Address—Doug Buchanan
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We have looked at two of the truths that were recovered the heavenly calling of the church, the hope of the Lord's coming that we are a heavenly people. We've also considered how God sent the Holy Spirit down to unite us to Christ in heaven.
Where He is entered and where He's going to take us and how the Holy Spirit ministers to us.
Shows us the glories of Christ.
Convinces the world of sin.
Different aspects of the work of the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit collectively uniting us, the sealing of the Spirit of God, individually sealing us for his.
His guarantee?
The anointing or the unction, the power given to us to walk the Christian pathway. We don't depend on ourselves and also the earnest for the enjoyment that we need because we live in a wilderness, wild, as the hymn says. And this morning I would like to continue now with the thoughts of.
The place of the Lord's appointment, the House of God, where God dwells here on earth amongst His believers.
And to do this, I'm going to go back to the Old Testament, and as quickly as I can, I'm going to read through a series of scriptures without too much comment.
Tracing the way that the Lord worked.
To make his people find the place where he had appointed.
The people of Israel to gather together.
So I'm going to give the citation of these verses and read them. If you care to follow along, that's fine, or if you just want to write down the reference, that's fine too. The 1St is in Joshua chapter 15 and verse 8.
And the border went up by the valley of the Son of Hinnom unto the South side of the Jebusite. The same is Jerusalem. And the border went up to the top of the mountain that lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the end of the valley of the Giants northward.
Verse 63 of Joshua 15 As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out. But the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.
Judges, Chapter one, verse 21.
And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem.
But the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.
First Chronicles 11, verse 4.
And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is which is Jebus, where the Jebusites were the inhabitants of the land.
And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David, Thou shalt not come hit her. Nevertheless, David took the castle of Zion, which is the city of David. And we already read the succeeding verses of how Joab went up and conquered it, and I want to tie that in.
Chapter 21 and verse 13.
And David said to Gad, I am in a great Strait, let me fall now into the hand of the Lord, for very great are his mercies, but let me not fall into the hand of men. So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel 70,000 men. And God sent an Angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it, And as he was destroying, the Lord beheld.
And he repented him of the evil, and said to the Angel that destroyed.
It is enough.
Stay now, thine hand and the Angel of the Lord stood.
By the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Chapter 22, verse one.
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I'm going to go back and read from the 29th verse of chapter 21. For the Tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering were at that season in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid because of the sword of the Angel of the Lord. Then David said, This is the House of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering.
For Israel and David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel.
And he sent Masons to Hugh, wrought stones to build the House of God.
Second Chronicles, chapter 6, verse 4.
This is Solomon.
And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath.
With his hands fulfilled that which he spake with his mouth to my father David, saying, Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build and house in.
That my name might be there. Neither chose I any man.
To be a ruler.
Over my people Israel, but I have chosen.
Jerusalem that my name might be there and have chosen David.
To be over my people, Israel.
Now it was in the heart of David my father to build and house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. But the Lord said to David my father, For as much as it was in thine heart to build an house for my name, thou didst well in that it was in thy heart, notwithstanding thou shalt not build the house, but thy son, which shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house.
For my name.
Chapter 7.
Verse one.
Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven.
And consumed the burnt offering, and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house.
And the priests could not enter into the House of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord.
Had filled the Lord's house, and when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement.
And worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, for he is good.
For his mercy endureth forever.
Nehemiah, chapter one.
Verse 3.
And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach.
The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and they gauged thereof are burned with fire.
Verse 8 Remember, I beseech thee.
The word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations. But if you turn unto me and keep my commandments, and do them, though there were of you cast out into the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
Wonderful, isn't it, how God worked with Israel over a long, long span of time?
We started out these theories speaking about the enemies of the truth of God.
The spiritual hosts of wickedness, and we have seen a practical demonstration of that here.
In the history of Israel, laying hold of the truth.
That God had intended, I believe, since the foundation of the world, it says in Romans.
That Jerusalem would be the place where he would dwell amongst His people, because that is one of the desires of God's heart to dwell with His people.
There it was, dwelling with them here on earth.
God delights to dwell with us too, and.
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Today there is a spiritual house that is being built up, and we're going to look then shortly at the New Testament and see, I trust from the Word God's desire and God's place of appointment for us today. And God has done it both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament in such a way that.
The souls of men were used.
To lay hold of God's thoughts.
To lay the foundation.
Build the house to make a dwelling place for God to be monks amongst his people.
In the Old Testament it was a physical house, and it was a physical demonstration too. The glory of the Lord came down and filled that house.
After many battles, and that house was built with the gold and the silver and the precious stones that they had taken from the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Philistines, and so on. They had.
Gain 1 victory after another and David had heaped up that mountain of gold.
Amazing amount, I don't know how many $1,000,000 it would have been worth.
Glory and honor to be used to God's name that was going to be dwelling among them.
And today, God is also building a house.
It is being built here today on Earth.
A spiritual house.
And we have already noticed some verses that bring that out, but we're going to turn to them.
And so we see a parallel the way God did it in the Old Testament on earth.
And I believe the same history has repeated itself in the New Testament.
Just like Israel was later after many years.
It was destroyed. All that glory to God's name.
Wasn't esteemed of enough value and they let it slip. They didn't defend it from the enemies of the land. So in the church history, since the Lord has opened up a heavenly ministry, since the Holy Spirit has come down here to baptize us.
And the foundation of the House of God has been laid.
Failure has come in.
And we're going to notice the House of God being built in two different aspects, as God builds it and as man builds it, and both go on simultaneously, God overseas. And when he builds it, it's good material, but when it's entrusted to man's hands, we see that we fail. And just like Israel failed and the walls were broken down.
And Nehemiah had to go back and rebuild those walls with exactly the same stones.
And there was a there was a measure of restoration and blessing.
So we too today live in a time when in these last few 100 years.
Many truths have been restored. The foundation they've got, we've got.
By the grace of God, we've been able to get back to the basic truths of Christianity.
And put our faith on them, walk in over that basis that Gods has built by His Spirit at this time. We know the house today has grown to be a huge house. That wasn't God's intention in man's building.
It's too bad. What are we going to do, go out and destroy that?
We're going to go out and tell everybody what they're doing wrong and tell them to how they get back to where we see the Lord would have us to do where he dwells. No, brethren, no, we have to leave that with the Lord. Like the parable of the tares and the wheat. We don't go up pulling up the tares. The angels are going to do that at the end of the dispensation. No, in that aspect.
We just leave them, Thank God where the gospel is preached. Oh praise God.
We're thankful for everywhere the gospel is preached and justice because somebody doesn't walk according to the faith that we see.
That we have doesn't mean they're all wrong. We'll let the Lord take care of what's right and wrong about it.
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But we must have our own faith, dear young people.
And I want to instill in our hearts a personal, individual faith.
And what you believe we have a demonstration in Joab who?
Was challenged and he went out and he took a hold of that city of the Jebusites.
They conquered it at great cost.
That's what we need to do.
Conquered by faith. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. No, not like.
Not like Joab, but spiritual. And the house is a spiritual house too.
That's being built up. It's not a physical house like walls like this.
And I want to say another make another point here too. Sometimes, you know, we think that there is the House of God and that we live in it or that we dwell in it. That's that's backwards. We are the house, we are the stones. God is the one that dwells in it.
Just the opposite maybe as oftentimes we think people talk about going to church and that that's the temple of God as if.
No, that's that's not the way it really is. It's not a physical building either. He dwells in US collectively and that's why you have the collective descent of the Holy Spirit, or that he unites collectively in one and also individual. It all ties together.
The Lord in heaven, the Holy Spirit down here and the building going on and the church being formed, it's called, we've, we've touched on it as the bride of Christ. That's one aspect of the church we're speaking now, the church as the House of God and when it's the House of God.
The thought is it's the dwelling place, or it's the place of administration and authority or discipline as is necessary at times.
That's always in connection with the House of God. You never find discipline, for example, in connection with the bride of Christ.
Never. That would that would spoil the picture, wouldn't it? It takes many types for God to convey His great thoughts towards us.
And we need to enjoy these different thoughts or.
Representations that God gives us, such as a bride.
And it was brought out last night, many of the virtues and names that the bride has, those are God's thoughts toward the bride. Wonderful. And we understand that being in a relationship or seeing the relationship of a husband and wife, it's, and it's been called the closest relationship, the nearest relationship that any people of God will have or could have with God.
With the Lord Jesus, who is the Bridegroom.
Now there is also the church as the body of Christ, and if the Lord will, maybe we could touch on that tomorrow or whenever the Lord gives opportunity. Now let's turn to the New Testament for some scriptures about this. Matthew 16, verse 13.
When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, AM?
And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered him, Blessed art thou Simon Barjona.
For flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
This is the first mention in the New Testament of the Church, the Assembly.
The language here is future I will build.
Because the Church did not begin until the Lord had gone back to heaven and the Holy Spirit had come down to form it.
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It couldn't form. You can't have a body without a head. And how could we have a head until he had gone there in heaven to be our head? That's the Lord. But he's telling. He's telling his disciples about it because this was a new thing.
And what is the foundation of it? The foundation is the confession that Peter made. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Have you believed that? Have you accepted Him, the Christ, the Son of the living God?
Is he your Lord and Savior?
If so, then you have put your trust in him, the cornerstone of the church, the foundation.
Of the church.
That's how you become a member of this church.
And we must be simple about it.
Confusion has been made of this.
In putting up and building church rolls and memberships.
And certain creeds have been added, and names of doctrines have been added to.
And names of countries and all kinds of elegant languages used to describe memberships to certain systems and organizations. You don't see anything about that in the Word of God. And that's why in all the confusion that's about us, we need to get back to the beginning. We need to go back at this at this day.
When?
The Outward.
View of the House of God here on earth has been all messed up.
And broken down and divided up in pieces. And the testimony to the Lord's name is not united.
There isn't just one church in quotes.
Her denomination.
In this world identified the name.
Christ, the Son of the living God publicly. Now we know before God there is only one church there. There always will only be. But the public demonstration in our hands isn't hasn't stayed that way. So what do we do? The same thing that Nehemiah and Ezra did. Go back to those original get those original stones and put them on top of each other where they're supposed to be, and then you'll have another temple.
Or the same temple, really. And so today.
We go back to the original doctrine that the apostles received from the Lord Jesus.
And that same faith and it's for us today individually to do that.
And you young people are at an age when you need to be thinking about these things.
When you need to be deciding in your soul, where is the House of the Lord?
Where does He want me to worship Him?
Let's go on to Matthew chapter 18.
Verse 17. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the church. This is the second mention of the church in the New Testament. But if he neglected here the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man in a public land. Verily I say unto you.
Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything, that they shall ask.
It shall be done for them of my Father, which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them, just like in the Old Testament.
The glory of the Lord came down and filled the house. Now that happened on Pentecost.
Two, God, the Spirit came down and dwelt there. He hasn't. He hasn't exited the house since then. The old house has been all broken up, but there still is a House of God.
In two ways. There's a house as seen by man's building, and there's the house that God recognizes and has building.
The house that man builds includes false material as well as genuine.
The house that God sees.
Where he dwells.
Is the real, is the true, though there are many faults among in in the house.
Making professions. Now you have the binding and the losing here just as in in.
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In the 16th chapter, and I believe that shows us the administration that was given.
Authority House is a place where there is an authority. There is a head of the house.
Her father and the mother.
And so on.
And.
There are many headships and that God has given.
And so whenever we talk of such things as binding and losing or putting away or receiving and things like this.
Administrative things that must take place.
It's always in connection with the House of God.
Not the body you don't find in the in the Scriptures that a cutting off of a member of the body of Christ. That's that's another subject. You can't mix them up. They don't go good together, but each fits as God has intended. The thought when the body of Christ is union with Christ one they're made one.
And so it's necessary in this case where there's a disagreement, the church is the last word, the highest authority, the highest Court of Appeal in this case. And within this realm, now I know there are there are civil governments and authorities too, and the.
The Corinthians were getting those two mixed up and they were going to the civil when they had a disagreement with somebody in the church, and that was wrong.
And when you've got a problem in your family, you don't go over to the neighbors to settle it.
No, there's a headship right there that God established. Let's take care of the matter right there and then when it's in the House of God, then let's take care of it right there. Well, I think that's plain. Now let's go on over to Ephesians chapter.
Two Ephesians 2, verse 18.
For through him that is Christ.
The one who preached peace.
Broadest and I.
We, both Jew and Gentile, have access by 1 spirit.
The Spirit of God that came down and formed the church unto the Father.
Now, therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners. He's talking about Gentile peoples that never knew any relationship with God, but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God.
We have the House of God, household of God.
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ.
Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed.
Together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.
In whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God.
Through the Spirit.
Well, here we have the continuation of the work of God in the building, the house, the dwelling place, habitation of God through the Spirit. God the Spirit dwells in the house.
He hasn't left.
And we don't. We ought not to need.
The demonstrations of the presence of the Spirit of God that were given at Pentecost.
The signed gifts, for example, healings and miracles and tongues, those were given in the beginning to testify of it. Once that is established, just like once the glory of the Lord came down and filled the house in Solomon's day, it ought not to be necessary for that glory to outwardly, visibly be displaying itself every day.
You know we walk by faith and the Spirit of God is not a tangible or something you can see and touch.
The world would take him and abuse him if they saw him.
That's what they did to Christ.
And that's why he has come down in the Spirit.
To work. But we see them. I trust we do.
Do we recognize Him? Do we submit to the Spirit of God when He brings things before us by the Word?
We ought to If we do, the house will start building will become.
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There will be edification or building. It will grow.
There will be blessing.
If we do not, if we grieve the Spirit, maybe some stones will tumble down and.
Maybe there will be some truth given up.
Maybe the Jebusites will come and get it back again.
The enemies.
The heavenly hosts will rob us, and you know how they do it.
Hudson Hudson Taylor had the accustom of reading his Bible early in the morning and he he made this comment I believe he said, you know the enemy of our soul can use such a trivial thing as adjusting the blind to keep us from reading the scriptures.
You know you sit down and open up your Bible and 1001 Things can pop into your mind to go do immediately.
The Jebusites are Robin.
Or you think about asking for your place at the Lord's table.
And the Jebusites will come and they'll make something. Maybe somebody will insult you.
Or somebody will say something, or something happens in the assembly 1001 Things can come. Who's doing that? The spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places, because they oppose the work of Christ.
That's the battle that's going on.
We felt it. We feel it in the assemblies.
Oh, there's an easier path. You can kind of coast along with the general trend of things and go, as they say, to the Church of your choice. That's the easy way. Is that the way of God? Was it the way in the Old Testament? No, it wasn't. They really had to work hard to get that city of Jerusalem, and they had to go over and over again. It took years for them totally to get control of that city.
And then they lost it again.
They really don't have it totally back again yet.
The Jews? Well, this is what's going on, young people.
So let's get back to basics.
Search out these foundation truths, these foundations stones that the apostles and prophets laid.
Our brother read that verse in Acts 2 before us this morning. And that that's a beautiful demonstration for it. I believe those are probably the four main, main stones there that the that the that they laid in the beginning.
The Apostles doctrine.
Apostles Fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers.
And I think our meetings and assembly ought to be characterized with meetings that would cater to those four things.
Doctrine is necessary in teaching.
It isn't left us to choose what kind of a congregation we want to meet with the apostles. Doctrine is the basis, the only basis. If everybody got back to it, we'd all be together. So here we see in Ephesians.
The House of God, as he built it, builds it fitly framed, so the two are going on simultaneously.
God's side, man's side, and as it said in.
In Matthew 16, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. You see, the gates of hell are that spiritual hosts of wickedness.
That seeks to destroy it and tear it down.
But God is going to see.
That it's done and it's finished and it's going to be. And so the basis for our faith is there. Just because there's confusion out out there visibly to us doesn't mean that there is a true foundation to put your faith in.
There is, but you got to get back to the epistles here to find it.
You won't get it. Listen to the radio. You might get some little truths, but you're going to get a lot more air than truth.
And the ministry, the written ministry, is good too. We've got people that have dug into these things.
At great expense.
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We might as well take advantage of it. It will save yourself a lot of trouble.
Take advantage of some of the ministry that some godly Saints have have have spent long hours over the Word digging into to recover.
Just like they had to do in Nehemiah's time, they had to go back and dig in all that filth and dirt, find each stone, put it back where it belonged. Because if you get one stone out of place, then the others don't fit right. But God's house is fitly framed. You know, I down in Peru there there's, there's some ruins of the Incas.
Built way back.
Nearly a couple thousand years ago, I believe, before cement had ever been invented or discovered or whatever.
Have stones there that are huge. Some of them were probably, I'd say 14 feet square and maybe three or four feet thick, huge stones. And they're not just square, but they're, they've got every kind of angle and corner and curvature you can think of. And they take those stones and they fit them together. So you can't get a knife blade between them.
Without any mortar.
A lot of work went into those stones.
And that's the way it was with Solomon's temple, too. It's interesting, it says when Solomon built that temple, there wasn't heard the sound of the hammer or the carpenter's tool there in Jerusalem. Where did all that take place? It took place way back over in the quarry or way back over where they hewed the lumber and they prepared every piece.
To perfectly fit and when they brought it in there, they set it in place and it worked.
That's God's way of building, and that's the way he's building the church. And he knew you before the foundation of the world.
And he prepared you, and he made you what you are, and you fit in God's church if you're one of his disciples, if you've owned the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
And you need to occupy that place. You need to praise God in whatever way He gave you to praise Him. And there are many ways to do that.
Now there's one more scripture we want to turn to turn to before we close. And in First Corinthians 3 verse nine. First Corinthians 3 verse nine. For we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder. I have laid the foundation and another, another buildeth thereon, but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay.
Then that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Here we have the building in the hands of man, and if we'd read the whole chapter, we'd see how failure comes in and the responsibility comes in. And so we have responsibility here.
There's responsibility to us here at Lassen Pines in the way we conduct things, and that's why there are certain rules and regulations and and so on, because it's the desire.
It's our desire to build right material and we have to give an account and you have to give it count of how you build too.
Paul by the grace of God laid a good foundation God in his mercy preserved so that the failure didn't enter into the apostles work because if it had of.
I'm afraid we wouldn't have got to put the rest of it together that they've messed up on, but God saw fit to preserve the apostles.
Paul especially, he says I've laid the foundation, that is, he was the principal one that God used.
To bring these truths out to us.
Now the balls in our court, young people, the buildings in our court, how are we going to evangelize? How are we going to conduct our meetings?
Who's going to be allowed to break breath?
All these things are for us to seek out.
Put our faith in. You see, it's a two way St. If God is going to dwell with his people, we have to be together on this.
And who's boss?
The Lord God is and so the whole thought of worshipping where you please.
Is totally foreign to the scriptures. We've got to get to where God's thoughts are.
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Oh, we can build a church and we can build all kinds of things and have all kinds of creeds, and we can make it look real, whole lot like God's church. But that won't make it what makes it God's church.
His dwelling there.
And that's where we need to go. Where two or three are gathered into my name, there am I in the midst of them.
A little over 160 years ago, brethren discovered that verse.
And they put their faith in that verse, and they separated from all the confusion and air that was around them.
And they started breaking bread.
In obedience or in faith on that verse and it's been going on.
Ever since.
And I can say for myself, I have seen where I believe the Lord Jesus is in the midst, and that's where I worship Him. That's where I break the bread and remember Him together, because the breaking of bread is the expression of that unity. They are the one body and of the remembrance of the Lord and the recognition of His presence there in the loaf, in the cup. But I can't say that for you. You have to see that for yourself.
Otherwise you would be following me.
And just be a disciple of mine or some other brother.
Deciphering.
Followers of the Lord.
May the Lord make that clear to you, each one of you and your souls. Shall we close with prayer?