Open—S. Stewart, B. Imbeau
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We sing #166.
Lord, thou hast drawn us after thee. Now let us run, never tire.
What in thy love possess me not?
Our star by night has fun by day 166.
For thou hast grown after thee, and all that's wrong, I never thought.
The soul of my breaking.
Thy son of thyroid life.
All right, let's say.
You're in a while barking.
Lord and can go.
If I did.
Call president.
McDonald's.
I spray the light rain hard red, brown.
Our lightnings in our Grandmaster and.
I think my voice.
I rode before the road of God.
Life and diversity.
Silverstone.
And then let's go.
Play layoffs.
And glorified again. I'll have the rainfall.
And close up in America.
And.
Spread together.
Our God and our Father, we are still thankful for the rich provision that thou has given us thus far, our Lord Jesus, and from thy word and just pray now that thou hast give us a little more of him and.
Just ask that the Spirit might have liberty through thy word and it's truth to touch our conscience, affect our life, that it would be for his praise and his glory. Just ask for thy blessing too in the gospel meeting as it would go forth and the credits in Jesus name.
We turn to.
Gospel of John.
And chapter.
11.
There's 49.
And one of them named Caiaphas being the high priest that same year.
Said unto them, You know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.
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And this spake? He nodded himself.
For being high priest, said Eerie prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. John 17.
There are three.
Versus.
Three, uh, times one. This is mentioned in John 17. I'd like to look at them just briefly.
John 17 and uh.
Verse 11.
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me.
That they may be one as we are.
The Lord here in this, uh, in his high priestly prayer, if you look at Mr. Darby's translation, it's not even exactly a prayer, but he comes in light of a finished work, as he alone can call those things present which are yet future. And he demands based on that finished work of the Father in the light of that finished work.
And here he requests.
As it were, uh, that the apostles, those that he had chosen, those 12 That he had around himself in that upper room, that they might be one. And he says, as we are the Father and the Son.
This oneness is not the oneness of the body of Christ, although we often connect it in our thoughts. But it's not the oneness of the body of Christ, but it's the oneness of the Father and the Son. And that they were one in their thought, one in their aim, one in their purpose, one in their council.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Are one in all their counsel, and the apostles are brought into that, that they might be one too, and their thought, and their aim, and their purpose.
The second one Ness that's mentioned is verse 21.
That they all may be one as our Father art in me, and I in thee. That they also may be one in US.
That the world may believe Thou hast sent me. I probably really should read. I've read, uh, verse 20 as well. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word. Up to this point he'd been praying and the oneness mentioned and the oneness that he wanted his own brought into his praying for the 12. Now he broadens out in that prayer, and he includes in that scope those that would believe on him through their word.
Because he was going to send them, and they were going to preach Christ, and there would be those who would believe. And he adds something more to this oneness. He says, as thou art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in US.
And here it is a oneness of divine fellowship.
A oneness of common interests of the father, and his son and his son.
In the Father.
And it's that divine fellowship that you and I have been brought into who have believed.
And the Word of God that has presented Christ to us, written by those very apostles, inspired by the Spirit of God, and we've been brought into that oneness of enjoyment and appreciation of the Father and the Son. The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen the Father at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him, and we beheld His glory. The glory as of an only Begotten with the Father, full of grace and truth. And the greatest revelation of divine truth and love that this world has ever seen and ever will see, is the Father and the Son.
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Incarnate in this world, we beheld His glory.
And we've been brought into that fellowship. Now there's one more oneness named.
Verse 22 And the glory which thou gave us to me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one, I and them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast love them as thou hast loved me. This is future. All that second oneness was going to result in testimony that the world may believe in the Gospel would go out.
But now this is future when he comes in, in, uh, that coming day to set up his Kingdom and is displayed before this world and all his own are with him.
And it's the oneness of coming glory, and it's imperfection. And there's no that the world may.
Believe will they may? No, it's that the world will know. If they're going to see that display, it's not going to be a matter of faith anymore. And they're going to see those that are one with him are those that are in the fullness of the Father's love and the objects of his love and affection and the Son's love and affection. And you and I will be there in that day, in that perfect oneness. Again, this isn't the oneness of the body. It's the oneness that John presents to us.
And it's beautiful in its place. Let's turn over to the First Epistle of John.
Verse 3.
Chapter One. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us. That's the apostles.
And truly our fellowship, the apostles fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. That's that first oneness the apostles unity won in thought and a name and purpose. But he it widens out again to that second one, as he says, we want to bring you into it, The fellowship that we've enjoyed, that oneness that we enjoy.
In In the Appreciation of the Father and the Son.
And these things right we unto you, that your joy may be full.
This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declaring to you that God is light, and in Him as no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
He's brought us into this unity. He's brought us into this light.
And the basis of being able to do that because we were sinful was through the work of Calvary and the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed us from all sin and made us fit to come into that unity and the enjoyment of the Father and the Son.
God is the center.
And this is the part of the thought that I really would like to convey. God is the center of every unity that he has formed.
And because he is light, and because he is holy.
If we are going to be in that unity and in the enjoyment of it, it has to be in accordance with His own nature of holiness and light. It cannot be otherwise.
Again, every unity that God has formed, He is the center of it, and because He is the center of it, those that are in that unity must be there in accordance with His own nature of holiness and light. And so the principle of unity is this.
Separation from evil.
It cannot be otherwise.
In the beginning when God created this creation that we walked through with all came from Him in perfection and purity, and He was the center of that unity of His creation that He made, and He set man in there in His image and likeness as His representative at the center and made Him head of it.
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And we know what happened. Sin came in and man fell, and with him the whole creation fell with it, and God had to separate.
From it, because he can have no fellowship with sin. And a distance came in, a separation came in.
Let's turn to Ephesians.
Chapter One.
Verse 9. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one, or head up in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth. Even in him there is a day coming. There is an administration yet to unfold in this world, a dispensation.
Yet to unfold in this world and God is going to have a unity in that day of all created things in heaven and earth. And the head and center of that is going to be himself and the person of his Son, the Christ. He's going to head up all things in one in Christ.
Now let's turn back to a few scriptures that concern that coming day.
And it's unfolding. It's beginning.
Matthew, Chapter 13.
We know these scriptures so I'm not going to read everything.
Matthew 13.
And verse.
38 The field is the world, the good seed are the children of the Kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the end of the world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend, and then which do iniquity.
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire.
There should be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Verse 49. So shall it be at the end of the world. The Angel shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just, and he and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Jesus saith unto them, Have you understood all these things? They said unto him, Yeah, Lord, turn over to chapter 24.
Verse 36.
Whether that day and hour N no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
As in the days of Noah, so as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, took them away in judgment.
So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. There shall then shall two be in the field. One shall be taken, the other left.
And so on taken for judgment.
At the inauguration of His Kingdom and His glory. And we could turn to the next chapter and see when He sits on the throne of His glory, and He brings the living nations before him, and He separates them as sheep and goats, and there are those who depart into everlasting fire. Judicially God is going to clean, and the mighty angels of the Son of Man are going to clean this earth. They're going to wipe it clean of every evil. Because when God sets up that unity in that day of all things in heaven and earth, and Christ heads it up as the center of that, there is going to be nothing that defiles.
That's associated with that unity. Nothing, because the one who is center of it is light and holy.
Judicially, he is going to clean it away.
But we live in a day where God is not dealing with this earth.
The tears aren't to be rooted out now.
Are going to be.
But.
The apostle says, what have you to do with them that are without? God judges them that are without.
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But we're responsible for judgment within. Why?
Because there is another unity which God has formed on this earth, the unity of the body of Christ. Christ is its head and center, and He's holy.
He is holy and he cannot be associated with evil. He cannot be.
Can we turn to?
Ephesians.
Chapter 4.
Verse one.
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all loneliness and meekness and long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as you're called, and one hope of your calling.
What is it to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit? It's to strive to enter into, to lay hold of that unity which the Spirit of God formed here in this earth, consisting of every member of the body of Christ united to our head in heaven, and to walk in the good of it, meanwhile knowing and comprehending that nothing can form part of that or be connected with that unity.
That would be contrary to what He is and all his holy nature.
It's a unity that does not come because we want it to, or because we think it's a good thing that it should come, or because we, uh, think it's a nice thing.
Because it must have a righteous basis, it must have a righteous basis.
Now he exhorts them to walk worthy of that vocation wherewith they were called, which is taken up in chapters 2 and three, The Church, the habitation of God through the Spirit, and in chapter 3, that which he has wrought to form that Church. And broken down that middle wall of partition of Jew and Gentile, formed, 1 Newman. One body of which Christ is the head. And we give expression to that when we partake of that one loaf.
That there is one body.
I'd like to turn over to.
Time so short, I'd like to turn over to 1St Corinthians, so I'm just going to touch on these principles.
First Corinthians in chapter 5.
Where we know sin had come in to that assembly.
Verse 6.
Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out there for the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened for even Christ. Our Passover is sacrificed for us. Here was in connection with moral evil, a sin that even shocked the Gentiles, unbelieving Gentiles who are around, and they had to put away that wicked person from among.
Themselves.
If they were going to walk on in that unity which the Spirit of God had formed, and the apostle says, Ye are an unleavened lump, but you know there was a danger if and who doubts, if they had not listened to what the apostle had said, that they would have become an unleavened lump, and they would have lost the title and the privileges and the responsibility of the Church of God here in this earth.
Little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
That had to be dealt with or would spread through the whole and characterize the whole.
Uh, let's turn over to Galatians.
Chapter 5 or seven. You did run well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Here it is. Doctrinal evil had come in with the Galatians, and it's the same statement. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. It had to be dealt with, or they would not continue on in time.
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As the Church of God here in this earth. But doctrinal evil is far more insidious and worse. Because what's worse? For a man to get drunk, or for someone to stand up as a preacher of the word of God and say it's OK to get drunk and put out a doctrine in the name of Christ and sully the name of Christ with evil?
Doctrinal evil is far worse because it makes God the author of it. He cannot be.
He cannot be.
Let's turn back to.
Matthew again, chapter 13.
Verse 33.
Another parable spake he unto them. The Kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened, till the whole she hid it.
This was sneaky. This was underhanded. That's what's pictured to us.
She hid leavened sin. Evil doctrine is to the person of Christ really until it spread from end to end, and characterize the whole. Brethren, what is on my heart?
Is that we are gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus, and in all feebleness.
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and those bonds of peace. And I trust for my own soul it's in the bonds of peace, not with an agitated heart.
But the principle of unity is separation from evil, and there is no evil or unity unless there is separation from evil.
We're in a day when apostasy has Wellness spread from one end of the Christian testimony to the other, and there is hardly a group of believers collectively today that does not either tolerate moral evil or doctrinal evil or both.
We are not free to just receive indiscriminately our dear brethren in Christ without the carefulness that becomes keeping the unity of the Spirit and the uniting bond of peace.
It is a principle that exercise our early brethren deeply, and that they learned, sometimes with real sorrow.
Luke.
After 11.
Verse 23.
He that is not with me is against me.
And he that gathereth not with me scatter.
There are many unities that have been formed by men in this world, and I'm Speaking of professing Christianity.
But there is only one that God has formed.
And the consequences that every other unity that man has formed on any other basis stands in direct opposition to what God has formed.
And to what he has encouraged us to endeavor to keep.
With all meekness and lowliness, because we cannot keep it any other way.
He that gathereth not with me scatter. And those centers of unity become the harbors of evil, because unity becomes an object in itself. And if in order to keep unity we have to tolerate evil, then it just becomes woof and warp of the whole fabric of that unity rather than separation from it. And every one of those unity stands in opposition to that which has Christ as its center.
Separation from evil is God's principle of unity, and it always will be.
But it's not the power.
I wanna close with one verse.
John, Chapter 12.
Here's the power.
Of Unity.
John 12.
And verse 32.
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, we'll draw all men unto me. What is the power of unity and gathering? It's the attractive beauty of the one that God has placed at the center of that unity, His own beloved Son.
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This is a bit of switch, but it does have to do with the setting up of that.
Future.
Dispensation.
And so if you can turn with me, please, to the first chapter of Acts.
Acts chapter one.
And.
Umm.
Verse six. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord.
Wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom of Israel?
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, that ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses both unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and all Samaria, unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel.
Which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven, this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven?
Shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven?
And.
Turn to.
Uh.
Zechariah.
Verse nine of Chapter 9. Zechariah 9/9.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, He is just in having salvation lowly, and riding upon an *** and upon a colt the full of an ***.
And I will cut off the chariot for me, Frim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace unto the heathen. And his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
You know there were.
Several hymns and I meant to Can I borrow your hymn book?
Meant to bring my hymn book up but there are several hymns that we sang this morning that.
Tied us to that future.
In an interesting way, I thought it was.
170 is one of them.
Low He comes from heaven, descending once for favored Sinner slain. 1000 thousand Saints attending swell the triumph of his train. Hallelujah, Jesus comes and comes to reign.
You know we look forward to the Lord coming in the rapture.
And Acts chapter one where it speaks of the Lord coming again.
Is not the rapture, even though we often apply it that way and appreciate and enjoy it.
But it's this what we sang?
This morning.
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It's the Lord coming to set up that new administration in this world.
And uh.
To me it's an astonishing scene because of course it follows on this dispensation.
Which we have so UN admirably failed in so many ways. And some of what's just been spoken is very indicative and, uh, a word to our consciences.
But still our eyes like the eyes, that little maid.
Uh, there to be on the master.
And looking in a different way.
And it is with an appreciation that we can look forward to that day.
When the Lord Jesus Christ will be manifest in this world.
Will everything just fall into place the 2nd that he appears? No.
As a matter of fact, in writing or him coming to the Mount of Olives and then riding down in Jerusalem happens after a bit after his appearing, as we think of it commonly in Scripture.
And yet, here's this one who's been rejected.
Has been cast out one who has gathered a people to himself through a time of about 2000 years and. And, uh, even those folks weren't.
Always so admirable to not always appreciate himself as a gathering spot.
And tolerated.
Evil in ways that should not have been tolerated.
And yet that one.
Who has already gathered that church to himself? He is going to come out of heaven again.
Place his feet on this earth again.
Just imagine.
The Lord Jesus Christ who left from the Mount of Olives.
Way back.
It's recorded in the end of the book of Luke and then in the book of Acts.
Those feet.
Will not touch Earth again until this time.
When it comes to the Mount of Olives.
What will it mean to him?
What will go through his mind, his heart?
Will people respond to him as they had 2000 years earlier?
With even respond to him as.
Believers had so lost and half heartedly and cold heartedly responded to him for 2000 years.
And so he comes even then, meek and lowly, riding on an ******* again. Ride into Jerusalem.
And he'll set things right in his own way, with process.
Looking out to his scattered people to gather them all back to himself.
And establish a name in this world.
His name?
It's an amazing tale of grace.
That God has so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Whether it's us in this time, whether it's the people in time to come, they will have to acknowledge Christ as Lord as He sets those blessed feet back on this earth.
They will have to acknowledge him.
And what a joy that will be. It will be a joy to us, as we'll be with Christ. We'll see it all, appreciate it all. It'd be a joy to this war-torn world. And it'll again be a joy to the Father's house, to the Father. Excuse the heart, the Father's heart, to see his Son lifted up in this world.
As a center point for blessing.