In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding and pursuing the reality of God's word rather than being enticed by enticing words and concepts. The speaker shares an anecdote about a meeting where professors and theologians were discussing theological concepts, but the speaker aligns themselves with a smaller group that focuses on the true essence of God's word. The speaker encourages the audience to stretch their understanding and not settle for superficial knowledge. The sermon concludes with an invitation to enter into a deep and eternal relationship with God.

I want to share with you a little, though perhaps at some length, on the great truth of the body. Now I know that some of you will have heard me say at some time or another that though there has been a rediscovery of truth about the body of Christ in these days, let's not get too body conscious, for the Bible says we're to hold the head. It doesn't say we're to hold the body, but that we're to hold the head. And as we all know, that is exactly why we have a body, that it might hold on top of it its glory, the head, even in the physical sense. And so, whilst men and women are getting fitted into their places in the body, we need, as when John saw the risen and glorified Christ in the book of the Revelation, to keep the body covered, for he confesses that the whole of the body was covered. He saw the head and he saw the hands and he saw the feet, but the body was covered. And blessed be the name of the Lord, lest we should get enraptured with ourselves, gazing at the body, instead of getting enraptured with the head, and glorying in the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, although that is true, and for me, fundamentally true, and must remain so whilst I have breath to preach, I want us, nevertheless, to consider something of truth in connection with the body. And if I tell you I want to turn to the epistle, perhaps I'm going to catch you now, that tells us that we're to hold the head, you'll all know and turn to it immediately, and I won't have to mention the name of the epistle. Won't you? All right, let me see your Bibles over here. Praise God. If you haven't got a Bible, look over one, share the one that you have. If you have one and someone away along doesn't have one, or two people don't, then let's share together. All right, I'll stop teasing you. It's in the little epistle of Paul to the Colossians. You'd all turn to the right one, of course. I suppose you've been turning to Corinthians and Ephesians about the body. Let's turn to Colossians about the head, shall we? And let's turn to Colossians, beloved, in the sense in which we ought to see and know and study the head in its relationship correctly to the body. What a precious epistle this is. You've read it many times. I've read it since tea. It's only got four chapters. What have you been doing since tea, if you haven't? I know that some of you, it's been your fast day. It doesn't take long to read it. Praise God. I hope you're getting more and more enamored with the Word of God as it is written for us here. If we neglect it, then we neglect it to our peril. But in this glorious book, as I have said, we find this great truth in verse 18. Let's turn for a moment, shall we, of chapter two, that no man is to beguile us of our reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the head. From whom, or from which, all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. Amen. What a glorious thing it is. Last night, we were thinking of the power of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. How it is the center, the basis, the spring, the source, or what it is, the fundament of our great gospel. Amen. Now you will see that he connects it again, verse 20, if you be dead with Christ, from the rudiments of the world, and so on, straight on, about living in this great new realm, dead to all the rudiments, elements, fundaments, what you will of the world, living in this glorious relationship of body and head. That's where God intends us to live. Now, it's a marvelous thing to be a member of the body of Jesus Christ. I suppose that some of us, when we come in by the Spirit, into these blessed things, we enjoy them, we learn all we can about them, we read all the books we can lay our hands on about them. That means, of course, you read the Bible first, because that's the original book about it. I shouldn't bother about the others till you've read the original. And don't think the others are a key to the original. The original is the key to the others. Get the key first. And you've read them, and you know these blessed things, and you move in, and oh, it's wonderful, and wonderful, and wonderful. But you've got to understand, as I have to understand, how marvelously God in this has swept us up into a mystery. It is spoken of in the opening part of the chapter like this, verse 1. I would that you know what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, through the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And I say this to you, or this I say unto you, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. You know, words will entice you away from the great thing. The great thing is this. Whatever words you hear, like charismatic, or koinonia, for instance, the word I introduced last night, if you were a stranger to it, or gifts, or ministries, are they enticing words? They catch your ears, and God wrote them in the book, so that you should know about them. But beware, lest hearing them, and going after them, they beguile you away from the reality. And the reality is this, God, and the knowledge and the understanding of the mystery of God, not how the gifts function, not how fellowship exists, or in what it consists, although these are related things, or other sweet and wonderful words that fall upon our ear, and we go after them. There was a time, for instance, when I went off after the great truth that lies in the word sanctification. And then when I got coupled with it, a great description of it called entire sanctification, I went after that with all my being. For I must confess unto you, I'm one of these entire people. Now you might not think so, but I'm one of these people who have to be entirely in, or entirely out. I can't abide this fence-squatting. I can't stand these half-hearted people. These limpid, languid, I don't know what they are, people who think they're sort of going to get in by paying a little attention here, and rushing off to somewhere else, and nibbling at the world, and going in for all of the things that the devil can put through, and still they're going to be in awe. I want to tell you you're deceived. You're not wholeheartedly for God, you're wholeheartedly for the devil, if you're only half-hearted for God. Did you hear what I said? I believe it with all my heart. I believe that's the only revelation you're permitted to understand from the Bible. You may consult Noah, who spent a hundred years building an ark, for a start. You may consult Abraham, you know what he did. You may consult Moses, you may go to David, you may go to any of them. You will find that these men were 100% for God from the day that God spoke to them. They neither dillied or dallied at the foul streams of the flesh, neither did they wander into the sweet, green, luscious meadows of worldliness to munch up the pastures of sin and Satan. They went straight through, though it meant a cross and a rugged road. And bless God for them, their names are inscribed in the book. The malingerers like Balaam, for instance, and people like that, that go around with Satan whilst they have God upon their lips, are buried in the grave of contempt in the Bible, that you and I should know, especially as it set forth in the person of Jesus Christ, and then in his great apostles like Peter, and Paul, and John, and James, or say a Stephen who was only a deacon, if I may say only. These people, a Mary who gave herself up to the Word of God by faith, and all these people, they went through with God because they were wholehearted. Now, God wants you to know that you are to enter in, it doesn't matter who you are. Baby, if you're here tonight, you've just come into the great things of God. Listen, God's not expecting of you what he expects of this man on my right, or that man on my left. Their disparity in ages makes no difference, it's the office they hold. He doesn't expect of you what he expects of them in fullness of knowledge, or maturity of deportment, not yet. But even though you be but a beginner, know this, that ultimately you have to come unto the knowledge of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, for it is unto them and before them you will ultimately be presented and eternally live. And the Holy Ghost has come forth so that you should get to know your God. That's why he has come. And he set forth some truth upon the pages of the book. I said that we could only do it briefly, though we may, that is in a little measure, though we may take an hour or so together with our books before us tonight. But this is the whole truth. And what you and I have to understand is that when we come into this great body of Jesus Christ, when we are by the Lord Jesus himself, in the Holy Ghost himself, baptized, we are baptized by this means through the power of Calvary, the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in the supreme power and utter desolations of the greatest powers of Satan. Through these means we are baptized into this wonderful body. We've been joined unto an eternal mystery, the body, the church. What is it? It's a mysterious language that is used in the Bible, but it's marvellous language. And do you know even a duffer like I am can begin to see some glimmerings of truth abiding. There are those who don't like it. As, for instance, when I stood just up there in the border country not so long ago, I stood with a man looking out across to the Holy Isle, if you know where that is, and he told me that out on the Holy Isle there was a man who didn't like me. I thought, well, I never. I thought people that didn't like me didn't live on holy places, but never mind. He said, he doesn't agree with you. I thought, well, that's not the first time I've heard that, but I listened very meekly and quietly to him. And he said, he thinks you take this truth of the body too far. He's been listening to some of your tapes. Do you think it can be taken too far? The whole truth is that this is the one revelation of Scripture and of God, that you and I are baptized into the body of Christ. Now, we are not baptized into the body of Jesus. When we are baptized into the body of Christ, Jesus is baptized into the body of us, your physical frame. He comes into you. All right. You then, being born of God, are named a Jesus person, a member of the body of Christ. Amen. Have you got that clearly? You are not baptized into the personal body of Jesus Christ. Let's see if we can sort this out, of Jesus of Nazareth, I mean. We read in chapter one. It's a great truth that you and I have to understand. We'll go steady. I won't tell you all to shout out if you don't understand, because I bet you'll all be shouting out in turn. But if you have the tape afterwards, you can go over it, and you can scrub out the pieces you don't believe. But don't scrub them out if, by perseverance, you could come to understanding. Hallelujah. Now, here we come, then, in this first chapter. It's a blessed chapter. And as you open the chapter, it goes like this. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timotheus, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are Colossae, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so he goes on down through this chapter, giving the great revelation. When you come into verse 12, we are told we are to give thanks, or we are giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. If I said, stand up, every one of you, that in real experience has been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, would you stand up? There is no power of darkness anywhere in your experience. Amen. I like the sublime language of the Scripture. I like the matter-of-fact reality of it. Don't you? I like the way, thank you Lord, in which he sweeps us all up into it and says, no, there it is. That's the truth. Don't peddle with things other than truth. Move into the greatness of the revelation of God. In him we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. And so it goes on about him. Let's read about him, shall we? He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities, or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things. Is he to you? Can you say this? He is before all things. Now I don't mean in theory and in your best prayers, but this is how you find it every day. He's before your breakfast, for instance. Is he before everything? He's before your supper. He is before your conversation. Is he before everything? Is he a person that cannot come second to anybody or anything in your life? He is before everything. He is. Amen. I want you to notice he doesn't say he wants to be. He is. Somehow men and women have got to get their thinking changed, haven't they? Because they don't think like that, do they? So that if they hear me talk like that, which is only what the Scripture says, they're almost shattered. So somebody's thought processes have got to be changed. And it isn't God's. And the Word of God is unalterable. And bless God, although people are tampering with it, it still remains the same. Hallelujah. Don't you have anything to do with any kind of book that lowers the standard and the punch and the power of the authorized version, will you? God is wanting us to know the truth. He is before all things. And whether you like it or know it or want it or not, the great truth is that by Him everything is holding together. Did you know you can't sin your sinful life without Him? Not His consent. He's holding everything together. That doesn't constitute Him a sinner or an accessory to your act. It means that God is such a God of grace, beloved, that it staggers us. Why He doesn't fold up the heavens now and the earth like a scroll and cast them off like a vesture? Why He doesn't do it? You've got to come to understand the mystery of God. The mystery of this love and grace, beloved, is so tremendous that sometimes when I open my mouth to speak and thoughts come out, I'm staggered by it all. The wonder of God's marvelous love. I don't know why He didn't finish the world in 1901 before I was born. I don't know why He didn't do it in 1850 or 1239, any date you want. I don't know why He didn't do it. I'm only glad that He allowed me to draw breath, though I was born in the east end of London. I'm only glad He allowed me to hear the glorious notes of His gospel. I'm only glad that He was prepared to put up with the insults of His majesty, against His majesty, and all the filth and the calumnies and the treacheries and the rottennesses of men. I'm only glad that He could lengthen it all out and be so patient. And I understand somewhat of the long suffering of God that there came a day when I heard that God could give me a new pure heart in me and make me a new creature, which He did by His grace, bending down to my need on that day and meeting me. Glory to His name. I don't understand. I'm learning, Lord, albeit I'm never going to make the top class, but I'm slowly learning of the great things of God. I want to understand the secrets and the mysteries. Now let's go on. 18. And He, He is the head of the body, the church. He's the head of the body, the church. We go down. 19. Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence? For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. 20. And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. 21. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unapprovable in His sight. Now I want you to notice two bodies here. Verse 18. He is the head of the body, the church. Verse 22. In the body of His flesh. Now that was the personal body of Jesus of Nazareth. You are not baptized into that. He went alone. This glorious God-man, this joining of the impossibles, this great manifestation of God on the earth, this Jesus, this lone lamb, this unique man. Alone He came. And in the body of His flesh, He went to the cross. And there, distinct, unique, alone. Oh, how alone. Nobody has ever been as alone as Jesus. He had to be alone. Nobody else must be permitted to suffer like this. Nobody else was so holy that they could even take sin. Nobody. He was alone. You people that speak about loneliness, you know nothing of loneliness as Jesus knew it. That's why when you go to Jesus, He's the one that can succor you. He's the one that can enter into you. Not to suffer your loneliness with you, but to take it away from you. His greater loneliness destroys your loneliness so that you live as though it never existed. And neither can it anymore when He comes in. This is the whole secret. This is the wonder of God. Amen. In the body of His flesh, He went into death. And see the relationship then between that body of His flesh wherein He went into death and whereby He destroyed death and that body in verse 18 of which He is the head. He was head and body of that body of Jesus of Nazareth. One complete being. In this other body, He is the head of a body of millions of beings. Men and women who through His grace are baptized through the flood of His blood into perfect cleanliness. Through the glory of His death into exclusive life and eternal. Oh, what a marvelous thing that you and I come into the wonder of this. To be now, as God wants us to be, a member of that body of Christ. You may be able to do it in your mind. If not, make a note of this for reference later on. If you turn to 1 Corinthians 12, don't do it now. In your mind, follow me. Or in your heart, you will find that in that 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians verses 12 and 13, we are told that as the body is one and hath many members, so also is Christ. And in one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Greek, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. We've all drunk into the one spirit of the body of Christ, and thereby in this mighty baptism have been made a member of that body. We are different members, but we all have the identical spirit. We have been baptized into this marvelous body. Now drop your eye down the chapter. And you come here, and it says this. In the end of verse 23, Paul says he is made a minister. And in 24 goes on to say, Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake. So, higher up then, it was Jesus' flesh for his body's sake. And now you have Paul talking about my flesh for his body's sake. In the same chapter. And here, you and I are brought to something which is the deepest revelation, actually, of truest ministry. No man has gotten into the real ministry of God until he's seen that flesh has to be given for body. That is, a man's flesh has to be given for the spiritual body, the church of Jesus Christ. He cannot bear in his flesh his own sin. Leave alone the sins of the millions of those that shall be baptized into that glorious body. But nevertheless, he offers his flesh, and he's prepared to give it in all its strength. Shorn of all its glory. Rid of all its sin. Changed in all its habits, except the basic functions by which it still remains in human existence. And his flesh has to be yielded up entirely for the body. Amen. Any young men want to be ministers? Any young women want to be ministers? Any old men or women? If we're allowed to use that term in such a young company as this. To be in our right relationship to this grey body. Now, in the grey plans of God, if you drop your eye down into chapter 2, where we have already read. If you're thinking, oh dear, this is going to be way above my head tonight. Well, sometimes it does you good. It keeps you stretching. You don't always want to be stooping down to picking up manna from under your feet. Sometimes you need to be on the stretch. If you'd have come last night, it would have been different. Or this morning, it was rather different. But tonight, this is the way it's going. By the Lord's grace, come tomorrow morning. Oh no, sorry, there isn't one tomorrow morning. But whenever the meetings are, you'll have a list of them read out at the end. I need to be reminded that when you come down into this second chapter, you see that Paul says, now, I've got a great conflict on about this. You see, it was just the same in the early church. There were thousands and thousands of people that didn't want any of these sort of great high or deep truths or whatever you want. They just wanted to be happy, you know, and sing and jump and that's all they wanted. They loved that scripture that says about he leaping up, stood, and went laughing and skipping and jumping into the temple. You see, they liked that one. That's great. Silver and gold have I none, they sing. And it's all right for babes. It's fine. It's beginners. That man had only just begun. It's a good way to begin. But you're going to come to places where you won't go skipping into temples, beloved. You've got to climb up some rugged mountains. But we don't sing the hymns that talk about climbing up rugged mountains now. We have a guitar and sing nice little things. Little ditties. They're all right. But the mountains are still there, beloved. And presently you'll come to a place where you say, oh, I'm not finding it working out in my life. Well, I don't blame you. It's time you came to that place where you find it's not working out. And then you come down to reality. And God is wanting to show you truth as it lies in his heart and for which he raised up these great apostles of the church to write it down, believing that there would be some, where are they, oh God, where are they, that want to know. And not because they're clever, because I never even got an O-level when I went to school. So take heart all you youngsters. I never got an O-level, leave alone an A-level and a B-A-level, I never even got a sniff at. And an M-A or an A-S-S or something, I never got a look at at all. I think it's fair to say there weren't O-levels in my day, but never mind. If there was anything that was nothing, I'd have got it. A big round O. Now, beloved, the whole glorious thing, you schoolteachers had better sit up unless you think you're in the greatest profession on earth. It's the hardest one, perhaps. But, oh brother, retired early, needn't have done, so it must be some indication. Well, they retired him then. That's how young I think he is, you see. But the, but the, where are the simpletons who, one man's honest anyway, that will go through with God and will let the spirit of God come through. And will let God have them and hand up flesh to spirit and body to God. And will let God have them, whether they make a fortune or a mess. The tremendousness about God is that if you give him yourself, I promise you, you young beginners, if you give yourself to God in all seriousness, and that doesn't mean to say you've got to lose any joy, but in all reality will give yourself to God. God, I promise you, will take you up and he will lead you on and he will teach you himself. And that is all that really matters. And he will teach you all he wants you to know from hearing Mr. So-and-so or Mrs. So-and-so or Brother So-and-so or Sister So-and-so. All he wants you to know from them, he will teach you, if first of all he is your teacher. And the Lord will take you on into this great mystery. Paul says, I've got great conflict about this. I'm fighting hard for them. The devil will snatch away these things from you if you'll let him. But Paul says, I'm prepared to wrestle. I'm prepared to fight for this. I want all hearts, verse 2 of chapter 2, to be comforted. Being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding. Amen. So I want you to see, beloved, that you have no hope unless first of all your hearts are knit together in comfort and into full assurance of love. That's the way. Only comfort and love can attain to the riches of understanding. Amen. What a marvellous thing this is then. That we, having done this, should pass into full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God. Now if it had been full stop there, some minds might have found that at least acceptable. But it goes on to say, and of the Father and Christ. And you say, well now it's complicated. But there's no complication, beloved. Not to the heart that wants to know. If there's a mind that persists in being satisfied first, you'll be in all confusion. Because God set out, as he told the Corinthians, Paul told the Corinthians, that God deliberately set out to bring to nothing the understanding of the proven. He deliberately set out to confuse the wisdom of the world. It's said so in your book. And if a man will persist and insist in coming in on that level, he'll never know. But if he'll let God get him and pass in by lying on the bosom of God, by going into heavenly comfort, not stupid fantasy, by passing into true, pure spiritual love and not sublimation of sexual and erotic desires, and will go into pure and holy love with God, firm, strong, holy, so that he goes as a whole being, not a person spent upon trying to satisfy humans. Not human burnings in himself, but purely living for the flame that God has lighted in his breast. And wanting only to merge with the eternal burnings. And let the Lord teach him. From that place of fire will at last come the teaching as when God stood, for example, in a burning bush in the backside of a desert and spoke out of the fire to Moses. Or at Sinai, spoke out of the mountain that was on fire with the glory of God and out came the ten commandments. That's where he speaks from. Or in the Old Testament again, in Shekinah glory, in the origin of all human fire. Glory came down as fire on an outer altar, inside upon the mercy seat it lived in its original form. Glory! And God said to Moses, from there I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, out of the fire, always. Hallelujah. Now when a man will unite with that, he will begin to go into understandings from God. There's no knowledge anywhere else. I'm sorry for every Welshman and Welshwoman present, but I went to a university in Wales once. Pardon me if I've told you this before. And I was invited to speak in this university and so I chose, as perhaps you might think I would, to speak upon the new heart. So seeing that I was addressing professors and tutors and graduates and undergraduates and lesser breeds, I took a blackboard and an easel and I demonstrated on the blackboard some things that some of you will know so very simply, I trust. And I put them on the blackboard. I went through it. And when it was over, they opened the meeting for questions. And the meeting at that point sort of divided. Over onto one side went Professor So-and-so, who'd been Professor of Theology there for 25 years. And round him gathered all his tutors and so-and-so and the people that were with him. And there was sort of a smaller group over here. I happened to be there, you see. And this professor was talking round. They lit their cigarettes first, of course. I suppose that helped them to think, I don't know. I never found it ever helped me to think. I've never tried, so I know it doesn't. Well, don't I? Or can't I think? I know that's a myth. I know you can get so saturated to it that you can't do anything that requires concentration without the drug. That's what it means. I know that. But the tremendous thing about it is this. After talking for quite a while, one of them came out with, but this is quite impossible. It means a complete change of personality. And I thought that was, and I said, well, exactly that's what it's all about. But they didn't know that. They didn't know anything about it. They at least had thought their way through that if you get your heart changed, it changes your personality. Well, of course it does. And that's why God does it. And he can't change persons unless he does it. But when he does that, he changes persons. Sounds very simple to me. Sounds very logical. And this is why people are always trying to fight down their own personality, because they've never had their heart changed. When their heart is changed, their personality is basically changed. It develops into a glorious new personality, but that's not my subject. The whole great thing is that God wants us to come to this acknowledgement of the mystery of God and an understanding. Now then, you and I have to understand something about the head-body relationship in God. For this is that into which you have been called, so that you and I should not miss what God is saying. We will turn to 1 Corinthians. You say, well, this sounds like a theology class. Well, you've been very good students. It isn't a theology class, beloved. When you turn to 1 Corinthians, you find this. Verse 21. Well, let's start with 20, because I rather like it. Old chapter 3, 1 Corinthians 3. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they obey. Will you believe that? Aristotle, Plato, they. Vanity. They said a lot of true things. Vanity. Verse 21. Therefore, let no man glory in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come. All yours. Isn't it a marvelous thing, the futures? All these things that are coming, they're all yours. It's glorious, isn't it? Amen. Aren't you glad you're alive? Everything's yours. And you are Christ's. And Christ is God's. Turn on with me. 1 Corinthians. Still in this same epistle, which you will know is an epistle that deals with fundamental things. In the 11th chapter. But just before you get to the 11th chapter, you read verse 32 of chapter 10. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. Just three divisions in the world. There are only Jews, Gentiles, and the Church. You belong to one of those three. You cannot belong to any two of them. You can only belong to one. If you're a Jew, you're not a Gentile, you're not a member of the Church. If you're a Gentile, you're not a Jew, nor a member of the Church. If you're a member of the Church, you're neither Jew nor Gentile, you're a new creature. Now you understand the completeness, this engulfment of God into an entirely new realm. Amen. Now we'll go on. Be ye imitators of me, even as I am of Christ. Now, I pray you, brethren, that you remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know, this is the verse, that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Here's the mystery. In other words, Christ is the body of God. Just as the Church is the body of its Head, Christ, so Christ is the body of His Head, God. Did you know that you've been called into a relationship in the Church which is exactly the same as the relationship between Father and Son? A head-body relationship. Did you know that? Good. Now we'll go to the Colossian letter. Here's the glory of the Church, and this is why when Paul said in the eleventh chapter, from which we've just turned, I'm relying on you having good memories, and I'm sure you've all got better memories than I have. In fact, my grey-headed brother on my right and I compared things today, and we compared, and on this level, and we said, yes, we're tending to forget things. And he forgot whether he forgot things, so he went and asked his wife. And she very lovingly said, well, you do tend to forget little things. She's sweet. Mind you, he deserves her to be sweet. But the greatness of it all is this, that in the eleventh chapter of 1 Corinthians of verse 1, Paul says this, Be ye imitators of me. There was a strange way to begin the chapter. Yes, it was. Really, there shouldn't have been any chapter division. If it should have been a division, it should have been between verses 1 and 2 of the eleventh chapter. Now you're turning back to see what I'm talking about. Well, alright. Because, you see, this is how one of the ways in which Paul was imitating Christ. Christ, when he was on earth, he only thought about Jews and Gentiles and said, I'm going to build my church. So Paul says, I'm imitating Jesus. There are only Jews, Gentiles, and the church. And then he brings into this glorious revelation. I wish they didn't put chapter divisions in the Bible. Then he proceeds into this marvelous revelation between man and woman, which I won't discuss now, perhaps another time. And he says this glorious thing. He says, The head of Christ is God. So then, hallelujah, the head of the woman is the man. The head of the church is Christ, who is himself the body of another head. Have you got it? A head, a body, which has become our head, Jesus, a body, underneath, called the church. See the link? You got it? So it sounds like a trinity. It does, doesn't it? Yes, it does. My, let's get really down to Scripture then. We'll go into the Colossian letter. Oh, it's so wonderful, isn't it? Do you love reading the Scriptures and coming to all the great things? Look in verse 19 of chapter 1. It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Now let's read down into chapter 2. Verse 9. In Christ, that's the last word of verse 8. In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He's the body. Father is his head. Hallelujah. Amen. And he in turn is the head of the church. Oh, do you begin to understand this mystery into which you've been called? I do bless God that this thing in which I've been joined, I've been caught up into an eternal mystery. I'm all agonk to find out more about it. I can't wait. Hallelujah. This is what it says that we're looking for and hastening toward this great final revelation. I shall know then whether I've got it all right, whether I've understood it perfectly or as well as I ought to have done while I'm on the earth. In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now look at the next verse. And you, you're complete in him. Oh, praise God. You're complete in him. Hallelujah. Because he's the complete body of that head. And once I'm in him, I'm already complete. He's my head. And I'm going to be part of his body. But I'm already complete. I begin to see it. I'm wrapped up in this completeness, this wholeness. Do you see? You do see, don't you? Oh God, open everybody's eyes. You've got to come to this understanding. So I thought this was a conference. Yes, it is. It isn't all casting out devils. It isn't all get people baptized in the spirit. There comes a time when God says, no. Do you think they're old enough now? And some of you have been here ten years. And some of you have been under the ministry elsewhere nine years, five years, four years. Some of you perhaps are just beginning. Is there anyone that's going to see and understand? Oh God, hallelujah. Praise God. I begin to see it. I'm complete in him. I'm all here. Completely. In him, nothing's missing. I'm complete. Hallelujah. Do you feel as though you're whole? Now you'll begin to see something about this word in scripture that says, make your whole. Make your whole. And so God takes hold of us. The head of Jesus, Christ, is his father. Isn't it all going to be wonderful? Yes. Better keep our fingers. No, no, we'd better complete in Colossians. We'll have to go on some other night somewhere else. But in this great Colossian letter then, we go right down and we see this. That in verse 11 of chapter 2, we're circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Amen. The whole body of the sins of the flesh. Now you haven't put off the body of the flesh of erstwhile sin because it's got to be a body of the flesh of present holiness. Same body. But you have put off the body of the sins of the flesh. In other words, when God deals with anybody at any time, he deals with them upon the basis of wholeness, completeness. He doesn't say, well now, there's this category of sins. I want to get rid of it. He says, no, when I deal with it, it's got to be all. Complete life. I deal in body terms. Bodily terms I deal with. Hallelujah. The whole lot, stock and barrel of it. Not a little bit of it. Oh, hallelujah. He deals in completeness. And we're living in such days of psychological jargon that we go to means to say, God will deal with this area. And then he'll deal with that area. And the other area. And I don't know how many areas there are. You go to these great consultants on these levels, beloved, and God says he puts off the body of the sins of the flesh. The body. When you're circumcised with this circumcision. And what's the circumcision? Death, burial, resurrection. That's what it is. We can't get away from it. That's the circumcision. Hallelujah. God did have his hands nailed to the cross, the Lord Jesus, but it wasn't only his hands. He wasn't just wanting to get rid of the sins of the hands. His feet were nailed to the cross, but he didn't just want to get rid of the sins of the feet, so only his feet were nailed to the cross. He was nailed their hands and feet to the cross in toto, to get rid of the sins of man in toto. Your sin complete. Hallelujah. Got rid of by a man who became the man of sin for you on the cross. That you, oh man or woman of sin, should go out by the cross in to nothingness and rise in to glorious newness of life. This is the whole secret, beloved. Circumcision is the sign of the covenant and nobody is in the new covenant until they have this circumcision signed upon their spirits. That's what God says. What a glorious thing it is then. Now a man may lips back in to it, a woman may fall back in to it, they may do all sorts of things, but if they want to get restored they still got to go to the same knife and be circumcised again. Did you ever read, and the children of Israel were circumcised the second time. Do you know where you read that? No? Well start at Joshua chapter 1, keep reading. That's what it says. There need have been no second circumcision if they had stood by the first one. But if you want to get in you got to go back and get circumcised again in your inner man. It's got to be dealt with. Utterly, utterly God be praised. Lest a man should think he could carry over one darling sin or God would make allowance and acceptance for human waywardness in his kingdom. You come in by the exclusive power of the cross because God my beloved loves you so much he wants to include everything into his kingdom. Every bit of you. He loves every bit of you. Every hair of your head. He's counted every one of them. I'm ever so glad because I've got a lot. Every hair of your head. Hallelujah. So that you shouldn't get vain about your hairdos. Your hair belongs to God. Did you know that? Whether you want it curly, wigged or bouffanted or what it is. And you blow waved men. Everyone belongs to God. You're not allowed to choose your own hairstyle. You say what? What preaching is this? Bible preaching. You take it or leave it. But you don't alter truth. You only show what you've chosen. You only show the way you want to go. But the truth remains. I can't help it if you were born curly and I wasn't. They tell me that curls are a disease so I. Well that's what they tell me. I don't know. I'm not a tonsorial artist. God knows. You say it's rather tremendous isn't it? Yes it is. I'm ever so glad it's tremendous. I'm so glad that my blessed Lord has taken me into account. I was so wretched. So. Oh. I was gone. I'm so glad that he's told me down to the detail. I'm glad he's arranged for everything. I'm glad he's left me to do nothing but obey. Fool that I am. I'm calling myself a fool. Not you. So God has made these great arrangements. The fullness of the Godhead is my head bodily. I'm so thrilled. I'm in this great life. I want to go right on with this then. I'm circumcised with this great circumcision. I'm in this great truth and I'm told as I read to you I'm not to let anybody beguile me in verse 18. Nobody's going to beguile me with this, that and the other. I want to hold the head, verse 19. That's my job to hold the head. Quite natural. And I want to go on and on and on and on. And again it's dead with Christ. It's always the cross. There everything is dealt with. It's the sharpest knife God ever made. It's the most pointed arrow he ever fired. It'll come right into your heart if you'll let it. Amen. I go down then. Let's go on, shall we? We're in chapter 3 now. Oh, this is a great chapter. Amen. Do you live here? Look at this. Well, there's so much in it. Let's start here, shall we? Verse 12. Put on therefore as the chosen of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. Isn't it lovely? I've been chosen. And in this great choice, I'm told this in verse 15, that the peace of God is to rule in my heart, to which I've also, we've all been called in one body. We've been called in this body. Chosen. Called. Have you ever heard this call? Have you ever reached your heart? Are you rejoicing? It's because God chose you and he was determined never to let you go. Whatever you did, wherever you went, whatever you said, and his call got through to you because he'd chosen it. Even though you'd chosen to ignore him, sin against him, kick against him, do everything else, he'd chosen you. And thank God he's got a will that's stronger than yours in the long run. Even if it is a long run. But he gets you in the end and sheep can't run very far before they're exhausted. They're not greyhounds. That's the truth. And I'll tell you another thing about sheep. If they run, they soon die. Did you know that? An old shepherd named Jacob said this, if you overdrive sheep one day, the whole flock perishes. Have you ever read that? I won't tell you which book to read it in. It's in the Bible. A sheep, you can't do it. A sheep soon perishes if it starts to run. That's why this picture keeps on saying walk, walk, walk, walk. Amen. But what a glorious thing it is when God really deals with us, beloved, on this level. Amen. I'm called. I'm chosen. And now look at this, beloved. Let's have a nice bunch of free C's, shall we? Called, chosen. And I read in verse 14 that above everything else we're to put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. And of course it's charity. We're called, we're chosen. For charity, this great love, above everything else, love. Write them all down. We'll start at the bottom, we'll start at the top and say, we'll write redemption, salvation, sanctification, healing, grace, mercy, peace. Go right down the list and say, love. L-O-V-E. Above everything else, love. Hallelujah. You know why love's at the top, don't you? Because that's where the head is. My lovely Jesus. My lover. And that's how my Jesus, who's the body of God, spoke about his Father. The Father loves me. Oh, Father, he says, I want that the love wherewith thou hast loved me shall be in them, and I in them. God is calling us unto this in one body, beloved. Peace. In one body we've been called. You've got to live in peace one with another. You two women. You two men. You three, four men, women, you've got to live in peace one with another. You've got to be. No nonsense. You ought to get it all settled tonight. No nonsense. If there's sin, sin's got to be dealt with. You've got to love one another. You've got to. Don't you see you're the body of Jesus Christ as Jesus Christ is the body of his Father? Don't you see you're linked in one? You've got to. Here and now, the filth of the world's got to go. If you won't let that go, then you must go with it. Amen. That's the way God's dealing. That's the completeness of it. That's its devastating fullness. And I'm so gloriously pleased to be able to say, tell my own heart and tell yours. Aren't you one of these people that want to be right in or right out? Stand up if you're one of these people that want to be half in and half out. Let's have a look at you. Or some of you that want to be 25% a Christian and 75% a worldling. Stand up. Let's have a look at you. Come on. You'd better be honest. Or stand up, those of you who want to be 75% a Christian and 25% in the world. Let's have a look at you. I'm glad you haven't stood up, because it means you're saying you're 100% for the world. Don't you see there isn't any halfway position here? Don't you see what it's all about? Don't you see? You've got to come down to understand what it is. You've been called to. Or did you mistake the call? God is moving upon us, beloved. It's all so wonderful. Hallelujah. Listen. 17 of chapter 3. But I want to stop here at the moment. So if you go out tonight to drink beer, do it in his name. If you go out, you're hungry and you go outside to light your cigarette, light it in Jesus' name. Do you see what he's talking about? You've got to be 100% for Jesus. Whatever you do has got to be in his name. If you quarrel with somebody, then do it in his name. If you can. If you fight, then fight in his name. If Jesus Christ cursed and swore and fornicated and committed adultery, then you do it in his name. If he loved in sweetness and moved in tender compassion, if he rose in the morning and opened his eyes to look up to his Father, you do that in Jesus' name. Do everything in Jesus' name. If he knocked his wife about, I mean the church now, you knock your wife about. If he cheated the income tax people, you cheat them. Don't think they're a fair game, they're not. There's no game here. You're in absolute reality. If he drove his car down the motorway at 90 miles an hour, then you do it. Do you think there's a joke about that? We can all slip and do all sorts of things. I'm not talking about slips, I'm talking about the set of your life. The spirit that dominates you, whether you're in a car or in bed, in the church or in the market. That's what I'm talking about. That's what God's talking about. That's what it's all about. Hallelujah. Now may the Lord lead us all on. I've only touched on it. I said we wouldn't get very far, though we might take some time at it. But then we've got tomorrow and the day after and the day after, and I think it's the day after. And God has much time to move in on our hearts. Not that you should wait beyond now. God wants you to come into this glorious place, Lord, I see what it's all about. I'm entering into an eternal relationship. I'm entering into something which is in the substance of God. I'm entering into something which I begin to see more clearly. I see that my relationship to you is the same as your relationship to your Father. I understand what you mean when you said on the way to the cross, and this is why you were going to the cross, dear Lord Jesus, that they all may be one as thou, Father, art. And I, that they may be one in us. That the world may know that thou hast sent. That's why he went to the cross. Are you ready? Are you ready? Come on, let's pray. Let's move right in.