Address—D. Andersen
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General Meetings, Des Moines, Des Moines, May 1982, Addressed by Dan Anderson.
Shall we sing #210?
One Spirit.
Lord.
O blessed wondrous words.
What heavenly life, what power divine thought that sweet word afford?
You notice it's in quotation marks. One spirit with the Lord.
This is scripture. It's a scripture that this hymn is based on 210.
One Spirit.
With.
All.
All plants, that was.
Let us turn to that verse.
That's quoted in the hymn we just sang.
First Corinthians.
Chapter 6.
One Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 17.
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But he that is joined unto the Lord.
Is 1 spirit.
Now we ask the question, why did the apostle Paul put that in that position?
Because you see what the context is.
There's something very serious and solemn.
Brought before us in those verses.
Notice what it says in the verse just previous.
What nor ye not?
That he which is joined to an harlot as one body.
For two says he shall be 1 flesh.
That's a solemn statement.
And why does the apostle speak of this when writing to the Corinthians?
Because they had that very thing in their midst.
And the Apostle Paul is bringing out this truth.
Of the believers oneness with the Lord Jesus Christ here.
By the Spirit.
One spirit with the Lord.
To help them to judge that thing.
Because there was that professed believer.
Assembly.
And he committed fornication.
And Paul says know ye not that he which is joined to and harlot is 1 body.
He had joined himself.
In an unholy, wicked relationship.
For two saith, he shall be 1 flesh.
So he says, But he that is joined unto the Lord as one spirit.
Spirit was the Lord.
Having been joined to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He brings before us this thing in the power of the Spirit of God.
To warn us seriously, solemnly about this kind of thing.
And it's manifesting itself more and more.
In Christendom.
And sad to say, amongst those gathered or professing to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And what a solemn thing for one who has professed to believe.
And profess to be joined to the Lord Jesus Christ to enter into such an unholy, immoral relationship.
The Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword.
And we need to come under.
The powers of the Word of God brought to us in the power of the Spirit of God.
And everyone of us has this book and he can read these things.
And he can be brought under the power of the truth that's brought out and the warnings given, and look to the Lord for grace to be kept.
There is no excuse for any one.
Falling into something like this.
Perhaps it's a manifestation of our low state.
And we need to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.
But all God is gracious. We were speaking about that this morning.
Gracious God is, and we see a man like that in Corinth committing that awful sin put away and then later restored.
And what restored him the grace of God?
And Paul writes to them, and says, Confirm your love unto him.
But why would she discipline that he might feel it, That he might feel how awful it was?
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And humble himself before God. And then after a while he was mourning and weeping.
How wonderful. God knows what he is doing. God knows what he did.
When he instructed the apostle Paul to write to those Corinthians, put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
Don't eat with him. He's outside. He was put outside in the world under the government of God.
But he brings in this blessed truth of being joined to the Lord in connection with this.
Emphasizing the positive.
And if we lay hold upon the positive, If we're occupied with Christ and the wonderful relationship that we've been brought in.
In one spirit with the Lord.
We will get so full of that that we won't want to have anything to do with the other. We'll flee from it.
And that's what characterizes those as we heard this morning.
In two Timothy chapter 2 follow with them.
Calling the Lord out of a pure heart, flee all of these things, the lust of the flesh.
And show up.
But you can't flee it in your own strength. I can't flee it in my own strength.
It says the Lord ministers to us himself and His truth and things like this that when we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ were sealed by the Spirit of God and were joined to the Lord Jesus Christ in the glory. It's a real thing.
And it's brought to us in the Scripture that we might feel the reality of it, have a sense of the reality of it, back when we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and washed from our sins.
Spirit comes to dwell in our hearts, We are joined to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are joined to every other one who has been joined to the Lord Jesus Christ and where one body with the Lord and one body with one another.
Flee fornication, he says. Flee, Flee, Run away from it. Look to the Lord for grace and remain faithful to the Lord Jesus.
You know, fornication here is set in the light of being unfaithful to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Being unfaithful to him.
Let's go to 1St Corinthians chapter 12.
And she there how the apostle Paul develops.
There's truce about the body being joined to him.
And joined to one another.
One Corinthians chapter 12.
Verse 12.
For as the body is 1.
Now that he's Speaking of there's a human body. The Apostle Paul is using the human body as an illustration of the body of Christ, the Church, the assembly.
And Paul gets down very simple in this and I trust that we might be able to get down simple this afternoon too.
And see some of these things that Paul brings before us by the Spirit of God.
For as the body is 1 and has many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body.
All that down to there, speaking about the human body. So also is something else. There's another body.
So also is Christ or the Christ.
Well, what does the human body have? It has a head.
And it has members.
Members of the body.
So is the church the body of Christ? It has a head and we are the members. Christ is the head. We read a scripture in Ephesians.
About the place the Lord Jesus Christ has.
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In chapter one.
It tells what God has done for and with the Lord Jesus Christ.
In verse 22 of Ephesians chapter one.
And have put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church.
He gave a head to the church, and Christ is that head.
He's not head over the church. He's head over all things. But he's head to the church, just like God in mercy. When he created mine, he gave this body a head.
And what do we have a head for? To direct all the functions of the body?
And what's our head in glory for? To direct all the functions.
Of the assembly.
He did not give that place to any man.
Or any Superman, if you want to speak of them that way. No, he gave it to the Lord Jesus Christ.
To rule the body. To control the body, To direct the body.
To guide us directly.
And if the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the assembly, and when I speak of the assembly, I'm Speaking of all those who are saved in the whole world.
Because we read in Ephesians 4 there is one body.
There is not one body of gentiles and one body of Jews, or one body of black people, and one body of red people, and one body of white people, and one body of yellow people. No one body.
And the whole world, just one body. And when God looks down here, He sees one body.
And that's why it's such a tragedy.
See what man has done that? Outwardly, of course. Inwardly, really.
Man could not divide the body, but outwardly it's all divided up into sections and parties and denominations and cults and whatnot.
Oh, how solemn. How sad to see that.
But it's all one body.
All one body.
But we say, where are they? We ought to all be together. Yes, that's right. In the beginning they were all together. All those who were members of the one body were all together. And we read here in First Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13. For by 1 Spirit are we all baptized into one body.
When did that start? When did that take place? It took place on the day of Pentecost. The Lord had said, as we read in Matthew chapter 16, I will build my church. When did He begin to build it? On the day of Pentecost, There were 120 believers together in the upper room, waiting, as the Lord had told them to do, waiting for the coming of the Spirit of God. And they were there.
120 of them.
And ten days after the Lord had gone to heaven.
50 days.
After his resurrection, that's why it's called Pentecost. Pentecost speaks of 50.
The Holy Spirit came down while they were in that upper room.
And indwelt every one of them.
And they began to speak for the Lord's glory and to preach the gospel. And everyone heard the gospel in his own language, in his own dialect.
On a day that was, but the part that we are speaking about.
It is pretty nearly forgotten in Christendom.
They get occupied with the one part of the speaking in tongues, but the other seems to be hidden.
Now we read about this wonderful truth of the church, that it was hidden, hidden in God.
Hidden in God before the foundation of the world. Hidden in God in eternity past.
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But there came a time then, when God revealed it, revealed it to the apostle Paul. And Paul speaks of that.
In the third chapter of Ephesians and he tells what happened.
That God made a joint body.
From Jew and Gentile.
He was no respecter of persons now.
And any Jew and any Gentile that believed were sealed by the Spirit of God.
And made part of that one body, but there were 120 to begin with in the upper room.
So there were 120 in the assembly.
There to begin with.
120.
They were all baptized into one body, and they were all one body.
There was something different from what they had been before.
They had been 120 separate individuals, believers, of course.
They had, they had life. They had the forgiveness of their sins.
But they didn't have the Holy Spirit until that day when He came down to indwell them. In the Old Testament times, there were those.
That did things in the power of the Spirit, but if we read that, the Spirit came on them.
To do that particular work, whether prophesying or like Bezalel, doing the craftsmanship in the Tabernacle and others. They were endued with power from on high to do that, but they never received the Holy Spirit as a person to dwell in their hearts.
But here, on this day, the Holy Spirit came to dwell in their hearts.
And from that day to this, everyone who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and been truly washed in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, he receives the Holy Spirit and has been joined to that body that was formed there on the day of Pentecost.
That is why in Ephesians chapter 4 it can be said there is one body that is put in the present continuous tent, then tense. There never has been a day from that day on to now where there has been two bodies, or three bodies or four bodies.
And no break. There's been a body ever since then, until now. There is one body.
We need that truth.
Really burned into our souls.
Because sometimes we get the idea that there are many bodies. Well, what else can people say when they look around in Christendom?
And they see all these different bodies. And you meet a Christian, you say, well, what body do you belong to?
Or what faith do you belong to? Or what church do you belong to? As though there were many or several?
A good question is to ask them, well, what church should I belong to? Well, they don't really know what to answer.
I said if I want to know what to belong to, I have to go to the word of God.
There was a time.
When I was still in my 20s.
My wife and I were missionaries in the Congo, but I didn't know any better than that.
I thought there were many bodies.
But when I began to really read the word of God, meditate upon it, studied to translate it into the native language, I learned something that I had never seen before or been taught in school.
But I found it in the word of God.
Or didn't see it all to begin with.
But the Lord began to show me something. I wanted to see more.
And I was exercised about seed.
About knowing this truth.
And I'm thankful for what the Lord showed me.
Well, we had been writing letters back to different ones that the Lord had been using to support us.
Because we didn't receive any salary from the mission, we seemed to know better than that when we went out. We wanted to go out on real faith.
We did belong to an interdenominational, so-called Faith Mission, but most of them were receiving a salary. But we didn't feel happy about that. We wanted to be on the ground of faith, really.
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While the Lord began to show us things.
And we were writing about it in our letters to these different ones.
That were interested in the work.
And lo and behold, one of these that was getting our letters sent.
Me Two booklets.
I didn't know at the time where he had picked them up. I found out that found that out later from the assembling in Walla Walla where this man had been going for the reading meetings. And he had found the Assembly of God by Macintosh and the all sufficiency of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by Macintosh. And I guess he discerned or detected something and he thought it would be a good thing to send them to me. Well, I'm thankful he did because it made me realize there was somebody, somewhere.
That knew these truths and had been gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course that made me want to find them.
But there it was in those two booklets, the things that the Lord had been showing us.
Some of you here may be the young people. You wonder whether this truth is really in their books. It's there.
The Lord showed it to me. He can show it to you too. All you say. Well, it's just for old people. While I was young when they showed it to me.
You don't have to get old before the Lord shows you these things.
When you get saved? When you're young. When can you know these truths? When you're young. When when can you be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? When you're young.
Don't have to wait until you're old.
This is for everyone, old and young alike.
It's precious to know Christ as our Savior.
But oh but joy, and what peace it is.
To know the Lord Jesus Christ as a center of God, the head of the body to church.
And to be able to look to him for guidance and direction in everything.
And I believe, dear brethren, every assembly.
Gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Gathered to gather to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ today.
Needs to learn this. Better to look to the Lord Jesus Christ for direction and guidance in everything.
Because.
There are things that come into the assembly.
That are real problems and difficulties and there is no way that we can.
Steam things out or reason things out. We have to look to the Lord. Be guided by His Spirit as He opens the word to us, and he'll be faithful. He will be faithful if we just trust in Him.
For by 1 Spirit, are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free.
And have an all been made to drink into one spirit.
God makes no difference.
God makes no difference now in this age of grace or the church age.
God saves souls and they are joined to that one body.
And there is still one body.
All the original ones were gone and they keep on passing away.
And the Lord saves others and their exercise, and they take their place at large table to express the fact that they are not only saved, washed in the precious blood of Christ, but they're members of one body.
When we sit at the Lord's table to eat the Lord's Supper, what is it we eat first? The loaf?
And that is a symbol of the one body as well as the body of Christ when it's broken.
So that's the first thing you meet in eating of the supper. It's like that loaf is asking you.
Are you eating this supper as a member of the Body of Christ, or are you eating this supper as a member of something else?
There's only one way to eat the Lord's Supper, and that's to eat it as a member of the Body of Christ.
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Ferries up, nor the ground in scripture, nor the ground.
Now there may be those that feel that they are remembering the Lord. I used to think that I was remembering the Lord.
Even though what was on the plate was a cracker all broken up, which was really symbolic of the thing that I belonged to.
Yet as far as my own heart was concerned, I was remembering the Lord, but I found out it was way down here on a lower ground than the ground of Scripture.
Only apostle goes on here.
To say something about the body now.
For the body is not one member, but many.
Who want us to drift in that direction.
We would like to have somebody take the whole responsibility and make it look like that the body is 1 member.
And the rest of us could just sit by and do nothing.
I remember when we were home on furlough from Africa.
That was in 1935. We've been over there a little over four years.
And we'd already begun to see some of these things.
And I came back.
And I was asked to take the pastor.
I'm a little church.
And I did.
For a few months.
While the one who was the pastor went off to something else, I guess he was a.
He had some service in the army.
Don't remember what it was. Anyway, we were there in one large day, mourning.
Of course, at that time we just said Sunday morning.
But you know, it's a wonderful thing to call it large state Lord's day because it's his special day.
On Lord's Day.
You sit at the Lord's table.
To partake of the Lord's supper, to remember the Lord, it's his day. Do we devote that day to him as though it is and own that he is Lord?
Well, I was standing behind the pulpit this Sunday morning.
And we were going through the order of service.
That I had already outlined and I was doing everything.
Giving out the songs, starting the songs, doing the praying and reading the scripture and giving the message and supervising the the communion so-called communion service, but in the middle of that time.
Just seemed like there was an audible voice that spoke to me, he said. Who are you to think that you should take this old meeting?
I never forgot it. It was the Lord speaking to me by what I had already seen a little bit of in the Scripture.
I never forgot that and I went back to Africa.
And I saw more of the truth and finally the mission society said.
You have to resign. We can't have you doing the things you're doing because I was beginning to practice these things and show these things to the natives and they wouldn't have it. They wanted us to establish a big school and all at the mission station.
But I wanted to go out to the villages to show them this True souls were saved there when I preached the gospel. And then I just read the scriptures to them that I translated until there were those that said, oh, we want to be baptized, we want to remember the Lord.
And they did. But the mission society said you can't do that.
We resign.
We not only left the mission, but we left the denominational association we were with.
And justice wanted grace to look to the Lord alone for guidance and direction.
And I don't regret any of it.
I don't regret the day when I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. I don't regret the day when I was separated to the Lord Jesus Christ, but God himself and took my place at the Lord's table. I don't regret it.
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The body is not one member, but many.
Come to that point where you see yourself simply as a member of the body of Christ with all the rest of those who are members of the body of Christ.
With all of those who have received like precious faith.
Just one with them.
Well, again we read if the foot shall say, because I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body? Now why would why would the foot say that?
Above the hand.
Is there jealousy there? Is the Apostle Paul saying this because there's a root of jealousy in the assembly car?
And it's here for all that in every place call on the name of the Lord.
This is not just for the church at Corinth. It's for everybody. All those who've confessed the name of the Lord, all those who profess and belong to the church. The body of Christ is for everybody.
Jealousy. Jealousy.
Why would the foot envy the hand? All the hand is up here and doing all kinds of things, but the foot is down here carrying burdens.
And we don't like burdens.
Not we don't want burdens and we wish the Lord wouldn't give us burdens, perhaps.
And we'd like to be up here.
In a place that looks more public.
More place of display and all of that.
But the Scripture says bear ye one another's burdens. That would say that we all should be burden bearers.
All of us.
And seek grace not to shirk burdens.
If the ear shall say because I'm not the eye, I'm not of a body, is it therefore not of the body?
Now the ear.
Is jealous and envious, says Because I'm not the, I am not of the body.
I'm just not taking account of it all. I'm not of the body.
Well, it's true that we may learn more through the eye than we do through the ear.
But that shouldn't make the one jealous of the other.
And there may be variations in US.
As to what the Lord might have for us to do, maybe he wants us to be an ear to hear what the Lord has to say. Maybe He wants us to be an eye to have discernment as to what is going on.
And we we need these gifts.
Verse 17 If the whole body were an eye, where were they hearing?
You can't have a body being a whole eye. That would be a monstrosity, wouldn't it?
All discernment, all seeing, all you got to have hearing as well.
If the whole were here and where were the smelling?
We need them all. We need all these parts and all these members of the body.
I think we become conscious of that sometimes when we have to lose one of our members.
Brother Brown down in Saint Vincent. He lost his leg. He felt it very much.
And it hindered him a great deal from coming to meet him and of course when he got sick on his bed.
He couldn't get out. He couldn't bounce himself. He tried but he couldn't because he didn't have that one member. He was missing it.
And when we get to a point.
We act as though we are not part of the body.
Who misses us the most? The Lord Jesus.
Are we really taking our place as members of the Body of Christ?
Or are we shirking the part that he's given us to do in the function of the whole body?
Now there is one thing about the body. The power function is within it.
This body doesn't need a machine set up alongside of it.
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To keep it going.
There's function within it, and so in the assembly. There's power function within the assembly.
And if everyone of us, every individual, every part of the body of Christ, every member of it, is looking to the Lord for guidance and direction?
He will take care of it.
He will give us guides, he will give us direction, He will give us grace, He will give us strength, everything that we need. The power of function is within the assembly. It doesn't need an organization set up alongside of it to keep it going.
We need to look to the Lord our head and he'll give direction and help.
But now hath God set the members everyone of them?
In the body as it hath pleased him.
He has set the members, everyone of them, in the body.
As it hath pleased him.
Are you satisfied with the place that the Lord has put you in his body?
In the body of Christ.
Perhaps we haven't been aware of that, that we're part of the body of Christ.
This mystical unity, the Church, the assembly.
But it's true. Everyone who is a true believer is part of the body of Christ, and you have a place there. And we should cover that place. And we should be careful that we act according to the place we've been put in.
If these fingers could speak.
I believe they would say.
We're thankful for the place.
That God has given us in the body of that man.
And we don't want to be separated one from another.
What would you do if when you went to the wash station?
To wash your hands or your hand? If you had just one hand, how would you wash it?
What if this hand was over here some other place or had been lost?
And you had only one.
You would be keenly aware of the need of that other hand.
How many times have you done that washing your hands?
These hands need each other.
You know their dear Saints of God in Christendom.
But they are not here on the ground of the one body gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We wish they were because we need them.
Yes, there are gifts out there.
Their gifts that the Lord could use to really minister the word of God to us.
We need them.
They are there because God has put them there, but God wants the mall together on the ground of the one body.
That's where he wants to.
You say, well, what are we to do?
If we can't get everybody together.
Well, if we can't set everybody right, we can do one thing. We can set ourselves right.
And I think that's what two Timothy 22 is about. Let him. That name is the name of the Lord. Depart from iniquity and follow with them that call in the Lord. Out of a pure heart we can set ourselves right. What? To begin with, I tried to set some of these places right within. You can't do it. No. It's an individual thing. Let him That name is a name of Christ. Depart from iniquity.
So it's our responsibility, if we see the truth, to set ourselves right and take our place as members of the body of Christ gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ on the ground of the one body.
And I may be speaking to somebody here this afternoon.
That is not gathered, that has not taken his place at the Lord's table.
And you're beginning to realize I'd like to be gathered unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Gathered together, that means on the ground of the one body, under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the name recognizing His of power and His authority. Because then we're promised the presence of the Lord in the midst. There am I where that verse starts out. Where? There Where two or three?
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Are gathered together in my name. There am I in the midst of them.
That's what you have to look for.
Are they on the ground of the one body?
Are they acknowledging the authority of that name and the authority of the Lord in the assembly? And whatsoever is done in the name of the Lord is binding?
Do they recognize that?
Or are they loose and careless about it? Or even as they do in some places, say every assembly is independent one of the other, and what they do over there doesn't concern us. But when a thing is done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, it concerns all of us.
And what decision is made in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ holds? It must be. It's bound in heaven, even as it's bound on the earth.
So he goes on to say. And if they were all one member, where were the body?
All lots of importance is given to the body. Well, Christ is the Savior of the body.
He cares for the church, his body.
And he loves the church. He gave himself part. And we should take note of that, that the body is something special to the law. And he wants every one of the members of his body to act the way he wants them to act, to do what he wants them to do. Not every man doing that which is right in his own eyes. They did that in the days of the judges. And what was the result? Confusion. Utter confusion. Read the book of Judges.
And you will see what a sad history that is of the children of Israel. Every man doing what was right in his own eyes there. They didn't seem to know even where God center was and it was utter confusion.
And if we do not look to the Lord and own him as our center, our head and look to him for everything, and we bow to the decision made in his neighbor, we don't do that. It's going to be utter confusion because he said there's no king in Israel.
Every man did what was right in his own eyes. What does that mean? No king in Israel meant no recognized authority.
No recognized authority.
And all doing as they pleased.
If that comes into.
The assemblies.
There's going to be confusion. May the Lord keep us all. How we need to cry to the Lord to keep us.
We're so weak, so helpless. But he.
Everything. And Paul said I can do all things through Christ, which strengthened me.
But now there are many members yet, but one body, and the eye cannot say to the hand.
I have no need of thee. Now we're talking about the eye in the hand again. Why does Paul do that?
Always bring before us how every member needs Every other member The I cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee. We all sat down to a nice meal. It's noon.
And the first was that her eyes looked at it.
And if we hadn't had hands, what would we have done? Just sit and look at it?
The eye could not say to the hand I don't need thee. That was emphasized right there at the me. See, I needed the hand.
To take the food and bring them to the mouth, And no doubt it could be said the mouth needs the hand in other parts of the body needs to hand and other parts of the body need other parts of the body.
And again, the head to the feet. I have no need of you. The head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.
Now who's the head?
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The Lord Jesus is the head.
And he says to the lowest member.
I can't do without you.
I can't do without you.
He doesn't say I don't need you, which means he does need us. The Lord does need us. He needs you. He needs me. He needs every member of his body.
Oh, it's not. It's not a loving way for the for the Spirit of God.
To put it before us through the Apostle Paul, it comes right from the Lord himself.
He's telling you and me, I need you. I need you.
I touched my heart when I first saw it.
The Lord says I need you.
Hear what happens.
We get away from the Lord, we stray away from the Lord and.
We forget to have fellowship and communion with him.
Forget to pray, forget to read his word, forget to spend time in his presence, forget to come to the meetings.
Where he is in the midst, he says, I need you. I need you.
Perhaps you say I don't need to go to meeting today. I don't really feel like it. The Lord says I need you. I feel like I want you there. Are we going by our own feelings? Are we going by His? How he feels about it?
Just think of him how gracious he is, how loving he is.
We were Speaking of His grace this morning. If so be you've tasted that the Lord is gracious. All I need to taste it more, that He's gracious, so gracious, so loving, and he's so approachable.
And it's just like Joseph. And I believe he's pictured in Joseph when he said to his brethren, Come near unto me, come near unto me, I need you. Wasn't that gracious of Joseph to say that?
What his brethren had mistreated him, sold him as a slave into Egypt.
Yet he says, Come near unto me, telling his brethren, I need you, I want you.
Well, we've all had that experience. Have.
We've already been in the place where we've come to see that we've sinned against the law.
Poor wretches that we were, and it broke us down when we found out that the Lord Jesus Christ loved us, the Church, so much that He died for it. God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. It broke us down. The goodness of God LED us to repentance.
And I trust that in this matter of taking our place as members of the body of Christ.
And acting as members of the body of Christ and seeking grace from Him to do what he wants us to do as members of his body.
That will just cry to him, cry to him for that grace that we need.
Without him, we can do nothing. What a loving savior he is, The.
He has done everything to win us to himself. What more can he do?
What more do we want him to do to witness to himself?
I'm so thankful that we're here, all of us, in these meetings, because we have an opportunity for the Lord to just show us a little bit of himself.
So that our hearts might be drawn after him.
We will run after thee. Is that our feeling today?
Well, if we have felt a little of that drawing of his love today.
This morning. Oh, that's what it's for. To draw us to himself, to a closer walk with him if we feel anything this afternoon. Drawing us to himself to act more like members of the one body and honor him who is the head, and on him as Lord every day and every moment of our lives.
Have we felt it? I trust we do feel something of it.
His word speaks to my heart.
00:55:01
Those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary Or you say I'm so weak?
The Lord needs you.
And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable upon these we bestow more abundant honor.
And an uncommon fox. Have more abundant comeliness. Oh, the Lord needs everyone. Don't look at yourself. That's really saying. Don't look at yourself. The Lord needs you. The Lord needs you. No matter what you are, what condition you're in, whether you're ignorant or whether you're wise, whether you're uneducated or educated, whether you're sickly or whatever it might be the Lord needs.
That's what he says. The Lord needs us.
For our commonly parts of no need but God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked, oh, how the Lord has arranged all the members of the body of Christ.
And they're all set in their place according to his pleasure.
So don't get put out with anyone.
5th brothers in his place, Sisters in her place.
Let's look at one another as members of the body of Christ, and look at one another through the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And what is the Lord seeing?
And what is he saying? I need everyone of you. I need everyone of you. Get your eyes on Christ. Let him draw you to himself, that there should be no schism in the body. You see, the Lord doesn't want any division in his body. And what? That's why all of this is being written.
That there should be that the members should have the same care one for another.
Impartiality or sometimes like at corns we set up clicks parties, we get sectarian and spirit, but that's not according to the Lords mind. And when I read that as I was translating this official into the native language, I saw how they formed parties, some like Apollo, some like Peter, some like Paul. I thought that's that sectarianism is being condemned.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Oh.
This is one thing that really rejoiced my heart when I was gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I saw that there was at least a measure of care one for another. I know there's failure and weakness in these things, but still, it was so different from what I'd seen before.
And if one suffered?
They all suffered and why were we praying for those this morning that were mentioned that were suffering, that had trials?
Because of this.
We hear one member suffering. We suffer with them. It's a burden on our heart. We pray for them.
And one member be honored. All the members rejoice with us. Don't get jealous of him.
No, they rejoiced with it.
Oh, what?
What a description this is of the body of Christ.
As it is should be when it's in tune and in touch with the Lord Jesus Christ, the head in the glory. That's our only help, our only solution, the only grace for us to look to Him for all that we need and will be what the Lord wants us to be.