This is the last meeting of this conference.
I often remember what our dear brother Austin
Spock says.
He said, in the Bible you'll find this
word, finally.
And when you see that word, finally, you
may think that this is the end.
But he said, this word, finally, in the
original, it actually means gathering up all that
has gone before and raise it up to
a higher level.
That is finally.
And I do hope that our last meeting
will be like this.
This is not the end, but this will
be the beginning.
We mentioned at the very beginning that God
is calling us to His fullness.
This is just but another way to put
that God is calling us to Himself.
Because our God is the God of fullness.
And He cannot and He will not call
us into something less than what He Himself
is.
This is the love of God.
God has called us into His fullness.
And this calling is according to purpose.
That is to His own purpose.
This calling is according to His grace.
Because it is only the grace of God
that will bring us into that purpose.
And we do praise and thank God that
He has called us.
And it is extremely important for us as
to the way we respond to His calling.
God's calling never changes.
Knows no repentance.
And He who calls us is faithful.
But then we have a responsibility on our
part.
And that is we need to respond to
His calling.
You remember that verse in the scripture it
said many are called but few are chosen.
How do we respond to God's call unto
His fullness?
Do we respond as David did?
Even though we may not fully understand the
scope of His calling.
And I believe that no one really understands.
And yet we do know that He is
calling us with a tremendous calling.
He is calling us to Himself.
Even though we may not fully understand.
And yet we need to have the heart
of David.
We need to go to the Lord and
say Lord who are we?
But this is the way that you do
things.
Perform.
Fulfill.
According to what you have said.
And I think this should be our heart
attitude.
We mentioned that because God is infinite.
And we are so finite.
Therefore we need vision.
Unless God does reveal Himself to us.
We will never be able to know Him.
Unless God shows us His fullness.
We will be contented with the little that
we have.
So we need vision.
We need a vision of the fullness of
Christ.
We need to see that our Christ is
not small at all.
Our Christ is the fullness of the Godhead.
As we cannot phantom the fullness of the
Godhead.
So there is no way for us to
know the depths of the fullness of Christ.
And it is into the fullness that we
are to receive.
As we find in Colossians 2, all the
fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily.
And we are complete in Him.
We need to have a vision of the
fullness of the church.
Because the church is the body.
The fullness of Him who fills all and
in all.
In other words, the church is nothing less
than the fullness of Christ.
That is the vision that we need to
see.
And of course, if God should reveal to
us of the fullness that is in Him,
it should create in us a hunger and
thirst after it.
You know, sometimes God first creates such a
dissatisfaction in us.
As Brother Spock said, not the wrong kind
of dissatisfaction that we know very well.
And it does not help us at all.
But we need to have a kind of
dissatisfaction, a holy dissatisfaction.
We are not satisfied with what we are
now, with our present situation.
We know that we are not what we
should be.
And because of this, we are restless, we
are dissatisfied, and we are hungry and thirsty
after something more that is in Christ.
And as we are seeking for something more
of Him, He will show us the way.
It may come to us as a surprise,
and it often does.
We want fullness.
But the more you want fullness, the more
you will find you are being emptied.
Because the law of fullness is through emptiness.
As our Lord Jesus emptied Himself of all
the glory and honor and position and power,
and humbled Himself as a man, God has
highly exalted Him, and has given Him a
name that is above every name, and to
that name every knee shall bow, and every
tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
The way to fullness is through emptiness.
The way to real life is through death.
Unless a grain of wheat fall into the
ground and die in a bite alone, but
if it shall die, it will bear much
fruit.
This is the divine principle that governs the
eternal purpose of God.
Now, this morning we would like to share
together on some practical application of fullness.
We would like to consider four areas.
Number one, personal life.
Number two, corporate life.
Number three, ministry.
And number four, the recovery of the testimony
of Jesus.
What is Christian life?
What is the life that God has called
us to live?
What is the life that God has ordained
for us, even before the foundation of the
world?
If we read the word of God, we
will find that so far as the life
that God has ordained for us to live,
there is only one style, one kind of
life to live.
It is true, we do find in the
word of God, descriptions of a kind of
life that is abnormal.
For instance, in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, we
find it.
We find that it refers to the children
of Israel.
They all came out of Egypt.
They were all baptized unto Moses.
They all drank the spiritual drink that came
out of the smitten rock.
They all ate the spiritual food, the manna
that came down from heaven.
And yet the Bible said God was not
pleased with them.
Why?
Because even though they came out of Egypt,
and they knew the provisions of God in
their lives, and yet they were lusters, they
were murmurers, they were fornicators, they were idolaters,
they did not live the life that God
had called them to live.
They did not live the life that God
had provided for them.
Instead you find they live within themselves.
They live according to their flesh.
And because of this, they all fell in
the wilderness.
And the apostle Paul used this to admonish,
to warn the Corinthian believers.
Why?
Because this is the very way, the very
style, that the Corinthian believers are living.
They are carnal.
They obeyed in Christ.
They never grew up.
And they are self-centered, living according to
the flesh.
Now these words are given not as a
permission that we can live like that.
These words are given as a warning, as
an admonition, telling us that this is not
the kind of life that we should live.
If we live this kind of life, we
displease God.
If we live this kind of life, we
do not know what God has offered to
us.
We do not know God's provision for us.
In a sense, God has made provision, and
yet we do not make use of the
provision.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, so far as
our personal life, individual life, is concerned, let
us remember that we are called to live
only one kind of life.
And that is the life of fullness.
Any style of life that is less than
fullness is not what God has called us
to live, or has ordained us to live.
Now think for just a moment, the life
that God has given to us.
You know, when we believe in the Lord
Jesus, we receive a new life.
And this new life is called eternal life.
Now what is eternal life?
I hope that everyone here knows that you
have eternal life because you have believed in
the Lord Jesus.
He that has the Son has life.
We who have the Lord Jesus, we have
the eternal life in us.
This is the life that God has given
to us.
But dear brothers and sisters, what is eternal
life?
Probably we think of eternal life more in
terms of time.
That it is timeless.
That we will continue to live after we
die, and live on and on.
But dear brothers and sisters, eternal life is
more than a matter of time.
It is true, eternal life is timeless.
It begins now, and it never ends.
But eternal life is more of a matter
of quality.
In other words, eternal life is a life
of the first quality.
It is a life of fullness.
This life has been demonstrated to us in
the life of our Lord Jesus when He
was on earth.
We find in Him a life.
A life of fullness.
A victorious life.
An obedient life.
A life in harmony, in perfect harmony with
God.
A life that is glorious.
And nothing less than this very life is
now residing in each one of us who
believe.
Brothers and sisters, do you know that a
life that now resides in us, that eternal
life, is nothing but that life which our
Lord Jesus has lived for thirty-three years
on this earth, and has demonstrated to us
what kind of a life that is?
It is nothing less than that.
It is the very life that Christ has
lived on earth for thirty-three years.
Now that very life is in you and
in me.
And this life is meant to live.
I believe we have all discovered that we
cannot live a Christian life by ourselves.
We have tried.
After we believe in the Lord Jesus, I
believe we have all tried.
We try to live a life like Christ,
but we find that it is impossible.
It is beyond us.
We need vision.
We need revelation.
We need to see that for us to
live is Christ.
In other words, we have been crucified with
Christ.
When Christ died on the cross, God has
not only put Him on the cross, but
God has put all of us with Him
and in Him to the cross.
Because God said we are no good.
God said He cannot improve upon us.
God said He is finished with us.
Therefore, in Christ we died.
When Christ died, we died.
Therefore, today, we who live, we live by
Him who lives in us.
Dear brothers and sisters, remember, it is Christ
who now lives in us.
He is our life.
And because He is our life, can you
imagine that He will live a very different
life, a much lower life, a poor life,
a weak life, than what He lived two
thousand years ago?
It is impossible.
We need to see that it is Christ
who lives in us.
And if we allow Him to live, if
we believe Him that He lives in us,
and if we let Him live in us,
that life is a life of fullness.
Colossians 2, verse 9, it says, All the
fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily.
You know, this we find twice in the
letter to the Colossians.
In chapter 1, verse 19, it said, All
the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to
dwell in Him.
And then in chapter 2, verse 9, it
said, The fullness of the Godhead dwells in
Him bodily.
Now, I do not know if we can
make this distinction.
Probably this is one way to look at
it.
And that is, in the first chapter, it
pleased God that the fullness should dwell in
Christ.
Probably that refers to eternity.
In other words, from eternity to eternity, the
fullness of the Godhead dwells in the Son.
He is the fullness of the Godhead.
There is no gap.
Eternally this is true.
In eternity past, the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in Him.
In eternity to come, the fullness of the
Godhead still dwells in Him.
The fullness of the Godhead make His permanent
home in Him.
And there is no gap.
But then when you come to chapter 2,
verse 9, it says, All the fullness of
the Godhead dwells in Him bodily.
Now, I wonder whether that refers to the
days that our Lord Jesus was on earth.
Now, if this is the case, then you'll
find, even when He was on earth, taking
the form of a man, emptying Himself of
all the glory and honor and all these
things, and yet you find, all the fullness
of the Godhead still dwells in Him in
a bodily form.
In other words, when the Lord Jesus was
on earth, He is the very embodiment of
the fullness of the Godhead.
And this fullness of the Godhead is now
being manifested in a bodily form that we
can see and hear and touch.
And not only that, but this fullness of
the Godhead is now made available to us.
Because our Lord Jesus has come, He has
died, He was buried, and He is risen
from the dead.
So today, the fullness of the Godhead is
not only in Him, but the fullness of
Godhead is now made available to us.
The fullness of the Godhead resides in Him.
But now the fullness of Godhead is open
to us.
And that's the reason why it says, ye
are complete in Him.
The word complete is the same word made
full in Him.
Not only He is full, but now His
fullness is available to us that we are
made full.
This is a revelation that we have to
receive.
Brothers and sisters, forget your condition for a
while.
You know oftentimes we are so shut up
with our own condition.
It is as if, in the Chinese we
have a proverb, you sit at the bottom
of a well, and you look up to
heaven, and you find heaven is just that
small.
Because that's all you can see.
And brothers and sisters, how true it is,
you know we are always conscious of our
own condition.
And because of this, our horizon is so
narrowed, we can only see that very small
area.
And we cannot see the vast horizon.
Brothers and sisters, the only way to catch
a vision is, forget yourself for a while.
Do nothing about your condition now.
But look up, and see what God has
done for us.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in
Christ.
And it is bodily.
We have seen Him, we have heard Him,
we have contemplated, we have touched Him.
This is the fullness of the Godhead.
But thank God, it is not only there
is one man in whom all the fullness
of Godhead dwells and is demonstrated.
But you find that He has made it
available to us through that eternal redemption that
He has accomplished.
Through His death and resurrection.
This fullness is now our portion.
It is made available for us.
And if you read Colossians 2, it says,
ye are complete in Him.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in
Him bodily.
There is no question.
And then it follows, ye are complete in
Him.
It does not say ye shall be complete
in Him.
Ye will be complete in Him.
You probably will be completed in Him.
No.
It says ye are complete in Him.
In other words, the provision has already been
made.
God has already given us this provision to
live a life of fullness.
It is ours.
Ye are made full in Him.
So far as God is concerned, it is
already done.
But of course, so far as we are
concerned, there is that subjective side.
In other words, objectively speaking, through the life,
death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, this
fullness is given to us.
Therefore, we are made full in Him.
God has done it.
Now subjectively, the Holy Spirit, who dwells in
each one of us, it is His work
to bring us into that fullness, or to
bring that fullness into us, so that that
fullness will become our experience.
And, dear brothers and sisters, this takes time.
What God has done in Christ concerning this
offer of fullness, it is done once and
for all.
It has been perfected.
There is nothing that can be added on.
It is yours.
It is given.
But, dear brothers and sisters, so far as
the subjective side of experience is concerned, it
is true.
We need to exploit.
We need to possess it.
We need to put our feet down.
And, every spot where our foot puts, it
is ours.
The Holy Spirit cannot do anything other than
what Christ has already accomplished.
All He does is to apply that which
Christ has already accomplished, and apply it to
us.
He communicates what God has already given in
Christ.
He communicates it to us, so that we
may enter into it and experience that fullness.
So, brothers and sisters, we find the Apostle
Paul in Philippians chapter 3.
You find this is the heart attitude that
we shall have today.
Here you find this man, a Pharisee, who
was filled with all the credentials of Judaism.
And he was proud of these things.
But on the road to Damascus, when the
Lord met him in transforming him, you find
what he said.
He said, I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus
Christ.
He caught a glimpse of the Lord Jesus.
And because he caught a glimpse of the
Lord, that stirs within him, craves within him,
such a longing for the Lord Jesus.
He is willing to count everything as loss.
Nothing.
Willing to empty himself, let everything go, in
order that he may gain Christ.
Oh, that I may know him, and the
power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his
suffering, being conformed to his death, that I
may arrive at the out-resurrection from among
the dead.
Brothers and sisters, here you find Paul, he
had a vision of the fullness of Christ.
And because that vision of the fullness of
Christ, he pursued, that creating him one passion.
He has only one passion, and that passion
is to know Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, do we have this
passion within us?
There was a man, whose name was Zinzendorf,
probably you have read of him in church
history.
He came of a noble birth, but when
he was a little boy, I think he
was four or six, I don't quite remember,
when he was a little boy, he came
to know the Lord in a very real
way.
And he loved the Lord.
He often sat on the window of his
castle.
He wanted to do something for the Lord,
but a little child, what could he do?
So he used to write, Jesus loves you,
and things like that, and throw it out
of the window, hopefully somebody may pick it
up.
That is the way to express his love
for God.
And after he graduated from university, he travelled
in Europe, because that was the way they
educate the nobles.
And when people of his same age came
to Paris, they were lost in Paris.
But to Zinzendorf, it was nothing.
It was nothing.
And then he travelled to Dösendorf, and in
a gathering he saw a picture, of the
Lord Jesus, drawn by an artist, and that's
another story.
And when he saw that picture, and underneath
that picture he said, I do all things
for thee, what hast thou done for me?
And he just stood there and fixed.
Until the guardian, the warden of the museum,
had his shoulder and said, it's time to
close the museum.
He went to his hotel room.
He offered himself to the Lord.
And God used him, to raise up a
tremendous move, of the Spirit of God.
The morality mission.
And Zinzendorf said, I have only one passion,
Jesus.
Oh brothers and sisters, do we have a
vision of Christ?
If we really see Him, should it not
increase, create within us a passion, a passion
for Christ.
And that is the passion you'll find, in
the Apostle Paul.
To know Him, that's all I want.
I'm willing to give up everything, anything, but
to gain Him.
And even at the time, when Paul wrote
this letter, to the Philippines, he was in
prison.
He was in the latter years of his
life.
And yet he said, I do not say
I have already attained.
I want to be apprehended.
He has apprehended me, and I want to
apprehend Him, just as He has apprehended me.
Dear brothers and sisters, surely the Lord has
apprehended you.
If the Lord has not apprehended you, you
will not be here.
But have you apprehended Him, as He has
apprehended you?
Are you contented, thinking that you know it
all?
You have it all?
You stay put?
No more progress?
No more Christ?
Oh, brothers and sisters, Paul said, I forget
that which is behind me, and press on
towards the goal.
The on high calling that God has called
me to.
And what is that on high calling?
It can be nothing less than the fullness
of Christ.
And Paul said, anyone that is perfect, anyone
that is mature, that is growing, this ought
to be his mind.
This ought to be his heart attitude.
But of course, we go one step at
a time.
So brothers and sisters, let us remember that
the fullness of Christ is not a theory
for us to speculate.
The fullness of Christ is a life that
He has called us to live.
Oh, we need to press on towards Christ.
To His fullness.
And it is an endless pursuit.
And I think that is the thrill of
it.
An endless pursuit towards Him.
I suppose many of you have heard of
the name Madame Gouillon.
Now this lady, she loved the Lord, and
her life was beautiful.
Now she wrote a book called Spiritual Torrents.
It is a book not easy to read.
But Mrs. Penn Lewis, she reduced that book
and published a booklet.
And the name is Life Out of Death.
Now this sister, she knew the subjective side
of pressing on towards the fullness of Christ
in life.
And I would like to read to you
just some excerpt.
After having our faith position in Christ, that
is conversion.
As soon as the soul has turned to
God and has been cleansed from its sins,
it instinctively desires to be entirely united to
Him.
Now brothers and sisters, after we are saved,
after our sins are forgiven, after we are
in faith, then intuitively, it is natural, it
is spontaneous, that we will desire to be
completely, entirely united to Him.
I think this is a spontaneous desire within
us.
In other words, God's fullness is calling us.
We hear the call.
And within us, there is a life that
responds to it.
And we want to be completely, entirely united
to Him.
Their progress may be compared to rivers flowing
towards God as their ocean.
Now she tried to describe a soul that
is seeking after the fullness of God.
The first stage.
Some moving towards Him sluggishly and feebly.
They deal much with outward life.
And are very dependent on outside sources of
help.
They are like pumps.
They give water only when worked.
They have great desire to be always doing.
They are full of plans.
How to seek God.
And to continue in His presence.
But all this is by their own efforts.
Aided by grace.
This describes the up and down experience and
fitful self-effort of many true children of
God.
Now, how true it is.
Some children of God, they are God's children.
But they move towards God slowly, feebly.
They have all kinds of plans.
They trust in outward things.
Their experience is ups and downs.
And mainly their self-effort.
Then the second stage.
Some proceeding decidedly and rapidly.
The way of light.
So full of light and ardent love.
That they excite the admiration of others.
For God seems to give them gifts upon
gifts.
Grace, light, visions, revelations, ecstasies.
Temptations are repelled with vigor.
Trials are borne with strength.
Their hearts are enlarged.
And they gladly make great sacrifices for God
and soul.
When you enter into the second stage, you
find you are moving swiftly towards God.
It is the way of light.
It seems that you receive great revelations.
And you see you are doing great things
for God.
And you stir up the admiration of others.
But this is just the second stage.
And then the third stage.
Some advancing with headlong impetuous sitting.
The way of faith.
They rest in nothing until they reach the
goal.
Christ is revealed within.
The soul seems overwhelmed with joy unspeakable.
And full of glory.
At this early stage there is much of
the emotional life and manifestation of God.
Which comes at a high degree.
Then comes the stripping of spiritual
riches.
Until the soul is on all points.
Wrapped upon God.
The stripping is first the garment.
Gifts and graces.
Then the stripping of the ornament.
Gifts and graces.
Then the stripping of the garments.
The power for service.
And then the stripping of beauty.
The power to practice divine virtue.
The loss of everything that self love could
cling on.
The soul brought to nothingness.
Is united to Christ in God.
Then the soul is revivified.
Now brothers and sisters.
We are complete in Christ.
But we need to be completed.
The spirit of God is working in us
to lead us or drive us into that
fullness that is in God.
And we cannot stop at any other point.
So in personal life we need to experience
the fullness of Christ.
Now the second area we would like to
consider is the corporate life.
Here in the letter to the Ephesians.
In chapter 1 verse 22 and 23.
God has made Christ head over all things.
To the body.
The church which is his body.
The fullness of him who fills all and
in all.
Now this is a revelation.
Paul he prayed that God will give them
the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
full knowledge of God.
And what is the revelation of the full
knowledge of God?
One part of the revelation is that the
body, the church is the body of Christ.
And what is the body?
The body is the fullness of him who
fills all and in all.
Now that is the revelation.
And this revelation is the calling.
We are called to be the body of
Christ.
You know if you read the letter to
the Ephesians you find that God's calling is
corporate.
Often times we think of calling as a
personal thing.
But you will see that calling is corporate.
God is calling us to be, not to
do, but to be the body of Christ.
I cannot think of any calling higher than
that calling.
Think of that.
God has called us to be the body
of Christ.
And what is the body of Christ?
The body of Christ is none other than
the fullness of Christ.
That's the reason why you find Apostle Paul
sometimes use the term the Christ.
The body is one but have many members
and the members are many but one body,
so also is the Christ.
Why?
Because this body is nothing but the fullness
of Christ.
Who fills all and in all.
In other words you do not find anything
in that body but Christ.
That body is not an empty body.
That body is not filled with you and
me, with Adam, with our flesh.
You find that body is a healthy body,
a pure body.
In that body you find nothing but Christ.
He fills all and in all.
That is the vision, the revelation of the
church.
And because we receive such a revelation, now
what shall we do?
It is not something just for us to
talk about.
But you come to Ephesians chapter 4 and
it says walk worthily of the calling wherewith
you are being called.
Brothers and sisters we are called to be
the body of Christ.
Now walk worthily of it.
In what says?
Keeping diligently the unity of the body in
the bond of peace.
Since we are called to be the body
of Christ and there is only one body,
should we not walk worthily of our calling?
And how do we walk worthily of our
calling?
Keep diligently the unity of the spirit in
the uniting bond of peace.
That is to say, God has put us
all in that one body.
And because we all are members one of
another, therefore we cannot be divided.
Is Christ divided?
If Christ is not divided, then the church
is not divided.
We need to diligently keep the unity of
the spirit.
The Holy Spirit has already given us this
unity.
We share one spirit, one Lord, one Father,
our God.
And we need to stand firm on that
ground.
And upon this ground we fellowship with one
another.
Now it is true that we have many
differences.
Not only we are different in temperament.
Now thank God He, He creates our temperaments.
I often say temperament is the shape of
our soul.
You know, when God created us physically, everyone
is different.
And that's the beauty of creation.
Everyone is different.
Don't try to be another person.
And not only physically it is true, but
so far as our soul is concerned, God
has created our soul all in different shapes.
And that is our temperament.
We are all of different temperament.
Now temperament seems to be a big problem
today in the church.
But it shouldn't be.
We have different interpretations of the scriptures.
We have different experiences of Christ.
We have different ideas.
We are different in background, in green up,
in culture, in race, in color, or whatever
it may be.
You find that we are full of differences,
but in spite of all these differences, we
need to maintain the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace.
And it is on that ground that we
fellowship with one another.
We do not exclude one another.
We are open to one another.
We do not try to force one another
into our mold.
But we are open to one another.
We love one another.
We share with one another.
We try to encourage one another, to build
up one another.
And if we do that, the Bible says,
But until we all arrive at the unity
of the faith, and of the knowledge of
the Son of God, at the full grown
man, at the measure of the statue of
the fullness of Christ, that we be no
longer babes.
Brothers and sisters, we need to walk worthily
of our calling as the body of Christ.
And it is only when we maintain that
unity and learn to share whatever Christ has
deposited in one of us, then we enrich
one another, we build up one another, and
eventually we will arrive at the unity of
the faith and of the knowledge of the
Son of God.
Arrive at the measure of the statue of
the fullness of Christ.
Why?
Because God's aim for the church is fullness
of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, each one of us is
just a member of that one body.
Each one of us has a limited capacity.
Christ is so full, it takes all of
us to contain Him and to manifest Him.
That's why we need one another.
We cannot be independent.
We have to be related to one another.
It is true that in the body, because
we are so close, we are so close
together, it's bound to have many problems.
But thank God as long as there is
love.
Love is the cement that cements us together.
So that we may arrive at the measure
of the fullness of the statue of the
fullness of Christ.
You know, when you come to Ephesians chapter
5, you find this is exactly what the
Lord is doing.
He loved the church.
He gave Himself for it.
He brings the church into birth.
But is it that He brings the church
into birth and then leave the church alone
and let the church find its own way,
fight its own battle, see if it can
survive?
Not at all.
You find that He who has brought the
church into birth, He sanctifies it, purifying it
by the washing of the water with the
Word, that He may present that church to
Himself, a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle
of any of such sort.
That it may be holy and without blameless.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord Jesus is working.
As our brother said, He is building His
church.
He is working.
He is sanctifying it, purifying it by the
water with the Word, using the living Word.
And also the water represents His life.
His life, together with His Word, purifies the
church of all spots and wrinkles and any
of such sort, that the church may be
a glorious church to be offered to Him.
Brothers and sisters, the church is not to
be a church in poverty, but it is
to be a glorious church.
This is what the Lord is after.
He is looking for fullness in His own
church.
We do not have time to go over,
you know, the first seven letters to the
churches written by Paul, shows us the kind
of church that God ordains it to be.
And then in the seven letters in Revelation
2 and 3, you find Christ.
He is walking among these churches, looking for
something.
What is He looking for?
You find that in these seven churches, they
have a lot of things to offer to
Him.
But that is not what He is looking
for.
He is looking for Himself.
He is looking for His fullness.
Because this is what the church He has
brought into being for.
He will never be satisfied until He sees
His fullness manifested in the church, should we
be less satisfied.
In the third area, I have to go
quickly.
In the third area, ministry.
Now brothers and sisters, what is ministry?
What is the aim, the goal, the purpose
of ministry?
In other words, why do we minister?
What do you want to accomplish in ministry?
And if you read the letter to the
Colossians, you find that Paul makes it very
clear that the purpose of ministry is unto
fullness.
Why you find, for instance, in chapter 1
verse 24, He
said, The word complete means to make full
the word of God.
Whom God will make known what are the
riches of the glory of this ministry among
the nations, which is Christ in you, the
hope of glory, which we announce, admonishing every
man, teaching every man in all wisdom to
the end, that we may present every man
perfect in Christ.
In other words, you will find the goal
of ministry is fullness.
That through ministry we may present every man
perfect, complete, made full in Christ.
And if you turn to the last chapter
of Colossians, you will find Epaphras did the
same thing.
How he told his laborers in prayer that
they may be perfect and complete in Christ.
Now that is the goal of ministry.
Any ministry that is less than this goal
comes short of what a ministry should be.
Now what is ministry?
Ministry is the imparting of Christ.
Ministry is not imparting yourself, your knowledge, your
cleverness.
Ministry is imparting Christ.
And because of this, we who minister, oh
how we need to know the fullness of
Christ.
And not only to know the fullness of
Christ, but we as earthen vessels that contain
that fullness, we had to be broken so
that that fullness can flow to the people
whom we minister.
As Paul said, I bear in my body
the slaying of Jesus that the life of
Jesus may be in you.
Now that is ministry.
I do not have time to go into
details.
I have to move on to the last
one because this is something I have to
do to conclude it.
Fullness in the recovery of the testimony of
Jesus.
I will just read to you that article
by our dear brother T.
Austin Sparks.
It is the same article attaining to God's
full thought.
And I will read it very slowly.
I hope the Spirit of God will really
impress upon our heart that we will bring
it to the Lord with all seriousness.
And this is what he said.
I read certain letters that were written by
Paul at the end of his life.
And at a time when Christianity as to
its primal beauty and glory and purity was
breaking up.
We know what these letters are.
I see that the first early conditions as
we have them in the opening chapters of
Acts have changed.
Things seem to be going wrong.
The purity of things, the heaviness is being
lost.
The church is becoming an earthly thing at
the end of its life.
With these conditions coming about, Paul writes some
letters.
And no one can pretend that these letters
are a compromise accommodating to the situation that
is developing.
They are the most drastic and utter contradiction
of it.
They are a wonderfully full revelation of the
heavenly thought and mind and position.
What is the significance of this?
Is it not that in these letters God
has sovereignly made his provision for all times
of declension?
That is his sovereign reaction.
In which he says, in effect, whenever declension
lets in and things begin to lose their
purity.
Here is your provision.
I have laid it up for you.
Everything is provided to meet the situation.
We are not left without guidance.
We are not left without light in a
dark day.
We can take hold of these letters and
say, arise, shine, for the light is come.
Darkness comes, covers the earth, grows darkness the
people.
But here is our light.
God does not accommodate himself to the situation
and said, we must make the best of
a bad job.
We must be contented with a little.
He has taken sovereign precaution against that.
By giving us letters like Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,
Timothy.
What about the faithfulness of man?
We shall be unfaithful, thoroughly unfaithful.
If we take the attitude, well, everything has
gone wrong.
There is nothing today which represents the original.
We had better accommodate ourselves to the situation
as it is.
For a long time, these letters were lost
as to their real value in the church.
It is only within recent times that the
value of Paul's letters has come home to
Christians.
They have appeared too deep, abstract, heavenly.
The gospels were practically the bible of the
church for a long time.
And then Luther saw the true meaning of
Romans and that made the break.
Then another movement of God and the church
saw the spiritual implication of Ephesians.
And that made another break.
We have to recognize the significance of the
epistles of Paul.
And see that the position which they set
forth is one which is regarded as attainable
and maintainable by the grace of God.
And that we are required to hold fast
in faithfulness in a day of declension.
Unfortunately, brothers and sisters, we do live in
a day of declension.
Things are not what they should be.
Not what God has ordained them to be.
But is it because of this God gives
up?
Well, God says, let me make the best
of that job and see if I can
live with it.
Or is it for us to give up
and say, well, there is nothing better.
So I have to live with it, accommodate
it, compromise.
God never changes His purpose.
God's purpose is to see His fullness
expressed in a people on earth.
And He never changes that.
We know it because Paul, when he wrote
these last letters, he was in that kind
of situation.
But the revelation from God is drastic, original.
God does not compromise.
He is still looking for fullness in His
people.
And if this is the case, we will
be unfaithful if we easily give up and
compromise.
Oh, that the Lord will enable us to
be so taken up by God's heart, that
fullness.
He wants so much to be expressed in
a people.
That by the grace of God, we will
be there.
It's difficult, but it is attainable.
It is maintainable.
It is not a theory.
The testimony of Jesus must be recovered in
the last days.
And it will be recovered.
Shall we pray?