In this sermon, the speaker begins by acknowledging that there are several pressing matters on his heart that he wants to address. He emphasizes that we are living in a late hour and that God is going to do something quick and marvelous that we can hardly comprehend. The speaker shares a story about his friend meeting a police officer and recognizing him as a minister of God based on Romans 13:4. This leads to a discussion about the authority that comes from being under authority. The speaker then references Matthew 9:16-17, highlighting the importance of newness and how God has a specific calling and place for each individual to serve Him. The sermon concludes with a plea for everyone to represent God in their respective spheres, whether as a wife, mother, husband, teacher, or in any other role, and to do good in order to avoid the wrath of God.

Lord, we thank thee tonight that as thy people we do turn our eyes, we turn our face unto thee. Thou who hast never disappointed thy people, we claim tonight thy own speaking to us. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, praise the Lord, I don't know where you all come from. I confessed to you when Frank and Noel had moved out here, and I came out the first time, I thought, there'll no longer be any crowds out there in the woods. But hungry people have a way, don't they? John went out into the wilderness, you know, and they found him. Well, when I come to the last service, there are about eight or ten things that are pressing in my heart, and I don't know how to fit them together. So I'll just sort of start, and if they don't fit, well, you'll understand. I feel the need to remind us tonight that this is a late hour in which we live. And I believe the Lord is going to do some quick things. He's doing a quick work, and it's going to be a marvelous thing, something our hearts can hardly comprehend. We're prone all the time to figure out what the Lord's going to do and then try to groove him into our expectations. But I think I've got good news for you. He's going to do exceedingly abundantly above what you can ask or think. I'm safe in that, don't you think? And it's a new thing, and it's going to be very different. I thought I had the Lord figured out for some time, but he never fits into my little narrow conception of things. I've been doing some studies in the book of Matthew, because it's a book that deals with the kingdom so much. The Lord keeps pressing my heart regarding the kingdom, the reality of the kingdom in our life right now. Our proneness is to always think of the kingdom of heaven and something that's way off there, and we put a future. But I believe there's a present spiritual reality of the kingdom that we have to know now if we're going to have any abundant entrance into anything that will be unveiled later. The kingdom is a now thing, the spiritual reality of it. I think of this verse over in Romans where it says the kingdom of God is righteousness and joy and peace and the Holy Ghost someday. Right? Huh? When? You mean now? That's right. Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, and that's a now, that's a reality he wants his people to live in right now. Well, when I think of what God is doing at this present hour and the new thing, I feel that the Lord's just been sort of teasing me with four things I found in Matthew. I don't call this interpretation, but it's been an application to my own heart. You know there's a difference between interpreting and applying. The Lord can be very broad in his application, and sometimes he allows us to be rather broad in the application. It might not be a proper interpretation. But I was reading in this ninth chapter, if you want to read just a couple of verses with me, Matthew, and I found four new things in verse 16 and 17. I've spoken from this and used it in many different ways, but never quite has the Lord applied it in the same way as just recently. Verse 16 says, No man putteth a piece of new cloth into an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish. But they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. And I saw four new things. Just let me share this with you in passing. First of all, I saw the new cloth. Then I saw the new garment. Then I saw the new wine. And then finally the new wineskin. And I don't know, it was as though the Lord were saying to me, it goes progressively like this. The first word that seems to speak to me is that when an individual comes to know the life of the Lord, and he's clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, he has life. And God today is bringing into emphasis the fact that people are not just born again, but they come to live by the very life of the Lord. The basis of all is the life of the Lord himself. Every place I turn, people are not just talking about being saved, but it's a matter of enjoying and sharing his what? Life. And that's like a new piece of cloth. The only trouble with this new cloth is every time you have life, life seeks what? To be attached to something. You go back with life to an old garment, and what do you do? Tear things up. The garment, I think, seeks some fellowship. You patch some old life onto an old garment, and it just doesn't work. And every place today there are home groups, there are people who have the life of the Lord and a common basis, and there's a real sense of fellowship. I think that's why we're here tonight. We've found the common denominator, the life of the Lord Jesus, the livingness, not doctrine, no person, no particular emphasis, just the life of the Lord himself. Flows in his righteousness like a new piece of cloth that needs to be added now to the garment. It's sort of a body, it's a carpet, sort of a thing, you see. And this is the fellowship we enjoy. And so it is as though the Lord was saying, this fellowship, now the fellowship can't exist for itself. Home meetings last just so long if they exist for fellowship. You know that. Because fellowship gets introverted, gets turned in. The Lord says fellowship is unto, it's for something. It's with the Lord. It's for something else than just ourselves. And so it leads us on to the next new thing, which I believe is the empowerment or the undoing of the Holy Spirit. We just call it endowment. I am utterly amazed that the Holy Spirit is being poured out in areas, every place I turn. Folks come to me and say, oh, thank God, the Holy Spirit has come upon my life. There's been a new wine, a new measure of his empowerment. This is happening. I say God's parachuting in behind walls that he never could get in. That's right. Brother Kong and I have been down in a home in Raleigh, a Catholic home. They love the Lord. He parachuted right in. Didn't think it could happen in Catholic groups. A couple weeks ago, I was up in Cleveland in a big Episcopal church. If the Lord could get in that place, he'd have to parachute. And he did. Three, four hundred that have come to really know the, not only the life and fellowship, but the endowments, the Holy Spirit really coming upon them. And this is wonderful. I thank God. But it's as though the Lord has been saying, life, fellowship, endowments, all of these things in their place are something very new, very wonderful that we see today. But he wants something else. What does a new wineskin represent to you? What does a new wineskin represent? A totally new vessel for the expression of all that he wants, his life, his fellowship, his endowments. And this vessel that God is preparing, I think it's something utterly new. I have great anticipation. Men are all the time trying to fit the things that they have back into the old. And God's word all the way through is what? New, new, new, new. Don't forget it. It's new. Something new. This is my anticipation tonight. The people that I meet are often fearful of what the Lord is doing today because they think we're, that we're talking about something they've seen or something they've experienced or something they can imagine. Then I'd be fearful too. My heart is set in this hour for the new thing that God is going to do which is totally of him. A vessel that we'll be able to contain. Now there are a lot of folks who are getting new wine, but you don't know how badly they need the proper vessel because they leak out all over. I mean, it doesn't seem that God's able to, the proper container for the expression of it. God is very careful, and the excitation here is let both wine and wine skin. So he doesn't put the new wine in something of an old skin. That's what happens. You lose both the wine and break the skin. So he's doing something new. Praise the Lord. Well, how do I fit that in with the rest? That's the first chapter. Now I need an eraser. Anyone understand what I'm trying to say with this is the Lord's Word to me? Do you see what we're saying? Where are you? New life? Well, praise the Lord. Coming into new fellowship with people you never, you thought you were all alone? Poor me. And suddenly I find somebody else has the same flow of life? Does God by his Spirit really come in and upon your life? Praise the Lord. Don't get stalled in anything. All four news are what he wants. And he's working to bring his people into a new vessel for the expression, the real exhibition of his own life. And I rejoice in this. I will try it. About the time that we get introduced to something new, our real danger is what the Lord seemed to say to me the other day. Turn this time to Luke 9. And I'd just like to share this with you for a moment. Sometimes I fear that I only speak out of the things the Lord has been dealing with me and maybe it's not really pertinent to others. But I'll share it with you anyway. Luke 9. You know, one of our difficulties is that we get some vision of what we think the Lord's going to do in the new thing he's performing, but we fail to realize that there's a difference between vision, which can come in a brief moment, and then understanding. I want you to see this in this lesson right here. Vision is one thing. How many of you have ever had the Lord unveil something and you thought you understood, you really knew? But in the process of time that went on, it took some readjusting and developing your understanding. What you saw, the way the thing really worked out, wasn't quite the same. Vision is one thing. But understanding comes sometimes a little differently. Well, let's see it here in this incident. Chapter 9, beginning to reach with verse 27. He says, But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God. Till they see the kingdom of God. And it came to pass, about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered. And his raiment was white and glistering. And behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep. And when they were awake, they saw his glory and the two men that stood with him. And it came to pass as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here. What a vision we've had. That's vision. They saw the glory of the Lord in his, in his transfiguration. And the two that represented the old, the Moses and Elias, the law and the prophets, you see. It is good for us to be here. And notice immediately what people who get a vision want to do. Here it is. Let us make three tabernacles. Let's build. One for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias. That's the eagerness, the first flash of seeing something, a vision. Oh Lord, I've got to do something. And I want you to notice now the first danger that really comes out when you have vision without understanding. The first danger is that we try to add the Lord, make room for him in the old program. They were deeply grounded in the law and the prophets, Moses and Elijah. You can hardly appreciate how precious that was to Peter, James and John. The whole Jewish economy, the law and the prophets were until Jesus, but then grace ensued. Every time we see something new, we get a glimpse and it really attracts us. Our first tendency is to make room for it. Try to include it in. Try to fit it into our life, to fit Jesus into the situation. You can't do that, friend. What God is doing in this time is something totally N-E-W. May I say it with all the emphasis I can? You can't fit the Lord into any old program. I believe that just as it was back there when an old period was fading, hear me tonight, an old period was fading and Jesus was ushering in something new, there was tremendous ripping and tearing. There was an awful, awful, devastating controversy that was taking place. It was so hard to make room for the new. Men were willing to add something a little new, but they weren't ready for the old to be devastated and laid aside. That was a transition back there when Jesus was on the scene and grace and truth were being introduced by Jesus Christ in the oldest giving way. Back in 1948, I had a real sense when we saw Israel becoming a nation that God was beginning a transition. I was ministering before in those days and it seemed like ministry was after a certain order, but it's totally different today. Beloved, we are in a real transition. And the reason there's a shattering going on tonight, I don't think it takes much of a profit at all. Anyone with any kind of sight and sense can see that there's an awful shaking going on. And the shattering of old things, the period of grace that we've lived in is giving place to the kingdom. Something new is bursting forth. Well, Lord, help us to see. You can't make room for Jesus when he introduces a new order. It's devastation to all that the old represents. And it's rather interesting right here that Luke adds an apology. He says when Peter has made the statement, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles, one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias. Notice how he puts it, not knowing what he said. Poor Peter, he didn't understand. Not knowing what he said. You can't add the Lord. You can't make room for him. He has to be central. There's only one room for him. It's the room and all the others set aside. This is true. It's a difficulty in our life. Too many times we try to add him, make another room. You can't do it, friends. You'll be in total confusion. There'll be a heavy cloud that comes and that's exactly what happens. While he's at stake, there came a cloud. How many of you have ever been in a cloud? I don't mean up there, I mean cloud down here. Confusion. You can't, you see? That's what's happening. I don't know how to say it tonight. I'm not prophesying at all. I'm just saying that we're in an hour where people are in a cloud and the reason is because an old order of things is giving way to a new order right now. And it's a devastating thing because people are trying to hold on to Moses and the prophets. I mean, just as Peter did. We're trying to hang on to some of our old and God's introducing something new, bursting forth. And it says, And it overshadowed them, and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud saying, This is my beloved son. He's central. He alone is worthy. One house. One building. One tabernacle. He's it. This building won. And then I love this little phrase, which is the key to all the building and all that God wants. Hear ye Him. My prayer for us tonight is that we'll incline our ear and the Lord will really get our ear. What is He saying today? Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart. Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart. He's introducing a new order. And all the time when we go about, as it were, to seek to produce what we think the Lord wants or to fix up the old a little bit, rebuild the tabernacle of Moses and Elijah or whatever tabernacle of grace and truth there is today, He says it's not even a tabernacle of that. I am ushering in a new order. Well, many can receive it, praise the Lord. You can't while I put it on the shelf. But I believe with a deep conviction that something stirs in my heart. It's the only way I can explain something of what's happening. Something new is taking place. Well, to get to the real thing we've been dealing with in the last couple of meetings, we've been talking about God raising up a priesthood. And I want to go into the kingdom aspect tonight. You remember it says over in Revelation 1.5, we might read it, the last part of verse 5 it says, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Now your middle margin would render that just a little better. And hath made us a kingdom of priests. A kingdom of priests. It's not kings, but a kingdom of priests. Unto him be glory and dominion forever. Let's ask the question tonight and just take a little survey. What is God really after? What is he really after in the universe? I think it's interesting when you go back to the very beginning and you see that as he placed Adam in the garden, Adam stood as the first king in a lovely garden. And his words to Adam were, Multiply and increase to build the earth. Adam, I put you here in a kingly sphere with a kingdom before you. The first picture of the kingdom we get is what we call a universal kingdom. The kingdom of God in his reign throughout all created intelligences. This is the first picture of the kingdom. The kingdom of God. He reigns over all that has been made. It includes the angelical. It includes all the handiwork. And when he put this first man in the garden, he was wanting someone to act in his behalf as a king right down here. We know the story. Instead of Adam fulfilling and living unto the purpose and the thing that God really wanted, Adam turned to his own way. We call it the fall. Instead of Adam assuming his kingly rights and privileges, fulfilling what God wanted, he turned, he goes his own way, an independent course. We fall, we find the fall of man. Adam has missed his right to kingship. He is cast, as it were, out of the garden. No longer has the right to eat of the tree of life. And in a sense, we look at the whole human race and we see that in that one terrible act, we all, like sheep, have done exactly the same. Now what is God's purpose? So many in their limited conception of things only think of God creating us so he can... I don't want too much. Give me just one of the Bibles or something. We'll put it down. If that gets too cold, we'll take one. I think it'll... When God created man, he had something in his heart, something far beyond, I think, our fond comprehension. What was he after? What was the purpose in the blueprint of things? What was he really after? I think the reason the fundamental church today is failing to relate and meet the real needs of a generation that's growing up is because they have never had the unfolding of the lives, the thing that God's after. The tendency is to just say, you need to be saved so you can go to heaven. And before we're through, if we're not careful, it sounds like God created somebody so he'd have somebody to save. Without realizing it, the fall becomes necessary. Oh, we wouldn't really think it through, but that's the sort of limited approach. And the average person you meet is just waiting to get to heaven, as though that's the goal. Is heaven the goal? Is that God's purpose? Or does he have something else, something other? What is God's purpose? How can a young lady fit into God's purpose? Unless the Holy Spirit enlightens and helps us to see the real motivation of life, the real purposes of life, can never be fulfilled if we're just sort of twiddling our thumbs and waiting for the rapture. Praise the Lord, someday I'll go to heaven. This is what's wrong in the church tonight. In the meantime, folks say, well, save full, get some more saved, help some more, grow in grace, work a little harder, you'll feel better. The Lord will reward you, give you some more, do some more crowns. That's been the message that I grew up under, too long. And I don't wonder that a generation of young people are growing up and saying, there's something else. What is it? Oh, may the Lord help us to be more clear and enlarge our hearts to see that the kingdom is very real to him. The kingdom that, so to speak, was introduced here, and Adam was placed as the first ruling king, the first one for whom God was going to accomplish something. Now, there had been a revolt in the heavenlies. One of those that he had created had already revolted. I can't go into all the story, but in this revolt, God is now seeking a means by which he can unveil and fulfill his own purposes of the government of God being established not only here on the earth, but taking over all the kingdoms of this world, the heavenly realms also. Far more inclusive than we realize. When Adam was placed here, this one who had revolted already saw an opportunity to put a monkey wrench or to hinder the purpose of God. And he steals into the garden, whispers in Eve's ear, and Adam, with his eyes wide open, makes a choice. And it looks as though the first king that has been placed here is going to miss the purpose and God's thing is going to go awry. But we see that man in his fallen condition, the first Adam in his desperate condition, God has a way. And we just quickly say that through the work of the cross now, God comes down, robes himself in human flesh in the person of the Lord Jesus in order that he might recover for the Lord. He might recover for the Lord. This is something of this first king and his family that have gone astray. Not only bring them back, as it were, and offer forgiveness for what they have done. Adam sinned. Adam went his own way. He needs forgiveness. And so by the precious blood, God offers forgiveness. The incorruptible blood, we read, of the Lord Jesus. But I must stop for a moment and say this, that when God created Adam in the very beginning and he placed him here, Adam had an open door that he might become something more than he was. Adam enjoyed the created life that had been given to him. All that God could give him by creation was image, likeness. He enjoyed the created life of God as one of God's created beings. It's kind of a shock to some people when they realize that Adam did not have divine life. He had the created life of God. The scripture says that the first man, the first Adam, was made a living soul. What does that mean? Adam had a soul, mind, emotion, and will with which he could think, he could react, he could choose. He was a living soul. But I believe that in the innermost part of Adam there was a room, the human spirit, a place that was made for God. And God waits to be invited into that room. He waits for man to receive of the tree of life, which is the life of God, coming into his own spirit. Scripture says as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become the what? Sons of God. So there's a difference now. Let us be very clear. When Adam was placed in the garden, and Adam enjoyed by creation the image and likeness of God, Adam needed to eat of the tree of life to have the divine life of God. The snare of the liberal and the world today is to assume that there's just one big brotherhood of men. Now that's true. That's true if you speak of the brotherhood of Adam. We all have created life, and that's a brotherhood in the first Adam. But there's a vast difference between enjoying the natural life, the created life that comes through our father Adam, and those who come to enjoy a divine life, a begotten life that comes from our father. That's when we are begotten of God. We look up and we say, Abba Father. It's something very different. I grew up somehow with the mentality that Adam had life, divine life, and he lost it. And that God's program is just to restore man back to what had been lost in the garden. That's it. Just restoration back to Adamic perfection. Now, God is working out something far more wonderful. And in it all, there's something of the kingdom purpose that we want to see tonight. So, here is Adam, the first king. He goes his own way. He misses out. And it looks like the kingdom purposes of God are going to be missed. They're going awry. But God sends his own lovely son, who comes down, and through the shedding of his own precious blood, man, as it were, is brought back to the very line that Adam, he's just forgiven for what he's done. Adam needs something else. What is it? He's been sent out of the garden. He can't eat the tree of life. God needs not only to forgive him for what he's done, but to once again make the tree of life available. Except that you can't eat the tree now. Man has sinned. And therefore, we enjoy the privilege of a lamb slain, whose blood is shed. And our eating of the lamb now is the basis for our receiving the life. This is what we have in Jesus Christ. So God introduces something. The blood that brings forgiveness and his life. We are begotten. And I don't know if you can see in my diagramming here that when he brings us to forgiveness, that would merely bring us to the plane that Adam was on. But when we receive Jesus as our tree of life, or the lamb as our very life, we are lifted to a higher plane than Adam ever knew. Oh, beloved, do you see tonight the privilege that's ours is not only to have the negative things dealt with by blood, forgiven for what man has done, I'm afraid there are a lot of folks who only know pardon. I mean, they only think of it in the realm of pardon. But God's full package to us is two incorruptible things. Peter says, it's the incorruptible blood by which we are redeemed. Then a couple verses later he says, being born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word. Two incorruptible things. And in these two things, man is lifted into a new relationship, a begotten relationship. The question is, when man enjoys forgiveness and life, then what? So we make a little chair, sit down, praise the Lord, wait until the rapture. How many of you do that? How many of you know people that that's the scope of their... Praise the Lord. Or get up and walk around a little bit, working for the Lord, as we said last night. What's God's purpose? What is he after? Oh, I don't want to be funny. It's too serious. But my heart, my heart is burdened because we need an enlarging of our scope of understanding. It's wonderful to know the grace of God. Here it is. It's wonderful to know the grace of God that has been provided through Jesus Christ. Grace and truth has come by him. But that's to introduce us to something else. What is the other? What else is God after? Here was a gateway. When Adam turned to his own way, God introduces a means by which he can, through the work of the cross, through his lovely son, bring man back. And lo and behold, instead of a goal, we have another gateway. It's not the goal. It's the gate. To what? The fulfilling of God's purpose. We ask the question tonight, then. What is this? What is this purpose that God is working out? What does he want? What is he after? Well, we read it a little bit ago. We read it a little bit ago in Revelation. He has washed us and has made us of what? A kingdom of priests. And out of this priesthood, there should be a showing forth and extolling and exultation of him in all his loveliness. Not just a priesthood, but a kingdom of priests. A kingdom of priests. I think as I move around amongst the Lord's people, there's an emphasis on priesthood today. Thank God. Praise the Lord. We are made, we are made to be priests, offering up spiritual sacrifices. This is wonderful. But there is the kingdom of priests. And what does it mean for God to develop a kingdom? You see, all that Adam failed and missed and lost, now God is going to use a kingdom of priests. He's going to use a kingdom of priests. He's moving from within here to establish a kingdom of priests as a means by which one day the whole of this government will spread throughout and he'll take the universe and God shall be all and in all. That's where it's moving toward in 1 Corinthians. When the Son has brought all things under his feet, he will turn it all over to the Father and the kingdom then will have come into its fullness and its spread. But in the meantime, what? In the meantime, what? Where are we today? Well, here we have the universal kingdom. We call it all the nations, all of the spheres of government. And it's interesting when you get into the Word of God, you find that all government and all authority issues from one place. Where is it? I tell you, the kingdom of God is in its eternal, its universal aspect. All the kings are in his hands and he can turn them like the rivers, he said, whether it's whoever he wants them to go. It seems like when a Hitler rises up and a Stalin comes on the scene in their awful treachery, that they're not really under God. But don't forget, God's government is a universal thing and he just allows a Hitler or a Stalin or any one of these tyrants, momentarily, they're fitting in and he's using them in his permissive ways. For what is right? That's the definition we need of freedom today. Adam, I give you freedom. How do we interpret freedom? We interpret freedom as the right to do what I want to do. The right to do what I want to do is the modern definition of freedom. Oh, I'm free to do anything I want to do. How long do people like that stay free? They drink as much as they want until pretty soon they can't control and they're not free anymore. It's the course. So the freedom that God gives, I believe, is the power to do what is right, what a man ought to do. What would Adam stand here then? The right to do what? He went his own way and he did what he wanted. That's abusing. Freedom is for something. It's not just from, but it's for something. So, here we are. God delegated to the first Adam. The first Adam has failed. And now he has delegated to his lovely son, the Lord Jesus, who has come in. And through him, he is bringing back, he's bringing into being the kingdom that he's after. Well, let's just go a little further. There's such a thing as resident authority in the power. Then it is delegated. You can delegate to someone, but until the individual accepts the position, it's not only delegated, it must be accepted. How many of you know fathers who don't accept their delegated position? It's easier to say, Mama, you do it. How many of you know mothers who don't accept their delegated position? They turn it over to the teacher in school or the babysitter or somebody else. They don't accept their delegated position. Oh, one day when God opens our eyes and helps us to see the place, the position, he has delegated to us, and with our hearts and our eyes wide open, we begin to say, Lord, I accept the calling. I accept the place. I accept what you've given me. I'd like to stop with that a little while, but it just comes in incidentally. It's one thing to know that God has delegated. It's another thing in a spiritual way to come to accept. And along with accepting then, in a true sense, we come to the next. If I really accept the place, the calling that God has given me, knowing the order of things, then I have the responsibility of representing him in the calling that I have. And so authority must be represented. If you accept, sometimes it would be good if we could go through the Old Testament and see all the principle of representation. Every time I turn around, I'm beginning to see that all the incidental things that the Lord has hidden, they represent something. And the total of our life is quite an unveiling of whether we really understand the authority that has been delegated, whether it's been accepted, and whether we are in the place of representing. I have a friend who had just been reading this portion in Romans. We'll read on a little bit. Verse 2 says, Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. Verse 2, And they that resist shall receive to themselves condemnation. For rulers are not a terror to good work, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power of authority? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the saints. For he that is all authority, all these who have been delegated something, they are the minister of God to thee for good. If we could bring this conception of law and order, the one whom we have placed in position, there might be needs and all the rest in the life, but he is God's, as it were, minister. He is God's servant there in the order of things. My friend was coming to visit us last February, I think it was, driving up from Missouri. That evening about 7 o'clock, they got weary and stopped in a little city, got out and was walking up and down the block and he chanced to meet a cop standing at the corner. You'd have to know my friend, he's a rather talkative and warm sort of a fellow, and he walked up to the cop and he said, How do you do, sir? Did you know you were the minister of God? He'd just been reading this verse. And to his amazement, the cop smiled back and he said, Yes, sir, Romans 13, 4. And they shook hands and he said he found a policeman who really loved the Lord. And they had a good time of fellowship for a few minutes. He said, Yes, sir, I've come to realize that because I am under authority, I have authority. A wonderful principle. It gets to the basic thing that I'm trying to say tonight. We sometimes look at those who serve the Lord, preachers and others, and we give them a special calling. I'm after you tonight. Does God have a place for you? Does God have a place for you? A sphere for you? A calling for you? Sweetheart, does God have one for you? And you? And we're all what? Ministers of God in our sphere. We accept that which has been delegated to us and we represent in our little sphere. Oh, dear Lord, help us to represent you. A wife, a mother, a husband, a teacher. I don't care what it is. Verse 4. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject to submission, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake. For this cause pay ye tribute also for they that are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing. And he goes into all of government. There's an awful tendency today to play down and to ridicule order in government. I say to you, government may not be all we'd like for it to be, but thank God for government. Thank God for the order of things. We have a responsibility, I do believe. Have you accepted? And are you representing then the Lord in whatever sphere and calling he has given to you? So the kingliness with which God begins to prepare us then is when we see the order of his government. Every one of us have a calling. Every one of us have our individual sphere, something delegated to us, a place to fill. Though that we learn to accept and represent the Lord in the way that he's called us. This brings about the first principle of the kingdom working within us. I am under authority. I have a place to fulfill. I represent the Lord one way or another. Now, quickly, we have some things that we're trying to say tonight that God is really after, he is really after those who will experience the reign of the Lord, not just over all things, not just through all the government that has been established, but that they have come to know and experience the government of the Lord in their own life. And when the Lord brings this about, we have here what is known as the church. Those who have the life of the Lord. This is the first sphere in which God is saying, Oh, if my church can be the kingdom. If it can be the kingdom of freedom. Reigning, taking over the rule, the extending of God's own government. The tragedy is that there are many who have the life of the church. That is, they have the life of the Lord. And they know what it is, we say, to be in this sphere. We'll just stop for a moment and say, there is a difference between those who have the life and those who have the mere profession of things. You see, what happens in the world system today is that this mustard seed that God planted, which was in a mystery form to represent this very life of the kingdom, something happened to that mustard seed that it just took on a different nature and character. And the little mustard seed that was to grow up, which really represents this realm of the kingdom, it says, it became a great big abnormal tree. How many of you ever saw a mustard seed that became a tree? It's the perversion of an enemy who came in. Read it in Matthew 13. And here you get a little different picture then. The thing that should have been this got bigger. And out here we have a professing Christianity. It looks like a big thing all over the world today. But you know and I know that this big thing that God expanded in which all the fowls of the air have come to make their nest is not what we would call those who have the life of the Lord, been born again by the Spirit of God. Oh, what a wonderful thing it would be if those who have the life of the Lord could become the priesthood, could become the kingdom. That would bring in the purpose of God. As I said this morning, the tragedy is this. There are many of those who have the life of God, who enjoy sins forgiven. They have all of this. But they do not know the reality of God's reign in their own life. I ask you, how many Christians, they have the life of the Lord. How many do you know who have the inward reality of the kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost? They're called to be a kingdom. They're not just professing like a big tree that's become abnormal and missed it, you see. And this brings us then to see that what God is doing today, back where we were this morning, God is calling for those who out of hunger and deep longing, they're crying for the reality of the kingdom. It's not a sphere. In this we read Colossians 1.13. He says that when we are born of the Spirit of God, we are translated into the kingdom of his dear son. Right here, that's the church. Translated into the kingdom of his dear son. Colossians 1.13. How many of you know that there are those who have been translated into that kingdom, but the reality of the kingdom is not being brought out in them? We have a few more hours. I'd like to take you into God's working of the reality in us. It's the thing we see in Matthew. Oh, if there's anything that's my burden tonight, it's that those who've been translated into this as a sphere will now know the reality of it in their own life. What's happening in groups, every place we turn. Some hearts, some individuals are crying out, Oh dear Lord, to know the reality of me. The reality. The reality. Not just an outward kingdom we've been translated into, but the reality of the kingdom that's working within us. This is why we expect righteousness, the standard of God. Joy, peace. These are the minds of priesthood under the Lord. We should say that all of this, let's say this should be all of that. The whole of the church should experience the reality. This morning we were speaking of how Israel had made the golden calf. They had missed the thing that God was after. And so he asked who there would be among them that would come and stand by him. Moses stood at the gate of the camp. Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come and stand by me. And who was it that came over to stand by Moses? The Levites. The Lord will always have a group who will stand with him for his full purpose. It is not that the Levites themselves are going to get in on something so much better. It's that when God looks down, he is able to see that the Levites are living under him for the needs of the others. That God might accept the whole, because having seen, oh let us get no ambitious, as it were, no self-righteous attitudes. If there's any hunger and longing within us for reality, it is something the Lord has given. We've heard the call, who will stand by me? Let us answer. And there to be the kingdom of peace that will please him. It just could be, I add in closing, it just could be that those who know the reality of the kingdom now are those who will have an abundant entrance to reign with him in the kingdom that will one day appear, when the kingdom of the heavens comes. This is the motivation. This is the desire. This is the longing that somehow pulls at my own heart, oh Lord, that your purpose so far as once again recovering all that Adam lost, your purpose will be fulfilled as the kingdom of peace, the church, comes into the reality, takes over the reign. And so the reality will extend finally throughout the whole until in due time, when the Lord Jesus has put all authority every contrary force has been put to naught and he rules head plus body ruling. The Lord with his many-membered body ruling. And all things are brought into a universe. One will. That's what it means. Then he will turn it over to his Father. The question tonight is why worry about all the universe? Until he has first settled this little universe right here. Oh, to bring our hearts, David said, unite my heart to fear thy name. From whence come wars and fighting among you? I get so tickled with people who are fighting wars out here. You just stop the Vietnam War. You just stop all this. But the real fighting is where? From whence come war? They have their first thought. God's word to us tonight is this. If we have really come to know the Lord Jesus, his rights and his claims over our life, we submit to him. He brings, first of all, inwardly, a spirit of obedience. A spirit of submission within. It becomes very practical when I see my place. Whether it's in the church, or whether it's in the home, or wherever it is, once I've been caught by the Lord's claims. And I see his wonderful chain of command as it works throughout all the order of things. I realize I cannot move on to be a part of a kingdom of priests until it first begins with a submission. You can tell in a life that's been conquered. Shall we pray? Lord, we thank you in this closing hour. You're working. Every place we see, your people, there's a groan and a longing within. Not just that we might know how to submit, but that the spirit of the Lord, a spirit of submission, will reign within us. That which happened when Adam turned to his own way is being overcome as the Lord Jesus has come. And by his spirit, he's taking each of us as little kingdoms, individuals, and bringing us into our place, into our calling. Oh, if there's some tonight, if you want to last it for yourself, help them, dear Lord, to see, to accept the place, you would put that. There's so much lawlessness, so many of your children who've never really come finally to that one thing. Lord, what will thou have me to do? Lord Jesus, I submit to thee. We claim this for our hearts individually. We know that when you can do this, there will be the real overflow of praise. There will be the real joy, the real peace, the righteousness reigning within. We come to experience the reality of the kingdom. We've heard about it. We've talked about it. It's been an outward thing. We want to know the reality of it enough. Thank you, dear Lord. Seal it to us. All that Adam lost, you're bringing into being through the Lord Jesus, the last Adam. He's the head, and we're members of him. Oh, teach us a little bit of what your purpose is regarding the kingdom, and we'll give thee the praise and the honor and the glory as we ask it in Jesus' name with thanksgiving. Amen.