Address—Bill Prost
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Could we sing together part of hymn #6464 beginning at verse 5?
Our God the center is His presence fills that land, and countless myriads owned as His round Him adoring stand #64 beginning at verse 6.
Our God, the centuries.
Is present.
And.
Kind of.
Now we are on.
The key line in that hymn or the key lines that I had before me are the last two.
That gives us now as heavenly light what soon shall be our part.
Attach the Lord's help.
Our loving God and our Father.
We thank Thee that we can sing together of coming glory of that place where Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, will be the center of glory and the center of all praise and honor, according to Thy purposes in a past eternity.
So we thank Thee, our God, that Thou dost give us here and now the enjoyment of all of that which in a coming day will be a full reality to us. Help us to live and walk more in the good of it, in whatever time may be left to us here.
And now we pray for Thy help as we open Thy word together, guide and direct our.
Thoughts. May what is expressed not merely be according to thy mind, as given in thy word, but may it meet the need of our hearts, our God, and above all, may it exalt our Lord Jesus Christ.
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For we ask that in his alone worthy and precious name, Amen.
I hesitate a great deal to enter in onto the subject that I had before me. Excuse me?
But I trust it's of the Lord.
Several weeks ago in our home assembly. Well, it wasn't even that long ago. It was just last Lord's Day, I guess. Someone in our afternoon meeting that we have once a month after our fellowship meal.
Raised some questions about a verse that has been the subject of much controversy.
Much joy and blessing too. Matthew 18 and 20.
We had a very good discussion about it in a meeting together and I have had it on my heart for the past week.
Could we turn to that portion again? Matthew's Gospel, chapter 18?
And just to get the connection.
We'll read from verse 15 of Matthew 18.
Matthew 18 and verse 15.
Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he hear thee, thou St. gain thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, but 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 in heathen man and a publican.
Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven.
And whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
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 of them, done for them, rather of my Father which is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, they are my in the midst of them.
In prefacing what I have on my heart today.
We need to remind ourselves, as I suppose we scarcely need to be reminded, that we are indeed living in the last days of the Church's history on earth.
And all around us we can see the signs of what the Lord is doing in setting the stage for coming judgment.
Already we can see the Lord allowing some of those things, although in a limited way.
That eventually will come to full blown reality during the Tribulation period. We're seeing climatic changes, we're seeing natural disasters, we're seeing diseases that man seems powerless to control. We are seeing an interplay of political and economic forces.
With which man is unable to cope.
We are seeing the rise of rebellion and war, which defies even the strongest military power in the world today, namely the United States of America, to deal with effectively.
And men's hearts are indeed, as we read in God's Word, beginning to fail them for fear.
As they look for those things that are coming on the earth.
And yet, what is so beautiful for you and me as believers is that absolutely nothing of all of this.
Can, shall we say, put a dent in the grace of God that is just as much here today as it was in the beginning of the dispensation? And nothing can stop the flow of that grace of God to you and to me, both individually and collectively.
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Until the Lord calls us home.
Isn't that wonderful? And isn't it wonderful that God has promised to be with us?
All the way home.
And among those most precious things is what we have just read in Matthew 18.
As I said earlier on just a few moments ago, these verses have been the subject of much controversy, perhaps more so, at least in my experience, in the last 20 or 30 years. Although I suppose there have always been difficulties and problems over it. And I'd like, with the Lord's help, to talk a little bit about what the Lord has before us in this passage, not only seeking to get the truth of it for our souls, but also.
As an encouragement to our hearts.
What is the Lord really doing here?
We know that in Matthew's Gospel the Lord Jesus is presented.
Primarily as the rightful king. He comes into this world as the rightful king. It's in Matthew that you get the record of the wise men bringing their gifts to him as the rightful king.
It's in Matthew that you get the emphasis on his presenting himself to Israel.
As their rightful king.
But what happens are you and I know very well that while there were those that accepted them, and we thank the Lord for it, yet for the most part the nation rejected Him. And it started right at the very beginning.
Isn't it solemn to consider that when the wise men came to Herod?
And asked him where is he that is born king of the Jews?
For we have seen this star in the East and are come to worship him.
It says not only Herod was troubled, but all Jerusalem with him. What an indictment of that nation who had been promised that Messiah.
In so many scriptures in the Old Testament and yet when there are those who come on a long journey having seen his star that told them that he was to be born or had been born in their case.
All Jerusalem is troubled along with a heathen king.
And that translated eventually into the nation of Israel's rejecting the Lord Jesus.
So that in Matthew's Gospel, I believe it's chapter 12, you find the Lord Jesus formally and definitely rejecting Israel as a nation.
And then in the 13th chapter you find the Lord leaving the house, which is typical of Israel.
Going out by the seaside, which is a type of the nations of this world.
And giving the parable of the sower, showing that the grace of God was going to send that seed out.
Into all the world in order that not just the nation of Israel, but that all men might be saved. And then you find the Lord Jesus gradually, and this is just background, revealing to his disciples, although in a limited way, that something different was going to happen. They were disappointed. They were in some cases devastated by the fact that there wasn't going to be a visible Kingdom.
That that which they had looked for was going to be deferred. But the Lord soothes their fears by telling them something far more wonderful, something far more blessed, is going to be revealed.
And he brings out, in a limited degree, the fact that there was going to be the assembly.
Now again, I say the full truth of the assembly, and we'll talk more about that later, is not revealed in Matthew. But I suppose it's fair to say that Matthew's Gospel speaks more of the church, the assembly, than any other, in fact more than the other three Gospels, I suppose, put together.
And so there is much said in Matthew's Gospel concerning the church.
And beginning here, I suppose, with chapter 18 and going to the greater part of chapter 20, you get the Lord Jesus bringing in various elements that are going to characterize the scene down here during the time that He is rejected.
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Now let's center in on what He is bringing before us here in Chapter 18.
It's noteworthy that, at least on the surface, Chapter 18 deals very largely with interpersonal relationships. The first part of the chapter deals with the attitude one might have towards children and the need not to offend them, and the precious truth that those who have not yet reached an age of responsibility.
The will of the Father takes over, and they will be taken to that heavenly glory, for the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost. Then we find here beginning in verse 15, which is what we have read together, the dealing with offenses between brothers, and that applies to sisters too, and then finally toward the end of the chapter.
A parable that illustrates the importance of personal forgiveness.
Very, very important. What is the Lord bringing out here? And again, these remarks might seem to be a little disjointed, but I'm going to present them just as they come to my mind. And I trust the Spirit of God is over all that.
We find that the Lord, among other things, is showing His own that now, instead of what they had in the Old Testament under the Law, God is going to bring in something different.
That was difficult for them to grasp, as we know it was difficult for a godly Jew to realize that all that he had valued for 1500 years since Moses gave it to them.
Was now going to be superseded by something different.
And so the Lord breaks it all to them, gently showing them, particularly in what we have read, that instead of.
The temple, the Tabernacle, instead of the priesthood, there was now going to be something else that was going to be the center where difficulties and problems could be settled.
We won't turn back to it, but in Deuteronomy I believe it's chapter 17.
We find the Lord through Moses detailing how difficult it is between individuals who were to be settled, and they were to go to the place where the Lord had chosen the place's name. They were to go to the priests that shall be there in those days. They were to lay the matter before him, and whatever sentence was handed down that was binding on those who went there with a difficulty or a problem.
But now all that was gone. The Lord Jesus had been rejected. The Lord could no longer own that system of Judaism, although God gave them grace to get over it.
God gave them after the Lord was crucified, a period of approximately 40 years during which he bore with Israel in grace, until finally about 40 years after the Lord's crucifixion.
The Lord allowed the Roman general Titus to come to Jerusalem, as we know from history, and utterly and completely to destroy that place, to destroy the temple, although he didn't intend it to be destroyed, but God did.
To destroy that place of worship and eventually, over a period of years, eventually, sometime later, uh, another Roman emperor.
Decreed that Jerusalem should be raised to the ground, and it was in fact leveled to the ground. And as the custom was in those days, the site plowed over as if that's the end of that city. And when it was rebuilt, it was rebuilt not by the Jewish nation, but by Muslims.
Who held it for many, many years?
And so God allowed judgment to fall on that city. But what do we have here? We have the Lord Jesus bringing before them that which would take the place of Israel, that place where God.
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Would have difficulties and problems to be settled.
We don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but.
The Lord recognized that even under the blessedness of Christianity, the truth of which is not brought out fully here, yet even under the blessedness of all that Christ was going to accomplish with His work on Calvary's cross.
Offences would come.
There would be a brother who would have a difficulty with another brother.
And without wanting to spend a lot of time on it, we find the details brought out here about how it was to be handled, and I would only emphasize these briefly to our hearts.
If there is a difficulty between me and another brother, I'm not to gossip about it. I'm not to go and complain about it to someone else. I'm not to go and say to someone do you know what he did to me and so on. No, I'm to go to him personally and seek to settle it between ourselves.
And I believe that involves and it humbles my heart to think of it.
It's not a matter of my going to the brother with my finger pointed straight at him.
And trying to make him grovel into the dust.
It's a matter of my humbling myself.
And I like the words of another brother who raised the question.
How much do I need to humble myself in the presence of a brother who has offended me?
And his answer was very searching to my own soul, and I pass it on to you.
He said I need to humble myself enough to compensate for my brother's lack of it.
The brother who has offended me in some cases, I suppose, may have done it inadvertently. We need to recognize that.
But very often it represents a state of soul that shows us that, according to John 13, he needs his feet washed. And I have to get down, down low in order to do that. And I have to humble myself if I'm going to gain my brother and seek to be reconciled to him. But there is, I suppose, and it gives the result here a situation where no matter how much humbling there is, it doesn't work. And then I'm to take one or two more.
And see if.
In the presence of witnesses that accomplishes the desired end, and finally in verse 16.
Her verse 17 rather caledon to the church.
That is, from that point on, to be the place where these matters are settled.
And notice what it says here. If he neglect to hear the church, notice the verb here, and not the verb so much as the.
Word that is this object of it. Let him be unto thee personally, as in heathen man and a public. I just have to leave that brother alone, as it were, and let the Lord work in his heart.
It's singular there. It involves the one who was offended.
But then it goes on in verse 18 to say.
Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye plural, ah, this now brings us to the assembly. And I would say to your heart and mind, let us not try and take these verses out of the context of the assembly. That is what the Lord has in view here. That is the context in which these verses are presented.
Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Very, very solemn verses.
And yet very, very necessary, and may I say it, they echo back to what we have in Deuteronomy 17, because there was a most serious thing under the Law of Moses for those to go up to the Tabernacle or the temple with a difficulty to hear the sentence that was given there by the priest that was of the Lord in those days.
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And yet, having heard that sentence to say.
I don't go along with that.
Could the priest make a mistake being human? I suppose he could. We know that in Israel's history, some of the priests, sad to say, were ungodly and corrupt men, and it might well have been that the sentence they handed down in some cases was not always what it should be.
And so it happens in Christianity that sometimes the assembly can make a mistake.
But here it says, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
The assembly has the authority to bind, and if it felt that the individual here, and it doesn't say it was necessary or that the assembly had to be involved, but if they felt under the circumstances that there was that which had to be bound on that man who had neglected to hear them, there was the authority to do it. Careful. They also had the authority to loose and to me that is most beautiful.
Because, and I call your attention to it, what is the very next verses after those that we read in verses 21 and 22 and going down to the end of the chapter? It has to do with forgiveness.
Forgiveness.
Losing.
Forgiveness on a personal level is perhaps what is given in these verses, but if it is important on a personal level, how much more on a collective level?
You will pardon a story that took place many years ago.
And I don't think anyone here will identify because it's so long ago and nowhere near Addison, IL, but there was a difficulty in an assembly once, and not a particularly small one either.
And there was a lack of unity about how to deal with it.
And a brother, not from that assembly but from another one, had a conversation with one of the responsible brothers in that particular assembly where the problem was.
And he raised a question, he said, have you had problems like this in the past, say, the last 25 years?
Oh, the brother said with sadness. Yes, we have.
And he said, have you had to put people away from the Lord's table?
Was the problem in many cases or some cases that serious? He said. Yes, we have, I'm sorry to say, many of them.
And then the brother from the outside dropped his bombshell.
Brother, he said.
Of those that you have had to put away, say, in the last 25 years?
How many have been restored?
Long silence. The brother thought and he thought and he thought and he thought.
And finally, reluctantly, he had to say brother.
I'm sorry, I can't think even of one.
Ouch.
The brother who was not of that assembly didn't make any further comment. He didn't stick the knife in any further and twist it. He just left the matter.
Often I say to my own soul.
The measure of our walk with the Lord, collectively and ultimately individually.
Is our ability, or the lack of it, to restore those who have gone astray?
A brother many years ago, more than 100 years ago, made a comment in a letter. He said I knew and I have no idea where he was talking about. He said I knew of an assembly.
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Where for many, many years they never had to put anyone away, he said. Not because people didn't behave badly, Not because they were a magical assembly where no one ever stepped out of line or fell into sin. But he said there was a guard shepherding care, a watching out for one another that he said very often headed off things before they escalated to the point that they demanded.
Of putting away from the Lord's table.
I don't wanna find fault and please don't anyone take it this way, least of all the assembly that hosts these meetings.
But very often we see today in a in an invitation to a conference, we cannot accommodate in either.
Lodging or meals. Those who are under assembly discipline.
My late father used to point out, brethren, he said that phrase is a misnomer.
He said those who are put away from the assembly are not under discipline. It is the result of discipline in every kind of having failed.
They are outside of assembly discipline. They are put away outside where the Lord is to deal with them. Let's remember that. And again, I don't find fault with the words. I know what is meant.
I just point out that properly discipline is carried out with those who are still within.
At any rate, let's go on with our chapter.
Four says in verse, or rather verse 19 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.
I want to comment on this verse a little. It has often, in my humble estimation, been used in the wrong way and different thoughts have been advanced as to it.
Some have said, and I believe they are right, that the verse.
Refers to verse 19.
Or I should say to verse 18.
That it is the assembly who carries out whatever kind of discipline it does in the name of the Lord.
That they ask the Lord.
To do for them what they are asking.
I believe that is true. I believe that is true. I believe that when there is binding or losing by the assembly and the reason it says 2 here is because that's the minimum. It can be two, it can be 20, it can be 200, it can be 2000.
But two is the minimum.
And if they?
In the Lord's presence and with his authority.
Carry out.
An act of discipline.
I believe they are in the sense of verse 19 agreeing on earth.
Is touching that thing and asking it.
Does that put the matter in a solemn light? Indeed it does, if we as an assembly are going to go to the Lord with that kind of a request.
Oh, how serious to go with that.
Which may not be according to truth. How serious to go with that which may be?
The result of the particular bent of mind, or a vindictive spirit.
Or pride, or anything else that might enter into the picture. How serious to go to the Lord with something without having our hearts humbled thoroughly before Him, without having eaten the sin offering, without having personally and collectively taken that sin upon ourselves as a local assembly?
And being thoroughly humbled before the Lord as to why He allowed something in our midst of such a character that the assembly had to be involved rather than shepherding care in individuals.
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I believe that is in that verse.
But I'm going to bring out something else here that I think to my soul is very beautiful.
It was brought out in our local assembly last Lord's Day, and I believe it's very true.
Anything to do with judgment is God's strange work. Anything to do with that which deals with sin is not something God relishes doing. His holy nature demands it.
And what we have in verse 20, the Lord's presence in the midst of His own today demands it.
But it's not something that God enjoys doing. Neither should we.
It has often.
Then a humbling thing to my own soul.
And I have seen it more than once and in more than one assembly.
Where those who are seldom seen at a prayer meeting or a reading meeting, and those who seldom open their mouths in praise and Thanksgiving on Lord's Day morning.
And others care meeting where a question of discipline comes up.
They are right there and don't. They don't sit quietly in some cases either.
I have seen it.
Her brethren, if there was to be a brother's care meeting after the prayer meeting, would skip the prayer meeting and yet turn up after the meeting in order to be present at the brothers care meeting.
What do we have here?
If two of you shall agree on earth as touching an act of discipline in the assembly, is that what it says?
Anything that they shall ask, Isn't it beautiful? Oh Lord, I believe would broaden our hearts.
To show that wherever his people gather together in an attitude of prayer as an assembly.
There is a special power, a special privilege.
A special authority from the Lord granted to that meeting.
The word for and it was called attention to last Lord's Day in verse 20 shows that it points back to verse 19, four, where two or three are gathered together in or unto my name.
Oh, brethren, isn't it wonderful that when we come together to ask anything of the Lord?
Does that mean that when two or three people get together to pray about something, this is true?
I don't want to limit the Lord. I believe there's always a special blessing in collective prayer.
No matter where it is carried out.
But I believe here the assembly is in view, and there is a special way in which the Lord is in the midst of His own.
And isn't it wonderful that he uses prayer here, and he broadens the horizon to say his touching anything that they shall ask?
Excuse me?
It shall be done for them of my Father, which is in heaven.
Let us never neglect that privilege. Let us never turn the prayer meeting into a dry recital of particular needs. Let us come with burdens on our hearts. Let the prayers collectively be short and to the point, and let them be fervent. Oh, what a privilege we have. Why? Because the Lord is there.
But now we come, and we have only 20 minutes left to that verse, which, as I said before, has been the subject of so much controversy.
For where two or three are gathered together in or unto my name, there am I in the midst of them. All kinds of controversy has.
Surrounded this verse, I have heard so many arguments about it and all kinds of references to the original Greek language in which it was written and so on.
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With the Lord's help, can we seek His mind as to that?
First of all, the question has come up, why is this verse only in one place?
And only in Matthew's Gospel. And you don't get it in Paul's epistles where the truth of the church is brought out largely. Why do you play such emphasis on a verse that occurs in Matthew's Gospel before the church was even formed?
I would suggest that here is the reason the Lord Jesus was bringing out that yes, there was going to be a church.
But the whole truth of the Church was not brought out for this reason.
The Lord Jesus, when he went to the cross, rose from the dead, and then ascended up to glory, was going to give the nation of Israel one more chance. He was going to give them the testimony of a risen Christ in glory. And we know from those gospel messages that were preached by the apostles.
Right after the day of Pentecost, that if the nation of Israel as a nation had accepted the witness that they gave, the Lord would have come back and set up His Kingdom.
God shall send Jesus, Peter says, whom the heavens must receive until the restitution of all things.
But as we know and very sad to say, the nation of Israel in the person of the stoning of Stephen sent a message after the Lord Jesus saying we will not have this Mandarin over us. And from that point on you find that.
The Lord gradually turns his eyes away from the Jewish nation as a whole.
Of course, they're still welcome to hear and believe the gospel, but you find that God gradually turns his face toward the nations and toward the Gentiles.
He raises up the apostle Paul, who gradually begins to eclipse those like Peter and John and others.
And after chapter 12 in the book of the Acts, who will hear no more of Peter?
It's all the apostle Paul and what he is doing. And so we I believe that the Lord Jesus doesn't bring out the whole truth of the church here. He leaves that for the apostle Paul to bring out. Paul was going to receive those precious revelations from a risen Christ in glory. He was the vessel that the Lord chose to bring out the truth of the church. But can we divorce Matthew 18 and 20 from Paul's ministry? How can we do that?
Can we, to be blunt about it, divorced Matthew 18 and 20 from the truth of the one body? Can we suggest that somehow the Lord Jesus means something here in Matthew 18 and 20 that Paul does not say in his ministry? I suggest that we can't do that. The truth of the church is all one and if the Lord Jesus gathers around himself here in this world.
It is the place where the Lord would have it, as we sung in that hymn.
Where you and I can enjoy His presence here on Earth.
Before we get to the glory now, I freely admit that there are hindrances. We still have the old sinful self that gets in the way. We still have bodily ailments that prevent our full enjoyment of Christ. We still have a hostile world around us that gets in the way. But nevertheless, as our late brother Eric Smith, whom some of us can remember used to say, to be where the Lord Jesus Christ is in the midst to gathered around himself.
Is the dearest place to my heart this side of the glory.
Isn't that wonderful? And he has said here.
Where two or three are gathered together in my name, they are mine in the midst of them. It is not a promise, it is a statement of fact.
For where two or three are gathered.
There has been a lot of controversy about that.
Some translations today translate this verse for where two or three gather themselves together in my name.
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And they claim that that is according to the original Greek language.
I got so.
I don't know what the word is concerned and a bit frustrated with it more than 20 years ago. Now that I finally said I'm going to get to the bottom of this, and you'll pardon the personal reference, but I had a bit of an advantage because my younger brother and also my son studied Greek at the same university and under the same professor, although about 25 years apart.
And I knew who he was, so I thought, I'm going to go right to him and see what he has to say. So I made an appointment to see him, told him who I was, and I said, tell me, what is the exact construction of that verse? He taught classical Greek, but he was very familiar with what is known as New Testament Greek, the Queenie, which was a more colloquial Greek spoken by the masses of people.
Very familiar with it.
I said tell me what is the actual construction of the verb tsunago in Greek to gather in this verse?
And he told me what I already knew, that Greek not only has an active and passive voice, it has a middle voice, which means to do something to yourself.
And he said in the construction in this verse, he said the middle voice to do something to yourself and the passive voice are exactly the same. It's definitely not active voice.
But he said it could be read as middle voice or passive voice. He said it could be translated for where two or three gather themselves together in my name. That would not be, according to the original language, a mistranslation. Or, he said it could read as it is in the King James, where two or three are gathered together in my name. That would also be a correct translation.
And then he said the whole interview, and I have no reason to believe he was the Lord. Nothing he said gave me that idea, He said. But you can't settle these theological questions by appeals to the Greek language.
I thought there it is.
The Spirit of God is the interpreter of Scripture.
It is not merely looking at the Greek language, you have to look at the whole context.
Not only of the passage, but of the Word of God and all those.
Who understood the Word of God, and whom God used to restore to you and to me the precious truth of the assembly?
150 a 170 a 180 years ago.
Without any hesitation, without any question, whatever.
Translated it as it is here because the Spirit of God is the gatherer, and if the Spirit of God is the gatherer, he gathers to Christ, and he gathers on the ground.
Of the precious truth of God's Word. Oh, how wonderful. And I say to your heart and mind, this precious truth was given before the truth was formed, and it is the resource of you and me in these last days when the church is in ruins. When you go to Second Timothy, you find the church is not even mentioned because it's failed. It has failed.
And if you read about the House of God, it's no longer called the House of God, it is called a great house.
But I say, if I may be so bold to your heart and mine, does the Spirit of God gather to Christ?
Is Christ in the midst of that which is not according?
So that precious name?
On the other hand, brethren.
Let's not try and tell the Lord what he can or can't do.
You will remember that when Peter.
In John 21 received a Commission from the Lord, and he wanted to know what John was going to do. And he said, Lord, and what shall this man do?
And the Lord's reply was in so many words, Peter, you mind your own business. What is that to thee? Follow thou me.
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I say that to each one of us here.
Over 450 years ago now.
In the city of Saint Andrews in Scotland, and I've told this story before. Pardon me if you've heard it.
A man by the name of George Wishart, one of the outstanding reformers of that country.
Was led out at the age of 33 to be burned at the stake.
You can still see the place in the middle of the street. It's marked there where he was burned. You can still visit the prison in which he was kept. It's still there. Worth a visit.
And on the morning of the captain of the soldiers, who was responsible.
To carry out the sentence, he had no choice but to carry out orders as a Christian.
He said to George Wishart.
Have you got any last request? Whatever it is, He said. If it's within my power, I'll do it.
And George Wishart, not knowing the precious truth that you and I know, not knowing much of what God has restored to you and me.
Made a last request.
He said. You know who is real in this city?
You know who they are.
Gather as many of them together as you can. I'd like to break bread one last time.
Would that be your last request?
If you were to be flat out and burned alive within a few hours, that's what was his.
No eyewitness.
Said it was the most wonderful experience to see a man go up to the table and give thanks for the bread and the wine, knowing that he was going to suffer for Christ and be with Christ in a few hours.
He said we were all agitated. George Wishart was perfectly calm.
You and I are going to say the Lord wasn't in the midst.
I wouldn't dare make a comment like that. I wouldn't dare comment on that.
And brethren, let's never try and tell the Lord what He can do. Let's never suppose that the Lord cannot be in the midst where those.
Who with the knowledge that they have?
In ignorance, come together seeking to honor Him with whatever light that they have. The Lord doesn't call on you and me to try and express our opinion on all of that.
Likewise, the Lord doesn't tell you and me that we have to be involved in everything that He seeks to do in the world today when the church is in ruins. He doesn't say that you and I have to lay our hands.
On everyone in order for his presence to be there. Now, God doesn't in any way desire independence. God predicates against that in the strongest possible way. But what I say to you and to me is we are responsible to live up to the light that we have. And I would suggest to your heart and mind that I cannot expect.
To enjoy the Lord's presence in a pathway of willful disobedience.
That's the question I need to ask my own soul.
Quite a while ago I was talking to a brother.
Who had left? Those that I consider to be scripturally gathered.
I said.
Are you comfortable that you are scripturally gathered is what is going on where you are now according to the word of God? Oh, he said, Oh no, no, I know that. I know that.
Then he tipped his hand a little bit when he said, you know Bill, it's so nice though. I missed the breaking of bread. But it's so nice to get up Lord's Day morning, have my breakfast, get in the car, drive down to the so-called church, slide into my seat.
Somebody else does all the rest.
He didn't want responsibility. He didn't want to have to be concerned about his own state of soul.
He didn't want to have to be concerned about whether the Lord was leading him to have something to say, because he didn't need to. There was no room for that. Somebody else got up and preached and did whatever was being done.
00:55:16
I say to your heart and mine.
Let's not confuse the presence of the Lord with the presence of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is wherever Christians come together because He dwells in the House of God and they are responsible to recognize His presence.
Many, many years ago, and I have this on good authority probably more than 150 years ago when brethren were coming out in the.
Country of England.
In large numbers to gather to the Lord's name, and the whole thought of the Spirit leading.
Was being noised abroad and people were beginning to realize that such a thing existed. A group of people came together, including a number of clergymen, ministers, pastors, however you want to call them, and they all came together on a Sunday morning and they said let's see if it really works, let's see if it's real.
And so they came together with no agenda, no preconceived order of meeting, no one nominated to take any special part. They just came together, some from different denominations, many from the so-called Anglican Church, or as it's called here in the United States, the Episcopal Church.
And to their surprise and astonishment.
They found that indeed the Spirit of God was there, and that indeed the Spirit of God LED out this one and that one to take part in a remarkable way, with no clashes and no one interrupting one another, nothing that was said that was disorderly.
And they were amazed, as the meeting came to an end, of how the Spirit of God had worked.
You say, well, what was the sequel?
They said, isn't that wonderful?
And the vast majority all went back to where they were before.
Too much to give up, I say to your heart and mind.
It's a humbling place to be where the Lord is in the midst. It's a humbling place to gather. Simply just ground.
Let us never go around saying that we have the presence of the Lord. No, that's not the point.
The focus is on himself.
Many years ago there was an argument amongst some.
And a brother raised the question.
You mean to tell me that if the Lord came to this town, this city next Sunday?
He'd come to your meeting and not two hours.
Brother spoke up and said, oh, he said, brother, it would not be a question of that.
He said wherever the Lord was, I trust that's where I would be.
Let that be before you and me, and if we are seeking to be where he is, I don't believe there will be a difficulty. If my own will is out of the way, I don't believe there will be a difficulty. Let it never be a matter of pride. Let it never be a matter of self satisfaction. Let it be a matter of faith. Not something that I say with so much confidence.
Remember quite a few years now when I was at a Bible conference, a brother who's now with the Lord, I started out a comment in a reading meeting. I said if we are gathered to the Lord's name and he interrupted me with a with a bang. He said, brother, what do you mean if we are gathered to the Lord's name, we are gathered to the Lord's name.
I trust we are that dear brother didn't understand the if of condition and the if of argument. There are two ifs in the English language. But anyway the point is.
I'm thankful that I can have the sense in my soul.
That I am where the Lord is in the midst. But it's a matter of faith.
And it's a matter of being humbled in these last days. Let us value that precious privilege. His presence is always blessing. His presence is always joy.
His presence is that which He has given us, not merely as we have here in verse 20, as a matter of prayer, or verse 19, I should say as a matter of prayer, but as a matter of when we come together to remember Him, as a matter of when we come together for an open meeting as the Lord may lead. Oh, how wonderful to be able in these last days to have the sense of His blessed presence.
01:00:26
Where he is.
For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, they are my in the midst of them.
Let's sing another hymn together.
#67.
I guess our time is gone.
Let's sing just the last three verses of #6767, beginning at verse 3, just as thou art.
Nor doubt, nor fear can air to those like thee veneer.
O boundless love, as thee were seen the righteousness of God in him. 67, beginning at verse 3.
Just as thou art, nor God, nor fear.
God.
He wants my day in here. Oh oh oh, Oh my God, I must have been praying.