Foundation Stones #2: The Lord with the Apostles — Christ Within You

There is something else I want you to notice. They were called. I’ve already said that, but I want to repeat it now in a different way. They learned how to call others because they themselves had been called. But just write this down. They had been called. Isn’t that simple? Well, Gene, that is so simple. Yes, it is. But it’s often overlooked. Jesus uses a word when He speaks of His relationship with His Father. He uses it again and again and again. He says, “My Father has sent Me.” My Father has sent Me. And you ought to be able to figure this out by now. The habit of divinity. If the Father has sent the Son, what can you just about bet the Son will one day do? He will send somebody else because it’s divine. It’s organic to His species. It’s His habit. It’s His experience. It’s His information. It’s His way.

Well, He was now calling the ones He would one day send. What is missed? One of the things that are missed in our generation is we don’t have any sent men. Oh, brothers, we’ve got called men by the bucket loads. But we don’t have men sent. They have not been sent. Uh, if I have anything in my life I cherish, it’s something that’s really rare. I really feel that my God has not only called me but sent me. It’s an overwhelming drive within me. I know whether I’m mistaken or not is immaterial. I know I have been sent. And you know something else? I have the courage. I may not have the courage to call, I may not have the courage to say come follow me. But I have the courage to send men. Be warned. I have the courage to send men. But we’ll learn why that can be done by a human and not just by the Lord. It can be done by a human. I’m getting ahead of myself.

They were all called. They were called by the Lord. By the way, He ascended into heaven, but I’m here to tell you, I got called by the Lord. I got called. Gene, come. And I got sent. Hallelujah. That’s the greatest honor ever, ever given me. One day I got sent. As far as I know, that’s never been taken back. Yes, brother.

Member Audience: Being chosen. It’s not like the mayor call you chosen.

No, different. Not the mayor’s call if you were chosen. I don’t even know what that means. I don’t even know what that means. I’m really speaking here of those men in their relationship to Him. Apostleship. Those who would build the church. They would be the church builders.

Okay. Now then, I want to look at this one great difference between them and the Son who has been called and sent and His calling of them. He has called people that were unworthy and unqualified. And that’s the big jump. That’s the great gap that’s filled. But praise the Lord, that’s redemption. He didn’t have anybody who was qualified. He picked the pick of the litter and even in picking the pick of the litter, He picked the bottom of the barrel. I hope you will, you followed that. The pick of the litter was at the bottom of the barrel. And you are the pick of the litter, and you are the bottom of the barrel. You can’t get any better and you can’t get any worse. You are bad off. How would you like for Jesus Christ to invite you to live with Him for a while here on this earth? Wouldn’t that make all I have to look at these men? I want to look at their sorted side, the bad side.

Okay, He’s just told them to leave everything. You’d think that would be settled, wouldn’t you? Well, it wasn’t. He tells them to deny themselves. You’d think that would be settled, wouldn’t you? Don’t kid yourself. That’s just so many words to them like it’s so many words to you and me. Those things have to be made experiential. All right. You have an unworthy group of people following the Lord. Here are some things you need to know about them.

Picky, picky, picky. That’s what they were. Now, you can’t sit there. I’m sitting there. Get out of my way. I got here first. They literally fought over who would sit beside the Lord. And I’ll tell you something else. If that this particular morning you got up and you made it and you were the one sitting beside the Lord, if you would look, or let’s say you’re walking and today you’re getting to walk right beside Him, you look back over your shoulder and you got 11 men with a, “Who does He think is?” I cannot imagine anything more immature than a mommy. A mommy coming over with one of with two children, one in each hand, two children in tow, coming up to Jesus and saying, “When You finally invade and take over the city Jerusalem and Your army surrounds the town and You have pushed the Romans back into the sea and You have established this new kingdom of Yours. I want You to promise me that this son of mine and that son of mine are going to sit on Your right and left hands.

How would you have felt one of those if you’d been one of those two young men? Embarrassed. Embarrassed as all get out. I get the distinct impression they were not embarrassed at all, but like two pouty little kids, they were saying, “Yeah, yeah, Lord, that’s what we want, too.” I mean, how immature can you get? How dumb can you be? If anyone knows, the brothers in this room should know how dumb you can. You’re not like this, are you? You’re not like that. I’m sure you are not like that. I have lived with men who have vied for the attention of a godly leader. And I know what picky, and I know what sullen, and I know what vying for. And I know what infighting and deliberate sabotaging of a brother is like.

Imagine this kind of cruelty. I want you to imagine this kind of cruelty on the basis of pure unadulterated ego. In fact, I see in this all the all the attitudes of all the denominations who have ever existed since that hour. I want you to see two men pushing their way. Two of the disciples pushing their way, arming their way through the through the other men,, and getting over to the Lord and saying, “Lord, we got something we want to talk to you about.” That last town we were in, the people didn’t come out. There were very few people there. You were here to heal, and they didn’t even come out to get healed, and they didn’t listen to Your message, and the few that were there were not interested and some of them were even asleep, and they rejected You, the Lord of Israel, the true King. They did. Lord, would you let us rain fire and brimstone on that whole town and wipe it out? The men, the women, the children, the cattle, and even the flies and the insects. Could you do that, Lord?

Do you know what’s really going on here? These guys are interested in seeing if they could get a hold of heavenly power, and if they could see a fireball fall out of heaven at their instigation, at their word. That’s what’s really going on here. And they are so jazzed, so, what am I trying to say? So caught up with the idea of power that they don’t care about little babies being burned to death. Is that true? Am I being am I giving you an honest picture here?

Now, if that isn’t the ultimate end of arrogance, if that isn’t the ultimate end of peevishness, and if that isn’t the ultimate end of man wanting power with God, and the Lord put up with that. How do you think the Lord felt about that? Do you know what I think I’d have done if I was the Lord? I said, “Yeah, all 12 of you stand right over there, and there’s the village,” call down the fire, and then I would have just stepped back and said, “Now, keep calling for it and watch where it falls.” I think I’d have given up on them. That’s really being thick-headed. Do you not agree? It’s just not getting through to them, is it? No, it is not getting through to them. Do you think that’s bad?  I want you to watch these denominationalists. Again, these are the things the Lord had to get out of them.