Address—Tim Ruga
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Good afternoon, everyone.
Could we begin the meeting this afternoon by just singing 2 verses from 231?
231 just versus 2:00 and 3:00.
With Fallowfield.
Let's ask for the Lord's help.
God and our Father, we thank Thee again for another opportunity to open Thy word and to consider it together. And we pray that Thou would bless his time. We pray that Thou would bless the words spoken. And above all, we pray that the Lord Jesus would be glorified and thy people would be blessed and encouraged. And so we ask for Thy help in the name of of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Let's turn first of all, to Matthew chapter 18.
And verse 20.
I want to take up just a certain line of things with what we have here, but we'll start by reading this verse.
For where two or three are gathered together.
And or unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Now maybe to introduce what I want to talk about.
I'll just recount something that happened a number of years ago.
To me a brother and the Lord came to me and he said.
Tell me, said.
Do you believe that the Lord is with you and no one else?
That's a good question.
And I'm going to answer today what I told him then.
That is that I don't like to answer a question like that because I don't think it's the right question.
I believe the right question is, does the Word of God teach that the Spirit of God gathers believers together to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ?
And if the answer to that question is yes, then it just leaves a few other questions, and that is.
The first one might be if it's yes and where is that place?
And the next one might be then am I in that place where the Spirit of God?
Is gathering believers together to the name of the Lord Jesus.
And so I want to take up things along that line and probably end up really with what was a little bit behind the question that this person asked and.
That is, that sometimes I'm afraid that we act as if we are the only ones.
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And insofar as we do that, that is to our approach. But the main exercise I have in this meeting is to take up this truth of what the Word of God says, that the Spirit of God gathers to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what we have here in this verse. It says where two or three are gathered together in my name there.
Am I in the midst of them? And just to try to explain a little bit about this, I'm I'm not going to go through.
All the positive teaching of this truth, I tried with the Lord's health to take that up at Carrollton, and there's a number of of good, excellent pamphlets and meetings on that subject. You can go listen to that. But we do find this truth presented extensively in the New Testament, and it really is what we have here.
Two or three gathered together. It's not any two or three what is presented in this verse.
Is that?
It's the assembly that is spoken of here, and we get that. If you read through all these verses in context, you see that in.
In verse 16, it's a matter of personal trespass, and there's two or three that are taken to go and to speak to the person who's done the wrong, and those two or three are not the two or three gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
That is spoken of in the 20th verse because it goes on in verse 17 and says if he neglects to hear of them, that is those two or three Christians, then he says tell it to the church, the assembly.
And so it's plainly talking about the assembly, because it goes on to say, if he does, he doesn't hear the assembly. Then he says, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. And then it goes on to talk about the assembly binding and the assembly losing. And the authority given for that is because.
Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I.
In the midst of them. And so it's plainly here talking about the assembly of believers gathered together to the name of the Lord Jesus. And this thought of what we have here is brought out all through the New Testament. First of all, it says.
Whither gathered together? It doesn't say where they get together. There's an act of gathering force implied here, and we know.
That that's true because the Word of God teaches us that we are not left here to get along the best we can just to gather together. But there is a divine person on earth who is doing that gathering and that is the Spirit of God. That truth is brought out. I'll just refer to it briefly in John chapter 14 where the Lord Jesus when he was going away.
Referred to the fact that there was another one coming and he says is another comforter another.
Pericles one who will take care of all your affairs, just like when the Lord Jesus was here. They didn't decide where they were going to get together and expect to have his presence. They went to him. He was the gathering center. Now he was going to go away and he was still going to be the gathering center, but he was going to be a gathering agent and he introduces that in John chapter 14 and says.
Another.
Comforter, he was the one, he was the Paraclete those. He was the one who governed their affairs. But now and going away, there would be another one who would come in and do that. And it's very important to see that. And I'm not going to say more about that here. We've taken it up before.
The next part is gathered together. You say, well, they're gathered. That should be enough to say that they're together, but it puts it in the double form here to emphasize that.
It's oneness. The Spirit of God is not gathering them in some way that isn't together. And the thought of oneness for believers today is brought out right through the New Testament as well, beginning with the Lord. I'll just refer to one example, John chapter 10. The Lord is speaking there in that chapter about the fold of Israel.
And he goes on to say, other sheep I have which are not of this fold.
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Them also I must bring, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. Not going to be many flocks and many shepherds, but only one. And the Lord emphasized that in other ways as well.
You turn over to the epistles, you get this again, over and over again. Ephesians chapter 4, verse four. There is one body, one of many places where it says that.
But there's only one.
So we have this emphasize that we are not left here as believers to get together in any way we want, but we're formed into one body by the Spirit of God, and it's also that same Spirit of God that takes us and gathers us together to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The loaf that we had on the table this morning expressed that same thought. We being many, are one loaf, one body, and so it expresses this truth that there is only one.
Not many different bodies.
And in fact.
We're called to keep this practically. These things are true and there's nothing we can do about the truth of them. Thank God there is only one body. Christ only has one body, but that's not good enough. We are called to act practically on that truth that there is one body and let's just turn over to Ephesians chapter four. We already referred to it, but let's just look at that again often mentioned but.
It's just good to look at some of these key points again.
Ephesians 4 and we.
We can read from verse one.
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation we're with. You are called with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
Here, it's spoken of as a responsibility that we have, that we are, every single one of us, to endeavor to keep that unity of the Spirit. Why? Because.
There is one body and one spirit. There aren't many bodies to which we can go. The Lord only has one body and there aren't many spirits gathering us to different places. There's only one spirit and you find three times over in John chapters 13. I'm sorry, 1415 and 16.
That he is called specifically the Spirit of Truth.
And the spirit of truth does not go against the Word of God.
Here it speaks about it as the unity of the Spirit. The Spirit is this Holy Spirit of God, and as God we're told in James chapter one, he cannot deny himself.
And So what he says in the word is what he does in practice and what we're called to do in practice, and that is that there is a unity to keep.
The fact is we haven't done a good job at this and the troubles with it came in very early and we can just look at that quickly in First Corinthians chapter one.
And there we see troubles that came in contentions that were there.
And verse 11 it says, It hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, of them which are the House of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
Now this I say that everyone of you saith, I am of Paul, and I have Apollos, and I have Cephas and I have Christ.
And I of Luther, and I of this name, and I of that denomination, it went on and on and on.
He says, is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? No, it's not possible. Christ is not divided.
There's no one who could take that place of him. There's no other name you could put there.
He's the only divine gathering center.
And so that's the argument. It's true. There's one body. Nothing can be done to come in and change that, that wonderful fact that there is one body. But we can do plenty to mar the outward testimony of it. We can do plenty to spoil the unity of the spirit with regard to it. And it came in early and it's still here today. And the reason why I had this truth in my heart is because there's so many growing up.
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And I'm afraid we don't know it well.
And so we do, with the Lord's help, try to present it from time to time. And like I said, what's really on my heart today is to try to take up some of the objections to it. It's what we call apologetics. It doesn't mean that you're apologizing for something. It means really that you're contending for the faith as you have in the book of Jude.
To contend for the faith which is once delivered unto the Saints.
And that's what we're doing, is trying to go back to the scriptures and say this is what is really taught.
And here it is, and to present it so that those who haven't heard it yet or those who are questioning it can go back to the Word of God and take it out and say is it here or not?
Don't look at me, don't look at other brethren and try to say, well, you're not a good example, Shame on us. No doubt that's true. But you individually here in this room.
Right down to the youngest who's following what I'm saying. Have a responsibility to go back to the Word of God and see what is written there and to see if these things are not written to you and are not for you to follow.
Today. And so we had in Matthew 18 and verse 20, where two or three are gathered together unto my name.
There am I in the midst of them. The Lord Jesus Christ is that one who is the gathering center, and the Spirit of God is the one who gathers believers together to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the truth that I'm going to now just speak a few words about. As to defending some of the things against it, I'm not going to go further to try to explain it. I hope you can take it up further on your own.
My first thought here this afternoon is to go back to the Old Testament and look there because, and this is often been done, I'm not original by any means with this, but what you have is an example of this truth there that is very helpful, especially when it comes to the objections. Not that it's the same thing, it isn't.
In the Old Testament you had Israel. They were the people of God, and Israel is not the church, and we cannot confuse or confound those things.
But in that day God had a divine gathering center, and it was a physical place on earth. We don't have that today. This is very, very clear from John chapter 4. The Lord is speaking to a Samaritan woman, and He tells her, I say to you that neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem is a place where men ought to worship. But God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship.
In spirit and truth. And so a whole new thing has been brought in today where it's not a physical place on earth, but instead it's a person that the Spirit of God gathers together to. And I'm going to go just a little bit further.
In my definition, because based on what I've already said here this afternoon.
Necessarily, if the Spirit of God is gathering together to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is a practical fellowship to that expression that there is one body, there are.
There are not more than one.
And that's where the trouble comes in. And that's why I think it is helpful to go back and look and see what we have in the Old Testament, what's presented there. Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 12.
Deuteronomy chapter 12 we have.
And the Lord giving instructions about what would happen when the children of Israel came into the land.
And.
He gives instructions in this particular chapter as to the offerings that they would bring to the Lord.
And I just want you to see what he said.
The beginning verses here the first three speaks about the idolatry that was in the land.
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And how that idolatry was to be put away. And again, I want to be clear here. I'm not going to in any way imply that those who are together to worship the Lord in the place, in a place where the Spirit of God hasn't gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus or in idolatry. I'm not saying that at all. That's not what this is talking about. This is talking about.
Heathen worship that was there before the people of God came to the place.
This would be similar to what happened when Christians were first saved and gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. There were no other fellowships at all in those days. They were saved out of idolatry and brought into that wonderful privilege of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. And that would be similar to what we have here. But I want you to notice the language that is used. He says that.
You're not going to go after their gods or anything like that. First four, he says. You not, shall not do so unto the Lord.
You're a God. Then he gives the positive instruction.
He says, but verse 5 Unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there.
Even unto his habitation shall you seek, and thither shall you come. See speaks here of the place that he would choose, a place where he was going to put his name.
Very specific you go on a little further. Verse 11 Says, 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.
And so on. Verse 14. But in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose.
And one of thy tribes there shalt thou offer thy burnt offerings, and there shall I do, thou shalt do all that I command thee. Verse 18. Thou must not eat them before the Lord thy God in the place, or thou must eat them before the Lord thy God, in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, and so on.
Verse 21. If the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, and so on. Verse 26.
Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows shall thou take and go unto the place.
Which the Lord thy God shall choose, and thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings.
The flesh and the blood upon the altar, and so on.
Over and over again six times Here we have this repeated the place and if we go on in Deuteronomy, we'll find this continued. You go on in chapter 14, we've got the ties brought out three times over. He uses the same language in the place which thy Lord, where the Lord thy God shall choose to put his name there.
Chapter.
16 with the Passover, where they were to eat, the Passover was to be in the place where the Lord thy God shall choose three times over. It says it there.
Chapter 17. When it came to judgment, very similar to what we had in Matthew 18. The authority of the Lord to act.
That judgments brought out in chapter 17 there two times over. It's the same language in the place where the Lord thy God shall choose.
You know what was left out there?
Any thought of them choosing they had nothing to do with it.
And we don't today either. You simply don't find that in the New Testament. The choice is the Lord's. The Spirit of God is the guide. He's the one who gathers to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ today. The principle that we have laid out here in the Old Testament for different people is the same principle that we have today. And it's important to see this because when you come to the failure.
And the objections to this truth?
The objections are the same today because the failure is very similar.
We go on. We find out where that place is. Second Chronicles Chapter 6. Just turn there.
Second Chronicles.
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Six verse five. Since today I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build and house in that my name might be there. Neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel, but I have chosen Jerusalem that my name might be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.
Let's go over to Chapter 7.
Verse 16.
1St for now have I chosen.
And sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever.
And mine eyes in my heart shall be there perpetually.
Why did God choose this? I don't know, but He did. It was His sovereign choice and I just like the truth that we had before us yesterday. I don't have to understand all the details.
Or all the reasons that we're in the heart or mind of God. But what I am responsible to understand is that these things are important to Him because He put them in His Word. And so we have it laid out here over and over again. He said it shall not be any place.
But the place that I have chosen. And now finally we get to that point where his people were in the land.
And he says here is the place, it's going to be Jerusalem, and my servant David is going to be the one that I have chosen there in that place, and it's going to be this house. And he says here that it's going to be that place where my eyes and my heart shall be perpetually.
The truth that we're talking about is important because it's important to God.
It's important to Him and that's sufficient reason for us. Do I see it in the Word of God? Do you see it in the Word of God? Then that's sufficient reason to act on it. Many say, is it really that important? The answer is yes, it is if it was there one time.
It would be important, but here we have a truth that is given to us over and over again, that God has a divine center and it's important to Him. The Old Testament was different. Yes, it was important to Him. And if you go on, you find with this that there's failure that comes in, and it was still important. Let's look at that. Let's go over to 1St Kings.
Because the vision comes in after this, and not long after this either.
What we just read was in the days of Solomon.
First Kings, chapter 12.
We get to Solomon's son.
First, Kings 12, we have the end of what happened. I'll just refer to it briefly.
Solomon's son Rehoboam.
Did not act wisely as a king, and he treated many of God's people harshly. And as a result, there was another man who rose off whose name was Jeroboam, and he led the majority of God's people astray. And division came in. And I just want to read about the end of that. And it says here.
What Jeroboam, this one who is leading in division, said in verse 26. It says Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the Kingdom return to the House of David.
If this people go up to sacrifice in the House of the Lord at Jerusalem, 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 Rehoboam king of Judah.
He had no thought of the Lord who actually had put his name there.
Verse 28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.
Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put He and Dan. And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the One, even unto Dan.
Now again I want to be clear.
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Something happened here, and that was gross idolatry.
But something else happened here, and that was.
The majority of God's people were led away from God's divine center into division.
Not all of what we have here applies to the situation today.
I don't in any way mean to say or imply. In fact, I reject that this is saying that those who are not gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus are in idolatry.
But the fact of the matter is that when these tribes went away and this.
And this King Rehoboam successfully LED them away from the divine center and away from the Lord's presence that was there and into a place that was wrong.
And were they still the people of God? They were. They were the children of Israel, with the blessings of the promises still theirs. They were.
They were as much the people of God as Judah and Benjamin were.
But they didn't have God's divine center anymore. And that's where the analogy is for us today.
There is such a thing as going away from the divine center. We didn't continue on to read that in First Corinthians. We just read chapter one there where it spoke about the fact that there was all these contentions there, and these contentions were getting worse and worse until they were following leaders and they were getting to the place where there was schism there in that assembly.
Fractions were some were coming here and calling themselves by one name and others going there.
And calling themselves by another name, but they were still together.
If you were to continue on in First Corinthians until you get to Chapter 11, you find the Spirit of God speaks about a time that had not yet come but would come. And he says there there must needs be divisions among you that the approved made me made manifest. There was going to come a time when it was going to go beyond that and there were going to be some there in that place that were approved and others that weren't.
It was going to be a full blown division to where they were no longer together in any sense.
And that's where things very quickly got into Christendom.
It's followed down from those days all the way till today where things are fractured all over the place and the majority of Christians are not gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, just like the majority of God's people.
We're not at the divine center in what we're reading about here.
Say, how could you make a claim for Judah and Benjamin? Wasn't there plenty of fault in that side? Didn't Rehoboam go and act unwisely? And can you say that he followed the Lord as he went on from that time in his life? No, you can't say that. It was terrible failure there. He said, well, there's failure on both sides. It's true. Let's look at that. And I just especially want to notice, first of all, what it says about Jeroboam. First Kings chapter 15.
He says in verse 30.
And because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and which He made Israel sin by His provocation, wherewith He provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger. I do not believe this is just because of those calves that He set up, not just because of the idolatry that He introduced. This is because just as much, or perhaps more seriously, that He led the majority of God's people away from the divine center.
They were no longer going there to Jerusalem. And so ever after, whenever there was a bad king in Israel, he's compared to this man according to the sin of Jeroboam, by which he made Israel to sin, terrible thing that he did to divide God's people.
And there's no way that we can say because of failure that that's OK God never looked at it as being OK, and he always called out failure in that place of division.
By that original point of departure and the one who caused it. But what about Ribo? People say, well look at him, he was Number Jam and that's true. Second Chronicles, chapter 12.
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And we'll just read verse 14 speaking about Rehoboam.
He did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.
So he wasn't good either.
But as we're going to see going on, it does no good to say, well, they're wrong here, they're wrong there, therefore everybody's wrong. And there's no longer a divine center. God didn't count it. So then, and he doesn't count it. So today he has a center, He has a place, and we're responsible for it. And they were then too.
And so if you just go back up to verse 13, I want you to notice the language of the Spirit of God.
Here says so. King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned. For Rehoboam was one and 40 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem.
What city was that? The former place of God's choosing.
No, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.
To put his name there.
And there was a statement a brother made many years ago. I found it helpful and I want to repeat it today, he said. With regard to this, he said I'd like to separate Jerusalem from the people in Jerusalem.
I found that helpful.
God had chosen a place. It was His choice. Should that have had an effect on this King Rio bomb or the people who live there? Absolutely it should. Should they have been a reflection of the fact that the Lord was there in that place? Yes, they would. Should have been, and it was to their shame that they weren't. But it didn't change anything about this truth. You know, if you go on from this.
You find.
That.
Many years after this.
The Lord still valued this place and faith still valued it. In fact, let's go on just for time. Let's go on to Second Chronicles chapter 30, just a few the end of this book.
From this first king in the division of Rehoboam, let's go to one of the later ones.
One of the last ones when there was still two parts of the children of Israel before the 10 tribes were carried away. And this is Hezekiah chapter 30. We have what Hezekiah did, and verse one it says Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the House of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover.
Unto the Lord God of Israel, you remember we we saw that they were to bring their offerings and we didn't read it but in I think it was chapter 16 of Deuteronomy.
The Passover three times over was to be eaten in that place very clearly and definitely laid out by the word of the Lord.
And so we have verse 5. And so they established a decree to make.
Proclamation throughout all Israel.
From Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem, for they had not done it of so of a long time, in such short as it was written.
It was still written there. They hadn't done it. That was their fault, not God's. Verse 10 So the post pass from the city, from city to city, through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun. But they laughed them to scorn and mock them. Nevertheless, divers are some of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came.
To Jerusalem, verse 26.
And says so there was great joy in Jerusalem for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, there was not a life in Jerusalem goes all the way back to the beginning when God had first said this is the place, this is the king now, this is the house. And all that time since those days they hadn't done it.
Now they did it by faith, and the Word of God shows that God sanctioned what happened there that day.
And it wasn't just at this period, it wasn't long after that even more failure came in and those people got carried away captive into Babylon. And then after seven years they came back again. And I just want to notice what it says in the prayer of Nehemiah, if we go to Nehemiah chapter one.
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Just a few pages over.
And.
We have in verse.
Nine if you turn this is Nehemiah reminding the Lord of what the Lord has said and taking it up by faith. If you turn unto me and keep my commandments and do them, though we're have you cast of the other most part of the heaven yet will I gather them from thence and we'll bring them into the place that I have chosen to set my name there. The prayer of Solomon and he's taking up the Lord on that because the word of God hadn't changed.
The Spirit of God again showing that this truth hadn't changed in the mind of God.
The failure went on from here.
Worse and worse, until the Lord Jesus came and He was rejected, and on His rejected rejection we already referred to it in John. The police was changed to no longer be an earthly divine center on earth at that time, but to be a spiritual place where God is worshipped in spirit and in truth and with the Spirit of God gathers together to the name of the Lord Jesus.
And that's the day that we find ourselves in with these principles still applying as to God's value of what that place is. It may have changed in its form, but God's value on it is still the same. And whether failure comes in or not, it doesn't change the principle, just like we saw in the Old Testament and God's choice.
Is true and it's unfailing and if we were to take the time and turn it over to the last.
Verse of the book of Ezekiel, we would find that when it speaks about that millennial temple and all the glory that's going to come in for Israel.
In the coming day, when we're gone.
It says about the name of that city, Jerusalem, the name of that city is the Lord is there never changes in the mind of God. He's going to take up with that again with that people. That is the place that he chose still is with with regard to those people and he will make it happen.
So this truth is for us today, it doesn't matter about failure or division or anything else like that. This is still what God has given for us to walk in and in the few minutes that we have laughed, 15 minutes.
I just want to take off a few of the objections that I have heard. I took up one question at the beginning of the meeting, but I wrote down some of the questions that I have heard over the years and I just want to suggest some answers to them. And if I don't give the best answers to these things, that doesn't change the truth of the Word of God.
Come and ask later, maybe I can give a better one, or if someone else they probably can give a better one. The word of God has answers to these things if it is the truth of God.
And we're not afraid of it. We want to go back and try to answer every question that there is when it comes to this wonderful truth of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. So the first question that I just wanted to bring up, it's really a statement. It's was implied in what was said. To me, this sounds so exclusive.
When you talk about Spirit of God gathering through the name of the Lord Jesus, and then you look at those who are gathered, it sounds really exclusive.
And in a way I can see the point of what they're saying, but it is always. I have to admit it surprised me a little bit that Christians would be bothered by the idea of something being exclusive, because all Christians are exclusive when it comes to salvation. We all agree there is none other name given among, under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. We all agree on that when it comes to salvation. Problem is, when it comes to acting on this practically as Christians, it seems to exclude all kinds of other Christians.
And I would just say to that.
I don't believe that's the way that we should look at it at all. This is not an exclusive truth. God never meant to exclude Christians. He never meant to exclude any of the children of Israel from Jerusalem. It was man that did that. This is a positive truth. When we talk about exclusion and Christianity, the only thing that I can immediately think about is evil.
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And yes, there is exclusive truth. Evil is to be excluded from God's people. But when it comes to this truth of being gathered to the Lord's name, it's for everyone.
Are you gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, why not?
It's the work of the Spirit of God to gather to his name, and it's for every single believer. The table of the Lord is a place there for every single one who's redeemed by the blood of Christ, and all should be there. And so in no way is this an exclusive truth. It's an inclusive truth, and it's the work of the Spirit of God not to exclude, but to include everyone.
According to the word of God.
The next one is that the Holy Spirit is working with believers everywhere, and there is so little gift among those who claim to be gathered to the Lord's name.
I would just say to that yes and yes.
No objection.
That's true. And I just remind you of what we took up about Judah and Benjamin on the one side and Israel on the other side. I've got 2 tribes versus 10. And when you go back and you read through the Old Testament and you look at first of all, you've got the the numbers, but there's the GIF, the GIF that was mentioned, the great works of power that was done.
In those days was in Israel.
You remember with Elijah and Elijah and all the mighty works of power that were done there, It wasn't in Judah. You don't read of it there. It was in Israel.
But what of that? It doesn't affect the truth of God. God had said where He would place His name in those days. And yes, the Spirit of God was free to act wherever He chose. He's sovereign, He's divine, and He will act where He can. And so He did in those days when there was such great evil and wickedness there with King Ahab. And he took Elijah and he worked, and all the prophets of Baal were slain.
We saw those mighty works of power that were done in those days, and with Elisha too, and the dead being raised and so on.
This was all done in that place where there had been the rejection of the divine center. The Spirit of God is not bound, of course He can do that. And we find these things presented in Christianity as not being the same thing at all. The Spirit of God works wherever the Spirit of God is allowed to work, and he'll even work where he's not permitted to work. He's free.
He's sovereign Spirit of God comes in the moment of soul.
Turns to Christ and accepts the Lord Jesus as Christ as Savior as we had in Ephesians one verse 13. Then that one is sealed.
And then we find, as presented in a number of places, that the Spirit of God comes to dwell inside that person individually.
But God takes up his dwelling in the church, not just those gathered.
But the whole Church of God by the Spirit, the Spirit of God is living among the whole Church of God collectively, and as such, he acts there. He is not found there. He will act and he will do what he will do there. And the fact that the Spirit of God is working.
And many different Christian groups all around this world thank God.
Many are being saved, many are being blessed, and I'm so grateful for that. But it does not affect this truth that the Spirit of God is gathering together to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So you want to separate those things.
You might say another objection is, isn't the Lord everywhere?
Yes, the Lord is everywhere.
He's omnipresent. If he wasn't everywhere, he wouldn't be God.
And so we have to separate that too, says in the end of Matthew. He says, long with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Hebrews 13 And he says, I will never leave thee, no, forsake thee individually. Every believer has that promise. But when it comes to the collective gathering of His people, we only find in Scripture that the Lord is with them collectively when they are so gathered by the Spirit of God. If you can find another way, that Scripture speaks of the Lord being present.
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Then show me because I haven't found it.
I see it very clearly and definitely there in Matthew 18. You find it again in First Corinthians chapter 5. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together in my spirit with you. The Lord had promised to be there for those gathered in His name. They were. He was there.
And that is the promise still today.
Just say.
That night when the Lord had the disciples come, He told them where they were to meet.
They came, and they found, as he had said unto them.
There were many other places that night. It's been pointed out before that the Passover was.
Eaten that night, and the Lord was in every one of those places because he was omniscient for omnipresent.
But only one place that night was the Lord personally there. There is a difference. Even in scripture you say, well, OK, so they could see him, He was there, but we didn't see him here this morning. That's true. We didn't because the Lord has gone away, back to heaven. We are left here on the principle that we walk by faith and not by sight.
If the Lord could be visibly seen in the midst of those gathered to His name, then that principle would not apply to us today. But that is the principle that is given to us as Christians by which we are to walk while the Lord has gone away into heaven, till he comes again to walk by faith by and not by sight. And so we take these things up, not by seeing the Lord physically there, but by the word of God. And we insist on that we have to go back to the Word of God for every.
And that brings me to the next one that I want to mention. I don't feel like the Lord is present in any special way.
Good.
He shouldn't the Lord. You should feel the Lord, no question about that. Every believer should feel the Lord.
But the fact of the matter is, this is not about feelings, it's about what the Word of God says. I have known Christians that have come from other fellowships and there are some of them who are gathered today and they can tell you that they can bear witness to this to you as they have to me, that it felt no different where they were from how it feels here. It's not about feelings, it's about the Word of God. What has God said?
And of course, once you take up with the Word of God and you understand what God has said and you act on it.
By faith, other feelings will come. Then yes, you understand that the Lord is there.
And your heart is drawn out to him, but it's not because it's some special thing that can be felt that takes away from the fact that we're called.
To walk by faith according to the word of God. That faith comes by hearing, and the hearing by the Word of God.
It tells us in Romans chapter 10.
Just a few things because our time is gone here.
Maybe I'll just end with one that is pride of place.
There's many, and this is maybe a word of excitation at the end for those who are gathered, I believe.
By God's grace, I am gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God.
And that I met together this morning with others so gathered. And I'm thrilled for this truth. And I'm thrilled to be so gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But it's possible for those of us who are gathered, if indeed we are.
To practically deny this truth.
And we need to be so careful. And so I just want to look at something. We had our Sunday school class in Dorothy not long ago. It's in Luke Chapter 9.
Because some form of this often is thrown up.
And sadly, justly so, it was a little bit What was behind the question that was asked to me that I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting. Do you believe that the Lord is with you and nobody else?
So I'm coming right back to that Luke 9 and verse 49.
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And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us.
And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us.
And so the argument goes.
We saw others who were gathering not with us forbid them because they gather not with us. And the Lord says no, forbid them not because those that don't gather with us or with are for us. Sort of the the argument that I've heard advanced on this first.
Which is entirely a wrong application of this verse, not at all what the Lord was saying here.
First of all, you have to understand that the disciples were wrong here.
Just before this, they were arguing about.
Who was to be the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven? It's really in verse 46, there arose a reasoning among them which of them should be the greatest. That was what filled their thought themselves, Who's going to be the greatest here? And that's how they worded the question here. He doesn't follow with us.
It didn't say. They didn't say to the Lord he doesn't follow you. They didn't say that they put themselves at the center and we're so apartment to do that.
Even in that place where the Spirit of God is gathering through the name of the Lord Jesus, we can so easily come in and say we are the center and those other ones don't gather with us. But that's all wrong. The Lord Jesus Christ is a divine gathering center, and the object of the Spirit of God is to gather to him. And if you and I are by grace are in that place, it has nothing to do with us. We should pray to the Lord that will be kept in that.
Because we're just as apartment to fail and fall and go off as anybody else.
Precious privilege to be there, but we've got no guarantee of it and we need to stay humble about that.
The next thing was that the disciples had failed in gift.
The gift wasn't there.
You see, there was somebody.
And no doubt was their spirit, no doubt was their own personal failure. There was someone who brought their child to the Lord to cast out a demon, and the Lord did it. But they said in verse 40I besought thy sifles to cast them out, and they could not. And now what are they doing? Complaining to the Lord? And they're saying, they're saying we saw somebody else doing that same thing that we couldn't do. Well, that's pretty mean, isn't it?
And we're apartment to fall into that same problem too, of be looking down at other Christians when they're trying to serve.
The Lord be judgmental about them. It's not about that.
It's about what has the Lord asked you and what has He asked me to do?
And so the Lord says, don't forbid them.
They're not against us, they're for us. And so it is. There's one body we need to pray for, every single one of her brothers and sisters in Christ that desire their blessing, desire their good. We're all going to be together in heaven. In the meantime, if they're not gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can pray for that.
And we ourselves can take up with this truth and go on together expressing it, endeavoring to keep unity of the Spirit. One final thing I want to point out before we pray.
Did those other ones who are casting out those demons have the immediate presence of the Lord in this story?
No, they didn't.
They were for Him, but it was these disciples with all their failures that were actually with the Lord on this occasion. They were the ones that actually got the enjoyment of His presence. Is that true for us? Do we have that? Then let's value it, brethren, and let's go on and take off these things as the Scripture gives it to us. And if you're not gathered to the Lord's name or if you're questioning these things.
This truth is for you. It's not against you.
The Spirit of God desires to gather you together.
To the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, may it be so. Let's pray. Our God and their Father, we thank thee. For the Lord Jesus Christ, we thank thee.
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That we will all be perfectly gathered to Him, and at that moment will be perhaps even today. We do thank you for the professor's privilege. We have to be gathered to his name even now. And we pray that Thou would lead us each one on more clearly in these truths. That we would hold them not only according to Thy word, but in a right way from the heart. And we pray that in all of this, our God and our Father.
We would bring glory to thee and to Thy beloved Son, and we ask it in His name. Amen.