Address—Doug Buchanan
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Everybody else that wants to relive the Reformation and find out how you survive, pick your pick a name and you can come and check your, your survival rate up here on the, uh, chart at the uh, behind me here.
Could we begin with a hymn 170 One 171?
234829 52553.
94 Together and forever.
Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello today.
31958.
9.
01/3.
This meeting may be a little different than normal meetings, uh, where we take up just a scripture and expound it, although we're not going to be far from the scriptures.
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Uh, as I.
Thought about speaking a little of what? How God over the last 500 years has brought Christianity along.
I was impressed to notice that in the book of Acts when Paul when UMM Peter spoke on the day of Pentecost, he went back and rehearsed the history of Israel. When Steven spoke on in the 7th chapter he did the same thing. He went back to Abraham and and and told the history of what had happened.
And in the 13th chapter of of Acts.
The Apostle Paul did the same thing and it encouraged me.
Because.
I see that God, uh, has used His servants in that way.
Now.
We had I passed out some names to the young people particularly encourage you to, uh, follow up with, uh, some reading to find out some of the details.
Of how the Christian testimony got to where we are right now, some of the cost that was paid.
For us to have a Bible in our hands.
To be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is a wonderful thing. It did not come easy to get where we are here today.
And I hope that after this meeting that there will be more of a sense of appreciation.
For the things that God has given us today.
It's easy to take it for granted what we have. I'm not just talking about the material things we don't, we're certainly not excluding that, but the the spiritual things, the liberty and truth and freedom to worship God according to his Word.
It's a great privilege.
Another thought that struck me was about remembering.
Seven times in the New Testament.
We're given seven things and more than seven, but there's seven that I'm going to mention that we're told to remember.
They are. Remember the poor.
Remember Paul's bonds.
Remember our labor and travel.
Remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead.
Remember them that are in bonds.
Remember those who have spoken to you the word of truth.
Remember how thou hast received.
So this meeting is gonna be about remembering.
The Lord would have us.
Not all of these things are are, uh, things that are to be remembered right now.
Well, remembering the poor would be, I think, not just remembering somebody that lived 400 years ago that was poor. There are poor today, but remember Paul's bonds.
That's nearly 2000 years ago.
Paul wrote three of his epistles from prison.
That ought to mean something to us. We ought not to forget that.
He was a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
Travail and labor, Jesus Christ raised from the dead.
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Christianity is about.
Especially about a man that died and rose again and lives with power, and that has sent down the Spirit of God.
That Spirit of God is with us to this day.
That Spirit of God was with this list here of martyrs and those who suffered.
I have here as I was reading through a book. This is not a BTP book. I like Fox's Book of Martyrs, but by the way, Mr. John Fox is on this list here. I don't know.
Who drew Mr. John Fox's name?
If you like, I will give you a book, if BTP has it here of Fox's Book of Martyrs. If you come up here and I will, I'll buy that as a present for you. Uh, something to read. If you're interested in it, come to me and I will, I'll give you that book. It's interesting that Mister John Fox.
Uh, he's.
Why can't I see him? Yeah, there he is.
He died in 1587 of natural causes or he was not a martyr.
He was a martyr in the sense that he had to flee England and, uh, he wrote.
Many, many, many stories of martyrs, uh, for Christ, both in Europe and in England. None of these names here are taken from his book. These names are taken from a book by Mr. Daniel Neal in the early 1800s. I believe that he wrote this book.
And it's about 600 pages. He wrote other history books. And I got interested in this book because it is about the history of the Puritans. I was interested in the Puritans because they were our founding fathers, our country or North America in general.
Was settled because of Puritans.
The first ones that immigrated with their families to this country to escape the persecution and have freedom to worship God as their conscience would direct them, which was contrary to many of the laws and of the established church.
The Church of England.
Which was a break off of the Roman Catholic Church.
It's amazing that God used a man like King Henry the Eighth.
In order to get a divorce from one of his wives, he separated from the Roman Catholic Church. That's how the Church of England came into existence, and some of the some of the things of the Roman Catholic Church that were not according to God were dropped off.
But it cost a long time.
For the Church of England and the Puritan people that were in it to be free from all of the traditional.
Ways of worship that had come into the Christian testimony throughout the ages where Judaism was mixed up with Christianity.
And became a hardship and a burden and a difficulty, and did not allow the Spirit of God liberty.
To direct, as in a meeting where we meet together in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Let's turn over to the Book of Hebrews chapter 13.
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This is one of the first scriptures that I want to read.
Hebrews, chapter 13.
I want to speak a little bit now about the camp.
Verse seven we've already.
No, we haven't have umm.
Hebrews 13 seven Remember them that have the rule over you.
Who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever.
Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats.
Which have not profited them that have been occupied therein we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the Tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood.
Suffered without the gate.
The gate of the camp. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come by Him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
But to do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well.
Pleased.
The author here is speaking to.
Jewish Christians that were having a difficulty separating from the Jewish customs of worship and we're mixing it in with Christianity. And so he right here how that Jesus who was the new way suffered outside the camp.
And he died there, and he opened up a new way of approach to God.
And of the danger of not the danger of mixing Judaized ways in the Old Testament with the new way of worship.
We have an altar which.
We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the Tabernacle he's talking about. You can't go by, you can't approach to God through those things of the Old Testament that were pictures and signs of what was to come and to approach God.
In the same way you can in Christian testimony.
Down through the history of the church's ages.
Judaized ways have come in to Orthodox churches and ways of worship.
Robes, investments, music and things that were given in the Old Testament have crept in. An altar at the front, patterned after something Moses would have made in the Old Testament, have crept into.
Christian testimonies over the years and the two are mixed together and confused.
Now as I was reading this of these ones if you will notice afterwards.
I used to think that, you know, it was doctrinal, the main things that caused those early Christians, 500, four, 500 years ago in that part, in that time of the Reformation, I used to think it was mostly the doctrine that they saw that was wrong in the Roman Catholic Church or in the Church of England or whatever denomination they were in that had.
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These customs from the Jewish traditions in them.
And I was surprised how many here.
Are were imprisoned.
For non conformity.
You know what that means?
Most of the people on this list were ministers, ordained ministers in the Church of England. They had studied in the universities of Cambridge and Oxford and so on, and they were very learned men. Many of you will recognize some of the names on there. James Usher, for example, was the disciple of one of the men here.
The ushers chronology at the end of in your Bible dictionary or in your.
In your chronology, that man James Usher lived at that time and, uh, he was a Puritan and he, uh, studied the word and put together a chronology that has stood over many ages. Well, you, it's become a standard.
Those men were within that circle of the only church.
In England that was allowed during those years.
During the reign of Queen Mary, which was 5, about five years. The first third of that chart took place during her reign, and she turned back to the Roman Catholic Church.
And persecuted those who who would not.
Go back to the Roman Catholic rituals and ways of worship and with reason. Her name is often referred to as Bloody Mary because of all the blood that was shed here. The list gives burned at the stake. I think almost all of them.
Christians. Most of these men.
Were ministers well educated and they would not submit to what was imposed by the Queen and her and the Archbishop?
Following her was the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Now she lived much longer as queen, nearly 35 years I think.
And she claimed to be of the Church of England, not Roman Catholic, but she was against the Puritans.
Within.
The the Church of England, the Puritans were a people, not a people that were four separating that came along later. These people here that were persecuted were not out forming new churches that came along later. And now today we have hundreds and hundreds of Protestant denominations that have.
Come out of the original church, the Roman Catholic or the succeeding Church of England, which was just a branch off of the Church of England. This is history. This is not something new to you all, but I'm just putting together a chronology of how the events.
Passed how we got to where we are today.
What it cost?
To be able to worship the Lord as we do.
How difficult it was to find this altar outside the camp.
So the non conformance here, not wearing the apparel they had, I wanted to get a a model of the of the apparel they used to wear and I couldn't couldn't get one. So you'll have to go back and look at some pictures. But the church robes, most of the people that suffered here.
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On there were because they were ministers who refused.
To where the apparel that the Queen insisted they must wear if they were going to minister in the church and if they would not wear this apparel, they were removed forcibly, they were deposed, their wages were taken away from them or they were sent to prison, etcetera, etcetera.
I'm appalled.
I I think the pendulum has swung from 1 extreme to another. How many here today would be willing to stand up just to the clothes that you wear when you go to meeting and to die for it or be sent to prison? They were given opportunities to conform.
And they wouldn't do it. Why if it's just clothes?
Is it important how we dress?
Some people will say no, it's, it's what's inside the heart that's really that's count. Well, yes, what's in the heart counts.
But what's on the outside counts 2.
Maybe to a lesser extent, but our testimony is known by how we dress, how we conduct ourselves, how we live, and these people, to them it was important.
And so they were imprisoned, etcetera, etcetera.
Why did they not want to conform?
Put on the the priestly robes, they were beautiful to look at, probably. I would guess that's why Queen of Elizabeth liked that. She was royalty and she liked nice things and so on. And so the Lord knows why she did it. But why did they refuse it?
They called it Popish religion.
Our Popish.
Vestments and they had all kinds of words to describe it, and those who refused to wear those were suffering.
There were doctrinal issues along with it, yes, but this part about the clothes was the part that surprised me.
And so I leave it with you to.
Meditate.
When an unbeliever walks in a room like this and sees.
One of the first things that they will notice is they'll probably notice all the head scarves and and the hats, but they will also notice the clothes.
And they will immediately, very quickly make a judgment of what kind of people this is in this room.
They haven't talked to anybody yet, but already they will have formed opinion, good or bad, etcetera, etcetera.
Our Christianity needs to be worn outside too, not just in the heart, and so this is a challenge for us. Uh.
To represent Christ now.
I, I, I realize that there, there was a, there was a identification with the system, uh, that had adopted many things of the Old Testament.
In the Roman Catholic Church from which these people were struggling to become free.
And it costs them much.
And they paid the price.
And they in those years.
Uh, all the way up until they began immigrating to the United States to, to New England and Jamestown, Virginia and so on. It's interesting that South America.
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Was colonized.
Over 100 years before North America.
Now I'm not here to I'm not that well versed in the history, but this surprised me.
It was probably the gold in South America that prompted the development of the colonies in South America.
North America was colonized by a people that were seeking religious freedom to worship God.
Without the cumbrances of.
The camp.
And they couldn't find it.
And they sought it.
But it wasn't until almost 200 years later.
In the early 1800s.
God worked began a work of among, specially among.
Anglican ministers.
Who were seeing the light of the Scriptures and they realized that they didn't need the human ordinations to preach the Word and to meet together.
And they began meeting on their own.
And eventually started breaking bread and we'll get to that a little bit later. But I don't want, I want to, I want to continue a little bit more with our verses here about in Hebrews, about without the camp. Now what is this camp here?
Referring to in Hebrews that we read, I believe.
Well, first of all, literally the camp was referring back to the time of Israel when Moses received the Tabernacle that ordered to build it, and when there was.
A sin in the camp, he had to take the Tabernacle out and pitch it outside, but the peep because the people were in sin. And it says that everybody, everyone who sought the Lord with went outside the camp.
To meet the Lord there. And so that's literally what happened that he's referring to. But what he's applying it to there at that time of the early Christians was that that is an example of how that Jesus suffered outside of the Jewish system. He was cast out by his Jews.
Jewish brethren rejected and crucified.
And he rose again and has now opened up a new Ave. of approach to God, which is the reality of what the Old Testament pictures were of an approach to God. And once you have the reality of Jesus who ascended up into heaven.
And now has opened it up for us to pray to God.
In his name and worship God.
In his name.
This is Christian test, this is Christian doctrine, this is Christianity established here on earth and you cannot mix the Jewish religion with the Christian religion. If you do that, you are getting back into the camp again and this is what?
These early Christians were struggling to become free of.
They saw that it was not right to have the, the colored robes and the, and all of these things and a holy place there in the church where it was called the altar and where you kneeled and you prayed and so on. All of these things were borrowed from the Old Testament and mixed in with Christianity and became.
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A camp.
Thankfully, many of our Protestant brethren have gotten free, but much of those vestments of Jewish religion.
There's still some around us today, but those of us as gathered to the Lord's name, we have a great privilege of having been taught the difference between the Jew.
Is religion and Christianity which is heavenly.
There was an earthly people. We now know that there is also a heavenly people and we belong to that people and we approach God in spirit. We worship in spirit and truth. We don't worship the way they did in the Old Testament. And you can't mix those two things up. That's what the brethren and back 4234500 years ago did not see.
As I read through some of the stories and how the difficulty, they had an understanding that, for example, the relationship between the King of England or the Queen of England and the Archbishop, who was supposedly the head of the religious side and the King was the head of the civil side and those two.
Work together.
And produced some either much good or much.
Evil. Much difficulty.
People didn't understand when, when, for example, when they, these ministers would not conform because their conscience was against putting all these formal dresses on and so on, and the forms of prayers that were required. They weren't allowed to offer a prayer out of their own heart. They had to read the prayer out of a prayer book.
And they didn't like that, and they didn't know how to get free of it. They didn't know the right way because they didn't distinguish between the king and the head of the church, because they were mixed together and operating together. It was a state of confusion as to principles and truths. Young people.
We have been delivered from that we know.
Where the civil government is, and that just because you don't pray the way, uh, the king would require, doesn't mean you can't do it. Thankfully, we do have that liberty all over the country and so on. I'm just using an example to show how confusion results when you don't distinguish between the civil government and the religious.
Testimony of Christianity.
Here on the earth, those things are to be defined differently, they're not the same, and so on. Well, I hope I don't get you too confused with too many things here, but but this is what is referred to in these verses about the camp.
We have an altar which, whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle is referring to the Old Testament way and it talks about the, the, the blood of, of, uh, the, umm, the animals that were sacrificed there and so on. When you start mixing that up with New Testament, it becomes confusion.
How wonderful it is.
To be able to worship the Lord in spirit and truth on New Testament ground.
So what that is?
A very important point for us.
To to be free to worship God as he intends us to do. You cannot mix in the Old Testament orders of thanks. They only bring in ******* and hardship and so on.
The Bre Those people paid a price, and with difficulty.
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Got free of those kinds of things. We take it so much for granted today. And that's why I'm that's why I'm going back over this history.
Remember.
Those who have spoken.
Martin Luther to get justification by faith. What a struggle he had.
Deep exercise of soul praying at the at the door of the of the of the church there in Germany. And the Lord gave him light and he saw that it was by faith in Jesus Christ and his blood, and it cleared him up from so many of the things of the ordinances that he had been connected with.
There in Germany.
And so on.
You know I mentioned about John Fox here.
He was not martyred, you know, that spoke to me.
And it it spoke to me in this way.
Because usually the most faithful ones are the first ones to suffer. Now, yes, John Fox had to flee. He had to flee England. He and he, he went to Europe and Switzerland and so on. And it's there that he accumulated all the stories that he took and put in his book and for for several years, then he eventually came back to England during the the reign of the Queen.
Elizabeth towards the latter part, I think it was, and he was there. He never, never took up a position of being a minister of a church again after that time. He dedicated himself more to preaching the gospel and to writing his book and his stories that have been preserved to us this day. And God preserves that man.
And he didn't die a martyr, even though he wrote about so many that did.
Isn't it wonderful that God preserves his faithful ones?
It spoke to me in this way. Brethren, young people, if you're bold and if you're faithful in your Christian testimony, God can preserve you. We need not fear the enemy. We need not let the enemy intimidate us in our Christian testimony because of the hardships or the things or the insults or whatever reasons out there that the enemy has, and there are many of them.
Yes, we're given liberty, preached the gospel, but it still takes boldness. I'm not, I confess I'm not very good at it.
But I want to encourage us to be faithful. God can preserve you.
Now I want to go over to the book of Matthew 18.
Now we're gonna jump, jump ahead in history down to what I referred to before, when there was a group of, of uh, mostly clergy of the, of the Anglican or Church of England ministers who are well educated and they began meeting together, as you well know, Mr. Darby was one of them, Mr. Bellett and so on.
And this is the verse that spoke to them.
Among others, this well known verse in Matthew 18.
Uh, verse 18.
Fairly 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 to you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, 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.
This much appreciated verse that we often refer to as being gathered to the Lord's name was what prompted those few. There were like five of them in a meeting that first time that they acted in faith on this verse and they realized that they didn't need the human ordination from the system they were connected with.
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In order to carry on the work of God and in order to remember him and carry on the the look, the remembrance of the Lord in his death, because that is celebrated in the Church of England and and so on and and many denominations.
And they appreciated that.
But they saw in this verse that.
The name of the Lord Jesus is sufficient as a gathering center, as an authority. He binds in heaven what is agreed upon on earth in this case. And so they acted on it. And when they did that.
In the in the early 1800s.
They had no thought of starting a new church. That was the farthest thing in their mind.
It was an act of obedience that the Lord recognized when they agreed to gather together in the name of the Lord Jesus, not in the name of the Church of England, or not in the name of of the Church of Ireland or some other denominational name.
That is, that is the human part of it. They realize they didn't need the human.
Organizational structure that had been borrowed from the Old Testament and applied in the Christian testimony over the years and had grown until the Christian testimony became a great thing like the parable of the the mustard seed, where.
A little seed was sown in the ground with the intent that this.
Would produce a herb to use for food, but instead of be remaining what its purpose was, men made it grow up into a great denominational structure of human organization.
And this is what?
Can be referred to also as the camp.
Enrollments and in Hebrews and so.
A barrier was broken.
A hindrance was broken.
A direct relationship to the Lord Jesus and His name owned. Now I know that most all Christians will will tell you, Oh yes, we believe that too.
But actions.
Bear witness to other things being mixed together with it.
Do you break bread?
From week to week at the Lord's Table.
As you do so, do you see young people? Are you acting in faith, not gathered to a meeting? Are you gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus? Do you see He's the one that's ahead of it, He's the center. He's the one exalted in heaven, that owns it in heaven, and his people are here on earth.
That was that's the truth of the one body we speak about. That's the truth that Paul got the the day he was converted when the Lord smote him down and said, Saul, Saul, why persecute us, thou me?
And Paul realized at that moment that the church on earth was livingly linked with Christ in heaven and that Jesus felt it in heaven and he, he got a hold of the truth of the one body in that. That's the gathering center.
That is for us.
That's outside the camp that is only organized by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
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And not controlled by a kingly authority or a religious authority that usurps that an Archbishop over a Bishop. And that was one of the things that they, those early men, contended with, that the Bible never spoke about a Pope nor an Archbishop. It only spoke about bishops and deacons.
No more. And they saw.
That the pudding of 1 Bishop over another Bishop was a human organization. They saw it was wrong.
It was putting an intermediary between a local person.
And the Lord directly. And so they broke that off from that campish organization and became free little by little. But it took 200 years, basically.
Tell brethren, came to know the liberty that we know today as being gathered the Lord Jesus Christ, Brethren.
This is not to our praise. I'm not talking about this to make anything of brethren. This is the contrary. It's the work of God by the Spirit of God in souls, individually gathering them to the person of the Lord Jesus, and each one seeing the Lord there in the midst. When you sit down at the Lord's table, do you just see brethren there or do you see the Lord there?
This is the key by faith we see.
The Lord there, and we gather in that reason, and He has.
Recognized it now for nearly 200 years.
It has carried on. I'm impressed with it. I've only been gathered about 50 years and yet I have seen all kinds of failures among ourselves.
Lots of it. Does it cause me to doubt that the Lord is there? Not really. I'm disturbed many times by things that happen, Yes, and I recognize young people. I have failed to in in my little part and being gathered to the Lord's name. But I have also seen that the Lord has faithfully preserved it.
In spite.
And it it, it, it makes me rejoice, it makes me give give praise to the Lord how he did the work in the beginning and delivering them from the camp and then and preserving us in all our weakness over the years. And I believe that the Lord will preserve a testimony till he comes back again. And we're getting near to that time. So my word to you young people is.
Appreciate.
What men in the past have paid to bring you, to help bring you where you are today. May the Lord keep us in the simplicity of this verse and the being gathered to the Lord's name. And may we.
See value in it. You know this breaking honestly, you know there's a lot of nice testimonies out there.
We can go down the street here and you can find a babysitter that will take care of your children while you worship, and you can listen to a nice, nice, uh, a better message than you're gonna get right here. I'm sure of that.
Well, what about the Lord Jesus?
What about what has been given to us here? Is it worth standing up for and keeping?
I believe it is. May the Lord help us to keep on till He comes.