The All Sufficiency of Christ

… They're all in the first epistle to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 1 and verse 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 1. Chapter 11 and verse 17. A few weeks ago, together with one or two who were here and a good number of others, we were at a conference dealing with the dispensations. And it's quite interesting to find what people's views of the dispensations are. Particularly because there seems to be a lot of, not quite disagreement, but people arrive at a different number of dispensations. It seems to me that whatever you start out with as the definition of a dispensation determines the number that you have. I only refer to it for this reason, that one of the things that seems to be lost when you start talking about dispensations, but I'm very thankful to God that at that conference, certainly there were a good number who were prepared to emphasize the most important part of dispensations. And that's not how many there were, or the fact that God has been testing man. But every time a new dispensation dawned, it wasn't because a certain period of time had run its course. It was because God made himself known in a fuller way. This is what Hebrews 1 and 2 say, when it says, God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spoke unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. That's really the key to dispensations. When we were looking at them, we were looking at the one, if you are a Schofield reader, then you'll say it's the fourth dispensation. But it's that dispensation which deals with the patriarchs particularly, Abraham especially. And for a little while, we focused attention on that marvelous verse in Genesis 17, where God says to Abraham, I am the almighty God. Walk thou before me, and be thou perfect. It's a marvelous verse, and in the particular place where it occurs, and what takes place afterwards, it seems that something very important connected with what God said of himself when he said, I am the almighty God. Now, when we think of almighty, our minds immediately focus on power. It's very interesting. There is a little bit of disputing amongst people who are able to say this, but for somebody simple like myself, and using the concordances that we've got, it seems that the derivation of the word really has something more wide in view than power. Now, I got this firstly from George Davidson, so we're going back about 30 years. But a lot of things that George Davidson said stuck, and over the years, you've had opportunity to look them up. And there doesn't seem to be much doubt about the fact that the word almighty that's used there derives from a word which refers to the female breast. And the extension of it is as an infant is totally provided for to begin with by the mother's breast, what it's saying there is God is absolutely all-sufficient. Now, I was interested actually the other evening when I was looking for something else to come across a comment of Scofield's in a book, and it may well, I don't have a Scofield Bible, but I would think it probably is found in his Bible also, because he just makes a comment, he says, almighty, it has a suggestion of remoteness about it. And I wouldn't for one moment want to diminish the fact that there's a great danger of becoming familiar. I'm not taking up a crusade against the use of language, but when we use the these and the thous, in fact, we're using the language of scripture. Many people have been at pains to point out that in 1611, when we had the authorised version, the use of you and they was well established in England. So when we use those words, we're actually using biblical words, really. And he was making a comment on this matter of never ceasing to lose a sense of awe about the God with whom we have to do. But he said it's a shame, really, that it's done that, because when God used those words to Abraham, this is what Scofield says, he could have been saying to Abraham, I am all sufficient. And that's really what I would like during the meetings that we have this week in the Lord's Will, to look at the all sufficiency of Christ. Particularly in relation to the problems that occurred in New Testament assemblies. All the New Testament assemblies seem to have problems, all local assemblies have problems, I don't think there's any doubt about that. What the scriptures say, and I would be very thankful to God, if above any other impression that is left upon our hearts and minds, it is that Christ is absolutely sufficient to meet all difficulties. And more than meeting difficulties, to give us the grace to live in the light and power of his word. Just before leaving the Old Testament, this matter of God being absolutely sufficient for his people is accentuated in some places which are remarkable. There's quite a remarkable one in the book of Nehemiah. Things had reached a very low ebb in Nehemiah. And in Nehemiah chapter 9, there is a remarkable statement made. They look back and they think of the dealings of God with their nation. And they consider the lack of faithfulness in the nation. And towards the end of that chapter you find one of them saying this. Forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing, their clothing grew not old, and their foot swelled not. What it's saying in fact is what Genesis 17 says. Genesis 17 makes the statement. Nehemiah 9 is a practical verification of it. What God said he would be to Abraham and his people, he was. And he's still the same. We live in a day when the full light of God has shone. But let us never forget that he who was almighty for Abraham is still the same for us. And Christ is all sufficient. There is a puzzling scripture. At least I found it puzzling for a lot of years. Until I read a comment one day which was the key to understanding it. This is Luke 22. And these are the words of the Lord Jesus to the disciples. Luke 22 and verse 35. And he said unto them, when I sent you without purse and script and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said nothing. Then said he unto them, but now he that hath a purse, let him take it and likewise his script. And he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. I found that very puzzling really. Why did the Lord say get a script and get a sword? And then reading one of those old writers one day, I got a shaft of light when he said this. He just happened to... Have I given a wrong reference? Sorry. He just made a remark in passing. And what he said was this. He said, at that particular point, all the power of God that Christ demonstrated that was here for the providing for his own and for their protection was no longer not only going to be used for their provision and protection, it was not going to be used to shield from himself all that judgment that would be poured down upon him. And in fact, the Lord was saying there when he asked the question and the disciples replied, they were saying substantially what the saint in Nehemiah 9 said. The Lord said, you didn't have a script and you didn't have a sword. Were you ever without? Were you without provision? Were you without protection? And they said, no. And in fact, that's what it's saying, that Christ was all sufficient for them. And against that background, let's look at the verses that I've read to you in the first epistle to the Corinthians. Now, I know that any one of these could occupy more than the time that we have available tonight. But all I want to do is just to point out how by a ministry of Christ, an assembly which really was becoming grotesque in its testimony. I mean, when you look at the Corinthian assembly, they had party spirit. They tolerated immorality, which even the licentious Corinthians wouldn't tolerate. They made the breaking of bread into a common meal. They accepted teaching that was fundamentally destructive of the Christian faith, chapter 15, when it speaks about the resurrection. And yet, when Paul writes to them, the second epistle in chapter 3 and verse 203, he says this to them. He says, ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on fleshy tables of the hard. Now, you might ask the question, how was it possible that an assembly that was marked by so many sad features in the first epistle was so transformed that Paul was able to say, we needn't speak. You yourselves in your testimony are an epistle of Christ. And he uses those memorable words when, and it's a marked contrast between the law and grace. He says, not on tables of stone that are hard to take an impression, but on fleshy tables of the heart that take a deep impression. How could that transformation come about? It came about because in the verses that we've read and many others in the first epistle, there was a ministry of Christ. But a ministry of Christ in a very special way. All the ones that I've read to you speak about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in the light of those that I want to look at the three that we've considered together. Towards the end, we might make some reference. I hope nobody ever thinks that what happened in the early days of the church of God on earth don't happen today. It wouldn't be difficult to put a parallel to all the things that are described here. But the key is, Christ is absolutely sufficient to correct what was wrong in the assembly at Corinth. And not just correct it, but correct it to the extent that from an assembly which was marked by an increasingly grotesque testimony of Christ, it reached the position where Paul said, even if we didn't minister anything at all, if people take account of the way in which you behave, it is a ministry of Christ which is deeply written by the spirit of the living God on the fleshy tables of the heart. When Paul writes these words to the Corinthian assembly, as in all other epistles, apart from the epistle to the Galatians, he takes the greatest opportunity to commend what is capable of being commended. And it's a remarkable thing, but in verse 2 he calls them God's assembly at Corinth. As they were, they were God's assembly at Corinth. And I always take heart in this, that even in the broken and divided and difficult day in which we find ourselves, I know that God's assembly includes every believer. I find it very difficult to avoid that the reference to a local assembly must mean a company of Christians who are trying to live in the light of all that the scriptures say, not just part of what the scriptures say. You may know that about 12 miles north of us on the seacoast, there is a small port called Blyth and a small town there. And until about two and a half years ago, one or two of us were going over to that very small meeting, really to allow some very fine and godly sisters who had supported that meeting over many years, the opportunity of remembering the Lord. But the expectation was that the meeting gradually, as one by one they went to be with the Lord, that ultimately it would close. What we didn't know was that in Blyth God had been working in quite a remarkable way. There was a, I think he had a car, you know, a driving school, car driving school. And I would think his business was failing from what little bit he said, certainly because I worked for many years in a job where alcohol was an occupational hazard. I became used to seeing alcoholics and it was not difficult to recognize that he must also have had an alcoholic problem. But he was at the end of his tether and someone gave him a Bible. And I think really at the end of things, one day he started reading the Bible. He found something that was relevant to him and he just got down on his knees and he said, God, if you're there, make these things good to me. And he did. And when he got up off his knees, he said, I knew something had happened. And he began to find, as the Thessalonians found, that he'd been turned round. And on the Sunday, he thought the appropriate thing was to go along to the church. So he went along to the United Reformed Church. And he walked in. Whoever was on the door said hello to him. Was he a visitor? He says, no, I'm from Blythe. And then he told them about his experience. And sadly, in almost as many words, the man said to him, oh, well, soon that thing out of you. So after being there for a few weeks, he decided no longer to carry on. So he went somewhere else and got substantially the same treatment. And he thought, well, maybe nobody's had this experience. So he started going round the doors, knocking on the doors and telling others. And one or two got saved. And they started meeting in a house. And they began to read the scriptures. And the more they read the scriptures, the more they began to see that things that were normally accepted in a church had no place in scripture at all. And it was by sheer chance that one day when he was walking home, he walked past the meeting room. And here there was a board outside which in no way reflected what was going on in the meeting because there was just one meeting a fortnight for the breaking of bread. He saw the Times. He came. And somebody in the street thought he was up to no good and called the police. And the police came. He said to them, he explained what had happened. And the policeman says, well, I don't know. Ask some of the people here. And somebody in the street said, well, I think someone comes once a fortnight. And to cut a long story short, looking through the frosted glass a week later at the breaking of bread, I saw the outline of a man. And in the Northeast, we have the unenviable reputation of being the worst place in the country for cars. If you see somebody buy a car, you can guarantee your car is about to be broken into or to be vandalized for it happens once every 36 seconds. At any rate, I walked out and said, can I help you? And he says, can I come in? And we're just at the end of the meeting. And he came in. And he told us his story. And we were able to put our hands on him and say, we've had the same experience. Come in. You're welcome to come. And about five or six have come from a meeting that was about dying. They know very little, but they're keen and they're learning and they want to do things that are right. And I would say that's what it means when it says God's assembly at Corinth. I'm not again saying that all of the believers in place are part of the body of Christ and part of the church of God. But I can never escape the idea that when it says God's assembly, it's people who really are trying to put into practice every part of the word of God, making mistakes, falling down, yes, but an honest attempt to respond to everything that the scripture says. And so Paul says that, God's assembly at Corinth. And he talks about the fact that there was no shortage of gift there at all. And so we read in verse seven, so that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he uses these words, which are the bedrock really of any work of God. He says, God is faithful by whom you are called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Certainly from the Philippian epistle, it's clear that there must be the evidence of that, but that's the bedrock of everybody's conviction that at the end of the day, it is the work of God that will triumph. So Paul says everything he can about the assembly of Corinth, which is encouraging and which reflects that which was to be commended before God. But in verse 10, he says, now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there'd be no divisions among you, but that you'd be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. It's pretty clear from what he says in verse 12, that it was men who were assuming unduly large proportions in their eyes. It may well be that one of the great dangers in meetings, if you read the history, is the danger of elevating men. I don't know about you, but reading some of the things that happened years ago, some while ago I was asked to go and visit an elderly brother and sister. And I'd seen them at funerals. It's a sad thing really that funerals very often are the gathering center for believers today down here. Won't always be like that. There'll be another gathering voice shortly. But I'd seen these couple and so I knew nothing about their background. And when I went in, I just sort of chatted to them and asked them questions. And I gathered they were going nowhere at all. And then to my surprise, I found that way back in the 30s, he used to go to a meeting, which was a very vibrant meeting in those days, in St. Lawrence. And I said, well, what happened that you didn't continue there? He said, oh, did you not know? He said, Raven's Error. And I said, what is Raven's Error? And he said, you don't know what Raven's Error is? I said, no, what is Raven's Error? Well, he couldn't tell me what Raven's Error was. However, what I did do, because I'm not a great reader of Raven, I did take down a book of his and read it. And I could understand what he was saying, but then I thought to myself, what would be the impression on a young believer? Someone said to him, if someone says to you, do you have eternal life, what would you say? And he said, well, if you have eternal life, show it to me. All right, I can understand the value of that, because if you have life from God, it must be there. But if somebody said, as somebody did on that occasion, I have eternal life because the Bible says, believe, rather, John 3.16, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And his response was, that's just a verse of scripture. That's absolutely appalling, you know. Whatever any person says about the word of God ought to encourage every believer to implicitly, implicitly trust every word of it. And at the end of the day, it's simple belief that gives us eternal life. Oh, that's right, when you've got it, it ought to be obvious to show it. But if you look down, you'll find that men have assumed an unduly large proportion in people's minds. Someone who is a capable teacher. We ought to thank God for every person who has the gift of a teacher, because it's a gift from Christ to his assembly for your benefit and mine. Don't envy them. Thank God for them and pray that they might be kept and that their ministry of Christ might enrich and establish. But never give them a place beyond the fact that they are gifted servants of the Lord Jesus. And the most powerful word that Paul gives here, he says, was Paul crucified for you? No, of course Paul wasn't crucified for them. There's only one who could ever lay down his life as an offering for sin. There was only one who was ever prepared to leave the glory and at utmost cost to himself, shed his precious blood. And it's against that kind of background that people who are saying, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Paul, from what Paul says later, they were not the actual people because he says, I've transferred our names just to give the thing force. But anything that eclipses the personal greatness and glory of Christ is to be abhorred and anything which emphasizes his greatness and glory and anything which underlines his greatness and glory to the degree that he alone is before the vision of our souls is to be strongly encouraged. It's a very powerful word, isn't it? Was Paul crucified for you? No, of course Paul wasn't crucified for them. There's only one who is worthy of the supreme and central place and it's the Lord Jesus. Some while ago, I don't know whether any of you have followed the history of it. It's a very humbling thing really because maybe the same temptation is with us all. But about, well, five years ago I have a fellow believer with whom I worked for many years and I was very thankful for that. The scripture is right, you know, two are better than one and on many occasions I was very thankful that he was there at work and together we could walk out of some meetings at times. He's of the Reformed faith and about, say, five years ago a minister of the We Free community, if you go north and west in Scotland you come across some believers strongly Sabbatarian and very strong on the Hebrides and they're delightful people to meet, very keen believers and from my personal contact very upright in the way in which they live their lives. And about five years ago one of these We Free ministers came down to Newcastle and he had a weekend with one of the Evangelical churches there and I listened to some of the tapes afterwards and apart from one or two things they were very good. One of the things that he laid emphasis on is this. The title, by the way, was The Marks of the True New Testament Church and one of the marks of the True New Testament Church is It has the desire and the power to discipline itself. It's a very weighty statement but absolutely right. The New Testament assembly has the desire and the power to discipline itself. The interesting or rather sad thing really is that man is straight up and down. I mean, I've never met him at all but having listened to his tapes you thank God for him because he's a very clear voice in what he has to say and very close to the scriptures. Well, recently he was accused of indecent assault. I don't know whether anyone saw it. When it reached the High Court if that is right, in Scotland the judge ultimately threw the case out and said he commended the police to pursue a case for conspiracy and I just think the thing died. But recently the man is now being accused of heresy. It all comes back to the fact that what he does is he puts his feet four square on the scriptures and he doesn't move at all. He doesn't bend to allow things. He says, this is what the scripture says and this is the way in which we should go and people who want to bend it always reminds me of what the Lord said about John the Baptist. Did you go out into the desert to see a man who's like a reed shaken by the wind that bends to every wind of opinion? John the Baptist wasn't like that. John the Baptist was faithful to his Lord. But every time I look at the 5th of 1st Corinthians I think about the fact that he said the New Testament assembly has the desire and the power to discipline itself. It was very sad really if you read in history about Corinth it was a licentious place almost anything went. But what happened in the assembly at Corinth was even outrageous by the low Corinthian establishment. And the apostle Paul having heard of it by some who must have been concerned enough to contact them includes this in his epistle and in verse 2 he says to them and ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from you. That's a great comfort that isn't it? In the day in which we live things are very weak. I've heard someone say about this we don't have the power to discipline that's absolute nonsense. If we have the desire to do what is right there is always the power of God to support us in doing it. This is true in your own individual life it's true in assembly life. If you do what is right in the sight of God whoever's support you may not enjoy you'll always have the unstinted support of God no matter how difficult it is. And the matter is not the lack of power it's the lack of desire to do what is right. And so Paul says to them ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. Had there been those who were mourning before God he may well have intervened in a very severe way as he did in the 11th chapter that we'll look at later. The verses I would like to focus your attention on are verses 6, 7 and 8. Paul says firstly Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? It's rather remarkable that from verse 6 of chapter 5 down to verse 19 of chapter 6 on seven occasions Paul uses the words do you not know? And on every occasion when he raises this matter of knowing things very quickly he follows it up with practice which is consistent with knowing things. Now when it says here know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump it's talking about something which is very serious. I think we ought to be very clear about this both because of the way in which the Bible speaks of it and also because of the way in which historically it was practiced. When it speaks about leaven here it's practice, immoral practice which is totally inconsistent for a believer. When you go to Galatians chapter 5 and it uses the same words a little leaven leavens the whole lump it's talking about doctrine but note on both occasions it's talking about things which are fundamentally wrong. This is a matter of fact and it's still true today but if you read details about Plymouth not about the controversy that went on it was quite obvious that there were some people who were post-tribulation that meant they thought the assembly would go through the tribulation they didn't believe in the rapture they didn't believe in the peculiar calling of the church and yet in the same assembly there were people who believed in the peculiar calling of the church believed in the pre-tribulation rapture believed also in the millennium and they seemed to be able to go on with one another without falling out it was not until there was fundamental error concerning the Lord's person that things immediately changed and action was taken. I was in a meeting some while ago and speaking about the things that Paul was receiving directly from heaven and immediately the meeting finished a man marched up to the front and he said I am an amillennialist he didn't believe in the thousand year reign I do not believe in the rapture I do not believe in the peculiar calling of the church and he said what have you got to say to that and I said well you are certainly going to get a tremendous surprise when the Lord's voice calls you up and some people got very upset and I said afterwards well I think what you ought to do is look at what the scriptures say about these things that's where the truth of things is found they are not things on which we ought to divide they are not things which justify somebody being put away from a Christian assembly there are things which are justifying that and this is the kind of thing which is spoken about here and these are most powerful words these are in verse 7 Paul says purge out the old leaven that ye may be a new lump even as ye are unleavened and these are the words that I'd like to lay emphasis on he says for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us if you read the 23rd chapter of Leviticus where the seven feasts of the Lord are given the first of the feasts is the feast of Passover and this is the New Testament answer this is the anti-type in the New Testament Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us that mighty sacrifice you know it's something that we often ought to go over again and again the fact that he laid down his life at utmost cost but look at the way that the Apostle makes use of this ministry of Christ he says therefore let us keep the feast not with the old leaven nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth how can someone carry on or identify with that which is totally obnoxious to God in the light of the fact that he says Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us when he says let us keep the feast that's not the feast of Passover of course that's the feast of unleavened bread which is the second of the feasts of the Lord the feast of Passover was one day the feast of the unleavened bread was kept the seven days afterwards and I'm sure that it's saying that every day we are to be in our life and practice what we are by the work of God that is unleavened it's remarkable that he uses in those words there in verse 7 he says that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened in Christ that's how we're found before the face of God we are absolutely unleavened and the apostle said that is also what your practice ought to be in the very same way the very same truth in a powerful way is used to address the problem at Corinth and when we come to the second epistle by the grace of God those strong words of the apostle are brought to bear on the consciences of the assembly of God at Corinth to such an extent that the man who was guilty was put away but every putting away ought to be in view of restoration so in chapter 2 of the second epistle Paul says don't treat the man to the degree that he's swallowed up by grief but now confirm him of your love but the truth that produced that kind of action was the truth that said Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the feast I read to you the words in the 11th chapter particularly because observant readers have noticed that it's here that you get the first occasion in the Corinthian epistle I think it occurs 6 or 7 times the expression when you come together now to my mind it's incontrovertible that if the first occasion when it speaks about the local assembly coming together is in relation to the breaking of bread there must be something very special about the breaking of bread and it must be found in the words of the Lord Jesus when he says of the bread this is my body which is broken or which is for you and in the words this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you and in the words this do in remembrance of me I don't know whether any of you have read the book it's a book which doesn't seem to be read very much but it's worthy of reading it was written by the late F.A. Hughes it's called The Breaking of Bread Leading to Worship when I was a very young believer in the Isle of Wight in a very small meeting an old brother who said he hadn't any gift said things to me often that stuck and I recall on one occasion coming out after a particularly sweet breaking of bread he said to me every day I pray to God that I might be more deeply a true worshipper of him and he said I commend that prayer to you there are many avenues of service down here that we can engage in scripture is quite clear brother or sister every one of us has a gift from God Ephesians 4 is very clear about that to every one of us is grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ it does specify specific gifts there but every one of us has a gift to be used for the Lord's glory and for the benefit of his people but there'll come a day when all of those gifts and those avenues of service will be laid down but there is one way of response to God which will never be laid down but which will be taken up in a fuller way than could possibly be down here this is the matter of simply responding to God from the heart I always feel sad when I hear of the breaking of bread being put back for the sake of a family service or something like that it seems to me it's abandoning a scriptural order when it says when you come together it immediately begins to speak about the breaking of bread it seems to me there is something very special about that which the Lord has asked us to do when he says this do in remembrance of me but it's what he has to say about this which is so surprising in verse 18 he says when you come together in the church in assembly I hear that there be divisions among you verse 19 there must be heresies among you verse 20 when you come together therefore into one place this is not to eat the Lord's supper for in eating every one taketh before other his own supper and one is hungry and another is drunken what a sad thing that that very special occasion was being reduced to the level of a common meal where some even became drunk how can you attend how can you rectify something like that it can only be done with this which the apostle Paul says he got directly from the Lord in heaven and so in verse 22 he says for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he break it and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me and after and after the same manner also he took the cup when he had sup saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood this do ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me and in a very moving way he applies again this matter of the cross this matter of the laying down of his life the bruising of his precious body and the shedding of his precious blood he applies it to the Corinthians and he applies it in a way and I just want to touch very lightly but very pointedly on this he applies it in the way of self judgment we had many things but rather first turning it upon yourself and then when in verse 29 he says he that eateth and drinketh unworthily and that's doing it in an unworthy manner he eats and drinks judgment to himself because he does not discern in it the Lord's body how sad if we come together that what rises before our hearts and minds is anything other than the fact that the Lord Jesus laid down his life and his body and the shed blood are the evidence of it and his own words remember me are not looking for our blessing but rather looking back and viewing the Lord in circumstances in which it will never be necessary for him to go again but with the marks of which will be in his body to all eternity and they will wake our hearts then into simple worship and then in a fuller strain than they do down here but they do it when we come together and then in verse 30 they're very solemn words these are he says for this cause many among you are weak and sickly and many sleep now it's apparent because of what he says in the second epistle that this must not have been true of the man who was guilty of that gross immorality because he was still living but it's very solemn really to think that when God looks down and he sees in his people practice behavior which is totally inconsistent with our calling and totally inconsistent with what we come together to remember sometimes God in a most severe way intervenes some were afflicted with sickness others were actually taken away from this world fit for heaven by the work of Christ but unfit for earth as a result of their practice and in verse 31 he says that if we would thus judge ourselves and the word there is exactly the same word which is used for discerning the Lord's body in verse 29 he says we should not be judged I've just tried to give a kind of view in a very simple way about the ministry of Christ particularly connected with the cross which in the goodness of God rectified a position which seemed to be extremely serious and it's not an historical thing it's not difficult really to see the same kind of thing in chapter 1 happening today people polarizing for somebody's particular view rather than going back to scripture I don't know whether anyone else has done this but I certainly reproach myself over this that often times instead of encouraging people to go and hammer out on the anvil of scripture their own convictions there's a tendency sometimes to say go and read this now I'm not discounting the benefit from books I've richly benefited from them myself but at the end of the day it's not the teacher and his ability which is the anvil upon which we hammer out our convictions it's God's word you might think that immorality of the nature of Corinth wouldn't be practiced in Christian assemblies I know a Christian assembly I can hardly think about it without weeping where over a period of years a married brother in the assembly formed a liaison with an unmarried sister it could hardly have been less than adultery and nobody would do anything about it and then ultimately God took away the man who was involved and over the years I've watched people pour energies into that meeting and it's gone down and down and down you might think that eating and drinking unworthily like making the breaking of bread a common meal or people becoming drunk is not the kind of thing that we'd see today a few years ago I came out of a particularly sweet meeting not on time side at all and I was just walking by the side of another brother and we overtook another couple of brothers who'd been at the meeting and I heard one say to the other I caught ten boxes of fish in the meeting this morning and I thought to myself that can't be very far from the thing that Paul speaks about when he talks about making that hallowed occasion an occasion when someone did not discern the body of the Lord Jesus they're not historical things brethren the same kind of Satan is around today as he was before the same kind of dangers that afflicted God's assembly the possibilities are there as they were before but thanks be to God wherever Christ is given prominence and wherever there is a ministry of Christ there is always the possibility of rescuing things and it's a tremendous encouragement when you think of the solemn words that we've read together this evening to think that there came a moment where Paul said to that selfsame assembly ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of God written by us written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God not on tables of stone but on the fleshy tables of the heart can we sing in concluding the hymn which has the verse we cannot do without it's 273 O Lord how does thy mercy throw its guardian shadow o'er us preserving while we're here below safe to the rest before us as weaker than a bruised wreath we cannot do without thee we want thee in each hour of need shall want thee too in glory and though our efforts now to praise are often cold and lowly a nobler sweeter song we'll raise with all thy saints in glory we'll lay our trophies at thy feet we'll worship and adore thee whose precious blood has made us meet to dwell with thee in glory …

… The Second Chapter of Colossians, Colossians Chapter 2 Colossians Chapter 2 and verse 5 Colossians 2, verse 5 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power. A little further down Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath day, or of any other day. Which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward with a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which ye hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the head. From whom all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and knit together, increases with the increase of God. And then just a few verses from John's first epistle, chapter 4. 1 John 4 verse 1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth us not. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. I want to speak very simply about the all-sufficiency of Christ. It was in my mind earlier in the week, you remember our brother Alan Smart, spoke on the magnanimous nature of God, way beyond anything that we could possibly dream of. And yet such is the heart of God, that his purpose is not just to bring us into the very periphery of blessing, but to bring us into the center. And more than that, to bring us where his own beloved son is, so that we're near to him. And you may remember that he referred to those wonderful words in Luke 15. Bring forth the best robe. Some might remember our brother Frank Broadley once suggested a reading on Tyneside, and it was just on one phrase. Bring forward the best. Bring forward the best. That's what Christianity has in mind. Bring forward the best. And we had a splendid reading. You remember Alan referred to verses which almost certainly were touched on that Saturday afternoon. Remember Alan touched on the verse in Ephesians 1. Taken into favor in the beloved. Not taken into favor in the Christ, but taken into favor in the beloved. That sense of relationship and love that belongs to it is very prominent in those verses. And then later our brother Arthur Goodwin read us some verses from John 4. And I think he said at the time he was pursuing the same thing, but from a different aspect. Whoever would have thought that the thing that God seeks are worshippers. That's the prime thing that God looks for. He looks for worship. And I think Arthur very plainly said there what worship is. Worship is in spirit and in truth. And you may remember that he said he felt that in spirit was not... Years ago when, I mean I was just a young believer, but things really stick. And I remember reading with our brother George Davison where this issue was raised. And somebody spoke about the appropriateness of having a piano. And George said to him, brother if I thought that the use of a piano would improve the worship of God, I wouldn't stop at a piano, I'd have an orchestra. And I came past, go past quite often on my way to the meeting, a Baptist church which years ago had a name for being steadfast. And now when you go by you can hear the throb of the drum and the sounds of the trumpet, how far we're drifting away. But as Nick said before, the issue is not with others, the issue is with ourselves. And all I want to do simply and briefly is to speak about the dangers that face the Christian company at Colossae. And the fact that the answer to each of them is found in Christ alone. That's why I read to you verse 6. As therefore ye have received Christ the Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him rooted and grounded in the faith and established. I don't think that God repeats anything. God works in an all varied way. When I was a boy we were a very poor family, and most of our pleasures were found in the countryside, we lived in the countryside. So we became very conversant with flowers and leaves. But you pick up one leaf and you'll not find another leaf the same, it's the all varied wisdom of God. And the fact that all the flowers differed, flag irises where fields were not drained well, buttercups where the cows grazed, and now apparently they've come to the conclusion that buttercups are a tremendous help in maintaining the health of cows. The infinite wisdom of God. And I thought then, that must be God. Everything, there's none of the same, not a constant reproduction. The reason I refer to this is, I never cease to be amazed at the way in which people are brought to God. I was brought to God by the faithful testimony of a Welsh Presbyterian lad who was in the forces at the same time as I was. He was the corporal over our hut. And so he had to take down all the details. And your name and your address, age, religion. So I said C of E. He said, what do you believe? I said, oh, what's C and E believe? He says, no, I'm asking you, what do you believe? And so my back was against the wall. And then he told me about salvation. And in all my years before, I had never heard it. He said things which I didn't like to hear. Nobody likes to hear the fact that before God, you're absolutely lost. And it took some months for it to work through. But on the 13th of February, 1953, I remember going into a hut which was made available for religious purposes. Because I'd reached the position that Christ alone could save me. Christ alone was sufficient for salvation. Now, Paul says, that's the key to going on. The Christ who alone is able to save is the Christ who alone is able to take us through. He's the solution to every problem. And so in the verses that we've read, we'll look very quickly at them. The first warning that was given to the Colossians was philosophy and vain deceit. It's interesting, isn't it, that vain is really a word which means empty. And it's side by side with a word which speaks about fullness. The word philosophy, from its basic construction, means the love of wisdom. But it's drifted from that philosophy generally as men's ideas. And men's ideas are not God's ideas. I don't know how many of you have the Baxter Interlinear. The Baxter rights were bought over by Baker Book House about three or four years ago. And the same book is reproduced, but they've missed out the beginning, which is really important. It's absolutely vital. There were men of God in the last century, and there were all sorts of sections. There were Austrian, Russian, German, English. Men who spent their whole time, and we're talking about men, 40 and 50 years, poured over the manuscripts to make sure that what we had in our hands and what we have in our hands today is as close as possible to the inspired scriptures that were given. And so in our land you have a man like Dean Olford. Tremendous. They all approached it from different standpoints. But somebody said this, and I've no reason to think that it's wrong, that if you get four of the seven editors who agree, you're on pretty good ground. And these men were giants, things you'd never sort of think about, but they set out the principles of discerning. When scribes were copying out the scriptures, they didn't have lights like this. They had oil lights, and probably they'd been pouring over it for ages. And then they see a line and they copy it. And then the next line has four or five letters which are exactly the same, and so they miss the line out. No indication in the manuscript that the lines are missed out, but then maybe 90 years later another scribe picks it up, and as he goes through, he realizes something has been missed out. So he leaves a gap. All these kind of things. But at the same time as these men were spending their lives in ensuring that what we have in our hands is the trustworthy word of God, another movement was coming up. The so-called higher critics. And they were destructive. They got impetus from the idea of evolution. And so before you knew where you were, Genesis was written off. And the damage that they did in Germany, in the European countries, in our own land as well, carried on for many a year. The idea of loving wisdom, according to scripture, we all should embrace, but when it gets into the hands of ungodly, unconverted men, there's no knowing where the damage will finish. Now look at the way that Paul combats it. He says, beware of philosophy and vain deceit. Because he says... Let me read you the words as they actually occur. You shouldn't get them wrong. He says in verse 8, philosophy and vain deceit is marked by three things. It's according to the teachings, the tradition of men. It's according to the principles of the world. And it is not according to Christ. I just want to spend just a few minutes on the phrase, not according to Christ. And that was really why I read you the words in 1 John 4. There are three things there which are given, and they're unfailing. There are three things which are given to discern between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. In the order in which they come, the first one is, is it according to Christ? The second, is it according to the world? And the third, is it according to apostolic teaching? That's what it means when it says, he that is of God, heareth us. I just want to refer to the first one particularly because it's the key one. Now if you have a new translation, you'll find that verse 2 has a slight but very significant difference. Hereby know ye the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God. Now, putting in words for the sake of understanding what scripture says is very important. Very often words are added where there is no original word in the manuscript. And it's justifiably so, but sometimes it's put in when it really damages the sense. If you have a parallel as I have, you'll find that it reads, I'm going from memory, it reads, every spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ come in the flesh is of God. As it reads in our authorised, it's a plain statement about the incarnation. Now I don't wish to be misunderstood in any way. The wonder of the incarnation that the eternal God passed by the level of angels and he became a man coming down into a condition where he was able to lay down his life. And constantly this week from the very beginning there have been reminders about the tremendous step that was made when the Lord came down into this world as a man and the whole purpose of God rests upon the fact that he did lay down his life and he rose again. But if you read it as it is in Darby and Kelly and the interlinear, if you have it, every spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ come in the flesh is of God. The emphasis there is not on the incarnation but who was it that came in flesh? And of course John would say, or rather Paul would say, it's the son of the father's love. John would say it's the only begotten son who dwells in the bosom of the father. This is taken up actually in the second epistle the same expression, Jesus Christ come in the flesh, the person who came was the only begotten son of God and in the deep waters through which we've gone in the past few years, often in reading through scriptures it reminds you how vital the truth it is. I mean the other day I was looking for something in Hebrews and my eye alighted on the words in chapter 5 and verse 7 where it says, Though he were son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, and having... How's the word run on? He became the author of eternal salvation. Though he were son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And it brought back to my mind that Mr. Hall once said, I could build an impregnable case for the vital nature of the eternal sonship of the Lord Jesus on this word because there's a contrast. Though he were son, yet learned he obedience. Coming back then to the second chapter of Colossians, the first danger was that of philosophy and vain deceit. The way of meeting it is in verse 9, For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and ye are complete in him. Several references have been made this week to the Gnostics, the knowing people, and they built a kind of a system where there's a tremendous distance between God and man and somewhere in that, fairly close to God, they would say this is where the Lord Jesus came. And so in chapter 1, as we noticed, In him all the fullness was pleased to dwell. When you come to chapter 2, In whom all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. When he was down in here, in this world, it was unique, it was the first time that there was a vessel in this world where God could come down. And he came down. It's very interesting what it says in John chapter 1. John, referring to John the Baptist says, I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptise said, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on him. He it is that baptises with the Holy Ghost. He was the only one upon whom the Spirit of God could descend with perfect complacency. So he says, In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And then he uses the words, And we are complete in him. The moment you turn to the Lord Jesus and you trust him as a saviour, an awful lot of things are true. And one of the things which is quite wonderful is at that moment you're prepared for heaven. By the work of God you're prepared for heaven and you cannot be further prepared. It might take you a lifetime. It does take a lifetime before you begin to grow. I'm going to speak for myself. Very often when I read scriptures I think to myself, how little progress I've made. But the fact of the matter is, as Nick said, when you're committed you do go on. And little by little you do grow. You grow in grace. All of us should be on that plane. But the fact of the matter is, In Christ, in this world, in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him. It completely demolishes the ideas of the philosophers and the fact that they pretended to a greater knowledge than that revealed in the scripture. When you come down to the verses that I read in verses 16 and 17, clearly it's talking about Judaism. The new moons and the various offerings. It wasn't the reality, it was a shadow. Now, one of the most interesting things out of every work of God, revival, it leads to a number of things. And as somebody has pointed out, recently it was pointed out in a magazine, I'm not really very conversant with the Mission Praise or those kind of hymn books. I think I have one of them, just for reference. But apparently Mission Praise has been overtaken by a book called Praise, I think. I read this in a magazine, so I may not have all the details right. And the writer was pointing out that something like 200 hymns had disappeared from this particular book. And it had been replaced by hymns not of the same caliber. I was quite surprised, but apparently in Mission Praise there is the hymn that was given out, Lord Jesus, are we one with thee? O height and depth of love. Plainly reflects the clear teaching of scripture. It's been replaced by a hymn which seems to suggest that when the Lord was on the cross he didn't know what he was doing. The idea, when it's raised about days and holy days and offerings, it's clearly talking about Israel. And it was no more than a shadow. The Wesleyan revival brought with it a tremendous wealth of hymns. We still sing some of them. We have them in our book. One of them was dropped, one of the best. We were told that every hymn that was in regular use would be kept, but it disappeared. I'm trying to remember the year. Oh yes, it refers to Christ himself as being all sufficient. Never mind. It was at the best a shadow. One of the results of the recovery of truth to which Nick referred earlier was that there became a particularly revived interest in the book of Leviticus. Now, we're all familiar with it, aren't we? We can all define what the offerings mean. We know what the meal offering is. We know what the sin offering is. We know what the trespass offering is. Whether it's the kind of appreciation which touches our hearts and influences our lives is another matter. But we have to say that a large part of the Christian world, and my first 19 years were brought up in this, was in something which ate what went on before. It was a high church that I was brought up in, so beautiful architecture, wonderful music, choirs and robed officials was all part of it. But at the best, that kind of thing doesn't even attain to the shadow. I think it was Boyd, wasn't it, who wrote the words in one of his poems. Men to church must be enticed. So have garments, costly priced. Windows, artfully devised. Teach men everything but Christ. Now that's met by the words in verse 17, which are a shadow of things to come. But the body is of Christ. The reality is of Christ. Just referring again to one of the offerings, the burnt offering, when you read through it, and I remember the first time I read it with the help of Brother McIntosh's book by my side, I learned something straight away, that there was another reason for the Lord coming and laying down his life as sacrifice for sins. There was something else that needed to be done as well as bearing my sins. And for the first time I saw a reference about the glory of God was in the matter of the burnt offering. Now you could go on for hours with this, couldn't you, referring to them, but the fact of the matter is, the substance is Christ. The holy days, the offerings, the whole range of things that were provided, the actual priestly system. At the best it was an outline, the reality is in connection with Christ personally. And again, when you look at your slow appreciation in these things, how gracious God is in dealing with us. When you come down later in the chapter to verse 18, let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind, and not holding the head from whom all the body by joints and bands having nourishment to minister and knit together increases with the increase of God. I don't know quite where I got these from, but for the first one, verse 8, I have written down rationalism. For verse 16, I've written down ritualism. And for verse 18, I've written down mysticism. They're not my words, I must have forgotten. Sorry? Thank you very much. I knew they came from somebody who's more able than I was. But this idea of mysticism, turns against the whole idea of a full revelation. When we were talking, and there was some sort of cross-currents yesterday, about the wonder of the revelation, when you stop and think, and you take account of the verses that speak of it, only the Son, who was God, could make God known. When you just sit and ponder for a little while the words from John chapter 1, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him, then some of the sweetness of eternal relations and the joy and love which is proper to them, begins to get into your soul. Mysticism, it tries to blur everything. You know, nothing can really be known at all. That's totally contrary to the whole drift of Christianity, which is the fact that God has been revealed. We cannot say we don't know who God is or what he's like. A full revelation has been given. That's what happened when the Lord came into this world. And the way that it is combated here is, and it's in a negative way to begin with, but it helps us on to a positive plane, from whom all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered and knit together, increases with the increase of God. I think somebody pointed out earlier in the week that when we were looking at one of the key glories of the Lord Jesus, he is the head of the body. And I think somebody else said the body is not a broken down thing which is ineffective wherever it is spoken of. It's spoken of as a functioning body, and several people have said, and it ought to be underlined primarily, that in the world where the Lord Jesus was cast out by way of the cross, there is a constant presentation for the pleasure of God, of the grace of Christ, through the body. But let's be sure of this. That will always go on. I was reading a book recently of Charles Esme Stewart, the first book that I've read of his, and I was quite surprised when he said that the body carries on into eternity. Now, I don't know what the number is, but I'm sure that William Carey writes a hymn in the book which says, Now thy body, then thy bride. I don't think there's anything more I want to say. I just come back to the verse that I read to you at the beginning, verse 6 of chapter 2. As ye have therefore received the Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him. When you came to Christ, however you were drawn to him, and it will perhaps be one of the wonders of eternity to learn how exactly you were brought to the Lord, I have never ever heard of any other man who was brought to the Lord by a cow licking his hand. I didn't actually meet the brother, but I met somebody who knew him very well. He had gone to be with the Lord by the time I was on the West Coast. It was all traced back to a faithful sister in the Sunday school who spent the half hour she had with her children in teaching them one verse of Scripture. And the verse she had one day, I'm sure I wouldn't have taken the verse, and I guess others might think the same. It was an unusual verse. It's a verse from Isaiah chapter 1, and it says, The Ots knoweth her master, and the As her master's crib, but Israel knoweth not. He was only at Sunday school, I think for about a year and a half, and then they moved over to the West Coast. His people became farmers, and I think he didn't go to Sunday school after that. But he became a farmer, and I think he must have been a kindly farmer. Years ago, there was compassion in farming. I earned my pocket money as a boy on a farm, and when I went to get the cows, the farmer said, The pace of the herd is the pace of the last cow, because the last cow had a problem with its legs. So you just put your hand on this cow, and it went along slowly, and that was the pace of the herd. When this man was in his late fifties, by the way, I ought to have said, he learned the verse of scripture when he was about six or seven. But when he was in his late fifties, he brought the cows in for milking, and in those days, they used to have a kind of a system where there was a chain, and it had a ball, and a piece of iron. It used to go through, and of course, when it got through the circle, it wouldn't come out. He bent down to get the circle, and when he lifted it up, like a flash, there came into his mind, The ox knoweth his master, The ass her master's crib, But Israel knoweth not. And he said to himself, Here am I, fifty years further on, and I'm a stranger to God. But he got saved that night. Wonderful things that God has done. The key from this is, Christ is all-sufficient, and at the time when you came to the Lord, however you were brought to Him, surely one of the things that you said is, Christ alone can meet my need. Paul says, that is the way to carry on, and he uses the words, rooted and founded. The first, of course, is the fact that you are what you eat. I don't know if any of you have ever been to the Isle of Wight. It was my parental home for many years. But on the back of the downs, on the south side, there's quite a remarkable display of, I'm not very good on bushes, hydrangea? They're multicoloured. There are about eight or nine different colours. It goes from red, to pink, to light purple. And the only difference is, that the people, they sell them of course, that the people put different things in the soil. It's what is drawn from the soil that makes the plant, or the bush, or whatever else, it is. And that's exactly right. What you take in conditions what you are. And I think there were many exhortations this week to make sure that what we draw is from the living head. Wonderful words. Holding the head, from whom all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, knit together, having nourishment ministered, increases with the increase of God. May God use our readings and the ministry this week to that end. And to pick up the thread of next, that we are encouraged to go on in this assurance that day by day we live our lives in expecting to hear the Lord's voice and to be called up to glory. Amen. We sing the hymn 478. 478. Savior, Lord of the world, despise thee, all God's angels, you are a marvellous glory, great in man's nature, great in God's glory, blessed evermore. 478. Savior, Lord of the world, despise thee, all God's angels, you are a marvellous glory, great in man's nature, great in God's glory, Lord of glory, Lord of glory, blessed evermore. Amen. Then the Saviour, then the Saviour, Was the great atonement day. O for grace to share thy sorrow, When our Lord was crucified. While we wait the hourless morrow, When the rain has glorified. Thy confessors, thy confessors, Learn thy mourning and thy crying. …

… I would like to read some passages from the Epistle to the Thessalonians. One passage first, in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 17, Acts chapter 17 and verse 1. First Epistle to the Thessalonians, chapter 1 and verse 5. First Epistle to the Thessalonians, chapter 4 and verse 13. First Epistle to the Thessalonians, chapter 1 and verse 3. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, all that is worshipped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that when I was with you I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will be taken out of the way, and then that wicked be revealed. Before we look at those verses, can we sing another hymn, hymn 140? About two years ago on the quayside at Newcastle a monument disappeared and quite a lot of us wrote to the local authority because the monument was at a point on the quayside called Sandgate and on it were written these words, it said, On May the 23rd, 1755, John Wesley stood at five o'clock in the morning and preached to 5,000 miners from the words, He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. I don't know whether any of you have ever read Wesley's journals, they're interesting and they're intensely challenging, I commend them to you, they're challenging because a man who put in a hundred odd thousand miles on horseback to make sure that God's word was made known in his parish is worth listening to at least, but it's not only that, it's what happened when he came into places and he came and he preached a very plain gospel, no great invitations, no great music or anything like that, but simple plain statements of the scripture, Christ died for our sins, Christ rose again, Christ is a saviour to all those who call upon him, that was a very plain message and it actually accounts how he first came into Newcastle, the only reason I know this is about three or four years ago, I was ignorant of it and a great shame that I was ignorant of it, but it was some kind of anniversary, 275th or 290th or something like this, and the local council saw in it a great opportunity for tourism, so they advertised it wisely and widely and they provided some very good guides and Audrey, my wife and I went on a tour and our guide was a believer and he was absolutely marvellous really and they put these little plaques up saying John Wesley did this and if you go into one of the main streets, Northumberland Street by Marks and Sparks, they've put a plaque up and it says, I can't remember the date for that one, it says John Wesley erected his first orphanage here and we were taken round some of the parts of the city we didn't even know existed and at one point we found ourselves in the shadow of the cathedral and there was something approaching a bridal way in width and this man being a believer is really excellent at this point, he said John Wesley came and he started to preach a simple gospel and he cleaned up the city, they were dirty physically and he said down the centre here there would be an open sewer and he said there would be houses here that would go up to three or four storeys and you'd have a family in the room and he said John Wesley came into this, but it wasn't just physical dirt, morally the thing was like our world today, the nation had lost its moral helm and immorality was rife and Wesley began to preach the gospel and it made an impact and it began to clean up the place and it's quite interesting, you can check this out in history, there has never ever been a true moral revival without the word of God, it brings in its wake a moral revival for the nation, many people who don't get blessed eternally are affected by the preaching of the gospel and in his journals Wesley describes his first coming into Newcastle and he came down over a deep fell and those in the Newcastle area will know it's called Sheriff Hill where the mayor of the city used to go out to meet the incoming sheriff for the assizes that were held and it was late November and it had been snowing, he came over the hill and the light was beginning to go and he looked down over this place and the snow was on everything and there were a few lights in houses and he thought to himself what a beautiful place and how quiet and orderly it looks but in fact when he got in there he found it was absolutely awful, it wasn't just the immorality, it was people who hadn't enough to live on and all he did was day by day and from early morning till night he went round and he preached the gospel and people began to be saved, a lot of people got saved and this man graphically described something that's recorded and he said the Anglicans got very upset about this because they saw their congregation in many cases draining away so they started to try to put a spanner in his spokes and on one occasion when he was preaching somebody stopped him right in full flow and said to him how do you know that the gospel that you preach is the true gospel and you could not fault his answer he said the gospel that I preach enables people to face death without a qualm and people who can face death without a qualm people who die well are people who know where they're going and they know they're not going to face God over one sin at all you can't argue with that can you, it's the king of terrors and it puts people in fear, people who trust Christ can calmly face death I was reading a very interesting book recently called, it's a novel but the framework of it is historically true it's about the reformation in Spain and the Roman Catholics, the Inquisition, the Holy Order as they call it was ruthless in the way that they put it down but there are some marvellous accounts of how believers died well that's what happened in Thessalonica, Paul came into Thessalonica, he was only there for three Sabbath days he may have been there longer but he wasn't there for Sabbath days and he went in and he got back to the bedrock he spoke of the scriptures and he says Christ died, Christ rose again, the person that we preach in the gospel is the true Messiah and plain statements, plain facts of scripture made their impact upon the consciences and we read the words about the fact that many turned to the Lord, great multitude of the Hellenists and not a few of the chief women that's exactly the kind of thing that would happen with Wesley, that's the best way, when you preach the gospel it's very nice to be able to speak of your personal experience and I wouldn't diminish the value of that but the preaching of the gospel is telling people who God is, what God is like and it's made known in the incoming, the life and the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the framework of the gospel but it wasn't just the preaching of the gospel, it's the way that Paul speaks about the impact that it had on them there's a proverb and it says the lips of the righteous feed many and over the years I've proved that, people have been speaking and they've made a comment and it's been food for my soul and it's opened the door to other things and some years ago a brother well known by many of you here was speaking in our local meeting we have a Saturday evening address from October to April inclusive and we invite someone from outside to come and speak to us and this brother was speaking upon the use of the word which is variously translated in our authorised transform, change and at this particular moment he was speaking on the mount of transfiguration in the gospel of Luke and it's remarkable there because it tells us that there were two others with the Lord, Moses and Elias and our authorised says and they spake of his decease and he just made an observation on the word decease he said the word decease it sort of seems final but he said actually it is the word exodus or exodus as it is in the language of the new testament and exodus is going out and if you say somebody's gone out you say where's he gone and you say why has he gone and you say is he going to come back again and as he finished that he just made a reference he said this is the word which equates to the title of the second book of the old testament exodus he says it's quite interesting to have a look at the word which is the opposite to that eisodos which is the entering in it only occurs about four times in the new testament and one of them we read in the Thessalonian epistle chapter one what manner of entering in we had unto you when God's word enters in it radically changes things and this is what he says to them he says how you turn to God from idols they didn't turn from idols without turning to God when they turned to God it transformed them and it wasn't only that in turning to God it says to serve the living and the true God and every believer has God given ability and if all of us used our God given ability as it is intended what a transformation there would be in the Christian scene but he doesn't only say that he says to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus who delivered us from coming wrath what a remarkable transformation the entering in of the word of God had and a little higher up he says we don't need to speak about you because the impact of your Christian testimony is spread abroad and they didn't have the avenues of communication that we have today and when you look at that you say Satan would be pretty concerned to stop a testimony like that wouldn't he where people had been so transformed we don't use the words do we today very much turn to God but it always brings back something it's an individual case and certainly the brother who spoke that night was helped to God in the centre of Newcastle there still is a big area which has cobblestones called the big market B I double G and until about 1978 when the police gradually forced us out we used to preach in the big market and it was quite a miscellany right on one end and we had a Pentecostal group and then there was a fine open meeting brother who was an excellent preacher of the gospel he used to preach on his own but we used to stand with him he preached a clear gospel he's in heaven now and then we had another mission and then we had the Catholic Evidence Guild and then there were ourselves and then there was another evangelical church and then there were the communists and right at the back there were some strange folk with long flowing beards called British Israel who believe that England composes the ten lost tribes but one evening there was a brother who always stood with us and he never preached very much at all but this evening he was the first to get up I've never heard anybody preach in the open air and for that matter I've never heard anybody preach indoors on this verse but this is the verse that he preached on to him that works the reward is not reckoned of grace but of debt but to him that works not but believes on him that justifies the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness well when the Catholics used to come they were a bit sort of more organised than the rest of us and they had a kind of a stand and it had a big pole on it that said Catholic Evidence Guild and I'm not a Geordie I've lived there for 40 years so I wouldn't attempt to repeat it as this man did but he used to walk in front of it his name was Turnbull he was an ageing man well into his 60s and he used to say when they got to the top of the big market and they were carting things down he would say hear the church hear the church but he listened to those words that night and the next three Lord's Days he didn't turn up and on the fourth Lord's Day when he turned up he said I have turned to God marvellous words those I have turned to God and in what years remained of his life there was evidence that what that brother had preached on that night brought that man to God Satan would be very concerned to stop a testimony like that wouldn't he and what I want to do very simply and very briefly is to carry on a theme that we've looked at this week and this is this matter of the all sufficiency of Christ we for those who have not been here we looked we're looking at the New Testament epistles where there were difficulties and looking at the way that Paul meets them and in every occasion he meets them by a presentation of Christ we looked on Monday night at the Corinthian epistle the first epistle with all its problems and in no way could you have said about Corinth what he says here about the Thessalonians he couldn't have said your testimony is spread abroad so that we have no need to speak about you there were many things about the Corinthian testimony that was anything but a testimony of Christ but when it comes to chapter 3 of the second epistle he says of them that company who had been marked by so many sad features he says of them ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ written by us not with ink but with the spirit of the living God not on tables of stone but on the fleshy tables of the house how did that transformation take place it took place by a simple ministry of Christ and particularly the application of the cross of Christ and we looked at that as the way of meeting a problem and something that we might have thought was beyond recovery by the goodness of God that ministry of Christ brought an assembly to what all local assemblies should be an epistle of Christ last evening we looked at the Colossian epistle and noted the fact that the Colossian assembly happily carrying on as it was was in danger of being influenced by philosophy vain deceit Judaism with all its rules and all its commandments and all the feasts and all the rest of the things and particularly this matter that comes on later of superstition sort of covering up things as if there are things which are too holy for some and only available to others how does Paul meet it does he start off with words of oratory he certainly was a man who was powerfully able to argument doesn't do anything like that at all what he speaks about is the greatness of Christ and so in chapter 2 you have him saying these words about the Lord Jesus Christ in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and then he makes that amazing statement he says ye are complete in him it's not the speaking about the cross essentially in Colossians 2 what he's doing is speaking about our association with a risen Christ and that's the way of meeting what could have been a serious problem in that assembly coming to the words then that we've read Satan would be very concerned to begin to hinder that kind of testimony if anything Satan is set dead against is a true assembly testimony to the greatness of the Lord Jesus and he does it in a very insidious way if you go to Acts chapter 20 where Paul calls the Ephesian elders there must have been at least two elders not one elder elders and overseers or the word bishop as it's used were in a local assembly and there were at least two because elders were called over from Ephesus to Miletus and Paul talks about himself first talks about his own character I mean this is a challenge to me and it's a challenge to any of you who attempt to serve the Lord in a public way it's absolutely imperative that anyone who attempts to serve the Lord is in some degree marked by the things which he speaks about it's not a matter of looking at things in a book and then coming and retailing them out when Paul speaks to them about the content of his ministry at least two times in that chapter he says I have shown you what he's saying is I practically am in the good of the things that I tell you I'm not somebody who urges you to do things but I'm not marked by them myself he says I have shown you how that labouring he ought to support those that are weak but he speaks particularly about the content of his ministry says four things about it and the first thing he says about it is he preached the gospel of the grace of God a gospel which had right at its heart the unfettered grace of God somebody was saying recently who'd been brought to God from a church that was absolutely dead and where they were urged all was to do she said the thing which I find most astounding of all is that the greatest blessing rests upon me and I haven't to do one thing for it the gospel of the grace of God but he speaks then the second thing about the preaching and teaching of the kingdom of God and although in the words that we read in Acts 17 don't specifically refer to the kingdom of God what the people who were opposing and that was a sad thing wasn't it moment the gospel begins to take a hold Satan the words in our authorised are not nearly as graphic as the actual words that I use when it says certain lewd fellows of the base of sort when you say they were of the lowest rabble that sort of represents the people and Satan began to stir them up but what they said about the teaching and preaching of Paul and those that were with them was he teaches another king even Jesus which seems to say very plainly to me that what Paul taught there in addition to the things which are specified is the truth about the kingdom of God now there are a lot of aspects of the kingdom of God and I was saying recently that where we are if somebody suggests a reading on the kingdom of God immediately you can almost see question marks coming on people's faces are we in the kingdom of God does Matthew 5 apply to us and at a reading recently where this sort of vacillating was evident from the beginning there was a brother said right at the beginning he quoted a verse we were looking at last night he says don't let's have any doubt at all because there's one verse in the New Testament if there are no others and it says very plainly that we are in the kingdom this is Colossians 1 verse 13 where it says who has translated us from the power of darkness into the kingdom of the son of the father's love beautiful words but that's what we are in the kingdom but there's no doubt also that when you teach about the kingdom of God it's looking on to a day when Christ will reign supreme righteousness will be the hallmark of the day but all this sad world with all its deficiencies with all its shortages will disappear and if you read Psalm 72 it's absolutely beautiful some while ago I was listening to someone speaking on Psalm 72 where it speaks of all the richness that will mark that day once Christ is enthroned and godly order prevails and he made a comment on where it says handfuls of corn in the tops of the mountains and what he said was there will be a diminishing yield in the millennium and I'd actually been reading the book of Genesis a few weeks previously and it says of the seven years of harvest that the ground brought forth by handfuls what it meant is there was absolute abundance when it talks about handfuls it's not talking about handfuls as compared with bagfuls that we might think of it's talking about handfuls which mean absolute plenty there won't be any diminishing when the Lord Jesus here the earth will yield her increase well if you listen to those kind of things what an answer to the fact that many saints of God have before us gone through the mill and laid down their lives and many still do it today where's it going to find an answer it's going to find an answer in that coming day of glory because the Lord Jesus will gladly identify us with him in the day of his glory and we have that precious opportunity of sharing with him now in his rejection. Satan came along and how we don't know but the insinuation that was made those who die they're going to miss that coming glory and it seemed logical from the Old Testament scriptures and the answer which is given is a marvellous presentation of Christ in yet another way this time it's in the display of power. I was at a reading recently at a conference and we were looking at those lovely words in the 17th of John and particularly the early verse, verse 3 is it, where the Lord says as thou hast given him power over all flesh that he might give eternal life to those whom thou hast given him and there were a couple of remarks that was made one was a very good remark and a necessary remark in the light of what some people have said he said firstly don't let any believer doubt that they have eternal life every believer has eternal life Christ gives eternal life to all those who've been given to him of the father but the other remark that was made is a very thought provoking one he said the power which is going to subdue the world is the power which is being used now to give eternal life to those who've been given him by his father that's actually taken up in chapter 4 of the epistle and the first words that we read interesting words I would not have you to be ignorant that expression occurs a number of times in the New Testament it's well worth looking at because every time it says I would not have you to be ignorant they're very important passages Romans 11 where it speaks about the predetermining grace of God 1 Corinthians 12 about the body of Christ and the way that it is worked out practically in the in the ascended head on high in the presence of the Holy Spirit of God giving gifts here and this is very important too and he says I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them who are asleep so he's beginning to address the lie of Satan in these words concerning them who are asleep I've never heard anybody say very much about sleep really it's quite interesting actually that very often when you fly to the books to see what they have to say you find they don't have anything to say about the particular point that you want but there are two things to say about sleep firstly it's temporary God doesn't intend us always to be sleeping it's a temporary thing in view of waking up for another day of service but the second thing is it's intensely beneficial to sleep and I don't know whether you've ever thought of this but there's a most thought-provoking statement in 2 Corinthians 5 where it speaks about resurrection and Paul says things like this he says we are willing I say rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord read in the original it's you could almost read it like this we are willing I say rather to be away from home out of the body and to be at home with the Lord it's not just the fact that we're going to be with him we shall be absolutely glad to be there there'll be nothing to make us feel uncomfortable when we're there and we know most of all that the desires of his heart will be satisfied but at the end of that he uses these words he says therefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be well pleasing unto him have you ever asked yourself who's he talking about when he says present or absent when he's talking about present he's talking to use the words of this particular passage in 1 Thessalonians 4 he's talking about we who are alive and remain when he's talking about them who are absent he's talking about those who are with the Lord so they're very much alive whether present or absent that we might be well pleasing unto him and then he actually in verse 14 he actually speaking about the coming of the Lord Jesus with all his saints that expression occurs in the last verse of chapter 3 at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints so he says in verse 14 if we believe that Jesus died and rose again it is as certain as the fact that Jesus died and rose again that God will bring with him those those who are asleep those who sleep in Jesus I don't know whether you would agree with this but I think that when it speaks about sleeping in Jesus as opposed to in verse 16 the dead in Christ it must be speaking of saints of this day and you can easily check this for yourself in a concordance it's a rather different word for in it's not the same word which is used for in Christ it's the word which usually means through and what it's saying is this that they sleep through Jesus bringing it we had four children and I can remember taking the babies up and laying them down at night in view of the next day but they were you laid them down to sleep and that's exactly what that verse is saying when I was a very young believer I met a fine brother from the Walsall area called Jack Boot and his two daughters married two brothers in the Lord who were also brothers in the flesh and they ran into problems with their business I don't know the details of it but he used to pace the floor at night and I heard someone say he went to an early grave and I was a young believer so it seemed quite logical to me but then I listened to the late Cecil Richardson speaking on Revelation chapter 1 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore and have the keys of death and these are not his exact words but this is the gist of what he said he said listen he said no one absolutely no believer will ever go to an early grave and no one will go to a late grave you might say you might say I come from a family that's marked by longevity and my mother lived to 90 and that's the kind of thing that I'm expecting he says no guarantee at all because you'll never go until he who holds the keys of death says the time has come and you will never stay longer than he who has the keys of death that was much more satisfying wasn't it that's what it means when it says asleep through Jesus he does it he doesn't send an angel to carry saints home to glory it's himself he does it himself asleep through Jesus the question then arises how is it possible that those who have died their bodies have been put in the grave their soul and their spirit have gone to the Lord how will they be with him when he comes back and from verse 15 to verse 18 it's a parenthesis and that's why I read on into chapter 5 because verse 14 logically carries on in chapter 5 but in the parenthesis there are some marvelous exalted truths and they're particularly connected with the fact not that the Lord Jesus is head of the assembly not that we're associated with him but that in his hands is absolute power when it speaks of the the Lord Jesus as Lord I'll just break off here I don't know whether any of you ever read a magazine called the Bible League quarterly it's an interesting magazine and it's written to commit people to a total belief in the inerrancy of scripture that's written in their sort of article of association and it's an interesting magazine the historical articles are pretty good but recently the January to March edition they had a go at Darby well I'm not wanting to try to defend Darby I wouldn't defend any individual believer really because you don't know the motives that they do them but when people attack what somebody is trying to say what the scripture says then I think it's worth taking up your pen to point out certain things and I wrote to the editor the first thing I said to him was had he ever considered that never in scripture save once does it speak of the righteousness of Christ you see because you might be very surprised at this but if I said to you tonight do you identify with Martin Luther I would be very sad if not 100% of us said straight away of course we do he taught justification by faith it's the teaching of scripture thank God for Martin Luther and for his courage and the stand that he took on the scriptures but if I said to you what did he actually mean by the justification you might be a little surprised if I told you that the reformers view of justification is this that when the Lord lived by his perfect keeping of the law he amassed an infinite quantity of righteousness and when you believe some of that righteousness is put on you now it's a striking thing that I know of nowhere in the Bible where it says that what it does say in the Bible and there is not a blessing we have apart from the death of Christ we are justified by his blood that's Romans 3 we are reconciled by the if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son and there are plain statements in scripture that every blessing we have is traced to the fact that once doing the will of God at tremendous cost he laid down his life for you and for me so it's very important that you stick to a scriptural term the righteousness of God there is one occasion where the righteousness of Christ is spoken of it's totally different have a look in the concordance and find it but it's important that you speak of the righteousness of God so the first thing I wrote to him was I said have you ever noticed that it never speaks of the righteousness of Christ save once in a very special way but it always speaks of the righteousness of God so he wrote back he says there's a very simple answer to that Christ is God so the righteousness of God is the righteousness of Christ so I wrote back to him in the next letter and amongst the things I tried to say to him it was very sad to write to a reputable editor and have to point out to him that the names and the titles of God in scripture are used in a very meaningful way we might use them haphazardly and I'm sure we all do but have you ever thought of the if you say well they're all interchangeable you might so what this would be appalling to a mind who would imbibe the truth of scriptures would be appalling to say well God is the father so we can change the words and so the cry from the cross would be my father my father why hast thou forsaken me utterly against the whole tenor of scripture it's a remarkable thing that in the Gospels the only time the Lord Jesus ever uses the words my God is when he laid down his life otherwise always upon his lips right from the very beginning to the end were the words my father and when it says here in these verses about him being Lord what it's talking about is absolute authority and absolute power and so in verse 15 he says this we say unto you by the word of the Lord it's one of the ways that Paul uses for saying I got it directly from the Lord in heaven he says on about four occasions or five occasions as in 1 Corinthians 11 in relation to the breaking of bread he said I deliver unto you that which also I received of the Lord he got it directly from the Lord in glory and then this is what he got we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent it's a verb which means mainly to sort of go before and it's mostly well represented in English as it is in the interlinear by the word to anticipate or to proceed they thought by the insinuations that had been made that those who had died were going to miss that coming day of glory Paul says no not only will they not miss it but if there is any precedence they will have precedence and that's what it means when it says shall not prevent them who are asleep and these are the words that I'd like to occupy your attention with the first words the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout the Lord himself you know if God had sent down the archangel to do it he would have said we must be treasured in heaven if it needs an archangel but it's not the archangel who's coming the Lord personally came down to lay down his life and every believer is cherished by him and when that moment comes it will be the Lord himself who descends from heaven and when he descends he will descend with a shout when I was a very young believer and trying to do my best to preach the gospel I was up in a Scots fishing village and after the preaching I was walking along with an old brother and I had made reference to John 11 and he said to me why do you think the Lord said Lazarus come forth and I said well I don't know he says has it never occurred to you that if he had not singled out Lazarus they all would have come out that's what's going to happen here you know it's the only occasion in the New Testament that this word shout is used and it's very interesting if you look at its derivation it was used by the Romans for the man who called the time in the slave galleys the trireme rowers and it was the man's voice that commanded it was utter authority and when they heard his voice they responded to it and when the Lord Jesus comes the same call that brought Lazarus out of the grave will raise the sleeping saints the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. The voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God I'm not sure that this is right but I find it acceptable this is what I've not read it in a book but I've heard it from the lips of George Davison 20 odd years ago and he just said the archangels voice seems to have special reference to Israel the place that angels had in relation to the law being ordered. Or ordained in the hands of a mediator in the involvement of angels and he said the trumpet of God there were those who are not Jews who are blessed by God in days gone by you think of Rahab for example who's spoken of in Hebrews 11 the voice to wake them up as well but the important thing is the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout and there'll be an immediate response. It's an assembling call it's an authoritative call and he says the dead in Christ shall rise first then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up. I don't know whether you ever saw this but was an appalling but really it's titled that the great rapture hoax written by an American and it was a tilt against the fact that we believe a rapture well it's interesting that the word caught up here is a word which means to seize by divine power when I did my a levels you know 40 odd years ago. We read we read one of Milton's books Elijah and I can remember the words totally unaware that they were that they were found in scripture and he speaks about Elijah as being wrapped to glory it's a good English word it's it's it's got a long pedigree in English language. Those who are afflicting them this is the worst I would like to point out and to you who are troubled rest with us now you may have thought I did for many years that rest is a verb and I was staggered to find that it's not a verb at all it's actually a noun and what it is saying is it's a righteous thing with God to do two things. Firstly to recompense tribulation to those who put saints of God through the mill and secondly it's a righteous thing with God to recompense those who now for the testimony of Christ are going through the mill. I read the verses in in chapter 2 because in a very few words Paul completely refutes this idea that the that the day of the Lord was here and I'm not sure that it's in his book but I listened once to the late F.B. Hull speaking on chapter 2 and he summed it up under four headings he said. A gathering away a falling away a taking away and a sweeping away I just want to speak very briefly about the the first three verse one clearly is speaking about the rapture we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him not gathering together to his name but gathering to him personally. And then he says that ye be not soon shaken in mind or troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us that the day I think it should be the day of the Lord is at hand. The day of the Lord is not just restricted to the New Testament it's a well-known Old Testament truth and if you look in one of the minor prophets like Joel it's there in other of the minor prophets but in Joel you have words like the day of the Lord is marked by thick darkness. It's marked by judgment and he says the day of the Lord does not come because before that day some things will happen and one of the things is there will be this is verse three there shall come a falling away. It's strange that they've put a falling away because clearly there is a definite article and this is just simply the statement there shall come the apostasy. You look around today and you see chaos in every area of society and you see Christian testimony crumbling you see people who are prepared to give up truths that have been clung to. On Tyneside we have an excellent Church of England vicar called David Holloway he's a very prominent member of the evangelical wing of the Anglican Church and they always ask him when there's a question of morality comes up and about a year or 15 months ago when the sad synod on homosexuality was going through he was on along with three others and they asked the first two and they vacillated and he's absolutely excellent they said what do you think about Matt Holloway he says well I'd like to tell you what the word of God says and he read the verse from Leviticus 18 for man for mankind to lie with mankind as with woman kind is an abomination. And then he read the words in the 6th chapter of 1st Corinthians maybe not too obvious with the words which are used but they are very pointed words this is chapter 6 of 1st Corinthians and in verse 9 Paul says. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate that's lesbian nor abusers of themselves with mankind that's homosexuals and the end of verse 10 they will not inherit the kingdom of God and then the word goes on. And such were some of you but ye are washed and it was excellent to hear him say these words he says I just want to say three things the first thing is it is an abomination to God whatever people might think about being kind to others the idea he said of a Christian homosexual is the same as having a Christian thief or a Christian murderer or a Christian rapist. And then he said the second thing is this that God says it is a filthy practice and he says to the Corinthians who used to practice those kind of things he says and such were some of you but ye are washed they've been made clean because they turn to God and the effect of that precious blood and then he said lastly. It's it's it's it would be impossible because if everybody practice there would be no pro creation very plain words but that's not the apostasy really that's spoken of said though it may be the apostasy is a total falling away of the testimony of God and it will result one day in a man. And he's spoken of in the 13th chapter of the book of the revelation the man of sin who will sit in the temple of God and he will say that he is God and he apparently will have power to give life to convince people. Paul says to them you're not in the day of the Lord because before that day dawns certain things will be true and it's a simple presentation of the power of Christ. And as in the first epistle and insinuation that some saints were to miss the joy and the glory of that time of reigning with the Lord Jesus and he counters it with a new revelation from heaven marvelous revelation of the of the grace of Christ in at last taking us out of this world and in the second epistle a very simple presentation of the power of Christ. That will be evident in that coming day of glory which is preceded by the falling away and the things which are spoken of. Well quite different to the way that it was looked at in Corinthians and quite different to the way that it was looked at in Colossians but another simple presentation of the all sufficiency of Christ met the insinuations of Satan and set an assembly free to shine for the pleasure of God and for the glory of Christ. Can we sing just part of a hymn number 28. Oh Oh …

… All to the Galatians, Galatians chapter 1 and verse 1. Chapter 2, verse 19, 3 and chapter 5, verse 1. For anybody who hasn't been here during the preceding days of the week, we've been looking at the scriptures, trying to highlight the fact that Christ is all sufficient. And there are many ways in which you can do it, wherever you look at Christ is all sufficient. We could have spent the week looking at his priestly grace in the epistle to the Hebrews. But what we've been doing is looking at the New Testament assemblies where there were problems, and looking at the way in which the Apostle Paul, for all of them that we've looked at are written by him, the way in which by a simple and direct ministry of Christ, the problems which could have resulted in the testimony of God from his people becoming distorted, was given the answer to the problem, and it's found in the fullness which exists in the Lord Jesus. And tonight we're coming to look at probably what was the most serious problem of all. It's a strange thing, I don't know why it is, but in our local assembly we've once in thirty years looked at the Galatian epistle, and in fact when it was suggested, it was suggested at the beginning of the reading, but after the reading a brother said, it doesn't apply to us, it's talking about the law, we're clear about the Ten Commandments, and as far as he was concerned the Galatian epistle was written off. The fact of the matter is we probably have more rules and regulations individually amongst brethren, many, many times over the Ten Commandments, and the problem is they're not written down, and so you don't know them, and if people have those kind of rules and regulations in their own lives, and for the assembly, they get upset and irritated when people break them. The principle is the principle which is found in Galatians. Some years ago I visited an assembly, and I was spending the day there, and after the breaking of bread, which I found very sweet, why should they not always be precious occasions of foretaste of heaven, they should be, I was sitting alongside the brother who was driving, and he said, you're a bold man, well, I don't think you know, but when people say you're a bold man, that's the way in which a Freemason says to somebody else, I'm a Freemason, so I said to him, I'm not a Freemason, he said, I didn't mean that, I said, well, what did you mean? He said, well, you read the scriptures this morning at the breaking of bread, I couldn't believe my ears, and I said to him, are you seriously suggesting that the scriptures should not be read at the breaking of bread? I said, I never ever thought the day would arise when in any assembly gathering it should be suggested that the reading of the scriptures was inappropriate. He said, we don't like ministry of the word at the breaking of bread, and so I said to him, would you accept an open ministry meeting where three brothers walked up, read the scriptures, and sat down, and the conversation ended, but obviously he'd been irritated by what had happened, and when you go round, you'll find people have all sorts of rules for themselves, and all sorts of rules in the assembly, and get very upset when people break them, that's the principle of the Galatian Assembly. Many years ago I used to preach in the open air with a brother called Anthony Docherty, he was a gifted evangelist, he was Roman Catholic, and in the big market there was a man called George Morton, George Morton was convicted of manslaughter in a drunken brawl, he was a minor, and when he was in prison, one of his fellow inmates said to him one night, you know Georgie, there is a possibility I'll get to heaven, but he said, you're sure to go to hell, and those words stuck with him, and when he came out, he tried to turn over a new leaf, but the more he tried, the worse it got, and he was on the way to the Tyne Bridge to throw himself off, and he went past the open door of a gospel meeting, and the brother who was preaching was just reading these words, going about to establish their own righteousness, and he clicked, and he went in, and he got saved, and as he walked out of that meeting that night he said, if God loves a man like George Morton, the whole world will know about it, I never ever heard of him because he'd gone to be with the Lord long before I was saved, but every time he preached, he preached on the same verse, John 5 verse 24, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that hath sent me, hath everlasting life, and cometh not into judgment, and this is what he said every time after he preached, he said, I could not go to hell if I tried, and Anthony Doherty was walking past the big market one night, and he heard those words, and he said, I was trying to get to heaven, and I knew I was slipping to hell despite what the church said, he said, if that man could not go to hell if he tried, he's worth listening to, and he listened, and he said to somebody there, whereabouts is that verse in the Bible, and they gave him the text, and he went home, and he said to his wife, can I have the Bible, and she refused to give it to him, because she thought he was going to take it out to pawn it, but eventually he persuaded her, and she brought it, and they sat down together, and he said, I want to read you a verse from the Bible, he read it to his wife, she said, there's no verse like that in the Bible, he said, listen, he said, this is what the Bible says, and if that's the grace of God, that's what I want tonight, what Anthony Doherty got hold of on that day is the fact, it is by grace that we are saved, it is by grace in which we stand, and it is by grace that we get to glory, and it is by grace that we live, it must be of tremendous significance that when Paul writes to the Galatians, he says things he never ever began to say to the Corinthians, now you might look around and you say, if you see a Christian company that has all sorts of favourite leaders in its local assembly, and it's prepared to live with immorality, which even the city where it was wouldn't countenance, and they were by no means moral, and it accepted appalling behaviour at the breaking of bread, and they actually seemed to accept, tolerate teaching which was fundamentally destructive of the faith, but Paul never ever said to them words like he said to the Galatians, chapter 1, he says, what has removed you to another gospel, we'll look at that word in a minute, and he uses words like these, who hath bewitched you, and then he speaks about being entangled in a yoke of bondage, and eventually he says to them, and these are terribly serious words, he says, ye are fallen from grace, it must be of tremendous significance what is raised in the Galatian epistle, and it must be of greater importance how by the direction of God the apostle Paul met such an appalling error, which in principle would be destructive of Christianity, and what I want to do is to just look at three particular things, well four, because I think as we're coming to the end of looking at this brief series of addresses, we ought to look at the matter of practice very briefly, and for that reason I read to you the verses at the end of chapter 2, but what I want to do is to speak firstly about the gospel of Christ, what is the gospel of Christ, who's at the heart of it, what is the end of it, and then secondly this matter of new relationship and new power, and then lastly looking at this whole issue that divides us in thought from our loved brethren in the reformed faith, and this is the matter of whether the law is our guide for living or whether Christ is our guide for living. I'm always conscious, I don't ever think it necessary to apologise for reading a lot of scripture, for this reason that I don't think we can always count on the fact that people know the context of them, and at the end of the day it isn't really all that important what I might say about scripture, what is important is that God's word gets into our minds, and let's be very clear about this, God has given us divinely renewed minds that we might be able to understand the scripture. You know we have a brother in our meeting who's in his forties and he is mentally retarded, but he has an incredible ability to give out hymns which are a critical part in the meeting, if you did not know that God's spirit dwelt within him you would be absolutely amazed, it wasn't very long ago we had a visitor who was passing through and it was rather a slow start to the meeting, and this brother gave out a hymn and I thought to myself what a critical and good contribution to the meeting at that stage, and as the brother was going out quickly he was going south I nipped out too to shake his hand, and as he was getting into his car he said you're well placed to have a brother that can give out hymns like that, not knowing that you look at his mental age and it's probably twelve or thirteen, but the fact of the matter is we've received the spirit of God firstly, that with divinely renewed minds we might understand what the scripture says, but it's not sufficient that it just gets into our minds, it was a very deep and bitter experience that David speaks of in Psalm 51 when he'd committed adultery, and in that Psalm he underlines a principle which holds good in all dispensations, and the words are thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and it's only when that divinely renewed mind of ours gets hold of God's truth, and by prayer and meditation get it into the very centre of our spiritual beings, truth in the inward parts, that it will then produce in our lives what is for the pleasure of God, and for the praise and satisfaction of the Lord Jesus. There isn't any doubt that the thrust of teaching in the New Testament about the body of Christ, it's saying simply this, that when the Lord Jesus personally was here, everything for the pleasure of God was found in him. You know some of our hymns have words that come close to inspiration, I don't know how often you use this hymn, but one of the new hymns we got in the hymn book in 78, was hymn number 50, it's a lovely hymn, and it has in it these words, each holy footstep brought thee fresh delight, when Jesus was here everything for the pleasure of God was found in him, when he went on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit of God came down, and the body of Christ was formed, it was formed with this intent, that what was seen perfectly and fully in Christ might be seen in his body, and it takes every member to fill it out, that's the thrust of the teaching about the body of Christ. So let us be very clear that when we look at these, all of us have the ability to understand it, in the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. We all have the ability to pray it in. Some while ago somebody was speaking on the platform and reminding us of something the late King Thompson used to say, and he had five things, he used to say, take it in, there's something about enjoyment, but then he would say, dig it over, live it out, thank you, and the last one was tell it forth, it was an excellent chain of statements, because that's exactly the way that the epistles are written, truth to instruct our divinely renewed minds that eventually it comes out in the grace of Christ. Chapter 1 that we read is remarkable, I'm just looking at some verses selectively, but I would like to point this out right at the beginning because it occurs a couple of times. Paul says, he was firstly in chapter 1, he was an apostle, not of men, that meant the source of his apostleship was not by man, the idea of passing on the mantle is absolutely wrong, it was wrong in the Catholic Church, it's wrong amongst brethren, but the idea still permeates that God passes on the mantle from one man to another, the mantle has only ever in Christianity rested on one man, and that's God's beloved son, and every simple believer who imbibes the truth of God and lives it out, that's the person that you want to be alongside of, because when truth is seen in the inward parts and is expressed in the life, that's exactly the intention of God. But he says also about it, it wasn't by man, and before that he says it's not of man, that means it's not according to man, it's a striking thing, all the cults and many of the professing churches press this idea of what you have to do, actually last Saturday I was out tracting by our local meeting, and I ran into a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses, and when I got to them I said, could you tell me please how to be saved, and one of them said, well you better start getting the knowledge of God from the Bible, I said I haven't got any time, I might die in seconds, can you tell me how to be saved, he says well I'm telling you, but I've only got seconds, and I might be out of time into eternity, how can I be saved, and it's not just in the Christian countenance as well or in the cults, it seems to be a theme through all of the pantheistic faiths as well, it rests upon what you can do, it rests upon you, Christianity starts off with this, that you can't do it, and it's the utter, sovereign, undisturbed grace of God, and when Paul begins to speak, and it must be remarkable that he has a very very short introduction, and he doesn't begin to say anything about what is commendable in Corinth, he launches straight off into the error that was found there, and so in verse 6 you find him saying these words, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel which is not another gospel, the language of the New Testament being far richer than English, has a lot of words where we have to start introducing extra words, and it's not apparent, actually it's well worth looking up this is through the scriptures, when he says in verse 6, unto another gospel, he's using a word which gives rise to our English heterodox, what he's saying is, it's a gospel of a different kind, and then when in verse 7 he says, which is not another, he's saying it's not another gospel like the one that I preached, and you say Paul, what was the character of the gospel that you preached, and you go back to verse 6 and he says, it's the gospel that calls you into the grace of Christ, it's unmerited, it's undeserved, it's sovereign, it never will change, but it's the unadulterated sovereign grace of God, now when I was a young believer I used to listen to brothers like George Davison, and many other godly men, and I'm very happy to say that many of the things that I learned, I learned from their mouths, not just because they said them, because their lives reflected exactly what they taught, and I can remember the first time I heard somebody ask the question, what's the difference between mercy and grace, and George Davison said, If you have a look, the answer by the Lord to the request of the thief, when he was on the cross, actually embodies this, I'm not going to do any more than to say this, the man asks for the time of the blessing, he asks for the character of the blessing, and he asks for the place of the blessing, the answers from the Lord to him are absolutely remarkable, the man's words underline mercy, the answer by the Lord Jesus underlines grace, He said to the Lord, 2000 years have gone now, the Lord said to him, Christianity is present blessing, when we preach the gospel, we don't say to people, you'll get moulded in it, we say exactly what Paul said to the Philippian jailer, Was Paul right to be so stern in what he said to the Galatians, that they were removed, entangled, hindered, bewitched, he was absolutely right, because the very basis of the gospel had gone, the moment you begin to think that you have some part in salvation, the gospel of God has absolutely disappeared, when Paul gathered the elders from Ephesus at Miletus, and he begins to talk about the content of his ministry, the first thing he says was, I preached unto you the gospel of the grace of God, sometimes it would do us good to sit down for 20 minutes, and read the epistle to the Ephesians, the first 14 or 15 verses, and just to take in the wealth and the breadth and the depth, of the sovereign grace of God, I remember when we were preaching with Anthony Docherty one day, he didn't often do it, but he actually spoke about his own conversion, not just about the way that he was brought to the Lord, but what it did immediately to him, and after he and his wife got up off their knees, he said to his wife, all this, and I did not have to do one thing to get it, Paul's emphasis was absolutely right, and maybe the two things, the top stone of it is the penultimate verse, before I finish reading, a quick look at verse 12, he speaks about that gospel and its character, it has Christ at the heart of it, and he says, I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by revelation of Jesus Christ, and as last evening, we were looking at that truth that the Lord communicated to him, about the gathering of his saints, the rapture as we speak of it, so here he says again, he got it directly from the Lord in heaven, he didn't get it by an intermediary, if you go back to the next chapter, he says, I didn't get it from Peter, in fact he had to rebuke Peter on occasion, when he didn't walk consistently with the gospel which he preached, he got it directly from the Lord in heaven, and the top stone of that gospel is found in verse 16, just one reference to verse 15 before we pass, when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his son in me, I cannot help but think, that it's saying something about the fact, that before the day, when we were brought to personal faith in the Lord Jesus, the superintending hand of God is upon our lives, I've heard a lot of people say this, I can only speak of my experience, I was brought up in a home, where although my parents at that time never went, we went to an Anglican church, and we lived in a village, and it was three miles away from the church, so we walked 12 miles on the Lord's day, to go to the Sunday school and to the evening service, I'm very thankful that in the Sunday school there, the teacher was a lady called Miss Buchan, and when by God's grace I was saved, I looked back and I thought to myself, Ethel Buchan was a believer, and when I was passing on the motorway a few years ago, it's a crew and it's on the way to Sandback, so it's only a couple of miles off the motorway, and I went into this church and it was totally overgrown, and I was totally unaware as I was looking, I could remember roughly where this grave was, by a yew tree, and as I was sort of parting all the grass, this boy said, what are you doing? And I explained to him, he said come inside we've got a record of where the graves are, and he found it, and then we went out and when we got all the grass away from the headstone, it said Ethel Buchan departed to be with Christ, I thought that's what she did, and what she said, she read the Bible and she spoke to us about it, and I have a deep conviction, that right from the moment that we are born, the superintending hand of God is upon us, a variety of ways in which people are brought to personal faith in the Lord Jesus, but when Paul says, God who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his son in me, when I was a young believer, and listening very keenly to what was said, I used to mix up all sorts of things, and I thought these words, when it says to reveal his son in me, was that truth which Paul was communicating, so when I was preaching or trying to preach, one night in Ashington, I thought that what I'd said was pretty good, but afterwards Robert Nelson, dear brother Robert Nelson, came up and he said to me, he says, Michael, he said, if that statement that you made was true, it would be limited to one apostle, he says, it isn't that at all, it's for every believer, and God wants to bring to light Christ in you, isn't that marvellous really, it's actually a bridge to look at chapter 5, but what that verse is saying, reveal his son in me, it's that every believer might radiate Christ for the pleasure of God, and for the blessing of a needy world round about us, and the bedrock of it all is a gospel which has Christ as its centre, and it is the grace of Christ into which we are brought. I read to you the words in chapter 3, running on into chapter 4, because these are absolutely key verses about this matter of the place that the law has, what it's saying is, there was a time when faith came, before faith came, the law was there, it's a great shame that in their desire to explain scripture, and I think it's worth saying this, I try to say what scripture says, I think every servant of the Lord tries to say what scripture means, we may not be right, we're often not right, in fact I think sometimes, I quite understand that, and then a few months later, I listen to someone else, and I begin to see a brilliant shaft of light in that verse, and I say however could I have missed it, but after that's happened 20 times, who's to say I'm anywhere near the fullness which is found in the verse, and with all due respect to translators down through the years, who've tried to explain what scripture means, keeping themselves to what the manuscripts say is their job, and I'm not criticising any versions of the Bible, but somebody said about the authorised version, you will never get an occasion when five words in the original manuscripts are translated by 20 words, nor vice versa, and this was brought home to me some while ago, it was a fellowship meeting in Wollum, and we were having a reading on Ephesians 3, and it was a good reading, and we got to the verse where it speaks about the length and breadth and depth and height, and our brother King Thompson was there, and he made a lovely contribution speaking about the height and the depth and the length and breadth of the Lord's love, very precious it was, but I'm not sure that it is speaking about the Lord's love in the way that it speaks there, that ye may know, part of the second prayer of the apostle, he says, that ye may know what is the length and breadth and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, so I thought I would venture a comment, and I said, is it possible that the dimensions could also refer to the purpose of God, and our brother Willie Kerr took up that much better than I could, and highlighted it, and then the reading passed on, but in the interval a woman came over to me, and she said, you're wrong, and I said, I've been wrong many times, and I'm sure I'll be wrong many times again, but what particular time, she said, the love, she said, let me read these words to you, and these were the words she read to me, that you might know how broad and how wide and how long and how deep is the love of Christ, and I thought to myself, that's inaccurate translation, and when you think of our authorised, that you might know the length and breadth and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, knowing the love of Christ is something more, this is well worth looking at, I got this from George Davison again a lot of years ago, Genesis 13, length and breadth, Revelation 21, length and breadth and depth, Ephesians 3, length and breadth and depth and height, and it's all talking about the person of God, who deals with us in grace, and in chapter 3, where you get the words in verse 24, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, the law never brought people to Christ, it didn't intend to bring people to Christ, it tells us in verse 19, which I did not read, wherefore then serveth the law, it was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come, there was a period when law obtained, but when Christ came, that's when faith came, when Christ came, then the law was set aside, we'll look at that particularly, in relation to Christian living, but that's taken up in these verses, and what it says then is, there was a time, this is verse 25, after the faith was come, we're no longer under a schoolmaster, for you're all the sons of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, and then it uses an extremely powerful contrast, in chapter 4, it talks about a child, a very young child, and it says he's no different to a servant, because he's under governors, and he's under tutors, and then you get these marvellous words, when the fullness of time was come, God sent his son, come of a woman, come under law, that he might redeem those that were under law, the Jews, that we might receive sonship, and he says because ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son, into your hearts, crying Abba Father, the contrast is, under law, it was being like a slave, that is verse 7, of chapter 4, thou art no more a servant, no more a word for bond slave, and you're not an infant under governors, and tutors, you're in the place, you're in the relationship of sonship, and more than that, because ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son, into your hearts, crying Abba Father, I often sit down, and read the 22nd of Luke's gospel, and when you consider the burdens, that were upon the heart of the Lord Jesus, at that time, the nation had refused him, and cried for his persecution, and he loved them, and he still loves them, and the promises on them, will be fulfilled, I don't know whether any of you, have the poems of Edward Denny, that they're difficult to get, but there's a rare poem at the end, it's called Zion, and it's talking about the Lord's, love for the nation of Israel, and in it, there's a verse, a most moving verse, it says, he sprang from thy chosen of daughters, speaking to the nation of Israel, his star or thy hills arose, he bathed in thy soft flowing waters, and wept all thy coming woes, he wept, who in secret yet lingers, with yearnings of heart or thee, he whom thy blood sprinkled fingers, once nailed to the accursed tree, dark deed, it was thine to afflict him, yet longs his soul for the day, when thou in the blood of thy victim, will wash thy deep sins away, and they'd cried for his crucifixion, he'd been betrayed by one, upon whom he'd lavished his love, he was about to be forsaken of them all, and on top of all that, the knowledge that unlike us, when we fear things, most of the mountains become mole hills, when we meet them, he knew from the very beginning, where it would all end, and it was in the garden, that he uses the words, Abba Father, and you have to say, the words that were wrung in anguish, from his lips, and yet it says, of the believer, because he are sons, the spirit of his son, is sent forth into your hearts, crying Abba Father, wherefore thou art no longer a bond slave, but a son, and if a son, an heir of God, so it's not now talking about the Lord Jesus, at the centre of a gospel, that deals with grace, it's talking about grace, in relation to a completely new relationship, we're not bond slaves, and we're not children, children who are under governors, and tutors, we're sons, and we're indwelt by God, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of sonship, by whom we cry Abba Father, we now come to this very big issue, which sort of divides us, or at least it's a bone of contention, this great issue, what is the true guide for Christian living? I worked alongside for many years, a very fine believer, who is of the reformed faith persuasion, and at least twice a week, we had a good walk in the lunch hour, and we spoke about Christian things, we spoke about the Lord, and we enjoyed things, good to have someone to whom you can speak, you can open your heart, and know that it will be respected, and restricted, and I never would strike controversial things at all, but one day he said, what is the guide for Christian living? And I said, well the Bible says, Christ is the guide for Christian living, and he says, are you saying to me, that the believer is able to live as Christ lived? And I said, I'm not saying it, the Bible says it, and I've never seen this up in anybody's home, but this is a text, which we could well put above our doors, this is 1 John 2 verse 6, 1 John 2 verse 6, He that saith, he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. He that saith, he abideth in him, ought also himself to walk as he walked. Is that not what the Bible is saying? That we are to live our lives, as the Lord Jesus lived his life here. You say to me, what a level it lifts things to, and I say, it does, and then you might say to me, do you know very much about it? I said, no I don't, I confess I don't, I wish I knew more about it, and surely it ought to be a prayer, that if that's what God intends, and the verse is very plain, that that's normal to Christianity. I'm always very reluctant to repeat things, if it's been given by word of mouth, but when I read things, when it's been put in black and white, you're on pretty safe ground, and I think this is in the book, Brother Indeed, which is about Robert Cleaver Chapman, the brother who lived in Barnstaple, I think he was 99 or something like that, when he went to be with the Lord, but a most interesting thing took place, after he'd gone to be with the Lord, I think until he was sort of 96 or so, he was preaching in the open air, actually I got a marvellous encouragement here last night, Lois Addy met in the university recently, a believer, and she said to him, how did you get saved, and he said well, one night I was coming out of a pub, in Northumberland Street, one afternoon I was coming out of a pub, in Northumberland Street, and he says walking along the road, and I saw these two old men, and one of them was preaching, and I thought to myself, nobody's listening to them, but they must have something to say, if they're standing there, and he listened, and he caught part of what was said, and it led to him getting saved, the brother who was preaching, was Bill Kelty, who's now 96, and he would be probably 89, when this took place, he's preached outside Marks and Sparks, in Newcastle for years, with another brother Bill Forrester, and so far as I know, they've never known of somebody, who's been clearly brought to God, so I've got a marvellous message, when I go to visit him, when I go back, somebody's been brought to God, Robert Cleaver Chapman, was preaching in the open air, when he was in his 90s, and he'd gone to be with the Lord, and some others were preaching in the open air, and a couple of lads came, and stood in the crowd, and wormed their way to the front, and they listened for a while, and one lad said to the other, that man used to live in our street, he said which man, he says the man that they're talking about, his chum said, don't be silly, he's talking about Jesus, he says yes, he used to live in our street, what a marvellous testimony, to a man's Christian character, that he listened to Christ being spoken about, and he said that's the man who lived in our street, that's what 1 John 2 verse 6 holds out, that's normal Christianity, I might know very little about it, but when you see a verse like that, we ought all to be saying in our prayer, oh God give us the power of that, enable us to live our lives in the power of it, and that's why I read to you the verses, I just want to pick out just one or two things, chapter 5 verse 1, stand fast therefore in the liberty, wherewith Christ has set us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage, in John chapter 8, the Lord Jesus uses these words, he says, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free, that's why we should always value God's word, because taken in through our divinely renewed minds, and prayed into our inward parts, that's what it produces, it produces truth that has set us free, the teacher that I spoke about, was the first person who read to us, when I was about 7 or 8 years old, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and I thought Uncle Tom's Cabin was a story, and I was over in America about 15 years ago, and I was asked to go to preach in a black meeting, and I said I would be delighted to come, and I said to the brother with whom I was staying, they've invited me along to Braxton Street, and I could see he was reluctant to go, and I said to him, what's the problem? And he says, there will only be two there when you start, and I said they'll be coming in in the last hymn, and I said it doesn't worry me at all, and it was obvious that this reluctance was there, and it took my mind back to Uncle Tom's Cabin, so when I got back home, I went to the library, and I couldn't find a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and I went to the desk, and I said I wanted a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the librarian said, I'm absolutely ashamed to say, we don't have a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin, so it seems incredible, but stand there, and I'll go and buy one and bring it for you, and I read it again, and when I read it, I thought to myself, it's no wonder England has had some problems, because they played a large part in what they did, I hadn't seen the cassette, because a book came out about eight years ago, called Roots, and I believe it was put into a cassette, and it was how the descendant of a Negro slave, found his original tribe in Nigeria, and it occurred to me then, that if you were a slave, and I can't remember all the names of the people, but there was somebody called Liza, and her husband was determined to get north, and America then was divided by the Mason-Dixon line, if you were set free, south of the Mason-Dixon line, you got free, but you were in a land where bondage dominated, but if you got north of the Mason-Dixon line, you were set free, and you were set free. In meetings of brethren, are you ever disappointed with yourself? I'm not asking you to answer the question, but honestly answer the question before God, if you're disappointed in yourself, you haven't got past Romans 7, you'll never be a purposeful, happy believer, in fact you'll never really be a worshipping believer, until you say, I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ, that's where Paul got, he got his eyes off himself, and he got his eyes on Christ, it turned from perpetual defeat, and in verse 17, he makes a statement of fact, the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would, if that statement, so that you cannot do the things that you would, was the actual statement, it would be Romans 7, perpetual defeat, but it's very interesting that the interlinear, and most other translations, read that, just one little change, it says, so that ye may not do the things that you would, when you get a new life, you get new desires, there's actually a marvellous thing happened, about 30 miles south of Newcastle, about five or six years ago, there was a lad, who had been in constant trouble with the police for thieving, he got saved, on a Sunday evening, do you know what he did on the Monday, he took all the money he'd got, and he went round the doors, where he'd stolen milk, and he paid the people back, I don't think anything would have been said to him, in the preaching, about behaviour, and it's almost astounding, so how could somebody, who'd spent his life thieving, suddenly turn round, he got a new life, it gave him new desires, new life from Christ, gives you new desires, and there are things that you want to do, but the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, that you may not do those things, not that you cannot do them, because in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God, we're able to do them, and it's here, not a matter of perpetual defeat, it's a matter of beginning to experience a little bit of victory, verse 18, if he be led of the spirit, ye are not under law, grace and law are incompatible with one another, John chapter 1 verse 17 or 14, the law came by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, and the law does not have anything to say to the Christian, as in Romans 7 it says, ye are dead to the law, by the body of Christ, that ye might be married to another, we're no longer married to the law, we're married to Christ, we're identified with him eternally, verse 18, if he be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law, I read to you the words about the works of the flesh, they're very heart searching things really, and I particularly read them, because right at the end of the fruit of the spirit, in verse 23, is this matter of temperance, this matter of self-control, this matter of exercising self-judgement, the fruit of the spirit, there is no doubt it is the grace of Christ, it was seen fully and perfectly in him, and it comes to light in the saints of God, in the small meeting where I first remembered the Lord, there was an old brother, and I was washing up the dishes with him, I used to have lunch with him on the Lord's day, and I said to another lady who was there, he's a very gracious man, she said yes he is now, but she said when he was a young man, he was like a fox terrier, she said he used to get things in his teeth, and shake them to pieces, but when God's spirit dwells within you, when you walk with Christ, when you keep your eyes in Christ in glory, there's a transformation, and the grace of Christ comes to light in his people, grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, are as applicable to the words grace, grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, as they are to the words, grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit, and we come to the last verse, the last verse is chapter 2, I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God, I am crucified with Christ and I live, but not I for Christ liveth in me, and the life which now I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me, and there are four things there, one there is the law, and the law has nothing to say to the Christian, the standard of the law is not high enough for the Christian, the Christian standard is Christ, but by the law as Paul says, when the law came sin revived and I died, that's what it did, it set him free from the law, and then there is the question of the cross, it was the cross that did it, we are dead to the law by the body of Christ, and then there is the matter of life, we have new life, life according to God, and life brings its proper fruits, and there is the question of an object, and our object, Christ in glory, 2 Corinthians 3.18, we all beholding, with unveiled face the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord, and when you read on into the first couple of verses, of the next chapter Paul says, not falsifying the word of God, not walking deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience, in the sight of God, it would be a happy thing wouldn't it, if the truths that we have considered this week, really do find a root in our inward parts, and result to a better degree, of manifesting the truth of God and his Christ, in the world out of which he was cast, that's the object of the teaching of the body of Christ, and it is the ministry of Christ that recovers us, so that what is normal to Christianity, might become more normal to us, can we sing in closing, just part of 1.8.2, 1.8.2 1.8.2 1.8.3 1.8.4 …