Address—Tim Ruga
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Good evening everyone. Let's start the meeting tonight by singing hymn #206 in our hymn books.
#206.
Oh Lord, we know it's not How sweet.
A song.
Maybe.
No, I want.
For us, now we know hiding.
In my word.
I know we often sing this hymn. It's a hymn that has expression in it by those gathered through the name of the Lord Jesus and speaking about His precious name. Things that I intend to talk about tonight.
And there's far more in the hymn though that I'll be speaking on, but I thought it was a nice expression.
For those so gathered at the beginning of the meeting. So let's start with prayer.
Our God and our Father.
We come before the the beginning of this hour and pray that thou would guide.
In our thoughts, our readings, our meditations, all that is said.
Pray that it would be for Thee and what is not would fall to the ground as we so often ask. We just pray that this time would be for blessing and for Thy glory. We ask Thy help in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Now there was one more question in the box than what we had today.
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And I'll just read it.
Because it has to do with my subject says. I am unclear what is meant sometimes when brothers refer to the assemblies recognizing the truth of the one body in a way that Christians and denominations don't.
So yes, oftentimes we talk about.
The truth that there is one body and that we are gathered together to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ on the ground or on the basis that there is one body. And that is what I would like to talk about a little bit tonight. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter 4.
Before I start, I just want to say a few other things.
I've heard it said that we get this truth of the one place because that's what I'll be talking about, the one place that the Spirit of God gathers through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this truth shoved down our throats, and we're tired of it.
And that might be so I'm sorry, but we did just have another question and.
I just want to say this, if you feel that way, OK, fair enough. I just hope you'll listen in the meeting this evening and give me a chance to explain how I feel about it.
If possible from the word of God.
But also I want you to consider this about this truth.
Do you believe it or do you not believe it?
If you don't believe it, then it's not a matter of having it shoved down your throat too many times. It's just that you don't want to hear it, and the real question is whether or not it comes from God.
Or whether it's from man, that's the real issue.
Now, if you do believe it and think it's spoken about too many times, well then how does that compare with the gospel? You know, we enjoy hearing the gospel. It's the truth of God. Why do we not complain about having that shove down our throats? I'm sorry to go after it like that, but.
Let me ask another way. Could you explain this truth to someone else? Have they asked you?
Another believer. If you've heard it many, many times, do you know it?
OK, so please bear with me if you have to hear it again one more time tonight.
Another charge that I've heard made is that this particular truth is often spoken in pride, and often we say that we are right and everyone else is wrong.
OK, now, shamefully, yes, those kinds of things have been said, and that's too bad. They ought never to be said. But one of the things I'm going to ask you to do tonight is to try to separate in your mind the difference between what God says, what is His truth, and how men hold it in responsibility.
There's a difference between those things. When it comes to man, there's failure.
When it comes to God, He's got truth and He gives it to us and we're responsible to Him for that truth. And one day we're going to answer directly to Him for how we handled His truth. And so one of the verses that was mentioned already in these meetings was John 7 verse 17. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the teaching. And the Lord Jesus Christ was talking about His teaching.
And they would know.
Whether it was from himself or whether it came from God. And what was the criteria? It's the same criteria for any truth, That is, if we have a desire to do the will of the Lord.
That's important because a lot of the times we come to the truth of God and we judge it according to what is convenient for us or what we think is fair, what we think is right. But that isn't the right way to go about it. When we come to the truth of God, we need to judge it according to what Scripture says and leave our thoughts and our feelings outside of it. We need to have a desire simply to hear Him and to do His will and get ourselves completely out of the way.
So having said that.
Let's just go on to Ephesians 4 and verse four. There is one body. Now, Joe Contours took this up already, and I'm not going to go into detail, but I want to just take up some of the direct teaching about this truth briefly at the beginning of the meeting and then go on to some other points about it. There is one body. That's a fact.
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It's simple. There's nothing that we can do about it that isn't committed to us and responsibility. And that one body of Christ includes every single believer on the face of this earth. Doesn't matter who they are, if they've trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, they've been redeemed by his blood. They are made part of that one body of Christ, and it's a wonderful thing.
Every single one of us is going to be together one day.
We have nothing to do with that other than by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're made part of it. We're in it.
But if we back up one verse, there's something that we very much have something to do with. Let's go back to verse three. It says endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Why there is one body. Now this we have something to do with. We are called to keep the unity of the spirit, not the body, because that is belongs to God.
And we are Simply put in that it's inviolate.
When it comes to the Spirit of God, it says that He has a unity and we have responsibility to keep that unity. And before we pass on from here, I just want to know something else, that it is not our unity, it's the unity of the Spirit and it's that which we're to keep and the only way we can keep the unity of the Spirit.
Is by doing what the Spirit of God wants us to do.
And the only way we're going to know what that is, is to find it in the Word of God. And so we need to go through the scriptures. And given that our time is very short, only less than 45 minutes left, I can only cover very, very few of the scriptures on this, but I trust they'll be enough and see what this unity of the Spirit was by example and by teaching.
In a few verses, let's go back to Acts Chapter 11.
So in Acts Chapter 11, this takes us right back to the beginning of the church and very shortly after those days when.
The Lord went back up into heaven. The church was formed by the Holy Spirit coming down out of heaven and baptizing all believers into one body. And then there was various things that happened. The time we get to Acts Chapter 7, there was a persecution.
Steven had been stoned, and there was a persecution that arose in Jerusalem from that, and because of that, believers who were there were scattered. They went out and some of them went as far north as Syria and came to a place called Antioch. And while they were there they preached the gospel. This is wonderful news, and they passed it on to others. And there were those of the Grecians that heard them. They believed, and an assembly was formed there.
It was a man named Barnabas who was in that place who went to encourage them and help them along in their new Christian faith. He realized he needed some help. He went back to Jerusalem and got Paul. Paul came there and they taught a whole year. They had an assembly there for a year. And that's just background. I want to hit one verse here. If we go down to verse 26, really 2 verses.
I'm sorry, verse 27. And in those days came the prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch.
Verse 28 and there stood up one of them.
Now this shows just one of many examples in Acts of what was happening in those days. Here was an assembly in Jerusalem and an assembly in Antioch, and these prophets came up from Jerusalem to Antioch.
And they weren't invited. The Holy Spirit sent them there and they went, and they didn't have to ask permission to speak. They were in the same assembly. There's only one body. They went there and one stood up.
He was free to do it. Why? Because they were practicing what we had in Ephesians 4. Three, the unity of the Spirit. The Spirit of God was free to use them. They were going about without any restriction. There were no denominations of men.
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There was nothing to prevent the free action of the Spirit to use these men as he chose. And so like I say, this is just one one of many examples and let's pass on to see another one. First Corinthians. I'm sorry, Second Corinthians, chapter 3.
First one, do we begin again to commend ourselves, or need we as others, pistols of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you, just to introduce the subject of letters of commendation? This is what they were doing then. The apostle didn't need one because he was known.
If there were witnesses, they weren't needed, but the fact is they were using them and that was all that was needed because.
When a believer went from one assembly to another, they didn't have to be received all over. They weren't independent. They were together. They were keeping the unity of the Spirit. And so you read about these letters of commendation over and over again. In chapter 18 we get Apollos. Romans 16 we get Phoebe. You get Epaphroditus in the book of Colossians and Anessimus in the book of Philemon. We have all these letters of accommodation in the Scriptures.
They practice them widely, and that is another example of what we're talking about.
It didn't last. Let's go to 1St Corinthians 1.
First Corinthians one verse 10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you'd be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it have been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are the House of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say that every one of you saith, I am appalled, and I have Apollos and I have Cephas.
Of Christ is Christ divided? To ask that question is to answer it. Of course Christ is not divided.
And yet and they were acting as if Christ was divided.
And the argument is plain. How could it be? If Christ is not divided, and Christ cannot be divided, then how can you act as if he is?
They were not practically acting according to the ground that they were gathered on. And so there came to be divisions in the assembly. These weren't complete breaks. These ones still came and met together in one place, and it was getting worse. And I believe that the Lord gave them a reprieve because of this ladder. But there was coming a day when those divisions were going to get worse until there was a complete break in that assembly and there were no longer meeting in the same place.
Let's go see that in Chapter 11.
1St Corinthians 11 verse 17 Now that in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together, not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it.
For there must be also heresies among you.
That they which are approved may be made manifest among you. Now this verse 19, there must be heresies. It's talking about full blown division where there's two groups that no longer meet together. And he said there's a day coming when that is going to happen.
Well, we're way beyond that day. Today. There's so many divisions that you can't even count them. But here is before that happened and he said in Corinth.
That day is coming and when it comes, this is what's going to happen. There's going to be a group that's approved.
What about the other one?
They're not approved.
Now we don't like that. That's not fair. How can you speak that way about believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, Children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ? That's not very nice. But notice the verse says that there are going to be the approved, which definitely implies that others are not approved.
Is that hard to accept?
It is. It's hard for me to accept.
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But I want to stop right here, and I want to say I believe that the Spirit of God knew all about that.
And knew that maybe we would struggle with that. And he gave an example in the Old Testament, you know, in First Corinthians chapter 10, just back in chapter, tells us that in the Old Testament, all those things that happened to the children of Israel happened to them for examples. And they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. And so we know that those things are given for us to learn from.
And I don't want to go just to a picture now, I want to go to something that actually happened. In this very regard, let's turn back to Deuteronomy chapter 12.
Deuteronomy chapter 12.
And verse 10 says that when you go over Jordan and dwell on the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit, and when He giveth you rest from all your enemies roundabout, so that you dwell in safety, then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there. Thither shall you bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings and your sacrifices.
Your ties and your heave offerings.
And of your hand, and all, of all your choice fouls, which you vow unto the Lord.
Verse 13 Take heed to thyself, that thou offer, not thy burnt offering in every place that thou seest, but in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes.
Let's just go back to verse 5.
But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there.
Now notice what it says here. It's a place that he would choose, and he would put his name in it.
Now we are not talking about the church here, but we are talking about God's people.
And God himself dwelled in the midst of his people, and he decided he would put his name in their midst. And so it becomes a very good example for us because it is analogous to what we are today. We are God's people even though we are not Israel. And so.
He says they were not free to go and worship the Lord and offer their sacrifices and offerings anywhere they wanted to, but they had to do it only in that place where the Lord chose to put His name. Now let's just turn over to Second Chronicles chapter 6 and we'll see where that place was in the Old Testament.
So David is speaking about what?
The Lord had told his Father, and they're referring to that. He says what the Lord said, verse 6 But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there.
Just that part. And so the Lord confirmed to David and Solomon that Jerusalem was that place. And this isn't the only place, but one place is enough when it's stated definitely.
And so there was no question about what God had in his mind for his people that Jerusalem was to be that place. They were to bring their sacrifices and their offerings there, and there was no other place for God's people. Now let's go back to First Kings chapter 12.
Because here we see.
A division among God's people. And that's where it got difficult, and this is where it is difficult for us. If we were all living in the early days of the church, we would not be having this discussion.
First Kings chapter 12, verse 24. In just one part of this, you'll find here that the 10 tribes had rebelled against Solomon's son Rehoboam.
And they had followed a man named Jeroboam and they were now splitting apart from the other two and.
The two tribes under the rightful King Rioboom wanted to go out and take their brethren back. They didn't like that there should be a division among God's people and they wanted to make Israel whole again. And so the Lord had to tell them something. The middle verse 24 he says for this thing is from me. He said you don't go up there, you don't do that.
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This thing is from me.
No doubt it was their failure, but the Lord allowed that that division should happen. Now the division having occurred, Jeroboam, the leader of the rebellion, realized something. If those people went back up to Jerusalem, it would be a problem for him. And so he says in verse 27. And this people go up to do sacrifice in the House of the Lord at Jerusalem. And then then shall the heart of this people turn again to their Lord, even unto Rehoboam, the king of Judah.
And they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboth, king of Judah. And so then he goes on, and he makes 2 calves, puts one up at that Dan, and the other at Bethel. And more significantly, he makes an altar and puts it at Bethel. Now we have an altar. And there was the altar of the Lord of Jerusalem. There was another altar at Bethel.
And that altar was used by God's people just like the altar in Jerusalem was used by.
God's people.
And the vision among God's people, some on one side, some on the other, each having an altar. Does that sound familiar?
That's where they were. It's an example for us. Let's go to Second Chronicles chapter 30.
And for the sake of time, we're just going to pick a verse or two out of this chapter, but we're skipping many years ahead in the history of Israel. And there had been a lot of kings and Judah and Israel, some of Israel now was carried captive. And there came a time in Hezekiah was king, and he read in the book of the Law, and he saw there what?
To be done. And he said now we need to keep the Passover as the Lord commanded. And he recognized too that it didn't belong just to those two tribes, that it belonged to all the people of the Lord. And so he sent posts down into Israel to call them also to come so that they might worship the Lord and sacrifice the Passover as the Lord had commanded. And so just skipping ahead.
Let's go down to verse 10. So the post passed from city to city, through the country of Ephriam and Manasseh, even to Zebulun, because that's in the 10 tribes that had gone away in division.
But they left them to scorn and mock them.
Of course, how can you say you're better than us? How can you say your altar is better than ours? You talk about our Ahab and our Jezebel, but look at your ASI and Atholiah. You're no better than we are and just laugh the scorn.
Well, it says verse 11. Nevertheless, divers of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. That was the place where the Lord had put his name, and they came there.
I go through all this to make one simple point. Let's not say the Lord wouldn't do this.
He did it.
Here in the past He had a place, He put his name here, He had his people here. His people failed. They failed miserably. And yet still his name was there. It never left that place. When the Lord Jesus Christ was here on earth and he went up to the temple, there came a day he went in there and drove the money changers out and he said, you have made my Father's house identifies.
He owned it.
Until he was rejected at the very end.
And He had to say, Your house, behold, your house is left unto you desolate. It was no longer honed of Him. The place changed then, but up until then it wasn't a matter of the people who were there. It was a matter of where the Lord had placed His name. And shame on the people who were there for not living according to the one who had put His name in their midst.
That was to their detriment.
That's the lesson we need to learn from that. But let's not say that the Lord wouldn't have some of His people associated with His name and some of His people not because He definitely did. And you can find the whole history of it in the Old Testament. Now let's go back to the New Testament. By the way, in a coming day, it's going to be so again with Jerusalem, the last verse of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 4848 we have.
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The Lord saying there.
The name of that city will be called. The Lord is there. So in the future today it will be so again, but today it's not. So where's the Lord's name today?
Well, Matthew 1820.
Yes, I know we read this verse a lot. It's important. It's so important that the Lord didn't even leave it to the apostles to say.
He said it himself because it was something vital, a change of something that he had to make clear himself.
He had to give the authority for this change.
Matthew 18 verse 24 where two or three are gathered together.
In or unto my name, there am I in the midst of them. Now the place isn't anymore a city on earth, it's not Jerusalem. But now it's the Lord putting it in the midst of two or three gathered to His name. And I just want to go over this verse again, because this verse is taken by most believers that I know.
And take in different ways. And I think Scripture very clearly and very definitely teaches it one way. It is for where two or three are gathered together as an assembly. We'll see that in a minute.
By the Spirit of God, we'll see that too. Through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There am I in the midst of them.
I want to show those two other things that I inserted into the passage.
First one I'm not going to spend much time on because Joe went over it very well in his meeting, but I want to restate it because there's some others who are here. It's where two or three are gathered together as an assembly. You know, most people and in fact, Bible translations just say we're two or three come together. Think if you just have two or three Christians that get together, then that's where the Lord is. It's not. This is talking about the assembly gathered in His name.
And we get that.
Clearly by going back and looking at the context, because if you start from verse 15, you find that this passage is talking about personal trespass.
And in the personal trespass, there's somebody who offends another, and that other person who's offended now goes to that one and tries to win them. And if they fail, they get one or two other believers and they go back and try to win them. Now what do you have? You've got two or three believers.
But they can't do anything except try to win this brother. They've got no authority to act. They've got no authority to do anything except to try to win a brother.
If they fail, what do they do? They've got to go to the assembly.
OK, verse 15, let's see that. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him, and him alone.
If he shall hear thee, thou gain thy brother, but if you will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more.
That in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. Now the assembly. And if you will not, and if you shall neglect to hear them, then tell it.
Unto the assembly, church or assembly. But if he neglected here the assembly, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Now this one refuses to hear the two or three. They've got no authority to do anything. They bring it to the assembly. The assembly, if it's refused, has authority. Why verse 20? Because we're two or three are gathered together and to my name they're mine in the midst of them.
That's the teaching of this verse. Verse 18 Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And so here we have the assembly with this power and authority to bind and to lose. To bind means to take one and put them under discipline, or really to remove them from the assembly, put them out.
Toulouse means to lose that action and bring them back into the assembly.
The assembly has that power and that authority to do it. The two or three Christians that were together did not, and the assembly had the authority because the Lord had put His name and His presence in their midst, as we have in the 20th. 1St. That is a special power and a special privilege that goes with those so gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus explains that here.
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Now this is part of what it means to to keep the unity of the Spirit.
If The thing is bound on earth in the Grand Rapids assembly, it's found in heaven. It isn't a matter of whether I think it's right or wrong. It's a matter of the fact that the Lorde authority was there and the thing was done in the name and the authority of the Lord. And so where I am in the assembly of Dorothy, we simply accept that.
We bow. That's keeping the unity of the Spirit.
These are important verses, and because they're important and because they're recognized, you'll find that these particular verses are the ones that are most often attacked when it comes to this truth.
Now let's go back down to verse 20.
Because there it says forward two or three are gathered together unto my name. They are mine in the midst of them I've been putting in unto. Mr. Darby has that.
But you can leave it in and you can say, you can try to say get together, but the word of God doesn't speak that way. You know, nowhere in the Word of God are we left up to doing what we want to do.
That's the thought of man.
In the Word of God, the Christian is called to be in obedience and we're to look to Him for everything that we do. And so the idea that we will agree to come together as some independent group is completely far from the Word of God. Not only is it not there in the beginning, there is no instruction for doing that anywhere. All of the instruction is otherwise. And I want to take this up from the standpoint of Luke chapter 22. So let's just go there now.
This is right at the very end of the Lord's ministry on earth, and He's getting ready to go to the cross. But first of all, He was going to go and eat His Passover, eat the Passover with His disciples, and He did something significant when that happened. I know we've heard these many times before, but please listen to me. I'll try to bring it out freshly if I can.
Chapter 22.
Verse 7 Then came the day of Unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John saying, Go and prepare us the Passover, that we may eat. And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? Wonderful. This is where we are in Christian position.
Has not left up to us.
Just because all so many other Christians are going out, not all so many other Christians are going out and saying I can decide doesn't mean it's left up to us. We need to ask him. These disciples had the right thought here and so they asked and he says.
Verse 10 He said unto them, Behold, when you are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house where he entereth in, and you shall say unto the good men of the house.
The Master saith unto thee, Where is the gas chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples, and he shall show you a large upper room furnished there. Make ready.
Now why did the Lord Jesus do this? He didn't have to do that. He could have told him exactly where to go. The Lord Jesus knew that house. He knew the street. He knew the place. He could have given them exact instructions. They all knew the city. But he didn't do that.
Because he was about to go away and he was about to commit them into the hands of another man, and he needed to give them this object lesson.
So that shortly after, when he met them in that place, he would tell them exactly who it was that he was going to commit them into his hands.
See what he was doing? I don't say this man was the Spirit of God, but it was definitely a picture of the Spirit of God, and the Lord Jesus intended it for that. It's not some application. The Lord Jesus intended that it should be that. And this man was identified by bearing a picture of water. Water in the Word of God, especially when it's contained in a vessel, speaks of the Word of God.
The Lord Jesus takes a base and starts to wash the disciples feet in John 13.
Ephesians 5 We've got the Lord taking and washing the church by the water of the Word in many other places.
And the Spirit of God.
And the Word of God are characterized by the truth, the Word of God, John seven verse, John 17, verse 17, the Lord Jesus says thy word is truth. We're going to see in just a moment that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth. And so this man is the Spirit of God associated as we always have, inseparably together with the Word of God, which is our guide for today.
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Now let's go see that John chapter 14.
John 14.
Verse 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever.
Even the spirit of truth.
So the Lord Jesus is talking about how he would go back to heaven and he's going to pray the Father and ask for the Holy Spirit to be given then to them. And we find that that's exactly what happened. Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit came down and took those believers. He came and dwelt on them and in them. And Peter says shortly after that, the Lord Jesus having been.
Ascended up to the right hand of the Father. He hath received that promise, and he hath poured out this which you now see in here. They were baptized with the Holy Spirit.
But I want to notice something else here. He says he'll give you another comforter. Now this word comforter.
Is a good word, it tells us something about the Holy Spirit, but it's not the best word to describe the meaning this paracletos. I understand the Greek word is and it really means someone who takes care of all the affairs of another so.
Really, the Lord Jesus had been their comforter up to this time, and that's why he says another comforter. This word, another is the Greek word I understand, Alice.
There's another word, heterose, and you get that in Galatians chapter one where it says another gospel which is not another Alice or heteros means a different kind, but this one Alice means another of the same kind. And so the Lord Jesus is saying, I was the one who took care of everything for you. I took care of all your affairs. I told you what to go, where to go, what to do. In the past I would have told you where to find that house.
But I'm putting you into the hands of another one.
Who's going to take care of all of your affairs? And that one is the spirit of truth.
And so if we go down to verse 26, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. So this spirit of truth is the Holy Spirit that, as we were reminded in the last meeting by Joe, was what the Lord Jesus poured out in the day of Pentecost.
Forming us all into one body, He dwells in the midst of the church today. The Spirit of God is here, and we now have that one in our midst, the one who is sent here to guide, to lead, and to take care of all of our affairs today. The question is, do we say, where will thou? It's not a trivial question.
And the promise is just like the Lord Jesus led the disciples in that day.
The Holy Spirit will lead us in this day if we give him this place. And if we do that, what is he going to do? He's not going to gather us in division. He's going to gather us together to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
These principles have not changed. We saw how it was at the beginning of the Church. We saw how they practiced. There was a unity and discipline. There was a unity and reception by letters of commendation.
There was a unity in how gifts were exercised among the assemblies. There's nothing in the Word of God saying that that has changed.
And that's still what characterizes the place with the Spirit of God would gather people today.
It doesn't matter that there are many divisions among Christians. The truth hasn't changed. Just like it didn't matter in the Old Testament that the majority of the tribes had gone off in division. The truth hadn't changed long after. In the days of of Nehemiah, things were still the same. There was still one place where they could go.
And meet together and find the Lord.
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In their midst and they would have to go there to Jerusalem. And so it is today. The truth is still the same, that there is one place where the Spirit of God is gathering believers together to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it is true that there are characteristics of that place, and some of those were brought out a little bit in the last meeting too. I just want to go back to that briefly. First of all, there's a name in the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We had that they were gathered together in my name. Matthew 1820 not taking some other name Revelation chapter 3 and verse eight. You see the Lord valued that you have not denied my name. One of the ways to ways to deny his name is to take another.
That doesn't prove everything, but it's a characteristic of the place.
Another thing is the person and work of Christ will be held in their purity. There you won't have fundamental error where the spirit of truth gathers. Will there be failure? Certainly.
Because there's failing human beings gathered in that place, but the spirit of truth maintains the testimony and you will not find fundamental error going on in that place.
The true gospel will be preached there also. You'll find that there is subjection to the Word in that place. The church does not teach Second Timothy and First Timothy chapter 3, verse 15. The assembly is the pillar and the ground of the truth.
It's held there, it's taught there. The Spirit of God uses various ones that get up and express it there, and he governs that and makes sure it happens. And so you have these characteristics that are so. Another thing is that there's going to be separation in that place. Very important spirit of truth does not go on with evil. Let's just go over to those verses briefly. Second Timothy, chapter 2.
I know they were referred to before, but they're very important.
Wow, wow.
Second Timothy 219 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth shore having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Should be Lord there, not Christ, it's His authority.
Verse 20. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold, no silver, but also wood, and of earth, and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified in meet for the masters use.
And prepared unto every good work, flee also youthful lust, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord at a pure heart.
There are other verses too. 1St Corinthians 5 talks about purging out the leaven. In that place with the Spirit of God is gathering through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They will be purged vessels.
There cannot be the going on with evil continually. It doesn't mean that things don't come in from time to time and that there isn't space for repentance.
Before the Lord deals with it, but discipline and purity is maintained in that place. Another thing that you'll find in that place is that there is.
That the ones who are there have gone out without the camp. Let's just go see that Hebrews 13 just giving a few of the characteristics.
Hebrews 13.
And verse 10 We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the Tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest, her sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.
Now the camp is very plainly laid out as to what it is in the book of Hebrews.
It's that whole system of things that belongs to Judaism, everything having to do with the temple and the earthly religion that God himself has set up. And the early believers were slow to leave it, and they were called to leave it entirely and go away to it, and they had to.
And if they were to remain in there, they weren't going to be in the place where the Lord Jesus was. Why?
Because the Lord Jesus himself was without the camp. And so we have to go forth unto him, out the without the camp. And that means to leave beside all those practices of Judaism, those legalistic things, the things that have to do with the, you know, the like having church or temple, like buildings and robes and incense and and so on. So many things like that.
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That you could take a whole meeting to go into.
That won't be in the place where the Spirit of God is gathering through the name of the Lord Jesus.
Another characteristic of that place, One final one. The Spirit of God will be given his liberty. Liberty in that place. Let's go to 1St Corinthians chapter 12.
1St Corinthians 12, verse 11.
Speaking about the spiritual gifts, but not just gifts, spiritual things, spiritual manifestations that include singing, praying, and other things that the Spirit of God would be free to bring out among the assembly of God's people. And so it says in verse 11. But all these worketh at one in the self same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
And whether it's in the exercise of gift or the exercise of of priesthood and worship, the Spirit of God is clearly presented in Scripture is the one who is leading in the activity, in the assembly of God's people. And yet that has been largely set aside among Christians. In that place where the Spirit is gathering, that will be done. That's another one of the characteristics of that place. Again, I don't say.
That there isn't failure there is because there's people there, just like there was failure in Jerusalem. But yet the Spirit of God is there gathering believers together and there are certain characteristics, there's a certain testimony that He himself maintains in that place. And the reason why I bring all of this up is because of what the Lord said in the next verse in Luke chapter 22.
Let's just go back there for a minute.
Luke, chapter 22.
We head ran down to verse 12, which said, And he shall show you a large upper room furnished there. Make ready verse 13.
And they went, and found as he had said unto them.
Now I challenge you.
If you can lay your feelings aside, thoughts of fairness, everything, and just take up the word of God and honestly ask the Lord, where wilt thou have me to go?
Ask him honestly.
And see what he says.
See where he leads you by the word? I'm not going to tell you he's going to lead you where I am.
I'm satisfied in my heart and my soul before the Lord that I'm gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God in that place where the Lord has put His name. But I can't convince you of that. That's something that you need to take up yourself between you and the Lord and with the Word of God, and you need to see it for yourself there. Any amount of convincing that I may do.
Is never going to work on you, but the Lord will.
And His word will. And so at the end of this meeting, all I want to do is point you back to Him. And really, the ultimate expression of what any one of us should be when it comes to any question like this is what the Lord Himself was. If we go just a little farther in this chapter, go over to verse 42. And the Lord was faced with something very difficult.
The end of that first, he says nevertheless.
Not my will, but thine be done. And so this is where we need to be, to get our wills completely out of the way and come honestly before the Lord and ask Him to know His will and that His will would be done in our lives. Let's close with prayer.
Our God and our Father, we thank you so much for thy love to us.
We thank before the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank thee for the assembly.
For the privilege we have to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray that that would help us to take up Thy word.
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That each one of us could be fully convinced and settled in our own minds before they as to what Thy truth is, and to go on with a free and clear conscience before they.
We just pray for Thy blessing on this meeting, the remainder of our time together, and at the close of this meeting, as we've been talking so much about division and heartache and sorrow and what our path is in it, we thank the Father that we can look beyond it all.
And remember what the Apostle Paul said.
Beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him.
We think of that great gathering together when every believer will be there. We thank Thee for that, Father. We long for it. And again we pray that it would even be today. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.