In this sermon, the speaker discusses his threefold vision. Firstly, he talks about his calling to do evangelistic work with the National Young Life Campaign and how his vision has continued with evangelistic campaigns. Secondly, he emphasizes the importance of everyone carrying a pocket testament and using it for personal sowing. Lastly, he shares his vision for revival and the need for individuals to come to the cross and find new life. The speaker also mentions his experience of being part of a team and witnessing God move in a powerful way during a conference.

I want to turn you this morning to the second book of Kings and we're just going to read a little bit of that well-known and well-loved story of Naaman the leper whom Elisha was able to point to the place of healing. Elisha didn't heal him, God did, but he was the one who pointed him to the place of healing. To Kings chapter 5. To Kings chapter 5. And in as much as I'm only going to allude to this instant later on we will just read the relevant parts. Verse 10. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him saying go and wash in Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come again to thee and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth and went away and said behold I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper. Are not of Barna and Phapa rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage and his servants came near and spake unto him and said my father if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather then when he says to thee wash and be clean. Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying of the man of God and his flesh came again like the flesh of a little child. And he was clean and he returned to the man of God he and all his company and came and stood before him and he said behold now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. That's one of the Old Testament conversions. By the way preachers I'd like to be in your shoes because you have the chance to take series. I'd love to take a series on Sunday evenings. The great conversions of the Old and New Testament. What a subject. I tell you why not? How many? There's Manasseh, Nebuchadnezzar and Naaman. Then you move on to the new. Well there's one of the great conversions. When a Syrian would say behold now I know there is no God in all the earth but in this little nation of Israel. If that wasn't a conversion what was? Now will you turn also to Isaiah 6. You have already looked at it but just let me read you one verse again there. Just verse 5. Then said I woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts. Now for this our last study I feel the Lord has led to what I think might well prove to be a crucial study for us. What is your vision? In saying that I don't mean what is your vision of the Lord. We've had four mornings on our vision of Him and the deep effects that a new vision of the Lord has upon us. But rather what is our vision for others? Have we a vision for others? To what extent have we a vision? And what is the content of our vision for others? We certainly had a vision of the Lord. I suppose it's been at various depths for all of us. None of us exactly move at the same speed. But as a result of seeing the Lord in these days, are we getting a vision for other people? Do you think He's beginning to give you a new vision as a result of what you've seen for yourself, for your home, for the fellowship group or whatever it is you're a part of? You're getting a new vision for them? Are we beginning to get a new vision for our church? And I say, are you beginning to get a new vision for your minister? Have you got a vision for him? And are we beginning or should we seek a new vision for England? Back in June some of us were over in Switzerland at the continental counterpart of this conference at a place called Lesart. I won't say too much about it. It's one of the most beautiful spots on God's earth. You can come if you can work up a little French and German or get somebody to whisper the interpretation, and there is. I have to have it whispered to me. When I speak, it speaks by interpretation. And Joe Church was there. And we were thinking along these lines. He said, in a team, he said, I think we ought to ask them, have they a vision for Switzerland? We've been seeing the Lord. And then he suggested, have we a vision for Switzerland? Maybe we never thought we had to have one. And when I ask you, have you a vision for England? Maybe you say that's asking too much. But I believe it mustn't stop short. Of just a home or group or church, but a vision of revival for England. I think we'll spare ourselves getting you to go further afield. But I think God could even enlarge our hearts to have a vision. I often feel I want to share a little bit of that because God's given me the privilege of going to some of these other places where God's working. And in one's newsletter, one does share some of those things in the hope that even though it's a little bit to take in, the same Lord Jesus is working in the same way in other parts as here. But let's content ourselves with our own country. Does anybody from somewhere else then substitute your country? Scotland, is it? Or the USA? Have we a vision then for England? Now the content of that vision is of great importance. Not only having a vision for home, group, church or England, but the content of the vision. What is it? What should we have? What should we be hoping for, looking for? Years ago, back in 1947, when some of the brothers came back from East Africa where they had been so blessed in revival and that movement of the spirit continues from 1930 to the present day. When they came back, I myself was one of many, and especially a group of leaders of us were greatly blessed. I was in evangelistic work, blazing away up and down the country, but I got into a great state of need. And through the testimony and the loving counsel of these brothers who didn't take me for granted just because I was an evangelist, I met the Lord in a new way. I'm not going to go into the details of that right now. As a result, I felt myself absolutely linked with that team and I teamed up with them. And we went to Alsace for a conference. Dr. Joe Church, William Legenda, now in glory, Peter Marrow and myself. And we had a wonderful time. I saw God move in a way I hadn't seen it before. I said, what in the world is this that God's bringing us into? I remember we had a testimony meeting and it went on. We had to have two meetings. Solid, solid testimony. We sat and sat until we couldn't sit anymore while people poured out what had happened. And I was very elated. It was wonderful. But William Legenda waited till it was all over to come alongside me. And when it was all over and the people had gone, he said, Roy, I want to ask you a question. What is your vision? He waited for my answer. Well, I think, William, I said, my vision is threefold. For years I've been doing evangelistic work with the National Young Life Campaign and this is my calling and I feel my vision is to continue with evangelistic campaigns. And then latterly, as you know, I've left the Young Life Campaign to take the leadership of the Pocket Testament League. And I would say, secondly, then my vision is putting over the idea of everybody carrying a pocket testament and using it for personal soul weight. And then I said, thirdly, in view of the new experiences and insights the Lord's given me, I have a vision for revival. And he was in despair. He said, brother, you haven't seen the way yet. Revival was just one of three. I couldn't understand why he was so concerned. And he talked to me and I argued and I talked. And by this time I'd actually produced some of the articles which later were put in Calvary Road. I'd written them as a result of this new meeting of the Lord I'd had. And eventually he got one of these and said, look, Roy, look, see that what you've written? And my attitude was the very opposite. I was so stiff-necked, querying my vision. And eventually I came to see a vision of this, a vision... Jesus himself was revived. I didn't have a little sort of compartment. The overall vision, as I saw it, was the vision of Jesus as I had newly seen him. And I had to see how utterly defective my vision was. And if I didn't have that vision clear in my heart for myself, how could I have a clear vision for others? Now, turning to Isaiah 6, there's something there which has helped me very much. That verse that we've just looked at. Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. When revival came to Isaiah's life, he got a vision of revival for his own people. When in the light of that vision of the Lord, high and lifted up, he saw himself as he really was, a man of unclean lips, he saw the other people among whom he lived as they really were, he dwelt amongst a people who were in the same condition as he was. Not only did he say, I am a man of unclean lips, but I dwell among a people of unclean lips. And seeing them as they really were, because he'd first seen himself as he really was, he got a vision for them. Now, what did he see with regard to himself? Well, we've touched on it, of course. He saw that his lips were unclean. His lips represented his service, and it meant that his very best and most consecrated part of him, he saw to be utterly unclean and unacceptable. Self had been intruded all the way along, and all his service had been done in the energy, and in the will, and for the glory of the flesh himself. Now, this was something he'd never seen till then. He'd been completely ignorant of that fact, until seeing the Lord high and lifted up, he saw himself as he really was. That was what he saw for himself. Then, of course, the seraphim came with the live coal. We take that to be a symbol of the finished work of Jesus, and applied it to his lips. And his life was changed, and he set out on another basis altogether. That was what he saw for himself. But in seeing that in himself, he saw that he was dwelling among a people who were in exactly the same condition as he was, and who had the same problem. He was dwelling among a people of unclean lips. And the only difference between him and them was this. He knew his lips were unclean, and they didn't. More than that, not only did they not know that their cumbliness was so much corruption in God's sight, but they didn't know that they didn't know. He saw they were suffering from a terrible double blindness. He'd been the same. Not only did they not know their true condition, but they didn't know that they didn't know their true condition. A double blindness. And then seeing them as he really was, the love of God had touched his heart when the coal touched his lips. And he got a vision for them. Oh, that they might know that they don't know! Could they only begin to see there's something missing! That they should see that they don't know that they don't know. And then secondly, that they should really know what I've had to know, painful as it is. And then thirdly, they would know the blessed release and freedom that comes when something akin to the live coal touched their lips too. Now when Revival comes to your life, the automatic thing, naturally, is to get a vision of Revival for others. And when Revival, when Jesus, for he is Revival, comes anew to you, it'll come in much the same way. And some of us already had this sort of experience in these days. We've seen ourselves as we really are. We've seen that even our consecrated part is self-motivated, done in the energy of the flesh, full of self-will, self-pity and self-glory. It's been us that's been doing it. And we've had the painful thing of having our apparent comeliness turn to corruption. Now when we see that, we also see others as they really are. When you see yourself, you say, my, I can see the whole situation all around me. Not only am I a man of unclean lips, but I dwell in a church of unclean lips. Everybody else has got the same problem. There's only one difference between them and me. Only one. I know what a sinner I really am, and they apparently don't know they are. I can now begin to see failure in my walk and witness, failure in my life I see, fruitless toil, I'm Christ-like living, calling forth no praise to thee, all because it's me. But they haven't seen it yet. Not only do they not know this, but they don't know that they don't know. Everybody's so satisfied. Going on in the same old way. Occasional words about revival, but nothing's ever much happened. And you begin to see with new eyes other people. You can look at your home. It may be a Christian home. Not only are your lips unclean, but everybody else's in the home. You see your church with new eyes. And man, you've got to see it. Oh, I mustn't see it. You see it. Otherwise you'll never get a vision for them. But the vision for them is based on what you've seen in yourself. And what have you seen? That you're a bigger sinner deep in your core than you've ever realized. Anything to be proud about that? Provided you keep that's what you've seen. And you can afford, chastened and humbled, to see that this is everybody else's problem. Dare I say it? You'll be able to see your minister as he really is. He's got the same problem as me. Poor man, he's dying on his feet. He's struggling like I've been. And a minister who's had a deep meeting with God, there will see his best Christian. In that same condition he's seen himself. His PCC, well of course it's not very difficult to see the needs of a PCC. But in a spiritually minded Baptist church, your best deacons. Well, of course you Baptists won't know, but I mean the PCC is a hoi polloi. The principle in which they're elected, well of course the whole thing's archaic. I praise the Lord for the brothers who are prepared to go into the Church of England ministry. I don't criticize them. We want to get the gospel. It's one of the best boats to fish out of somebody's head. There's plenty of fish, not only outside, but inside to be caught. And I praise God for the grace that's given to our many brethren here who are doing it. So I say it isn't too difficult to see the need perhaps of a PCC. But a spiritually minded deaconate. And you come back, you're dwelling among a people. The whole thing is exactly on the same basis as you've seen yourself to be. But once again, there's no cause for pride. Well, I've seen something they've seen, but what have you seen? Well, I've told you what you've seen and you know what you've seen. You've been humbled. But they haven't. They don't know what the true condition is. And worse than that, they don't know that they don't know. The thing is beautifully going along on oil wheels maybe, everybody blissfully ignorant of the true situation. But in seeing them in the same condition as we've seen ourselves to be, we begin to get a real realistic vision for them. And a burden for them. Because when the blood of Jesus reaches us in that place of brokenness at the foot of his cross, the love of God comes in. This isn't a hard vision, out in the darkness, shadowed by sin. Souls, even Christian souls, are in darkness. Souls that we would win. And love is the way. And it's the love of God that begins to get a vision and a burden. And it's always based on what you've seen on yourself. All right then. Have your vision. Is that coming? Well, it's nothing very difficult to achieve. It's endemic in the experience of grace we've had here. Of course, if you haven't had a deep experience of brokenness at the foot of the cross, to use a technical phrase, don't use that phrase necessarily, use any phrase. But if we haven't had that, then of course our vision of oblivion must be superficial. It could be pride. You've heard certain insights here and you've got hold of the insights intellectually. They haven't got them. That will lead to pride. But if it's the deep experience of repentance and confession before Jesus here, and coming to the end of ourselves, there won't be pride in that vision for others. You love them. Oh, that they might see it as, I've paid for it, and that they may have the joy. Do you know, there's been such joy as a result of seeing Jesus in this conference, that at least two in our fellowship meeting yesterday morning said they were so full of joy they didn't sleep at all the previous night and they didn't mind. One sister said she was so full of joy she didn't want to go to sleep, lest it wouldn't be the same in the morning. Oh, it isn't all, it isn't all brokenness and going down to the cross. A brother here was talking to me about a lovely radiant young person in his group. You know, he said, she's a down and upper. Isn't that nice? She's a down and upper. Down to the cross, up she comes. And there's up all right. Beautiful ups. You know where to put yourself sometimes. Might not be able to sleep for joy sometimes. All right, we have a burden. Now what do we do with a vision and a burden for others? Well, I want to suggest you don't do anything. Don't be too quick to do. Get a vision. Otherwise, we'll be back where Isaiah used to be, working without vision. Get a vision with Jesus of the situation as it is and let love take possession of your heart for others that haven't seen that they haven't seen. Well, of course, the next thing will be, and that without much doing, you will find yourself praying. Obviously, you'll express your concern for the others among whom you are in prayer to God. Still, you're not doing anything other than that. And then out from prayer, something may well come. And those acts and activities that are suggested to you in the place of prayer are more likely to be the right things to do than anything else. For instance, you're praying on a wider front, we'll say, about someone far away. And as a result of that time you had praying for them that morning, a letter's written. It's the most natural thing in the world. I must write. How guided that letter will be. And so how guided whatever is done will be, if it's borne not only out of vision but as we pray. And you'll find he is calling you to move out in one way or another. And I would suggest the most natural thing in the world will be, that you'll almost do it before you've realized it, you will be going to that one or those ones to give your testimony. I beg you not to say, you fellows are all dead, you don't know what I know. You tell them what a big sinner you've seen yourself to be. Just, and full stop, leave it there for the moment. Just tell them, go deep, don't spare yourself, minister, don't spare yourself because you're the minister. Give a sinner's testimony to the grace of God. That is, if it's happened to you. I'm amazed, I'm as bad as anybody, how guarded we can be in giving our testimonies. I've sometimes counseled a brother, I was thinking, over in the States once, counseling a brother over some deep things. And he really came to a place of peace and sure enough when the opportunity and the meeting was given for testimony, he gave a testimony. But he was so guarded. I knew what it all meant, nobody else would have guessed from what he said. Therefore Jesus didn't get much glory out of it. Oh, let's give a testimony, as from the shadow of the cross. And let it be motivated, not by any little bit of pointing, but of love for those other ones. Because do you know what God uses in spreading blessing, if you like, spreading revival, is testimony. Testimony, I could spend time telling you how historically, today and in former days, it's testimony of this order that blesses the next person. And you know, with the blessing and working of God, someone else will join you at the cross. You see, the Seraphim were there hiding their faces and their feet before the Lord. And I suppose what they really said is, come on, come on Isaiah, you come and join us, you hide your face. And that's all you're going to do. There you are, praising and broken and praising for the blood and finding you experienced it, and all you, here, come and join us. It's just like that. And they'll come. Some dear ones are dying on their feet, trying to be good, as we heard last night. Not knowing there's a more excellent way, the way of the grace of God. And someone else will find the way. And then there will be a team for revival. It may be only one person, but if there's just two people, one person who comes to the cross as well, you've got a team of two for revival. I don't think we're to expect the whole church to move together to the cross and find new life. I believe He begins bit by bit. Please turn the cassette over now. Do not fast wind it in either direction. That is of necessity. He begins with the beginning. With you first, and with somebody else. Of course you may go home with somebody else, or several others, who've seen that theirs are unclean lips and have proved the mighty power of the blood of Jesus. Well that gives you a better start. But you might go home with one. Only one in the home, the only one in the church, the only one in the thing. But you give your testimony, as God guides, with the love of God filling your heart. And somebody else will see what you see, and come to the cross too. It might be an unconverted person. When people, you give this sort of testimony to an unsafe person, it really shakes them. They thought that you were way up there. And they always thought that your God must be the good person's God, because you appear to be so good. How discouraging. I can't be like Mr. So-and-so. No good. But when they hear that Mr. So-and-so is what he really is, they discover that his God is really the sinner's God. Hey, then there's some chance for me. And you mustn't only expect the Christians again to respond. Some of the ones that come to Christ on the cross like this, along with you, may step in right into revival, very first moment of their coming. It's the same thing. The same bowing, the same Jesus who meets them in his fullness. All right, then. You're a team. You share a common vision. You begin to have common prayer. And somebody else sees Jesus too. And somebody else. And although that's the majority of that area, whatever it is in which you're working, the Bible, the church, don't see it. Inside there's a team for revival. Now, let me go a little bit more as to what is a team. It begins, as I've suggested, with one person, at least. Only one can be the beginning, who has had the same sort of vision that Isaiah has had, and been brought to the foot of the cross where Jesus has made to him what he needs. Or, if you like, it begins with one person who has had the same sort of experience, metaphorically speaking, as Naaman had. Now, we read about Naaman. When he first came to Elisha with his problem, he had a mental picture of what the prophet was going to do. He said, behold, I thought he'll come out and strike his hand over the spot and say, abracadabra, or something like that, and the miracle will happen in the most stunning way. But you remember, he didn't even come out of him. Sent a message, go and wash in Jordan seven times, which implied he was dirty. He said, what in the world does he say that? Doesn't he know that leprosy isn't on the surface that can be washed away easily? And the servant said, I don't know about that, sir, but I haven't got it wrong. He distinctly told me that you were to go and wash, and do it in that little stream called Jordan. Well, we read the story of his offence, and of course, it's easy to take offence at this simple message of cleansing in the blood of Jesus Christ. But at last, he consented to do it. Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan. It was a real going down. Just for us too, isn't it? Then went he down. He went down six times, and there's nothing in this. I'm a great deal wetter, but not a bit better, someone has said. Man, you haven't been down that seventh time. It doesn't mean you've got to repent seven times. Seven is the number of completion. You've got to go the whole way, otherwise nothing happens. When it's half the other person's fault, nothing ever happens. When you're the only sinner in the situation. Maybe others are wrong, but your reactions are wrong. That's what you've got to get out to the cross. Then the glorious miracle happened. His flesh came again like the flesh of a little child. He was made whole. If that isn't a pictorial representation of revival, what is? His flesh coming again like the flesh of a little child. New life, and so with us. He started by saying, behold I thought. But after this experience he went back to the Prophet and said, now I know. There's no God in all the earth but in Israel. What a change from behold I thought to now I know, and it's the same with us. Now many of us Christians have been in the category of behold I thought. What's the answer to the Christian life? Well in my early days as a Christian, behold I thought, it was the second blessing of entire sanctification. Great discussion in those days. It's no longer a matter of greatly discussed. The old holiness teaching as it was called. Is it the Keswick message? Or is it the J.E.B. message? Well of course you younger people won't know what J.E.B. means and don't worry your head about it. It's an issue that's passed. Behold I thought, it's the Keswick message. Behold I thought, no it's the J.E.B. message, entire sanctification. But there are other things that are occupying, behold I thought it's this. And I suppose today the thing that's occupying the thoughts and attention of many Christians is the question of charismatic gifts. And you might say what is the answer to the need, my need? And you could say behold I think, it's charismatic gifts. This is the thing without which we aren't really complete. This is a thing without which we can't expect the revival of the church. Others might rather emphasize healing. The church must find again its ancient power to heal the sick. Behold I thought, this is it, healing. Others seem to suggest that we must go further and recover the old power to cast out demons. This is the great trouble. Without such a gift in the church, the church isn't really complete. Behold I thought it's this. And I haven't begun to enumerate the other things. As I go around the world, it's a special thing in every case, some special emphasis on prophecy, this is a great thing, or some special opposition to something. This is it. Behold I thought, this is the important thing, this is the answer. You have no longer any shallower doubt. The answer that you've been wondering, was it in this direction or that direction, has been incarnated in your experience. And you wouldn't thank the archangel Gabriel to tell you now what the answer is. Now I know. I want to tell you, people who know are worth their weight in gold. While we're wondering it's this, wondering it's that, trying this line, hoping for this, we aren't greatly useful. But when we know, well now what did Nerman know? Well, he had the answer incarnated in his experience and I would say, a moral experience of grace. The grace of God, but a moral experience. An experience that deals with the deepest moral issues in our lives and sets us gloriously free and gives us a nearness, a proximity to Jesus that we didn't seem to have before. Now that doesn't necessarily exclude some of the other things I've mentioned. God forbid that I should denigrate for a second, Keswick teaching, or the J.E.B. teaching, if you know what that is, or charismatic gifts, or the healing of the sick by faith, or the casting out of demons. I believe these ministries are there in the church. Some of them I don't understand. I'm not really very worried that I don't understand them all. What I do understand is challenging enough for me, it's taking all my time to respond to what I do understand. But I wouldn't denigrate the diversity of things in the church of God. But I do want to suggest, whereas these things may well have a place, they're not the answer. For myself, I must be frank, I have never found in my heart any desire to speak in tongues. In my most hungry moments I've never been able to pray for one moment along that line. This is myself. For the simple reason that my needs are much too deep to be satisfied with a beautiful, uplifting experience. I want to tell you, my deepest need is that of a sinner right in his being. And only that can be the answer for me that deals with my deepest moral issues. And I want to tell you, I expect to be dealing with moral issues right up to the gates of heaven. And only that which helps and deals effectively there is going to be for me, and I believe for the church, the real answer. So many of these other things, blessed and with whatever place they have, don't always deal with me there. For myself, here, I've had to go to Jesus, for he's the answer, as we shall see, with jealousy. I found that others were now, this year, doing things that I used to do, and, oh, the old devil has a little something in me to touch off, and I just had flashes of it, and moments of it, and it sort of made me cold. I've seen people on the team who've got a touch with others that I hadn't had, and don't have, in counseling. And the devil says, you haven't got that, have you? I don't know that an ecstatic experience of speaking in tongues would deal with that. In fact, it might be the opposite, make me proud that I've got and others haven't. It didn't do that. It was never intended to, but it could. At least, I mean, I know what my flesh is like. I must have something that really answers me there. And that is what is pictured by Nerman, go and wash in Jordan, and your flesh will come again. Do you know, one little bit of dealing with moral issues, sin and wrong, at the foot of the cross, will cause a transformation in our lives, as vast and as beautiful as any uplifting experience. Thank God for all the uplift. I don't want for a moment to handle that, to denigrate that, but what I do want to say, what is the answer. Because I, for myself, I give you my testimony, when I've allowed the Lord Jesus to search me, and humble me anew of these subtle things, or not so subtle sometimes, and I go and wash in Jordan, I'm made whole. And Jesus Christ has made to me all I need. And that's being filled with the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Spirit, caused me to be filled with the Spirit, constantly. At the sink, everywhere, all the time. In fact, the Lord gave me to write a little book on that subject, Be Filled Now. The books at all have been unable to find copies, they're just not available for the moment. Be Filled Now. And the emphasis is there on now. Not be filled tomorrow when you've improved. That tomorrow may never come. But be filled now in the midst of current failure and need, and to be filled in that situation is only possible by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's something that goes on. Beautiful. What is the answer? What is this elusive it we need? You remember when Jesus was walking across the water, and they were frightened, thinking it was a ghost. He said, fear not, it is I. What is the it? The essential it, for lack of which we seem to be so needy. Listen, Jesus says, it is I. We are complete in Him. It's never right to suggest, unless you've had this or that, you're not quite a complete Christian, you're a second class Christian. It's never right to say, unless these new experiences are manifest to the church, the church will never have revival. Let them be, they're never the answer. Jesus says, the it that all need is I. We are complete, not by the possession of this and that, but we're complete, says the scripture, in Him, in whom all fullness dwells. And I remind you that it is I, T, when the I comes to the cross. There you find your rest. He, at Calvary, when you're prepared for Him to take you apart and show you what your real need is, there is the end of the struggle. Christ is the end of the struggle for righteousness before God to everyone that believes. That is the answer. Have you got it? Are we behold, I thought? Or can you say, now I know, I've got the answer. I can see it. I've changed my relationship with my wife already. And the home. Maybe something's going to be put right when you get home with other people. Oh, you see, it is this lovely Jesus coming right in. Again, I don't want to suggest that they're, or get you worried, well what about this? Those things, let's accept it, are peripheral. That doesn't mean they're not important or not there. But they're peripheral. The center is Jesus and me coming to the foot of His cross. I should say that I owe those thoughts about it is I, and I coming to the T, the cross, to Dr. Joe Church, when some months before this conference we had a retreat for the T, and he shared those two beautiful thoughts with us. I pass them on to you. All right now, do you know what we're on? It's been a diversion. What is a T? It begins with one man who's passed from behold, I thought, to now I know. Right. But here's another man. And he has passed from behold, I thought, to now I know. And the one who I'm referring to may be the very one to whom you've given your testimony. And as a result, he's come to that place where Jesus Christ has made to him what he needs. He's come and bowed at the cross. Or it may be someone with whom you're going to go home. And they've shared a like vision of Jesus with you. Or it may be just you who's helped another, or maybe you come across another who shares the same testimony. All right. One man, no longer behold, I thought, now I know. The other man, no longer behold, I thought, now I know. But they're not yet a team. They become a team when there's a deep sharing, very deep, with one another of who they are, what they are, and what Jesus has done for them. And the motivation for this sharing is love. Your heart's full of love. Not pride that's got there, but love. And out of love you want to share. You know, I remember when William Lagenda once came back from America, stopped in England on his way back to Africa. I had just a few moments with him. And he took me aside. He said, Robert, I want to tell you something. And he shared a certain failure and trouble that resulted in it, that he had in America. He said, I want you to know, Roy, just know. And after I said, how much he loves me. I don't think I can say I love others as I should, but I want to tell you, I am a man who's been loved. And I was loved by William Lagenda. And there's some others who've gone to glory. Ken Moiner, Leonar Brechet. And the ones who've gone to glory, all I know, there was love by them. And I said, how much he loves me. There was a big, big act of love. He was self-giving of the deepest order. Now that's love. And so, number one shares deeply with number two, and number two with number one, out of love for Jesus, which spills over to the other. As a result of that, this man shared with me, he knows, I know. But what's happened is this. I know now that he knows. And it works the other way. He knows that I know. It's even more. Now, he knows that I know that he knows. And it works the other way round. It doesn't know that I know. But having shared, he knows that I know. And I know that he knows that I know. We're a team. And brothers, we're in something tremendous together. That's a team. Maybe there's two people. Each knows that the other knows that they know that they know. And they're in something together. The immediate situation, and for even wider situations. Now this is how this conference began. In exactly this way. This conference wouldn't be here. Back in 47, as long as there goes that, a number of us, there were many actually, but a few, a comparatively small group of us leaders, I was an evangelist, others were vicars, ministers, we came to know. And then dear Peter Marrow invited us. We didn't know one another very much. Hardly knew us names. He got to know some had been blessed and we spent two days in his vicarage in Surbiton. And we shared deeply to the bottom. And how the blood of Christ had a veil right in that level. Not only did we each know, but now we knew that the other knew that we knew. And there in that vicarage, we knew we were in something together. And it was something for England. Well now that team has been multiplied many times over and nobody quite knows where it begins and ends. We don't want to know too much. If you're at the cross, if this is your, if you know that you know and you share it with us, well we're all in it together. And this is the stuff of which a team is made. And it could be just two people. When you meet, something there. You may not always meet very quickly, but you know. You can spot if he's got a bit cold and you encourage him. He says, thank you brother, I had. And there you are together. And you're in something together. Now the test as to whether you are in a team with another person. I'm telling you things you, I spoke along these lines in Lesin in June. And my interpreter, Ernst Krebs, he stood by my side for hours on end. Because when you speak by interpretation, you take your time. Every message takes twice as long. It doesn't seem to matter. It gives people time to get it. And he said after, he said, Roy says you've been telling us some things. Well I think you might say the same. Now the test of whether you're a team with another is this. Are you free, the two of you, to speak together about a third person's need? Now, if you're not a team with another brother, he'll feel all awkward. He'll say, he can't do this, this is criticizing. This sounds like an essay in criticism. But if you're a team, you're talking about another's need together because you know what you've seen of yourself. And maybe this other person hasn't seen it. You love him. And you can talk and pray together. Without any fear of this inhibition, you're in something mighty together. Of course, pride could come in and criticism come in. All right, so what? It's only another thing to repent of. If the Lord shows you, you go back to Jesus. You say, sorry Lord, we moved a bit away from this loving team, fellowship about the need of the hour. And you get right. You say this could lead to a little sect. How right you are. Being carnal people, it could. But that too is another thing to repent of when he shows it to you. I haven't got time to tell you how the Lord showed that in my heart. I had to see it. But after all, what in the world are we proud about or a sect about, except that we've seen that our lips and our services aren't clean, but we need the cleansing blood of the mighty Jesus the whole time. And so that, I suggest to you, is something, it's only a contribution to your thinking of what a team is. It springs from you having that first vision. Have you had it? Dear one, can you say, minister, can you say, behold I thought, but now I know. Or are we still weighing it up, trying to get the doctrine straight. Well I did all that. I had a deeper life message, Romans 6, 7 and 8. I couldn't fit this in. And Bill Butler said to me, Roy, stop arguing. You need to go to Jesus. And he indicated a spot or two where he thought I needed to humble myself. And I began. I found my doctrine came straight after all. I got a new Bible as a result. Behold I thought, now I know. But the last thing I want to say is this. A vision for your home, those loved ones. Oh Lord Jesus, I'm a man of uncleanness, but he or she or the others don't see it. Lord, will you move and show them the same. Don't go up on a pedestal, you go lower than them, to tell them what a flop and failure Jesus is. Not only has shown you here, but he's doing it all the time for the lights, all the time shining, and his blood is all the time cleansing. The church and the minister. Is it wrong to have a vision for your minister? Is it wrong to see your minister clearly? All right, if that's wrong, then Apollos, who were the two, give me the names, who helped Apollos? Aquila and Priscilla. They got a vision for Apollos, the greatest preacher of the day. But oh, he hasn't seen it, Lord. He hasn't seen it! Provided it's love and it's criticism. If you have a roast minister for Sunday dinner, in front of the children, you need to go to the cross and ask the children to forgive you. And by the way, when things go wrong between husband and wife and they get healed, be sure you tell the children. There was one situation when we didn't tell our boy, Reverend I, and to this day all he remembers was a clash. We got right, we didn't tell him. Be sure you do that. Then they'll only remember your repentance and the sweetness that has come. A vision for England. Not only for your home, not only for your church, but for England. And you know, we who are in any leadership, have we a vision for England? And not only in leadership, because there's a little bit of England just beyond your immediate surroundings. There's a church that you know of, and they're dying on their feet for want of the message of grace. All they've ever known was trying and struggling to be good. And it's not working. If there is a little team there, has it ever occurred to you to share a little with one or two? In the hope that it might say, well, can't you come and tell us? What about a team from one church going to another church? A vision. And then beyond, for England. Why not? If it's of grace and not of works, there's no hindrance in the fact that the people concerned are taken a bit by surprise. What is our vision? Is it love-inspired? Yes. But is it this vision? Yes, for our home, our church, for England.