Address—C.D. Andersen
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I trust your praying that we might have what the Lord wants us to have this afternoon.
Shall we sing #68?
Thy name we bless, Lord Jesus.
That name all names excelling how great thy love all praise above should every tongue be telling Father's loving kindness and giving thee was shown us now by thy blood redeemed to God as children He doth owner.
From that eternal glory thou hatch with God the Father He gave his Son, that he and one his children all might gather.
Our sins were laid on thee, God's wrath. Thou hast endured. It was for us. Thou suffered thus, and hast our peace assured. If someone started, please.
Shall I return to John's Gospel Chapter One?
God's Gospel Chapter one.
I.
In this gospel, we get introduced to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God. We mustn't forget that that he is the Son of God. He is God.
And we have to do.
With deity we have to do with him.
Who is the Son of God from heaven, the eternal Son of God.
And Justice One version here, perhaps 2IN John Chapter one.
Verse 37.
And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and said unto them, What seek ye?
They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, Master being interpreted, mastered where dwellest thou?
That's an important question.
I wonder if everyone here in this room this afternoon has settled that question or has gotten it answered. Where the Lord is, Where does he dwell?
That's very important for us to know in this period of time in which we're living.
Where dwelleth thou? And if you want to know the question, the answer to that question, just ask him.
I had learned to do that.
When I was still in Africa, knowing nothing about gathered Saints.
When I was just a young man in my 20s.
The Lord exercised me about this, not knowing anything about gathered Saints, but in translating the scriptures and John's gospel was one of the first things I translated into the language of the Bayaka tribe in Africa.
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And I came across this question.
Where dwellest thou? Oh, I came across many things in the Gospel of John that exercised my soul. I came across that verse in Chapter 7, verse 17. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the Doctor.
So if you want an answer to your question, there's the challenge. Do you want to do God's will?
If you really want to do God's will and walk in it, He will show you the truth.
And the Lord will show you where he dwells.
Where dwellest thou?
He sat unto them. Come and see.
Come and see, we may have had those that asked us questions.
About our gathering and how we carry on in our gatherings.
I think the best answer to give them is this one right here. Come and see. Come and see.
Because how can you experience anything of the Lord's presence unless you are in His presence?
So he says, come and see.
Decades and saw where he dwelt. Then what did they do?
And abode with him that day, I believe this is a dispensational day.
Here it's a day in which we are.
And you can come and see the place where the Lord is dwelling.
And you will have the privilege, if you want to, of abiding with Him during this whole day until the Lord comes to take us home.
And that knife?
I am so thankful that God, by his Spirit and by his word, showed me where the Lord is. And I believe today I'm in that place where the Lord has placed His name, where he is dwelling in the midst of his people. Now we must distinguish between the individual presence of the Lord and the collective presence. And what we're talking about this afternoon is the collective presence of the Lord.
In the midst of his people. But it is true that the Lord is with every individual that knows Him as savior.
Because the Lord has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
Now there are those that get the individual presence of the Lord mixed up with the collective presence. And when we speak of a certain place where the Lord is present, collectively they do not understand and they will say, well, the Lord is present in any group anywhere. But is this really true? He is with individuals there who know him, but he's not present in every place.
Collectively, there is a place where the Lord is present collectively, and this is what we should be exercised about and what we try to talk about this afternoon.
Now let's go to another question.
Over in John.
Chapter 6.
John John Chapter 6.
And the Lord was giving the people something to think about in connection with the Bread of Life.
And there were those who didn't understand what he was talking about.
And we read that.
Verse 66.
From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Then said Jesus unto the 12 Will ye also go away?
Oh, I love Simon Peter's answer.
Lord, to whom shall we go?
To whom shall we go?
There is no one else to go to.
If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior this afternoon.
I trust.
That you say this To whom shall we go? There is no other one to go to but the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Or you say, I know him as my savior. I came to him, received him as my savior. I obeyed the little song that said come to Jesus, come to Jesus, come to Jesus. Just now I did that.
But have you come to him as the center of gathering? That's another thing.
That's another thing for exercise, and I believe everyone needs to go through some kind of exercise in connection with this, even as everyone who is saved must go through some kind of exercise in connection with being saved.
To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
There's no one else to go to, Peter says. And we believe in our sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
Well, that's lovely.
To be assured that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one to whom we can go, and he wants us to come to him, then let us look at a verse in John 12.
John, Chapter 12.
In the first chapter there were those that asked the Lord where dwellest thou, The Lord told him, come and see.
And Peter says there's no one else to go to but the Lord.
So here in chapter 12 of John.
Verse 26 If any man served me, let him follow me, And where I am, there shall also my servant be.
If any man serve me.
You profess to serve the Lord Well, I believe everyone who saved professors to serve the Lord.
I don't know how well we're serving him. We feel very often that we're very weak and our service is very poor. But still, if any man serve me, the Lord says let him follow me.
Let him follow me.
Now that's important to follow the Lord.
Follow him.
Why did you accept him as your savior?
After you had accepted him as your savior, did you expect to just go off on your own?
And do your own thing and please yourself.
Well, I'm sure in the beginning you didn't. But sometimes things of the world come in and different attractions. The first thing you know, we find ourselves not following the Lord.
Sort of losing heart for him and like we had in.
The Bible class this morning, like Peter following a far off Well, it's sad, isn't it, to think that we have been washed in the precious blood of Christ. We've been saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who lay down his life on the cross and who suffered that awful agony.
That our sins might be taken care of. He took all the judgment.
And then we accept him as our savior and then stop there.
And do not follow him. This is really sad. How can we?
How can we cease to follow him when we think of what He has done for us? He came all the way from Heaven's glory. He came all that way. I don't know how far it is.
It's way beyond where the astronauts went. It's way beyond the stars.
He came all the way down.
To suffer for us. To die for us.
Is he not worthy?
Should we not follow him?
Oh, that the Lord might restore our hearts.
That we might devote ourselves to him, consecrate ourselves to him, give her all to him.
Just let him be our All in all. He wants to be our All in all.
Then it goes on to say and where I am now. Why does that follow?
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I believe it's there because if you really follow the Lord.
And you want to do His will. It will take you right where the Lord is, where He is dwelling today, here in the midst of His people.
Oh, sometimes the Lord has to deal severely with us.
The Lord had to speak to me. The Lord had to stir me up. He was showing me things from the Bible concerning these things, the truth of the church. And the only thing I knew really was what I was learning from the Scriptures, because I hadn't been taught much of anything about that in Bible school. I've been taught a lot of other things, but that was not taught.
And the truth of a gathering was not taught, and the truth of the way to behave ourselves and act in assembly meeting wasn't taught us.
In fact, in one clash, when they were studying in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, they came to chapter 14, and the only comment the teacher could make about it was, as far as I know, there's only one group of people that seek to practice this chapter, and they're known as brethren, and he went on to chapter 15.
Was that enough to say about that chapter? No, but he couldn't say anymore.
If he didn't know anything, he didn't dare say it because he'd probably be out of a job.
Let him follow me in where I am there shall also my servant be.
So evidently part of serving the Lord and.
Is following him and finding the place where he is.
And dwelling there.
There shall also my servant.
Have you found that place where the Lord is in the midst? Have you taken your place at the Lord's table there?
What a privilege if you're the Lord to do that very thing and enjoy that place where he is in the midst.
Well, with that in mind, let us go to Matthew 18 and 20.
You notice.
This verse, after the introductory word of four, starts with the word where.
And there were those that asked the Lord where? What did they mean by where?
Well, they just meant where's the place you live? Where is the place? What is the place in which you dwell where? Where speaks of a place.
So here it says for where.
Two or three are gathered together in.
We must use the word unto there unto my name. There am I in the midst of them.
You know, as you get 2 words and there's something in between the two words, there's the where.
And then there.
Where then you get two or three are gathered together in my name there.
Am I in the midst of them?
So it's very important to look at those words between where and there.
Because that gives the characteristics of the place where the Lord is present.
And if you don't find those characteristics.
You cannot say there.
No, and the Lord isn't there.
I was tested on this point.
Because the first company of brethren I came in contact with were independent brethren. They were brethren that had gotten away from the Lord's table, the Lord's presence by failure to vow to discipline, and they formed a party or division.
And they were away from the Lord's presence. They were away from the Lord's table.
And after some time I began to circulate among them.
When I was exercised about going back into the Lord's work again.
This was after we'd come back from Africa, the final return, because in Africa we were not allowed to do the work that we felt that the Lord wanted us to do.
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And so they forced us, The mission society forced us to resign.
And we had to come back to this country. But on the way back through South Africa, we got in touch with the company in Bulawayo in Ravisha. We thought they were the gathered Saints.
And we thought, this is, this is wonderful.
Well, we did go on with them a while, but as I say, after we came back to this country.
I worked a while as a Carpenter, farmed a while, and then I felt that I should go back in the Lord's work.
So I traveled around amongst them and it wasn't long until I had a lot of questions about what was going on.
And there were things going on that were not according to the truth. I was ministering in the Assembly in western Kansas.
Preaching the gospel, ministering some truths that the Lord had given me and those brethren in that assembly said, We feel that what you're giving us is the truth from the word of God, but we're not practicing that.
We're not going on according to that. Well, I said. What are you talking about? What do you mean? If you're really gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you should be.
They said we are not.
He said there is a man that used to come here from Arkansas.
To break bread with us and you had some gift and could minister.
And we heard that he was put away for sin, a moral sin, and he kept on coming. And you still come and break bread with us and ministers. I said, brethren, it's in the name of the Lord. He's been put away there. How can you receive him up here?
We're all members of one body, and we're responsible to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
And to bow to the truth, to bow to an assembly judgment? Well, they said we can see that's right, but we don't know what to do. We're healthy.
Well, I searched into it further more deeply and I found out.
That these things that are between the where and the there did not characterize them. So the only conclusion I could come to was the Lord isn't there and I didn't break bread with them anymore.
I believe the Lord guided me by this scripture.
I thank him for these words in this verse.
We get so used to quoting it, so used to reading it, that perhaps it doesn't mean very much to us. But there is a lot of truth in this verse.
There's more in it that I can bring out.
But there is a place.
Over in Deuteronomy chapter 12, you read about it that when they were the children of Israel were to come into the land of Canaan, Moses is giving them instructions as to what to expect.
Moses says when you go into the land of Canaan, there shall be a place where the Lord shall place his name, and that is where you're to go. You're not to do the way the pagans do here, worshiping God under every green tree.
And in every place of their imagination.
You're not to do that way to God, but unto thee place one place.
That's where you were to go, not to all of these places.
So there is a place according to God. There was a place in the days of old, and he was jealous for that place.
And when the children of Israel didn't go on, well, finally they were all taken captive and Jerusalem was destroyed. But Daniel over in Babylon, he still regarded that place at Jerusalem as the place, even though it was in ruins.
And Christendom.
Being in ruins today in the outward way.
We may say, well, what's the use?
But the Lord still has a place right in the midst of the ruin.
And Daniel turned to that place. He opened his window toward that place. He still recognized that place.
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And I trust that we might be like Daniel.
Then it says two or three.
Two or three. What's that? Well, that's given to us over and over again in Scripture. We have it in the Old Testament. We have it right here in this passage of Scripture in verse 16.
In connection with this personal trespass, and it's to be settled in the mouth of one or two witnesses.
Two or three witnesses.
It says take with thee one or two more and verse 16, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Two or three is the number of testimony.
Are we seeking by the grace of God to be a testimony today, or are we careless?
And indifferent about it.
We have to warn ourselves about this, because it's so easy to become careless and indifferent, and we have to testify that really we are in a Laodicean state.
And we need to bow our heads and humble ourselves before God.
And seek unto the Lord and cry to him that we might go on as a testimony for him. Now we're not to be occupied with being a testimony, but the important thing is for each of us individually to walk with the Lord, and the Lord will take care of the testimony. That's why it's so important that we all individually feel this, feel the responsibility, and seek grace to go on with the Lord the little while we remain here. Because if each one of us individually goes on with the Lord.
There will be a collective going on with the Lord. We can be a testimony.
For him.
Walk with the Lord. Oh, I remember, I think it was Brother Chapter Brown that told us at one conference there was a brother that was always talking about the testimony, trying to be a testimony, and an old brother gone to be with the Lord years ago. He said, Brother, you be occupied with the Lord, you walk with the Lord and the Lord will take care of his testimony. That's important for us, but it says two or three.
You want to be part of that testimony? Go on with the Lord. There are some being carried away.
They leave the large table. They leave the presence of the Lord now and then. Here's another one goes and another one goes. Fly.
They've lost heart for the Lord.
Something has happened. They've got into sin or something has happened. They're carried away and they're not where the Lord is anymore. Oh, this is so sad.
Two or three?
Are we really looking to the Lord for grace to go on with him that we might, if it please him, be a little testimony for him down here? It's a matter of exercise on the part of each one of us. We don't have anything to boast of, but what is our exercise in this? What do we want? Do we want to follow the Lord? Do we really want to serve Him?
Are gathered.
Are gathered. That tells us that there is someone else that does the gathering.
We do not gather ourselves.
Sometimes we make without really understanding or without knowing. Say we gather, we gather.
But the Scripture Word is our gather.
We are gathered unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if we can say that we're not boasting in what we have done, but we're boasting in what the Lord has done by His spirit to gather us to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's just like a person who saved. He says I am saved, we are saved, we are saved and have eternal life and we're on our on the way to heaven. Well, sometimes people, when we talk like that with assurance to say, who do you think you are, you're boasting, you think you're better than we are.
Well, there might be those that say it to us. The same thing when we say we are gathered unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are where the Lord is in the midst.
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But it's not that we're boasting in ourselves. We're just thankful to God.
That by His grace he has not only saved us, but He has gathered us too.
Are gathered. It's a very simple thing. It really speaks of separation.
I think most here know something about picking fruit.
The people go out into the orchard with their baskets.
And they picked the fruit off the tree and they put it into a basket.
After those oranges have been picked, if those oranges could speak, they could say we are gathered.
Yes, they're all together in the basket, are gathered together in the basket. There they are, all together in one basket.
They were on the tree, now they're in the basket.
Some of us have been in various places.
And some have been raised up amongst the gathered Saints right in the assembly.
But I believe everyone.
By God himself, by the power of his spirit must be picked, as it were, and put in that basket in that place where the Lord is. It's a work of God. It's not a work of anybody. The Lord may use different ones to speak to this one and that one. Or the Lord may use the word that's preached or ministered or that's taken up in the Bible reading.
But God is the one that's doing the work of gathering.
And when you have taken your place at the Lord's table, where the Lord is in the midst, you can say, I am gathered, I am gathered unto the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It's God's work. It's God's work of separating us to himself, to the Lord, because separation has two aspects from to, from wherever we are going on, apart from the Lord.
He gathered to the Lord Jesus Christ around himself, and that is important because it's not enough to be negative. We have to be positive finding the Lord as our center of gathering.
Now sometimes when we read this verse, we leave out together. But the word together is a very, very important word. It speaks of oneness.
If you look over in the book of Acts chapter 2.
We read about.
We read about the believers on the day of Pentecost.
It says in verse 44 of Acts 2.
And all that believed were together.
The same word together.
This is God's mind for his people that they all be together.
But the enemy has come in and he's done an awful scattering of the people of God.
But God wants them all together.
Around the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gathered together unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He wants them all together.
As one.
Well, it's been spoiled.
You say, well, does that mean that we're all to get together with all save ones everywhere? You couldn't do that today.
This morning we were sitting at the Lord's table, with the Lord in the midst.
And while we were sitting there, we did something.
And the first thing we did was to break the loaf. Break bread.
Why is it?
In fact, we don't drink the cup first.
Because the blood, the cup speaks of the precious blood of Christ that was shed whereby we're cleansed and which is the foundation for salvation.
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But no, it's a loaf you meet first when you eat the supper.
In chapter 10 the cup is mentioned first.
Because there the subject is the Lord's table.
And the title to be at the table must be settled. So the cup comes first because the sit at the table.
Must be assured that you are washed in the precious blood of Christ.
And those that have been there before you and feel a responsibility as to who should sit at that table, they must necessarily be assured that the one who comes, who wants to break bread has been washed in the precious blood of Christ, that he has a title to be there, and that he's walking as one that's clean and he's in the good of the cleansing of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's important.
So in chapter 10 its title to be at the table.
But in Chapter 11, it's eating the supper.
And the ground upon which you eat it.
That's why the loafers first.
You have to settle that before you even start to eat the supper. You have to have it settled that you're eating it on the ground.
Of the one body of which the loaf is assembled, that is when it's on the table whole.
Have you settled that?
Have you seen that The Lord speaks of that, the wonders of the body? Together as we have here, that's important.
Well, I was Speaking of being with those independent brethren.
And I pursued this to the end, and I was at a conference where they were reading an Acts.
And there were five leaders there, and they had a strange way of carrying on a reading meeting. They sat on a platform around the table, and the rest of us in the audience could ask questions, but we were not allowed to take part in the discussion.
But I took advantage of it because I wanted to find out whether they were on that ground of independence on the at the very present moment.
Because I'd read about how they acted independently in their history back from the days of about 1849.
But they didn't want to answer my questions. They bypassed in three successive days. A question each day just avoided me. I wanted to find out what they would say about the truth of the one body they didn't want to get on the subject.
They were reading in the book of Acts, then on the 4th day in chapter 15 and there we read about the assembly at Antioch sending down to Jerusalem, about the question of circumcision keeping the law of Moses.
And I asked them this question. Is this a practical working out of the fact that these two assemblies were one body?
They were members of one body.
Lest they should avoid me, I said. I'll pose a case.
I'll say suppose in two assemblies in adjoining communities.
These two assemblies know one another.
They have a major fellowship together.
And in one assembly they put away a man.
That man doesn't want to be put away.
He goes over to the other assembly, presents himself there for breaking a bread. What are they to do with him?
They didn't want to answer that question. Finally, one one of them sat up on the edge of his chair and looked at me and said when that man goes over there.
That assembly can do with him what they please.
If they judge he's all right, they can let him break bread. If they judge he's not, they can refuse him. Every assembly is independent one of another.
I got my final answer.
I never broke bread with them again because as I said before.
I could see they were not on the ground up together.
And also they were not on the ground of bowing to the authority of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ bowing to an assembly decision.
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Together, it's very important that we understand that that God wants us to be gathered on the ground of the one body.
On the ground of division. Not on the ground of scattered companies of the believers. Not on the ground of independent companies of believers. I've had enough of independency while I was insistent, because I belonged to a system that had for their doctrine that every church is independent of every other church. And when I found myself amongst those who profess to be brethren, having the same kind of doctrine, I said I haven't bettered my.
Condition or position at all?
If anything, it's worse because these people profess some truth as to the church.
Well, my sister says you're wrong in leaving us, I said If I'm wrong and leaving, I ought to go back where I came out of separated from the first place.
Well, I'm thankful I didn't have to do that. God in sovereign grace.
Through exercises and asking questions, I finally got in touch with her brother, chapter Brown in Des Moines, and we carried on a continual correspondence. And finally I was satisfied that there was a place where the Lord had placed his name and.
My wife and I took our place there.
Oh, it's so wonderful to be in the place where the Lord is, is present. There's something else here. It's not only a testimony or being gathered, or being on the ground of the one body together, but unto the name of the Lord Jesus unto my name. What's the name of the Lord Jesus stands for? Well, if you're reading that same book of the Acts, you'll find time and again.
That the apostles did this in the name of the Lord Jesus. They healed a man in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Peter and John were questioned about that, it came out in chapter 4. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved one name for salvation. And now we read there's only one name for gathering.
Only one name for salvation. Only one name for gathering.
In my name.
Well, it's so sad to see that there are those that will not respect the decision of an assembly that has made a decision in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they do not believe they have to respect it. But I read up here in previous verse and verse 18.
Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven.
When that when that man occurrence.
In.
When that man of corn was put away.
There was no thought that that man could go anywhere else and break bread.
No. What service bound on earth is bound in heaven?
And that means, of course, if heaven respects the decision, we down here must respect it too.
But there's a great tendency today.
To just cast that aside.
And if a certain brother says so? And so, he's regarded as having more authority.
And the assembly, well, that's going back to Clerical edition, the thing that I came out of.
Yes, there was a day that I had authority and I could make decisions in the Church, but that's all wrong because the Lord has not vested His authority in a person, in any person's, but it's been committed to the assembly, that authority. Now it's true that the assembly can make a mistake.
But that does not give anyone any right to refuse.
To bow to that decision.
You know, in ordinary courts of the land.
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A court makes a decision regarding a certain thing or person.
Well, there are those who want to appeal the case, but do they appeal it back to the same court or to a lower court?
No, they go to a higher court.
And if we feel we have an appeal and we don't really feel happy about a decision.
An assembly is made. What are we to do?
Make trouble, stir up division.
Or to look to the higher court, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the supreme authority.
Wait upon him and all. That's the illustration of her brother. Eric Smith has given about a certain brother in an assembly in South America and Bolivia, Really.
Fits here I believe.
He said in a certain assembly a man was put away.
Well, I don't know what you did, if you protested his innocence or not, but anyway, he just kept coming to the meetings. He sat back, kept coming to the meeting for a year and a half without causing any trouble, just sitting back quietly looking to the Lord to settle things.
18 months.
He sat back, finally, on a Reading meeting night.
A man got up in the Reading meeting.
And he confessed that he was the man that had done the thing that that man was put away for.
He says I am the guilty one.
That man didn't do it.
Who manifested that?
That man sitting back, I'm sure, was looking to the Lord, the High Court, the Supreme Authority.
And the assembly had to acknowledge that they had made a mistake.
But all as we would remember what that man did.
They just look to the Lord.
If there is a mistake made, the Lord will set it right. Isn't it wonderful to have such a savior?
And to have him for our center of gathering, and to have him as our supreme authority.
Always looking to him, always doing things in his name, and the assembly ought not to make any decision, but in the authority and in the power of that name. What a privilege. And I might just mention here that we need to be careful that Brothers meetings do not make these kind of decisions.
There are things that the brothers meeting does.
Take care of the business matters of the assembly and so on, but when it comes to these decisions of receiving and putting away, it must be the assembly that does it.
And when the assembly has done, we vow to.
And if we have some question about just wait on the Lord, he'll answer our questions.
So we have come now to the there.
If there's an exercise, testimony in a place.
And they are gathered by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they're on the ground of the one body, not on the ground of independent churches or assemblies.
And if they acknowledge and respect and reverence the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the authority in that name, they bow to the authority of that name. It's not necessarily bowing to the assembly, but it's bowing to the authority, the Lord Jesus Christ that he's vested in the assembly. That's why the assembly has to be so careful how they use it. But then he says, there, there am I.
There am I. Perhaps there are some that have been asking the question How do I know where the Lord is?
I believe the answer is right there in that verse. There am I, he says.
Who? The Lord Jesus Christ, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is there.
He was here this morning.
Did we see him? Did we understand he was there? Did it mean anything to us that he was there?
All we need to be exercised in this exercising ourselves with our eyes of faith, to see the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst.
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And if we're looking for the Lord, and looking to the Lord and occupied with him, will not be occupied with what a sister is wearing on her head, or what kind of a dress she's coming with, or how her brother looks and so on. We were just thinking about him.
There am I, he says.
And I'm so thankful that the Lord has helped me to find that place where He is.
And he is not only present there.
But he's the center there in the midst.
In the midst, the central one, the one of whom around whom everything revolves. And I'm sure that if an assembly is in that state of soul, and they see everything evolving around the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord will keep them.
Oh, that our individual lives and our assembly lives might be such.
That they are all revolving around the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the pivot, the center.
We might imagine that we have a lot a large wheel laid down in this room, and instead of sitting on chairs, we're sitting on the spokes of that wheel, or maybe out on the rim of it, or right close up to the center of it, the axle of the wheel.
There is one thing sure.
That if everybody starts moving toward the center of that wheel, something else is happening. They're all getting closer together.
And that's what we need to do.
We need to be close to the Lord Jesus.
And that will answer so many problems and questions.
Closer together, Closer to the Lord Jesus. Yes, just getting close to the Lord brings us all closer together.
You might say that's just an automatic thing. Get close to the Lord and you're close to another brother or sister that's close to the Lord.
All how we need to feel that today that we're one and be close together, loving one another, going on with one another. Oh, how wonderful it is to see brethren dwelling together in unity. This is what we need today.
And so may the Lord give us grace to be occupied with Him. The one who is the center, the gathering center, the meeting center, whatever you want to call him. The center that our thoughts are engaged with, that we're thinking of. We had the privilege of remembering him this morning. What a joy it must have been to him. And the angels were looking down, and they were observing it. And they see the sisters with the covering on, and they see that mark of subjection.
And all they say, this is the way it ought to be. Every knee ought to be bowing to the Lord Jesus Christ and owning his authority.
Well, may the Lord help us just to be drawn closer to him, that we might be drawn closer to one another. But there's another part to this verse, the end of it of them I read in Second Timothy chapter 2.
That, and we might just well turn to that verse, because we want to look at two parts there.
In second Timothy chapter 2.
There's a word there about a time when ruin.
Characterizes the whole of Christendom.
And it says here in Second Timothy 2.
19 Nevertheless the foundation of God stands ashore. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, And let everyone that name is the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
Now if you've been gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're at his table. You're at the place where the Lord is in the midst. That word is not for you, but it's for everybody that's not there. Let him. That name is the name of Christ Depart from iniquity.
It's an individual thing. I tried to set the system right that I was with, but I soon found out I couldn't do that. I found out from this verse that I should set myself right.
Let everyone that name is the name of Christ depart from iniquity, and then further down it says.
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Follow verse 22. Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them. Call on the Lord out of a pure heart. There is a company that the scripture designates as them.
Wouldn't you like to be part of that company then calling on the Lord out of pure heart, going on with the Lord going on, characterized by these things we have here and Matthew 1820.
Oh, every one of us should covet this, and to covet it more and more to be characterized by these things that we've gone over the midst of, them to be the company that the Lord is in the midst of.
And that doesn't mean then that we're the company, or that we're the whole church. We mustn't forget that, because there are many dear souls out there, and they're members of the body of Christ too, and we yearn for them. The gospel preacher yearns for the Sinner, the Saint of God yearns for those who are not gathered. Our hearts should be in this, and seek, by the grace of God, to be used to help the Sinner, or help the one who is a believer but not gathered in the place where the Lord.
Is in the midst not gathered together unto his name.
There are many that don't want over in Ghana.
There there are many that are being contacted, but it just costs them too much. It costs too much to take their place outside the camp, with the Lord bearing His reproach. So there are very few in the Assembly there, perhaps half a dozen, only three overnight years. And so it is in many other places. But may the Lord just use these few remarks this afternoon.
To the help and blessing of everyone of us, show a bottom prayer.