Witnesses to Jesus — Norman Meeten

My wife was away talking. Praise God. One of the great joys of gatherings like this is that we can get to know one another realistically in a very practical and intimate way and make friends and forge bonds of love in each other's hearts which will never be broken.

Amen. And we may not see each other for years and years and years but those bonds of love forged are fixed. Dear Jan's nodding her head. Known her many many years as I have many many other years. Dear Eddie, when she was a student at London University.

Others. Praise God. Just lovely. Lovely to be amongst God's people. To realise that we're a part of his family. That we're intimately joined together by his spirit. Indivisibly joined. Amen. Now Julian has highlighted two very significant words.

Servanthood, Witness, and Identification with Jesus

One which comes from the word servant or bondservant which he rightly corrected for us. Slave. Slave. Doulos. And the other one was witness which means martyr. Amen. And those are the implications of being involved in the life of the Lord Jesus.

He laid down his life for us. We also are to lay down our lives for the brethren. Praise God. It's not a picnic. We're invited to identify with him in all that he was and did and accomplished on our behalf.

Glory to his name. Julian also emphasised the fact that the Book of Revelation was written to churches which were under severe persecution. And in fact all of the disciples, with the exception of John who wrote the Book of Revelation, all died as martyrs.

They didn't just believe the word. They literally lived it and died it. Literally. Physically. And of course there are people around the world today who are literally laying down their lives physically for the testimony of Jesus.

And that's why in countries in which I have been involved in more recent years, well not so much recent years but many years, where it's becoming almost impossible. Where political legislation says that they will eliminate, eliminate those of us who call ourselves Christians.

Amen. And sometimes people say, aren't you afraid? No. Are we prepared to be slaves? Peter wrote two letters and of course again they were written to the persecuted church. And he wrote them in order to clarify and encourage God's people.

Many of them who would literally lay down their lives for the Gospel. Hallelujah. Let's read in chapter 2 of 1 Peter. And we'll read from verse 1 down to the end of verse 10. And I'm reading the old King James.

If you have another version you can follow. And if it deviates from the truth you'll have to change your Bible. Well I went a long time ago, I went to a meeting in Reading in the early days of the Fellowship there.

And in the course of preaching I preached from Galatians chapter 1, which is one of my favorite chapters. It pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me.

And they'd all got a version of the Bible which said to me, when I said burn it. And at the end of the meeting there was a great pile of Bibles sitting in the waiting to be disposed of. Just one too little word beloved was a perversion of the truth.

Dragging us right back into the Old Covenant. Yes God was with them but it wasn't until the day of Pentecost. And we'll see that more clearly in a moment. It wasn't until the day of Pentecost that he was in them.

That was the radical change from the Old Covenant beloved to the New Covenant. That's a simple definition of the two covenants. The Old Covenant was external, the New Covenant is internal. Blessed be his name and by God's grace may we live in the reality beloved of the new, not in the old.

The Living Stones and the Identity of God's People

Let's read then. Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings as newborn babes desiring the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious to whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious.

You also as living stones are built up a spiritual house a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in Scripture behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone elect precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

Unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed the same is made the head of the corner. A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense even to them that stumble at the word being disobedient where unto also they were appointed.

But you are chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light which in time past were not a people but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

In time past you were not a people but now are the people of God and if you look at the last verse in the chapter it says for you were sheep going astray but are now returned under the shepherd and bishop of your soul.

You were but you are now. Praise God. Peter writes to the scattered churches beloved to encourage them and remind them of who they really are and what they really are in Christ. Amen. Sometimes it's we have a tendency to forget underestimate who we really are what God has really accomplished and made available to you and me.

Praise God. Don't underestimate what God's done as we were told this morning don't always be looking back but don't underestimate what he has done beloved and live in the good of it now. And that's what Peter is seeking to do for the people to whom he wrote to encourage them to live in the good of what they formerly knew.

Amen. We need to be reminded from time to time what is ours in Christ. Amen. Glory be to God. So let's look at this little passage of scripture it's full of truth. How far we will get I might have to stop somewhere along the way.

There's a clock up there but I tend to lose sight of clocks when I'm preaching. As Julian almost did this morning but never mind we we got our lunch. The first thing he tells us is that you are new born babes.

New Birth and the Evidence of Regeneration

Paul writing to Timothy expresses that in a different way. He says in Timothy chapter 3 no sorry Titus chapter 3. Again Titus chapter 3 and verse 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

That's another way beloved. Paul's expressing it in another way of telling us we've been born again. Praise God. Not by works of righteousness we have done according to his mercy saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

Glory to his name. Old things have passed away. Behold all things become new. We're no longer the person that we were naturally born. Having been born again of the Spirit of God we become new creations.

Amen. And if you want to understand what it really means to be born again beloved you have to go to John. And I'm going to quickly run through John's first letter for you. Only quickly pointing out and then you can go home beloved and study it properly.

I can't do all the work for you tonight. John makes it very clear as to what it really means to be born again. And he's very explicit. He keeps on repeating himself. Repetition in the scripture beloved is very important.

It's an indication that God is emphasising something that we need to really grasp and understand and by the grace of God live in the good of. Here we are. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 29. If you know that he is righteous you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him.

He who believes in righteousness is he who does righteousness. In fact he emphasises it in the next chapter when he says little children. Verse 7 of chapter 3. Little children let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous.

That's one of the even as he which again is repetition in John's first letter. That's why he says in chapter 2 verse 8 true in him and in you. And then he keeps on saying even as he, even as he. He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be the righteousness of God in him.

It's not you and I trying to be good beloved. It's recognising that God has invested us a principle which is righteous. Hallelujah. Here's a second truth and proof beloved that you and I are born again.

Chapter 3 verse 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. That's a mind blowing statement isn't it? And he repeats it beloved in the last chapter again because it's so important.

Paul says in Romans chapter, where is it? Chapter 8. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abide? He said God forbid. Doesn't mean to say that you cannot sin but you need not and you should not because of the revision that God has made for us in Christ.

And by the very spirit of Christ living in us beloved give us the power to live above sinning. The third great proof. Chapter 4. This is 1 John. Chapter 4. Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.

Why? Because we have the nature of God. For it says in this same chapter God is love and by the spirit the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts to enable us to be lovers. I don't know about you beloved that's the only desire I have in my heart to be a lover.

To love the Lord thy God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength and to love my brethren, my neighbour as myself. Has God made you a lover beloved? Jesus said love your enemies. People said that's impossible.

Well that's the whole point of the gospel beloved. Performing such a radical and amazing miracle in the hearts and lives of men and women that they become lovers. God so loved. Love your enemy he said.

The Bible is full of impossibilities but God. Glory to his name. That is the great challenge beloved of being identified with Jesus. Coming face to face with that which the natural man says is impossible.

But it's not impossible with him. Glory to his name. Number four. This is chapter five. Verse one. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

Amen. Believes that he is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one who lives within. Praise God. That's the proof that you're born again. Chapter five again and verse four. Whatsoever or whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith.

Again Julian was emphasising the fact that you and I have the ability because of him beloved, because he overcame the world. We have the ability to overcome. Amen. The great overcomer beloved has placed within us an ability not to go under but to overcome.

Glory be to God. That becomes the habit of a normal Christian. These are the characteristics that John pens out, beloved, having written the gospel where Jesus said you must be born again. Here's the evidence and proof that it has actually happened.

You are new born babes. Wonderful. When did it happen to you? Glory be to God. As I said the other day, it's the supernatural intervention of the spirit of God into the spirit of a man or woman that performs this remarkable miracle that delivers you from what you were naturally born and makes you another person.

You didn't know me before I was born again. My sisters did. I once chased one of my sister with red hot poker. Determined to put it on her leg. Fortunately for her she was a little more active than me and ran faster than I but eventually I caught up with her.

But the time I caught up with her, beloved, the poker was cold. But the shock was still there. Amen. I was a nasty little creature. I really was. I know what I was. Characteristics in all of our lives, beloved, indicate what we're really like until Jesus comes.

Amen. It's when we face up to the fact of who we are and what we are, beloved, outside of Christ that we're led by the grace of God to a place where we repent. It's not God's will that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

That was my word from the Lord this morning. Amen. Because of the provision that he's made for us that he's defied as a saviour of the world who's died for all mankind. Glory be to God. The provision, brother, there's no limits in the provision that God has made.

Amen. There is provision for the salvation of every human person upon the planet, beloved, but we know that not all will be saved. Amen. But that's the heart of God. It's not God's will that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

That's why you and I have a responsibility, beloved, of sharing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus so that men and women know the provision that's been made for them through the finished work of the Lord Jesus.

Oh, glory be to God. I trust that you take advantage of every opportunity that God gives to you of sharing him. Glory to his name. That's the first wonderful truth. You are newborn babes. And it says that you may grow.

Growing Through the Word of God

Peter, give the reference. My wife is prompting me. Give the reference back into 1 Peter, chapter 2. You see, I'm not a very good boy. I have to be corrected again and again. 1 Peter, chapter 2, and again in verse 2, that you may grow thereby.

How? It tells us by the pure milk of the Word, the sincere milk of the Word. The greatest source, beloved, to enable you and I to grow in grace is the Word of God. Now, the Word of God, beloved, has to be quickened by the Spirit before it becomes life for you.

Because it says in 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 6, the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. And it's when the Spirit of God quickens the Word of God, it becomes life to you. Because there's power behind that Word to bring it to pass in your experience.

Amen. I praise God for the words that he's spoken to me over the years. Hallelujah. Now, there's a wonderful example of this right back in the Old Testament. It's in 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel, madam. And chapter 3, and it's a story.

It's the story of a little boy called, what was his name? Samuel. Samuel. He was the fulfilment of the Word of God. Remember that God spoke to Hannah, his wife, and told her that she would have a child.

She was barren. Amen. And God spoke to her. And what he said to her came to pass. It's like it says in Isaiah, chapter 38, God said it, he's done it. Amen. That's the wonderful thing. When God speaks to you, beloved, you know that there's power behind that Word to bring it to fruition.

God spoke to Hannah, beloved, and she had a son. He called him Samuel. She nursed him for a little while and then took him back to the temple where he was to serve God in the temple, under a man called Eli, who was the priest at that time.

He was only a young lad. One night he went to bed. I'm not sure whether he had a dream or what happened, but God spoke to him. In fact, he spoke to him in such a way that he thought Eli was calling him.

He jumped out of his little bed and ran to Eli and said, you called me? Eli said, I didn't. Go back to bed. He went back to bed and that happened three times. Then eventually the old, benighted Eli, beloved, who was well backslidden along with his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, came to the realisation that God was speaking to this boy and God spoke to Samuel and gave him a most horrendous message.

Virtually told him that Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, would die. The boy woke up in the morning, I guess he was trembling at the thought of communicating what God had said to him. He didn't only hear what God said, but he responded to it, beloved, and then communicated it to Eli.

By the end of the chapter it says Samuel was a prophet from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south and not one of his words fell to the ground. Amen. That's an illustration, beloved, of how you grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

You'll read that in the last verse of the second letter of Peter. You'll grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus. That's how we grow, beloved. Say like the little boys, speak Lord, for your servant hears.

Live in the expectation, beloved, that God will speak to you as you routinely read his word day by day, making it the priority of your life, anticipating that he will speak. Sometimes, beloved, more clearly, more definitely, more significantly than at other times.

But I discover, beloved, that as I read my Bible day by day, the Lord highlights some particular truth, some aspect of truth and revelation, and then as I meditate upon it and allow him to unfold the truth and carry me from one place in the scripture to the other, to another, and to another, and as I said the other day, I write it all down because I'm visual.

I write all the scriptures down and by the time I'm finished I've got half of a full scrap full of truth that builds on truth. I often say the greatest commentary on the Bible is the Bible. But you have to know how to use your Bible in order to use it in that way.

In fact, in one sense you hardly need any other commentary if you will use the Bible, allow the Bible, the Spirit of God, to take the word of God, to interpret the word of God. Amen. What's he said to you today, before you came to the meeting this morning, if you were here?

Amen. I find it a concept. You say, I didn't have time. Well, perhaps you should have got up a bit earlier. Temptation, beloved, lies there, tucked up in cosy beds. Amen. Amen. You have to make time. If we really believe, beloved, that this is one of the greatest secrecies of growth in our spiritual life, then it becomes the priority of your day.

Amen. Read it, mark it, learn it, inwardly digest it, and expect the Spirit of God, beloved, to incarnate it in your flesh. Write it upon the fleshy table of your heart. That's why Paul says, you are living letters, read and known of all men.

And what's written there by the Spirit of God, beloved, is what will communicate. Glory to His name. Hallelujah. So first of all, beloved, we're newborn babes. And then you grow. You don't live on the past experience.

Praise God for the day when you were born again. Praise the Lord for that great moment in time when God met you and did a miracle in you. But you can't stay there. If a baby doesn't grow, beloved, then you become anxious.

You know that there's something fundamentally wrong with the child. That's true in the physical, isn't it? But in the spirit, beloved, it's equally true. Once we're born again, from that moment onwards, we should begin to grow.

Amen. Some of us have been in the way a long time now. I think over 50 years for me. Born again. Praise God. Some of you may just be beginning. I don't know. The Lord knows what we're all up to. Amen.

But day by day, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little. Praise God. Building, building, building, building. Developing and maturing us, beloved, to make us true men and women of God.

Glory to His name. Verse 3. 1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 3. If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Psalm 34 says, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Amen. O taste and see that the Lord. I love the simple illustrations that the Bible uses, beloved, to expound profound truth to us.

Thirsting for the Living Water

In John, chapter 7, Jesus said, If any man thirsts. Here we are catching up with Bill. If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink, and out of his inmost being will flow rivers of living water.

This he spake of the Spirit. Amen. Are you thirsty? I remember once, many years ago now, I was in Tanzania, and we were staying with Graham and Lisa Stevenson. And Graham invited me to go and travel with him out in the bush amongst the Maasai tribes.

And I think we went out for four days, and I was like a chimney sweep when I came back in. It took my wife to wash my trousers four times before they came anywhere near the semblance of what they should have been before.

It was a really dusty journey. But I've never forgotten that journey. One thing stands out to me more than anything else during those four days. And we went to many places, travelled from place to place.

Graham wouldn't go round the bushes, he'd just drive right through them. And we came to groups of people, and eventually we came to a boma. A boma is a sort of a Maasai dwelling, a house. It's usually a collection of houses in sort of a fenced area.

And at night they block up the entrance. We came to this boma, and it was like death. There wasn't a movement, there wasn't a sound anywhere. And Graham said, let's go and look. And we went and looked, and we looked into one of the houses.

And they were very dark because they had no windows. And we saw two women lying on a bed, and a little boy. And they suddenly woke up and saw us, wondering why we were there, who were we? And they came out, and they told us that they'd had no water for days.

And two women from that little boma had gone on a day's journey to get water. Can you imagine how thirsty they were? We had a barrel of water on the back of the Land Rover. We had a cup, and we filled it with water and gave it to the little boy.

I have never in my life seen someone drink water like that little boy. He tipped it, it ran down his face. We filled it up again, he drank and drank and gobbled it down. You could hear it go, amazing.

I thought, I've never been thirsty looking at a little boy. If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. And he drank, and he drank, and he drank. And it was heaven on earth to him. You have no idea.

Perhaps you've never been in a situation like that. But I will never, ever forget that little boy. And that cup of water which we got out of the tank on the back of the Land Rover and gave it to him, he just drank and drank and drank.

If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. He's that living water blubber to which we are invited to come and participate. Amen. Not difficult to drink, is it, when you're thirsty? I tell you, that little boy gobbled it down.

Amen. I can't remember how many cups of water we gave him, but he drank and drank and drank until his thirst was quenched. Is your thirst quenched tonight, beloved? Quenched with the living water. Of course, the greatest exposition of this lovely truth, beloved, you'll find in John chapter 4.

Wonderful illustration. Turn with me into John chapter 4. As I say, Jesus utilised very simple illustrations to expound most profound truth. Someone once wrote, I can't remember her name, she was the founder of a community in Sussex somewhere called St Julian's.

But I can't remember the name of the lady. I read her book a long time ago. And this is a sentence that she wrote, she said, We try to take people from where they are not to where they don't want to go.

Instead of starting with them where they are and leading them on to where they need to go. Should I repeat that? So often we try to take people from where they are not to where they don't want to go. Instead of taking them from where they are to where they need to go.

And this is what Jesus did again and again. That's why he utilised ordinary, down-to-earth, common things in the experience of men. That's why he talked about bread, that's why he talks about light, that's why he talks about doors, that's why he talks about sheep, that's why he talks about water.

And that's what John chapter 4 is all about. Jesus was sitting by the well, we're told, near the city of Samaria, which is called Syca, near a parcel of ground. This is John chapter 4, verse 5. Then cometh he to the city of Samaria, which is called Syca, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Now Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. Number six, beloved, in the scripture is the number for man. Amen. Hadn't been sitting there very long, and a woman comes.

She's a woman of ill repute, she'd had five men and was living with number six, but that didn't stop Jesus moving out to her with love and compassion. And he said to the woman, who'd come to the well to draw water, give me a drink.

That's in verse 7, for his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. What a tragedy, they missed it all. Then said the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it thou being a Jew, ask drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?

For the Jews have no dealings with Samaria. One she was a woman, two she was a Samaritan, three she was virtually a prostitute, yet Jesus loved her. In the great economy of God, beloved, laid down before the foundation of the world, he had a plan of salvation for her.

Glory be to God. He didn't write her off, he didn't hold her at arm's length, he didn't despise her, he didn't condemn her. Glory be to God. Beloved, we're so prone to be critical, to shy away from people of ill repute.

But Jesus didn't. Glory to his name. Jesus answered and said unto her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

The woman said unto him, sir, thou hast nothing to draw with and the well is deep, from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself?

And his children and his cattle? And Jesus answered and said unto her, whosoever drinketh of this water will thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.

But the water that I shall give him shall be in him, a well or a spring of water springing up into everlasting life. And the woman said unto me, give me this water. Hallelujah. The word well there, beloved, is actually spring of water.

I remember when I went to school, school lane, came down from a hill and on the bend in the road there was a spring in the middle of the road. The local corporation, beloved, had spent a small fortune trying to remove the spring.

They concreted it over, they carmacked it over, they tried to canalise it here and there. But every year, beloved, it was still bubbling up. The inexhaustible supply of the Spirit of God. Hallelujah. Wonderful.

He said, I will put within you a spring of water that will spring up into everlasting life and you will never, never, never thirst again. We used to sing a chorus when I was a kid, what, never thirst again, no, never thirst again.

What, never thirst again, no, never thirst again. Glory be to God. We don't sing things like that. Why don't we, beloved? Because we veered away from the truth. Such magnificent truth tied up in that little simple statement.

The story is simple. By the time it was all over, beloved, and of course Jesus faced her up with her need and told her to go and get her a husband. She said, I haven't got a husband. He said, no, you've had five and you're living with number six.

But he didn't write her off, beloved. Amen. And by the end of the conversation, she went back to the psyche, from where she came and she said, come see a man. Come see a man who told me all things that I ever did.

Is not this the Christ? When she went back, beloved, she witnessed to him. They believed because of what she said to them. But then later they met him and they said, we believed when you told us. But now we believe because we have heard him ourselves.

Moved from a second-hand position to a first-hand position. Glory be to God. And that's what's so vital, beloved, that you and I hear for ourselves. Praise God what other people can say to us. Amen.

That's important. And the Lord will use other people to speak God's word to us. Praise God. But essentially, we have to come to a place where we hear him for ourselves. We know that he's spoken. Glory to his name.

Back into 1 Peter, chapter 2, your newborn babes, you're growing up, growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus. You've tasted that the Lord is good. And of course, if you were to go into John, chapter 6, where we went on Sunday morning, I think it was, where Jesus said, I am that living bread, eat me, drink me, let me be the life of you.

Let me nourish your inward man and build you up in your spiritual life. Glory be to God. Central, beloved, to the Gospel. As I say, if you want to understand what the church is all about, read Acts, chapter 2.

They went from house to house, breaking bread with gladness and singleness of heart. And it was in the context, beloved, of their everyday living, in the context of their meal. It wasn't a ritual. It wasn't some religious ordinance, beloved.

It was a simple remembering of what the Lord had done for them at Calvary. Praise God. They broke bread with gladness and singleness of heart. Amen. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Amen. Are we hungry, beloved?

Are we thirsty? For Him, the living bread, the living water. Let me get on the inside of you. Let me be the very life of you. Nothing that, beloved, will ever satisfy any human being. Glory to His name.

The Church as a Spiritual House

Verse 5, it says, you are living stones. He's told us that you are newborn babes, that you grow, that you've tasted the Lord is gracious. And then in verse 5 it says, you are living stones, built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Amen. Beloved, this is the fulfilment of that great prophetic word of Jesus in John chapter 14 verse 20 when He said, at that day you will know that I am in the Father, you are in Me and I am in you. Then you've got a promise in verse 23 of the same chapter.

Father and I will come and make our home with you. And then if you go into John chapter 17, beloved, He prays. Let's turn to that. John chapter 17. I love John chapter 17, the great so-called high priestly prayer of Jesus.

Amen. It's a prayer that's divided up into three sections. First section relates to Jesus and His relationship with His Father. The second section relates to those who were with Him at the time on the earth.

And the last section, beloved, relates to you and me. Let's read from verse 18. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth.

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.