The first principle we touch on today in 2 Timothy is the principle of power, which we are going to see relates directly to our Christian life and to the life of the church. I think any of you who have read the first chapter will immediately notice the key importance of chapter 1 and verse 7. What does Paul say here to Timothy? "For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice," RSV translates "timidity," "but a spirit of power and love and self-control." Notice the order: power, love, and self-control.
Now it is this principle of power that we want to develop and work out. What can we say then about this power? What is the significance of this power? Power is directly related to life. The power of an indestructible life, we read in Hebrews chapter 7 verse 16. No power, no life. Where there is life, there is power. Power of one kind. The greater the life, the greater the power. The less the life, the less the power. That is all very easy to understand.
And so in the same way in the Christian life, where there is life, there is power. Where God's power works, there is life. No power, no life. And how does God's power work? It works, first of all, in the new creation. God has produced a new creation. What is this new creation? This new creation is the church. And we as members of that new creation are also ourselves new creatures. Paul says exactly this in Ephesians chapter 2. He says that God has created one new man, Ephesians 2 verse 15. One new man. The church. What is this new man? The church he's talking about in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 15.
So God's power is manifested in this 20th century, as indeed through the last 2,000 years, by the creation of something new. What do we mean by a new creation? Well, there has been an old creation. That is the physical creation. The creation of heaven and earth, the moon, the stars, the sun and the like. We mean by a new creation then — the word of God means by a new creation — that He has created in this age a new thing. What is this new thing? The church.
And secondly, we find that this power works by faith. It works by faith. All of you who have been Christians for any length of time will know that where there is no faith, God's power does not work. Where there is faith, there is power. The connection of faith and power is exceedingly clear. What is less clear is the connection between faith, power, and vision. That must become clear to us too.
Now here we can see, and I want to show you how this connection appears. We see that in Hebrews chapter 11. And what do we see in chapter 11, verse 27? There we read this: "By faith he," that is Moses, "left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king; for he endured as seeing him," that is God, "who is invisible." By faith, Moses endured as seeing the invisible God. How can you see what is invisible? That is what we mean by spiritual vision. Where there is faith, there is spiritual vision.
Have you got spiritual vision? If you have not got faith, you have got neither life, nor power, nor spiritual vision. You are no part of the new creation. But since this conference is for Christians, whether you have been yet baptized or not, but whether you have already committed your life to Christ, then you are a Christian, in the sense awaiting for baptism when you are baptized into the body of Christ, as we shall see later on. But what is exceedingly important for us then to see is the connection of power — the thing that we are talking about today — with faith, with life, and with vision.
Where there is no vision, we are told, the people perish. Today, the church lacks vision. And that's why I'm going to put the emphasis, under God's grace, upon vision, until every eye can see what God wants you to see. If you've got faith, exercise it in such a way that you can see — endure as seeing Him whom the physical eye cannot see, to whom the physical eye is invisible, but that the spiritual eye can see with ever greater and clearer view.
What kind of spiritual vision have you got? Can you see? What burns in my heart, brothers and sisters, is vision. It is a vision that stands clearly before my eye. There is no time today to expound in great detail about the scriptural teaching of vision. This you will find out as you go along. The scripture has a great deal to say, not about special revelations and vision — this is a different subject — but the vision of faith that endures as seeing Christ.
You can see that in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. "We all," Paul says. "We all," not just me. "We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord." You say, who? Who is "we all"? He was talking to the church. "All with unveiled face." That's in 2 Corinthians 3. "Beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed." What kind of Christian is a Christian that has no vision? They cannot see the glory of Christ, the beauty of the church. You know that Paul calls the church the glory of Christ? And all this we will come across as we move on.
And so it is my prayer — notice the link between power, spiritual life, faith, and vision. I emphasize that again so that you get the key words that we are talking about. Now we notice that God's power has created in this age a new and amazing thing. What is that thing? It is the church.
Brothers and sisters, we are talking about spiritual warfare. Without power, where do you have warfare? Who can go forth and fight a battle without power? Without weapons? Everybody knows that you must have power, might, military might to win any warfare. But then also, how do you win a battle without an army? How can there be a battle without an army? And yet we have a very strange notion in the churches today, and that is to say, there doesn't seem to be any vision of the church at all.
What do we need a church for? What is the function of a church? Why do we need a church? Today in the churches we hear that salvation is a personal relationship between you and God. That's true as far as it goes. But if salvation is simply a matter of personal relations, then whatever do we need the church for? You believe in God, I believe in God, and you go your way, I go my way. What do you need a church for? In fact, this becomes very explicit. Some people say, "Well, I can worship God at home, I can pray at home, what do I need a church for?"
The great problem is there is no understanding of the scriptural teaching of the church. And that suits Satan just fine, because he doesn't want any church. That's clear. He doesn't want an army fighting him. And that's why I'm going to talk about this army, until you get a vision of the church. This is what we'll talk about this morning, until you understand — and this evening too — another aspect of this exceedingly important principle. No church, no army, no warfare. We can't fight. We'll never win.
But what do we need a church for? For if salvation is simply a matter of my personal relationship to God, what do I need you for? And if your salvation is a matter of personal relationship to God, then what do you need me for? Why do you need one another? We have no need for each other. We can manage fine. Or so we think.
And it's often stated, and it sounds very religious, or be it very spiritual, to say, "All we need we find in Jesus. Jesus is everything. We must put our total trust in Jesus. We must focus our attention on Him alone." That is very good as far as it goes. But I beg to ask of you, if that is so, and if we only need Jesus — and how exceedingly right and spiritual this sounds — then whatever do we need a church for? Can you tell me?
Yesterday as we came down here, we had an interesting talk in the car. I like to ask people questions sometimes. I said to the brother and sister, I said particularly, "Tell me, what is the church?" So we had a very interesting discussion going for quite a long time. I just kept asking questions. I gave no answers. I just wanted to listen. And so every time an answer came, I cross-questioned the answer. In the end, we came to a complete standstill. We came to a dead end, because it was no longer clear why we need a church, according to the standard understanding of Christians today.
And I would be very interested to conduct the same discussion with all of you, except by the time we finish this message, you'll have the advantage of knowing the answer, or part of it. But if we had before this session the opportunity of having a discussion, I would like to have asked you, whatever do we need a church for? Why do you need a church? Oh, you say, "Going to church is good, and there we have some fellowship." What's so vital about fellowship? I mean, you can read your own Bible. Fellowship is laziness. You're depending on other people. You don't like to study, so you ask other people the questions. "What does this passage mean?" Why don't you go home and study it yourself? Don't be so lazy.
The church is just there to foster the laziness of people. People should go back home and work, or get on with the Bible study. Don't use other people as a crutch to lean on. In fact, so strange is this understanding developing today — and how happy Satan must be with such a concept of the church — that in fact, I know of somebody who explicitly said that we don't need church meetings. Everybody should go home and read their Bible, and then go out to do personal witnessing. The time that you waste having fellowship with one another, you could be out there witnessing for the Lord. What are you all doing here? You should all be out there witnessing for the Lord. Or have you all come to get a crutch to lean on?
Now, doesn't this sound rather logical? You need to depend totally upon God, not upon other people. Your faith is always only vertical in relation to God. So the need for a church seems to disappear. Isn't that perfectly logical? How do you counter that? And if I had the chance to question you about this, perhaps you'd end up having to admit that perhaps the churches are rather useless after all. And when you have admitted that, Satan has exactly what he wanted you to say. That is just right for him.
It is time for us, if we are going to fight any kind of spiritual warfare, to understand the significance of the church. And to understand its significance according to the word of God. Not according to my view, or anybody else's view, but according to the word of God.
So important is the church in Paul's eyes that he can speak, use phrases that almost stagger us. That is to say, if you have any sensitivity to the kind of language he uses. What does he say in Ephesians about the church? Here is something, for example, that he says. The last verse of Ephesians chapter 1, he says this: "the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." The church is the fullness of Christ.
Wow, you say, that is a rather staggering kind of statement to make. In 2 Corinthians, he says that the churches are the glory of Christ. Wow, you say, "Paul, how can you say things like that?" But he hasn't finished yet. He says, "The church is the body of Christ." Wow, you say, "Paul, you're getting more and more into deep hot water here. You're saying the church is the fullness of Christ, who fills all in all. What kind of staggering statement is this? He is the fullness; the church is the fullness of Christ." You say, "I hardly understand what you're talking about now, Paul." And then you go on to say, in 2 Corinthians, that the church is the glory of Christ. "Oh, Paul, are you not exaggerating a bit?"
Certainly here in the 20th century, you never heard anything like this. Such statements seem to be exceedingly astonishing. 2 Corinthians, chapter 8, verse 23. What does Paul say? "As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker in your service; and as for our brethren, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ." If you have never seen these verses before, it's about time that you noted them down carefully and asked, "Lord, what's happened to me? What's happened to me that Satan has managed to knock out of my mind any understanding of the church?"
You know, what is the principle of spiritual warfare? A principle in warfare is to chop the enemy up, to disorientate them, to separate them from one another. Divide and rule. Divide and conquer. And Satan has done a marvelous job of that. He has so split the Christians up today that we have today a church that is such a disgraceful mess that I'm sure you hardly dare to say that this is the glory of Christ. You say, "Paul, look at that stuff that we see today. And you call this the glory of Christ?" Well, Paul wasn't talking about the stuff that we see today.
In the meantime, Satan has managed to do an awful lot of work. He has split the church apart, atomized it, produced a thinking of utter individualism. The thinking of community has been wiped out. And so what do we have today in the church? We have simply individuals who think that all that matters is their relationship to God and we don't need each other.
But Paul has said, "Wait a minute, the church is the body of Christ and you are members in it." And we say, "Paul, what exactly do you intend to say with that? What exactly do you intend to say?" Well, how can a member live without the body? If you chop off the hand, how can the hand survive? How can the hand live without the arm? How can the arm live without the shoulder? How can the shoulder live without the body? You say, "Paul, what exactly are you trying to say here to me? I thought that salvation has nothing to do with each other. It's simply with Christ. Nothing to do with each other."
Well, brothers and sisters, if that's what you thought, you are wrong. That's not scriptural teaching at all, no matter how religious it sounds. And I'm going to ask you to search the word of God and see for yourself if this is not so.
But let us press on and ask ourselves this question: Why do we need each other? I want to start right at the beginning. What sense is there to say that the church is the body of Christ and that we need each other? And as we see, Paul said exactly that.
Now, you see, in physical terms, we can readily see why the hand needs the arm. Well, you say, it doesn't take a genius to see that if I chop up my hand, well, the nerve is separated, the blood supply is cut, and therefore the hand will die. You say, well, it's clear. But you say, "I don't seem to see any such dependence upon one another. I don't see that I need you in the same way, or that you need me in the same way, or that you need each other in the same way." So Paul must have made a mistake here. What do you mean body? We are members, that we depend on each other, that we need each other. We don't seem to see any such dependence, in fact.
And in fact, as we have seen, many people say to us, "Oh no, you mustn't look to men at all. You mustn't look to men. You look only to Christ. The spiritual Christian only looks at Christ." Well, if that is the case, we seem to need each other even less.
What do we mean by need? I do not mean that we give each other a bit of encouragement. I mean, my arm does a lot more to my hand than just encourage my hand occasionally. Say, "You're a nice hand. I like you, so keep up the good work." But if I cut it off and put it here and I say, "My hand, I'm going to stimulate you now from a distance. I hope you're going to carry on nicely without me." That's ridiculous. But that's exactly what we do. We think of fellowship as simply some remote spiritual stimulus, a little bit of encouragement. I need you to give me a bit of encouragement. You need each other to occasionally pat you on the back, so long as it's not so hard that you get a painful shoulder. Some people pat so hard they hurt you. They mean well, but they did the wrong thing. They meant to encourage you and knock you down instead.
And what do we need? Just a bit of encouragement? We saw that that is not the point that Paul took. But in this case, how do we need each other? I don't seem to see any such dependence.
Or maybe you would say, "Well, you see, we need each other for work. That is, for evangelism." Ah, yes. Evangelism is a joint effort. So the body is there just for evangelism. Is that all Paul wanted to say? Well, certainly that is part of it. But if it is just a matter of evangelism, then any of you who are aware of church history will soon see that God seems to do a great deal more through one mighty man of God than through multitudes of Christians put together.
God seems to have done far more through one John Sung in China than multitudes of churches put together, and the multitudes of Christians with all their evangelistic outreaches put together could not win as many as one John Sung. So what we need today, you see, on that logic, is not more churches. What we need is more John Sungs. And I agree with that. We need more John Sungs. Who is the one that would disagree with that? But we are only speaking about the point of the church as an instrument of outreach. We find that the church has not been such a marvelous instrument of outreach as it should be, or as even a whole church put together. Should this be the case? My answer is no, on the basis of scripture. But in the key circumstances of necessity, it ends up generally with certain men of God doing most of the work.
And so we are still left with the question: Why do we need each other? And you see, I am going to ask this question again and again, to make you think. I don't like spoon-feeding people. I would like you to sit there and think: So why do I need each other? Why do I need this guy sitting next to me? I seem to get on nicely without him. He's given me nothing before, maybe I've given him nothing. And you keep saying that we need each other, we're members of one body and the like. I didn't say that, Paul said that.
1 Corinthians 12:21, do you know what that verse says? "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you.' Nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'" The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you." I don't need you. But that's exactly what we say to each other. "I don't need you."
As one sister said to me very truly yesterday, and how true it is — we were enumerating the various people in the church, and she said, "Do I need so-and-so? No. Do I need so-and-so? No. Do I need so-and-so? No." I mean, if all these people didn't exist in the church, what difference would it make to my spiritual life? Nothing. And for that matter, perhaps if you were not in the church, what difference would that make to the spiritual life of the church? Nothing. Or at most a slight inconvenience — you happen to play the piano. But we are talking about the spiritual life of the church.
How do we need each other? Think of all those people in your church. Think of them. There is Elder so-and-so. Do you need him? You might think, oh, if he weren't in church, the church would even be better off. And what about the other person? Do you need him? Not really. So, who do you need? Ah, you say, "Well, maybe I need the pastor." Ah, yes, that's the fellow we need, assuming he's a good pastor. Otherwise you might do well without him as well.
So, who in the church do you need? But if we are members of each other, then in a sense, the pastor must also need the church. And in what way does the pastor need the church? You may say, "Well, I need the pastor." We can see that. We can't very well do without him. But if we are members of each other, it says here not only that the eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you," but it also says the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you." So, how does the pastor need you?
You say, "That's easy. I mean, we pay his salary. We don't give him a salary, he'll starve." Well, if you've got a pastor of that sort in your church, you better find somebody else. Because a pastor who is worth his salt can earn a lot more outside the church than inside the church. And don't you kid yourself that he needs you to support him and keep his bread together. Most of those men of God around today could earn an awful lot more money outside the church than inside the church, manifold more. And I'm glad to say that all three pastors in Liverpool, for example, have undertaken the pastorate at heavy financial cost to themselves. They don't need the church for income. Any one of them could earn a lot more outside the church.
We are talking about spiritual needs. How does the church need the pastor? Well, you say, "We need the teaching." Okay. How does the pastor need the church? Not so sure about that. The pastor seems to be financially a lot better off if he did another job and be doing some Bible study on his own, some part-time work. He would be a lot better off financially, every way for himself at least. He doesn't need the church, does he?
And yet Paul insists that we need each other. So where is the mystery? How do we solve this problem? It seems to me that we are in considerable problems here. What is more, it says here in 1 Corinthians 12:21, "The head cannot say to the feet." The head? Who is the head? Christ is the head. Paul said again and again, Christ is the head of the church. And the head cannot do without the feet.
Wow, you say, "Paul, now you are saying important things. We need each other, but now are you going to say that Christ also needs us?" Oh, this is unheard of. I have never heard such things. Well, that's exactly what he did say. Wow, you say, now the mystery deepens. I hardly understand how we need each other, and now you are going to tell me that Christ also needs us. Well, I've never heard of that. I mean, I need Christ, I understand. He needs me? What does He need me for? You just said even the pastor doesn't need me. And now Christ needs me? Oh, dear me, this is utterly unintelligible.
Why is it that in this 20th century we have gone so far from the word of God that we don't understand what the word of God is talking about anymore? And we want to fight spiritual warfare. We haven't even got an army, and we're going to fight a war.
You know, many of you might know — some of you at least might know — that before I became a Christian, my ambition was to become a military man. When I came to the Lord, the Lord wiped it all out for me after a heavy struggle. But you don't have to be a military man to know that nobody fights a war without an army. Even the guerrillas are an army. Even if they don't walk around in uniform, they are well-organized, well-disciplined soldiers. In fact, often more disciplined than the regular uniform soldiers. How can you fight a war without an army? And how Satan has so succeeded in separating us from the head, that we don't even know why the head needs us and why we need each other? Can you see the tragedy of the situation we are in today? Oh, I pray that God will open our eyes.
Now let us get to the answer. You may say, "Well look, you have tantalized us with questions long enough. How about coming to some answers? I'm by now biting my nails." Good. Well, let us then come to the first point.
The first point we must understand in the scriptural teaching, if we are ever going into any spiritual warfare, is this: to understand the principle of the body. And how does it work? We must understand the scriptural principle, which is that the life of Christ is mediated to each member through each other member. Did you ever understand that? God, in the wisdom of God, we are made to depend upon each other. We need each other. You see, each depends upon the other, each needs the other, although each needs it in a different way. My hand needs my arm. Does my arm need the hand? Sure. Without the hand feeding the mouth, how is the arm going to get the strength to do anything? My arm, even if it may bulge with muscles, if it had not some food put into it by my hand into the mouth, will feel so weak that it's incapable of action. My hand needs my arm, but my arm also needs my hand. They are mutually dependent. Every part of the body depends upon the other. That is why Paul is saying, you cannot say to the other, "I don't need you."
But you said, "Well, just a moment ago, you said that we don't seem to need each other. I don't seem to need most of the other brothers and sisters. And perhaps our presence or absence in the church makes no great significant difference within the church." So that the interdependence suggested by the saying that we are one body doesn't seem to be observed. It's not an observable truth.
But that is not so. You see, there is nothing wrong with the figure, the picture that Paul has given concerning the body of interdependence. What is wrong is with us. That we are not functioning as a body does not mean that the body does not exist. The reason why we don't need each other, brothers and sisters, is because we do not function as a body. If we do not function as a body, we don't need each other.
Consider this. If any member of your body were diseased — say, for example, your leg is diseased and paralyzed — does that leg still function? No, it doesn't function. We've just said it's paralyzed. Now once it ceases to function, does the body need that leg? No. Why? Because it doesn't do anything anymore. In fact, the body would be better off without it because that leg does not function. If my hand ceases to function, it may be the finest hand in the world, but once it ceases to function, it contributes nothing to the body. It becomes simply a burden to the body. If it's paralyzed, it may take from the body, but it gives nothing in return. It may still draw nourishment through the blood supply, but it gives nothing in return. It does nothing in return.
Do you see the message? Do you understand? Do you understand the parable? How often the disciples listened to the parables of Jesus and they didn't know what He was talking about. They didn't understand. He says, "Do you not understand?" The reason why you don't need the other person is because that person does not function. And the reason why the other person does not need you is because you don't function.
If you were a functional Christian, where the power and the life of Christ operates through you, why, you would be needed. You'd be indispensable. You say, "What? Indispensable? That's not right teaching. Nobody's indispensable." That's a good spiritual statement. Nobody's indispensable. I don't care what your good spiritual statement is, brothers and sisters. I'm talking to you about the word of God. And anything that sounds spiritual and is not scriptural, I'm not interested in it. Have spiritual discernment to know what statements are true and which are false. And don't be duped by statements that come from the angel of light that appears to be an angel of light but is in fact Satan in disguise.
And further in these talks we are going to have some examination of the enemy, that is Satan and his devices. And one of his most effective devices is to make spiritual-sounding statements that are absolutely untrue. That's how he appears as an angel of light. "Nobody is indispensable." That is a half-truth. It is not entirely false; it is not entirely true. And I've often said to you a lie is more dangerous when it contains truth. A lie that is utterly a lie convinces no one. But a lie that contains a half-truth is exceedingly dangerous because that truth element is what convinces you, while the falsehood element is swallowed with the truth.
We don't need each other? Let me tell you that if you become a functional Christian — a Christian in whom there is the power of God at work, a Christian in whom the life of God is flowing actively, a Christian in whom faith is vision — I will tell you, you are indispensable to the church of Christ. I'm not afraid to say it.
As indispensable as a hand. Well, you say, "I can manage without a hand." Well, you can try. You can eat the food by sticking your face into it. That's possible. You can train your foot to pick up the food. You say it's not indispensable. Of course, I am not going to reduce the argument to ability. By indispensable, I mean that we need it in some important sense of need, and not to say that we can somehow still survive without it. I don't say that we cannot live without a hand in any sense of the word. But we will be so crippled. To be crippled shows that we needed it in the first place. In that sense of need is what we are talking about.
Can you now see the principle? If you were a functional Christian, you will be needed. You know why many people leave the church and nobody may notice the difference? Because these people never contributed anything to the church. They were paralyzed members. Paralyzed members are parasites. They draw from the body, as we saw, and give nothing in return. They are parasites upon the church.
So let us consider what is meant by saying that the life of Christ is mediated to each other through each other.
# The Principle of Power in 2 Timothy (Part 2)
Are true and which are false. And don't be duped by statements that come from the angel of light that appears to be an angel of light but is in fact Satan in disguise. And further in these talks we are going to have some examination of the enemy, that is Satan and his devices. And one of his most effective devices is to make spiritual-sounding statements that are absolutely untrue. That's how he appears as an angel of light. "Nobody is indispensable." That is a half-truth. It is not entirely false; it is not entirely true. And I've often said to you, a lie is more dangerous when it contains truth. A lie that is utterly a lie convinces no one. But a lie that contains a half-truth is exceedingly dangerous because that truth element is what convinces you while the falsehood element is swallowed with the truth.
We don't need each other? Let me tell you that if you become a functional Christian — a Christian in whom there is the power of God at work, a Christian in whom the life of God is flowing actively, a Christian in whom faith is vision — I will tell you, you are indispensable to the church of Christ. I'm not afraid to say it. As indispensable as a hand. Well, you say, "I can manage without a hand." Well, you can try. You can eat the food by sticking your face into it. That's possible. You can train your foot to pick up the food. You say, "It's not indispensable." Of course, I am not going to reduce the statement, the argument to absurdity. By indispensable, I mean that we need it in some important sense of need, and not to say that we can somehow still survive without it. I don't say that we cannot live without a hand in any sense of the word. But we will be so crippled. To be crippled shows that we needed it in the first place. In that sense of need is what we are talking about.
Can you now see the principle? If you were a functional Christian, you will be needed. You know why many people leave the church and nobody may notice the difference? Because these people never contributed anything to the church. They were paralyzed members. And paralyzed members are parasites. They draw from the body as we saw and they give nothing in return. They are parasites upon the church.
So let us consider what is meant by saying that the life of Christ is mediated to each other, through each other, to each other, through each other. Let us consider the case of the non-Christian. When you were a non-Christian, did Christ speak directly to you and you became a Christian? How did you become a Christian? Go and think about it before you wax too spiritual. You know, it's strange. There are some people who consider themselves even more spiritual than the Apostle Paul. That Paul had to say, "Well, if you think you are so spiritual, don't forget that I also have the Holy Spirit." It's so spiritual. "We need only Christ." Sure, for salvation, indeed. But consider this.
It is true that the church did not die to atone for your sins. We thank God for the blood of Jesus, through which alone we are cleansed and redeemed. But how did we get to know of this salvation? Did the news drop out of the sky to us? How did you get your salvation, let me ask you? How? Did a voice speak to you from heaven? No, indeed. You got your salvation through a brother and sister who took the time and the trouble to come and tell you about Christ. Or you heard of salvation through going to a meeting and listening to some servant of God telling you the gospel. The life of Christ was mediated through the gospel, through the servants of God.
You don't need Him? However did you come to know Christ? You begin to see the message. Christ speaks to you through His people. Christ speaks to you. The head needs the feet. We are the feet that bring the gospel to the people. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good tidings. Why beautiful? They brought us the head. They brought us the whole body of Christ. They brought us salvation. They brought us eternal life. Whoever told you you don't need the body of Christ? Whoever told you that you don't need others?
I thank God for those who told me about Jesus. I'll thank God for them forever. Where would I be if they had not told me about this? About Brother Henry Troy in China. When all the other Christians were running out of the country to secure their own future, he stayed back in China and said, "This is my place. Beside my people. With my church." And people said, "Don't you know that you're going to be in hard labor camp? Don't you know that even your life might be in danger?" He said, "I know. But here is where I stay, until the time comes for me to be taken." Where would we be without such people? The people who knew the principle of sacrifice that we will talk about later too in this conference.
Can you not see that we depended upon others right from the first moment of ever becoming a Christian? And you say, we don't need each other? You say, "Oh, that's alright now. I've become a Christian. Now I don't need them anymore." Having become a Christian, say bye-bye. Thanks for showing me the way. I don't need you anymore. You can go now. So, we don't need each other from that point on.
Don't you be mistaken. Where there is a life — Christian, how did you grow spiritually? Assuming you have grown at all. How did you grow from strength to strength if it were not through the help of a man of God or a brother or a sister who loved you, who cared for you, who prayed for you day and night? Where would you be? And you say, "I don't need them." Let us not be fools. Let the devil tell us no lies. We needed each other right from the start. And the only kind of Christians that are not needed in the church are the non-functional ones because they do absolutely nothing.
But you be a living Christian, and I don't care how young a Christian you may be. Maybe you are a Christian for only two months. That does not prevent you from having the full life of Christ flowing through your life. That does not prevent you from having the power of Christ operating in your life. That does not prevent you, because you have the life of Christ in you, from ministering to the needs of others, becoming a strength, conveying the life of Christ to others, both to the non-Christian and to the Christian. To the non-Christian that he may come to life, to the Christian that he may grow in that life.
Oh, I thank God again for those people in China who nurtured me in the Lord, who cared for me as their own father and as their own brother, who loved me as their own. Where would I be without this? And yet we are foolish enough to imagine we don't need each other.
Let every person today in this conference become totally functional Christians and you will soon see how you need each other. Soon we will come to realize this: that we depend upon each other for life and for growth. Christ, I said at the beginning, mediates His life through each other, to each other. Always grasp this principle. This, in His divine wisdom, has been ordained, that we understand the principle of the body of Christ. Paul understood it so well. And today there is virtually no doctrine of the church remaining. So completely has Satan knocked this vital principle of spiritual warfare out of the church that we imagine that we don't really need a church. There are some people who say, "Why should I go to church? I can pray by myself." My friends, we don't have a clue if you talk like this. Such a Christian will not survive for very long. Such a Christian will not grow. It's like chopping the hand off the body. How can it live? It will not live. Because the principle, as I have mentioned again, is that Christ mediates His life through His members, to each other member. Such is the perfect wisdom of God.
Now we have seen that there is nothing so sad as a paralyzed member. What is a paralyzed member? A paralyzed member is one that is not entirely dead and yet not entirely alive. What can you say of a member like this? Can you say it's dead? It's not dead. Is it alive? It's not alive. And yet, the church is filled with paralyzed members today. And God grants that no single person today in this conference is going to be, when he has left this conference, a paralyzed member. A member that draws from the church and gives nothing in return, and of whom you can neither say that he's alive or he's dead. You don't know where he is. He's neither hot nor cold.
May God so give you the vision of the church that you say, "I see. I have a place to play in the church." That is the point. You have a vital function in the church that when you don't fulfill it, you are paralyzing the church. That part of the church which depends upon you, you have paralyzed it. Don't say that all the church needs is a few good speakers, a few mighty men of God. That's all we need. Nothing of the kind. It certainly needs mighty men of God. But it needs you. Because you are a vital member of that church. And when you are totally functional — oh, come and see the vision — a church, picture it in your mind, in which every member functions freely, drawing life from Christ, passing it on, using the gifts that God has given to him for the benefit of the other, building up, edifying the other. Can you see the picture in your mind what kind of a church that would be like? If every church functioned like this and the whole body of Christ functioned together, oh my, what a church that would be.
It will cause all the non-Christians to sit up and say, "What have we got here?" But what does the world see today? All the picture that the church presents to the world today is one paralyzed body. And who is impressed with a paralyzed body? If you ask the world, "Can you find life in it?" Maybe you can. It's half dead, half alive. What can you do with that? That, brothers and sisters, is not what God meant the church to be.
So what kind of a member are you right now? What sort of a member? Does the power and life of Christ flow through you in the full abundance? And when every member has the fullness of the life of Christ flowing through him, do you see what Paul means? That the church is the fullness of Christ who fills all in all. How easy to understand once you understand the basic principles. When all of us are filled with the fullness of Christ, then we become the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Then the world will see the glory of Christ manifested. Remember what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8? The church which is the glory of Christ. Why the glory? The radiant health, the power, the life-giving power of Christ flowing through the church.
We want to fight a spiritual warfare. Not until the church is transformed can we fight anything. What the world needs today is not more evangelistic meetings. Do you know how God proposed to bring the world to Himself? Through the church. Not through one speaker. Not through two speakers. But through His church. That they may be one. The Lord Jesus prayed in John chapter 17. What for? That the world might know that You have sent Me. How is the world going to know that God has sent Christ to be the Savior of the world? How is the world going to know? Through the church. Through great preachers? No. That they may be perfectly one, that the world may know. Oh, brothers and sisters. It is vitally important for us to understand that this is the way that God works. He works through you and through me.
If you don't do your part, brothers and sisters, you are going to hinder the outworking of God in this world. And what is more, you have dishonored the body of Christ. You have shamed Christ in the world. Because the world only knows Christ through seeing you.
When Paul said that the church is the body of Christ, do you know what kind of a statement he has made? He is saying that at this present time the church is Christ incarnate. Has He not said so? Think about it. Christ is incarnate in His church in this age. Christ came in the flesh; He ascended on high. What for? To be incarnate again in the church in this present age until He comes again. Doesn't that strike you with the power of something? That you and I are the very incarnation of Christ. The very light of Christ is manifest in you and me. Not just in me — in you. Where is the world going to see the glory of Christ if it doesn't see it in you? In the whole body of Christ. In the fullness of Him that fills all in all.
Oh, brothers and sisters, grasp this truth until it burns with a vision in your heart: the glorious church of Christ, until you can see it, until you can see it with the clarity of John. And he says, "I beheld the bride." Oh, beautiful, beautiful. You see it in Revelation 21, the church in its splendor, its beauty. You say, "Ah yes, but that's later on." And Paul is speaking about it right now. He says right now it is the fullness. Not only one day. Don't make excuses for the feebleness of the church. Let's pull ourselves together, and quite literally so, until the church becomes what it ought to be.
In this great subject, oh, how much riches there are, how we can go on. But I want to say something more because it's so important. Just as every member — I just said that Christ mediates His life through the church — in what way does that mean that we now depend utterly upon the church and not upon Christ? Wrong. We depend upon Christ and His church. That is the scriptural teaching. We need Christ and we need each other. That is the scriptural teaching.
You see, speaking about the hand — my hand depends upon my body in two ways. It depends upon my body because of the link, the nerve. If my nerve ceases to function, my hand becomes paralyzed. But it depends upon my body in another way: the blood supply. If the blood supply ceased, my hand would also die. What does that teach me? Can we draw the spiritual lessons? Can we understand the word of God clearly? It shows that we have two links. Just as the hand has two links to the body, it has what we may call a blood link as well as a nerve link.
I hope that when you hear the word "blood" you do not feel you have to undo your tie. I know of a brother in London once that every time he mentioned "blood" he was undoing his tie. At first I didn't understand what he was doing. Finally I discovered that not only did he undo his tie, but if he continued speaking about blood, he began to make for the door. At first we thought, "What's happening to him?" He could not stand the word "blood." Astonishing. How did he ever become a Christian? For our whole salvation depends upon the blood of Christ. And here it is — he cannot stand the word "blood." Blood. I'm glad that many of you have some medical background; you're not too worried about the word "blood." But blood may not sound very nice, but without the blood you wouldn't be alive, both spiritually and literally, in any sense you care to mention. The life, as Leviticus tells us, is in the blood.
So we have a blood link and a nerve link. Now notice this: the nerve link goes directly to the head. That is why if I stick a needle in my hand, I feel instantaneous pain. It doesn't have to take a long time, sort of half an hour later when you stick a needle in me, half an hour later I suddenly jump up, "Ow!" It's so funny. Nobody touched you. So half an hour later there is delayed action. Not at all. You see, the point of the nerve link is that there is instantaneous reaction. It connects me directly to the nerve center.
Can you see how we need Christ? We have a direct nerve link to Christ. Each Christian has a direct link to Christ. But God in His wisdom also ordains that we have also a link to each other, because He foresaw exactly that the time will come when we will say, "Well, we don't need each other." You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart — vertically — and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. God in His wisdom ordained that there will always be the shape of a cross. Always the cross in everyday life. There will always be the cross. If it is the true living active life, and the same principle applies throughout the scriptures: if you want to understand the word of God, you must always understand the principle of the cross, whether it be in exposition or in spiritual meaning or in daily life. No cross, no life.
And so in the same way, God has ordained that we must have this vertical link with Him. We saw that if the nerve is cut, what happens? The arm is paralyzed. Why are there so many paralyzed Christians today in the churches? Because there is no vertical link. The nerve is not functioning. Are you one of these Christians that don't have a nerve relationship to Christ? Your lines of communication are closed? Then you are a paralyzed Christian. Right from the start you are finished. From the start you are one of those people who are neither dead nor alive. We don't know how to define them. Who are Christians and yet not Christians. Not Christians and yet Christians. What can you do? Make sure that your nerve connection is alive to God, because unless the nerve connection with God is right, you cannot help anybody else. If my hand was not directly linked to my brain, however could I get it to do anything? How could it be of any service to the body? It could do nothing.
And secondly, God has so ordained in His wisdom that we also draw His life through the church. That is how we need each other. And you say, "What? I thought — how do we need each other?" Well, I showed you already how. As a non-Christian you needed the Christians. Without them you wouldn't have come to the Lord in the first place. And now let me show you how the same way all the time we need each other.
God in His wisdom, although He can work directly, has chosen to work — to mediate His life both directly through the nerve connection to you as well as through the blood connection through the church. Let me illustrate what I mean through the word of God. You remember the Ethiopian eunuch? Since all of you are Christians, maybe some young Christians, but you have probably heard of the eunuch, the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts. Think what happened. God was working in the life of the Ethiopian eunuch so that his heart hungered and thirsted to know God. You remember his heart hungered to know God. He was studying Isaiah 53. Instead of looking at the nice scenery going back home, jogging in his chariot, admiring the beauty of the countryside, what is he doing? He was reading Isaiah 53. And he was tormented. He couldn't understand.
How? Why didn't God just say, "Okay, you don't understand? You want to know? So I'll tell you, just like this." Ah, suddenly he sees it all. His spiritual eyes are opened and he understands Isaiah 53. That's how you expected God would work, right? Well, you're wrong. How did God actually work? He sent Philip a long distance away. He sent Philip along to speak to the eunuch. The providence of timing is beautiful. But He sent Philip to speak to the eunuch. You see the message?
Or take Paul. Ah, you say, "Yeah, now Paul. The Lord spoke directly to Paul, right?" Yes, that's not all of it. If you read in Acts chapter 9, it's marvelous, isn't it? The Lord Jesus spoke to Paul, and then what happened? And then Paul was blind, physically blind. So what did he do? God just opened his eyes? Not at all. God just gave him His Holy Spirit? Nothing of the kind. And what He did — He told Paul these words. And when you think of Paul, God speaking to Paul, remember also the rest of the statement: "Go into Damascus, and there it will be told you what you must do." Who told him? Remember Ananias told him. The church told him. Why didn't God just tell him right away? No, no, no. He would be told by the church what's going to happen next.
Do you see the two links? God works. God works in His perfect wisdom that He made Paul understand, and Paul never forgot the lesson. He said the body — which is the body of Christ — the church is the body. Paul understood it better than anyone else. You say God spoke to him directly, and yet he is the one who most understood the meaning of the church. Isn't that wonderful? And so as you read on in Acts chapter 9, what do we read? We read that he had to wait for Ananias to come to open his eyes, to baptize him, and to let him have the Holy Spirit. We just read about it all right there in Acts chapter 9 and wonder at the exceeding wisdom of God.
Ananias — have you ever heard of him? If it were not for that incident you would never even have heard of Ananias. And yet God in His wisdom made the great apostle Paul depend upon the ministry of one unknown brother called Ananias. You remember Ananias protested and said, "What?" The Lord says, "Go, and you will minister to him. You will open his eyes. You will baptize him. And you will grant him to receive the Holy Spirit." Read it all in Acts. How amazing are God's ways.
In the same way, I find always that God works directly and through His church. Always through two channels. But what happens if the church is not functional? Then you have the disaster. What happens if Ananias was not listening to God? It's finished. What happens to Paul? You have to find somebody else to minister. If the whole church was like what we have today, what's going to happen? So God works in wonderful ways.
I remember in Glasgow as I was studying there, that there was an Indian student of engineering, and God — notice here the direct working — worked powerfully in this man's heart. What was the result? He came to me. I said, "I want to become a Christian. How do I become a Christian?" And so I was trying to explain to him. He was of Indian extraction and was complicated with Hindu philosophy. But he was desperate because God was working with such enormous power in his heart. He was desperate to know about God. So I sought to explain it to him, day after day for several days, until I went down with the flu. And you know, as I lay in bed with temperature and flu, he came to my bedside and said, "Tell me about Christ." I said, "My friend, look — by this time my head was going round and round — I said, 'My friend, look, you better wait till after the flu, because if you stay around, you're going to get the flu too.'" He says, "I don't care about flu. Just tell me about Christ."
Well, my throat was feeling exceedingly dry and I was feeling very weak, and I tried to say something to him and I seemed to be moving in and out of nowhere. Next time I opened my eyes, I saw him kneeling beside my bed. He knelt there, clutching the blankets on my bed. "Lord, I must get to know You." What powerful working. And so finally I struggled and I shared with him Christ, and I told him how to receive the Lord, and he knelt down and he just received the Lord Jesus into his life. And he received the flu as well. But praise be to God, he cared nothing whether flu or no flu. He wanted Christ. He didn't care about the flu. And he was so happy to receive the Lord Jesus that I think it was the happiest flu he ever had. But you see the thing is this: that God works directly and works in such a way that he came to me until he received the Lord.
Today in the same way, there are some people in whose hearts God is working very powerfully, and God is speaking to their hearts. What do you do? You want to serve God. God is working with such power that you say, "I must serve the Lord." But how? How do I start? Where do I get the training? You don't need each other? You sure do. And so you'll come to one of the Lord's people or to one of God's servants and say, "How do I serve the Lord? How can I go into His work? What must I do to be trained?" So you need each other.
And so in these ways, brothers and sisters, look at the beauty of God's working, that God has linked us directly to Himself and to one another. To separate either of these two is going to result in disaster. Always remember this wonderful truth and try to catch the vision of the church.
Finally, let us consider: how would the church function if every part functioned well? Try and picture in your mind a church in which every barrier has been removed. The scripture tells us in Isaiah that your sins have separated between each other and between God and yourself. Sin is a separating factor. What cuts the link is always sin. Remove this link of sin, this barrier of sin, so that the link may be established.
So here is how to establish the link with God and with each other. First, remove any hindrance of sin. Fully confess any sin that is in your life, especially any hidden sin. And if there is any restitution to be made, whatever you do, get it done. Sin must go out of the life if God's life is going to come into the soul, as John used to insist on, and very rightly so. Just make general confessions of sin: "Lord, I'm sorry for all my, whatever they are." Make sure that you get every sin clear in your mind and ask God to show you what they are. If any sin you have committed which has hurt somebody else, you've got to get it right now.
Secondly, you must commit yourself totally and unreservedly to God. It is surprising how many Christians have never totally committed themselves to Christ. Have you done that? Have you committed yourself unreservedly to Him, where He is utterly Lord of your life?
And thirdly, you must commit yourself totally to one another. You know that we have often committed ourselves to Christ but not to the other. Remember again the commandment: you shall love the Lord your God with all your soul and your neighbor as yourself. The commitment must go both ways. We have not finished by saying, "I committed myself totally to God, but I don't want to commit myself to this lot." We must commit ourselves utterly to each other. And then, when we do these things, the experience of God's power in our life — God's glory, God's beauty, God's majesty.
Oh, that God will transform the church of these days into something that will cause the world to gasp in astonishment, just as the world was caused to gasp at the astonishing spectacle of the early church. We have never seen anything like it. It's time for the church to work as one, to be united as one. A church in which you'll just consider the beauty of it — where every person is loved and loves the other. When we don't have to put walls between each other, defensive mechanisms, because Christ's life comes into me and comes into you. We can be utterly open as true brothers and sisters. Let our hearts open. "Open your hearts to us." What's the matter? You see the Corinthians — their hearts had some spiritual paralysis. There you had to be open to one another. Take each other into your hearts. Not because his face looks nice or not nice, or he is too dark or too tall, or any of these things. We have committed ourselves brutally to one another. I receive you as my brother, as my sister, and you receive me in the same way. Every barrier comes down. We can talk without political maneuvering. We don't have to make every conversation a chess game in which you think, "What's the next move he's going to make? And that move." And that's what happens in the church — this political maneuvering with each other that is so distressing. Why don't we just receive one another without all this kind of thing?
And then to help one another, a brother or sister in need, to help that person. Why is it I find today that there are in the churches people who want to serve the Lord but cannot serve the Lord because a younger brother or sister depends upon them? They can't neglect the brother and sister. Don't you think the church has some function here? Don't you think the church should redeem the man and say, "You serve the Lord, and we will look after your brother and your sister," so that he can give his total attention to serving God while the church looks after the brother and sister? If each one of us contributed a few dollars, don't you think that it would be enough to look after that brother and sister and so redeem this man and set him free to serve the Lord? What kind of a church is it that people must be tied down because they cannot serve the Lord because of other commitments? May the Lord transform the church until there is a mighty army moving forth — one heart, one devotion, one vision!