What Is a Christian 16 Christian Is a Temple — James K. Boswell

The Christian’s Vision, Worship, and Mission

Open your Bible tonight, will you? Isaiah, and the twenty-sixth chapter. Isaiah, chapter twenty-six. We're still going on with this theme, what is, or who is a Christian? We got done far this morning as a Christian, and as a temple, we thought the Christian, the temple, its tongue, and then the eyes.

We thought of getting a missionary vision this morning by turning our eyes upon the Lord Jesus Himself, and when He fills our vision, when He occupies our heart's affection, then there is a desert moving out toward Himself.

He gives us a vision of Himself, and He says, look on the fields, they are already white unto harvest. It's a grand thing to be a real worshipper, a holy priest, functioning in worship, for then this leads us out, my friend, into service as a royal priest.

No sooner had our adorable Lord Jesus spoken to the woman at Cyprus, Wales, about worship, this worship, the Father must worship Him in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him, and He turned around and said to His disciples, look on the fields, they are already white unto harvest.

So, tonight I thought we'll have that wonderful vision. I left you with a verse this morning, Matthew 28, 19 and 20, asking you just to spend ten minutes on your knees with that one verse. I'm not asking for a show of hands, I'm asking you just so.

My friend, you cannot spend ten minutes on your knees with an open mind, an open heart, with these two verses, without hearing the Lord speak in your innermost being, saying, go and lo, I am with you all the way.

Now, with that still before your heart, remember the word from Lamentation, chapter three, in verse number 51. What thine eyes seeth, affecteth thine heart. Seeing our adorable Lord Jesus, then I am quite convinced your heart of my heart has been strangely moved.

Perfect Peace and the Sound Mind

Now, with that, before you come down now to Isaiah 26, and reading in verse number, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose might is made on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever, for the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

The words are, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Now, go with me, will you, across to Timothy, the second letter, and chapter one. Second letter of Timothy, in chapter one, in verse number seven.

God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power. Keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Now, here's the word written, because he trusteth in thee. Now, the Lord has not given to us the spirit of fear, but of power of a sound mind.

Remember, one fear, one John four, verse 18 says, all fear. And so, we are singing in that lovely hymn, no love to thee, O Christ, no love to thee. And, when his love is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Spirit, and we know something of the love life we've been talking of during these past days, then, my friends, this removes all fear, all worrying, all anxiety, all fretting, and shimmying, and care.

My friends, these are dealt with by perfect love. The psychologist, the psychiatrist, and the medical doctor, they've come to the conclusion that what men, and women, and young people are longing for above everything else, the only thing that can satisfy the deepest longing of the heart is love.

Not mere sloppy sentimentality, not mere human affection, not mere sexual completion, no, but love. And, that love is personified in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they've come to recognize the only answer to the question, the only solution to the problem, is love, real love, true love.

Let me ask you, lovingly, tonight, with all my heart, what do I know of this love? Christ ruling, reigning Lord Supreme, notice what it says, they have perfect peace, whose mind is still on me, because we trust in the Lord.

Now, this leads me, my friends, to this verse again. Perfect love casteth all here, there's only one perfection in love, that is in the Lord Jesus. We receive Him by faith into our heart. I trust all of us have been wise unto salvation.

I trust all in this very fine congregation might have done that. You receive the Lord Jesus into your heart. Ignore. I urge you, I plead with you to do so. A scientist, the Lord, he sent for me not long ago, through his wife.

This here man was in a great turmoil, very intellectual man, very clever man. When I went to see him, I had never met him before. I knew his wife and family were attending the chapel very faithfully, and I met him in his study, and that dear man began to unburden his heart.

He opened up, and I sat there as a wise counselor will, in silence. I allowed him to talk, and talk, until at last I met him and said, sir, you may not like what I'm going to say to you, but there's somebody in your life you hate.

I thought he's going to hit me. He jammed his teeth, his face flushed, he said, yes, I hate my mother. I hate my mother for the way she treated my father, and he's in his grave today. Now, I know I'm the only child.

I know I'm the heir to millions upon millions of dollars, but I hate my mother. I looked straight at him and said, sir, you're on the right road for cancer. The psychologist, the psychiatrist, the medical world have found that a guilt complex will bring cancer on quicker than anything else.

If tonight there's someone here, and you've got a skeleton in the cupboard, you've got something, my friend, on the shelf, and maybe an inward grudge, maybe a secret hatred, and it's eating you out. Oh, yes, it's there, and, my friend, you're trying to cover it up, but it's going to come out one day.

It's going to come out. That man broke down and sobbed like a child. Now, I said, friend, bless you, go to your mother, who is not a Christian, and you profess to be a Christian, but I doubt your salvation.

How can you love your brother? How can you say you love God while you hate your brother far less your mother? It doesn't work. No one will tell me they're in love with the Lord Jesus, and this perfect love should have brought their heart by the Holy Spirit.

If you're out of touch with your fellow believer, if you're out of touch, my friend, with someone who's in the same wonderful family, the family of the regime, that someone, my friend, you hate, probably you never use that word hate, but remember you're guilty of murder.

You may not use a dagger, you may not use a shotgun, you may not use poison, but, my friend, if you're here tonight with that hatred in your heart toward a fellow believer, or anyone, they deny you're guilty of murder.

Now, God makes that perfectly clear in his word. Does that sound strong? Does that sound harsh? I say with all the love of my heart, I want the very best for your life. I long that impressions will be made within your breast during these days that you'll have eternal value.

I'm not here to sugarcoat the ministry. I'm here to water down the ministry God's given, and I thank God for a congregation who comes night after night, morning by morning, with a desire to know what God's will is for the line.

I thank God for those who are responding to that desire as God reveals it to them. What does the Bible say? Those whose minds are stayed upon him may have a perfect deed because they trust him, and to trust him means they commit their whole lives, their whole being to him.

Now, that's what it means to be a Christian. It means, my friend, a mind-perfect deed. Because our minds are stayed on him, there comes an inner serenity, an inner tranquility. Our hearts are occupied with our adorable Lord Jesus.

He's filling our vision, the one of it all. Now, remember the word that God said. In fact, the verse just before verse 7 in 2nd Timothy, one says, tear up, tear up the gift that is in me. Another verse says in Timothy, and also in Peter, tear up your pure mind by way of remembrance.

The word of God says, keep thy mind pure. It says, Be bad where I started, as a man thinketh in his heart. So, you're not what you think you are, but what you think you are. You're the very kind of person, my friend, you are in the dark when you're alone with your thoughts.

That's the kind of person you are. The word of God is crystal clear about this. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. And so, the injunction tonight is, tear up your pure mind by way of remembrance.

Again, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the ages of life. No wonder Paul said, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. Oh friend, the mind of the Christian is so vital.

Thank God tonight is not given of the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Let me ask you lovingly, do you ever thank God for a sound mind? You thank God you've got all your reasoning, your faculties.

Oh friend, what a thankful people we should be. In my ministry, I find so many minds deranged, yet God's great desire for your mind and my mind is a sound mind, a perfect love casting at all fear. This brings a power, a strength, an energy in your innermost being that has eternal value.

In the life of Christ, who has become convincing, and vital, and noble, and pure, and all for God's glory. Now, I can't live that life, neither can you, but I've got a wonderful message for you. He by his Spirit has come into your life and mine, that he might live that life through us, and that's why we must yield to the inferring spirit.

Presenting the Body as a Living Sacrifice

Go with me to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 please, and verses one and two. This subject of the mind is a very advanced subject. Time will allow me to develop it tonight, but I'd like to take your concordance.

If you haven't got one, you get one in the bookstore. Especially if you've got a young, which I still prefer to strong. See, crudence is for the crude, young is for the young men, strong is for the strong men.

I'm still a young man, and I like young. Notice what he said in verse one. You're trained to see what the mind proves. What a wonderful subject. The scientists, they tell us only a very small fraction of our minds are used at all.

You don't have a well-balanced mind. Say concerning Phrygian, his mind was like a well-stocked larder. A shell for this, a shell for the next thing. Well-ordered and well-stocked. It's good to have a well-stocked mind, a well-balanced mind.

Now, we're going to see if we're going to get this. See, it says in verse number one, Notice again the language. I beseech you, therefore, and notice the subject. Brethren, notice the notice. By the mercies of God, having given us the assurance of salvation, and pardon, the assertion of peace, the assurance of power, then he says, by the mercies of God, the method, he presents the area, your body, the quality, a living sanctifying, the character, holy, the object acceptable unto God, the sanity, for this is your reasonable service, your logical, your intelligent, your spiritual worship, that you present your body, a living sacrifice, holy unto God.

Now, verse number two, and be not conformed as well. You have the request in verse number one, you have the reason in verse number one, you've got the result in verse number two, and be not conformed as well, but be transformed, transfigured, changed.

Notice now, by the renewing of your mind, that you may approve things that are good, and perfect, and acceptable, the will of God. May I pause here, dear children of God, tonight, as we have come to this place in our conference, where the cry is being from heart redeemed, to present our body, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, because we've been redeemed by his precious blood, claimed by the efficacy of that blood, and saved by his merciful grace, and brought nigh to himself, and as he is before the Father, so are we tonight, God, here in the path of the palms, and because of this wonderful blessing, and those wonderful nurses into which we have been brought, now he says, come and present your body, a living sacrifice.

Now, having done so, and I know some of you did that very thing last night, while some of you fought it, others did it. Now, that was a crisis which leads to a continuous. Verse one is a crisis verse two is a continuous.

Verse one is a net, verse two is an attitude. With all your reasoning faculties in verse number one, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, you yield yourself unreservedly, unconditionally to the Lord, the Spirit.

Spirit and soul and body, your time, your talent, your treasure, completely hand it over, and from your very heart you cry with all sincerity, Take my love, O Lord, I pour, at thy feet this treasure pour.

Take my self, and I will be ever only all for thee. Now, that was a definite crisis. That was a definite act, and notice the word in verse number two, and I found young people in young people's conventions, and others like friend in various conventions for the deepening of spiritual life.

I've seen my friends, those dear ones I've been pleading with, they come forward and open in confession of their surrender to the authority of the Lord Jesus. Now, to some days it hasn't fit, and to some days it hasn't seemed to work for them.

You know why? They've never been taught the truth of verse number two. What is that verse? Valid renewing of your mind. And, this happened in my life years ago. An illustration, this boss and I were in a plane for five years.

Dependence on God in Ministry

When we got this particular plane, there was no assembly. One of our college colleagues had been there for a crusade, some 65 people for French salvation. When we got there, we only found about five. With that nucleus, some days between Christmas and the New Year, Lord allowed us to show them from God's word, and by object lesson, the beauty and the value of the Lord's table.

The Lord's table. And, from within, we began to teach them what this really meant. Oh yes, they broke bread, they're born again, they belong to their family, it was their prerogative, it was their birthright, it was a joy to be there.

The time after time went on, others began to be saved, they came in, attracted by the ministry of Christ from various denominations. The following Easter, we met Christ 21. The assembly began to grow and develop and mature.

Then, I began to go to work probably once a month. I served with all sincerity and all love. During those years, it was hard going. All assemblies only sent me five pounds all the time I'd been in the Lord's work, which is about fifteen dollars.

I got no assembly, no committee, no organization behind me. We're utterly depending upon the Lord to meet every need. I have no assembly sending me so much every month. We travel all over the world. Very often, the oil and the crews may run very slowly, but it never stops to run.

Sometimes, the meal in the barrel may be very low, but the meal's still there. If I hadn't got the wife I've got, I wouldn't have been here tonight. Many times, my friend, we just hand to mouth. Thank God, it was the Lord's hand.

The shovel, sometimes, we shoveled up to other people. Many men, one day, I thought poorer than myself, gave me the last six as I had, the last dime. I heard a man who said to me, Mr. and Mrs. John Welch are coming, need some money to get bread.

I said, I'm sorry, I gave my last six of them away. He began to cry, but God met that need. God met that need. Now, may I pause here? That went on for five years. We have three children then, Earl and Boy Peter, the two Jewish children from Germany I referred to the other night.

The house was always open for the Lord's people, and they came from all around. Somehow, the others got all the food at the table, and Jewish boy, my friend, what I refer to as Jewish saint, one winter day, with no coal for the fireplace, the family were down on each train, and we asked God, little God, undertake.

We need coal. Undertake, Lord. While we're still on our knees, we were in a semi-detached house, a garage in between. Not for our car, we hadn't got a car, we got a bike. Garage door open, we heard hurling through the garage.

What was it? A wheelbarrow. Some dear saints of God were on their knees praying. While they were praying, God laid it upon their heart to bring a barrel full of coal. Robert, the Jewish boy, turned around and said, Aunty, how did Mr. Roger bring that barrel of coal?

Nobody's been out of the house, and Uncle's just prayed for that coal. God must have heard Uncle, and that's His salvation. So this went on. The night at home for some of these weekends, I had gone off in ministering the Word, traveling miles and miles, because there was no other family in the area.

And Jesus said to me, every brother in the assembly took part this morning. Wonderful, I said, wonderful, praise the Lord. Same thing would happen when I came home. Everybody in the assembly took part this morning while you were away, and it began to dawn on me.

He said, what are you getting at? He says, when you're at home, only one or two take part. But when you go away, everybody takes part. I see. It's time for me to move on now. Is that what you're getting at?

Yes. After five years we were there, and I'm getting to this point. Before the five years were up, and waiting there only, they invited us for two weeks, and said we're coming for six months. We stayed there for five years.

We don't always do that, by the way, but we felt constrained by the Spirit of God to do it. But as soon as we came into the assembly, souls were not being saved. Those who were not going on and developing and maturing in victories, we'd long to see them going on.

And we knew there was something wrong. Unlike most evangelists and teaching brethren, I began crashing the congregation. Move out of the way, I'm so sorry. Or am I sorry? But some of you here have been thinking I've been using the scraper.

Now, if you thought that, it is all in love. I thought I was filling your vision with Christ, and when you're in love with Christ, my friend, you'll do anything for Him. Isn't that true? You'll do anything for Him, when you're in love with Him.

Won't happen. One morning I used to say, Lucero, go home, get things put right with God, then come back, and I'll be a mighty power. Then we'll see the floodgate open, and great blessing coming again.

Dying to Self and Surrendering Glory

One Monday morning, alone in my room, the Spirit of God began working in my own life. He put his finger upon my own life. You know something? He put his finger upon all the blockage right there. I said humbly, I said frankly, all sincerity, that it may be a blessing to all of us.

And all I could get from the Lord were these words, I will show thee the path of life. I will show thee the path of life. Lord, show me, show me. And you know, He said, the boy said to me, look at verse 10, I'm referring now to Psalm 16.

Thou will not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption. I will show thee the path of life. I said, Lord, show me. Oh dear Lord, show me. I realized then, there was something in my life that had to die.

Something had gone to go the cross. And notice now, I thought this all over the British Isles. I knew Galatians 2 .20. I knew Romans 6. I knew Colossians chapter 3. Oh my friend, I knew the difference between Jacob and Israel, and I thought it.

And we've seen the assemblies established here and there, and we've seen my friends talking of the results of salvation for the soul. But then, that day, the Lord showed me something had to go to the cross.

And I thought that very morning, the Lord had got everything off me, and completely all of me, until that very morning. You know what that something was? It was vain glory. Vain glory. I wanted souls to be saved.

I wanted God to be going on with the Lord Jesus. I wanted to see a mighty ruler. Why? That Jim Boswell might get the sack on the back. That Jim Boswell might be sort of a wonderful preacher. And the Lord stopped the blessing, praying he will not share his glory with another.

He must have all the glory. Amen? He was all the praise. He must have it all. The next morning, a boy said, you've given your wife, you've given your child, you've given your time, your talent, your treasure.

But, Jim Boswell, I want you. And I thought he got every part of me until that morning. And here, still courting God my Saint, I prayed. The prayer I so often use here during these fast days, when the desire in my heart may find an echoing heart here.

O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee, for Thine atonement to give Thyself for me. I own no other master. My heart shall be Thy throne. My life I give, henceforth live. O Christ, for Thee alone.

And Lord, if it please Thee, do show me one token of result until I reach the glory. Now, this was a crisis, and there's never a morning before I leave my room. Very often, between four and five in the morning, still lying in my bed, I look up and say, Lord, I am still Thine.

Or, it may be I quote the whole chorus once more, the prayer from my heart. When temptation crosses a pathway, as so often it does in this particular ministry, quietly we just look up and say, Lord, I am still Thine.

Look after Your property in danger. The crisis, Lord, I yield, but there must be the moment by moment, day by day, renewing of the mind. I'm no longer my own. Lord, You're the life of my life, and it says here, great peace have they whose mind is stayed on the Lord.

They have perfect peace. In the mind, perfect, perfect peace, because our mind has stayed on Him. You know, I mean, let me ask you very lovingly, have you got that perfect peace in your heart tonight?

Or, is there an inward turmoil, that inward fruiting, that inward longing? Tonight, you may know, that peace is in effect. What happened in that little assembly, the floodgates were opened, and the prayer began to flow.

On Wednesday night, I confessed the whole thing to the assembly, and told them to forgive me. I asked them to do it for misjudging them. Tonight, friend, I want us to do business with Jesus Christ. You've had a wonderful time of ministry during these past weeks and months.

The Lord has been touching your heart, and filling your vision with himself, and you're thrilled to know what you are in Christ. What you've been brought into as a child of God is wonderful, but now he wants to live that life through us, day by day, in the energy of a non-greed Holy Spirit.

Are we willing for this? Really, go with it from your very heart, pray, and pray with all sincerity. Reign over me, Lord Jesus. Reign over all within you. Make me a loyal subject to thee in everything, a mind at perfect peace.

The Call to Yield to Christ

Hymn number 336. I meant to finish that subject tonight. We need to go on tomorrow morning, the same theme. We'll go down tomorrow morning to letter P. He might be in prayer with you regarding these meetings.

We can be of any help to anyone of any. We want you just to wait behind. Talk to us about it. You're not saved. We want to get the matter settled tonight. You're a child of God living a defeated life.

There's no need for that. You can know victory. Remember 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14 says, thanks be unto God you always give us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember it moment by moment I'm getting his love.

Moment by moment I've life from above. Moment by moment the glory does shine. Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine. 336. Where are we going to give up tonight? 362. Take my life and let it be. And of course, dear Andy, he just got that hymn.

Away he goes. He rejoins. Isn't it wonderful what God is doing? Now come on, verse number one. Notice the words. It's a beautiful hymn. There's something majestic about this. Isn't there? Let's sing it thoughtfully in prayer.

Altogether. You believe that in verse number two, say amen. That's much better. The Lord's version of the last verse, and notice what it says. Oh, make us offer perfect rest, so give it now to me. Help us, O God, to understand fully the value of thy holy word tonight, so we may know that perfect peace is given to those whose mind is stayed, and focused, and settled, and fixed in our adorable Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh, may this word itself give us that wonderful revelation about our adorable Lord Jesus, that he may become absolutely everything to us, the very life of our life, the love of our lives. We ask thy blessing upon each one in this congregation, and we thank for each one of God here tonight.

We thank thee for this very fine crowd, but O God, we ask thy blessings upon any who may be here without the Savior. O God, we covet them for thyself. They too may turn their eyes upon Jesus, and be melted by that love so full of compassion and understanding, and they may cry from their heart, Lord I yield, I yield, I no longer hold.

We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus, and for thy glory, with whom the glory goes now and forevermore. Amen.