Well, I’m being blinded by the light. I don’t think it was quite like Paul’s, but anyway, we will see how we can do it.
Well, is everyone awake? I’m not so sure.
All right, I know we come a little tired tonight, particularly. It reminded me of many years ago, in 1971. We had just started meeting, and there were maybe fifteen gathered in a little garage. Our brother Stephen would come down once a month and speak three times, which we were so grateful for.
But I remember one night I was sitting on the front row, and I fell out of my chair. I fell asleep, and that was a little bit embarrassing. Stephen never missed a note; he kept right on. But afterwards, of course, I went up and apologized to him. He said, “Son, don’t worry about it. You needed to sleep.”
I definitely did.
Okay, let’s have a word of prayer.
Lord, we are grateful tonight that You’re in the glory. We’re grateful, Lord, that You indeed are on the throne of glory. Lord, what a wonderful picture: when we look at the throne, we see the Lamb with those wounds in His hands and feet. Lord, You’re so loving; You’re so glorious.
Lord, we thank You for this time we have tonight. I do pray, Lord, that You would quicken us all in our bodies, Lord, and in our minds tonight, that we might be alert and awake. Lord, we look to You tonight for this time. We ask that You bless the words given and, Lord, the words received. We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, it’s on my heart tonight to really just prepare the way for the rest of the week, and for these brothers who will be sharing on God’s eternal purpose in serving Him in our generation—serving that purpose.
So let’s begin by looking at the Scriptures. I have two Scriptures I’d first like to read. The first one is in the Gospel of John, chapter 1.
The Gospel of John, chapter 1, beginning in verse 35, and I’ll go through verse 39: John 1:35.
Again on the morrow John was standing, and two of his disciples;
and he looked upon Jesus as He walked, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God!
And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
And Jesus turned, and beheld them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye?
And they said unto Him, Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Teacher), where abidest Thou?
He saith unto them, Come, and ye shall see.
Now, Ephesians chapter 3—I’m sorry, Ephesians chapter 3, verses 3, 9, and 11.
That by revelation was made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote before in few words.
And to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which for ages hath been hid in God who created all things;
according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Lord had a secret. God had a secret, a secret in His heart. And you know what? He kept that secret for a long, long time. From eternity past, He had this secret in His heart, and He kept it there. It was not revealed.
But that secret that was on His heart—that mystery that Paul talks about—is now being worked out on earth in the hour in which we live. That eternal purpose is being accomplished now in a people. It’s very real, and it’s being accomplished in a very definite way by concrete means.
What is happening today is a representation of what has been on God’s heart. It is being built today. It’s much like the artist who has a vision in his mind, and he begins to put it on canvas. In the end, we see this beautiful picture of what was in his heart and mind.
It’s the same with architects. They get a vision of the outside of a structure—a building, an office building—and they begin to sketch it out. It’s in their heart and mind, but eventually it gets built.
Now, Kenny and I are structural engineers. I work for Kenny. Dear, thank the blessed Lord, He gave me a good boss. Anyway, I work, and we do the structural part—mostly the steel framing, which y’all never see. But if it wasn’t for that steel framing, the building wouldn’t stand very long, I can tell you that.
But anyway, it’s amazing to go by some of these buildings in Richmond for which we’ve been responsible and see the finished product. It’s amazing. So the Lord had something on His heart, this mystery, this secret, and He is beginning to see it be accomplished.
Interestingly enough, He kept it a secret. It wasn’t revealed to the Old Testament saints. It was still on His heart, and actually He does hint in a few places in the Old Testament about it. But it’s only a hint. And even when He was on earth, He only really mentioned this a couple of times.
It was after His death, burial, and resurrection, through the apostles, that the mystery really began to be revealed. Mostly, we find it through the Apostle Paul, even though they all knew the mystery. The early New Testament saints were aware of this mystery and what was on the Lord’s heart, and they gave themselves to that.
Now, brothers and sisters, this mystery was revealed two thousand years ago. Yet today, there are many among us—many Christians—who don’t know what the mystery is. They’ve never heard of God’s eternal purpose. They don’t know what it is.
And those who may have glanced over Ephesians chapter 3, and Paul talking about the mystery and the eternal purpose, have heard a little bit about it, but they still have not seen it yet. And yet, this year, it was on our heart that the Lord would give us real revelation of this mystery, of the eternal purpose of God.
Brothers and sisters, we were created with a purpose. The whole universe was created for a purpose. You and I were created not to serve our own selves, our own purposes, but the very purpose of God. Brothers and sisters, it’s referred to as the eternal purpose.
It’s been on His heart from eternity past, and brothers and sisters, it will be a part of the administration of the ages in the future, past the kingdom age and during the kingdom age.
Purpose is very critical. I know there was a book that came out quite a few years ago now, The Purpose Driven Life. And the principle is, brothers and sisters, when we live without purpose, we live an aimless life.
Our life never really comes into focus without purpose. There’s no quest to our life to see a purpose fulfilled. Without purpose, we just kind of stumble around and take life as it comes, hoping to have something good in our lives. Without purpose, brothers and sisters, we live a wasted life.
Purpose is so critical, so important. And not only is purpose important, but the purpose to which you give your life is just as important. Not just any purpose will do. No, purpose gets us through.
I mentioned the other day, when I was in the ninth grade—and I’m thankful to the Lord for this—my math teacher recognized that I was pretty skilled in math, and I enjoyed math. She got me into the accelerated math class, which I enjoyed as well. Math was my thing.
You know, I lived in Gainesville, Florida, at the University of Florida, and right around me were housed a number of engineering students. I, being a young kid, you know, they kind of took me up under their wing. There weren’t any other children my age in that unit, and so I was always talking to them about engineering, and they were talking to me about engineering.
And, you know, I said, “You know, I think I want to be an engineer.” Well, we also had a biologist who lived nearby, and he took me up as his little buddy. One day he came to me and said, “Jerry, you want to go snake hunting with me?” I said, “Yeah, I’d like to do that.”
Now, the amazing thing is my mother agreed to it. That’s the most amazing thing that’s probably ever happened in my life. She said, “Yeah, it’s okay.” So I went with him looking for snakes, and we went to an old abandoned rail—what do you call them? You know, these rails they build that go off to industries and all. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So anyway, all that was left were the timbers. We would go along, and he’d pick up one end of the timber and I’d pick up the other end, and we’d look. We went along a little while, and finally we got this one timber. We picked it up, and there was this snake right there, coiled up.
He grabbed that snake just like that. He didn’t hesitate. I said, “What are you doing? That could have been a poisonous snake.” And he said, “No, no, it wasn’t poisonous. I knew it.” I said, “How did you know it?” He said, “Because it didn’t have a pointed head.”
I said, “Look, man, all I saw was snake. I didn’t see anything about the head.” Well, anyway, we caught four or five snakes that day, and a couple of them were poisonous. We did find the coral snake. Fortunately, they don’t coil up and snap at you. Anyway, that didn’t endear me toward biology at all.
I decided I was much better off becoming an engineer, and so I did. But the point I want to make is that there was a purpose in my heart: to become an engineer.
A lot of people say, “I don’t know what I want to do. I might just hang around for a few years after I graduate and figure out what’s going on.” I didn’t have that issue. I knew what I wanted to be. And I tell you what, having that purpose really helped me through school. I knew I had to do it.
I remember one time I wasn’t doing too well. I was in my senior year, and I had a real tough course. I wasn’t doing well in it, and I remember I went home. My daddy worked in a little body shop there in North Carolina, just a little pickle-factory town. I was telling my dad, “Dad, I just don’t know if I’m going to make it, if I’m going to graduate.”
And he said, “Son, don’t worry about it. You can come and work with me.” I pretty much made up my mind that I was going to pass that course. My dad helped me a lot in achieving my purpose. A lot of wisdom that day.
Anyway, purpose is important. And there is an eternal purpose.
Brothers and sisters, we’re sitting here, and we’ve got all kinds of purposes. Usually, when we’re younger, we think about going to college; a little later, getting married, having a family, and all these things that we kind of have a purpose for. Yet, brothers and sisters, there’s a much greater purpose.
All of these are important, but they need to be a part of the great eternal purpose that God has called us to. It’s called the eternal purpose.
Now let me say this, and it’s very important: one of the greatest dangers for Christians is uncertainty of purpose, a vagueness about your objective in your Christian life.
The enemy wants to get you preoccupied with many things, many important things. He wants to dull your heart and mind toward God’s eternal purpose, toward the main thing.
Now, we’ve said this before, but that’s one of Brother Fomke’s famous verses. He said, “The main thing in life is to keep the main thing the main thing.” And I think that was so important—so much wisdom.
But the enemy wants to divert our attention from what God has on His heart. Brothers and sisters, the great danger is for us to be mediocre in our Christian life and in serving God’s purpose: lukewarm, caught up with many things that, in the final issue, won’t really matter.
It will keep us from the supreme objective that God has in mind for you, for me, and for Himself. Brothers and sisters, God’s eternal purpose is what this conference is about. May the Lord give us revelation.
Now, I thought it was very interesting that these two disciples, who were following the Lord after John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God,” followed the Lord, and He turned around and asked them one of the most profound questions:
What are you seeking?
Now, brothers and sisters, I’m not absolutely sure of this—I didn’t get a chance to do a lot of research—but I believe this is one of the first written questions that we have in the Bible, questions that the Lord asks. It may be the first. What a poignant question: “What seek ye?”
Now, when we come to this conference this week, it’s important to get our hearts right and understand what we are seeking. I don’t even know if we’ve thought about coming trying to seek, but seeking is critical. Seeking is important.
Let me say this much: if you don’t seek, you’re not going to find. If you really want to seek what the Lord is after, understand this eternal purpose, and give yourself to it, you need to be seeking it. So I want us to set our hearts from the very beginning to seek this week.
I remember, y’all may know that much of the Civil War was fought in Virginia, and there are a lot of relics buried all over many battlegrounds in Virginia. A lot of people seek out those relics. As a matter of fact, Jeb Stuart encamped within a mile of where I live before he made his great reconnaissance trip around the McClellan forces.
You know, I’ve walked over these grounds. In fact, they may have been right where I was—I’m housed right now in my house. I don’t know for sure the exact area. But, you know, I’ve never found a relic.
But you know what? I’ve never really been seeking. I was just a casual observer, just casually approaching: “Hey, it’d be neat to find an old Civil War relic.”
If I had really been seeking, I would have done what a friend of ours in the fellowship does. I’d get me a metal detector, and I would go out and scour around. I think it’s interesting about these guys that do this. There was a program on TV—have y’all ever seen it? These guys that go out? You haven’t? Well, we got strange TV here.
But anyway, they were going out with their metal detectors, and you’d see them. They were so excited about what they might find. They’d go out, and that thing would start beeping: “Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.” Oh man, they would get so excited.
Then it would go to that solid tone, and they knew they were over the treasure. They would gently dig down because they didn’t want to break anything. They’d dig down, and they would bring up an old tin can. That was their treasure.
But the point I’m making is that they were excited about what they might find as they were seeking. I want us to have a heart, as we approach this conference, that is not only seeking but actively expecting that the Lord will respond to our request, that we might see His eternal purpose, that we might know about this mystery.
Brothers and sisters, I wasn’t really seeking; I was just casually looking. And I pray that the Lord will cause us to really be engaged this week in seeking Him.
You know, the Word of God is very clear on this matter of seeking. The Lord said:
Seek, and ye shall find.
Now, that’s a promise. It’s not a maybe; it’s a promise. If you seek, you will find. And God will test us all out on this issue as to whether we are really seeking or just casually looking. Brothers and sisters, He always tests.
I remember David. You know, David was a man after God’s heart. Quite a testimony to this brother of ours, David—a man after God’s heart, who served God in his generation, our theme verse.
And in Psalm 27:4, David says:
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
One thing I desire, and one thing I seek after. He was committed and passionate about what the Lord was after.
It was the same with Paul. You know, Paul saw the Lord on the Damascus road. A vision of the Lord blinded him for three days; it was so great. Later, we find that he was actually taken up into the third heaven and heard things that he couldn’t even speak of.
But we do know that during that time, the eternal purpose of God was revealed to Paul. The mystery was revealed in detail to Paul, and that’s why, if you read the Ephesian letter, you’ll see so much of what he saw in the third heaven revealed.
Yet, with so great a revelation, what was Paul’s word when he was in prison near the end of his life?
That I may know Him.
He was still seeking, brothers and sisters. And the great thing about Paul: he was still seeking, and he never stopped finding. The revelation became deeper and greater as he went on in life.
Tonight, I just pray that the Lord will kind of draw us out of the malaise, of just being self-satisfied, so to speak, with where we are in the Lord, or being a little bit lethargic.
You know, the last age, the last church age which we’re living in, is the Laodicean age, which the Lord said is lukewarm. And His response to the lukewarm age was, “I’m going to spew it out of My mouth.”
Brothers and sisters, we should be passionate about seeking His eternal purpose.
We need a thirsty heart, because a thirsty heart won’t stop until it finds its water. That’s what Psalm 42 is about:
As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
So panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
A thirsty heart seeks until it finds.
Now back to the story of these two disciples, Andrew and—most people think the other one is John. He’s unnamed, and you know John would never name himself. So it was John and Andrew.
John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” These two disciples of John the Baptist immediately began to turn and follow the Lord. You know, they were very familiar with the sacrifice, the lamb sacrifice. They knew that their fathers had come out of Egypt because the blood of the lamb was put over their door, and every year a lamb had to be sacrificed for their sins.
But John said something even more profound. He said not only is He the Lamb of God; He is the Son of God. I’m sure they were just enthralled at this point as to who this man was among them.
I can just see their hearts kind of pounding a little bit in anticipation as they began to follow the Lord, saying probably, “I wonder if this really is the Messiah. If this is the Lord. John the Baptist said He’s the Son of God. Who is this man? Let’s follow Him a little further. Maybe there’s some opportunity that we’ll get to talk to Him.”
Finally, Jesus, aware that they were following Him—and our Lord Jesus knowing that they were more than just curious, that they had real seeking hearts—turned around and asked them that question: “What seek ye? What are you seeking?”
I thought their response to the Lord was kind of interesting. They didn’t tell Him what they were seeking. They just said, “Where do You live? Where do You live?”
Now, brothers and sisters, I don’t think they just wanted to know His address or His email address. I think they were hoping that, with their response, the Lord would respond by saying, “Well, you know, won’t you come to My house?”
Well, the Lord is so gracious. He understood they were seeking, that they had that seeking heart. And His response to them was, “Come and see.”
Do you get the connection between these two—the Lord’s question and the Lord’s response?
What are you seeking?
Come and see.
“I will show you what you’re seeking.” The Lord wasn’t just looking for conversation. He was looking for disciples. He wanted them to have fellowship with Him. He wanted them to know Him.
The Lord wanted much more than a handshake and “How do you do?” He wanted a real relationship with Him. But it all hinged on what they were seeking. And the Lord wanted them to see. “Come and see,” He said.
It’s the kind of seeking that Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:17. And this is my prayer for the conference:
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Lord, I’m praying for that for myself, for all of us. That’s what we need: something, a word from heaven directly to our hearts.
You know, while He was on earth during those three and a half years, He was observed by multitudes. He was interrogated by the Pharisees, and He healed many. Yet very few really knew Him. Just a few. Just a few really saw who He was.
“Come and see,” He says to the seeker.
Brothers and sisters, we’re going to be considering the Lord’s eternal purpose, and we want that we would give our hearts to serve that purpose in our generation. But how does revelation come? What is it?
It’s an opening of blind eyes, brothers and sisters, and it requires a spiritual touch from the Lord. You can read the Ephesian letter, where it is really revealed so much. You can read those first three chapters over and over and over again, and just like the multitudes that He approached earlier, you don’t see.
You look at the words. They may even make sense to you, but you haven’t seen. Revelation is a special word, and it means that only the Holy Spirit—only God through the Holy Spirit—can give you revelation.
You sit in these seats today as saved Christians because you got a revelation of who Christ was. It wasn’t just because you had read your Bible. It was because the Holy Spirit really touched you and opened your eyes to see, and you accepted the Lord.
Revelation is deeper than understanding. I thought I was trying to figure out a good way to explain revelation, and it’s not easy. But I do know that once you have it, you’re caught. I think Kenny shared that a few moments ago. Once you have it, you’re caught. You can’t get away from it. It is your passion, brothers and sisters, when it’s revelation.
I thought about the light bulb. These happen to be shining. But if you go into your room and look at your light fixture before you turn the lights on, you may notice the light fixture and that there’s a bulb in it. Somebody says, “Yeah, that’s the light.”
Well, not until you turn that light switch on do you really see the light. And the interesting thing is, once you see the light, you no longer see the light fixture. You have had revelation of what light really is.
Brothers and sisters, you remember the story of the blind man in Mark 8:22. That blind man came to the Lord and said, “Lord, I want You to touch my eyes. I’m blind.” The Lord spit on His hands and He touched his eyes.
The Lord said, “Can you see?” And the blind man said, “Everything’s kind of fuzzy. People look like trees walking around.” So the Lord touched his eyes again.
And He said, “Can you see?” He said, “Yes, I see fully.” Brothers and sisters, you see this thing about revelation: it’s an ever-growing seeing. It’s a fuller seeing. You never really come to the end of it.
No one can ever really say, “I have seen all of the revelation.” It’s something that continues to grow and gets larger and larger. Only the Lord can touch the eyes of your heart, not just your mind. Only He can do it.
Now remember the story of Job. You remember Job: thirty-eight chapters of trials, temptations, troubles—troubles none of us have ever experienced. Thirty-eight chapters of wrestling with the Lord.
“Lord, though You slay me, I’m going to trust You.” That was his testimony. Praise the Lord for that. But Job didn’t understand what was going on. And you know, the Lord never explained to Job what was going on, if you read it.
But in the end, Job was totally satisfied. And this was Job’s word:
I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
But now mine eye seeth Thee.
That is revelation, brothers and sisters. Sorry for leaving the mic, but that is revelation. It does capture your heart.
Brothers and sisters, sometimes we need that second touch, don’t we? Sometimes we need that refreshing touch, so to speak. We’ve seen something through the years of what the Lord is showing us about His eternal purpose, and we’ve given ourselves to it. But we need another touch sometimes, just to clarify things in our heart once again.
There are probably some here who don’t know what the eternal purpose is. I know I haven’t yet said anything much about it to help you along those lines. I’m really trusting that the Lord will do that through these brothers who share this week, that your eyes will be opened further.
There are those here who have seen the Lord. They’ve seen something of this great eternal purpose, but yet through the years things become a little fuzzy, and we need that second touch. I hope that happens this year.
There are others who have their eyes open. They’ve given themselves totally to the purpose of God, and they have also experienced the great warfare that results in God accomplishing His eternal purpose.
Brothers and sisters, the whole book of Revelation is about the warfare over God’s eternal purpose, over accomplishing God’s eternal purpose. Many of us have experienced some of that warfare in our assemblies and in our lives personally.
Brothers and sisters, we, like the Apostle John, need further revelation. You know, the Apostle John was on the Isle of Patmos, wasn’t he? He was a prisoner there. He had been put there because his testimony of the Lord was so great, and the Word of God was spoken mightily.
They took John and imprisoned him on the Isle of Patmos. He was very concerned about the church at that time. He knew the church was in declension and decline, that it was faltering, and his heart was broken, brothers and sisters.
Then the Lord appeared to him. And what did the Lord do? He showed John the Lord in the midst of those seven churches. And what was the message?
To him that overcometh.
That was the message to the church in declension: “To him that overcometh.” Brothers and sisters, without vision—if you don’t see that eternal purpose—you will not overcome. The warfare is too great.
But may I say this? I’m sure that John wondered himself. He was in prison. “Lord, how do we overcome? What is going to happen?”
And the Lord says, “John, come up hither.” There was a door opened in heaven, and John was taken up to the third heaven. He said, “Come up here.”
What was He saying to John? “John, you need a different perspective. You’re all muddled down on the earth in all of this that’s going on. You need to see it from My perspective. You need to see it from the heavenly perspective. John, you need more revelation.”
And what does John see? He sees the Lamb on the throne. Oh, the One whom he was so close to. You know, he was the only disciple that was at the crucifixion. He was really close to the Lord.
He was there when the Lord was resurrected, and he saw the Lord rise back into heaven. And now he sees the Lord is on the throne. In other words, the Lord is in charge. He’s the King of kings and the Lord of lords. What He has purposed, He will bring about.
That was a revelation that got John through. That was a revelation that caused John to overcome: the eternal purpose.
Brothers and sisters, in the very end, in Revelation chapter 21, we see the golden city coming down out of heaven from God. John saw the fullness of God’s eternal purpose. It was going to be accomplished. He had revelation.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is what’s on my heart: that we would pray, even tonight, because we’ve got a lot ahead of us. That the Lord would give us a thirsty heart, a seeking heart, to know this great eternal purpose; and that we might have revelation, a touch of our eyes that comes from the Lord Himself—not just mental understanding as we go through the week.
We want to see, Lord. That is what we want.
Let me end with this, because I’m really burdened about some brothers and sisters going through some deep trials, and some assemblies going through deep trials. I’d like to close with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. That’s in Luke 24. You can read it later.
But you know, that was the day the Lord rose from the dead, and yet they did not know it yet. They had heard rumors that the Lord had risen, and they were going back to Emmaus. They were so confused, brothers and sisters.
They were going back with broken hearts. Their hope had been broken. Their expectations—their hope and expectation that they had of the Lord and what He was going to do—had been crushed in their hearts. They had committed themselves to this hope and this expectation, and they were crushed.
They were perplexed, disillusioned, and bewildered, brothers and sisters. And they started back on that six-and-a-half-mile trek to Emmaus.
They thought they were abandoned. But the Lord had not abandoned them.
What did He do? We remember the story so well. He came up alongside of them. He came up alongside of them—these disillusioned brothers whose hearts had been so for the Lord, and were now so disappointed.
He came up beside them, drew alongside them, and began to share with them from the Scriptures about Himself, and about how He would have to be taken and crucified, and yet He would rise on the third day.
Their hearts began to burn as the Lord began to speak to them. But the amazing thing was, they didn’t recognize Him. They couldn’t see Him. They just saw a man who obviously knew the Scriptures, and there was something about this man.
He started to go on and leave them, and they said, “No, You come and stay, and have supper with us.” And the Word of God said, when they broke bread, their eyes were opened. Their eyes were opened.
All the disillusionment, all the disappointment, all the perplexity, all the bewilderment left because they had seen the risen Lord. It took a spiritual touch by the Lord Jesus Christ. Their eyes had to be opened by Him.
Brothers and sisters, as we come this week, I think we all want our eyes opened. And may I say this: the Lord always tests us.
I think for the seeking heart, He will come alongside. And if we don’t let Him go, but insist that He stay with us and show us what’s on His heart, I believe He will be faithful to do that.
Lord, we just come tonight. We ask that this whole conference be filled with the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Lord, we pray that You will touch our hearts tonight, that we will go through the week with a seeking heart—a heart that wants to see, a heart that will not be satisfied until we see Jesus and His eternal purpose.
Lord, we ask that tonight You give everybody rest. Lord, we’re all tired, and many have had long trips and, frankly, are just exhausted. But Lord, quicken these mortal bodies of ours. Raise us up to be ready in the morning. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.