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[00:00:00] Now, this evening, as we come to this introductory time to the training course, these training sessions we have in front of us, there's been one phrase that has been in my heart and mind from the very beginning, when the thought was first given to us of such a time. And it's in ephesians four, and it is verse 16, Ephesians four and verse 16, from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure, of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love, according to the working in due measure of each several part.
[00:01:14] That is the phrase that's been so much with me, according to the working in due measure of each several part. Now, this is how the revised standard Version puts it, much more simply, when each part is working properly.
[00:01:34] When each part is working properly, and this is how the new American Standard Bible puts it, according to the proper working of each individual part. According to the proper working of each individual part.
[00:02:00] Well, now, that, I think, is a good motto, really, for the whole of these days.
[00:02:11] According to the proper working of each individual part. What a tremendous thing it would be if every single believer here was really working properly, functioning properly, every one of us, just with all our imperfections, with all our weaknesses, the fact that we are frail vessels of clay, yet because we are saved by the grace of God, and because the spirit of God has been given to us, we are working properly.
[00:02:51] Every single part, not one part not working, but every part working.
[00:02:59] That surely is the aim, as it were, the practical aim of the Lord during these days, to get every single part working properly. Now, with that in mind, I really want this evening to deal with a question.
[00:03:23] By the grace of God, what is God's objective in practical terms?
[00:03:30] What is God's objective in practical terms?
[00:03:38] Why should I be built up with others?
[00:03:43] Isn't it all right for me to be just on my own?
[00:03:48] Is there any need for me to be built up with others? Why should I contribute to the building?
[00:03:58] What does it mean, building?
[00:04:03] Why is it important for me or for us to function? To be responsible? We hear again and again the need to be responsible.
[00:04:14] And so. Well, why is it important? It's one thing to be told. You ought to be irresponsible.
[00:04:21] You ought to be functioning. You ought to be exercising the gift God has given to you. You ought to be contributing. But why?
[00:04:31] What is the objective of God in practical terms? It is always good for us to be quite clear, as to what God is driving at. And then I think once we get a kind of clear long distance view, many of the details start to fall into place.
[00:04:57] Many of our problems are due to the fact that we don't see what really is the ultimate aim of God in practical terms, and therefore we just feel, well, it's a matter that I ought to be working because the Bible says I ought to be working properly or I should be contributing, because the Bible says I should be contributing. That's not good enough. And it's very interesting that God never says, you ought to be responsible, full stop.
[00:05:27] You ought to be functioning, full stop. You will find everywhere in the New Testament that whenever the urgency of our functioning, of our contributing, of our exercising the ministry or gift that God has given to us comes up, it is always in relation to the purpose of God and to the end of God. And this is the thing which has been so tragically misunderstood, perhaps, or even bypassed by so many believers.
[00:06:01] We're told we should be disciples, we're told we should be soul winners, we're told we should be servants of the Lord, we should be in the service of God. But when it comes to it, very few know really what we're driving at. What is the aim of God? What is God's objective? Well, now, in the time in July, we are specifically going to deal more with this matter in its much wider meaning. But this evening all we will do is just underline one or two things and then pass straight on to the practical side in our life together. Locally, what is the objective of God in practical terms?
[00:06:53] Everything that God is doing with us is related to the bride of his son, to the wife of the lamb, the city of God, or putting into another word the home of God, the eternal habitation of God, the objective of God, the eternal purpose of God, to put it in a sentence, is the calling out of a people to be part of his son, the calling out of a people, the calling out of a people out of the world into his son. That's putting it very simply.
[00:07:37] And we could go further and say, the eternal purpose of God, or the objective of God is the calling out of a people to be his eternal home. God doesn't dwell just in the creation. He doesn't dwell in houses built with bricks and mortar, houses of stone, houses that a man made. God dwells in, human beings redeemed through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and built together in his son.
[00:08:17] Now that we find in the Bible in all kinds of terms, we find it as the wife of the lamb. We find it as the bride of Christ. We find it as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find it even more simply in terms of being in Christ. We find it also as the city of God.
[00:08:40] I think we could put it another way, that God's purpose is to call us out as a people, to share the nature and life of Christ, being conformed to his likeness, in the end, to share his throne and his glory. Well, now, there are lots of things in the scripture. I'm not going to stay with them because I'm only just touching on this matter this evening. But we do see it everywhere in the Bible. I'm going to give you four short series of scriptures, and if you've got a pencil, take these down and go away and look at them. Four short series of scriptures. First of all, to do with being in Christ. Ephesians one.
[00:09:41] Ephesians one. What is the objective of God? Listen to this. Ephesians one, verse nine and ten and eleven, making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him, that's in Christ, unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times.
[00:10:02] To sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth in him, I say, in whom also we have been made a heritage in Christ. Now, this very simple little phrase is the key to everything, really, in the New Testament, in Christ. And it is the secret, really to what the objective of God is, the purpose of God. He has called us into Christ in Christ. Again. Look at it in one Peter, chapter five. One Peter, chapter five, verse ten. And the God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ Jesus. So there is the purpose of God, to be partners in the eternal glory of God in Christ.
[00:11:12] Again. Turn back to one. Thessalonians, no. Two Thessalonians, chapter one, verse ten. And it speaks of the coming of the Lord when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at in all them that believe. So there you have the double in Christ. Christ in us. We are in Christ. He's in us again.
[00:11:42] Revelation 21, verse eleven. You've got it summed up, linking these other matters I've spoken about.
[00:11:50] Revelation 21, verse eleven. Having the glory of God. This is the bride, the wife of the lamb, the city of God, having the glory of God. And in verse 23 of the same chapter, it says, the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the lamb. Now, the purpose of God is very simply, very simple.
[00:12:15] It is to change us into the same likeness as Christ, from glory to glory.
[00:12:22] And the vessel of that glory is the church. It's Christ. And that's why one corinthians twelve. And verse twelve does actually just say simply that. One corinthians twelve, verse twelve.
[00:12:37] For as the body is one and have many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. Now there it says that the body is Christ. He's not just the head, he is the body as well.
[00:12:53] And that is really, in a word, the glory of God's objective to bring us to be sharers in his son, to become partners in his son or with his son, to be, as it were, incorporated. I know it's an awful word, but incorporated, as it were, into Christ, it's wonderful not to take away from his unique glory and person, but so to enter in, to become partakers of the divine nature that he and we become absolutely one. That is the eternal purpose of God. Well, that's the first series, second series coming out of that. Revelation 21, verse two. Now, these are all to do with the bride.
[00:13:39] Revelation 21, verse two.
[00:13:44] Here it is. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
[00:13:54] And then again, verse nine and ten. Come hither. Last part of verse nine. Come hither. I will show thee the bride, the wife of the lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Now, this was so much in the apostles thought that everywhere you find it in his letters in ephesians five, verse 26, he's speaking about husbands and wives, and this is what he says. He says, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it, that he might sanctify that, separate it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. This whole thought of the purpose of God being, as it were, calling out a bride and presenting that bride to Christ as a bride without spot or blemish or any such thing, is something which you find again and again in the apostle Paul's ministry, and we can't stop with it again because it would take us all evening. But if you turn to two corinthians, you get it in very practical terms, two corinthians eleven. Now here the apostle is so angry about others who come preaching another gospel, and this is how he puts it in two corinthians eleven, verse one, two, four. Would that ye could bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed ye do bear with me, for I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
[00:15:53] But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ. For if he that cometh preaches of another Jesus whom we did not preach, or if ye receive a different spirit which ye did not receive, or a different gospel which ye did not accept, ye do well to bear with him.
[00:16:24] The apostle is quite here, quite concerned with a particular church. It's the church at Corinth. And he says of this church, I acted as the go between.
[00:16:35] In the east, there was always the go between who arranged marriages. And the apostle Paul is really saying, I acted as the go between.
[00:16:43] You are the bride of Christ, and I've acted as the go between, and I've proposed you. I've got the engagement, I've got the whole matter settled, and I'm so jealous over you as a church, as the church of God in Corinth. I'm so jealous over you that you shall not be spoiled, you shall not be corrupted, you shall not become an adulteress, you shall not have other lovers, but you shall be kept absolutely pure and alone for Christ.
[00:17:17] Third series of scriptures. This is to do with the house of God. Ephesians two. Here's another theme that you find again and again. Ephesians two, verse 19 to 22. So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the spirit.
[00:17:58] Now here the apostle is simply saying that we are building material. He now changes from the thought of being in Christ or even being the bride, the woman taken out of Christ and presented to him. Now he speaks of us being building material, and here it is. He says, we are built together. And what is the object of it? That we should become a home of God in the spirit. A home of God in the spirit. Now, the apostle Peter also takes this up in one. Peter two, he was the one. You remember that the Lord Jesus said, upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He takes it up and he says unto verse four, five unto whom coming a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect precious ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Now, this objective of God is not something mystical and abstract. Zechariah four tells us, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, Seth, the Lord of hosts, who art thou, o great mountain? Before the rubbable, thou shalt become a plain. And the top stone shall be brought forth with shouts of grace, grace unto it. In other words, it is the end of this age is dependent upon a building program, a spiritual building program. And until God gets those stones built together in their right place, the top stone cannot come forth. But once the building is complete, then the top stone will come forth. That's the end of the age. It's the same thought where it says, the bride hath made herself ready. Hath made herself ready. She's got some responsibility in this matter. It's the same thought again. What is the objective of God in practical terms? It is, first, to bring us into Christ and to bring us to see all that is ours in him, that we may become partakers of it. We may appropriate what is ours in him together and be built up into him.
[00:20:21] Secondly, that as the bride of Christ, we may prepare ourselves for him. And this is a corporate matter. It's not just an individual matter. And thirdly, that we may be built together and grow up into him as a habitation of God in the spirit. We have the same thought in revelation 21 and verse 22 where it says, there is no need of a temple there, for the Lord God and the lamb are the temple thereof. And the thought is that that whole city has become, as it were, merged into the life of God, so that you and I have become in him the dwelling place of God. And lastly, the body in the last series of scriptures, Ephesians one, verse 22 and 23, put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body. The fullness of him that filleth all in all.
[00:21:30] The fullness of him that filleth all in all his body. And then chapter three, verse four and verse six.
[00:21:38] Whereby when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ. Verse six. To wit, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise. Chapter four, verse twelve. And this is all these different functions and gifts for the perfecting of the saints. Under the work of ministering, under the building up of the body of Christ. Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Unto a full grown man under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
[00:22:20] Now that is at least something of the objective of God. I don't know whether that means much to many of you.
[00:22:30] What can we say about it, really? Very simply. It's just simply this. The church is not an institution. The church is not an organization. The church is not even a congregation of believers. It is not just the aggregate of believers, merely. Merely.
[00:22:49] It is not just a movement. The church is Christ. And it is a question of you and I being in Christ. Now we'll leave that for another day when we can deal with it more fully. But this all comes down to the church in time and in place.
[00:23:13] In other words, all that the church of God is.
[00:23:18] Is brought down to the question of the locality in which we live and the time in which we live. In other words, that church is expressed in time and in a given place. Given time and a given place. It's as simple as that. Now, this tremendous truth about the church is not something that is abstract, vague, mystical, impractical. People always think, oh, that's the ideal. That's the ideal. It's a marvelous thing. It's mystical. It's all up there. What they really mean is this. That it's all up in the sky. It's all, as it were, something vague and abstract and very beautiful, but is not really practical.
[00:24:07] This truth is to be concretely expressed in time and in place. The church on earth in time, in a given place, is the training ground in which we are trained for the eternal. It is the school in which we learn all the lessons which qualify us for the eternal. It is the place of trial and probation. Where what is rubbish is chucked out. And what is really of God is developed and perfected. It is the quarry. It is the quarrying place where the stones are quarried out of Christ. And then shaped and formed later. To be built together. It is all this, you see, the whole question about eternal vocation and service depends upon this matter of our being together down here in time and in a given place.
[00:25:18] There are many scriptures in connection with this. We read, for instance, in revelation about overcoming. We overcome.
[00:25:28] These believers are to overcome amongst the other believers there in that sphere, they are to overcome. So now, what does it really mean? What is God's objective in practical terms? Simply this, that it is here in the church, with all its imperfections and all its weaknesses and all its failings, if it really is the church expressed in time and in a given place.
[00:26:00] Here I must be trained, and I shall be trained supremely by the way I react to my brothers and sisters. Here I must be changed into the likeness of Christ. And God uses again and again, my brothers and sisters, to bring about that transforming work, that conforming into the image of Christ. Here I must exercise responsibility away with this idea that I can be quite irresponsible, and that one day, in the twinkling of an eye, I will be changed and become responsible and be able, as it were, to exercise some kind of responsibility for all eternity. It is rubbish, absolute rubbish. If a believer cannot be trained down here by the spirit of God amongst his brothers and sisters, what use is he going to be in eternity?
[00:27:03] No wonder brother nee had this problem when someone said to him, then, is eternity going to be peopled with spiritual babes?
[00:27:13] He got into a lot of trouble over the answer he gave to that question. But the fact remains that the importance of the church, locally expressed, is all to do with the simple fact that I cannot escape. I cannot escape. There's no such thing as artificial spirituality. This kind of thing is there was the will of God. The Lord has told me that I should go to the company just down the road, so off you go. I mean, it's a lot of nonsense. The fact of the matter is, things got too hot for you. People found out what you were like and you found out what the others were like, and you didn't like it. So you say goodbye and off you go, all terribly spiritual. The Lord has shown me, and off you go. And people are always doing this in christian work. They're always off somewhere else. But it's different, of course, if it's a question of seeing something fuller, you can't belong to something which is divisive in its nature, or something along that line, or something which is erroneous. But when you have come to the ground of Christ and you stand upon that ground unwittingly God has trapped you.
[00:28:30] Now. You cannot escape.
[00:28:33] And this is one of the problems many of us feel psychologically. We intuitively feel that God is trapping us. And we don't exactly, like always, the people with whom he is trapping us.
[00:28:46] When we first come, we look at all those shining faces and we think, oh, what saints they are. Look at them. Shining faces, radiant, singing hymns. And we think to ourselves, every word that comes out of their mouth is the word of God. We feel that every one of them is a perfected saint. Within a few months, we begin to discover not all, but we begin to discover that a number of them are not quite the saints we thought they were. And we have disillusionment after disillusionment and disappointment after disappointment. And then, of course, it's very easy for us to say, well, I'm looking for the perfect church, and off you go. But the church on earth was never the perfect church and never will be. As someone said, if you found it, you've not found the church. Not on earth, cannot find the perfect church. God never meant it to be. We are perfected down here. That's the point. That's quite different. It's here that we are being perfected. But the church down here is a cutting out shop, if you like. It's a builder's yard, if you like. Or as we've often said, it's like a pressure cooker. We're all inside with the lid screwed down and we can't get out. But there's a safety valve which lets off a little bit of steam now and again and enables the job to be done inside. We're being cooked.
[00:30:15] Something's being done. Now, I think that this matter is quite important. You see, we can all talk about the church in glowing terms. We can talk about it in abstract terms, we can talk about it in biblical terms. But we all have our little fire. Our fire exits.
[00:30:33] If things get too hot for us, we're out.
[00:30:39] There is no fire escape in the church.
[00:30:46] No fire escape in the church. We are trapped.
[00:30:51] Once we've really seen what the church is, and once we've taken that ground in Christ, we are trapped. There is no fire escape. Things may get hotter and hotter and hotter, but we prove the grace of God in the midst of it, we overcome. There now, the value of this and the importance of this, I cannot overemphasize. Because, you see, if you fail in maintaining the unity with your brothers and sisters, you disqualify yourself from eternal service as is as serious as that if you do not allow God to teach you what responsibility is here where you're known and where all you have to expose yourself before your brothers and Sisters, you will never be allowed to exercise real responsibility eternally.
[00:31:52] There are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb, of whom it is said that they are blessed.
[00:32:01] And there are those who are the bride. There's a difference.
[00:32:09] Now, what I'm really saying is this, that we can talk about service, for instance. Oh, how much I've seen, how many problems I've seen in my short lived life in moving around so called servants of the Lord and all these things. And when really, when you get down to the root of it, it is self satisfaction, self fulfillment and self expression.
[00:32:39] God preserve us from that kind of service. Now, the church is so impolite that before very long, you are stripped of everything.
[00:32:51] You can start off and think that you've got something and wonderful, but you'll always be punctured in the church. Someone will say to you, you were too long.
[00:33:00] And you think, oh, the Lord has been there so much. And then as they go out, they say, too long.
[00:33:07] Or someone will say, you mispronounce that word.
[00:33:14] This is why most of us won't often pray out loud. Find to death we are. Find a death that someone will sort of say, did you hear so and so pray.
[00:33:24] Now we know where they stand, don't we?
[00:33:29] We're frightened to death of it because we're fighting to expose ourselves before others. But you see, this is in fact, the only place where responsibility can be put to the test. It is just here. And that's why the scripture says again and again and again, you must exercise responsibility. You must exercise your gift. You must stir it up. You mustn't neglect it. You must fulfill your ministry. You must be a good steward of the manifold grace of God. You must do all things to building up and so on and so forth. We, according to the working in due measure of each several part.
[00:34:13] In other words, God may give you a humble job. And we can say this without, I think, upsetting anybody of scrubbing a step.
[00:34:27] And God can give you that job so that you know that you should scrub that step. And you do it twice a week or whatever it is, year in and year out. And you don't think it has anything to do with the life of the church. You think it's just some little job. But God watches.
[00:34:45] And the way you scrub that step and the spirit that lies behind it and the kind of job you produce is determining your eternal vocation. You won't be scrubbing steps.
[00:35:01] Fear not.
[00:35:05] Fear not.
[00:35:07] Some people sort of say, oh, dear, I'm so. I've only got these little tiny job doing. I suppose one day when I get there, I shall have some other little menial job. No, not at all. Not at all. It's the spirit, you see, God's not all that concerned.
[00:35:23] If you've been given as an apostle or a prophet or a great evangelist to the church, it's nothing in you. Supposing I was the greatest evangelist who had ever lived, and thousands and thousands came to the Lord. Nothing to do with me.
[00:35:41] Nothing to do with me. God has not only given me the gift, it is a gift of Christ, but he's given me the grace to exercise the gift. He's nothing to do with me. What he watches is the way I do it. Now, that's important. Now take it in. He watches the way I do it, you see? And he says, and here's some dear soul is scrubbing a step.
[00:36:02] He doesn't say, it's nothing like evangelism. Thousands of people aren't coming to the Lord through it, but God is watching the way they do it, in exactly the same way he watches the other person, because grace is given. Do you understand what I'm getting at?
[00:36:13] It's the way that. It's the attitude. And that's why the apostle Paul says, not the apostle Paul, sorry. James says in James, brethren, don't try to be a teacher. Don't be too many teachers, because the teacher will have a much more severe judgment, as it were, when he faces the Lord, if you understand the word, what I mean by judgment, I mean he will have a much closer investigation and scrutiny when he faces. Why? Oh, you see better. If he's taught the word of God. That's tremendous. That's wonderful. Why, think of the glory that will come to. Not at all. God may have me up, as it were, one day before him, and say, but, Lance, I showed you this and this and this and this and this. I don't care to hooch what they thought, if they thought it was wonderful, you didn't do what you should have done. You didn't. You didn't. You didn't fulfill your ministry. You only half fulfilled it.
[00:37:09] Now it's in the church that all this kind of thing is put to the test, do you see? Amongst one another. Therefore, we should be very thankful for one another when we're sat on and rubbed up the wrong way and when we begin to see, all that's not so good. I mean, the fact that we've got to learn how to keep the unity of the spirit amongst us. And that is a practical matter. We can all be one with the believers in New York or one with the believers in Melbourne, or one with the believers in Tokyo. Oh, how wonderful they are. How marvelous. Lord bless the dear ones in Melbourne, that kind of thing. And we can't get on with the sister next to us.
[00:37:57] We can't even get through.
[00:38:00] So simple, so utterly simple. But the fact of the matter is this, God knows very well that if you and I can't get on with the brother and sister next to us, we certainly wouldn't get on with the brothers and sisters in Melbourne, if we wish, put with them for a while. Oh, we found it out. Some people have left in high dungeon. Not just us, but know they. Off they go to the ends of the earth. And it's just a while before we get letters, generally a year before letters come back and say, oh, could you help us? We've got such problem. They're such difficult people here.
[00:38:34] What shall. I've had many a letter like that. What shall we do? What shall I do? Could you advise me? And I think to myself, my goodness me, dear old so and so run away from the same problem and found it the other end.
[00:38:49] We're all doing that, aren't we? Like Jacob running away from home to be put with Laban for 21 years. And as many of you have heard me say before, what he saw in Laban was Jacob.
[00:39:03] And so the two of them swindled each other for 21 years until, in the end, Jacob became Israel. And that's what happens in the Church. People remain Laban and others become Israel. It's as simple as that. Jacob was an overcomer. He was the crafty, deceitful, hopeless type.
[00:39:25] But because he stuck it and stuck it and stuck it, in the end, he saw himself. And he saw himself in such a way that he cried to God to deliver him. And God did deliver him. Now, that very simply means, really, when we come to it, that we can talk about the church in highfaluting terms, we can think of it in wonderful terms and so on. But in actual fact, God brings all those terms down to practical realities. And in the end, it's a question of how I exercise responsibility locally in that poor little group of believers there in Richmond, how I get on with my brothers and sisters there, how I overcome, how I maintain the unity with them, poor and failing as they are, how I serve the Lord there. How I go out to the unsaved there, and all these other things all come down in the end to this matter. If a person cannot open their mouth in prayer and engage in the intercessory ministry of the church, what are they going to be in heaven?
[00:40:40] Am I told that they're going to change? You see, people put so much on this in the twinkling of an eye.
[00:40:47] Personalities are personalities, dear child of God. Your personality will remain your personality at the end of time. The only difference will be we won't have a devil, we won't have a whole satanic hierarchy, and you won't have sin in your members. Thank God for that. But your personality will remain your personality, not never change. You are you and you will be you forever.
[00:41:14] Come to terms with it.
[00:41:19] Well, you've got to come to terms. Part of the life of the church is to come to terms with one another.
[00:41:26] It's not that. You see, our life together is bound and must end in knocking off the corners and bringing us to a place where Christ becomes more and more and more. He must increase, I must decrease. But the fact of the matter remains that you remain you temperamentally. You will always be you. You'll never change.
[00:41:51] Now there are just one or two little matters that come out of this.
[00:41:56] If this is true, then what are we. What are we doing here?
[00:42:01] Well, first of all, Christ is our only foundation.
[00:42:07] Christ is our only foundation. It's not Christ plus or less than Christ, Christ minus. It is Christ alone that is our foundation. We believe that is the foundation of the church, just as it is the foundation of the eternal Church, so it must be the foundation of the church locally. That's why we don't have a membership, because anything like that would divide believer from believer. So we refuse to do that. We say the Church of God in Richmond is every single true believer who's in Christ, whoever they are, wherever they are. For all I know, there may be Roman Catholics who are really believers. They're in Christ. They're as much part of the Church of God enrichment as I am. And there may be dozens of Protestants, including some in high places, who are not born of God and therefore are not in the church of God in Richmond, as far as God is concerned, the church of God is all those that he has put in Christ, and he alone knows them. And therefore the ground we've taken is that ground. We believe that God is recovering the nature of the church just as down through the years, he's recovered one truth after another. Justification. And then later on, inner life, sanctification, and then later on, something of the priesthood of all believers. And then later on, this matter of power from on high, and so on and so on and so on. We can say, we believe that the last great phase is the recovery of the nature of the church to correspond with the beginning. So the end will correspond to the beginning, not in a great universal thing, but just like the house of God at the end of the Old Testament, age was a small one compared with the solomonic one, one of Solomon, yet it was the one to which Christ came. And so we believe that in a marvellous way, there is a move of the spirit of God to recover these last truths before, in the light of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I say that that's absolutely wonderful. So what are we to do? What are we to do? We take the ground of Christ. And that simply means that we said every believer living within this borough of Richmond upon Thames belongs to the church, just as we actually say that every believer in the whole world belongs to us. Let them come. I mean, anyone who comes, we say, are you a believer? You're a believer. Thank God you're not a visitor, you're a member.
[00:44:42] There are no visitors.
[00:44:46] When Paul was in the church at Rome, he was in the church in Rome. When he was in the church at Corinth, he was in the church at Corinth. He wasn't a visitor in the Church of Corinth. A member of the Church of Rome? No, there was only one church. He was a member of the church, and if he happened to be in Rome, he was in the church there. And if he was in Corinth, he was in the church there. And if you. Well, it's the same here if you're in Richmond. When I move out of Richmond, I'm not a member of the Church of Richmond. I'm only a member of Christ. I go somewhere else, I'm there, in the church there. Thank God for that. Well, that's wonderful. Don't you see? It's absolutely wonderful. Christ alone. So we must always be careful of saying us and them. Us and them. Us and them. We must always be careful of that very unscriptural phrase that some people use. The fellowship. The fellowship. The fellowship. What is the fellowship?
[00:45:33] That's why we don't have a the to it. If you've noticed.
[00:45:37] You've noticed outside in the stone, he doesn't say the christian fellowship. He says christian fellowship description. Not a title christian fellowship, just christian fellowship in Richmond. Just a fellowship of believers, that's all. An inward thing. There's no such thing in the Bible as the fellowship. It's always something that is being shared, experienced. Do you see?
[00:46:02] May God deliver us from these things. Because once we see them, we begin our whole aphrodisiology, even gets touched because we inwardly begin to see something. So you see this matter of Christ alone. Why, it just means that the basis of our gathering together is not, have you had an experience of this or that or the other? But are you in Christ? If you're in Christ, hallelujah, you belong to me. And you, I may not agree with you.
[00:46:32] Now, you see, people don't like this. They don't like it all. No, you see, their idea is that the church is something specialized. But the church is not something specialized.
[00:46:40] The church is built on the foundation of Christ alone. Now, there are many scriptures for this that I can give you, but the only ones I'll go to is Matthew 1618. Upon this rock, I will build my church. One corinthians 311. There is the foundation which is laid, which no other can be laid. I can't quite remember. It's one corinthians 311 and two timothy 218 is a marvelous one, because everything was going wrong and there was even heresy. And the apostle Paul says, but the sure foundation, the firm foundation of God, standeth sure. In other words, the foundation is there, even if they've added to it something which is wrong. It's Christ plus they're bringing it, or Christ minus. But the foundation is there. You stick to the foundation. Stick to the foundation. And that's been our spirit. Now, from the very beginning, we were all different things. We were Baptists, of brethren. There was one Quaker, I believe, there were Presbyterian, there was Anglican or two. I mean, we were all kinds of things, and yet we stuck together. We stuck together. And you see, well, many more things we could say. For instance, you see, we said, the church is exclusive, exclusive of everything which is not of Christ. And it's inclusive, inclusive of everything that is of Christ. It excludes everyone who's not in Christ and includes everyone who is.
[00:48:03] Therefore, that's our ground. The membership of the Church of God in Richmond is the membership of every true believer.
[00:48:10] Therefore we love them. Some people say, but you can't discipline them. Oh, leave it to the Holy Spirit. It's a much stronger discipline. People say, but you can't put them out. We've had to put some out.
[00:48:22] And it's come to the matter of, I had to stop some taking the Lord's table, that's just as firm and strong a discipline. You don't have to have all this top heavy organization that you find everywhere which is superimposed upon the people of God and simply stifles the life of God in them. You don't have to have it. The Holy Spirit is the organization.
[00:48:41] All comes with him and in him.
[00:48:45] And you see. May I just make a point here which I think is very important. You see, we could easily say now our view on baptism is baptism, believers, baptism by immersion. Now this is the truth and every one of you, you must be baptized. Well, we could easily do it. Someone would say, it's scriptural. Repent, ye and be baptized.
[00:49:07] Those that believe were baptized.
[00:49:10] But we don't do that. Now why don't we do that? Why aren't we scriptural? Because we believe that at the end of the age when God is bringing together all believers, you cannot push something to the division of believer and believer. It is utterly wrong and ends in denominationalism.
[00:49:31] Our view is that the Holy Spirit is well able to lead every believer to the matter of baptism. And you know as well as I do that the vast majority of you have come to the matter of baptism without a single thing being said from the platform. And it is absolutely marvelous.
[00:49:48] I remember in the old days when we used to get people baptized, I won't tell you where, but when we used to get people baptized and sometimes they proved they weren't even believers because it was preached and preached and preached and you couldn't even become a member till you got baptized. You had to get baptized. So people got baptized to become members. They didn't even know what it meant.
[00:50:12] But how wonderful it is when the Holy Spirit is sovereign. Now, this is true of holiness. Holiness is an absolute fact. And there is an experience of holiness. There is an eye opening experience that God can do where you see that you're being crucified with Christ and that he is your life.
[00:50:29] Supposing we were to hammer this home and hammer it home and hammer it home and hammer it home and say, we will not have anyone in responsibility. We will not do this, Will, until you've had an experience of holiness. Here's a book, read it.
[00:50:41] Or we sort of said, oh, we'll pray for you. We'll be causing division. Some feel they're in, some feel they're out. And those that feel, oh dear, they feel so sad. So we don't do that. We say, no, you're a child of God. We love you. As a child of God, we want you as a child of God. We want you to be yourself, and we want you to grow. And we believe. Surely we don't have to say a thing. As you grow, you'll come to these things. This is absolutely true with the matter of the baptism of the spirit as well.
[00:51:09] People say to us, why don't you keep on? No. There is an experience of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit brings you to it. There is a place where you must be anointed with power. You must be clothed with power from on high.
[00:51:23] We don't hammer the thing. Hammer the thing. Hammer the thing. To the destruction of the unity of the spirit.
[00:51:32] You can't do it. It's not even right.
[00:51:35] We are to receive one another as Christ received us.
[00:51:40] That's romans 15, verse seven. Ye are to receive one another as Christ received you. How did Christ receive us? He received us as sinners saved by grace. So now how are you to receive me as a sinner saved by grace, nothing more. Isn't that marvelous? Now, if we were all to accept one another on that basis, it would change our fellowship, really would change our fellowship with each other. We wouldn't always be saying, you should be, you should see, but we would accept you. You're a believer. You're a believer. Now, I think this is very, very important, this matter, and may I just say one other thing in connection with this, that really, how can I put it, in this matter of really loving one another and caring for one another so the spirit of God can do something in us? It seems to me that the main thing of all is the giving diligence to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. It's a very important thing. Now, this does not mean you compromise.
[00:52:54] For instance, if someone comes to me and says, what do you think about baptism? I don't just say, I don't think anything.
[00:53:01] If someone comes to me and says, what does the Bible say about baptism? I say, well, what do you think it says about baptism? If they say to me, well, I don't know, but I feel the Lord would have me baptized. I said, well, of course, I think it's quite light. Here's a scripture here. And here's the thing. I'll explain to you what it means.
[00:53:16] You don't compromise, but you don't make truce the basis of fellowship.
[00:53:24] You make Christ the basis of fellowship, and you love all your brothers and sisters.
[00:53:31] Now, again, I say this is an important point. I don't know how best to put it it many ways needs much more to be said than what I've said. But you see, it's all a question of this. According to the working in due measure of each several part. There are a number of other matters we can just say, and I must finish.
[00:53:52] It is a matter of authority.
[00:53:56] It says in Colossians 219, holding fast ahead, from whom the whole body fit the frame together. And knit together through that which every joint suppliers. Now it is a holding fast the head. You and I never come together by trying to get closer. We come together by holding fast the head. The moment I take hold of the head and you take hold of the head, we begin to come together. But if we try to get together ourselves, we can all go wrong.
[00:54:25] It's so very simple, this matter. People sometimes say they don't feel they belong.
[00:54:31] And they say, well, I just don't feel I belong. I believe one of the whole problems here is that you don't see such a person. Does not see that they have as much right to be in the company as any other believer.
[00:54:47] You have as much right. I remember years ago, we had a very difficult man in the company who wrecked everything. And in the end even took to standing up in meetings and contradicting things. Arranging his own meetings is right, isn't it? And a few other things that he always did have a time. And I was at one point ill went away to a lady who really knew how to pray. And she knew all about this situation. And she said to me, she said, I want you to covenant with me to pray. Yes. I said, I'll covenant to pray. Well, while you're here, she said, we'll covenant together to pray. Shid. We'll pray that man out.
[00:55:28] Oh, I said.
[00:55:30] I thought, well, it would be a great answer to prayer, I must say. And she had said to me two or three times, why haven't you told him to go?
[00:55:41] But what we did in the end was she went up to pray. I went up to pray. When I tried to pray, I found I couldn't pray.
[00:55:50] And in the end, I prayed that the Lord would give us grace. That was. I just couldn't pray for his removal. I could only pray that the Lord would give us grace. Give me grace, and give us all grace to learn to come through. And they had a very wonderful time.
[00:56:05] When I came down, she said, well, the next morning, she said, have you prayed? I said, yes, I have. And she said, well, so have I. So have I. And I said, well, I've tried to pray, but I can't pray him out.
[00:56:16] Well, I only know this, that that dear brother stayed with us, and I think we learned a lot of very, very valuable lessons.
[00:56:24] Now, why couldn't I pray him out? Because the Lord reminded me that he had as much right to be in the company as I.
[00:56:32] And when I saw that, that I think was. It was a tremendous thing. And then another thing that happened also was this. And the Lord said to me, if you put him out, it's no longer the church.
[00:56:45] You just put him out. It's no longer the church. Difficult as he may be, he is a member of the body of Christ. He lives within the area. He has as much right to be there as you, difficult as he is. Thank God that he helped us and taught us. There are many things that we can say about the church. It is a matter of authority holding fast the HID and then all of that. Out of that comes a matter of discipline, of submitting to one another, of obeying the elders and so on. All these things. It doesn't mean slavish obedience as some people imagine, doesn't mean that at all. It just simply means that we learn discipline and we learn authority here and we learn how to trust the Lord beyond our brothers.
[00:57:36] Doesn't mean that we must do things that are wrong.
[00:57:40] Oh, there are so many matters that come up here. It's a matter of life. The church is a matter of growing. It says, grow up into him in all things. Who is the head? It's a matter of life. Church isn't a technique and it's not just a doctrine. It's a matter of life. And it's a matter of sharing life. I have the life of Christ. You have the life of Christ. We all have the life of Christ. We grow up into him who is the head, from whom the whole body fitly framed and knit together by that which every joint supplies.
[00:58:11] It's a matter of life. It's a matter of unity.
[00:58:15] Again. It's Christ who is our oneness, and we have to learn this. No race, no such thing as race, no such thing as nationality, no such thing as social class, no such thing as religious background. All these things have been abolished in the new man.
[00:58:32] All of them. All of them.
[00:58:35] Now, I used to often think about this matter because really the question of fullness. What is fullness? When I was a young Christian, I used to think, because I had no denominational background when I was there, I used to think how wonderful it would be if we could get them all together, if we could get the state church with their sobriety.
[00:58:58] And we could get the old Baptists with their believers baptism, and we could get the salvation army with their evangelistic zeal, and we could get the Pentecostals with their power, and we could get the brethren with the priesthood of all believers, and we could put them all together. We'd have fullness.
[00:59:17] Not one of these groups is fullness.
[00:59:22] Every one of them lacks something.
[00:59:26] Just think what it would be if you could get every brethren assembly in the country and every pentecostal church together.
[00:59:36] But it's absolutely tremendous because you can't visualize it. You see it in your face. But just think, supposing you could get every true, every parish church, which is alive, and every Salvation army citadel that's alive together, just those two together. You'd have something, you know, you really would.
[01:00:04] You would. You'd get those things together and you'd have fullness. Now put them apart. And what have you got? Now, listen, what have you got? You've got specialized groups. This group specializes in this. This group specializes in that. This group is a testimony to this truth. That group is a testimony to that truth. But if you could bring them together, you'd have fullness.
[01:00:23] You'd have a Matthew, Mark, a Luke and a John, and you'd see Christ in four different ways, and then you'd have fullness. You'd have a Paul and a Peter and a John and a James together.
[01:00:37] How wonderful it would be.
[01:00:40] That is fullness.
[01:00:42] And that's what we have to stand for together, because, in actual fact, we have to allow each other to be ourselves and we have to move on together with the Lord moving ever further into all that he has for us, it's a matter of unity and fullness. The church, and it's a matter also of fellowship, that is simply sharing. Sharing. I should be able to share with you what I have, and you should be able to share with me what you have. Now, there may be times when we don't quite see eye to eye. For instance, take the millennium.
[01:01:19] Well, just suppose that Ron doesn't see that there is a millennium. I see that there is a millennium. Now what are we going to do? Well, of course, we get very upset. You see, Ron thunders out the message, no millennium.
[01:01:35] And I thunder out a message. There is a millennium.
[01:01:39] So before long, everyone divides into two, and we have a millennial company and an amillennial company.
[01:01:48] That's what's happened.
[01:01:50] What's happened again and again. Now, that's just a rather extreme illustration, but you understand that there are things which we may not all see completely eye to eye, and this is the unity of the faith to which we shall attain. We are in ephesians four, verse two and three. We are to give diligence to keep the unity of the spirit. But in verses twelve and 13, till we all attain to the unity of the faith, so we maintain the unity of the spirit. Whilst we come to the unity of the faith, there will come a day when we shall see eye to eye on these matters. But in the meantime, let there be freedom on these things. There are many things in the word of God which we can only say that at present we can't be absolutely dogmatic about things to do with the coming of the Lord and many other details upon these, we have to really maintain the unity of the spirit. So I think we should finish this evening. But you see, it all comes back to this matter that whether you have a small ministry or a great ministry, the objective of it is the building up of the body of Christ or the building up of the house of God.
[01:03:07] And you've got it again in here in these words. We've quoted a number of times in ephesians four. Let's just read them in closing.
[01:03:18] Ephesians four, verse 15 and 16. Speaking truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplier, in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.
[01:03:50] The increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love. Now, we cannot do that unless it is according to the proper working of each individual part.
[01:04:11] That, I think is really why we're having these times to try and tackle some of the things that stop us from really functioning together. The building up of itself in love. The building up of itself in love. There are all the other great ministries, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, which are for the building up of the body. But the body can build itself up in love, and the way it does it is according to the proper working of each individual part.
[01:04:50] There are many questions I'm sure you have as a result of a time like this, but I do trust that it will help you to understand why we are together and why we hold so strongly to this principle of Christ alone.
[01:05:12] I hope that this helps everyone to understand. When the very beginning God first brought us together, we began to see what we called the centrality of Christ, and we began to see that in the organizations in which we were with the greatest desire in the world, the Lord could not have his place.
[01:05:36] We found that committees and councils and many other things just got together. And each time there were dear people praying. But somehow other the Lord never could find his way through to really leading the whole on. And so in the finish we felt there was only one thing for it.
[01:06:02] We would have to leave it to everyone to see, as the Lord led them, that we were really a church within a church. People wouldn't talk to us. They wouldn't speak to us. And so we felt we had to seek the Lord as to what we should do. And so we didn't know what we were going to do. Just a little group of us who finally moved out and we didn't even know what to do except that we began to discover that it was Christ and that it was Christ alone. And he was our foundation. And upon that foundation we would go on together.
[01:06:35] Then from that steps we began to see much more as the Lord showed us. May the Lord bring us all to greater clarity in this matter. May he help us to understand just what it is that he's doing amongst us and help us to understand why there is a need for the proper working of each individual part. Now, tomorrow evening we'll talk about the open time which includes much more than just the open time. It's really a whole principle of contribution and so on. And we'll talk about the practical problems very much tomorrow evening of contributing together, sharing practice. Shall we pray?
[01:07:32] Dear Lord, we do bring this time to thee. And we do ask that thy Holy Spirit will use it, Lord, to enlighten the eyes of our hearts that we might know, dear Lord, what is the hope of our calling and what is, Lord, the glory of the riches, of the glory of thy inheritance in the saints and what the exceeding greatness of thy power to us, Lord, who believe is, dear Lord, we pray that our eyes may open to see what is thine objective and help every one of us. Lord, we've all got problems of one kind or another. We pray that those problems may be dealt with. Lord, help us to see what thy church is and what our place is in it. And help us to see, dear Lord, the way through in. In thy grace. We ask it together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.