Address—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Romans 15 verse 4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. And 1St Corinthians 10 verse 11 Now all these things happened unto them for in samples or types.
And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.
These verses bring before us that there are many principles and truths in the Old Testament.
That though we are not under the law and we are not Jews and we are not in Judaism, but the principles of God don't change. They are the same. And I just like to read a few of these in Deuteronomy chapter 12. I found this very instructive and helpful. The principles of God don't change. Now these were instructions given to Israel and as I read them.
I'd like to make the application for ourselves today.
These are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe to do in the land.
The Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it all the days that you live upon the earth. So here they are in the land now, in the place of their possessions.
And the instruction is, Ye shall utterly destroy all the places.
Wherein the nations which he shall possess serve their gods. Notice the plural in all these things, the places.
The nations and their gods.
Upon the high mountains.
And upon the hills, and under every green tree.
And ye shall overthrow their altars, notice the plural, and break their pillars, and burn their Groves with fire. And ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods.
And destroy the names of them out of that place.
You shall not do so unto the Lord your God. And notice the contrast.
But unto the place.
In contrast with the places.
Of the heathen unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose.
Out of all your tribes.
There's a famous statement that we've heard repeated. Go to the Church of your choice.
But here it's the place which the Lord your God shall choose. Now this is a divine principle, and it doesn't change with dispensations.
God makes the choice. He made it for Israel. He makes it for us.
Unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there. Just pause a moment in the First Division that Israel had.
The time of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.
There was sin at Jerusalem, the divine center.
Through Solomon, his many wives led away his heart. And God was very displeased with Solomon. He was displeased because of the the departure at the divine center. And so he said, I'm going to take 10 tribes and I'm going to give it to Jeroboam.
And two tribes remained at the center at Jerusalem.
And Jeroboam was promised blessing. Had he obeyed and walked in the fear of the Lord?
But he didn't he he set up that which came out of his own heart, in his own thoughts, and he set up an altar and a place at the northern part of the land and one at the southern part of the land of Samaria where the 10 tribes were.
He violated the principle that we have here, that there's only one place. He made two places.
That's a violation of principle, isn't it?
There's only one place, according to Scripture. It's the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. That principle is just as true today as it was for Israel, just as true in the church. What are the Scriptures for that? There is one body.
And one spirit, even as ye are called, in one hope of your calling.
One Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.
For by 1 spirit will we all baptized into one body, whether we be bonder, free, Jew, a Gentile, and have all been made to drink into one spirit.
00:05:11
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. These are New Testament scriptures bringing out the same principle of truth that the Spirit of God gathers to one person, one place, one name. And what characterized those that were in departure from that? Whether it was the heathen roundabout that Israel would encounter as they came into the land.
Or whether it was the First Division.
In the nation of Israel, there was a departure from the one place.
Jeroboam changed things.
And God never owned Samaria. We're noticing that yesterday.
Verse 5 again, but unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there. Now I'm not saying, since this afternoon, who occupies that place? I'm not saying that I'm simply seeking to set before us from the word of God itself that according to the principles of divine truth, the Scriptures, there's only one place.
Not 2, not more than that. Just one.
And it should be the exercise, as it was the exercise of a godly Israelite to be at that place, to go to the divine center. We call it the divine center, the place of his appointment, because he chooses it and he leads to it.
He doesn't have two sons, only one, and he's the center, and he's the one that the Spirit of God gathers us too.
And as we look around in all the confusion, just as Israel, when they entered the land, they saw the multiplicity of places and false gods and centers and names.
But what characterized the testimony here as it ought to characterize the true testimony to God today?
Is that there's one place?
One place the Spirit of God can only gather to Christ.
And when you find Christians in division?
Some have departed.
They can't both be at the divine center. That is such a clear principle from the Word of God.
It's amazing that we have trouble with it. I think we have trouble with it because we start to look at ourselves.
And we look at our failures and we say, how can we possibly be an expression of that?
Well, we ought to desire it. I believe that's what was a true Philadelphian movement was the desire to answer to the Scriptures in the way the Saints were gathered.
And in the prophetic history of the church, Philadelphia comes the second to the last.
So it refers to that divine movement that took place 150 to 170 years ago, when the whole truth of God was recovered in the gathering to the name of Christ was brought out.
And now that we have so miserably failed to walk in that truth. And we've all failed.
We've been tempted to imbibe a principle which is contrary to the one place, and it's wrong.
The scriptures hasn't changed.
The truth of God hasn't changed. I'm not saying which of the different groups of brethren, if any.
Are gathered to that scripturally and to that place where the Lord has said his name. But all I'm saying is there can only be 1.
That's that's divine principles.
And where we err is to say we're that we're it.
Let the Lord make that judgment.
It ought to be our desire to be where the Lord would have us to be, and there's only one place.
If you give that up.
Then you've given up that which can guide and direct you in the midst of all the confusion, and you can just choose for yourself where you want to go.
And that's contrary to scripture. That's what the word heresy means. It means to choose yourself.
The principle of heresy is to choose who with whom you're going to meet. Choose the Church of your choice.
00:10:08
And if you begin in that course, you're never going to be satisfied. But if you've come to the place where the Lord has said his name, with all the failure that might be there, there's a lot of divine failure at Jerusalem, terrible failure.
God still owned that place that was still there. It was still Jerusalem. And he never owned the Samaria. Never.
Well, let's just read these verses that speak of that and then I'll be done.
Verse 11 There shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
Neither shall ye bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows, which he vow unto the Lord.
And ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God, ye and your sons, and your daughters, and your men, servants, and your maidservants, and so on.
Verse 13 Take heed to thyself, that thou offer, not thy burnt offering.
In every place that thou seest.
But in the place which the Lord shall choose, in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and therest thou shalt do all that I command thee.
Verse 18.
But thou must eat them before the Lord thy God, in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose.
Thou and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and thou shall rejoice before the Lord thy God, and all that thou hast put thine hands unto.
Verse 21 if the place.
Which the Lord thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee. Then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the Lord hath given thee as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat and thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. Even as the Roebuck and the heart is eaten, so shalt thou eat them. The unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike. Only be sure that thou eat not the blood, for the blood is the life, and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.
Thou shalt not eat it. Thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water.
Thou shalt not eat it, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord. Now notice verse 26. Only thy holy things.
Which thou hast, and thy vows thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the Lord shall choose.
And I shall offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the Lord thy God. And the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the Lord thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh.
Observe and hear all these words.
Which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee forever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.
Did they follow this?
Hosea, Chapter 8.
Hosea.
Daniel Hosea. Chapter 8.
Verse 11.
Because Ephraim. That's the 10 tribes.
Hath made many altars to sin.
Altars shall be unto him to sin.
That's what happened in Israel. Many altars, many places where they could sacrifice.
There was only one that God recognized, and that was the altar at Jerusalem.
Ephraim have made many altars to sin. Altars shall be unto him to sin. How many tables are there today?
How many tables?
There's one Lord's Table. There are many tables of men.
Tables set up the energy of man, the will of man.
00:15:02
But there's only one Lords table.
Are you there? Am I there? That should be the desire of our heart.
To be where the Lord is.
The idea that the Lord is here and there and there and there and there and all these different divisions.
Is a denial of divine principles.
And that's what we mean when we talk about principles.
There is just one place, 1 altar for Israel, one table for the church, the Lord's Table. What ought to characterize that table? Is that the truth of the one body and separation from evil.
Is characteristic of that table. That means the truth of the one body that all believers, all members of the body of Christ, have a place at that table.
There are many that don't occupy their place, but everyone who is a member of the body of Christ has a place at the Lord's Table. That's what it means. The ground of gathering is the one body. Everyone has a place there. Some might be excluded from occupying that place at any point in time because they're under discipline.
Father has a family, seven children, and one is not he. Father says go to your room, but Daddy, it's time to eat. We know we're going to sit down. Your place will be empty. You're under discipline. Go to your room. It's still his place, but it's empty because he's under discipline. I'm not talking about discipline this afternoon, but just the fact that every believer, every member of the body of Christ has a place at the Lord's table. That's the truth of the one body.
And if we make it narrower than that?
We deny that truth, and if we make it larger than that and admit those who are not members of the body of Christ, we deny that truth as well. And then the principle of separation from evil. We get that in Second Timothy 2. Let everyone the name of the name of Lord, depart from iniquity.
So we are to maintain the holiness that becomes the House of God, and therefore discipline is necessary.
Did Israel have a way to handle discipline? Turn with me to Deuteronomy 17.
Deuteronomy 17, verse 8.
If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke being matters of controversy within thy gates.
Then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose.
They had to go now to that place, Jerusalem.
And thou shalt come unto the priests, the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days.
And inquire, and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment.
And thou shalt do according to the sentence which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall show thee. And thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee.
According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do, thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee to the right hand, nor to the left. And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die.
And thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.
And all the people shall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously.
It was necessary, in order to settle matters of controversy that were in their gates, that there was a place where these questions could be settled and resolved. In Israel it was at the place where the Lord had said His name. In the church it's the same.
Different but the same. It's still the place where the Lord has said His name. And where is that? Is it 1 geographical spot like it was in Israel down at Jerusalem? Well, let's just quickly turn to Matthew 18 and we'll just see where that place is.
Verse 15.
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 gain thy brother notice thee.
00:20:01
The second person singular pronoun.
In the King James, I'm just going to make this statement. It'll help help us to understand it.
Every second person pronoun starting with AT is singular.
Thy thine, thou, thee, they're all singular. Every second person plural pronoun starts with a Y.
Ye, you your, yours. So in the King James translation and Mr. Darby's that follows Elizabethan English, we know whether we're talking about a singular or a plural pronoun.
That's one of the disadvantages to the more modern translations that use you for both.
For both and when you read you, you don't know if it's singular or plural. So that's a decided advantage for precision, and it's important here in this passage.
Verse 15 again, if thy brother that singular.
Trespass against the singular. Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. This is an exchange between the brother offended against and the the one that's committed the offense. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. That's all just between the two people.
But what if he doesn't hear thee? The whole purpose of going is to gain him. But if he will not hear thee still singular, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Now these one or two more come from the local assembly in that place.
He has already talked about building the church in Matthew 16, the church in its collective character. Here he's going to talk about the church in its local character in a locality. So he takes one or two more from the local assembly. He is from it, and the brother that's offended against him is from it. So that's 4.
And he goes to them. 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 you neglect to hear the church, now the church is brought in the local church.
The local assembly, it's not any longer Israel, it's not any longer Jerusalem, but it's the local assembly that now is going to give a pronouncement.
And it says, if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee still singular as an heathen man in the public. And now let's stop there for a moment. All is singular up to that point.
What started out as thy brother in verse 15? Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, and the end of the verse, thou hast gained thy brother, he's called your brother. Thy brother is now to be regarded as a heathen man and a publican, because he would not listen to you.
He would not listen to one or two more that came with you, and he would not hear the church. He turns a deaf ear to all these entreaties. Then you have the right to treat him as though he wasn't even saved. A heathen man and a publican. He starts out as thy brother. He ends up because of his.
Rebellion against the authority at the assembly of the assembly, even to be a heathen man and a public and to to the individual. Now it changes to the plural. Verse 18. Verse 18.
Verily I say unto you.
Now he's talking to the local assembly, not just to this individual.
Whatsoever ye plural, the assembly shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven.
And whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. That's all plural. If you have a translation that reads you all the way through, you lose this. You lose this precision.
From 1516 and 17, it's all thee, thou and thy. It's all singular. But now it's plural. Now it's the assembly that's involved.
I'll read it again, verse 18. 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. Who has this authority? The local assembly. Not the individual. Same thing was said in Matthew 16 to Peter. I'll give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt find on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. That was given to an apostle. That's Apostolic authority. We don't have that any longer because apostles aren't here. But we still have assembly.
00:25:09
We still have the assembly with the Lord in the midst, and that's what gives it the authority. It's His authority. It's not the assembly's authority. It's the authority of the Lord in the midst of the gathered Saints.
And that of course is verse 20. For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them. But let's not miss verse 19. Verse 18 starts out, Verily I say unto you, verse 19 says again, I say unto you, He had said something in verse 18. And that was their competence to bind him loose by virtue of the presence of the Lord in their midst.
You see, if the Assembly didn't have this authority to deal with evil when it arises in its midst, it would be.
It would be the harbinger of all kinds of iniquities that couldn't be dealt with.
The same was true in Israel, and the authority was down at Jerusalem. That's where they had to go, the place where the Lord had said His name, that was Jerusalem. Do we have a Jerusalem today? Yes, and it's verse 20. It's where two or three are gathered together unto my name. They're mine in the midst of them. Every local assembly is Jerusalem in the New Testament.
With the Lord in the midst, every local assembly has the authority to bind and loose.
Why is it different? Why isn't it the whole church? Because the whole church is all over the world. Israel was a nation, a very small nation. They could walk to Jerusalem. It was at some distance from the northern part of the land, but it wasn't unreachable. They had to bring their cases down to Jerusalem. It was confined to a very small geographical area. But the Church of God is universal, so the Lord has set up local assemblies.
Every local assembly is an expression and a representation of the Church in its universal character.
And he's there in the midst.
And that's what gives it its authority to deal with evil when it arises in its midst.
Verse 819 again I say unto you, that if 2 of you, the very smallest plural number, shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask. Now this agreement has to do with the disciplinary problem that confronts the assembly. It's in the context of discipline. It's in the context of binding and losing.
It's in the context of dealing with one who would not submit to the entreaties of his brother of three, two or more, one or two more, and then of the church itself. Is there any, is there any Court of Appeal beyond the local assembly? According to Matthew 18? No, it is the final Court of Appeal. And if he will not hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. And then comes in the responsibility of.
The plurality of the assembly to bind and to loose and verse 19 again I say to you that if 2 of you shall agree, why the number 2IN verse 20 it's two or three competent and adequate and abundant testimony. 2 and three, but 2 is just competent testimony, just adequate testimony.
If there's an adequate testimony in a local assembly.
That has the mind of the Lord to act in putting out evil or in disciplining evil. It is produced by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It's really the mind of the Lord that the assembly is responsible to carry out.
There's a verse in Ephesians 5 that says as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands and everything. Every time a local assembly takes an action, it does so as being subject to Christ, as being under His guidance and direction.
Does that mean that because it has authority that it is infallible and that it can't make a mistake? No, it doesn't mean that.
It can make a mistake, and if it has, if it has made a mistake or if I think it's made a mistake, I may be wrong.
I may be wrong, I may think another assembly has been wrong in what it has done, but I don't know all the facts on 3/2 or 3000 miles away from that assembly, and I don't know all this transpired there. So what? What do I do? I submit, I bow to the action that's been taken. If it's wrong, the Lord who is the Head will take care of it and write it. Now He may use.
00:30:04
Other members of the body of Christ. Because the church is 1, there's one body.
And members from other localities have the right to question.
And to make suggestions from scripture and to.
Seek to reach the conscience of an assembly they felt has made a mistake.
But it's the responsibility of the assembly that's taken the action to right the wrong if it's wrong.
Paul could have with his Apostolic authority dealing with the Corinthians, he could have said he could have just put away that wicked person himself as an apostle, but he didn't do that. He to reach the conscience of the assembly at current so that they would act in agreement with the Word of God, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and for the glory of the Lord.
And they did do that, he says in One Corinthians 5. Put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
But he labored with them, and brethren from elsewhere, from another assembly, are free to labor with an assembly if they feel it is acted wrongly. But while they do that, they bow to the action. They submit to the authority of the Lord in the midst. I have authority as a Father. I haven't always exercised that authority correctly.
And I have disciplined my children wrongly at times.
Remember one time my wife came to me and said you didn't understand the situation properly, you disciplined the wrong child. So I had to correct that. I had to correct it. And so if an assembly has made a mistake, it has to correct it. But there's a way in which this can be carried on and it's.
It's difficult. It's difficult because we have personalities involved in all this. I'm seeking to set before us principles of Scripture from the Word of God. There is one body, and because of that we seek to act in unity. And when an assembly is acted, all the other assemblies submit to that action. They don't arrive at independent private judgments about it and act differently. That's independency.
The truth of the one body is to submit and vow.
And then look to the Lord to correct whatever needs to be corrected, if such be the case. Oftentimes when Saints think that an action is wrong and needs correction when the full facts of the case are known, they're the ones that were wrong and those that took the action were right.
May not always be that way, but it's usually that way. There's so much in the way in which we arrive at the action where the flesh might come into play.
That we see that so quickly, and we don't see where the Lord is in the midst. It's a solemn thing for an assembly to discipline. And when it does so, it does so with a conscious sense that it is acting for the Lord and from the Lord and with His authority and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And when it acts in that way, the Lord will own it.
And that action will be bound in heaven, that is, bound on earth.
The two of you shall agree on earth. Synchronize the word as touching anything that they shall ask. It shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. If that was the waiting, the waiting on the Lord to produce that agreement. I remember going to a brothers meeting once and I remember I was of a definite of a different opinion than many of my brethren there.
And the Spirit of God so overruled that meeting.
That there was perfect harmony produced by the power of the Spirit. The flesh was kept in subjection, and I happened to have to change my mind. I was wrong. And it was beautiful to see how that God LED us to a common judgment of a difficult situation. He's able, brethren, let us look to Him.
And while we're looking to Him, let us follow divine principles.
And he'll keep us together.