Ten Years at Halford House – 1

[00:00:00] A number of the lessons that we have learned in the last ten years together as a company of God's people. [00:00:11] All these lessons that we will be talking about this evening are, of course, to do with the corporate side of God's work. [00:00:25] I think you'll understand that because it's a problem otherwise, is to know just how and what to leave out and what, in fact, to bring in. And even now I thought to myself I would seek to speak to you just as if you were not the company that meets here, as now and again I've had to elsewhere speak about some of these lessons and illustrate them. I thought perhaps it would be best idea if I tried to forget that you were in fact here at all in Richmond. But even so, it would be impossible, I think, to take the number of lessons that we ought to, if I were to do that and illustrate as well from our history, because I think we should only be able to take one or two lessons the most in the time that we have. Instead, I'm going to cut down, I'm afraid, the illustrating side to a minimum and trust that you yourselves will remember some of the ways in which we learned these lessons and how, in fact, we came into them. And if there should be those here who weren't with us at the particular point which we learned some of these lessons, if you come and ask, I can tell you a little more and illustrate more. But because of the time factor, I'm going to cut out a lot of illustration. [00:02:02] Then the first lesson that I think we learned, and perhaps the most important lesson of all in God's work, is the authority of Christ, absolute. [00:02:20] That is, that in God's church there can be no other authority than the authority of Christ. [00:02:33] There is only one head of the body, and that head is Christ. [00:02:43] And the moment the lordship and the headship of Christ is contradicted or gainsayed or substituted for something other, that is the moment that God's work begins to break up and disintegrate. [00:03:06] I'm only going to give one scripture for each of these lessons, and the one that I've chosen for this is in colossians chapter one and verse 18. It seems to me to sum it all up, of course, the colossian letter, really the whole letter, is just the exemplifying of this principle in the church. [00:03:34] And he is the head of the body of the church who is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. [00:03:50] This lesson is, of course, one of the deepest lessons that any company of God's children can learn, not only because it is so fundamental and primary, but because it is that if there should be here the slightest deviation, the battle is lost. [00:04:17] It doesn't matter how small the deviation. [00:04:21] The enemy has only got to get us to deviate a little from the absolute sovereignty of God's Christ. In God's work and the work is compromised. Satan has already got a foothold and he will relentlessly work from that foothold gained until he has completely compromised the whole world in every single aspect. [00:04:54] Of course, the authority of Christ. We all sing about it, we all pray about it, we all talk about it, it is preached about everywhere and it is taught in every Bible. [00:05:12] Everyone gives lip service to the Lordship and the headship of Christ. [00:05:21] But if there is one principle which is completely overlooked in practice in God's work, it is the principle in practice of the absolute sovereignty of Christ. What do we mean by the absolute sovereignty of Christ? Simply this. The right of Christ to be absolutely Lord in his own work, to be head of his own body. [00:05:58] His right to the absolute headship of his own body. [00:06:08] You see, very few of us recognize or realize how iniquitous anything is that substitutes itself, whether it be a man or a number of men, that substitutes itself for the authority of Christ. [00:06:32] It's not just an error, it's not just a little sort of a slip up, a failure. No, it is sin in God's eyes. [00:06:48] It is one of the greatest evils that could possibly be experienced. [00:06:59] Because, you see, and this is the point, anything, anything can substitute itself for the authority of God. [00:07:11] Some people seem to think that if we have a New Testament pattern, we're safe. But a New Testament pattern, with its elders and its deacons and everything, absolutely New Testament, can just as effectively substitute itself for the headship of Christ, the Lordship of Christ, as committees and boards and councils and all the other partial area of christian work. What does simply mean this, any heads that substitute themselves for the head is evil. [00:07:50] Of course, you can get a number of men. And what do we do in God's work? We all sit round. I remember once Lindsay Clake said, I never forgot. It was only a lad when he said it. But he said, you know, put twelve men's heads together, have you got on board? [00:08:11] It is true so often, Jimmy, you put twelve heads together and they all put their heads together and what have you got? Something like an impenetrable curtain, an iron curtain through which the Holy Spirit cannot get. [00:08:29] Of course, the motives might be right of course, we can be sincerely wrong. [00:08:34] We may think that the way to do God's work is just to sit down and discuss. [00:08:40] We may be democratic. Our idea is all have a little discussion, and then what comes out of our little discussion is the Lord's mind. Then at the end of it we say, now, Lord, bless what we've decided or bless what we've settled. [00:08:55] But you see, that's an effective substitute for the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:09:02] And then later on, when there's no blessing and very little life, we can't understand exactly what's gone wrong. [00:09:09] You see, it's not a question of whether we have a New Testament pattern or whether we have not got a New Testament pattern. [00:09:18] If there is any substituting for the headship and lordship of Christ, it effectively blocks the life. [00:09:31] I've only got to have a blockage between my brain and my body and the things paralyzed. [00:09:43] I can have a perfectly beautiful body. [00:09:46] I can have every single member that is necessary in the body there. But if there's a blockage between the brain in the head and the body, it's paralyzed and God's work. The devil knows it better than we can be effectively paralyzed by a blockage between the head and the body. [00:10:10] Just somehow or other do something in between and you've paralyzed God's work. [00:10:20] And so I hope you see that this principle is the most important of all. God begins with the authority of Christ. It is only when Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father that Pentecost takes place. It's only when the head is in his place, glorified, enthroned, waiting until his enemies become the footstool of his feet, that the church is born. [00:10:52] God waits for his Christ to be enthroned in the place of all authority and power in heaven and on earth, before ever the church is born on this earth. But once God has got the Christ there, the head there, the Holy Spirit come. [00:11:12] The Lord Jesus himself said it. The spirit, he said, could not be given until he goes to the Father. But when he has gone to the Father, then the Holy Spirit will be saved. [00:11:24] Why? Because God is jealous about the headship of Christ, jealous about the hatred of Christ. [00:11:34] Christ is the divinely chosen head of the body and will betide anything or anyone who gets in the way of Christ. [00:11:53] So you see, I hope you understand that everything stems from the unfettered headship of Christ in his people. [00:12:01] Every revival in history, every movement of the Holy Spirit in church history has originated with a fresh appreciation and experience of the authority of Christ, whether it is a man or whether it is a company who suddenly understand this principle and devote themselves to it, it has then become the point of a new release of divine life. Always, always it is the same because God will not brook any contravention whatsoever of this primary principle. [00:12:46] And the human spirit is unbelievably arrogant. [00:12:51] We all think we can manage our own lives better than God said out loud, but that's exactly what we all believe. We have a terrible battle about surrendering to the Lord, about giving Uber to the law, about just letting him be Lord at all personally. And, you know, believe it or believe it not, we've got the same psychological, corporate mentality. [00:13:17] We're all very fearful somehow about the world really being Lord. Where will he lead us? What will he do? What will he require? Will it mean sacrifice? Will it mean all our time, all our money, all our energy, all our health, everything? [00:13:40] You see, we're all a little bit afraid of the headship of Christ because there is this unbelievable poison in every single human being, the eye, which somehow or other arrogantly believes that it knows better than God. And it comes out to, of course, in the work of God you always hear people who know better. Of course, the way they talk is they've always got the mind of the Lord. [00:14:11] What was the mind of the Lord? [00:14:17] Hear them speak, you'd think. Well, you'd think it's Solomon himself. [00:14:23] They've got understanding of everything. They see through it all. No one else quite understands the Holy Spirit seeking as they do and so on. [00:14:32] You see, it's the old eye, the spiritual guides. [00:14:39] Well, you see, everything stems from the unfettered headship of Christ and his people. Once that headship, that lordship of Christ, is unfettered life, oh, there'll be conflict all right. You think of psalm two. If because the Lord has his king in his holy hill of Zion, that there is a conflict, or there will be mighty conflict, that's the whole evidence of the Lord being him. Things can be very peaceful and nice, you know, when we are all in control. Lots of silly mistakes we make. It gets a bit boring and dead at times. But generally speaking, the devil just lets us get on with it and lets us suffer our own silly mistakes. [00:15:23] But when the Lord is here, they're all held out because the devil knows only too well that once Christ is Lord on earth in a people there is nothing, nothing, nothing that can stop, can stop the work of God. It must run. It must overthrow everything in its way. It cannot be destroyed. It is invisible. [00:15:50] But what is the hint of Christ in practice? [00:15:55] Of course, it's funny for me to talk to you like this and lessons, because usually I'm talking elsewhere about this canteen. But you see, the lesson really in practice is prayer. Oh, now, you may all look very surprised, but the lesson actually of the headship of Christ is prayer, prayer, prayer and more prayer. [00:16:18] Because, in fact, how does the hatred of Christ outwork? The only way that out works is when a company of people get on their knees. You know, all this, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think someone thinks this. Someone thinks that, someone thinks the other. Someone thinks the law would have us do this, someone thinks the Lord would have us do that. And someone thinks the Lord would have as do something else. Because they're all right. [00:16:46] They're all, you know, the Lord. That's not the point. That's where you get the complex, that's where you get the trouble. And the Lord's mind won't even be found by trying to blend those people together. It's when they all get on their knees and say, lord, I think so and so. But what is it, Lord, what do you want, Lord? [00:17:06] You see, some people never admit that they're wrong. And therefore, if you and I cannot admit to being wrong in what we've said, either publicly or quietly in a private way, just to a friend, we'll never know in experience. The headship of Christ, I've heard it again and again. People said to me, I think, so and so and so and so is the way I think so and so and so and so is wrong. And they've been proven wrong, but they never come and see, you know, I was wrong. [00:17:40] They have that weird little way of overlooking it. [00:17:47] That's not the headship of Christ. The headship of Christ is not just a question of one member, great or small. It is the question of all the members. [00:17:59] And it's when those members get on their knees and continually, Lord, what will you have us do? Lord, what shall we do about this? You've got the glorious example of it, of course, in the book of acts, where continually, every time there was trouble, the church got on its knees before the Lord said, now, Lord, what shall we do? And the Lord just showed them what to do. You get it? Step after step. When Peter's in prison, they're all saying, oh, Lord, what shall we do about Peter? You see? And then Peter's released. [00:18:27] And then again you find them. They're told they're not to preach anymore. So what do they do they get up? And he said Lord, what do we do about this? Lord, you do something about it, Lord. They quoted psalm two and the place was shaken where they pray. And the word of the Lord went forth in an even greater way. A bit later on we come to Antioch and what do we find? We find there's accompanied Elmenes saying Lord, what would you have us do in the Holy Spirit to separate men, Paul and Barnabas. And that begins the recognition of journeys of Paul. And so it goes on. But you see the principle of the headship of Christ and how does it work? These people are asking the Lord all the time what should we do? What do you think about this? What would you have us, how would you have us react to this? [00:19:13] It's not that there's a little board sitting around saying now then gentlemen, there's such and such as happen. We've been forbidden to preach. What shall we do? And one gentleman says, well, because I think you are done the word of God that we should do so. And so another one says, well from my deep experience of the past I think we should. No, no, these people, if they have a committee, if the committee meeting is on their knees, their business is with the head. [00:19:45] There's far too much horizontal talking and far too little vertical talking. You see, it's the law that should be done with really. And that's when the hatred of Christ begins to outwork in practice. When people start to talk to the Lord as a living, risen, animate person instead of somehow thinking that well, he's alive in the dead, but he's a kind of bodily spirit that somehow you can't really talk to. So we all talk to each other. [00:20:21] But it's no good talking to the Lord. [00:20:24] What shall we do about so and so and so and so? Well, if you want an answer you ask Ron or lance or Mister Shaw or a few others and get them together, you see. And we have a little talk horizontally all together that and say. [00:20:37] But we don't just turn to the Lord saying our Lord, you're here. Now, what would you have us do about. So how would you have us. Now that is the headshot of Christ in practice. Some people say to me they don't, they don't agree with all this prayer. We pray night after night, night after night, night after night. Oh, they don't understand our history. [00:21:00] It all began with wearing our knees out, asking the Lord what shall we do? And now ten years afterwards we're back on our knees again saying to the Lord, what shall we do. [00:21:16] We've had an experience, we got answered and what do we find? [00:21:20] Petty spiritual mind cannot understand what we're up to. Oh, we're wanting pentecostalism evidently or we want something else or something. Oh lavish, why not say that we're tired of prayer? Why not say that we don't believe in prayer? [00:21:39] But the headship of Christ is when the people get on their knees and say, lord, we're desperate, we got as an experience you've done so much with us but we want to do something more that stage of Christ in practice. Oh, you all hear the ages of Christ talked about here, there and everywhere. But it's all up here, you know, it's all in the hymn book, it's all in the Bible. [00:22:06] People come and give us a marvellous word upon the Lordship of Christ and they never ask the Lord anything about anything. [00:22:17] And most chapels and churches and assemblies we're more or less the same, aren't we? We don't ask the Lord, we don't ask them. He hasn't got right. The Lord's very jealous, very jealous about his headship, about his right. He knows only too well for our good that he must inhaled sever the head and the body pupilized, paralyzed, it's finished. [00:22:46] So if you and I go and do something, get out of the way. Well, what happens? The Lord sort of stands back and he can do nothing. [00:22:57] And Lord is very concerned that in everything we should be handing it over to him. Handing it over to him. And some of us are so afraid that we're going to lose our influence, we're going to lose our hold on things. If the Lord is here. Yes, yes, we shall, we shall, we shall lose our income, we shall be overrided. We should be overruled. We shall be seen for what we are. But the great thing is there will be an outflow of divine life and that's the point. [00:23:33] That's the point. [00:23:36] And so you see, this is a matter really of prayer and you and I, we've all the time got to watch it that we're not just making decisions, that we're not just putting our heads together and deciding but really it's because of dependence on the Lord. Why does the Lord make it so hard for us? Why does he give us such a rough way? Because he wants to make us lean on him so that we're perplexed. We don't know. I'm always surprised about these people who know. They know everything. We've only got to say on a Tuesday evening. We're a little bit perplexed about the way. And some of them know, well, they don't ever come and tell us. But they tell us they know. They know. They know. Well, no perplexity, evidently. But, you know, one of the amazing aspects of the hints of Christ is perplexity enough. He perplexes our hints that his hint might get through to ours. [00:24:35] And when your eyes are crystal clear, it's generally a sure indication that something's gone wrong. [00:24:42] Even the apostle Paul said to go to the theory, and the Holy Spirit said, no. [00:24:48] All the apostle Paul was probably crystal clear. I'm stoned to Bithynia. I've got invitations all over the place. From Bithynia, I'm going to Bithynia. And then suddenly, on the way to Bithynia, he began to get more and more perplexed. Oh, dear. Something went wrong. I wonder what happened. And in the end, I expect Jesus, come on. I think I have a little word of prayer. I feel bread for. Bread for right out of the way. See, he perplexed them in order that they might become clear as to the Lord's history. [00:25:22] Oh, if this hits us, it ought to hit us, because some of us depart from lessons that have been bought, walked with delight spiritually, you see, until you and I are upside down, so that we really just cannot tell the way. [00:25:45] We are not safe, because all the time our head is in the way of the Lord. [00:25:54] Now, that can happen in a variety. [00:25:59] Well, I shall have to leave that lesson because, you see, we've spent more time than we should have done already on it. But, you see, the hints of Christ over all and direct is over all and direct to all. But it's vested in some, and we believe in the priesthood of believers, but we do not believe that every single one of us is a hindrance. [00:26:25] There's only one high priest, and that's our Lord Jesus. And furthermore, we also see that in the priesthood of believers, there are others who are over the courses. Oh, yes, it all comes from the Old Testament. I know, but you see, it's all very well talk about the priesthood of believers, but, you know, there's such a thing as authority. There's such a thing as obeying them that have to. Who have you? There's such a thing as an appointment of God. [00:26:53] And it's there that all this question of the headship and authority of Christ comes so often into a cloud, because there's such a delicate balance between the right things and mortal thing. [00:27:08] When authority is expressed in human beings, but nevertheless, there it is, and we have to recognize it as principle in God's world. [00:27:24] The second lesson I think we need to remember this evening is that the organic nature of the church. We have read together one corinthians twelve, and that and Romans chapter twelve revealed to us the organic nature of the church. [00:27:50] And what do we mean by the organic nature of the church? We mean that the church is an organism. Well, again, that's taught nearly everywhere, but it's not practiced in many Bible school syllabuses. I can point you to things which say now that the teaching is that the church is an organism, but then we are taught how to organize the organism. [00:28:16] Now, what is the difference between an organization and an organism? If you forgive me, treating you like children, an organization is very much like this house. [00:28:26] You build it, you see, you build windows. [00:28:34] I'm sorry my house is so simple, but there you are. That's an organization. You understand? [00:28:41] You begin with a foundation. [00:28:44] You work according to a blueprint, the plans, and gradually the whole house goes up, because I began all the wrong way around. But you know what I mean. Now, supposing I want to extend the house. Well, I've got to get some more plans drawn up, and I build a bit on. The house won't itself. [00:29:03] The house won't itself do it. I've got to do it. I've got to build it. If I want other parts added on something here, I've got to get new plans. You see, for the house to be, it's got to be extended according to a plan. But an organism is when I plant a little tiny seed, so small you can hardly see it, and it then grows up into a little plant with two leaves and then leaves, and then it begins to grow up into a huge tree. [00:29:40] Now, where did all that come from? It all came from a life, and the life was in the little seed. And as it grew, it developed. It took in all that was necessary for its development and growth. But it's an organism. Everything is found within it. Everything is found within it. Now, I am an organism. 30 years ago, I was only a little tiny bundle of flesh and blood with a little button for a nose and two funny little eyes and a great big mouth that could wail. That's all there was. But, you know, and this is a remarkable thing. Everything that you see in me, except my clothes today, has really come out of that. I've not had anything stitched on. I've not had anything added at all. Everything has come from within. It was a life within which has developed. And as I have grown up, so every part of me has developed. There was a time when my life inside said, now then, this little child has got to be kept from running or walking or talking or doing anything. He's just got to be kept quiet. So the life inside said, just keep his brain a bit soft and his bones a bit soft. Just see that he can't do much, but give him a good pair of lungs so that should there be any danger, he can open his mouth wide and everyone can hear him. About a year or so later, the life inside said, this little lad has got to learn to walk, strengthen the bones that are in his body, and so gradually the bones will strengthen, the muscles will strengthen. And I put my first arm out and clutch something hard. And then I began to get myself up. The life inside was doing something, you see. The time had come to learn to walk. And then the life inside said, this lad's got to learn now to talk. So I began to develop his brain a bit more, you see? Let him begin to react, to respond. And so he began to say, dad, dad and mama and all the rest of it, you see. But it was an organism that was developing, and every single part of it has come from the life within. The life within has got all the resources that are necessary for the development and the increase of this body that you see. And even when there's disease, this body is geared immediately, somehow or other, to counteract that thing that is encroaching upon the healthiness and the soundness of its life. [00:32:19] Now, that's an organism. [00:32:22] And when we say that the church is an organism, we are really simply saying that every single thing about the church is found within a life. [00:32:38] It's. You can't just put it up according to a blueprint. [00:32:42] Some people seem to think the church is like a human club, like a bird watching club, get together. A few people, all interested in birds, throw up a few wars, have a membership, have a leadership and a few other things, and meetings regularly. And there you are. You've got your bird spotting club or sand clicking club. You just get, all right, then someone says, let's start a church. Here, we've got the Bible. We can find out from the Bible what we should have. Now we just get a few people who are interested in christian things, you see, put them together, and then we've got a church. No, you haven't. You've got anything, anything but a church. [00:33:25] For the church is an organism, not an organization. [00:33:29] It is something that springs up out of a life. And that life is Christ. [00:33:35] It is the resurrection life of Christ. And it was only after he died and was raised and ascended into glory to the right hand of God that the father caused the church to be born. [00:33:51] It's in that life. [00:33:54] And that leads me to say this in connection with the organic nature of the church. You see, there is what I always call abroad and elsewhere. I don't think I've talked to you so much about it. The law of the impossible. [00:34:09] You see, the resurrection life contains what I call the law of the impossible. Resurrection is impossible to man and written into the very Constitution, organic. The organic Constitution is the law of the impossible. [00:34:29] What is humanly impossible, God does. And that is the evidence of the church. When the church began, it was humanly impossible. God did it. And the devil saw to it that the law of the impossible was kept alive throughout its history. [00:34:50] And whenever you've had the true church of God, you've got the law of the impossible. Authority. [00:34:57] It's of course, something that the Lord himself has written into the church. See to it that our old carnal hands and natures don't have any say in the church. [00:35:09] You see, there's a veto on us. [00:35:12] And so the Lord makes it impossible. Yes, if you want to keep something going, you want to have a little something or other, call it a church if you like. You've got to keep it going. All right, the Lord leaves it to you, you keep it going. But if it's the church of God, he'll make it impossible for you to keep it going. There will be times when you'll go your head, as it were, in your head, the things finished, it ended. It will not live another week. No, the father you gone, you'll be talking about it, not living another hour, let alone a week. The point is, the law of the impossible is the law of the impossible. Oh, surely you know it. The Lord, the law, just does. The veil at the beginning, it's also gone through. Look at all this. Aren't they lovely? Aren't they lovely? Look at them all. Then the devil's allowed to all side the veil and what do we see? Oh, the impossibility of it all. How can we ever all be built together? Look at this weakness. Look at that failure. Look at this sin. Look at that sordid business. And so. Oh, and if it's not that kind of thing, if it's not the normal relationships, then it would be the enemy coming in like a swamp. Swampiness from outside overwhelming us so that we just have nothing in us that can lift up anything. Isn't it wonderful? The God says, the spirit of the Lord to lift up a banner against you. You see, the Lord knows all about this. This is the Lord's work. And it's not as if it only just began at Pentecost. It's been going on forever. That's why Isaiah could say, when the enemy comes, like our blood, the spirit of the Lord lifts up a banner against him. And that psalmist who wrote psalm 68 was able to say, God is unto us and God is deliverances. And under Jehovah, the law belongeth. Escape from death. You see, he found out in his own experience in the work of God, the only exit was the law. [00:37:05] If the law didn't come in with a deliverance, his work was finished. [00:37:10] The Lord, the apostle, finished. And you see, you and I, we can start a chapel, can't we? Well, we had a hall get together, a few interested christians, and we can start it. [00:37:22] But that's not the challenge. And you see, this is the, this is the whole point about it. We've got to get the resurrection life flowing, and that's something you and I can't do because, you see, God requires something else. He requires us to die. [00:37:40] You ever heard of that? He requires us to die. [00:37:45] And God says there will be no resurrection after you die. [00:37:50] So if you want to have a nice, happy time, then you'll have to have a whole and get together as a collection of christians and get on with it. But if you want the church and the organic nature, which no power on earth or in hell can gain, say you've got to find people who are prepared to fall into the ground together and die. [00:38:12] You don't have to have a lot. [00:38:14] I wish we could find the company in which every single one was prepared to do it, but you never will. [00:38:20] It's always just the two of the three. But it is the two of the three that can. [00:38:26] They lead the others into the blessing. They lead the others into the Euclids. The others will be spiritually alive because of that secret dying of the heart, all the time bearing about in their body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested. That's the secret. That's the heart. You can't have that resurrection life. And to have this resurrection life, you see, you've got to have a birth. The church is born just as you and I were born. Spiritually, the church has got to be born. But you can't have birth without. [00:39:01] And that's what I mean when I talk about the corn. [00:39:06] Oh, dear. You can't teach people this about the core. [00:39:11] It's not something that's just old, it's something that's lived. [00:39:16] So why do we not see the church in actual existence expressing their function as in the New Testament? Because if you're not prepared for the cause. [00:39:31] No, you see, there must be tabail for there to be birth. There must be birth for there to be life. And the church is in life. [00:39:39] This is simple step. [00:39:41] So if you want to come back with me to the beginning, we come back to trial here. [00:39:47] And that's the heart of the matter. [00:39:51] That's the heart of. [00:39:55] But look at it this way, the pattern for everything is in the eye. Oh, it doesn't matter where you look. The pattern for everything is in the eye. Look at me. [00:40:06] There's a pattern here. [00:40:09] Two eyes, nose, two ears, a mouth, two hands, two legs, and the rest a pattern. Where did it come from? [00:40:20] Did my mother have a kind of picture of a human being? [00:40:27] I sort of wish me into it? [00:40:34] No, no, all she did was feed me, give me sleep, and just look after me at your future inside. [00:40:46] Because the patterns in the life, you want the church, the church is in the life. You've got to pass the life. You've got to get that life flowing. I've already got the life flowing. The pattern evolves. You'll have your elders, you'll have your deacons, you'll have your gates, you'll have your functions. The body will all be there. Oh, yes, of course there'll be a lot that's possible and a lot that's failing, a lot that's defeated. That's because it's the church down here on earth that's just allowed and permitted by the Lord, so that we may be driven to him more and more. [00:41:25] But you see, the whole point of the matter is this, the pattern, whether it's in the most general things or whether it's in the smallest things. Now, I'm not trying to be, but you see, look at my body. I have, I believe, the general shape of a human being. [00:41:43] That general thing was in the life. [00:41:47] The life grew and this was the pattern. [00:41:51] But you know, on my fingernails, near their base, there's what we call the moon in every single one. Where did that come from? It's only a detail as far as I know. I stand to be corrected. If anyone knows better than I, I don't think that they serve any useful purpose. But you see, look, a little detail it's come out of the light. I think if you all look, you can look after your hands. You'll also. You got, as my grandmother used to call half moons, just coming up over her horizon. [00:42:28] Where did it come from? It all came out of life. It's a detail. Yes. You see, the details are in the life as well as the great general thing. The great general laws of the church. They're all in the life, but the little details are all in the life, too. The things that really were, they're not so necessary, but they're there all in the life. [00:42:49] You get life growing. They all come. [00:42:53] Those are deacons, I suppose are general things. But there are other things that sometimes we don't put much on. A nice cup of tea or something else that people slave away, unknown. Do you think the Lord is just going to forget that one day that it has helped so much? The fellowship of God's people? [00:43:15] You know what it's done unto the Lord. It's like those little heart moons on my hand. It came out of the life, and it will not go unrewarded or unnoticed by the law. [00:43:30] There are all these things, you see. They all come from life. [00:43:36] It's all in that life. And all these gifts and these functions are in the life, too. It doesn't matter what I'm able to do. It all was in me, really, as a little baby, in the same way that it was in you. For instance, a person has an unbelievable musical kid. Where did it come from? Did it suddenly drop on them when they were about twelve years of age or eight years of age or. No, no, no. That thing was in them. [00:44:09] Was it a natural thing, we say, but it was in them, you see, it was in the life, and at the right time, it just came out. I mean, you can either paint or you can't paint. Some people think they can paint when they can't paint, and we all can see that they can't paint. [00:44:26] They're the only people who know that, who think they can paint. But when a person really can. But it's in them and it just comes out, you see it in the lamp now, spinnib, it's the same. Those gifts are in us. And if we go on with the Lord, they come out in the end. [00:44:47] They're not buried. They cannot be buried. They've got to come out. And so, you see, this organic nature of the church is very important. It's a very, very big lesson, the relatedness of everything in an organism. You see, this body of mind is completely related. Every single point part of it is related to the race because it's an organism and this must be so in the church. [00:45:14] If you and I get unrelated, we hinder the life. [00:45:19] Sometimes we cause distress to the rest of the body. Sometimes we only cause distress to ourselves. [00:45:27] But if you and I get unrelated, in other words, we're not really being knit together. We are not moving together. We are not, as it were, doing everything out in the open with our brothers and sisters. Well, we hinder that. And sure as sure can be, we die spiritually. [00:45:54] And so you must understand that this question of relatedness is it is not being related to who you and I would like to be related to. [00:46:04] It's a question of whom the Lord chooses. [00:46:09] We are always selective, but the law doesn't. That's not the basis. [00:46:16] The Lord has planted us amongst saints and we've got to get through with those saints. And it's no good me saying I'll be related to so and so and so and so and so and so. I don't mind flowing with them. I don't mind moving with them. The Lord said, that's not the point. You're despising my church. [00:46:38] You didn't save the man, I saved the man. [00:46:43] And your job is to be related to the church, not to individuals, to the church. [00:46:52] And that's a very, very, very important matter in this question of the organic nature of the church. [00:47:02] Well, those are two lessons I think we shall have only time to take another. And that is the oneness of Christ. And that we find in two small references, one corinthians, chapter one, one, and verse 13 which says, is Christ divided? [00:47:29] Is Christ divided or can Christ be divided? And then in ephesians four, verse three and four, giving diligence to keep the unity of the spirit. In the bond of peace, there is one body and one spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling. [00:47:58] Unity. The unity of Christ or the oneness of Christ is a fact, it's not an objective. [00:48:07] This is one of the great troubles with Muslims. [00:48:12] We tend to think that the unity of the spirit is an objective when it is a fact, not an objective. We are not groping out to unity of a fact. [00:48:25] The unity of the spirit is there. [00:48:29] It is a fact. It is part of the finished work of Calvary. [00:48:35] And if you and I begin to train and act as if it's something we've got to reach out for, we're undoing the finished work of Christ. [00:48:47] Christ is one, Paul says, almost incredulously. Can Christ be divided? Is Christ divided? [00:48:58] It goes on to say, you can't do it. [00:49:01] He goes on in one great, he has told to Putin, Christ cannot be divided. [00:49:07] You can be divided, but Christ can't be divided. [00:49:11] You can get out of Christ and you'll be divided. [00:49:15] But in Christ you cannot be divided. [00:49:18] It's a fact. [00:49:21] And you see, we are born spiritually into this unity. [00:49:25] We don't have to somehow rather move out toward it. We're born into to it. [00:49:31] And all those man made values that mean so much to every one of us. And it's no good thing they don't. They do. [00:49:41] They are all abolished. All right, let's just look at colossians three and verse eleven. And it says in verse ten, it speaks about the new man. Verse eleven, it says, where there cannot be greek and jew, circumcision, uncircumcision, barbarian, scythian, Bondman, Freeman. But Christ is all and in all, where there cannot be, not where there must not be. Where there cannot be, in Christ there cannot be these man made barriers. The middle war petition has been abolished. It's not found in Christ. There are no partitions in Christ. [00:50:28] They cannot exist. Oh, yes, bring God's work out of Christ. Bring it out, bring it down from the heavenness, put it on this earth. You'll have every kind of petition, every kind of barrier, every kind of middle wall that is conceivable. For do we not all know that one of the greatest and most remarkable evidences of human divisions found in Christianity split into a thousand sigmas? [00:51:07] God cursed humanity at Babel and divided them. But, oh, how the devil has done his world. In Christendom, they run up walls here, there, and every crisscrossing show that we are divided a thousand times. But in Christ it's not. There's not a single war like Christ. [00:51:36] Not a thing. It's a wonderful thing that even in the holy city, there's nothing that comes between disparate class. [00:51:47] Nothing. Nothing. [00:51:51] All abolished. [00:51:53] All those racial barriers and national barriers and social barriers and religious barriers and personal barriers, they're gone. Oh, I don't know, some of you. Do you have any trouble about racial barriers? Most of us say we don't until we're up against it, and then up they come. We don't like the Asiatics, we don't like the Africans or we don't like the Indians. It's all right to pray for them here when they're the other side of the globe, but to live with them, to work with them, to cooperate with them, to be equals with them. Never pray for them, yes. Send help to them, yes, but equals. [00:52:42] National barriers. [00:52:46] Lots of international barriers out there. [00:52:50] People say, I don't like the Germans. [00:52:54] Someone else says, I don't like the American. [00:52:58] I know that for myself. [00:53:00] Something else. And I don't like something else. Someone else says, I don't like something else. I look at the Welsh. Don't like the English, do they, really? And the English don't like the welsh yardage. Don't like the Scots. I mean, salamarish. [00:53:15] The Scots don't like the salamanders. [00:53:17] We've got, we are, we're filled with this. [00:53:23] And sons hate the dick, because like, you go sly the quiet, hate the swords and the gods hate the crowds. [00:53:32] You see natural values. [00:53:35] But in Christ, well, you see, oh, we all one. We're all one. We're all one. But if you bring it all and you get a Welshman jumping up with all his, you know, he goes on and on in turn, he goes, yeah, and then we get such a looking down and then we get an Englishman. [00:53:58] Some others say the continental say, oh, dear. [00:54:03] And so we go on. Then the drama. Oh, and so it goes on. These are all national barriers, you see. But they can't. We say they can't exist in Christ. They don't exist. But you see what I mean. They're in us all. [00:54:21] They are not. They don't come to the surface to experience rhythms themselves. But they're there. Social barriers. Most of us say there are no such thing as social barriers, but you all know they're not genteel home and there's a dust. [00:54:41] He's comfortable all. [00:54:44] Does he ever get into the gentiles? Oh, sometimes he sat at the table. [00:54:50] We don't talk about his work, but the weather. Have you ever been there? We've all very nice, very nice, but not equal. [00:55:05] And of course, if Dustman got up to give the word, rather gentle and educated, aristocratic, what can he, can't he see the barriers are there? Social barriers go very deep. [00:55:27] I knew I once, when I was much younger in law, out of all this rubbish. [00:55:33] Until I remember in the services, I had to sit with someone who come from I don't know where. He's a dear believer, but eat all his manners. [00:55:46] And there's one thing that I can bare it. When you can see a pleasure chewing or something and you can more or less look like a cement mix. [00:55:57] I never wanted to have venetian with that brother again. I know I'm being vulgar. But you can see my point. [00:56:03] It's all very well to talk that social barriers are gone. You see, they're not gone except in Christ. [00:56:10] In Christ, they're not there. [00:56:13] In Christ you and I have got to find something which is an absolute unity. [00:56:19] But you can take even the sexual values. I mean, in Galatians Paul said there's neither male nor female. I mean, we don't talk much about this, but most women think men, well, they like men up to a point, but, well, we all hear it again, and they say men and men can bear women up to a point. And then you hear it again, women, and it comes into patron. I've heard it. No, some of you think it's scrubs, but juices, as you know what I'm talking about. I've heard it again and again. [00:56:59] Sister Sam Hudson said, oh, these are brothers and I need places in Europe where all the time I get these. [00:57:11] Oh, go put them down, keep them out. [00:57:19] You see, but you see, they are such a barrier. It's about. It's gone. It's gone. Yes, with certain distinctions. There are tongues, there are nations still. There are kingdoms. They're still, in a sense, we see the distinctions. But the barriers of God, we are in Christ. They cannot exist. They're not there. [00:57:42] Well, you see, my time has gone and we're really only on that third lesson. But you, I do believe, begin to see the sinfulness of dividing believer from believer. Whether it's racial, whether it's national, whether it's social, whether it's sexual, or whether it's personal. Take the personal side. [00:58:07] Take the personal side, you know, and I'm not trying to be fine. There's something that is seen again tick tall. [00:58:17] They rarely get on with small, do they? [00:58:21] You really find little dynamic people getting on with tall, languid people, do you? On the whole, they don't exactly hit it off. [00:58:34] It's personal value or they take the temperamental difficulties. Here's a person who's very discriminated, very critical. He has a person who's very naive and very loving. [00:58:48] Those two just don't get on. [00:58:51] One thinks the other's gullible and the other thinks the other one's hard. [00:58:58] They don't know. In the world, of course you can go in separate ways, but in the church you've got to be knit together and the naive has got to supply something and the discrimination's got to supply something that you know, and I was going to say that the tall is not to supply something short. [00:59:21] And the other way. You laugh, but it's so true. You know, the tall is very rarely one of those dynamite types. [00:59:33] We all need each other. Personal barriers have a lot to do in the breaking down of fellowship because they're there under the surface. All these things to do with background and temperament and nationality and race and so on, they're there, and up they come to the sackett when the devil starts to play, as it were, upon the strange. [01:00:05] So you see, the thing to see about dividing division is that it is sinful. [01:00:14] It's not that. It's just something we can put up with. It's something that's a failure. It's sinful. If my temperament is dividing me from someone, it's sin. [01:00:27] If my background is dividing someone else, it's sin. [01:00:32] If my religious convictions are going to divide me from someone else, it's sin. [01:00:39] I can't understand why people don't see this kind of thing. It's so simple. [01:00:45] You're trying to divide Christ, that's all. [01:00:50] You're building up middle walls. A petition that were abolished by Calvary. All the suffering of the cross to get rid of the people. And you, you and I, we're busy rebuilding them. Undoing the crime, undoing the suffering of Christ, bringing it all back in, playing on it, reintroducing it. [01:01:17] I've heard many, many messages in my time. Upon one corinthians, chapter one. [01:01:27] I'm of Paul. [01:01:29] I'm of porridge. [01:01:31] I'm of Kiefetch. [01:01:33] I'm of Christ many, many times. [01:01:39] But you see, what have we got today? In our day, we couldn't have anything. I don't waste it. [01:01:47] I find I have no son. [01:01:53] And when we've got exclusives, I'm crying. [01:01:57] I don't have anything to do with the other. [01:02:02] All while Paul says to them all, you're all wrong. You're all, all of you alone constitute the tragic. [01:02:17] You can't do without one section of you. [01:02:21] And so he didn't say to those of Paul as they probably thought he would write to them, get out and start again. This thing has become a mess. It's about holy. An unholy situation. Get out. [01:02:34] It's hard to know. [01:02:37] He says, you're dividing Christ. Can you divide? [01:02:46] I know the day that I saw that, I. I was a Baptist. And as one will tell you, a very, very zealous Baptist. I tried to make them all Baptists, too. [01:02:57] But the day that I saw this a sin, I ceased to be a Baptist. [01:03:05] I suddenly came out to. And all my brothers and sisters were mine, and I was there. [01:03:14] I could not belong to anything which divides me technically. Or in relatives from other religions. [01:03:24] So, you see, this is a tremendous thing. We've got to avoid all those things that divide. [01:03:34] Avoid and seek those lines of those lines in along which we can all be together. [01:03:49] The unity of Christ. [01:03:53] And everything which divides me from another believer. Whether it's a member or whether it's something else. [01:04:01] I have to let go. [01:04:04] So that I can just be with them all. [01:04:09] I can serve them all. [01:04:12] That's very important. [01:04:14] You see, this unity of the spirit. Is not the unity of the faith. If you read in Ephesians, chapter four, verse 13. You will see that we are told. Till we all arrive at the unity of the faith. We're going to arrive there one day. [01:04:32] But Paul doesn't say, till we all arrive at the unity of the spirit. No, he says, giving diligence to maintain or keep the unity of the spirit. You've got that I may not see eye to eye with every one of you. You may not see eye to eye with me. That's beside the point. Thank God. One day, when we're all in the glory. We shall all see eye to eye. [01:04:58] There'll be a unity for faith, you see. [01:05:04] Let me illustrate. I don't think Doug's will mind. Doug is a bit of an Arminian. I'm more calvinistically persuaded. But you see, we've got to be together. [01:05:13] There'll come a day when we're in the glory. Where I shall see eye wars. Or Douglas will see he's wrong. Or perhaps we'll both be wrong. But then we should see eye to eye. [01:05:24] That's the faith. [01:05:26] But the unity of the spirit. With one members of one body. [01:05:35] Absolutely necessary to each other. Some of you may think we're all going to go to be with the law before the tribulation. I don't know. Others of you, I don't know. Maybe we're going to go through it. And all of us are going to go at the end. Some of you might think some of us are going to go in the middle of it. I don't know what you think. But the point is, that's the unity of the faith. That's not important. There'll come a day when we shall all see that. [01:06:01] It'll all be quite clear. [01:06:04] We can't argue. We can't have any fist types. We shall all say, well, personal law, you see, it happens. And I see I was wrong. [01:06:12] But we all see eye to eye. Now, unity. [01:06:16] But why let what we don't see eye to eye in destroy the unity of the spirit? [01:06:26] There are things upon which we've got to stand absolutely into the unity of Christ, and let the other things consider. [01:06:36] Let each man walk according to the rule whereunto he has attained. [01:06:44] Paul said that. He said, you know, I see something. When he talked about a first resurrection out from the dead, and then he sort of stripped himself. No, no. [01:06:54] This might be causing trouble at Philippi. [01:06:57] I think that. [01:06:59] So he said, of course, those of you who are full grown, you'll understand what I do. But if any of you are otherwise married, don't worry, don't worry. [01:07:08] Don't worry that each one of us walk according to the whole where unto his attain. Now, isn't that wonderful? But there was a bit more of it now, in the 20th century, agreed to say to the other non essentials, all right, this is what I see, and I think those will fall. Agree with me. But I don't secure otherwise. I do. [01:07:31] Let's walk according to the door where I'm doing the tank. [01:07:36] I've got to diet. Let me diet. [01:07:39] But if I believe that everything I give thanks for is sanctified, let me eat everything. [01:07:47] I mustn't take issue with the one who thinks he or she ought to diet, or this is cause, or that's causing all the other. [01:07:56] Let them alone. [01:07:57] Let me go on in my way. [01:08:02] Don't fall out on non essentials. You see, you may take, and the devil seeks to take the tiniest things, sometimes the tiniest things in the faith, and he works relentlessly on them till he's divided whole companies to do. [01:08:25] Unity of the spirit's gone, of everyone's divide. [01:08:32] Now, this unity has very great diversity and variety, as we have seen from that reading in one Corinthians twelve, there's all. There are all kinds of gifts, and I do not believe, and I know most of you don't, that that list exhausts the gifts and the functions of the body. I think Paul just sat down and spontaneously wrote a whole list, until I think when I go off along like this, I shall have written a lot more. So he stopped and just said, well, do all, do this, do all do that, do all, do the other. [01:09:08] We can see that from romans twelve, where he gives a few more gifts that he didn't include one quintessential. [01:09:14] The point is this, you see that in this oneness, we don't all do the same thing, and we're not all meant to be the same kind of person. That's the point. Oh, the tragedy. When everyone becomes little imitations of the leader, when everyone becomes little reproductions of some particular sent in the company. [01:09:39] Oh, to imitate them, in principle, is one thing, but to imitate, to ape them is another, then it's not real. [01:09:50] No. [01:09:52] If you've got a lovely gay mentality, keep it. [01:09:58] And if one or two of the more serious people for who look at you, don't worry too much, be subject to them. Cut down on the excess, but don't let your spirit of lightness, the right kind of lightness, go. [01:10:16] And those who are serious, or the Lord forbid that they should become gay, because it's not them. We are built in certain ways, and the Lord wants some of us to be quieter. The darker colors in the picture allow this to be those touches of brightness in the great canvas that he's painting, which is the chunk. [01:10:41] And it's a great mistake when all of us become one horrid colour. [01:10:50] Well, you know that one color in excess is horrid. [01:10:56] You paint a whole thing in nigga brown or one thing in vivid orange, there's no point. But if in a picture there's all those colors, the dark colours, the quiet colors, and then the vivid colours, not in excess, you've got a picture of beauty which pleases everyone. [01:11:21] The people who don't like bright colors are turned, are the people who love bright colors are there. [01:11:30] And so in the church, you see what you are. You've got a gift. All right, don't try to be something else. Function where God has put you. Get on with it. Perhaps all will lead you from that function to another function in his or where, I don't know, but just get on with the job and function. [01:11:50] And if you are one type of person, don't become another. [01:11:55] Just be yourself in the Lord and let the other saints turn you down quietly. [01:12:02] Whatever you do, don't just become what they want you to become. That's a crime. [01:12:09] And there's more trouble being produced in the church and unity of Christ by everyone being battered into a uniformness of temperament and character than anything else. No, we've all got to be different, but we've all got to be one. [01:12:28] We've all got to supply what lacks in each other. And we've all got to be subject to each other. That's the good subject, and that's not easy. [01:12:43] So you see, if you and I want to see that unity preserved and developed, you and I have got to function. [01:12:52] If we all become one type of temperament. The unity ceases. [01:12:58] If God wanted it to be like that, he wouldn't have conceived this wonderful body of Christ. [01:13:06] He wants the unity to be preserved by everyone being themselves in the law, so that later on you get those wonderful things, I John, I Paul, I Peter. These men, they're able to bring their names in and say, I John, with nothing, no self advertisement, nothing nasty, no something beautiful. [01:13:32] Because you see, in the great councils of God, it needed a Paul, it needed Peter, it needed John, and it needed a gem, and it needed a luke and so on, for the New Testament to be given to him. If they had all been poured tragedy, if they had all been done tragedy, each one had to be themselves in the law. [01:14:05] And so we all delight in reading John's record because we see it through the temperament, subject to the law, broken by the law, disciplined by the law, but nevertheless it John, through whose eyes we see the Lord and the Lord is meant to be so. And then we take Paul and do Paul. We see the Lord and the Lord meant it to be so. And then James. Oh, what a lot of trouble. James was called, but the Lord said, I've got something which they can only understand through the eyes of James. [01:14:41] So we go on. [01:14:43] You do see what I'm getting. There in the church, there had to be John's and Peter's and James and Paul's and so on. All got to be there and they've got to function. Supposing John had a really bad time and said, I can't do it. No good, I just can't do it. [01:15:05] Supposing he'd written the third letter of John, and that's all or so written, three letters. Oh, you look at me as if I'm taught, I'm mad. But you see, the point is this. Don't you think that Tom was like I, subject to all the accusations and temptations and moves? I'm sure he won't, but he felt, and we've got everything that is intended to say through the hand and the heart of John. Same with Paul and the same with James, and the same with Peter. [01:15:40] Only three lessons. [01:15:42] I'm sorry, there were other lessons I wanted to talk about, but I think this is how we usually always begin off when we talk about these lessons. You see, those three lessons are all bike, they're all important, they're all lessons that we've learned in these past ten years. Oh, I'm afraid I must be contradicted, don't we? [01:16:02] We believe one thing we teach one thing, we testify to one thing. But sometimes, you know, but, you know, this is what the Lord led us into, and this is what the Lord has been teaching us. I'm sure there's very much more in the future. [01:16:23] And I have to leave those other lessons for another occasion, perhaps, when we will not be able to take them normal studies, and we will just fall back upon these other lessons that we can talk about together. [01:16:40] But let us ask the Lord, shall we, that he will make us truly responsible to what he has shown us and what he has led us into, that it may not just be here, but it may be in our heart and in our experience, because, you know, it's no good at being up here. [01:17:02] Knowledge, hatha, that love build us up, and that's what we need, a serpent of love. May the Lord help us show you that.