by Frank A. Viola
Part II: The Church's Supreme Vocation
Ephesians 4:10 - He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.
Ephesians 1:22-23 - And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
We have been considering the Lord's need for this present hour. In our last session we spent our time discussing the Lord's supreme end. We noted that God has a clearly defined purpose and end in view. There is something in the heart of God that seeks to be satisfied. And we said that this Divine intention is the ultimate object of all of His dealings. In other words, all that God does in us and through us is toward the fulfillment of this intention. We also said that the end that God is seeking to reach, this purpose that's in His heart, is simply the universal fullness of His Son -- that He might fill all things with Christ -- that He might sum up everything in this universe in His blessed Son -- that everything that has been created would speak forth, display, and manifest the character of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We also pointed out that God fills all things humanity-wise. In other words, the Lord's intention of filling all things with His blessed Son begins with filling people, i.e. human beings. God's ultimate end is to have a race of people that are conformed into the likeness of His Son -- that He would have an entire race, an entire company of human beings, that have the character of the Lord Jesus constituted in their very being. We also pointed out that the church is the vessel that God has called to realize His end. That is, the church realizes and expresses Christ in His fullness. For Ephesians tells us that the church is the fullness of Him that fills all in all.
THE PRIMARY MISSION OF THE CHURCH
Tonight I would like to share on the church, particularly the church's supreme vocation. And by vocation I mean job, task, or mission. What is the church's supreme vocation -- what is it's primary mission? Once again it is to the letter of Ephesians that we will look, for in Ephesians we discover the high tide of spiritual truth that relates to God's eternal thought concerning His Son and concerning the church. So I would like to begin by defining the church.
Colossians 3:10-11 says,
You have put on the new man...where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond [nor] free: but Christ [is] all, and in all.
The church is the new man. It is the body of Christ. But what exactly does that mean? The purpose of a body is to express the life that is within it. The purpose of my body is to reveal and manifest my personality. And so the church is the body of Christ. The church is the vessel, the vehicle, that manifests and expresses the nature, personality and life of our Lord Jesus Christ. To put it simply, the church is the earthly expression of our heavenly Lord. That bears repeating: it is the earthly expression of our heavenly Lord. It is not an institution; it is not an organization; it is not even a group of people from all nationalities that have been unified together. For the Scripture says there is neither Greek nor Jew, bond nor free in the church. The church is a new race, a new humanity, a new species. The church is not a group of people who come together and share the same goals. The church is nothing more than Christ on the earth in corporate expression.
The church is a company of people where Christ is all and in all. It is a company of people where Christ is everything -- it is a heavenly organism -- it is a body full of life -- it is a people that Ephesians 2:15 calls "one new man." It is a new race of mankind. All earthly distinctions and nationalities never come into view when we talk about the church, for the church is simply Christ -- Christ all and in all.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS
In Ephesians 4:1, Paul exhorts us to walk worthy of the vocation in which we are called. But what is this vocation? Well, if the church is the body of Christ, if the church is the fullness of Him that fills all in all, then we may say that the supreme vocation of the church is to be the fullness of Christ on the earth. This is what God has called the church to be. In other words, God has called the church to be a vessel that maintains and expresses the testimony of Jesus. That is, the church is here to manifest to the world, to principalities and powers, and to its own members who this glorious Christ is -- that He rules and reigns and that He is the absolute Lord of the universe. The church is to be the fullness of Christ. It is to manifest and express the Lord Jesus Christ to this world and to the heavenly realms. It is to be the fullness of Christ on the earth. This is the testimony of Jesus.
The first vessel that God fills before He fills all things is the church. The church is called to carry the ministry of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ on this earth. When people see the church, they see Christ. They see His nature, they see His character, His love, His compassion. Yet, God has something more for the church in terms of vocation. The church stands on this earth for the Lord's rights, to bring Christ into what is His own.
In other words, all things were created for the Son of God; this earth was created for Jesus. And the church is that company of people who stand on this earth for the Lord's rights. They declare that this earth belongs to the Lord Jesus and in their actions and in their practice and in their very testimony they bear witness to this fact, that Christ is the supreme Lord of the universe. It is the church that restores God's sovereignty; it is the church that recovers God's absolute Lordship back to the earth where Christ can be all and in all. This is the supreme vocation of the church brethren. It is to display the universal fullness of Christ. God has given the church not only the privilege, but the responsibility to establish the absolute Lordship of His Son wherein He can fill all things.
This is very high! It is a tremendous vocation, is it not? That God has called us corporately to express the Son of God in fullness, to be here for his rights in the earth, and in essence to bring Him back to the earth by being that vessel of His fullness. But let me continue by sharing some of what is on my heart with reference to the character of the church. I want to get a little bit more practical here. How is it that the church bears the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ as sovereign, living Ruler of the universe? How does it do it? What are the characteristics of the church in the Divine view?
In this connection, I think it involves four things. I believe there are four chief characteristics of the church as it stands in the purpose of God. And I want you to think through these things with me. I want you to think along this line in particular, "Is the church, as you know it, fulfilling her supreme vocation?"
THE FOUR CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHURCH
Here are the four characteristics that mark the church as God sees it:
1. The church is one. Ephesians 4:4 says, "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling."
The body of Christ is one. There is only one church. There is only one Christ. Think about that. Why is the body of Christ one? Because all of the members that make up the body share the same life -- the life of the Risen Head -- the Lord Jesus Christ. All of us are members of one another; but it extends beyond that. All of the brothers and sisters in this city are one as well. Why? Because we share the same life. So there is no schism, there is no division, in the church. For the church is one.
2. The church is the training ground for spiritual usefulness. Ephesians 4:11 says, "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."
All of the Divine essentials are learned in the church; the church is God's laboratory for learning the Christ-life. God has given the church gifts -- men and women who minister His word to increase the life of Christ in the church, in the believers, and to bring them into conformity to His Son. But not only so, God uses the relationships with our brothers and sisters as a training ground where we can learn the lessons that God would teach us so that we may learn Christ. It is in the church where we learn the lessons of self-denial. It is there that we learn the lessons of the cross, the lessons of interdependence, love, self-sacrifice, unity, humility, etc. The church is the training ground for spiritual usefulness; it is a training center -- it is the place where God equips His people to be useful to His purpose.
3. The church holds fast to the headship of Christ. Look back to that rich phrase, pregnant with spiritual meaning in Ephesians 1:22... "And [Jesus] hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church..."
The Lord Jesus is the Head of the church. Ephesians 4:15 says, "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." Therein the purpose of God is stated again. That we grow up into Him, into His character and image. Ephesians 5:23 puts it this way: "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body."
Now this is a vital matter, and I would dare say that it is directly related to the Lord's need. Beloved, the church has only Authority -- there is only one controlling Person in the church and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. It knows no other head. Any company of people, even if they're the Lord's people, that do not submit to the headship of Christ, they are something other than the church. Why? Because the church holds fast to the headship, the rulership, the leadership, of Christ. It exists and lives out from the life of Jesus, in humble subjection to His Lordship. Hence, when a people are joyfully enthroning Jesus as Head, there you have the church.
4. Every member of the church is active. Ephesians 4:16 says, "From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love."
Now I understand that this is a difficult passage, but I want to highlight a few phrases to help unravel it for you. Let's read it again. "From whom the whole body fitly joined together (there is oneness) and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, (how many joints supply in the church? Every joint) according to the effectual working in the measure of every part." Note that every part functions in the church. If not, it will be disabled.
So in the church every member supplies, every member serves, every member gives, every member ministers: in theology, this is called the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Have you ever heard that phrase before? I'm sure you have. The priesthood of all believers -- what does that mean? It means that in the church every member is a priest. The church is a spiritual priesthood. But what is the function of a priest? It is to serve, it is to minister, it is to supply. The church, then, is a functioning priesthood wherein every joint supplies God's life.
THE PRESENT DISORDER
So here we have the four characteristics that depict the character and nature of the church and how it is to be the fullness of Christ. But let me pose a question to you brethren. In light of what I have shared, is the church, as you and I know it, fulfilling her supreme vocation? Is she a perfect model of expressing the living Christ? I think we all know the answer if we are honest with ourselves. It is no. There is a failure with the church and this is the central issue that goes right to the heart of the Lord's present need.
You see brethren, the Lord needs the church to bring in and realize His eternal purpose; He needs her to fulfill His supreme end. The church is to be the fullness of Him that fills all in all. But we have a condition in our day where the church has failed to apprehend, to understand, and to grasp her calling. The church has sunken into a pitiful state. She has fallen from her original calling and vocation. I wish to bring the force of this upon you. In doing so, I would like to briefly go through these four characteristics again and challenge you to examine where the church is right now.
THE CHURCH IS DIVIDED
God has called the church to be one, but the church is severely divided -- it is severely fragmented. The Lord's people are separated from one another. Let me give you an example of this. On our way here this evening, we were driving down Bay to Bay. I think I counted six different fellowships -- six different "churches" -- all within a mile from each other. In fact, one church was right across the street from the other. I think you had a Baptist church and a Christian church right across the street from one another.
God never intended this. God never intended for there to be hundreds of churches in the same city. I challenge you to read through your New Testament and ask the question: "How many churches were there in one city in the New Testament." You will find that there was only one church in the city. Every city had one church. Why? Because all of the Lord's people were one. This, of course, doesn't mean they met in the same place. You'll find that they met in different homes. But they were still one church; they saw themselves as one, they had the same name, and they submitted to the same leadership. They were one in reality and not mere rhetoric!
Beloved, sectarianism is rampant today. Division is replete. There is competition. And what is the testimony to the world? It is that Christ is divided. You say the church is one, but brothers and sisters, is the church one in practical expression when we have hundreds of different churches all with their own emphasis, their own special ministries, their own special ministers, and all their distinct doctrines? No! How this grieves the heart of our Lord. The denominations were never ordained by our Lord. I leave you to pursue 1 Corinthians Chapter 1 in this line -- read about it for yourself.
Brethren, the church is severely divided today. Now it is true that we are all one in life; we are all one according to nature. But in practical expression, the testimony that Jesus is one -- the testimony that the Lord's people are one -- has been lost. There is a difference between saying we are family with other believers and in having real fellowship, unrestricted fellowship, with all of our brethren. It grieves the Lord to see His people divided, for there is only one church in His view. There is only one lampstand in each community. Read the first 3 chapters of Revelation and you will see this clearly.
THE CHURCH HAS FAILED TO EQUIP THE SAINTS
I challenge you to think about this statement. If you talk to most believers and you ask them what is the governing vision that is in God's heart, what is His eternal purpose, and what is His supreme objective, many believers will gape at you. They don't know what it is. The church is lukewarm today; carnality is rampant among the Lord's people -- sin is everywhere. Most believers don't know how to be delivered from the power of sin. They don't know that it's even available in Christ. The victory that is in Christ Jesus by and large is something very distant from most believers. What is more, when you talk about the discipline of the Holy Spirit, the working of the cross, and self-denial, you will find that these things have never been rooted in the lives of so many of God's children. It is a sad state indeed.
While many Christians are well versed in how they can get God to benefit them, how many have a heart that goes after God and says, "Lord what can I gain for you? How can I meet your need?" You see, most churches are not places of spiritual training. The gospel that is preached in many of our modern fellowships is very superficial. The emphasis is on man and what man can receive. We hear next to nothing about what God can gain from us.
THE CHURCH HAS FAILED TO HOLD FAST TO THE HEAD
Brethren, in most fellowships today you will find that Christ is not being enthroned as Head. Rather, you will find that man is operating as head. Decisions are made in a meeting room where men discuss and deliberate -- where men talk and then they pray afterwards for the Lord to bless what they have already decided. But the headship of Christ means that He is the only One that has the right to make the decisions for His people. For the church belongs to the Lord, it does not belong to us! Let me issue a challenge: if you read the book of Acts, you will discover that there does not exist one church that was governed by a single pastor. In fact, you will not find any evidence in the entire New Testament to support the practice of a single pastor, a senior pastor, or a head pastor governing a local church.
Do you know why that was? Do you know why there wasn't a single man to rule the church in all of the New Testament? Because it would supplant the headship of Christ. Even if a single pastor has good intentions and is a benevolent dictator of sorts, people will still look at him as the head of the assembly. That man may be good hearted and have a good motive, but there will be spiritual stagnation -- the body will not increase -- for it will be limited to that one man's vision, burden, ministry, and spiritual knowledge.
What I am sharing with you is God's heart for the church -- it rests upon the headship of Christ. Oh, that God's people would let Him make the decisions -- that we would not move until the Lord has spoken through His people. This is woefully lacking in the modern church. Man has replaced Christ. Even worse is if a single leader is an ambitious man or a control freak. What if you have a single leader who is corrupt and has base motives, whether it be for money, security, power, prestige, or pride? He will become a despot and will corrupt and abuse the flock.
So God has ordained that the only leader in the church is Christ singularly and that under Him stand a plurality of leaders who are submissive to His headship as well as to the rest of the body. You know a good friend of mine once made a statement and I will always remember it for it is profound. He said that whenever two people make a decision in the church independent of the Head, meaning Jesus, they have constituted conspiracy! Whenever you and I, or anyone else, makes a decision in the church without consulting the Head (Christ), it's no less than conspiracy. Colossians 2:19 tells us that those who do not hold fast to the head cause the body of Christ to be retarded in it's spiritual progress. And I believe this is the reason behind so much of our lack and so much of our spiritual immaturity today. It is merely because the headship of Jesus has been lost.
THE CHURCH HAS BECOME A PASSIVE PRIESTHOOD
In the church of our day, most of the Lord's people are passive spectators, while only a few are allowed to minister. Most of the Protestant churches intellectually deny the separation of clergy and laity and affirm the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. But in practice there is still that separation where only a few minister and the rest are passive. This contradicts the spirit of the New Testament, does it not?
In 1 Corinthians 14:26 we read about the meetings of the early church. The Scripture exhorts mutual exhortation: "Everyone of you has something to contribute when you come together." Underscore the phrase "everyone of you." The church as a whole has departed from God's end. In too many cases the church has become something institutional, it has become something of man, it has become something organizational, it has departed from it's spiritual position as a heavenly organism and it has lost the testimony of God in fullness. It has reverted back into the spirit of the Old economy, where the people are again divided into functioning priests and a passive congregation.
THE DIVINE REMEDY
What is God's reaction to the present ruin of the church? The answer to this question goes right to the heart of my burden tonight. I want us to look at the Old Testament type of the state of the church as it stands today. Turn with me to II Kings 25. I trust that many of you are aware of the fact that the Old Testament contains lessons for us today. I trust that you understand that the Old Testament is filled with types and shadows -- illustrations, analogies, figures, and pictures -- of our Christian life and walk. Along this line, the present condition of the church was prophesied through the history of the nation of Israel. II Kings 25:8-11 says,
And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire. And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about. Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away.
What we are reading here is history, but keep in mind that the Old Testament nation of Israel was a type, a representation, of the church.
THE CHURCH ENVISIONED BY NEHEMIAH
Now let us turn to Nehemiah Chapter 1. I believe what we have before us in this text is a sober picture of the state of the church from the Divine perspective. Note that this was written at the time that Israel was carried off to Babylon. The temple had been destroyed, the holy vessels had been removed to a strange land, the people were taken from their land, and the walls of the city had been broken down. Nehemiah 1:2-3 says,
That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
Notice the picture. What is happening? The Lord's people have been scattered all throughout the Babylonian empire. Nebuchadnezzar came into Jerusalem, burnt the temple of God to the ground. Now there remains no more temple in Jerusalem. All the people have been taken captive to a foreign land. The Lord's people are exiled from the land of promise. The walls are broken down.
This speaks of the ruin of the church. It speaks of the decline, decadence, chaos, and confusion that the church is in today. Spiritually speaking, the walls are broken down and the temple is fragmented. There is division among the Lord's people, for they are scattered from one another. Most of the church is held captive in Babylon (which means confusion). The result: the Lord no longer has a clear testimony of His Son in the earth. The Lord no longer has the church fulfilling its supreme vocation of being the fullness of Christ. There is carnality. There is weakness. There is loss. The testimony of God is in ruins. Smallness, spiritual lack, and spiritual decay mark most of the Lord's people today.
Many of God's people have altogether given up on the vision, losing heart to discouragement. They say, "we can never have things the way they were in the New Testament; so we just have to live with the present state of things and accept it." Some of them have failed to see what God would have, and hence, believe that the present condition reflects God's heart. This is the spirit of the Laodicean (see Rev. 3).
The fact is, brethren, that the Lord has never lost the vision, and He will never deviate from His purpose of filling all things with Christ. He will not abandon His intention! Yet, most of the Lord's people have settled for less. Things have gotten so bad in the church that Christians by and large are not aware of what God's eternal purpose really is. In fact, they presume that the only true work of God that is left today is evangelism. The push, drive, and energy of many assemblies is on reaching the lost. It is as though this is the chief end of God. And this emphasis has been passed down to many of us here, wherein we think that evangelism is God's chief work.
Granted, the Lord is interested in saving lost souls. Yet, as we learned from our last session together, evangelism is not God's supreme end. He wants something more than that. The only thing that will satisfy the Lord is the universal fullness of His Son. The only thing that will satisfy God is Christ being formed in His people wherein they express Him in fullness. This is what glorifies God.
Winning souls is just a part of that. Bringing people to Christ, adding them to the Lord, is the first step. But what do you do after that? God's purpose doesn't stop there. So in the midst of the ruin of the church, many of the Lord's people have reduced the purpose of God to evangelism. But I submit to you, beloved, that God has never strayed from His purpose. Evangelism is not His chief end. It is still the universal fullness of Christ. The establishment of the Lordship of Christ wherein He fills all things -- that He will have a people conformed to His image. God will not stop at anything less!
GOD'S REACTION TO THE PRESENT DISORDER
So how does the Lord realize His purpose when things are in such a mess? If the church is the vessel of God's fullness, must He not take steps to restore in it a clear testimony of His Son? The Bible gives us the answer to this question. Scripture teaches us that whenever there is a universal decline in His people -- whenever His people have fallen below their spiritual position and calling -- whenever they have lost the vision of His purpose and have opted for something less -- whenever His people are in a state of confusion and chaos, then God sets His eyes upon a company of people who are willing to fulfill His purpose on behalf of the rest. He uses the few for the benefit of the many. He uses a small portion -- a representative company -- that will represent the rest of His people in His mind and that will accomplish His purpose on their behalf. In the Old Testament, this company is called "the remnant."
Now listen to what I am saying. God's reaction to spiritual ruin, chaos, and confusion is to raise up a remnant, a small group out of the many, who are utterly abandoned to His intention. It is to secure a representative company who will represent all of the Lord's people before Him. There are many Biblical examples we can look to which illustrate this, for this has been God's way all throughout history.
THE REBUILDING OF THE WALL
We saw that in Nehemiah's day the people of God were scattered throughout Babylon. We saw that in his day the temple was destroyed and the walls were broken down. God's reaction was to call forth all of those whom He had stirred in heart. To these, He issued a challenge to go back into Jerusalem. Yet, only a remnant of the people in Babylon were willing to return. But we thank God for this remnant. They returned to rebuild the wall and restore the temple for God's testimony.
As we read the books of the captivity -- Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel -- we learn a precious lesson. That is, that when the Lord's people were exiled in Babylon they called Him the God of heaven. Note that they didn't call Him "the God of heaven and earth;" they only addressed Him as "the God of heaven." And why? Because the Lord lost His place in the earth. When His own people were exiled out of the land, it marked the losing of God's testimony. There was no display, no expression of His glory and His righteousness in the land. The temple was destroyed, His people were scattered, and God's holy city wherein He had placed His own name was burned to the ground. For this reason, when the Jews prayed to the Lord in exile they could only say "You are the God of heaven." They could not add "and of earth," for God, in a sense, was thrust out of the earth when His people were taken out of the chosen land.
Yet, when the remnant returned to the land the Lord once again had a testimony in the earth. He had secured a people to stand for His rights once more. He had secured a people to bring Him into what was rightfully His -- a people to manifest His presence. At that time, the people could once again address Him as "the God of heaven and earth."
And so it is in the church today. Today, the call of the Lord is the same as it was to Israel. It is thus: "Go back into the land and build my house for my testimony." His call is to leave Babylon -- which is a figure of the religious systems of this world. (Babylon finds its roots in Babel, the city wherein natural man tried to reach heaven by his own natural cleverness and ingenuity. Babylon represents religious confusion, division, and mixture in the things of God.)
Beloved, the Lord is calling for a people that are willing to come out of the flesh-stained traditions that have held the church in captivity and have scattered God's people into countless independent sects. He is summoning His people to come back to the land to recover the ground that they are one with all their brothers and sisters -- to return to real church life where His body is a functioning priesthood, a spiritual training ground, and holds fast to the headship of Christ -- to come back to the fullness that is in Jesus -- to return to His original and full thought for His church.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord's call goes out to you tonight. Will you be a part of this company that the Lord is calling for, even if, like in Nehemiah's day, only a small remnant responds? Are you willing to go against the status quo and leave your comfortable Babylonian synagogues to return to God's chosen land? Such a step involves a radical forsaking of most of the things that we have been taught about what the church is -- a radical forsaking! So many of us have received our notion of "church" from the world system rather than from God.
Where did we learn to have a separation of clergy and laity? Where did we learn to have one ruler over the church? Where did we learn that the church is a building? Where did we learn to put signs on these buildings with humanly devised names that separate us from one another? Where did we learn that a denomination is a local church? Were did we learn that attending church means to sing some songs and then passively listen to a 45-minute sermon? I say confidently that you will not find any Biblical support for these things. And why? Because they are inventions of men that have been lifted out of a Babylonian world system and read back into the New Testament text.
Mark it down. To go the Lord's way involves a cost. It will mean misunderstandings from other brethren. It will mean persecution. It will mean being ignored or viewed as insignificant. It will mean pain and loss. But, oh, the fullness of Christ that it will bring -- the building together in spiritual community -- the deep expression of Christ in simplicity and purity -- the joy and peace of following the Lord fully! Surely this is what the Lord is after. Are we willing to do serious business with God over these matters, or will we rest content to have heard just another teaching and fail to respond to God's word?
THE CALL TO OVERCOME
This principle of the remnant carries over into the New Testament. In order for God to achieve His supreme end, He must recover the church's spiritual position through a representative company. A company that is ready to pay the price to fulfill what is uppermost in God's heart.
The book of Revelation was written at a time of intense spiritual decadence and decline, just as we are in today. Now if you read your Bible carefully, you will discover that by and large most of the Lord's people during this time had left the full thought of God regarding His church. They had left God's supreme end; instead, they were embroiled in doctrinal divisions. False teachings were starting to creep into the assembly. Many had fallen into apostasy. The testimony of Jesus was breaking down. It was so bad that Paul said that when he was in Asia all of the Lord's people had forsaken him. It was a time of chaos and departure from the Lord's full purpose. It was a time of spiritual ruin. And here the Lord Jesus challenges the churches with a special call.
Note his charge to the Laodicean church, which I think represents the present condition of the Lord's people today. Revelation 3:14-17 says,
And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.
This is the Lord's word for the church today. Most of the Lord's people think that they are rich spiritually; they think that they are pleasing the Lord's heart; they think that everything is fine in Christianity and in their denomination. But most have missed that which is central in God's heart.
You can have a mega church, you can have hundreds of thousands of people attending, you can have people coming in being saved by the day, and still fail to satisfy the Lord's heart if the character of His Son is not being formed in them, if the headship of Christ is not being revealed and manifested, if the believers are not expressing their ministry gifts and service, and if the church is sectarian and is divided from other brethren in the city. The Lord will not be satisfied! And so I ask again: what is the Lord's reaction to the present disorder? Revelation 3:18-21 puts it thusly:
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Note the words: "To him that overcomes." This is the word of the Lord to all the seven churches in Asia. God's reaction to spiritual chaos, ruin, and decline in His people is found in His call to overcome. He gives a call to overcome in the midst of this chaos, in the midst of this ruin, and in the midst of this departure from His eternal purpose.
Revelation 12 tells us that there is a company of the Lord's people who overcome. They are a remnant of His people, a representative company, that overthrow the work of the devil and that usher in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The remnant of the Old Testament that went back to Jerusalem, rebuilt the temple, and forsook their comfortable homes in Babylon are the overcomers of the New Testament. The remnant is the type; the overcomers are the antitype.
In this hour, the Lord's eyes are set on those who are willing to overcome for the church. These are those who will forsake all man-made traditions and worldly ways. They refuse to deviate from God's supreme end and will realize it on His behalf. These are the people that will stand on the earth for the Lord's rights.
THE MEANING OF OVERCOMING
Let us now look at what it means to overcome. It essentially involves two things:
1) Seeing God's purpose. I hope that what we shared last week was something that registered in your spirit and broke forth upon you. If it has not, pray the prayer of Paul in Ephesians Chapter 1 where he says, "I pray that the Lord would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him." Paul was utterly consumed and occupied with bringing this terrific vision of God's purpose into the hearts of the saints. But that is the first step; it does not stop there.
2) Having the Lord's heart to carry His burden. You see, if God is going to use us as a representative company in this present hour to meet His need, we have to learn to carry the Lord's burden in our hearts. We must decide not to be satisfied until He is satisfied! In short, we need to learn how to enter into the Lord's travail.
What was Nehemiah's response when he heard the terrible news that the walls of Jerusalem had been broken down? Nehemiah 1:4 tells us:
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, (when he heard that Jerusalem was broken down and the gates were burned with fire) that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.
Nehemiah was broken over the condition of Jerusalem. He was saddened. His heart was heavy because the Lord wasn't getting what was rightfully His. He entered into the travail of the Lord and his heart was broken because God no longer had a testimony in the earth.
If the present condition of the church, the present state of things revolving around the Lord's people, doesn't break our hearts, we can't be useful to His purpose. We must enter into His travail. And it begins with a seeing -- it begins with a revelation -- it begins with a dependence upon the Lord wherein we say, "Lord show me, let me see what it is that you are after and let me understand the present condition of things; give me your eyes to behold the present condition of your beloved Body."
Oh, when He shows you it will break your heart; you will indeed taste of His grief over the situation. God wants to fill all things with His Son, but He can't until the church becomes that vessel of fullness; He can't until the church becomes the fullness of Him that is all and in all; and it won't happen until there is a representative company that does for the church what the church has failed to do. And so the Lord's call to overcome goes out to all of us. May we enter into the Lord's travail.
I'm reminded of Paul's word in Galatians 4:19 wherein he wrote, "My little children of whom I travail in birth until Christ be formed in you." Paul carried the Lord's burden in his heart. The Lord needs us to be in that position, friends. Some of you may say, "But brother Frank, I'm not ready to do that for I'm busy enough being burdened down with my own problems. How can I be burdened with what the Lord is burdened with?"
Let me be clear brethren: The Lord Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things that relate to you will be added unto you." Many of us reverse that (not in our minds, but in our hearts). We say, "Lord, when all these things are taken care of in my own life, and I am no longer burdened with them, then I can seek you first." But the Lord Jesus says, "Lay down your cares and make my interest supreme in your heart; make my end your primary concern, and allthe things that relate to your affairs will be taken care of -- take my burden upon you, enter into my travail; follow the example of Nehemiah who saw the horrible state of my things and became burdened with them, and I will take care of you." May we be able to say, "I am willing Lord."
BUILDING GOD'S HOUSE OR OUR OWN?
As I close, I want to leave you with one last thought. Let us read the burden of the prophet Haggai:
Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built. Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? (Haggai 1:2-4)
Is this not the Lord's word to us tonight? Through the cry of the prophet, the Spirit says, "You are saying to me that the time to rebuild my house is not come, but yet its time for you to live in your own houses and to be occupied with your interests while my house lies in ruin." How this searches us out beloved. Is this not penetrating?
In addition, look at what the prophet cries in verse 5-11:
Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.
The way of blessing is to put God's interests first on our agenda. If we build His house, then He will bring blessing into our lives. If we do not, the result will be spiritual emptiness. You will plant, but you will see no growth. You will eat, but you will not have enough. You will drink, but you will not be filled. I don't believe He's talking about material blessings here. I think He's talking about spiritual blessings. In short, if the people of God do not put His burden and His heart first and foremost upon their own hearts, they will become spiritually impoverished. Does this not explain the present situation among many of God's dear children?
So we must enter into the Lord's travail. We must see His end and we must enter into His vocation. The supreme vocation of the church is fulfilled by that company of people who are willing to pay the price to fulfill it and who are willing to come into it. This, I believe, is the Lord's present need. Put simply, the Lord is in need of those who will seek to overcome the present situation by His grace. The Lord is in need of such a people. May He have mercy upon us. Amen.
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