...concerned to me, and the hospitality that it's
been my joy to share in the homes
of many parents.
I'm thankful to the past, and his wife
too, and his associates, and those who are
behind the scenes, which is so much of
the chonky work that makes a series of
meetings like this possible.
I appreciate those who have come so regularly,
each morning and each night.
A number of you have been at all
the services, and we've covered a considerable amount
of terrace.
I've enjoyed being with you and sharing with
you the things of the Lord Jesus.
I have a feeling that probably in the
evenings I've taxed you too severely, and it
may well be that some of you have
found it quite a heavy load.
We have been doing some exploration in the
Old Testament, but I trust that the Holy
Spirit may continue to re-speak his word,
and that in days to come, as you
turn over these pages of God's revelation, much
will be recalled to you by the Holy
Spirit, and become of increasing worth as, perhaps,
in the light of the things that we
have been studying together, other parts of God's
word come alive in the context of God's
revelation.
Bearing in mind that everything you have to
say to us, from Genesis to the Revelation,
finally focuses upon the person of his Son.
As we have studied the content of the
Ark and its true content, we found David
making the great discovery that no man, nor
method, nor means can ever at any time
be a substitute for God's Son.
But if he was to get the Ark
back where it belongs, it could only be
upon the shoulders of a man, not less
than 30, but not yet 50, who bore
two pieces of wood on his shoulders.
Our Lord Jesus, who bearing those two pieces
of wood, went to that cross where his
blood was shed, with which the mercy seat
was to be sprinkled, that on the grounds
of that regentive transaction to which he alone
was qualified, as the only man ever born
since Adam fell, who is both physically and
spiritually alive, that he might lay down that
life a ransom for me.
And that on the grounds of that transaction
to which he alone was qualified, we might
become the recipient of the gift of God's
Holy Spirit through whom he, Christ, now risen
from the dead, comes to take up residence
within our humanity, that the Holy Spirit might
re-establish his sovereign within every area of
our being, divinely sealed, divinely sent, and divinely
sanctified, set apart once more for that intelligent
purpose for which an intelligent God intelligently creates,
all in Christ.
In other words, David discovered that no matter
how enthusiastic he might be, and no matter
how noble his motivation, and no matter how
dedicated he and his people may have been
to the task, God can only answer with
death if it's less than his son.
But, to detach your Christianity from Christ is
to kill it.
That Godliness without God is death, and that
spirituality, apart from the Holy Spirit, is to
you and to me a spiritual and a
moral impossibility.
That Christianity is Christ.
As the one who gave himself for us,
that in the power of his resurrection, through
the presence of his Holy Spirit, he might
give himself to us.
And we submit ourselves gladly to him in
his rightful sovereignty as fellow members, in particular,
of that body corporate to which belong every
boy, girl, man, or woman out of every
nation, kindred, tribe, or tongue, class, creed, or
color, who, cleansed in the blood of God's
dear Son, have their names recorded in the
Lamb's book of life, and are sealed on
earth by the presence of his Holy Spirit,
here, in time, and on into eternity.
That's why, of course, the Christian life is
essentially miraculous, because it derives from the person
of our risen Lord, resident within our redeemed
humanity.
That's why I thought tonight, after the strenuous
labors of the past evening, we would turn
to the New Testament, just to give you
a little bit of relief, and allow the
Lord Jesus to emphasize afresh to us, in
one of the most familiar stories of the
New Testament, and one of my papers, the
fact that Christianity, if it is to be
valid, must always be miraculous.
It doesn't have to be sensational, it doesn't
have to be spectacular, but it always has
to be miraculous in the sense that there
is no possible explanation for it but God
himself.
And there's no boy, no girl, no man,
no woman, however humble, however undifted or untalented,
how ever little that individual may have been
bestowed with gifts or inherent ability who cannot
daily live in that miraculous power of his
resurrection which is imparted through his Holy Spirit
to every forgiven sinner.
Nobody need consider themselves disqualified for this quality
of life which the Lord Jesus describes as
more abundant.
The lovely thing is that he has not
chosen the mighty and the noble and the
great.
The qualifications for those whom God seals, sends,
and sanctifies are clearly enunciated for us in
the first chapter of his epistles of the
Corinthians.
Don't bother to turn to it, I'm only
passing to it in reference.
You see your calling brethren, how that not
many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called.
But God hath chosen the foolish things of
the world to confound the wise.
God hath chosen the weak things of the
world to confound the things which are mighty.
God hath chosen the base things of the
world and things which are despised hath God
chosen.
Yea, and things which are not to bring
to nought the things that are.
That there may be no possible human explanation
for what God in his infinite power and
wisdom and by virtue of his own omnipotence
has purposed to do.
That no flesh should glory in his presence.
Nobody will be due for congratulations in that
last day when the dust has settled.
But Jesus Christ himself, of whom, through whom,
through whom, are all things, and to whom
alone be glory, and to whom it is
our reasonable service to yield our bodies a
living sacrifice.
There'll be no great names in heaven, there'll
be no distinguished preachers, just forgiven sinners, all
worshiping the Lamb, all recognizing that only that
is valid and will stand the test of
time and eternity that ultimately had its origin
in him.
For of him are you in Christ Jesus.
For God is made unto us wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
That according as it is written, he that
glories, let him glory in the Lord.
And to you and to me has been
given the amazing, fantastic privilege of that humanity
with which he may clothe on earth, in
time, on the way to heaven, his glory.
And it's our supreme privilege to yield our
bodies that in them he may be magnified,
reflecting only as in a nurse the glory
of the Lord.
And as I have reminded you already in
the past, a person looking into a mirror
to see the reflection is only conscious of
the mirror in the measure in which the
mirror exists.
So that in our testimony for Christ, as
we draw attention to ourselves as apart from
drawing attention to him, it's only because in
some area the mirror has been sullied and
is not giving a perfect image of the
one who is himself.
The origin of that image which he alone
must be the opposite.
The weak, the base, and the nothing.
There are none of us here tonight who
don't qualify for sharing that quality of life
that God so lavishly bestows upon those who,
recognizing their bankrupt with the empty hand of
faith, will take what he loves and longs
to do.
The Christian life is miraculous.
Why settle for anything less?
The story that I want to refer you
to tonight is found in the sixth chapter
of Mark.
We shall begin with the story there, we
shall proceed with the story in the sixth
of John, and it's just possible, it depends
how much time we have, that we may
glance at it again in the fourteenth of
Matthew.
It's all the same record, but as we're
introduced to the story in the sixth of
Mark, so it's magnified, as it were, by
John in the sixth of his gospel.
In the thirty-fourth verse of the sixth
chapter of Mark, Jesus, when he came out,
saw much people and was moved with compassion
toward them because they were a sheep not
having a shepherd, and he began to teach
them many things.
And when the day was now far spent,
his disciples came unto him.
I may have mentioned to some of you
before that that sentence that is found at
the end of the thirty-fourth verse is
one that brings a considerable amount of encouragement
to me.
It says that the Lord Jesus began to
teach them many things.
I have to use the German Bible to
a very considerable extent when I'm on the
continent of Europe, and Luther, in his translation,
puts it this way.
It says, Er hielt eine lange Prede, which
means he preached a long sermon.
Now, isn't that a source of tremendous encouragement?
And if there's one thing of which I'm
not guilty, that's preaching short sermons, and some
of you have discovered that for your cost.
The Lord Jesus preached a long sermon.
He taught them many things, and there came
a time when the disciples really got quite
anxious about the situation.
It was getting night, darkness was falling, the
people were tired and hungry and thirsty.
So, finally, they plucked up enough courage to
interrupt him, and they said, this is a
desert place, and the time is far past.
Send them away that they may go into
the country, round about and into the villages,
and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing
to eat.
The essence of what they said was this,
this is a desert place, send them away,
they have nothing to eat.
And that, to them, seemed to be the
most reasonable suggestion to make under the circumstance.
And, I suppose, we might well have done
the same.
Send them away, this is a desert place,
they have nothing to eat.
Let's, in other words, said they, let us
get them off our hands.
Master, the situation is going to be extremely
embarrassing, for there were 5,000 men, and
Matthew, in his record, reminds us that in
addition to the 5,000 men, there were
also the women in the building.
It was a vast company of people, and
the disciples could see themselves well into the
evening with a large crowd of people, without
a chance in eternity of satisfying their most
modest needs.
Tired, hungry, and cold.
And so, it seemed reasonable to get them
off their hands, and to avoid the embarrassment
that the Lord Jesus answered them and said,
give you them to eat.
You don't send hungry people away, you feed
them.
And immediately, without a moment's hesitation, they dismissed
the idea.
They said, shall we go and buy 200
penny worth of bread and give them to
eat?
And what they said was tinged slightly with
sarcasm.
They said, 200 penny worth of bread to
feed this mob?
They said, impossible.
A sheer, utter impossibility.
And, of course, they were right.
Absolutely right.
So long as they were not prepared to
reckon with the Lord Jesus.
And the Lord Jesus agreed with them entirely.
He said, you're right, absolutely right, it is
impossible.
And that's exactly why we're going to do
it.
And I'm going to show you how to
do the impossible.
Because I want to introduce you to a
principle of life.
And, of course, in this miraculous event where
the Lord Jesus met the need of this
vast company of people, it wasn't just an
isolated lecture.
It was a principle that the Lord Jesus
had been seeking to enunciate to them all
through his earthly ministry.
Again and again and again, the Lord Jesus,
in everything he did and said and was,
was trying to introduce them to that relationship
that releases the life of God in a
man's humanity, that lets God be God in
act, in the flesh and blood of any
boy, girl, man or woman who is prepared
to make themselves available to their Creator God.
But it's a lesson that the disciples relentlessly
failed to learn.
He said, we're going to do the impossible.
And now we need to turn to John's
gospel and examine the story a little bit
more closely and magnified through the eyes of
John, who gives us greater detail as to
how it actually happened.
In John's gospel in chapter six, when Jesus
then lifted up his eyes and saw a
great company come under him, he said to
Philip, Friends, shall we buy bread that these
may eat?
And this he said to prove him, for
he himself knew what he would do.
In other words, when the Lord Jesus posed
this question to Philip, it wasn't that he
was in need of counsel.
The Lord Jesus didn't find himself in a
position of difficulty and was sort of groping
in the dark, trying to find a way
out, and wondered what Philip might suggest.
He knew what he was going to do.
And the marvelous thing that you and I
need first to grasp is this, that nothing
ever takes the Lord Jesus Christ by surprise.
That when he shares us to, when he
invites us to share his life on earth,
it's to share a life that is never
less than completely, overwhelmingly adequate at any time,
to any situation that can ever arise in
any circumstance.
Nothing ever panics him.
The Lord Jesus, with all the inimitable resources
of deity, vested in his person, for the
Father had given all things into his hands.
By the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit,
yielding himself in the protection of his humanity
to his Father as God, he knew that
all the inimitable supplies of deity were his,
on call, at any time, to any situation.
Nothing frightens him.
And, of course, it is to this quality
of life that the Lord Jesus invites us,
when he says, come unto me and I
will give you rest.
The invitation of the Lord Jesus to come
to him is not simply to receive from
his piercing hands the gift of forgiveness.
It's a marvelous thing that you and I,
in spite of our sin, can know that
that sin has been blotted out, and that
God, for his dear sake who died first,
will remember our sins no more.
We may be grateful for that, and we
should never cease to be grateful, and there
should never be a day that dawns when,
upon our knees, we don't thank him for
the blood he shed upon the cross, and
the price he paid for our peace with
God our maker.
But remember this, that when he came to
offer you that, and with his piercing hands
he gave you the gift of a free
and timeless, eternal pardon, it wasn't simply that
you might know that your sins were forgiven,
but that as a sinner reconciled to God,
you might become literally, factually, experientially, and moment
by moment the recipient of his indwelling Holy
Spirit, that he, the same Lord Jesus that
walked this earth nearly 2,000 years ago,
might actually share his life with you.
Not a name, not a doctrine, not a
theological concept, not just a little piece of
evangelical jargon.
However sentimentally it meant, and however meaningful it
may be, Jesus Christ is a person.
He's somebody who longs to fellowship with you
moment by moment, and take every step with
you, and face every situation with you, so
that no matter where you may find yourself,
it may always be in the consciousness that
I am living together with him.
That's why you and I don't have to
be frightened.
He knew what he was going to do.
Is there something that frightens you tonight?
Is there something that worries you?
Is there a load upon your heart?
Is there a burden on your shoulders?
Is it the family situation?
Is it the financial situation?
Some younger boy or girl, is it the
future that worries you?
The choice of vocation, where you ought to
study, or if you ought to study?
Is it a question of the boy or
girl you ought to marry?
These things can be very frightening to a
youngster.
I can remember moments when I was a
boy when I was frightened of the Jesus.
You become accustomed to being sheltered and carried
by a family context, and suddenly you suddenly
you realize there's going to be a moment
when you're going to step out of that
protection and go on your own in a
cold, hard, cruel, unrelenting world.
Are you frightened?
Well, the good news of the gospel is
this, that there is somebody who wants to
share life with you who nothing can frighten,
who's nevertheless radical, who's always vigorous, and who
knows the future.
And no matter what it is that looms
upon the horizon, that appears to you, so
frightening to you now, he knows exactly, exactly
what is going to do.
He's just waiting for you to let him
do it.
He's just waiting for you to let him
get into action.
He's just waiting for you to recognize the
fact that the content of that salvation that
was placed in the ark beneath the mercy
sheet sprinkled with blood was that for every
moment of every day you would be divinely
sealed, sent and sacrificed by his holy spirit
who will never leave you, nor forsake you.
He knew what he was going to do.
So why did he ask Philip?
Did he want to know, did he want
to know something about Philip?
No, for a very good reason.
He knew already everything there was to know
about Philip, as at this very moment he
knows everything there is to know about you.
Nothing about you he doesn't know.
There are lots of things about us that
nobody other than the Lord Jesus knows.
Our God creator and savior.
Because God in his compassion has allowed us
to retain within our own hearts many things
that he would not dare to share with
us.
And nobody has the right to imprude upon
the sanctity of these inner counsels of the
soul that he knows.
Because he is the one with whom we
have to do who knows the thoughts and
the intent of the heart.
And before him, with whom we have to
do, we are open and naked.
And he reads us like a book.
He didn't need to know anything about Philip.
He knew all he needed to know.
So he didn't ask this question because he
didn't know what he was going to do,
and he didn't ask this question because he
wanted to know something about Philip.
He asked this question so that Philip might
discover something about himself.
He wanted Philip to discover his own bankruptcy.
He wanted Philip to discover how far short
he fell of that quality of life for
which Christ had called him into discipleship.
Philip answered, 200 penny worth of bread is
not sufficient for them, but every one of
them may take a listen.
He answered, it's impossible in the light of
the resources that we have at our disposal.
It's a sheer impossibility.
We can't do it.
With whom was Philip reckoned?
With Christ?
No, he was doing a very reasonable thing.
He was reckoning only with the material resources
that they had at their disposal.
But, as I have already reminded you, every
demand that God may make upon us, no
matter how seemingly impossible it may be, is
entirely logical.
Though with man it may appear totally unreasonable,
because in the divine logic there is a
hidden factor that is missing in human reason.
God himself.
And you see, Philip, in this particular situation,
was not reckoning with the hidden fact.
So, the conclusion that he drew was completely
reasonable from a human standpoint, but utterly illogical
from God's standpoint.
He said, Master, we have 200 penny worth
of bread.
That's the best that we could buy, even
if we had somewhere to buy it.
And you see, so far as Philip is
concerned, in this particular situation, for all the
role that Christ was to play, he might
just as well have been dead.
He wasn't reckoning with Christ.
All he was looking at was the money
bag.
And there's nothing very miraculous about that.
It might well have been that the Lord
Jesus would turn to somebody in the crowd
and say, excuse me, sir, do you believe
in God?
No, I don't.
You mean you're an atheist?
Yes, I am.
And the Lord Jesus might well have said
to him, well, that's fine.
I was just looking for an atheist.
You're just the man I want.
You know, we're in a bit of trouble.
We've got about 5,000 men here, and
we've got a whole lot of women and
children beside.
And they're hungry, and they're tired, and it's
getting chilly.
It's evening fall.
And we want to, we want to help
them.
We want to feed them.
What would you suggest?
Well, what do you think would be his
first question?
He'd say, how much money have you got?
Well, what was the first question that a
member of your board put last time you
made any suggestions?
What was the first question they put?
How much money have we got?
So, what was the difference?
What was the difference between the atheist in
the crowd and Philip as a professing disciple?
No difference at all.
Well, there was a difference.
The man in the crowd was a professing
atheist, but Philip was a professing Christian behaving
like an atheist.
That was the only difference.
You see, and the tragedy is that, by
and large, we've learned to be professing Christians
behaving like atheists.
We'll sing our songs, we'll recite our creeds,
and we'll profess our faith.
But actually, at the point of stress, somehow
we pay the record that the only person
who's adequate.
Are you a professing Christian?
Are you behaving like an atheist?
In the various situations that have arisen in
your life over the last 24 hours, the
past week, with the problems with which you
have had to grapple, have you honestly reckoned
with the fact that the Lord Jesus, the
creator God who's through the universe and the
space, is alive and alive in you?
Quite frankly, in the problems that you have
been nursing, have you really reckoned with the
fact that the Lord Jesus is alive, and
that as a forgiven sinner he's come by
his holy spirit to share all that he
is with you, in whom are hidden all
the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge?
In whom you have been blessed with every
spiritual blessing and heavenly thing, and in whom
dwells all the fullness of the godhead body?
Have you reckoned with him?
Well, while this little discussion was going on,
quite an interesting situation was arising in a
corner of the crowd.
It was a little incident that took place
between a small boy and a man called
Andrew.
Andrew, who was one of the most lovable
of the apostles because he had a friendly
smile and an approachable, very approachable, temperament.
He was a very friendly type.
That's why I think this boy went to
him.
It was so much easier for him to
talk to Andrew than to some of the
others.
At this stage he probably wouldn't have gone
to John, because John was in the habit
of calling fire down from heaven.
He changed a whole lot, of course, when
the Lord Jesus came to take up residence
and share his life with him on the
day of Pentecost.
But Andrew, by nature, was a friendly type.
He had a kindly smile.
He didn't rebut you, he didn't snap your
nose off.
I've described him, as some of you know,
as a man who had a face like
a doorman, that said, welcome on it.
And some people have a face like a
notice on the door, beware of the dog,
and they wonder why nobody ever calls.
I think you'd have liked Andrew, yes.
And I think if I wanted to be
like anybody, I'd like to be like Andrew.
I'd like to feel that folks would come
and talk to me without being frightened.
And you see this small boy tugged on
his shirt.
They had rather long shirts in those days,
and still do in the Middle East, if
you've been there.
And so Andrew turned around and said, son,
what do you want?
He said, take me to the master.
What do you want me to take you
to the master?
He's busy, he's preaching.
He's been preaching a rather long time, as
a matter of fact.
And he's still preaching.
What do you want?
And the small boy said, well, you see,
I want him to feed this crowd.
Well, said Philip, as a matter of fact,
that's what he wants, and that's what I
want, but we don't have anything to do
with it.
So the small boy said, well, I've got
something.
He said, would you take me to him,
because I've got five loaves and two fishes.
Well, I'm perfectly certain that Andrew was very
kind.
And he said, son, I'll tell the master,
and I'm sure he'll appreciate it.
But you know, quite frankly, I don't think
it's quite enough.
Not quite.
I think probably when your mum wrapped that
up, she had you in mind.
And it's just about your size.
And I suggest that the most sensible thing
to do would be for you to wrap
yourself around it, you see.
But I'll tell you something, I'll tell the
master, and I'm sure he'll appreciate your very,
very generous and kind offer.
But quite frankly, I don't think we should
disturb him, see.
And you can imagine just how disappointed that
boy was.
Because he turned on one side, and perhaps
warmed it around for a bit.
But before too long, there was another tug
on Andrew's shirt.
What, you again?
Yes.
Well, what do you want this time?
Did you wrap yourself around it?
No, he says, still got it.
Well, what do you want?
He said, take me to the master.
Ever argue with a small boy?
I gave that long since.
I've got four of my own.
And I could rather imagine, you see, that
the conversation would go something like this, because
just as Phillip reckoned only with the money
bag, Andrew was only reckoning with a small
boy, five loaves and two sissies.
Jesus Christ might just as well have been
sick.
Because their enthusiasm, their dedication, their attachment, their
Christianity was detached, as the art was out
of context.
And there was nothing miraculous about it.
And when the art is out of context,
and the pillars stand hard against God's people,
their taste defeated from the field of battle.
Said the small boy to Andrew, I don't
care whether I've only got five loaves, fifty
loaves, five hundred loaves, five thousand loaves, or
five million loaves.
That's not the point.
Take me to that man.
That's all that matters.
That's it.
And that small boy had discovered the principle
that lets God loose, that makes life miraculous.
He was unsung and unnamed.
We don't know to this day what they
called him.
But I'm absolutely certain that that small boy
has a warm place in the heart of
God.
And finally, somewhat reluctantly, Andrew brings the small
boy to the Lord Jesus and said, Master,
there's a kid here keeps pulling my shirt.
Please pack him on the head and say
thank you.
You've got five loaves and two sissies.
I want you to feed the crowd.
I've told him it isn't enough, but if
he pulls on my shirt any longer, he'll
split it.
Please thank him and send him away.
And the Lord Jesus said, tell the folks
to sit down.
I've been waiting for that small boy.
Sadie's been waiting for you.
It always fascinates me to know that in
any given company of people, there's a small
boy, a girl, a man, or a woman,
unnamed, unsung, but for whom there's a warm
spot in the heart of God.
Because although in them others might have little
expectation, they've begun to grasp the principle, let
God do as good as God is in
a man.
And that's all that really matters.
You see, we're always told to be man
-sized for God, and God's just waiting for
the opportunity to be God-sized in a
man.
And any small boy will do, any small
girl will do, any man will do, any
woman will do, the face, the lips, the
mouth, and the fingers of their mouth.
Any old bush will do, so long as
God's in it.
And the substance of the bush doesn't have
to sustain the flame.
Otherwise it would soon be a heap of
ashes.
Moses found that out.
You see, Philip reckoned with the money, so
Jesus Christ didn't count.
Andrew reckoned with a small boy, five loaves
and two fishes, so Jesus Christ didn't count.
This small boy reckoned with Jesus Christ, so
the loaves and the fishes didn't count.
All that mattered was that God was God,
always living.
And see, wouldn't that simplify life for you?
If you could practice the principle moment by
moment, and step by step, and day by
day, and situation by situation, just to let
God be living.
Jesus took the loaves and the fishes, and
gave thanks.
And he distributed to the disciples, and the
disciples to them that were set down.
And likewise of the fishes, as much as
they would.
And when they were filled, he said to
the disciples, gather up the fragments that remain,
that nothing be lost.
Therefore they gathered them together, and they filled
the twelve baskets with the fragments of the
five barley loaves, which remained over and above,
unto them that had eaten.
Then those men, when they had seen the
miracle that Jesus did, said, this is of
the truth.
That's what that's coming to the world.
They said, there is no possible explanation for
what has happened but God himself.
Now, how did the Lord Jesus feed the
five thousands?
The natural answer would say, well, he was
God.
But as I trust most of you will
have come to recognize, if never before as
probably you have, the answer to that question
is not he was God.
The answer to that question was this, he
was man.
But he was the kind of man that
he of God created man to be.
A man who would let God be God.
That's why you see Peter so excitedly, on
the day of Pentecost, when for the first
time he entered into the good of this
principle, and receiving the Holy Spirit, recognized that
it was now to be his fantastic privilege
to allow Jesus Christ as God, to be
God in action in his humanity, as once
the Lord Jesus Christ had allowed the Father
as God, to be God in action in
his humanity.
On the day of Pentecost, it all fell
into place.
You men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus
of Nazareth, a man approved of God among
you by miracles and wonders and signs which
God did by him.
That was the great discovery that Peter made
on the day of Pentecost, that the Lord
Jesus in the 33 years of his incarnation,
flesh and blood, in our humanity, walking the
streets of the city and winding his way
through the village pathway, riding his donkey, or
preaching on the mountain, or watching his disciples
preach.
He was a man approved of God by
those miracles and signs and wonders which God
did by him.
And on the day of Pentecost, Peter said,
now as God by him, shall he now
as God by me.
I see it now.
He was divinely sealed, he was divinely sent,
he was divinely sanctified.
He sanctified himself for our sake.
He set himself apart as man in exclusive
availability to his Father, so that the power
of God through the Holy Spirit every moment
of every day might give expression in terms
of his flesh and blood to his own
timeless ends, until at last upon the cross
he could cry and know that it was
true.
It's finished!
I've let my father tell the story.
It was written in the eternal ages of
the past, and agreed between his Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, that I should be born
a man to become the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world.
God by him.
God's approved man.
And as the Father sent me, said the
Lord Jesus, so I'm going to send you
sealed, sent, and sanctified.
By my indwelling Holy Spirit, through whom you'll
share my deity, as I as man, through
the same Holy Spirit, shared my Father's deity.
Jesus gave thanks, and broke the load.
So did he thank his Father, that God
by him might feed the five times.
You see, the Lord Jesus as a man
always reckoned with the Father.
As this small boy learned to reckon with
Christ.
Believest thou not that I am in the
Father, and the Father in me?
The words that I speak unto I speak
not of myself.
The Father dwells in me, he does here.
It's my Father as God by me.
But remember this, he that eateth my flesh,
and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and
I in him.
So that as my Father is in me,
I might be in him.
And as I am in my Father, so
he might be in me.
I came in the perfection of my humanity,
humanity, to demonstrate this principle that vicariously bearing
the price of your redemption, you might be
restored to that relationship that will allow me
to be as big as the God I
am in you, as I for 33 years
have allowed my Father to be as big
as the God he is in you.
And you see, so long as you're prepared
to be to me as man what I
have been prepared to be to my Father
as man, I will be then prepared to
be to you as God what my Father
has been prepared to be to me as
God.
Anything complicated about that?
He gave thanks, broke the laws, and in
so many words said, Father, five thousand men
touched the women and the children, all we've
got is this marvelous little kid.
He was five loaves and two fifties.
Thanks so much.
Who was in business?
His father.
How do you raise Lazarus from the dead?
Let me remind you.
He said, roll away the stone.
And of course Martha at first didn't want
to do so.
She said, he stinks.
And he did.
Changing situations.
And there are many such that arise constantly.
All we need to have, of course, is
the courage to roll away the stone.
And then it says the Lord Jesus, John
11, lifted up his eyes to heaven and
said, Father, I thank you that you've heard
me.
I thank you that you've heard me.
And you may seem a little surprised, Father,
that I should say this aloud because you
know I always trust you and I know
that you always hear me.
Because you know that the relationship that I
adopt toward you is one of total and
unquestioning dependence and obedience.
I never reckon with anything less than you,
Father, but I'm saying it aloud so that
those who stand around may know that you
sent me.
I don't want them to get into their
heads the idea that I'm doing anything for
you.
I want them to understand clearly, Father, that
I'm available for you to do it through
me so that one day they will not
think they've got to do for me, but
realize that I only have to do through
them.
Thank you, Father.
And when he said thank you, he said,
Lazarus, come forth from he that was dead.
Came forth.
Who raised Lazarus from the dead?
God, by him.
So what was miraculous about the life of
Jesus Christ?
The Father.
By him.
What's to be miraculous about your life and
mine?
The Lord Jesus.
By us.
That's all.
The hidden factor.
Of course, he was born with a hidden
factor.
Because he wasn't born as you and I
were born as we've discovered in our morning
sessions.
He was born miraculously conceived of the Holy
Spirit, the only man who walked this earth,
who was alive spiritually and physically since Adam
fell into sin.
The hidden factor was there.
And by his total obedience and availability to
the Father, he allowed God as the hidden
factor to demonstrate the power of deity by
everything he did and said he was.
But you see, when you claim redemption through
the blood of Jesus Christ and the mercies
he has sprinkled with blood, the Holy Spirit
comes to fill you, send you, sanctify you,
that the hidden factor, the indwelling life of
our now triumphant risen and glorified Lord might
be manifest in terms of your humanity by
what you do and say and are.
So that the word may once more be
made flesh and be it among us.
And others in our presence recognize that Jesus
Christ has been reincarnated in terms of our
humanity.
For every time a boy, girl, man, a
woman is genuinely born of the Holy Spirit,
it's Christmas all over again.
And Christ is formed in you.
Well, how much did they learn?
How much did they learn?
Those of you who are preachers and pastors
and Sunday school teachers and Bible class leaders
will be greatly encouraged.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Isn't that amazing?
Nothing.
Is that tough on the disciples?
Now just glance quickly back to Mark chapter
6.
Mark and chapter 6, verse 44.
They that did eat of the loaves were
about five thousand men, and straightway the Lord
Jesus constrained his disciples to get into the
ship and to go to the other side
before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the
people.
Why did he send his disciples away?
Verse 52.
For they considered not the miracle of the
loaves, for their heart was hardened.
They considered not the miracle of the loaves.
They learned nothing.
Why not?
Hearts were hardened.
Apostles with hard hearts.
Disciples with hard hearts.
How compassionate, how patient, how kind the Lord
Jesus.
He didn't wash his hands in it.
He just started all over again.
As he has to do for you and
for me, until that moment of truth, when
suddenly the light floods our souls and we
kick ourselves for being that stupid.
Ever kicked yourself yet?
You see, they had come and he said,
get them off our hands.
He can't keep it.
And so the Lord Jesus fed them and
got his disciples off his hands, because their
hearts were hardened.
They considered not the miracle of the loaves.
Where did he send them?
Well, he sent them out in the boat
into a storm, tailor-made for his disciples.
He knew perfectly well they were going to
land in that storm.
He fought it out.
And we can be profoundly thankful for those
storms that the Lord Jesus thinks up, if
we're not prepared to learn the easy way,
what we have to learn the hard way.
Matthew 14, 14th of Matthew, same story.
Verse 21 of the 14th of Matthew, they
that it were about 5,000 men beside
the women and the children.
And straightway the Lord Jesus constrained his disciples
to get into a ship and to go
before him unto the other side while he
sent the multitudes away.
And of course, on the surface they could
have congratulated themselves that they were doing exactly
what they were told.
He told them to get into a boat.
He told them to go to the other
side.
They were in the will of God, they
could have said.
They were in his permissive will.
That's absolutely true.
But they had little to congratulate themselves about.
When he had sent the multitudes away, he
went up into a mountain apart to pray.
And when the evening was come, he was
there, alone, all too often is the Lord
Jesus lonely.
But the ship was in the midst of
the sea, topped with waves, for the wind
was coming.
A mighty storm with mountainous waves that beat
into that little boat, threatening to sink it,
threatening to be over their heads, threatening to
send them to the bottom.
Darkness had fallen.
They'd lost all sight of their destination, nothing
but the dull leaden waters around them, and
the howl of the wind in their ears,
until almost all hope was lost.
And in the fourth watch of the night,
Jesus went unto them.
What do you think he was doing?
The impossible.
He was walking on the sea.
The impossible.
Demonstrating to them, for every step he took,
that everything that threatened to be over their
heads was already under his feet.
The impossible.
How did he do it?
God by him.
He could have done it as God.
One word of God, he could have spilled
the water.
But though never less than God, he insists
on behaving as never more than man, and
for every step he took he said, thank
you father, thank you father, thank you father,
thank you father.
For he, as God, created man, you see,
to exercise authority over all the works of
God, and so that man, as God intended
man to be, could walk on water.
We throw it all back into God's feet
from the day of Aaron's tale.
Now we have to go water-stealing.
God created us to be without stealing.
To have demean over all the works of
his hand.
The easiest thing in the world for Jesus
Christ, as a man, to let the father,
as God, by him, do the impossible.
He could have done it as God, of
course.
The only thing he could have done as
God, nobody has seen him, because nobody has
seen that being God behaving as God at
any time.
To be seen he had to behave as
a man.
Because God created man to make an invisible
God visible.
So for every step he took, ruling his
humanity to the invisible father, he said, thank
you father, thank you father, thank you father.
From one step at a time the father
put under his feet what threatened to be
over their heads.
And when they saw him they thought he
was a ghost, and they shrieked out in
terror.
They said it's a spirit, it's a ghost.
They cried out, shrieked literally, for fear.
But straightway the Lord Jesus, verse 27, spake
unto them and said, give good cheer.
Literally, I am.
It is I.
I am.
Stop being frightened.
You see, where he is, you can't be
frightened.
And he says, where I am, there shall
be my servant also.
So when you're fully fulfilling your role as
servant, you'll always be where he is.
And where he is, you can't be frightened.
He said, give good cheer.
I am.
Stop being frightened.
What a marvelous thing it is when the
Lord Jesus steps into the midst of the
storm and whispers in your ear, I, not
I was.
You haven't got to clutch like a drowning
man in the sport of some memory of
the past.
I am.
He doesn't say, I will be, if you
hang on long enough, if you stick it
out, if you occupy till I come, I'm
on the way.
No, no, no.
He doesn't say I was, he doesn't say
I will be, he says I am.
At this very moment, precisely at this time,
in this situation, no matter how threatening that
situation may be, I am.
In the timelessness of the present tense of
an eternal God.
And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if
it be thou, if you are, didn't come
unto thee on the water, if you are
put on the man's feet, what's under your
feet?
Because if you don't, chances are it's soon
going to be over my head.
And I think for the first time there
was a smile on the face of the
Lord Jesus.
He said come.
And when Peter was come down out of
the ship, what do you think he did?
The impossible.
He walked on the water to go to
Jesus.
Must have been an exciting moment.
But he began to walk on the water,
thoroughly preoccupied with the person who had told
him.
Reckoning with Christ as the Lord Jesus reckoned
with the Father.
For the first time beginning to practice the
principle, that as the Father by Christ, so
now Christ by him.
That everything the Father put under Christ's feet,
Christ was prepared to put under Peter's feet.
He walked on the water.
He must have been quite excited.
He might have said, hi, this is terrific,
I've never done this before, fancy walking on
water.
How did he do it?
Well, simply reckoning with the Lord Jesus at
every step he took.
Thank you Lord, thank you Lord, this is
exciting, I've never done this before.
Bang, bang, bang.
Everything was tremendous until an unkind wave slapped
him on the side of the face.
And another one hit him on the other
side.
Distracted his attention from Christ, and once more
caused him to be preoccupied with himself.
He saw the wind voice, and immediately was
afraid.
The moment his attention was distracted from the
person of the Lord Jesus, and instead of
being preoccupied with him, became preoccupied with himself,
he began to argue.
He said, you can't do this, this is
stupid, you're a man, you can't walk on
water.
And he was right.
He went down for a duck and, beginning
to sink, he cried, Lord save me.
And immediately the Lord Jesus stretched forth his
hand, recaptured his attention, and said, O thou
of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
You'd have thought that if a man stepped
out at the command of Jesus Christ and
walked on water, he would have congratulated him
on his faith.
My, some of our Christian magazines could get
the story.
They'd have it highlighted.
In the very next publication they'd publish a
special edition.
Man walks on water!
Did Christ congratulate him?
No.
Because, you see, nothing is impossible to the
man who believes that God is God, and
is prepared to let God be God, as
big as God is.
He said, O thou of little faith.
Jesus, as if it's difficult to walk on
water when you're reckoning with me, and I've
told you to.
It's no more difficult, Peter, for you to
walk on water when you reckon with me
because I've told you to, than it's difficult
for me to walk on water because my
father told me, and I'm reckoning with him.
Of course, you and I don't have the
right to point a gun at God and
tell him exactly what we intend to do
because he's God and we're at his disposal.
That isn't faith.
Faith is dependent on obedience, too.
Faith is your act in obedience to his
command out of your dependence on him.
Then everything is possible that he tells you
to do.
That's what makes life miraculous.
But you don't call the shots.
You don't decide the performance.
You don't plan the program.
It is a choice.
You're sent, and if you want to live
miraculously, you're numbered amongst those who went to
be sent and went.
That's the secret of living miraculously.
Immediately the Lord Jesus stretched forth his hand,
called him, and said to him, O thou
of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
And when they were come into the ship,
the storm was over, the wind ceased.
They that were in the ship came and
they worshipped him, saying, Are thou true?
Thou art the Son of God.
It's so thrillingly simple.
In the midst of the storm, he said,
I am.
That's really all you need to know.
If you'll reckon with the fact, I am.
What more can you have than that?
And it's a wonderful moment when you can
look into his face and say, you are.
Thou art.
Storm's over then, and you know the peace
of God that passes all understanding.
Come unto me, said the Lord Jesus, I
give you rest.
Because all that I am, you've got.
You can't have more.
You need never have less.
And it's never other than adequate.
And the Christian life, the moment we've learned
to live miraculously, reduced to its prime simplicity,
is to recognize that there is never a
moment at any time in which the Lord
Jesus, no matter how threatening the circumstance, no
matter how heavy the responsibility, no matter how
promising the opportunity, there is never a moment
at any time in which the Lord Jesus
is not.
Act to save your heart.
Stop being frightened.
I've got good news for you.
See a good cheer.
I am.
And you say, thou art.
That's all I need to know.
Apart from what you are, I am nothing,
have nothing, can do nothing, but all that
you are, I've got.
That's all I need to know.
Let's go.
Thank you.
And so you walk through time.
This is what the Bible calls walking in
the spirit, walking through faith.
Taking every step into new situations, hearing Christ
say, I am, and you say, thou art,
thank me.
I am, thou art, thank me.
And everything that once threatened to be over
your head, he puts beneath your feet.
And you reign in life by one Christ
Jesus, more than promised to him that loves
you.
And the ark is that where it belongs,
for in it the mercy seat is sprinkled
with blood.
And you've entered into the good of its
content, sealed, sent, and sanctified, energized by the
indwelling presence of a risen Christ who shares
his life with you every moment of every
day.
Through the presence of his holy indwelling spirit,
you've come alive.
Well, that's it.
And the week is over.