Open—Bill Prost
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If I said yesterday that I hesitate to get up, I say it doubly today.
But perhaps I may be allowed to make a few remarks that were based or are based on.
Some of the thoughts that were expressed in the last reading and also as a result of some conversation after that meeting.
Turn back to Second Timothy 2, please, for a moment or two.
In verse 21.
We have the need for separation.
And that was emphasized, and there is a need for it to be emphasized because we are living in the last days, which are described rather accurately in the next chapter, in Chapter 3.
And the conditions are serious. The bad doctrine, the bad practices, the ecclesiastical evil is all a very real thing, and the threat is not to be taken lightly.
However, someone has made the remark and it is important.
That.
To talk about separation.
Without being humbled.
Is to give rise to that most noxious weed that tends to grow in the human heart, and that is sectarianism and pride.
And if anyone got the impression in the last meeting that?
Simply to be gathered to the Lord's name is a guard against.
Moral evil is a guard against sectarianism is a guard against being a vessel to dishonor. Let us dispel that notion right here and now.
Outward position has never conferred inward reality, and I believe that is what our brother was bringing before us just before he closed the reading meeting in prayer.
God looks for inward reality in the soul and justice. Separation here begins as an individual. So godliness in the soul and the right outlook begins with the individual. Yes, it is a precious privilege to be gathered to the Lord's name. It is a precious privilege, and many of us have had that privilege of being brought up.
Under the sound of the precious truth of God, let us never, never throw away that precious privilege or disregard it.
But if we emphasize separation to an extreme, then things go wrong. And much in the Christian life consists of balancing truth.
And holding it in the right way. I believe we have it in these verses.
If I emphasize separation to an extreme.
It results in narrow mindedness, harshness, sectarianism.
And other adjectives could be added to that, because what happens is that we become instead of focused on Christ, we become focused on ourselves. And then pride sets in. And if I may say it bluntly, and we referred to it a little bit yesterday, the history of those gathered to the Lord's name has been.
An evidence of the pride that set in.
I've made this statement before, but I trust it's all right to repeat it and this goes back over 60 years.
Right here in the United States of America, there was a meeting over 60 years ago in which a brother gave a very straight and very.
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Pointed warning about a man who is now with the Lord Billy Graham. At that time he was a younger man and just beginning to make his presence felt in evangelization.
And the brother was warning, and it was a needed warning, about how that already the evidence of compromise was there in his ministry and how that he associated himself with those who taught and held bad doctrine, and yet he associated with them in the gospel because it enabled him to reach a broader audience and.
Have fellowship with and engage more Christians in that endeavor.
After he was finished, a dear brother long since with the Lord, whom I remember.
Spoke up this way and again, if you've heard me say this before, forgive me, but it bears repeating, he said. Brethren, that warning is needed, and I agree with it.
But then he started referring back to his father.
Who was an evangelist back in the 1800s? And he said how that his father had told him that in the early days of brethren, most of the gospel effort tended to be in the hands of those gathered to the Lord's name.
But then he said, and it was when brethren began to fail in their testimony, that God raised up those preachers in the camp to reach the masses. And he didn't spell out names, but he was talking about the Spurgeons and the Moodys and the Sankeys and later on the RA Tories and the Billy Sundays and eventually Billy Graham.
He said, Brethren, do not be depressed or discouraged in walking in the truth, but bear in mind that these men are doing what they are doing.
At least to some extent because of our failure.
Let us never focus on ourselves, because it is on Christ that we need to focus.
And if we are focused on him, what will happen? Two things there will be a shall I use the word a healthy humility at being thank God gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, where I firmly believe with all my heart that the full truth of God can be ministered.
Because of what we are.
Absolutely not because of what he is.
Are we capable of keeping the truth ourselves? We are not.
But in being in the place I trust, where the Lord is in the midst, we can depend on Him to keep it for us. Let's remember that.
And if we have in verse 21.
Separation a most needful thing.
We want to emphasize that in verse 22 we have the recognition of the whole body of Christ.
Now suppose we force that truth to an extreme and forget about separation. And there are those that would do that today and say, I don't worry too much about the doctrines people hold and the different things that they emphasize. I let all that go because I'm interested in reaching lost souls and I want to have fellowship with those dear Christians.
It sounds good on the surface, doesn't it? But again.
What is the reference point? Is it ourselves? Is it even the gospel?
Shall I say it? Is it even the truth of God? Is it even the assembly? Is it even my brethren?
Any object before your soul and mind that fall short of Christ himself will tend to take me off in a wrong direction.
Yes. If I have Christ before me, will I neglect the gospel? Indeed not. Will I neglect the truth of God? Indeed not. Will I neglect my family? I will not. Will I neglect the importance of gathering together collectively with believers? Indeed I will not. And on and on the list could go. But if anything is before me that has grabbed hold of my soul, that falls short of Christ himself.
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To that extent extent I can go off the rails.
And so I would suggest verse 22, if carried to an extreme, will tend to make me focus on quote.
Those nice Christians, and it will put me into fellowship with much that is contrary to the word of God, and which is a dishonor to the Lord.
How do I balance the two?
I would suggest that I can go in either direction without much spiritual exercise or being before the Lord. I can go to the extreme of separation, so that for all practical purposes, the only Christians that exist are those in the company with which I am connected. But is everyone who is in that company necessarily a vessel to honor?
Unhappily not.
Unhappily not.
And I would say very openly that some of the most wonderful fellowship that I have enjoyed in my life has been with those who for some reason could not see the preciousness of being gathered to the Lord's name. I had to depend on the Lord to do the work in them. But did it stop me from enjoying fellowship with them? Oh, there are degrees of fellowship. I could not in that sense.
Have the most full fellowship that I would have liked to with them but all.
I certainly enjoyed the Lord with them.
How precious.
And so I can emphasize the truth of separation to an extreme without much exercise. I can emphasize the whole body of Christ without much exercise. But how do I balance the two?
I must walk in fellowship with the Lord and independence upon him.
It's not an easy path.
It's a blessed path, though. It's a wonderful path. I well remember in a meeting some years ago where a brother made a comment. He said, wouldn't it have been wonderful, brethren, to live in the early days of the church when everything was pristine and new, and when there was the freshness, the joy, the activity of the Spirit of God, when believers were all one and when there.
Expanding work where the gospel was being preached, and not only soul, but souls being brought into the knowledge of the truth.
And I can still remember an older brother sitting across the room with a smile on his face. Said brother.
That would have been a wonderful time.
But I wouldn't trade. I wouldn't trade. Why?
Oh, because the most wonderful blessing is there for the individual who at the end of the dispensation that outwardly is in ruins. And I emphasize outwardly the church, and I'm glad our brother Eric brought that out. The church is not in ruins. It's outward testimony is.
And we are part of that rule. And let's never get the idea, as I have almost heard expressed, that there is the great House, which is characterized by.
Doctrinal evil and ecclesiastical evil and moral evil. But by implication, thank God, there's one place, one corner of that great house where things are done right. And even though it may not be said explicitly, implicitly there is the thought, and that is where we are. No, no, 1000 times no. The failure will be most evident where the truth is sought to be maintained.
Is that any excuse to throw the truth overboard and say it's all up with us?
Absolutely not. But on the other hand, let us remember that the most blessed thing is to be able to give expression to what God gave at the beginning, at the end of a dispensation when there has been failure. And so you find, for example, in the time of Nehemiah that they did something and Ezra, Nehemiah's time that had not been done, as it says in there until you go way back to the days of.
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Joshua and you find, and here's I'm going to end on this note in the book of Matthew and in the book of Mark, you get in both books the parable of the sower.
And it talks about the various kinds of bad soil which don't result in any fruit, but then it talks about the good ground.
We won't take time to turn to it, but you notice in Matthew's Gospel it says and brought forth fruit some one hundredfold, some 60 fold, some thirtyfold.
Why is that? Oh, I suggest that in Matthew you get a dispensational view of things and every dispensation has started off, we might say, with one hundredfold and has gone downhill so that at the end it's an evidence of failure in what man did with what God gave at the beginning.
But in Mark's Gospel.
It's reversed, some 30 fold, some 60 fold, some 100 fold.
Now there may be other thoughts on this, but I have enjoyed it this way. Mark of course, as we well know, portrays the Lord Jesus as the perfect servant. Mark is more individual.
And as the dispensation closes down, as things gradually come to an end, yes, the public testimony, the things that God gave at the beginning, tend to go downhill. But what happens under those conditions? All the individual.
The individual brightness comes out more and more.
Individual faithfulness shines out more and more. It is not easy to carry on in a day of difficulty. It is not easy to carry on when there tends to be a giving up. And the easy Rd. is to say it is not worth it.
That is the voice of Satan seeking to turn us aside. And our brother was talking about the fact that there is.
No mention of the word of encouragement in the New Testament.
That's true in our King James, but read the JND translation.
The word consolation in our King James is often translated encouragement and there is encouragement. I would suggest encouragement to do what?
To look beyond the failure and see a risen Christ in glory.
That way you and I will be encouraged to go on.
As individuals, first of all, but then what will we find? We will find that right till the end. There will be the with them of verse 22 until the Lord calls us home. But at the same time, let there be that guard against sectarianism and pride that is so easy to overtake.
When God has given blessing.
As a dear brother said many years ago, he said how incongruous, how inappropriate it is for us to say we have done great things. Just at a point when God has shined the light on the Christian testimony and showed how little we have done. It has been only the grace of God that we have been able to enjoy the precious truths that we have had before us.
These last few days I believe the Lord intended it to be enjoyed, but we need to hold it independence upon Him and in humility whenever we talk about separation.