New Testament Studies

Apostolic SuccessionColossians 1:1Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillI’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 thethen 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 oftruth 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 ourresponsibility 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 FatherColossians 1:2Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillOur 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 ityourself. 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 ofChrist 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 LoveColossians 1:4aSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillPlease 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 itsobject; 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 nowlived 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 LoveColossians 1:4bSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillThe 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 thatwe 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 supernaturalbecause 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 livein 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 wouldsee 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 1:4CSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillThere 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 thingas 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 towardsanother 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 livingtogether 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 HomeColossians 1:5aSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillToday’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 gotsomewhere 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 loveor 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. Butwhether 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 UsColossians 1:5bSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillIt’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 wereexpounding 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 itstill 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. KarlBarth 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 usunconditionally 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 allwhoever 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 1:5cSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillPlease 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 somethingfar 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 usafter 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. 1Colossians 1:6aSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillLast 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. Thegospel 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 worldwhatever 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 Jesusthat 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 2Colossians 1:6bSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillColossians 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 havinga 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 thoughthat 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 thewater.”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 3Colossians 1:6Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillLet’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 somethingto 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 secondprobation {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 isfull 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 IndwellingColossians 1:9ASermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillWe 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 isreally 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, unlessChrist 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 WillColossians 1:9BSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillIt 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 aboutthe 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.” 06:13And 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. 08:50And 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 evenknow 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.