Something Is Wrong - Part 03 of 05 — Richard Owen Roberts

I like to feel my friends near me. And then there's the rest of it. We want to come down here, it's perfect for our life. I like to have my friends near me when I talk. I want to feel friendly with them.

And feel open that we, that we share, we're open like this and we all have a good time together. But when my sheep kind of shower off and get off and they're, you know, they're looking. Oh, if you look, the matter with you, I want to become, become nearer.

I think the Lord must have felt quite good with his disciples when he sat down with his family and the Lord. And I want to help them. I suppose you think I have a strange way of showing it, but that's my thought.

Nature as God's Gift and Character as Human Cooperation

I want to share with you the truths that have been helpful to me. I have always loved the truth. And of course, if you get a taste of it and it helps you, then you want to share it. This morning, I want to work a little while along the line of making or finding or sensing your difference between your nature and your character.

So that that can help you over some places. When God is dealing in one field, you are praying in the other. And when he wants to get over there, you're praying over in this one. Now, we've heard you talk a great deal about your character and the building of character and the reshaping.

And then we've heard us talking about our natures, the old nature and the new nature. I want to straighten out one thing with you first of all. What do I mean by your nature when I talk about that? Now, your nature is purely a gift of God.

We are born with our human nature as a gift. That's the context in which we find ourselves related. We are creatures of his idea of the human being. And so our human nature is purely a gift of God. We have to learn to accept that.

We accept it. That's our nature. Now, what do you mean by your character? Is your character your nature? No. Your character is what you build and is the result of your obedience to the will and purposes of God, which release in you the potentials for character display, personality development.

So your nature will be always considered a basic gift of God. But he cannot give you character. He can't do that. Character is built by a response of your will to his in a field where in which he was dealing.

We had a little story the other morning about God creating Adam. He was a partaker of human nature. That was purely a gift. God made him, created him. Adam had nothing to do with it. And God put his blessing upon him and said it was good, he was pleased.

But he was pleased with his workmanship, that he had created a human being. But the human being had not yet functioned. That is, it had not pushed up in the display of its purpose. God had made him that he might display in his character qualities the glory and wonder and mystery of God.

And in the development of that character qualities coming up like this, there is a restoration. That is the image and likeness of God. But that God doesn't give him. Character is built under a law of testing and proving.

Nature is not given that way. Nature is the gift. Your character is built. You build the character, I build the character. That is, well, it doesn't seem to me that I am responsible for it. And that character can only be released.

Look up. Become a reflector of the things of God through a law of testing and proving. And that's why in the second chapter of Genesis, before he finally gets to heaven, the law is introduced. Remember what it was?

It was a law of testing and proving concerning the tree, for the knowledge of good and evil. Now it's your first law, and it's a law of testing and proving for the purpose of developing the character that God wanted, which God cannot give to him.

God cannot give you character. You develop it through God's mercy and grace and all that he has to offer. But it is a result of a cooperation, an intelligent cooperation, of your will being surrendered to the will of God, and him taking that will of God and allowing it to be worked in you.

The forthcoming is the character which bears the likeness and the image of God. And that's what he wanted. He can't give it to you. You have to build it. A little baby can be born in a moment, but it can be made into a man with all the pain in the world, and all the consecration in the world, and all the intense desire to make him a man.

He can't. He's under a law. He has to grow. Grow, develop. You are required of those things. You never get under a requirement. The only thing is to accept them and become intelligent about them, and then adjust yourself to them.

These are laws. There is a law of adjustment. Very simple thing, but a most basic thing. If there be no adequate adjustment, all the rest of the agitation, it means just absolutely nothing. But if there is an adjustment there, then the movings of God and your response to God begins to work and build the thing that God wants.

Becoming the Image of Christ Through Spiritual Growth

He wants us as Christians to become manifestations of the likeness of God, likeness of Christ, the image of Christ. And so he calls us even epistles, which are well-known. The reflection should be so evident in us that people will sense we are different from people in the world.

Well, what is it that makes us so different from the people in the world? Because we dress differently? No. That's an external affectation, that's all. It's not a reality. It's something you assume. To make yourself different in any physical thing that we have power over, that doesn't make the character at all.

I could be with people who don't understand these things and dress with the most somber clothes and assume a very somber mood, and I could assume all that. How do you know that wouldn't make me humble?

No, it wouldn't. It's an affectation. Humility is a burst. It's something within. And if you think you have it, I'll tell you you haven't. How do you know that? That's funny, isn't it, that it's the truth, the thing of which we are least conscious?

Because it's, after all, a pure reflection of this strange ego, this strange creature that we are. So God desires now, since we are Christians, his main purpose now, having saved us and filled us with his Spirit and given us gifts of the Spirit and every encouragement from his side, which I call the equipment from his side, he's given us all that freely.

Now what is all that for? Its last analysis is its power and effect in transforming these creatures who we are to be. Now that's what he is basically after. He wants somebody to rule within another age.

He even elevates the power and he says we are even the bride of Christ. Well, that's an extreme picture, isn't it? How is that done? Well, he says the bride makes herself ready. We can't make ourselves ready as Christians because we are sinners and we can't make ourselves Christians and we can't do that.

That's the grace of God giving us as a gift the new nature. We are partakers of his nature, that's a gift. Partakers of his nature, that's a gift. But the development of it, that's all for us. But he gives us all the equipment necessary for its working so that in ages to come there shall be a release and a setting free of what is accomplished in this little period we call time.

Very small compared with the eternal ages but he has this objective that he's working on during this period. So let us not deceive ourselves in thinking that we are the partakers of the new nature and the new creature in Christ Jesus.

We may be all that. And it's perfectly true that we are. But that is not yet the built character that he's after. How many of you can see that or can't you? Can you see that? Talk to me so I know you're with me.

I like to feel that you're with me. I just like talking and talking and I feel I don't know if they're getting anywhere with it or not. I want you to get started on that. How many of you can see where I'm looking now?

The nature is the gift that he supplies fully in Christ Jesus. We become partakers of his divine nature. We have nothing to do with it or we accept it. But for transforming of us into the image of the Son, he can't give us that.

That has to be the result of an intelligent, voluntary cooperation, surrender to his will that he can build that in us. And that's what he builds. That's why he says, grow in grace. Oh, I love the grace.

I am saved. I'm filled with the Spirit. That's only the beginning, dear. Every wave in Christ has that. To have all those gifts of God never matures us. That's our quantification field. That's all. Now he says, grow.

Why does he make the gradation all the way through the New Testament? Paul's writing and Jesus' teaching. Starting with what? Babes. Now he says, look at your analogy in the natural. He said, use of the day.

How does it live? Well, it takes milk. A very, very simple diet. But it doesn't take any more. It's not eating tree. Now he says, as a babe desires milk that he may wean and grow. He says, so do you. You now desire the sincere milk of the Lord, which is the simplest elemental revelation of truth.

Desire that, that you may be blessed. No, we are all going to be blessed, but that's not what I'm talking about. Not at all. Desire all that hungering and thirsting after righteousness in the Lord. Why?

That he may grow thereby. That's the objective. Well, I want to know the truth so I can do this and that and the other. That's good. I want you to do that. But you've missed your objective. Desire, even in the beginning, the sincere milk of the Lord, that you may serve God better.

No, you will do that automatically. If you have a good grasp of truth, automatically you'll serve God better, but that is the point. That's not what he's talking about. He says, get a hold of the truth and desire it with a hunger that a little new-born baby has that manifests that it could live.

The desire or urge to live is fundamental and the basic thing in our whole moving here, urge to live, to keep alive. That's the foundation, that's fundamental. You don't get anything in the world unless you're conscious of the fact that you have the urge and the baby wants it.

No mother takes the baby and says, now, dear, you'll starve to death if you don't eat. That's ridiculous. All the little baby needs is contact with the resources already provided. He came from his mother, expelled, but he has to go back again for sustenance.

And so God has made it that way. And so the mother doesn't say, you'll die if you don't eat. The urge is there. And no one ever taught a baby to nurse. Another element in that creation, if we are really born again of the Spirit of God and in touch with God, there should be a strange urge in every one of us for God.

That ought to be basic within us. No one ought to say, you ought to love God. You ought to want the thing to go, no, no, no. There's been some kind of abortion or something, some unnatural thing. But if it's been a real work of God and you've been brought actually in touch with the living God, even as a beginning Christian, the urge to live is there.

And you want God. And you want the things of God. You love Jesus. You can love him. It comes. All that little baby needs is to be brought in contact with the resources. And he automatically nurses. He just does.

That's all within nature. How many of you ever watched a little tiny kitten with its eyes shut and blind nurse? Have you ever seen it? Isn't it sweet? I see God in all that. That just moves me like a sermon when I see an almighty, marvelous God moving in these strange, elementary, simple processes in nature and saying, look, this is only a picture.

Here it is in God. That's only a picture. Here it is in God. Do you ever see those little kittens? And they're blind, but they make contact. How many of you ever see them pressed with their little paws like that?

How many of you ever see that? Come on, own up. Have you ever seen them do that? Yeah. Isn't that marvelous? Why, that moves me as much as some bird shuffling its body, for example, if you still let me look at a kitten.

Really, I'm that way. I get marvels from the strange, wonderful things in God when I do a lot of howling and banging and discussing some deep theological problem nobody knows anything about anyway. Bones of contention with 2 ,000 years and they haven't even seen a kitten yet.

Do you get me or don't you get me? I've been in that, and I'm out of it, thank God. And now I'm watching all this lovely moving of God. God's all around us. He says, I am the sincere milk of the Word.

It will keep alive? It will keep alive, but it will do something to you. It is the releasing agency that he has. The power of the Word of God and the cross of Jesus Christ have been the two instruments that have released me more than anything on God's earth.

The revelation of that Word and the ministry of the cross of Christ cancelling, slaying, but resurrecting into life the Word and the power of this cross have been the most delivering agency I can give as a testimony of anything that's touched me.

Oh, it began with that babe, that she made gold. Oh, by and by he talks about children. Then he even talks about little children. And by and by he talks about sons. And sometimes he talks about what? Grown-up sons.

And then sometimes he talks about fathers and mothers in Israel. Do you see a gradation? Do you see a development? Certainly. That's God. There's nothing static in it. So he has given us a new nature, a gift of God, the grace of God.

Now he says, grow and come into the fullness of the stature. Let me conform you and shape you into his image and likeness. And so by the cooperation and surrender of all that we have and our wills and our desires and our thoughts, and he sifts them all out and cleanses them out and sorts them all out until he can get the basic things that we need.

He spends some time with us sometimes getting the suppression of the stuff out of the road, not wicked stuff, but the non-essentials. Now he says, let us grow. Then we come on to another one, let us grow in grace and grow in love.

Grow in love. That's all love, isn't it? Now I'll let you learn something that has helped me in my own experience in God. There are two words that have helped me. And they're in the word of God and they intrigue me.

One is to grow and the other is to learn. I want you to see that in either field that you look, grow, learn, there's nothing that is what we would say an instantaneous acquisition or grasping or holding.

Salvation can be in a moment, but the growing, the learning are processes. I was glad to find that they even related to our Lord in his human aspect. When he took up the human concept to manifest and show to God what the Adam should be, he was restricted to it.

And so he grew in stature and knowledge and wisdom and all that. He grew. And though he were a son of God, yet in the actions of God through a law of suffering. The lovely Christ we have. Do you think we are exempt?

No, he says. No scholar is above his past. If that is the characteristic of the development of that man, and he puts it as our pattern, then those two words intrigue me. Because I know growth is always there.

And we can grow just as much as we want to. We can grow just as much as we want to. And we can learn just as much as we want to. For both of them are divine arrangements. They involve a process, but not immediate possession.

I can be saved in a moment, but it takes my lifetime to develop the thing that God is after. A bird can be born in a minute, but it takes him many years to come into maturity of man. Why? Because they're close.

The Character God Develops Through Power, Love, and Discipline

So this morning I want to talk to you about just this one side of the question, the character. The character that God is seeking to develop in us. Fundamentally it will have a description of course, but I'm only going to give you that as your outline, as your thought, because all the filling in comes in afterward.

What would you give as a definition of a character? The character that God is after. The character. The thing that he wants to see brought up to its fullness. I have a text here. You don't need to look at it now, because I don't like you reading when I'm talking.

If I were teaching the class where we were going to give an exposition of the world, then we can work our work together. But when I teach, I don't like people reading in their Bibles. Do your reading at home, but not when I'm talking.

I have the same kind of Bible you have, so I don't believe that's in the Bible. It is. But I'd like your reference. Get your reference home. I'm going to read you a text, which to me is the most sublime and the most perfect description given to us fully manifest in Christ.

When he gives us the material by which it can be manifested again in us, that God has not given us a spirit of fear. So he sweeps away this idea of fear, and that's all negation. He sweeps that out of the atmosphere when he's going to begin to deal with us.

For he says that is not of God. If you said the other day, fear is not a word in the vocabulary of the Christian. Perfect love casts us out of fear. Fear has torn him. Fear is a result of the disobedience laws of the sin problem.

He has not given us that, but here is something that he has given us in Christ. All this is in Christ, but it has to be worked out in us. Given a spirit of power, a sound mind, which is very foolish. We'll get into that in a minute.

What are they? We have provided for us in Christ, and given to us as the material by which we can build this great and glorious thing that he's after through requirements. They are fundamental, but they are the three basic requirements to make this lovely character that God is after.

What does he begin with? He says he has made it manifest in Christ, and given it to us in him. Now he says, you take these elements and work them out in your own heart and life. He says this has been worked in the Lord Jesus and in other great characters that he has been pleased to touch.

He says, it will work in you too. Now, here is another divine arrangement. We talked about it the other night about the Beatitudes. Never recast them because you say, well, blessed is the man that this, and blessed is he, and blessed is he.

What's the matter? But I'm not having any of those problems. I am blessed. Well, you can't do that. The Beatitudes have a sequence, and you have to begin with the blessed, the poor in spirit as the basis for all the other blessings coming.

And you can't change that. You can't change it. Now, here is another arrangement. We had one the other night with the Old Testament. You get this experience in God. That was the first thing you found?

Life, didn't it? He didn't find love. He says, God is my life. That you have to have to get the whole thing going. He is my salvation. He is the strength of my life. Because the full stream of the conception of God is always in the Trinity.

Now, here is another arrangement. You can't change this. To build this strange mystical thing, the transformation of what we are by nature into this glorious thing He's after. He says, I'll give you first of all power, love, and mind.

Now, why does it begin with power? Because power is the dynamic by which the whole thing is made manifest. No need to mess around trying to get love or some of the other things. The whole thing depends upon a dynamic which God furnishes, which is power, which is the Holy Spirit.

Now, let's move it back again and see that same sequence, the same order in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, and in your heart and life and in mine. You see, everything that we have from creation down is through the power of our spirit, the spirit of God.

Old Testament, Ruach. New Testament, Numa. We both have the same idea of birth, of life, don't we? The out-breathing, Numa. The breath of God, that spirit, that's life. In Numa, life, death, pneumonia, pneumatic tires, that all comes from the same word.

Numa, pneumatic, pneumatic tires. Numa, air, air, breath, spirit. Why? Because you can't get anything in creation without it. Way back in the creation of the world, it's the truth, it's the spirit, spirit, spirit, spirit.

Do you have it in the life of Jesus? Conceived of the spirit. He is born of the spirit. He is baptized in the spirit. He ministers in the spirit. He said that his whole life moved within the realm of the power of God, called the Holy Spirit, and he lived in it, and moved in it, ministered in it, even when he died.

Do you remember how he was resurrected? By the eternal spirit. Well, if all of that in the life of Jesus was so dependent upon the breath of God in the spirit, how much more is that necessary for every one of us?

We can't get anywhere at all without it. So he says in the building of this man, he says, I'll give you the dynamic by which it will be done. That is the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, which is the period of witness, it's the witness of God to the world through an instrument.

What instrument did God use in the Old Testament as a special manifestation of his power and a manifestation of his entity, who he is? What did he use? His own people, didn't he? That's what they were called for.

From all the nations of the earth, he took the Jews, Israelis, he said, you are my people, and you are going to be the media through which I will reveal myself and through my revelation through you, climaxing in the gift to my son, that's my visitation of light and life to the world.

But he had that as that witness. Israel is the witness. He said so. You are my witness among the nations. I've chosen you as a witness, a testimony in all the nations. And the manifestation of who I am even through you will be the manifestation to the world.

From all the religions about him, how distinct he made Israel, didn't he? He just made them so very distinct in every way. He said, I wanted to tell in everything, from your clothes to your food to everything.

You are not like that. You are like this. He made them a witness, wonderful witness, all the time through the power of the Spirit. Israel is the nation of miracles. The Jew requires what? A sign. The Greek, what?

Wisdom. And the Baptist, what? The power of God in the revelation. And God recognizes that in all the people. And he makes us appeal to them. And so he says Israel is that witness through the power of his Spirit.

Then he turns to another manifestation. Out of that issues the Christ. And so Christ comes out of that manifestation and has a dispensation of his own, which we would say the dispensation of the Son. And in that we find God again moving.

Moving. Why? Because Jesus is the great witness of God to this world. Then again a special message and a special concern of Israel had per period. Now he says the Christ will come and have a special dispensation, a special objective.

Through this witness I'll bring redemption in the revelation. What is the first name that's given to Jesus in the revelation? What is the first name? The faithful witness. That's what he is. Then he sings, he's a revealer, he's a king of kings.

That's all very true, but that's not his first name. When he is honored in the drawing, the unveiling, he says he is my true and faithful witness. And that's exactly what he does. Then when he goes away, he turns to his group of people.

His little handful, who is to become his mystical body in the earth. He says I'm going away and experiencing that I should go. But I'm not going to disappear absolutely and cut off all contact. I'm going to project this through you.

And you will become my body, my mystical body on the earth. I'll be the living head for all direction, for all vision, for all knowledge, all that will be invested in the head. But you have to become my body through which I flow and minister and live and move.

And you shall become my wife. My witness in the world, the same as God had a witness in Israel. God had a witness in the sun. He has a witness in the body, which is the witness of Christ and to Christ.

He shall belong to me, my witness in the world. I want to become his living witness to this perishing world through you. You are my witness. You, you, you are my witness here. I leave you here. He gave them power to serve before Pentecost ever came.

He called them apart before Pentecost ever came and gave them power for their ministry and for their service and they went out and demonstrated it. They don't talk that in Pentecost, but it's in the Bible.

It's in my Bible, hallelujah. That's in my Bible. I'm Pentecostal, don't worry. But I wish Pentecostal people would get things straightened out. We wouldn't be in the mess that Pentecost is in today if we never paid attention to the word of God.

We wouldn't. But you get under traditional patterns which will curse you as much as sin. He says, you shall be. Now you shall do. You shall be. He'd given them power for their ministry. Go out and heal sick and teach and preach.

And they did, didn't they? How many of them did? How many of that's before Pentecost? Let's own up to it now. Let's be brave. How many will own up to the fact that was before Pentecost? You get it? I'm going to hammer this in.

Maybe I'll be back here. You won't like me anymore. But I'm going to talk to you. I'm going to tell you what's on my heart. And I'm Pentecostal. But how many of you know they had power to do all those things before Pentecost came?

How many of you know they did? And they went out and managed that to do. And came back and brought a witness to it. And he talked to them about it. Go out and do all these things. And they came back. And there's been a demonstration of their power for all that new strength.

They had power for that. And they took it and they used it. But he said, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Before you go out now with all this business, this great commission, I want you to tarry in Jerusalem a little while.

And I will pour out upon you the gift of the Holy Spirit, which will be the dynamic, the power by which you shall become my witness in the world. How many get something now? Do you get it? Amen. That's the truth, kids.

That's the truth. Do you know that's in the Bible? You never heard Pentecostal preachers talk about that. No, because they're all bound by tradition. They go on to go to the Word of God. It upsets some of their traditions.

And who wants to sing in the cross for it? I'm glad I have the Bible. I don't have a lot of notions and theology. I have the Bible. Now why did he do that? It says, tarry until that falls upon you, and ye shall become.

He never said a thing they would do. Isn't that funny? He didn't tell them a thing they would do. It's not a verb of action. It's a verb of being. Now there's going to be action. Hallelujah. Woo! Tarry upon you.

That's what's going to happen. Because that's what he's talking about. How many of you know he was not talking about that? That's coming. That's coming. But don't you get the car before the horse. That's coming.

He says, now, under the power of this dynamic, you shall become unto me, my witness. You shall become. It's a verb of being, not of action. However, great action will follow. But don't you get that? He doesn't tell them a thing.

They already have that power for action. But he says, this body has to be built. My body has to grow. My body has to be ascended. It's going to be composed of people down the line for two thousand years.

But it will all be accomplished under the ministry of the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit has come as the power for. It's the power for. A power for. You shall become, my witness. And so God has projected this body, this mystical body, down through two thousand years.

And whatever has been pleasing to him and acceptable has had to come through the power of the Holy Spirit. Anything aside from that has been, of course, a manifestation. But the only thing that he can bless is that which is birthed or born of the Spirit.

He shall become. Now that means a process. So in the building of this character, and I'll come back to our study of the character that God is making in you and in me, how can that be accomplished? Through the power of the Spirit.

Your new creation is never affected or doesn't come forth by any energy of flesh, even the best flesh in the world, because it belongs on another level entirely. But he says that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

Everything is born of flesh. All the good, glorious, wonderful things that are born of flesh, he says it is still flesh, because it has its origin in that realm. But that which is born of the Spirit, though it be the simple thing of giving a cup of cold water, correctly motivated, says the Spirit.

And Niagara falls! A little cup of cold water. Niagara is very spectacular. But a little cup of water isn't so spectacular, but it's very essential. If you hold a cup under Niagara Falls, it's the first time you've ever knocked about clean out of your hands.

It has such power. But when you have a little cup that's held up by itself, you'll feel it with its love and power and grace. It's all the difference in the world. All the difference in the world. I have given you power that you, as an individual, will become my witness.

You'll become, you'll become my witness as I minister in you and through you and transform you and do as powers and things in you, you become, in this world, my little testimony, my witness. How many can see that?

That's what God is asking. That's what he's seeking. All I need is you have to have power. Well, now supposing he does give us all this power that people are asking. I am, I suppose, a real heretic. I'm a happy one.

I'm a heretic in the sight of some people, but God doesn't call me a heretic. He just, he shows me things. Well, you have to bear a little stigma for his name's sake. I get it plenty, don't you worry.

Well, supposing he doesn't have, no more has he even man to Christ until I know it. That's true. Do I get peed? No, I weep over it. I say, oh Lord, isn't that pitiful. No ears to hear, no hunger to be fed.

Now that doesn't mean the whole group. How many know there are always some hungry sheep hidden away somewhere? There are some hungry sheep hidden away somewhere. And God lets me contact them sometimes and we have a good time feeding them.

So he says, you have this power. And so he pours out the power. My, he pours it out. He pours it out again. And he says, I'll pour it out upon all flesh. And I said, Lord, you sure do. How many know he does?

Don't you know he does? He doesn't pour it out upon our kingdom. Upon the mature people who know all about it. How many know he pours it out upon us in our, in our stupidity. He pours it out. Look, to be baptized in the Spirit is never a sign of great maturity in God.

How many know that by this time? Somebody said, Amen. Glory be to the Lord. How many, even after a most marvelous blessing of baptism, have you ever heard your father say to you, even after me? Well, of course.

He doesn't wait until there's perfection. He pours it out upon all flesh. We do the flesh. But you know, even after we've eaten the flesh, this great wisdom hasn't been matured in any one of us. It's in the process.

People who have arrived always disturb me. If you know what I mean. How many know what I mean? People that have arrived. I can't, I only talk a few minutes and I say, Merry Christmas, goodbye. And then I go on and say, Where are you?

There's no one arrived. We're in the process of becoming. So he pours out this great and glorious power. Well, power is a terrific thing. It can be a great blessing. How do you know it can do great damage?

Yes, it can. Love and power, you can do terrific things that he never thanks you for at all. And yet it is the power he has given. How many know the power the devil has? God gives him. Did you know that?

But how do you know? It's misused, prostituted in all horrible ways. But the devil can't create, power can't create anything. The devil can't make a blade of grass. Right there, a blade of grass. How do you know the devil can't?

How do you know he can destroy? That's what he's come for. To rob, to kill and destroy. That's his vocation. He never has come to create and bring me to God. He's antagonistic. God has come that you might have life and that more abundantly.

He has come that you might have death and terror and fear and anything that can destroy the things of God. So here's his great power. Now what is the next thing he says is manifest in the character building?