Thank you so much for that kindly welcome.
It's certainly my very special delight to have
this further opportunity of being among you.
It's always a sheer delight to be here
in Prairie, to be among so many in
whose hearts the Lord Jesus has been given
the place of preeminence and whose supreme delight
is to serve him.
So I thank you again tonight for the
very real privilege that is mine to share
these days with.
It's been said of the early believers in
the early church that they were incorrigibly happy,
utterly unafraid, and nearly always in trouble.
And that was a pretty accurate description of
those who were there then entrusted with the
good news of the gospel.
They were men who knew what they believed,
they believed what they knew, they acted on
the assumption that it was true, and they
let God prove it.
And of course, he always did, and still
does.
So it's always refreshing to turn sometimes to
the book that records those activities that characterize
the early believers.
And in the first chapter of the book
of the Acts, the former treaties have I
made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began
both to do and to teach.
And by dint of this introduction, of course,
the author under God of the book of
the Acts is indicating that this is a
second treatise or book that he has written.
The book in itself, as all of us
know in a sense, is a misnomer.
And this, Luke, of course, points out very
clearly in that very first verse, not the
Acts of the Apostles.
This, said Luke, is the second of the
books that I am writing.
Having in the first told you what the
Lord Jesus began to do and began to
teach in this book, I'm going to tell
you what he continued to do and continue
to teach.
The only essential difference is the humanity with
which he on earth clothed his divine activity.
A different body, but the same Lord Jesus
Christ in action.
What he continued to do and continue to
teach in that new body, the second that
the Father gave him on the day of
Pentecost, the birth of the church.
When having accomplished the redemptive act, precipitating that
regenerative purpose that restores the life of God
to forgiven sinners, the Father God in heaven
gave him the second body.
The church, which is his body, an organic
entity made up of boys, girls, men, and
women out of every kindred, nation, tribe, and
tongue, and race, and creed, and class, and
color, who cleansed and in his precious blood,
having become the recipients of his Holy Spirit,
sharing his life on earth had been added
in particular to his corporate body.
That's the fantastic privilege that God still today
gives to you and to me.
To be his hands, to work with feet,
to walk with lips, to speak with eyes,
to see with ears, to hear with a
mind to think with, and hearts to love
with.
The church, which is his body.
So we read here of the continued activities
of the Lord Jesus, continuing to do and
continuing to teach the things that he once
began to do, and began to teach, but
in the new body.
This is clearly indicated if you turn to
the fifth chapter in the twelfth verse, by
the hands of the apostles were many signs
and wonders wrought among the people.
Twelfth verse of that fifth chapter, by the
hands of the apostles.
It was their hands, but the one who
motivated their hands, the Lord Jesus.
Theirs is to work with, as theirs were
his feet to walk with, theirs were his
lips to make articulate the good news of
the gospel.
By the hands of the apostles and believers,
we're told in the fourteenth verse, with a
more beautiful expression that's used more than once
in God's word, added to the Lord.
That's why they got excited when a boy
accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as savior, or
a young lady, or a man or a
woman.
They got excited because, you see, they knew
exactly what had happened.
This boy, girl, man, or woman had been
added to the Lord.
They said, well, Jesus got another pair of
hands.
He's got two more feet to walk with,
another pair of lips to speak with, and
two more eyes to see with, ears to
hear the cry of the needy world.
He's been added to the Lord.
And that's what it is, of course, to
be a Christian.
Somebody who, in their redeemed humanity, now clothes
the divine activity of Jesus Christ.
That's why a Christian is somebody who cannot
happen apart from Jesus Christ.
Added to the Lord.
They didn't get excited because this boy, that
girl, man, or woman had been added to
them.
They didn't present the proposition that if you're
one of us, you're one of his.
They were unshatterably convinced that if they were
one of his, they had become one of
theirs.
Added with them as members, in particular, of
that new body corporate, recognizing the total headship
of Jesus Christ, and caught up into the
timeless purpose of an eternal God.
Added to the Lord.
Not by the kid who turned to his
friend and said, why doesn't your dad go
to the church my dad goes to?
His friend replied, well, he belongs to a
different abomination.
Well, the abominations are going to be with
us like the poor until the Lord Jesus
comes.
And we've got to learn to live with
them.
And it's my happy privilege almost every week
of my life to move from one abomination
to another.
And among them all, I find the sweetest
of those who know and love my Lord
Jesus and share with me his life that
he shares with us.
Added to the Lord.
And of the rest, it says in the
verse that I deliberately omitted to read the
13th of the rest.
Durst, no man joined himself to them.
In other words, the crowd around hadn't got
the courage to identify themselves with these who
so demonstrably had become the property of Jesus
Christ, because they knew fully what was implicated.
They knew perfectly well by the message that
they then heard that to receive Christ as
redeemer was to recognize his total headship and
being the recipients of his divine indwelling were
prepared to yield to his sovereignty in their
lives.
And from that moment, they became expendable.
Little wonder that of the rest, Durst, no
man joined himself to them.
Nobody in those days dared to say I'm
a Christian unless they were prepared to accept
the implications of being totally sold out to
Jesus Christ.
24 hours a day.
Word to God, it was as dangerous in
the eyes of the world to become a
Christian in terms of total involvement with our
Lord Jesus than it was then.
Though they didn't have the courage to identify
themselves in true repentance toward God and in
receiving Christ as their redeemer with the then
church, it says the people magnified them.
In other words, they couldn't help but recognize
the sheer transparent genuineness of these who claimed
to be Christians, redeemed sinners.
They held them in the highest possible regard.
They magnified them, though they themselves were not
prepared to accept the implications of discipleship.
And for that reason, of course, there weren't
too many people in those days who played
church, prepared to say that they were Christians
without recognizing what would be involved.
There weren't too many prepared to stick their
necks out because they knew that they would
immediately be exposed for the phonies that they
were.
There were one or two exceptions.
And a couple of those exceptions are mentioned
in the earlier part of this fifth chapter
of the book of the Acts.
In the first verse, a certain man named
Ananas with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession.
A possession.
It was carefully selected to impose his little
hardship upon himself and his wife.
And they kept back part of the price.
Having selected already something that they would least
miss, even then they weren't prepared to yield
all that they realized upon its sale, but
put something under the floorboards for a rainy
day, they kept back part of the price,
his wife being privy to it.
That means to say the whole thing was
a conspiracy, and she was in the conspiracy.
And they brought a certain part and laid
it at the apostle's feet.
Now the whole thing was a piece of
theatricals.
They were making out, wearing a mask, and
it was very carefully engineered.
For you see, he was to go in
first with what they purported should be their
total dedication, completely given over to God, and
in the service of his son.
He was to go in first, and then
an hour or two later, she was to
go in and take the encore.
See, when he came in, they'd gaze at
him in wonder, love, and praise, and his
sheer dedication, and then she was to come
and bask in his limelight.
It was very carefully engineered.
But when Ananias came, said Peter to him,
who are you kidding?
I mean it doesn't say that in King
James, but that's exactly what he meant.
Peter said in verse 3, Ananias, why hath
Satan filled thine heart to lie to the
Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of
the prize?
Whilst it remains, said he, was it not
in thine own power?
Did I come knocking on your door and
telling you that you should give this or
that to the church, or the service of
the Lord Jesus Christ, or invested in missions?
Said he to him, that isn't within my
jurisdiction, because if you dare to say that
you're a Christian, then you've been added to
the Lord, and you recognize solely his headship.
And even when you'd sold it and realized
its value, was it not in thine own
power?
Couldn't you have invested it as you pleased,
or purchased some other property, some other piece
of land?
That's not my controversy.
Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine
heart?
Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto
God.
And he dropped dead.
It was really quite exciting going to church
in those days.
Ananias, hearing these words, verse 5, fell down,
gave up the ghost, and great fear came
on all them that heard these things.
If it weren't quite so sad, it would
really be quite funny in the 6th verse,
just three lines, didn't take too long, the
young men arose, wound him up, carried him
out, and buried him.
With great expedition.
And then Peter said, we'll sing hymn number
239, and proceeded with the message.
And it was about the space of three
hours after, and they must have had long
services in those days, when his wife, not
knowing what was done, she didn't even know
that her husband was dead and buried, came
in for the second part of the act.
And when she arrived, Peter answered and said,
tell me whether you sold the land for
so much.
And with a sweet evangelical smile on her
face, she said, yes, isn't it lovely to
be given over to God, to be wholly
dedicated, sold out for Jesus.
And said Peter to her, how is it
that you have agreed together to tempt the
Spirit of the Lord?
Behold, the feet of them which have buried
thy husband are at the door, and will
carry you out.
And she dropped dead.
And the young men came in, found her
dead, carrying her forth, buried her by her
husband.
You see, in those days, they didn't just
have ushers to show you to your seat,
and stewards, you know, to take the offering.
They had always a little squad of men
on duty to bury the dead.
I can think of nothing more salutary, nor
anything that would do more good to the
Church of Jesus Christ, certainly in my own
country, the British Isles, or the United States,
or here in Canada, if, say, ten minutes
after the announcement of the first hymn, all
the phonies would have dropped dead.
Wouldn't that be fantastic?
I don't mean the strangers, I don't mean
the visitors, I don't mean those off the
street, and those who demonstrably were unconverted, but
are coming with a hungry heart to hear
what God has to say.
I mean the folks, you know, who've been
playing church for years.
Making out.
Mind you, we wouldn't have such large congregations.
And it might well be that if you
knew that was going to happen, you'd go
fishing.
But that was the stamp of the early
believer.
Reality, genuineness.
Then the high priest, verse 17, in that
chapter, rose up, and all they that were
with him, which is of the sect of
the Sadducees, and they were filled with indignation.
A word which more accurately means envy.
Because, you see, these were the theological leaders
of Christ's day.
These were those of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, in
all the sterility of an apostate form of
Christianity, that they had established on the basis
of their investigation of God's word, priding themselves
on their scholarship.
But a Bible they studied without revelation.
As the Lord Jesus himself reprimanded them, as
recorded for us in the 5th of John
39, he said, you search the scriptures.
In them you think you have eternal life,
but they are they that testify of me,
and you will not come to me, but
you might have life.
And if you search the Bible without that
divine illumination that only God the Holy Spirit
can give of the book he authored, and
fail to recognize the one of whom the
scriptures testify, and will not come to him
that you might have life, then all you've
got is a dead Bible.
And these were they who were utterly indignant,
full of envy, when they saw a bunch
of untutored ignorant individuals, what today would be
called laymen, fanatical street preachers, proclaiming a message,
but which transparently was transforming the lives of
boys and girls, and men and women.
And they were filled with envy.
This was bad for business, because this was
taking place without going through the normal channels,
and it had to be stamped out at
all costs.
So they laid their hands on the apostles
and put them in the common prison.
They went unduly dismayed at that fact, because
they were reasonably accustomed to that kind of
accommodation.
And they went only in jail.
Sometimes they were put into the innermost part,
that means the most unsavory part of all.
On that occasion, you remember, when Silas was
with Paul in jail, they sang so loud,
they kept the other prisoners awake.
And I imagine that between their songs, Silas
would say to Paul, what do you think
God has in mind?
And Paul would say, it must be important,
otherwise he wouldn't stick his in a place
like this.
This stings.
And it did, if ever you had been
to the innermost part of a jail in
those days.
But it's going to be exciting.
Isn't it fantastic, Silas, that you and I
have been given the privilege of being expendable
for our Lord Jesus, so that he can
accomplish in his own way, in his own
time, for his own purposes, anything he pleases.
Let them another song.
So they had another song, they woke up
the prisoners once again, and halfway through the
song, for good measure, God added an earthquake.
The ceiling fell in, the walls fell out,
and as they stood there, rubbing their eyes,
waiting for the dust to settle, there was
a man in the inquiry room.
Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they led him to Christ, and later
all his family.
That was New Testament evangelism, earthquake and all.
But the angel of the Lord, by night,
opened the prison and brought them forth.
By God's direct and divine intervention, they were
set free.
And the angel said to them, in verse
20 there, the fifth of Acts, go stand,
speak in the temple, to the people, all
the words of this life.
What a lovely description of the gospel.
All the words of this life.
Not the life to come.
They went to go out and tell boys,
girls, men, and women, how they could get
out of hell and into heaven.
Marvelous as that is, and profoundly thankful as
you and I should be, that through his
atoning and substitutionary work upon the cross, whereby
he incurred in his person the judgment that
had already fallen upon man, and had occurred
in Adam and his fallen seed, we may
be profoundly thankful for his dear sake we
can be accepted in the beloved.
And know that our home is in heaven.
But that isn't why the Lord Jesus came
into this world.
He said, I'm come that you might have
life.
I've come to raise the dead.
I've come to make it possible, on the
grounds of redemption, for my father God to
restore to you without doing violence to his
own righteousness, that life that was lost in
Adam in the day that man fell, which
was the day that man died.
So the angel told the apostles to go
stand, speak all the words of this life.
Go, said the angel to them, go tell
boys, girls, and men, and women, that they
can come alive.
That if only they'll recognize their lost condition,
that they were born spiritually alienated from the
life of God, and dead in trespasses and
sins.
If only they will repent, and recognize their
lost condition, humbly admit it, and turn to
Christ, and claim from him the forgiveness they
don't deserve, but God delights to give.
Something very wonderful will happen.
They'll receive as God's gift in the person
of the Holy Spirit, the life of their
risen Lord, and they'll come alive, raised from
the dead.
Go and tell them, tell boys, tell girls,
men and women, they can come alive.
Tell them all the words of this life,
not the life to come, not in the
then and there, but in the here and
now.
That he, the risen Lord, wants to invade
their humanity, so that they can become that
body on earth, through which he'll continue to
do, and continue to teach the things that
he began to do, and began to teach
so many years ago.
Go stand and speak in the temple to
the people all the words of this life.
In other words, said the angel to the
apostles, go where you're sent, stay where you're
put, and give what you got.
You see, if you're sent when?
You're put.
And if you know who sent you, you
know who put you.
And if it's God who sent you, then
it's God who put you.
And if it's God who put you, nothing
can frighten you.
And these were men who learned what it
meant to be sin, and to be numbered
amongst those who went, and to know that
they'd been put.
Are you put?
I mean, if I were to say to
you, if you're a businessman, why are you
in that particular business?
You'd say to me, if you're a genuine
Christian with a grin on your face, put.
I'd say, what do you mean, put?
And you'd say, oh, I was sent when?
You see, I'm a Christian.
I wouldn't dream of embarking upon any business
enterprise if I weren't utterly convinced in my
heart that that is the place where he
put me.
Because, you see, I'm a Christian, and he's
the head of that body to which I
have been added as a member in particular.
I'm put.
The Lord Jesus said, where I am, there
will my servant be.
We often are exhorted to be busy for
Jesus, and we get the idea we've got
to rush around, and when we get involved,
and maybe the situation is getting a bit
beyond our capacity, then we call upon the
Lord and ask for his help.
We say, I'm over here, I need you,
and he's not interested.
Because, you see, he doesn't go where we
are.
We are to be where he is.
Where I am, said the Lord Jesus, there
will my servant be.
I mean, when you got up this morning,
where did you expect your hands, and feet,
and teeth, and ears, and nose to be?
I mean, did you have to rush around
the house and try to gather them together?
Shout for the thumb and say, it's eight
o'clock, and I told you to be
here dead on time.
How would you get on with a body
like that, that expected you to be where
it was, instead of it being where you
are?
And that's the body that the Lord Jesus
Christ, of course, has to contend with on
earth.
The only evidence that you and I have
been added to the Lord is that we
have become living members of his body, by
virtue of the fact that being cleansed through
his precious blood, we've been reconciled to God,
and he's come to take up residence within
our humanity, alive.
And as a member of his body, being
alive, I've got to be where he is.
During the war, I had a finger shot
off.
It's an unfriendly German tank.
I said, just a minute.
And he didn't wait.
It doesn't embarrass me.
Little kids love it.
They won't want to like it.
It took place near Lake Trasimene in Italy.
That's where my remains are buried.
I've never been back to visit my remains.
But if it did embarrass me, I'm sure
I could find somebody somewhere who'd manufacture for
me an artificial limb and stick it on
and make it look exactly like a finger,
make it twiddle like the other one.
And nobody would know the difference.
But would it be a member of my
body?
Well, of course not.
I could take it off and leave it
on the kitchen table.
And when I got up in the morning,
I wouldn't expect it to be where I
am.
I'd have to go where it was.
Just a rubber dummy.
You could stand on it all day, I
wouldn't complain.
But if you trot on my little finger,
I'd say, pardon me.
You're treading on me.
And you might say, no, I'm not.
I'm not treading on you.
I'm just treading on your little finger.
And I'd say, I couldn't care less whether
you're treading on my little finger or my
face.
Get off!
And if he didn't get off, I'd mobilize
the other members of my body and give
you some assistance.
Well, now you know what it means to
be a member of the body of Christ.
You possess his life.
You're subject to his headship.
Where he is, you are.
You're sent, went and put.
You don't expect your hands to get into
committee each morning under the joint chairmanship of
the thumbs and decide what they're going to
do in your best interest for the rest
of the day.
How would you get on?
Half past 10 in the morning, you want
to blow your nose and in committee, they've
already decided to scratch your back.
How would you get on with a body
like that?
Now, laugh your heads off because most of
you are laughing at yourselves.
Are you poor?
Why do you live in the home where
you live?
Well, you say, if you're a genuine Christian,
poor.
You see, I recognize that my home is
where Jesus Christ lives.
I don't have the right simply to select
a nice location, either far away from or
next to my mother-in-law.
That isn't a factor that comes into my
calculations.
Only that I'm in the place where the
Lord Jesus has the absolute right to entertain
anybody beneath that roof because it's his.
I'm sent and went and put.
Excuse me, Paul, why are you in the
ministry?
And Paul would say, put.
What do you mean, put?
Oh, I was sent and went and put
in the ministry.
Did you ever read that in the Bible?
You'll find in the first of Paul's two
epistles to Timothy.
In the first chapter, in the 13th verse,
he bears his testimony to the kind of
man that he once had been.
Not insincere, he was a fanatical religionist.
Everything he did, he did genuinely believing that
he was serving God.
But in spite of the fact that he
has to admit, verse 13, I was before
a blasphemer.
I considered the Lord Jesus Christ to be
a fanatical street preacher.
I considered him together with my theological colleagues
to be the illegitimate child of a faithless,
lying, ignorant, Galilean peasant girl.
I was a blasphemer and I was a
persecutor.
I tried to destroy the early church.
I wanted to stamp out those who were
called men of the way.
And in so doing, I thought I was
defending the Christ, my Messiah.
And I was injurious.
In other words, people got hurt when I
was around.
I stood by consenting to the death of
Stephen.
I saw his blood run in the gutter.
I heard his bones snap as he was
stoned to death.
A believing woman seeing me come down the
road would go as white as a sheet
and rush home and hide her believing husband
in the linen cupboard.
Little kids would scatter at my presence.
But I obtained mercy.
I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly
in unbelief.
When I persecuted the early church with my
theological background as a Pharisee of the Pharisees,
one who was the blue-eyed boy of
my class, promoted above many my equals in
the Jews' religion, I thought I was serving
God.
But I learned one day that I was
simply advertising my ignorance.
For on the road to Damascus with letters
of authority from the high priest to throw
into jail any who dared to say that
Jesus was the Messiah, there was a light
brighter than the sun at noonday.
And I was flung sightless to the earth.
And I heard a voice from heaven in
the Hebrew tongue from Jesus saying, soul, soul,
why persecutest thou me?
I said, who are you, Lord?
I'm Jesus.
In your estimate, the illegitimate child of a
lying, faithless, ignorant Galilean peasant girl, an imposter,
fanatical street preacher, an incorrigible scrounger who had
nowhere to lay his head, Jesus, whom thou
persecutest.
I capitulated.
For indeed I had, as he then said,
been kicking against the pricks.
For the face of Stephen had never left
me.
I knew deep down in my heart that
he was right, and I was wrong.
God had mercy.
I did it ignorantly in my unbelief, and
verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord,
who hath enabled me, for that he counted
me faithful, putting me, putting me into the
ministry.
If you want to know why I'm in
the ministry, I was put, put, because I
was sinned.
And I went.
In the 26th chapter of the book of
the Acts, where again he bears his testimony,
he says at midday, O King, verse 13,
I saw in the way a light from
heaven above the brightness of the sun shining
round about me and them which journeyed with
me, and when we were all fallen to
the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto
me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, soul,
soul, why persecutest thou me?
It's hard for thee to kick against the
pricks.
And I said, who art thou, Lord?
And he said, I'm Jesus whom thou persecutest,
but rise, stand upon my feet, for I
have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to
make thee a minister and a witness both
of these things which thou hast seen and
of those things in the which I will
yet appear unto thee, delivering thee from the
people and from the Gentiles under whom now
I send you.
You've been sent to open their eyes, to
turn them from darkness to light, from the
power of Satan unto God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them
which are sanctified by faith that is in
me.
Whereupon, O King Agrippa, before whom he stood
on trial for his life, whereupon, O King
Agrippa, I was not disobedient under the heavenly
vision, I was sent, and I went.
And I'm put, and I know King Agrippa
who sent me, and I know King Agrippa
who put me, that's why you do not
frighten me.
Put.
Are you really the Apostle Paul?
Well, yes.
I mean the missionary statesman, the one who
pioneered and established the church in Philippi and
Ephesus and Colossae and Thessalonica and Corinth?
Well, yes.
I mean the one who called of God
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit has given
us so much of our New Testament in
instruction for the early church?
Well, yes.
I mean the great Apostle Paul?
Yes.
Not so great, just the chief of sinners
and the least of all saints, but my
name is Paul.
An apostle.
Then what are you doing in that basket?
Do you remember the occasion?
In the city of Samaria, warned by God,
the believers learned that assassins were waiting for
him at the gate to murder him.
And God said, put him over the wall.
And so they took the great missionary statesman
and sat him in a basket and stuck
him over the wall.
And there he was, halfway between top and
bottom, sitting in a basket, like a dozen
eggs.
What are you doing there?
And you know, with a grin from ear
to ear, Paul would say, put.
And he said, I couldn't care less where
I am, so long as I know that
God sent me and I went and he
put me.
Storm raged, mountainous waves threatened to send the
boat to the bottom.
They'd already jettisoned the cargo, they were now
throwing out the tackling, and all hope that
they might be saved was gone.
And then, in their panic, somebody remembered, the
Apostle Paul is on board.
He was a prisoner on his way to
Rome.
They said, the Apostle Paul's on board, he
could help.
Maybe he could ask God to do something.
Where is he?
And they couldn't find him anywhere.
And finally, somebody, after they had searched everywhere,
came up breathlessly from down below and he
said, he's in the hole.
So down they went and there he was.
What do you think he was doing?
Eating his packed lunch, I imagine.
They said, the ship is sinking.
And in so many words, I imagine, Paul
said, so what?
Well, they said, if the ship sinks, we'll
sink, you'll sink, we'll all sink.
Oh no, said Paul, I'm put.
What do you mean, put?
Oh, I was sent when?
I mean, the ship may sink, you may
sink, but I can't sink.
You see, I'm the unsinkable sink.
God said that I was going to preach
the gospel in Rome.
So the ship may sink, you may sink,
everybody may sink, but I won't.
Because I'm going to preach the gospel in
Rome.
And the ship did sink.
And Paul preached the gospel in Rome.
That's why you have the epistle to the
Romans.
You can't sink an unsinkable saint when he's
been sent and went and put.
Are you Jesus Christ?
Yes.
No, what I mean is, are you the
seed of Abraham in whom all the families
of the earth should be blessed?
Well, yes.
I mean, the seed of Abraham.
Pardon me for asking, but I mean, are
you co-equal in deity with the Father
and the Holy Spirit, the Word who was
in the beginning with God, was God, and
by whom all things were made?
I mean, the creative deity.
Well, yes.
Yes, that's right.
You mean, co-equal with the Father and
the Holy Spirit in the triune Godhead?
The maker of the universe?
The creator of all things?
Well, yes, that's right.
Then what are you doing on that cross?
That's a Roman gallows.
I mean, why the nails for your hands
and feet?
Why that crown of thorns on your head?
Why the blood and spittle trickling down your
cheeks?
And why that spear wound in your side?
What are you doing there?
Put.
What do you mean, put?
Oh, I was sent and went.
My Father sent me.
Oh, by the way, as my Father sent
me, so send I you.
Any questions?
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, in the light of that cross,
where is the incarnate Son of God in
all your sinlessness?
You died that we might be forgiven.
You didn't deserve to die without sin, of
whom alone of all men on earth since
Adam fell, the Father God in heaven could
say, this is my beloved Son, in whom
I'm well pleased.
How then, in the light of that cross,
upon which you were made sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God?
How could there be any questions?
We realize, Lord Jesus, now there are no
questions to ask, only instructions to obey.
As those cleansed in your blood, indwelt by
your Spirit, added to the Lord, members of
your body, to be wholly expendable, utterly available
to the outermost ends of the earth.
But in our redeemed humanity, as those in
whom you've come to take up residence, to
clothe your divine activity with our flesh and
blood, that in us and through us you
might continue to do and continue to teach
the things that once you began to do
and began to teach.
The incredible privilege of being your lips to
speak with, hands to work with, and our
feet yours to walk.
Lord Jesus, no questions.
Not because we deserve the incredible privilege that
you've made available to us, but because as
our creator-redeemer, you do.
So claiming our inheritance in you, we want
you to have your inheritance in us.
The right every moment of every day to
be God in the man, so that we
may step out into the dawn of every
new day and know it's true, as we
say, to me to live is Christ.
And because of who you are, living where
you do, the almighty God, clothing yourself with
us on earth, living in our hearts, in
the measure of our availability every new day
that dawns, wherever you may wish to put
us, will be as big as God.
Thank you in your own dear, purest, and
precious name.
Amen.
You've been listening to a sermon by Major
Ian Thomas.
If you've been blessed by this sermon, you
can find more sermons by him and additional
resources on this subject at pathtoprayer.com.
Again, if you've been blessed by this sermon,
you can find more sermons by Major Ian
Thomas at pathtoprayer.com, as well as other
resources.