Every Christian who owns the Lordship of Christ, and has visited the Romish places of worship, must have been deeply pained at the reverence paid to the name of the virgin. And is not human nature the same elsewhere? Is there not the same idolatrous tendency where any name is owned as the head of a sect? As that name is exalted, the name of Jesus is disowned, until at length it is a small matter to be a Christian, but a great one to belong to the sect. Surely this is wood, hay and stubble, that will not endure the coming day. In the days of the apostles, Jesus was the name exalted above every name. To exalt another, though it were a Paul, or a Cephas, was denounced by the Spirit of God as carnality and schism. Even to tolerate another name, or names, was virtually to lower the glorious Christ to the level of a mere man (1 Cor. 1:12; 3:4-5).
Is it not the same now? Jesus is worthy of the united worship of the millions of the redeemed who shall be gathered in heaven; therefore He is worthy of the united worship and praise of all Christians now on earth. Whatever others may do, whether they own that name alone, before the world or not, fellow believer, if thou desirest to do the will of God, the path is plain—give up every name and sect, and meet only in the name of Jesus, heaven’s exalted Lord. A question may now arise in the mind as to what order of church government is really according to the mind of God. This leads us to the second consideration.
Second. The sovereignty of the Spirit of God as the second reason why Christians should meet in the name of the Lord Jesus alone. Before Jesus left this world, while in the midst of His sorrowing disciples, He said, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:16-17).
The Lord Jesus solemnly promised that this Comforter or Guardian should teach us all things. Jesus says, “He shall testify of Me” (John 15:26). Observe, Jesus did not promise an influence; but the real, divine person of the Holy Ghost; as real a person as Jesus. And as really as Jesus had testified of the Father, so really should the Spirit testify of Jesus. And further, that He, the Holy Spirit, should guide us into all truth. “He shall glorify Me” (John 16:14). This promise God hath fulfilled. Jesus being glorified on high, God hath sent the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:4-38). Now from that moment, we search in vain in the New Testament for any church government except the sovereign guidance of the Holy Ghost. As really as the blessed Lord had been present with the disciples in the gospels, equally so is the Holy Ghost present with the church in the Acts. Pentecost was a marvelous display of the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. And again, “When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the Word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). Yea, so real was the presence of the Holy Ghost, that Peter in the case of Ananias said, “Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?” (Acts 5:3). And when the gospel was preached to the Gentiles, the Holy Ghost fell on them in like manner (Acts 11:15). Also at Antioch (Acts 13:52). And how marked the guidance of the Spirit to the Apostle Paul and his companions when “forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia,” and when they would have gone to Bithynia, “but the Spirit suffered them not” (Acts 16:6-7. See also Acts 19:2). If we now turn to 1 Corinthians 12, the government of the Spirit in the church is stated with the utmost clearness, “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.”
This passage is often applied to the world, in violent opposition to that scripture which saith, “whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him” (John 14:17). But whatever variety of gift in the church, “all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will” (1 Cor. 12:11).
Now tell me what denomination thus owns the Spirit of God in our day. Nay, the moment any assembly of Christians do thus own the Spirit of God, that moment they cease to be a sect, or denomination; because the Holy Ghost would not honor any name but the name of Jesus. Now let us compare an assembly in the apostles’ time, with a denominational assembly now, and this will be plain. All the Christians in a neighborhood assembled together in the name of the Lord Jesus; the Spirit gave diversities of gifts; some were gifted to preach, others to teach, others to extort, and so on, with all the various manifestations of the Spirit. And He, the Spirit, was really present in their midst, dividing to every man severally as He would. They speak two or three—if anything is revealed to another that sitteth by, the first holds his peace—and this is the order of God; as we read (1 Cor. 14:29-33), “Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” When the sovereign guidance of the Spirit of God was owned, this was plainly the order.
Now let us enter an assembly belonging to any denomination of the present day. Tell me, Where is the Holy Spirit either expected or allowed to divide to every man severally as He will? This may not be intentional; the presidency of the Holy Ghost is forgotten. A man fills His place; and, whether led of or happy in the Spirit or not, he must occupy the time. This disowning of the personal presence and sovereign guidance of God the Holy Ghost is most sad every way. The diverse gifts are not exercised; the work of the ministry becomes a burden to the one man. But more than all, the Lord is disowned in the assembly for guidance in worship; and a human order, or rather, every kind of human disorder, takes the place.
It may sound well to call it liberty of conscience; But where is the liberty for the Spirit of God to use whom He will for the edification of the church of God? Is this a light matter? Was not the disowning the guidance and government of God by His people Israel, and the desire to have a man in God’s place, the first sad step in the downward path of that people? And what is the history of the prophets but that of a few men (in the midst of general departure from God) still finding and holding fast this blessed reality—the presence of God? How solemn the teaching in the book of Jeremiah: he sat alone, yet called by the name of the Lord God of Hosts—how sweet were the words of the Lord to him, “Let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.” (See Jer. 15:16-21).
(Continued and to be Continued).