Shall we just look to God a moment
in a word of prayer together?
Let us pray.
Father, we thank Thee tonight for all that
Thou hast been saying to us through the
lips of Thy servants, from Thy word, by
Thy Spirit.
And now in the closing moments of this
gathering, we ask very earnestly that there may
be a response from every one of us
listening, either here or at Eskin Street or
by landline, a response from every heart, which
will bring joy to Thy dear servants, and
honour to Thy name.
Therefore we pray, speak Lord, for Thy servants
hear it.
Speak just now.
Some message to meet my need, which Thou
only dost know.
Speak now through Thy holy word and make
me see some wonderful truth Thou hast to
show to me.
For Jesus' sake, Amen.
I would like you to turn with me
this evening for our closing message to a
passage of Scripture in Luke chapter 7.
The opening verses, had I time I would
read them.
I must ask you to have this particular
narrative, this particular story in your mind.
I imagine most of you are at least
in some measure familiar with it.
The story of the centurion's servants.
But especially to notice this evening his statement
that he made to our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the 8th verse.
For I also am a man set under
authority, having under me soldiers.
And I say unto one, Go, and he
goeth.
To another, Come, and he cometh.
And to my servant, Do this, and he
doeth it.
We have been listening in the last two
evenings to what I think I could describe
without exaggeration, a devastating revelation of sin.
The damage that sin does in the life
of a child of God.
Not only to himself, but to others.
Someone said to me after the meeting on
Monday, that was an awful meeting.
And he was using that word in its
right sense.
An awful meeting.
As I've been listening and as I'm sure
you have been listening, with hungry hearts to
everything that God has for us, speaking for
myself, I would be very sorry for the
individual who could listen to these tremendous messages
and go away unmoved.
And yet God knows such is the stubbornness
of our hearts that we can do that
even at test.
May I lovingly say to you, my dear
listener, tonight, wherever or whoever you are, that
truth revealed and rejected soon becomes truth in
which I am disinterested.
And truth in which I am disinterested will
one day be truth upon which I am
condemned before the judgment seat of Christ.
This is a very solemn moment, a very
solemn convention.
I suppose that Keswick Convention, like any other
convention which stands for these truths, has many
critics.
Perhaps some of them may be justified, I
wouldn't know.
But I have a feeling, knowing my own
heart, that some of the people who criticize
have themselves been condemned by the truth that
Keswick proclaimed and have resisted its implications and
therefore have turned aside and professed to be
disinterested in it and find themselves now facing
the awful sense of God's condemnation.
And how soon does light, which has been
rejected, become darkness?
The awful peril that somebody here, thinking perhaps
we have all the answers, you have the
answers, thinking perhaps there's nothing further you can
be taught, thinking perhaps you know the theory
of it, yet can resist the very heart
of the message and leave this place untouched.
Oh, the burden on our hearts, that truth
may grip and transform life here this evening.
I imagine that the cry from many of
your hearts tonight after the messages of the
last evening is, Lord, how may I have
power?
Oh, to be free from myself, dear Lord.
Oh, to be lost in Thee.
Oh, that it may be no more I
but Christ who lives in me.
Oh, that there might be an end of
the years of bondage, the years of misery,
the years of simply putting up a show
of Christian profession, of pretending to be something
that I'm really not.
Oh, that there might be a stop of
this, and that this year's Keswick might mark
a transformation in our lives that's going to
make a difference for all the future.
We just cannot go on on the level
upon which we've been living.
Somehow I feel that unless that happens tonight,
many in this tent may not be at
many more Keswick.
And yet the cry in so many of
our hearts is, how may I have power
over myself?
To help us to answer that question, I
want you to consider with me tonight this
statement which this centurion made to our Lord
Jesus Christ.
For I see in it here a principle
of life.
He said, I am a man set under
authority.
And I say unto one, go and he
goeth, and to another, come and he cometh.
Now deliberately, I have missed out one important
word in that statement, to which I'll come
back in a moment.
But I want us to be clear tonight,
crystal clear, about this principle of life.
And if I fail to observe this principle,
then I will never know the glory and
the thrill of deliverance from sin.
I am a man under authority.
That is submission.
Having under me soldiers, that is authority.
I am submitted to a throne.
I am submitted to an empire.
And therefore, in the area entrusted to me,
I wield the power of that throne.
I have kissed a scepter.
And because I have kissed that scepter, I
wield the authority of that scepter wherever I
go.
I am in authority, but I am only
in authority because I am under the authority
of Caesar.
This meant for that centurion several things.
It meant, for instance, submission to a person.
He was submitted to all the principles of
the Roman Empire as they were expressed by
Caesar.
He had bent the knee before the throne.
There had been a thrilling and never to
be forgotten day in his life when personally
he had bowed before the emperor.
He'd kissed the scepter.
He'd submitted to the authority of that great
power.
And because of this, he had been entrusted
to rule in an area committed to him.
It was submission to a person.
Not only so, it was the submission of
his entire personality.
When that centurion kissed that scepter and submitted
himself to Caesar, that was the end of
his personal independence of life.
It was the end of any right at
all, except the right to do Caesar's will.
He had no further choice in the matter
of dress, in the matter of friendship, in
the matter of location or assignment or task
or duty.
He was completely and totally sold out to
the purposes of Caesar.
It was the complete submission of his personality.
It was not only submission to a person.
It was not only the submission of his
personality.
But it was submission with a view to
a purpose being accomplished.
And what was that purpose?
It was to see that the will of
Caesar was expressed and carried out in the
area over which he was entrusted to rule.
It was there by rugged discipline.
It was there in his personal life to
ensure that he became perfected through experience as
a soldier.
And as he himself grew in stature and
in authority, so he would increasingly wield the
area, the scepter of the emperor over ever
an increasing area.
It was entire submission in all those levels.
I am a man under authority.
And I have under me soldiers.
And because he was under authority, he himself
was in power.
His submission to Caesar was absolutely inseparable from
his authority over the dominion in which he
lived.
He was responsible for that territory allocated to
him.
He must insist on certain conditions being fulfilled
in that area.
The emperor looked to him to see to
it that the law and the rule and
the empire of Caesar was actually represented in
that area and carried out.
He was trusted to see to it that
the sovereignty of Caesar was expressed wherever that
centurion ruled.
I am a man under authority.
That's an upward look to the throne before
which he bowed.
Having under me soldiers, that's a downward look
to the place over which he ruled, to
the territory for which he was responsible.
The upward look of submission to Caesar with
a view to the downward look of authority
in the area entrusted to him.
Now this is a principle of life.
And this is not the case of a
man, let me say, saying in his mind,
Caesar's bossed me pretty roughly for ten years,
now I'm going to take it out on
everybody else.
Oh no, that's not the principle.
The principle is that there can be no
happy, peaceful government in this territory for which
I am responsible unless the will of Caesar
is carried out here.
Now this is a principle, the entire root,
the sum and substance, of the Christian gospel.
Here is a man as God made him
and as God intended him to be.
The very dawn of divine revelation as we
know it in the word of God, he
made a man that he might have dominion,
Genesis 2, 28, dominion over the fish of
the sea, dominion over the birds of the
air, dominion over every living thing that moveth.
He was to be in control and in
authority, but it was on one condition.
It was on the condition that he recognize
the principle of entire submission to his creator.
It was to be power through submission.
It was to dominion in every other area
on the principle of total submission to his
God.
But he refused the principle.
He rebelled against the authority and he lost
the power.
And down through the centuries, amazing efforts he
has made in order to recover his power
where he's lost it without accepting the principle
of submission.
And as a matter of fact, he's made
remarkable progress.
He's tamed the wild beast.
He can fly across the skies at a
breathtaking speed.
He can split the atom.
He can shoot at the moon.
He's even got the terrifying power to blow
the globe into smithereens at any moment.
But he has made no advance in conquering
himself.
And man today in this twentieth century who
is intended to have absolute authority in his
life finds himself sophisticated, educated, civilized, but a
slave.
And my dear friend, I do not speak
tonight entirely of the experience of a man
without God.
I speak to thousands of people listening to
me tonight who have asked desperately at the
throne of grace for an experience of forgiveness
of sin and have cried out for God's
free grace.
But they have refused to submit to God's
total sovereignty and therefore in their lives they're
still slaves though they profess to be believers.
Let me ask you lovingly to consider this
for a moment.
You've seen yourself exposed in these last two
nights as a carnal Christian, as a defeated
man.
Why are you like that?
Why is it that your life is lived
in that level?
Why is it that there's no deliverance?
Why is it that there's no failure?
Tell me, before what throne are you worshipping?
Who's your master?
Who's your lord in your circle of friendship,
in your home life, in your business, in
your factory, where the influence of your life
is felt in other places?
Tell me, who really is governing your life
today?
Is it your own whim?
Is it your emotion?
Is it passion?
Is it inner lust?
Is it desire?
Or is it the Lord Jesus?
For it is desperately possible for a Christian
to be indwelt by the Holy Ghost but
dominated by the flesh.
To have the Spirit and yet the Spirit
not to have him.
To have forgiveness of sins.
Oh yes, blessed condition to have forgiveness of
sins.
But to be wallowing in the mire of
despair and defeat for he has never experienced
the blessedness of victory for the simple reason
that he refuses to submit to total salvation.
The principle of life.
But quickly, this is not simply a principle
of life.
For in the Lord Jesus I see this
as a pattern for our lives.
I omitted one word in that verse.
It was the word also.
As this centurion came to the Lord concerning
his servant's need, he saw in Christ a
principle which he felt was the secret of
the power of the Lord Jesus to meet
the need of that servant.
And the centurion said, I also am a
man set under authority.
I also.
I see this principle in your life.
I see this as the secret of your
radiance, your peace, your power.
I see this somehow lies at the back,
though I don't understand it, at the back
of why it is that you're able to
meet my need at this time.
I also am a man under authority.
Jesus Christ, a man under authority?
Indeed, yes.
Submitted to a person?
I do nothing of myself, he said.
I do always the will of him that
sent me.
Submission of a personality?
Yes, indeed.
He made himself of no reputation.
Took upon himself the form of a servant.
Was made in the likeness of man.
Being found in the fashion of a man,
he humbled himself.
Was obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross.
Submission of his personality?
Yes, and submission for a purpose.
My need is to do the will of
him that sent me, and to finish his
work.
To get my father's will, which is done
in heaven, done here.
Done on earth.
A life of perfect submission.
And therefore, a life of absolute authority.
He has under him soldiers saying to this
one, Go and he goeth.
Yielded absolutely, entirely and completely to the will
of his father.
He brought that will to bear on earth.
He accomplished it in his life.
And the devil recognized it and trembled before
it.
And Satan feared and trembled.
And the devils cried out, Who art thou,
thou holy one of God?
And they found themselves facing a power over
which they had no control.
For they found God's perfect man living in
total submission to the authority of heaven.
And therefore having absolute control over the powers
of darkness.
And the devil feared and trembled.
Wherefore, says the scripture, God hath highly exalted
him.
And given him a name that is above
every name.
That at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow.
And every tongue confess that he is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.
And praise God tonight we can say that
power and authority once again is in the
hands of the man Jesus Christ.
At the right hand of God.
There's a pattern for life.
This is the life that God has raised
up to the throne.
The life of total submission to his will.
He's brought it through death, taken it out
of the tomb.
And that life has ascended into heaven.
And what has happened there, he has received
of the Father the promise of the Holy
Spirit.
That he might impart that life of submission
and that life of authority into every one
of his children.
And beloved, Christianity today in the world is
on the retreat.
And it's fighting a losing battle.
And we're losing out.
Because every false cult lives on that principle
and we refuse to do so.
The awful surge of communism in Red China
is the cause of millions and millions of
people who are submitted to this principle.
Get the thing done at any cost.
And the Christian, though he has known the
grace of God and though he has claimed
forgiveness of sins, has refused total submission to
the authority of our risen Lord.
And therefore he finds himself defeated and beaten
and carnal with no victory and no power
and no glow and no reality.
Let me say to you therefore tonight, dear
friend, that here is the only seeker of
power for my life and yours.
For the Lord Jesus is calling every one
of us today to a life of total
submission.
That in an experience of that total submission
to him, we may enter into an experience
of total power over the dead.
He said to a little band of his
followers, Receive ye the Holy Spirit.
He showed them his hands and his side.
And he said to them, that my Father
hath sent me with all authority.
Even so send I you under mine.
And from that moment there dawned upon history
a religion which in the mind of heaven
was destined to revolutionize humanity.
And to change the whole course of world
history.
And to shape humanity to the uttermost parts
of the earth.
With the tremendous revelation that God in Jesus
Christ has won back for us this principle
of absolute authority in every domain.
Provided I accept total submission to Jesus Christ.
And that means submission to his person.
To be his, completely his.
Unreservedly his.
And therefore yielded to all his purposes and
all his principles.
Neither says the apostle Paul, yield ye your
members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.
But yield yourselves unto God as those that
are alive from the dead.
And your members as instruments of righteousness unto
God.
For sin shall not have dominion over you.
For you are not under law but you
are, listen, you are under grace.
And the whole base of Christian experience is
essentially a new sovereignty.
No longer under law but under grace.
No longer under the domination of self but
under the domination of Jesus Christ.
And in a superficial jazz kind of syncopated
type of religion today.
When we offer to people, offer to people
substitution.
Christ for me on the cross.
And people come and make their decision and
want to receive forgiveness of sins and to
go to heaven and to escape hell.
Well of course, who doesn't?
But the church very often is offering something,
my dear friend, that isn't the gospel at
all.
The gospel is not get your sins forgiven
and come to Jesus.
The gospel is not get saved and escape
hell and go to heaven.
That's not the gospel.
That's the fruit of the gospel.
The gospel is nothing less than this, friend.
And are you willing on this night, in
this convention for Jesus Christ, the Lord of
Glory, to come into your life and take
over and take control and so get hold
of you that he will make it absolutely
impossible for you to go on living as
you are.
And he'll teach you to hate sin and
long for holiness.
And he'll impart in you a new nature.
A nature which is lived on the principle
of total submission to the authority of heaven.
And therefore in total authority over the power
of hell.
That's the gospel.
That means submission of your personality.
Submission of your will.
The citadel of self.
Therefore of your rights, of your talents, of
your time, of your money, of your friends,
of everything.
Indeed, a Christian is, as that centurion was,
a person who has no right at all
except to see to it that the will
of God is done in his life.
He no longer has any right of independence.
He's not his own.
He's bought with a price.
He's sold out totally to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
You cannot have substitution without identification.
You cannot have free grace without full government.
You cannot have a full salvation without his
total control.
You accepted that principle in your life?
Jesus said, you question it.
Jesus said, if any man would follow me,
let him come after me, let him deny
himself, take up his cross and follow me.
He that loveth father or mother more than
me is not worthy of me.
In other words, he insists, and this is
not a matter for committee resolution.
It is not a matter for debate or
discussion.
He insists with all his authority that he
will have the preeminent.
That he will be Lord of all.
And that means there's no habit which is
not submitted to him for approval.
And there's not an hour of our time
which I can call my own.
It's his.
And there's no interest in my life which
is a vacation from vocation.
And there's no detail in our lives over
which Jesus Christ is not Lord.
It's the life of the Christian.
And may I say there are a great
many people today masquerading as Christians who are
not a million miles within that experience.
Who profess such a lot, but in whose
lives there's never been the broken submission of
the will and the surrender of the heart
to the total, total domination of our Lord
Jesus under authority.
Oh my friend, listen to me, you've been
playing church for some years, haven't you?
Just playing church.
With all the doctrines right and sound and
orthodox.
But oh, so defeated and desperately in despair.
And just making it a kind of harbinger.
It's only a theory.
Deep down in your heart you've never really
been gripped with this.
You've passed it on as truth perhaps suitable
for the next person, but not for you.
You prepare tonight to begin to live in
submission to the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus.
Can Jesus Christ look into your heart tonight
and say of you, I say to him,
come, and he cometh.
Go, and he goes.
Can he say that to you?
Or are there reservations?
This is submission for a purpose that in
your life and through your life the will
of God might be accomplished.
Ye shall receive power after that the Holy
Spirit has come upon you and ye shall
be witnesses unto me.
And his Spirit only comes upon the committed
life.
That's why he came upon the Lord Jesus
in fullness of power.
And he waits to come upon you now.
Here's the whole purpose of submission.
That Jesus Christ might reign as Lord in
your heart.
Because listen, there's a kingdom in your life
of which you're responsible.
And God holds you responsible.
For the fruit of the Spirit is self
-control.
And how can there be self-control unless
there's Spirit control?
And am I willing, are you willing tonight
for that to take place?
For if I live after the flesh I
will die.
But if through the Spirit we mortify the
deeds of the flesh, we shall live.
Brother, sister, do you want power?
Oh power over yourself, power over temper, power
over, oh just you.
Power over habits and power over inbred sin,
power over it all.
Here's the way, there's no other way.
Bend at Calvary, submit to his authority, yield
your faculties to him and let his life
in you take over.
Let it be in every department of your
life.
Spirit control.
Oh but you say I can't help being
what I'm like, I can't help doing what
I can.
May I say it lovingly?
Yes you can, you can.
You've bent before the wrong throne, that's why
you do it.
You've bowed in worship to yourself.
You've worshipped something in your life which grieves
God's Spirit and therefore quenches God's power.
But oh if in this congregation tonight there
could be the end of that rebellion and
the submission of your will in totality to
Jesus Christ of Lord.
Pilate, by submission to him, there's power over
them.
Would you put the Lord to the test
right now?