Address—D. Andersen
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General Meetings. Wheaton, August 1974.
Addressed by Dan Anderson.
Turn in our hymn book to #68.
Thy name we bless Lord Jesus that name all names excelling, How great Thy love, all praise above should every tongue be telling the Father's loving kindness and giving Thee was shown us now by thy blood, Redeemed to God as children He doth own us #68.
Lining we last large Jesus.
Last name all names.
Exactly.
Already I love all praise upon trust and praying on being fairly.
And the Father and loving God.
Breathe you from I children.
Oh my God.
And.
Through the.
I must wait.
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We've had much about the name of the Lord Jesus.
In these meetings.
We had his name before us yesterday morning and the breaking of bread.
We've had this person before us in the readings in the 12Th of John.
That name, what a blessed name it is.
What if we had never known that name?
What if we had never heard of that name?
My wife and I went to the Congo in 1930. We went into a tribe of people.
That didn't have the word of God.
They had nothing in writing.
Their language wasn't in writing.
There had never been a missionary there.
They had never heard the name of Jesus.
They didn't know who he was.
We would ask them, do you know who Jesus is?
Men in Zaiko, they would say, I don't know.
It was signed, but there have been many tribes like that.
And no doubt still are many places where they have never heard that name of Jesus.
They've missed everything by not knowing that name.
How thankful we can be this afternoon that we know the name of Jesus and we know what the name of Jesus means. It means Jehovah's Savior.
Precious name.
If we hadn't ever known that name, what a loss.
And we would be lost for all eternity.
Because we read in Acts chapter 4.
And verse 12.
Neither is there salvation in any other.
For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
And if there are any people in the world today that have not heard this name, don't know that name, there's no salvation for them.
Aren't you thankful that you've heard the name of Jesus?
That you've heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You've had the opportunity to have believed. You have believed.
But perhaps there's some here this afternoon who haven't believed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You haven't received him as Jehovah's Savior.
There's no other way for you to be saved but through Jesus, that blessed name.
I was thinking.
About that scripture we have in Matthew 18.
This is a very common scripture.
I don't suppose there's anyone in this room that hasn't heard this verse of Scripture? Matthew 18 and 20.
And we've gotten so used to hearing it.
That perhaps we think we don't need to dwell on it.
But I feel constrained this afternoon.
To dwell a little bit.
On this verse, Matthew 18 and 20, I'm afraid we get so used to hearing it quoted and all we hear is just the words and we don't feel the impact of it.
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We don't really realize what it is.
And I include myself in that. It's so easy to go over certain portions of scripture.
And not realize the importance of these verses.
But it says here, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
See, the name of the Lord Jesus is spoken of there. In my name is the Lord Jesus speaking, and he's talking about his name.
The name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Think it's well for us when we're Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, to use his full name, Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe it honors him to use his full name. We hear part of his name used in the world in profanity and it hurts our hearts to hear it.
But when we use it as children of God.
I believe we should use the whole name the Lord Jesus Christ.
My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Is he your Lord this afternoon?
There are many young people here at these meetings and I'm so thankful to see them.
I'm thankful for any desire they have to be at meetings like this. Or sometimes they may come with other motives than just to listen to the ministry. They may come with other desires, other objects. But I'm thankful you're here.
And that you want to come to the meetings and listen, you may not come to all the meetings. Sometimes I wonder if some of the young people are at all the meetings. I look over the the audience, the congregation, and I wonder, it doesn't seem like they're quite as many at this meeting as there were at the other meeting. And I wonder if some of the young people have gone somewhere else.
Well, you may do that.
And of course, there's no law that you have to attend every meeting.
But I'm glad you're here and you attend some of the meetings. I wish you would attend all the meetings because.
You know your brethren go to a lot of expense and work to have these meetings.
And you should take advantage of every opportunity to be over the Word of God, because when you get into the presence of the Lord, you'll regret that you didn't.
Oh, we'll have regrets when we get there into his presence and we look back and we'll see, yes, I could have availed myself of this. I could have veiled myself of that. I could have taken advantage of this opportunity and I didn't. And I've it's been a loss to me.
So think about these things, dear young people.
Four. Why does that verse start out that way 4.
That means it's linked with something else that goes before.
It's something like John 316.
For God so loved the world and many times when we quote that verse, we leave out the four. I believe we missed something because if you'll notice, what goes ahead comes before John 316 is very important.
And what comes before Matthew 1820 is very important.
And you could read from.
Verse 15 about personal trespass.
And how you have to act in connection with that.
But let us come down to verse 18. It says, 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.
Now that's one important subject that the Lord brings up.
Binding and loosening assembly decisions.
And then he says 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. That's in connection with prayer.
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So we have verse 18 connected with assembly decisions.
And verse 19 connected with assembly prayer.
And then it says 4.
There's power.
In an assembly decision, there's power in prayer. The authority of the Lord is behind the assembly decision. The authority of the Lord is behind the prayer.
4 Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them, he said.
The assembly has authority to make decisions. The assembly has power in prayer, because where two or three are gathered together in the Lord's name, there he is in the midst of them.
So you see how important that little word for is? It connects to the other two verses.
Now the first word we get after four is where? Where?
That speaks of a place, doesn't it?
And is Speaking of God's place for his people. God's place for his people.
Where if you've lost something, say like a pencil, it seems like we're always looking for a pencil at our house.
And we say, where is their pencil? Where is the pencil?
What? What do I mean by that? When I say where I'm thinking about a certain place where that pencil is or anything else that we might have lost. We don't know where he is, where a certain location. We feel that it is in a certain location, a certain place. That's what the Word where speaks of. And this is Speaking of God's place for His people.
If you go back to Deuteronomy chapter 12.
You'll find that God is very much occupied with a place.
Now the place in the Old Testament, as far as Israel was concerned, was a geographical place.
And it was Jerusalem.
But in the book of Deuteronomy, the children of Israel are getting instructions from Moses, from God through Moses, in connection with entering into the land where they were to dwell and where they would find that place.
Deuteronomy 12, verse two. Ye shall utterly destroy all the places where in the nations which he shall possess serve their gods, upon the high mountains, upon the green hills, and under every green tree.
And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their Groves with fire. And ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. Ye shall not do so unto the Lord your God. Now there were many places where the heathen were worshipping, worshipping their idols, worshipping their Pagan gods. And those places had names.
And God didn't want them to occupy those places, and he didn't want them to be identified with those names.
He shall not do so unto the Lord your God, but unto the place.
Which the Lord your God shall choose. It wasn't a matter of their choosing the place, it was a matter of God choosing the place.
And we believe, as gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are in the place that God has chosen. It's God's place.
That's important to be in God's place, and he goes on to say.
There, even unto his habitation shall ye seek. It's a matter of seeking it.
Have you been exercised by seeking the place where Goddess place his name will the Lord Jesus name is?
And thither thou shalt come. Those are times that I was seeking it. The Lord exercised my heart about it. I find my found myself in a place that didn't have a name according to scripture.
And I didn't feel it was God's place. It was not a place that was founded on the ground of the one body.
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And I became deeply exercised about it and I wanted to find the place, God's place. And I believe I'm in the place where God has placed his name, where the Lord Jesus Christ is in the midst. And if I'm not, if I were to seek elsewhere, I wouldn't know where to go. I wouldn't know where to seek.
It's like with salvation.
There's only one name for salvation, just as we read in Acts 412. Only one name for salvation. There's only one name for gathering.
But you know, it's easy to say.
This verse, this 20th verse of the 18th chapter of Matthew, it's easy to say it's sort of like a formula because I remember when I was still in system, we would use this verse.
And when we came together in our meetings, we we thought we were gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, although we we went by some other name, might be Baptist, it might be Presbyterian, might be any denominational name, sectarian name.
But still we would use that verse.
Well, I saw the folly of that. We weren't really gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, although we wanted to honor that name.
We believed in that name, we were saved through that name, and there was a sense in our souls that we wanted to honor that name. And there are those out in system that do want to honor the Lord Jesus Christ.
But when we're insisting, we're blinded and we don't realize that God has a place where he's placed his name.
Thither thou shalt come, and thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings. Verse 7 And there ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and, and there you shall rejoice. Well, isn't that what we're doing? We're here seeking grace to bring offerings to the Lord, to honor him, to eat before him. We, we were eating the Lord's Supper yesterday morning and trust, we were eating it before the Lord.
Not just as ritual.
Or a ceremony to go through. Ye shall rejoice. Oh yes, we rejoice too in the Lords presence in that place where he has placed his name.
We notice in verse 10 and 11 That the Lord said, when you go over Jordan and dwell in the land, verse 11, then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
And I believe 21 Times here in this book of Deuteronomy, you get the place mentioned. I'll let you look up all the verses. It'll be a good study for you to look up all these verses where the place is mentioned, the place that the Lord would place His name. But that shows how important it is. 21, three times 7.
Seven is the number of completeness, 3 is a number of Trinity.
I don't believe there's any mistake in why it's mentioned 21 Times.
So this is the importance that God puts upon the place, His place, and it's important to be sure that we're in the place that God has placed His name.
Then it says two or three.
That's a testimony, isn't it? In the mouth of two or three witnesses. It says in verse 16 every word may be established. It's a matter of a testimonial witness, a testimony.
Two or three, not 2 or 300, not 20 or 30. God has put it in the lowest figures.
It has to be at least two. One can't remember the Lord by himself, One can't be gathered to the name of the Lord by himself. No, in heart you can be gathered in a certain place with others, in other places, in other cities, but if you're the only one in the city and in heart, you're gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, yet you can't act upon.
Assembly principles there like remembering the law.
In the sorrow we had in Ghana.
It came to a point where there might be only one brother at the meetings. That was Emmanuel.
One brother was away at school, the other brother was away at the border working.
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And the one sister that was there, she might not be able to come some Lord's days.
And I reminded Emmanuel, now it may be that some Lords say you'll be alone.
You can't remember the Lord if you're alone. There has to be at least two.
There has to be at least two in order to remember the Lord.
Because.
When you're 2, you're a gathering of two, but when you're one, you're not a gathering.
You're only one, and we come together on the principle of the one body of a gathering, and it's only then that we can remember the Lord.
So it did happen that he was alone.
But what happened that Lord's Day? For all they thank you, There was some sitting back, but he was the only one at the table.
And he read scripture and he prayed.
And finally close the meeting.
At the close of that meeting.
Two came to him and said we would like to take our place at the Lord's Table.
A young man and one of the older girls from the Sunday School. The young man has already taken his place at the Lord's Table. He's been received. Emanuel hasn't written me about patience, what's happening to her. But perhaps someday we'll hear that she has taken her place at the Lord's Table, too.
But the Lord gave blessing and encouragement that morning to dear brother, Brother Emmanuel.
What encouragement the little companies of twos and threes can have and even though you might be alone in a place.
You can still enjoy the presence of the Lord.
Well, the Lord will have a testimony to his name until He comes. There will be a place until He comes, and he's asked us to remember Him till He come. And how could he ask us to remember him until He comes if there wasn't a place to do it?
Or there will always be a place and the Lord will keep the testimony. We can't keep the testimony. Poor, weak, failing things that we are, we can't maintain a testimony. We can't keep it. We have to trust the law. We have to lean upon Him. He's the only one that can keep it. And it's only as we're going on in dependence upon Him that there will be a testimony. That's why the enemy is so busy working in our hearts to get us occupied with other things.
Beside the Lord, because he knows if he can draws away from personal dependence upon the Lord, personal communion with the Lord, he can destroy the testimony.
Let's seek grace to go on with the Lord.
And he'll take care of the testimony.
Are gathered.
Are gathered that speaks of separation, God's way of separation.
There are some here perhaps that know what it is to work in an orchard, picking apples, picking pears, picking cherries, so on.
Perhaps someone says, John, go out and gather the apples today.
And you go out and gather them. What are you doing? You pick them off the tree. You put them in the basket. You're separating them from the tree and putting them in another place.
Are gathered, you could say, about those apples. They are gathered now, taken off the tree, put in the basket.
Well, when Saints of God are gathered, what happens to them? They're separated from what they've been connected with, which is not according to God.
And God, by his Spirit, takes them out of that thing and puts them where he wants them, in the place where he's chosen to place His name. They are gathered. They're separated from something to something.
That's God's separation.
Then it says together.
Together. What does that speak of? What does that bring to your mind together?
We're all together here this afternoon, aren't we? One company?
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Not two companies. There's not one company over here in one room and another company over here in another room. No, we're all together one company.
Together speaks of oneness, doesn't it? God's oneness.
And there's a day coming.
And how blessed to think of that, that all God's dear children will be together in one company and glory around the Lord Jesus Christ.
It should be that way now, shouldn't it?
God's desire that all should be together. And in the beginning we read that they were all together. All were together.
There was not one company of Saints in one place over here, another company in another place over there. No, that wasn't it. They were all together.
And they had the sense of this oneness that they were all one company.
And I suppose there were so many of them there to begin with that they couldn't all get into one building, and they might have to meet in different buildings in different places. But still, they had that sense in their souls that they were all one, and if it were possible to get into one place, they'd all be there.
Together.
O of the dear Saints of God today in the different cities had the sense of this, that there were all one body, all members of one body, all members of the body of Christ, of which Christ is the head. What a difference it would make, but Christendom has lost the sense of this.
I trust that we may have the sense of it more and more.
And when we come together, like we did yesterday morning, to remember the law, we do it on the ground of the one body because we had a loaf on the table that speaks of that.
One bread or loaf, one body.
When you see that loaf on the table, is that what you see? Is that what you think of? Yes, we're all one body.
And it's not just we who are here together that are make the one body. There are other Saints in other places.
They they are meeting in other places. They're not with us.
But when I when we see the loaf, we see that all of those in other places, they really belong to that one body too. We don't exclude them, no.
And they could come and remember the Lord with us if they would come on that ground that were just members of the body of Christ, not members of anything else.
Together, God's oneness.
Were gathered on the ground of God's oneness, the one body of Christ. That's the only ground of gathering. There is no other ground of gathering like there was no other place for gathering for the children of Israel.
Then we come to the next phrase in my name.
That is God's authority, God's power.
In my name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we might turn to a couple of scriptures in First Corinthians that mention the name.
First Corinthians, chapter one.
Verse 10.
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing.
By the name.
Authority of that name.
That you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
There's power in that name.
To bring us together in our thoughts, to speak the same thing, to have the same mind, to be perfectly joined together.
Then also in First Corinthians 5.
In verse 4 the apostle Paul was giving instructions as to what to do with this man that corns that had sinned.
He says First Corinthians 5 four in the name.
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Of our Lord Jesus Christ when you're gathered together.
Notice the same phrasing are gathered together.
Are gathered together by the Spirit of God, by God himself.
Together on the grounds of the one body.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the authority and the power of that name.
And my spirit, he says, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver.
Such and one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
The assembly at Corinth was responsible to make a decision here.
And through the apostles writing, they became exercised about it, and they did it.
They acted on what the Apostle Paul wrote.
In verse.
13 Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was put away.
Did the assembly at Ephesus dare to receive him if he would come around?
Did anyone dare to sympathize with that man that was put away?
Did they dare to say, well, the assembly was a weak, carnal assembly. We can't bow to that decision.
Did they dare to do that in those early days? I don't believe they did.
There has been this kind of thing going on, however, in Christendom.
I remember reading about.
What happened to Tunbridge Wells?
Around 1910 and a few years before that.
There was a man by the name of Strange there that was causing difficulty in the meetings.
And the assembly.
Was much exercised about what to do about this man?
But it went on for quite some period of time. They didn't do anything although being exercised about and wondering what to do. And this was a brother that traveled around.
And he had the sympathy of quite a number of people.
Finally, the assembly of Tunbridge Wells felt they had to act to put him away.
What happened?
There were those that were in sympathy with Mr. Strange that said all the assembly of Tunbridge Wells is just a weak assembly. It's incompetent.
We don't have to bow to that decision.
Are the things like that going on today?
Are things like that being said today? Oh, that's just a weak assembly.
And there's a tendency to feel that we don't need to bow to the decision.
Of an assembly just because we think it's incompetent or we think it's it's weak.
But this verse says, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I in the midst of them.
And whatever they bind on earth is bound in heaven, and there are no conditions there.
It doesn't say.
Whatsoever is bound on earth shall be bound in heaven. If they show themselves a competent assembly. If they're not a weak assembly, you don't have conditions like that added.
And brethren.
We're in danger of being swept off our feet, just like all those that followed Mr. Strange were swept off their feet.
And many in England and even over in the continent of Europe were swept away into division because they would not bow to that assembly decision made at Tunbridge Wells in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must adhere to this principle, this truth.
And if we've been slipping away from it, it's time for us to take stock.
And this is not only for the young people, it's good for the young people. I believe it's good for us to go over these things that we might know the ground we're on and what it means to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Nor if an assembly makes a decision.
Let us be quiet and wait on the Lord. Just wait on the Lord if we think it isn't right, just be quiet and wait on the Lord. As soon as we start talking, somebody hears it, and thereby many become defiled and many may be LED astray. This is the very thing that took place over in England, and it happened more than once.
And usually divisions took place when a decision was made by some assembly and there were those who didn't feel disposed to bow to it.
May the Lord help us to be faithful to the Lord Himself and.
Bow to that decision.
Oh, maybe the assembly is weak.
Maybe they show weakness, maybe they show incompetence. Yet.
We don't know what exercises of souls those assemblies go through in arriving at a decision.
And who knows better all the details and the circumstances of a case?
Who knows better than the assembly that has to do with it?
Certainly I, at a distance, don't know all the details and I couldn't make a proper judgment.
We find fault with the judgment of the Assembly.
What about my judgment? What we need to do is judge ourselves and wait on the law. May God give us grace for this, because we can all fall into this trap. I can fall into it. May God give us grace to just walk humbly with the Lord, bowing to the Lord and bowing to those decisions that the assemblies make in the name of the Lord.
And if it isn't right, like our brother Smith was saying yesterday about this brother down.
In South America, that was judged wrongly. The Lord came in and said it right.
But he wasn't bickering and complaining and forming a party around himself in the meantime. He just kept coming onto to the meetings, waiting on the Lord. Oh, ever since I've heard that illustration.
A true illustration of their brother Smith is given, or it has spoken to my heart.
Let us have grace.
Just to be quiet and wait on the Lord.
Speaking of the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, let's turn to Acts again.
Chapters 3 and 4.
Here in chapter three we see that there was a lame man healed.
John went to the temple and in verse 6.
Peter says silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I thee in the name.
Of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk in the name of Jesus Christ.
What happened? He rose up and won power in that name. Peter had no power, but it was the power in the name we who are gathered.
Have no power, but there's power in that name.
There's authority there.
Verse 16.
This thing was called in question now, and he says in and his name through faith in his name has made this man strong, whom ye see and know.
Oh how we need to have faith in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust in.
Over in chapter 4.
Verse 10 They say, Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, and God raised from the dead, even by him does this man stand here before you hold. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which has become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men, whereby you must be saved.
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One name for salvation.
One name for gathering.
And it's a name of power and authority.
What resource we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes we forget about that.
I'm afraid we don't get before the Lord enough about the problems in our assemblies.
Let us not forget the Lord to bring everything to Him. He can solve every problem.
We just don't have enough confidence in the Lord, just don't have enough trust in Him.
We accompany us, brethren get together and we talk things over and we try to solve things and we don't seem to get anywhere.
Our problem is that we haven't gotten on our knees first to pray and to ask the Lord about it.
We haven't expressed our confidence and trust in him.
When I'm saying this, I'm saying it to myself because I forget it too.
May God help us not to forget to take it to the Lord, to present it to Him, to ask Him about it, to put it in His hands. Then He can lead our thoughts, He can guide us in our discussions, and He can bring us to a decision.
And sometimes I believe in the assemblies. God allows a thing, a problem, to continue on and on and on.
Until the Saints get sort of worn out about by it. Then finally they get before the Lord about it. Then the Lord solves it.
My, what lessons we have to learn in this scene when it comes to being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and acting as Saints gathered in His precious name.
Then we come on to the next. There am I.
We've had before God's place, God's testimony, God's separation, God's oneness.
God's authority. Now we have God's presence in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There am I.
How bless it.
To have the Lord Jesus Christ in our midst. In the assembly meetings, there am I, He says. Are we conscious of it? His Word says, so there am I.
And I believe that's why we need to go over this verse very often.
Because we need to be reminded.
That He is in our midst.
Not only as was brought out this this morning at the breaking bread, but he's in the prayer meeting, he's in the reading meeting, he's in the ministry meeting.
Where we seek to be led by the Spirit of God in giving out ministry, there's where He is in the midst He's present.
And very often we lose the blessing because we're not.
Conscious of this, that the Lord is in our midst, how do we become conscious of it? How do we know it? God says so. The Lord himself says so. That's how we know it. Let's believe it. How do you know you're saved? Because the word of God says so. How do you know the Lord is in our midst? Because he says so.
What a wonderful thing to have the Lord Jesus Christ in our midst. That person who hung on Calvary's cross and died for our sins suffered that terrible agony.
At the hands of God, when he judged him, because our sins were laid upon him.
That blessed One, risen from the dead, gone back to God's right hand, He's in our midst.
That one, the one who created the whole universities in our midst.
That one who's been exalted to God's right hand, whose name is above every name, the name of Jesus. He's in our midst.
What a person we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't exalt him enough, We can't extol him enough. We can't say enough about him, that blessed person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then it says in the midst of them.
There am I in the midst of them. Not only is He present, but He's the center, God center.
You dear young people.
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You have centers around which you revolve.
What's the main center? What's the real center around which you revolve, your life revolves?
Is it the Lord Jesus Christ?
How about the assembly?
Is it really revolving around the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we aware that the Lord Jesus Christ is the center?
What about the coming glory?
We'll all be gathered around himself there and all eyes will be looking to him.
Of course we'll see. And then with, in actuality, with our eyes, we see him by faith now.
But to face the Lord Jesus Christ is very real.
Faith is a substantiating of things hoped for when you have faith.
To see the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst and as the center. You see Him? Yes, you do. You see Him.
How wonderful it is to have the Lord Jesus Christ as our center now.
Not just looking forward to having him as our center in the glory that will of course be perfect. No failure there. But down here, it's our privilege to look to him.
Are we looking to him when we come together for the breaking of bread? Do we look to him when we come together for the reading meeting?
Do we look to Him when we come together for prayer? Do we look to Him when we come together?
For ministry of the Word is led by the Spirit.
We might well ask ourselves these questions.
He is the center.
And the whole assembly life and assembly activity should be revolved around him.
And in everything we should be looking to him, the center, the.
Now I notice she says of them. Then that word them is very interesting.
What's meant by them?
Well, dem refers to those.
Two or three or more who are gathered together in his name.
That's the them spoken of them.
Could that be the same then?
That's mentioned over in Second Timothy chapter 2.
In Second Timothy, chapter 2.
Them used twice.
Verse 19 Two Timothy 2 Nevertheless, the foundation of God's standard sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.
That then refers to all God's children, all those that belong to Him.
But then it goes on to say, And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
If anyone identifies himself with the name of Christ, names the name of Christ, he has a responsibility to depart from iniquity.
And a great house is spoken of. Christendom is likened to a great house with vessels to honor and vessels to dishonor. Then he says, verse 21, if a man therefore purge himself from these or away from these, that's the separation part being gathered.
He shall be a vessel into honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work.
Flee also youthful lust, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart with them there's another them.
But that's not as large a company it would seem, as to them in verse 19.
Then what kind of them are they?
They call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
I take it that means that they really want to please the Lord. They want to do the Lord's will.
They want to go on in a way that honors him.
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They really want to be separated. They want to live holy lives. They want to please the Lord. They don't want to be mixed up with the world and the things of the world, the denominational and organizational systems of men. No, they don't want to be connected with those things.
They want to go on for the Lord.
Are you one of them this afternoon? No doubt there are young people here that haven't taken their place at the Lord's Table.
You haven't taken your place among them with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Why don't you?
You're probably not connected with any systems of men.
Perhaps you are not connected with anything that dishonors the Lord.
But you haven't been put in the basket yet.
Maybe you're separated from those things, but you haven't been put in the basket yet. Separate from the tree, but not in the basket.
Why don't you take your place at the Lord's table? Oh, it would please the Lord. It would honor Him. That's what delights his heart when we answer to His request. Take our place at His table to remember Him, and do it on the ground of the one body.
There are two things we do when we break bread. We remember the Lord and we give expression to the fact that we're a member of the body of Christ.
And you can't properly break bread in remembrance of the Lord unless you are gathered on the ground of the one body.
There are many in system.
No doubt remembering the Lord, but they're not doing it on the ground of the one body. And I wouldn't say they're not remembering the Lord, and the Lord doesn't appreciate that, but they're doing it on a lower ground than the ground of Scripture. There's only one ground in Scripture for breaking of bread, and that's the ground of the one body.
Because when we partake of the loaf, we're saying, well, I'm a member of the body of Christ.
Are you saved?
Do you know you're a member of the body of Christ? And do you know that the Lord wants you to remember him? Well, if you know this, act on it, act on it.
It'll take a step of faith, no doubt. Oh yes, it's a step of faith. Like accepting Christ as sacred, It's a step of faith.
Taking your place at the Lords table with them, that call on the Lord out of a pure heart, where the Lord is in the midst, the center. It takes faith.
Dare to take that step. By the grace of God, take that step.
Just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, may the Lord help us.
That we might.
Realized the importance of this verse of Scripture.
And I'm sure much more could be said about it than I have said.
And I trust that I haven't said anything that shouldn't be said.
But may the Lord help us to be submissive to the Word of God.