Open—B. Prost, D. Gorgas, R. Muir
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
00:05:58
What I have on my heart this afternoon, I trust is.
Most of all, for the heart.
It's been on my heart even before I came to these meetings, but reinforced, I trust, by that first chapter of First Corinthians that we've had before us.
And that is particularly to speak for a few moments on the unity of the Spirit.
Could we turn to Ephesians 4 just to read the verses that bring that before us?
Ephesians chapter 4.
The verses have been mentioned in connection already with what we've had before us in the readings.
But let's read them again.
Ephesians 4 and verse one.
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord.
Beseech you, let ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.
With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering.
Forbearing one another in love.
Endeavoring, or perhaps more accurately, using diligence.
To keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one spirit.
Even as you are called in one hope of your calling.
It's one of the most stupendous truths, isn't it?
That the Spirit of God is here on earth in this dispensation.
It was never true before in a permanent way, was it?
And so far as we learn from Scripture, will not be true again after the church is called home.
So that you and I live, as we know well, in a unique time in the ways of God with man, when the Spirit of God is here permanently, so to speak, until you and I are called home.
We know well, of course, that every true believer is indwelt with the Spirit of God.
After that she believed it tells us in this very epistle in chapter one.
Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, and so the Holy Spirit indwells every true believer to lead and to guide us individually and to make the things of Christ good to our souls.
But this is something else that we have here. It's the collective aspect, isn't it?
That which is so precious to the heart of God, that which was so precious to the apostle.
That when he starts to talk about it in chapter three, he digresses for a whole chapter and speaks, you might say, about the means of entering into all the things that God has brought before us.
And then he says, I beseech you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.
On the one hand.
It's something that I suppose we could never have imagined in our wildest imagination, that God would send His Spirit down into this world permanently, first of all to dwell within every true believer, and then to dwell collectively among believers as the House of God.
00:10:05
And what is so precious and has impressed my own soul, and I am sure yours too?
Is that God has made a unity of the Spirit.
There is a unity of the Spirit even today, and you and I look around us and we see Christendom broken up into all kinds of different groups, and you and I are part of Christendom. We shouldn't forget that we're part of the ruin. But yet this verse still, as it were, rings down through the ages.
There is one body and one spirit.
But it's often the case in the Word of God that God brings before us along with a cardinal truth.
The very thing that is most likely to be the means of our not walking in that truth. And so it is here.
In verse two it says with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring or using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
I remember well quite a few years ago in a meeting using the expression. I can't remember the context, but I spoke about breaking the unity of the Spirit.
And I was thankful that a brother came up to me afterward, and with a smile he said, Bill, where do you find that expression in Scripture?
Where do you find that? Thought I had to admit that it wasn't there, he said. No, you're right, he said it isn't there.
And that was a good lesson, because we can't in that sense break the unity of the Spirit, can we? No, there is a unity of the Spirit.
And we cannot in that sense break it. But we can fail to walk in the good of it.
I like Mr. Ballot's illustration if I may be permitted to use it, he said. The unity of the spirit is like a beautiful jewel in a casket.
And he said we are asked to keep.
The casket, which is the uniting bond of peace.
And he said, sad to say, the casket has been broken many times. He.
But not only exposes the jewel in all its wonderful perfection.
And exposes the failure of man in breaking the casket. I liked that illustration.
But now what about the practical side of it? I speak to my own heart.
What is the unity of the Spirit?
Is it agreeing on a certain set of truths or principles in God's Word?
Partly that.
Is that being in the place where the Lord is gathering to Himself in the midst? I believe it includes that.
Is it holding fast what we have been given as we get in the book of Jude earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the Saints? Yes, it includes that.
But could I suggest to my own soul most of all, and to our own souls?
But it goes deeper than that.
I suggest that the thought of keeping the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
Goes beyond the mere fact that I can agree with you as to the principles of the Word of God.
Although it includes that, it goes beyond the fact that we gather together, we trust to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Know the expression, the uniting bond of peace.
Applies far more than that and strikes right home to our hearts, doesn't it?
May I be permitted to quote my late father-in-law, Albert? Hey Hope.
I can still remember many years ago now, his sitting in a reading meeting something like we have been having.
And the expression came up earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the Saints.
He made a remark like this. He said, you know, I can contend for the truth of God in one of two ways.
I can do it from the point of view that I am right and you are wrong.
And I'm going to prove it if it's the last thing I ever do.
Or he said I can do it.
00:15:00
From the point of view that this truth is so precious to my own soul.
That I cannot before the Lord and out of love to Him and all that He means to me, bear to give up one iota of it.
And so I am going to hold onto it.
Oh, he said. I will contend for the same truth, but I will do it in a totally different way.
Oh, I remember how much that spoke to my own soul at the time.
I remember how much it spoke to me.
When someone in our written ministry made this comment, he said We are edified far more by one another's spirits than by what we say.
Very, very striking, isn't it? Does that mean, of course, that we give up something in order? Is the unity of the Spirit a matter of negotiation? Is it a matter of you give a little and I give a little and somehow we come to some form of agreement that we can get along? Oh no, that's not what the Word of God teaches. Is it a matter that we are willing to compromise in order to keep the peace? That wouldn't be the unity of the Spirit, would it?
But it's beautiful to see here the way that this is brought in.
Further down in the chapter in verse 13 it says Till we all come in the unity of the faith.
Oh, that's a beautiful expression, isn't it? The unity of the faith, The unity that you might say is embodied in all the revealed truth that God has given us.
But notice the expression in that 13th verse. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
Unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, or the Christ.
That's quite a mouthful, if we could say it reverently. Isn't it the measure of the stature, of the fullness of Christ? Which one of us would stand up and say, that's where I am, that's where I've arrived at, that's where I am?
Oh, I have to speak for myself and say, I don't think that that'll come true until I get to the glory. I don't think that that expression will be true of me until I get home to the glory. But yet God has no less a measure for you and for me than the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Well, then the question arises.
How can we walk together in the unity of the Spirit if we aren't there yet? How can we walk together if we haven't gotten to this point yet? Doesn't there have to be compromise? Doesn't there have to be allowances made?
Turn over to Philippians for a verse that we all know very well.
Philippians, Chapter 3.
Notice verse 15.
Let us therefore as many as be perfect. Be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Nevertheless, where until we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
Oh, the Word of God leaves room for attaining, doesn't it? And I'm thankful for that. The Word of God leaves room for growth, for development. And so it says, we're unto. We have already attained. Let us walk by the same rule. Let us mine the same thing. The Word of God recognizes that some may not have gotten there yet.
I say it with all I trust humility. Should that hinder the unity of the Spirit? I don't believe so. The same thing in our chapter. If we aren't all at the unity of the faith yet, does that hinder the unity of the Spirit? It should not Why? Oh, because it says here with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. Why is that verse so needed?
I remember well many years ago now.
Speaking to a brother and he told me about a difficulty in an assembly far distant from where I lived.
00:20:08
And he had been approached by some brethren in that assembly, not as to dealing with the matter, but as to principles, and so on.
And he found that he did not see things the way they did, and did not view the particular application of the scripture that they were using in the same way they did, and did not see the solution to their problem in the same way they did.
But I'll never forget his remark to me as he told me about it. He said, Bill, when I left those brethren.
I spoke this way. I said, brethren, I don't see it the way you do.
But I will continue to pray, both about the matter and for you.
And he said, I want you to know that I keep an open mind.
Oh, that was a good lesson to my own soul. Why? Why was that a good remark? Does that mean that we should keep an open mind as to something that touches the person or work of Christ? That's not the point. The point is that there are many things that come up.
In our lives, both individually and particularly collectively, where the Spirit of God has to guide and lead.
I remember, if I may be permitted to quote another brother. This came from him, John L Arisman, whom many here will remember.
And he told about how in his younger years in the Assembly in Chicago, there there was a particular difficulty and he chased a bit at the amount of talk and going on that went on in the care meeting.
Dealing with the matter. And finally he told us that he spoke up and said shouldn't there be some scripture to tell us exactly what to do?
And he said immediately Mr. Potter, who was there at the time that was his home assembly, spoke up and said, no, Brother Arisman, the New Testament is not written that way. We have clear and definite principles in the New Testament, but they must be applied in the individual situation in communion with the Lord.
And he went on to say that that's why we need one another. That's why the loneliness and humility is so needed. That's why the forbearing one another in love is so needed. And that's why the diligence, the endeavoring, if you like, as it says here, is so needed.
Mr. Darby said that the bringing back of the truth.
Of the permanent presence of the Spirit of God on earth during this dispensation was probably the most significant truth that God had recovered through brethren.
But as a brother in our home assembly once said, and I don't think he'd mind my quoting him, he said that precious truth is at once our greatest potential strength, but our greatest potential weakness. Oh, what wonderful unity can be displayed if the Spirit of God has that liberty, and you and I are led and guided by Him. Oh, what wonderful blessing there can be. But oh, if the Spirit of God is grieved, if that unity isn't there, what a disaster it is because we can't go back.
As they did in the Old Testament and find chapter and verse for whatever situation came up. No, no.
But what a blessed thing it is that there is a unity of the Spirit, and I suggest to my own soul and to each one of us here.
That the truth of the one body and the truth of that one Spirit are intimately connected so.
So that we cannot talk about the truth of the one body without bringing in the fact that there is one spirit. We sometimes hear dear believers say, well, we're all members of one body anyway. I remember a dear brother who was no longer gathered to the Lord's name saying that to me once some time ago, quite a few years ago now. He said, well, I'm thankful that there is a unity of the body and God keeps that. We can't break it. I said to him, brother, that is blessedly true and I'm thankful for that. But the same verse that says there is one body says that there is one spirit.
And the previous verse exhorts us to use diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
Well, I have to hang my head when I read this verse. And yet would God tell us to do that which is impossible?
00:25:02
Would God if we could say it reverently dangle something in front of our eyes that is so impossible to walk in that we have to throw up our hands and say it can't be done? That's what men would say today. That's what some believers would even say today. It can't be done.
Does that attitude sometimes cross our hearts? Does it sometimes come home to us that it's hopeless we can't possibly carry this out?
Oh, before the Lord, let's never think like that. Let's never think like that. It's one of the biggest disgraces, if we could use the expression to the world around us that there is such difficulty and disunity among believers that there are such divergences of thought.
And again, I say it goes deeper than merely agreeing on the truth of Scripture, blessed although that is.
Because God desires not merely that we should agree on the truth of Scripture, but that there should be that, as it says here.
Keeping the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace, turn to Colossians 1 just for one verse.
Colossians chapter one and verse.
Well, we'll read verse 7 to get the connection, but thinking also of verse 8.
As ye also learned of Epiphros, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. Isn't that beautiful? We read in John's epistles about love connected with truth, and that is blessedly truth, but here it simply says love in the Spirit.
Oh, love is connected with truth, and true love will never compromise the truth.
Very important, that is. And we don't want to be dissociating the Spirit from the Word of God. No, no.
Someone has said the spirit without the word makes a fanatic and we can see around us in some cases the sad results of that.
But the Word without the Spirit makes a rationalist, and we can see the sad results of that too, can't we? But oh, how blessed to have the precious Word of God, but then to have that wonderful, that precious unity, that unity that was formed when the Spirit of God came down on the day of Pentecost, uniting those believers together. And that unity that God has called us to walk in, to use diligence to keep until the Lord comes.
Well, I speak to my own heart. May it be more of an exercise to our hearts. May it, shall we say it, be more of a grief to our hearts when it isn't so.
May it be more of a concern to us, may we be more on our knees about it. And may there be more, if I may say, speaking most of all to myself, of that loneliness and meekness that's seeking to for bear one another in love.
That diligence that will never rest as long as there is one thing that is not according to that blessed unity of the Spirit.
Oh, you say, we'll never have that down here.
It will never happen that way. Look at the Apostles day. Even in the day of the apostles, things like that happened. A Paul and a Barnabas had a dispute and departed Sunderly asunder one from the other because they couldn't agree on whether to take John Mark with them or not. And there are other things that show that unhappily those things can come in. But let's not assume that is normal. Let's never take that for granted. Let's never say, well, what can you do? These things happen.
Oh no, the Word of God never takes it for granted, but rather would say there is a blessed unity and may we have the grace even in these last days to seek to walk in it.
First Samuel, chapter 22.
00:30:05
And verse one.
David therefore departed. Thanks.
And escaped to The Cave Dulham.
When his brethren and all his father's house heard it.
They went down.
Thither to him.
And everyone that was in distress.
When everyone that was in debt.
And everyone that was discontented.
Gathered themselves.
Unto him.
And he became a captain over them.
And they were with him.
About 400 men.
Familiar passage that sometimes has been read to us.
I'd like to think of that just a bit in connection with two things which characterize the day in which we live.
That is this dispensation.
Two important things that we lose sight of sometimes.
The first is.
That.
There is a man.
At the right hand of God, who is the head?
There's a man at the right hand of God who is our head.
Having been raised from the dead.
There he is.
At God's right hand, the head. And that's not just a doctrine.
That is a practical thing.
The other thing?
Is that there is a divine person here on earth.
Indwelling.
The church.
Not just the individual believer, but the church, and that is the Holy Spirit of God.
And again, that's not just a doctrine that has practical consequences.
I was thinking the other day about.
The scene in First Samuel 22 and I was thinking who would want to collect together?
A group of men who were in debt.
Who were discontented?
And who were in distress.
It's not a very likely company to make.
Anything of is it?
But I think the key to it, and as I was thinking about this scripture, I thought what makes the difference here is that he became a captain to them.
You know, brethren, we're not much different from that little group that gathered around David.
What the distress that we had before?
We came to Christ.
What debt?
What discontent?
But what makes it?
What makes it precious to be connected to him?
Is that he is the captain?
He's the captain.
Beloved brethren.
I feel very strongly with all my heart.
That we need to be reminded again and again of the practical consequences of the truth.
That Christ is head.
He is head.
I remember when I.
Put in for conscientious objector status.
It seems like so many years ago now. I guess it is. It's 50 years ago.
00:35:06
I was the first one I think that in Jamaica, NY ever.
Put it out and put in for that status because they didn't believe me and they summoned me to come down and defend myself.
And they had given me a questionnaire to fill out.
I suppose it's the same today on which they were to base their decision. And one of the questions in that was who is the head of your church?
Who is the head of your church?
And I had been taught from a little boy on that it was the Lord Jesus Christ, and I couldn't think of putting any answer but that, so I put the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the chairman of the draft board said to me.
Don't play with us.
We want to know who is the real head of your church.
And again I said, it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
I couldn't conceive that you would put anything else.
Why would you put anything else?
It's a real thing. The Lord Jesus is the head. And so I said, well, let me show you a scripture and I took them. I read up there and my I had my Bible with me. I said here, Colossians.
Chapter One.
And verse 18.
And he who is that, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the head of the Body, the Church, who is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
If any of you have ever been to the meeting room in Lima, Peru, up on the wall on the side.
There's a little wooden text that says that in all things he might have the preeminence.
What a reminder, beloved, how we seek so often to have preeminence among our brethren.
That's a word for the conscience of everyone of us. He is the one.
Well, they finally said no sense arguing with you on that point.
And after a few more questions and trying to get me off the track they finally said well I guess you're sincere about it and I was granted non combatant status.
My brother came along later and took the same stand and they didn't even bother to talk to him.
He is our head, He is our captain, brethren.
And that applies when we sit together and talk about things.
In a care meeting as much as it applies.
To our sitting here and talking in these meetings about things.
He is the head.
Remember inviting a brother to.
Come to our meeting one time and he came and he kept looking around and looking around and he said, well, who's the head here? Who's the head here? Always a delight to tell him it was the Lord Jesus Christ that was the head.
Again, I say it's not just a doctrine. That's a practical thing.
With due respect, we don't say as we sit here.
Well, I wonder if Brother Heinz agrees with that or Brother Chuck.
It would be nice to know they do, but they're not the head.
One is our head, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He became a captain to them and that little band.
Of distressed and indebted and discontented people brought together.
Became a band under his captaincy.
00:40:02
That made mighty and wonderful things.
During the years that David was.
Running away from fleeing from Saw.
He became a captain to them.
I just plead with your beloved brethren, just as our brother Bill has been bringing before us, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit, using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
Let us maintain in a practical way the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That in all things he might have the preeminence.
That in all things he might have the preeminence.
He knows what we need.
He knows the answers to the difficult things that come up.
In our discussions together.
It's been a joy to me sometimes to be sitting in a.
The meeting where we just don't seem to get anywhere. I'm talking about a meeting for the care of the assembly and we don't seem to be getting anywhere on a subject and all of a sudden a brother least expected to to.
Participate offers something.
And you recognize right away that the Lord is speaking through that brother.
And we submit to one another in that, because we recognize the Lord is speaking and we see his solution to the problem.
He is the head of the Body, the Church.
Now over in Ephesians again, where we were a few minutes ago, the.
I want to begin reading.
The verse chapter one and verse 17.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you, give unto you the Spirit of wisdom.
And revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.
That you may know what is the hope of his calling.
And what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints?
And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward, who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, in the heavenlies, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named?
Not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be.
The head.
Not here of the church only, but the head.
Over all things to the Church.
Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all.
I'm sure that.
We're tired of hearing about September 11Th.
But it is a kind of a turning point in our history and in our nation's experience.
And there's a little tendency perhaps in our hearts to think, yes, the Lord is the head of the church, but I wonder if he's got all things under control.
One of the things that has come home to my soul is that he does. He has all things under his. He's still on the throne.
My heart was very touched last night with the story that our brother Al told about the stewardess.
And I had just read a little paper by David Berkler.
Giving, saying so many good things that had come out of that whole.
00:45:05
Experience, and here was another one to add into it.
The Lord is going to be glorified. He's going to be honored.
And in the coming day, I think it's exciting to think of it that in that coming day of manifestation, we are going to learn lots of things that we have no idea.
That took place.
Under his head over all things through that terrible experience.
Just share one thing.
Well, I'm going to make it 2.
Brother Paul and sister, friend's son Stephen.
Was working in the World Trade Center.
And I'm not even sure that Paul and Fran knew this, but he had.
The Friday before and if I get the details wrong, the principles the same the Friday before it all happened.
He had been transferred over to Jersey City.
And he was not there.
Who was over all that?
It was the Lord.
The Lord.
Was with a trembling heart that some of us said, Is Stephen all right?
We didn't know, but what a happy thing it was to find out that the Lord had allowed that He was not there.
His head over all things.
To the Church, which is his body.
Do you accept that? Do you understand that? It gives peace, doesn't it? It gives great peace to know he's overall.
Still on the throne, He hasn't given it up.
Nothing's escaped his hand.
The other has to do with my wife's cousin.
Full powers.
Two of his sons worked for.
Otis Elevator and worked in the World Trade Center.
And Paul watched that building go down from a vantage point.
And he said my son's gone.
But he'd gotten out.
And the other son was over in Jersey City looking across the Hudson River. He watched it go down and he said, my brother's gone.
He is over all things.
Dear friend of mine Don Peterson.
Does some count? Did some counseling down at Keswick. He had been the president of a electric company in Newark and when he retired, as the newspaper said, instead of just writing checks.
To good works. He did the good work.
Went on short term missionary projects and he.
Counseled some of the men the Alcoholics down at.
He was on that plane.
That took a nosedive down in Pennsylvania into the earth.
Was God over that?
Sure he was.
Ruth and I went to the memorial service that was held for him. Over 800 people met, people whose lives he had touched.
And.
It was wonderful to hear the testimonies of those who said God was over all of that.
To the church he is the head over all things. And if he allows.
00:50:02
A Don and Gene Peterson to die in that crash.
I'll tell you, I'm knowing Dawn, I'll tell you. I bet he was standing there on the in the island saying you've only got a few minutes. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ while you can.
We'll hear about it in some coming day.
Are we practically holding the head?
There's a very great danger of not holding the head.
And all the confusion and disobedience and division that we see today.
Is from denying in a practical way the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And submitting to him.
May the Lord exercise our hearts, beloved brethren.
Not only to enjoy that as a truth.
As a doctrine.
But may it have a practical effect in our lives?
He's the head of the church and he's the head over all things to the church, which is his body. Hallelujah.
Loving brother and I had.
Had had it on my heart.
To read amongst.
A couple of other scriptures, those two.
Verses which have been just read to us.
About Christ being ahead.
So let's just read them again.
Ephesians Chapter.
1.
I don't want to repeat.
What has already been said?
But just a few thoughts on that and connected with it. Ephesians chapter one and we'll just read verse 22.
And let's put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body.
And then the verse, the other verse that was read in first chapter of Colossians.
Colossians chapter one and verse 18.
And he is the head of the body, the church.
Blessed part as Brother **** has been saying he is, but had no question about that he is.
And it struck me in the account that we read back in First Samuel.
That when it says in verse 2.
That David was the captain over them, it says. If we read it carefully, he became a captain over them.
It didn't say. It does not say that they made him the captain.
It doesn't say that they allowed him to be the captain or the head he became.
The Captain.
And I just thought of that.
In connection with our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if I could put it this way.
We cannot.
Expect that.
If we can, if we organize something in a scriptural way that we can then make him.
The head over.
That which we have tried to organize. No, beloved brethren.
He is the head. He is the head of his church.
And to go a little farther back in that direction.
00:55:03
Let's.
Go to Matthew chapter 16.
Because if he is the head of the church.
The question may be asked then, whose church is it?
Matthew, Chapter 16.
We better start reading from.
Verse 13. We won't comment on each verse.
But just to have the whole account, Matthew 1613. When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying.
Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, AM?
And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias and others Jeremias are one of the prophets. And he said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona.
For flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my father, which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock.
That is his confession of who Christ was. Upon this rock will I build my church.
And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Just that expression.
I will build my church.
Oh, beloved brethren.
If you'll allow me to bring something.
Our hearts.
And I speak to myself. What?
What does the Lord think when we say?
As we so often hear ourselves saying.
Our assembly.
So and so came to our assembly, to our meeting.
Or we might hear each other saying yes, we have assemblies in India and South America, Peru, Chile.
You turn.
Brethren, do we have assemblies there?
God has assemblies there.
God has an assembly where he a local assembly, and each place where he has gathered.
Believers by his Spirit.
To the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Brethren, I'm not trying to nitpick about words, but let us be careful, and I say that to myself, that we don't.
Begin to think.
Vote that which we is so dear to our hearts as something that we.
Have organized or something that belongs to us.
The Lord Jesus Christ here said I will build my church, and it belongs to him.
The church.
Of God that includes every believer on the face of this earth.
A universally church Universally, as somebody referred to it yesterday, is his church.
And his alone.
And every assembly, local assembly.
As we were noticing yesterday in the first chapter at the beginning of.
Corinthians.
That actually the church in Corinth referred to every single believer in that city.
01:00:01
And if we could put it this way, the church in Dorothy, NJ is comprised of every single believer in the town of Dorothy.
Whether they are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ or not.
So whether we are?
Speaking of the whole church, Oregon, the church as.
Every believer in a locality.
Or whether we are speaking about just a.
Small company of two or three or 10 or 15.
Believers gathered by the Spirit of God to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As a local expression of that assembly of the whole assembly.
The assembly in each one of those cases is his.
It's not ours or anyone else's. It's his.
Whoever the brother and I believe that if we.
Could get this more into our hearts.
And our thoughts.
Could I say we might have less of a problem?
In endeavoring to maintain the unity of the Spirit.
If we could realize.
Or that that which we the place that we enjoy being at His table, gathered to His name, if we could realize that it belongs to Him.
We would have.
A lot of things put in a perspective in the right perspective.
And so he is the head of the church.
It is his church. It belongs to him.
But let's just go to one more scripture.
In Acts chapter 20.
Acts Chapter 20.
And verse 28.
Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God.
Which he has purchased.
With his own blood.
Which he has purchased with his own blood.
Not only, not only.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ head of the Church?
The assembly.
But the assembly is his. It belongs to him.
And why does it belong to him? Because he has purchased it with his own blood.
How could we dare to say or to think?
Of it as our assembly.
When he has given his life.
And shed his blood.
To purchase that church.
His body and his bride.
It's his.
It's his assembly. He purchased it with his own blood and he is head over that assembly.
I trust, brethren, that I.
I'm not that nobody would take this as a criticism.
What I have just said.
But I believe our hearts need to be reminded.
Of these things we.
So quickly like to take credit to ourselves.
01:05:05
Even in the things of the Lord, even in these precious things which the truths which have been brought before us these these two days.
We so easily like to take the credit to ourselves.
And think that it's something that we have done or that we have that we have organized or that something that I can take credit for, but I cannot.
It's his church.
Which he has paid for with his own blood.
And he is the head of it.
115.
And hope.
Bye.
Verse 27.
Ephesians 527.
01:10:01
That he might present it to himself. A.
Glorious Church.
Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So we pray.
Our God and our Father.
We bow humbly before thee when we think of our God, that Thou hast brought us in to be members of the body of Christ. Be part of the Bride of Christ, the Church, the first born to share in that glory forever. To be part of the Bride there at his side is spotless Bride, when we think our God, how we have failed in our testimony in this world.
Both individually and collectively, that thou blessed God in that coming day, that that church will be presented to thy Son whole, without blemish and without spot. Oh our God, we praise thee. What a foundation we rest on the precious blood of Christ, that He has done all the work. Our God, we ask thee that thou would help us to walk as in the dignity of the sons of God.
And members of the body of Christ, we thank you for the precious truths that have been brought before us in this meeting. And we just commend ourselves to thee, our God, that thou would sustain and bless for the balance of our day together here in the reading meeting and in the gospel tonight and in our fellowship between meetings, that it may be that which would encourage one another in the Lord. Thus we ask it and give thanks in Jesus name, Amen.