help, but we trust so much in our own ways. We write books, and we build a ministry around something of our own way. But in this last prayer, it is amazing how little we can do.
What are we occupied with? I do not know. In the matter of oneness, we may be occupied with keeping our own hands off what the Lord is doing. In the Lord’s work, there is a time to take up, and there is a time to lay down.
The Lord is praying that we might be one. This oneness is not something new for us to manufacture. It is something very old. From the very beginning, there were three, but there was really only one. They were so together that they were one.
Yet, as They functioned, They were three: our Father, our Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. The three of Them were one, not because They agreed to compromise or agreed to share in the power and responsibility.
In our human mind, the only way that three can be one is if we come together and decide, “I will yield to you on this, but you must yield to me on this.” In the end, we believe that our unity, or our oneness, is manufactured by our own ability to find some common ground.
But brothers and sisters, that is not the oneness that the Lord prayed for. The Lord was praying for a oneness that was from before. Throughout John Chapter 17, He keeps mentioning it: “It is what We had before. Can they have it as well?”
It is something very precious. It belongs to the very character and nature of our God. We remember in Philippians Chapter 2 that our Lord Jesus did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. He was equal with His Father.
But here we see how three can be one. He submitted Himself entirely to His Father. There was no compromise: “You are My head, and I will do what You say. I will not do anything that You do not tell Me to do.”
The Bible is clear: They were equal, but He submitted. The Spirit is always pointing to the Lord, always, never pointing to Himself—always pointing to the Lord. The Father’s whole heart has been captured by preparing a bride for His precious, beloved Son, the love of His heart.
This old oneness is the true oneness. It is the oneness that was from the very beginning. It was never created, manufactured, or negotiated. The Lord was praying for that oneness for us. It is a perfect fellowship, and it had always been so from the beginning of eternity.
But then, brothers and sisters, about two thousand years ago, the oneness was broken for a moment. Our Lord Jesus knew that there had to be a consequence for sin, a heavy punishment, and that punishment had to be separation.
As the Godhead in Their wisdom decided, “How do We solve this problem?” the Son of God was sent in complete obedience to be separated for the first time in eternity from His Father.
On that day, when He was crucified for us, His Father turned His face away. Our Lord Jesus cried out:
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
It had to be this way. Brothers and sisters, if His prayer that they may be one was going to be answered, it could not happen without His separation from His Father, so that we would never again know that separation. This was a great gift to us.
The Lord has always been working, and He has always been working to build His house. He longs for a people who understand what He is doing in His heart.
On the day when He was crucified for us, a Roman guard came to Him, took a spear, and thrust it into His side. We know the story: out of His side came forth blood and water. John said, “I saw this with my own eyes,” that out of Him came this life.
This life, which had been bottled up in this mortal man, all of a sudden came forth. When you and I declare in our hearts, “Lord, I believe in You. You are my Savior,” this little bit of His life that was poured out on that day comes into us.
It is as if the spirit that died in our heart suddenly has a little beachhead in our heart. The spirit becomes alive again, and His life can come into our heart and dwell there. It is a miraculous thing that a heart completely dead and completely against Him can suddenly have this little surface area of life.
His Spirit and His life can come and fellowship with us. When we were saved, brothers and sisters, this speck of life came into you and me. If we could turn the lights off and turn on the spiritual lights, and look over this entire room, we would see all these lights everywhere—these bits of His life in every saved one.
Everyone who is truly saved has these little specks of His life. This life has known oneness from the very beginning. This life is not separated; it is one.
There is a spiritual reality: in you and me already, this life has found a ground. In you and me already, this life understands what it is to be one. It is one Spirit, one baptism, and one word, and it is in us.
There is one Spirit in us, and that Spirit is constantly working so that this oneness—which is the spiritual reality—might come to maturity.
Sometimes it is hard to believe, because this little speck of life is glowing, but when we turn the world’s lights back on, all of a sudden we see that we are all different with our eyes. We see different heights, different backgrounds, different cultures, and different personalities.
We think it is impossible. We cannot be one because you do not understand what I have gone through, and I do not understand what you have gone through. We cluster together because we think that is oneness—that there is a oneness in our flesh that gives us peace.
Brothers and sisters, this little speck of life is currently being housed in a body of flesh, a broken vessel. This life cannot die. Do we know that? It cannot die.
One hundred years from now, that life will still be alive in glory, whether the Lord returns tomorrow—or you might live past one hundred. Let us use one hundred and twenty, like our brother used. No matter what, that life cannot die, and it is wonderful.
But the flesh in us is doomed to die, and it is still hanging on. It is trying to exert its headship. The flesh is always pointing out how we cannot possibly be one. “We are too different.”
Sometimes, brothers and sisters, I despair over this. I despair because I think with my eyes, and I see how different we are. I think, “How can the Lord do anything?” But I have made Him too small.
Our Lord is always working. The life has already been planted, and He is growing it up. He is doing a marvelous work. The world is always causing us to look at the outside things, the visible things.
We size one another up. We have different education levels, and we think they are so important. We have different socioeconomic levels, and we think those are so important. We have different cultures, and our facial features are different, and we think they are so important.
I think because I can put so many silly diplomas on a wall behind my desk that it somehow makes me who I am. Brothers and sisters, this is a huge temptation of the enemy. This is huge.
Several months ago, I came to visit my brother who led the songs today. I was driving through New York City, and I was just thinking to myself, as I saw all these high-rises, that it was like I was in the center of the world.
I thought, “Boy, it must be great to have a corner office on the—I could not even look high enough—but it must be great. It must be glorious.” Brothers and sisters, we think these things are so wonderful.
We have all fallen to this temptation. But brothers and sisters, we cannot bring it into the house of God, because the standards of the world have no place here.
I know this. I have been so fooled by it in my life. I have been captured by it at times. The only thing that can save us is for our eyes to be opened to see what real glory is.
Oneness, as our brother mentioned this morning, is really an inward truth. Why is our oneness so important?
Nowadays, my sons do something called Rainbow Loom. I do not know if anyone knows what this is, but you might have seen people—maybe dads—walking around with these bracelets on their wrists that are made up of a million little rubber bands.
They sit there and make them from this plastic contraption with a little hook. They spend so long, and then they come and say, “Dad, I made you this bracelet.” You put it on. The Wall Street Journal published a paper on this: you were permitted to wear three; you could not wear more. But they show that someone in your family loves you.
If one of my older sons were making this for me, and instead he brought me just a bag full of rubber bands and poured them on the ground, saying, “Dad, here, this is yours,” it would be something different. They make these little rubber bands into one little bracelet for us, and it is really a symbol of his love for me.
I have always been taken by Revelation Chapter 19. When the bride is made ready, the Bible tells us:
Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.
And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
The bride, when she is made ready, will be clothed in this linen. This linen is made up of the righteous acts of the saints.
In Psalm 45:13, the Bible tells us about the King’s daughter, with her train and her robe, and in her garments there is gold interwoven into the robe. Every time I see a bride walking up, and we see the train of her robe, I think about this.
This fabric was woven together, and it was woven together in coordination. Somehow, in all of our separate lives, this little spark of life can yield something of the Lord’s heart—gold—and then we are threaded together. The bride can be adorned with this linen.
What a marvelous thing this is, brothers and sisters. If there is anything to encourage us forward, the bride will be made ready, and she will be adorned by the works of the saints. In this working, there is a oneness, a coordination.
We also remember that, at the end of Revelation, the bride has one voice:
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.”
One voice. If we were all hollering out together, it would be a mixture of many different sounds. But there is a oneness and a coordination, and we call out, “Come, Lord Jesus.” There is something so important about this oneness.
In John Chapter 17, the Lord prayed for us unto this oneness, and He prayed three things that might help us. In these three things, there is very little that we can do about them, but they are so powerful.
The first is in verse 11. The Lord prayed, “I am no more in the world, and yet they themselves are in the world; and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name.” Keep them in Thy name.
All of us have our own name. In this room there are hundreds of us with hundreds of different names. If we were to rely upon ourselves, our names represent our identity, and there are hundreds of different identities in this room.
But our Lord was praying that we might be kept in His name, that we might have some sense of what our true identity is. The name is actually a very old name. It is a name from long ago.
We remember when Moses was nervous about going back to Pharaoh. He said, “Who shall I tell them sent me?” Our Lord said, “You tell them, ‘I AM has sent you.’” I AM. I just am. That was His name.
Moses received the Ten Commandments, and one of them read, “You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain.” What does that mean?
We remember Solomon saying, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” There is an emptiness in this vanity. The root of the word vanity is the root of the word vain: we shall not take His name and make it empty, of no worth.
Still, brothers and sisters, the name of the Lord was hard to say. There was some distance. But then our Lord came, and our Lord taught us to pray:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
The people who did not know God—the Pharisees—could not stand it. “How can You call Him Your Father? You are making Yourself out to be equal with Him. It is too close. It is too familiar.”
But, brothers and sisters, there is one name that is at the same time full of closeness and full of reverence, and that is our Father.
Then, in John Chapter 20, after the Lord was crucified, Mary came to the tomb. The tomb was empty, and she began to weep. A man came to her, and she thought He was the gardener.
She said, “Could You please tell me where You laid the body?” Then He said her name: “Mary.” All of a sudden, she knew who He was. She was clinging to Him, and He had to say, “Stop clinging to Me.”
Then He said, “Go tell My brethren.” This had never been said before. “Go tell My brethren that I am going to My Father and your Father.” You see, the name became ours. It was close to us.
It became easy for us to say, and it is a wonderful thing. There is power in this name. It is marked upon us—every one of us who has been saved. It is marked in us. This is the name of the Father.
Paul said, “From now on, let no one trouble me, for I bear on my body the brand-mark of Jesus.” He was saying, “No one bother me anymore because I know to whom I belong. I am His. On my body it reads His name.”
All of us who have been saved have His name upon us. We cannot see it; it is inward. But we are so occupied in these days with the things of our own name: what diploma says my name on it, what I have done with my own name on it, what deed to my house says my name on it.
But brothers and sisters, who are we? What is the life that holds headship in this fleshly body? It speaks of being occupied with that identity. Who are we? Who is our identity?
When we know that identity, the spiritual reality of that name upon my heart—of Whom I belong to—something unworldly begins to happen. The outside things that separate us begin to collapse. My rights begin to dissolve.
The Holy Spirit takes hold of that beachhead in our heart and begins to have headship. That name becomes the name above all names. We begin to revere it, and it is who we are.
Yes, on the outside we are different. We look different, act different, and speak different languages. But, brothers and sisters, we have the same name. If we could see all of us, we would see the same name written in our hearts—for those of us who truly believe.
On the West Coast, in the Lord’s wisdom, He has caused some of us to serve together. This is an interesting thing. I have to tell you something that is hard to believe: I am Asian, I am five foot nine, and on the day after Thanksgiving dinner I weigh one hundred and fifty pounds.
One of the brothers with whom the Lord has placed me to serve in His house is six foot five. He weighs two hundred and fifty-two pounds, and he tells me that some days it is two pounds more and some days it is two pounds less.
When we are together, we look kind of different. He is a big guy. Sometimes he will come to work, and people look at us and think, “You just do not make sense in the world. You should not be friends.”
We were at a meeting recently, and another brother with whom we serve was telling us that when he was younger he used to be in the math club. This brother was next to me, and he whispered, “I used to beat up guys like him.”
We are so different, brothers and sisters. But we all have the same name. In this name, the spiritual reality of the oneness somehow begins to seep into what we can see with our eyes. It is an amazing thing, and no one can explain it.
In the world, we are all stratified out because our names are important to us. I size you up, or you size me up. But the name has to have headship in our lives.
The other thing about the name is that we cannot take the name in vain. Sometimes we see a brother or sister who is going through difficulty, and we might say in our hearts, “You know what? They brought that upon themselves.” Or we might say, “I knew that they would fail.”
Brothers and sisters, this is not good. Upon everyone who believes, the name is over them. We cannot take the name of the Lord in vain.
When we look at one another, we have to see that name imprinted upon one another. Love the name, and love the brothers and sisters. We cannot take the name in vain. It is who we are.
We have the same life, and we share that life together. When one suffers, we all suffer. Brothers and sisters, we cannot take the name in vain.
Everyone who has a name written on them—the Lord is still working. He will not stop working. I still remember very vividly when I had fallen. I remember how the Lord persisted after me. He would not let me go.
He keeps chasing after us. This is a story that multiple of us share: He keeps after us in His faithfulness. Every one of us on whom that name is imprinted has received a gift. We shared yesterday that the gift is irrevocable.
He will never stop being after us. He never gives up hope. He never loses hope. So we cannot look at one another and say, “That is just what I thought would happen.” He never gives up hope.
This name is true, it is real, and it is unto a true oneness. There is nothing we can do to manufacture it. But in some way, we need to occupy ourselves with knowing that this is His work, that He is faithful, that He is able, and that He alone has all the power.
The second thing that He prayed for was in verse 17: “Sanctify them in the truth.” In case we are uncertain, the Lord prayed, “Thy word is truth.”
He prayed, “As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word.” That is all of us. Then He prayed that they may all be one.
His name is our identification, but our foundation must always be this truth.
In these days, the Word is under assault from every direction. When we give a message, sometimes we are scared even to choose certain passages because it is so impossible to share on them in these days.
As soon as we move away from a very superficial gospel of grace to the deeper things of the Lord’s heart, it is not acceptable. Brothers and sisters, we cannot minimize grace, but there is more.
The Word is under assault in every corner of the world—in religious circles and, of course, in our working world. There are certain things that we can say and are at liberty to say, but the moment we mention that we take this Word in its entirety to be true, that is too much.
It is acceptable to take it in part, but we cannot pick and choose which parts we believe because it is convenient. It is one Word.
When Pilate was with the Lord, he said, “What is truth?” We know what is true. There is a Word. This Word was written over thousands of years by many different people.
It was written by men of great education and men of high reputation. It was written by fishermen. It was written in different centuries and different millennia. It is completely consistent, written by people who never met one another.
Why? Because, in truth, it was written by the Spirit, Who had headship in every one of them. To us today, it is our precious Word of truth, and it is meant for us personally.
For many years, I was far away, but the Word saved me. I am thankful for it. Even now, when I go to a hotel, I always open the drawer. Every time I stay in a hotel, I look at the Bible there.
I wonder when someone will come to that hotel one day, totally lost, find that Word, and open it. They will be just like me: the Word will save them. The Word is a wonderful thing.
It saves us, and it can save us daily. It is meant to be partaken of every day.
In Psalm 119—when we were kids, we used to joke around: “What Psalm do you want to memorize? Make my brother memorize Psalm 119.” It is the Psalm that is so long. But it is filled with descriptions of the Word.
When we read through it, we find that by the Word we can keep ourselves pure. The Word revives me. The Word causes me to revere Him. The Word saves me. The Word is His vehicle for grace.
I am afflicted by the Word, but it is unto that affliction that I learn the truth. The Word, brothers and sisters, is our life.
The Word also can cut to the flesh. There is a huge enemy to oneness, and I think we all know it: our gigantic flesh life, our flesh nature, that wants only to be glorified. It will not share the glory with anyone, far less the Lord Jesus. The flesh wants to be everything.
The Word is a foundation for the working of the cross in our lives. We read through it sometimes, and it stings us. We read it and think, “How is that what I am reading today?”
We may be going through something, open the Word, and find that it speaks specifically to what we are going through. We wanted comfort. We wanted the Word to say, “It is okay that you are doing this.” But the Lord points strictly and specifically to our hearts: “This is what I am putting My finger on. This is in opposition to Me.”
Brothers and sisters, this Word is alive. It is working, and it is working against our flesh.
I remember when I was in high school, when I began to believe in Him more. I believed in Him, but He was becoming more to me. Certain days, when I tried to be out there and could not, I would go to the library and bring my Bible. I would read it in the library.
I do not know how long or how much I read. I do not think I remember anything I read. But somehow, those words were planted in my heart.
There was a moment when I was so worried in my life. It was the night that my first son was born. My wife and I were in our bedroom, and my wife said to me, “I think it is time.” I said, “No, it is not.”
We did not really even have a bed. We had two mattresses—a mattress and a box spring—tucked against the wall. I leaned over and buried my head in the drywall of the wall. It felt cool. I laid there and said, “This cannot be happening.” I was so nervous.
I prayed, and the Lord told me something. He told me, “You can never tell anybody what I tell you.” So I cannot tell you what He told me. I have never told my wife what He told me.
Later, I was reading through the Bible one day, and I found out that what He told me was a verse in the Bible. Hallelujah. I began to—I could not believe it.
You see, brothers and sisters, it was an encouragement to me. That Word has encouraged me from that day until today. It had nothing to do with my son, in fact.
The Word is alive, and we need to be sanctified in it regularly. We have to make it real to us. We have to value it. It will save us.
If I could mention to my brothers and sisters who are in high school and in college: read the Word. Every time you do homework, read the Word. That is how I did it.
When I used to sit down and do my homework, I always read the Bible before I started. If I am going to read a book about geometry, I had better read a book about the living God.
Read it. What you will find is that it will be a huge help to you. It will carry you many days. Many days when you are lost, He will find you because of this Word, and you will find Him precious.
Finally, He prays one last thing: glory.
And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one.
Brothers and sisters, what is glory? There is an old glory. It is more glorious than the flag. There is an old glory, and we have never been able to see that old glory.
Moses asked, “Can I see Your glory?” God said, “I cannot show it to you; you will die. But I am going to cover you up, and I am going to let you see My back.” Moses saw a glimpse of that old glory, and he came down with his face glowing from it. They put a veil on him. It is that majestic.
When the tent of meeting was finished and the cloud came down into the tent, Moses could not even enter it because the glory was dwelling in His dwelling place. He could not go in.
When Solomon finished the temple, they brought in the ark, and the poles were jutting out. The glory came in, and the priests who were supposed to be serving fell. They could not even stand to serve.
Brothers and sisters, there is an old glory, a great glory. If we saw it, we would be struck down. It is so great. We wanted to see this glory, but we could not.
So one day, this baby was born. The glory that He had had from the beginning, He emptied it. He emptied it all, and He came down as a little baby.
His mother and father brought Him to the temple to present Him. An old man named Simeon was there, and he had been waiting for the consolation of Israel. What was he waiting for? Who knows?
One day, they brought the baby in and gave the baby to him. He looked at the baby, and then he prayed, “Now, Lord, Your servant can go in peace, for I have seen the glory.” It was a baby.
He made it so that we could see Him. It is a different glory. As He grew up, everyone who saw Him could not explain Him. They could not figure Him out. There was a glory about Him.
If you looked at Him with human eyes, you would think, “Who is He? He was from Nazareth. His face is marred. He is a carpenter’s son. Who is He? What is so marvelous about Him?”
But those who were looking could not figure it out. They were drawn to Him. The children loved running to Him. People were not afraid to barge in on Him and say, “Lord, can You help my son? Can You save me from this bleeding?” They would come and touch Him.
There was something about Him. They knew it. But the people who looked at Him with the eyes of the world disdained Him.
Those of us who saw Him realized there was a glory in His humility, His gentleness, and His power. They were very real. It was as if, in this man, everything that was opposite could be brought together: the Lion and the Lamb, full of power and so gentle.
He was approachable, and yet there was something great about Him. We remember Lucy from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Lucy said that when she saw him and was playing with him, she saw his paws—there were huge claws.
But when he caught her, he caught her with the velvet of his hands. He would smile at her. She would look at his mouth and think, “Those are really sharp teeth.” But he would always smile at her.
In this man, all these different things that could not possibly be brought together were brought together in Him: grace and truth.
The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
We saw Him so that we could know Him. This glory, brothers and sisters, we have forgotten.
After time, the enemy wants to mask us from Him. “You believe in this—what we are doing, this way, this methodology of why we gather. Your way is different from their way, and their way is different from their way. So you are all separated.”
Brothers and sisters, we need to see the glory, because all of us, at some point, have been struck down by it. We realize, “How is He coming near to me?”
This glory is very real. The Bible tells us that in Him these two things, these opposites, have kissed. They have come together. Everyone, whether saved or not, has something in their heart that knows there is something awesome about Him.
In humanity, we have been taught that there is a survival of the fittest. We are taught that men evolve because the strongest and the fittest survive. We fight for ourselves.
But no one can make any sense of this man. Think about the rabbit being chased by a fox. The fox is going to consume the rabbit, and there are two rabbits. When they come to a hiding place, if one rabbit turns to the other and says, “Oh, please, after you,” and the fox eats the selfless rabbit, it makes no sense.
According to the laws of men, it makes no sense. But why is it that on September 11, when we saw firemen running into a building that was going to fall on them—when we hear of people who give their lives for others—something rises up in our hearts?
Where does that come from? If we are simply the survival of the fittest, where does that come from? It is because we were made to know Him.
On that day when He was crucified for us, we saw in Him glory. It takes an act of defiance not to believe, because it is the truth. We were made to know Him.
It is in our hearts that there is something about Him that is great. This glory holds us together.
We remember Balaam. Balak, the king of Moab, was worried that the tribes of Israel were coming near. He asked Balaam to curse them. Balaam said no twice, but finally said, “Okay, I will go.”
He got on his donkey, and the donkey could not go because the angel was in his way. Finally, he got there. He blessed Israel, and he blessed them again. Balak said, “I asked you to curse them. Why are you blessing them?”
Balaam said, “I can only tell you what God tells me.” Then he was brought up, and he looked down at the camps of Israel. The camps were all organized and situated around the glory. They had a pattern to them, and when they moved, they moved according to the glory.
He said, “Look at that. It is like there is a river of life, and those tents are all like cedars planted near it.” He saw with his eyes the glory.
The house of God is built around the glory. We are built around this glory. We are built around the One. He is our glory.
Everyone who calls on His name—He is their glory. They may not have seen exactly as much or more than we have. They may do things in a different way than we do. But we have one glory.
In the name, in the Word, and in the glory, those are all old. There is nothing that we can occupy ourselves with in developing them. But, brothers and sisters, we can enter into them.
We can know that we are under His name, as are our brothers and sisters. We can know that this Word is our life. We can know that He is our glory.
He is at work, and He will build His church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. The bride, when she is made ready, will be adorned. She will be adorned with this woven gold.
It is the oneness—the work of the Holy Spirit in all of His people. So may the Lord be glorified.
Let us pray.
Lord, we are so thankful to You for everything that You are doing. Lord, we pray that it would be unto Your glory. Lord, may Your name be lifted up high above all others.
Lord, we pray that in Your heart You might be satisfied, and that the day may come soon when the full satisfaction of what You have done may be realized, that You might have Your bride made ready.
Lord, we thank You. Lord, we give You praise in Jesus’ name. Amen.