Father, we lift up the totality
of our being, a singleness of vision and
a singleness, Lord, of purpose, our lives submitted,
our lives, Lord, available.
And I ask this morning, Lord, and in
the coming days, a special anointing of impartation
of your word, of your desire.
And I thank you, Lord, oh, I thank
you, Lord.
Father, in Jesus' name, I ask, Lord, that
we be quickened, anointed, enabled, Lord, to hear
that the word will fall into fertile soil,
prepared.
I thank you, Lord.
Father, we sanctify this time, our brothers with
us, we sanctify it, we separate ourselves from
the earth, from the mundane.
We lift up our being into the spiritual,
into an apprehending of you, Lord, in the
totality of your being.
Father, in the authority of the resurrection of
our Lord Jesus Christ, we push back principality,
power, every hindrance, every negative factor, that which
would hinder in any way, we render null
and void in Jesus' name.
Father, we release a flow of enabling grace,
of anointing, in both the expression and the
reception of your word.
I thank you, Lord.
And I ask, Lord, Brother and Sister Warnock,
while they're here, a special working of your
grace, of your love, of your purpose within
them and upon them in the furthering of
their work and ministry.
I thank you, Lord.
Oh, hallelujah.
Father, in Jesus' name, have your way in
these services, in this special time.
I thank you, Lord.
And I would ask, Lord, that you, Lord,
be very present in all, for we acknowledge
you, for you've said, Lord, that if you
are lifted up, that all men will be
drawn.
I thank you.
Direct us, guide us now, Lord, and in
all, carefully, we give you the glory.
In Jesus' name, amen and amen.
Amen.
Thank you, Lord.
Hallelujah.
Amen.
That which is born of the flesh is
flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit.
That which is born of the flesh can
only be comprehended or understood through the intellect.
And it stops there, and it's limited by
our intellectual capacities, which are rather limited in
perception and our ability to really understand.
But that which is born of the Spirit,
and I can honestly say and rejoicingly say
this morning that our brother George Warnock is
a man that's born of the Spirit, and
he's born up into a place of vision
where he sees beyond many that are contemporaries.
Remember Brother Follett one time saying that when
he was young and was able to go
out, that there was not the doors, the
open doors of receptivity, because people just didn't
understand.
And some years later a lady said to
me, she said, Do you know what was
wrong with John Wright Follett?
And I said, Why?
She said, He was born 50 years too
soon.
In other words, he saw beyond this day.
And in the restoration of the word of
the purpose of God in bringing forth, the
Lord has those that are seers, that see
beyond.
Our brother George Warnock is a seer.
He sees beyond the present day, far beyond
it.
And if we're going to receive that which
is born of the flesh is flesh, if
you try to listen with your intellect, you're
going to lose it.
If you listen with your spirit and believe
that the word is going to fall into
fertile soil, that word will germinate and become
a part of your being, and you'll understand.
Brother Warnock, you're free to express yourself.
There's no clock.
The bells are shut off, and you're free.
And Lord bless you.
And all you've got to do is turn.
Well, it's good to be here.
And I'm glad to be away from you
and I just trust that you always know
the mind of the Lord and minister by
his spirit.
Let's just turn to 1 Corinthians 2, and
we'll read a few verses and then perhaps
deal with some of the highlights in this
portion.
1 Corinthians 2, And I, brethren, when I
came to you, came not with excellency of
speech or of wisdom, but coming unto you
the testimony of God, for I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ
and him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness and
in fear and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not
with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God.
Albeit we speak wisdom among them that are
perfect, full-grown, yet not the wisdom of
this world nor of the princes of this
world that come to know.
We speak the wisdom of God in a
mystery, a secret, even the hidden wisdom which
God foreordained before the world unto our glory,
which none of the princes of this world
knew, for had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written, and he's talking
about the things that he's speaking, as it
is written, the things that eye hath not
seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into
the heart of man the things which God
hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by
his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things,
yea, the deep things of God, or the
depth of God, not just things about God,
but God's very depth, the depth in God's
own being.
For what man knoweth the things of a
man, save the spirit of man which is
in him?
Even so, the things of God knoweth no
man but the Spirit of God.
We have received not the spirit of the
world, but the Spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things that are
freely given to us of God, which things
also we speak, not in the words which
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness unto him, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things,
yet he himself is judged among men.
For who hath known the mind of the
Lord, that he may instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ.
The Lord has blessed him with this word.
I think Brother Tiller has already indicated what
I wanted to emphasize this morning, and perhaps
in the days to come, that God desires
truth in the inward part, and that it's
not enough to have knowledge, but knowledge must
become truth, if I can use that kind
of an expression.
We know things.
Paul says we all have knowledge.
We all have a certain amount of knowledge,
one area or another.
Then he went on to say, but knowledge
puffeth up, but love buildeth up.
It says in the Authorized Version, knowledge puffeth
up, but love edifyeth.
You sort of lose what he's saying, because
the word edify simply means to build up.
So what he's saying is knowledge will puff
up and get very big, but there's no
more in it if it's puffed up than
before it was puffed up.
But love buildeth up, so that there's an
addition.
There's always an addition to true knowledge if
it is producing that love, you see.
Love buildeth up.
And I think there's a great over-balance
in the Church in this area, because there's
no doubt an awful lot of knowledge in
the Church, and I'm not referring to false
things.
There's a lot of real knowledge in the
Church.
But I think there's a great unbalance, because
in spite of all the knowledge, there's still
a great need for love.
What is it?
It's puffed up.
I remember reading what A.W. Tozer said
one time, and I never forgot it, something
to this effect, that if it was in
teaching, if it was in Bible knowledge, if
it was in learning, I mean true Christian
learning, this would be the most spiritual era
of the Church.
But he says, if history goes on, this
era will no doubt go down in history
as the greatest era of Babylonian captivity in
the history of the Church.
And yet you never saw so many good
books and tapes and songs.
He says, what is it?
I went on reading, because I was curious
what his concept would be.
And he says, I think it's lack of
vision.
Lack of vision.
So we have the knowledge, but somehow our
vision is muddied.
As far as I'm concerned, I believe God
gives us a little knowledge.
He's pleased to impart knowledge to us.
But his purpose in imparting knowledge is to
give us that vision.
This is what I want.
I'm showing you that this is what I
want, instead of that becomes another doctrine that
we can glory in, instead of a vision
to pursue.
And so I just throw these things out
and trust that the Lord will quicken that
to your hearts.
That in our quest after knowledge, and certainly
we come to a place like this to
get to know more, that in our quest
after knowledge, a real desire will be that
that which God reveals becomes something operative within
us.
Not just something to delight our hearts and
minds as we hear it or read it,
but something God wants us to enter into.
Not denying, of course, that we have to
wait for many things.
I'm not saying everything that we say or
that is said from this place is something
that you, you know, I must go home
and have it operative.
I'm not saying that, but that everything that
is said by the Spirit, I believe God
would build into our hearts and lives until
it becomes a part of us.
In one realm or another, because even if
you have it in the realm of faith,
it's still real.
Sometimes we're inclined to think, well, faith, you
know, like the little guy said, what's faith?
Said the little Sunday school boy.
Oh, he says, believe in what ain't.
Well, it's not really that way.
It's believe in what is.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for
and the evidence.
It's substance and it's evidence.
It's real.
Maybe you're not laying hold on it in
the way you would like, but it's still
very real.
I didn't intend to get into this matter
of faith, but I want to, Lord willing.
Faith is real.
It's the substance of what you're hoping for.
So that if you and I die without
really appropriating many, many things that we believe
and are expecting and anticipating, if there's real
faith for it, we won't really miss out
on anything.
Because Abraham never did enter in to the
fullness of that for which he was hoping.
These all died in faith, not having received
the promise, that is, not having seen the
fulfillment of it, but embrace them and confess
that they were strangers and pilgrims in the
earth.
Nevertheless, they were looking for something, they were
believing for something far beyond that which they
had received.
For Abraham, see, did receive the land of
Canaan, became their inheritance and all that.
And Abraham walked through the land, lived in
the land.
He lived in Canaan for much of his
life.
So did Isaac and Jacob.
And still he realized, yeah, I know God
promises this, and so I'm wondering at it,
but there was something there that didn't quite
satisfy.
His great longing was, and oh God, let
me possess this land, please, before I die.
He looked for a city that had foundations,
was builder and maker with God.
And Abraham, the one man who was picked
out of all characters in the Old Testament,
all these great men of faith, Moses, David,
Joshua, name them.
Abraham is the one man that is picked
out of all those men as the father
of all who believe.
What did he do?
I think he had a little battle with
some people that come up and captured Lot
and his family, but he didn't do much,
and I know, but he walked with God,
received promises and embraced the promises.
Wondered about as a pilgrim and stranger, never
did receive what he was really looking for,
but all the while he was here, he
looked for a city that had foundations, whose
builder and maker is God.
And so may God lead us in a
way that will cause us to seek him,
that that which we know might become more
experiential, even if it's in the realm of
faith for now, for certainly it has to
be in the realm of faith before it'll
come any higher.
And I'll abide in faith for charity, and
the greatest is charity, and that's the ultimate,
and let's always keep that in mind.
People say, oh yeah, we got to have
love, you know, got to get these gifts
working, got to have love, but you got
to have all these, well, as if love
was sort of something comes in, you know,
to give us a little boost, instead of
that being the total ultimate, the total ultimate
of all our pursuit after God.
And the reason we don't evaluate it as
we should is simply because we haven't seen
much of it functioning.
But when we come to see the tremendous
power and glory in love, it'll be something
that will never rest until we come into
it.
Love is God, and God brings us to
that.
So certainly we need the gifts, and certainly
we need the ministries, and otherwise I wouldn't
be here.
But the purpose of all these ministries is
to edify the body of Christ.
They're out and in, and working in the
body of Christ in the earth is the
fullness of God's love, which is the total
answer to every human need.
God's total answer.
The ministries are not the answer.
The ministries have got their vision to impart
to God's people that which they need in
order to grow in Him.
Come to the fullness, come to that fullness
that God desires.
And so may God begin to work in
us that process whereby the knowledge He gives
us becomes faith and vision and hope, expectation.
Not just something to tuck away in our
minds as another thing that we learn, but
something to swallow.
Something we chew on and it tastes good,
sweet in the mouth, but in swallowing it,
it becomes bitter.
In the Passover lamb, they were to feast
upon it.
Roasted in the fire, they had to feast
upon it.
But it was roasted with bitter herbs.
It had to be eaten with bitter herbs.
And so we like the glorious gospel without
the herbs, the bitter herbs, but not so
if you're partaking of the Passover lamb.
It's good, it's life-giving, but with bitter
herbs shall you eat it, because it's an
eating of the bitter herbs that all that
bitterness of your old life is removed.
It's an eating of the bitter herbs that
the bitterness of the old life is removed.
You've heard the old saying, you don't like
this medicine, I know, it's bitter, I know,
but if it isn't bitter it won't do
you any good.
So the bitterness is intended to remove the
bitterness.
It's sweet in his mouth and he'd like
to keep it there.
David said it was like honey in his
mouth, sweeter than honey in the honeycomb, but
David swallowed it too.
And that's why we have the book of
Psalms, because in the book of Psalms we
have the outpouring of the travail of David's
soul as he went through deep waters of
bitterness and trouble to the point where God,
why have you forsaken me?
What's this all about?
Perhaps little did he realize that he was
to be in a small way, sort of
a prototype of his great, great, great, great
grandson that was to come, the Lord Jesus.
Many of the things that he uttered really
belonged to the Lord Jesus.
My God, my God, why has thou forsaken
me?
David meant it.
He felt that, but he was uttering a
prophetic lamentation of his difficulty where his greater
son was going to utter that very same
cry on the cross.
And so Paul says, I determined not to
know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and
him crucified, and I was with you in
weakness.
Because that was his pursuit to know only
Jesus Christ and him crucified, because it was
not only his pursuit but something that he
walked in when he came to Corinth.
He came in weakness and trembling, and someone
stands there boasting about how much power he's
got, how much liberty he's got, how much
boldness he's got.
You wonder sometimes if they know Jesus Christ
and him crucified, because knowing him includes that
inward knowledge of him.
It's not just that mental knowledge of him,
that inward knowing of him that causes you
to become acquainted with who he is.
Paul discovered something which we all must discover
sooner or later.
The sooner the better, but God gives us
a little time of rest after we come
to know him, a time of rest, a
time of rejoicing in our salvation.
Rejoicing in what he did for us, which
of course we must do all our lives.
But the time comes when he wants us
to begin to recognize, yes, he died for
me, but you were crucified with him too.
And looking at the cross, yes, that's where
he died for me.
But the time comes when, as God shows
us the way, as God gives grace to
walk in the way, we'll recognize, I was
crucified there too.
I'm not saying that I've ever come to
that in fullness, and I don't know that
any of us have, but I believe that
God is working towards that end in the
body of Christ, that as a body, as
a corporate body, we'll come to that place
where we will know and recognize.
We live by Christ, yes, but it's only
because we were crucified with him when he
was crucified, that those nails were going into
our feet.
We just can't walk any old way we
want.
Those hands are being driven in our hands,
and we can't just do what we think
we'd like to do.
The crown of thorns is laid upon our
brow, and we might know that the mind
of the flesh is at enmity with God,
or is not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be.
For only then, I believe, will we, individually
and as a church, know what it means
to walk in the power of his resurrection.
The power of his resurrection is not available
to you and I, just come up to
the front, what would you like?
Oh, I'd like to have that resurrection life.
Lord, we lay hands on this man, we
ask that he will know from this day
forward the working of the resurrection life of
Jesus.
It doesn't work that way.
However, if so be that kind of a
prayer is uttered in sincerity, the next thing
you will know is a walk in identification
with his cross, because that's the way into
it.
So we don't go around looking for our
cross, trying to suffer to be like Jesus.
We simply do God's will, which is something
we have to prove individually in our own
daily walk with the Lord.
We have to prove, Paul said prove.
What is that?
Good, acceptable or well-pleasing, and perfect will
of God.
Good, well-pleasing, perfect.
Indicating, I believe, that there's progression even in
the will of God, that you might be
right in God's will this morning, but that
doesn't necessarily mean that the next year you
would be right in God's will, because God
wants growth in all areas of truth.
Remember that in all areas of truth, there
is growth, there's development, there's unfolding, so that
we don't become too bound by, well, God
told me this or God told me that.
Instead of that, perhaps, yes, God did say
that, but is there not to be an
unfolding of it, a changing of it somewhat,
just as the bud will unfold and there's
a flower, as a change takes place, and
that bud is good, nothing wrong with it,
it has to be.
You won't have the rose without it, but
it has to unfold in God's time and
his purpose, according to his watch care, according
to his provision from heaven, the sunshine and
the rain, it has to unfold.
It's not something you can make happen.
If you do, you'll open up the bud
and maybe smell a little of the fragrance,
but you won't have a rose, and so
that's what patience is all about.
Patience is not a negative thing, considered to
be a negative thing, grin and bear it.
Patience is really that process that you go
through when your faith is tried.
When your faith is tried, God calls it
patience, the trial of your faith, which is
more precious than gold that perishes, and so
James then says, let patience have her perfect
word.
So don't look down upon patience, oh, you
know, he's got a lot of patience, that
guy don't have it.
Patience, scripturally speaking, is faith, but it's faith
in the crucible.
Faith being tried, faith being tested, faith in
the fire, when it seems that you're inclined
to believe sometimes that the enemy is seeking
to destroy your faith.
Maybe he is, but God has control over
the enemy, and always remember that the enemy
couldn't do a thing to Job until God
gave him permission.
You say, I think God's given Satan permission
in my life.
Well, thank him for it, pray for grace,
but he doesn't have full control, God has
control.
And he says, so far you can do
this, no further than this, okay, he'll go
as far as he can, and Satan knows
it, he knows it, and God boasting about
Job, and Job is there thinking God forsaken
him, and God's boasting about him.
God boasts about Job, I think, to give
Satan something to complain about.
Yeah, but God, you put a hedger on
him, I can't get at him.
God says, I'll take away the hedge.
But you see, Job didn't know these things,
you and I know it, because we read
about it.
But then, because our circumstances isn't an affliction
like his was, we don't consider it's the
same enemy that's doing the work.
It's with you in weakness, and in fear,
and in much trembling.
And I believe the more we come to
embrace the cross of Christ, the more God
will be able to build into our hearts
and lives this weakness, fear, and trembling.
Because we realize crucified on the cross are
totally helpless.
Crucified in weakness, Christ the Son of God,
totally weak on the cross.
But he walked that way, and therefore he
was able to go to the cross, because
he walked in that kind of weakness.
We don't always recognize that, because we don't
always read the fine print.
But if you read the fine print, you'll
find a lot of things there that we
pass over in the larger print.
Jesus said, when he was accused of doing
something on the Sabbath day that ought not
to be done in the minds of the
people, he was a man.
He has said in so many words, well,
listen now, I didn't really do that.
It was the Father that did that.
I can't do anything.
I can of my own self do nothing.
That's the words of Jesus.
I know there's a lot of the, what
they call the positive gospel, and I'm not
saying that there's, you know, I'm not saying
it's all error, because it's very, very necessary
that you have positive wires coming into this
lighting here, absolutely essential.
But it's just as essential that you have
a negative wire there too, just as essential.
The power is in the positive, I recognize
that, even being an electrician, but it is
ineffective if there isn't a negative.
Just a very simple illustration, but it's true,
and it's true in the spiritual realm.
If you can embrace the positive and preach
it fervently and wonder why there isn't more
than the effectual work coming from it, because
a lot of it is make-believe, people
insisting, I'm going to have this, God says,
have whatever I want, and insisting on it,
and a lot of them ending up in
devastation.
So Paul says, I was with you in
weakness, and because he came to them in
weakness, he knew the overspreading of the power
of God.
Jesus says, I can't do anything of myself.
The Son can do nothing of himself.
Whatsoever I hear, that's what I've got to
say.
The Son could do nothing of himself because
of the covenant which he made with the
Father.
I can use that expression.
We read it in the Old Testament and
quote it in the New.
One of the singers in the temple was
inspired to write this tremendous prophecy.
And there in the temple, they were slaying
sheep, and oxen, and goats, and turtle doves,
and blood was flowing freely, and they were
singing, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not.
There they were, the blood just flowing, and
the singers were singing, Sacrifice an offering you
don't want, you don't want it Lord, and
they're doing it, God ordained it, and they
went on doing it, rightly so.
The singers were saying, you don't want that
Lord, you don't want it.
Oftentimes, songs will come forth, born of the
Spirit, and we sing it, we don't believe
what we're singing, don't believe really what we're
singing.
You can think of songs like that, to
be like Jesus, to be like Jesus, all
I ask to be like him.
I think we sang that when I went
to Sunday school.
Now we're teaching, God wants the people like
Jesus, and they're saying, heresy, can't be like
Jesus.
But songs like that, and many, many others,
are born of the Spirit, because that's the
desire of God, and it's the desire of
his Spirit.
So we sing it, and we don't pay
too much attention to the theology of it.
But God's desire for theology is that it
be translated into the realms of truth.
Theology, nothing wrong with that, if you understand
what it's all about.
Theos, I'm not much on Greek, but I've
studied a little.
God, word, theology, I mean, nothing wrong with
that.
If God is the word, if the words
that we speak unto you are Spirit, as
Jesus said, the words I speak unto you,
they are Spirit, and they are life.
But if God isn't the word, then it's
something about God that may be as good
to know.
But God brings us to the place when,
as it was with the first Logos, the
only Logos, I should say, the true Logos,
he became flesh and dwelt among us.
Tabernacles amongst us is really the word.
It's the word that means tent.
The word became flesh, literally, and pitched his
tent in our midst.
We beheld his glory, but you wouldn't see
it unless somehow you were unable to pull
back the flaps of the tent.
Or if God would pull back the flaps
of the tent, you might see his glory,
which happened.
We beheld his glory, said John, the glorious
of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth.
For he was God and was with God.
But God, who at sundry times and in
diverse manners, many different ways, many different times,
vacant times passed unto the fathers through the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto
us in his Son.
There again, I came across a very beautiful
note by a scholar.
The Greek says, has spoken unto us, two
words, in suihos, in Son.
In Son, not in thee, Son, in they,
Son.
He spoke unto us in Son.
This scholar made a notation.
He says, it's hard to explain this, but
he says, it's not just saying that the
prophets spoke, now Jesus is speaking.
But whereas God spoke in many ways, in
dreams or visions or with a direct word
to the prophets, or once he wrote on
a table of stone, he appeared in fire.
He spoke in many different ways, but now
he says he's speaking wrapped up, as it
were, in his Son.
So that the Son of God walking in
earth was nothing less, nothing less than God's
Word himself, revealed in a way far beyond
he had ever revealed himself in the past
to prophets and seers in different ways, diverse
manners.
Now God's mode of revealing himself is a
Son.
So that Jesus didn't just speak God's Word,
he did that.
He was God's Word.
And the Word had become flesh.
The Word had become a man.
Many just heard a man speaking, but everything
he said and everything he did and everything
he was and everything that he was in
his inherent being that men never did see,
it was God's Word, God's final revelation of
himself to man.
I say God's final revelation, not precluding the
fact that this Son would join unto himself
in process of time, many other members that
would become members of his body.
But the fact remains, the Son is God's
revelation.
And in the Lord Jesus' education or whatever,
you can bring it forth in a word,
simply to express what's in your mind.
And so that Jesus didn't just speak the
Word of God, he was the Word.
Because when God, the time had come and
the purposes of God, when God says, now
I've spoken in prophets, I've spoken in dreams,
I've spoken in visions, I've spoken in fire,
now I'm going to give a complete, full
revelation.
And everything that was in the heart and
mind and character of God is revealed in
this man who walked in the earth as
the perfect image of God.
This is expression of the Father.
Lord, we're going to get into some more
of that.
Just to say before we digress a little,
he didn't stay in earth as that one
single, solitary voice.
He went to heaven to be glorified that
in a corporate body in the earth, that
same Logos might be revealed.
Not in all his fullness in you, or
in you, or in you, but in the
corporate body of Christ, his total fullness.
You and I being members of the throne
of God.
My speech, my preaching was not with enticing
persuasive words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power that your
faith should not stand in the wisdom of
man, but in the power of God.
That's a little frightening.
Maybe that's not quite the word, but there's
a lot of attempts made to educate young
people or aspiring ministers to the place where
you can present something with eloquence or refinement
of speech.
I think Paul could have done that.
But he says, when I came into your
midst, I determined I wasn't going to come
with that.
Why?
He says, I don't want your faith to
stand in the fact that you heard words
that went forth with such eloquence and beauty
of expression that you had to believe it
just because of the way it came forth.
Your faith won't stand on that.
Remember hearing where, I think it was, I
know that Charles S.
Spurgeon was one of the men.
I think it was a Dr. Parker who
was also a contemporary in England at that
time.
And these two men visiting England wanted to
hear them both.
They're both very eloquent, both great men.
So they went to hear the one man
and when they came away, one of them
said, what a dynamic preacher.
And they went to hear Charles S.
Spurgeon.
And they came away and one man said,
what a tremendous Christ.
Paul says, I didn't want to come with
eloquence and words of wisdom that would be
attractive.
Let your faith stand in that.
I mean, I like listening to an eloquent
preacher.
But somehow in recent years, it's luster, but
as a young person, I wish I could
preach like that.
Paul, who probably could have preached like that,
maybe he did on Mars Hill.
Maybe he recognized on Mars Hill that he
was appealing too much to their intellect, I
don't know.
But you know, he found a sermon there
in the streets in this idol that was
erected to the unknown God and they appointed
him a day.
And nothing wrong with what he said, but
we don't read of any great dynamic things
that happened.
There was one or two, it says, that
claimed to him.
It was right after that he came to
Corinth.
And you sort of wonder if Paul was
thinking, you know, I gave him a good
sermon and I know just from God and
all that, why wasn't there more results?
I don't know if that went through his
mind.
But when he came to Corinth, he says,
no more of that.
I must walk in the weakness and in
the fear and in the trembling that I
experience when I see myself crucified with Jesus.
That your faith should not stand in the
wisdom of men, but in the power of
God.
Albeit, he says, we speak wisdom among them
that are perfect.
Those who've come to maturity.
Remember that perfection in the scriptures, not just
getting rid of that last sinful habit.
You get rid of every sin you've got,
and you'll still be a babe in Christ.
And certainly God wants us to get rid
of all our sins.
And I believe he's going to purge the
church without spot, without blemish.
But getting rid of all the sins won't
be the perfection.
The perfection is, that's negative.
Taken away, the perfection is coming into the
maturity of the Lord Jesus.
And so, he says, we do speak wisdom
among those who are mature.
Yet not the wisdom of this world, nor
the presence of this world that come to
none.
But we speak the wisdom of God in
the mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God
ordained before the world unto our glory.
We speak the wisdom of God in the
mystery, even the hidden wisdom.
And you will probably recognize that the word
mystery in the scriptures simply means a secret.
But a secret that is made known to
certain individuals.
But nevertheless, a secret.
In other words, all don't know.
All don't know it.
But Paul says, God has given me a
ministry to reveal to you his secrets.
All don't know it, but he who has
given.
And understand, of course, when we say things
like this, we're not talking about any kind
of a secret society where you say to
one another, I'm telling you something, but don't
tell anybody else.
It's declared openly.
Declared openly.
But the reason it's a secret is because
to many it's a strange language.
They don't even know what they're saying.
What's that mean?
Gotta eat my flesh and drink my blood
if you don't know life in your nostrils,
you know.
He declared it openly, but you see, it
is a secret because it's only for those
with whom the Lord can explain the secrets.
And even those closest to him couldn't really
comprehend.
Jesus says, are you going to leave me
too?
Everybody started to leave when he declared his
secret openly, which didn't make sense.
So the secrets that God gives us to
declare to the people of God or to
the world will cause a lot of antagonism
because they'll only hear those literal words and
they won't hear what God is trying to
say.
So it's important that we seek to speak
from the heart of God and not just
deliberately try to say things that might sound
stupid or something.
But by words which the Holy Ghost teach
us, we will be saying things that will
become our accusation against us, their accusation against
us.
And so the great need is that you
and I speak to know and have the
anointing to know and to say what God
would have us to say openly to the
people.
But because it's the wisdom of God, it's
in secret.
To those who have a hearing ear, they
will hear what the Lord is saying.
To others, it might be a nice story.
There won't mean much to them.
That's why Jesus came to a people hard
of heart, blind in the eyes, gathered them
about him and unfolded these beautiful things about
the kingdom of God in the form of
parables.
And they heard it, they listened to it,
it sounded good.
They didn't really know what he was saying.
So it went forth to souls.
And as he told, some seeds fell upon
stony places.
Some fell by the wayside.
Some fell in places that were infested with
thorns and thistles.
Some fell into good ground and sprang up
and brought forth fruit.
Some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold.
You ever notice in Jesus' parables how he'd
say, He that hath an ear, let him
hear.
Take heed how you hear.
They all heard it, I'm sure.
And yet they didn't.
So they came to Jesus after and they
said, explain to us the parable.
Jesus said, it's you it is given to
know the mysteries, the secrets of the kingdom
of God.
But to them it's not given.
For he says, in them is fulfilled that
which Isaiah spoke about.
They have eyes that they see not.
They have ears that they don't hear.
They have a heart that cannot perceive.
For their hearts are waxed, gross, and their
ears are dull of hearing.
And then Lord, why waste your time talking
to them?
Because he spoke words that were spirit and
life.
He called the last Adam, whereas the first
Adam came and was created a living soul
that had life derived from the God who
breathed into his nostrils.
A living soul, a life, a soul life
that gave him a tremendous mind and understanding
and all that, but it still pertained to
things earthly.
But the last Adam came, not as a
living soul, but a life-giving spirit.
A life-giving spirit.
And Jesus said, the words that I speak
in you, they are spirit and they are
life.
And I used to wonder too why Jesus
would speak parables and then tell the disciples
they don't see it, they don't hear it.
So I realized he was speaking spirit, life.
He was depositing in them, in their ignorance,
seeds of life that unfolded in the days
to come.
There were 30 years down the line, perhaps,
that most of them, and Jesus rose from
the dead.
Multitudes came to know the Lord in Jerusalem.
Multitudes who had heard his parables and didn't
know what he was saying.
No doubt many of them would turn back
and walk no longer with him because his
sayings were too difficult.
So it's not in vain that you go
forth and speak something by the leading of
the Lord, by the will of God, and
you don't see any fruit for it.
An evangelist must have fruit in that meeting
or he's apt to move on to the
next town.
But all are not evangelists, and there are
those who come and sow the seed.
You go away and you don't see the
fruit.
You don't expect to.
I think we will though, sometime, especially in
this last hour when God's doing a quick
work in the earth, when the plowman shall
overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes,
him that sows seed.
And so there's the evangelist bringing in the
harvest, and you and I are going along
behind plowing the ground and planting seed.
What are you doing?
This is harvest time, I know, but it's
sowing time too.
The plowman's going to overtake the reaper.
The treader of grapes, him that sows seed.
God does a quick work in the earth.
No longer can you and I say, there
isn't time to do these things that you're
talking about, because the harvest time is here.
I know harvest time is here, but sowing
time is here too.
It isn't up to you and I to
decide how much time we've got left.
It's in his hands.
I know it is harvest time.
I know time is short, very short, but
I know that in this one, two, three
years that are left, I don't know, ten
years, I don't know, three months, God's going
to do a work that he has declared
he's going to do.
Nothing shall withstand it.
Man says there's no time.
God says I don't need time.
I just needed a willing and obedient people.
Secret, even the hidden wisdom, the hidden wisdom.
Jesus promised one of the churches in the
book of Revelation, he would overcome us.
I will give him of the hidden manna.
I'll give him a white stone and in
the stone a new name written, which no
man knoweth, they did he that receiveth the
hidden manna.
Immediately, of course, we think of the manna
that God gave the children of Israel in
the desert.
And they were famishing for bread.
They were hungry and they murmured and complained
because there was no bread, no water, a
natural thing to do, but nevertheless a faithless
thing to do.
Because invariably God will test us and try
us concerning our faith.
And so God speaks something to your heart,
you know it's him.
You're assured it's faith that you have for
what God says to do or whatever.
You embrace it, it becomes faith within you.
Remember faith comes from a revelation from God.
It's not something you just decide you'd like
to have.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of God.
And faith cometh, oh not from far off
in the heavens or not from the depths
of the ocean, Paul says, but the word
is nigh.
And he's really quoting from Moses.
The word is nigh even in thy mouth
and in thy heart.
Even the word of faith which we preach
so that if there's a going forth of
God's word, there's faith right there in that
word that goes forth.
And in your heart to receive it as
you look to him to open your heart.
Faith is right here in your mouth, in
your heart.
And the word that goes forth is cometh
by hearing, hearing by the word that goes
forth.
And God is simply trying them for a
few days in their hunger.
And his whole purpose of leading them through
the wilderness and of feeding them with manna,
leading them the way he did through desolate
areas, the whole purpose was to prepare them,
prepare their hearts for the land of Canaan.
It's sad when people are brought out of
Egypt and take the highway of the Philistines
into Canaan because it's a shortcut.
And it's sad I say because so many
times they can't survive in Canaan.
The fruit of the land, the power, the
running brooks, the houses all built, the gardens
planted.
That's a prepared place for a prepared people.
And therefore God has that place prepared.
And because he has that prepared place, he
must prepare a people for it.
But without going too far in that right
now.
He met their needs, he sent bread from
heaven, manna fresh from heaven.
Every day, every morning.
And then that was for all the people.
But then the priest had a bread that
they ate once a week.
Stale bread.
Six days old and they ate it on
the seventh day.
I didn't really mean what I said, stale
bread, but we call it stale bread.
Lying there a week.
But it was fresh because for those six
days it was there in the presence of
God.
The shewbread, or more literally the bread of
the present, which had been there in the
presence of God for six days.
And the priest ate that on the seventh
day, that bread that had been in God's
presence.
They ate the manna too.
But here was something special for the day
of rest.
I believe God is enabling his people to
partake of that bread of his presence even
today.
But we have to, whenever God brings us
into one area of truth or understanding, like
I said, we don't want to be gluttonous.
Desiring to have more and more and more
and more knowledge.
But our desire should be that this which
God has revealed concerning God becomes alive within
us.
Becomes meaningful.
Becomes something we walk in.
I know we don't walk in it in
fullness, but has God enabled, at least by
faith, maybe a little by hope, because hope
is beyond faith too.
As you know, when you want to know
the meaning of a Bible word, you don't
go to Webster's.
You go to a good concordance.
And we use the word hope.
Well, yeah, I hope so.
But Bible hope is not that kind of
a hope.
Bible hope is beyond faith.
It begins to anticipate what you're believing.
Anticipate is coming into birth, coming into reality.
So that in that sense, Paul says we
are saved in hope.
So we come into this realm of hope,
the holy place, the intermediate state between the
outer courts and the holiest of all.
We have to go through there.
Many don't like the ministration of the Spirit,
so they try to sneak in, try to
look for a back door into the holiest
of all.
There isn't any.
We have to go through the holy place
to come to the holiest of all.
And so we thank the Lord for bringing
us into the holy things, the holy place,
the table of showbread, and the altar of
incense, and the candlestick.
And I believe that's where God has brought
his people in these last few years.
Very precious place.
And then they'd like to get into that
holy place, that holiest of all place, but
they don't like going through this realm.
And I realize that oftentimes there are many
inconsistencies that God's people get involved in this
holy place, or disturb others, and turn them
away from the things of the Spirit.
So we recognize that.
But the fact remains that if one's heart
is truly after God, he will have hurdles
that he will have to jump over.
There will be obstacles that he might trip
over.
Jesus said it must be that offenses come.
It's inevitable.
With every great revival there's been offenses.
And you don't like it because it's not
really the revival, it's just the offensive things
that happen because of those who get involved.
And it always happens.
And so those whose hearts are not really
unto God totally, they'll see the offensive things
and turn away, which is sad.
But if their hearts are right, they won't
stumble.
They won't stumble.
It can't help it.
I've got to go this way.
Jesus says to his disciples, are you going
to turn away now like the rest of
them?
He says, what can we do?
You only have words of eternal life.
And they knew that.
And we know that.
And so no matter what comes, Lord, these
are going back.
Some get bitter against God, blame God for
it.
You can blame God for it if you
do it in the right way, like Job
did.
Job blamed God, and God took the blame.
God says, I did it.
He said, you moved me to do this
to Job.
Let Job do the dirty work.
God often does that.
It's in God's mind to do it.
Not as chastisement, not as judgment.
Not because Job had missed it, because he
wasn't positive enough.
And he said, the thing I feared came
on me.
And, oh, Job, you had that crazy old
fear.
Get away with it.
God says, Job spoke right about me.
He was the one who emerged from the
old works, the man that pleased God.
These people that are saying that, they're taking
the side of Job's comforter, so-called.
God said to them, you haven't spoken right.
You go to my servant Job and offer
up a sacrifice, and he'll pray for you.
Well, now
I've got to get back, and then you
get out of here, and then you get
up, and then you go here a little,
and, well, that's the way a tree is.
And that's where the fruit grows.
But we have to.
We have to allow the word that God
brings to our hearts as individuals to produce
that kind that God wants.
I know you've come to a Bible training
institute.
I believe it's a very good one.
Don't set up your pattern in somebody.
I want to be like him or her.
You'll see that sometimes.
People have a certain, yeah, that's what I
want, a ministry like he's got.
Don't do that, because you could never have
his ministry.
Nor does God want you to, nor should
you desire it, because God has made every
one of us to be a distinct member
of a distinct society, a distinct member of
the body.
Everyone different.
So, don't mind being different.
You try to be like someone else, and
I know there are schools that can turn
out clones, but God doesn't want clones.
He wants everyone to be distinct and different.
And so, rather than trying to emulate someone
else, may your desires be the Lord Jesus,
like him.
Because somewhere in his nature and in his
character and in his ministry, in the expression
of that word which is in Jesus, you'll
have a portion of him.
Because he's the fullness, the totality of God's
fullness within him.
And you can't have that totality, nor does
he want us to try to, because he
is that totality.
But having been glorified at the Father's right
hand, he sends forth upon his body a
ministration of himself, that each individual receiving of
that ministration together, that we all, with all
things, might be able to apprehend what is
the length and the breadth and the height
and the depth.
And to know the love of Christ which
passeth knowledge that you might be filled unto
all the fullness of God.
Not me, we, in union with him.
I don't say be yourself, but be yourself
after God has worked on you and transformed
you.
Be that self.
He made you what you are, not that
you might continue to be what you are.
He made you what you are, that you
might become what he wants you to become.
A worm crawling, that's all right.
But as you walk according to the law
of life, that's all he asks, walk according
to the law of life, you'll find yourself
curled up in a cocoon and wondering what
it's all about, and yet helpless to do
anything about it, as God brings you to
helplessness, because if you and I are going
to know the exceeding greatness of his power
and love and truth and wisdom, we're going
to have to lose our own strength and
wisdom and knowledge.
We're going to have to become weak, that
we might know his strength.
For Christ's sake, that we might know his
wisdom.
But coiled up in that leaf with the
cocoon around them, not knowing what it's all
about, nevertheless the law of life is functioning.
It's functioning.
One day it comes forth, different, changed, transformed,
metamorphosis.
The word metamorphosis comes from that Greek word
that Paul used, where he says, we're changed
from glory unto glory, even as by the
Spirit of the Lord.
So be content with the way you are,
no I shouldn't say be content, except the
fact God made you the way you are,
and he has a beautiful plan, that as
you do God's will, walk in his ways,
submit to his dealings, you'll come forth in
the life of the Spirit with that kind
of character, life, ministry, divine enablement that God
has in mind, which will be an expression
of the living word of God.
Knowing that then you don't ever try to
be like anyone else, or bemoan your loss,
why did God make me this way?
He didn't make you that way that you
might continue that way, but that you in
that state might learn weakness, helplessness, inadequacy, learn
your own foolishness, and as you submit to
God and his ways, God's mighty workings, he'll
bring you forth, a member of the body
of Christ, before which all the saints and
angels will marvel and admire you in the
Spirit, when the Lord Jesus comes to be
glorified in the saints, and admires you in
all those ways.
I think that's all for this morning.
Just a minute, I feel I should maybe
pray, dear heavenly Father, we thank you Lord
for this gathering of your people, we've come
together this morning Lord to sit at your
feet and hear your words.
Lord we just pray that these days that
we're here, how many there might be, that
you would grant Lord that you would make
your people to be open, receptive, hungry, thirsty,
and grant Lord that there might come forth
words of truth and wisdom and knowledge and
words from your heart, words that will remain
with them, words that they will be able
to apprehend by faith, that might enter into
their hearts and become living truth within them,
that thou desirest truth in the innermost heart.
Facing the day Lord when this beautiful body
that we anticipate and believe for and expect
will begin to blossom forth on the earth,
you said that your people would take root
downward and bear fruit upward, that you would
fill the face of the earth with fruit.
We know Lord Jesus that you are even
now preparing in the body of Christ the
total answer to every human need, many as
there are.
Therefore may we be faithful and diligent and
walk with you that we will be a
part of that one loaf, that one bread
that you have designed to satisfy the hunger
of the most of us.
In your name we ask this, amen.