New Testament Studies

Apostolic Succession

Colossians 1:1

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

I’d like to have a shot at it, if God gives grace on first verse of Colossians. This is where the
emphasis in the church and fellowship is important. Please look at the Colossians 1:1-2, Paul, an
apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful
brethren in Christ at Colossae. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”

This first verse gets you to the important book of Acts. Acts 1:12, “Then they returned to Jerusalem
from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away; and when they
had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and
Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot
and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with
the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”

“In those days Peter stood up among the brethren (the company of persons was in all about a hundred
and twenty), and said, ‘Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke
beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas who was guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he
was numbered among us, and was allotted his share in this ministry. (Now this man bought a field
with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his
bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was
called in their language Akel’dama, that is, Field of Blood. ) For it is written in the book of
Psalms, “Let his habitation become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it”; and “His office
let another take.”

So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out
among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us — one of
these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.’ And they put forward two, Joseph
called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, ‘Lord, who
knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these two thou has chosen to take the place in this
ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside, to go to his own place.’ And they cast lots
for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles.”

That was key and key to everything that has happened since in the Church. That’s why we call it an
Apostolic Church. I don’t know if you remember that Paul said I’m an apostle because I have seen
the Lord. He regarded seeing Jesus on the Damascus road the same as what the others had done. That
was the mark of an apostle. An apostle was one who had seen Jesus incarnate, seen Jesus alive.
That was critical to beginnings of the early Church. I think we need to bring it out more in our
apologetics that these people had seen Jesus alive and actually touched his body.
So the apostles had that special position as evidence and that’s why the truth was never questioned
in the first century.

If you remember probably the last book that was written in the New Testament was John. They reckon
it was written as late as 100 A.D. John himself died about 100 A.D. Through all those 100 years you
had lots and lots of little churches everywhere in the ancient nations. They were all receiving
letters as early as 50-56 A.D. and they were distributed around all those churches; all around the

then known countries in the east. They told about Jesus being alive and there were still lots of
people who were alive at that time. They could say, “My cousin was alive in Jerusalem at that time
and he told me about this Jesus.” They could say it was so. On top of that they had these apostles.
These men walked along side of Jesus, ate with him and known him. They were the apostles.
‘Apostelo’ means to send out. They were known as apostles, not only were they sent out, but people
who had actually seen Jesus and touched him and knew that he was real. You can see that in the first
century the whole thing was very solid.

That’s why also it became very solemn in the second century — why even the emperor of Rome claimed
Jesus to be the Son of God and proclaimed Christianity the established religion in the Roman Empire.
[Constantine, 272 – 337 A.D.] There was no question in anyone’s mind that this Jesus had lived and
done the things that they said. No one questioned that he had risen from the dead. It all stemmed
from the respect that was given to these apostles. It was so important to them that they elected
someone to take Judas’ place. There were twelve men who were trusted and known to have been with
Jesus alive.

That’s the kind of truth and in a sense, the same truth that God has passed on to us. This is the
purpose of the first verse in Colossians. He is stating who is doing the writing here in this
letter. “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.” They didn’t
have email back then but they did the same in addressing their letters ‘To’ and ‘From’ in the
beginning. They were very clear on who was saying these things and who was writing to whom. That’s
the opening of all the letters in the New Testament. Paul was actually someone who had seen Jesus
incarnate. He had seen Jesus on this earth, on the road to Damascus. Timothy, of course, who was his
assistant and had traveled so many miles with him. The truth in Christ was always tied to these men.

That has carried on through God’s grace to us. We are in the remarkable situation where God has
placed us. I know many older men in the churches in Ireland who tried to get truth over to one of
their children. They would say, “If he had only heard Billy Nicholson.” Nicholson was a famous
evangelist through whom God had worked a lot of changes in people’s lives. I heard many older men
who said if only their children had heard so and so. Here we are.

I was thinking the other day, even now it is 40 years since we did the first sermon that we
recorded. It is at least 40 years since some of us met for the first time. Here we are alive. Not
only alive but we have 1000 presentations online in video and audio format. We hope they are good
for another 100 years. In a way, we are right in line with the apostles. God has been good to us.
It wouldn’t be there online if it was just me. It’s there because of you. You were there; not just
Greg. We have all made it possible. There would be no one who had any interest in those things at
this time. You have probably 30-40 years to tell people where they can find those sermons or those
truths. Also, about 100 years after that people will be able to find those sermons and truths
online.
It’s a precious and noble privilege that God has given us. To us it’s nothing. Irene, being the wife
of a preacher, would say you’re making so much out of nothing. But it is a big thing. God has
enabled his truth to be passed on. It’s crazy but we are probably one of the first to have a
complete presentation online of truth. It’s there in such a way that they can be a part of the
fellowship with us as if they heard those truths. It’s very effective that somebody can see it.
Don’t you think especially in these days when there is so much deception? Especially when there is
so much distrust and lack of trust? We’ve all made mistakes. If it is through the ‘Basic Youth
Conflicts” man or someone else who’s done something wrong and it’s questioned. Here you see the
dumb guy and see the people in the congregation 20-30 years later, it builds up a great sense of

truth and confirmation. It carries on the certainty the apostles carried on. A certainty that tells
people they were there and saw that. They saw him alive. They ate fish with him on the beach so it
must be real.

That connection with actual incarnation is mighty, powerful and most influential. I encourage you
therefore to carry it on. This is why we are meeting here. We have this book of Colossians because
Paul and Timothy wrote this letter and he put his name on it. We can trace him back and we can track
down people who refered to Paul; others that have refered to Timothy. It all hangs together and is a
convincing thing that will be more and more essential nowadays when people wonder was that a movie
or did it really happen. Was that news or YouTube? Is that Reality TV or real? There is such
uncertainty that men and women will question what their eyes see. It will be increasingly important
to have something that has all kinds of connections to fact and reality — what you can see and
touch.

God has made us part of that apostolic succession. It’s because of those apostles that we have the
certainty that we have today. I think you know it because you are so loving, kind and respect what
God has done. I would encourage you to be faithful to that until you go to heaven. Do everything
you can to get all you can on your websites. The websites don’t need to be brilliant. They just have
to be there so you can invite people to them. They can be anything especially if you have the side
menu with all the other websites. That will assure for the next 200-300 years people will be able to
see and hear the things we have seen and heard ourselves.

That is very much what the apostolic church is. You might wonder why the apostolic church. Well,
because it first came from those 12 men who had actually seen him and therefore had no question
Jesus existed or not. On that apostolic church God has built what we see before us these days. So it
is an honor and a privilege. None of us need to be brilliant. We don’t need to be wonderful speakers
or writers. We just need to be the little people who get these things on the internet in all kinds
of different ways.

Then you really have to be thankful to God in arranging this as much as He has done. We need to be
thankful to God for men like Paul and Timothy. We must be thankful even for the heat of the day when
it comes. You will have to carry on in the heat of the day sometime. There will be the equivalent of
persecution. It may not be the same as what John Wesley experienced where it was physical. There
may not be imprisonment — though again who knows! There may not be imprisonment such as the
apostles themselves faced. You will come into moments in your own life when you think is it worth
it. Is it worth it? This is so boring. There will come moments where you wonder if it is worth
carrying on.

Oh, yes, yes! Because otherwise you break the line! You break the string, yeah. You are part of
what God started in these 12 men. You are part of what Jesus established by his death and
resurrection. You are a part of the apostolic succession. That is why God has created us. That’s
the only reason we are here to witness to the reality of Him and of His dear Son.

Of course we can all see how that will be threatened when Zefferelli produces a movie about Christ.
Or someone else how makes another life of Christ. Obviously, what they do now to men and women who
are famous in the world, you know you can barely recognise the person they are talking about because
they have turned him into a homosexual or something else. The unreality is there whether he is an
actor or a politician. It will always be that. It will be the same with Jesus. They will do all
kinds of things to mutilate him and to prevent people seeing him as he really is. Part of our

responsibility and privilege is to clarify that.

I agree with anyone here who says isn’t the best way to do that is him living in us. Yes, of course,
that’s the best way. That’s better than a movie. If they can touch Christ’s kindly tenderness in
you. Of course that’s the best. It is also important to see the salutation in this letter teaches
us clearly of the truth of God is dependent on the faithfulness of people like ourselves, including
the faithfulness of these two. It is very difficult for any of us to think who will be here in 100
years time. But there will be somebody. There will be someone who is looking for truth as we are.
God has blessed us here to bring that about.

Let us pray.

Peace and Grace from God our Father

Colossians 1:2

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Our verse today is Colossians 1:2, “grace and peace to you in God our Father.” That’s the normal
kind of greeting that you find the in epistles of Paul. He always opens it like this. “Grace and
peace to you in God our Father.” Of course we normally being sophisticated Americans or Westerners,
we say, ‘Oh, what a nice thing to say.’ However for Paul it meant far more than that. “Grace to you
and peace from our Father.”
It’s really saying I wish you grace; the grace that God gives you this day. I wish that to you. May
you experience that and may you have it and peace from God our Father. We usually think to ourselves
good, good, I need grace. I need to say grace before meals and I need grace whenever I can get it;
without grace I couldn’t do anything. But really he is saying this is this is the whole basis of
your life. If you ain’t got grace, you’ve got nothing.

Everything depends on the fact that you cannot explain for a moment why that goes there when I say
it goes there. Or whether it goes back here when I say it goes back here. I can explain the veins,
arteries and muscles that connected up but I really can’t tell why that does that — just because my
mind says. I’m very aware that a million miracles take place to get that thing to go from there to
there. This whole thing is moving at millions of miles an hour. The whole room is moving. Every
little particle that I cannot see is whizzing around in millions of miles an hour. The whole world
is in motion. The only reason it moves this way is because there is a life, strength, power and
energy that is being exercised every second by the Maker of the universe who is maintaining it.

So the whole thing is by grace. It’s his grace; not just unmerited favor that we have talked about
before. It’s his grace as the power, ability and energy of the Holy Spirit that enables everything
to happen in our world. It enables our mind to think what it is thinking. So when Paul says that he
means everything that enables you to exist, may you have that and be utterly dependant on it.

Of course, it throws you back to that great piece in Ephesians 2:4, “God who is rich in mercy and
made us sit with him in the heavenly places.” Verse 7, “That in the coming ages he might show the
immeasurable [the Greek word definition is ‘beyond anything that can be imagined’] riches of his
grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.” It goes back to that promise that he would give us
grace for everything. What does it result in — nothing but a huge miracle. I don’t know if you have
experienced much of ‘he is in me and he is able to do it.’ Those moments, those rare moments when
you realise it is by the energy of Jesus that you are able to do anything. It is by his energy that
you are able to do this thing. Indeed his strength is made perfect in the midst of your weakness. So
it is when you are weakest that you are conscious of his grace and strength in you. It is that sense
that gives anybody a feeling of ease in life.

It is that ease that gives you the power to do things which you in your own fleshly strength won’t
have the power to do. It is no small thing to you when Pauls says grace to you because without it
you are finished. There’s nothing. It’s Jesus in you that enables you to do anything. The killer is
we often don’t believe that for a moment. So we labor and labor. It must look strange to God
because we are laboring to do something that he himself is actually doing. But we are laboring
pretending to do it. So all our weariness comes from thinking it is our responsibility to do this.
It’s by our power alone that we are able to do it. That’s what wears us down. You would say it

yourself. We all know it. The old story we use in psychology: Fire — the house is on fire. The
father has just managed to get out of the house barely with some of his clothes still burning.
Someone says the child has not come out and back he goes.

So it doesn’t matter how worn out and wearied you are — the strength is there and you find it there
at certain moments. It is therefore true the whole thing is by his grace. What I can see in my own
wretched, miserable example that I am, though I know I’m supposed to say, ‘Do as I do,’ it takes
you back to 2 Corinthians 2:14, “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph and
through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ
to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To one a fragrance from
death to death; to the other a fragrance from life to life.” It’s that. “Thanks be to God who
always leads us in triumph and spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.” Well, how
are you today? Is it going alright? Yeah, the economy is getting better. Or, it can be — great
day, isn’t it? Because you feel it in your heart.
It’s a big difference between what you put on your outside and what comes from inside your heart
because of the fragrance of Jesus. That’s the fragrance that we are here to spread. Through us to
spread the fragrance of Christ everywhere. It is a fragrance when you are living in grace; in the
grace of Jesus’ strength and life within you.

I’m the first to say I can end up in a strop — it’s good to exhort — it’s good to say truth and
speak it. It’s good to share truth with each other. It’s better to be able to waft the fragrance of
Christ. That’s the best. That’s the best when your consciousness of Christ’s strength and life in
you is running things. He’s so strong that you are at ease. You are at peace and ease down deep.
That fragrance comes over to others.
So grace is pretty important. It’s the invisible movement of Jesus’ Spirit from your spirit to
others. It connects them up miraculously with the power of God’s Spirit in the universe.

That’s what happened when these men went around. Through them God spread the fragrance of Christ
everywhere. People began to sense there is a power in this world that gives me strength that makes
everything work together. Of course that’s why Paul said the grace and peace to you in God our
father because God our father has reconciled us to himself. He has solved all these things. They are
all solved. They are all already done so live in that peace.

That’s why I have said to Myron and Dan because all of us are conscious when the wretched machine
breaks in the middle of this order production. Or the electrical fuse box gets shorted out from
something and cuts off the power to the factory. In those moments every one of us knows the panic
that assaults you. Immediately those of us who are practical creatures harshly get to work by
pulling the right things and make the right moves. So we are very aware of the motivation within us.

You’d like to think it is motivation from the right place but it is often motivation from what are
we going to do if it lasts the whole day. Or, what are we going to do if this order can’t be
shipped? It’s those moments of course where you determine if you are living in reality or not.
That’s it. You determine whether you are living in a world that has been reconciled by God in
Christ. Or, whether you are living in the unreality that looks so real around us of a world that is
falling apart — a Louisiana delta that is losing an acre every hour from the sea. Is this the world
that is real? Or, is this the unreal world we are living in?

It’s very real what Paul is saying here. Grace and peace from God our Father be to you. Live in
that. I pray that you will be living in it every moment. Because that will spread the fragrance of

Christ everywhere. It probably gets down to that simple fact. It’s deeper than what we thought when
we said ‘belief’. It’s belief, it’s faith. Are you living in faith? Yes, it is. But it’s not, YEAH,
I’m living in faith [shouting it out].

It is faith that knows this world around us is the one that has passed. This is the one that has
been fixed by God. This is not the broken one that we look at. This is the broken one that has
already been reconciled by God to his whole plan. So it’s OK we are all out. Steady — take it
easy. God’s clarity and his achievement will be manifested. We really are people that are waiting
for the manifestation. We have no doubt that the actual essence is already there but we are waiting
for the manifestation. It’s a bit like the evidence of things not seen. [Hebrews 11:1] It is the
substantiating of things that have already happened. That’s what faith is.

I think it is worth thinking about these things as we receive him again today. We are receiving a
living Savior. We are receiving a living person. This is not just the bread or the wine. It is not
just an idea — oh what a nice idea that Jesus is in us. It’s receiving him in his grace and peace
so that he will live his life in us. This will allow others to see you seem to be different. You
seem to be different from so many others. You seem to walk with a peace and a freedom from anxiety
that others don’t have. He’s there all the time inside us.

Let us pray.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each
one of us throughout this day and week. Amen.

Faith is Manifested in Brotherly Love

Colossians 1:4a

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Please turn to Colossians 1:4 as I’d like to remind you of the verse that we are dealing with today.
Obviously I’ll only be dealing with a little of it. “Because we have heard of your faith in Christ
Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints.” That’s it — “your faith in Christ Jesus” is
the little part of the verse we will be talking about. It’s in connection with that that we are
reading these verses in John 5. It’s part of what faith in Christ Jesus means.

John 5:17-47, “But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is working still, and I am working.’ This was why
the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but also called God
his own Father, making himself equal with God.” Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the
Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does,
that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is
doing; and greater works than these will he show him, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises
the dead and give them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one,
but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the son, even as they honor the Father. He
who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he
who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment,
but has passed from death to life.”

“Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of
the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has
granted the Son also to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment,
because he is the Son of man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the
tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and
those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.”

“I can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek
not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I bear witness to myself, my testimony is not
true; there is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me
is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony which I
receive is from man; but I say this that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and
you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony this I have is greater than
that of John; for the works which the Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I
am doing, bear me witness that the father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne
witness to me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen; and you do not have
his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent. You search the scriptures,
because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; yet
you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men. But I know that
you have not the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive
me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive glory
from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I shall
accuse you to the Father; it is Moses who accuses you, on whom you set your hope. If you believed
Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will
you believe my words?”

You can tell yourself even though those words are familiar to you that there is a whole attitude in
that chapter there where Jesus is very clearly drawing them into the same experience he has with his
Father. He’s concerned with their relationship with him as he is with his relationship with his
Father. That’s what faith in Christ is. I bring it up now so that you will see the value of these
readings and be able to think it through. The verse we are studying has Paul rejoicing and thanking
them because of their faith in Christ Jesus.

It’s so easy to drift right in to the common, shallow, light interpretation to that phrase. “Faith
in Christ” — Oh, yeah, I have faith in Christ. You’re saved by faith in Christ. By faith in Christ
I am justified.” Wesley puts it very well, “Faith is not just a speculative rational thing, a cold
lifeless assent, a train of ideas in the head but a disposition of the heart.” [John Wesley’s
Teachings, Volume 2: Christ and Salvation] It seems that is one of the great weaknesses in our
present day and has been for generations.

Faith in Christ is so often interpreted just as Wesley says “a speculative rational thing, a cold
lifeless assent; a train of ideas in the head” and not as it is outlined here in this chapter — a
disposition of the heart. A relationship with Jesus that is close, deep and intimate and is daily
and continuous. It is what governs your life. So often it is expressed here is the secret — if
you’re not sure whether something is right or wrong — think; what would Jesus do? Dear love us;
bless our dear stupid hearts, we think that is deep. We say that’s it.

Of course if you examine it, all it is is a speculative rational thing. It’s an assent. It’s saying
I remember the kind of life Jesus lived now would he do that. I couldn’t imagine him doing that. So
I won’t do that. It’s purely a human thing; purely a psychological inference, an intellectual
assent. It is not a thing that comes from the heart. Of course we are busy, whether we are aborting
or not aborting; whether we are supporting this subject or that subject. We are playing on that
level of the mind; of the intellect and of ideas. Nothing touching the heart of the spirit. No
touching of the spirit; just on that level below it.

I would say the greater part of Christendom in the East and West is that. Most things come down to
that. It’s the old forensic gospel: we should die for our sins, Jesus died for us, and so we don’t
need to die. It’s that. It’s that building on that whatever emotion you can. Of course in today’s
world building on it with whatever political view you think it supports. There’s little of the heart
of Christ; little of the heart of God in it. Of course when you read chapters like this in John you
realize Jesus is not saying to you, “Here this is what you have to believe. If you believe this
you’ll have eternal life. Believe this little thing and you’ll have eternal life.” He’s saying this
is the relationship I have with my Father and you will have this relationship with me, therefore you
will be a part of our relationship. So we will all be one together.

It will be a heartfelt, deep attitude that is brought about by his Spirit in us. When you talk about
faith in Christ you are talking about something deeper. I came across an old commentary some years
ago. Actually I was struck by it because it was such a beautiful set of books. We might have it in
our library. It’s by Gill. He comments on this verse in Colossians, “We have heard of your faith in
Christ Jesus.” He says, “This expresses the matter of their thankfulness or what it was they gave
thanks to God for — their faith in Christ. By which is meant not only their hearty assent to the
whole doctrine of faith concerning the person, offices and grace of Christ; their soundness and
steadfastness in it and their sincere, constant confession of it but the grace of faith in them; the
operation of Spirit of God in their souls which had not Moses or any other man but Christ for its

object; by which they looked unto him as their Savior, went onto him as such, ventured on him,
committed on to him, leaned and relied upon him; that grace which comes from him has him as its
author and publisher and returns unto him and lives on him.

I thought Gill was beginning to hit it. That it isn’t simply a belief in Christ as God’s Son or that
he has worked some forensic deal with God over your sins but it is he himself is the one in whom we
were made. It is in him and with him we were raised up and made part of his Father’s family. Faith
in Christ has the very ‘IN” strongly in there. If you look up ‘in’ and its meaning, the emphasis is
‘not movement but position.’ It’s explaining and describing a position in Christ, really part of
Christ. So faith in Christ is being a part of him.
If you remember the verse in Romans which says you were ‘baptized into Christ.” The word there
implies into or becoming part of him. So faith in Christ is that.

Then the truth that God made real to me as I thought about this this morning — this is a difficult
one to get over to you — I can feel it but how do I express that. “Christ where do you want to put
that book? Do you want to put it on the table?” That attitude would be right. I know it sounds
stupid. But we are in him and he in us. There is no question — if we go into a shop, I don’t trail
the wife along or expect my puppy to follow me — I would ask her, would you like to go into that
shop. That truly is faith in Christ where you would treat Christ as a real person inside you.

I don’t know that would say your mind would be caught between thinking the thing you were
concentrating on and then thinking of him but I think you can exist on two levels. I think your
spirit can be in Christ and yet you can deal with the situation here. My plea is that faith in
Christ is a real sense that Jesus is inside you — that this is his life — that these are his
hands. He is in this, here he is today. He is here in me. He is here in me to bring his Father’s
world under his Father’s will and he is in me and these are his hands. He has a say in this. I’m not
involved in second guessing by asking what would Jesus do with this book. I feel he is there saying,
“I’m here. Why not check with me?”

I think we have grown so used to the other that we miss a lot of the joy of the Savior’s presence in
us. Of course we miss the mass of the freedom from worry and anxiety that his presence in us
brings. Undoubtedly we fall into all kinds of attitudes and tones of voice because we know he is
somewhere here. But we haven’t much time to wonder about what he thinks about the situation. So I
think we miss a lot that our faith includes. We miss a lot in our lives because of it. Of course
the world misses badly his touch. I always think that if I am curt or sharp with Marty or Irene.
It’s really trampling over the one within me who wouldn’t dream of being like that. At that very
moment, because of his love for us, he is endeavoring to soften it and give you the patience and the
forbearance to receive it and still to love me. Of course it isn’t just me. We are all involved in
it in some form.

It does seem to be faith in Christ is more that. That is what faith in Christ is. I do think that’s
why the apostles operated as they did. You often wonder if it was both Peter and John who came to
the gate and the poor man was with hand out and begging. I always wondered if Peter read it in some
book or must have prepared to say that or maybe he just thought how can I get around this guy
without giving him anything. Obviously when he said, “Silver and gold have I none….” it was the
Savior inside him. He had no doubt it wasn’t his hand that was reaching out. He had no doubt that
his hand had no power to heal the man. He had no power to heal the man. It was Jesus in him. That’s
the whole meaning of the resurrection. It’s that the Holy Spirit lived now not only in Jesus but he
lived in these men who believed in his Son and had received their position from him. So Jesus now

lived in them. Faith in Christ means that.

Of course we read in John 15:4, “Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by
itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” Without me you will
not be able to do anything. So that in a sense is why we have such a powerless Christendom because
there are lots of people going around saying we have faith in Christ but really they don’t have
faith in Christ as the Bible uses it.
I thought it was important for Communion today because that’s what we do. You have to admit it isn’t
harder for the Father to make it clearer. This is my blood and this is my flesh. How much clearer
can you make it to mean? Our faith in Christ means that he is in us and we are in him. In that sense
we can live just as Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life
I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God.” [Galatians 2:20] So I put this
book down — no, not I but Christ. You may say you can’t be holy, holy all the time. No, but it
seems to me the more you can remember what reality is, the more really you will operate yourselves
and the more realistically you will deal with each situation and each other.
Let us pray.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each
of us throughout this day and week. Amen.

Faith in God’s Unconditional Love

Colossians 1:4b

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

The verse that we are studying is Colossians 1:4, “Because we have heard of your faith in Christ
Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints.” I hope to try to explain a little about the
love for all the saints. But you remember last Sunday we talked about first part of the verse “faith
in Christ Jesus.”

Faith is often what Wesley said it isn’t, “Faith is not just a speculative, rational thing; a cold
lifeless assent; a train of ideas in the head but a disposition of the heart.” I think many people
reading these Bible verses about how he was glad and giving thanks for the faith they had in Christ.
We know what that is — believing that Jesus is the Son of God and that he has died for our sins
and because of that we are forgiven. That is regarded as the gospel in these days still. The
statement of the facts that Jesus did, therefore God has done that for our sins and we are forgiven.
So we can go on now and live the best we can for him.

But of course faith in Christ is much more than that. You and I have spent much time in that the
reality is each one of us here are God’s workmanship [Ephesians 2:20]. The world of Christendom
doesn’t know anything about this next piece. They really don’t. “We are God’s workmanship created in
Christ Jesus.” They do not believe that. No! You mean Hitler was created in Christ Jesus! That’s
what they say all in their little religious clubs interpret it plainly. Those people who say they
know where they are going; the people who are going to church; the people who are Christians. They
are the ones created in Christ Jesus. That’s how they have become a new creation. Of course that is
the second creation that is the new creation. Those who are truly in love with Jesus they are
created in him as a new creation.

This verse is saying what John 1 is saying. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and
without him was not anything made that was made.” All things were made in him including Hitler;
including all the bad people; everybody was made in the beginning in him. The ‘in him’ and the
‘Word’ in John 1 was obviously Christ. Of course Colossians says it again later on that all things
were made in Christ. Of course the world doesn’t believe that. We say we have faith in Christ but it
isn’t faith that we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus. It’s not that. It’s faith that we
will be saved if we will believe that Jesus died for us.

Of course the faith that is real is the faith that we are in Christ Jesus. There is a closer
relationship between me and Marty if I am made in him; as opposed to me believing that he exists.
There is a great deal of difference in the two. One is a mental concept and the other is an all
consuming sense that I am part of him. Of course that is what faith in Christ is. It’s faith that we
have been created in Christ.

Of course the sequence of that is everything we do is done in Christ. We are all very glad of that
if you think of all the good things we’ve done. Oh, I’m glad it’s because of Christ that I am able
to love people. It’s because of Christ that I do things for other people. But what about the bad
things we’ve done. Were they done in Christ? That’s part of it. Faith in Christ is that we were
created in Christ; we were made inside him and our whole life has been lived in him. The things that

we do we do in him. The things we do to other people are done in him. They don’t only bear them but
he bears them too. Faith in Christ is that all our lives are in Jesus.

It makes for a very different attitude to him when you sense that. You realize I don’t live like
that. I don’t live as if when Jesus put this book down, I put it down. Or when I put the book down,
Jesus puts it down. That isn’t so. I don’t live in the sense that whatever I say I force him to
say. That isn’t true. So, faith in Christ means you begin to realize, wait a minute, I’m part of
Christ. Well, I don’t have the attitude that he has. I don’t feel like him about God. It begins to
come in upon us that your attitude is not his attitude at all. His attitude was that his Father had
made the world and his Father ruled everything. His Father loved him. You don’t have that attitude.
It begins to dawn on the person, yeah; I don’t believe God has anything to do with my life.
So slowly it creeps up on a person, in various ways, sometimes suddenly as on the road to Damascus,
but sometimes very gradually a person realizes I don’t have any relationship with God who made this
world. They begin to be concerned about that and begin to find out more about this God. They begin
to realize they live their life as their own life not as something directed by him and something
planned by him. They live their own life and they do whatever they want. Gradually there becomes an
awareness in them that they are not living in reality. They are not living as God wants them to.
They have a sense that they do what they want to do not what God wants them to do.

Gradually the faith in Christ begins to develop in a person. They sense that God is not their God
and they have little to do with him. There begins to come into their minds a sense they need to do
something about that. They need to begin to get to know this God and to get to know his Son.
Gradually they start to move toward God. He begins to work in their hearts and bring to them a sense
that the only way this can work is allowing Christ to have his way in their lives. That’s the moment
when they face, either an altar or quietly at night at home, they face the issue will I let this
Christ have anything to do with my life. Will I let him live in me? If he is in me, will I let him
live in me and I live in him? They start to deal with Jesus and then God begins to work with them.
Eventually sending the Spirit of his Son into their hearts so there comes a time when they at last
say yes, I will let you do what you want with my life.

We often found when helping a person at the altar that people do an awful lot of crying. Then you
would realize they were crying because they wouldn’t let go of their own life. They wouldn’t let go
of their own will. The crying often came to an end when they at last bowed the will and allowed
Jesus to come in.

Sometimes you would have a situation where you might say to a person, “Well has Christ come into
your heart.” They would say no I don’t sense that. Then they would pray further and God would reveal
something of the will that they were not ready to bow to Jesus and then they would bow to it saying
yes he’s come in. It is that element of will that is the heart of having faith in Christ. If that
will isn’t there you can call it faith in Christ but it isn’t total trust of Christ and total
obedience to him. So there is a sense where God tries to send the Spirit of his Son into a person’s
heart but there is no room because the spirit is set, obstinate and stubborn in the will. Until the
will bows the spirit cannot be touched by the Holy Spirit.

There is a real change comes in the new birth when a person bows the will to Christ and allows him
to live the life he had planned to live for him in the world. That’s the moment of the new birth.
The moment when you know the forgiveness of your sins, you don’t just believe them. When that comes
God sends the Spirit of the Son into your heart and the Holy Spirit sheds the love of God in your
heart. That love there is the love he has for other people. It is the love that is supernatural

because it comes from God’s Spirit into you and through other people. It is the love for all the
saints Paul is talking about here in Colossians. “I thank God for your faith in Christ and your love
for all the saints.”

The love flows out of the faith. If the faith is a real total faith involving the will and the
Spirit of Christ coming into you and you giving your own life and will over to Christ, then the Holy
Spirit is ruling in your heart. That begets in you; the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in your heart the
love of God and the love of other people. You can see that faith in Christ and love of one another
are joined together. The one comes out of the other.

Where you have a purely mental, speculative, rational thing there is no real interaction with the
Spirit of Christ within and no real dealing with the will. This kind of faith is part of why so much
Christianity is shot through with so much antinomianism. Antinomianism is believing in God but
acting against him; mainly doing whatever you wanted. ‘Anti’ and ‘nomos’ means ‘against the law.’
It is believing whatever you do, God will cover it up with the blood of Christ so carry on doing
your best but you can’t avoid sinning at times. That kind of sinning Christianity can’t produce any
kind of love.

That’s where you get philanthropy planted on top. Not that all philanthropy is bad. What you end up
with is not real Christian and spiritual love but a kind of philanthropic attitude or sense of
obligation towards other people. Often you get two levels in Christianity, mental belief in Christ
as Savior and then this do as much good as you can. Much of the good works is done on that level
almost on the level of philanthropy. ‘Philo’ and ‘anthropy’ means love of man rather than the love
of God. It’s not a creative spiritual ministry; it’s rather something that in a way holds back the
power of evil in the world. It’s part of the preserving grace of God.

Where you have a real ‘New Birth’ and people who have a sense of Christ within them and allow that
Spirit within to govern their lives, then you get love that is shed abroad by the Holy Spirit which
is very different from ordinary love. It is a love that is just bursting out. You are full of it
bursting out. You can’t hold it back. It’s natural; something that becomes natural to you. It’s
Christ loving through you to them.
The love that is described in 1 Corinthians 13. It is that kind of love which is beyond the
ordinary thing we talk about as love which is a mixture of kindness, sometimes guilt and sometimes a
desire to help the world to do good. You can see there is an almost automatic connection between
real faith in Christ and the love of your neighbor. The one stems from the other. It isn’t something
that has to be planted on top. The heart of it, you can see, is faith in Christ.
The issue is is the faith in Christ an all consuming, overwhelming, volitional [will] act of the
Holy Spirit? Is it a new birth in the Spirit or is it a reformation; a turning over a new leaf in
your life and beginning to take an interest in others? The two are connected tightly. This is part
of the reason why it is not just ideological or theological or intellectual to define faith in
Christ but a total will surrender to Christ’s Spirit. It’s vital to hold on to that. That faith in
Christ is all absorbing. Wesley used the term a recumbency on Christ; a lying back in his arms
because there is nothing you can do yourself; an absolute dependence on Jesus. It is an absolute
submission to him surrounding your life and being you life. There is a totality about it that’s not
present in an intellectual or mental assents.

So the two are very different. It does help you at times in dealing with people to see the
difference. Finally it’s the Holy Spirit within that can use you to bring them further on. It is the
Spirit of God needed to bring revelation that they are living the life that Christ is meant to live

in them. This is an absolute slap in the face to their Maker. If they don’t see that, then they
won’t make the complete surrender that is needed for God to send his Spirit into their hearts.

It might help you to see that often you have many people nowadays who believe all the right things
or appear to believe all the right things and make a great deal of their surrender to Christ. They
believe in Christ, their Savior and they will say those words. But they themselves will not have
been touched by the Holy Spirit or made alive by the Holy Spirit. Look at the statement in the
Bible where Jesus says the Holy Spirit is with you and in you. We often interpret that one was the
carnal Christian and other was a person filled with the Spirit (in the position of the Spirit being
in them). But the truth is the Spirit being in you is the Spirit being life to you. Jesus was
talking about the Spirit being with you while I am here on the earth but when I go up into heaven, I
will send him to you and he will be in you. So an ordinary Christian will have the Holy Spirit
dwelling in them.

Now the issue is is the Holy Spirit kicked out from time to time? He will come into you and he will
dwell with you and you with him. It is that issue; he dwells with you but will you dwell with him?
Will you let him be the owner of the life or will he just be the consultant? That’s where the
Spiritual vs. Carnal Christian comes in. Anyone who is a Christian the Holy Spirit has regenerated
and made them alive inside and is in them. Therefore Jesus’ promise is fulfilled.

So that, I think, is some explanation of the strange position we are in these days when so many
people say yes I believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior. You can believe in him as a mental exercise
and a mental assent but will you let him run your life. That’s too often thought of as the extra
that comes when you are filled with the Spirit. But in fact to be born of God you can only be born
of God if the Holy Spirit has regenerated you because you have submitted your will to Christ. I
suppose that’s why I bring it to you again and again of the importance of Jesus being in us and of
him living our lives and us doing what he wants.
Is that clear? Always feel free to ask questions, I’m always ready to answer any.

Irene asks: Don’t you think it is confusing when people say I am a Christian, I am born of God but I
am not in the sanctification thing. So they aren’t willing to go further in faith with the Holy
Spirit. They have gone up to a certain point with their wills and then no further because of their
wills. So I think there is some kind of confusion there.

Pastor: “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.”
[Matthew 5:6] John Wesley would say, have you a clean heart or are you going on to sanctification
or a clean heart. Are you hungering for it? What you are saying is settle down; this is the level of
commitment I want to make.

Irene: I have gone to the point of justification but I don’t want to go that far. So you can’t
actually do that. When someone asks are you going on to sanctification and if you are not, where are
you going? I remember that quotation, “The love of God is shed abroad in the heart.” The Spirit in
us is crying ‘Abba, Father.’

Pastor: Well, we need to be real with God. Let us pray.

Dear Lord, we know that it is too easy for us to water down your truth and not live in it ourselves.
So we would bow before you this morning. Lord Jesus, we would look into your face and listen for
your voice so that if there is any way we are not living the way you want to live in us, we would

see that and bow our wills to you. We would begin to let you do whatever you want in whatever area
of our lives that is. We know, Lord Jesus, that all will be saved if all is submitted to you. All
will be touched with your beauty if all is given to you. Lord, we would give our lives anew to you
today so that we may have faith in you and love to all the brethren.

We thank you, Lord Jesus, that your life in us is a whole. We thank you that if there is a lack of
love in any way in our hearts then you yourself will pour that into us if we are willing to remove
our resistance to it. So, Lord Jesus, we would trust you to give us light so that we may see clearly
and surrender our lives completely to you for you to do what you want with.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each
one of us now and evermore. Amen.

Do You Love Your Brethren?

Colossians 1:4C

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

There is still an important part that I didn’t expound properly in the last verse we spoke about. I
hope you’ll be patient with me. I’d like to share with you what I wakened up with this morning. It’s
the verse which says, “If my people who are called in my name humble themselves and pray and seek my
face; turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their
land.” [2 Chronicles 7:14] I was thinking what can we do in this wasteland which we find ourselves
in the present society.

This society which seems to have forgotten the bit of religion they did seem to be practicing in
many of the churches. What can we do in regard to revival? Obviously it gets kind of boring me
saying, apart from anything else, pray for revival; pray for revival. What can we do? This seems to
be the guideline with this verse of what we ourselves can do to enable God or to open the way or to
fulfill the conditions that God requires in order for him to bring an enlivening Spirit into our
society.

That’s obviously what we need; we need a hunger in men’s and women’s hearts for God; a revelation; a
light of the purposeless life that we are now moving into. People are killing themselves because
there is no reason for living. People are bewildered not just the older ones who are coming to the
end of life but even the younger ones now are drugging themselves to death. So it’s a serious
situation and we badly, badly need the only one who can change the heart of the society — that is
our Father.
He is saying to us if my people, you are my people, if my people who are called by my name humble
themselves and pray and seek my face, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal
their land. It behoves us to see in what way can I humble myself before God. What way can I seek his
face? What way can I pray? What way can I turn from my wicked ways so that he will answer me?

That’s what I started to do myself. It will tie up with the previous verse. I don’t have to look too
far; I think you all know how many excuses we can put up before us individually and one another. We
put up with it. I have all kind of things to do; I am doing business at this time; I’m doing
theology or religion at this time. You can only do so much for so many years. I have kept a place of
chaos. I’m sorry for the wife because she comes in to the office and my desk is continually strewn
with stuff; yes, I know where everything is. It seems to me that is not the best. I can see some
wicked ways I have been a long time turning from and I need to now turn from. I do think there are
things like that. There are practical things that are wicked ways. I’m just talking about myself.
You have to talk about yourself.

There are certainly ways which are wicked? Yeah, I suppose you don’t call them wicked but really I
think they are wicked as any other ways. They are not God’s best for us. It seems very important
that we turn from them and they are practical things. I thought of one that has occurred to me
several times over the years. It came to me when I realized I hadn’t expounded the second part of
that verse. [ Colossians 1:3 ] ” We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we
pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus.”

We dealt previously with ‘faith in Christ Jesus.’ That has sunk into a speculative, rational thing

as Wesley has said it isn’t. “Faith is not just a speculative, rational thing; a cold lifeless
assent; a train of ideas in the head.” We talked about how it has sunk into that.
Many people believe faith in Christ Jesus is believing Jesus died for your sins so yippee you are
free from your sins. They give assent to that intellectual concept. It is the famous substitutionary
three of the atonement which we have always defended strongly in evangelicalism as the heart of the
gospel. It isn’t the heart of the gospel at all. It’s often been an excuse for people to say I
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But of course it is not IN the Lord Jesus Christ; the Lord Jesus
Christ is not in me. I do believe in his death for me and I do believe he has saved me from my sins
and enabled me to get to heaven. He is not in me. No fear — it’s my life and I live it. Christ
lives in me? No, no I live.

Most Christians live in that concept. They don’t believe the Lord Jesus Christ is in them. They
don’t believe they are in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no connection between their belief and
their outward life. Indeed their outward life is not affected by Jesus. So therefore a lack of the
Lord Jesus Christ in their life. We talked about that last day.
No, no I don’t need deep insight, I just need to remember the dishes need to be in the dishwasher.
If I don’t put them in, someone else will put them in. It comes home very clearly to me — have I
love for all the saints? — Yeah, for everyone but the one who has to put the dishes in the
dishwasher. It becomes very personal here at home and lots of subtler ways than what I have
described. That’s an obvious one I can see.
I don’t want to canonize the girl here, Peg, but it can click in your mind, oh, Peggy can do that or
somebody else will do that. Love for all the saints takes on a real, practical meaning when we are
living together like this. I thought you almost have to say, “No, Jesus, you don’t have to pick
those up. [pounding on his chest] Leave them — somebody else will get them.” You have to pause for
a minute — is that what he is really thinking? — is that what he thinks? You dare not ask
yourself that question because you know he isn’t thinking that. It seems to me it gets down to that
kind of thing.

It’s the same thing as you and I saw in each other’s eyes last night when I had a go at this lady. I
may have misinterpreted this lady but I don’t think I did. I think you knew by the tone of voice, or
the wrong comment at the wrong time can break that bond. You and I know it pretty well when it
happened again last night. So I think it takes on very fine things; it takes on the obvious things
like not putting dishes in the right place or not cleaning the drip on the carpet when you see this
is my home and I should do that. That’s an obvious one.

I think there are many subtler ways, many of which you and I have solved between us that refer to
tone of voice, or when we speak facetiously to the other person, or, we speak a little too quickly
or, we assume an authority or right that is not ours. There are many things like that that concern
loving the saints. We are either by his love building one another up or making the day a little
heavier. Keil Delitzsch is wonderful with his Hebrew. This morning he was dealing with the words
that David’s enemies were using against him in a certain situation. He expounded the verses that
made it very clear to me of words being arrows going into another person which hurt them deeply. I
can see often my ‘arrows’ do that to you and you all bear it very kindly and graciously. I can see
how words can be arrows that dig into you. However used to them you may get, I’m trying to correct
you in a certain way and it turns out to be sarcastic — harsh, cutting and caustic way. There are
many things like that that concern our love for each other and the love of the saints.

I can see how Jesus within us — that’s always the question — why Lord don’t you bring revival?
Because you won’t turn from your wicked ways. You still have a tone of voice or an attitude towards

another person that is not love. It is not love of the saints. You are still crucifying my Son
within you or destroying or repressing/suppressing him. The promise is very real here. “If my people
who are called in my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face; turn from their wicked ways;
then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.” It seems to me that’s the
answer to the questions, “What can we do to open the way for God to bring revival?” Obviously it
will indeed start in our own hearts as we would abide by these verses. Because it seems to me you or
I or whoever it is, as you start taking this as your home, not just the home that somebody else
looks after for us. God will touch us and will affect us.

There are lots of little ways. I’ll say this one if I may because I think Marty was going to do it
anyway. I’ll say, “Brother, it would be good to light those ornamental deer up from the deck. It
will give Peggy a lift.” It expressed the love that we have for one another. She put them out
there to look at and nobody has done much with them. Where as if somebody lights them and somebody
feels it was worth my while doing it. That’s part of it. As we do these little things that seem so
little but little things that occur to us. Mind you, sometimes we can get so used to living in our
own world and not regarding that as love that it doesn’t even occur to us to do it. There is that
too.

We need to pray for light for our blindness because often we don’t see these things. Often we do
see them; they do cross our minds but we step gently back from them. We step back from loving all
the saints, particularly the ones we live with.

It comes down to either I can be softening the atmosphere so that it is easier to perceive Christ or
I can be hardening the atmosphere. That’s where light comes in. Often I would say to Colleen I know
you have a way of speaking but the truth even if it is an unconscious way of speaking; even if my
funny remark is used to correct you, it can still cut the atmosphere like a knife. It can still
harden the atmosphere.

It’s interesting; even in a sense, it doesn’t have to be a conscious sin or a determination to do
what you know is wrong. It can be an unknowing doing of wrong. It still brings a hardness and an
insensitivity to the atmosphere. That’s why God says, “Blessed are they that thirst and hunger after
righteousness.” [ Matthew 5:6 ] They that want to know more; that want to understand more so they
can be like Jesus. That’s part of the love for all the saints too. Not just the avoidance of
hurting a person but how more can I build them up. How can I do something beautiful or something
that will lighten their life or lighten their heart.

I think that is all part of, you might almost say, a Spirit of revival occurs any time someone turns
from a hardness that is not of God. In a sense, every time someone turns from a hardness that is not
of God. Every time someone turns towards the soft, gentle heart of Jesus himself or herself, every
time comes in a freshness of the water of life that is part of the beginning of revival. A revival
means ‘re’ [again] and ‘viv’ [life]; life coming again. Life comes again where there was a deadness.

I think it is important that we see a sense we are living ourselves in a Spirit of revival and in
the aliveness and sensitivity of revival or we are living in deadness. That’s the way we can
facilitate the overall revival that is needed in our society. So I thought those were some things
worth mentioning to you and particularly to myself.

Are there ways, Lord, where I can love all the saints more than I am doing? Of course living

together like this there are a thousand, thousand ways in which we can love each other anew and
afresh. Love is always creative and always a beautiful thing. I think you are aware as much as I am
that we are very privileged to be able to talk about these things together. I do not know how many
husbands and wives talk about these things. I do not know how many families talk about them. I have
a suspicion that in these days very few do. We are very privileged to be in the position we are in
that we are still alive and still aware and conscious of these things. We can still listen to each
other as we talk about them and encourage each other in our most holy faith. It’s a great privilege
we have. Let us pray.

Dear Father, we thank you for calling us to such a practical life with so many obvious opportunities
to express your heart or to see the hardness and the coarseness of our own hearts. Lord, we thank
you for what we would have avoided at all costs. We would avoid living in a fish bowl. We hate the
idea of somebody seeing what we are, not only our beauties but our ugliness.
We see, Lord, is it a great privilege that you have given us so that we do not have to wait for a
great judgement day in order to see ourselves as we really are. You allow us to do that not simply
through other people telling us but through us seeing your beauty in each other. We see in each
other attitudes we suddenly realize we don’t have; seeing in each other things that are attractive
and remind us of you and things we know you want us to have.
Lord, we thank you for the saints you have given us to live with. We thank you for all the blessings
that come through their lives. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that there is only one source that they
come from and that is you. There is none good but God and no one pure and true but you. You have
given us the opportunity to carry you around and to allow you to live and express yourself to our
faces, hands and voices. Lord, we thank you.
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with
each one of us today, tomorrow and evermore. Amen.

Rejoice for the Hope of a Heavenly Home

Colossians 1:5a

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Today’s verse is Colossians 1:5. I think I have attempted to tackle it but I am still working on
it. You remember Paul, in verses 3-5, has said we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love
which you have for all the saint, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have
heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel. So he is thanking God for them because of the
hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel.
Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

One of the commentators says it isn’t the hope in your heart; it isn’t that that he is praying
about. You should have faith, hope and love. There should be hope in your heart but that is not the
hope he is talking about here. He is talking about a hope, not in your heart, but laid up in heaven
for you. It must have been allot of verses back when I came across hope [Romans]. I thought the poor
guy or child, he hoped against hope — was that Abraham — hoped against hope for a child. I think
of that we human beings have of hope. We have some hope, oh, yeah, we are hopeful. It may not rain
today, we hope so. It’s kind of a last hope. That’s really in the back of our minds as human beings;
there is some hope for that.

Of course this is absolutely different. Hope in the New Testament is absolutely different. It is a
sure thing. It is something that is going to happen. It’s something that you know is going to
happen. It’s like you are on your way to New York and you know you are going to get to New York. So
you have a hope of getting to New York — it’s a certainty of getting to New York. It’s hope in the
sense that it is future. It’s not hope in the sense I wonder if that will happen. It’s an absolute
certainty it will happen. That’s what hope is here in this verse. It’s hope that is certain and
sure; you have no doubt about. It is not something you hope might happen.

You who aren’t miserable Methodists will fully understand me when I talk about Arminianism. Some of
us would know about it. Arminianism mean salvation depends on your own efforts too. Of course that
is true and Wesley used it amongst the poor and outcast people he ministered to. Probably more
appropriate would be his emphasis on your life (outward actions) is a picture of your faith (inner
actions). You have to will yourself to do and in that sense it is Arminian. As an Arminian, I’m
always very reluctant to praise Calvin [John Calvin, Theologian, 1509-1564], but he is a dear guy
and a great man. He is extreme in his negative view of predestination but very strong on his
positive. Calvin said, “Hope is the constancy of faith.” The commentator I was ready said this is
pretty much it. Of course it struck me as right. Hope is the constancy of faith. In other words,
faith in the thing that’s going to happen in the future — it’s undoubtedly going to happen — you
have absolute faith that it is going to happen.

So in the New Testament sense, hope laid up for you in heaven here is sure — it’s a cert — it’s a
sure thing. It helped me when I saw the European probe. Of course the Americans were startled by it.
Can any good thing come out of Europe they thought? They were set back a little on their heels. We
didn’t say it but all the television coverage showed surprise in America that the Europeans pulled
it off. To me it was the beginning of the space age, more than all the other stuff, more than the
space shots. I thought that over the period of 10 years, we travelled through space and we got

somewhere over 500 million miles away. It was tremendous. We were out there in space for 10 years.
We got to where we wanted to be and the thing was flying itself through thousands of miles an hour
and we lit on the top of it. It was a magnificent achievement. For me, it made space smaller. It
made it more manageable or it brought home to me this is all there and we are part of all this
massive space. We are aware that beyond that there is millions and millions of miles beyond with
more and more solar systems. Of course the theory is that it is expanding all the time. Whether it
is or not, it is big enough as it is.

Suddenly I realized we are part of that. Then I thought it may not be fountains and gold pavements;
it may not be harps and streets of gold; it may be something different. For me, it meant our Father
must have alot of plans for us. He must have. Otherwise, why have all that space out there. Even if
it is spiritual space and not physical space, it’s alot. Our Father must have alot of plans. He must
have with all the space out there. Space that wants to rule and fill with himself as he wants to do
with this world.

The hope thing for me seems very real. He has a hope laid up for us in heaven. He has a whole life
for us that is way beyond anything that we have touched. I began to sense this is something to look
forward to — not just to see Dad and Mom and all the loved ones we had — it is a life far bigger
than this one. We will have all kinds of things to do and all kinds of responsibilities; new lives
filled with new activities with fuller satisfaction than we have ever dreamed of.

For me, it took on a much more concrete idea of heaven. I just thought this is great. I think you
know what it is to look forward to something — something that fills you with anticipation and
you’re really looking forward to it — sometimes a vacation does but there are other things. That’s
what I felt. This is something we have to look forward to. It’s going to be something great — far
better than this present world — it’s going to be better than the life we have at present. It’s
going to be all the things we feel now; we’ll feel much more of. It is going to be wonderful. It’s
something undoubtedly to look forward to. I never felt death was something to be afraid of anyway
but I couldn’t see beyond it too much. Now I think it is wonderful — heaven is a hope that God has
laid up for us and has prepared for us for.

That’s where it came home to me — why on earth did he make us? Why did he make us? If he has all
this space out there and all these planets, why did he make us? That’s what brought me back to the
verse all things work together for good. [ Romans 8:28] It’s undoubtedly the biggest general
statement that’s made of the purpose of the world. It’s one of the best that explains what is
happening to us. “All things work together for good to them who love God.” The good is the next
verse here in Romans, “that they may be conformed to the image of his Son.” [verse 29] Of course for
me it jumped on to the next conclusion which follows from that. Why conform us to the image of his
Son? Undoubtedly he made us in his own image so that he could love us the way he loves his Son and
we could enjoy the very best that he has. The very best he has is love for his Son and his Son’s
love for him. He wanted the very best for us. He made us in his image so that we could enjoy what he
and his Son enjoy. That’s why he made us in his Son, so that we could have his Son’s image. We have
a mind like his Son, a will like his Son, feelings like his Son, all those things. We could be like
his Son and we could really enjoy their love. That’s why he put us here.

The only thing he could not give us what his Son alone was able to exercise for us. His Son was
able to exercise will and that’s what made love possible. All of us in this room know that. You
can’t love if you have the will. You can copy; you can be dictated to. You can be domineered and
dominated but you cannot love unless you are free not to love. Unless you are free to choose to love

or not to love. So, he could not and would not make us with his Son’s will. He could only make us in
his Son’s image and give us a will. He gave us the ability to choose or not to choose. But then that
was up to us. He did make us in his own image so we could enjoy him and so we could be fully part of
him but he did say, “if you want.” I did not want robots; I don’t want people who do what they
cannot do otherwise. I want you to love me as I love you.
So he did give us free will.

That came home to me that he put us here, made us like himself so that we are free to love him but
we have to choose to do it. I think I’ve shared this a little with you before. How on earth is he
going to bring that about? All I saw clearly was that’s why he let us do what we have done to this
world. that’s why he let it go bad so that we would see plainly what life without him was like. So
that we would see we can love him or we can be like this. We have the freedom to choose one or the
other. That’s why he made us and put us in this place.

I don’t know if you have really, really seen the lengths to which he is willing to go. The best
picture I know that I have created in my own mind is Christ on the cross and then beating him or
sticking swords into his side or spitting at him and him saying I will bear this until you stop. I
think that’s it. I know it sounds ridiculous. I think that’s it. I have here the verses that Jesus
speaks when he talks about the worm dieth not. It’s in the section where it says it’s better to be
without a hand. It’s some of the few verses where Jesus mentioned hell. [ Mark 9:43-48 ]
Every theologian and Christian has to reconcile that Jesus used those words. I do have to say to you
there has to be such a theological theory as accommodation. It can be explained to you by this:
“Did you see the sun rise today?” That’s accommodation. I’m accommodating my saying to your
understanding. But you know the sun didn’t rise today. You know the earth turned round. But you
would think it silly for me to say, “Did you see the earth turn round today?” Even though that is
literally the truth. That is called accommodation. So you can say that or one is forced to say that.
You have to be very careful with it.

You can’t do that with the normal evangelical because he insists you not only believe in hell but
you believe in burning brimstone. You are foolish if you get into an entanglement with that. But if
you step back from that and you are reading Jesus’ words undoubtedly it does have that feel for it.
For one thing, it’s a bit casual. It’s better to get rid of a hand that is sinful than have two
hands to throw into the hell fire. It’s a little toss, well, it’s a little like that. So it is
possible Jesus is not saying people will burn in fire or hell.

It seems the attitude of his life and his Father’s heart to us is the opposite. It seems the Father
and Son are saying to us, “We will bear with you until you bear with us. We will accept what you do
until you stop doing it. I will let you have your way until you start letting me have my way.”
That’s the best I know with someone who allows his servants to say, “The steadfast love of the Lord
never ceases.” [Lamentations 3:22 ] I think that’s the verse that made me sit up and listen as well
as I could to God’s attitude to us. It seems to me his steadfast love never ceases. Never is never.
It does mean that he is willing to wait and to wait and to wait and to suffer and to endure. His
steadfast love never ceases.

I don’t know if that’s what mansions mean. I don’t know if that is what Jesus means when he said in
my Father’s house are many mansions. I don’t know if that’s what he means when he says I have sheep
of another fold. I don’t know. But I can see that it is certainly possible that God keeps at us for
as long as he needs. I agree I don’t think there will be any fornicators in heaven. Jesus said that.
I don’t think there will people who oppose his Father’s will in heaven. I think that’s right. But

whether God will give us another chance, maybe many more chances, I don’t know.
Certainly you have to reconcile the statement: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. You have
to reconcile that statement with the others that say after this life that’s it and yet take into
consideration that God is eternally patient and has one desire above all others that is we would be
conformed to the image of his Son and would share his love with him. I don’t think it takes anything
away from the ole purgatory idea which has the same idea. Purgatory is a place where you are
purified. Undoubtedly that’s what I’m saying in a roundabout way. That God will give us other
chances.

So it seems the best attitude we can take is that it is not given to anyone what happens there. In
fact, there is strong words where Jesus says the Father judges no one but has entrusted all
judgement to the Son. We are not in a position to judge. I think there is hope, maybe that’s it.
There is hope; maybe it is not our place to decide whether our brothers or sisters go where they go.
Maybe it is our Father’s loving heart. That seems to me to have something of his tenderness. One has
to go gently at it. Undoubtedly God has made us so we can share his love, the love that he has for
his Son. Therefore we can be together and enter into a whole wonderful world that he has laid up for
us in heaven.
We all know time is just a game and eternity is a forever now. Of course that exists at this moment.
It is all around us. Sometimes I think they are sitting on our shoulders. It’s all around us. We
have wonderful discussions the two of us. Irene was asking what the incentive for evangelism is.
Of course, for me it purifies the incentive for evangelism because it’s no longer I’m doing this to
save people but it is my Father that loves them, yearns for them, yearns for the creature his hands
have made and misses them every moment and wants them in his own arms.

Of course that is the greatest incentive for evangelism. That our loving Father who has given
everything for us is missing this person and will miss them. Why wasn’t he happy with all the
sheep, he had a whole fold of sheep? Why bother with that little sheep that is lost? The same
attitude with the other parables where he talks about the lady with the lost coin. Obviously the
Father’s heart misses what his heart yearns for. Of course that’s really why we want anybody to know
about our Father and isn’t that the greatest reason? Do you know what he is really like? Isn’t that
the tragedy? They think the fellow will throw you into hell if you don’t like him. Our dear Lord
must weep and yearn for men and women who know his heart and will care about his heart.
We are here to share with Britain or America God’s heart; to express his heart because we think when
they see him as he is and yield their will to him, they’ll love him as we do. Let us pray.

Dear Lord, we thank you for your kindness to us and your patience with us as we blunder our way
into understanding you. We apologize, Lord, if we make errors or if we inadequately express your
love to each other. we ask for your forgiveness and for your light so that we may speak truly and
live truly.
Now we pray, our Father, for all our relatives, friends and associates in business that they would
do what we want them to do but that they would begin to glimpse what kind of person you are; that
they would catch sight of your heart and that through us they would catch some of your tenderness
and your mercy. We pray, Lord, that you would do that with us through these coming days.

Then we do thank you, Father, for the hope that is laid up for us in heaven. We thank you for the
part that we have to look forward to; for the Lamb’s wedding supper that will be our continual life.
We thank you, Father, that we of all people have good hopes. We have the best hopes and we have
everything to live for not only in this present life but in the real life that begins.

Lord, we thank you for your goodness to us and for your grace in Jesus’ name. Amen.

God Yearns and Hopes for Us

Colossians 1:5b

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

It’s probably a foretaste of some light God has given me. Matthew 25:31-45, “When the Son of man
comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before
him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at
the left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me
food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you
clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous
will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?
And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see
thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you
did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at
his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his
angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a
stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did
not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a
stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ Then he will answer them,
‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ And
they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

The wise thing is to follow intelligently the sequence here even though now we should go into
another hymn. I’m surprised I didn’t mention this verse when we were talking about the possibility
of God having arrangements for us after this life is over to go further into experiences to make us
like Jesus. Maybe there are still questions like that but certainly this chapter is definite and
clear that God will make a distinction between those that love him and those who don’t love him. He
states it very clearly here, whether we like it or not, that some will go away into eternal
punishment. You do have to look at that and see that it is there.

If you’ll forgive me from plunging right into the sermon, I would say the reason for saying anything
here is I brought up to us all Lamentations 3:22, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his
mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.” You remember
I said to you it seems to state very clearly that God’s love NEVER ceases; his steadfast love NEVER
ceases. I took it further in a way; I said he keeps on loving us forever and it never ceases. So
his purpose is that we all should be conformed to his Son’s image and that we should live with him
forever and enjoy his love forever. It seems to me if his steadfast love never ceases, then surely
that means somehow God will have some way of bringing us all into an oneness with Jesus.

Of course I made the point, as far as I could see God used this present life to show us in what way
we are not like Christ and in what way we are not letting him live in us and it might be he would
give us future lives like that. I began to think of something that touches all of us. For me it is
my brother who did not appear to know Jesus and did not respect him in that way. Of course you all
have relatives in the same way. As I said that I also shared that what we were involved in is
expounding Colossians 1:5. “Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” That’s what we were

expounding last week. What we are doing now is looking at part B of that verse. “Of this you have
heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel.” I thought “the word of the truth, the gospel”
— that’s the heart of everything; that’s the knowledge of anything we have of God. That is what we
have to expound this week. It is very important that I am expounding the word of the truth and not
maybe wishful thinking of my own.

That’s why I am back on this verse in Lamentations 3:22-23, “The steadfast love of the Lord never
ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.”
I was saying it is very plain — NEVER ceases. I think you assumed with me that if his love never
ceases, he can always bring about what he wants to do. I think we all left the meeting last Sunday
with a general understanding that that could be so. I’d like to pay tribute to all of you for your
trust and love of me and your praying for me. Not by any means but by letting Jesus show us all.

I would like to say for the benefit of those dear guys who might be alive if I’m not here, it is
very good for us to have our faith in God’s creation of his Body and trust he has a set up here that
will be self corrective through the Holy Spirit — IF we will continue to trust each other and
respect each other — which is what you all did with me last Sunday. Thank you for that, because it
allows God to work in me and you. That’s where I think we left it last Sunday.

Afterwards, Peg and I shared a little. She actually expressed something that I felt too. She said
you know that would be great because in some way there is a bleakness in Christians about death.
That is exactly right. Often we know heaven is there and because we are thinking of our unsaved
friends and relatives or why. Often there is a bleakness, not a happiness. I agree with you.

Then I thought to myself even if these loved ones are not in heaven yet we know we are going to
heaven, so there ought to be a brightness about that. I did notice part of what I shared last Sunday
was the interest and excitement about the European probe and suddenly realized the size of the
universe. It came home to me as I thought of that how God must have a lot of things for us to do.
There must be a whole new life out there. So it is important for us to hold on to that truth,
whatever we talk about today with our unsaved brothers and sisters. There’s no doubt that God has
prepared for us a wonderful life or series of lives in a huge universe. But I think that’s where we
left it last week, that that is the situation.
Was I happy? I’m never very happy when my wife has unhappiness about a thing like my emotionalism.
As I am myself, not very happy about it. I’m not very happy that my feeling was very strong and
emotional in regard to the love that never ceases. I’m not saying there wasn’t any wisdom or insight
in it. But it is enough to make me watch it with the emotions. There is only one place we find truth
and that is with his dear Word. You have to stick with the word and that is what God has used
through the years to keep me. I happened to pick this off my shelf and it is Wesley’s “Christian
Perfection”. I have written in it ‘in memory of a work done 3 October 1964.’ There in a room in
north Minneapolis the Holy Spirit dealt with me.

Since 1964, I have been expounding this book [the Bible]. That’s always been my concern: I have to
stay with this book; I have to confirm everything with this Bible. It was especially important when
you went out on a limb in Campus Church and Fish Enterprises and all that stuff. It was very
important as nobody else was doing it. A few churches had a version of it. So it was very important
to know where we were going. It was like a pilot leading the crew with a map. It was clear that
Luther [Martin Luther] was right — you are tied to the Word of God. That’s your final 95 theses. So
that’s why I thought it was important to consider the teaching God has given us here. I began to
think the thing through again.

So I got Peg’s bleakness mentioned earlier and the probe to give me a taste of God’s vast universe.
Then I thought it was important to leave God’s work to God’s work. It’s important to see that. I
needed to see if all the evidence was in Scripture mentioned last Sunday, still even then I have to
leave God’s work to God’s work. Leave God’s responsibility to God. A little light came when I saw:
have we the ability to consider where our relatives and friends are going to spend eternity? Have we
that right? God seems to have said it isn’t our right; it isn’t our concern. That’s what gave me a
little pause in it. I thought I feel the same lightness about it as you do. It isn’t so bleak now
somehow.

Then I thought, is that because I will see them again. So I am kind of happy. Yeah, that’s great.
But that isn’t quite right I thought. There is a mixture with all the attachment I had with Mom and
Dad, all my relatives and friends. I am tying all my happiness at seeing them again into this
business of what happens after death. It seems not right. In some way it is mixing up the
consolation that God has given us with the future, where he alone is our consolation. That gave me
some pause about it. Was I mixing truth about the future with something of the past that I had
enjoyed? Was I someway mingling both and spoiling the purity of it? I was a little unhappy about
that. With all those thoughts, I then went to this dear Bible.

Of course God is so good — he knows how stupid we are. I went down to the library and found the
theology section which deals with last days. This is only a hint. It isn’t the answer. I looked at
“The intermediate state by some guy from years and years ago. The Intermediate State between Death
and Judgement Being a Sequel to After Death”. I looked through the chapter headings and came to ‘A
second probation inconsistent with Scripture’ heading. God knows how stupid I am and it couldn’t
have been more plainly stated. Of course it is an old book and who knows what theology or background
the guy who wrote it is coming from. It still caused me to pause. I thought thank you, Lord, for
that little tap on the back. I haven’t read the chapter through but primarily he is dealing with
people who have never heard the Gospel, or even babies who die in birth. He’s saying nothing happens
and I would differ from him there. He was dealing with that particular issue, not the one we have
been talking about.

Our issue is with our relatives who have probably heard the Gospel and been responsible with this
light. But this caused me to pause – “a second probation inconsistent with Scripture”. So I went to
the dear Word. I think one would be in favor of looking at my whole theory that everybody will come.
I’ll take you to the verses that I saw. Philippians 2:9-11, “Therefore God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”

That verse implies that every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father. What I wasn’t really happy with was it can mean what it says: everyone
will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, even if he isn’t Lord of my life, he is Lord. Obviously
Jesus was God’s Son. I thought, now it can mean that. It can mean that everyone will see that
Jesus is the Son of God. I don’t want to be light about it but “you blew it!” Of course, it is more
than blowing it; it is serious. Can it mean that? You can think about it yourselves. I think it
can mean that and I don’t think it is quite fair to swing it the other direction and say everyone is
going to admit. So you might say that is still open and maybe it is. I was trying to find some
words that very definitely state a person who in this life did not acknowledge Jesus or did not
allow him to work in his life that they would be given another opportunity. You may ask, is it

still possible? I couldn’t say to you, no, it isn’t. But this verse did not necessarily prove that.
That’s just one verse.

Turn to 2 Peter 3:8-9, “But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise as some
count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all
should reach repentance.” It’s very favorable but in fairness the words are “the Lord is not slow
about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should
perish, but that all should reach repentance.” In fairness, it is saying that God doesn’t want
anybody to perish. He wants everybody to reach repentance. But I don’t know if that is the same as
God wishes that and therefore he brings it about. Because he says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often
would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens but you would not.” Which implies one word
from us can frustrate God’s wishes.

Now if you say to me, can it be interpreted the other way? Maybe you can. What I am trying to do is
make sure I don’t mislead you or set you off on a path that may be wrong. So I think you would be
the same as me. If you are responsible for other people’s lives, you don’t want to run them close
to death. You want to keep them well away from death. I feel in my present situation I have to point
that out to you. Undoubtedly that verse points to the other verse — the steadfast love of the Lord
never ceases. [Lamentations 3:22] God is never glad when anyone misses the way he has set for them.
Indeed he yearns for them — he yearns for the creature his hands have made.
That was the great thrust that came to me from the steadfast love verse. God loves us; he wants us
to become like himself so he must keep on and keep wanting that for us until it comes about.

But, of course, God is the one who gave us free will. He is the one who gave us the right to say
“no” to him. What we are engaged in saying is once we have said no — you have to admit that all of
us have lots of opportunities in this life and our relatives too — it does seem that God does take
no for an answer. There you have to think that through yourself. As somebody who is responsible as
a watchman of Israel, I can’t afford to run you close. I can’t afford to say, oh well, maybe that
is so. I think each of us has to find out and come to a place of peace for ourselves. That’s the
second verse.
There is one more.

Romans 11:32, “For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all.”
What he is talking about is the Jewish nation and its relationship with the Gentiles. The whole
doctrine that the whole Jewish nation has been saved, then the rest of the Gentiles will come in.
That’s what he means when he says God consigning all men to disobedience — all the world is in
rebellion against him. With the exception that he has chosen Israel. All are committed to
disobedience; he chooses Israel and then brings Israel in and after that brings in all the Gentiles.
That’s what he is referring to there. That he may have mercy upon all. I think you can interpret
the “all” as the Gentiles, not just the Jews. He commits Jews and Gentiles to disobedience so that
he may eventually bring all; that is, the Jews and the Gentiles who accept him. It is not saying
all the Gentiles will come in. It’s just saying that the Gentiles will be given the Gospel as well
as the Jews. You do need to think through those.

But the verses are there. Those are the three verses that I saw. There are a few in the Old
Testament that talk about all the nations. Those are talking more about everybody seeing what the
Jews have seen — God is real — not necessarily accepting him. If you ask me what do you think now,
I think we need to stand firmly where we have been all through our lives in regard to this issue.

But I think we have to obey God where he says no one knows the time and God himself does not judge;
he commits all judgement to the Son. The verse states clearly that God has limited this to his Son
and nobody else is in a position to discuss it or talk about it, or to try to determine what will be
done on the Judgement Day.

That’s why I read Matthew 25 because it is pretty clear there what Jesus is doing. I think the
import of Scripture is — this might be annoying — it’s not your business. In fairness to Peg, it
was good for me to see, is my delight and joy as I think of the next life primarily connected to the
wonder of the size of God’s universe and how much he has for us to do? Or, is it primarily relief
that I can leave my brother; he is OK. However unpleasant it is, I have to be straight with myself
about that. I have to be clear, where is my peace and satisfaction coming from? Is it what God has
arranged for my life and others who love him or is it in the fact that those I loved and still love
in a sense will have another opportunity? Are you asking me if I’m closing the door? You know I
can’t close the door. It is you that has to see the way through for yourself. Because each of us
will give account to Jesus on the last day. Each of us will have to settle things with God the
Father.

If you say to me what do you think, I’m not sure. I think the safest thing is the way we always
thought it. That’s the safest. I certainly agree with all that we said last Sunday — that our
Father loves far, far more than we do. Maybe that is the right place. They are in our Father’s hands
and can I trust our Father with my brother or parent. Can I trust him? Is He where all my trust is
or, is part of my trust in my own judgement about things?

You might say and have seen some people use the Bible in a fleshly way. You can use the words in the
Bible in a fleshly way. We have a friend who we think does this. She says we know where we are
going. It seems to us not the attitude that Jesus had for Mary Magdalene that even though she was so
wrong and different from him, you felt he was close to her. So you can use Scripture in a fleshly
way and that you are responsible for. OK, I’ll keep quiet now.

Irene: It seems to me there is encouragement for praying for them while they are alive and not that
they will make a decision for the Lord which is so shallow but that the Holy Spirit, who is always
working with them, and responds to your prayers and is always trying to bring them to see it is me
or nothing and we do not say anything. Whereas a lot of Christian work seems to be if I just talk to
my sister about the right way or show her the right thing, or send her the right sermon, then she
will make a decision. Whereas trusting on the Holy Spirit’s work in them and allowing him to show
you how to walk by faith and be available if they need you for whatever. Faith is believing that
‘his mercies endure forever.’

Marty: It seems, Pastor, that we can be in obedience for whatever that person might need whether it
is sending a sermon, or just pray. Then God is the judge and we cannot know and we can have the
expectation that they are in heaven because they have made a last minute conversion which we aren’t
aware of until we see them in heaven. Or God who is the judge was so faithful in giving them every
chance, his mercy did go on and he respected their free will and they still decided not to. So we
can go into heaven knowing God is a faithful Father and he did everything supernaturally possible to
bring them in. Perhaps the joy of being with him will take away the sorrow of not seeing them again
because his sorrow is so much greater than ours. Sorrow and love flow mingled down. It is a mystery
why the sorrow is overrun by the great joy. We know it will be a place of joy.

Pastor: You did well to finish the sermon because I wanted to say what you said a moment ago. Karl

Barth has a saying that goes somewhat like this – “who knows whether they have turned at the edge of
the abyss?” That was the thing that came to me — finally only two people know: Jesus and them
themselves. We cannot determine they have refused just by what they have said in this life.

Irene: There was an old, old movie with James Cagney where he played a dreadful, murderous gangster
who has even killed his own mother. [Angels with Dirty Faces by Michael Curtiz] In it he somewhat
befriended this priest — I think this took place in Brooklyn — who always went to talk with him in
jail and pray for him. At the final shoot out, where he is collapsing and where he says ‘Mother of
God’ it must have been a wise director who flashed to the priest’s face at the same time and then it
went blank. One never knew whether he had made it but it made a definite impression on your mind.
Right up to the edge of death, he could make a decision.

Pastor: You do feel a little uneasy in your mind when you start thinking where the person is
because you feel you can’t touch this. You don’t know and it’s not your right anyway. It’s a private
thing between them and God. You do feel, I’m on holy ground here and I probably shouldn’t be on it.

Irene: Even people who have come up to you after sermons and said, “That was great. I really saw
when you said such and such.” I’m listening to them and I’m thinking, I didn’t hear that. Even you
have said afterwards that you didn’t think you said that. It’s revelation from the Holy Spirit to
them for their conscience, their problems and questions they have had.

Pastor: It certainly feels, that’s such a bad word to use, but you have used it for our spirits as
well. We sense there is something more right in leaving it in God’s hands, then a simple cutting of
it up into satisfactory bits.

Peg: It’s like a screen on the edge of the Tree of Knowledge. Death, we are uncomfortable about it.
We have to come to a place finally where we say it. It’s so funny how things stick out at you, but
one thing when I went to Bill’s funeral last week. The fellow who spoke said, “He never got
hooked.” If something came up to him, he would say that’s not my business. That phrase has come
back to me over and over again. There are so many things where it is not our business. There’s a
reason why God has hidden things from us. There are probably thousands of reasons why. It could be
our downfall and trip us up and take us away from grace. I don’t know.

Pastor: That’s right – what you are saying came true. There can be a false reassurance here that
makes us walk less free and less joyful, and certainly less dependent on him than you otherwise
would be. There can be a false comfort we recreate for ourselves that actually substitutes for the
real comfort that comes from God himself.

Peg: I do think the verses in Lamentations are very real and reassuring. They aren’t dependant on
our judgement but are dependent on his love.

Pastor: You feel that when in the Old Testament in Psalm 136 where it is repeated over and over,
“His steadfast love endures forever.” It mentions all the things they go through and all the times
they have rebelled against him. His steadfast love endures forever.

Colleen: Two thoughts: one was in that verse in Lamentations. I was thinking about my brother’s
son, Alex. He grew up in a Christian home but he rejected his family for a horrible world. I was
talking to Tom and you can’t compare but I believe Tom will love him and so Alex dies to him. It’s
a pain and sorrow for him but it gave me a little light on there is a God who loves us

unconditionally right to the end. God respects our free will. If we don’t respond to his love, it is
of our choosing.

Secondly as I finished Matthew 13, the whole chapter deals in parables. It coincides with what you
shared in Matthew 25. The kingdom of heaven will be populated by the weak. Then the parables which
mention the good seed and the bad seed side by side, the good fish and the bad fish. The second to
the last parable caught me. The kingdom of heaven is like a net which you throw into the sea to
catch fish of every kind. I was reading a book which was very helpful by an author who spent a long
time translating and studying the parables. The ones who throw the nets are fishers of men. Our role
is to throw that net but we can’t tell what fish are going to enter that net. He goes on to say in
the end it is the angels who get the right to separate the good from the bad. Finally the judgement
of Jesus will come. Our place is to keep putting the net out and catching those we can because we
know that churches, even Campus Church, have a real mixture of Christians and non Christians. But
there was the possibility of hope and life from the Holy Spirit. It’s been helpful for me to keep
casting that net in whatever way that might be. As Marty shared however God leads us to pray,
speak, send to people we come in contact with.

Pastor: It gets back to what you said: trusting his steadfast love. Does he love them more than we
do? You get in a very dangerous position if you say to yourself he doesn’t. Obviously they are in
safer hands, his hands, than they are in our hands. In a sense, it is a way of self-deification to
think otherwise. We know best. Probably that’s what God gets at us in a discussion such as we have
had or thoughts we have had along these lines. He is gently saying to us, now wait a minute, that’s
my job; that’s not your job.

Colleen: Another author helped me in some of the things we were talking about. He said the process
of prayer goes like this: The Father wills something, we as his children through the Holy Spirit
puts it on our hearts, then the Holy Spirit rises up in prayer in us. We pray it back up to the
throne of God through Jesus from whence the thought came from. You mentioned it several weeks ago
that the Father wants to work but he isn’t going to without us. Therefore, he puts on our hearts
different people to pray for, joining the Holy Spirit and Jesus, for the things God wants for them.
That allows God to be released to work in that person’s life.

Pastor: You can see that it is part of the free will plan. He has committed himself to doing
nothing by fiat. He has to have somebody on the earth who is praying and that someone is Jesus
himself praying through us. Christ has to get one of us to express that prayer otherwise it gets God
using us as robots.

Colleen: That made me realize how powerful we could be even in this horrible national crisis. He
puts things on our hearts – every one of us – and we have a great power now to protect our world
through our prayers.

Pastor: That’s why it is important for us to be empty of ourselves and filled with him so that it
is his life within us. Well, what I thought is it is something to be thankful for that God has
given us each other and put us in this relationship so that he can work among us like this. It is a
great privilege we have. It’s beyond words because we all know churches that will allow the preacher
to preach what they let him preach in a way. The person who speaks God’s word can only speak what
the hearers will listen to. So it is very much a twofold ministry that God has called us into. I’m
saying that too for the benefit of the dear hearts who will do what I am doing if I ever go, which I
have no intention of doing. It will encourage them to see that God will be faithful to us all

whoever is here. He’ll be faithful to us and it will work miraculously. What did you say the
Scottish think? Robbie Burns says in one of his poems, “The best laid schemes of mice and men go
often awry.” So maybe my plan of outliving you all will not work.
Let us pray.

Dear Father, we thank you for your great kindness to us and your provision for us. We thank you
you’d know a thing before it is done; you know a word before it is on my lips. We thank you for your
goodness. We thank you we can rest in your arms that are underneath us and that assures us we are
safe and secure. We thank you for your guidance in this dear Word of yours. We thank you for it and
we thank you for the humility you graciously give us through your Son, Jesus, our Savior, so that we
would bow down to you and to what you have said in your word.

Now we pray, Lord, for the dear hearts we know on this earth. We pray that you will move in their
lives and give them revelation and light so that they may respond to your steadfast love that never
ends — that never ceases. Lord, we thank you.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each
one of us now and evermore. Amen.

Is There Salvation After Death?

Colossians 1:5c

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Please turn to Colossians 1:3 in your Bibles. “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love
which you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have
heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel.” That’s it there: “because of the hope laid up
for you in heaven.” That’s about as much as we can do today. It looks as if “we always thank God
because we have heard of your faith because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” It looks like
that because of how the English grammar runs. It’s the hope laid up for you in heaven.

I don’t know where I got it from — was it Abraham hoping against hope? Abraham hopes against hope
that he would have a son. I don’t know if I got it from that or the ordinary use of hope — I hope
— well, I hope. I’ m not sure but I’m hoping — hoping for the best. I think that’s where I caught
it from. Hoping for the best. Even when the Bible says in Corinthians [I Corinthians 13:13] “faith,
hope, charity”, I still felt hope is something you hope may happen but you are not really sure of
it. Probably the whole idea of the last hope seemed to cling to it in my own mind. Hope was
something you weren’t absolutely sure of. It was the best thing you could do in circumstances that
augured worst. That was the best you could do. That was hope. It was something that you did but you
weren’t terribly confident. It was the best outcome you could think of in the situation.

You are right if you say you are wrong in that. I’m sure it is wrong to think that is all hope is.
But that was my vague notion of hope. Even in the Bible we were hoping for something. I had no
thought of Calvin’s statement, “Hope is the constancy of faith.” Sometimes we Antinominians think
Calvin can say nothing. This is pretty good. The best I have seen about hope. Hope is the constancy
of faith. I’m touched by it because the guy had deep understanding of God’s heart. I had no idea of
that, none. I didn’t think that was hope. I thought hope was what I expressed earlier — your belief
in the best outcome you could expect from the situation. Indeed it was something that comes along
and delivers you from otherwise what seemed to be a hopeless situation. Of course it was utterly and
absolutely wrong.

It’s stated here so clearly. “I give thanks to God for you because of the hope laid up for you in
heaven” — the hope laid up for you in heaven. Partly what began to open my eyes, quite reasonably
in a way, was: can the Europeans do any good thing? Well, they sent up the probe. After ten years
and five billion miles, it has landed on a comet! I can understand the Americans how they might do
that. But the Europeans who could hardly understand each other that they could do it! It was a great
achievement.
It landed 3 weeks ago. They had sent this probe ten years ago. It’s been travelling for ten years
and after five billion miles it has landed on the comet they had planned it to land on. The comet
itself is moving.

For me, it brought into reality and the presence what we knew. I know what you all know. It’s a big
universe, isn’t it? How many solar systems there are? How many planets and it is still expanding? I
knew that. There in my little head. But when this thing travelled for ten years and they showed us
a picture five billion miles away, it hit me strongly. This universe is huge. It’s absolutely huge.
For me, it made me realize, wait a minute, God must have some plans for this. He must have something

far beyond another planet we might be able to spend another few years on. This is big!

That’s where I started on the whole thing. I don’t feel I’m going tomorrow so I don’t think “I’m a
little older than I was” makes a difference. I don’t feel I’m going anywhere fast. I think I am
here for another twenty years. But for whatever reason, it makes you think, now what happens next?
My what happens next isn’t tied to other planets but maybe some other locality. It is not the whole
universe. That’s where the idea of hope began to become real to me. God has something far, far, far
beyond what we have envisaged and what we have imagined.

Of course it ties up with where we all go and what happens to us all. How long are we there? It
comes into all kinds of verses. One baffling one, certainly, is Romans 14:11, “For it is written,
‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.'”
It’s one of those verses that along with early verses in the Old Testament states David’s throne
will last forever. This one is a plain one. Every knee shall bow to me; every tongue shall give
praise to God.

Of course, it tied up in my mind with other statements that implied everyone would bow to God and
everyone would worship him; everyone would eventually see that he is true and real. At times I was
touched by the statements that Jesus made which were very real. “In my Father’s house are many
mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am
you may be also.” [John 14:2] I was always sceptical of the interpretations that maybe the Muslims
and Hindus would be in some of the mansions. Because I believed strongly in the statement that Jesus
made in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of
God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts,
nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of
God.”

I believed that strongly. I thought the idea of universalism [everybody will get into heaven
whatever they are like] cannot be right. Certainly there were words like those talking about a lake
of fire [Revelations 20:15] that implied there is a place that is different from heaven and not
everybody will be in heaven. It did give me concern – wrongly — about my mother. My mother was a
Christian and took communion and so forth. But I thought of others who never professed Christianity;
never professed any faith and yet they were relatives of ours or people that we were close to. It
was difficult to think that when they passed away. We’ve seen them here and that’s it, we won’t see
them again.

So those ideas have been in my mind down through the years. I thought it was very important to be
true to Scripture and to hold to every indication of the truth that the adulterers, the fornicators
and murderers will not be in heaven. But it was quite difficult for me to sort out what will happen
to the people who were not truly Christian, or not really Christian. What would happen to people
like my brother who never professed anything at anytime? It always touched it a little with
melancholy. As I would meet other people, I would wonder.
There were statements too from very intellectually balanced and intelligent people like Barth [Karl
Barth, Swiss Reformed Theologian, 1886-1968] who said God does not destroy anything he has created.
He does not destroy what he has created. I could see how precious human life was and how unique it
was. We were made in his image. What would God do? Would he destroy all that? I always desire to
hold on clearly and strongly to separation from universalism. I would hold to the normal
interpretation of that.

It did concern and trouble me. Especially meeting loved ones like you — there are many of us who
have fathers and mothers who haven’t apparently walked the Orthodox, Protestant or Catholic route —
aren’t avowedly Christian in their minds and others’ minds. It would create in me at least a sorrow.
Then you come to these other verses like “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.” You come
to Jesus and “in my Father’s house are many mansions.” Then, of course, there is 2 Corinthians
3:18, “And we all, with unveiled faith beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his
likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” I
always knew that verse but it gave me some light.

Then there is 1 John 3:2, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall
be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every
one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” It seemed to me that there’s going to be
movement and development after this life is over. There is going to be a change from glory to glory.
There is going to be a seeing him as he really is so that we ourselves are changed by that light.

I thought this vast universe of thousands of us is going to be destroyed because of our attitude to
the gospel here. The whole universe is going to go on forever and they’re going to have no part in
that at all. I had difficulty seeing that God would actually do that especially in this verse which
gave me the greatest pause. I shared it with you some time ago, maybe months or years ago. It’s a
powerful statement. It’s water to those of us who have done something wrong. Lamentations 3:22-23,
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every
morning; great is thy faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope
in him.;” I have dealt with the steadfast love because I felt it expresses God’s continued mercy to
people like ourselves. As an English teacher I had trouble with ‘never’ because that implies more
than just his present patience with me or with others. It is never. Of course the verb you can’t
get rid of is — ceases; never ceases. His mercies never come to an end.

More as I saw the size of the universe, it ‘jumped’ me out of my previous attitude. It kind of
shocked me into beginning to see some of these verses that imply God is far, far greater than us and
has far more patience than we have. He has far greater love than we have and has far more planned
for his universe than the little few years we have here on earth. As I saw this emphasis of moving
from glory to glory and we are becoming more like him than we are now. I saw that we are made in his
image so we could be his children; so that we would be able to love him and he is able to love us. I
put it to you to think through it yourself.
It seemed to me he must have glorious life for us and glorious things to achieve and experience
after this life is over.

I knew we weren’t going to play harps but I did wonder at times what we were going to do. I have to
admit the old probe thing brought it home to me; even if all we see with our telescopes; even if it
isn’t true or real. Even if it is some other realm than spiritual and physical. Maybe it can have
all kinds of forms. Maybe it is nothing compared with the spirit world that is so much vaster but
certainly there is a lot out there that is far, far beyond the little piece we have here. Our Father
must have all kinds of plans for that.

Of course it began to come home to me that hope is not something to compensate us for the bad things
that are happening. It is not some little thing on the margin of life that will help us to get
through the present experience. I began to see that hope is what he says in that verse, “because of
the hope that is laid up for you in heaven.” That there is a whole life planned for you way beyond
this one.

If you say to me, where does it tie up with my father or mother, or other relatives or friends who
have died and seemed to have no interest in Jesus? If his steadfast love never ceases, it seems to
me as we move from glory to glory, he doesn’t give up. He keeps working on us. If you say, well, do
you think it’s so? Well, it fits in more with what he has been so far. It fits in more with why he
has made us. He has made us all to be his children and to come to love him willingly ourselves
because we want to. Maybe he has cut off the possibility after seventy years here; maybe he has. But
maybe he hasn’t!

I’m as critical as anybody here of purgatory [Catholic theological meaning of: A place between
Heaven and Hell, where the soul is not bad enough to be sent to an eternity of damnation in Hell,
but not good enough to go to Heaven, so it is sent there temporarily where the person suffers, and
is purified so that it can be sent to Heaven.] and some kind of punishment that will pay you for
what you have done or will be used to make you better. But I can see a Father whose mercy never ends
and whose steadfast love never ceases.

Can I see such a Father continuing to work with us? Well, I can. I can’t pontificate and say that
is so but it seems to me very reasonable to see that our dear Father has one thing in mind and that
is to have children like his Son who love him freely because they want to. It seems to me that no,
there won’t be a Hitler marching destroying and hating through heaven. But can there be one who
millions of years later comes through all kinds of experiences and eventually gives in to the
Savior’s Spirit? I don’t know.

Certainly if you say, “No, there will be no place for anybody who is not a Christian as I am a
Christian” you have to face the fact that there is a wonderful life for us out there. There is a
huge universe. We have had the narrow verse that has been applied primarily to the Jews. We have
taken that as our best hope. We, as Christians, will rule over something. Maybe we will but maybe we
will do much more than that. Maybe we will develop a universe. Maybe we will be years by our Father
to do something with this vast universe that He has created.

When the Bible talks about hope, it’s talking about something far more concrete than hope has been
to me in the past. It seems to me that there is a whole new world as the Bible says — a new
Jerusalem – a whole new earth and a new heaven as it says. There will be a whole new existence for
us; I dare to say for those who we thought may not be there. You have to think through this
yourselves.

The whole objection to this in evangelicalism is universalism. That’s it. The objection is not what
I have described here. It is the idea of universalism. The idea of universalism is all kinds of
people will get into heaven whatever they are like. Heaven will be a mixture and there will be
people there who don’t believe in Jesus and won’t come to believe in Jesus. Where what I am saying
is, will God continue? Will that steadfast love ever cease? Will it ever come to an end? Or will it
keep working even with the ones we know? The other big argument which evangelicalism holds on to,
the other belief, is: we better get out there and save them from the fire!

That’s not why God wants them — to save them from the fire. He wants them because he loves them.
The only legitimate attitude to witnessing or evangelicalism is because of God’s love in your heart
for everyone and your desire for them to enjoy what you enjoy. That has not always been the attitude
of the narrowly based evangelicalism that we often have been involved in. But whatever you do with
that end of it, the other is the great truth that there is a wonderful life that will begin for us

after this life is over with; a whole magnificent universe that we have not seen at all. God has
something for us to do in bringing this universe into harmony with himself.

I’d encourage you to think and pray about those things. Let’s continue to study His dear Word to
see what light he has for us. For me, it brought a much happier, a much lighter feeling about
heaven and of course, especially about the people who up to now I thought might not be there. Now I
think they will be there. Let us pray.

Dear Lord, we thank you for your great wisdom and we thank you for your face which we have seen in
Jesus. We thank you for the unending mercy and understanding that you have shown through Him to us.
We thank you for his loving attitude to the people who were looked down upon. We thank you, Father,
for your apparent endless forbearance with people like ourselves.
We thank you finally, Lord, for your dear Word that points us to a life of beauty and peace and joy
in your company. We thank you, Father, for giving us each one abilities and characters that are
capable of being like you and doing your will.

Now we pray, Lord, for all the dear hearts that we love and are concerned about, especially those
who don’t seem to be Christians today. We pray, our Father, that the love you have put into our
hearts for yourself and for them may manifest itself to them and the sheer magnanimity of your own
heart and character may come over to them through us in such a way that they will be stirred
themselves.

We pray, Lord, that you will enable us to walk in the bigness and greatness of your vision and your
plan for all of us. Even as the years go by in our lives here on earth, we may see the future as
greater and bigger than anything we have ever thought before. That hope is the constancy of faith
and it is the reality of life beyond this earth which is going to be far, far bigger and better than
what it has been here and you have us on track to be part of that along with those we love. We thank
you for your goodness to us; for this day and for your dear Word and Spirit.
Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each
one of us now and evermore. Amen.

Modern World View of the Gospel No. 1

Colossians 1:6a

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Last night wasn’t just a bad night. It was a nightmare. It was wild. Somebody (who will remain
nameless) made a deal to buy all the property, Garden Court, on Fourth Street. This wasn’t years ago
— it was in my dream. So they moved right in and leveled one room after the other. I watched the
restaurant being bull dozed off. Then they must have had more land next door because they proceeded
to build a huge manufacturing operation. So they leveled everything and I walked in and they treated
me as nothing. This was now their property. The building was all gone and Campus Church was all
finished. So the dream finished pretty much there.

It was interesting because I saw, “That’s it.” It was just a moment. It was just a second and
whatever God did he did. That was it and it was now gone. No big deal in a way. It’s still a big
deal for me. That’s the way life is passing in this world. Everything is eventually gone. That was
the dream and I awoke knowing that’s the situation. I began to gather myself together and think
about the things. I began to think especially about what one was to do now — what life was to be
now — what was worth doing and what was real and true. That’s pretty much where the dream finished,
not on any great note, but just here I was with no church now and probably saw the passing nature of
it. That it all was a moment in time and it was gone.

So I thought of what am I going to say here today. I knew what I should be doing but it was such a
task that I thought, can I push out in this direction? I was helped a bit by the fact that Chris,
the realtor, said to me, “I saw you on YouTube.” He wants to know more about O’Neill because he’s
going to sell something to him. So he looked up Ernest O’Neill, I looked up too, and you see all
kinds of things. There’s this corny operation that collects sermons, they’re no dummies, they were
bright kids, I hit my picture and see what I am doing. It was a long sermon and they knew YouTube,
which I don’t know, took only a certain length of video, so they cut the whole sermon into 4 parts.
It’s a great sermon, Cheap Grace. It’s plain as a pikestaff, very clear.

Then I knew I didn’t have much option with you lot but tackle what I was going to tackle when I saw
what the next verse was. Cheap Grace is dead straight. I’m blunt, plain and simple in it. People
think God once had the Ten Commandments where he said you have to obey. Now he saw we couldn’t do it
so he’s changed his line now. He says, “Ok, if you believe my Son died for those of you who don’t
obey the Ten Commandments, you’ll be saved by that.” So I said of course lots of people believe that
and think Yippee, good, it doesn’t matter whether we obey those or not. It depends only on whether
we believe Jesus died for us. That’s how we get in.

That’s cheap grace. So I draw it out clearly and it’s very plain that even I can understand it.
Then I knew I had no option but to tackle today’s verse. It’s Colossians — one that we have partly
tackled before. It’s Colossians 1:5-6, “Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you
have heard before in the Word of the truth, the gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole
world it is bearing fruit and growing — so among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood
the grace of God in truth.”

I thought, the sceptic that I am, in the whole world is bearing fruit and growing? I know in a
general kind of way you can do that but, boy, here in America it’s not exactly doing that. The

gospel is not bearing fruit and growing amongst ourselves, it’s probably at an all time low. So many
guys that are supposed to be ministers running after other people’s wives. So many people doing all
kinds of illegal acts under the name of Christianity. I wouldn’t say it’s bearing fruit and
growing. I hope it is among ourselves. In general in the world, I would say ISIS is bearing fruit
and growing.

Of course the reason is the very thing I was preaching a sermon about. It is cheap grace. Most
people don’t see a challenge in the Gospel, much deliverance in the gospel, they see something that
prompts them to argue about abortion or argue about whether they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
but not much about being delivered from themselves and living a different life. I wouldn’t say the
Gospel is bearing fruit and growing.

Of course what I was thinking of stepping back from was doing the same thing I have done with you
for what seems a thousand times, saying to you that the gospel most people think about is “believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” It’s believe that Jesus died for your sins and
you’ll get into heaven. Most people think of that as the gospel. If you ask them, what do you think
the gospel is, they would say it is something about how Jesus died for our sins. I think that’s what
people think of. I think the moment you mention gospel on the internet, I’m sure that’s what they
think of. If they are people who are brainwashed with it, they slot right in there, ready for the
whole story of sin and confessing their sin. Really that’s what they think.

Like the ordinary guy, Robin Williams, a supposedly ‘with it’ guy, slick, modern fellow thinks,
“don’t give me that.” That’s those guys that are always crying at you, “Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved.” There’s little sense, what a wonderful idea; what a wonderful truth.
No one thinks of that. We like to think it is; we like to think there are all kinds of people who
are sinning like crazy and under terrible guilt. They are looking for some way out of that guilt.
They’re not, they’re not! People are not conscious of their sinning or that they are under their
guilt. When you come to them with this medicine, they say, “I haven’t got that disease. You are
coming to me with something I don’t need.”

I’d say to you we need to waken up and see that. The real gospel is far better than that. Paul ends
with “that you understand the grace of God in truth.” They don’t understand the grace of God in
truth; even we are just beginning to understand it. I don’t think people do. If you ask, do you
understand grace, they would say it’s God’s undeserved favor. It’s God forgiving us our sins. Of
course the grace of God is far, far more than that. So again today I would remind you, the grace of
God is — our Father has a dear Son whom he loves and they are living together in peace, love and
happiness. They have created a whole universe and they want others like themselves who they can
share their love with and share their universe with. That’s why they made us.

They knew we would never be able to share their love unless we were able to love ourselves. That is,
we ourselves would be able to love other people. We could never do that unless we were free not to
love because love means your own goodwill going out to another person because you choose to send it
out to them. You can’t love unless you are free not to love; unless you are free to do whatever you
want. They therefore determined that we would have that choice. They had to allow us to choose
whatever we want. They knew there was nothing that existed outside them. There is nothing outside
God. So they knew they had to let us choose nothing if we wanted to. So they did that.

So our Father put us in this world and his Son could live in us to develop the world the way he
planned. He gave us the freedom to say yes or to say no to that. If we wanted, to develop the world

whatever way we wanted, so that we would be able to see what the alternative to him was. That is the
only way we could have free will — if we were free to choose something other than him. It wasn’t
free will if he said, “I’m here and I’m the only one you’ve got; now use your free will.” He had to
give us an alternative to himself and that’s how they did it. They allowed us to make the world
whatever way we wanted; to develop it whatever way we wanted and to do that freely so that we would
see there is a choice.
There is a choice here; we have to choose this way or that way. That’s the situation we are in. They
have given us the freedom to choose.

That meant, of course, that we would be nothing because there is nothing out there. If we chose
nothing we would be nothing. So for that reason God made us inside his own Son. It’s unthinkable.
It’s absolutely unthinkable. Who would ever dream of doing that, knowing these people might choose
all that you weren’t. They might choose everything that you are unlike; might choose nothingness;
choose the very opposite of what you are like — opposite of every virtue you have — they may
choose. You make that person inside your own Son! It’s like making a person capable of getting
cancer and then putting that person inside your own Son. That’s what he did.

He made us inside his own Son so that we would have life — we would have eternal life — yet be
able to make the choice. That’s what happens at the moment. We choose whatever we want but we do it
inside his own Son and his Son has to bear that sin and bear it and bear it. Our Father committed
himself to doing that forever.

Now that stops a person in their tracks. Nobody knows that — I agree with you — nobody knows that.
We all know fine well; we all know God and Jesus; in our own minds we know what we need if we are
bringing somebody into our family. It is a dreadful blindness that prevents people even imagining
this. It’s all plain sailing if you let your mind move along. It’s obvious this is what happened.
It’s obvious this is what they have done because it is obvious to all of us that there is no
alternative to God. There’s no alternative to him. There’s only God and not God. So he has allowed
us to do that.

It is staggering when then you take the next step, and you point out: when is that going to stop?
When is he going to pull the plug? When is he going to stop this madness of committing himself to
this kind of torture? Because, of course, it is obvious that the death of Jesus was him expressing
that in a temporal life here. He was expressing in a life of Jesus of Nazareth what he endures
eternally. So, when is he going to pull the plug? That’s where the whole truth is: his steadfast
love will never cease; his mercies will never come to an end. Then that’s what you are faced with,
that he is going to put up with my choices forever? Or for a long, long time if you want. That is
grace beyond anything.

It seems to me that in some way you have to present the heart of God. You have to take the plunge.
I’m not bringing up the old argument of how long is forever — that’s for everybody to decide.
Certainly in the Bible it is the ages of the ages. That’s the term that is used. It seems to me that
you have to try to get that over. You have to sometime stop playing the game. Stop playing this
forensic game which everybody is playing, even the guy in charge of the Genome Project. I can’t
guarantee that he thinks it. But I do think most people are caught in the normal interpretation that
if you believe that Jesus died for your sins you are forgiven. That’s God’s grace.

There’s really no understanding of God’s own pain. We often talk about it. What the Catholic saints
were trying to do — I joke about my stigmata — the saints tried to dwell on the death of Jesus

that they would start to feel some of that. Of course that was almost a psychological experience and
not a spiritual experience. What I have outlined here to us is far nearer the situation than this
little forensic equation that we worked out that everybody talks about — do you believe Jesus died
for your sins — yes, you’re in, no, you’re out. That’s terrible. It’s dreadful. In every way an
insult; it’s not just an insult, it’s inflicting more pain on our dear Father. In some way, however
big the task is (I don’t minimize it!) we have to start thinking through it.

Don’t get tied up on how long is forever. Talk about the ages of the ages if you want. Don’t get
distracted by technicalities. The important thing is, we know fine well that that is the truth. We
know that every little girl that becomes pregnant, we know what God’s heart is doing. He is touched
with our infirmities. He is touched with our tears. We remember the shortest verse in the Bible:
“Jesus wept.” [John 11:35] We know fine well our Father is a tender Father.

So in some way you have to start expressing that. God has brought it to our attention irrespective
of how long that is going to go on. He undoubtedly feels the pain of sin. It seems to me that the
sheer facts of what I just outlined which seem to me as plain as a pike staff, that is what
happened, they plainly set forth the pain of God and what He is faced with. Equally important is
that it sets forth what we all talk about. “God is love, God is love.” Do you think people think
God is love? Do you think anybody is very concerned about God being love? They may use the term but
do you think they believe that God actually loves them? They know he is kind and has given us loving
gifts including the world. They know there is love in this world. But that God is love and that God
loves them? I don’t think for a moment they think that.

There is need. What is our job? Our job is to preach the gospel. What is the gospel? Surely the
good news is that we do not have an impassive hope. We do not have a classical, Greek or Latin God
who doesn’t care for us and who is way up there distant from us, knowing nothing about us. But
surely our gospel is our God is the Father of Jesus. He loves us the way he loves his own Son. He
feels our pain. He feels our suffering because he has made us inside his own Son and he has done
this all because he wants us to live with him forever in love. I think that is why we are here.

I don’t underestimate the difficulty of the task and how you have to think outside the box. You have
to start thinking of images of all kinds, words and illustrations of all kinds; ways of setting it
forth on your website. We cannot continue in this gospel that makes it even, however critical my
comments seem to be to you, you know that I am dead right, the gospel is winning its way
wonderfully, especially here in America. It’s not bearing fruit everywhere. It was, in those days,
because the gospel they preached applied to the great need they had at that time. The overwhelming
need of the Jews was forgiveness of their sins. Undoubtedly that was the emphasis. You cannot say
that was the only emphasis in the New Testament.

Again and again is expressed there the closeness that Christ is to us and that we are in Christ a
part of Him. God and Jesus are very aware that we all are part of them and part of their family.
They want us to be. It seems to me very important that we take the bull by the horns. That’s what I
was looking at with this verse — taking the bull by the horns — this is a big one. I know your
dear hearts believe what I say but we are all caught in the same thing when you preach the gospel —
how do you preach it? You preach it the same way everybody else is preaching it, even though it is
equally ineffective. We all come out with, “You are alright; Jesus died for your sins.”

(cid:9)In truth he did die for our sins. That isn’t the heart of why he died. He died because we are in
Him. He bore in a practical, realistic way every day of his life and our lives. He bears our sins.

He bears them inside himself. Every time we do something insensitive to God, insensitive to somebody
else, he feels that pain. He puts up with it, if you like. Except, the dear Loved One never uses
those words. But forbearing, that’s what it is. Forbearance is putting up with things. We put that
meaning as a reluctant ‘putting up’. ‘Hupomenai’ is the same — it’s the Greek word for patience —
“hupo” is under and ‘menai’ is to remain — remaining under. Forgiveness is remaining under the
thing even though it is hurting you like crazy. You stay — you bear it.

That is what God is doing with us day by day. I do think it isn’t right for us to cover that up. It
isn’t right for us to pretend. Even more than that, you know what people are concerned with. You
know fine well why the social media is so popular because somebody knows what I am doing. If I say
yesterday I went to the circus or yesterday I played tennis with so and so. Or, I just had a
wonderful ice cream. Isn’t it pathetic? You put it on your Facebook page because you want somebody
to know what you’ve done. You want somebody to know what your life is — how you think and how you
feel.

It’s what we are dying for. In a way we are dying for love. It’s really more than that. We would be
amazed if we thought the Maker of the universe knew what we had done today. That’s right. They
would be amazed if they knew the Maker of the universe knew what they did today. Of course they
wouldn’t believe it. That’s the situation. It’s not only the true gospel; it’s the gospel people
are dying for. They are dying to know that somebody knows they are here. Then if they thought the
Maker of the universe put them here to express himself through them in a way that he could express
himself through nobody else. “AGH! Don’t tell me lies!” That’s what they would say. You know I am
right. They’d say, “Don’t tell me lies. That’s impossible. My nose isn’t right — I don’t like my
hair — my body isn’t great. No — no, he does not express himself through me in a way he can
express himself through no one else.” How could I put it more strongly? It’s what people are dying
for. It is the true gospel. We have the wherewithal to express it.

No, I agree you are not brilliant website makers. I’m not a brilliant website maker. I understand
that. We are not as brilliant at any of those things as we need to be. But we do believe that God
is gracious and that God will help us. He will give us the ability to do the websites.

So that’s it. Be glad you weren’t in a nightmare. But I think it is worth saying. I probably know
in my stupid self – no, I’m not stupid — I know in my stubborn self that I’ll keep on blasting. I
do think that is why the Father has given us a little life together to do something that will
undoubtedly give you a great joy in your heart and above all will give him a release of his love in
this world. And in that way, enable him to fulfill the travail of his soul.

Let us pray.

Dear Lord, we thank you for your goodness to us. We thank you for the things that you make clear to
us. Then we pray, Father, if we are wrong, you will reveal that to us as we go forward. If we are
right, give us the grace and ability to express the truth and ability of your heart in a way our
brothers and sisters will understand. An understanding that will bring deliverance to many of them
who feel unloved and misunderstood.
We pray, Lord, that you would oversee us, correct our foolish mistakes or our wrong conceptions and
enable us to use the words that express most clearly and concisely the truth and your heart. We
pray, Father, that you would bless and prosper the work of our hands in this regard. Enable our work
in these websites to express these truths.

We thank you, Lord, that you understand we are grass and we do not have all the abilities to do
these things but we believe Lord you are able to impart to us the ability of Christ within us. You,
Lord Jesus, are able to do these things through us and are able to correct the movement of our
hands, our eyes, our ears and minds so that we are able to transmit your love to those who come onto
our websites. We pray, Father, for these things so that you would be glorified by our lives and may
receive some satisfaction by our wills being one with yours and our hearts being close to yours.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with each one of us now and evermore. Amen.

The Modern View of the Gospel 2

Colossians 1:6b

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Colossians 1:6, starting with the last couple words of verse five, goes, “The gospel, which has come
to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing — so among yourselves, from
the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth.”

I said in our last talk that today, the gospel is not doing that. Part of the reason for this is,
the gospel today is so naked, so bare, and so lacking in the richness and the depths that God has
put in it. Not least is the case regarding the last part of that verse – “from the day you heard and
understood the grace of God in truth.”

Of course, the dear souls today have no idea of the depth of the grace of God. We know a little
about it when we “say grace” – “we’re saying grace.” And we know a little about it when we thank God
for all that has happened to us. But to understand the grace of God in truth – they have little
understanding of that. It’s a really “pat” little gospel that is preached today. “Jesus died for our
sins, and so we’re forgiven. We’re going to heaven. Yippee! Now let’s get on with life.”

It’s very much that kind of attitude. It’s very much, “The grace of God is that at least my sins are
taken care of now. I am not right, and I do not do the right things. But – thank God for Jesus!
Because his death has been for me, then I don’t have to worry about these sins.” It’s the same as a
friend of ours who says, “I know where I’m going!” A little bit of the feeling comes over, “The
others might not know, but I know where I’m going.”

If it’s not that, it’s certainly a simplicity that is not good. It lacks depth and profundity, and
really has not much idea of the grace of God. Part of it is that there’s very little interest in
God’s heart.

Really, I’m ashamed of myself. But only on a rare occasion did I think of the heart of God. But
through the City Mission I would end up places downtown {in Belfast where he grew up} that weren’t
so savory. Often they were the dear Catholic places. Often I would go into a Catholic living room,
and there would be the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the wall.

It made me sick of heart – but not in an encouraging way. I thought, “Uhhh! What a terrible thing to
have – the heart of Jesus with his dear breast open.” But at least I saw some attempt to understand
God’s heart of love. But rarely besides that did I think of the heart of God.

Nowadays, what do you think the heart of God is like? Nobody thinks of that. We quote him madly –
whether he’s for abortion or against abortion, or whether he’d agree with Obama on this. We say
we’re interested in his opinion. But the heart of God? We’ve said it before – we have an idea why it
is – because on the whole, we’ve inherited the idea of God as we get it from Lucretius, Livy, Julius
Caesar and Virgil.

It’s the idea of the Latin and Greek god as an impassive person – hardly a person – an impassive
being. We tend to tie him up with Mars, the god of war. We think of him as somebody who’s impersonal
– certainly not a human being, and not a personable person. So we in a way don’t think of him having

a heart.

If you press me and say, “But don’t we all talk about him loving us?” Yes, but who has any idea that
he cuddles us? Who has any idea that he’s soft and gentle? We use the word gentle. We certainly
wouldn’t use the word soft. We know he comforts you, “stands you up and gives you strength, and
gives you backbone!” But we don’t have too much idea of a gentle, kindly, loving Father who really
knows what I’m feeling. It’s not so much he’s not interested in what I’m feeling. He might be, but
he doesn’t have time!

I think that’s an accurate description. I think that’s what the majority of people think of when
they think of God – if they think as much of him in a human way as that.

To tell you the truth, I think they think of him as a bunch of beliefs — about abortion, politics,
this person who is bad, or this person who is good. But I don’t think for a moment they think of him
as a person.

It caught you off balance, partly because the man was a scientist or a lawyer. He quoted Job: “He
yearns for the creature his hands have made.” {Job 14:15} The man was a very successful lawyer. In
his obituary, it said that this man, who was a Christian, was touched by this verse — that God
could actually yearn for the creature his hands had made.

But – who thinks that? They don’t think that. I’m not for abortion or for unwanted pregnancies. But
the wee girl who finds she’s going to have a baby, and she’s not married. Why does she think of the
waste basket? Why would she even think of putting it in a waste basket, of putting it in a bag and
hiding it on a train after it was born? {As happened recently}. Because she is convinced that this
person {God} would have nothing to do with her.

So there’s a tremendous need for you to spend your life, if necessary, on the Internet, explaining
the heart of God, and convincing people that our God has a heart, and his heart is concerned with
our hearts.

I was in the bookshop yesterday, and I saw this magazine on the shelf {holding it up}. I was looking
at computer magazines, and this caught my eye on the shelf. “Jesus” Man of History, Figure of
Faith.” It catches you. That picture on the cover is not the one I would necessarily have chosen.
There are other ones inside that are alright, and there are a lot of other ones that we would agree
are churchy ones. But the important thing is: why would they ever manage to get put on an ordinary
magazine shelf? I think it’s the American Bible Society who publishes this magazine.

But that’s what we want to do – put something like this on the Internet. You can see, it’s not so
offbeat that they are not able to think of putting it on an ordinary magazine shelf.

If you ask me, “Are people interested in God?” Of course they are. I think they always are. But what
they’re not interested in is joining a mega church, or having someone try to persuade them to join a
mega church. But I would say there are more and more people becoming aware that there is a huge
universe out there – and it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that some of us might get out
there some time. I think more and more people are aware that the universe is vast. In their minds is
the thought, “Isn’t it wonderful? Isn’t it amazing? When God has us as the few human beings that we
know of in the universe – isn’t it remarkable that he has us here, and that we have a life that will
go on after this life? And I wonder what we’ll do there in that vast universe.”

So I think more than ever that people are interested. But I think what they desperately need, want,
and miss, is the heart of God. I don’t think they have any notion.

There is one guy who emailed me, who has got the important question. He says, “I would be glad if
you would elaborate on the phrase, ‘created in Jesus’” – which is the phrase of the central truth
I’m trying to put over! That is the most difficult one! I’ve started an answer. Somehow he’s come
across this phrase. {Part of Ephesians 2:10}

Of course it’s the central question of this whole gospel that I’m selling to you – because that’s
the heart of it all: We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus {first part of Ephesians
2:10}. That’s the most difficult part. I wouldn’t mind trying to answer all the other questions, but
that’s the most difficult one: “Created in Christ Jesus.”

But most people have no idea. I bring it before you again – they don’t even know that exists in the
Bible. And if they knew – they’d just be the same as the person who asked me about it. “What do you
mean? Created inside my mother, I know. But created inside Christ Jesus – what does that mean?” They
have no notion that that’s in the Bible. And they have no idea that we have that degree of closeness
to the Deity. None at all.

So I would bring it before you very seriously: the gospel that is missing in these days is: God’s
heart is real, and that we are part of him and his Son. They have no idea of that. If you just state
that, they will just say, “You’re stupid!” Or they will say, “I just don’t know what you mean.” So
it takes elaboration and thought to make that clear to people.

But I’d bring it before you. Can’t you see how it would transform a little inferiority complex?

We know a little fellow that Irene has gotten to know in town here. He’s a dear fellow – an
assistant. In the world’s eyes he’d be thought of as a “little nothing.” Can you imagine how the
truth I’m talking about transforms “a little nothing”? So – getting this truth out to people is
worth it.

I think God has given us the beginnings of an insight into him that is what the world needs. I’d say
to you all – thinking about that, making attempts at writing it yourselves, watching out for images
that could get it over, praying that God could give you more light on it, spending the rest of your
lives getting that over to people on the Internet – would be a wonderful occupation and wonderful
thing to do.

Do they understand the grace of God? No idea! They have no idea that God has made us in his Son, and
then has given us the freedom to do whatever we want to do, so that not even Marty can do he wants
to do – but Hitler can do what he wants to do. Not only can Colleen do what she wants to do, but the
guy who killed the people in the Boston Marathon – that he can do what he wanted to do. And it would
all take place inside Jesus, inside our Father’s heart. He would bear that.

Not only would he bear it, but he would let it go on until that person determines to stop it. That’s
it.

That’s at least what, “His steadfast love never ceases” means. We think it means more than that. But
at least it means that. “His steadfast love never ceases.” He keeps loving the person, even though

that person is killing his own Son.

Then of course the obvious corollary of that is: everything that we do, he feels. We are in his Son
now. In that sense, we are in him {God the Father} now. In that sense, there’s nothing that we do
that he does not feel.

You know what the normal view is. The normal view is, “Oh, of course God knows everything! Oh yes,
he does know everything. He knows where all the winds are and all the rivers. He knows which nation
is the strongest. He knows what’s happening between Germany and France. Oh yes! He certainly knows
what I’m doing. He must be looking through his telescope and he sees this little beetle moving over
here, and this little fly. He certainly sees me.”

That’s as far as it goes. “He maybe knows when my Dad dies. He maybe knows if I ever get married.
Does he know what I’m going to do tomorrow morning? Well, I suppose he does. But I don’t think he’d
be interested.”

But what the Bible says in Heb 4:15 was: “He was touched by our infirmities.” {Paraphrased} Maybe
they’ll go as far as, “Well, that was Jesus. That was him as a Son of God and a Son of Man here on
the earth. They don’t say he was play-acting, but they say, “He was being a human being. So of
course he was touched by our infirmities. He wept when Lazarus died. He wept with Mary and Martha.
Yeah.”

“But, does he weep when I do something? Well, can you expect him – when he has so much to do?”

I think I’m right, and that you know that this is it. I think they have no notion and no idea that
what they do hurts God. If you use that term, “hurts God”, they agree with the term – a metaphorical
term that somehow or other the actions you do either forward his cause or don’t forward his cause.
In that sense, they hurt his plan and spoil his plan. But mostly it’s that kind of thing. They upset
his plans.

He’s thought of as a great chess player, who is moving the chessmen around. He’s not connected to
the chessmen at all. He just moves them. He doesn’t feel bad when the chessman falls over! He just
picks it up and moves it.

There’s no feeling for our Father, no sense that our Father has a feeling for them and loves them.
Yet you know fine well, that’s the heart of the apostolic gospel. That’s why Paul says, “The love of
Christ constrains us, because we judge that Christ died for all, therefore all have
died.”{Paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 5:14} The love of Christ constrains us — that is, drives us and
motivates us to do what we do.

People have no feeling of that. If you say to me, “Now wait a minute. The leading commandment is,
‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and strength, and mind, and thy neighbor as
thyself.’ That’s right! I believe you ought to love God. And I believe if I do that properly, I’d
probably obey the greatest commandment. And I do love God! I don’t spend a lot of time saying, ‘Oh,
God, God.’ But I love God. I mean, I have a respect for him. I have gratitude for him.”

Are you ever sorry for him? “No, I’m never sorry for him.” Do you ever feel that he would be
heartbroken in this situation? “Heartbroken? No. I mean, he wouldn’t like to see all those people
killed in that ferry in Korea that went down. Heartbroken? Well, maybe if a baby was floating in the

water.”

But, has anyone encouraged them to think otherwise? Including my profession {ministers}. Who has
encouraged them to think otherwise? Not many.

If you said to me, “Where does the hardness in the world come from?” Isn’t it obvious? It’s obvious.
The great heart that loves it, and that so loved it that he gave his only begotten Son – nobody has
any connection with that.

So there’s a burning need for us to preach the gospel. I hate the term – “to preach the gospel.”
There’s a burning need that men and women would begin to know and understand the grace of God.

I put it to you. If you asked anybody, “Do you understand the grace of God?” They immediately say,
“Grace is undeserved favor, his undeserved favor, his mercy, his forgiveness of us. Yes, I
understand the grace of God. It’s his undeserved favor and his mercy.”

It’s so different from the dear man washing the disciples’ feet — showing them real love, and not
just “his undeserved mercy.” So – there’s a great need for people to hear about the heart of God.

So I would say to you: express and explain the real gospel. That is, explain and express the heart
of God. Enable men and women to know that God feels everything we do, and everything they do, and
that he knows what it is, because he has made them part of his Son, and he knows his Son very
intimately. He doesn’t have to say, “Son, why is your foot sore? Why is that hole in your side
bleeding, and throbbing?” He doesn’t need to say that. They are so close to each other. They know
each other.

So it’s a great privilege we have. I’m sure you sense, “That’s right! That is where it’s at. That is
where people are at. And that’s why the religious stuff that goes on today does nothing for them and
doesn’t touch them at all. Because it has nothing to do with these things at all.”

And yes, they get harder and harder with every divorce, and with every separation — because there’s
no softening influence anywhere in the world now that is touching them. That’s why they like movies
– because they see imaginary people who seem to have imaginary feelings for each other. So they kind
of “wash out the inside part of themselves.”

Really they don’t. They fill their inside with all kinds of imagined feelings that don’t affect
anybody’s life. But it kind of sublimates their desire to have feeling, which figures so little in
their lives.

Of course, it’s why all the drugs are so popular – whether it’s anxiety drugs that people take, or
worry drugs, or whether they’re “getting high” drugs. That’s why people take them – because they
feel there should be more feeling in life! There should be more satisfaction in life than there is.
There should be more excitement in life than there is! There should be more intimacy in life than
there is. There should be more feeling for each other than there is.

That’s undoubtedly what drives them into the charismatic worship. You feel in church there should be
something more than just mind! Something more than concepts. Something more than just people
standing up and singing. There should be some feeling!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen two things more popular than they are now. One: the bear hug. It’s
never been so popular as it is now. Two: the kiss-kiss. It’s never been so popular! And yet we all
know – there’s something kind of strange about it. When we see some of them do bear hugs, we think:
that isn’t natural to you. But you’re doing it, because, “That’s what the guys do! All bear hug.” Or
kiss-kiss. Well that’s the European way. We kiss on each cheek.”

It’s a world that is pretty cold, and pretty unsatisfied. The only thing you still get on the
Internet is the intellectual religion — but what I mean is, the not really intelligent religion. I
mean the mental religion – something that affects the mind and the emotions.

You can see it. It’s the whole game with the psychology, the whole game with all the trouble we have
with groups. We laugh about the film Romantics Anonymous. But we know more and more that’s what
people try to get into – get into a group that will encourage you to relate to other people, and to
occupy your whole personality with people. It’s the desperate need of the day.

So I’d ask you to take seriously Colossians 1:6 – “from the day you heard and understood the grace
of God in truth.” Can you now share that with the world in ways that are understood, simple, and
straightforward? I think there’s a great opportunity for us.

I do agree with you: “You have to think out of the box,” as they say. Really all you have to do is
think straight, and think of some of those things that I’ve mentioned, and then get to work
yourselves.

It certainly won’t all be solved with the right pictures. But undoubtedly, if you’re going to
communicate on the Internet, it will have to be with good visuals and images, with music by all
means, and with words. But it needs to be something pretty plain and straightforward. But I think
there’s tremendous need to enable our dear Father to share his heart with the people that he has
made. Let us pray.

Dear Lord, you know what runs through our minds as we each think, “Oh, but how could I do that?” We
know that you have given us the answer: I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.
Lord Jesus, it’s our time spent with you that will enable you to do these things through us.

We see, Lord, that it is just pride that makes us think of our own ability. We see plainly that we
have no ability compared with you. But you do have ability, and you have said that you would
strengthen us, and that your strength would be made perfect in our weakness.

So Lord, we would come to you, and ask you to help us here. Help us to work out websites, images,
texts, and writing, that will enable people to know, dear Father, your heart, and begin to guide
their lives by what you are feeling and thinking.

We know, Lord, that that’s why you put us each here – so that you, through your dear Son in us and
his Spirit, could express to the world what you’re thinking and what you’d like done.

So Lord, we give ourselves to you anew this day. We ask you to lead us forward. We don’t know at all
how we will do it. But Lord, we will present ourselves to you so that you will begin to do it
through us. Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit, be with each one of us, now and evermore. Amen.

The Modern View of the Gospel 3

Colossians 1:6

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Let’s start at Colossians Chapter 1 verse 6. It runs in a continuation of verse 3, “We always thank
God” for you Colossians, and then in verse 5 to 6, “because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.
Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel (which is the subject) which has
come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing — so among yourselves,
from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth.”

So he’s talking there about the gospel. You can see that’s the purpose of that whole verse: “the
gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing — so
among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth.”

So it sounds like a wonderful thing. Oh, that’s great! It’s in the whole world, and it’s bearing
fruit, and it’s growing among them – right from the day they first heard it and understood the grace
of God in truth. It’s all growing, and bearing fruit.

I just think that today people don’t think that way! They don’t think that, “Oh, the gospel! Oh,
yes, it’s so wonderful.” Now maybe they do in some places, but I think in the West, they think this:
“That sounds wonderful. ‘The gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is
bearing fruit and growing — so among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood the grace of
God in truth.’”

I think here in the West, people think, “Oh, the gospel! Oh, yeah, that’s that, ‘Jesus died for our
sins.’ Oh yeah, and you have to get forgiveness for your sins.” Then immediately their dear minds go
to the churches that exist, and all the activities of religion – Christianity. I’m afraid I don’t
think they think of it that way!

They think of it a conglomeration of beliefs, ideas, ethics, behavior, and social groupings — that
somehow mean Christianity! They don’t think of it as the gospel that in the whole world is bearing
fruit and growing, so among yourselves.

Now maybe in China they do. But I would suggest that in our Western world, it’s kind of complex what
they think of it. I think some of them may think of it as abortion. Others may think of it as our
attitude to ISIS. Others may think of it as daycare at church. Others of us may think of it as the
noisy, charismatic churches. Others as the staid respected churches where people go with all their
prejudices. But I don’t think people think of the gospel in that joyful wonderful way!

I think part of the reason is what Fromke pointed out in his book, The Ultimate Intention. He was
one of those writers that we all got to know during the 60’s and 70’s. He made the point that the
story of the gospel in our 20th century was a bit like somebody who had set out on the journey that
had a plain and obvious ultimate intention to it — but somehow lost its way.

If you remember, he had the famous diagram that he drew. I don’t have a board for writing on, but
it’s easy to explain to you that the ultimate intention was here {pointing, and the starting point
was here {pointing, and the journey stayed about there {pointing}. Then it was heading for something

to do with God’s image and growing into God’s image. Then here it hit sin.

It began to be preoccupied with its own problems and ideas, and the road bent down from this
straight road, and began to twist and turn among all the versions of the gospel, and the forgiveness
of sins, and Christ dying for our sins, and what we had to do in repentance to get back to him. Then
it slowly began to try to find its way back to the road that lead to the ultimate intention.

His suggestion was that in these days, it hadn’t found its way back. It was still on the detour, and
that Christianity and the Christian churches were preoccupied with them being lost and trying to get
saved from their lost condition – rather than ever getting up to what the ultimate intention was —
which of course was the image of God, and his fulfillment of his plan for us all in the universe.

So the ultimate intention was never reached. He pointed out that this was the great tragedy of
Christianity. It was in the 60’s 70’s and 80’s that it lost its way! It forgot about the ultimate
intention that God had, which is the one that is outlined in Genesis 1:26 – that we would be made in
his image, like him.

I’ll elaborate it rather more than is there in that verse: we would be made in his image. I always
think of him turning around to his Son, and saying, “Let us make man in our image – so that they can
live with us forever in love – in the love that we have – and that you can make the universe through
them what I had planned it to be, and develop it.” That was the simple gospel.

Of course, I think I’ve shared with you before – it seems to me there is something in that that
speaks to man’s lost condition today. Because if anybody has any doubt about mankind in these days –
it’s certainly not about their feeling that they don’t know where they’re going. There’s just a
general feeling in the world today: “I don’t know what this thing is about! I don’t know where we’re
heading!” The ISIS thing is only an obvious terror and panic for us. But the world itself is full of
panic, disparate opinions, opposing views, and directions that are colliding with each other almost
every day in life.

Most people have that attitude to life. There’s nothing very joyful or simply wonderful or
delightful about it. I would suggest to you that quite apart from the difficulty in America that
young men and women have in financing their education – I think most of them don’t know what they
want to do! They’re not really clear in what they should be doing in life. Everything seems to be up
for grabs. Everything seems to be going in all directions, and mostly in the directions that will
bring you whatever money will get you through to the next week.

So it seems to me that today we have a picture of a Christian gospel that has lost itself in an
emergency salvation detour that has forgotten completely why we were created in the first place. So
there’s great vagueness about the gospel, and about what it is. I think that’s the great need.

I would suggest again to those of us who are concerned with the Internet – I think there is a crying
need for a plain simple explanation such as we have shared repeatedly. I’m sure I bore you with it!
– that we are here because we have a loving Father who wants to live with us forever in love, and he
wants us to live with his Son. For that reason he has actually made us part of his own Son.

I’ve said to you before, “I do not think for a moment that most people think that at all.” I think
they would laugh at us. You know that we are God’s workmanship. You! You and I – God’s workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works that he, our Father, has prepared beforehand, that you should

(cid:9)
walk in them. {This is a slight paraphrase of Ephesians 2:10.}

“I think that’s a wonderful fairy tale. I have no notion – no idea at all – that the maker even
knows me. In fact, I think he exists somewhere – but I don’t think he knows me. And I certainly
don’t think he’s made me in his own Son, as you say. I’m in Jesus Christ? I, who use that name as a
curse word – I’m in Jesus Christ? No. Don’t be stupid!” I don’t think they have any idea.

So I would suggest yet again to us that this outline of the gospel that we have in verse 6 is not a
glorious thing for people nowadays. It may be talked about joyfully here. But I don’t think of the
gospel as a wonderful joyful thing. I frankly think it would be refreshing if they thought the Maker
of the world turned around to his Son and said, “Let’s make people like ourselves who can live
together with us in love, and can develop this whole universe along with us.” I think people would
go, “That’s a great idea! I’d love to be part of that.” But they don’t even know that it exists in
the Bible. But even if they did, they have no notion that’s the truth.

So I would actually go the other way. I would say to you: if you forget what the gospel seems to me
to most people to be these days – then actually the real gospel is just as wonderful as what is
described here in verse 6. It’s a wonderful idea.

I think it would bring great relief – much the same as we were saying to each other – about the idea
of everybody eventually getting the opportunity to come to God, even after this life. We thought —
that’s interesting. The normal attitude even at a Christian funeral is kind of bleak! People aren’t
really absolutely enraptured about the idea of death. They think, “We really don’t know what’s
there.” I think it’s very much like that with the gospel.

I don’t think they think of the gospel as a wonderful, joyful, delightful thing – because I think we
have buried it under what Fromke said. I think we’ve buried it under the detour. I think that most
people would say, “Oh, the gospel! Oh, yes, your sins can be forgiven because Jesus died for me,
instead of me dying. Oh yes – I know that.”

But I think it’s kind of a concept that they have – what John Wesley would have said, “a train of
ideas in the head.” It’s not the disposition of the heart. The heart does not rise in joy to it. The
mind kind of agrees with it, or considers it as a possibility – but not as a wonderful, uplifting
thing.

But the reality is tremendous! It’s very exciting when you read the Great Commission there – have
dominion over the birds of the air, over the fish of the sea, over everything! {This is Genesis
1:26.} It seems so exciting! It looks so exciting when you see that European probe riding on the
back of that comet (as happened in 2014). You feel, “Boy! That is a wonderful universe! Wouldn’t it
be wonderful to be part of the people that develop that?”

It seems to me that’s uplifting. Of course, that’s the truth of it. But I don’t think they even know
Ephesians 2:10. And if they know it, they do not for a moment believe it.

Why I’m enthusiastic about this verse today, to be able to say to you who are listening to this is:
That’s what we need to get over to them! We need to have wonderful images that transmit to them the
whole wonder and joy of what God has really called us to.

I think it would do the same for people as we were talking about in regard to: “Is there a second

probation {after death}?” as one man suggested. Is there a second opportunity after death to
eventually be conformed to Jesus’ image, and eventually because of God’s love, his steadfast love
that never ends, and his mercies that never cease – is it possible that there would be that kind of
lightness of heart for us in reality?

I think undoubtedly that is the lightness of heart that exists. I think that God is describing a
party. I think he’s saying, “My Son, let us make man in our image, and let him have dominion over
the fish of the sea, over all the planets, over all the solar systems, and enable you through them
to develop this universe in the way I have planned.” The Ephesians 2:10 verse follows from that,
that “We are (God’s) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk in them,” and that that was what God was describing in Genesis 1:26
— that they would have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air.

God has planned all that. He has it all laid out already. He knows exactly what you will be doing
forty years hence. He knows exactly what you’ll be doing seventy or eighty years hence. He has it
all planned, and it’s ready for us. Of course that’s the gospel. But the world has no notion of
that. So it’s left with this rather gray, bleak view of life after death.

Yet, we have a feeling that the people whose faith and life we’ve come to respect through the years
– undoubtedly had only joy in their minds as they thought of heaven. I think of my grandmother –
Salvation Army lady. Oh – they just looked forward to it. They were anxious to get there! Those who
know God are people who are always looking forward to it. It’s not by any means a second best. It’s
what we were looking forward to. It’s the purpose of life.

I would dare to say I look at it that way. I think it will be great!! I think this present life will
be nothing compared with what is there for us. It seems to me that’s the gospel, and that’s the
gospel that this dear guy {Paul} is describing here. That’s why he says it’s bearing fruit. It’s
blossoming. It’s going everywhere! People are anxious to know it, are fired up by it, and are lifted
and elevated by it. That’s what we have to put on the web.

I thought so strongly about it that we should each commit ourselves to writing an email to somebody
every day, saying, “Send somebody a flower today. Do something creative today. Create order today.
Put something right today.” We should actually take action, and take positive action to encourage
other people and ourselves to do something beautiful today, to stop saying, “Stop ISIS,” and start
saying, “Start joy. Start order. Start beauty. Start peace. Start generosity, and do something
definite.” Because it is possible for man to be gripped by the negative, and to be gripped by the
unreal and the untrue. It takes strong action to resist this.

If you say to me, “Where do all those ideas come from?” I thought — we have to do something. We
have to make a start on the Internet. It’s as if we’re gripped in the present situation. It’s
gripped us! And each of us has the little things we’ve done on the Internet, and we think they are
quite good and not bad. But we’re in a paralysis in a sense, and we need to break out of it, and
tell people what the gospel really is. It’s utterly different from what is being shared.

You all probably know as well as I do: Arrrggh! It’s ordered all right – but dead order. There is a
deadness to the Christian sites. There’s not a liveliness about them. I think our job is to express
the joy and delight and the reality of what God has saved us for and created us for.

That’s undoubtedly what the world needs. It’s interesting, isn’t it? At a time when the world is

full of new things – full of fiber optic communications that are faster than ever. Full of new
gadgets – new smart phones — it’s also a time where there’s kind of a tiredness in the air. Maybe
not the malaise that President Carter talked about some years ago. But if not a malaise, there’s a
weariness in the world that runs through many things. There’s a great need for the life of God.

So I think we should pray about it, and ourselves consider seriously doing something, and especially
maybe sending an email to somebody every day. “Do something creative today,” or, “Create order
today,” or, “Send a flower to somebody today.” But – something that would contain that fountain that
is talked about in the song, “The peace of Christ makes glad my heart, a fountain ever springing.”

That is God’s norm as you see when you hear that bird welcoming you once more with his song in the
morning. Or the birds that you see soaring in the air. Obviously his heart is that.

So we should pray that our websites will be that – they would stand out in what is a not too
exciting scene, as you look around these days. Let us pray.

Wisdom and Understanding Through Jesus Indwelling

Colossians 1:9A

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

We are looking at today’s verse which is in Colossians chapter 1:9. “And so, from the day we heard
of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his
will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” And that got short shrift before, because it is so
deep. “Asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding.” And of course, we are always used to interpreting that in a general kind of way.
“Oh yes, ‘we pray that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will,’ that you will know what
his general will is, “In all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” And of course it is much more
than that in relationship to this holy table we are at again this morning. [reference to communion]
Because it is just — Oh well, you can only say our dear Father is so thoughtful to silly little
children like us, that he makes it dead easy, “As this bread comes into you, as this wine comes into
you…” Well, how much clearer could it be? Here he is making it just as plain as bread and wine.
“This stuff comes into you. Okay, you’ve got it? It’s in you. It’s in you.”

“Oh, it’s in me. Oh, yes. Oh, so he is in me. Oh yeah.”

It is just… If we just think, how kind of him! He just makes it so easy for you to understand that
he means that, that his dear Son is in us. But of course he knows us so well, knows how wonderful we
are at our metaphors and our picture language. “Oh, yes, it is as if he is in us! It is. It is
like that. It is almost as if Jesus is in you! That’s what it is like.”

And he says, “No. This bread, put it in your mouth. It is in you. Swallow it. It’s in you. It is
not as if it is ‘like’ in you. It’s in you. It’s in you. Drink this wine. It is not ‘as if’ it’s
in you. It’s in you. If I took a picture of your body, I could show you it is falling down.” Just
so, so plain, and so gracious to give it to us — well, the Methodists every month, the Catholics,
every day.

Of course we all get lost in the ‘wonderful sacrament’ and all the rest of it. And of course he —
‘sacrament’, you can call it a sacrament if you want, but he says, “This is what it is. Take my Son
into you as you take this bread into you. You’re taking his body into you. As you take this wine
into you, you’re taking his blood into you. He’s in you!”

And we say, “Oh yes, yes, yes. That’s right. Yes, nice thought, oh very nice, yes. Helps me a lot
when I think, ‘Oh yes! He’s in me.’ Yes I must remember that. He is in me.”

It is just so terrible, so sick, so obtuse. We are so obtuse, so clever, so sophisticated, so good
at metaphorical language. And our dear Father, of course, ever practical, “No! No, I mean it. I
‘mean’ it.”

And then we go out. You know how we do. I mean, we’ll face it again. We’ll go up those stairs,
“That was such a good communion. And now, what am I going to do with the day?” “Yes, you’re there,
of course, but what am ‘I’ going to do with this day?” “Yes, yes, I know you are there.” [coughs] A
little indigestion here because he is somewhere there.

But I mean, that is it. We really don’t do too much of, “Well, Lord, what are you going to do in my
body? With these hands today? What are you going to do? What do you want to do?”

“Well, I mean that would be talking to yourself. I mean you don’t want to be crazy.”

But you can see it, yourselves. We are very unreal. And we do ignore him most of the time. And we
know all this. And we understand it. And you could maybe explain this as well as I do. But when
we get up and begin life, we’re not terribly aware of what he wants to do today. Indeed if somebody
asked us, “What do you think Jesus wants to do today?” We might not, almost out of self defense we
might not say, “I have no idea.” But we probably would be speaking the truth. “I, I’ve never
thought of it.” We wouldn’t quite feel confident enough to say, “That is up to him isn’t it,”
because we know that is not reverent. But still there is often a ‘slip between the cup and the
lip,’ is the saying. There is often a slip between reality and the way we behave: that he is
actually in us, that he is actually in us.

And of course, look at that verse. That is what that verse is talking about, “Asking that you may
be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Jesus is in
you, and he has a will for you this day. And that is what fills your life with content. That is
what fills your life with a sense of fullness and purpose, what he wants to do with you this day.
And most of us, of course we have no idea what he wants to do with us.

Indeed we are so preoccupied with responding to all the things around us and all the things that
other people are doing, that our life is kind of running around like ‘a chicken with its head cut
off.’ We run this way to do this and we run that way to do that, and we answer this person this
way. And then we have another thing that we have thought of, “Oh we must do that!” and so we spend
our whole days running around after what other people are doing, and responding to other situations.
And of course we regard that as, “That’s normal. That’s what life is. That’s what life in this
world is. It is just responding to the circumstances and the people around you and in doing what is
appropriate for those circumstances.”

And of that is why so many of us are running around having absolutely no idea where our life is
going, or why we are doing half the things we are doing, or have so little satisfaction in what we
are doing, or why we get worn out, because we don’t live the way we were intended to live with the
Son of God having a life in us and beginning to bring the universe under his Father’s will through
us. We don’t live that way. We live like the rest of mankind. They are all busy responding to
each other all the time. So that’s the way we do. We operate that way, too. From time to time,
because we are Christians, we do think more seriously of, “I wonder where on earth this whole thing
is going. And I wonder what we could do as we do the things that we are obviously supposed to fill
our lives with, what else could we do for God? And of course it is all upside down. It is the wrong
way around.

And that is why he prays this way. He prays that you may be filled with a knowledge of God’s will,
that is, that you might actually know what God wants to do through you this day, or this moment,
what Jesus wants to do through you.

“That you may be filled with a knowledge of God’s will…” And then he makes it clear that this is a
deeper thing than just, “Oh go there! Go here!” “…In his will … in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding.” “In all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” What that refers to is the other
world. The Bible often calls it “the Kingdom of God”. It is really the parallel universe. It is

really the renewed earth that God has already in existence. God has this renewed earth already in
existence. And he has brought it about in his Son. And it is there ready for us. We could
actually enter into it at this very moment, because eternity is all one present moment. So this new
earth actually exists, and God, by his own grace at times brings something of that new earth here to
this earth.

And that requires spiritual wisdom and understanding to know what it is. And that is why at times
there are little miracles that are worked here on earth, and why at times some things go right, and
why at some times you are surprised at a generous thought that you have or a humble thought that you
have. Sometimes you surprise yourself. You didn’t know you were so good. And of course it is God
graciously bringing some of the new person that he has already made you from the Kingdom of God,
from that parallel universe, bringing it down to earth. That is what keeps this present world from
breaking up completely. Those are the moments when God is able to bring down some of the new earth
to hold back the powers of evil and in some way to express the Holy Spirit.

So there are moments when you surprise yourself. There are moments when you are surprised to see
you get a cut in your hand, and you wonder why it does not hurt me as badly as I thought it would.
Or there are moments when you go through sickness and you think, “How did I get through that?” I
didn’t really feel it. Well of course it is the Savior from the New Earth, the New World that is
already in existence, graciously exercising that through us. God brings it from time to time like
grapes of Eshcol to give us the sense that there is something already in existence that is waiting
for us. And so we experience that.

So he’s [Paul] praying that we would be filled with a knowledge of God’s will so that we would begin
to understand the things that he wants to do through us along those lines, because at times we will
be the transmitters of that kind of grace from the other world to other people. And so at times he
will prompt you to speak to somebody who didn’t expect you to speak to them at all. But you speak to
them and it is a word of life to them. And it is really from heaven through you to them. And that
is the ministry that Jesus has for each one of us. And he is praying that we will know what God’s
will is for those things.

There are 2 things going on in this earth. There are 2 movements against the power of chaos and
evil. One are the practical things that we do, like we drill for oil and we bring things into some
kind of order with our laws. And from time to time Obama [President Barack Obama of the U.S.] gets
a good law through. So there are things that we human beings do by the sheer natural power that God
has given us on earth. And that to some extent holds back some of the chaos. You can see it only
holds some of it because the world is more and more tipping over into chaos, but that holds some of
it. The UN can control some of the treatment that is given to immigrants or some of the treatment
that is given to poor children, but only a smattering compared with what is there. And so that is
done.

But alongside or over that come the messages or the life that comes from the New World that God has
already created, the world that is in Christ “who was slain before the foundation of the world.” So
it was all created back then and it has been in existence since then but from time to time God
graciously sends that down to earth to do things that are done, actually by his power. It is just
by his sheer power of Calvary; it is the power of Jesus’ resurrection that brings them about as
opposed to the somewhat natural power that we have when we drill for oil or we organize a United
Nations to take care of poor people who are immigrants or that kind of thing.

So through us there is coming constantly this light from above from God’s own kingdom that he has
already in existence. And Paul is praying that you will know, you will know the will of God. He
has, “not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in
all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” So that increasingly you’d know why you have to do this
with this person, or you will understand your friend. He will give you spiritual understanding to
actually understand her. You probably will admit yourself that you don’t understand her, partly
because she is from such a different background and has a whole different attitude, and probably has
great difficulty separating you from a normal evangelical Christian whom she has learned to be
suspicious of. So there is a whole understanding there that really is difficult for either of you,
in a way, to understand each other. But he is praying that we would have the spiritual
understanding to know where a person is, and then to understand why he wants us to do this, or say
this to them.

And it comes with people like your customer, then, for all kinds of situations that we are in, where
we so often do our best. We do our best. We say what we think is the best thing we can say. But
it is all ‘us’. It is not from a deep spiritual understanding and wisdom of God’s will. Indeed we
probably would be surprised, “What do you mean, his will? His will is for me to bring my friend to
him if I possibly can. His will is to influence this customer to draw up a balanced plan. Sure
that is his will.” Yes, of course that is his general will, but he has specific things that he can
enable us to see and do and understand. Not magical things, so don’t think, “Oh I’ll wait for a
vision now. Now I’ll just pray, ‘Lord, tell me what I’ve to do.'” He doesn’t work that way.

But he works with hearts that know that he has things. He has a level on which he works that is
higher than the human level. And he can use people like ourselves almost unknown to ourselves. He
can use us in that kind of ministry. So it is a deeper thing. That is the important thing. I am
not saying it to well, but that is the important thing. It is a deeper thing. Being a Christian;
being a witness is a far deeper thing than getting them a little tract. It is good to get them a
tract. I’m not knocking it. But it is a deeper thing than that.

And it comes from a life that is used to this ‘Christ within’, a life that is committed to be a
‘Christ bearer’, a ‘Christopher’ I suppose. “Fero” is Latin for ‘bring’ or ‘carry’, then ‘Christ’, a
‘Christ carrier’. It comes from a ‘Christ carrier’, from someone in whom Christ lives and is
active. And Paul is praying that they will have a knowledge of God’s will for them, for their lives
day by day, for their actions day by day, that they will know what God wants to do. He’s praying
that they will know what Christ wants to do through them, that they will have the spiritual wisdom
and understanding to know what Christ wants to do through them.

It means that you have to transcend your Christianity; I have to transcend my Christianity. All our
Christianities are colored by our own limitations and by our own little prejudices. And some of
them serve your personality and some of them serve my personality. And it is God’s will that those
would be transfigured into what he really is himself.

That is the reason for dying. The reason we have to die to most of what we are is, it is so heavy
on us and it is so dominating in our lives that it prevents us even glimpsing what Jesus wants to be
in us and through us. So it is vital that that all dies. So actually it is good when we come up
against little personality things that we all do. That of course is coming increasingly clear to the
girl [reference to his wife] and myself as we spend our days, as you know, trying to prepare things
for when everybody comes from England. And it becomes more and more obvious to us that there is no
way in which 10 people will live in beautiful harmony [in one home] unless Christ is alive, unless

Christ is alive among them.

And that becomes clearer and clearer as we begin to know you all very, very well, both on the UK
side and this side. And there is only one way it will work in joy and delight, and that is if
Christ is allowed by each of us to transform our own personalities, and to transform them into his
beauty.

And that is, of course, what Paul is praying for here, “that you would have a knowledge of God’s
will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Spiritual wisdom is revelation by the Holy Spirit.
Understanding is the mind understanding the outworking of that. So there is a definite difference
between them. The mind is the connection with your body and determines what your face looks like
and your smile looks like or doesn’t look like, and what your hands do. Your understanding, your
mind does that, but your spirit is what receives revelation from God. So he prays that you may know
God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, wisdom of your spirit by revelation and
understanding by your mind.

Now of course there will only be revelation from Jesus if there is an awareness that he is in you,
and you get up each day expecting him to reveal his will to you. So it gives you some sense maybe
of the depth of it and of the fineness of it.

And of course, yet again at this holy table God gives us a chance to enter into a deeper oneness
with our Savior and into a greater sensitivity to him, and therefore a greater sensitivity to each
other. And that is God’s will for us, that we would be a constant balm and delight to each other,
by our way, by our tone of voice, by our actions to one another, by the things we do, and in that
way therefore, live in heaven. And then take that beauty of that heaven to the people that we are
dealing with Monday through Friday, so that we, ourselves would have a knowledge of God’s will for
us in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

So it is a deep thing. It is a great privilege that we can actually be an expression of the kingdom
of God as it exists now in this new world – which it does, already. That new world is in existence.
The kingdom has come. The new world is there. Christ talked about it as something that ‘is’. The
kingdom of God in some sense is within you when you allow this kind of life to develop within you in
some sense you are living in the midst of the fellowship of the saints and the archangels. And that
is the miracle that God is able to do, to bring eternal life, the life of eternity, here into this
temporal life. So it is a miraculous thing that takes place.

Let us pray.

Filled with the Knowledge of God’s Will

Colossians 1:9B

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

It really seems to me so vital and so much the issue in these days, this strange society in which we
live today. I am referring of course to Colossians 1:9. “And so, from the day we heard of it, we
have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all
spiritual wisdom and understanding.” “That you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all
spiritual wisdom and understanding.” And that is my job to explain to you what God’s will is. That
is what is important and although I agree with the enthusiasm of us all here for obeying, “Trust and
obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus,” and obeying God. I am [laughs] generally for
that. So I agree with that.

Yet I do think the great problem today is not that issue of obeying the will of God, but it is this
issue of being filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And
I really think most people have no idea what that is about at all. And it is too easy for us
ourselves to go to that verse and come away with the idea, “Yes that is what they need. They need a
knowledge of God’s will. That is really what they need. And part of my job is, as I go around
selling this jewelry is to make that clear to them, make it clear to them what God’s will is, and
give them a knowledge of his will. And that is why it is important to discuss this business of
abortion, and put them right about it, make it very clear to them now, what is God’s will for
abortion, and what is God’s will for Trump [Donald John Trump, 1946 -, American real estate
developer, business author, and 2016 U.S presidential candidate], what is God’s will for the
European situation, what is God’s will for mess that finances are in in the banks. My job is to
explain God’s will to them,”

And of course you don’t need me to tell you that so often – it is very honorable and it is admirable
to be concerned with explaining to them God’s will. But you know yourselves, so often it ends up
not explaining God’s will or any interest in God’s will. It ends up explaining the law to them. It
ends up discussing the ethics of abortion or the ethics of managing money. It ends up with ‘things’
and views and doctrinal issues. And you finish the conversation, and you realize, “Well at least
they know what I think about this subject. And I hope that I have cleared them up about some of the
vagueness they have, because it is vagueness that is destroying this society. It is people not
knowing what is right and what is wrong.” And I am with you. Part of the trouble is that. Part of
the trouble, undoubtedly is a great ignorance.

But I would submit to you that that isn’t the deepest problem that exists, and that many of them are
clear what abortion is and whether it is right or wrong. And they are clear about all the other
ethical subjects. And often you do just end up congratulating each other, “Well I’m glad you see it
the way I do.” But there is something unsatisfying about it. I mean, you feel, “Well I did talk
about important things here. And I did make my point clear and my position. So at least they know
that. And to that extent I have certainly dealt with this great issue of the day that we knew would
come about in the times of the Antichrist, when men would not know what is right and what is wrong.
So I have contributed to that. I’ve contributed to the sense of what is right. So in that way I
have borne a good witness today.” But there is still a dryness to it. I mean you still have a
feeling, “Well I did my duty, and I certainly have shared the knowledge of God’s will with them as
this verse says, ‘Pray that you may be filled a knowledge of God’s will.’ And I don’t know about

the rest of it, but certainly they have more understanding of God’s will now. I don’t know that I’d
say that they are filled with a knowledge of his will, but they have knowledge of his will, if I
forget about whether ‘filled’ is important or not, they have a knowledge of his will that they
didn’t have before, and to that extent they are further along than they were. I don’t know too much
about ‘in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,’ but I’ve done the first bit.” 06:13

And yet you feel, “Well, I did it. They know it better than they did. They are clearer about it.
There wasn’t much life in it. I don’t know that I feel they are much closer to God, but they are
certainly clearer about what is what. They are certainly clear about what I think, and they
probably have been helped somewhat themselves. This will maybe help them in the future.” And of
course, that isn’t the problem, really. It is part of the problem, but that is not the deepest
problem at all, because we know that the knowledge of his will gets back to the whole business of,
“Why on earth has he made us? I mean why did he make us? I mean did he make us so that we would all
put up our hands and say, ‘Yes, I’m for this. No I’m against that. No, I’m for this. No I’m against
that’? Well that is going to be pretty boring if we are going to do that for eternity: ‘Oh, what do
you think about this subject? What do you think about… ?’ We’ll wear ourselves out. Besides you
come to the end of the discussion surprisingly quickly. So, why on earth did he make us? Why did
he make us? To have debates? To have a debating society, to have discussion groups, to express our
views to each other?”

And of course he didn’t. Of course, we would be bored to tears with each other here, if all we had
of interest was to discuss politics or to discuss this point of the law or this point of obedience.
It’s that we like to be together, to enjoy each other. You just enjoy each other. It is fun to be
together. You just like each other. You feel close to each other. We feel we understand each
other. We think the same things and we feel the same things. And we have the same attitudes. We
could happily sit with each other and not say a word. And it would be just nice to be together.
08:50

And of course we sense that is what our Father wants. That is why he made us. He made us so that
we could love him and so that he could love us. That is why he put us here. And he put us here so
that we would know exactly what he was like and we’d see where we weren’t like that and we would
become like that. And we would be like him, and we would enjoy being with him because we were like
him. And we were like him because part of him was inside us, his dear Son.

And we would say, that is what the knowledge of God’s will is. It is knowing what God is after in
this situation. And that is what we said last time we talked. It is knowing what God is trying to
bring about, what he really wants in this situation, and what he is trying to do in this situation,
and why he is doing it, why he said to us, “I’ve called you friends; I haven’t called you servants,
because a servant doesn’t know what his lord is doing. He doesn’t know why he is doing it. He has
no idea of what is in his heart when he is doing it. But a friend does know. And I’ve called you
friends because I want you to know why I’m doing this. I want you to know what I’m after. I want
you to think the same way as I think, to feel the same things as I feel. I want to enjoy just being
together. I want you to be like me and I want to be like you.”

And so we know that that is part of the knowledge of God’s will, that you may know what God is
trying to bring about here; what is he after?

Nobody has a clue. Nobody even thinks that. Nobody thinks of that. I bet you as you go around the
shops they never think of that. “What is God after? I don’t know what he is after. I don’t even

know why the things are happening that are happening in this world. I don’t know what he is after.
I have no idea what he is — oh, I know he is my Heavenly Father or something and his Son is Jesus
Christ. But I have no idea. It beats me. I don’t know why he lets half the things happen that
happen. I haven’t a clue! And will I like him when I meet him? I don’t know if I’ll ever meet
him. I don’t know if he would have anything to do with me if I did meet him. And I don’t know
whether I’d like him or not. I just — I never think about that.”

That’s it. They never think about that. And I put it to you, in Christendom I don’t think there
are many people who think about that. I don’t think there are many people who think, “I wonder what
God is really like. I mean it may cross their mind for a second, but that is it: a second. But I
don’t think they know. I don’t think they think he is interested in what they think. And I don’t
think they are interested in what he thinks.

But that is what the knowledge of his will is. That is what Paul is praying for, that they will
have a knowledge of God’s will, that they will understand what God is like and what he is after and
what he is trying to bring about. Most of all, they will be interested. Most of all they will be
interested. They will be interested in knowing, why is he doing what he is doing? Why is he doing
this? Not, “Is he against abortion?”

And you know that, way, way back, on either side of the abortion issue, anybody that is on either
side, the deep, deep thing that nobody is much concerned about is what the wee girl feels who has
been caught, what the wee soul is feeling that has been caught.

And the baby? “Oh the baby, the way that it is a baby is, it is an embryo. It is a little animal.”
But the baby, as a little feeling baby, I mean it would make you weep. Wouldn’t it? It would make
you weep, “Baby? Who cares about the baby? Oh we all care about the baby;” that is, the baby as a
thing, as a number, as another case that we can make. But does anybody really feel for the silly
wee girl that has got herself into trouble or the little baby that will be…?

Quite heart breaking! So heart breaking I don’t know that I’ll … I’ll tell it as quickly as I can.
It is in the New York Times this weekend. What happens in China these days is many of them can’t get
jobs. Oh, I’m sorry, they are way in the back and beyond in China. Chi Zhou [Anhui province] I
think is the name of this little city, in a desolate part of China. And there are no jobs. So the
couples end up coupling and having children. And this couple had four children. And this is
reproduced all over China. They had four children and no jobs. First of all the man goes off to a
distant city, miles and miles away, and gets a job. And the wife works on, but it isn’t enough
money. She goes off and gets a job. And this is one instance they have outlined in the New York
Times this weekend, but there are hundreds if not thousands of these going on throughout China. The
two parents are working in different factories in different cities, and the four children are left
in the house to go to school and to take care of themselves. The eldest is 14, the boy. The others
are 6, 5, 2, that kind of thing. And they came back every year, once a year to see the children.
Otherwise the children just looked after themselves in the house; went to school, etc. The wife
missed one year, so she came back this last time after 2 years away.

[Pastor pauses, fighting tears. Dr. O’Neill, Pastor’s wife adds] “They didn’t hurt for food.”
That’s right, they had food, and they had clothes. But of course, they had nobody to look after
them or be interested in them, or care for them. So the boy wrote the letter, “Thanks for your
kindness,” to all the neighbors who of course, hadn’t very much time to give them. “Thanks for your
kindness, but we must go now.” He drank pesticide. [Emotionally repeats] “Thanks for your kindness,

but we must go now.” In another part of the letter he said, “I thought I wouldn’t see 15, so now
I’ll know at 14 what it is like.” And they were cremated the next day.

But it is that total missing of it that runs throughout our society. And of course we are all
concerned with the social problems and this problem, such a shame, of abortion, this view or that
view. But the little souls themselves, it is as if we have forgotten what a heart is.

And so the knowledge of God’s will is badly lacking, but not in the sense that we all think. We all
know what we are supposed to say once. We are all clear about the ethics and the politically
correct views. And we all can be very clear on doctrinal issues and arguments about the Bible or
about evolution. And we are all very good – and I’m sure you all have fallen into the same trap.
We are all very good at advising people what they should do and how they should run their Bible
study or their prayer life or what they should think of this issue or that issue. We are very good
at that, but at transmitting God’s heart, at getting them even to be interested in what God feels,
it is just a blankness. And you know it. There is just a blankness.

Who would ever think of, “I wonder what God feels?” A very odd time we will use that phrase. But
it is significant in our memories because it is so rare that we use it. Nobody is interested in
what God feels. Nobody thinks, “Does God feel when a disaster takes place?” Do we all say, “I
wonder how God feels when he sees these bodies scattered on the ground after a plane crash?”? I
mean he made each one of them individually. He had all kinds of hopes for them. It must break his
heart. Have you ever heard anybody say that? Have you ever even thought it yourself?

So there is a lot to do. And of course here is the wonder of this truth, it is very manageable. It
is a very reasonable and interesting talk to have, because you say something of this to a person
[reference to a jewelry shop owner], and they say to you, “How can I know what God feels?”

“Well, he sent the Spirit of his Son into your heart.” [You say]

“What?” [Owner]

[You ask] “Aren’t there sometimes when you are going to do something with a customer, and something
springs up inside you. It is a kindliness. And you feel. ‘Oh for this I’ll give them this extra
little box. It will help them to enjoy this gift, or they can use it to give to somebody. At times
a little thought comes into your mind. You don’t know where it is from, but it is a nice thought.
It is a kindly thought. It is a generous thought. Sometimes it is to your own detriment. But have
you thought that?”

[Owner] “Yeah, but I mean that is just conscience.”

[You] “Yes but, isn’t it true that the good has to come from somebody? The good that comes into
your conscience has to from somebody. I agree with you that there are many things that you do by
conscience just because you’ve been taught to do it, or your society says you should do it. But
aren’t there things that you don’t know where it has come from? That is God’s Son trying to speak
to you and giving you a thought, an idea.”

So there is a whole realm of discussion that you can enter into that is interesting. It is
interesting. It is not dead. It is not dead old religion, nor ethics. It is kind of interesting.
And they kind of say, “Well, yeah. I never thought of that.”

[You] “Well, that is part of what it means. God sent the Bible. God has sent the Spirit of his Son
into our hearts. God has put into each one of us something that he wants to do through us. That is
why you are different from everybody else.”

It opens a whole world. It opens a whole world.

So that is part of what this verse is about. “Pray that you may have a knowledge of God’s will”, and
then, “In all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” And then you get into the whole wisdom thing and
knowledge. Knowledge is truth, and wisdom is how to use truth. And you get into that whole
business of situations, then, and, “What would God do in this situation?”

And of course it is wonderful for a person who doesn’t go to church at all, because he can then take
part in that kind of conversation. “Well, yeah. I wonder what God …” It can be kind of light in a
way, and yet there is truth in it, because you have spoken to something that he has experience in
his life.

And of course there is a desperate need for it. There is a desperate need for some people who would
be interested in what God’s heart is, and what his heart is really like, and why they are here. And
of course it is what is desperately lacking in our society. That is why I told the story about the
children, because our society can read that and can drop a few tears momentarily, and back we go to
the normal. We just get used to it. And you have to admit, we are getting used to the shootings.
We are getting used to all kinds of dreadful things, hideous situations where ministers that are
living next door, as in that shooting in the prayer meeting; ministers who live in the same block as
the guy who comes and kills them. So our society is getting harder and harder and more unfeeling.
And it loves to discuss things. It loves to discuss abortion. It loves to discuss politics. It
loves to discuss your views on this or that. But the whole realm of what our attitudes are and
above all what God’s attitude is, there is great deafness and great blindness.

So I would suggest to you that it is something to think about and to pray about, and to examine
yourself on, because you can, in a way, you can guide a conversation. And of course this leads to
an open ended conversation. There is just an openness about it, and there is no where you are
afraid to go with it, because it is expressing things that ‘echo in their hearts’ when you say them.
And of course, behind it all is the sense of warmth. Suddenly a person begins to think, “That is
interesting. I’ve always thought religion was a kind of cold thing, a dead formal thing, a thing
full of political views and attitudes. But I suppose that is right. God must be a person, and he
must have feelings like us. He must have an attitude of some kind. And of course it opens the way,
then, into your own attitude to him, and that he is… It begins to dawn on people, “Maybe he knows
what I am doing. I wonder, does he? I wonder, ‘does he know?’ I wonder would it be OK to be with
him after life. Would it be nice to be with him?”

So there is a whole world of truth that this verse points to, and that I think is our real task as
witnesses. I think that that is what we are witnesses to, witnesses to the heart of God. And I
think that is part of what God has called us to do in our internet, to introduce people to the whole
concept of God’s heart, and what is God thinking and feeling about us these days, and what does he
want us to be like himself?

Let us pray.

Dear Lord, we ask for your wisdom. We pray for your Holy Spirit’s light. We’d ask you to guide us
as we think about these things. And then, Lord, we think of these dear hearts that we meet in
business, and you know, Lord, how easily the conversation can become purely ideological; it become
just a mental exchange of views. And we see, Our Father, that it is far from that, that you are
bending over us and them at this very moment. And your eyes are upon them, and your heart is
yearning for them, and you want to express that yearning through us so that they begin to touch your
heart, and be interested in what you think and what you feel.

Lord, we would pray that you would use us and bring other people to the same conclusions that you
are a real and kind loving father with a heart that has bled on Calvary and that is alive today.

Then, Father, as we think of the dear children in China, we pray, Lord, for them. We cannot know
what to pray. The situation is so massive and touches so many lives. All we can do is pray for
your kindly hand upon every little one that is in this kind of situation, and that you, at that very
moment of death express to them your loving heart, so that they do not have to go into absolute
darkness, so that there is your kindly face, that makes the journey possible for them. We pray,
Father, that you will guide us so that we may be of some help and so that you may use us to express
your heart to our world.

And now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with each one of us, now and evermore, Amen.

Promises Jesus wants to Fulfill in Us

Colossians 1:10A

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

The verse is so massive that it would take a lifetime to explain it. So it is, of course, Colossians
1:10. So if you would turn to that at least we can start with the words. It is remarkable. It
reads, “To lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work
and increasing in the knowledge of God.” And you remember that follows the verse 9, “And so, from
the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you.” And then, of course we think, “O yeah,
you are very good. You are praying what we all ought to pray,” “Asking that you may be filled with
the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” “Oh yes. We are all for
that. We hope that you will help everybody to understand your will and that is what you want and
that is what we want.” And of course what we have begun to realize is, it is not just the knowledge
of his will in, “What am I going to do tomorrow?” or “What am I going to do next week?”

It is a much more complex thing than that. And you remember how we have tried to describe it.
We’ve tried to remind each other, “Does God know everything?” Of course he knows everything.

“Does he know everything in the present?”

“Yes.”

“Everything in the past?”

“Yes.”

“Everything in the future?”

“Yes. Yes, I suppose he does. If he doesn’t who does?”

“Does he know the people who will have accidents today?”

“Well he knows all the protons and neutrons. He knows where every detailed particle is in the
universe. He knows their tendency and their movements. He knows the laws that our astrophysicists
aren’t absolutely sure of, when they come to quantum. He knows all that. Yes, yes. I suppose he
does know the future. Yes, he does know what will happen.”

“He knows every young man in New York that will fall this day?”

“Yes.”

“Every child that will trip?”

“I suppose.”

“Every person that will get knocked down by a taxi?”

“Yes.”

“Every fire that will explode in China?”

“Yes.”

“Every difficulty that I will meet today?”

“Yes.”

“And yet he can sleep at night?”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

“How come he can sleep at night?”

“Well, because he has set the thing up so that we have free wills, and he, himself knows what those
free wills will do. And so he knows how it is going to go.”

“And he just lets it go?”

“Eh? Yes, he lets it go because we have to see that we are responsible for our actions and for our
lives.”

“And that is all he does?”

“Well no. I can’t see how he will do that. He certainly didn’t do it when he came to earth in the
person of his Son. When his Son saw somebody who was sick he laid his hands on them and healed
him.”

“So, what about God? How does he operate? If he knows everyone that will fall, everybody that will
trip, everybody that will have an accident, everybody that will do something wrong, does he pass by
on the other side?”

“Well, no. If Jesus said, ‘He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and the works that I do, my
Father does, or the works that my Father does I do also.’ No, he must be like Jesus.”

“Then, what about all these things?”

“Well, obviously he has acted upon them, in whatever way he believes is best for the person to grow
up in him into a full person; enables the person to achieve the things that he has planned for him
in his life. He obviously acts. He takes that wrong action or that unexpected event and he works
it into the counsel of his will. I mean, that is what it means that, ‘He was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself.’ He was reconciling all the things that the world does into his own will and
his own plan, so that it will all come together.”

“Then that is what God does day by day?”

“Yes, that is what he must do day by day.”

“Then the things that I will hit tomorrow, that will work to pull my life apart or to run me off the
rails, he will act on that?”

“N-n-not ‘will act’! He ‘has’ acted already, because he sees everything. He sees the end from the
beginning. ‘A thousand years is like one day in his courts.’ He sees everything in a present
moment. So he ‘has’ done it all. I mean that is why he said to them, ‘Behold, I ‘have’ given
Jericho into your hands. All you have to do is march around it. The marching around hasn’t a thing
to do with powers that bring down the walls. I have already brought down the walls. I just want
you to march around in obedience to me. I will do the work of — I have already done the work. I
foresaw this about Jericho millions of years ago, I saw it. And I dealt with it then.'”

And I think that is what we have begun to see. But you really have to run it through your head,
because we are not used to it at all. We’re just so ‘woman centered?’ so ‘man centered’. We are so
‘human centered’ that we look at everything from our point of view. And we have to remind
ourselves, “Now, wait a minute. The truth is God knows all this. And he sleeps well at night
because he has fixed it all. And he is simply allowing these things to take place so that we’ll see
what life without him is like and how impossible it is. And we’ll see the difference between what
is not him and what is him. And that is why he allows all these things to happen. He has already
dealt with them all. How else could he sleep at night when he sees all the agonies of the little
babies that are dying this morning, unless he has affected it all to bring it all into the council
of his will?

So that complicates things considerably. That gives meaning to this. Then we can’t read that with
the old ‘cliché ridden’ interpretation. “And so from the day we have heard of it we have not ceased
to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will.”

And that is why he goes on to the next bit, because we might say, “Oh the knowledge of his will!”
I’ll just ask my father what he did in this situation or ask my pastor what he would do in it. Or
I’ll look up some book and I find, “What would God do in this situation?” Or I think the thing
through myself. It is not that at all. So that I will know his will. I’ll know his will in the
light of what he has done already. I’ll know his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
I’ll know in a spiritually wise way what God is after here and what he has done, and I’ll understand
it.

Why? So that I can walk around the walls of Jericho, because that is probably the most bewildering
part to us. We are always looking at, “Oh! I wonder if there was something in their hands when they
touched the man with leprosy.” Was there was something in their hands that went from their hands
into the man who was paralyzed, so that hey touched him and it actually was a physical transfer of
power of some kind?

Of course the Father is trying to get home to us, “They do that act because I tell them to act, but
that act doesn’t cause anything. The work is already done in my Son on Calvary a million years ago.
That man has already been dealt with. I foresaw that. I’ve set that thing all in motion. I am
telling you to lay your hand on him as much for your benefit and the benefit of those who are
watching as it is for the man himself. The sick man is already made well. I’m simply revealing
what has happened in eternity, revealing it in time at this moment, and because I tell you to put
your hand upon it, it seems that you have caused it. But actually it is just that the two things
have come together at the same moment, the moment that I have released the power from the risen Son

of God at the right hand, released that power down into the man’s body at the same time as you touch
it. They are concomitant acts. They are not causally related.”

And of course it is a whole understanding of our work and our service to God that is utterly
different form the normal. But that is what is at the back of this. It is not just, “I’m going to
pray for you so that you will know God’s will. I’m going to pray for you that somehow you’ll come
across a passage somewhere in a book and you will know what you should do.” Or, “I’m going to hope
that somebody that you counsel with, they will tell you.” It is not that kind of prayer. It is a
prayer that you may deeply understand that God has already fixed all these things. He is in
control. And he has the right moment when he will reveal this in time. And he may use you to
signify it. And that is why at times in the Bible they call miracles, “signs”. At times Jesus
said, “You will see signs,” because it is a sign of the power of God, rather more than just an
overcoming of natural laws.

And of course that is why we are here. But we get all mixed up. We say, “Oh, no. We’re here to do
some good for God.” Or, “We’re here to do what the non-Christians do anyway.” No, no. You can end
up doing, apparently the same thing as a person who doesn’t know God. But if you do it by God’s
revelation and insight and the work of his Spirit within you, it is an entirely different operation.
And it is a different glory to a different person.

And so it is in that spirit that he says, “Pray for that you may be filled with the knowledge of his
will.” And then I would say that the word “filled” is far more important than we think of it,
because the works that men and women of God apparently do – and I say “apparently” because the work
is already done by him. They just signify it as God tells them he is going to manifest it in time.
But those works are under God’s control and they come from his will and they come from his power.
And they are different from the works that are done by ordinary human beings.

So when it comes to being filled, it is being filled with him and his mind and his heart. Any work
that a child of God appears to do comes from a fullness within of God. So first you have to be
filled with him and filled with his heart and his love, and then out of that come works. But the
filling is important, “That you may be filled… That you may be filled with the knowledge of his
will.” That that will preoccupy you above everything else. That will occupy your mind more than
everything else. Then out of that will comes action that is the action of God, himself.

So, in a way, there is no work done by a child of God without a filling. You are filled from the
inside and then that spills out through you. So it is not a preoccupation: “O Lord, help me with
this problem that I have. Help me with this money difficulty,” with a whole concentration on the
problem, the problem, the problem. It is being so filled with the assurance of God’s presence in
you and of his complete ability to supply everything. That is what brings forth the action then.

And then the action is entirely different. And that is why there are two actions that go on in the
world all the time. There are the guys who are drilling for oil, because they have used their
machines to find the oil. And then there is the guy who drills for oil because God has actually
implied that he should do it at that spot. So there are actually miracles going on all the time
even though we don’t know them. But there are people that – it isn’t people, both those who are
known as God’s people and those who aren’t, receive all kinds of little intuitions from God,
himself, who do things that turn out wonderfully. And you say, “Oh, how could they know that?” I’m
not saying that the “twig” guy [water divining with a tree branch] is part of that, because that
seems more connected with the elemental spirits of the universe than anything else. But there are

many other actions that are taken that do not seem practically the appropriate ones. And there does
not seem to be obvious reason for doing them. And you cannot, at times, even justify them. But
they come from God to his people, and they come from that fullness that takes place in his people
that enables them to know, to have a knowledge of his will, and a spiritual understanding.

You can see the importance of it, not only in business, but you can see it in human relationships.
As we joke, Sellers [Peter Sellers, 1925-1980, British film actor, comedian and singer] said, “There
is a time to laugh and a time to cry, and this is not one of them,” you remember; Peter Sellers in
one of his funny movies. There is a time to laugh and a time to cry. And there is a time that is
right to do a thing and a time that is wrong to do a thing. And God’s ways are often very different
from man’s ways. So working by God’s direction and out of God’s fullness is entirely different from
working from man’s own emptiness and his best perception of what is in the world. God allows both
to go together, because in a way they do the same job as all his works, “The left hand of God are
the things that he permits, and the right hand the things that he definitely desires. Some of the
theologians use that distinction. And so there are many things in his left hand that God allows to
happen. And so he allows many people to do things by natural powers, because that again sets forth
the difference between his work and their work. Because there is a tendency of men to spell God
with 2 o’s [good], that ‘goodness’ is the same as God. Well, no. It isn’t always. There are many
good things that are not necessarily of God. And the Father is always involved in giving us
discernment and understanding about that. So he allows, often, very good things to be done by power
that is not his. Yet it originally comes from him for he has made human beings, but they are not
directly a work that he has done on Calvary.

But then there are Calvary works. And that is what we are involved in. That is what God has called
us to. That is why it is important that we come to a fullness of knowledge and wisdom and spiritual
understanding, because that is how you do the things that God himself has done. So there needs to
be a closeness between us and our Father so that we see things from his view point and are
preoccupied with him and not with the problem itself. And that is what he [Paul] is praying for,
“That we would have that knowledge, a knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding.”

So, I hoped to be further on with that than I am, so I’d better move to verse 10.
[Galatians 1:10] “To lead a life worthy of the Lord.” Now, normally, you see, we think, “Oh it is a
much humbler thing to say, ‘Oh, I couldn’t do it like Jesus would do it. Oh no. ‘To lead a life
worthy of the Lord?’ Who could do that? Who? Who could live…?” We can get uppity and quite pious
about it. “Who? Who would dare to say he is living a life worthy of the Lord? I mean, the Lord
alone could lead that…that… Um, wait a minute. The Lord alone could lead that? Oh, yes, I see.
Oh…” There is only one way to live a life worthy of the Lord, and that is the Lord leading it.
“Not I, but Christ.”

But that is what he prays, “That we would lead a life worthy of the Lord.’ [says it emotionally] I
cry because of our ridiculous stupidity and proud stubbornness in this regard. Because we can be so
humble about our own failings. “Well, I’m just trying to be the best Christian I can.”

Well, yes. How about stepping aside and letting him do it himself?

So we are called to lead a life worthy of the Lord. And I think where we get into trouble is, we
decide, “Well, we can’t obviously do that. So we’ll do our best.” We’ll do an imitation. We’ll do
a close copy. “Well, you know, I couldn’t do it like Jesus would do it.”

So then it is not far from that to slipping into an apologetic excuse for our failings. “Well, you
know, I can’t do it the way Jesus would do it. I’m just a foot soldier. I’m just doing my best.”
But that is not what the Father says here. He says that you are to live a life worthy of the Lord.
“Your life is to remind people of the Savior, not remind people that you are a good person, not to
draw their attention to you and your faithfulness or your religiosity, or your Christianity, or your
ethics, or even your faithfulness to your Lord. Because that is all still concentrating on you.
You’re here so that a person may see right through you and see something divine, something above the
norm, something that comes from another world. You’re here to live a life worthy of the Lord.

It is actually worthwhile even to change our minds about that. It is worth our while. You cannot
produce it by your own right thinking, but you at least can assist it. At least you can stop
opposing it by thinking, “I am not just, even the representative of Jesus. I am the only glimpse of
him they will get today.

And of course it lifts everything away from your obedience and what you think of this situation and
whether you are comfortable with it or not, or whether you are happy with it or not or whether it is
an easy thing for you or not. It lifts it all up. You think, “Hey, that is unimportant. The
Savior, Lord, it’s you. This is your act. This is your situation. Here, here’s my hand. You do it
the way you do it, the way you want it done.”

So it is part of that selflessness. It is part of that abandonment of self. It is part of that
indifference to self that enables you to lift right above your own little preoccupation with your
comfort or what you’d like or what you prefer. And it lifts you out of that miserable, crawling,
self-centered, ego-centric existence. And you realize, “I’m just the expression of Jesus here. It
is what he wants that counts.”

So that is why he says that. “I pray that you may live a life worthy of the Lord,” because no other
life is worth living, because it is your own only, but to “live a life worthy of the Lord.”

And that is why it goes on. You know it is ridiculous, “Pleasing to him.” “Fully pleasing to him!”
“Fully pleasing.” You know yourself, you’ve had it if you’ve ever tried to describe the victorious
life. “Well, now. You don’t mean you have to be perfect.” “Fully pleasing to the…” “Fully
pleasing…” “Fully pleasing to the Lord?” “To lead a life worthy of the Lord? Fully pleasing to
him?”

“Impossible. It’s impossible to be fully pleasing to God. We’re imperfect beings. We do our best,
but we cannot live a life fully pleasing to him.”

Well, this is what he says. But I think that is what it is. It is that God would look down upon us
and he’d see his Son in all his beauty. That is it. That is the plan.

And each of us are pathetic little creatures, I agree with you. And I think we’re nothing. But God
looks upon us as his Son. And he looks to see his Son’s actions and his Son’s attitude, and his
Son’s feelings, and his Son’s will. And that is why this man prays, “That we may lead a life worthy
of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, a life where Jesus is not uncomfortable, where he does not feel
embarrassed, where he does not feel ashamed, where he does not feel pain, but a life that he is
pleased with, where his Father looks upon him and he is well pleased.

I agree with any of you. We are all brought up in the same society. I agree with any of you who
say, “This is ridiculous! This is not possible. You always need his blood to cover you sins.”

Well, we always need his blood, but our sins are what he took away. And we are meant to be fully
pleasing to him. So it is very strong. “Fully pleasing to him.”

And then of course, you can see where it all comes to. “Bearing fruit in every good work.” And of
course it reminds you, “You are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which he
has prepared before hand that you should walk in them.” [Ephesians 2:10] It is all there; all these
things have been done in Jesus. These things have been done in Jesus. These works are prepared
beforehand; only “that you should walk in them.” You don’t need to do them. You lay a hand on the
person, but that is not what does the work. The work was done on Calvary. It is a work that has
been done already, a work that has already been achieved. It is part of the perfect world that God
has already built in another part of this universe. It is the new Jerusalem that is already in
existence. It is the heaven that is already real and alive. All the works have been done there.
They are already accomplished. And all you have to do is walk in them.

So, “Bearing fruit in every good work;” every good work that God has already done and he is
expressing and revealing it through you. So it’s more than just the usual interpretation. And of
course you can see an increasing in the knowledge of God every time understanding God more and more.
Every time you do his will, every time you act in a situation according to his intuition within
you, you understand him better; you know him better; you know more the kind of person he really is.
You more and more bow lower and lower because of the love and grace that is in his heart.

And of course as you see — well it is the same you see anything. I remember the dear guy that
built the hole in the wall for a certain person to put their books in, you remember, as a Christmas
present. And you had to be touched by that fellow’s thoughtfulness. Terrible! Ridiculous, but
thoughtfulness as he did that. And so it is with God. Every time you take part with him in
something you have a greater knowledge of him; you understand more how dear a God he is. Every time
you see a Yorkshire terrier beg, who could make a little creature like that? He must be very loving
and very kindly.

And so it is with God. You grow in the knowledge of God every time you take part with him in
something that he has done and you see its effect here on earth, you realize how detailed he is, how
tender he is, and how understanding, and how real is his practical concern for us human beings.

And so it is a life that is fully pleasing to him, and that bears fruit in the good works that you
walk in. And of course that gets the heart of it, doesn’t it? Because that’s what we all are
concerned about. “By their fruits you shall know them.” And bearing fruit means of course, seeing
the life of God spreading to others and seeding them and creating the symptoms of Jesus in the world
itself.

And that is why we are here. We want to bear fruit. We want to see others come into Jesus and come
into his reality. And that you can see is the difference between a work that God has already done
on Calvary and that we are simply manifesting and an ordinary good work of human effort that is
done. So two people can be the cause of healing in somebody’s life, but one bears fruit as he does
it and the other simply creates gratitude to the person for his help, because one comes from the
power of God that did the real work and therefore glorifies God. And the other takes advantage of
that and appears to take the glory of it to himself, and therefore does not bear fruit.

So there is a difference between fruit-bearing work and work that isn’t fruit-bearing. And it seems
to me that ties up with our own work particularly, because they can be impressed with your honesty;
they can be impressed with your good business acumen; they can be impressed even with your kindly
voice or your understanding ways; they can be impressed by your helpfulness. But then it is a
different thing for them to bear fruit, to come into touch with the Savior within you. And that is
a different matter. And that is determined, not by the act or the word that you spoke to them, but
by where it came from. And that ties up with your fullness of Jesus or your fullness of yourself.

So it is interesting. Anyway, God is good. Let us pray.

Dear Father we thank you for your goodness and your light. And we thank you that you have called us
into such a life, so full, so thorough and so detailed and extensive, and then, we can see, so
genuine and real. And so we thank you for calling us to this. And we thank you for the opportunity
we have through these days to touch other lives. And we see that the only reason for it and the
only purpose is so that you, yourself can touch them, and that your life can flow from what you have
already done through us and into them.

So, Lord, we give ourselves again to you today and trust you to lead us into such a preoccupation
with you that we do become fully pleasing to you, living a life that is worthy of you, and bearing
fruit in every good work. Lord we thank you that that is your will for us, and we would trust you
to bring it about in this coming week, for your glory.

And now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with each one of us, now and evermore. Amen.

A Life Worthy of the Lord

Colossians 1:10B

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

It is just a massive verse really. Colossians 1:10. And of course it is Paul’s prayer and it starts
on verse 9. “And so, from the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that
you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to lead
a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in
the knowledge of God.” It is just such a mouthful that I just thought you have to take that very
slowly, because, of course, the whole heart of it is, it is Jesus in you and in me. That is what he
is talking about. He is talking about Jesus in you and Jesus in me. And he is talking about the
kind of life that that will bring about. And so the verse 10 is overwhelming, “To lead a life
worthy of the Lord.” I mean to live a life ‘worthy’ of the Lord! And when you think about it a
little, it just causes you to stagger, “Who could live a life worthy of the Lord? Worthy of Jesus,
who could live a life that is worthy of him?

You talk about having something that is worthy of another person or another thing. And it means, of
course, that it sets forth them. That is what it means. A life worthy of somebody else is a life
that sets them forth. It’s like having them there in person. That is the only way you can live a
life worthy of him. And we always think of it that way. If you do anything worthy of someone else
you think, “Oh! How could I ever live up there?” And that is what this verse is saying, that we
would live a life that is worthy of the Lord. A life that the Lord, himself would not be ashamed
of. [Speaks with emotion] It is beyond words, a life that he would be proud of, a life that he would
be glad to own as his own.

So you just think – well to tell you the truth it is overwhelming unless you just do away with it,
and think, “That is a mistake. How can anybody live a life worthy of the Lord? It is impossible.”

And yet here he is saying it. He is praying that you may lead a life worthy of the Lord. And so I
just thought, Oh, it is just so bewildering. (And of course I couldn’t find the white board. I
suppose someone has carefully packed it up.) Of course I had to resort to this as every teacher
does. They write on anything you give them, cigarette papers if that is all that he has. I
thought, those [Col. 1:9 & 10 hand written on a large stiff card everyone can see] are what he is
saying. It is overwhelming but those are what he is saying. He is saying, “From the day we heard
of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his
will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to lead a life worthy of the Lord, pleasing to him,
fully pleasing to him.” I mean, [does he really mean that?] “Bearing fruit in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God.”

To tell you the truth, after I wrote it earlier this morning, I thought, “It is just… It is a
different kind of life.” The best I could do was put a square around that [indicates his writing
and reads what he has written], “To lead a life worthy of the Lord.” But then it came to me very
clearly, this [indicating the written words] is a Christ-centered life. What you are looking at
here is the description of a “God centered life.” That is what it is. It is not an Irene centered
life, or a Peggy centered life or an Ernest centered life, or a Marty centered life, or a Myron
centered life, or a Marty centered life [2 different Marty’s in the group]. It is a God centered
life. I mean it is a life that is lived outside itself. It is a life that is centered on God and

what he wants. It is centered on Jesus and what he wants. It is just a different kind of life.

It is in no way describing a Christian life that is trying to succeed or the life of a ‘good
Christian’. This is a different life entirely. It is just not any way a humanity centered life or
a self centered life. This is a God centered life, one that is filled with the knowledge of his
will.

And we talked about that. His will is what he has already done, what he has already done. It fits
in with so many of the verses, “We are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works
which he has ‘prepared beforehand’ that we should walk in them.” [Ephesians 2:10] And of course it
is the whole truth that God saw what has happened to the world, knew that this had happened to it,
recreated it completely and has planned that recreation to be worked out in our lives. So that he
already has done all the work. The work is there. It is a work that we simply walk in. It is a
work ‘prepared beforehand’ that we walk in. He saw a thousand million billion years ago; he saw the
difficulties that you will face next week. He saw this person that would say something outside his
will to you and that would bite deeply into your own heart and feelings. He saw that and he bore it
in his own Son on Calvary on the cross and the death died from before the beginning of the world.
And he cured that and pored in his own soothing softness and reassurance and comfort.

So that it is a work that is prepared beforehand for you to walk in. All you have to do is walk in
it. You don’t have to produce the soothing and take care of yourself. He will bring that to you.
He has already done that work. And so you are filled with the knowledge of his will. You know,
“Ah! This is his will in this situation, and this is the way through on this. And this is what he
wants me to do in the light of that.”

And so in the light of the cancer that is eating away at you, you know God has already born that in
himself. And he has a right attitude for me to take to this at this moment. Or, if he has arranged
for a surgeon to go in and cut it open and cure you, then you will know that, too. And you will be
content with that. But you will meet a work that he has already prepared beforehand. You will not
meet an event or an accident that has happened by chance that is a surprise to everybody. You will
meet a work prepared beforehand. And that is what it means, “To be filled with the knowledge of his
will.” To have that quiet confidence as things happen to you, “Ah, this is the will of God for me
in Christ Jesus. I can give thanks in all things, ‘for this is his will for me in Christ Jesus,’
and he has already dealt with this issue and has already solved it. And he has something for me to
do. I don’t actually need to solve it. I just need to do what he tells me to do.”

That is what Peter said, “I don’t need to heal this man. I simply need to put out my hand and touch
his body. God has done the healing in his Son.”

So that is part of what it means to be filled with the knowledge of his will. And that is the
basis, of course, of the whole life. You are filled with the knowledge of his will. You are not
ducking accident after accident, uncertainty after uncertainty, disaster after disaster, unpleasant
person after unpleasant person, obnoxious conversation after obnoxious conversation. You are
meeting a way that has already been dealt with by God in Calvary from the beginning of the world.

Why? Because God sees the whole thing in a second. He doesn’t need to make the whole thing and then
watch, “Oh-oh! I wonder what will happen? I wonder what will happen? Will that guy hit…? No – Oh,
oh! No he won’t hit that brick wall.” The Father sees it all in second, in a mille-second. He sees
it all in a moment. And he knows it all, and he has dealt with it all from before the beginning of

the world when Christ was crucified, and that is all settled for each one of us.

So we come with a bundle of so-called ‘difficulties’ the world calls them. We come with a bundle of
events that God has already dealt with himself. And he will tell you what you need to do in it.
And that is why often you, yourself know that most of your ‘big disasters’ are solved by somebody
else. Most of your big moments of crisis are solved some other way than – it is rarely that you
are, what you do, seemed to make a difference to them. Often the thing is solved either by the
timing or by someone else’s attitude or the thing not happening the way you thought it was going to
happen. Because, in fact, God has dealt with all those things, filtered them through his loving
hands. And that is why it is so wise to take seriously that you are “created in Christ Jesus for
good works which HE HAS PREPARED BEFOREHAND THAT YOU SHOULD …Do them?” No, that you should ‘walk’
in them. All you have to do is ‘walk’ in them.

And so, “filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom.” The kind of thing I’ve
shared with you a little, a poor sharing of some of the spiritual wisdom that is needed. An
understanding, the understanding comes in because the wisdom is the revelation of the Spirit, the
insight that the Spirit gives you into it, and reminds you that all that has already been dealt with
by God. Understanding is the ability of the mind to apply that to what you have to do, “Oh, I see,
Lord! So you’ve solved this. You have already done it, but what do you want me to do?”

“Oh, just keep quiet.”

“OK, I’ll just keep quiet.”

“No, no, I want you to lift down that book.”

“OK.” And you do it.

“And understanding.” “To lead a life…” And only in that way can you lead a life worthy of the
Lord, because this is all the Lord Jesus’ work anyway that he has done from before the foundation of
the world. And so a life worthy of the Lord can only be lived in the light of what he himself has
done. And that means ‘living a life worthy of the Lord. This is a kind of life that is worthy of
the Lord. It is a life that is steady and settled and at peace and content whatever the situation,
because Jesus has already dealt with it all in the “Lamb slain before the foundation of the world,”
when the world was crucified in Christ and was actually made new.

And that is why to me it is quite exciting when they talk about Pluto because somehow it is in a
physical form that the astrophysicists understand even. In physical form it’s obvious: this
universe is massive, absolutely massive. And Pluto already looks as if it might have some of the
weather that possibly could support our lives, maybe it won’t at all, but it is remarkable in how
many ways it is like the earth. 385 days it takes to go around instead of 365. But it is close to
it. And it brings home to you how God has filled the whole place with all kinds of planets, all
kinds of climates, all kinds of things that we don’t know about at all. And certainly he has lots
more for us to do if he has made such a big place. It just doesn’t make sense to keep us huddled on
this little planet here.

But it all makes it more possible in my mind that, “Yes, of course this is it.” One has to look at
the thing from the view of — I hesitate to say even ‘eternity’, because we have the idea ‘eternity’
all goes on for ever and ever.

Eternity is ‘above time.’ That’s it; it is above time. It’s the life above — it’s real life. The
life of eternity is real life. And we often think, “Oh, you will get eternal life, that is, you
will live forever.” But we’re in the midst of eternal life. It is life now, and eternity is a
‘forever present’. So it is a ‘life worthy of the Lord’ in ‘that’ world.

‘Fully pleasing to him’: how else could it be fully pleasing to him? How could you live a life
fully pleasing to God, unless it is Christ, himself in you? That is the only way that you can live
a life that is fully pleasing to him. But it does bring home — I think it brings home to you, “Now
wait a minute, is that the way I think of my life? When I get up in the morning, [pause] ‘Ernest
O’Neill!’ ‘Marty Poehler!’ ‘Peggy Coleman!'” Full of ourselves! So, almost irrelevant! But we
are full of irrelevance. That’s it. We are full of our little selves and looking at our little
selves as little animals here on earth trying to forge our own way. And of course, it is not so.

We are a carrier of the incarnate Son of God. We are a body in whom Christ lives. This is Christ’s
life and his day. And he has things that he wants to do today. And I get the fun and the
satisfaction and the enjoyment and the fulfillment of doing them with him. And that is a life that
begins to be pleasing to him. His own life! That is really what it is. It is giving his own life
to him. It is acknowledging that. It is living in that reality and not living in the unreality
that you are this little person with your name on it that is trying to make its own way through the
world. It is him alive in you; ‘uniquely’ alive, you are right, in you. You are the only version
of him that exists. So you are unique in that way, but you are him. “It is not I that live, but
Christ that lives within me.” And that is the only way to live a life pleasing.

And then, “bearing fruit in every good work,” and I take it that the fruit is the benefits that come
from God in you, and the good things that come to other people’s lives and the beauty of Jesus that
comes through you, because the fruit of the Spirit is also by love, joy, peace, long suffering,
gentleness, faith, meekness and temperance. These are the fruits of the Spirit. And those are what
are borne as Jesus walks around in you. He bears longsuffering and gentleness and goodness. He
expresses faith and meekness and temperance.

And, “Increasing,” then, growing all the time, “in the knowledge of God.” That is the purpose of it
all. This life is so that we will know God, so that we will know him, and know what he is like and
be at home with him and be used to him and really, reflect him back to himself.

“Increasing in the knowledge of God:” understanding God better, but “increasing in the knowledge of
God,” also in the ‘friendship’, the personal oneness with him, because that is the magic of it. I
mean that is the miracle that you can know and have been made to know God, because he wants ‘you’ to
know him. And he wants to know himself in ‘you’. And that is why you have been made. So you are
different from everybody else in the universe. And God would miss you if you weren’t here. You are
vital to him, and he enjoys knowing you and looks forward to knowing you thoroughly and looks
forward to you knowing him thoroughly.

So that knowledge is important. It is not just a knowledge of God: “Oh well, I know the way he
operates. I know the way he thinks.” No, no! I ‘know’ him. “This is eternal life, to know Jesus,
to know God, and him whom he has sent, even Jesus Christ.” That is eternal life, to know God. It is
the ‘knowing’ that you are made for. It’s not just the understanding or that you are of use to him.
He doesn’t need you. He doesn’t need me. He wants you to be part of himself. He made you to be
part of himself. He made you because, “He yearns for the creature his hands have made.” [Job 14:15]

So when he makes you, he doesn’t make you as, “Oh here is a funny little thing, and here is a funny
little thing that will be able to do this kind of thing.” Not at all! He makes you in his own Son
so that you will be dear to him, and a precious part of him.

So this is in every way a supernatural life. And it can only come about if you let Christ have his
central place in your life, and you exit out, get out of it and allow him to be himself; in all his
beauty, because his beauty is way beyond our beauty, and way beyond what we can be.

But it is a wonderful life.

Shall we pray?

Dear Father, we thank you for your will for us, so beautiful and filled with grace. We see, Lord,
that it is far beyond what we would produce with our little imitations. And so, Father, we would
give up the imitating and the trying hard.

And Lord Jesus, we would thank you for how long you’ve been willing to stand in the shadows as we do
all our ‘great’ things. We would welcome you Lord, into the center of our lives.

And Father, we would begin the life that is worth living, the life that is an expression of you each
moment, a life in which we discover more of you and are lifted and exalted by what we see of you
through our own actions and words and thoughts.

So Lord, we would give ourselves to you so that you can live your life, a life that is fully
pleasing to you, that is filled with the knowledge of your Father’s will, a life that has all your
own beauty in it, a life that is prompted by your desires and your wishes, a life that expresses you
in all your fullness.

Lord we thank you that you have called us to a life that we cannot live ourselves but only you can
live through us. So we would give ourselves to you for that purpose.

Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with each one of us now and evermore. Amen.

.

And now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with each one of us, now and evermore. Amen.

Fully Pleasing to God

Colossians 1:10C

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Galatians 2 goes: “Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking
Titus along with me. I went up by revelation; and I laid before them (but privately before those who
were of repute) the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, lest somehow I should be running or
had run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was
a Greek. But because of false brethren secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom
which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage — to them we did not yield
submission even for a moment, that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And for those
who were reputed to be something (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)
— those, I say, who were of repute added nothing to me; but on the contrary, when they saw that I
had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted to the
gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for the mission to circumcised worked
through me also for the Gentiles), and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and
Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave me to me and Barnabas the right hand of
fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised; only they would have us
to remember the poor, which very thing I was eager to do.”

“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before
certain men came from James, he ate with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated
himself, fearing the circumcision party. And with him the rest of the Jews acted insincerely, so
that even Barnabas was carried away by their insincerity. But when I saw that they were not
straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, ‘If you, though a
Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?’ We
ourselves, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet who know that a man is not justified
by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in
order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law
shall no one be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were
found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again those
things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law,
that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ
who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification were through the
law, then Christ died to no purpose.”

Obviously they had quite a disagreement over it, where he had to be very strong in what he said. In
most things the truth has to be fought for, has to be established, and repeated again and again.

It seems to me that’s the situation we have. We can be “nicey-nicey” little people doing our little
bit for Jesus, or we can deal with the world as it is and face the fact that there is tremendous
confusion and chaos in everyone’s understanding of all things. The abortion issue is a small part of
it. But there’s dreadful misunderstanding of ALL the truths of the gospel.

So we have to choose for ourselves: are we going ourselves to go on just as if our place is just to
do our little bit? Or, are we going to take hold of this thing, and make clear what God has made

clear to us?

I think however much we all know in detail of the heart of what we’re saying over these years – you
all are aware – it’s very different from what people are normally saying is the gospel. Normally
they’re giving out tickets to this religious club: “If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ – thou
shalt be saved.”

The wee souls have NO idea of what they’re talking about – except the world has managed to confuse
the whole thing into: believe in Jesus and not Mohammad. So the pre-occupation has been in WHO you
believe in. Of course that’s not the issue.

The issue is not believing in this one or that one. It is in fact: we are made inside the Son of the
Creator of the universe. We are made inside him! That’s the issue! Preach that, and then you’ll find
what opposition is.

So we need to be very clear in our own minds. It’s very easy for us in our vagueness, and our —
dare I say it – dunderheadedness. Is that an Irish term? You’re dunderheaded! It means you have an
empty, hollow head up there that has few thoughts in it.

It seems to me we have to decide, “No, we are not dunderheaded. We are not going to babble away
here, knowing that they’re interpreting it in the same way that they’re misinterpreting the rest of
Christianity.”

We need to decide, “Are we going to make this clear? This is what we have given our lives for. This
is why we live together. This is truth. Are we going to make this clear, however inadequate we may
feel we are? However much we may say to ourselves, ‘Oh, we’re poor little souls. Never been to
seminary. We don’t know this and we don’t know that.’” No – but we’ve talked and listened to this
for twenty, thirty, or forty years. So we do know what we’re about.

What we’re saying clearly is, “You – you dear Muslim that you are – dear Buddhist that you are – you
were made inside this dear man that we’re talking about!” That’s what we have to say. “You are
inside him! And even now you are inside him, and he feels what you do. He senses what you’re like,
and he and his Father feel the pain of that.”

Now that’s news! That’s something different. But I think it will be increasingly important when this
idiot {referring to himself} leaves and goes {dies}. OK — are you being faithful to the gospel that
God has made real to us, the gospel that has made life real and meaningful for us? Or are you
padding along with the rest of the Christians, repeating the same mumbo-jumbo that is not worth
fighting over? Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ will do you no good. Even the demons believe – and
tremble! {Paraphrase of James 2:19}

So it’s not that. It’s that you yourself have been made in Christ. You are part of him. You are part
of the Son of our Maker. Everything that you do – he feels! You are what this word says: you are his
body. You are the body of Christ, and you’re individually members of that body. That means you
individually are a part of Jesus that nobody else is. That’s news! That news that they have no
notion of – none at all!

So all the dear hearts that you saw over the past week in different situations, dying in rubber
dinghies or plastic boats trying to get over to the Greek island, others who are dying in the midst

of the stampede of the Muslims, because they’re the ones that we’re responsible also. Those
thousands that you saw lying on the ground that other people had trampled over. No! We cannot say,
“Oh, that’s them. That’s what they get for their stupid religion.”

No – they are our responsibility. They were made in the Savior. Each one of them brought pain to
him. He lay there in each one of them. Yes. That’s not poetry! We were made in Christ. We are all a
part of Christ. That is our hope of living forever, that we are part of Christ.

But that’s news. They have no idea – none at all! The little beggar in India – the little person who
has just had a baby out of wedlock and doesn’t know what to do because the stupid theaters are
closed and they can’t do anything. All those dear hearts are in our Savior.

So we have quite a job. I started the sermon early. We need to see that it’s a very different
gospel. It’s not a variation on the Christian gospel that everybody else is preaching. It’s very
different. It is that you who are not a Christian at this moment, you who actually hate gospel and
religion and hate the West, you were created inside this dear person, this man.

He came as Jesus of Nazareth 2000 years ago. He had you inside himself, and HAS you inside him at
this moment. You are part of him, and he wants to be himself in you. That’s why you’re here on this
earth.

Now that’s news. THAT will cause them to laugh at you! That will cause them to rebel against you –
in pride and indignation. THAT’LL get you persecuted!

But “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”? It’ll get you into an argument. But
they will be able to see it doesn’t necessarily mean anything for their life.

“But you say I am part of this gentle person that we read about in the first century? This person
that was crucified on a cross – that I am part of him? That he knows me? No – I don’t believe it.”
Then your work begins.

But it does seem to me that it’s a very different gospel. I’m sure you’re like me. I’m sure you’ve
never thought, “Oh, there’s no discussion about this. There’s no debate about it.” But Galatians 2
sets it forth very clearly.

There was quite an argument in the early days about what you had to preach. It seems to me that’s
what we face today. We’re missing something if we think the things we share, the things we talk
about, and the things the majority of these books {pointing to the library books} write about again
and again – if we think that all that is what the churches are preaching and that is what people are
thinking of as Christianity – you’ve missed it. No. It’s very different.

Because truth is a unit, I can slip right into today’s verse, because it brings up a whole different
attitude to God by us. It’s Colossians 1:10. The statement is one we started some weeks ago.
Colossians 1:3: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and for the love which you have for all the
saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of
the truth, the gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and
growing — so among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth, as
you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on our

behalf, and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.”

“And so, from the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be
filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to lead a life
worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.”

That’s the heart of it. “To lead a life worthy of the Lord.” Why “worthy of the Lord”? Because
you’re a bit of the Lord. “I’m a bit of the Lord?” Yes. That’s why he prays that you’ll lead a life
worthy of the Lord – because who could lead his life, except the Lord himself?

So if he’s saying that you lead a life worthy of the Lord, it can only be because the Lord is in you
and you are in the Lord. That’s why he says to you you’re called to lead a life worthy of the Lord.

Of course they have no idea of that – none at all. If you say to them, “live a life worthy of the
Lord,” they say, “I have to try harder. That’s what you’re saying to me. I have to live and do the
kind of things that Jesus would do, so I have to try harder. I have to be like that person who is
the only perfect human being in the whole world. I have to be like him. I have to try harder.”

No – he’s saying “live a life worthy of the Lord” because that’s who you are. You’re in the Lord and
the Lord is in you. So you’ve to let that out. You’ve been made in Jesus, and here you are in this
earth to allow his uncreated life to flow through you, and to do the things that he intended to do
through you. That’s why you’re here.

That’s what he means to live a life worthy of the Lord. To live the kind of life that Jesus himself
lives – because he’s in you. So he says that to everybody. That’s everybody’s calling – to live a
life like Jesus, because in fact that’s the reality of their situation. To live a life worthy of the
Lord – and this is the phrase for today – “fully pleasing to him.”

I submit to you that even people like ourselves who have listened to the gospel for so many years
rarely think in those terms.

If I’m in conversation with Peggy, I would not dream of saying, “Your mother is one of those dumb
Presbyterians that really don’t know what’s what.” Why? Because I love her. Of course the statement
isn’t true any way. But I wouldn’t dream of saying that, because I love her.

If you say to me, “Oh you want to do everything she wants done. So you want to please her?” No. I
don’t want to be in that kind of unreal relationship with her. But yes, I do want to please her. But
not because I want her favor or I want her approval. I want to please her because I love her. As far
as I am able, I wouldn’t dream of saying something that will cut her.

When I say a thing that does cut her and is unfair, then when I become aware of it, as you with me I
think, when we become aware of it, we’re not long before we’re back to each other and saying, “I’m
sorry. I did not mean that. I hope you didn’t misunderstand me.”

In that way, when you love each other, you would please them. That’s the thing you think of. If you
say to me, “Oh no. You do it just because she’s giving you the rules that you have to follow in
relationship with her.” No. Or, “You’re doing it just because you’re afraid of what she might do, or
the advantage she might take of you.” No! Or, “You’re doing it because everybody else is kind of
nice to her.” No. I want to please her because I have a relationship with her, I love her, and I

care about her.

I don’t want to hurt her. That’s why I do everything that I can to please her, and things that I
know she likes, and that she doesn’t dislike — to do things pleasing to her. That’s it.

You’re to live in such a way that you are pleasing God. That’s it. You are part of his Son, and he
is in you, and his Son has that attitude to his Father. His Son loves his Father, and wants to
please his Father.

Then you think of it with your own parents and with others that you love. You know you don’t need to
be told, “Do this, because this person believes it’s right.” It’s something that comes from inside
you. You want to please them! You want to do everything that’s pleasing to them – because you want
them to be happy and at peace. So you do everything that is pleasing to them.

But do you see that so often we’re not thinking in those terms. We’re not thinking, “This dear
Father – he’s given me this life and he keeps on giving it to me whether I’m doing what pleases him
or doesn’t please him. And there isn’t a thing that I do in this life that he doesn’t know and feel.
He knows a word even before it’s on my lips, so he knows every movement of my mind.”

“He knows all my failings and he has certainly had to put up with a lot of my misdoings. Yet he
keeps on giving me life. How dear can you be? How kind can you be? How gracious and loving can a
person be to another?”

There rises up therefore in your heart a desire not to do a thing just because he tells you to do
it, or not to do a thing just because other people say, “This is what God wants.” But you do it
because you have a dear Father who you know loves you, has taken care of you all through the years,
puts up with all the things that you do, and overlooks them and forgives them — and yet still all
the time continues to give you life and breath. What else can you do but want him to be happy, and
want him to be pleased?

That’s one of the differences in what God has shown us – that we live a life that pleases God. That
is, we are concerned: does he like what I’m doing? “Lord, is this OK? Father, is this the right way
to go about this?” That’s it.

I think I’m a dreadful husband; dreadful in all kinds of other ways too. But I can see that when you
love another person, you’re thought is not, “Do they agree with this or do they not agree with
that?” Your thought is not, “What will they do to me if I don’t do this?” Your thought is not, “How
can I manage to maintain this relationship in some way?”

Your thought is, “They’re heart of my heart. They’re eye of my eye. They’re head of my head. They’re
part of me.” Why would you ever destroy your own body? You think of the other person as part of
yourself, and you want to please them. You don’t want to displease them.

The result is, you kind of keep an eye out for it. Do I know when this lady {referring to his wife}
is not happy or disagrees? Sure I do — in a flash! So I don’t need to do too much looking to see,
does she or does she not? I know. Let’s say it’s a bit of a crisis for me to act against that — in
my own heart. She’d put up with it anyway, so I’m not concerned with that side – but in my own
heart. Why would you do it? You wouldn’t do it – not if you love a person.

Would I go down a path that I know she disagrees with? Not without saying to her, “Love, I know you
don’t agree with this. I know you differ on this. But I do think that this is the right thing for me
to do.” But I wouldn’t dream of bouldering down any direction when I know that she is not for it.

That’s the relationship we have with our Father. We want to do everything that pleases him. We don’t
want to do anything that displeases him. That’s the attitude our heart has to its Father.

Why I even bother to outline that is, that’s not the normal attitude of Christianity today. After
they’ve said, “Would Jesus do this?” the normal attitude of Christianity today is, “How can I keep
myself pretty safe here? Is this a no-no, or is this something I can do without any repercussions
from the ‘man upstairs’? Is this something that God does not forbid? Is this something, not quite
what I could get away with, but is this something kind of neutral?” Of course this attitude
expressed in this verse is entirely different.

“That you might live a life worthy of Christ, and pleasing in all things.” That’s what the Greek is.
It’s “in everything” — “pan” — such as in “pandemic;” and “pantheist” is the world — everything.
The Greek word means “all.” So: “live a life pleasing in every way.” In other words, because Christ
is in your heart, what rises in your heart is, “Lord, is this OK? Do you like this? Would this
please you? Is this what is right?” It’s a natural desire to please our Father.

I would go further than this. I would go back to the relationship I used here. I don’t need a
telegraph from my wife that she disagrees. I’m not that dumb. I know it pretty fast. Indeed you
might almost say there comes a time when you know it – in actual fact we have our experience
ourselves – I know when you’re not with me, and I think you know when I’m not with you. We know it
in our hearts. We have a sense of each other.

You can say it’s miraculous. Maybe it is. It’s certainly a bond of love that you have for each other
that enables you to sense what the other would want. It’s as if both your hearts are tuned to the
same heart. It’s as if both want the same thing, and know what the other heart wants. It’s a little
bit of a strain not to do it, because it’s almost schizophrenic.

But when there’s a relationship between you, then there’s a oneness of heart, and there’s desire to
be pleasing to each other. It’s quite interesting, because you can see it brings a deeper level of
oneness. It’s not simply, “Am I avoiding doing anything I know they don’t like?” It’s more than
that. It’s at a deep level, heart beating together with heart – an intuitive natural sense of what
the other person wants.

That’s what it is with our Father. It’s almost as if as you go along – “I wonder if he’s smiling?”
“Well, our Father would smile at that.” Or, “Is he not smiling?” That’s the relationship that God
has given us in his Son.

It’s that kind of intimate relationship between us and our Father. It’s at that level that God has
made things real for us. That’s the level that Paul is talking about here – that you’d live a life
worthy of the Lord – not just a life that nobody could say about you, “Oh, they’re not a Christian.
Oh, that’s not a very Christian thing to do.”

It’s not just that. It’s that you live a life pleasing to him in everything — that your concern is,
“I wonder if he’s pleased. Lord, I hope you’re enjoying this. Father, I hope you’re glad of the way
I’ve lived this day.” So it’s a different level of life – a life that is pleasing in every way to

him.

So you can see that rather than it being a test of our orthodoxy, or a checking out if we’re REALLY
sanctified or if we REALLY live the life we preach – it’s far deeper than that. It’s a oneness
between us, the child, and the dear Father whose arms are round about us and who suffers so much day
by day on our behalf. It’s a loving relationship of a child to his father. That’s one of concern,
heart with heart.

I suppose I could end it there by saying that’s really the central issue that we’re called here to
bring to earth – the heart of God – to talk about life lived that is dear to God’s own heart, and
our preoccupation with God’s heart ourselves. A concern of, “Is he pleased, or is he hurt by this?
Is he glad of what we’re doing today, or is he not?” It’s a personal sense of oneness with our dear
Father.

That for us is our faith and our Christianity — how does God feel about the way we are this day.
Let us pray.

Strengthened with God’s Power to Bear Fruit

Colossians 1:11b

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Let’s look at Colossians 1 which is part of the prayer that Paul is praying for the Colossians. He
says in verse 11, “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all
endurance and patience with joy.” It’s so rich that it’s very difficult to deal with it in a half an
hour.

Paul’s talking of course about what they are going to spend their life doing and what they are going
to face doing it. They’re going to spend their life doing everything they can to complete the
creation that God has made, to bring about his will on this earth and to fulfill his plan for the
earth which is to complete the earth in whatever sense he needs it completed. And he says, “May you
be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with
joy.”

It might be good to remind you that there are two things going on in the world today. There are the
guys that are fracking — digging up the coal and oil for commerce of all kinds. Then there is
taking place in the world by God’s own power a fulfilling and developing of the order that he has
planted in the world but has been momentarily torn apart and desecrated by man’s own selfish will.
The problem of pollution is part of that. Man has begun to pollute the earth pretty thoroughly
rather than to develop its purity and power.

And there are all kinds of other situations where that’s happening. Syria was not meant to be
pouring its people into Croatia and then trying to get up into Germany. That was not the plan at
all. The plan was for the Syrians to develop their land with all the riches that God has planted in
it. It wasn’t to be for their own selfish development and purposes. This is what has brought about
the pollution, fracking and other mess that society is in. It’s because we are using the earth for
our own uses (despite what it does to other people) that many are suffering while a few get the
benefit. God has planned it that the many suffering will eventually weigh so heavily on the earth
that it will fall into absolute chaos from which only he can deliver it.

But God’s plan was that it be developed so that the earth becomes a beautiful place for us to live
in harmony and love with one another. There are two developments going on the in world today. There
is the development that we carry on with the desire for self- satisfaction. Then there’s a quiet
power that God has planned but rarely takes place. You can’t even say that the “Doctors without
Borders” express that. They just cause a little pause in the general distraction by the little bit
of love for other people that they exude. But generally there is very little of God’s way going on.

I’d like to mention to you very clearly the basis of God’s way. God’s way will involve us probably
discovering further details of the atom and of the particle world. It will probably mean developing
far more quantum theory and the invisible things concerning the cells of human beings. We are only
beginning to touch upon these in our research. It will probably concern many of the invisible things
that the world holds and contains, such as energies that are there that we know nothing about at the
moment but at times stumble upon. We discover some cure that was there all along. But there are
things like that planted in the world by God.

Now it is good to look back to the basis of that development of the world which is in Ephesians
1:21 — a verse we all know very well because it is one of those great prayers of Paul. He’s praying
that you may know the power that God has. Let’s start at Ephesians 1:18-23. ?
“….having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has
called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ?19? and what is the
immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might
?20? which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right
hand in the heavenly places, ?21? far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above
every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come; ?22? and he has
put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, ?23? which
is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

In the millisecond of eternity (that is the constant great present NOW that exists this moment in
which all who have died for centuries are) he has put all things under his feet and has made him the
head over all things for the church. We often overlook that verse. But what it’s saying is that God
has taken all the things that are wrong in the world and all the things that have resulted from the
world’s independence of Him and he has taken all those things (whether they be cancer or whether the
greed that dominates the disposition of wealth in the world), he has taken all the powers and chaos,
all the diseases that people have in their own minds and bodies and he has put them under the feet
of his son. That has been done, that victory has been won and that health has been wrought. Those
discoveries have been made and now exist in eternity above time. And that is what we are called to
minister.

It is that power that we touch and that God has called us to communicate to this world in different
ways. We think when it was said, “In the name of Jesus Christ be healed,” that that was an unusual
miracle. No, that was an unusual sign. Yes, it was a sign but it also came from the fact that that
healing had already taken place in Jesus above time. That sickness had been put under his feet. And
what was happening was it was being manifested through Peter or through the disciple that touched
the man’s head.

That’s what we are called to do. We are called to be used by Jesus to manifest the things that he
has already achieved. We think that when a human being changes from being a bitter, self-absorbed
individual to an outgoing loving person that that is due to the influence or your example or
character on them. Or it’s due to what they read in a book about how live above self. But it
actually is a miracle that God achieved in his son before the world was. And so when we talk about
service or works or ministry we are talking simply about the way in which God will use our
cooperation to manifest something that he has already done. And so our calling is to that kind of
ministry.

There are things that God has done in the person that you are going to visit and try to sell jewelry
to. There are things that he has done in her battered and twisted life that he has fixed in his son.
And he is able to manifest some of those things through you to her. It is a miraculous work and
that’s what Paul is talking about here — that you will be given this supernatural strength and
power from God himself to do this kind of work.

It lifts it all from this little admirable idea we have that they’ll see the kind of Christian that
we are and they will be drawn to that whereas other Christians put them off. Or they’ll see the
practical people we are in regards to business and they’ll throw away their idea that Christians are
useless people that live off of others. And they’ll have a new respect for our Savior. Not so. They

may do all those things but those things do not involve the spiritual change that God has done
through his son by putting that under his feet.

There is an invisible ministry of life that God has called us to that involves taking the things
that he has done – you notice that he has put all things under his feet for the church. He has made
him head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in
all. So it’s Jesus as the head of his body who has achieved that need to be achieved and they are
manifested through our ministry. That’s why he prays that we will have all the power from above that
we need and that that is what we need above all things.

So it does lift it all into what it really is – a supernatural ministry of God’s own life. It lifts
it out of the realm of just us doing the same kind of thing as the last help yourself book did. It’s
not a temporary do-it-yourself thing. We operate in a different realm. We are men and women really
much like the story of “The Little Prince” by Oscar Wilde. Briefly there was a statue made of jewels
and emeralds. The birds used to take an emerald from the prince and leave it with some poor person
who could then sell it etc. It’s not a variation of the human side of that. It’s the supernatural
side of that. Christ is there and he is the one. We are taking a bit of him and distributing that to
different people. We are applying to different ones what he has already achieved on their behalf.
So it is a supernatural work. But it does require what Paul is praying for in Colossians 1:11
because it does require that kind of supernatural power. “May you be strengthened with all power,
according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.”

The patience with joy is possible because it isn’t work that you are doing yourself. It’s a joyful
sharing of a reality that has already taken place. And so when you go out into the shops you do so
not to achieve something for God or to do something that he will be able to bless. Instead, you go
out with a joyful heart knowing that this is all done. “Lord you have fixed things in this person’s
life, you have made everything right and I am there simply to share the light heartedness of that.”

That’s why it’s done with joy. When it’s not done with joy you know it’s your own work. It’s heavy,
wears you out, and tires you. When it’s his work and you’re simply distributing what he has done and
you’re conscience of that then that is joy and that provides patience.
Without that you have trouble with patience. The Greek word for patience is remaining under a thing
that has become grinding day after day. You get into the car and drive mile after mile with your
strength and your effort trying to do something for God. That is grinding and wears you out. It’s
hard to stay with it and so patience grinds on you. You think I’ve done it before and how often have
I done this?
When it’s a joyful, delighted sense you think, “Lord you have made the whole world right in yourself
and have put all things under the feet of Jesus. This thing is right and I am here to let them know
that this thing will go alright and has already been fixed.” Then it is a joyful thing when you are
sharing a rejoicing achievement.

So it is very important to see what is your work. Is it your job to make that sale? Or is it your
job to share the confidence you have that God sees what is needed here, has already made what is
necessary to be made and has already completed the sale that has to be completed. Now your job is
just to go in there and present. It’s the difference between the joyful sense of a thing done and
the burden of responsibility — of trying to bring about this massive task that you have to do.

It’s important to think through it. That’s why Paul says, “May you be strengthened with all power,
according to his glorious might…” I don’t know if you know the importance of glorious. We have a

tendency to think it’s people yelling, waving flags and praising the other people. That’s glorious.
It’s not. Glorious in the Bible has the meaning of the thing that God has already done in Jesus.
It’s all that he has already set at his right hand. He has set Jesus at his right hand. In himself
at God’s right hand is all power and all achievement. So glory is something he has done, that has
been achieved, that is already over. So it depends very much on where you live or as Watchman Nee
said, “Position is everything”.
Are you at the right hand of God in Jesus? Or are you down here slogging it out?

I certainly know for myself that it’s a real problem when I spent all my time down here. It gets
very heavy going when you get preoccupied with what has to be done down here. But when you begin to
spend some time at the right hand of God you ask questions like: “Is Ernest O’Neill dead or is he
alive? Is this creature with his bank accounts alive or dead? Is this creature who is slightly
overlooked dead or alive? Is this my life that I have to somehow make right? Is this my job that I
have to somehow do? Is this my reputation that I have somehow to look after? Is this my position
that I have to watch and protect? Or is that poor creature crucified, dead and done away with?

I exist as a bubble here in this world that is really part of Jesus. So it does make all the
difference whether you see yourself down here slogging it out or whether you see yourself at God’s
right hand. So, that’s why Paul prays, “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his
glorious might…”

I am most hesitant to read this because it requires great love of the English language with
compound, complex sentences. It was written by Alexander McLaren. He is one of the greatest
expositors and he writes long sentences.

“Strengthen with all might. This is still a continuation of the apostle’s prayer for these
believers. Having prayed for an increase of spiritual knowledge and that this might be put into
practice he proceeds to pray for strength for them so that they can practice what they have
knowledge of and to walk worthily, to please God in all things, to bring forth fruit with patience,
to preserve in knowledge, and practice fruitfulness. It implies that believers are weak in
themselves and insufficient to do and bear anything in themselves but stand in need of strength from
above, even of all might and all kind of spiritual might and strength proportionate to the various
kinds of services, temptations, and trials they are called into and exercised with.

They have need of every kind strength in order to resist the temptations of Satan, to stand against
them and bear up under them, to oppose the corruptions of their own nature that great company which
comes upon them, wars against them, threatens to carry them captive (I think he means there the
weaknesses of the body, the things we inherit as human beings) and destroy them against which they
have no power of their own.

To bear the cross without the presence and grace of Christ is very heavy and includes all
afflictions and adversities of every sort which are grievous to the flesh and that which it recoils.
To perform the various duties of religion and the whole of the work of their generation they have a
will to do yet often know not how to perform. They want renewed strength with their souls and also
to persevere in faith and holiness and hold out until the end.

That which strengthens they cannot expect to have from themselves or from any creature but according
to his glorious power — the glorious power of God. Power belongs to God. It’s a perfection of his
nature and has been and is gloriously displayed in many things as in the creation of the heavens and

the earth and the upholding of all things in their being.”

This week when I was doing my exercise of rowing my right knee was giving a little problem. I saw,
“Lord Jesus, you are at our Father’s right hand. This is your body and this is your knee. Thank you
Lord, that this is your knee and we’re at the right hand of your Father.” And with that revelation I
blasted on with the rowing and as you can guess the knee came alright. So it’s very realistic. Is he
in me or has he left this body for me to look after? Is this his body or is it mine? And so it is
very real.

It’s Christ in you who does it. He does the miracles and he is that glorious power from on high. The
apostles were endued with strength to do what they did and it’s by the same spirit that believers
are strengthened with might in the inner man. And so it is a very real thing that you may be
strengthened with might through his glorious power. They connect up directly with the right hand of
God.

God wants you to be strengthened with might at his right hand and that you live there in your own
mind. When I faced my knee situation the other day it was very real. This is either his body or it’s
mine. He is the one who holds the sky up at this moment; he is the one enabling those birds to fly.
That is your energy and that is the energy you have in me and so I thanked the Savior for it.

That’s what takes you above the holidays or vacations. You can’t live it by depending on your own
human strength. You can only live it if he is in you and if you are leaning on him. If you are, then
that glorious strength will give you a power that is not your own and will lift you above yourself.

Undoubtedly that will give us pure joy. Every moment that comes when you sink down to this earth, it
becomes a message from God to “look up!” That’s all it is. The message doesn’t need to be there.
But God sees that you need it to “look up!” That’s why it’s there. So far from looking on a
hardship, pain or a downer as a problem or as something opposing you that’s a loving message from
your Father. “I’m here! Just look up and it will be gone.”

It’s real that you will be strengthened with might in his glorious power. It’s all just to get us to
live in him. It’s not what you achieve by doing it, but to give you the fun of living in reality.
Let us pray.

Empowerment Through God’s Promises

Colossians 1:11c

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Colossians 1:11, “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all
endurance and patience with joy.” I would start us in our thoughts in Genesis 1:26 which is the call
to dominion that God gave to mankind. “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So that is God’s commission to us to have dominion over the earth. It’s the perversion of that that
produces the Hitlers. It’s the perversion of that sense of authority that God has given us deep down
over the world. It’s that, that is perverted by egotistic man into dictatorships and into all the
ways that they want others to do what they want you to do and taking away individuality. So that’s
the perversion that has taken place.
It does connect up with our verse in Colossians because it brings us to the fact that God has
actually arranged our lives to take part in that dominion. He has called each one of us to be part
of his son and to help him to bring into the order of his will all that is here on the earth and
probably eventually all that is in the whole universe.

It’s in connection with that that we have any kind of authority at all. It’s in connection with that
that the promise is made in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” And it’s that commitment
that God has given us in Jesus.

There are good works that we are made to walk in and there are works that he has prepared
beforehand. In other words, he has not thrown us into the world and said, “Clean this place up. Do
your best.” He hasn’t done that. He has foreseen the whole situation and he himself has cleaned it
up. He has prepared works beforehand for us to walk in. They are works that he himself has already
accomplished but he wants us to be part of his son and part of himself as he completes the universe
that he has made.

And so each of us have works prepared beforehand that we are to walk in. We are free to agree with
his plan or to disagree with it. But in a sense our life is already prepared for us and we are
prepared for our lives. So he has not thrown the whole thing into a washing machine and then waited
to see what it turns out. He has in fact made us in his image for a purpose that he has in mind and
at any point we can say, “No, I don’t want that purpose.” That’s what is happening all over the
world and has happened constantly down through the years. And he has committed himself to bearing
that and bearing it until the very edge of nothingness. He has committed himself to bearing it until
the very end.

I have put it in these terms. It’s like God is saying, “Hit me until you want to stop hitting me.”
So he has expanded what free will means. He has gone beyond what anyone could expect anyone to go in
order to give us the realization that we had free will. We could even kill his own son. So that’s
the situation we are in. We are in a place where our life is laid out for us and prepared for us but
we are still able to say “No, or Yes” to it.
So each of us have works prepared for us that we are intended to walk in but we can refuse to walk

in them. But they are no surprise to God. He has prepared them ahead. And so when he talks of us
doing things, they are things that he has already planned and worked into his overall program for
the universe. It will fit into not only his glory and enjoyment but into our glory and enjoyment.

So that’s part of what this call to dominion means. We have a life laid out for us that we can
refuse if we want to refuse it. But also a life that we can walk in if we are willing to walk it. We
can therefore walk in a known way and a sure path. We can walk in a confidence that we cannot
produce ourselves. And so it’s in the light of that we are looking at the verse before us.

There are works prepared beforehand. That is, there are things that have to be brought into order in
this world that are already laid out for us to walk in. Now the other mystery is that he has already
brought them under his control. They are where they are by his permission. He is the once that says,
“Seas, stop, come no further. Waves, stop there and go back.” He is the one that controls the limits
of this chaos or this order. And so he is always there with his hand carefully on it in love.
In that sense he has already done the work. That ties up with Ephesians 1:22. It is talking about
Christ’s ascension to the right hand of God. Ephesians 1:21-23, “far above all rule and authority
and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that
which is to come; and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things
for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

And he has put all things under his feet. That’s one of the things that God did when he raised Jesus
from the dead and destroyed death. He put all things under Jesus’ feet — all the things that are
chaotic — all the things that are in rebellion– all the things that have fallen apart. He has put
all those things under his feet. He has made him head over all things for the church.

So God has put all things under Jesus and he has made all things right in Jesus. He has taken all
the pollution and nuclear explosions that man has created and put all of those under his feet. He
has made Jesus head over all those things. And those are the things many of us are involved in
tackling each time we clean a toilet. In some sense we are dealing with what is not like God —
things that are dirty or corrupt or have deteriorated. We are part of him bringing that into the
order and beauty of his mind and heart. That was put under the feet of Jesus. Jesus cleaned that
toilet before we ever got near to it.

He cleaned up the ocean before BP ever started to clean away the oil spill. He has done all those
things. They are only possible to us human beings because God himself has already done them in
eternity and that’s what we all have difficulty with. We talk glibly about Einstein and the space
world. But we are very slow at grabbing hold of the fact that eternity is now. This is it. It is
now. It is a great eternal present moment and time is something that God has actually allowed for a
little bit. He has taken a little bit of eternity and called it time. But actually it’s all one
great moment.

That fact is what explains how Christ has actually done all these things. He has already cleaned all
these things up and brought everything into order. He has already met the person that you are going
to meet tomorrow who says, “Your jewelry is terrible. It’s miserable and not sold for me.” He has
already dealt with that and brought it into order under God’s will. Because he subjects all things
to the counsel of his own will.
That’s why God can sleep at night because he has brought all things into order. God has touched
everything and brought everything under his own control. To us it’s a mystery but God is able to
bring all things under his will. And that’s what he did in Jesus.

That brings us to the kind of thing that you face every day. It’s back in Colossians 1:11. “May you
be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with
joy.” “May you be strengthened with all power…..” What Paul is saying is, “May you yourself be
strengthened with the power that God has already exercised over the chaos of the world and that he
has already applied to the works to which you are involved day by day. May you be strengthened with
that power that he has already exercised in Jesus when he put those things under his feet.

The person who said to you, “Your jewelry is so dull and old fashioned”, at that very moment the
whole wrong attitude has been dealt with by God our Father. The answer has already been designed by
him so that he will lead us in triumph in all things in Christ Jesus. He has already done that and
Paul is praying that you will receive the power that that has been exercised against that lack of
God’s will in the universe.

And you will receive that power and will experience it in that situation. That power will lift you
above that situation. He is saying, “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his
glorious might.” His glorious might is the might that he has exercised in Christ at his right hand
far above all authority and dominion and power. That’s what the glory means. It’s that place that is
above the earth and its limitations.
May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance with
patience with joy. It separates you from the miserable little thing inside where you are thinking,
“Oh she thinks that jewelry isn’t very good. Maybe it isn’t good. Maybe it is old fashioned. Maybe
it won’t sell.”

It lifts you above all of that and enables you to endure all that with joy instead of with fear. You
are not a little nobody who is trying to pander a few bits of jewelry to a shop owner but you are
with Jesus at God’s right hand far above all authority and dominion and power. That’s what the glory
means. It’s that place that is above the earth and its limitations.

May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance with
patience with joy. It separates you from this miserable little thing inside where you are thinking,
“Oh she thinks that jewelry isn’t very good. Maybe it isn’t good. Maybe it is old fashioned. Maybe
it won’t sell.” It lifts you above all of that and enables you to endure all that with joy and not
with fear.

You are not a little nobody who is trying to pander a few bits of jewelry to a shop owner but you
can operate with endurance and joy. You know that God foresaw this work. He planned for me to walk
in it and he is certainly not going to walk me into a wall. He’s never done that before. He has a
way for me to walk through this and he has a way forward.
And that’s what he means, “May you be strengthened with the power and the might at his right hand.”
God gives us the power to see these works and to walk in them in joy. Not a false joy, but a certain
joy that he has solved this in reality. This has been solved. This is a temporary moment in time but
this has actually been solved and he has already carried your own life beyond this and into victory
in his son. You are already at his right hand and he already has his hand on your shoulder.

And it’s that that Paul is praying for — that you’d be strengthened with that kind of power.
Colossians 1:11 “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all
endurance and patience with joy.” It’s because all of it has already been done and has been solved.

The situations that you walk into day by day are already written in his book, every one of them. He
has already examined each one and worked out how he is going to weave it into the pattern he has for
your life. Paul is saying may you be strengthened with power that has brought order into all the
things that you come up against in your day by day life. May you be strengthened with that power so
that you can walk with endurance, with patience and with joy.

And it’s again what Watchman Nee says, “Position is everything.” Am I really this poor little
Midwesterner with a little bag of jewelry trying to pander some stuff over to a buyer? Or, am I
God’s child whose life has already been written clearly in his book and who has been raised up to
sit with his son at his right hand and has already taken part in the victory over the world and the
bringing into order of the world itself.
So the issue is, “Are you walking in things for the first time trying to find your way through this
muddle or are you walking in works that God has already planned for you and the solution that he has
already worked out?” It’s a matter of which is which. He’s praying that you’ll know what is true and
that you live in victory because all of it has already been done and has been solved.

The situations that you walk into day by day are already written in his book, every one of them. He
has already examined each one and worked out how he is going to weave it into the pattern he has for
your life. Paul is saying, may you be strengthened with the power that has brought order into all
the things that you come up against in your day by day life. May you be strengthened with that power
so that you can walk with endurance, with patience and with joy.

So it’s interesting that all the things that you and I meet day by day are old stuff to the Father.
They are things that he has already settled in his son. They are things already under his Son’s
feet.

The last important point to make is, “How do you know what to do in that situation?” And that’s
where he prays for the Holy Spirit to give you light so that you can see that he has already done
the work and then in the light of that what you’ve to do. Your reaction is very different if you
know he has already solved this.

Your response to the person in that situation is very different from your response if you’re
wondering, “What is the answer to this? Maybe they’re right. Maybe this jewelry is the pits. Maybe
it won’t sell.” That’s a different situation entirely. Then you have a whole problem inside that you
struggle with and you fight and have conflict within. So it’s very different and that’s what he is
saying, “See it as it really is. See it as something that is under the feet of my son, that I have
already solved and believe me it’s beautiful jewelry.”

And God is able to help you to see reality, to see things as they really are. That’s what he is
praying for here, that you’ll be strengthened with the power to respond in the light of the reality
with the power that comes from how things really are rather than from the way you think they are.

Strengthened According to God’s Glorious Might

Colossians 1:11d

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Let’s read Colossians 1:11, May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might,
for all endurance and patience with joy.”

It says, “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might.” God just brought
to my mind again the meaning of that which we touched upon a little last time.

May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might. So often we think of that as
just according to God who gives you might. But really the important thing about it is that the might
is in a certain place and it’s back there in Ephesians 1 and it’s really part of that great prayer
of Paul’s.

Ephesians 1:15 -22–For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your
love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of
revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know
what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the
saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the
working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made
him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and
dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to
come; and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the
church.”

And we often read that off and say that it’s a nice way to put it. He’s put all things under his
feet and has made him head over all things for the church. That’s a nice picture and I’m sure it is
true but it has really very little practical outworking. And of course the fact is that’s the base
of everything. He has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for
the church.

In other words the whole world has fallen apart into chaos and God has put it all in his son and has
put him head over all the chaos and has put all the chaos under his feet. He has dealt with all the
unknown invisible powers, all the principalities and powers, all the great powers of darkness. He
has put them all under his son’s feet. He has seen all that. He knows that there are mighty powers
such as you glimpse a little in the cruelty of Isis.

But really that’s one of the more obvious ones. The fact is there are all kinds of deception and
lying that are going on continually. For instance, take the administration that runs New York City
where the deal fellow Silver had a whole system of lies and deception that governed all kinds of
contracts that were made over 20-30 years.

And so throughout the world there are all kinds of invisible spiritual powers and deceptions going
on. All deep cruelties and intense hatreds that we don’t see at all but are underneath, God has seen
all those develop. He has not only foreseen the things like the mess pollution makes of the world,

or the things that happen when we do certain things to our oceans. He has not only seen all those
but he has seen all the invisible, spiritual powers that have become twisted and corrupted and that
are set against him and against his way of doing things.

In other words he’s seen that there is a whole series of substitute powers that claim to do what he
himself does in his purity. And he has put all those things under his son’s feet. He has worked
great spiritual transactions in eternity that has meant that all those things are destroyed. And
that’s what we fight not only in our dear friends.

I could put it into a very personal way. My brother was so bad tempered. He specialized in choosing
my mom’s beautiful vases and throwing them at me or something in the house. And the dear fellow
would come after me with swords. I had a bathroom door with a whole in it because he was coming for
me with a sword! There were no psychologists or psychiatrists in those days and so you can imagine
what my poor mother was going through.

Our family doctor, who probably knew nothing about psychology, was the one my mother went to. What
could she do? Here was a fellow who was out of control and she didn’t know what to do. At one time
my father theorized about the moon. Did it happen at the time of the full moon?

Our little problems were nothing compared to the difficulties that other people had. We both knew
drunken families where the husband would come home and beat up the wife. So there are all kinds of
powers underneath that are working all the time in the world and our poor family doctor didn’t know
what to do with my brother. And it carried on like that right until even his death in a sense.

What was working there was something deeper and that’s what we often face. We are often face things
that are far deeper than the outward symptoms of the situation. This is why I thought we should
touch upon this today. It’s very easy to think that God will strengthen us with might to put these
things right and do the things that we’ve to do. We’ll say this to this person and that to that
person. We’ll go to this country and distribute Bibles. Or, we’ll give money to this source to solve
this problem. And we think that’s doing the work of the Lord.

No, the work of the Lord is deeper than that. God has sent us here so that his son in us could deal
with these invisible powers. With these unseen forces that are the real cause of the difficulties
that we come up against that’s why he sent us here. That’s why often even among ourselves we talk a
lot. Sometimes we don’t talk when we should but often we talk a lot.

E. Stanley Jones said, “If you talk less to other people and talk more to God about other people and
talk to other people less about God you’d see more work done.” That’s because the real power that
is needed is the power that God has put under Christ’s feet. It’s a spiritual power and that’s why
it’s called a glorious power — his glorious might. It’s a power that is greater than our
psychological influences or our verbal comments.

And God has put us here to express and administer that power. Your point is so relevant about
really going to Jesus about a person. It’s not going nominally to Jesus and asking him if he’d like
me to say something to the person. It’s not asking the Lord to give you the words if he wants you
to say anything. That’s the way out. It’s not asking God to klonk us on the head so we can know if
we should say something. It’s not in those outward things that God works. He is sending us so that
Christ can do a work through us that is a continuation of the victory that Christ has won already.
That’s our place. You can see how weak our position is, how hopeless it is because we interpret it

in a shallow way. Oh yes, I’m here to do things for the Lord or for the Lord to say certain things
through me. Or we think, “What would Christ do in this situation? That’s what I have to work out and
then I have to do that.”

We are so often playing games and we know we are playing games because we see no change. We see
nothing changed. We just say to each other, “Oh he’s a bit better than he was. Or the situation is
improving. You know these things take time.” But the real fact is that we are not involved in
spiritual work at all. We are not being strengthened by his glorious might. We have no idea what
Christ put under his feet in this situation because we never talk to him about it.

And so often there are all kinds of attitudes and spiritual positions and deceptions that continue
even as we are doing our outward work with the person. It can be in regard even to our own situation
here. We can be saying the right thing to each other but it doesn’t make any difference. Could it be
you weren’t saying anything relevant at all and that wasn’t the issue? It’s something that the
Savior would explain to you if you would wait upon the Lord. They that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength. They shall rise up wings as the eagles. They’ll understand and be able to
discern.

So really what I ask you to do is just to grasp mentally that fact that being strengthened by the
glorious might of Christ is knowing what Christ has put under his feet in this situation,
understanding what the heart of this issue is and knowing that and then receiving from him wisdom to
minister and build on what he has done. So that there is work coming from his spirit inside the
person. Or, there is work coming from his spirit against a certain spirit or atmosphere in a
situation. Then, there is revelation by you in even your face, sometimes by your smile or your
general attitude, sometimes maybe even by a word. But it needs the inner working of God’s spirit in
the person and a work is done.

So, I thought it’s so important that we should go back on it and see what that is, “strengthened by
his glorious might”. It’s the might that he wrought from his position of glory at God’s right hand.
Where God raised him up and made him sit with him in heavenly places and at that moment put all
things under his feet and made him the head over all things for the church.

We are distributors of a power that Jesus himself has wrought in the situation. That’s why he talks
about patience and joy. You find it’s a joyful thing and not something you are strained about. It’s
a thing you have infinite patience for because you know it’s been done. It’s one of joy because
Jesus’ spirit passes through you and that brings the joy of God. You feel the joy of Christ when
you are exercising his power.

So it’s something deeper than just a message from the Lord. It’s worth taking very seriously when
you think of those problems that we call chronic, either chronic physical problems, or chronic
problems or chronic spiritual problems. It’s not a matter of continually hammering along with your
human equipment. It’s finding out from the Lord what he has dealt with in that situation and
receiving from him any directions that he has for any part that you should play in that.

It’s very much you and him, him and you. It’s very much your relationship together and that’s where
the ministry is. You can see a little how this touches upon the whole business that we are involved
in. The father is so kind. He appreciates anything we do. He is so generous to us. He sees our
bumbling ways. But why continue to bumble and go through motions when the real work of God has
already been started by Jesus.

It’s a lot more than, “Lord, I’ll be talking with my customer Jean Brown and showing her our new
jewelry. Will you bless our conversation?” It’s much more having a concern for Jean Brown. Do you
really care for Jean Brown besides getting a sale and have you expressed that to Him. Have you
talked with Jesus about Jean Brown to see if he has anything to say about her to you before you see
her?

It’s something very fine and noble. It’s something refined and much subtler than our ideas. So
that’s Colossians 1:11 “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might,
for all endurance and patience with joy.” That’s what God has for us. Let us pray.

Christ Is the Firstborn of all Creation

Colossians 1:15 – 23

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Let’s turn to Colossians 1:15-23. It is one of the clearest statements of the gospel that we have.
“He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things
were created, in the Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. He is before all
things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the
beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all
the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross, And you, who once were
estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his
death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that you
continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you
heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul became a
minister.”

One of the things that give me difficulty as I tried to deal with the gospel and its meaning after I
became a Christian at 13 first and then really at 17 years of age – was that Jesus bore our sins. I
believed it because that was the gospel but it actually bewildered me. I thought he bore my sins in
29 A.D. but I wasn’t even alive then. I hadn’t time to do anything wrong so how did he bear my sins?

I believed what everyone said that you take it by faith and so for a long time I tried to do that. I
thought a bit like the illustration that Paul Little gives. There’s a little boy in Sunday school
that is asked, “What is faith?” He then says, “Faith is believing what isn’t true.”

I was a bit like that. I thought you are saved by faith and although I didn’t say that faith was
believing what isn’t true, it’s really what I meant. I believe that Jesus bore my sins, even though
I hadn’t committed them and didn’t live till thousands of years later yet I believe in some way that
he bore my sins.

So to tell you the truth, the result was that throughout the years I didn’t really understand what
you meant when you said that. It still baffles me when I read a man as bright as Francis Collins.
Francis Collins wrote The Language of God and he is the top scientist that is heading up the genome
research in America for the government. He is much respected and The Language of God is a very good
book. It’s very clear and has a C.S. Lewis approach to the reasonability of believing in God. Yet,
in one sentence he passes over it when he says, “Of course this wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t
believe that Jesus died for our sins.” His statement was right enough but to me I thought it was
funny that he didn’t go into it any more. Maybe he chose not to because he was dealing with a
different subject.

But it has surprised me how many people toss that off — Jesus died for your sins – of course he
did, yet I’m sure there must be many people who think the same as me.

And so I got into all the theories. Well God paid Satan off by offering Jesus as a ransom for our

sins. So it was paying a ransom to Satan for our sins. And of course that was baffling because it
made Satan equal with God. Yet that ransom theory was “the” theory in evangelical circles.

So all down through the years I’ve had difficulty with that. In what sense did Jesus die for my sins
if he actually died back then? Did I ever read these verses? Yes, a thousand times I have read these
verses. Did I understand them? Not for a moment. And I’m daring to say this morning that great
parts of Christendom have no idea what those verses are about. They are absolutely bewildering. They
are so “Einstein”.

It’s the whole truth of infinity. It’s the whole truth that God sees the whole of history as one
second. And that the final reality is that this is all just one present moment that we are
experiencing. I’ve tried to put that in my writing where God kindly plays back that one second in
century spaces so that we can appreciate it. But the actual reality of life is that it’s one
eternal, present moment.

And that’s what these verses are getting at. I don’t think many people understand the verses. You
know what the gospel is but most preachers don’t touch this at all. I can understand because it’s
difficult to get over to an ordinary person the idea of eternity as being one present moment. God
sees everything in one second.

In other words what Einstein says is true. Time and space are relative. If you go up to the top of
the Foshay Tower the clock is going faster than it is at the bottom. According to where you are in
space, your time is goes faster or slower. There is a place therefore somewhere in the physical
universe where time virtually stands still.

But that’s what these verses are talking about. I agree with you that it brings up a lot of other
difficulties. Let’s look at it and I’ll share as clearly as I can understand. First of all it is
talking about Jesus. What do people think of when they think of Jesus? He’s the man in the long
garments in the Middle East, in the first century with a beard. And they think that’s Jesus. They
think he was a local preacher in the first century and he lived for 3-4 years as far as ministry was
concerned and he was crucified and then rose from the dead. But they think that that’s Jesus.

They don’t think of him as much more than that. If you said to a person that he is really at God’s
right hand they would say, sure. But they don’t think of him as the image of the invisible God. They
think he is like God but he’s the perfect image of God. He is the image of the invisible God – the
God that made the whole universe. He’s exactly like Jesus. Jesus is exactly like him.

The next clause is just a phrase. He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all
creation. You feel like hitting yourself on the head. What a minute – he’s the first-born of all
creation. He’s either born or he is created. Which is he? Of course it’s plainly saying that he’s
the first-born. Of the whole creation of life he was the very first and he was born. He wasn’t
created, he was born. So he was part of God. That’s why we call him the only begotten son. He was
first-born. He came in 4 B.C. but that was when he appeared on earth as the first-born of all
creation. Before there was anything, there was God and he had an only son, Jesus.

Jesus was born of his father. He was the first-born of everything. Now, I submit to you I don’t
think people think that way for a moment. I don’t think they think that Jesus was actually born and
had a life. They know that we talk about Jesus and his preexistence but it’s kind of a theological
phrase. Yes, he was preexistent. Obviously if he had anything to do with God then he was

preexistent. But they don’t really grasp that he was born of his father before there was any
creation.

Why am I bothering you with this? To tell you the truth it’s important that sometime we start
sharing things as they really are. First of all it would deal with a lot of people who have had the
same problems that I have had. Certainly it would be right along with the theoretical physicists and
their belief that Einstein was right. Time and space are relative and time hardly exists at all.

So, it is important that sooner or later we start trying to deal with this in our websites and with
the things that we are sharing. I feel a bit like the man who said, “If you preach the gospel about
everything but the center of problems in the age in which you live you haven’t preached the gospel.”
It’s really important that we preach the gospel in a way that deals with the present atmosphere in
which we live.

Why people like Dawkins can make so much trouble for truth is because we are not sharing the gospel
and explaining it. I agree with you that it takes a bit of work. So let’s go to it.

He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For in him all things were
created. You mean Jesus with the long garments and beard? In him all things — I know that you’ll
say they do believe it but they don’t. Nobody really believes that. They read that and say that John
already said that. “In Him all things were created. Without him not anything was made that was made.
In Him was life and the life was the light of men.”

They remember those verses of John but also that things were created. They remember that and treat
it as more of a general, philosophical statement. They don’t treat it as being the Jesus that we see
in the gospel. In him all things were created. Hitler? Yes. You? Yes you and me. All things were
created. We were created in him back then….. Our moms were a way of God getting us onto this
physical planet but we ourselves were created in him.

For in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones
or dominions or principalities or authorities— all things were created through him and for him. He
is before all things and in him all things hold together.

And so everything was made inside of Jesus. He must have had a lot of sins to bear. If it’s up to us
we would deal with a bunch of criminals by building steel fences and arming with guns so that we
keep them well away from us. We would not bring them into our own home. We say, “Sure give them free
will and let them do what they want. The only way they’ll ever be able to appreciate me or to know
me or to be like me is if I give them free will. But I’m not going to live with that.”

But that is what God did. He made us all inside his only begotten son. I dare to put it this way and
I know it’s extreme and provocative but God did what he did so that he wouldn’t lose us. I think
that’s what was in his dear mind. I’m with everybody here who says you have to have faith to
appreciate it but your faith won’t make it true unless it is true.

He made everything inside of his son. You will not be lost because you are not in his son. You’ll
lose the reality of it maybe……I don’t know. You’ll lose the perception of it if you don’t have
faith. Faith creates nothing. It just recognizes what is truth. But that’s where you and I are
today.

Hitler – I just pick him because he is one of the worst. God put all things in his son and it’s not
just his son that bears the sins. Our dear father bears them every day. Everything each of us does
occurs inside of him. There isn’t a thing that we think or a feeling that we have that he and his
dear son do not know.

Of course you can see it begins to make sense of all kinds of things. It begins to make sense of
that cry of forsakenness on the cross. “My God, my God why has though forsaken me?” Well, obviously
it was our father being torn apart by his love for us and yet it was taking place inside of his son.

Why I think it’s worth the trouble to work out how to express this because people don’t know our
God. They don’t know their dear Father. They don’t know what he has done and what he does every day.

You see the way it goes on… “All things were created through him and for him. He is before all
things and in him all things hold together.” As this little insect tries to get into this part of
his body and poison the blood, he restrains it in order to keep the blood flowing to all the other
parts. So he is continually working to hold his own body together in the midst of all the desperate
elements that are trying to destroy it and to break it up.

He is before all things and in him all things hold together. We casually wonder why Bearden stepped
back at that moment. Or why did the invasion take place just like it did on D-Day? Or why did such
and such a things happen? Boy wasn’t that lucky. It wasn’t lucky at all. It was our dear father who
has continually, again and again, repeatedly held things back.

Why was I lying on the gurney waiting, when a surgeon passes by and happens to notice my chart?
There are thousands of things that could have occurred.

He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning the first-born from the dead. Yes, the
ones that died in him he raised them up. Calvary was just the outward historical expression of the
agony that he had been bearing for centuries. So there is a whole reality that God has born
everything that every human being has ever done. He has born that in his only son so that he could
give us the chance to accept and to turn and to live.

Very few people are thinking about that. In fact what Christendom did to the gospel was to destroy
the idea. Patripassianism is a well-known heresy meaning the “father suffering”. The issue was not
just that the father was suffering but they believed the father could not suffer. They believe the
Latin and Greek deity was the right one. God was a person who was impassable or impenetrable and
could not be touched by the failures or the imperfections of humanity. And so we were brought up
with the idea that God was way up there and he was untouchable. Mary was in some way touchable but
God himself was not touched.

We were trying in some way to protect the absolute holiness, purity, and indestructability of God.
So we emphasized that the deity is untouched by us. We are influenced by the statements in the New
Testament that he was touched by our infirmities. Statements like Jesus wept when Lazarus had died
showed that he had been touched in sympathy but they themselves were not touched.

We certainly don’t believe that all the worst in the world was right in the heart of his son which
he felt every day. And so the world has little idea of God’s heart. It has very little idea of what

their dear creator is like. It doesn’t matter if it is the abortion issue or all the other stupid
arguments that people have about god as if he is a “thing” to talk about. Instead he is the dear
person who has held us in his heart from the very beginning.

Think about it because we need to begin to share some of this. I understand that it’s often possible
to slip over into Satan’s extreme. You have to try to state things as honestly as you can but I
would say it’s unthinkable that you won’t touch it. I agree with you that we should talk with each
other and describe how we are going to say things. We should do what we can to help each other to
put it rightly. But certainly it begs to be shared. Men and women do not know how dear our Father
is.

Yet, it’s here and you can see it. You can’t make any sense of it except to ignore it. And that’s
what most people do. You can just ignore that piece and other similar pieces in the Bible. But our
Father is really something. He is so kind. Of course you’re right. It’s very near to universalism
except that universalism says that everyone is going to be saved whatever their attitude. No, our
Father is going to keep on keeping on. He will keep on keeping on until eventually we turn.

The Protestants have kept things as a very tight club. God has not born all our sins. He will bear
your sins if you confess them at an altar, if you do this and do that…. No. Our dear father has been
bearing them faithfully from the very beginning.

We have a friend that says, “We know where we’re going!” But God has us in his heart and he will
keep on holding us there until we eventually believe and see and open our hearts to him. So in a
very real way there will be no drunkards or robbers in Heaven. There won’t. God will bear with them
until they change. Because the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies are new every
morning. His mercies never come to an end. So you can see that it’s something very precious that God
has given us.

We have this silly computer system and we can ask for his grace to begin to share some of this to
others. Let us pray.

God’s View of Reality

Ephesians 1:1a

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

We’re going to start Ephesians. If you open your Bible into Ephesians, we’ll try to begin. I’ll
explain a little of the historical and geographical end of it, loved ones. [Pointing to map in the
Bible:] That’s Italy of course, and then Greece comes down there and then you’re over and down in
Jerusalem. That’s the Mediterranean. This is Africa, and here’s Rome and there’s Ephesus and
Antioch. This is Palestine here and Jerusalem is down here.

About 54 A.D., Paul started his third missionary journey. [Still pointing to Bible map:] I believe
he went like that, and then up around there, and back. He arrived in Ephesus. The journey went on
to about 58 A.D., and he arrived in Ephesus and spent from 54 to 57 in Ephesus — so probably longer
than he had spent in any other church. He established a church there and was there roughly two
years. And then you remember, he was arrested and taken to Rome. In 62 A.D., he wrote three
letters and one of them was the letter to the Ephesians. So that’s a little of the background. As
we go through Ephesians over the next 10 years or as many years as it takes us, we’ll talk more
about the background of the church, but those are the historical issues.

He did three missionary journeys and it was during his third one that he traveled to Ephesus, spent
two years there in a church, went on around, then came back, and then was arrested and taken to Rome
in probably about 60 A.D. He was allowed there to remain in fairly safe house arrest and it was
during that time that he wrote many of his letters — and one of them he wrote to the Ephesians.

The church at Ephesus was quite mature and therefore there were not a lot of problems in it. In the
letter to the Corinthians, he had to deal with the man who was living with his father’s wife and all
that kind of thing. They had problems over communion and the celebration of the Lord’s supper and so
he was dealing with specific issues there. But in Ephesians he isn’t. The church at Ephesus had
not a whole lot of problems. Old Luther described the letter to the Romans as the purest and
plainest expression of the gospel that you could find — and that’s one of the reasons I attempted
to expound it over those years. But I think Lloyd-Jones is right in saying that if Romans is the
purest and plainest exposition of the gospel, then Ephesians is the sublimest and the most majestic.
It is a wonderful book and it’s only when you begin to see the complexity of the old Greek
sentences that you realize how full of eloquence it is. You begin to see this is not an ordinary
exposition of the gospel at all. You could in fact say there are many characteristics that it has,
but one of them certainly is that it’s reality described from the standpoint of God. It’s reality
described from the standpoint of God. Actually, it’s describing reality from the heavenly places
and so it is more real than most of what we are concerned with. We’re concerned with, “What can the
Lord do for me? What has the Lord saved me from? How is the Lord going to help me in this
situation?”

I remember the gentlemen, Edwin Ore. I think he’s now with Jesus. He was a very intelligent, very
scholarly man from Belfast who went to Cambridge University, had two or three Cambridge degrees, and
then traveled all around the world in the 1920s and ‘30s, believe it or not, as an evangelist having
very, very large meetings in America, and Britain, and in Africa, and in Europe. So really, he was a
very powerful man. Many years ago, when Irene and I met with him for lunch in Los Angeles, I
remember him saying, “So much of today’s Christianity is like the song, ‘Is there anyone around who

could lift me off the ground?’”

I think that that describes a lot of what we call, Christianity”. It’s very egocentric. It’s
utterly preoccupied with, “Was it a good meeting?” not, “Did it bring glory to God?” but, “Was it a
good meeting in that it brought satisfaction and pleasure to me?” And, “Was this a good prayer
meeting?” usually means, “Was I inspired by it? Were there a lot of emotional prayers that lifted
me up?” So often we’re thinking in terms of, “What can the Lord can do for me? Or, “I’m not going
to that church anymore because the teaching isn’t as good as I want”, or, “I’m not going to THIS
church anymore because it isn’t doing anything for me.” So we’re utterly preoccupied with
ourselves. It’s really atheism, but we give it the name of “Christianity”.

Well of course, Ephesians is a complete corrective to that. It talks about reality from the point
of view of heaven, the “heavenly places”. It’s full of language that defies the use even of
ordinary adjectives. So you find that Paul piles adjective on adjective on adjective because he’s
really beginning to hit those things that no one can describe in ordinary human words. It has
another great corrective to our attitude here because he makes no excuse for saying, “There’s a
mystery. There is a deep mystery in God. There is a mystery that we will never completely
understand.” Of course, we silly little people have said, “Oh, there must be no mystery. We must
understand it fully otherwise, we can’t accept it.” We understand little of it because we’ll only
accept what little we understand and we will not go on trust at all. We miss all the glory, and the
beauty, and the wonder of what God has for us because we’re always analyzing the thing, taking it
apart, finding out how you do this.

Think of how often you hear: “How do you pray? How do you get filled with the Spirit? How do you
speak in tongues? How do you witness?” We’re always talking about “how to” — how to so that
somehow we think we can do it. Well of course, Paul says, “There is a great mystery here. There is
a mystery, some of which you will never plum, and you will need to trust your Father.” Of course,
often we end up in our methodological atheism because we will not accept there is a mystery and we
won’t trust our Father. We’ll only trust ourselves and our pea brains, because that’s about the
size they are compared with his. That’s why we often see our Christianity as so human or so
humanistic. It’s really deteriorated into a kind of atheistic salvation much like Buddhism.

Ephesians, of course, changes all that because Paul says, “It’s God. It’s GOD that matters. God is
the center of everything. God is the controller of everything.” We always want to control. That’s
why many of us end up with tranquilizers and many end up in psychic wards — because we try to
control our own lives the way WE want. We want to control everything, every little thing. We grow
tighter and tighter and we actually shrink more, and more, and more until actually, we don’t have a
very large sphere of reality at all. It’s a very small sphere.

We live in a very tiny world and inside that tiny world, as Chesterton said, “The insane are very
logical and they’re very logical inside their own insanity. It’s just they don’t reach out to
reality.” So we’re very logical in that. That’s why people shrink and grow smaller, and smaller.
I didn’t catch it completely, but I think Sheila was saying that some guy killed an old age
pensioner by pushing a grocery trolley into him yesterday. That’s why we do this kind of thing.
That’s why we have road rage because we have this tiny little world that gets smaller, and smaller,
and smaller, and we alone matter — nobody else matters. It’s utter unreality. God, of course, is
allowing dreadful things like that to happen — to give us warning, “You’re shrinking into a hell of
unreality.”

Ephesians takes it out into reality and Paul says, “God, GOD is the one who controls everything.”
Why did Jesus wait for 2,000 years to come after the century began? Well, because God times
everything. God times things. God determines things. But you know, we have learned even to rebel
against that. We want, “Oh, but why did he? Why did he?” And so dumb-dumbs like me try to explain
why he did — but finally, it’s right what God has said in Ephesians, God is God. He owns the
thing. He owns the whole thing. He’s made it all. It’s his. He can do what he wants. He can
turn the thing upside down if he wants. So of course, we have turned it upside down by putting our
mighty selves, all the little dwarfs, standing on the communion table. That’s what it’s like —
lots of little pigmy’s saying, “Me, me, me.” Underneath is the Christ who has bled, who is the one
who has made the table, has made the dwarfs, has made everything. So, it’s utter unreality the
egocentricity of our Christianity today. Ephesians of course says, “No. God is the one who has
control over time. He has predestined you to be his sons through Jesus Christ from before the
foundation of the world.” It’s that great realm of eternity that Paul begins to deal with in
Ephesians. It is a mighty gospel.

Those are some of the characteristics of it, but let’s begin right at the first verse. You see it
there, Ephesians 1:1, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are
also faithful in Christ Jesus.” An “apostle” of Jesus Christ is that word, “apostolos”
(ap-os’-tol-os) in Greek. You can see it (“apostle”) in English. Paul, first of all, calls himself
an “apostolos”, an apostle. What is an apostle? Well, you can look at it there as he describes it
in 1 Corinthians 9:1, “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle?” And then he gives the first
characteristic of an apostle, “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?”

In the charismatic circles, they say, “Oh, that’s an apostolic work.” I remember one dear fellow
came to me come from Nelson Publisher. He wanted me to write a book in the old days in Minneapolis.
He said, “You’re involved in a real apostolic work.” (I didn’t take him up on it.) Well, we’re not
talking about that kind of apostle. They mean by that, “That’s very remarkable work”, or “That’s a
work” — they dare say — “on the same level as the apostles” — which is ridiculous.

So, it’s not that use of the word apostle. It’s “apostle” in the sense, “I saw Jesus. I saw Jesus.
The disciples saw Jesus alive physically. I also saw him. I saw him on the road when he struck me
blind. I saw Jesus.” So a historical apostle is, first of all, one who has personally seen Jesus.
That’s why they talked about the apostles and that’s why we talk about the Apostles’ Creed. It’s
tied to those days when Jesus himself was seen physically by men. So first of all, “Am I not an
apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?”

The second characteristic of an apostle is that there are people who have received Jesus and been
changed in their lives under his ministry. That’s why he says, “If to others I am not an apostle,
at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.” So an apostle is one who
has seen Jesus alive and who has also seen God work in other’s lives through his ministry.

There’s something else about an apostle, that comes from a Greek verb that looks like that,
“apostelo” and it means “to send”. Look at Mark 6:7, “And he called to him the twelve, and began to
send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.” It’s someone that
Jesus has sent. It’s not someone who has seen a need. It’s not that. It’s not someone who has
seen a need, has seen the poor children in a certain city and felt, “Somebody should try to help
those.” It’s not somebody who sees, “That place needs a church. I think I ought to go and found a
church there.” It’s someone who is sent by Jesus.

An apostle is not someone who says, “Well, I have this talent,” and then it really is like this — I
know we don’t say it like this, but it is like this — “How shall I use it for the Lord?” I mean,
we’re so pathetic, but it’s not that. The apostles had none of that. They didn’t get together and
say, “Now Peter, you’re good at this. Now Paul, you’re good at this. Now you’d be good at this.
The Lord must mean you to do that.” They didn’t – they didn’t even think of talents. They knew
talents were of no value in doing God’s work, so there’s no thought of that. There was only one
thing that made them an apostle and that was they were sent by Jesus.

Nor was it that they thought, “Well, I think that ministry would fulfill me. I think I’d feel
fulfilled if I were doing that. As I imagine myself, day-by-day counseling, I think that I would
feel fulfilled. I think it would make me feel I was doing something worthwhile. It would give me a
sense of satisfaction. I could go home at night and feel that was a good day’s work.” What would
you do as you wipe the blood off from the stones? What would you do as you pulled the sword out of
your side? Would you feel, “I fulfilled the day? I feel I fulfilled my ministry?”

In other words, the apostles didn’t feel that way at all. They knew they had one thing ahead of
them, and that was probably not simply discomfort, but probably suffering and death. The only
reason they were apostles is they were sent by Jesus, not because they felt they would be fulfilled,
not because they thought, “This would be a nice life.” It doesn’t take me to paint it too vividly
for you to see, of course, we’re way off-beat. We’re completely off-beat. We’re completely
self-centered. “Well, I think I’m a good speaker, so I’m a good preacher.” “Well, I think I’m good
with young people, so I should work with young people.” “Well, I think I’m a good musician, so I
think I should be on the music ministry.” “Well, I would like to go there.” “Well, that place has
a need for the kind of person I am.” None of that.

An apostle is one who is sent by Jesus — that’s it. One who is sent by Jesus. That’s why Paul
says, “An apostle of Jesus Christ.” “Of Jesus Christ” means belonging to Jesus Christ. It means
somebody who is owned by Jesus Christ completely. It’s not just somebody who was SENT by Jesus
Christ, but someone who is actually OWNED by Jesus Christ. It’s someone who for him to live is
Christ. He thinks of nothing else but Christ. Does he think about whether he can do some good in
this church? No, he doesn’t. Does he think whether he can fulfill himself in this ministry? No,
he doesn’t. Does he think whether he can fulfill a need there in that country? No, he doesn’t. He
sees only one thing, Jesus Christ. You’re right — his world is small but it’s bigger than the
universe because Jesus Christ is the one who originated it.

To just have your eyes full of Jesus Christ is to be full of reality in a way that is far beyond
even an awareness of the world around us or the universe around us. An apostle of Jesus Christ is
someone who belongs to Jesus Christ, who is owned by Jesus Christ, who is preoccupied by Jesus
Christ, who is obsessed with Jesus Christ, who pleases no one else but Jesus Christ, who wants only
to be close to one person above all others and that’s Jesus Christ. So he’s Jesus, Jesus, Jesus —
Jesus until you think the guy is crazy with Jesus. That’s what an apostle of Jesus Christ is and
that’s how you can ever know if Jesus sent him. I think all of us get into trouble when we think,
“Well, how do you know you’re sent?” Well, if you’re that close, if you’re utterly preoccupied, if
Christ fills you completely — of course you know the blink of his eye, of course you know the beat
of his heart. You feel like him. You sympathize with him. You want what he wants. So of course,
he’s able in a moment to gently transmit to you what he wants you to do — so that is there any
doubt? There is no doubt. “Woe is me, if I preach not the gospel.” [1 Corinthians 9:16] It’s not,
“Oh, I’d like to do a little preaching.” It’s, “I will die if I don’t preach.” That’s it, “I’ll
die if I don’t do what God has called me to do.” So an apostle of Jesus Christ is one who utterly

belongs to Jesus Christ.

Now, I think there’s an important verse in connection with that that we ought to just look at for a
moment because I think that it may help us ourselves and it may help us in our dealings with others.
Romans 8:9, “But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God
dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” An apostle
of Jesus Christ, one who belongs to Jesus, has the Spirit of Jesus, and I think that’s a fair way to
just look at ourselves from time-to-time, and certainly a fair way to ask of others — have we the
Spirit of Christ? Have we the Spirit of Christ? Are we meek? He said, “I am meek and lowly of
heart.” Are we meek and lowly of heart or are we proud? He was humble. He kneeled down and washed
the disciples’ feet. Are we humble or are we arrogant, self-assured, and self-righteous? Are we
merciful and have we tender mercies? Have we a gentle and soft kindliness to others? Have we a
hunger to be with God? Do we enjoy prayer? Do we enjoy being with him, with our Father in heaven?
Have we the Spirit of Christ?

There are two kinds of people who fall. I think one falls, sins, does something wrong and well,
they’re annoyed with themselves. They think they’re partly wrong and they’re going to try again
next time to do better. And then I think there’s another who has the Spirit of Christ and they fall
and their hearts are filled with tears. They are disgusted with themselves. They know they’re
wrong. You only have to say something that is in accordance with Jesus’ will and they say, “Yes,
that’s what I want.” So they have the Spirit of Christ.

So, anybody who belongs to Christ has the Spirit of Christ. If a person hasn’t the Spirit of Christ
they may believe in Christ, they may try to serve Christ but they don’t belong to Christ. If you
belong to Christ, Christ fills your whole being and he is the fountain and the source of all your
feelings and all your attitudes. An apostle is one who belongs to Jesus Christ and has the very
Spirit of Jesus Christ — and then you can see what Paul does is that he really reinforces that. In
Galatians 1:15 you can see it, “But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called
me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among
the Gentiles.” Verse 15 again, “But when he who had set me apart before I was born.” That’s what he
has just said in Ephesians: “An apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, when he who had set me
apart before I was born.” Not, “I’ve had such and such an education.” Not, “I’ve had such and such
an upbringing.” Not, “Because, I have these talents.” That’s all such silly, foolish, temporal
stuff.

“When he who had set me apart before I was born called me.” In other words, God knew each one of us
before we were born and he foresaw our lives. He planned what we should do. The only thing we need
is not talents, is not ability, is not to know what our interests are, or what our major is at
university, or how we come across to people, or what we like to do, or what we would feel fulfilled
doing — the only issue is, what did God set me apart for before I was born? That’s it.

We’re in the same situation. God knew why he sent each of us to earth and he set us apart for that
before we were born. All we need to do is find out what that is and then, that’s what we do because
it’s God’s will alone that matters. It’s not what we’re like, or what abilities we have or what
talents we have. It’s what God’s will is for our lives. That’s the only thing that matters. And
so actually, today you can see it’s not, “What would I like to do this afternoon? What would give
me pleasure? How could I help somebody even?” — it’s, “Lord, you saw this day. What did you
have in mind for me this day? Rather, Lord, what did you have in mind for your Son Jesus using this
body that I used to regard as mine?” That’s it. That’s reality. That’s God-centered. That’s

God-centered.

We only got half a verse done today, but let us pray. Dear Lord, we bow before you. Oh Father, we
want to see the world the right way up, not this upside down world that we have been brought up in
where we have put ourselves in front of everything else, in front even of you. Lord, we want to
come into reality. We also want to be able to say, “[Our name], an apostle of Jesus Christ by the
will of God.” We ask you to bring us into this reality Holy Spirit. Now the grace of our Lord
Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each one of us now and
ever more. Amen.

Called to be Saints

Ephesians 1:1b

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

We’re studying the letter that was written in 62 A.D., the letter to the Ephesians. You know the
facts that Paul probably established the church maybe around 57 to 61 A.D. on his third missionary
journey. You remember [pointing to map] that the toe of Italy comes down there and then around to
the Mediterranean. You have Jerusalem there and you have Antioch there and Ephesus there. Rome is
over here. The third missionary journey was like that.

It was during that time that Paul established the church. We dealt with the first part of verse 1.
We talked about Paul, an apostle, and that was the Greek word “apostolos”, which is just “apostle”
in English. It means “one who is sent”. We talked about the fact that you do things for God
because you are sent to do them, not because you’ll be fulfilled doing them, not because you’ll have
a nice life doing them, not because you’ll use your talents doing them, not because you’ll be able
to give something to God but because you’re sent. Jesus calls you to it and that brings a stability
that nothing else brings because finally, in every situation, you will end up in a position where
you don’t feel fulfilled, where you’ll be washing dishes, or you’ll be serving tables and you’ll
think, “What about all my brilliant guitar work or my great speaking ability?” There’ll always be
times in your life — indeed, you’ll probably spend most of your life — doing things that you don’t
feel really fulfills you.

It’s remarkable that when you look at the outside world outside Christianity, most people are doing
exactly the same thing. Most people are involved in work-a-day repeat situations that don’t require
a lot of the brilliance that they think they have. Particularly, that is the situation with Jesus.
Would you like to have walked up Calvary Road? Would you have liked your mother to see you with the
cross on your shoulders? Would you have said, “I am fulfilling my potential, mother?” Most things
in this present sinful world involve us forgetting what we would like to do, forgetting what we
think we’re good at and doing and doing what God sends us to do.

I think you remember we talked about that and I’ll just move on from there because we’re moving onto
the second half of that first verse. If you turn to it in your Bible please, it’s Ephesians chapter
1 and what we would call in, I suppose Bible reference, 1b. It’s Ephesians 1:1b. Paul has just
said, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” He did that in all his letters. It
doesn’t matter which ones you look to, he always begins like that. Look at the next book — you can
see it in Colossians 1:1, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our
brother.”

So he writes all this letters like that with his own name and then the people to whom he sends it.
You can see back in Ephesians 1:1b, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,” 1a and
1b, “To the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus.” The footnote says that the oldest
manuscripts add “At Ephesus and faithful.” So “at Ephesus” is in most of the oldest manuscripts,
“To the saints who were also faithful in Christ Jesus at Ephesus.”

“To the saints” — we think that “saints” is a word to be applied to Saint Thomas, or to the other
saints that are listed in the Catholic church, but this was the normal world that was applied to
Christians in the first century. They just referred to them as saints. You’ll see it in Acts 9:13,

“But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man,’” that was Saul, “How much evil
he has done to thy saints at Jerusalem.” So that’s the way they referred to Christians in the first
century. They called them saints.

You know that in our century we think, “Ah, nobody is a saint.” Indeed, when you call somebody a
saint you usually are making fun of the person. And then there is this ridiculous attitude that
Christians have to themselves, “I’m not saint.” That fits with that bumper sticker, “Christians
aren’t perfect — only forgiven.” You know how my comment usually goes after that. All the other
people wish they were perfect, that they weren’t just forgiven. But the Christians love to say,
“We’re not perfect. We’re only forgiven.”

In other words, there’s developed an unscriptural attitude among Christians to themselves. They
think they should not be called saints. Why? Partly because it’s easier to be somebody who is
always making mistakes, and always sinning and always being forgiven. But the fact is that it isn’t
scriptural. In the first century Christians were called saints. The word is “hagios” (hag’-ee-os).
It means “the holy people”. It refers usually to absolute ethical perfection and wholeness,
freedom from moral evil. That’s the way the early saints struck the rest of the people in the first
century.

For instance, at a time of plague everybody said, “Get out of the city! Get out of the city!”
because the medicine was so poor that they couldn’t do much in a plague, “Just get out!” So they
all got out — even if your mother was dying they’d say, “Get out, leave her! Don’t touch her,
otherwise you’ll die too!” So that was the practice in the first century when the warning went out
that there was plaque in the city. Everybody left leaving the dead and the dying behind. Parents
left children. Children left parents. Everybody was left who was sick or touched with the plague.
The healthy people got out except for these people [points to whiteboard diagram] who also went back
and tended to their relatives and their friends. They looked after them even if it meant them
catching the plague. So everywhere, these people began to be called, “saints” because of their
moral rectitude and their concern for other people. “Hagios” was the name that was given to them.

It’s an interesting word because it means actually two things. First of all it means what was
implied in Exodus 20:8, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” “Remember the sabbath day, to
keep it holy.” That is, “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a
sabbath to the Lord your god; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter,
your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates for
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh
day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.” Therefore, you ought to remember
it to keep it holy, keep it separate from all the other days. “Set it apart” — that’s the first
meaning of “holy”.

Set it apart from all other days. Set it apart from all other days. Really, it means set it apart
from the world. That’s what saints are. They’re people who are set apart from the world. They’re
set apart from the ordinary uses of the world. They’re set apart from ordinary human beings. They
don’t work just to get money, or to get clothes, or to be successful, or to be happy. They actually
don’t care about what the world thinks. They don’t care what the world does. They are set apart
from the world. They’re different from the world. They’re set apart from achieving anything in the
world. “If my [Jesus’] kingdom were of this world then my disciples would fight — they know that
their kingdom is not on this world. They are not here to make a mark in this world. They are not
here to become famous in this world. They don’t care if they ever fulfill their potential in this

world because they are set apart from the world.”

To them, the world is still this “evil generation” that Jesus talked about. It’s still a place that
is condemned. It’s a place that isn’t what God wants it to be so they have no interest in
succeeding in that world. That’s why it’s normal for “hagios” to look at their peers and see their
peers getting cars, and clothes, and all the things they want — and the “hagios” don’t have any of
those. The “hagios” take that for normal because they are set apart from the world. They’re not
like the world. The “hagios” don’t get together and say, “Boy, we’re missing out here. We really
are. I mean, by giving our lives to God like this, look what we’re missing! We’re not able to have
our own homes. We’re not able to have our own apartments. We’re not able to have our own
lawnmowers. We’re not able to have our own vacations. We can’t do what the rest of the world is
doing.” Amen, praise God that you can’t because “hagios” are people who are set apart from the
world. They’re different from the world.

Now, that’s the first part of being holy. Some people have said “it’s the human side”. Sometimes
it’s been called by a word that is taken from the Latin, “consecrate”. Often people say they are
consecrating themselves. The “hagios” are regarded as people who consecrate themselves. They set
themselves apart from the world and the emphasis is on “from”. It’s the human side of holiness and
of being holy.

That changed after Jesus’ death because then we became aware that being set apart from the world
involved an inner miracle that he had wrought on Calvary. You’ll find it mentioned in John 16:33,
“I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be
of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Jesus overcame the world and when he was crucified
before the foundation of the world as the Lamb that was slain, all the “hagios” were crucified with
him and they were in his miracle, set apart from the world.

You remember, it’s like that old cigarette commercial, “You can take Salem out of the country, but
you can’t take the country of out Salem.” The world is in us. The world is in us through and
through and through. We often talk like the world. We often think like the world. We’ve often
inherited a lot of the world’s attitudes. We have little ways of expressing ourselves. We have
little ways our eyes blink in certain situations. We have little anxieties that spring up almost
automatically inside us that we have no control over. We have knee-jerk reactions that we produce
just because the world is in us, through us and in us all the time. We have lots and lots of bits
of the world, ways of the world, habits of the world and thoughts of the world that we don’t even
know about. In other words, there are things in each of us that we need to set ourselves apart from.
They’re so much a part of us that we don’t even know that they’re there. That is part of the
miracle that was wrought on Calvary.

In other words, you can only say that’s true up to a point. You have to say that setting ourselves
apart from the world is also something that Christ did and that his Messenger, his Colleague, his
dear Counselor can only do in us. So if you’re concerned to be a “hagios” and you want to set
yourself apart from the world, you can only do it if you begin to deal with this dear Person –to
begin to believe that this dear Person, inside himself, took all of the worldliness in you and
crucified and destroyed it.

So it’s not a simple thing to “set yourself apart”. We tend to make it so. We tend to say, “Oh,
consecration — consecrate all your talents, consecrate your time, consecrate your thoughts,
consecrate your money and consecrate your future.” So we all try to do those — then we wonder, “Now

why can I not come into the fullness of the Holy Spirit?” Well, it’s because we have persisted in
acting as if we can do this ourselves. In other words, our human pride and our human self is still
standing up and saying, “Oh yes, well I can set myself apart from the world. I will! I will set
myself apart from the world’s plan for my career. So I will set myself apart from that. I will set
myself apart from the possessions that the world thinks I should have. I will set myself apart from
the ambitions that the world has.” And we go through them all and we think, “Now I am consecrated.”

In fact, no one can be fully consecrated without the work of Christ on Calvary and the work of the
Holy Spirit. Now, if you say to me, “Well, what’s the difference?” Well one is a self-assured,
confident, self-examination, and introspection. The other is a humble, submissive, self-despairing,
seeking of Christ and the Holy Spirit — and that alone brings this separation from the world —
that is the first part of being holy.

The second part of being holy is that we are sanctified to God. You can say, “separated” to God but
it is such a work of God that probably this is the better word to use, “sanctified” to God. In
other words, after we’re set apart from the world, then we are sanctified to God, “sanctus Deo” two
Latin words which mean “to be made”. This is the passive of “facio” — “to do or to make” — to be
made holy. We are to be made holy to God. Holiness is the attitude of God himself, “Be thee holy
as I am holy.” It is God’s inner character and being sanctified to God is the second part of being
holy. First, set apart from the world then sanctified to God himself. You know there are many
instances of that, but you certainly find it in Matthew 5:20 where the need for it is stated very
clearly because Jesus defines the righteousness that “hagios” have. Matthew 5:20, “For I tell you,
unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the
kingdom of heaven.”

So the holiness that “hagios” has is even here different from the Pharisees because it is something
that is revealed by the Holy Spirit — but here it is utterly different from the Pharisees. Why?
On the outside, they cleaned the cup. On the inside, it was filthy. That’s why Jesus says, “Unless
your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will in no wise enter the kingdom
of heaven.” [In other words,] “Unless your righteousness means your heart, and means a clean heart,
then you are not entering into all that I have done for you.” And so, to be sanctified to God is an
absolutely divine act that God does through his Holy Spirit and through his word because he’s
dealing with that [draws heart on white board].

The Bible puts it clearly. Look at Galatians 5:19, “Now the works of the flesh are plain:
fornication”. Well you see that’s an outward act of immorality — but “impurity”. Impurity is the
thought life or it’s attitude, impurity of thought, impurity of attitude, thinking dirty thoughts,
having sexual imaginations — that’s what it is. “Licentiousness.” We always think of it as
somebody getting drunk or something, but it’s coming to those moments in your life where you say, “I
want to do what I want to do.” It’s an inward attitude that often doesn’t express itself outwardly
because we know it would offend everybody, and we’re not supposed to be like that. But inside our
attitude is really, “I’m going to do what I want to do.” “Idolatry, sorcery, enmity.” Enmity is
having bad thoughts about another person. Enmity is feeling, “The other person is my enemy.”
Enmity is having an attitude to the other person thinking, “They’re against me. They’re against me.
That’s what’s wrong.” Enmity is, “I don’t like that person.” That’s enmity. Enmity is feelings
of antagonism towards another person whether you express it outwardly or not.

[Galatians 5:19, continued] “Strife.” Strife is an attitude, actually inside in your heart. Strife

occurs inside. Before you get into an argument with a person there has to be strife in your heart.
You have to have that attitude to them, “I disagree with them strongly and I’m going to tell them
that.” That’s what strife is — it’s an inner attitude. “Jealousy.” Jealousy is saying, “I’m
jealous of that person because they’re more popular than I am, or they seem to be liked by
everybody, or they look better than me, or they seem to do their work better than me.” Jealousy is
wishing that the other person was not as good as they are. Envy is wishing you were like them.
Envy is wanting what they’ve got. Jealousy is wishing they haven’t got it. Envy is wanting it for
yourself. It’s envying someone’s position, or someone’s looks, or someone’s clothes, or someone’s
performance.

“Anger.” Anger is inside. It’s being angry with people. Jesus said, “You’ve heard how it was said
of old time, if you murder you’re guilty of the judgment but I say unto you if you’re angry with
your brother you’re guilty of the judgment.” But anger is having temper, having bad temper, or
feeling you’re just bursting with anger, or feeling a real seething anger underneath because
somebody has asked you to do something that you think is not right, or because you are dissatisfied
with some situation, or the way somebody else has treated you. “Selfishness.” Selfishness is
looking after yourself. That’s why I mention table manners to you at times because actually, if you
grab the sauce for yourself instead of looking first at the other person, you’re being selfish.
That’s it. Our simplest mothers told us that if you go for the thing first and don’t ask the other
person do they want it, that’s selfish and that comes from selfishness inside — that comes from
thinking, “Me, I alone count. I’m the important one in this world, to me. Other people may be
important to them, but I’m important to me, and what I want is what counts whether it’s for my
future, or whether it’s for my present. What I want for myself, that’s what is important.”

So really, selfishness is an attitude where you make yourself the center of the world and you make
everybody else serve you. Your automatic first thought after the service is, “What do I want to do?
What would I enjoy doing?” Or, when you get to a table it’s, “What would I like?” It’s not, “What
would that other person like?” It’s, “What would I like to have? What do I feel like eating?”
When you go out to have a day out together your thought is not, “Now, I want this person to enjoy
themselves. Now, I wonder what they would like to do? Oh, I bet they would like to go there.” But
selfishness is, “Well, what would I like to see here? What do I want to do.” Selfishness is a
whole attitude that just circles around self all the time. This is a work of the flesh. The Bible
says that if that is in you, “you will not enter the kingdom of heaven”. [Matthew 5:20]

That’s what it means. A “hagios” is one who has a clean heart. A clean heart — not only a clean
life, but a clean heart. That is something that can only be wrought by God through the Holy Spirit.
If you look at Acts 15:9, you’ll remember that you see it stated very clearly. You see the agent
of the cleansing miracle there. Peter is talking about what happened to them and in Acts 15:8-9,
he says about the Gentiles, “And God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy
Spirit just as he did to us; and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their
hearts by faith.” That’s the only way to get a clean heart, to have the Holy Spirit cleanse your
heart by faith.

The Holy Spirit is the one who does it but he does it by applying again the work of Jesus on Calvary
in whom our old self was crucified. The Holy Spirit applies that work miraculously to our hearts.
When does he apply it and why does he apply it? Because we’ve been willing for him to set us apart
from the world. In other words, here he has said, “Are you willing to be looked down upon by
everybody else for my glory?” And we say, “Yes Lord, I am. I’m willing for them to despise me if
it’s for your glory.” Then the Holy Spirit is free to cleanse you from envy, and jealousy and pride

— and that’s the way it works.

If you are willing here [touches heart], the Holy Spirit cleanses you here and fills you with
himself. “Hagios” are people who have experienced both of these. If you want to be clean inside
and holy, then this is what you do with everything in your life that God has shown you is wrong.
You deal with each part of your life and you ask the Holy Spirit, “Holy Spirit will you show me
where the world is still in me? Will you show me where I’ve to set myself apart from the world and
where you Lord Jesus, have already set me apart from the world but I don’t see that? Show me where
that is.” And he’ll show you and show you. Of course, we’ve all talked about the layers and layers
of the heart that he has to go down and down. He gets down to there [points to part of heart on
diagram] and then it’s not enough — and then down to there, and we ask to be filled with the Holy
Spirit — and still nothing happens. And then we go down another layer and finally, you get down to
the ground of your heart. John Wesley calls it, “the ground of your heart”. That is God’s will.
That is why the early Christians were called “hagios” because they were “hagios” outside, but most
important, they were “hagios” INSIDE. They were sanctified inside as well as outside.

So loved ones, that’s what Paul means when he says, “To the saints who are in Christ Jesus,” because
all this happens in Christ. If Christ has not crucified us with himself and raised us up with
himself, then there’s no way in which we can be holy — but that’s what he says, “To the saints that
are in Christ Jesus.” The last word of the verse is the word “pistois” and it means not just
“faithful” in the sense of people who are loyal and keep on being loyal, but people who are actually
trusting today. The only way to be a “hagios” today is to be actually trusting at this very moment,
moment-by-moment, moment-by-moment trusting in these two things and then in these two kind and
loving persons. Only by trusting daily and moment-by-moment are you able to be continually
“hagios”. That’s why God has called us. That’s why the businesses are so important because people
need to see saints living in the midst of the world. They need to see saints, and so we are the
people that Paul is speaking to, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the saints who are trusting in
Christ Jesus in South Mimms. Let us pray.

Lord, we see that you are totally different from the world. We have been created in you. We have
been crucified with you, and raised together with you and made to sit in the heavenly places. We
also see Lord, that we are totally different from the world. Holy Spirit, we ask that you make us
so — and begin the work in us today and graciously reveal to us where the world is still in us.
Make it clear to us what we need to be willing for so that the crucifixion of the world can take
place in us that has already taken place in Jesus.

Oh Lord Jesus, we look to you. Nothing can happen unless it has happened first in you. Oh Lord
Jesus, show us what part of us you bore pain for in your crucifixion. Make us aware of what part of
us caused you pain, and what part you have destroyed forever and you want us now to separate
ourselves from it. Holy Spirit, show us that — and then we ask you when you see that, at last, we
are ready to be cleansed, will you mightily cleanse our hearts by faith so that we are holy inside
and out?

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with
each one of us now and ever more. Amen.

God’s Will for You: Grace and Peace!

Ephesians 1:2

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Will you turn to Ephesians, the book that we’re studying? Last Sunday we studied Ephesians 1:1b, “to
the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus”. I’d just call back to your mind how we said that
“the saints” is the word “hagios” and it means people who have set themselves apart from the world,
and then people who have been set apart by God’s Holy Spirit to God. So there’s a human side and a
divine side and yet even the human side has a great deal of divine power in it.

I would just mention to us to remain commonsensical and practical about the setting apart. If you
set yourself apart from the world and you set yourself apart to God, that means you set yourself
apart in regard to your time and the way you think. We need to be practical about that. Even
though you may like planes and I may like boats, we set ourselves apart from the things we like and
we set ourselves apart to God in Jesus so that he comes first. So it’s a very practical thing. It
comes down to the way you spend your afternoons, the way you spend your evenings, it comes down to
time. So I’d just remind us of that. Don’t be theoretical about this. Let’s see that setting
ourselves apart is a very practical thing and it is not just a wish or intention.

This might be good to say to you too — holy intentions never saved anybody. Now, in the Catholic
Church we have the importance of purity of intention but still holy intentions themselves do not
save a person. Act, will, change in your behavior, that’s what saves. All that I said is just in
relationship to last Sunday’s verse.

Now this Sunday’s verse is Ephesians 1:2. You can see it there, “Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Just keep your finger in that page and turn over to Romans
1:7b, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” it’s the same
greeting. Then turn to Philippians 1:2 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ,” the same greeting. Then over the page to Colossians 1:2b, “Grace to you and peace
from God our Father,” the same greeting and the same greeting in Corinthians. Now it’s easy because
of our own miserably passive minds to think, “The guy’s typewriter is stuck, or his Dictaphone is
stuck. He just repeated the same thing and it’s just like, ‘Hi, how are you. Hello.’ It’s not.
Every word in scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for training in
righteousness and for rebuke and reproof.

So ever word of scripture is what Jesus said. Not an iota or a dot shall pass from the law until
all is accomplished. An Iota in Greek is just like a little apostrophe. It’s a tiny little thing.
But Jesus said that every word is precious. So when we’re reading the Bible every word is full of
meaning. This is not just a kind of conventional greeting that Paul raps off but it has great
meaning. It actually is the whole gospel. That’s really what he’s preaching when he says that,
it’s the whole gospel. Because, it’s grace that brings the results of peace and the whole gospel is
really grace and peace.

So let’s just look at it a little more carefully. The Greek for grace is “charis” and “humin” is to
you. In a way it doesn’t give you the kindliness and softness of it unless you have an Italian
tenor who can sing “Charis Mia”. That’s because “charis” is the same as my Cheri, my dear, or my
love. You can see it even more in the English word caress. And then the “char” is found in the

word charity. And that’s what grace is. It’s not something cold and theological. It’s Paul saying
not even, “I hope that you will have grace,” or, “May God’s grace be to you”. He’s saying, “God’s
love to you. God is caressing you at this moment from heaven. He’s caressing you with his love. At
this very moment God’s love is surrounding you and caressing you, and he’s talking to you and
saying, ‘My dear.” That’s it. It’s very dear, and very kind.

So what is his grace? Grace is such that though God needed nothing, (he needed nothing because he
didn’t exist in isolation, he had Jesus his Son and the Holy Spirit, he was utterly complete in
himself and self-sufficient), even though his heart was filled with love, yet he had people to love
in his Son and in the Holy Spirit. But his love overflowed into a desire to make other people and
other beings that would enjoy his love and that he could enjoy loving.

Now, he could have made a lot of little animals, and he could have made lots of constellations and
universes. He could have made things that wouldn’t have given him much trouble, things that he
could control, things that he could enjoy looking at much as collectors collect antiques, or
pictures, or cameras. They enjoy looking at them. They can take them out, they can put them where
they want them to be and they do that, they’re just inanimate. Or, a little dog, or little birds,
you can control. So he could have made just other creatures like that. But his love is the kind of
love that is even prepared to be hurt in order to pour itself forth.

It’s not the kind of love that defends, or holds himself away from things that might hurt him. It’s
the kind of love that is willing to give the very best that it has and that’s what he determined to
do. He determined not to give something less than himself. Now, when you think of it, it was an
unbelievable risk to take. He is God, there is none beyond him. He is the one. He is the only
one. It would be perfectly reasonable in our minds that he should not give something as dear as
himself, or give someone the qualities that he himself had. But that’s what he determined to do.

He determined to give life to other beings, the same life that he had and so he actually made us in
his own Son so that we would have actually the same life in us that he and his Son had. He wanted
us to have the very best that he could give. And of course, that meant self-determination because
he himself can do whatever he wants to do. He’s free to do whatever he wishes and so he gave that
capability to us inside his Son.

If you don’t choose him, there’s nothingness. I mean, there is nothing, there is not an
alternative. There aren’t other gods. There’s just God himself and if you don’t choose him, you
actually choose nothingness and therefore extinction. And of course, he himself had to plant within
us a self-destruct capability because otherwise we would have wandered forever in nothingness and
darkness in an extinguished state. And so he planted within us what is stated in that verse in
Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” And so he planted within us a death that would take place
if we actually choose nothingness and extinction instead of him.

Really, whenever we choose ourselves, we choose nothingness and extinction (because we actually have
no life apart from Jesus). And so he planted within us that self-destruct mechanism. He not only
did that, but remember where he placed us. He made us inside his own beloved Son and he did that on
purpose so that we could choose ourselves if we wanted to. We could choose death and extinction if
we wanted to but he was continuing to choose his Father, and would overcome our death and extinction
and would raise us up in his own life.

It’s unthinkable but the closest I can come to it is swallowing a hand grenade. The blessed Savior

was swallowing not just the six billion explosives for the people that are here on the earth at
present but the billions, and billions of little beings that his Father made inside him, each one of
which had the ability to choose themselves rather than God and to experience that death and
destruction which would have wiped them out completely. Christ bore it in himself and raised us up.
He bore the tearing apart inside himself and yet raised himself up because of his love, affection
and trust in his Father and raised us up with him.

That’s part of what the grace is. It’s played out over the centuries, but it all took place in that
moment in eternity. Every time a savage murder takes place in New York every couple of minutes,
every time a caustic, sarcastic, cutting comment is made in the sophisticated business or social
circles of London, the Savior bears that explosion within himself and negates it. That is the
grace. He negates it so that we continue to receive grace from our Father.

That’s why, the Bible says there in Romans 5:8 that God commands his love towards us in that while
we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Even as we are sinning Christ is bearing the penalty of
that, the extinction of that, and the death and loneliness of it. That is why he cried, “My God, my
God why hast thou forsaken me?” He has to cry this every time we act for ourselves and act apart
from him. Yet the Father continues to give grace and this in a sense is unmerited favor. God
continues to stream down his unmerited favor upon us.

If you say to me, “Do you mean that whatever I do God still keeps me alive to do it, still loves and
accepts me?” Yes, that’s right. If you said to me, “Even if I don’t believe in him?” Yes, at the
moment, in this life, in these saving days, yes. There will come a time for death. The Bible says,
“Then comes the judgment”. But in what are called saving days in the Bible, Jesus does not condemn
us but instead saves us every second. If you say to me, “Do you mean that if I am thinking a
thought that is evil and filthy, I am actually cutting Christ?” Yes. He has one dear hand up to
shield himself and the other dear hand around our backs, to draw us into himself. That’s it and
that’s the grace. That’s the unmerited favor that is coming to us every moment.

It’s so ridiculous, such an insult, and so cruel when anyone says, “I can’t get God’s forgiveness.
I somehow can’t get his forgiveness.” How can you not get his forgiveness when at this moment he
holds you in his arms and is loving you even as you’re rejecting him? That’s grace loved ones and
he gives us that day, after day, after day. He has that same unmerited favor towards us.

So that’s part of what grace means. And what Paul is saying is, “Grace to you – this is what God is
sending down to you every moment. This is from God your Father. You have his unmerited favor every
moment whatever you are doing because his dear Son is bearing that.” I think during the Second
World War, there were a few instances when a hand grenade was tossed into the trench with about 20
men in it. And one guy went down on top of it. Of course he was killed, but his body kind of
smothered the hand grenade. That is what it is, except it’s a poor illustration, because the
soldier had one moment of agony and it was gone. The Savior’s agony has continued all down through
the years.

In a sense the Mass is right. We used to say, “The mass is the repeated sacrifice of Christ and
that’s not right because it was done once for all.” Well it was, and in a sense it was finished. In
a sense God himself experienced the whole thing in a moment. The lamb was slain from before the
foundation of the world. But in time that pain has been expressed down through the centuries and
that is the massiveness of the pain. It is not just one moment for God, it is all eternity, all the
years that have gone by. So that’s the grace.

I don’t know how often you’ve found yourself in this position, but you can make a choice between
doing something that is very good and commendable but does not risk anything for yourself and then
you can do something that is not only very commendable but actually puts you at risk — either your
money, your clothes, your property, your life, or your future. God chose the second — a mighty
event that has taken place in his heart. It is not something that cost nothing. It is a mighty
event that is taking place to enable us to experience that.

So that’s one thing that grace is. But grace is also his enabling power and that’s part of what
Paul is saying. Grace is not only God’s unmerited favor to us, but it’s his enabling power. Grace is
streaming down from God to us every moment. And even as you lift your hand to strike his Son, you
lift your hand by dint of the enabling power that he has given you. So he is actually giving us the
life to either live in trust in him or live in trust in ourselves. And so grace is his strength and
his energy.

We’ve said before that that table is not really solid. It consists of lots of protons and neutrons
that are spinning around each other and held in position like that. And of course, our bodies don’t
seem as solid as that and are just protons and neutrons spinning around. During the explosion in
Nagasaki the heat of the bomb was so immense that it just burned a person right where they stood.
For a few minutes after the explosion you could see the whole person standing there but just as a
cinder. That brings it home to you how transient and temporary the body is. It can all appear to
be there, charred and blackened but really is a cinder, and then it collapsed like ash. And that’s
what our bodies are like. They consist of billions and billions of protons and neutrons that are
spinning round and held in position by his enabling power.

We talk about sight. There’s nothing to sight. It’s just like a little camera inside. But we never
think of all that connects the camera to the person I am looking at and the fact that God is holding
all those things in position. We talk glibly about radio waves. We think we can go buy the antenna
and that’s how the cellular phone works. But who holds in position the atmosphere and all the waves
so that they continue to work? It’s the Father. His enabling power holds the whole thing in
position.

We think it’s an amazing fact that the earth that is spinning around the sun like that and staying
in orbit. It’s magnetic, of course but we just give a name to something we don’t understand. We
think, “Oh, that’s the only invisible means of support that we can see.” No, our lives are full of
it. Our lives are surrounded by God’s enabling power that is keeping us alive.

So that’s the love of this dear Father. That’s where you get the term, “charismata”. It becomes our
word charismatic. They are not only the gifts that are mentioned there in 1 Corinthians 12 but they
are all the abilities that God gives. That’s part of his enabling power. Whether James Galway at
this moment acknowledges Jesus or not, when he plays the flute it is still a gift that God gives by
his enabling power. You’re singing ability or the ability to play the guitar is a gift. We’re
continually surrounded and empowered by his “charismata”.

We have mutilated the whole thing by talking about charismatic people as something special. But
actually we have gifts that we’re using every second of our lives. So that’s part of what Paul
means when he says, “Grace to you.” He is saying, the unmerited favor of your Father is upon you
every moment and you live every second by his enabling power.”

Now if you live as if you’re on your own, if you live as if there’s no God looking after you, if you
live as if you’re your own God, then of course you end up having to protect and defend yourself.
You end up trying to make the world actually what you want it to be. You try to make it as
convenient for yourself as possible. That’s one of the things those of us that have lived in family
(community) like this for years realize. It is hell on earth to live in a situation like this if
you’re still trying to protect yourself because, so many things are wretchedly inconvenient. I
mean, people want to do things when you don’t want to do them. People ask you to do things when you
don’t want to do them.

So, it is hell if you still are in the situation where you’re your own God and you want to have
things just the way you want them. But if you’re in that situation, (as most men and women are),
then you have to exercise your will to get your own way at all costs. The dreadful thing is that
there are six billion others trying to do the same thing. With six billion people in the world
trying to get things the way they want them to be, standing up for their rights, trying to have
their own way, and trying to make the world in their image, you’re bound to end up with strife,
fighting, and disagreement. Of course that’s what the world is full of.

The very air is full of straining and striving. Most men and women are tackling it like a wrestling
match. You’re looking at the other guy to see where you can get a good hold and then you grab it
and kill the strife right there. Most people have an eye out for their best chance. They say, “How
will I work this set of circumstances for my own advantage? How can I arrange this so that I have
some semblance of comfort and ease? How can I do this so that I grab what that guy is trying to grab
before he gets it?” Most of the world is filled with that kind of striving.

Now, Paul says that all changes when you realize that your Father has set his love upon you and that
he is giving you his enabling power. When you realize that then you know, “I don’t have to fight. I
don’t have to strive. I don’t have to look out for myself. Whatever he wants me to have he will
ensure that I get.” And that’s what Paul means when he says, “eirene”. The meaning of the word
“eirene” is peace. And that’s the result when you receive God’s grace day after day. Suddenly you
don’t have to protect yourself. You don’t have to beat other people to the punch. You don’t have to
look for the best chance with another person. You don’t have to wrestle everybody else to the
ground. You don’t have to get your way.

You can trust God and a deep peace comes into your whole being and fills you with a rest. “Eirene”
is actually a cessation of striving. Whenever you sense striving then it’s good to spend a little
time with the Father and ask his Holy Spirit to reveal to you why he is not able to bring you into
peace.

Peace is two-fold; it’s first what is spoken of in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we are justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Peace with God is something we have
through our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s because we are in Jesus and he has borne all the consequences
of our independence. And so we have, at this moment in Jesus, peace with God. At this very moment
we’re all sitting in this chapel and God is not condemning us. At this very moment God is looking
upon us as his own dear children because Jesus has borne the death that we deserved. So we have at
this very moment, peace with God. You’d have to wipe out Jesus’ death in order to disprove that.

In other words, for you or I to become uncertain of our peace with God there’d have to be no Jesus,
there’d have to be no death. But God will not kill two people for the one sin. He will just destroy
one person and that has happened in Jesus. So at this very moment we have peace with God.

But I think what we’re talking about here, is our own need to have peace in the midst of the
business world. It’s this peace of God and that Jesus talks about if you’d like to look at John
14:27. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.”
The only peace that the world can give is to make the circumstances fairly favorable to you, but
Jesus’ peace is deeper than the circumstances. It is consistent with the crowds jeering at him and
throwing insults at him on the Calvary road, “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be
afraid.” The peace that Jesus gives is a grace of the Holy Spirit.

At this moment Jesus is not sweating. He’s not uptight, he’s not worried (even though he is bearing
all that pain), and he’s not troubled. He is at ease because whatever his Father wants for him he’s
content with. He doesn’t feel the crown on his head and say, “Thank you Father,” and then feel the
thorns on his head and say, “Oh, what have I done wrong? Why has God done this to me?” He looks up
and he says, “Thank you Father.” He doesn’t experience the palm branches thrown at his feet and the
crowd hailing him as the messiah and say, “Thank you Father,” and then as he goes down the Calvary
road and they thump him with their fists and they spit on him he doesn’t then say, “What have I done
wrong?” He says, “Thank you Father.” That’s because he believes that everything comes from his
Father, everything is under his Father’s control, and everything is an equally good gift from his
Father. And what he wants us to do is abide in him and accept that too. The moment you accept that
with your Savior, his peace, the peace that he enjoys with the Father floods your heart.

So that’s what Paul is saying when he says, “Grace to you and peace”. Then he says, “From God our
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,” because that’s where it all comes, from God our Father and our
Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed With All Things

Ephesians 1:3a

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

The most real thing that I think we could do at this moment is for you to think how much you paid
for your shoes. How much did you pay for those shoes that you’re wearing now? And if you’ve
settled that, then think how much did you pay for your nose? Now how much did you pay for your
eyes? Each of us can give some figure for our shoes but our nose, even though we know there is
cosmetic surgery possible, yet the whole nose and all that it does for us we would answer, “Well, I
don’t even know where I’d go to buy one.” And then when the question of the eyes comes up we say,
“Well, I couldn’t get eyes like this. Probably if I had all the money in the world I couldn’t get
eyes like these.” And then I ask you how much did you pay for your left leg? And you say, “Well, I
could not get a left leg. They would fit me with some kind of wooden or metal thing. I couldn’t
buy a leg like this. Even if I had the money there is no place I could buy a leg like this.”

And then you go on to the utterly impossible things — your brain, how much did you pay for your
brain? And then how much did you pay to get to see yesterday’s sunset or sunrise? And you say,
“Nothing, I just looked out and there was the sunrise. I didn’t pay anything. And that’s probably
one of the – if not the most important thing– we can settle in our own minds at this moment. All
these things that you and I have that we could not buy anywhere, they have been given to us. And we
probably wouldn’t dream of selling even one of them because they’re our very life. And some of the
most beautiful things that we see like the sunrise cannot be imitated and yet we do not pay anything
to get to see them. And I think that’s why there is only one attitude that we can have each moment
of every day. And that is continual thanks, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Every time we see bricks, every time we see a table, every time we speak we say, “Thank you, thank
you, thank you. I couldn’t do this if you didn’t give me this and if you didn’t maintain it in
working order day after day. I couldn’t do these things. Thank you. Thank you.” And that’s what
we talked about last time in the third study of Ephesians. We talked about blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There was only one attitude that was legitimate and justifiable for
men and women like ourselves. That attitude was just, “Bless you Lord. Bless you, bless you, bless
you. Thank you.”

And part of the reason I bring it up is because it’s so easy to slip into the attitude that the
first man and woman expressed. You know the attitude. We may not use those words but it was the
attitude found in Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that
the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the
garden’?” And it’s easy to slip into that. “Yes, but I have a wrinkle here.” “Yes, but why didn’t
he give me a husband?” “Why didn’t he give me some other situation that I would enjoy better?”
“Well, why couldn’t I do what so and so does?”
When you look at it, it sounds ridiculously ungrateful. It sounds the meanest, pettiest, small
minded attitude that you could imagine.” All these trees are here in this garden but has God said,
“Is there any tree that you can’t eat? Did he say any one? Did he give you them all?” And it’s so
easy instead of having our life a continual benediction to the Father, with continual joy, continual
thanksgiving, continual gladness, it’s so easy for it to be filled with, “Oh, I resent that I didn’t
get this.” Or we complain that, “I don’t have that.” Or we worry that, “I won’t get this.” And
it’s so easy for the life to sink into headaches and worry so that vaguely life leaks away. Maybe

it’s not quite as bad as that but there is a vague kind of satisfaction but with a bit of
discontent.

But most importantly our attitude is not what is normal, and natural, and reasonable in the light of
the fact that, “I have fingers that I couldn’t buy, I have a hand that I couldn’t buy, I have legs
that I couldn’t buy, I have eyes that I couldn’t buy. Father, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Lord, thank you for this wonderful life that you’ve given me. Thank you that I can see, that I can
hear. Thank you Father that I can think. Thank you that I can walk.”

It’s probably good, just as we think of what we studied the previous Sunday, to check out the posts
and see, “Now what is the mark of my life? Is the mark of my life praise, delight, and joy, or is
the mark of my life a kind of grudging, ‘Well I’ve got something but Lord, help me to be better,
help me to be happier.’” Is it always, “Lord, give me something else. There’s another tree that I
haven’t got. I’ve got all these trees, but help me to feel this.”

There’s a sense in which it’s just ungrateful and petty. It’s ungrateful and it isn’t what’s normal
or natural in the situation. And of course, you realize it every time your dad goes into the
hospital. I remember my dad saying, when he was in the hospital, he said, “Oh, if I could only feel
the rain in my face.” And that’s what always happens. You don’t realize that delight of a rainy day
until you’re stuck in a bed and can’t move. We need to look above it all and not say, “Yes, I
better be grateful the way pastor says.” No, it’s not that.

Rather, look up and see, “How much more could this dear Father give us? How much more could he give
us?” And, “How much more understanding or how generous or magnanimous could he be?” It seems to me
that when you see that then your life is marked with just an unselfish joy and delight in him.
You’re not filled with your own mighty virtue, or your own stoical wonderful promethean struggles to
be a virtuous man or woman. It’s then that you see, “I am nothing and everything that is good is
what has been given to me. He’s maintaining it every day, thank goodness, because I couldn’t
maintain it.” And that’s the spirit, that the dear Apostle Paul is expressing, “Blessed be the God
and Father or our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And then you remember, if you look at the next verse it’s the second half of Ephesians 1:3 that we
have the privilege of looking at today. Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ,” and then, “Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
places.” And the bewildering and startling thing about this verse is the tense of the verb. It
throws you completely and it’s what tumbles us into the depths of this remarkable book of Ephesians.
The tense, you can see in the English is, “who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places — who has blessed us. And we normally think, “Well, doesn’t he
understand Greek? He should say, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will
bless us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.’ That’s obviously talking
about the time when we get to heaven and God is going to bless us in Christ in the heavenly places
and that’s what the verse should say, ‘Who will bless us in Christ in the heavenly places with every
spiritual blessing.’ And at that time we’ll receive all the spiritual blessings that we’re missing
now. We’ll enjoy them, and we’ll experience them fully and freely. And that’s what he should be
saying. Paul just has his tense wrong. He means who will bless us.”

No, the Greek is very clear. It’s eulogesas. If you were going to parse it, the subject of the
sentence is masculine because it applies to God, and the Greek word is past tense not future tense.
The Greek word is past tense and it means who has blessed us.

What it does is it gets us back to what we’ve mentioned before, that God and Jesus, and the Holy
Spirit had everything that they needed in each other. And God our Father resolved that he would
share that with other beings like himself and his Son. But he knew if they were to be like
themselves they had to have free wills. The Father did what he did because he wanted to. And Jesus
does what he does because he wants to.

Our Father knew that to have beings like himself he had to give them free will. But that meant that
he had to give them the freedom to kill and destroy him, and to choose themselves. And that meant
that he had to be in a position where he could destroy them. That’s because, if he was destroyed
there’d be nothing. But he could destroy them and yet raise them again. He could make them alive
again so that they saw a real choice. They saw what life was like apart from God and they saw what
life was like with God.

So he turned to his Son and he said, “My Son, will you become the first of these beings? Will you
allow the others to be created in you so that when they have to be destroyed you will bear the pain
of their destruction? And then because of your love and your life for me you yourself will raise
them back to life again inside yourself.” And our Savior said, “Yes, I will. Into thy hands I
commit my spirit.” And at that moment, in that millisecond, in the heavenly places, in eternity,
God did all that.

I think you can see that it happened there because God conceived it all in a millisecond. And the
moment he conceived it, that moment he experienced all the pain, agony, and the destruction of that.
And so it all happened back then. That’s why for Greek scholars, this is so important. I’d point
out to you that you know, the ordinary past tense is not “eulogesas”. It’s “eulogekas” with a k not
an s, which is the ordinary perfect tense. Strictly speaking the RSV would be better translated,
“who blessed us”, rather than “has” because in English we tend to express the perfect by “has
blessed” and we do that because we say the emphasis is on a past act that has brought about a
present state. It’s a past act that has brought about a present state. But the Greek word
eulogesas is a special past tense that means “just blessed”, a past single act. The emphasis is on
the past single act rather than the present state.

Let’s say this is the timeline. The past is one end of eternity and this year is another end of
eternity. Let’s say you go back to the beginning of Old Testament history and then you go back to
the creation of the world itself. In this, (what you can only describe as infinity) eternity of
time, in the heavenly places, the lamb was slain from before the foundation of the world. And God
blessed us in Christ back there with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

In other words — in Christ himself Joe, in Christ himself Greg, in Christ himself Joanne — God
blessed each one of you in Christ with every spiritual blessing in these heavenly places. That’s
what the verse says. Back then, before the creation, before any of us were born, we were blessed in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. That means with every spiritual
blessing, everything that we would need. That’s what the word is in English transliteration
epouraniois — those are the heavenly places. These are the places in eternity, where God himself
dwells which is our real home, not this little plot of time that we call this present world. This
isn’t our home. This is our home here. This is where we were created, this is where we will live
forever with God and it’s here that God blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing.

God has blessed every man and every woman with everything that they need. When we get sick God

blessed us with the spiritual blessing of healing in Christ and the Holy Spirit is able to
administer that to us here in time. But we do not need to reach up to it and pull it down because
God blessed us with it in Christ. He blessed us with every spiritual blessing. It’s the same with
forgiveness. Sometimes we take the unreal attitude, “Oh, I need forgiveness.” But the fact is, God
blessed you with forgiveness even when you were yet a sinner. If you say to me, “You mean he paid
us before we did the work?” That’s right.

However, stupid we think that was, he paid us before we did the work. He bore the pain of our
destruction and our resurrection before ever we knew anything about it. He gave back these things to
us this before we had even started to cut his Son. That’s what it is, God blessed us with these
things even before he had any guarantee that we would turn towards him at all. Indeed, in the case
of (as far as we can see, and we have to be careful) but in the case of Adolf Hitler it never
happened. Now, it appears there are millions that not only spat upon Jesus but ground his blood
into the dust. Yes, that’s our gracious God.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who blessed us back then with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And so there is nothing that any of us need today
that God has not already given to us in Jesus. And it’s important that you see that. “You mean he’s
given it to us in Jesus?” He gave it to Jesus in you and he gave it to you in Jesus. Whatever
Jesus has you have. Whatever spiritual life and rest that’s needed, you have already got. That’s
where we can take such an unreal attitude in regard to the second rest of the people of God. We say,
“I’m trying to get into the second rest. I am. I’m trying to get into the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. I know that’s what I need. If I only had the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” If you had only
the baptism? But you have. God gave you that in Jesus.

“Well, I know but I really have to…,” “You have to explain it to him?” “Yes, I have to explain it.”
But, it is yours. Are you willing for it? Are you willing to be in the baptism of the Holy
Spirit? Are you willing to rest from your labors? “Oh, well if I could only rest from my labors it
would save me such worry and such anxiety.” “But you wouldn’t have the credit for your labors.”
“Well, I don’t need the credit.” “Well then, why don’t you rest from your labors? Why don’t you
accept that God has blessed you with a second rest of the people of God? Why don’t you accept that
you are nothing in Jesus, God has destroyed you in him, Jesus alone lives in you and he will do all
the living for you? Why don’t you accept that?” Well, it’s not so easy. Well it is.

It’s not a matter of us trying to get the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or trying to get the second
rest of the people of God, or trying to get forgiveness, or trying to get regeneration, or trying to
get conviction of sin, or trying to get an awakened spirit. These we have all been blessed with in
Jesus. All we have to do is be willing for the life that results from those.

You remember the two men that used to ride to church on a pony cart for years in the states. They
attended a church where holiness of heart was preached, where the clean heart was preached, where
sanctification, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the second rest of the people of God, the victory
over sin, the ability to do what you knew was right, and that we are not to be continually saying,
“The good that I would I cannot do.” And these men went there every Sunday and sought for a clean
heart, and sought for entire sanctification. They sought for years, and years, and years and then
one of them entered in. He was picking up the other man to take them both to church as usual, and
the other one said to him, “John, how did you enter in?” And John looked at him and said, “I just
got honest with God.” And that’s it.

It is not that we need something more, we need to just get honest with God, stop playing around, and
stop saying, “Oh, I’d love to be free from my labors.” All we mean is, “I wish we hadn’t so much
trouble with myself. I’d love to be free of having so much trouble with myself.” Yes, but are you
really free from making yourself the important person? Are you willing for Jesus to be the only
one? God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in
Christ from before the foundation of the world. You are blessed with it, it is yours now, and
you’ve only to live in it. Let us pray.

Blessings From the Bounty of Heaven

Ephesians 1:3b

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

I think Ephesians is really the most complex book in the New Testament and probably in the Bible.
I’m not really a Greek scholar though I can read Greek, but even I can see how the Greek is
intensely condensed. It is very, very complex, Greek. And Paul tries to express thoughts that are
really quit infinite, and so it is a very complex book. I would say it is much more difficult Greek
than the book of Romans. It is more complex in a way then Romans though in a sense not as complete
and absolute a presentation of the gospel as Romans. But Ephesians is certainly a much deeper book,
and so it’s a book where you need to spend a lot of time depending on the Holy Spirit, trusting him
to show you at what level you can understand it.

It’s not to bend your mind out of shape trying to understand what maybe I understand, or what
somebody else understands. But you need to ask the Holy Spirit to show you what you need to
understand of it at this time. I think what we’ve done is get to about verse 3, so let’s plunge
into it. Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us.” You keep getting that three times in this verse, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”

It’s good to see that each of those ‘blessed’ give you the feel of the book — blessed be the God
and Father, who has blessed us, with every spiritual blessing. The Greek is just the same actually,
it’s that word eulogetos. And it keeps repeating. Even those of you that know a little Greek, know
that logetos is speak, and eu is well. So blessing is speaking well of.

But you can see that the whole verse is a positive. It’s all bless, bless, bless be the God and
Father of the Lord Jesus, bless does with every spiritual blessing. So this verse is gospel all the
way. Now what I’d like to draw your attention to is the third part of the verse which we’re dealing
with today, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places — in
heavenly places. The rare expression there is epouraniois. It occurs actually just four times in
the New Testament, and those four times are in Ephesians.

It is a remarkable expression, and has several different meanings. I thought Lloyd Jones had a very
deep insight and then I was looking up my own special computer commentary and there it was right
there so I know what he got it from. But heaven can mean the earth’s atmosphere. And you’ll get
that if you like to look at it in Genesis 2:19. This is one obvious example of that word in Hebrew
(though it’s not translated heaven there in our English).

Genesis 2:19, “So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of
the air.” And “of the air” is actually every bird of the heavens. So you can guess the atmosphere
is a where our friends the birds fly. And so that’s one meaning of heaven. E. Stanley Jones points
out another meaning of heaven — that is the stellar heavens. This is just beyond the earth’s
atmosphere where the stars are. You find that in Matthew 24:29, “Immediately after the tribulation
of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will

fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” Heavens — that’s the place where
the stars are, the stellar heavens, the great areas of space. And the third heaven is of course
paradise itself.

And that’s what Paul was talking about that we read in 2 Corinthians 12, “I knew a man who was
called up to the third heaven,” he was speaking of himself and of a very elevated, mystical
experience where he was caught up into heaven and he saw what heaven was like. And so paradise is
the third meaning of heaven.

Now what I’d like to show you and you’ll have to think about this a little more — light, travels at
180,000 miles per second. Light travels 6 trillion miles in a year. So when you’re talking about
light years that’s the kind of distance you’re talking about. Now do you see that if you’re
standing here on the earth, and there’s a star out here, and its light is traveling at 6 trillion
miles a year. In one year its light has got to there. And in another year its light has got to
there. And eventually what do you say? They calculate it now with the radio telescopes, but by the
time it gets to here it’s ten thousand years later.

So Colleen sees this star, but really she doesn’t. She sees the light of the star that has come in
these little bits and it eventually gets to here, and she says, “Look at that star”. But really what
she should say is, “Look at that star that was!” Because many of the stars have died, and all we’re
seeing is their light traveling towards us.

Now if you can hold your mind together let’s just go back to there. We go back to that point many
thousands of years back there. If you could get out into space there, (you see why they talk about
time machines) you’re seeing something out there that has happened eight thousand years ago. I am no
astronomer at all and I don’t know the details of these things, but I can begin to grasp that that’s
where time and space affect each other. I think you can see that by going to a different place in a
vast universe like ours, you actually travel back in time or forward in time. And you can actually
see things that have happened ten thousand years ago, twenty thousand years ago, or as many
thousands of years ago as God has arranged. Can you see what I’m saying?

There seems to be some remarkable place there. I don’t know if that’s at all what Stephen Hawking (a
scientist in the U.K.) hopes to get at, the unique theory of everything, but you can see that
there’s some spot out there at the end of this stellar space and beyond this atmosphere where space
and time fade into paradise. Now that’s what this verse says, the word for blessed in heavenly
places is eulogesas. The aorist tense is a past tense but it’s a past tense with the emphasis on
back there. The perfect tense is a past tense, but it emphasizes what has happened in the past and
what is the present state that is the result of that.

So when you say “He has blessed”, you really are laying the emphasis on the present state that is
the result of the previous blessing. You’re laying emphasis on the actual event in the past. And
what God is saying is that he blessed us in Christ, in the heavenly places back there. Back there he
blessed us in the heavenly places, which are beyond the space and time that we can see and measure,
he blessed us in Christ thousands of years ago. Away at the beginning he blessed us in Christ with
every spiritual blessing.

I think you all are able to get over the obvious question, well how could he have blessed us if we
didn’t yet exist? It’s because we were created in Christ Jesus, and we were created in Christ Jesus
way before the beginning of the world. And it was at that time that God blessed us in Christ in the

heavenly places. In other words, when God resolved to make us part of the Trinity family he knew
that he would have to make us free agents. And at that moment he knew he would have to make us free
agents who could kill God. He had to face the worst possibility that he gave us, and he had to make
us free agents that could kill God. Yet God himself would rise from the dead, and would in turn be
able to destroy the evil in us that killed him. Yet at the same time he would be able to raise us up
so that we would have a chance to choose him or ourselves.

And then God turned around to his son and said, “Son, will you let me create these dear children
inside you, so that you will bare their destruction and in turn raise them up by your own life so
that they will have the opportunity to choose me or themselves?” And God did all that back there,
that’s what Paul is saying.

God blessed us in Christ in the heavenly places — where time is one great eternal moment, where
time has faded into eternity — all that has been done. What’s the importance of it? The
importance of it is that too many of us think, “I can’t get forgiveness, I can’t get sanctified, I
can’t get baptized with the Holy Spirit.” You don’t have to because you already were. God already
did that. And if you say to me, “Well why am I not in it?” Yes, why aren’t you in it? Why aren’t
you? That’s really all you have to say, why aren’t you?

It’s not because you can’t get in so why aren’t you? The only answer is, “I’ll ask the Holy Spirit
why I’m not.” It’s certainly not because God has’t done it. It’s been done. That’s why the verse
says, “God blessed us in Christ in the heavenly places, with every spiritual blessing, (every — the
Greek word is very clear). It’s every spiritual blessing, it’s the same word as you get in
pantasocracy or pantheos. The word is “pas” it’s every spiritual blessing, God blessed us with every
spiritual blessing, in Christ, everything that we needed — what are they?

You see it in Ephesians 2:1. These are the spiritual blessings that he blessed us with at that
moment. “And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you
once walked.” Even when you were dead he made you alive in Jesus. He crucified you in Jesus and made
you alive in Jesus even, “When you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once
walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among these we all once lived in the passions of
our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like
the rest of mankind.”

Even when that was the case, God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us,
even when we were dead through our trespasses…..even back there, when God saw that we were out to
kill him, and to live with ourselves as God, even when we were dead through our trespasses back
there, God made us alive to together with Christ, and by grace you have been saved. It is all by
grace, because you couldn’t do anything back then at all.

It was by God’s sheer generosity that he foresaw what your attitude was, and he took action. He
wiped it out and raised you up despite your attitude. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up
with him and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Why? That in the coming
ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, for
by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it’s the gift of God,
not because of works lest any man should boast.

But we say, “Lord, what should we do to get forgiven? What should we do to get sanctified? What

should we do to be baptized with the Holy Spirit?” And he’s saying, “Can’t you read? This was all
done by grace. I did this all to you in my son. I have raised you up and made you alive in him.
That’s all done, and this present world is a world that lifts apart from that to show you what the
alternative is. Now you can see what the alternative is. But I’ve put you in my son and I’ve put my
son in you, and now I want you to live that way.”

That’s it, the whole thing has been done, and that’s what the verse is saying. Bless be the God and
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus in
the heavenly places, and then has let us come and visit earth for a short time. But actually that’s
where we are, sitting with Jesus in the heavenly places at the right hand of God. So you can see
that you actually have to decide and the decision is a very simple one. You have to decide whether
you are going to believe that this passing ‘schema’ (Greek for outer appearance) is passing away.
You have to decide is this outward appearance the real reality? Is this the final truth or in fact
is this the final truth? You have to decide which one.

We can decide it at every moment of our lives. Somebody cuts us dead and at that moment you can
decide, is this reality or have I been raised up with the Lord Jesus? Are the angels, archangels,
St. Patrick and St. Thomas Aquinas are they all here? Which is reality? We can decide that and it
is incredible. I’ll ask you to think about it. I think it’s interesting to see how even from the
little bit of knowledge we have of astronomy we can see how people like Einstein, are breaking into
some of the truth of reality.

Dear Lord, we thank you for your great grace. We thank you Lord that the very powers of heaven are
not only around about us but within us. We thank you Lord that we are not what we seem. We are not
little creeping insects, here on the surface of a planet. We are caught between the moon and
heaven, caught in our dear savior, made to sit with him in the heavenly places, far above all rule
and authority in dominion and power, and above every name that is named not only in this age but
that which is to come. We thank you Father, that this is reality.