In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of knowing and following the will of God. He encourages the audience to read through the New Testament and take note of every verse that talks about God's will. The preacher specifically references 1 Thessalonians 4, which states that the will of God is for believers to live in sanctification and abstain from fornication. He also mentions James 1, which highlights the importance of being swift to hear and slow to speak. The sermon concludes with a call to surrender everything to God and live according to His will.

Now, because God has laid it on my heart to do so, I'm going to talk to you about the will of God. I suppose every one of us really, in the room, deep down, would like to know that we are doing the will of God. You will remember that this is one of the great instructions of the Apostle Paul, that we should do the will of God from the heart. Not to do the will of God in any sort of perfunctory way, or because we think we ought, or anything like that. Not in the sense of doing a duty, thus to sort of make a martyrdom of it all, but doing the will of God from the heart. I suppose we really all do want to do that. I know I do. I think it's a bit late in life for me, if I haven't discovered the will of God, and have been doing it for the last, oh, I don't know, decades, I hope. Now God wants us to move in this tremendous realm of certainty, because wherever one goes, one hears this cry, I want to find the will of God for my life. I suppose you do. I take that as read. Alright, now there are certain basic things that we each have to recognise about the will of God. And that is that despite the way some people talk, God has not made it difficult for us to find his will. And yet I hear so many people talking as though he has. And I get asked about it, as though I perhaps may have a clue about what is God's will for other people's lives. And strangely enough, you know, I never seem to know, except to speak in general terms about it, but I know very well what God wants me to do. And I have discovered, even as the Lord Jesus Christ himself knew, that it's better to do the will of God than to talk about it. Because if you do the will of God, that is the best language of all. It talks to people's hearts. Now we, in our finite way, know that this is very common sense. So we may be sure that if we know it to be common sense, God certainly knows it. And in the book, and I'm going to stay in the New Testament with you, I'm going to trace the steps. Some of us, I feel, that are in the room tonight might have gone this way together before. But it's good to remind ourselves and see this thing. Because I'm almost sure that if I went round and started with each one and asked you individually, and please take it that I'm talking to you individually, I would discover that there are those in this room that really are wanting to find God's will for their lives. In other words, they're not sure, they don't know. And it's quite useless for people like us to come together, sing hymns and wave our arms and have a good time, if we come in and go out, meeting by meeting, week by week, and are not really sure about these great things of the will of God for our lives. For listen, you've wasted your life if you haven't already lived to the will of God. It's been wasted, absolutely wasted. And sometimes it isn't nice to face that. But the only way you could ever get anywhere with God is by facing reality. To be ostriches, moral ostriches, as Oswald Chambers says, and keep burying your head in the sand, doesn't mean that the rest of your body isn't exposed. And you and I have got to get right on this subject. Now if I said to you, put your hand up, if you really aren't sure that you're in God's will for your life, I wonder if you'd put up your hand. I don't believe in people who put up their hands in meetings, but I wonder if you would. I mean, like our schoolmistress may have told us a little while ago, she would have said to her class, some of you have lost so and so, I don't know, just put up your hands. But what we do, we get sophisticated and hardened, and we don't do anything, we call that growing up. But we're just as lost, and ten times more stupid. And that's one of the penalties of growing up. But God wants us to move on truth, beloved. And so then, we'll move right into this great book of God, concerning God's will for our lives. Now it's absolutely basic that we know this great secret that James reveals unto us. And remember, we're reading in the great writings of the apostles. Men who knew. We're not taking something that some bishop around us has said, or archbishop, or just an ordinary bod like me. We're certainly not listening to people who have psychic ideas. And there are a lot of those people moving around, and talking up psychic stuff. If it's in the name of Jesus, it's ten times more potent, and potently wrong. We're not reading charts, and we're not especially buying books. Although, to repeat something which I like to say, so I might as well say it. If you want to make a lot of money, you buy a book on guidance. You write a book on guidance, it will sell on all the Christian bookstores. Because they're all wanting guidance. None of them know the will of God, they're all wanting to find it. So you write a book on guidance, and you'll make your fortune. It'll sell on both sides of the Atlantic, and it will be translated into all the tongues of the earth. If you've got a sure way of guidance, yet I want to tell you it's in the book. And bless God this is still the world's best seller. But if people were to read it, and keep reading it, for I must confess to you, I only know what I'm going to say to you tonight, because I've done that. And what you must never do, is make a preacher man an excuse for laziness. You must read the precious book yourself, and get right down to it. Make it your constant companion. You are at peril if you do not read this book, without somebody's commentary on it. Please put away all the commentaries, and just get down, until gradually you become spiritual. Until you are moved on by the Spirit of God, and you begin to understand, and are able to put together the things, which often times, perhaps to you, have seemed to be puzzling. And you can put them together correctly. We'll take our first reading in the book of James. And in the first chapter, and this is how he writes. Verse 16 of the first chapter. Do not err, my beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, in whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will beget he us, with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and so on. Are you swift to hear, or are you one of those people that are swift to argue, and swift to talk? I always imagined old James, you know, to be one of these quiet, I suppose you would have called him an introvert, naturally, because, of course, Jesus alters all this sort of psychological fantasy. He makes men and women right. But he would have been a man that was strong. As you know, he became the sort of great elder in Jerusalem. And men like Paul and Peter used to, to use a choice word, submit to him. And all sorts of things used to happen. And James is writing now. And this is what he says. Now listen. You be swift to hear. If you're too much of a talker, you'll never hear the truth by which God will beget you. Now, it is God's will to beget men and women. It is no accident when a man or a woman is born again and becomes a conscious child of God. It's no accident. So the first thing you and I have to discover about the will of God is that you are an expression of it. That's the first thing you've got to learn about God's will. Now once you've got that into your heart, that'll settle your biggest basic problem. I am an expression of God's will. I was born of it. Purposely, deliberately, plannedly, God begot me into his everlasting family. Mine was no accidental birth. It was no slip of the tongue. When God spoke to my heart and sowed the seed of eternal life in me, it wasn't any accident that a little lady came across my path and said, What you need is to receive a new pure heart and to be filled with the Spirit of God. I tell you it was no accident because inside me, there was something waiting to start ringing. When I heard that, the joy bell started to ring, made the bell ring. I tell you, when I heard that, I knew that was right. I knew it was right. And it was no accident. My, she was a little crippled old lady. She'd been a missionary out in West Angola in Africa. I tell you, things seemed to go wrong. Nothing went right out there for her. She came home, but listen, God brought her home for me. You never can tell the ways of God. You never can. And here am I preaching to you. Here am I going out to Africa. Not this time. But this is the sort of way God works. You never can tell. Don't you talk about defeat and don't you glorify the devil. The devil's a fool. The biggest fool there ever was is the devil. The fact that he's a mighty fool makes him a bigger fool. He's not almighty, praise God. And I heard, and blessed be the name of the Lord, Oh, here, let's have a look at this. Now don't go wrong about this. He says in verse 16, Get this right. Here's the foundation. Many people don't know the will of God because they've never been born of it. That's why. And they'll buy all the books there are in the world about it. And they'll consult all the people that are supposed to know with words of wisdom, words of knowledge, prophetic ministry, and I don't know what, and they'll still finish up not knowing. Because it doesn't come that way. It comes, beloved, by a great inward spiritual experience where a man or a woman comes to life in Christ. Born of the will of God. Do you remember that tremendous statement in Acts chapter 2 when Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost and he says, Jesus Christ, and away he goes talking about Jesus Christ, a man of proof of God among you. And then he says, And you by the determinate foreknowledge and counsel of God. God was absolutely determined to have his son sacrificed for sin. There was no other way of getting rid of it. God was determined to have it done. Sin's been dealt with. God did it by his own determinate foreknowledge and counsel. Amen. I tell you, whatever wicked hands do, God's overruling. And you see, it's because this was the only way. And from this comes the blessed result of being born again, all pure and holy from God. And you've got to know that you've been born of God's will. Amen. You've not just joined the church. You understand that. You've not just adopted the philosophy of the Christian religion. Agree, it's the best religion there is in the world, but that's not the point. It's that you are born of the will of God. Amen. Of course. Then you are an expression of that will in your own life. You are it. You may be only an it yet. You've got to grow up and develop and be a tremendous person for God. But that's it. You know, that's what you call all babes, don't you? It's. You say, is it a boy or is it a girl? You see, you don't know what it is. It's an it. You know, like some of these people, sometimes when we're driving up the motorway, now we refer to drivers of cars as it's. We can't go as a woman or a man. Turn around and have a look at them. Afterwards, from the back, you can't tell it's an it. You say, I reckon it's a woman. I always say it's a woman. Look at the way she's driving. Something like that, you see. You turn out to be wrong because some men are worse. But the whole point about it is, beloved, that when you're born again, you're it. You've been forgotten again. Listen, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and coming down from the Father of light. So when you've been fathered by God into this world, one of the great things to you to know is that you're a child of light. And one of the most wonderful things about your light is that you know the will of God for your life. I tell you, that shines a bright light out in the midst of a world that's drifting everywhere and doesn't know what to do, where to go, seeking here, seeking there. This is one of the finest things concerning the light, beloved. He's the Father of light, not of darkness. Amen. He doesn't leave me with a darkened mind concerning his will. So that now I've got to find it. I am it. Well, I'm not all of it, but I am it. That's right. I've been born of it. Isn't that lovely? I bless God. And listen, I want to tell you this, that when you've been born of God from above, you're a gift. You're a good gift from God to men. That's right. Listen, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, when he was in the world, he said, I'm the light of the world. God's gift to the world. Do you know, my heart nearly curled up in me at something somebody said to me today. I could hardly believe it. That this person stood up and said, we don't want to hear John 3.16 anymore. I thought, oh God. Don't want to hear John 3.16 anymore. What do they want to hear then? Something about you shall all speak with tongues. Is this what they want to hear? Or you'll all dance in the spirit or something. What is it they want to hear? This fanaticism that's creeping under the name of charismatics. What do they want to hear? God save us. God so loved the world that he gave his son. And he was born of the will of God. How about that? You know the story how the angel came into Mary. Oh, I tell you, that was deliberate. That was right on the spot. And brought the word of God. By his own will, Father begat Jesus. By the word of truth. Marvelous it was. And it happened. What God says to you is true. It's come from his will. It's no slip of the tongue. It's been thought of and planned. Do you know you've been born of the will of God? Amen. Now when you get that settled, you're ready for the next step. Which we will find when God sends this gift into the world, that is, Jesus first, we'll find what happened in the 10th chapter of the Hebrews letter. And when we read here, this is what we find. Verse 5 of Hebrews chapter 10. When he, Jesus, cometh into the world, listen to what he said when he came into the world. Hmm? Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it's written of me, to do thy will, O God. When he came into the world and he knew that his father didn't want sacrifices and burnt offerings for sin, then he said, I have come to do thy will, O God. See, so many people go along the religious line, the religious practice that's in being when they come into the world. This is what they thought Jesus would do. This was one of the greatest reasons that he was persecuted. I don't know whether you realise this, he wouldn't go along with religion. He wouldn't do it. Amen. He just wouldn't do it. He wouldn't go up and offer sacrifices for sin. He hadn't got any. Hmm. He wouldn't go down the party line, down the line of religion. He said, I'm not going to do it. I've not come just to fall in line with the set pattern. I've come to do thy will, O my God. Glory be to God. Now that's it. Now if you've been born into this world to do God's will, the first thing, I mean when you've been born in this world of God's will, the first thing for you to say in your new found consciousness in eternal life is, Lo, I've come to do thy will. I've come to do your will, Lord. I'm of it, so I'm going to do it. I'm of it, so I can do it. I'm not searching for it. I'm of it. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Glory be to his name. Isn't that wonderful? You see. So people go searching for it as though it's hidden somewhere down the garden like a treasure in the field. You've got to go and dig for it. Or you've got to sort of look here and search everywhere else. You're of it. Amen. It's got a fountain out of your own breast and out of your own life. But if you tie it up with the accepted religious norm that's prevalent, you'll not do it. Wonderful for us to understand this. He says, I've come to do thy will, O my God. Now, when he said in verse 9, let's get this right, shall we? When he said, I put when for then. If you read the intervening verse, you'll see it's right. Lo, I've come to do thy will, O my, O God. That's when he took away the first or the old covenant in order that he may establish the second. Listen. And when you say you're going to do God's will and it's not like talk and it's not fancy in an emotional meaning, but it's real, I tell you something moves. You've shifted the old in favour of the new and the new's already there to be established in your life and by your life. Out goes the old, in comes the new. Away goes the first, in comes the second. My, this is tremendous. When a person says, I'm going to do thy will, O my God. You're probably pronouncing your death warrant if you say so, but that doesn't matter. You've been given a body. A body hast thou prepared me. Not a religion, a body. And do you know why Christianity came into the world? Because that body, that one, that person did the will of God. It was practically the last thing he said in Gethsemane. All his life. Now what a tremendous thing for us to understand, beloved. I've come to do thy will. I know why I'm in this world. This is why I've got a body. I haven't got a body just to spend it on this or that or something else. I have conscious, eternal life in my mortal body, which I will have on this earth for a very short time. Jesus only had 30 years. That's all. I haven't got so much longer. I don't know how much you may be reckoning on. I've come to do thy will, O my God. Amen. Now listen. By that will, verse 10, we are sanctified. Listen. Because that body was offered to God, we are here tonight sanctified, made holy. Because one man, the blessed Christ, our God made manifest in the flesh to show us how all men should live. Because he gave himself up to the will of God, we are here tonight sanctified. That is, having had our sin dealt with, having got guarantees and assurances for eternity, my, I could go on, beloved, and multiply the glories that sprang from this one man. The blessings, the universal, worldwide precious things. Think about that horse, for instance. A horse in 1974. How about that? It's when you've come to do the will of God, and when you hand over to the will of God, power operates. Something's done. All the fanciful dreamings and singings and prophesying and I don't know what about things up there that aren't real in the life, beloved, are best left unexperienced. That we should move only in this glorious thing, Lord, that I've come to do thy will. Wonderful when you know you have. Look at the light now that's spreading. When he said that, he took away the first, that he may establish the second. And did he establish the second? Now that was only the sort of precinct shot. This is only the beginning. He didn't then establish the second, that's when he took away the first, that he may establish the second. He had some years of living and going through that the statement of his lips should be tested by his life and proved and found to be true. Of his own will begets he us by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Don't let's get wrong about this, beloved. Don't let's make any mistake. This is what James says. You see, James, John, Matthew, John Mark, all these people, they lived with Jesus. They lived with him. They saw it. Do you know, as I said, we've lived with Hazel, we've seen it. That's it. And the glory of it is, beloved, that he didn't say, oh, well, now you've given me a marvellous gift, Lord. He says, you've given me a body. What was the body for? The supreme thing. Not the interim thing. Lord, there were many interim things, prophecies, parables, miracles, gifts, dispensings, not the interim things so much. Though they were there, they were there all right. But the ultimate, he always had this in his heart. You've given me a body for a short time, Lord. Just for a short time, Father. It's that thy will be done on the earth. That's why he could teach us to pray it. Because he did it himself. Amen. Now, here, then, we're moving in blessed reality. We're not in anything fanciful. We're moving down the line of the revelation of God. And the third thing I want us to see, beloved, is this. That if Jesus said that when he came into the world, as the scripture says, now let's have a look and see what Father said when he came into the world. And you'll find this in the first chapter of Hebrews. And in the first chapter of Hebrews, this is what he said. Well, let's start at this one, shall we? God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the words, who, being the brightness of his glory and express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. That's what the father said about him. He'll be to me a son. A son of his will, the son of his life, the son of the fulfillment of his word and promises. Now that's what it is to be of the will of God. He said, I've come to do thy will. Father said, Thou art my son. Thou art my son. Glory be to the name of the Lord. Now I want to be a man like that. Anything less than that is not a man by Jesus' standards. And I want to pass on then in this tremendous truth into the gospel according to John. Many, many people want to know these great things. How do you find the will of God, they say. I want to understand his will. Let's have a look. John chapter 7. Take it from the lips of Jesus. If you take it from his lips, it will settle all your problems. At least the problem you may have had about who's speaking authoritatively. How can I know? I read such and such a book. He said so and so. I went and heard somebody preach. He said so and so. Now how can I know? Well, here it is. Bless God for giving us the Bible. And in John chapter 7, we read these words. We're in a feast actually, the feast of tabernacles. It is in John chapter 7, verse 2. You'll find it there. And everybody's going up to the feast, you see. They're going to have a tremendous time up here. And it says, about the midst of the feast, verse 14, Jesus goes up into the temple and he teaches. And the Jews marvel, say, how knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them and said, my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. You see, Jesus has given us the truth. How does he know? You say, well, you can know by the way that I know. I just will to do my Father's will. That's how I know. Simple, isn't it? All you've got to do is to will, to do God's will. Will, I mean. I'm talking about will. Will. One thing you can be assured of, you'll never drift into it. You'll never come across it by accident. You have to will to do his will. I have great emotional problems. I have oohs and ahhs and ifs and buts and ins and outs and ups and downs. And I get these great feelings inside me and all this business. Well, ignore them. Will to do his will. And as sure as you're born of God, if you are born of God, you'll know the doctrine. You'll know the doctrine. That's how I know it. Honestly. There's no other way. Jesus didn't know any other way. You say, oh, but I hear them say this and up come all these words, you know, as we've been saying this last day or two. About every sort of few years up comes another hair that everybody chases. They get something else. It usually comes from America. And I don't know what they, they're chasing down this line. They're chasing down the other. They're chasing down something else. And oh, it all comes. Everybody takes up the theme. Everybody's supposed to bow their necks and listen to it. And all that Jesus said is listen. Will to do. God's will. Man. And then you'll know. Start saying, oh, but I can't. Oh, but there's this. Oh, but there's that. Well. Jesus is telling you. No cheap way. You say you want to know God's will. You say you want to do God's will. Well, this is the only way. Are you prepared then to go back to dear old James's advice? Can you hear this great man, the chief elder in the church at Jerusalem saying, let every man be swift to hear. Listen. Will you listen? God's been trying to tell you. But there's such a hubbub of things going around in your own mind. Your own thoughts bolstered up by somebody or something. And you don't hear. And will to do God's will. Do you think that God expects you to know his will and makes it so difficult that when you stand before him, you say, it's your fault. You didn't tell me. Do you think that? Wouldn't that be spiritual suicide? Then could he be God? It's very simple. I fancy, but you have to be simple. I'm such a simpleton. It has to be simple. I mean, hasn't it ever dawned on you the reason why the Lord chose a lot of nincompoops that fished in Galilee and had never got their O-levels? I mean, why do you think he chose these people? Eh? Why do you think he did? Not that there's anything wrong in getting your O-levels. Or A-levels or your Z-levels. It doesn't make any difference. The great thing is, beloved, that the Lord purposely did this so that you can see that the simple, they listen to God. Doesn't mean they haven't got any brains. It does mean, beloved, that they listen to him. Amen. And he says, now beyond listening, he said, he said, if any man, you standing there, you're marvelling, marvelling at the way Jesus talks. He said, now listen, if any man will do his will, he'll know the doctrine too. How about that? That's a promise from Jesus. This is what he meant when he said, I'm the way. I'm the way. This is how I do it. I'm the way. Lovely, isn't it? And they were marvelling at him. Marvelling at him. Keep marvelling, beloved. Marvel so much that you get to the place where you say, Lord, I'm going to be like you. That's what I've got to do. I'm going to give up all this heaving and huffing and puffing and chasing here and going there. I'm going to do your will. Mind you, I warn you, it'll cost you your life. That's the whole point of it. God wants your life. I don't mean to say you're going to die young, or anything like that. But it's life for life. It's all of you. Because if God gets your will, he'll have you. Your undivided loyalty and attention. The fixation of your being. The determination of your heart. You will be one undivided personality. And you will be one of the most wholesome people on the earth. So wholesome that all the others won't understand any more than they understood Jesus. That's right. This is what John says in his epistle. He said, Beloved, now we are the sons of God. The world doesn't know us. They didn't know him. That's what John says. You read it in the third chapter of his first letter. They didn't know him. That's why they don't know us. You become the great unknown. I can't make that man up. I can't understand that. That's right. That's how it goes. His own mother didn't understand Jesus. If you start reading in the opening verses of this chapter 7, it tells you. It says his brethren, that is the other children of Mary, didn't believe in him. It says so. His brethren didn't believe in him. Nobody in his family believed in him. But he was born of God. And he'd come to do God's will. Glory be to him. Well, if you say this, why don't you go and do this, that and the other? They said, everybody's got a lot of things out of their own head to tell you that puts their test to you. And of course, all their tests fail. Because you're never expected to answer the tests of everybody else. But you must stand up to this test, whether you're willing to do his will. Not agreeing with him that you want to, but willing. That is moving. When a man moves in his will, he moves. He's not waiting for anything anymore. He's moving. He may stay static in one place geographically for some time. That's not the point. It's whether your spirit is moving on with God. Amen. Now let's get this further still, shall we? We'll look into the Philippian letter. And I'm sure you'll know this glorious verse, because I'm very often quoting it. You remember that we were on the mind last evening? And we were saying, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. And did you know that the mind is a part of that center of the human personality that God calls the heart? And so is the will. The mind and the will. These are all parts of the human psyche or soul, and the center of the human personality. So we're starting off in the chapter which says, let this mind be in you, verse 5 of chapter 2. And then it tells you about Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon himself my way. That's all part of it. You know, you've got to be prepared to make yourself of no reputation with men. That's all part of it, because everybody's seeking reputation. And we're absolutely opposite from this. We don't want any reputation, any more than the man that was crucified at Calvary. We don't want any more than that. And they would have slung him out and burned his body, only, as he said, God had prepared him a body, and that body was going to rise from the dead. And that was marvelous. But we move in this tremendous realm. He made himself of no reputation. He took upon himself the form of a servant. He was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. All right. Now that's the background for what he's going to say about the will. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Amen. Amen. So you see, we've gone a step further. God works in a man if a man will allow him to. God works in that man to will, not to dream. He works in a man not to get sentimental or something like that. That isn't to say we shouldn't be moved by human sentiments. We should, praise God. We're not to be unfeeling. But he moves a man in the will. That's what he does. He works in a man to say, I will, I will. Amen. Now it's the power that works in you, see. And the power that works the will is the power you received at birth, first birth or second. If it's the power that you came in with in first birth, you can't do God's will. If it's the power by which you were born again from heaven, you can do God's will. And he comes to work that will, so that you should. And when that will is worked, do you know what will happen? Your inward states will be worked out. That's working out your own salvation. Your will works out what's in you. Did that sink in? Your will is outworking your life. Your life. What's in you? Comes out of your tongue. It comes out of your eyes. It comes out of this thing we call disposition. That's why you've got to think the cross. Let this mind be in you. For the mind and the will work together. And if you look higher up in the chapter, you'll have some other things that make the glorious human personality. Bowels of mercies. Comfort of love. Love. Mercies. All these things make up. Listen to verse 3. Don't let anything be done through strife or vain glory. There it is. He works in you to will and to do. Amen. Not to will and drift. Not say, I will do this. And do the opposite because you're so weak. And your will is as weak as ditch water. He works in you to will. Praise God. All the afflictions that beat upon a man break on his will. If it's set, it's the rock. That's right. It doesn't matter what happens. I go through with God. I've come to do God's will. I haven't come to do anybody else's will. Ah, but you wanted to do that. Exactly. He works in me to will. This is the glory of him. I know that it's right. He's got right inside me working my will. I'm born of his will. I've come to do his will. I will to do his will. He's working my will. Now, what else do you want? What do you want more than that about knowing the will of God? What else can he do? I mean, do you want something about eagle's wings getting hold of you and carrying you here and there? What is it you want? Do you know what God calls bearing you on eagle's wings to himself? Have you read it in Exodus 19? I have borne you on eagle's wings to myself. Do you know what he called bearing on eagle's wings? Three months hard slogging across the desert, following because they were determined to follow the cloud. God called that bearing them on eagle's wings. You see, you want a warm, nice, feathery, soft bed to be borne along on, you see, floating above the cloud, you see, on eagle's wings. It was foot-slogging through the desert. But what ever made it this soft downy eagle's back? Love of God, determination to do his will. Everything else fell to the ground. God doesn't make soft beds. He doesn't make you hard either. But he makes you tough. And makes you strong. Hallelujah. So you see where this thing called guidance comes in now then, don't you? Somewhere about nowhere. Why? I've told you. Born of his will, you come to do his will, you will to do his will, and he works your will. Now I tell you. Isn't it a good thing we've got the Bible? It takes us all off this promise box living. It takes us all off this waiting for a word in the meetings. We're on God. That doesn't say we shouldn't have words in meetings. Praise God. But it's getting this thing in perspective, beloved. It's getting this thing right. It's got to be the substance of your life, not something that floats into your ear. Or settles on your head. Or comes as a vision before your eyes. Or a cloud that you follow, whatever the cloud is, a blue one, a white one, or a pink one, or a red one, or a black one. I don't know. Beloved, I beg of you to come to reality. Come to reality. God save us from everything else. That we move on what the precious book says. Amen. Lo, I come to do thy will. Oh my God. Praise him. Are you in this state of communion in life with God? Are you there? Is it real? What a wonderful thing it is. And do you know what churches are? Real churches? They're a company of people that are born of God's will. Determined to do God's will. See? They know the doctrine, alright. They know the doctrine. They're not split up by all kinds of doctrines that are blowing around. They know it. They know it in here. They know. And when the Lord moves this way. In a man's life. How sure everything is. No wonder old James talks about we being begotten as the father of lights. There's no shadow turning in him. He doesn't change. There's no variableness in him. He doesn't blow hot, blow cold. You're not at the equator one minute and the North Pole the next. There's no variableness in the Lord. Hallelujah. The barometer. Needle in the temperature needle. Set. I'm the way he says. I'm the truth. I'm the life. And so God moves us right on. Now I suppose I'm soon going to stop. I took off my watch. I'll have a look at it. Just as a concession. Let's go one or two steps further, beloved Joey. And let the Lord talk to our hearts. Sometimes I say to people who talk to me about knowing the will of God. I said. I said to them. Have you ever read through the New Testament? Yet. To find it. Why should you think I know the will of God for you? God has given us a book. I'll tell you what to do. Take your New Testament. Read through it. Every time you come across a verse that talks about the will of God. Note it. Believe it. Do it. Can't go wrong. Let's look at this one. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Furthermore, verse 1. We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus. That as ye have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God. So you would abound more and more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God. Even your sanctification. That you should abstain from fornication. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour. Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God. What a tremendous thing. Look at verse 7. God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God. Who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit. Do you despise holiness? Do you despise holiness and say I don't want this holiness business. Let me have the power. I don't want the fruit. Let me have the gifts. Now beloved. All these things you call gifts would have been useless in the man Christ Jesus unless he'd been holy. Holy. It's sanctification we need. A constant glorious progressive sanctification. A making us more and more holy as the days go by. That's what we're needing. For without holiness you won't see the Lord. That's what the book says. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord, says the book. He's too holy to be seen. If you aren't holy, so says the book. Praise the name of the Lord. Now this is the will of God. Even your sanctification. My sanctification. You see. Why this is what it says in our second reading. Do you remember? By the which will we are sanctified. We are told by the offering of the body of Jesus. Once for all. That precious body was offered to God. All pure and holy. And you're to know how to possess your vessel in sanctification and honor. And to walk in this glorious cleanness of life. This holiness unto the Lord. Did you know that was the God's will for your life? You see these are simple basic things. People want to find out God's will about whether they should have this or go there or do something else. And they haven't even got on to the basic things. Study beloved. Rightly divide the word of truth. Be a workman that doesn't need to be ashamed. Know the book. Know what God has to say to us. You see. And if we despise this holiness. We're despising God. Who also given us his spirit. For the great first work of the spirit is to bring his holiness to our lives. That's why he's called the Holy Spirit. Praise God. And if you've got the Holy Spirit in you. You will have a holy body. You will have a holy mind. You will have holy speech. I don't mean that will make you a holy Joe. To use the phrase in quotes. Unless you are Joe and you are holy. Then you are holy Joe. But the glorious truth beloved. Is that God wants us to be living this marvelous life. You see. And when you do live in this realm. You may expect God to start directing your life from within you. I want to tell you this. All the directions of God that I know in my life. All come from within. All of them. Without exception. All of them. That's where Jesus seemed to come from. Didn't they? Am I right or wrong? Read your New Testament. Jesus is your pattern. Don't read and try and get it some Old Testament way. Jesus came and fulfilled that. Jesus is your pattern. Amen. People will not look at Jesus. Thou look at Elijah. Thou look at Gideon. Thou look at somebody else. They will not look at Jesus. I don't know why this blindness has come brother. Do you allow your people to keep looking at everybody else but Jesus? When it says in Hebrews 11. Turn your eyes. Hebrews 12. Turn your eyes off all these in Hebrews 11. Moses. David. Noah. Enoch. And all these. We see Jesus. That's right. He headed up. Summed up. Completed everything. You got the perfect example of Jesus Christ. Why keep looking at the imperfect? If you will follow the imperfect. You will have the imperfect. Not that you can't learn lessons from them. Don't let anybody misunderstand me. You can. But God. Listen. He has spoken to us by His Son. By His Son. And people won't have Him. For Moses. They won't have Him. For David. They won't have Him. For Samuel. Or someone like that. They won't have Him. I see that everything came from in there Jesus. Hallelujah. Oh. He didn't read the Bible. To sort of get a word from God. And say now. Oh it's about time I went to that synagogue. In Nazareth. Where I was brought up. He said that he went down to the synagogue in Nazareth. He opened the Bible and said. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because He has anointed me to preach the gospel. He was fulfilling the scripture. He wasn't trying to get a word. He wasn't trying to get a word. Oh Isaiah. Chapter now. Sixty. Oh yeah. Sixty one. Verse one. Why did God speak to me through that verse? He didn't say that. He went and spoke to them from the verse. Because He was full. And fulfilled. This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Why? Because He was moving in the blessed certainty in His own heart. I've come to do thy will. And when He did that. I took away the first. That He may establish the second. It cost Him everything. He lay on His face in a bath at last. And He said. Oh my Father. If it be possible. Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless if it may not pass from me. Except I drink it. Thy will be done Father. You are sitting in this room tonight because of that. How many people will ever sit in a room because of something you do of God's will? How many? We're not here to fulfill the desires and wills of the flesh and of the mind. We're here to fulfill the will of God. And listen. If you let God get into you. If you let Him live in you. He'll work that heart of yours. And it won't be wayward anymore. He'll work your will. He'll work your mind. He'll work it all. Providing you will to do His will. Hallelujah. It's so tremendous isn't it? You know beloved. Don't you do this. Cause I don't see many of you people do it now. You're all very rich. You have cars of your own. But when I was the age of some of you young people. I only had a bike. It was a two wheeler. And I made sure it was a three wheeler. And I'll tell you why. Don't anybody do this. All you little people put your fingers in your ears. You're not supposed to be listening. All little people that is under about twenty. Put your fingers in your ears. You see. Because I sometimes. I used to wait till a little lorry got near me. You see it got past me. I used to side climb. And get over the back and hang on the lorry. It's all right. It's all right. You shouldn't do it. But there I used to do it. I was silly. I used to hang on. It was a three wheeler. It was easy. Somebody else was doing the work. Forty or fifty horses under a bonnet in there. Why should I care? I just hung on. He did my will for me. My will was to go in that direction. And I had the power. My will and that will was all in one. If that lorry driver was willing to go that way. So was I. Praise God. I didn't do it for the praise of God then. I hung on at the back. Do you know what? That didn't half save me a lot of labour. I didn't have to work or sweat or puff. I had to leave go before a policeman came. It was illegal. It was wrong. I'm not advising anybody to do it. I'm making a confession. I hope that you've got the point. It may not be perfect. But it at least lets a little light in. Now may the Lord show us what his will is for us. Plainly. Deeply in our hearts. First thing for you tonight is that you've got to be born of God's will. If you're not. That's it. Hallelujah. That's the first thing. Then you say I've come to do thy will. Oh my God. Amen. I've got a body. I won't have it long. While I've got it. I'm here to do thy will in it. And with it. Amen. I will to do your will Lord. And God will teach you. And someone somewhere will say. Well how did this man know all this? It's easy. You do as I do. It's easy enough. You will to do his will. That's how I know. Isn't it lovely? This is what it means about being. Listen. All taught of God. That's why you don't know the fulfilment of the new covenant promise. Because you haven't willed to do his will. They only know the doctrine. You just have to sit and listen. If you're not careful. You will to do his will. And it's this that brings you into the realm of conscious knowledge. Isn't it Lord good? It's not just for one. Jesus said. Oh I was wondering. You can't know the Lord. It's easy enough. Just will to do his will. It's a child. Child of God. You've got to will to do God's will. I don't mean just take a decision sitting in your seat. Though it may start there. I mean that the whole of your life. From this moment will be geared and directed to that end. To the dissolution of everything else. And this. That's right. Oh what a precious thing it is. And God will be in you working your will. And you'll be able to move on. And you won't come to this place where you say. I don't seem to have the power. For Paul said there was a time when he willed. But he couldn't do. For the will is present with me he said. But how to do. To perform. I find not. Why? Because he wasn't then born of God's will. He hadn't started right. When you start right. And you are born of God's will. It's easy. You will. And you do. You have power now. To perform. It's as simple as that. Powerlessness beloved. Inability to do. What you want to do. For God. Is here. This is where the division lies. Isn't the Bible simple? It just tells us. And they shall be all. Taught. Of God. Yeah. You can. You can. Look at me. I'm pointing to you. I mean you. You're included in it. But it will cost you everything. For what else is there to live for? Let's pray shall we?