GOD has “a Church.” God has not been ashamed to connect His name with one Church—the Church of the living God. (1 Tim. 3:1515But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:15).) Oft He calls it “the Church of God.” (See Acts 20:2828Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28) Cor. 15 9; Gal. 1:1313For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: (Galatians 1:13); 1 Tim. 3:55(For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) (1 Timothy 3:5).) This it was which Christ called (Matt. 16:1818And 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. (Matthew 16:18)) “My Church.” And oh, how wondrous! In Eph. 1:2222And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, (Ephesians 1:22), Christ given of God to be head over all things to the Church, which is His body, tire fullness of Him that filleth all in all. (See also iii. 10; v. 23, 25, 27, 29, 32; Col. 1:18, 2418And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. (Colossians 1:18)
24Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: (Colossians 1:24).)
Child of God! can you show me this Church? I have a picture of it, dear to my heart, in the Scriptures; but I have sought that which the Word of God describes as the Church, and have not found it, as it could once be found and seen at Jerusalem, at Ephesus, &c.
What am I to do? Humble myself down into the dust, so far as I know how, (and I have sought to do so these last twenty-five years,) not because saints are scattered, but because of man's entire failure in responsibility to God as to the Church? Then you will say, “You look to see what God will do for you and His saints as to communion.” Not so; if my eye be single, I look then to see what God will do for His own honor and for the glory of Christ, with all His believing people, under these circumstances; and this is quite another thing. He may count it to be for His honor, and for the glory of Christ, and for our blessing in the Spirit, to make us taste the fruit of man's doings, and the failure, and taste it with inward bitterness and individual experience. May God do with us as seemeth Him good! No union, no communion which is not that of the Church of God, in the power of the name of the Lord Jesus, could satisfy the Spirit of God in us.
Has not OUR taste of communion of saints assumed a wrong place in many hearts? Are not many shirking the cross of bearing, outwardly, a state of things which God has brought up to make us realize what we had concealed from ourselves, as to failure?
Let the Lord do as seemeth Him good. Do thou study His word to see what the Church of God is, and avoid, on one hand, the narrowing down of truth to human forms and rigid crystallizations; and, on the other, the neutralization of truth by confounding multitudinous association and intercourse with communion of saints. And, above all things, judge self, and correct self, rather than the churches. The formative truth, which acted on man's heart to form the Church at first, remains, and each individual soul can say, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God” —as to all it has to do; and as to all it has to suffer, “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?”
Christ's ascension was the accomplishment and proof of His person as mediator, on which the whole religion was founded. Besides, a heavenly priest, a man always in heaven, gives its character to the whole moral system. The person of the Lord Jesus Christ claims the adoring recognition of the soul—is entitled to it as divine—as human by His work of love. This is neither history nor a proposition. Owning Him for what he is, is the first of all affections, the highest of all moral claims. Thus God Himself is known; to this He claims subjection. That salvation from future punishment may awaken the soul is quite true; but our first business is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Once known, we bless God for present enjoyment and for present sorrow; for we know He loves and has saved us, and we rejoice in hope of His glory, looking for that bright and morning star, and saying, “Even, so, come Lord Jesus;” while sure if he tarries, it is His love, His long suffering, not willing any should perish; so that we heartily acquiesce in the delay which His love counts as long as He does ours. It is the word of His patience we keep.