We thank you this afternoon, our gracious God
and loving Heavenly Father, for Jesus.
Oh, we thank you, Lord, this afternoon that
we can sing, O hail, Redeemer, hail, for
thou hast died for me.
We praise and glorify you this afternoon, Lord,
for so great salvation, for the love that
drew salvation's plan, for the grace that brought
it down to man, and for the mighty
gulf that God did span at Calvary, and
all our hearts rejoice within us this afternoon,
and there is a song of praise upon
our lips, our God, for all thy goodness,
thy love, and thy tender mercies towards each
one.
We thank you this afternoon for your leading
and for your guiding.
We thank you, Lord, for your good hand
upon us continually, and all the things that
we enjoy, both spiritual and temporal, in this
life.
We do indeed praise thee, Lord, for what
are we?
The dust of the earth, and yet, Lord,
in your love, you have drawn us to
yourself, thy cords of love divine, and this
afternoon we're glad to be in the fold
and in the family of God.
We're glad to be in the royal family.
We're glad to be a kingdom of priests
unto our God, and oh, Lord, as we
think of thy near return, and in the
light of that near return, Lord, we might
pray that we might be found faithful unto
thee.
We realize, Lord, that the days are going
by, the moments are ticking slowly by, and
the time will come when Jesus shall return,
when we shall hear the trumpet, and we
shall hear the voice, and oh, Lord, what
a glorious day that will be, when from
every clime and nation thou wilt call thy
people home.
What a gathering and a greeting there will
be, and we're glad, Lord, that we are
part of it tonight.
We have a blessed assurance within our hearts,
and so this afternoon, Lord, we're here once
again that your name shall be glorified.
We're here once again to listen to thy
precious word, which is preeminent, Lord, in this
meeting this afternoon, and we pray you'll bless
our dear brother as he has come amongst
us.
We pray that thou wilt mantle him with
the Holy Ghost and with power this afternoon,
that the word shall come to us as
thus saith the Lord, and Lord, what we
hear, we pray that we might understand, and
that we'll find a lodging place deep within
our hearts, that, Lord, as we go out
of this place, having been together in fellowship
with thee and one with another, we shall
be changed that little more, and that little
more prepared for thy coming, and, Lord, we
shall be just that little more like thee,
as we take the word and allow it
to do its work in our hearts.
So, Lord, just bless us to that this
end, we pray, and any that would fain
have been with us this afternoon and have
not been able to come, through sickness or
force of circumstance, we pray that thou wilt
give them their own special blessing in their
own places, in beds of sickness, in hospital,
wherever they may be.
Meet them, we pray, for Jesus' sake.
So bless us now, and just have your
way in the midst of your people.
For your name's sake, we ask it.
Amen.
Good afternoon,
everyone.
Thank you, yes.
Good afternoon, everybody.
Thank you very much.
I'm just glad we're on speaking terms before
I start.
I hope you've got your Bible with you.
If you have, will you turn to Philippians,
chapter 3.
Philippians, chapter 3.
Just going to read, to begin with, from
verse 70.
Philippians 3, verse 70.
Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those
who so live, as you have an example
in us.
For many of whom I have often told
you, and now tell you even with tears,
live as the enemies of the cross of
Christ.
Their end is destruction, their God is the
belly, and they glory in their shame, with
minds set on earthly things.
But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from
it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who will change our lowly body to
be like His glorious body, by the power
which enables Him even to subject all things
to Himself.
Just a word of prayer together, can we?
Perhaps you would echo in your heart the
prayer which I would offer on your behalf
and on my own.
Speak, Lord, in the stillness while we wait
on thee.
Hush our hearts to listen in expectancy.
Speak, O blessed Master, in this quiet hour.
May we see thy face, Lord, and feel
thy touch of power.
For Jesus' sake, Amen.
The subject of the Lord's return is one
which dominates the whole of the New Testament.
Out of the twenty-seven books, you probably
know, out of the twenty-seven books, there
are only four which make no reference to
it.
That is Galatians, second and third John, and
the little letter to Philemon.
In all the other twenty-three, this great
truth comes ringing loud and clear.
In fact, the motivation for the ministry of
the New Testament church was that Jesus is
coming soon.
And it put passion into the evangelism.
It gave them a tremendous sense of urge
and need.
And most of all, it was the, what
shall I say, the burning motive for a
holy life.
And this Philippian letter is no exception.
Remember, of course, this is Paul's love letter.
There's not a word of rebuke in it.
It's full of love.
It's full of rejoicing, and it's full of
suffering, too.
And this church had come alive through suffering.
That often happens.
And a tremendous note of joy.
The word joy and rejoice occur about nineteen
times throughout these four chapters.
And the secret of their joy was that
Jesus is coming back and coming soon.
That was the great hope.
I'm sure that if ever there was a
time when this truth needed emphasizing, it's today.
A revival of that great hope in our
hearts.
I don't know how I'd live, do you,
if we didn't know that he was coming?
What a hopeless future it would be, with
the world in such a mess.
But you know, it has a tremendous implication
for our life, and for our service, and
for our holiness of living.
A thousand years are but as a day,
says the word of God.
And the promise of his return was made
yesterday, in his calendar.
Coming soon.
He's not slack concerning his promise, Peter says.
But, as some men count slackness, but long
-suffering to us would not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to
repentance and faith.
Now I haven't much use, you forgive me
for saying this, for theorizing about this second
coming of Christ.
I'm one of those who believe we're in
great danger when we get involved in timetables.
I well remember, I've been around quite a
while, before the war, Second Advent meetings in
the Kingsway Hall, London, were packed to capacity.
And there were books published at that time,
when Mussolini was the Antichrist, and Hitler was
something else.
Well, they're not worth the paper they're written
on now.
And we are in grave danger when we
relate too closely the return of the Lord
Jesus to world events.
Mind you, we can see the trend, and
see the general signs, but be very careful
before you relate any particular incident to the
fact that Jesus is coming.
Nevertheless, we know he is very near.
But this truth of the second coming of
the Lord is always, in the New Testament,
intimately connected with your life and mine.
It's the greatest challenge to holy living.
And it is from this light in the
Philippian letter that I want to deal with
it today.
Not to tickle your mind about fresh ideas
or fresh theories, not to make you wonder
about exactly when he's coming, not to make
you wonder about Wedgwood, Benn, etc., and communism,
etc., but to say to you that these
are days when the one hope of the
Church is the revival of Holy Spirit life
and power, that we will live in the
light of his return, worthy of the kingdom
of God.
So therefore, we're going to be very practical
today.
And first of all, in our portion that
we read, there are two words that need
clarifying.
At least, if you are reading from the
authorized version, they do.
You will have there, our conversation is in
heaven.
That usually means our manner of life.
But here is a word that's only used
this once in the New Testament, and it
means citizenship.
A state to which we belong.
The literal translation would be, we are a
colony of heaven.
That's exciting.
Our temporary home is here, but it's not
our permanent home.
We don't belong here.
And Roman citizens living in the outpost of
Philippi would at once catch on to the
idea.
And the second word is look, from whence
we look for the appearing of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.
That's a very weak translation of the word,
which means an eager expectation.
The Amplified New Testament has it this way.
We are citizens of the homeland, which is
in heaven.
And from it also, we earnestly and patiently
await the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, see how this is the whole burden
of the Philippian letter.
Paul is saying all the way through, Jesus
is coming, therefore live in the light of
that fact.
If he's coming, don't just relate it to
theories, relate it to your own personal, practical
Christian life, seven days a week.
See how he gets at that, will you,
with me for a moment.
Turn with me to chapter 1 and verse
6, as a starting point.
And I am sure that he who began
a good work in you will bring it
to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
That's his first reference to the coming of
our Lord.
He will bring it to completion at the
day of Jesus Christ.
Now you see, here's the whole action of
the grace of God.
Beginning when we were born again, and continuing
right through until the day of Jesus Christ.
Bringing what he began into full completion, right
up to the day of his return.
No satanic opposition will hinder him.
He'll be unmoved by the stubbornness of our
own hearts, that can't overcome.
What grace began, grace will perfect.
Now get this, because this is the whole
idea of Christian living.
He will not help me to complete what
he began.
That's to say, he doesn't come with a
little bit of reinforcement to help me to
live a Christian life until Jesus comes.
No, he won't help me.
And if I'm trying to do the thing,
I'm heading for a nervous breakdown.
Because of tensions and strains that build up,
because I try to perfect what grace began.
You cannot do that.
Neither will he complete with my help.
You cannot do a thing to add to
the ministry of the Holy Spirit in your
heart.
And he completes it.
And he himself will complete what he began.
The day when you were born again was
when he began.
He's going on doing it right now, and
he'll go on doing it until we meet
him face to face.
He who planted the seed in my heart
is the Lord of the harvest.
He who created the initial desire to seek
for the Lord Jesus, he it is alone
who can complete what he began.
Until every one of us is able to
say, I have finished the work which you
gave me to do.
See, in the beginning, God.
I'm kept by the power of God today.
He is able to present me faultless before
the throne of God.
That's the future.
So the power of a holy life till
the day of his return is by his
grace alone.
But Christian growth isn't automatic.
Don't get away with that idea.
A Christian who lives in the light of
the return of the Lord Jesus has no
room for idols in his heart.
His concern will be God's concern.
That God will complete what he began.
And no idol and no rival claim to
Jesus will be allowed in my heart.
His burden, his concern for my maturity will
be my concern too.
An insatiable longing to be like Jesus will
fill my life every day.
The evidence of the Holy Spirit operating in
me is that I long more and more
to be like him and less like myself.
So you see, there is the power for
holy living.
The grace of God which is adequate for
every situation.
I was in Johannesburg not so long ago
and met a very fine Christian man who
was a member of the South African government.
And he had just bought a Rolls-Royce
car two years previously.
And he was very impressed by this vehicle.
It was so smooth and so fast that
he went to the agent from whom he
bought it and said, what exactly is the
horsepower of this car?
He said, I can't tell you that.
Rolls-Royce never tell anybody.
Well, he said, find out.
Well, he was an important customer, so the
agent thought he'd have a try.
So he sent a cable to Derby in
England, a Rolls-Royce factory.
And the cable was two pages long.
It said, Rolls-Royce, silver shadow, 1972 model,
cubic capacity of engine so much, brake horsepower
so much, V8 engine from zero to a
hundred miles an hour in so many seconds.
Presumably Rolls-Royce knew all that because they
made it.
And then at the end of it all
he said, please cable by return exact horsepower
of this vehicle.
He had his answer in an hour's time.
One word, adequate.
Typically British, typically snooty, but adequate.
What more do you want than adequacy?
The grace of the Lord began, the grace
of God continues, the grace of God will
perfect what he began.
All that God requires from you and me
is total abandonment to that purpose.
Total identification with Jesus and a great desire
to be like him.
More and more every day.
Now I'm afraid that in many Christian circles
that desire has gone.
It's A.
W.
Tulsa in one of his books, In Pursuit
of God, who says, everything is made to
center these days on the initial act of
accepting Christ.
We're not expected thereafter to crave for any
further revelation of God to our hearts.
Once we've found him, we need no more
seek him.
That language would have sounded strange in the
ears of Augustine, David, Bernard, and thousands more
of fragrant saints.
But today it's regarded as the last word
in orthodoxy.
Would that the language of John Samuel Munsell
was in our hearts again.
I hunger and I thirst, Jesus my manna
be, ye living waters burst out of the
rock for me.
For still the desert lies, my thirsty soul
before, ye living waters rise within me evermore.
Yes, and there's nothing like the assurance that
Jesus is coming to create that longing in
our hearts.
The power for a holy life.
Then, chapter 1, verse 10, I would call,
or verse 9 and 10, the pattern of
a holy life.
It is my prayer that your love may
abound more and more with knowledge and all
discernment, so that you may approve what is
excellent.
A better rendering of that, you may test
things that differ.
You may test things that differ.
And may be pure and blameless for the
day of Christ.
That's his second reference to the Lord's return
in the Philippian letter.
The second reference.
And it means simply this, that I give
and you give my whole backing to that
which through testing has proved vital and essential
in my life.
An intelligent love, the first fruit of the
Spirit in my heart, the love and joy
and peace, the fruit of the Spirit.
The result of that is a right sense
of values.
I get my priorities right then.
And that means that I become sincere and
flawless when tested against the light, without causing
offense to other Christians, without being a stumbling
block to others, right up to the day
of the Lord Jesus.
My priorities become right.
That's the pattern for holy living.
And you see, a Christian living in the
light of his return has no room for
slackness in his service.
No room for slackness in his service.
Matthew 6, 33, Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these
things shall be added to you.
Seek ye first in intensity.
Seek ye first in time.
Seek ye first in preference before everything else,
the kingdom of God.
That's right priority.
Now, how do I face that test?
Proving things that are excellent.
Am I putting the right priorities in my
heart?
Where does Jesus come in my love life?
First?
Second?
Or third?
Or one of the also rands?
Will it have to be said of us,
of what our Lord said to the church
at Ephesus?
I have somewhat against you.
You have abandoned the love you had at
the first.
Ah, that's a searching test.
It is my prayer that you will love
me abound more and more for the day
of Jesus.
What a tragedy it will be to meet
him face to face and know that he
never really had that.
A friend of mine who was a deacon
of the church of which I was pastor
in Chicago told me that he just had
his silver wedding.
And at that silver wedding, he had decided
to talk to his wife on a rather
personal matter.
They'd had a happy life, happy married life,
but they very seldom talked about Jesus.
And they never spoke about the Lord in
the home.
They were Christians, of course, but they didn't
do that.
And somehow or other it got very stale,
and his wife had become very sort of
cool and aloof.
And this in spite of the fact that
he'd given her lots of cars and lots
of fur coats and new homes and so
on.
And he was very concerned about it because
he said to me, you know, she's had
everything that a woman can expect from a
husband.
So he said, I chose our silver wedding
as the opportunity to speak to her about
this.
And we went out for dinner.
That's a good beginning if you want to
speak to your husband or wife about anything
serious.
And he had a wonderful meal, and then
he said to her, Now listen, darling, I
want to ask you about something.
For 25 years we've had a happy home,
and I've given you new cars and new
fur coats and homes, and you've had everything.
But why have you been so cool?
Why have you been cooling off?
What's the matter with you?
Oh, she said, I'm very glad to be
asked that, because I've been trying to summon
up courage to ask you, to tell you.
She said, I'm very grateful for the cars
and very grateful for the clothes and very
grateful for the homes and everything.
But you know, for 25 years you've never
given me the love of your heart.
I don't wonder what that man felt, because
I know, he told me.
Have you given Jesus that?
That your love might grow more and more
for the day of Christ?
Oh, you've given him your service.
You've given him your time.
You've given him your work.
But have you ever given him your love?
I mean, let's be honest about it, for
it's the use of any conference meeting that
isn't honest.
I mean, how long is it since you've
spent half an hour alone with Jesus and
told him you love him?
Today?
This week?
Last year?
Never?
Hmm.
Our Lord has a very unpleasant word for
people who behave like that, you know.
I wouldn't use it, but he did.
You hypocrites.
You worship me with your lips, but your
hearts are far from me.
The pattern for holy living.
Your love may grow more and more, till
Jesus comes.
You test your Christian experience by that.
Do you love him more now than ever?
Well, what's the motive for all this?
Look at chapter 2, verse 14 and 16.
Chapter 2, verse 14 to 16.
The motive for holy living.
Do all things without grumbling or questioning, or,
if you have the King James Version, without
murmuring or disputing, that you may be blameless
and innocent, children of God without blemish, in
the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,
among whom you shine as lights in the
world, holding fast the word of life, so
that in the day of Christ I may
be proud that I did not run in
vain or labor in vain, in the day
of Christ.
The motive for holy living.
The motive for living in the light of
his return.
Holding out the word of life to a
nation, a generation, if you like, distorted morally,
no longer with any standards of right and
wrong.
In that situation, the word of the Lord
held out by a Christian people, like a
torch, is the one thing that shines for
Christ.
But to accomplish that, effectively, we have to
be blameless.
That doesn't mean sinless, but blameless and without
guile.
You see, Jesus imparts to my heart and
to yours, when we're born again, the life
that loves the light and hates the darkness.
He doesn't simply give me new teaching, doesn't
simply help me to understand problems, but he
gives to me new desires, new hopes, new
longings, and if I stop short of that,
I have no gospel.
The motive for a holy life till the
day of Jesus.
A Christian living in the light of his
return has no room for division in his
fellowship.
Do all things without murmuring and disputing.
No room for division in his fellowship.
A church, a divided church, in which there's
rift and trouble, is absolutely helpless to hold
out the word of truth and the word
of life.
And alas, it's often the case that that
is so.
Do all things as are two interesting words
without murmuring and disputing.
They're quite different.
Murmur.
If I have some schoolteachers here today, they
would tell you that that word is an
automatic sounding word.
You can tell its meaning by its sound,
murmur.
It's like the word bang.
An automatic sounding word.
Are you a murmuring sort of Christian?
Murmuring, you're always grumbling.
Grumbling at the diet you get from your
pulpit.
Grumbling at the leadership.
Always complaining about something in your church.
Are you murmuring or encouraging?
You know the children of Israel were addicted
to murmuring.
That's why they never made it to the
promised land.
They were all cut off, except two, Joshua
and Caleb.
They were murmuring, longing for the good old
days.
It isn't like this before, you know.
You know what it is when you're a
new pastor at your church.
It's wonderful if for a year you have
a honeymoon.
For about six months.
It may last less, usually it does, but
it may last just a little more.
And then, before that, he couldn't do a
thing wrong.
Now, he can't do a thing right.
Murmuring, murmuring, murmuring all the time.
And disputing.
Well, we all know what that means.
Does it mean that Christians have always to
agree with each other?
No, it doesn't.
But it does mean we have to disagree
agreeably.
And not to break fellowship.
Or else there's no distinctive mark of Christ
about your church.
Christians who disagree disagreeably and leave the church,
just behave like any other unbeliever.
But a man who loves Jesus more and
more, motive for holy living, holding out the
word of life, doing everything without murmuring and
disputing, how do you handle difficult people in
your church?
Perhaps you haven't got any.
Oh, haven't you?
Well, would you let me be a member?
You'd have one in your hands then.
But it's the only church I've ever heard
of that has no difficult people.
How do you handle difficult people?
That's a great test, you know.
Practical test of holy living in the light
of Jesus' return.
I know that from experience, through experience of
failure in my own ministry very often.
Because it's easy to react the wrong way
to people who are difficult, isn't it?
I remember a man used to come in
to the vestry from which I went into
the pulpit about 30 seconds before the service
began, looked at me and said, Hopeless pastor,
the church is half empty today.
He went out.
That does something to a minister right down
inside here.
But he was followed 15 seconds later by
another man who said, Wonderful pastor, the church
is half full today.
Well, both of them were saying the same
thing.
One with a view to raking me through,
another with a view to encouraging me.
Which of those two people was it easier
to love?
You know the answer to that, don't you?
My reaction to the first man was totally
negative.
Totally negative.
I mean, the church held 4,000 people.
2,000 wasn't a bad congregation.
But every time I went into that pulpit,
a little devil hopped out of every empty
seat and sneered at me.
Didn't need him to come along and reinforce
him.
And I reacted violently.
Of course, mind you, I had scripture to
justify it.
And you can always get a text to
support any argument or any point of view
if you take it out of its context.
And I said, No, Lord, you know we've
got to have a holy church, pure church.
That's right.
And you know that people who are not
like that have to be excommunicated.
I said, Yes, that's right.
One Corinthians, I can find out that there.
And then, Lord, you know, you can't write
a letter to the man, but I ought
to.
I mean, really, we must deal with him,
Lord.
So you don't write to people, let me
do it for you.
So I wrote him a letter.
Oh, it blistered.
Absolutely blistered.
And I sort of said, You know, we
don't need people like you around here.
You go to some other fundamental church and
do your thing there, but leave me alone.
A very shocking letter.
But I left it open on my study
desk, and my wife saw it.
She's a very wonderful person.
And when she saw it, she said to
me, Don't you think we should pray together
about this before you send it?
Oh, I said, Sure, but I've prayed already.
But if you'd like to have some more,
by all means, let's pray.
So come on.
And we knelt down and prayed.
And I have never forgotten listening to her
pray for 20 minutes.
Not for the man, but for her husband.
I tell you, that shattered me and broke
me.
And I had to repent and tell the
Lord I was sorry.
And my attitude to that man changed.
I was going to say I began to
love him, but that wouldn't be true.
But I disliked him.
And I still went on disliking him.
And I still do dislike him.
But likes and dislikes are based on temperament.
But I found that when I went to
the cross with this and told the Lord
I was sorry, then the love of Jesus
got through.
And he began to love that man in
me.
And I began to be concerned to pray
about him.
See what I mean?
Get the thrust of it.
The motive for holy living.
That your light may shine.
Do everything without murmuring, without disputing.
Love till Jesus comes.
Until the day of Christ.
That's what Paul is saying.
What about you and your fellowship?
What about difficult people?
What about your reaction to them?
What about sparks that fly?
What about disagreements that make the work of
the Holy Spirit impossible?
What about the murmuring and disputing that goes
on that splits church after church?
It's a disgrace that these things are allowed
to happen in evangelical circles.
A Christian living in the light of the
Lord's return has no room for division in
his fellowship.
No room.
Of course, Philippi, Philippian church, just had a
cloud in the sky, signs of a little
rift coming through two ladies who, let me
be fair, might equally well have been men,
called Iodius and Syntyche.
Syntyche, you've probably heard them called Odius and
Syntuchie.
And these people were threatening a quarrel.
And I want to say to you with
all my heart, if that's happening in your
fellowship in the name of the Lord Jesus,
take it to Calvary today.
And get it under the blood.
To let the Holy Spirit loose in that
situation.
He is the only one who can deal
and handle situations in your fellowship.
But he can't do it if my attitudes
are always critical, unkind, murmuring, disputing with other
people.
A man living in the light of the
return of the Lord Jesus has no room
for rifts in his church fellowship.
And then there comes this amazing reward, reward
of a holy life in chapter 3 that
I read to you earlier.
Our commonwealth is in heaven.
From it we await a savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body
to be like his glorious body by the
power which enables him even to subject all
things to himself.
So, a transformation that requires supernatural power, the
very power that's necessary to establish his universal
dominion in the world, subjecting all things to
himself.
That's the kind of power Jesus uses to
transform this body of sin into the likeness
of his own glorious body.
Living in the light of his return, therefore,
there will be a striking contrast in the
behavior and outlook in comparison with all other
people.
I'm concerned about this today in my own
life as well as in Christian living.
You see, Christian testimony isn't handing tracts around
just.
That's good, of course.
It isn't that.
It isn't merely, merely knocking on doors and
seeking to get people to consider spiritual things.
It is that.
But primarily, primarily, it is so living the
kind of life that makes other people ask,
how does he react as he does?
A Christian cannot be explained except on the
basis of miracle.
Some things happen to that fellow, that girl,
which makes him sweet where he used to
be sour, which makes him love where he
used to hate.
Something, something different with no explanation.
What is it that he's got?
You see?
And the presence of those in Philippi whose
manner of life was undermining the effectiveness of
the gospel led Paul to exhort believers to
observe carefully, and I always think this is
a marvelous piece of, almost something that sounds
like spiritual arrogance, but it wasn't, to observe
carefully how he and all who had this
hope lived.
Join in imitating me.
Would you like to put that in any
letter that you wrote to anybody?
And mark those who so live as you
have an example in us.
That word example is a fascinating word.
It's the same word as was used by
Thomas on Easter Sunday, the first Easter Sunday,
when he wasn't there, when Jesus came to
see a few of the disciples, but he
came later.
And they told him they'd seen the Lord,
and he said, except I see in his
hands the print of the nails, I will
not believe.
The print of the nails, an example, the
same word.
It's just as if people are saying, I
won't believe in your Jesus until I see
the marks of the cross on you.
Exactly.
That's what I'd expect.
They won't believe until they see on God's
people the marks of the cross on their
lives, on our lives.
You see, the enemies, the enemies of the
cross in this chapter, in Philippians, are not
heathen people, nor Jews, but people connected with
the Church, who interpreted Christian liberty as freedom
from all moral restraint.
And there's an awful lot of people doing
that today.
You have a trip on Jesus.
You go high on the Holy Spirit.
And if you're moral concerned, don't matter.
That, of course, is an extreme instance.
There are only a few, but there are
some who talk like that.
And a lot more who've got no marks
of the reality of Calvary on them, and
they're the enemy to everything for which the
cross stands.
And Paul says their end is perdition, their
God is sensual indulgence, and their mind is
set on earthly things.
The enemies of the cross, and they're the
enemies today.
I tell you, as I travel round now,
I have to do this.
I miss terribly a pastoral ministry, being in
the same people all the time, and getting
to know them, getting to talk with them,
and understand their problems, and live with them.
But when you go round from church to
church, you never know anybody.
But I tell you, you see some things,
you do.
And you see some wonderful things.
Church is coming alive today.
I'm certain that the tide is coming in.
The spiritual tide of Holy Spirit life is
really, really, is really moving.
For thirty-five years and more, I've been
preaching the gospel, not so effectively as I
wish I had done.
But it's been against a tide that's been
going out.
It's been tough going, except for a few
years after the war, when people were hungry
and their tummies were empty, and they were
ready to listen.
But then we had the affluent society for
a little while.
You remember?
It's never been so good.
You've never had it so good for so
long.
We don't talk about that now, it's ended.
But that's how they talked for a while.
And then the spiritual tide ran out.
Oh, it was hard going, but my word,
I see exciting things happening, and the tide
of blessing flowing, and the Holy Spirit moving.
I tell you, it makes my seventeen hairs
stand right on end, as I see the
Lord really at work all over the world,
all over this country too.
But alongside that, I see some churches that
break one's heart.
You know, the seven last words of a
dying church.
It's never been done this way before.
Nothing changes here, as it was in the
beginning, is now, ever shall be.
And if it's not done our way, it's
not right.
That kind of situation breaks my heart.
People who are connected with the Church, but
have no vital relationship with Jesus, and have
never been gripped with the hope of His
coming back.
I can only presume that is so, because
they couldn't afford to live like that, if
they really believed that He was coming, and
coming soon.
The reward of a holy life, one day
laying aside this body of humiliation, and having
the body of resurrection power and glory.
Here's what living in the light of His
return does for us.
No room for idols in our heart.
No room for slackness in our service.
No room for division in our fellowship.
No room for sin in our life.
You say that's impossible.
No, it isn't.
I just close with a reminder of the
promise that's here, of fulfillment, Philippians 4, 19.
My God shall supply all your need, all
your need, according to His riches in glory,
by Christ Jesus.
My God, in all His mighty power, my
God, in all that wonderful personal relationship, alongside
Him our need is not so tremendous really,
is it?
He shall supply all my need, according to
His riches.
It's rather like a sort of a check
on number two account, that actually the Lord
has at least four accounts.
He tells us of in the Bible, He
has the riches of His goodness, Romans 2,
4.
The riches of His wisdom, Romans 11, 33.
The riches of His grace, Ephesians 1, 7.
The riches of His glory, Ephesians 1, 18.
And in one or other of these accounts,
He's got supply that is adequate and sufficient
for your every need all the time.
Remember therefore, my friend, what we are.
Citizens of a colony of heaven, eagerly expecting
His return, therefore live like it.
And my God shall supply all your need.
Let's pray together, shall we?
Thank you Lord Jesus, that you're present with
us now, by your Spirit.
And thank you Lord Jesus, that one day
soon you're coming to take your people home.
Lord, we want to live in the light
of your return.
Forgive us so often for the compromise.
Forgive us for the failure to love.
Forgive us Lord for the breaks and divisions
in fellowship.
Forgive us for the sin in our life.
Cleanse me from my sin, Lord.
Put Thy power within, Lord.
Take me as I am, Lord.
Make me all Thine own.
Keep me day by day, Lord.
Underneath Thy sway, Lord.
Make my heart Thy palace and Thy royal
throne.
Lord Jesus, look down upon this little company
of your people and may it be that
you're able to say concerning each one of
us, you've begun the work and you're going
to continue it and complete it until the
day of Christ.
We ask it for your name's sake.
Amen.