In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of being a son to God. He refers to scripture, specifically the Roman lesson in the famous 8th chapter, to explain that nothing in this world can come to fame unless it goes through death. The preacher encourages the audience to be moved by the Word of God and warns against being unmoved or unaffected by it. He also highlights the concept of the body of Christ, emphasizing that believers are chosen in Christ before the foundation of God.

On to the theme again then, beloved, in Ephesians, chapter four. I want the Lord to talk to my heart again as I read these opening words. I may read them every morning, I'm not committing myself to a form, I don't know, but just a glance at them again, I don't know what Scripture does to you, but just a glance at them again, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, sort of opens my heart in a wonderful way. I don't know whether it does that to you, or whether you can read this thing just intellectually and it leaves you unmoved, or really unmoved, so that in the end it only becomes an academic exercise anyway. Beware if you're never moved by the Word of God. Beware, you're in a parlous condition. You know that, don't you? Well, I hope you do. I mean, if you go to a doctor, for instance, he might tell you to cross your knees, and he'll just tap you below that kneecap, and he knows that there's no response. You're in a pretty bad way, and on some nights. And it's a very, very big thing, just the slightest tap will do it. And it's like this with God. And that's how I approach it. All right. Walk worthy, it says in verse 1, and I want to do that as I go through this great doctrine. I want to walk worthy of it. I want my soul to move in it, worthy of its greatness, able, if God is being willing, and I think he is, to understand something of what he's really saying. I wonder if, when I said that this was the Apostle's Doctrine, I have not only committed myself to it in words, but also in writing, and I firmly believe it, that when I say that, and you say, well, this is the Apostle's Doctrine, all right, you read through it, let's do it again. It's one body, verse 4, one spirit, even as you are called, in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. What a tremendous thing it is. And possibly, I only say possibly, I mustn't impute wrong thinking to you, but possibly you may think, well, if that's the statement of the Apostle's Doctrine, where's the Atonement? Where's the Doctrine of the Atonement? Where's the Doctrine of Redemption? Where's the Doctrine of the Second Coming? See, all these things. Where is the Christology? And because you and I, possibly, if we haven't been determined then, through colleges or teaching places, whatever they may be named, say, well, why are all these things not there then? We need the Doctrine of Reconciliation. We need the Doctrine of all these things. Well, I'll tell you why they're not there, because they are not basic. Now, don't let your hackles lie. This is the doctrine behind the doctrine. Write that down if you want to write that. This is the doctrine which necessitated all the other doctrines coming into being and being taught. Now you will understand. I trust. The doctrine behind the doctrine. There's always something behind something unless you go, until you go back to the ultimate beginning. If I may put it this way, and you will excuse me, I know God, knowing my paucity of understanding and my limited ability to express these things, the doctrine behind this doctrine, which I said is behind the other doctrines, one can't believe, is God himself. And that's why, in no other place where doctrine is brought in, that's the doctrine of sin, do you get this statement, keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. So this is the unity of the spirit expressed doctrinally. This is the one great thing. Because God the Father brought forth one body, I believe, from the end to the beginning, I said this the other morning, he begot one body through the womb of Mary. And in that one body there was one spirit. Hallelujah. You got that tremendously clear. And you're in fundamental things. Now that, to our minds, we see this taking place in history. Yet the angel came to Mary because of the determination of God the Father. And with her consenting person she handed herself over to God for God to bring out into the world whereby this doctrine could be constructed and written into scripture. God brought into being the plan, the scheme, the doctrine, if you like, that he had way back in eternity. Are you following what I'm saying? So this is the doctrine that's fundamental to the atonement, the redemption, the reconciliation, to all the other things, the sanctification. This is the height of Paul. This is why Paul says, and no one else says it, he's not belittling anybody else, but Paul was raised up to be the apostle and teacher of the Gentiles, as I pointed out to you, and there are all Gentiles in the room. This is why he talks, as he does, to the Corinthians. And he says, and I'm going to put it more forcefully than it is in scripture, because it will bring it out. I am the wise master builder. I have laid the foundation, and this doctrine is foundational to the rest of the doctrines. Do you see that? And once this, I was going to say, flows into our being and doesn't end anymore, and it's in the epistle of fullness, you'll remember, being filled into all the fullness of God, that's how he ends the perception. God helps us to see the continuity of truth that runs through these epistles. The epistles are not an odd text clung together, nice thought put together so that preachers can get something to found a few remarks on. They are an unfolding of the inevitable processes of the mind and the will of God, he being who and what he is. When I say what, that enables me to use this word, doctrine, about God. For God, Jesus said this, we know what we worship. You keep this very clear. He passes into the neuter. And he wants us to understand that there is nothing in this whole creation, even if it be throbbing with the life of God, that you can't ask the question, what about it? How about it? When we know all the time it's him, this blue sky, there's an expression of him, he says, well, ha ha, you don't know anything, it's not blue. Oh, yeah, I know that, I went to school too. Not a very good one, but I did go. But where did it all come from? How can it look blue? How can you make this vast black density up there look blue, Lord? I'm glad that, don't you see, I'm the defeater of all the scientists in the world, till they get bored again and they begin to understand me, and that's the wonder of it. Hallelujah, then. Now, you're really having to do some thinking this year, aren't you? We've always been in the primary class. And God wants us, and I want to say this, may God expand this Bible week. Well, I don't mean in times, I mean, but in numbers. May there be those who want to know. What will they want to float about in air with their ideas in the mind? But having discovered these things, I said, Lord, I'd like to know how they work. I'd like to know a little bit more about it. Nothing wrong. Never act for fear of mind. Only keep it on the tight rein. So the Lord unfolds his truth. And therefore, beloved, this morning we are going to look into this great truth of you are called in one hope of your calling. Hallelujah. It's wonderful, isn't it? And these words, even as, I don't know how your mind takes those two words, because he's now moving onto you, my call. I am called. That's now focal in the mind. It usually is. Let me illustrate it. Jesus Christ comes. He walks by the Sea of Galilee. And there they are, and they hear a call. Peter! James! John! Come. And that's how it all began. They didn't know anything about God manifest in the flesh. Not then. The rumours seeping through from a bygone day thirty years earlier of a virgin conceiving and bearing a son didn't mean much to them, really. It started with the call. Amen. Now you've been called. This is how Paul keeps on. Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called an apostle. Not, call an apostle of Jesus Christ, puff, puff, puff. And now and again I do the work of a slave. Oh no. He sees the thing differently. He sees himself enchained to the will of God. He sees himself bound up in the eternal purposes of God. He sees that. He didn't see it at the time, but he would have asked him when he was a Pharisee. He would have said he was following a calling. That's what he would have said. Nobody was bound to be a Pharisee. Nobody was born a Pharisee, unless we say we're all born Pharisees, that is, people with masks on. And that has to be taken off and brought to reality. We're all born hypocrites. Oh, but don't you? Yeah, well, whether you like it or whether you don't. That's right. And it has to be dealt with by God. We are not what we seem to be when we are born. You understand that? You seem so sweet. You seem so lovely. A black dog wouldn't have melted in your mouth. And you didn't always keep the milk down either. But people wanted to eat you. You were so lovely. And you grew up and you were so horrible. Yes, you were. Yes, you're still living the lie and deceiving your own self. Naturally, we're all hypocrites. You don't say that, but we are. Look at Adam and Eve. I mustn't take Roger's grounds on them. I said these last chapters. Of course, he may just have got into it. But anyway, they practised hypocrisy straight away. Soon as they took that fruit. That's right. Went here, made themselves ate them. They got... He said it was hers. She said it was something else. And there you are. And away it goes. And Paul would have considered himself to be called of God. He said in the Galatian letter he excelled in the Jews' religion above all his contemporaries in his own religion. A man called with a calling in him. Now listen. I don't want to expand just on Paul. I want to come back to truth. Not that Paul wasn't a true man. Don't read anything into my remarks. Here is the big thing. You were called. Now even as you were called do you remember that when you were called you said, well I didn't hear a voice speaking out of Jesus join the club. Neither did I. I always suspect people who hear voices calling from another Jesus. Always do. Sorry. In fact, if I hadn't got to tell him what happened to me then you'll suspect me. Well, no. What I suspect is often a deception. I don't mean the person telling a lie when I say, well I heard a voice calling me. I don't mean that. I suspect the source of the voice. Well, here we are. You were called. Okay. Now, even as you were called we'll go back. Listen. Listen. As one spirit. Hallelujah. All these things, beloved, come in the area of a soul's awakening to God. In that great area of truth in which we've been dead. He says so in the second chapter you have he christened who were dead. And he broke into your death with the call. Lazarus! Come forth. Of course your name's not Lazarus. But he broke into us. Glory be to God. We become aware from the moment we're called all we should do if we really have life is we're unaware from that instant you've not been born. You keep that clear. For the voice is christening. It awakens you. That's why he writes in the same or in the next chapter five he says Awake! Rise from the dead. Christ will give you life. We've never received what the old people used to call the effectual calling of God. They say, Are you right on Calvinistic lines this morning? Yeah, I might be on the opposite lines tonight. I don't know Calvin and I don't know Armin. I don't know them. Haven't you read them? No. Do you expect it before you die? No. I'm not boasting either. I'm just telling you so that we clear our lines. You're made awake to these things. And blessed is the man or woman who having been quickened by God you have to be quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins goes after God and everything that God is and has. There shall not be one year of his life but that he will learn God and learn of God if he will follow the call. For you can be called and by not following your call you can lose what was in the call for you. That's the story of thousands of men's lives. What a glorious truth it is then to understand that I've been called in one hope of my calling. I'm glad that it's your calling and it's not just one man's call. And I'd like to say this that within the calling there are lots of callings. Just to confuse you a lot more and put it further. In the calling there are lots of callings. Here they are. I can read some of them for you. It's in verse 11. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. There you are. They're all callings within the calling. There's nothing complicated about that. In your heart you may have a calling. You see a person who says I'd love to be an architect and you go and get linked to an architect and the first thing you're called is an office boy. You see what I mean? That's within the calling. That's within the calling. Because what you hope is to be somebody with a lot of letters after your name that mean nothing to the ordinary man in the street. And according to some builders I look at mean nothing where science is concerned. Beauty of science anyway. Here is the whole glory and wonder on it. Within the calling there are many callings but all within these callings how glorious it is then to know what God is really wanting of us all, beloved. And there's a hope. Now, you may call it your hope and your calling. But being in the Calvinistic mood this morning I'm going to talk about God in the calling. For that is the most important thing. The trouble with most people is that stupidly enough and I guess we're all subject to the temptation we hear a call and we build up hopes upon the call. Isn't that right? You know, you go and you're waiting for a job you see so you sit there waiting for the interview and find there are ten others. Everybody goes in and their credentials are examined and you go alright well you sit back there and then presently when there are all ten have been in you're hoping you're going to be the one called in for the interview and you know it happens and you're made the managing director or something like that. That's the thing. Now that's my hope but I want to talk about God's hope. Now you may think it's a strange thing to connect hope with God. You say if he knows and if he's a God of faith how can it be hoping for something to happen when either he knows it's going to happen or if he had enough faith we use the modern jargon he could make anything work. So why hope then? Seems such a middle ground which is no man's land. But don't you believe that? Do you know why you have hope? Do you know why you have the ability to hope? Do you know why that thing is in your heart? And do you know why you have these great hope souls? It's all connected with the fact that you are a spirit and that there's a great future ahead and you don't know the future and you can't predict the future. Yes. I might go and sit in John's garden you know how big it is. I don't suppose I will. And it's black and cold and gloomy and you know how I hate rainy clouds and gloominess and cold and you say what are you doing there? I'm hoping the sun's going to shine. You see. What a hope in Exeter. But here's the truth. There's a future. It's not always going to rain. It's not always going to be cold. It's not always going to be dark skies. Bright skies will soon be on me. You see. That's hope. And hope is based upon certainty. You say no, no, that's contradictory. You just said you don't know. Oh yes. It's like old Moore. He bases his almanac, hopefully for 12 months on what took place in the last 50 years and he's supposed to be a prophet. Of course he's not, he's a scoundrel if he's still alive of course. But here is the thing. Hope is based upon certainty. Alright. Certainty. Certainty. That's what hope is. Amen. And that certainty is God. Hope thou in God. That's my hope. Glory. And so we're on the nature, we're on the beings, we're on the character of God. Isn't that right? The doctrine behind all the doctrines. Amen. Isn't this lovely? Hope. What is it that Wesley had us sing? We hardly sing this hymn in the Blue Book. Oh God, my hope, my heavenly rest. My all of happiness below. Grant my unfortunate request. And so we go on in that marvellous hymn that most of the fellowships seem to miss and pass by, but it has verses like this in it. I cannot see thy face and live. Then let me see thy face and die. Oh, there's another little, little phrase. What? One drop? One chance insight. I want a sun, a sea of light. What's the matter with you all? Throwing over marvellously inspired words for doggerall. What's the matter with you all? Doggerall that just about leads into the nowhere. Instead will reveal truth that will lead you into the heart and experience it. Just to get you happy for a meeting or something like that. Thank God not all of them are. But don't throw away the gold. Let the Lord show us the truth, beloved Troy. And move on into these great realms of the knowledge of God. It's all based on certainty. And God is a God of hope. Is God hopeful? Yes. And I want to tell you something. Did you know this? He's hopeful of me. Now, you may say, well, you're pretty hopeless. But you see, God's hopeful of me. I will be what he wants me to be. And I will attain unto what he wants me to attain to. I don't know whether I will. But God's full of hope. There is a quality in God which we have described. Remember, words are only descriptive. They're appellations. They're something by which men try to describe, often that which is beyond them, outwith them, something they feel, something they're reaching after. The only way you can do it is forget it to a person's mind by a word, and how they'll interpret it when they hear it, only God knows. There is this quality in God that God is a combination of all these glorious things. And in our language we say, well, that's hope, and that's faith, and that's something else, and that's something else, and that's something else. I learned something this week. You'd never think you'd come to Exeter to learn, really, would you? But I learned what a formicory was this week. I never knew until this week. Do you know what a formicory was? No, it was in the telegraph. I don't know whether you have a telegraph, but I rather like doing it occasionally if I get time. And so on. A formicory, and I must confess now, my wife appeals to me, she thinks I know everything, rather thinks I know the dictionary, but I was stymied on this one. But I sat in the car, and we were just talking about it, and a voice, a better voice than mine, said, I think it's an anthill. Oh, well, I didn't know a formicory was an anthill. Did you? Yes, come on, be honest. Well, one person could nod his head. He really does know something. A formicory. Sure. I said, yeah, that's right, it was three, four, so, anthill. But I didn't know that. You see what a dunce I am. But here, here is the thing, you see, you, we, we, we, a formicory, so what's that? You say, hope, what's that? And I, if I asked you to describe hope, what would you say? It's this, it's that. Call it the buoyancy of the soul. Oh, not quite right. It's good. What is hope? Somebody says it springs eternal in the human breast, it's the oil, wonderful poetry. What is hope? Well, I'll tell you, the Ephesians, the Hebrews, it's an anchor of the soul. Hope will stop you from drifting, did you know that? And God doesn't list. You see what I mean? There's a quality in God. He's steadfast. He's immovable. And so we go on. There is this in God. And He has a great hope. I will repeat it. He hopes that because He is who He is, and I am who I am, and because He is what He is, and I am what I am, projected, so far as I know, I'm going back further than this present place, but in my present consciousness, before I know God, projected into this world, I've been born, where have I come from, why am I here, where am I going, what is it all about? I'm adrift on the sea of life, and I've got everything militating against me, whether it comes from the stuff that upsets my tummy when I'm born, or the politics that's drummed in your ears every night. Where are we going? What's it all about? Some professor says this, and some lecturer says something else, and you know positively well that they're dealing superficial things of the mind, and there's something inside that says, I'm hungry, I'm left stranded still, what is it we're seeing? The waters of the earth have sailed, and I am thirsty still, I long for springs of heavenly life, and here all day they rise. Do you know that great hymn? See there's something else you've abandoned. It's a great thing. Hope? I'm going to shock you now. It's a hunger. Do you know what? Yes it is. You see, we get tied up with eating bread, and statements in John 6, and all this business, and it's all in words, and even the great words of Jesus Christ, they fail so much, says, I'll send you THE word. It's a man. He's embodied hope, faith, love, all along. I dare not go through. Take up the time. You do not see. You must. And God has this in him, with his son. I want you to be a son. That's what I want. I want you to be a real son to me. And of course, the great language of Scripture brings to mind, and we'd better go back into the Roman letter now, and in this famous 8th chapter. Now, nothing or no one in this world comes to fame. I use the word famous. Nothing comes to fame unless justified. For instance, you might go out on the tennis court this afternoon and bang a ball about, but you'll never play at Wimbledon. And I understand that. It has to come. It has to be justified. So we say, the famous 8th chapter justifies it. And we turn to it, and this is how we read. It says this in the fourth end of the chapter. You will know the well-known passage. It says, let's start at page 6. Leave out the word likewise, because that connects you to the foregoing, and I don't want to touch on that at the moment. The Spirit also helps our infirmities, our weaknesses. Now you can tell this morning how weak I am. We're all groping about. I won't say in the dark, but even in the light, our minds are still going out, searching, looking, wanting, hungering. At this point, you're dead. You're not looking for alternatives to what you've got. That's not what I'm talking about. That's searchable. But in this scene, let me take up the famous statement of David. It used to be in the old Scripture Union portion. Open thou my eyes. You know the chorus? That I may behold. And so on. See, he said this. Go and open my eyes. I want to see more. I want to enter more. He said, well, he understood it so well. Yeah, that's right. But I'll warn you, the more you see, the more you understand, the more you must understand that is the undeniable quest upon which the human soul has been launched by virtue of being human. You see. And this is how it all goes. All right. We don't know what we should pray for. Verse 26. As we ought. Don't you tell yourself you do, because you've got a long prayer list. We don't know what we should pray for. As we ought. But the Spirit itself makes His intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searches the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He makes His intercession for the saints according to God. The words to will of are not in them. You should cross them out. They're not there. He's referring to two things. Intercession by the Spirit is according to God. And saints are only saints according to God. You can try it which way you want. If you're not a saint according to God, it doesn't matter if they put you up in stained glass in a window with a nimbus round your head. This is the whole truth, beloved. He makes intercession. It's always according to God. He doesn't necessarily make intercession according to your ideas or the things you want to pray about. That doesn't stop you. He makes intercession joining with your prayers. I hope that is still inspiring when you say, Oh Lord, I don't know what to pray for. I don't know what to pray for. You've got to pray for the church. You've got money. You've got to pray for this. You've got to pray for this. You've got to pray for that. So you finish up half crippled before you start. You say, Well, don't we need to pray for the church? Yes, yes, yes. Strange. Perhaps I pray for the church in a different way from you. I don't know. No prayer is real prayer just by words. It's got to come out of a groaning of your heart. This is never prayer. And that may be groaning for entirely different things than the things that you're supposed to say. In other words, you are only true, you are only a true being if you are true to your groanings. And you come out of that and you pass into the accepted tenets and language of denominationalism or individualism, whichever it may be. And it's very acceptable to the company you gather with. I trust it's not acid coming out from my tongue. I don't think I've got the poison of aspirin in my lips. But we're here to get down to truth. And God has to shake us free in order to get us back. And this is where the spirit makes intercession. And this is why some people flourish and others don't. They sit back and say, well, how does he do it? How does she do it? How can it be? Somehow, without even knowing it, they let themselves come to what God wants. Listen. It's in verse twenty-nine. Conformity to the image of the Son. That's why they've agreed to conform. Subconsciously they've agreed often. And I want to give you my testimony. It happens to me in the unconscious, subconsciously. Well, there you are, you see. That's why, in bloodyism, Mr. Brotherson, he knows it all. Conform to the image of the Son. And that's quite unconscious and subconscious. It's got to be done there before ever it reaches your conscious mind. Amen. So I'm not now adrift on the great ocean of life. I've heard the call. Let's go. Go read this again. The starting in the doctrine, behind the doctrine, using the neuter term about God. What is God's own inner workings of minds and beings that have been expressed into this? And for which sake, and for the sake of it, there had to be redemption. It was necessary for the blood to be shed. It was necessary for understanding, to get some understanding of sanctification, at least in experience, because we can't always express it right. And I don't know how many different theories have been advanced about the word sanctification. We pass into God. This is the whole thing. Listen. He searches the heart. That's what he's doing in this room this morning. He's searching your heart, friend, and mine. And I tell you, there'll never be much that the God is, in his searching, can't find something there. And there'll never be a preacher, especially a preacher man, if he doesn't find anything in your heart, he'll never make you a preacher, even though you may have the gift of words. It's got to come out of the substance wrought in you. Nothing gathered from your favourite author, particularly. But you seem to have gathered a lot from Wesley, that's right. But they only come and write something into my mind, and I'm thinking, I don't, I don't expect much. The whole marvellous thing is this. He makes intercession for saints according to God. Whatever they say, whatever they think, that's what the Holy Ghost does. And he that searches the heart, knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints, and so on. When that happens, verse twenty-eight, we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are called according to purpose. The verse is not there, you can cross it out. Called according to purpose. Amen. Of course we know it's his purpose, but it's more primitive in our thinking. Called according to purpose. I'm going to do something with you. You're going to do something with you, and now you listen. It's got to be what I say in your life. It's got to be what I say. It's got to be what I want. That's what's in the word conformity. You think, you think that with me, and you come back into the Arminian phase of thinking and say, how wonderful, he's so gracious and tender, loving with me. How patient he's been through the years. Hallelujah. I'm a living testimony to that. But nevertheless, without the seals, only with gold, he bows, and brings you down, and round, and through, and works, and all the things, and you say, this is against me, it's a terrible phase of my life, and you do quite wrong. All things are working together, it's good. Stop. Bleating. Nobody believes they're in the hands of God, though they say so, and they love to read nonsense. Lord, you're going to pluck it out of my hand. That's lovely when you feel like saying it. But when you don't feel like saying it, you forget about it. Everything, beloved, is working together, good, for these people. Then embrace your circumstances. Be careful not to put your arms around the devil, but just embrace the circumstances. Do you know what? They are necessary to you. Absolutely necessary. What the devil might have done to you has not been necessary, and perhaps you should have been rid of it years ago. What a tremendous thing it is to know these glorious truths. How happy the soul that delights itself in God and is free of his circumstances, and free in those circumstances, free of them in the sense that they don't cloy and cling and depress and get you down, but free in them to be a son of God. Amen. What a monarch. And that's what God wants us to see. And I've got to move on, although I'm not going to end too early this morning. It says, Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate 2B must be left out. Cross them out. They're not there. He predestinated you conformed to the image of his Father. Now that's the predestination. That's it. The image. Conformed to that image. He has a purpose. How glorious it is. Then he goes on. He's passed from the doctrine behind the doctrine. Here comes the popular doctrines now. Boulders, justifiers, glorifiers, lovely things. Amen. Quite certain, were they? Oh, he says they're important, but everything is God's. Oh, I want us all by the grace of God this morning to come to this. I'm going back into this, please, you later. Of course you know that chapter 1 is linked with Romans 8. The same man was the author of both. And we read in the Ephesian letter that in my system, before we start, the system of doctrines, real theology this is. You were this. You were that. God did this. God caused it. God did this. This is real theology. Not mere doctrine in that sense. And having talked about doctrine, I don't want to minimize the importance of it. But it's right. It's when you get into mere doctrines that you're in trouble. But when you understand it's a thought structure that men have made purporting to be, I don't say that in any derogatory way, the mind of God and the revelation of God. But you know that they can't all be right because we've mentioned two quite opposing forms of doctrine already. It's such a shame. But in that Ephesian 4 we get this remark from him. This great thing starts with one body. When I turned it on its head and started with one father. All right? Now why did I do that? And what is the body about? Well, we've referred to it in the Romans chapter 8. Now let's look at it in Ephesians 1 on the same page. Here it is. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ according, notice this word according, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Now there's your body. See what? The word body has never been introduced. The word body isn't introduced until the end of the chapter. But that's the body. The body is the body of the chosen in Christ that was there before the world was. Yeah, I suppose this is Calvinism. Of course, you can write this epistle. This is Paulianity, you know the word? Paul wrote it. It's a tremendous thing. We've already mentioned this terrible bondage of the mind that drags people into classes that want to classify them. Nobody feels safe unless they've named something and classified it. Oh, what is it? Oh, what is it? Oh, and Jesus comes in the water. He says, well, cry. They're going to name this spirit walking on the water, you see. Everybody does that. Everybody. Give it a name and boy, they've got it. Now we can nail it down. This is the littleness of man's mind. But just quickly, very educated, you see, that's the curse. The body is exactly this. When you start thinking about the body in the future, this is what it is. The body or the company Oh, well, what do you want to lose? Well, you can lose the sense of this and just think of company. Because there's such a ridiculous lot of people everywhere, millions and millions of them living about, you see. But this is a spirit company that is a body. Think of it. Just to get it into our little minds. See, I know what a body is. And you? Well, you do, don't you? I'm looking at them, trodden. He says, Chosen in Christ. That's the body. Amen. The soul of foundation of all. That's why he started. Now listen, now you can understand why he starts his list of theology or doctrine on that word. There's one body. Where's he gone? Right back into the story. He gives the key to it in the first chapter. You must learn the blessed integration of all Scripture. If we read it out, it would be brought up on this. You know why I think, I don't suppose it will ever be, because lots of my thoughts are air and they sort of go away with the wind. I think it would be a good thing for every church to have periods every week when they read the Scriptures only. And somebody who understood them and could give the right inflection and punctuation, read them out to you. And I tell you what, you go home with a bigger revelation than you get through a word of so-called prophecy. It isn't always so-called. Don't you realize that the whole of the revelation is a prophecy? John said it. If you write the words of this prophecy, that's why at the end of the book it's a prophecy. You say, well I didn't think that was prophecy. Phew. If somebody understood the prophecy, or at least the spirit of means, if they couldn't explain every detail of it, and just read it out in that same flying speed, you'd go home and say, this is wonderful. That's what I think. But there's the man that's going to do it. Here's the glory and revelation. Isn't it a bad thing that the ancient Britain never had a Bible to say, oh look at the Bible, they had to rely on people reading it to them. And it came through a man's experience of God. At least I trust it is not the dead, black, dead, fat, Marie Boehner, there you can go to and you might as well read something out of a newspaper. In fact, it's a footmorphine if it's a newspaper. Look at what they said about Maggie or something, you see. If it was in the newspaper, so vivid, so alive in this world, but not to God. Read it without feeling thy inflections. Maybe fear that you might give the wrong one. So read it deadpan. God help you. I listen to precious brethren, the very gifted in Princeton, I listen to them reading the Bible and I know they haven't got a clue what they're reading. They've got something to preach about. I hope that's, you don't think that's a snide remark. It's true, it's absolutely true. Absolutely, if I wouldn't say it. And this is what's needed. And he's immediately, you see, I started with body, he's Paul. Allow me to explain Paul to you, will you? So I'm Paul. I am, I'm with him now. So I haven't got any queer ideas, I haven't got an astral travel or projectionist spirit. You see, what do you mean you listen to me? What did Jesus say about John the Baptist? He said, this is Elijah. If you can receive it, well, there he was. He said, what's the spirit that's been projected into John the Baptist? No, no, John the Baptist was just a John the Baptist. But he was so identified with that man who'd gone for free with the Lord so long ago. Went up with a chariot of fire, you see. He didn't know God then. He didn't. And you can assume who he was for him. You can hear it in his thundering. You can hear it. Can't you? Can't you hear Elijah say, you generation of bastards, who's warned you of sleep and the wrath that comes? That's the man of fire. You see, it's this. It determines everything. It determines your speech. It determines your tones. It determines your attitude. Oh God, this salvation is mighty. It's wonderful. It's all-embracing. It takes the person, the personality. It takes the body, unredeemed as it is yet. It takes everything for the expression of Christ and the glory of the Lord. That's the great thing we sing about. Looking at it a scan so often. Hoping. Hoping. The Lord has got to get us into that place. And I want to tell you that behind the calling there is this great hope in God. I read it in the same first chapter. Listen. I want the eyes of your understanding to be enlightened. Verse 18. That you may know what is the hope of His calling. What is the hope? I sat in the chair this morning. I made everybody late this morning. Not very often. I generally make them late. But, I made them late. This was, when I sat in the chair this morning. That's right. That's right. And God unfolds the truth and becomes identified with the truth. The hope of His calling. The hope of His calling. And somehow it rings like a bell in your heart. I am praying that the eyes of your understanding should be enlightened. That you should know this great hope of His calling. And thank you so much. Behind that calling, Lord, is your choosing. Your choosing. You knew I was going to respond. You knew that I was going to be born down there in the East End of London or wherever you were born. You knew it all. And you've got a great plan that on the day that I should come forth from the womb of the Spirit, I should come forth with this great predestiny in your heart and under the controlling power of the Holy Ghost. I heard your call, Lord. I didn't know your choice. I've wondered ever since why it should be me. But nevertheless, I know what it's about. A little bit. Yeah. That's the body He chose me in this body. Hallelujah. He chose me in this body with one spirit in it and only one hope in the body. If you ask me, what is your hope in Jesus? What is the hope in the body? Same thing almost. Not quite, but identification of idea and following through with the same truth. What is the hope? What is Jesus? Here I revert back to the other night. Not last night, but the night before when we were on the great truth of the house of God. That was nearly the first thing He said. The first thing that's recorded that Jesus said is this. Don't you know I must be about the things of my Father's house? It's translated in your book perhaps, I must be about my Father's business. But the Greek of it is I must be about the things of my Father's house. Where am I going to start that this thing falsely called a house and went into the temple and kicked them out? Just a little demonstration. Joseph's contempt for money Hallelujah. Now there was a new contempt. You've got contempt for my God's gold and that that I've falsely done these people. I'll have you sold for thirty pieces of silver then. Ha, ha, ha. Don't you see the context? Don't you understand this great thing that's going on in the world of spirit? When Jesus rises about it all He says I'm going home to my Father, your Father. I'll let you get back on that scene. But here it is. It's all one whole through their being who have the wholeness of the vision. And see what it's about. They carve out little bits. They stick a little bit there and they say some entrancing things about it. But to move into this great thing that God has. Hallelujah. There's a choice behind the call. That's why if you read in 1 Corinthians you may think that it's garbled in the first chapter. For he goes on about you see your call in Breson you know, in that first chapter of 1 Corinthians you do see you do it. Do you see your calling? Do you see your calling? Keep reading it and you'll find before you know where you are you're switched into choice. That's what that is. The choice and the calling are really one. They merge. Yes. They merge. He says God has chosen. God has chosen. God has chosen. That's why you're called. That was in the call. My fixed will. And Christians only have trouble when they kick against it through ignorance or through deliberate willfulness. What a marvelous thing it is. Amen. Predestined. I'm looking at verse 11 of chapter 1. Predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will. And unless you and I accept that in our hearts not just to say well the Bible says so I must believe it. It must be true. I mean I've been brought up to believe that the Bible is the word of God. So was I once. You see, what you've got to see is that your inheritance is according to that. Here it is. We've obtained an inheritance only according to this purpose. Wonderful. And you won't have your inheritance. I was on that last night. You will not have it unless you know this great conformity and willingly cooperate with the Lord. For when he called you my brother and my sister it was the hope of his heart that he'd have somebody like his son just once to conform. Now you will know I spoke about the building of Solomon's Temple the other night and how the dig went out into the plain and there they dug molds and they cast the pillars in the mold dug in the earth and they poured in some metal for the shape of this and everything else. All right. But that's not the kind of conformity I'm talking about because the metal has to conform to the mold. But that's not quite the picture. I'm talking about a living body that when there was no such thing as brass or gold or silver way back there in a living being a living being warm heart a loving God that we can just understand and we were conformed in that to move to the heart of being true in it to conform to the thought patterns the unconscious thought patterns that work through the nerves of the body let me come back on this over which you have no control there are things working in my body now I am in yours whether you are aware of it you have no control over them whatsoever they will control you. You say, what? Yes. Don't they control you when you say I want a drink and it's only coffee time and that's something controlling you inside. You say, I can exercise control and I won't drink Ah, but I'm talking about being perfectly natural and normal I could go on I could elaborate I don't know how many things to define them to you but you have no control I have no control over my ordeal nerves they're here, I can't help it I can't stop it so you see I can't control my optic nerves I can't control sometimes I think I see too much I can't stop it you could shut your eyes you could do this and you could do that and I'd bump into somebody straight away, wouldn't I? It's for your own safety that you're made to conform to things that you can't control for your own health for your own strength for your own good I'll go no further than that on just defining you only to let you see it that I've been forgotten in this body and your trouble comes when you will not move in spirit you won't go Amen to understand this great thing that I call in one hope of your calling and I want to join these two words together now in chapter 1 you have in verse 18 preceding the word calling you have this preceding the word calling in chapter 4 you have your calling his calling my calling I'll make it personal not you I'll include you in it but you've got to make it very personal for yourself his calling my calling his calling my calling is it sinking in? his calling my calling his calling my calling what do you mean? I mean his calling is my calling I've sent to my father and your father I've sent to my God and your God his calling my calling he has purposed it he has willed it he has brought that into reality it's got to be son it's got to be daughter it's got to be he knew that I was going to be born of the Spirit and just as you when you knew or your mother knew that you were going to be born into this world you had to come forth from your mother's womb conformed to a human being shape head, nose, eyes, mouth no teeth a lot of hair you're soon going to lose that's right ten toes ten fingers if you call your thumb you're conformed to the image that's right and God says don't you think I'm going to beget children that aren't conformed to my image either don't you think that I'm born of God in his mind his calling is I know it goes without calling because you can't literally tie it up with human births or illustrations started with the men on the lake a call a call and they responded because we are beings capable of responding but in his heart when I was born of the Spirit of God I was conformed and I want to say to you beloved that the image that's in the Holy Ghost is Christ and that's why the Holy Ghost had to come on Mary for Jesus to be born born even into this human of the Spirit in the Spirit into the Spirit everything conforms and that's why my precious brother and sister you've got to know there's only one Spirit you dare not separate from me or I from thee you dare not for you to bring about you say well we have different bodies gathered I know, I know I can't be gathering in St. Barbery this morning of course I can't there's one body beloved and one Spirit and I'm not trying to conform you to my ideas of dirty amity you can all go and do as you like but don't you dare if it's wrong that's the wonder we remain one and here's the great calling there's something in me which deludes me strangely enough there's something in me which compels me there's something which draws me there's something which drives me and if you don't know that you're dead listen some of the great things that work in your body you've become aware of certain things that have got to happen you've become aware your nerves are telling you your muscles are conforming to it I won't expect these things and then you're driven to do what they say oh yes you are driven I'd better not say any more well let me say the things that when you were a child you just had to put your hand up and say please may I leave the classroom you had no concern and that's it it becomes a drive this is God Paul who would say I am what I am by the grace of God would have to say I've got to be what I am by the grace and power of God all right we'll stop tomorrow morning by God