Then I want to notice another thing here, “Gathered together,” there is divine oneness, And now what about it in the world? If you take a swift sweep over Christendom tonight, What meets your eye? Nearly thirteen hundred different religious bodies. Instead of the saints of God being gathered together, if gathered at all, they are gathered apart. They are scattered. I tell you, beloved, we should feel, every one, that we have contributed to this state or condition of things more or less. But how far are we going on with the principle set forth here? “Where two or three are gathered together to My Name there am I in the midst of them.” You know the Apostle anticipated this state of things. It isn’t that the Spirit of God has been taken by surprise, if I may speak in that familiar way. No, but the Apostle says, “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock,” and he says also, “Of yourselves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.” He anticipated what has come in. Not only would evil assail the assembly from without, but the church of God would become the very birthplace of it, so that in its practical manifestation, it would be divided and subdivided and divided again, just as we have it tonight. How did Paul meet that spirit among the saints? He says, “I hear there are contentions among you, one saying I am of Paul and I of Apolos and I of Christ,” and, he says, “Is Christ divided?” it would be just as consistent to think of a divided Christ, as a divided church. It is a solemn thing when we think of it. It is the bud and shoot of all sectarianism as we have it tonight, full grown. May God bring us back in our thoughts to His thoughts, and may we be willing to accept what He has set forth, and set to our seal that He is true.
I will not speak further on this, as it would take too long. Indeed; there is enough in that one subject to engage the evening. It was a principle in the death of Christ that we should be One. We get that in the 2nd of Ephesians, and what I press on your conscience is this, if this unity of God’s people was a purpose in the death of Christ, if it cost Him His sorrow, His griefs, His passion, His agonies, when He hung on the tree, How can you dismiss it from your conscience as a subject of little consequence and of little moment? How can you get rid of it? How can you brush it aside so lightly, since it was a purpose in the death of Christ? Beloved friends, God give us to come back to just what He says in His own Word, and be willing to abide by what it teaches. In spite of difficulties, in spite of our littleness, in spite of our want of strength, let us seek grace, those who know the truth, to hold fast that which we have, that no one take our crown. Not the accomplishment of new victories, not entering into new conquests; it is simply holding what you have, lest you lose your crown. That is what you are asked to do. That is what you are exhorted to do. But then again, how would this practically be carried out now? By endeavoring to keep, or according to the corrected translation, “Using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Now there are two or three things that would be excluded if the unity were the Spirit’s unity. In the first place the Spirit is the Spirit of life; and in the second place He is the Holy Spirit; and in the third place He is the Spirit of truth. So in order to keep that unity you would have to have life—you would have to be born again. You would need to be a child of God. In order to keep that unity, you would need to seek through grace to walk in holiness. In order to keep that unity, you would need to have regard for the truth, and any principle allowed or tolerated that would compromise the question or life, or holiness, or truth, even though there were oneness, it would not be the unity of the Spirit. I speak now as to its practical manifestation in this world. But that is enough as to our being gathered together.
What is next before us? “For where two or three are gathered together to My Name, there am I in the midst of them.” People sometimes say there is nothing in a name. You often hear that, but O, how much there has been in a name, for each saved one in this room tonight: and O, precious lost one, let me turn aside just for a moment to speak to you as to that Name. Did you notice at the beginning of this evening, we read from the first of Matthew, “And His Name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins”? Is there anything in the name? Take the 4th of Acts, if you please, and allow me to read Verses 11 and 12. “This is the stone” (speaking of Jesus Christ) “which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner, Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” So you are shut up as to that. There is no other way. No other Name. There is no other escape, no other outlet, but thank God, that Name is under heaven, and so available to sinners in this world for salvation. But I want to show you something further as to that Name, and it is in the 2nd of Philippians. I want to show you God’s thoughts about it, before we flippantly say, or allow there is nothing in a name. (8th verse). “He” (Jesus) “being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath also highly exalted Him,” now listen, “And given Him a Name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth and things under the earth.” The word things should be beings; “and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” And would you say after reading that testimony of God, or would you tolerate the thought, there is nothing in a name? God forbid. Now, I say that is the only name to which we are to gather. The only name. If it is the only name for salvation, it is the only name to which we are to gather. You wouldn’t think of putting Martin Luther’s name beside Christ’s for salvation; nor John Wesley’s name beside Christ’s for salvation, and yet you are willing to put those names beside Christ’s when it is a question of gathering. I will use only those two names; they stand for all the rest in principle. There, you have it. Whatsoever is less than that Name is too little, and whatsoever is more than that Name is too much. It is the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you gathered to that Name alone? Are you?
Well, now see a little farther; we might dwell on that, but not tonight. “There am I.” Here is the divine presence. O, that wondering thing, and beloved friends, let us see to it that we cultivate more and more the thought that the Lord Jesus is in our midst. There is nothing that will hold the heart like that. There is nothing that will attract a soul like that. There is no one that has the charm about his name that Christ has, whose presence is vouchsafed to the two or three gathered to His Name; and Why did I read that text from the first of Matthew, at the beginning of this talk tonight? Simply because you have here what you have there. You say, “What do you mean?” Now notice, we read, “And His name shall be called Emmanuel which being interpreted is, God with us.” Not “God with me,” but “God with us.” That is what you have here in Matthew. Did the Jews ever realize that? No, they never realized it. They never saw in Him the Messiah. Since this is true, Where is this fact now to find its application? Where is God with us? You find its realization in the two or three gathered to the Lord’s Name. God with us. “There am I in the midst of them.” Blessed, wonderful fact. “O,” you say, “that might have done in another day,” but why did I read the last verse of the last chapter of Matthew? Simply because as Matthew begins, Matthew ends. Let us notice again in the last clause of the 28th chapter. “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” To whom is He talking—individuals? No, He is talking to His gathered saints who have conformed to His appointment, and in whose midst He stands for the joy of their hearts. In the first chapter you have “God with us.” With us. Emphasize the “us.” In the 18th chapter you have, “There am I in the midst of them,” and how long? In the 28th chapter, “Even unto the end of the age.” What is it that so much stands in our way as to the realization of this? I will tell you what it is. Let me turn back to the 28th of Genesis, 10th verse.
“And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran, and he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them up for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. . . . And he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.”
Has the sun gone down for you on this world? How about it? Has your heart been abstracted and your eyes closed to what is here? It is very likely that you will find more than what Jacob found. What did he find under these conditions? Notice the 16th verse. Have you ever been made to say that, as gathered to His Name, “Surely the Lord is in this place”? And if you haven’t, Why haven’t you? Just because the sun has not gone down on this world for you. Just because your heart has not been abstracted from what is here. Just because your eyes have not closed against it all. That’s a fact. You noticed in the 28th of Matthew, What? Some doubted. Jesus appointed a meeting place. They conformed to His appointment, they found Him there, they were glad when they saw the Lord, but some doubted; and very likely they might have reported it a dry meeting, a dry place, but Why a dry meeting, a cold place? Because they doubted, because they were still in their souls under the ensnaring effects of this world. Man wants something to see, something to look at, the spectacular. We walk by faith.
When you take your place at the Lord’s table, repeat to your soul, “Surely, the Lord is in this place.” What was Jacob’s conclusion from this? He says, “This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Why is it we don’t get more often in the neighborhood of heaven in our meetings? Why is it there is not more with us the sense of what it is to be in the house of God? It is because we are not setting to our seal that God is true when He says, “There am I.” That the Lord is true when He says, “There am I.” But may I be bold to say we will have gone a little farther than Jacob, for if he speaks of the gate of heaven, he speaks of it from the outside. If we speak of the gate of heaven, we speak of it from the inside. You say, “How is that?” Our place is through the veil. Thank God for this. O, how holy, how holy is the subject we are considering at this moment, and one feels like taking the shoes off the feet and bowing the head again, and repeating solemnly, and yet with joy, “Surely, the Lord is in this place.”
O, may God Himself increase and deepen in our souls the sense of privilege that is ours of being gathered to His Name. Didn’t the Lord Jesus repeat this when He said in the 2nd of Hebrews, which is a quotation from the Psalms—notice it please, 11th verse, “For both He that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare Thy name unto My brethren. In the midst of the assembly will I sing praises unto Thee.” Thank God, I triumph now. If He is in our midst He is there to lead our song. O, how blessed that is. If He has title to sing, having come out in victory from death, that death was for you and me, and we may sing, too. Blessed, blessed be His Name! Do you remember that word in the 14th of 1 Corinthians, where you have a condition of things contemplated which is orderly, and we learn that even if an unbeliever is in such a meeting, he will be obliged to go forth from that place, saying, “Surely God is among you of a truth.” I tell you, beloved friends, we just dabble at the edge of what it is to be gathered to the Name of the Lord Jesus. He is in our midst.
O, God deepen, deepen in our souls what it is, the sense of it, the holy, blessed sense of what it is to be where the Lord is; and may our souls repeat the deepening conviction, it is true, “Surely, His Lord is in this place.”
(Continued from page 20)