Address—Dave Spence
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Could we turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 10?
We're just going to read a few verses and.
The subject that I have on my heart was announced in the hymn Beloved Friends Brethren.
One says prodigals. We wandered.
Falling far from the but thank grace or sin abounding, rescued us from misery clothed in garments of salvation.
And then the next line.
At thy table.
Is our place.
We rejoice and Thou rejoicest in the riches of Thy grace.
First Corinthians chapter 10.
Verse 14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved?
Flee from idolatry.
Someone has said whatever comes between my heart and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Can be idolatry and many times is.
It could be a habit, it could be a relationship, it could be an objective and a goal in this life.
But anything that comes between my heart and abiding in Him in the fullness of communion and joy of his love.
Is an idol.
Most of the time, the biggest problem, at least in my life, was when I was younger. I knew nothing of the joy of the salvation.
We have drunk the cup of salvation, have we not?
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Have we experienced the joy of the fullness of that salvation by abiding in him, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the bind?
And that was the character of my life.
Perhaps knew my sins were forgiven, but knew nothing of the joy of the wine of his love.
In The Song of Solomon, the bride says, let him kiss me.
We know what a kiss means. It means.
The assurance of love from that one, perhaps.
That we experience that kiss with that is really the true meaning. Although the world has greatly slandered and falsified all of that, the sincerity of it has it not.
Let him kiss me.
With the kisses of his mouth.
And his name is as ointment poured forth. This is the breathings and the.
Communion of the heart of the bride. His name is as ointment poured forth.
Draw me, and we will run after thee. This is progress made in the soul that has come to know the Savior in type.
I ask you, beloved young people, do you have to reach a certain age before you become so intimate with the heart of Christ?
In the enjoyment of such fullness of love that he has demonstrated at the cross, and wishes to demonstrate it in your life and mine today you say, how can that be just by reading my Bible?
Well, that's the first step, because it's a hymn book, you know, it's all about him.
It's not about me as a brother, Jim reminded us some time ago. It's not about me. It's all about him.
To bring him into the nearness of my heart and soul, so that I might be seen. You might be seen as John the Apostle, who in John chapter 13 was.
Laying his head on the bosom of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some of us were saying yesterday, how do we get through trouble and problems?
How can we get through this trial or that trial? And so many have suffered trials and loss and heartache.
We used to sing the song, some of us Jesus, lover of my soul. This came up yesterday. Let me to thy bosom fly.
While the nearer waters roll.
Let thy love, Lord keep me high.
The Bride and the Song of Solomon was so not just enamored, but convinced of his love.
She said, Draw me and we will run after thee.
Someone said about Isaiah chapter 40.
The Christian learns to fly before it can walk. He can walk.
Not interesting.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as Eagles.
There we have it.
And oftentimes when a Christian, when an unbeliever comes into the blessing of Christianity, what happens? They are soaring. You can't even begin to bring them down from those clouds of glory they're experiencing. They're soaring in their love and first love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then it says.
About running and then walking. Sometimes we just walk with him and that's wonderful and we're running the race, of course. But how good it is to be in such a state of removal in spirit from this world where he has placed us in that heavenly sphere because it says he's quickened us, he's raised us up, and we are seated in heavenly places. Ephesians Chapter 2. That's our position.
And it's just overwhelming to me to see souls come to Christ.
And immediately they are in that position in just moments.
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And I remember a brother one time, he said.
After he was saved for about 6 months, he said Dave.
He said I have come down.
From those clouds.
From that bliss that I once enjoyed.
That first love has waned, he said. I really don't know what the trouble is. I think it's just things. And you know, beloved, things can come in between our hearts and him.
I say, have you ever? And it was later on in my life I'll confess to you that I ever experienced the joy and the fullness and the blessedness of first love. It took my heart out of this world.
And so Jesus appeals to the church at Ephesus and Revelation chapter 2. The first thing he brings before his beloved people in that assembly was thou hast left thy first love. And that is the cause and root cause of all of my problems.
And yours. And I believe He is seeking to recall us Beloved through the trials of life and the sorrows and the losses, the overwhelming problems. We don't know how to deal with them because he wants a church that is waiting for him in the response of first love, as it says in Revelation chapter 22. Even so come Lord Jesus, we often say we want to be removed from this world and its trials and troubles and problems.
So we can just go home and be free of it, but there is a greater cause for wanting to go home, and the Lord Jesus Christ is seeking to produce that and affect that in our hearts by the troubles beloved.
He says in Revelation chapter 3. Speaking to the church at Laodicea, he says As many as I love.
Oh, how comforting this is. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten your daddy and mommy Children, when they spank you, they love you so much they don't want harm to come into your life.
They don't want you to get hit by that car that's coming down the street and they spank you. I've had those spankings and I'm still getting them, but I know it's because he loves me and he wants my heart, Not just my lips, not just an outward form, having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof. Most of my sad younger days, and even today, often times is a form when I lose the joy and the communion of his life.
Israel had an awful history, as our brother Jim brought before us in the earlier part of this chapter. An awful history.
They lusted after things. Is there lust in your heart and mind?
We think of the greatness of his love and his glory.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.
But my heart is empty. What is wrong? Is it his fault?
He has done everything he can possibly do to give us everything because He is everything. There is nothing greater than himself. There is nothing greater than his love. There is nothing greater than walking with him through this world. And someday we'll be able to talk to souls that went through Hebrews 11 That we have presented to us. And they will tell us The greatest trials of life brought me the greatest blessings. So even the very worst things that can happen to us, beloved.
It is His design and desire to bring to you your heart and mind a blessing that we could know otherwise. Receive and fruitfulness to Him, and worship and praise to Him. Therefore we can glory, it says in tribulation, tribulation, work of patience, patience, experience, experience, hope and hope. Make him not ashamed. Because do you know the rest of the verse, children?
Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That is the power. And when I sin, or when there's a lustful thought, what happens? I'm out of communion. Just a simple lustful thought can snap that little tender threat of communion. Thus it says, since you be risen with Christ.
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Set your mind on things. Above we have an object, beloved, not a religion.
Not a system of principles that govern us, that we do from the word, but as far as an object is concerned, we have an object for our hearts. Thus, if I grieve the Holy Spirit, my joy is gone.
And we say, well, what's wrong with this or that? I can do this or that as a Christian, I have liberty to do this or that as a Christian.
The Bible says stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free.
Well, it doesn't give us freedom to sin because the Lord knows.
When we do, not only will we lose the joy of His love and companionship and closeness of fellowship, but he loses the joy.
Of our response and reciprocal love to him.
The Bride and the Song of Solomon said, Draw me, we will run after thee.
The King hath brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice unto him.
In him we will remember his love more than wine and all you read through that blessed book, and you see that she comes into the fullness of such love as she sat in the second chapter under the apple tree.
She had shade and fruitfulness. She was enjoying his love.
And then it says His right hand doth embrace me and his left hand is under my head and she says I'm lovesick.
Beloved young people, I'll tell you it is possible to become lovesick. It is.
You say, what is the remedy for keeping sin out of my heart? I'll tell you it will never happen if your heart is empty, even as a Christian. It's the fullness of the love of Christ filling the heart, not setting up boundaries. Yes, we certainly need boundaries, I suppose, because it checks the sin that we might commit, commit.
But it's only the fullness of that love filling our hearts. And it can be every day if I'm in His presence. And I'm not just reading the Bible as a guidebook, which is good, or a book of principles and for doctrine, But as I say so, our brother Jim reminders it's a hymn book. It points to him. God the Father points to him. This is my beloved son, whom I'm well pleased the disciples got with him on the Mount.
And they tried to give credit and some glory to Moses and Elias.
And all they had to disappear, he said. This is my beloved son. This is the object of our hearts. The bride And the Song of Solomon came to the point in her relationship with the bridegroom.
Such that she became.
It says sick of love in our translation, but it really means lovesick.
Have you ever said, Lord?
I am really sick of this world.
My love has been so wonderful to me. That's what David said. You know, you remember the story.
About Jonathan after Jonathan was slain on the hills of Gilboa.
He said. Thy love is wonderful to me, passing the love of women over the picture of Christ before us.
There is no love so wonderful, beloved.
It's a love that passes understanding, but the Holy Spirit within us, Not by our own human understanding or our human minds, our own intellect, can we ever enter into these things.
Only by the Spirit of God.
Only by this this goddess revealed these things to us by his spirit, the person of Jesus.
Filling the heart will keep out every evil wretched thought within my breast that comes up from that old nature.
Out of the heart, it says. The first one.
Comes forth. What is it? Evil thoughts. And that is the very first thing that leads me down.
The road of despair and discouragement and will seek to destroy.
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My communion. This was Israel's history. Our brother reminded us first of all. They lusted after these evil things because the man I became.
Boring to them.
Our sole loathe of this light bread.
They got tired of Christ.
Are you tired of coming to the meetings? Are you tired of reading your Bible?
I was in category and I can still get into that category, except I get into His presence and I pour out my heart confessing deeply in self judgment my sin.
They lusted first of all. Secondly, it says in this chapter.
The idols followed.
Is there something in your life? I ask you, beloved, with all the sincerity in my heart, I trust by the spirit of God, is there something that is becoming an idol in your heart?
You're totally indifferent to the meeting, totally indifferent to him who loved you and gave himself for you. Totally at a distance. You're just going your own way, paddling your own canoes.
Because you're going to have a little bit of fun in this world before you get serious about the things of Christ.
Idolatry sets in and it says in Hebrews chapter 3 there are three steps.
To apostasy 3 steps. I'm not going to enumerate them. There are three steps.
One of them is the heart, being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
There is sin plastered all over this world, beloved in magazines, in billboards, and it's all over. It's in your schools. It's in the talk of the language and conversation of the young people.
It's there, and the natural heart goes for it. I was there, I know.
I trust it will break your heart.
The next step.
They committed fornication.
There was an alliance with the world, so to speak.
And then they said, Is the Lord among us?
Have you ever said that, beloved? Have I ever said that?
Is the Lord among us?
Numbers chapter 17. I believe Brother read it.
All these problems and all these difficulties, but really the problem is right here, it's in my own heart. I've let down the bars. And so, you know, it's easy when we're walking in the flesh to say there's just nothing in the assembly. The assembly becomes dull and boring. And so we reach out maybe to another place to go to that has a lot of entertainment and a lot of things that appeal to the natural senses. It's our human nature. I'm not pointing the finger at anybody, beloved. I'm pointing the finger at my natural heart.
And then they murmured in verse 10.
As some of them had also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now it's interesting, as our brother brought before us that these people were identified, they were baptized, it says to Moses. They ate of the manna, they drank of the water that flowed out of that rock.
They experienced the miraculous.
Do we not experience the miraculous? Are you baptized?
Are you at the Lord's table?
You can have all the benefits, so to speak, and the privileges these associations.
Christian privileges, so to speak, connected with them outwardly, but they mean nothing to you in your heart. And I was there.
And they were destroyed.
Many of them perished.
Is it just an outward thing with you, beloved, The privileges that we have brought before us, that we should be enjoying that most of my life, I have not.
Is it a reality?
Is there something wrong, and you know it in your heart right now. It can be made right right now.
Then he said, Wherefore, verse 12 Let him think of thee standeth take heed lest he fall.
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There hath no temptation taken you, such as is common to man, but God is faithful.
Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you're able, but will with the temptation, make a way of escape?
That you may be able to bear it.
Sometimes in the assembly we think that we are strong, we can stand and we can go on and we stand on our own laurels, so to speak.
And then we meet with a fall. I have seen some very strong, beloved brethren.
My memory goes back to the time when I was.
10 years old.
In the Des Moines assembly I will never forget the trial a certain family went through and because of the removal of a brother under discipline.
I was sitting close to the front row of Brother Gordon May. Remember this.
A family? A grandpa and grandma.
After the letter of discipline was read, they got up and walked out of the assembly.
The son and the wife, his wife and children got up and followed father and mother out of the assembly.
A valued brother that we loved, that loved us, that was a shepherd we felt among us. They never came back.
They're gone to this day, beloved.
It was a trial they could not pass through. God will not test you beyond that which you are able to bear, but will, with the temptation or the test, make a way whereby he might be able to bear it. And there are some here that have suffered far more than I have ever suffered through.
And we're suffering right now because of the difficulties.
Do we make a change because?
The Lord isn't among us anymore.
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.
He's never moved. We have because of our own natural hearts and inclinations. Or we follow people, we follow family members, we follow good friends, we follow this one and that one or our own senses. It's just easier to get out of all that trouble.
It's interesting here that he says my beloved flee idolatry.
I speak unto you as wise men.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and He has given you that fear, beloved.
You're wise in Christ.
He hath made unto us.
He is made unto us wisdom, sanctification, righteousness, and redemption. We have it all in Him. The wisdom He's given us. It's right here.
I can, he says. I can speak unto you as wise men. Here is a company of Christians, beloved, that failed miserably.
Oh how delicately he begins to deal with these beloved Saints gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not come down on them with a sledgehammer. At the very outset of his ministry to them, He draws their heart out to them, to him.
To Christ.
Then he begins to delineate the difficulties that have come in that have beset them in following the Lord Jesus Christ, even such serious things as allowing evil, immoral, evil to exist among them.
And be associated with the Lord's table.
He had to write to them finally in chapter 5 and tell them.
This had to be dealt with.
And evil must, beloved, be dealt with. We do not understand the various kinds.
Of problems in other assemblies there are leaders. There are the guides that God has given.
Our brother Bruce mentioned the other day that has that wisdom for a local setting and local responsibility. Let's leave it with them.
Let's obey what he has told us.
In Matthew chapter 18, whatsoever things are bound on earth are bound in heaven.
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And whatsoever things are loose on earth, are loosed in heaven. The responsibility of the other assemblies are to bow to an action.
That has been exercised by the conscience.
Not the majority by the conscience of the assembly where the trouble.
Conscience may be held by two or three. The conscience here in Corinth may not have been the majority. Some may have disagreed with such violent kind of treatment concerning one who had sinned.
But it had to be dealt with in Acts Chapter 15. I believe one of our brothers brought this before us. There was a problem that came up in Antioch.
The brethren went up to Jerusalem and there was disputing it, says in Acts chapter 15. Then what happened? Peter stood up and spoke.
He was a leader, he was an elder. And then it says James got up and he spoke. He was a leader. He was an elder. He is the one, and perhaps Peter, and there may have been others that really possessed the conscience of the assembly there. And there were assemblies in many places throughout Jerusalem, not just one place, of course.
And then it says that they with with the assembly, the apostles with the assembly, the fellowship of the assembly. It didn't mean everybody agreed. What did they do? They wrote a letter.
It's not a democratic society. In the Assembly, perhaps we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. It's not a democratic society where it's the majority versus the minority vote.
This will help each one of us, beloved. It's helped me and it will help you to see that there is order in the assembly. He is the son over his own house. Some of us were saying just the other day that seemed like there's a number of disciplinary actions over the past 50 years that have taken place. It seems like you can.
Pick out flaws and problems with each one of those actions, perhaps that were taken. But you know what? It just shows the weakness that exists in the Assembly today. We are in a very low state, beloved. We have lost our first love. We're walking at a distance, but sincere perhaps in seeking many sincere, seeking to to maintain the principles.
With all loneliness and meekness, it says, keeping the unity of the spirit in the uniting bond of peace. But you can pick out problems through these many, many.
Actions that have been taken over the past.
You know what the Spirit of God had his way?
And later, after the actions were exercised and taken.
And it grieves our hearts. It should make us weep and fall on our faces because of my poor low state.
But it only confirmed the aftermath.
That they had the mind of the Lord.
Will be an encouragement I'm sure to many of you beloved young people. Do not be disturbed and distressed about.
Confrontations and arguments and disputings, Intellectual things void vain arguments. They gender strife. Submit yourself to the older brethren that says, and to the word of God, and bow simply. It's not our as we had in Walla Walla. It is not our responsibility.
Other assemblies to make a decision.
It is our responsibility in the other assemblies to bow and when we do that there will be a wealth of blessing poured out and peace. I remember brother saying that when I bowed in my heart to that he said I had peace.
The Lord will give that to you. I know you may have discussed about the difficulties and problems and things as we all have, but please, I ask you, I beg of you, dear young people.
Some of you may be tired of the problems that keep coming up and maybe treat the older brethren as as children having a fight.
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Beloved, it is the Lord's table.
The matter is extremely serious, and This is why there is such deep exercise. There has been fasting, there has been prayer, there has been heart sickness and brokenness over these difficulties that are not solvable by you and me except we submit to the Lord in these things. I say this to my own heart.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
You know, you know when Jesus asked his own in the Gospels?
Before he ascended to heaven, he said.
This do in remembrance of Maine.
We have nothing about the Lord's table in the Gospels, did we?
But he expressed his heartfelt desire, beloved, and I would ask you if you have not taken your place at his table and you know that you are a.
A child of the family of God and your sins are forgiven.
You've been bought with the precious blood of Christ. Maybe there has been confusion and even consternation in your heart about the difficulties that have taken place, I tell you, and I ask you, submit yourself unto God.
Take your place at his table. This is what this little portion we read about is about. It's about his table.
And the first thing he brings before us is our acceptance at his table.
Is a reminder of the blood of Christ. It was a cup of wrath to Him. But to you and me who sit at his table and drink of the cup, it is a cup of blessing. There is no Beloved. There is no greater blessing. I don't care how far I may wander from the Lord.
How far I may get away from him.
And I may think all these follies here out in the world are wonderful. Oh, but they're fleeting. I know my poor heart has entered into many of them.
But when I am happy in him.
There is no greater joy in this world than to sit at his table and drink the cup of blessing.
This chapter is about the table. The 11Th chapter is about taking the supper.
And I would just say this and my brethren can correct me if I'm wrong. I believe that there are many who partake.
Of the supper that are not at his table elsewhere.
They are sincere, beloved Christians that we love with all of our hearts.
But they are seen in the one loaf on the table. That's where God wants them to be, in happy communion and fellowship with himself there, seated at the table of the Lord.
But how much more blessed and intimate it is to be where he is. And remember, let's not ever think He forsakes his own. He never will. He does not do that. It says in Ephesians chapter 2. The assembly is a habitation of God by the Spirit. All of the believers in this world can enjoy the Spirit of God that moves among them that ministers Christ to their hearts.
Let's not ever think that we have some kind of a a supreme hold on that point. We do not.
But the Spirit of God only gathers beloved, and we hear this time after time. And if we don't hear it time after time, we forget about it, and we think it's valueless. It's meaningless. He only gathers to one center. It will be that way here in this world, no matter how small.
The assemblies become and they seem to be shrinking. I think they're growing.
In Mexico.
You live in Marcos and Maria, Miguel and Saul that are with us and beloved Spanish speaking brethren. We love our experiencing perhaps growth, but not in America, the land of idolatry, and seems to be shrinking. It really does.
The assemblies? Even the assemblies.
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But no matter how small we become, and some of you have come from small assemblies where they're just a few. And I know it's difficult, young people and when you come to a place like this.
Your heart is full of joy, and so is mine.
Or to a conference like we have in Walla Walla. What a wonderful time. It's a foretaste of home where all the redeemed will be forever. That Grand throng singing, Can you imagine? Brother Dean was saying last night what it's going to be like to sing.
But no matter how small we become, remember.
You can only enjoy this.
As you walk in nearness to him with your head on his bosom.
With Commune precious communion with your Lord and Savior and mine.
He is in the midst of his own.
Where two or three are gathered by the Holy Spirit. Not by my own intellect or not by a plan to get together by some. Let's go meet over here. Because we're tired of the the systems today, the organization. They just don't don't have it together. Let's let's meet over. No, it's a work of the Spirit of God.
It is to be gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is His sovereign word, beloved, and it is the greatest privilege in this world. There is no greater privilege, and I believe I speak on the authority of this book, as some of you have heard. Some speak after a meeting.
That was like being in heaven because they were walking in communion with the Lord. If you were not walking in communion with the Lord, you will say That was the most boring meeting I've ever been in, and I've heard young people say, and I have said it.
It's boring. I want to leave.
I want some activity. I want some group fellowship to join a group or do at clubs or whatever. And there's all kinds of them out there to join Beloved.
The cup of blessing.
Is a reminder of what he drank for us and the price that was paid to make you and me acceptable at his table. Because we are robed in the best rope and you are qualified to be at his table if you know him and you've been born into his family, washed in the blood of Christ.
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? The bread which we break, perhaps it's a hint that we have in the 11Th chapter of the Supper that he was going to give himself. He could not give more, Beloved, He could not give less.
He gave himself.
Can you and I just give ourselves? I beseech you, brethren, through the mercies of God, that you present your body at living sacrifice.
Unto God.
Which is our reasonable intelligence service.
The Creator of the universe gave his life for you.
Not just to redeem you, but to have you in close connection and fellowship with him. And there can be no closer connection than to be at his table in his presence. And I believe I can say this in truth.
The continuity of the recovery that was made 175 years ago.
Of the Lord's table without division has been preserved to us today here in America. Do we value it? I know there are divisions.
Paul had to tell the Corinthians there are divisions among you. Some Sam and Paul, I'm Apollos, I'm of Cephas. Others said I'm of Christ.
There is only one body, and this is what the loaf speaks to of us here, to us here of.
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the Body of Christ?
His entire body. Now it's Speaking of the loaf on the table.
That place has been preserved, beloved, where Christ is the head of His body, the Church, and those in that place, outside of division, outside of secularism and man's systematize, religion gathered by the Holy Spirit to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, can enjoy the blessedness of that it is not a prideful thing. It should never be a prideful thing to believe the truth and walk in and to enjoy it, and to share it with one another.
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Humble us, beloved, and we feel that not only because of that, but because of our state.
Then it speaks of Israel's table, so to speak. They have an altar. Then it speaks of the idols table.
They had an altar.
And many were partakers of that. That means they have fellowship with everything that went on at Israel table.
And at the table of demons or at the table?
Of idols because the demons behind now can you the the idol, Can you imagine sitting down?
To a table in an idol's temple, there's a big, beautiful idol behind. It was a devil. They were having fellowship with devils. Now I would just say this. Perhaps that isn't our danger today.
Our danger today is to become so discouraged, beloved, that we sidestep the truth and we end up in a humanly arranged fellowship that is easier to go to. To a place where we hear one man give out a message, and I don't have to be in a necessarily great state of soul to hear it. And I have some entertainment and other things that appeal to me that is a danger in my own flesh.
And I could end up there, because I know.
The weaknesses within my own frame.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils.
It cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils. I had a very good friend.
He reminded me of brother Albert Hajo. He looked like him.
He was short had that that just a spontaneity about his way of talking and joining the things of Christ.
And I said to him one day, I said, Would you come with me to the assembly?
And he said, well, of course he said, so he did. He came maybe once or twice, he said, he said Now he said I just want show, you know, my wife is not a Christian, he said. I just really want to show what Christianity is that we all share.
In our fellowship, would you come with me?
You know I fell down before the Lord and wept. Lord, what do I do?
I love this man.
He's so dear to me. We've shared so much together. They came over to our home and we have fellowship together.
I had to tell him.
I said dear brother Pete.
I said.
The Lord has gathered me outside, outside of all of systematized religion.
Where it's an organized system of things where everything is pre arranged.
And they have this pastor and that pastor and paid preacher and a membership. There's only one body. There's only one church. The Lord added to the church daily said you should be saved. I said he's the head of his body, the church. Pete, if I do that, I'm violating my conscience concerning the word of God. He didn't understand. We've never talked since.
You may have to pay a price like that, beloved to a very dear friend, but you have a more precious friend.
And that is Jesus, who is the head of his body, the Church. And he wants you to be where he is nowhere else. And that does not mean that others do not possess the presence of the Lord. But as a gathering center there is only one. I beseech you, brethren, I love this verse. Pardon me if I keep quoting it.
By the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together.
Unto him.
I believe when we meet on the glory cloud, Beloved, we are going to be gathered around him and then his body. The church will understand maybe what they've missed out on the blessedness in the past. There'll be no regrets, I know that.
But that will be our occupation in the coming day. He is the center now. He is the center then.
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Even with Abijah in second Chronicles chapter 13, he was the son of Ribon and if you read in that chapter.
Doesn't say much about Abijah. He's kind of a mysterious man.
King.
But you know what it says about him?
And those that officiated in the temple, it says that the priests offered burnt sacrifices night and morning, and burned sweet incense.
And arrange the 12 loaves. This was after the division of the 10 tribes.
And the two tribes were still in Jerusalem.
Arrange the 12 lows on the table of showbread and the Candlestick and it says on this pure table.
Beloved, you have and I have the opportunity to be at a pure table. I know there are problems. I know there's discouragement. I know you've been stumbled in one way or another. But it is his table. It is a pure table.
Integrate the house that says there are vessels of gold and silver.
Of wood and of earth, some to honor, some to dishonor, if a man purge himself from these.
Some of you beloved Spanish brethren, they're here have come out.
From.
A system beloved Miguel.
What grace?
But it hurts to separate from companies that you've enjoyed fellowship with and family members. But it says if a man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel of honor, fit and meet for the masters use. Then it says follow peace.
And righteousness and love and faith with them.
That call on Lord out of a pure heart. And that simply means there's no discussion. There's no dispute, there's no argument. We're simply gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. His table cannot be divided, beloved. It's been preserved to you and me as a pure table.
May the Lord encourage you to take your place at His table. I just just opened up my Bible this morning, and there was a verse right in front of me. He hath prepared for me a table in the presence of my enemies. It's His table, not a Christian table, not the Brethren's table.
It is his table, beloved, and he will preserve the testimony through this day of ruin and failure. But recovery, thankfully, until the moment he takes us home. First Corinthians Chapter 11. Read in the next chapter. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come. He's going to preserve it to us. The sad part is we are turning away as young people and older ones. We're turning away from it, from him.
Who occupies it? Because there is where His presence is. We have fellowship. There is where His authority is authority, the authority of His word that governs the activities that go on there. And remember if you're coming to the assembly and breaking bread and you've got sin in your life.
You're having fellowship with him at his table.
Make sure, beloved, that that sin.
Is judged in the proper manner.
We cannot go back and forth from this table to that table, because whatever table we go to, whether it's a humanly arranged table or whatever, whatever that table is, if they deny the eternal sonship of Christ, or they say he could have sinned, or they deny eternal security, you're having fellowship. I'm having fellowship with that evil doctrine.
You're having, you see why it needs to be a pure table.
One where evil is dealt with as much as it hurts.
I've never seen a matter can come up that needs to be judged in the assembly that's been swept under the carpet.
It has been dealt with by the authority of this blessed Book.
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And I thank the Lord for it, as much as it may hurt me, as much as it may hurt you, I thank the Lord. May the Lord gather you to his precious name, and may you ask for your place at his table, that you might have the privilege of partaking of the emblems.
And remember his.
For what he suffered.
For us on the cross shall we pray.