Open—D. Imbeau, J. Watts, N. Whatmough
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A very familiar scripture to all of us, I'm sure.
Verse 11.
Luke 17 verse 11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off, And they lifted up their voice, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves under the priest. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God.
And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
Jesus answered Jesus answering said were there not ten cleansed? But where are the 9? There are not found that return to give glory to God save this stranger. He was a Samaritan. We're all Samaritans.
With everyone in this room that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ has been cleansed by the precious blood.
We're all Samaritans. We're all, we were all sinners.
Were there not ten cleansed? How many of the 10 are sitting in this room tonight? This afternoon?
How many of the 10 are sitting in this room this afternoon?
All cleansed, all cleanse, because they didn't come back and give God glory and fall down at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
Didn't change their cleansing. They still went on their way cleansed.
But only one returned.
It gives.
Joy and rejoicing to the heart of God and to the heart of the Lord Jesus.
To see those that are cleansed gathered around himself.
He rejoices in This Morning. There were about 1000 people in this room. I don't know how many of them remembered the Lord and his death.
Now isn't that praise and worship didn't go up from all the hearts and souls present?
But how many remembered the Lord in his death? How many broke the bread together?
You know, that's what he asked this do in remembrance of Maine.
All beloved young people.
You've heard in the last three days many precious truths. You've heard much about the person of Christ.
You've heard the truth as to the place of gathering. I know there's some in this room that despise that thought, but that doesn't change facts, not one bit. There is a place.
The Lord Jesus gathers to himself. How could he do otherwise? He gathers.
To himself.
If you know him. If you know him.
Do you remember him?
The man that Joseph the Butler. It was two years before he remembered Joseph.
What about you?
How long have you been saved? How long have you known the Lord Jesus Christ as your own?
Personal saving. I don't talk to the others. You know, if you're lost in this room this afternoon, what I say about breaking bread and about the Lord.
Except you become as a little child and believe it is of no value to you. You must know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior before you can enjoy Him. You must, you must. The Lord Jesus could say himself, ye must be born again. You must be saved to enjoy Him. But if you are, if you are, do you remember Him?
Has your heart been touched to the point where you have come as this Samaritan and he fell at his feet and worshipped him?
Think about it, it's important.
The other thought that I wanted to speak about.
Is in the book of Ephesians, and it's just this, it's very simple. I'll be very brief. You can read the book yourself, the book of Ephesians, the highest truth that's in the Word of God. And again I say there's all kinds of thoughts and representations as to how we ought to walk. There's one thing that's necessary and that is to know him.
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The apostle Paul could say that I might know him, that I might know him, And how do we know him? How do we get to know him?
By considering him, as we had in the 12Th of Hebrews for consider him.
Or consider him in the book of Ephesians gives us the highest truth, the place that God has raised us to.
In the person of his beloved son, and if we want to know something about him.
There are three things I think that are important.
The books, The four books of the Gospels which tell about him and his life.
The epistles that tell about all that he's done for us.
The mystery of God in Ephesians three in the third chapter that's spoken of.
Christ in the Church.
All these things.
We don't need to learn anything that's bad to know the good.
Those behind the counter that handle money in the banks don't know anything about the bad money because they would spend all the rest of their life trying to learn it because they're changing the presses every day. But they learn the good.
And they know the good when they see it. And so that's what we need, is to know Christ.
To know him.
And how do we get to know him, consider him, read about him, contemplate on him?
It says of in the first chapter of John's Gospel of John the Baptist says and as he looked upon Jesus as he walked.
As he looked upon Jesus as he walked.
And that we can do in our hearts. And when he did, it says.
He said behold the Lamb of God. That's for our contemplation. The first time in the 29th verse was for our sins.
Who taketh away the sins of the world? But in the 36th verse, it's for our contemplation that we might be hold him and walk with him.
I'm not going to read this, but read the book of Ephesians and consider that the exhortations there are like no exhortations given in any other book.
They're not like the exhortations given in Romans and Galatians and other places.
And the simple reason is this, because in the book of Ephesians we're given our rightful possession, which is the glory.
And it's in regard to and in respect to that glory that these exhortations are given.
And then in the 6th chapter we're given the whole armor of God.
To put on.
And the armor of God is supplied. It's true that we need the armor of God for our life, but the armor of God in this chapter is given so that we can take hold of the possession that's really ours. That's heaven.
The Israelite, when they came across the wilderness, they ran into a few combats just before they got to the river of Jordan, but they never fought a real battle until they got into the land. The warfare started after they got into the land.
Don't stay in the wilderness. Cross the Jordan, take possession of that which is yours.
Which is in heaven, in heavenly places. And to do that you need the.
Armor of the 6th chapter.
Again, I say I'm not going to read it, but please read it for yourself and consider what it says.
Consider that the whole book of Ephesians is Christ and what he's done and where he's gone.
And where he has seen to take us, He's going to. But God sees us there with him now. God sees each one in this room that belongs to Christ in heaven, not here on earth, in heaven, seated in the heavenly places. Will anything take our hearts out of this scene like that?
To realize that that's where we are in the sight of God and that's where we're going to be for eternity.
That will keep us. That will keep us.
John's Gospel chapter 13. I'll read the 1St 15 verses.
Now, now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come, and that He should depart out of this world unto His Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them until the end, or as the margin says, to the uttermost.
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And supper being ended, and the devil having now put into the heart of Judith Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from the Father, and went to God, he rises from supper and laid aside his garment, and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he had poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples feet.
And wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter said unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I watch thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not only my, not my feet only.
And also my hands and my head. Jesus saith unto him, He that is washed nearest, not saved to wash, not save to wash. His feet was clean. Every whip and ye are clean, but not all. For he know, For he knew who should betray Him. Therefore he said, Therefore said he, ye are not all clean.
So after he had washed their feet, had taken up his garment, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I've said, Know ye what I have done unto you? Ye call me Master and Lord, and you say, Well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet, he also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.
Yesterday as I was going through the cafeteria area, I had my plate in my hand.
And I came up to the lady who was serving out chicken.
She looked at me and said would you like a second piece of chicken? I said sure, sure, I'll have a second piece of chicken. It looked really good and by the time I gotten through the line.
And had my chicken and my salad, a bun. And I sat down. I quit a meal in front of me. I started eating that meal and I really enjoyed it. It was a good meal. And after I'd finished the meal, I was leaning back on my chair. A nice man came along and said, would you like a coffee? Sure. I wanted to have a coffee. I enjoyed that coffee. You know, the very last thing that will cross my mind after having finished a meal like that would be to get down and watch somebody's feet.
Lord Jesus verse two, supper being ended.
Verse four. He riseth from supper, laid aside his garments, took a towel, and girded himself.
Poured water, began to wash his disciples feet.
It's an amazing thing Lord Jesus, after having eaten a meal, didn't stay at the table, got up and watched his disciples feet. My brother Imbo has just been talking about all the wonderful food that we've been getting here at the conference.
We've been sitting in the meetings and we've been taking in a lot of food. Maybe for a lot of us, it's not digested yet. I know for myself, I still have the taste of grace and truth in my mouth. I have a little bit of rather short message still caught between my teeth and I'm still chewing on it. It may take a little while to chew through it all, but we've eaten our meal. We have our stomachs full.
With natural food, if we sit back.
And have our coffee like I did. Those calories that we've taken in will turn into fat. Let's not let that happen to what we've eaten here. Let's take the food that we've eaten and put it into constructive energy.
Let's take it home to our home assemblies. Let's take it home to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Let's wash their feet with it. Let's use what we have taken here constructively. Let's get up and wash our brethren's feet. I was thinking about foot washing and actually over the last year I've been thinking a lot about foot washing.
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For the last year my wife and I have been living in West Africa and it makes a lot of sense there. Foot washing, most people wear sandals and after walking along some of The Dirty dusty.
You can understand foot washing and you come home not only your feet dirty, but they're sore.
And the tired and it's nothing nicer to sit than to sit down and maybe put your feet up for a while and then to take some cold water and a cloth and wash your feet.
And I often do that. I often wash my own feet. I don't believe I've ever had anyone offer to wash my feet. Neither have I asked anyone to wash my feet.
But it's a thoroughly enjoyable thing to have your feet washed.
And I was thinking about that foot washing. There's two sides to it. There's the person who washes the feet and there's a person who has their feet washed. And often we're exhorted to wash one anothers feet. And I think that's good in a spiritual sense. I think it's very important. There's another side to it that we often overlook is allowing yourself to have your feet washed. Very important thing. And in a natural sense, if you think about it, would you?
Like someone to come up to you and wash your feet.
There's two elements of it that sort of repulse me when I think about it.
First of all, my feet are very ticklish. If someone were to come up and start washing my feet at first it would feel a little bit funny.
And I might twitch a little bit. It's not a regular thing. And that's sort of a sad thing if we put it into a spiritual realm.
There's not a lot of foot washing.
And so when it happens when some brother comes to share a scripture, when someone comes to say I enjoyed what you said, when somebody.
Comes to encourage. Sometimes it feels a little bit funny that tickles us in the wrong way, sort of. When we pull back. We had more foot washing and gentle caressing of each other. We wouldn't feel that tickly feeling when some brother or sister comes to wash our feet.
The second part of it.
My feet aren't the prettiest feet. One toe is shorter than the other. Have a little wart on one of my feet. I've been ashamed of my feet and someone come to wash my feet. I'd sort of sort of be a little bit embarrassed about the condition my feet are in.
That's sort of the way some of us are spiritually sometimes, and someone comes to Washington, our feet to feed us, to give us a little bit of comfort, and we're in such bad spiritual state that we pull back, we're a little bit ashamed. And when someone comes to share a verse with us.
We're not quite on their level.
And so we pulled back. But I would encourage everybody to take that time to wash each other's feet. And so our Lord Jesus gets down and washes his disciples feet. A remarkable thing here.
He didn't just wash 11 disciples feet, He washed 12 disciples feet. The Lord Jesus knew.
That Judas would betray him.
It might be easy for me to get down and wash my wife's feet, but it might be a more difficult thing for me to wash the feet than somebody I knew didn't get along with me. They didn't agree with something that I said to get down and wash their feet. It might be difficult for me to allow myself to have my feet washed by someone I didn't get along with.
Should think about these things.
I'm not going to go into this and I don't know if I understand it in some of the deep ways that some may be the some of the older brother may.
Says.
Lord, you shouldn't wash my feet.
The Lord explains to him that if he doesn't wash him, then he has no part with him, Peter being the energetic man that he was. Well, he said, Well, in that case not only my feet, but my hands and my head.
The Lord Jesus explains in a simple way here, eternal security. Once you're washed, once you've been saved by Jesus Christ, you don't need to be saved again. The brothers and sisters, we need to have our feet washed. We're constantly in contact with the world. It's a very vivid example here. We can see it. Our feet, as we walk, touch the ground in a spiritual way. When we're walking through the world, we're in contact with the world. We need to come apart like we have and have our feet washed.
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It's a wonderful thing. I think Peter understood that.
And so then the Lord, after he has done this, puts his rose back on.
And sits down and tells them verse 15, verse 14 and 15. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet, he also ought to wash one anothers feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I've done to you.
Now this first part is the primary application of this scripture, but just recently I started to understand a secondary application and the scripture is so deep, it's so wonderful and when I first saw this I was so excited about it.
To look at it, verse four, he rises from supper, laid aside his garment and took a towel and girded himself. I believe through these verses here we can see the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can see his life and we can see his resurrection.
He rises from supper, laid aside his garment, took a towel, and girded himself. Let's look at Philippians 2, verse seven and eight.
Philippians 2, verse 7.
But made himself as Jesus Christ of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Our Lord Jesus Christ laid aside his garments. I believe somebody has.
Written or said, He veiled his glory. I like that expression.
I like that expression because as I was sitting in the room here, I was thinking about it. There are many ladies in the room today who are wearing veils on their heads. A woman has hair through glory and it's veiled. But as I stand from up here, I can see some hair poking out from sides of these veils. John one, verse 14, we beheld his glory.
Some of Jesus glory with being able to be seen through. No man can see God and live and Jesus had to veil his glory or else he could not have come as man.
He laid aside his towels. He laid aside his garments. He came from heaven. God became man and dwelt among us. He laid aside his garments.
Verse five. And after he poured the water into a basin, began to wash his disciples feet. Matthew 20. Verse 28.
The Son of Man came not to minister, not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.
The Lord of glory, the Son of God became man, dwelt among us. He didn't come to be ministered unto, but to give his life a ransom for many, until the Lord here is displaying.
Perfect servant getting down, washing his disciples feet. Jesus has done that.
So much, so much the more should we.
Continuing on with the secondary application, Peter says to him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Oh.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
Peter was one of his own, couldn't understand him. He came under the Jewish people. They didn't receive him. They crucified him, crucified the Lord of glory.
Him onto his own.
And finally, after he washed their feet and taken up his taken his garment and was set down again. I'll stop there. He took off his garments and was set down again. Oh, that sounds like Hebrews. One look at Hebrews one just quickly there.
Hebrews One, verse 3.
Who being the brightness of His glory.
An express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power.
When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down.
On the right hand of the majesty on high, our Lord Jesus Christ set aside His garments, came down, became the perfect servant.
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Not received by his own. Crucified on a cross.
Took back his garments and ascended back into heaven where he is at God's right hand. May God bless his word.
Well, as we come to the close of these meetings, I can't help but think of that verse. No man yet hated his own flesh.
The chairs of it and I think of the Lord's love for the body. Haven't we felt that the Lord has cherished us in these last couple of days, that the Lord has been tender and good to us and yet we've had Hebrews 12 before us and as one brother remarked, there's quite a range of truth in that book. And we see there an individual pathway and the Lord, he chastens us as individuals, but collectively as the body of Christ, he cherishes. And so I'd like to, with the Lord's help to.
Draw a circle as it is, where the Lord's pathway started and where it ended, and in a practical way, try to bring some help before us in connection with the days in which we're living.
The Lord's pathway began in the glory, and I think that we see that in John's ministry.
As we see from heaven God's judgment of things on earth.
And I enjoyed, and I've often enjoyed what our brother Danny brought before us in the young people's address at the beginning of these meetings in connection with John's ministry. John was found mending the Nets when the Lord called him.
And perhaps we feel ourselves in a.
Straight pathway, so to speak, where the Lord has cast us into circumstances that we cannot but look to Himself in these circumstances.
That perhaps often we've had human remedies and human resources that we've vainly turned to, but we find ourselves now in circumstances and decisions to make where we cannot turn to anything but the Lord. I'd like to turn to the third Epistle of John to start there.
And read 2 verses because I believe that it gives.
God's judgment from heaven as the Lord's judgment from heaven as to what he sees on earth.
I just make these comments in connection with John is that John doesn't tell us what to do, he just gives us God's judgment as to it.
In Revelation, you read, John is taken up to heaven and he sees the things that are.
And he says, here, let him that hath an ear to hear what? And so he tells us to hear.
But in a practical way, we don't find in John's ministry what we ought to hear. But I just first of all like to hear.
What the Lord is saying and what His assessment is. And 1St I want to warn you that there's some very startling statements made in John's epistles because as you know that he writes with a very simple vocabulary, I'm told in Greek with less than 600 words, and yet he's at the very end. He's mending the Nets.
Strengthening the things that remain. And he here now says in the third epistle of John.
The 11Th 1St beloved follow not that which is evil, but that which is good.
Is that not our desire follow that which not that which is evil, but that which is good?
He that doeth evil, he that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
Makes very abstract statements and they seem very bold and very striking to us. If you read his first epistle, and it's not so much practical, but it's abstract statements as to the things that are to say. What do I mean by that word abstract? May I use an illustration that was used with me that I think helped me understand what it meant is that you look at chairs and you think of all the chairs that you've seen in your life.
And then you abstract from all of those and you say chair is a movable seat with a back. You say, yes, that can be said of every chair that I've ever seen.
This third epistle to John and the first epistle we have.
Let's start in John's Gospel. And John's Gospel we find eternal life, come down from heaven and manifest.
Jesus Christ manifested eternal life. He was eternal life and we sought, John said our hands have handled it and our eyes have seen it. And this we saw as we read the Gospel of John. We see eternal life manifest in the Son of God in John's epistles. We find in the first epistle that it's manifest in the family of God. In the second epistle, it's manifest in the third epistle in the assembly. Don't we want to manifest that life of Christ?
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And so he gets right to the heart of the problem, so to speak, of all the problems that we may face and we're going to face and we will face in the past way. For we've been reading in Hebrews 12 about that pathway. He's the author and finisher of faith. He's the beginner of the pathway and he's the end of the pathway and He's marked it out for us. It's not a new pathway. It's one that he has marked out. It's starting in glory and it ends in glory. It proceeded from the heart of God. And that's where it brings us is right into the Father's house.
And he resolves all problems down to one thing. He says, He that doeth evil hath not seen God.
And whether it is with me as an individual or with my children or in the assembly, we can resolve everything down in a simple statement to that he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Our brother was referring to Peter. And you think, you know, we're so much like Peter. Peter was a man of action, and Peter was always telling the Lord what he shouldn't do. And don't we do that? Don't we do that? We tell the Lord what he shouldn't do. And so it was that Peter didn't have a proper sense of who the Lord Jesus was, that he was God.
And when I realized when I'm open the word of God and I realized who God is, I put my hand on my mouth as it were, and I bow the knee and I say, God ever blessed we bow the knee. All fullness dwells in thee is that we just have to bow into worship and as we take up the word of God.
That we realize who God is. It will govern the way we take up the Word of God, the version of the Bible that we take up. It'll take up the way that we interpret the Bible. It'll govern everything if we realize who God is, that God is God and we are men.
And so he says, he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Perhaps you say, well, a brother once said to me concerning Austin, he said, you called that evil. That's a pretty strong statement, warned you. And we see John uses very strong statements because he calls things, he doesn't mince words.
Is the expression of my own will. And so whenever my own will is an activity, and whenever our own will is an activity, as brethren or as man, natural man, it's sin and so.
He says it's very simply he that doeth evil hath not seen God. I'm not talking about a specific problem right now any more than I'm looking at a specific when you use the illustration of a chair that you're thinking of a specific chair. But in general, we can categorize all things into that category. And especially in the assembly, we need to look at how it affects Christ and his glory and his authority. And if we start from there, we're going to be kept them equally guide in judgment.
And if we take a lowly place before the Lord, and we look to the Lord and see how things don't affect me or my brother, as important as that is to the Lord, but how they affect the Lorde glory, the Lorde authority, and what the Lord desires. We've had. Brethren, bring before us what the Lord's desire is, what desire I have desired. Eat this Passover with you till I suffer. He said this, Do in remembrance till I come. How do our actions affect? And how does the course that I'm about to take, how does it affect the Lord's desires? Not mine, not my mother's, not my brother's.
But the Lords am I to come to the place not where I can get something? And we're thankful that we can come where the Lord can, where we can get something. And we've all received something. But I think a brother prayed in the first prayer and he said, we've received much from thee, and we're here to give you. We're here to give thee something. And so we have a clean place where we can come and bring something to the Lord. Well, let's just look now. We've looked at God's judgment from heaven, so to speak.
As to what he sees on Earth, and I'd like to in Hebrews we read of him that spake on Earth and I'd like to turn back to Matthew chapter 18 in connection with him that speaks on Earth.
And then we'll go, and we'll look with the Lord's help at him that speaks from heaven.
Because we want to see what the Lord's desire is for us here on earth. Our brother read First Kings chapter 10 and this morning and it's very lovely to see the order of God's house. And I think in his prayer he referred to that as being there in heaven and to behold that order. But God has a house here on earth. And we read that we don't have time, nor do I have the ability to develop all these things.
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But God has a house, a dwelling place here on earth, and it includes all those that name the name of the Lord.
And he, his son over his own house, just as there are many fathers in this room tonight, have a right to decide what comes into their home and what should characterize their house. His son over his own house, and he has rights in connection with that house. I'm not talking now about what brethren want, younger brethren or older brethren. I'm talking about what the Lord desires his son over his own house. And he has rights that his house be kept clean and there not be that which is brought into his house that defiled that house.
So God is a dwelling place here on earth, the House of God, and he has a body, a living body.
And that living body is made of living members.
But then how do we give expression to that truth? We find ourselves in the house. Second Timothy likens it to a great house, but it's still the House of God. It's still a House of God. But now we find how do we give expression to that? Well, he assembles us. And our brother spoke of that yesterday afternoon about being gathered to the Lord's name of giving expression to the truth. And perhaps there are many frustrated souls here today, and I've sensed it.
If you allow me a personal reference that I felt it for many years. His frustration of knowing the truth, knowing that the Lord desires that we remember him in death, knowing that he desires that his house is to be kept clean. Knowing all of these things. But how do we give expression to those truths?
But we're going to have to turn to Paul's doctrine to see that. And without going into all of that, I first want us to see the Lord's words here on earth so we might know what His desire is. Because I just want to read again those verses that our brother Clem read before we look at this and take this up is in Second Timothy chapter 2.
And verse 13. I'll read only verse 13.
If we believe not yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself.
He wanted a bride, he wanted a body, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. He wanted that, and he went to the cross to get that and just out of Adam's pierced inside.
There was a wounded side, the bride Eve came that the 2nd man from his pierced side, that precious blood flowed forth to save. And so now He has a body here on earth, and He desired that, and He cannot deny himself. And so here in Matthew 18, we have something that He's desired and that He wants until we get plain statements of fact that our brother brought out. And I'd like to just reiterate them, but I'd like to end this show.
What was brought out yesterday that it is by grace, It is only by grace. And what our brother said is that it's grace is connected with faith. That we believe the statements of God that we cease from man and that we see the Lord and have simple confidence in the Word of God to go on trusting the Lord, that the Lord will provide a pathway for us to walk in.
Let's just look at this in Matthew 18.
I'm going to read this all again without commenting on it, but in verse 15.
Moreover, if thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. And if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if you neglect to hear them, tell it under the church. But if you neglect to hear the church, tell it, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and republican.
Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
And again I say, if two or three, if two of you shall agree on earth is touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father, which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
I'm going to read the 21St verse as well. Then came Peter, and said and said, Lord, how OFT shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him till seven times. And Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until 70 * 7.
Well I'd like to show two things here. And I think that our brother is well established what the Lords desire is, and my desire in reading these is that it is by grace, it is by simple confidence in the Word of God that God maintains a pathway for faith.
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And that in these very verses are the seeds and the proof of that fact that it is not on responsibility. We're going to come to that question of responsibility, but it is in sovereign grace that God has marked out a pathway for faith.
We have much doctrine in connection with the truth.
And I'd like to.
Come to that a little bit, but.
The Lord said, Where two or three are gathered together unto my name. Do you know that?
According to that statement that you cannot fully carry out all that the Lord has said in these verses.
With two or three.
And you say, why am I saying that? Am I trying to be difficult?
We're living in difficult days and weakness. The church at ACT started with two or three thousand in a testimony of power, but now we find ourselves in the days of twos and threes. Does that mean that we can no longer count on the Lord's presence? Is it numbers that count with the chloride or is it grace? Is the Lord going to maintain us in a pathway by grace or is it by numbers and majorities and so on? I just want to show you this is that you cannot carry this all out.
With just two or three, you can quickly see, without me even pointing it out to you, that it takes three or four.
I want to ask you a question here. We turn to 1St Corinthians 14 and you'll find out there's a reading meeting, there's an open meeting there described or and we find the exercise of gift in the assembly. What if that two or three consists of a brother and a sister?
You say, well, I can't, I can't carry that out. Do I give up the pathway and say, well, I'm going to give up now, I'm going to pack it in. I'm going to go somewhere else where there's 150 or 200. I'm going to leave the pathway of the truth because I can't carry that out. The Lord's still there.
Where two or three are gathered together under my name, there am I in the midst. And that's what we want to desire above all.
And in all is to see the Lord, and so it's not a question of being able to exercise the privileges and exercise the.
All of the things that we find in the word of God, but it's a question of going on in faith. So it's a little strength that was kept my word and that's not denied my name. That was a little strength. And so perhaps you may find yourself in a small assembly with two or three.
But does that mean you have to give up because you can't have let the prophet speak two or three? Perhaps it's two sisters and a brother. And does that mean that that you have to cease to function? No, the Lord still has blessedly promised by His grace His presence in the midst. And so we find, as we find ourselves in the very last days of weakness, that we find that the Lord Himself presents Himself to us and makes himself very near.
I hope I'm making my point clear that it is not a question of power and great things, but it is a question of seeing God, seeing the Lord in the midst.
And it's a very pernicious and wicked thing that our brother was saying, this notion that the Lord is not in the midst, and this is not the Church of God.
He that doeth evil hath not seen God. And if I don't see the Lord in the midst, what is going to keep me or restrain me?
My respect for other brethren, I ought to have it, but if I don't see the Lord in the midst, what is to keep me or to restrain me? What's to keep me there? My brother asked me, where do you go? I say I go wherever I believe the Lord is in the midst. I don't want to be misunderstood by that statement is that I go where I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the mids, and where they are gathered to the Lord's name, and where they submit to the Lord's authority. I don't go to independent places where they submit to the authority of the Pope in Rome, or the submit to a group of brethren or they submit to.
The will of the congregation. I don't go to those places. I go to where the Lord's authority is submitted to.
And so authority is connected with the Lord's name and so.
I just may make this as an aside. I don't want to speak about myself, but I was among open brethren and.
Their whole premise is that the assembly is independent, and this is the very proof that that cannot be.
This is the very proof that it cannot be because we see that we need each other and there may be a weak testimony, but we need each other to practice what we find in 18 and 20. And so we find people say, well, it's not practical anymore. That's not so. And there's a testimony and maybe in weakness, but there is a testimony that we can walk in this pathway. And the only way we can do it is in lowliness and humility and in grace is simply believing what God has said and going on in the truth of God.
00:45:28
The question our brother mentioned of the question of bitterness also came up and we see this here that because I believe before the Holy Ghost was given that the question of personal offenses was come up. And I'd like to mention that because again, it touches us to the question of grace.
There was a verse that troubled me a great deal, and my older brethren will vouch for this is it is the glory of man to Passover sin.
What does that mean?
If my brother offends me.
That I can overlook that.
A brother once lent some money to somebody and he didn't repay him.
And he phoned him back a little while later and asked him to borrow some more.
And the brother felt constrained of the Lord to tell him, He said, I can't lend you anymore. You've been irresponsible. You've not kept the conditions of my first love. And then he sat down and he wrote him a check for $500 and he said this is a gift.
Now why do I say that it is the glory of man to Passover sin is that he sought to reach that man's conscience.
But he passed over the question of the personal debt, and we can do that.
Now I don't want to take anyway take aside the seriousness of the carelessness of not paying our debts, but just to show on the part of the one who forgave and went on. And nor am I making it a pattern. But the question is, as brethren, we can go on. We do not need to make every friction between ourselves an issue.
But now let's come to the question. I'm speaking now of man between men. But let's see, as we said in John's brother, beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. How then do we act when there are things that touch the Lord's glory?
I have to admit that often we get very touchy when people.
Hurt us, But how do we? How are we affected when people take up and corrupt the Word of God?
The Lord is absent in heaven and we are left here as a testimony. Do we earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints? Are we careful? Are we moved? We may not always act rightly, and we often blame Peter for taking up the sword of the sword of the flesh and cutting off the high priest's servant's ear. But he had a right motive. He was moved. He's had to stand up and act and said you've taken him with wicked hands and he was moved by that. Are we unmoved when God's given His word and man corrupts it?
Are we unmoved when people teach?
Denying the eternal sonship of Christ and denying doctrines, denying the Lord's desire, He went to the cross to have Him for Himself, a bride, a body, bone of his bone, and flesh of His flesh. And that we might be gathered together as one here on earth. And when men teach, well, you can go wherever you want. The Lord is in the midst everywhere. Are we unmoved by that? I'm not talking about how we feel between each other, but how does it touch the Lord's desires towards us? Are we willing to offer anything back to the Lord to fulfill the Lord's desire that the Lord desires that we should be one and that we should go on in submission to His Word.
And so you see, it's not as how it affects me or affects my family or affects somebody that I like, but how does it affect and touch the Lord. And we need to be moved by that. And I don't say this to be contentious, but I believe that if we really look at this question and we really examine in our hearts as to how does these things touch the Lord's glory, the Lord's desire, the Lord's authority, then will be kept.
But as to those personal things, we can forgive 70 * 7 And I don't believe we should forgive unless there's confession. But we can Passover things, and we can leave them and let the Lord take care of them. And Mr. Darby once said, and I believe that it's correct, that in a day of weakness much is made about the way in which a thing is done rather than what is done. And I think that if we examine the what is done as touching the Lord's glory and the Lord's authority and the Lord's desire that His people to be together in one place.
That our judgments will be formed to write.
Well, I've strayed now into I believe and I realized that I'm not perfectly clear when I speak, but into what Pauls doctrine is. Because we have the Lorde desire and I believe that we see that it can only be maintained in grace and in a day of weakness. Whether two or three sisters in a place alone, or whether a brother and two sisters, or whether 200 or whether 400 is only by simply believing the word of God as her brother said yesterday.
00:50:22
Grace and faith are connected, but for by grace are you saved through faith.
And so it was grace that saved us, and it's grace that will keep us. And faith.
He that has received this testimony is set to a seal that God is true, but God be true in every man a liar.
But then we come back in the full circle in Hebrews chapter 12. If they refuse not him that's fake on earth is that now we have the Lord speaking from heaven and this is Pauls ministry and I don't have an opportunity to develop obviously all of Paul's ministry this afternoon and I.
Don't want to simply give an exhortation empty without any instruction. We can often encourage people to cling on to the truth and they don't know what they're supposed to cling on to. But we need to get into the word of God and to see what the instruction of Paul's ministry, which is the Lord speaking from heaven is as to what to do, how to carry out now, how to practically carry on with what he said, Follow that which is good.
Don't do what's evil. We need Paul's doctrine.
And it's not just a bunch of secondary things. They're important because that is how.
God maintains order in His house.
And it's not a question, I trust that, of love. If there's no love, then really there's not much. But you know, there can be all the love in the world in a home, but if there's no order, it's confusion. You ever been in a home like that? Mine is like that. Sometimes I love my children. Disorder. It's confusion. And the same is true in the assembly. Brethren may love each other, but if there's not godly order, then it's just confusion. And there's no way to give expression to the love. You see a brother and a schism or a heresy has come in and the brother kind of turns the other way. There's feelings, there's bitterness, and there's love there, but there's no way to give expression to it because there's not godly order. We've not followed out. What?
Paul's ministry takes us back up to heaven to tell us what is the fellowship of the mystery and to know what the height. Let's look at that in Ephesians chapter 2 because I.
Want to bind these thoughts together?
Or Ephesians chapter 3.
Without commenting on all of them, but just to bring us here is Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 7, whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God-given unto me by the effectual working of his power unto me, who am less than the least of All Saints.
Is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ?
And to make known, and to make all men see. What is the fellowship of the mystery.
From the beginning of the world that he hath hidden God with created all things by Jesus Christ, and then just coming down here.
To verse 18.
Verse 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with All Saints what is the bread, and the length, and the depth and the height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge that.
Ye may be filled with all the fullness of God. So he wants us to know what is the height and the breadth and the depth of the love of God. And so it is in Paul's ministry that he's going to bring us in to see the fullness of this and how to practically give expression to this wonderful truth that we find.
And to practically carry out, even in a question of judgment as to what John appraises to be the last state of the church in Revelation are there in John's epistle.
Do you understand what we're getting at? I just trust that we do. Is that.
The pathway can only be a question of grace. It's not simply a question of keeping upon the Saints of God the responsibilities. You should remember the Lord in his death.
00:55:03
You should do this and you should do that. That's true.
And we all realize that. And it's not just us here that realizes that. The Baptist friend that I go to work with, he realizes that there's one body, but he can't give expression to that truth.
The open brethren place where I left, they believed that that there's one body, but they can't give expression to that truth. And I don't want to name names to to embarrass any, but they're dear people of God. But you can't give expression to that. And so now we need the truths of Paul's ministry and all of Paul's ministry to maintain us in that truth so that within this House of God, the dwelling place of God that includes everyone that names the name of the Lord that there might be a company that.
Might be gathered to the Lord, and there might be a clean place where the Lord can enjoy his own desires.
Now where there is not that, and I might just conclude by that coming back to Hebrews chapter 12, is that there is chastening with us as individuals, and the Lord brings us into a narrow spot so that we have to look back to Himself.
And I think we've had that very clearly before us in these meetings that we pick up the.
Hands that hang down, so to speak, and we get the word of God open. We look into the Word of God.
We look to the truth of God to keep us, and we look most of all to the Lord.
So we might be directed in a right pathway.
Sanctify them through Thy.
Truth by word is true, and that is what's going to bind us together, and that's what's going to cause us to go on together.
But beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good and let us in everything look and see how matters touch the Lords glory. And then we have to go and we have to look in Paul's doctrine to see how that's carried out. And many of us who are younger and I my little talk here this afternoon is very much evidence of the fact is that we've been neglectful of really getting into Paul's doctrine that we might be able to set it forth as clearly as we ought to.
And that is why that God has given, as our brother spoke of, guides and elders in the assembly, that they might keep the charge.
And that there might be security and safety, and that the testimony might go on, but let us just look to the Lord very much to go on for Himself to follow that which is good, and may we go on together for Himself until He comes for us.