Thank you. It's joy to be here, and it's joy to have the responsibility of this first gathering. The words of John three and thirty above me are some of the most cherished words in the whole of the Bible. And while I'm not going to preach them this evening, there's a very few of them I want to share with you. In the course of the week, we will be looking together day by day into the epistle of Timothy, But for this first talk, I wonder if you would turn with me into the second chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians. Galatians chapter two. Verse sixteen. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ. that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no blank be justified. But if, while we teach to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor, for I through the law and dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loves me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in bed. The Lord will add his bread to my accord, and to the other portions of his word, to which we will make reference this evening. I want to talk, if I may, on that very simple phrase, yet not on. May I repeat this? Yes, not of. I have chosen three portions from the New Testament that use the same phrase. We're going to think of the words of Galatians, two and twenty. Then we invite forth going to the fifteenth chapter of the first epistle to the church at Corinth. And we're going to think of the words of one who could dare say, I labored more abundance than they all. Get not on. Get not on. Then we're going back into the seventh chapter of one Corinthians. And we're going to read some of the most marvelous of words. As the apostle writes again to this church and dares to say, I come on. Get not on. but the Lord. Yet not on, but the Lord. If there is one thing I have learned in the school of Christian experience, it is that the Christian experience God wants us to have is not an experience of self-attachment. It is an experience of self-attachment. It is not just the matter of making ourselves known. It is the matter of blocking and compel voices. Yet not on the tongue. Yet not on, but the grace of God. Yet not on, but the Lord. It is palpitation. And the more I heed my Bible, the more I understand it, that the scourge in a capable problem of the blocking out of cells the perpendicular pronoun is surely one of the most difficult things for any one of us to learn. It was Bishop Horton, as no doubt you know, who played a little God. Can't say I sympathize with him in that. Whatever big grown man's mind chasing a little ball about, I'm not quite sure. But nevertheless, a Bishop Horton played a little God. And one time he went out on the cold plate, and one of his acquaintances said, Bishop, what's your handicap? The great man looked at the person that asked the question and said, The self. What's yours? Isn't that it? Have not you found that the greatest problem in life is that person that we call self? Self. the problem of what we're going to do with Christ the problem of whether we are going to say he must increase and I must decrease is the problem that men always face it was the problem of John the Baptist now I would not want any one of you to think that I am politically John the Baptist the Lord said of him that he was the greatest of the prophets and that is true But I contested that John the Baptist had created for me again and again immense problems. You know, he was the man that could point his finger at Jesus and pray, behold, the Lamb of God. He was the one who could advise his own disciples to leave and follow Christ. And I've often wondered why it was that John the Baptist never followed Christ. I've often wondered why it was that he didn't please the man's side of the devil and walking cut me with the Lord Jesus. I sometimes went thinking to instruct young men, say this, you know, I believe that if John the Baptist had kept his head, maybe he would never have lost his head. Well, you take that one out. For I know this, that John the Baptist knew who was the right to be the head, both of the church and of all men. John the Baptist had dared to say that there cometh after me one, the latter of whose shoes I am not worthy to understand. He dared to say to him that this was the one who was preferred before him, because he was before him. He knew that Christ had the right to be his head. Yet in a prison cell he sends disciples aren't thou he that should come, or look we for another? I suggest to you that greatest problem in the life of John the Baptist was the problem, what place he could live on? It was not only the problem of John the Baptist, but I think you will find me that it was the problem of the Pharisees. That's a wonderful chapter, the twelve chapter of John, it is. you will remember in the eleventh chapter jesus has cried with a loud voice lazarus cut more but in the twelfth chapter the man that was raised on the day is seated at a table with him not only his acquaintances but many of the scribes and the paraphies but most of all christ is there and as those paraphies look at the lord jesus why they say one to another What shall we do with this man? What shall we give him? What shall we give him? What shall we do for the whole world is gone after him? They saw men and women who decided to follow Christ. They saw men and women who were praying in their hearts. We're going to put Christ first. And those parodies take the problem. What place shall we give to Jesus? what place do we give to him the whole world what do we do the whole world has gone after him but if it was the problem of John the Baptist and if it was the problem of the Pharisees I think you will grant me that it was the problem of the man that we know as Pontius Pilate and he looked into the faith of the Lord he received the message from his wife, have thou nothing to do with this just man? For I suffered much this day in a dream because of him. Now he has to face the problem. What place shall I give Christ? What shall I do with Jesus, who is called for Christ? What shall I do? And, brethren, sisters, in these coming days we're going to have a hallelujah time. I'm persuaded of that. I believe God has something to say to us, but right at the beginning of the conference, let's take this question. What faith is the Lord going to have during this week and at the end of the week? The little course that our brother introduced tonight was a course that I introduced some ten years ago. I was reading the Julia Bible reading in Proverbs. Night by night we had a crowd much larger than this of young folk and day by day who had come from all over Scotland. And I was teaching the epitome of the Philippians. And we were gathered in the main auditorium. And before I even rose to speak, someone I know not who it was, but after we first learned the forum, someone who sat there, this crowd of teenage and early-century young folk, they started to say, let the Lord have his way in your life every day there's no rest there's no peace until the Lord has his way and friend I dare believe this that I believe God spoke to us from the ministry of the word in that conference but I believe that God spoke to us through that little course and I dare say this to you that if every one of us will pray, Lord, you could have your way. Not I, but Christ. Not I, but the Christ of God. Not I, but the Lord. And I believe that God is going to work in our hearts, and the assemblies from which we come will fill the impact of men and women who flee to Britain. I'm going to suggest to you that in that very wonderful portion in the fifteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Corinthians, we have thought before the tremendous thanks of the secret, the secret of service and success. The secret of service and success. I, neighbor, more abundant than they all. Yet not I, And then he goes on, and he dares to say, And so we preach, and so ye believe. Not I, but Christ is the secret of service we labor, and success we preach, they believe. I believe when we come to the seventh chapter of one Corinthians, it is not the secret now of service and success. It is the secret of supervision and subjection. As the Apostle is touching the very heart of human life, he is speaking indeed about a man's relationship to his wife and a wife's relationship to her man. And he dares to say, Yet not I, I command, yet not I, but the Lord. We are living in a gang when all around us there is a need of spiritual leadership. All around us there is a need of men and women who will take a lead among God's most. Men and women who will supervise the things of God. Men and women who will know something of such moral and spiritual leadership that willingly men and women will subject themselves to their rule and their authority. And I believe, you older brethren and sisters, that the secret of it is this, not I, but the Lord. Ah, but I must speak of the first. I want to spend the moment in Galatians two and twenty. And I want to remind you that it is the secret of salvation and transformation. What glorious words are those words? Why, as the Apostle dares to say, I live, I am crucified in Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ's limitation. And the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave his name. I suggest to you that here is the secret of salvation. I live. I am crucified with, I am crucified with one. What a candle reading of the second chapter of Galatians brings the fact before us that the law has made a demand. And because of our faith, because of our rebellion against God, because our lives have not been according to the plan and purpose of the Almighty, The Lord places his hand upon us, and demands his upper end, our death. Oh, the wonder of the Christian Christ is there. God sent his Son into the world. Down from his glory, ever-living glory, my Lord and Savior has. Blessed be his name. He's I, the child of the unjust, that he might bring us to God. There for Calvary called the Lord King of the West. And there was a time in my experience when not by the works of the law, but my faith. I associated myself with Jesus' life. And God accepted the death of Christ on my behalf. Here let me stop a minute and shout hallelujah. For if I've learned anything, you both don't shout it very often. Do you know something? Here's the thrill to our heart. the thrills of our hearts that Christ died for us. And I am crucified with Christ. God has accepted the death of Jesus Christ for life for her. And I stand on ground that's acceptable to heaven. Not I, but I never did it for me. Christ died for me. Any hope I have of glory in this hand in this. that God accepted the death of God. But it is not only the secret of salvation. It is the secret of sanctification. For though I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And I have been set apart, sanctified. I have been set apart for the glory of God. God sees me sanctified in Christ. For Corinthians one and thirty says, Christ is made unto us. One of the things that Christ is made unto us is sanctification. But never let us forget that we are sanctified in Christ, set apart by Christ. Our lives are hid in Christ. And we praise God for that. But never let us forget that while God sees us in Christ, the world doesn't see us in Christ. The world sees us just as we are. God wants us to go out and live and satisfy us. I live. Yet not on. Yet not on. Christ never in faith. Speaking to a crowd of students some little while ago, one of them came to me afterwards and said to the Lord, what is the technique of the Christ life? I looked at him. I said, what did you say? He said, what is the technique of the Christ's life? Well, I've got to look back at the head of it and wonder what he meant. If I gather it correctly, what he was saying is this. How can I live the life of Jesus Christ? What are the practical issues? of a sanctified life. Well, I wonder if I could answer that question. I wonder if I could suggest to you that when we take the tremendous statement I live yet, not I, not I, we are facing surely the greatest of countless. And I'm going to chant, if I may use the word that my young friend not quite being sure of what they meant, But I wonder if I could use them the technique of the Christ life is there. It is found, first of all, in imitation. That's what I would be saying. I want you to grasp that if you forget everything else like that. That if you and I are going to live a Christian experience, it starts with imitation. I suggest to you it continues not with imitation, but inspiration. And I suggest it continues from imitation to inspiration, and it goes on to impartation. First of all, imitation. Come with me in thought to the first verse of the eleventh chapter of one Corinthians. Why the Apostle dares to say, Be ye followers of me, as I am of Jesus Christ. I ramble like Mr. Phillips says, new translation, or hardly translation, paraphrase. Do you remember Mr. Phillips putting it this way? He says, copy me as I copy Christ. Do we want to know something? Do we want to know something of living a life that's the life of Christ? Then God has said, in the assemblies of his people, those who are elders, over people, and they are there and it got all to the block. I look around this conference today and you know my heart is cheered. I see here Mr. Smith and Mrs. Smith. They won't mind me telling you but no other than I think. I see Mrs. Kay and her sister. Well I must say anything about ladies ages for the victims to say that Mr. Smith is just a boy. I only know this. that there are in this humble brethren in Pittsburgh over many, many, many long years have lived for Jesus Christ. And I say to you, young folk, here today, I say this, that God has placed amongst those who, like the Apostle Paul, can say, copy me. But I have come to know. I have come to almost almost hate this modern trend of the defoying of those who are amongst us of curved flaws that are over here in the development. God has placed amongst us those, as he said, on that imitation, imitating. All that you and I may know something of that imitation, that we may mark men amongst us who love and curved flaws. and learn from them the lesson, as they have learned those lessons from Christ. For if there is one thing they will do, if there is one thing they will do, by their God and by their death they will want to be. But then I suggest to you that the secret surely of saying of I, that Christ is not only the secret of imitation, but the secret of inspiration. Why, when Paul wrote to young Timothy in his last letter, speaking of Holy Scripture, he says, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. When again we come to the words of Luke, Peter one and twenty, when Peter puts his hands on paper, he writes what he says, Holy man wrote that they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And I believe that the secret of Yahweh, that Christ is the secret of inspiration. And I know of no source of inspiration like the word of God. Men were inspired to write it. Men who haven't read it, written it, read it. And when they read it, they were inspired by it. And I believe that they might thank you and I, need to come back to the word of God. that we may know the very inspiration, the very inspiration that comes through a daily study of Scripture, not us. Oh, please, it does not come by kneeling down and saying, Lord, henceforth it's not going to be I. That's only the part of it. If you and I are going to cross-rank the perpendicular pronoun, there's something to do. We have to imitate those who love them better. We have to be inspired through the reading and pondering of the wisdom song. I was speaking this evening with our good friend Mr. McKenzie, who will be teaching us in the afternoon sessions, and I'm sure we're in for something wonderful. Some of you heard me say when last time I was with you that while it's been my joy in some churches in different countries to a good point, one has visited the mission field in many areas. I have never in all my life been challenged as much as I was challenged by a girl from your country in the heart of Angola. There I used to dade my dang fellowship at ten feet. Of a nice time I'd lay on my bed and I'd hop on my bed, wondering however it was that such a girl, so small, so fragile, would do something. He could starve. Mr. McKenzie, he won't mind me saying this. He will say it stronger than I will say it during the course of the week. But Mr. McKenzie said this to me today, that he had got in touch with Chetty Preeti with all the desperate happenings in Angola today, where folk are being killed every day. The suggestion was saying that Chetty should leave permissiveness. She dared to say that if the believers die, then I don't mind dying. That's the imitation. She's imitated Christ. I suggest that she's gonna make you an eye on something wrong. Brethren, sisters, let me tell you this. Potentially fellowship is not dead. She's still alive. still blessed God. God is moving among people all over the world. There were those that wounded him again. Those, indeed, that would inspire us. I have never been so inspired by a human being as I was by some of those dear missionaries in Africa, or maybe some of them away under in Malaysia. I only know this. God says, not I even quite. And I said that there was not only imitation and inspiration, but there was impartation. To be imparted, having a life of Christ imparted to us, I live, yet not I. And this is the secret. Christ liveth in me. The first two are important, but this is it. In the words of the hymn that you love to sing, you ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart. that you and I, to use the words of Brother Lawrence, that we might practice the presence of God, to practice the presence of God. Brethren, sisters, may I say this very little. I want to live my life consciously, Jesus is with me. I don't want to live my life as though Christ lived in times and years ago and set me a code of bold, set me a law of conduct, I want to live my life as though Jesus is with me, but bless God he is, but I want to be conscious. This is what Paul is saying. I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in. Faith was not the truth you thought, to you so clear to me, so dim, that when you came, you thought the sense of a kid. From your eyes he beckoned me, and from your heart his love is shed. Till I lose sight of you and see the Christ he's dead. That's it. That's it. I am the fruit of my new life. And I said it was the secret of salvation and sanctification. I want to pray it is the secret also of service and consent. for in that great fifteenth chapter of one corinthian the still so much with a reverence the apostle paul dared to remind them that he is what he is by the grace of god by the grace of god he says i am what i am i labored more abundant than they all yet not hard but the grace of god which was in me with me truly you what will work you with And here is the secret of service. It's the secret of service I labor, yet not all, but quite the strength of God through this. I think this is important, don't you? I believe that we are living in a day when you and I need to be up and doing the right thing. If there is one thing that I am absolutely confident of, it's this. is that God has a work for every one of us to do. God wants you and I to labor for him. Now, I know it's one of my hobbies, you know. And some of you have heard me say it again and again, and I'll let you into a secret. If God enables me, you'll hear me say it again as well. But if there is one expression I have grown to dislike, in America. You know what it is. It's this expression. He's in the work. Look. Look. Should I say this? Should I say that every Christian here is in the work? Or should he? Should he? I wonder why it is that we always talk about someone who gives most of his time to the ministry of the scripture as being in the world. You know, we've got a very limited idea of the work of God, haven't we? Do you remember the old Peter? Do you remember? The Lord borrowed his boat. So the Lord said, I'll pay you for the boat. The Lord's no man's debtor. And he said, Peter, I want you to go in your boat. I want you to let down your nets for a draft. And out they went in the boat. And Peter went fishing. Not for souls, but for fish. You know, the things you have with chips. Fish. He went doing a job of work. And you know, he went doing a job of work because Jesus told him to do it. He was in the work of God's fishing. Now, I know he wasn't a very good fisherman. I know he wasn't. the Lord said let down your nets and he let down a net no wonder the God he did both served him right I only know this that the Lord told him to do a job of work and he did it and he was in the work of God and said so I believe you're in the work of God raising that gambling I believe my brother you may be a bricklayer you may be a baker a candlestick maker but if you're doing it for Jesus you're in the work of God Oh, may you and I realize this, let's draw this censor in our work, our work, to do it for him, to do it for him, that we might be able to say, I labor more abundant than the more. Hey, you won't forget part of that labor, you would make me pay. Well, he did it for the Lord. And what left he came to Aquila and Vassila and Apollo and the church at Corinth and the church at Ephesus because he went making text. You know, that's one of the things that always thrills me about the mission is. I want to say this to you. In thirty years of preaching, I've never yet come across a lazy missionary. I've never come across a lazy missionary. Everyone I've met. and works and works and works and he has all these creatures you know some of them are male and some of them take small and some of them work in medicine and some of them take the women to well so and they will whatever these women do and they're in the works of God and the fruits that all over the world there are assemblies of God's hope because someone realized that they were going to labor more abundance than they all did. And yet in it all, it was not that. It was the grace of God which was working through them. The secret of service, not all, the grace of God, not all. Okay, when we come to preaching, I suppose I ought to say a little bit about it, but when we come to preaching and the ministry of the word, is it not a fact that the men who set their mark for God and for good are men who said not I? George Whitfield came to your country, and revival followed in his way. It is not necessary for me to remind you of the greatest sermon George Whitfield ever preached. There he stood and cried, Let the name of George Whitfield perish, if God be glorified. And a man prepared to say, Not I, but Christ, not I, but the face, the grace of God. If I've noticed anything in the homes that I've been into, that most of you brethren are great lovers of reading of Charles Patton's Virgin. I think I come across more of Charles Patton's Virgin's books in America than I do on the bookshelves in England. You've got an appreciation for something that's good. I only know this, when Charles Patton Clarkson was drawing almost his last breath, and he cried, Let my name perish, but let Christ's name last forever. The greatest revival we saw in my country, it was from north-south to north-east. what has well been termed the revival of Wales. When God swept through the valleys and the mountains and the towns of Wales, the great Welsh revival caught untold less. Campbell Morgan was sent down by the ministerial gentlemen of the City of London to find out what was happening among the promotional wealth posts. He himself was a wealth post. But he got off the train and saw a sign, and he walked towards the little village of Lutha. And as he was walking towards the village, he saw a road sweeper. And as the man was sweeping the road, and Campbell Morgan stopped and said, Excuse me, my man, but can you tell me where the revival is? And the road sweeper stood up and said, Yes, sir, I think I'd hear. And the first man he went, Ha! The liquor bars were shut down because no one would buy the liquor. When theatres shut their doors would never open them fixed. When people went to the stores and paid debts that they'd be knowing for years, first revival, a revival of righteousness. It all happened for a little minor. Who thought he'd never had some education, and he went down to a Bible school in Newcastle, England, and he was there one month. And the leader at the Bible school said, I've nothing to teach you. You better get out and serve God. And as he went, Heaven Lovers, and he couldn't preach for coffee. I've got about six of his sermons at home. And you know, there's hardly one of them that you would say was real oratory or real Bible exposition. And when he spoke, hundreds of souls were threatened at a meeting. And Heaven Lovers was in luck. And he stood in the rostrum of the Baptist castle in Locker. And the gallery was crowded, and the same castle was crowded. And they were seated on the floor in the aisle. And there were hundreds outside. And they started to sing their great, well, ten. And Evan Roberts started to cry. And then he started to speak. And there was no movement. And the heavens were like rocks. suddenly a dear old lady sitting in the front looked up and said in a well-tongued heaven you know what's wrong the people come to see Evan Roberts and not Evan Roberts gone Evan Roberts looked down in the congregation and the Lord is higher than the well-tongued and he rebuked them and they dared in school kids and they dared in school dogs to come and listen to a man coming to meet God. When Christ stopped him from the gift and the blessing came, his foes were swept into the kingdom. Not all, not all, but the trust, not all, but the grace of God, which is in him. Then I dared to say that not I, or may I use the words of God, pray and pardon me, he must increase I'm a secret, not I, but Christ. It is not only the secret of salvation and salvation. It is not only the secret of promise and success. It is the secret of true provision and subjection. Seventh chapter of one Corinthians is that rather difficult portion. The portion that fills with marriage. Tremendous chapter. chapter every one of them will ponder the apostle was speaking about a man leaving his wife and the wife leaving her man and this is what he said I command you to get along but the Lord no wonder there were folks in Corinth willing to listen he spoke with the authority of the Savior as an elder indeed of a truth an apostle of a truth, a teacher of a truth. The apostle writes to them and has gaining words to tell them that they were willing to listen. And this was why they were willing to listen, because he could say, I command you that are the Lord. Seven sisters, if you and I are going to know him, in the day in which we live, of movement from the spirit of God, of monsters, of the families of his people, and how we long. I say one of the things we've got to handle is that to you, brethren, may I say you've disturbed the care of the women in your palace. You've got so to walk with Christ, so know his word, that when someone comes to you for advice, they don't go away and say, brother, so and so then. They go away. The Lord will say, Oh, this is the kingdom of God. Oh, but you and I who take something among God's hosts may be those who will bow and dig and say of the truth, Lord, all I want to tell the people is what you want me to tell. All I want to say is what you want me to say. All I want to do is what you want me to do, Lord. I want to be your man. I want to be an elder for you. I want to be able to go out and say, I command, yet not I for the Lord. Oh, God, grant that you and I may know something of self-appointment, nothing out of that perpendicular program. We may know something called Sonar. Not I. For the grace of God which is in me. Not I. But the Lord. Oh, may it be said by each one of us, he, he must increase. I must keep. And may it be not for his name's sake. Amen. Mother, could I answer? You sang that little chorus of the flow. Is that the all right? Will you put the gadget on one? Thank you. There are the words. There are the words. Very nice message. We long a bubble out, but the Lord Jesus might have his way in us. We long, but it may not be mine. But him, we might be able to say, not I but Christ. Oh, not I, but the grace of God which is in me. Not I, but the Lord. Oh, give us, we pray these gifts, the rightful place is Jesus Christ. That we, in our own lives, may know the joy of salvation. And in the fellowship we represent, the impact may be found of men. And women who love to make it, grant it, we pray thee, for Jesus' sake. Amen.