Standing in the Victory

Dear Lord, as we bow in Thy presence, we worship Thee together for all that Thou art. We thank Thee Lord for those wonderful words. In Thine ascension we see our own. Lord, we praise Thee that we've been made to sit with our Lord Jesus Christ in heavenly places. Lord, our prayer is that somehow, by Thy Spirit, Thou wouldst touch the eyes of our hearts—to see the ascension of our Lord Jesus, to see that He is enthroned at Thy right hand, to see our Father, the invincibility of His reign, of His rule. O Lord, we commit ourselves to Thee. We're very conscious, Lord, of the tide of evil that is sweeping over our nation. Conscious, Lord, of the way here in the west with its so-called Christian civilisation, we're beginning to see, Lord, something that is utterly pagan and utterly evil. Lord, we do not know what we can do, except to turn to Thee and pray that wherever this day, in this land or in the nations of the West, Thy gospel is preached, it shall be preached in peculiar and particular power with such an anointing that men and women who love the truth shall be drawn to it, and shall come to know our Lord Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Saviour. We thank Thee for what Thou art doing in other parts of the world. We thank the Lord for all remembrance of each one of Thy servants. We think of dear brother Nee in prison and others like him—Wang Ming Dao and so many others, Lord, that are in prison. We do remember them before Thee. We remember those, Lord, who are free and proclaiming Thy word. We think of brother Bakht Singh and so many others. We think, Lord, of oh many, that we're linked to in love and faith fellowship. We think, dear Lord, today of Joan Short as she is now arrived back in Pokhara today. Bless her abundantly, Lord, we pray. We pray for Colin and Ina in Asiru, and those dear ones there in Congo. Bless them, Lord, we pray; be with them mightily. Cause there to be a mighty increase and a multiplication. Lord, we commit all to Thee. We think, Lord, of those in our own midst who are laid aside—those, Lord, who are unwell. We lift them lovingly to Thee and pray, Lord, for that divine release of life and power in their mortal bodies. We think of Ruth Douglas especially, Lord, before Thee. And then there are many others too, Lord. Thou knowest all the need. We commit ourselves to Thee. Lord, as we turn now to Thy word, we need Thine especial help this morning. We cast ourselves upon Thee, and we praise the Lord that there's always bread in Thy house when Thou art present. Lord we pray, meet us and feed us, and may we all go away having met with the Lord. We ask it in His precious name. Amen. Introduction: A Crumb Becomes a Meal Well now, this morning, if you would turn to Psalm 22, the twenty-second Psalm. We have but a crumb this morning, but it is always a wonderful thing how a crumb can become a meal when God is present. I always remember there was a brother I knew who was peculiarly blessed in ministry, and he was always talking about scraping the bottom of the barrel. Remember the widow who used to go every time and get to—she always found something at the bottom of the barrel. Now this morning I fear that we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. But there's something there of the Lord for us all. And so we will look and see how the Lord leads us. The Messianic Vision in Psalm 22 Psalm 22 I'm going to read from verse 22. I think all of you know what goes before in those first verses—that tremendous experience of the cross through which our Lord Jesus passed. The Scripture Reading: Psalm 22:22-31 I will declare Thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the assembly will I praise Thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him; and stand in awe of Him, all ye the seed of Israel. For He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath He hid His face from him: but when he cried unto Him, He heard. Of Thee cometh my praise in the great assembly: I will pay my vows before them that fear Him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied; they shall praise the Lord that seek after Him: let your heart live for ever. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's; and He is ruler over the nations. All the fat ones of the earth shall eat and worship; all they that go down to the dust shall bow down before Him; even he that cannot keep his soul alive. A seed shall serve Him; it shall be told of the Lord unto the next generation. They shall come and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done it. The Central Message: "It Is Finished" Now the phrase that has been going through my mind through yesterday and tonight—but it has remained just a phrase I must warn you—has been this last little phrase. Here: "they shall come and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done it." This word can so easily be translated "that He hath completed it," "that He hath accomplished it." And I see that the Amplified Bible quite correctly puts it like this: "unto a people that shall be born, that it is finished." Of course, we all know that this psalm is a Messianic psalm. We all know that perhaps of all the psalms that predict and foretell the sufferings and work and law of our Lord Jesus and the glory that should follow, this psalm is perhaps supreme. There is no psalm—in fact, no chapter in the Bible—that quite so amazingly plumbs the depths of our Lord's work and suffering, His experience on the cross, as this twenty-second Psalm. The Extraordinary Nature of David's Prophecy But the thing that so grips me is this verse: "They shall come and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that it is finished." What an extraordinary statement! If David really saw by the Spirit something of what the Lord Jesus was accomplishing on the cross when he prophesied this, how extraordinary it is that a thousand years before the Lord came and offered Himself up on the cross, David said, "they shall come and shall declare unto a people that shall be born that it's finished." If only every Christian had got the same vision that David's got. If we only all understood that we as Christians—the only way we can go forward is by experiencing something that is finished. The Foundation Stone: It Is Already Done You see, most of us have got a subconscious idea that the Lord's got to do something. Well, of course, in one sense it's not incorrect, but we haven't got the foundation stone: it is already done. The moment you and I see that the work of our salvation, everything necessary to live the Christian life, everything necessary for the turning of you and myself from sinners into saints—to conform us to the image of God's Son—has already been completed... David saw it one thousand years before it happened. Have you seen it two thousand years after? Here we are two thousand years after it's been done. We're all here, I suppose, except for perhaps a few, all born again believers. Do you know, all our trouble comes from the fact that we are hesitant when it really comes to declaring that it is finished. The Declaring Generation David said this is going to be the sign of this thing: "they shall declare... shall come and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that it's already done." It's already done, it's complete, it's finished. Now this doesn't mean that it's finished in the sense that there's nothing to do in us—not at all. But the Lord will not do anything in us till we recognise that the work is finished. When we recognise that the work is finished, the Lord, by the Holy Spirit, starts to work in us and make it real. Our Salvation Experience Now, was there anyone in this room who was saved by any other way? You remember how—whatever words you use, whether someone was with you, whether you read out a little prayer, or whether it was just from the heart—what you said really was this: "Lord Jesus, You died for me." Perhaps in different ways we said the same thing: "You died for me. You died to save me. Something happened two thousand years ago; You finished it. Now I come to You and I say, Lord, I believe." That moment you and I were saved. It would be a very strange thing—some of these folks who say that we shouldn't look for any further work of the Spirit of God in our hearts—if they were to adopt the same idea over our salvation just because it was two thousand years ago, we don't do anything. Of course not! Everyone realises you've got to possess, you've got to take. The moment has to come when your eyes, by the Spirit of God touching us, the eyes of our heart, we see that the Lord has died to save us. We see that He offers us a complete salvation. And we say, "Lord, I accept. Lord, I receive." The Scope of the Finished Work But when we received that so great salvation, did any of us understand what was within it? Is there a single one of us who really understood how tremendous, how significant, how powerful, how magnificent in scope was the salvation that we received? "They shall come and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that it is finished." Complete Sanctification Now, what does that mean? It means this: that everything—as I have said, not only for your forgiveness, not only for your justification—is finished, but everything necessary for your sanctification is finished. For we are told in Hebrews: "by the one offering of Himself, He sanctifies for ever those that have been saved." It's done. It's done. Now, how can you and I come in? Only when the Holy Spirit touches the eyes of our hearts and we see that it's ours. He has received the promise of the Father. He has received the promise of the Father. We can enter into such an experience—a living, inward, progressive experience of our risen, glorified Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit. The Triumphal Procession If you will turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter 2, this is put in another way here. The Apostle Paul was another one who so clearly saw this. 2 Corinthians 2:14 But thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest to us the savour of His knowledge in every place. Now, I don't hesitate in saying that I think for most Christians, that is a very hard verse to understand. We all quote, "but thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ," but few ever unravel what all this means about making manifest to us the savour of His knowledge in every place. I think Conybeare has put it very, very beautifully in his translation. Listen to this: "But thanks be to God, who leads me on from place to place in the train of His triumph to celebrate His victory over the enemies of Christ." That's perfect. The Roman Triumph Illustration Of course, you all know that the idea is the Roman general going back home to Rome, and he's taking all the captive kings in chains behind the chariot—the dreadful business. It used to be in the old days that most of the aristocracy or the kings or anyone who had any responsibility, they were taken back for the triumphal procession in Rome. And so finally, when they came to be greeted by the emperor, they had all these sort of trophies of their victory, sort of running behind the chariot, all chained. The Lord Jesus is really saying that you and I are captives. You and I are captives. And we are in the train of His triumph. We're behind His great triumphal chariot. Celebrating Victory, Not Winning It And as we go forward, we're celebrating His victory. He turns it round. We're not just slaves or those who've been defeated in the wrong way. We've now become those who are celebrating His victory. We are showing everyone: "Here is our Lord. He has won. He is victorious. We are also in His victory. He's conquered us. And we are here to celebrate His victory." How lovely that is when it's seen! "But thanks be to God, who leads me on from place to place in the train of His triumph." It's a finished work. It's a victory already won. From place to place—that may mean for some of the housewives, from the kitchen sink to the bedroom. For others, it may mean from the office to some other office, I don't know. But it's place to place. From place to place, there's always—He leads us in victory. And what do we do? We celebrate a victory. Now, here is the key to the whole thing: We are celebrating a victory. It's not that we've got to win a victory. We're celebrating a victory. That's the key to it. "Tell it unto a people that shall be born that He hath done it." The Problem with Trying to Win If we could only get hold of it instead of sort of—sort of being at the kitchen sink, and the enemy sort of saying to you, "Oh, it's no good. It doesn't work. It doesn't work." And you sort of say, "Oh, but I must get the victory. I must get the victory." Although some very difficult person in the church, you can't get the victory with it. And you keep on saying, "I must get the victory. I must." And the more you must, the more the victory recedes. It's impossible. It doesn't say "leads us on in the train of His triumph to gain the victory." It is "to celebrate the victory." We're here to celebrate the victory. And when we go over from unbelief to faith, then the victory is manifest. The Spiritual Principle So extraordinary are spiritual things that we have to move over from unbelief to faith. You see, often our trying to get the victory is because we don't believe the victory has been won—obviously. So we believe that we, as a detached Christian unit, have somehow or other to get the victory. But if only we would start—instead of trying to get the victory—we would start to celebrate the victory, to celebrate the victory over the enemies of Christ. The Example of Jehoshaphat You remember Jehoshaphat. You all know the great story of Jehoshaphat. How when the Lord said that He would deliver His people from their enemies, He did this remarkable thing. He said, "The Lord says, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. This battle is not your battle. It is the Lord's battle." Now many of us have got to that place where we will say, "This isn't my battle, it's His battle. I'm not going to do anything. I'm going to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." But Jehoshaphat would never have known the victory of the Lord if he hadn't made his faith—if he hadn't concretely expressed his faith. The Choir in Front He gathered together the leaders of Israel, and I can only imagine the faces of his military advisors when he said to them: "Put the temple choir in the front." Can you imagine them? "My lord," or "Sir," or "Your royal highness," or whatever it was, they would say, "there's going to be a slaughter. These people are not permitted to take sword. They're not permitted to be armed. They're priests of the Lord. They are Levites. They're not permitted to defend themselves in this way. There'll be an absolute slaughter. We must advise you. And if once a slaughter starts in the front, it will be very bad for our morale." Perhaps one of the more believing generals might have said to Jehoshaphat, "Don't you think if you really feel very strongly about this, your majesty, that the best thing would be—couldn't we get them in front singing a war song? You know, a real sort of war dance in the front. Sort of 'Victory is ours, victory is ours'—a great chant, you see, that might be good. That might sort of frighten the enemy. Especially if they blow the trumpets and clash the cymbals and everything else and bang the drums with us behind. It'll be a bit of morale for us at the back." "No," the most exhaustive. Jehoshaphat said, "certainly not. I want them to sing 'For the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever.'" Can you just imagine those generals' faces? The Victory Through Praise It's the kind of thing that we wouldn't do even here in a prayer gathering. We would feel we've got to have a good old warlike song to go into this. It's no good sort of just singing gently about "the mercy of the Lord endures." That's all right for the home, that's all right for the sort of quiet gathering on a feast day in the temple, but not for the battlefield. But they went out. I think the generals were believing men, most obviously. They sent the choir out in front and there they went forth that day and the choir sang this tremendous anthem: "For His loving kindness endureth for ever." We don't know whether it was one of the psalms which does that—which of course means that one section of the choir says, you know, "Bless the Lord, O house of Israel," and the other says, "For His loving kindness endureth for ever." And then "O bless the Lord, O ye house of Aaron," "That for the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever." They just sang. Can you just imagine the forces of evil, the Babylonian forces, the Assyrian forces? They just stood on and watched this sort of thing. "What's happening here?" But of course you know, they've gone. The Lord had finished them. For as they began to sing, so they started slaughtering each other. They thought that there was an ambush set, and so they polished off each other in the most marvellous manner, so that the enemies of the Lord were slain completely by their own swords. And Israel did not a thing. They only sang a hymn of praise which we would normally have reserved for a feast day in the temple. The Smell of War Doesn't that teach you and I something about home? Sometimes there's a bit too big a smell of war about us. I say it to myself—I'm one of them. Those are war horses whose ears prick up as soon as they smell gunpowder and hear gunfire. The thing is that we can bring in an atmosphere sometimes of war of the wrong kind, whereas all we have to do, quite honestly, is to celebrate the victory of the Lord. We've not got to get the victory; we've got to celebrate the victory. And when we do that, there's praise in our hearts, there's joy, there's light. And what's more, the enemy is set back, because the Lord does... The Spiritual Reality It's an extraordinary thing in spiritual things, that if we do not celebrate the victory of the Lord, then the enemy seems to be on top. But when we celebrate the victory of the Lord, that victory becomes manifest. In other words, what I am trying to say is that if we don't celebrate the victory of the Lord, it would appear that there is no victory of the Lord to celebrate. Isn't that extraordinary, although it was two thousand years ago? So conscious are we of the seen things, so conscious are we of flesh and blood, so conscious are we of satanic powers, even when they're not visible, that if we do not celebrate the victory of the Lord, then it would seem that there was no victory of the Lord to celebrate. But when we celebrate the victory of the Lord, that moment the victory of the Lord becomes manifest. Personal Experience of Victory And have you ever known that experience when you start to really praise the Lord and rejoice in Him when something happens inside and you know that He is Lord? You absolutely know that in this particular situation, He really is Lord. He's just got on top. He is on top. If only the Holy Spirit could lead us, all of us, to such an experience as "leadeth us"... Let me read it again: "Who leads me on from place to place in the train of His triumph." Some of us somehow get unshackled from the Lord's triumphal chariot, and we're having our own little sort of mock procession where we are not celebrating His victory, but trying to get our own. All we've got to do is to stay in the triumphal procession. The Need for Spiritual Vision Now, what I've said this morning must remain for all of us theory, theology, just so much doctrine, unless the Holy Spirit shows us Christ. Then people sit there and think, "It doesn't work. It doesn't work. It really doesn't work." And of course, the more you say it doesn't work, the more it won't work in your life. It's quite as simple as that. But the moment the Lord were to touch the eyes of your heart so that you see, then that moment you start to celebrate the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll discover that you're in the triumphal train. That would be tremendous, wouldn't it? Practical Applications I think of our home situations, I think of the office situations represented here. I think of the house-to-house outreach. I think of the fishing on Sunday evenings. I think of the battle over evangelism, over just a Sunday evening meeting. All these things. I think of so much more on a much bigger scale—the national scale and even an international scale. When we're up against forces of darkness, world rulers of this present darkness, well, what are we to do? Only as the Lord teaches us how to celebrate this victory, when that is really burnt into us, something happens. What We Need to See But now I close. But I close with this: I can tell you precisely what it is that we need to see. We need to see that it is finished. We need to see that it is finished. Now, some will say, "No, I don't think that. I think we need to see that the Lord is on high." And others might say, "Well, I think we need to see that the Holy Spirit is poured out." No, I say, I would not say that. I would say we need to see that it is finished. For the Lord is on high because it is finished. And the Holy Spirit is poured out because it is finished. And the moment you see that it is finished, your heart will see that He is Lord and you will see that He has received the promise for you and for me. So the thing we need to see is that it is done. He has done it. The Wisdom of the Old Testament Saints As I have often said to you here, I think that it is amazing how we Christians treat the saints of the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, as if they were a bunch of wandering and rather ignorant Bedouins. We pity them; we're sorry for them. But as I said to the young people on Friday evening, if Abraham were to walk into the library, they would be very surprised. Of course they said they would be, but they would be very surprised indeed if Abraham were to walk in. You would be very surprised here if Abraham were to walk in. Not just the fact of his walking in, but the fact that his knowledge and experience—far from being a wandering, ignorant Bedouin—I think we would discover that Abraham could sit down with us and tell us things that he saw and experienced by the Spirit of God that would leave us speechless. He saw Christ's day. The gospel was preached to Abraham. The word said, and I'm sure of King David, he would come in here and he would sit down and he would say, "Let's sing a psalm better than some of your hymns." David's Vision He would say, "One or two of the psalms that the Lord gave me," and if he were to say to us, "I feel sorry for all you folk. I lived a thousand years before, but I saw that the Lord had done it and that one day it would be told to a generation unborn that He has finished it." If he were to see that before and live in the glory of it, how much more do we need to see it—that it is finished. That every single thing necessary for the salvation of our souls, for our being conformed to the image of His Son, for our reaching together the full grown man, the full stature of Christ—everything necessary has been obtained for us through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Invincible Christ And oh, much more. He—He's invincible, absolutely invincible. There's no advance He cannot make, no obstacle He cannot overcome, nothing that He cannot do. The Lord Jesus has finished the work, defeated God's enemies, and is reigning till His enemies be made the footstool of His feet. We don't see all things under Jesus yet, but we do see Him crowned with glory and honour. Can't we by faith celebrate His victory and put a few more things under His feet? Practical Victory There are a number of things in our homes and in our life together as a company of God's children and many other things that if we could only take them, put them under the footstool, put them under His feet, put them... How? By celebrating His victory. Then we shall tread the enemy down and we shall know that glorious prediction of the Apostle Paul: "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." May the Lord help us. Closing Prayer Shall we pray? Dear Lord, we all know that Thou didst die on the cross to finish that work. But Lord, how few of us have really seen its fuller implications. We pray this morning, Lord, that by Thy Holy Spirit we shall see with the eyes of our hearts that the Lord Jesus Christ has done it. He's finished it. He has completed it. And we pray that we shall be those who are led from place to place celebrating the victory of the Lord in the triumphal procession of our Lord. O Lord, this morning what we've said may not remain just a message or words or even truth. But Lord, that somehow it would get into our hearts. Situations in our homes, put under the feet of the Lord by celebrating His victory. Situations in offices where the Lord's name is being dishonoured or disgraced, put under His feet. Situations amongst us—strained relationships or anything else like that, or just where we feel the enemy's up against something, holding onto it, strangling it—put under the feet of the Lord Jesus. O Father, we commit ourselves to Thee that Thou wilt do this work by Thy Spirit of really giving us spiritual vision. And we ask it in the name of our risen and enthroned and glorious Lord Jesus. Amen.