Address—T. Roach
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Will you turn with me now, please to Matthew chapter 16, Matthew chapter 16, and verse 18, Lord Jesus speaking.
And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. Gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The rock, of course, is not Peter, but that which Peter had just previously confessed. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
I will build my church. We've been speaking much about Israel, about the former dispensation, and the Lord Jesus here speaks of his church as yet future. Because he was still dealing with the Jews, He had not yet given them up.
I will build my church.
So it was still future just to fit that in with what we've been having before us so much.
Of the difference between the old dispensation and the present one. And now we've heard about that coming one. And I really enjoy thinking of how Israel is going to be blessed, how those bones will revive and they'll be back, and the Lord Jesus will have his true place as their king reigning over them.
But you know, he's not our king, he's our Lord, and I would really like to speak a little bit.
About the precious privilege that we have of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's go over to the 18th chapter and read a little bit there. There's so many scriptures, we won't have time to cover much of the subject that really is on my heart, but we'll read of Matthew 18.
Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he 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, and if he shall neglect to hear them.
Tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church.
Let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father, which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them. Now, just prior to this portion, the Lord Jesus has spoken of humility, and he brought a little child as an example.
And subsequent to this portion that we have read, we have.
A portion on forgiveness and this fits in between.
Now, a number of brothers in my in our last few stops and traveling about have expressed the desire that young people and all of us really would hear what it is to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder.
If everyone of us took out a sheet of paper to write a one page essay on what it means to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, backed up with scripture, could you do it? You know there it's a wonderful thing when a young person brought up in a Christian home, brought up in the assembly, asked for their place at the Lord's Table.
And when they first break bread, I like to say to them, are you happy? And they're smiling, you know, they say, yes, I'm happy. Who's happier than you are? Oh, they say, the Lord. The Lord, That's true.
But many times I think we fail in presenting to them the responsibilities and what the assembly is and how we must respect it. And we don't have time to go through the scripture. There's a number of portions that really cover it. But right here we have, we have something that really we can think much about because.
It speaks about a trespass and I know someone will say that's a brotherly trespass.
One-on-one, but I believe it sets before us a principle of how to deal with things.
If you can go to that person yourself, that has caused some offense, said something that wasn't correct.
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I'd appreciate it if I say something that isn't according to Scripture. You come up to me and tell me. Don't go tell everybody else.
They can't help me. Come to me.
And so this is the process.
And if I remember rightly, I heard I didn't hear it directly, but I heard someone remark of Brother Eric Smith saying that any time this process was used, he never, never saw it go before the first step.
In other words, it's so powerful just to go to a person and point out their mistake or failure, whatever it was, they never had to go beyond it. But if it does go that far, there's a there's a recourse. And I just wanted to say that there is authority in the assembly.
And when you come down to verse 18.
It says, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
And whatsoever he shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. When someone asks for their place at the Lord's table where there's a responsibility to inquire. In fact, this is I was thinking of a bunch of questions that would come up in connection with the Lord's table. One would be young people sometimes I believe, hold back from asking because they say what kind of questions are they going to ask me?
Well.
We don't have time to turn to scriptures, but one question would be, are you saved? Do you know that you're saved? Because only those who are saved can remember the Lord as their Lord, the one who died for them. That's the first responsibility.
Baptism is another, putting on the uniform, as it were.
And then there is the question of.
What are you going on with in your life? And so when someone shows up at the door and wants to remember the Lord, we don't just receive them in we don't know them.
And so there needs to be some questions asked. Nehemiah it tells us in the 7th chapter, the third verse.
They were not to open the gates until the sun was hot.
And when the sun is hot, you know it's bright. You can see there's nothing in the shadows.
And so there is that caution to be displayed.
It isn't in this particular passage here, but I think we'll just bring it up. Someone said to me one time, if it's the Lord's Table and you don't invite anybody to come because it's the Lord's Table, then why do I have to ask you?
Well, that's a good question. Why does someone have to ask? Well, over in First Corinthians 5, we have a case of evil and the assembly, and I want to turn to that because it does bring out the 20th verse here gives us is the authority. Where is the authority to meet together as we do so in First Corinthians 5 and verse 4?
I believe this is the authority that the assembly has.
To function.
And the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you are gathered together.
And my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The power is in the assembly, the authority in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not given to a few brothers.
Brothers have to maybe make an investigation to get that on the 15th of Acts. All these principles come out in various Scriptures, but the authority in the assembly is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ when we're gathered together.
Well, there's binding and losing, and it's a very strong thing if it's bound in heaven or loosed in heaven.
And.
It can't be changed by man.
I think of an Old Testament example when the Gibeonites came to Joshua.
And Joshua and the elders of Israel made a decision. They didn't consult the Lord. They didn't talk to the people. They made a decision.
In the name of the Lord.
And they loosed them.
They were held to that. Israel was held to that. It was a poor decision. The Gibeonites were their neighbors. They were supposed to destroy them. They could not do it. They were not allowed to do it because they had sworn in the name of the Lord that they would not destroy them.
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I'm not sure the timing, but it probably 500 years later. 500 years later. Time didn't change this. King Saul in his false zeal tried to exterminate the Gibeonites and God sent a famine in the land and David had to deal with that.
He did, He dealt with that, but I mention it because here was a bad decision, but it was made in the name of the Lord and it was bound in heaven and it was not going to be changed by anybody on earth.
Well, these are the responsibilities and the authorities of the Assembly that that we have in this chapter.
And I just should go on with that question that someone says, why do I have to ask you? Let's go back to First Corinthians 5.
Why does a person have to ask to have their place at the Lord's Table?
Well, the authority is in the assembly, in the gather together in the name of the Lord Jesus.
In verse 12 of that chapter.
For what have I to do to judge them also that are without?
Do not ye judge them that are within, but them that are without. God judges therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. The man asked me that question. Why do I have to ask you if it's the Lords Table?
I believe the Lord gave me the answer. I couldn't have come up with it myself, but this was the answer if we have to deal with evil within the assembly.
Should we let it in and then have to deal with it?
It must be kept out. First Corinthians 10 shows us that.
Those that partake of an altar are in fellowship, preparing communion with that altar. And what we bring to that altar, it's not an altar in our case, it's the table of the Lord because of the Lord, what we bring there affects the the honor of the Lord. And we're not to allow in anything that would dishonor the Lord an immoral life. Bad doctrine.
A bad association?
Because it speaks in this chapter of association. It says in verse 6.
Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? She turned to Galatians 5. You find the same statement made with doctrinal evil here. It's moral evil.
So association with the evil, it carries the evil with it, it leavens the whole law. So if we would allow somebody.
In our responsibility to break bread at the table of the Lord, that's going on with evil. We're defiled by it.
Not we only, but the name of the Lord is dishonored by it, and that's the important thing to see. I hope that.
We can all get a feel for that. It's not our honor, it's his. It's the honor of the Lord that's at stake. Well, it names these things here and in verse 11 it tells us how to deal with those that are immoral. And it says in the end of that verse 11.
With such a one, no not to eat. Now some think that's hard.
And I know that there are young people when one of their friends has to be.
Excommunicated because of evil in their life. They feel sorry for that person. They try to console them, try to make them feel comfortable.
I think if you read this carefully and you go over to the second epistle to the Corinthians, you find out that they must have held the line pretty well. They did not sympathize with this person. They made him feel his guilt and his sin, and he was restored.
If you want to see your friend restored, don't console them over there being disciplined.
That is an error that that is not going to lead to the restoration. They need to feel it and unfortunately today.
There are many groups and you can just, if you're put out of the assembly, you can say, well, I'll go somewhere. Well, they'll accept me. But God only has one place. He only has one assembly. The Lord Jesus has a right to tell us where to meet and how to meet. And there are people, I've heard them say we're not told how to worship, we're told how to be saved.
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We are told how to be work, how to worship. We have it in various scriptures which we don't have time to go into, but the Lord is in the midst of those who are gathered to His name, and if we can just remember that.
And it says where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of them. You know, it was pointed out one time about Elijah when he had to tell Ahab that there would be not rain or dew in three years of that he was told to go to a certain brook.
And God said to him, I have commanded the Ravens to feed thee there.
There that certain bro.
And if Elijah said, But there are more trees, if there's other brook, it's a nicer place, it's cooler or something else?
He wouldn't have been fed. He had to go where the Lord told him, and there he was fed.
If you want to be with the Lord, Jesus is in the midst. It must be as gathered to His name.
There am I in the midst of them.
There am I someone was just saying the other day.
If a person was cast up on a desert island.
And had a Bible and read it and got saved. And if you read it further, what would he find? He would find out that he should be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. He just be under the name of the Lord Jesus.
Met a lady in the parking lot during the break and she said, is it some kind of a church convention in there? What is it? Jehovah's Witnesses? No 7th day Adventists, No, just simply Christians that made in the name of the Lord. Oh, all denominations. No, no denominations, no denomination, just the Lord, the name of the Lord Jesus. Oh God, she said that's the way it should be. Well, that's the way it should be. And if we're honestly searching the scriptures.
We won't want to think that the Lord has set up a rivalry against Himself. He is one as one way of salvation, one way to meet. And I'm sorry there isn't time enough to go in more detail to some of these things. But I hope that if any of you do have questions about these things, why not ask some brother in your assembly or ask someone of us here?
I'm speaking especially of the young people. You may not understand these things. It's probably a great mystery to some of you what goes on and how an assembly operates.
But it's all recorded in the scripture. Those two portions we read you'll learn something from.
Acts 15.
And other other scriptures, but particularly these ones we looked at 1St Corinthians 10. I'll just recommend it. You look at those things yourself and.
Has been appealed to those who might not yet be saved to trust in the Lord Jesus. But I'd like to make an appeal to those of you who are saved. Have you taken your place, the Lord's Table, in the simplicity of it, just to ask?
The Lord to show you the way, to rest on Him. He wants you to be there. He wants you. He wants you to be happy. We were hearing He wants us to be happy. He wants us to be in that place where we can be happy and where we can learn. Oh, you say, don't know very much.
No, you don't usually know very much until you take your place and you Start learning. Then that's where you learn.
So I just leave you with that little exhortation and trust that we have a desire, each one of us, to understand these things and to appreciate why things are done the way they are. I don't mean to say we don't make mistakes and we aren't don't have the flesh we do and we fumble, but the principles is what we're talking about. We need to act on the principles of Scripture and then we have the blessing of the Lord. That's what we want.