Ten Years at Halford House – 2

[00:00:00] Covered three lessons from our history. [00:00:07] We are calling either lessons from our history or principles in God's work. [00:00:17] I have put them on the board very simply. [00:00:20] The authority of Christ, the absolute authority of Christ, the organic nature of the church, and lastly, the oneness of Christ. [00:00:34] And those three are very important to all the further lessons that we wish to add to them. The authority of Christ, of course, is obviously the most fundamental of all the principles that govern God's work. [00:00:56] And if the devil can compromise the authority, the headship, the Lordship of Christ in his people here on earth, in any company or in any life, that life is put out of the fight. [00:01:13] It's really, in many ways, somehow or other, out of the battle. [00:01:23] So it's very, very important that we should understand something of this lesson. And you will remember that we said that prayer is the practical outworking of the headship of Christ. When a company gets on its knees and begins to ask the Lord, what should they do? What does the Lord think about this? Everyone has their own opinions, everyone has their own viewpoint, but they don't begin to hold to it. There are stupid people who will insist that they know the mind of the Lord, and it doesn't matter what happens. That once having said that, of course, they cannot get, they cannot climb down. Seems as if they would sacrifice everything if they did. Prayer is the practical outworking of the headship of Christ. When you get people prepared, even with their opinions, to seek the Lord and ask him what he feels, prepared to adjust one to the other, prepared to see differently, prepared to be blended and harmonized with the rest of the members of the body. In discovering the mind of Christ, you had the headship of the Lordship of Christ, practical outworking, and the same is the question of the organic nature of the church at all in the life of Christ. [00:02:45] And it's in the resurrection life of Christ. And that is what we were talking about on Sunday morning, when we were talking about the law of the impossible, because that resurrection life is beyond human capacity and ability and ingenuity. It's something beyond. That's why in christian circles, we have so much that is human work, all true christians, but human work that goes by the name of the church, and why it's so rare that we find a real manifestation of the church of God amongst us, his people. [00:03:24] It's all in that life. [00:03:27] And once you can get that life starting, that life flowing and developing, before long you have all the gifts and the functions and the pattern and everything else out of the life. And then we spoke about the oneness of Christ. Unity is not an objective. It is an established fact. [00:03:49] If you and I have Christ in us, he is not divided. My Christ is not a different Christ to your Christmas. There is only one Christ. And if Christ is in you and Christ is in me, and I am obedient to Christ and you are obedient to Christ, there is unity. It is a fact. [00:04:11] I if I am in Christ and you are in Christ and we are abiding in Christ, then there you have the unity. It's an established fact, not an objective. Something to be thought toward, something to be attained to something finally, after much striving to be reached, it's something that we've got to maintain. [00:04:37] It's all in this organic life of Christ, this resurrection life of Christ. [00:04:44] If you had that life and I had that life, there is our oneness, there is our unity. And anything which divides is sinful. [00:04:57] It's not just failure, it's not just wrong, it's sin, anything. [00:05:05] And the dividing of God's people is one of the main objectives of the devil. [00:05:12] That's why in scripture it not only tells us to keep clearer divisions, not to have anything to do with divisions, but to maintain the unity, but it also tells us even to mark them that caused the divisions and had nothing to do with them. [00:05:29] Had severe words to speak about. Christians marked those that caused the divisions and had nothing to do with them. [00:05:39] You see, the Lord is very firm and dogmatic about the question of the unity of Christ. And the battle, let's make no mistake about it, is all centered upon the authority of Christ and the unity of Christ upon these two things. The devil makes his great assault in this battle, in this conflict that we're all found in. And you will remember we spoke a lot last week about the diversity and the variety that is found in the unity. Oh, it's unity, but it's not uniformity. It's not drab sameness or the same drabness. [00:06:27] There's a variety, and there's a diversity in the unity. We are all meant to be original. We are all meant to be different. We are all one. But we all have something that is utterly Christ in us, Christ coming through us. Christ originally found in us. And each one of us has something to give and something to contribute which no one else can quite give or quite contribute. And that's a very important point. And we also, you will remember, spoke something, some words about the need for all the gifts to function, for the keeping and the developing of that unity, that unity being an objective of Satan's attack and assault. Has got to be developed, renewed, maintained all the time. [00:07:29] How can we maintain that unity? How can it be developed? How can it, in fact, be kept only by all the different members. Who are one in Christ. [00:07:45] Contributing and functioning in their various places in the family? In this way, the unity is preserved. It is not preserved by us all. Gradually drawing back, you see. Letting one or two do the work. Or even by a certain group doing the work. And the rest just being spectators. No, the unity of Christ is preserved and developed by every single one functioning. So that that oneness of Christ is renewed and maintained all the time. [00:08:27] Now, this evening we go on to one or two more lessons. I don't know how far we shall get. [00:08:38] But the one that I want now to take. Following on from this and growing out of it. Is one that many of you will now be quite familiar with. But we shall deal with it again this evening. It's what we call church ground. [00:08:54] But I wonder how many folk here really do understand what we mean by the phrase church ground. [00:09:05] If you will look at one corinthians, chapter one. [00:09:10] The chapter that we read together. [00:09:12] You know, we're only taking from the whole one verse for each of these lessons. One corinthians, chapter one and verse two. Here you've got it contained in this little phrase. Unto the church of God, which is at Corinth. Even them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. Called to be saints with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place. [00:09:38] Not in every country, not in every area, not in every continent, but in every locality. [00:09:48] Church of God, which is at Corinth, called to be saints with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their lord and ours. And if you want, of course, much more. I can give you many more references along the same line. But the best of all, if you'd like to follow it through simply. Is in revelation, chapter two and chapter three. Where you will remember the Lord speaking to the seven churches. Addresses himself to each one of the churches. The church that is at ephesus, the church that is at Smyrna, the church that is at Tara, Tartara and so on. In scripture, we cannot find two churches in one locality. Now, what is church ground? [00:10:39] Because there's no doubt about it. A lot of people have got weird ideas about what we call church ground. And maybe the Holy Spirit will help us very much this evening. To clear up some of these mistaken ideas. First of all, church ground is to do with the unity of Christ. Now, let's be positive. Many people seem to think the church ground is all don'ts all to do with what you mustn't do, what you mustn't touch, what you must withdraw from and so on. Church ground is not at all to do with that. It's all to do with the unity of Christ. [00:11:20] It is to do with the preservation of that unity. [00:11:24] The maintenance of that unity is all to do with cutting out every single excuse for division, whatever it might be. [00:11:39] Once a man or a woman has seen what the scripture teaches about the ground for God's church on earth. [00:11:49] They have cut from under them every possibility of excuse for division. [00:11:57] Of running away from the saints in their locality. [00:12:06] You see, geographical division of the saints. Is the only division allowed in scripture. [00:12:17] If you can just get that clear. There is no other division allowed for in scripture. The only division that God permits is geographical division into localities. That's all. [00:12:34] You see, this matter of geographical division is utterly rational and utterly practical. [00:12:47] You will, I'm sure, begin to understand that perhaps as we go on a little this evening. You see, it's the only division which unifies rather than divides. [00:13:00] Let me say that again. It is the only division which unifies rather than divides every other division. [00:13:09] Every other standard of division divides God's people. But the geographical division into localities. Is the only division which in fact unifies God's people. It maintains their essential, absolute unity. [00:13:29] All right, let's look at it then. [00:13:31] Supposing we were to divide God's people up into racial division. I've got a map over here, but I thought it might mystify everyone if I left it down. I wonder what on earth was coming this evening. Just supposing we were in the heavenly headquarters. And we were talking about the saints throughout the whole world. See, we are just viewing the whole circle of the earth. I was in our. How best shall we divide the saints? What is the most rational, the most practical way. Of dividing the members of Christ's body? Well, says one of the angels, let us divide them in racially. We'll divide them, the Africans and the Americans. [00:14:15] And then we'll say, here are the Asians and here's the Europeans. [00:14:22] Now, sir, the Lord immediately would say. There you've disrupted the unity of Christ. [00:14:29] You have made divisions along natural demarcations. Which will split the church in two. [00:14:38] Because whatever you and I say. There are deep seated racial distinctions in this world. [00:14:47] It's in missionary work. For any of you who've been to the mission field. You know what I'm talking about. Even those people called Rugo. Go forth, find it a great battle to treat as equals the people to whom they have gone. [00:15:04] They somehow feel that there's. Well, you can't do it. [00:15:08] Times I heard about the Egyptians, you just can't do it. You can't do it. They just haven't got the minds. You just can't have fellowship with them. Of course, down there you can have fellowship, but you just can't do it up there. They just. You can't treat them as equals. You can't give them any money. That is, that kind of thing. [00:15:27] Well, says another angel. All right. All right, then let's make national divisions. That would be better, wouldn't it? That gets rid of the racial, you see. Let's make national divisions. So we start on national divisions. And once we start on national divisions, we have again divided God's people. This line of division, again, is a disruptive line, you see. Because, you see, here we have the german church, the english church, the norwegian church and so on. And so we immediately have split up everyone again into the old divisions. And we all know, as I was talking last week, about unity. Those things have been abolished in Christ. [00:16:11] So not only the racial divisions, the national divisions have gone. All those old national animosities which are very deep seated things. Oh, it's all very well. It's taught about loving so and so when they're across the sea and you don't see them. But it's when you all have to rub shoulders and national characteristics come up to the top that you begin to have the difficulties. All right, then let's get rid of that. Let's make for some other kind of division. Let's make social divisions then. And then we shall have sort of churches of the upper class and churches of the middle class and churches of the working class. We have social division. But, you see, again, we may save ourselves a lot of trouble by gathering all the aristocratic and noble together into one coming. It's all very refined, very dignified, very pleasant, you see. And gathering all the sort of working class together where it's all very much more sort of full of gusto. And we've saved ourselves a lot of trouble. But, you see, we've divided God's church. [00:17:21] All these lines of division disrupt. [00:17:26] All right, then, forget that. Supposing we take then the question of an actual locality. Here is locality. [00:17:38] We can't get those who baptize by immersion to join with those who baptize or by christening, by sprinkling. So the best idea is to have one group of christians there and another there. [00:17:52] And now we've divided them. Again. God's people have been divided by religious division. [00:17:59] All right, then here we have another group. We'll forget that and try to get over it. But now we'll make a division. On teaching this group. You see, I have one kind of teaching about the Lord's return. And here are other christians who have a teaching about another return. Best idea is to put those who believe that about the Lord. That he'll come after the tribulation. We'll put them there. And those who believe here. Come before the tribulation. We put them there, but we divided them again. All right, then forget that. Then we take question of method. See? Method. And again we divide between all these distinctions, these religious distinctions. Immediately we divided. [00:18:42] Supposing I say, I'm a Wesley. And someone else immediately says, in this room I'm of Luther. Then here we have Wesley, and here we have Luther. And someone says, but I'm a fox. And there we have fox. And immediately we have divisions. Again, religious divisions. We have immediately rent the unity of Christ. We have divided ourselves one from the other. So you see, all these lines are divisive. But there is one division which unifies only one division. I don't know. Perhaps some of you are thinking carefully tonight. Might have thought of a few more divisions that either you might question. But let's take it. You see here you have a whole area, say, of the south of England. And here we have Richmond and there we say we have Kingston and there. [00:19:46] And then after that we have. Oh, I don't know what Guildford, Leatherhead and so on. You see what we're doing now? Do you begin to see what we're doing here? We have the localities. Now. Then God says we will divide the saints by locality alone. What have we done? [00:20:05] We've destroyed racial divisions. We've destroyed national divisions. We've destroyed social divisions. We've destroyed religious divisions. And we have only one division based on where you live. [00:20:23] That's simple, isn't it? If someone here in Guildford is going to go right across here to Richmond, what's the point? Isn't it more rational for them to gather with God's children in Guildford. And be built up into what God is doing? Yes, says the Lord, if I'm going to build the church in Guildford. I'm not going to bring people from Richmond. I'm going to build it here for the saints that are here. If I'm going to build the church here in Richmond. Then it's going to be people in that area, in that location. It's rational. It's practical. [00:21:01] All right, then look at the map. What have we done? [00:21:05] What have we done? Well, you take a plan. We take Shanghai. [00:21:10] The saints in Shanghai, they are not Asians anymore. [00:21:16] They are not chinese in one sense anymore. They are not upper or lower class anymore. They are just believers. Brothers and sisters in Shanghai, come right across here to Richmond and what have you got? You have no longer english believers. You have no longer european believers. You've got brothers and sisters who happen to live in Richmond. All right, come over to Tokyo then. Here in Tokyo, what do you find? No longer japanese brothers. No longer asian? No. You see, they are brothers and sisters who happen to live in Tokyo. So God has said. Now, that's their division. The only thing that divides the brothers and sisters in Tokyo from the brothers and sisters in Richmond is geography. That's all. But it's the minimum division. [00:22:01] Any other line of division would have divided them, but this cannot divide them. [00:22:08] Therein lies the wisdom of God and also the foolishness of people who continually talk about church ground as if it's some newfangled fallacy. [00:22:25] It is something old as the hills. The Roman catholic church is built on this principle. [00:22:32] The orthodox churches are built on this principle. The anglican church is built on this principle. It's as simple as that. The early Baptists were built on this principle. As simple as that. It's all departed from now. I shall speak about that in just one moment. But the whole point is this. It's so simple, it's so rational, it's so practical. For instance, the Lord says, from heaven, I want to evangelize Richmond. [00:23:04] Oh, then says some of the clever people here, we will take sense from Guilford, in which is that going to have much impact upon Richmond? No. The Lord says, I want in Richmond a habitation for myself through which I can be known in everyday life amongst the people of that town, that I may shake them with my presence. [00:23:30] And this is the whole thought behind the church, that it is in fact, the body of God's son. It is, as it were, the very means by which God expresses himself. [00:23:44] How does he do it? Well, what would you do, practically rationally, by taking the believers in the locality which you wish to evangelize and through them doing it, wouldn't you? [00:24:01] It's as rational and as practical as that. [00:24:07] So I want you to see that we need really, in many ways to look at this very carefully. We ought especially to mark religious divisions. [00:24:22] They might be over the fine points of teaching they can be. For instance, as I've mentioned, over the question just simply of how you interpret certain parts of scripture. If it's over elementary and fundamental teaching doctrines of the faith. Of course, there's no question of being one with people who deny the deity and the divinity of the Lord Jesus. [00:24:54] It's obvious. [00:24:56] But when it comes to finer points, we have got to each let the other man walk according to the rule where unto he is attained. All right, take this question of experience. [00:25:09] Religious divisions, often built on experimental divisions, you see. Have you had the experience of the second blessing? Or have you had the experience of such and such? Have you had the experience of the fullness of the spirit? Or even have you had the experience of the cross? We can make divisions of these things, you see, on the grounds of experience. Even this little word often used, have you seen? [00:25:33] We can make even a revelation. [00:25:36] A line of religious division, you see, and put a little circle around all those who had that experience. And that's the church. Or a line around all those who've seen what the church has said. That's the church. No, see, all these things we have to be on the guard against. That's not church ground. That is a contradiction of church ground. That's the point. [00:26:01] And sometimes religious division is built on technique or method, how we're governed or how things are administered and so on. These are all the grounds for religious division. [00:26:18] But geographical division, interlocality brings all together in Christ. [00:26:27] Whatever race, whatever nation, whatever social level, and whatever spiritual measure or understanding it brings all together in Christ. The dwarf, the spiritual invalid, the spiritual paralytic. Yes, all those, the spiritually mature, the spiritual seeds, spiritually seen, all are brought together in Christ as those who are the redeemed of the Lord. [00:27:05] God has put a circle around them. [00:27:08] We haven't saved them. [00:27:10] We haven't chosen them. God has chosen them and saved them, and we can do nothing else. We can only receive those whom God, Christ has received. [00:27:22] It's as simple as that. [00:27:26] So when you come down to it, we have to ask ourselves then, what is church ground? [00:27:31] What really is it? What do we mean by it? If it's as important as this, this question of geographical division is going to maintain and preserve the unity of Christ, what do we mean by church ground? We do not mean teaching. [00:27:50] It seems to me that certain people think we mean teaching. We mean church teaching. [00:27:57] You talk about the church, you teach the church, and then when certain people see it. They're on church ground. [00:28:06] That's not church ground. Of course, you've got to see what the church means. Of course you've got to stand deliberately by faith into what you've seen, commit yourself to what you've seen. But that is not in itself church ground, for church ground actually includes those who've not seen. [00:28:27] That's the point. [00:28:29] All right, then, if church ground is not anything to do with teaching, is it to do with method? No, it isn't. [00:28:36] It's not to do with method. Of course, certain methods will grow up in the company of are found upon this ground. If the Holy Spirit is there, there's going to be certain amount of definite pattern developing out of the life. [00:28:53] Things are going to all the time be being adjusted as the Lord shows further light on different issues. There will be. There will be difficulties in this matter. But woe betide if we make a method, the means of fellowship, and say, if you do not agree with this method, then we cannot have you in fellowship with us. [00:29:18] You see, church ground is not a question of method. However important we may feel, principles in church government and life are. And then again, it's not a question of experience. [00:29:33] Some people, and this is one of the greatest tragedies in this country, some people have an idea that church ground means all who are spiritual are gathered together, all who are going on, they get together. They can't find food anywhere else, so they all get together. It doesn't matter about the Indians leaves, it doesn't matter about the babes. It doesn't matter about the question of people coming to the Lord. All those things you leave behind, and just those of you who are going on, you get together and some people go, now, that's church ground. [00:30:18] It's not. That's not church ground. And so we can go on, we can say personalities. [00:30:26] Well, that's not church ground. Everyone knows that. It's not a question of being gathered together by personalities or two personalities. Of course, let's get it clear. There will be personalities on church ground. You're bound to find them. God does have personalities. He uses personalities. Paul was a personality. John was a personality. James was a personality. These men are personality broken. Yes, but they're personalities. They had their impact. They had. That's what went wrong with Corinth. The personalities of the men got seized upon by carnal people. [00:30:58] They are by the arm of the flesh. But you see, it's not personality. [00:31:03] It's not great teachers or men who've seen something more than others that are the key to this question. No, no, no. These things. Nor is it spirituality. It's not just a question of spirituality. [00:31:18] You know, the more spiritual we are than the more we're in it. That's true. Of course we know the principle. There's a nucleus isn't always the nucleus. That levitical service in the Old Testament stands forever for that faithful, sacrificial nucleus of people who devote themselves to the Lord that everyone else might come into the blessing. And it runs right through the whole of the Bible. We know that. But the whole point is they give themselves to bring the rest in. [00:31:51] They serve the rest. They lay down their lives for the west. They are related to the west at every point. [00:31:59] It's not that they are just bothered about serving the Lord. And we don't worry about the rest. Oh, no. They're given. They're given wholly to the Lord and to the rest of God's people. That they may all be brought into the blessing of the Lord dwelling in the midst of his own. You see, we can go on. But this, you see, church ground is not any of these things. [00:32:24] It's not even a question of revelation. [00:32:29] Have you seen it? Of course you need to see it. You can't understand it till God reveals it to you. I can talk and talk and talk, but you won't understand this thing until the Holy Spirit reveals it to you. Once the Lord has opened your mind, it becomes so clear, so logical, so rational in a spiritual way. [00:32:50] But the revelation of it isn't the thing. [00:32:54] What is it then we mean by church ground? This Christ, the one, supreme, sovereign. Christ as found in the locality in which I live. [00:33:12] Have you got it? [00:33:14] What is church ground? [00:33:17] Christ, sovereign, supreme one, as found in the locality in which I live. Not less, not more. [00:33:31] Church ground is not less than Christ. [00:33:35] Church ground is not more than Christ. [00:33:39] It is Christ alone as found in the locality in which God has placed me. [00:33:47] That's church ground. And therefore it includes every true believer who by the grace of God, is in Christ and in whom Christ dwells. [00:34:01] How can I find Christ here in Richmond? [00:34:05] Will I find him walking around? [00:34:10] How will I find Christ, the sovereign Christ, the supreme Christ? [00:34:15] I tell him how I find him by finding his members. [00:34:19] If I find his members, I find Christmas. They may be poor, they may be impoverished, they may be diseased. [00:34:27] But when I find the members of Christ, I found Christ. [00:34:32] And that's what it means when two or three are gathered into that name. There he is in the midst. There may only be two or three in a given locality. But where? Those two or three are in Christ, there you will find him. He's in them. He's in them. They are his members. What is a member? A limb, a part, an arm, a hand, a leg. [00:34:58] You want to find me? Well, you have to look. I'm in here. You won't find me over there. You find me here. But if I walk over there, you'll find me there. Because the only way you can find me is through my body. If you hold me, you'll find me. You'll see that I'm alive. [00:35:17] Because my hand's not cold, it's warm, it's animate. It's living. I'm inside of this body. How are you going to find Christ as the basis for the church? By finding the members of Christ. And then you will discover Christ. Go on. In this letter to Corinth, and what does Paul begin to say? Don't you think he should have written them all off? But no, he speaks of these poor, carnal, divided christians as sanctified in Christ, called to be saints. And he says, you know, you don't come behind in any gift. What a thing to say about these dear saints. We would have written them off. We would just know God. You won't find Christ there. But these people were on church ground. [00:36:03] They hadn't taken any other ground yet. Oh, there were factions, the things beginning. The modern disease had started. [00:36:10] There were already the factions that could easily become the Apollonian church in Corinth and the Pitrine church in Corinth, and the pauline church in Corinth, and the exclusives in Corinth. They were all there. The seeds were there, but no one had moved yet. So what did Paul say to it? He said, I determined not to know anything among you, to save Jesus Christ and him crucified. [00:36:34] That's what he was going to look for. He was going to take those people who were in the group of Apollos who probably hadn't got much love for Paul, and he was going to find Christ in them as members of Christ. And then he was going over to the pet prime people who probably also hadn't gotten over a circuit of love for Paul because it was so different. And after all, Paul had been very rude to Peter once and that publicly. And I expect they felt, as usual, the followers always filled worse than the people concerned. And so it's probable that there was a certain amount of feeling. But Paul said, no, I'm going to find Christ in those members. [00:37:09] They're not Peter's followers. They're not Apollos's followers. They are my brothers and sisters in Christ. They are members. And so when you go on, we tend to forget it. See, some of the chapters of the first letter to Corinth. We sort of look upon us. Now, that's to do with the Sealy side. But when we come, of course, to one corinthians twelve and 13, we forget. We think of it like an ephesian letter. In the corinthian letter, something. No, it's all part and parcel of the same thing. Paul's talking to these very people and saying, you are the body of Christ. You are all members of one of another. Christ is you. You are Christ. [00:37:48] You all belong to each other. You can't do without each other. Now, this is what we mean by church ground. You see, all these believers. [00:37:59] Well, there we are. You see, church ground is obviously because it is Christ who's found in the locality in which I live includes every single one who's in Christ and in whom Christ dwells, whoever they are and whatever they are. Do you know that? And furthermore, it excludes every single one who's not in Christ, whatever they are and whoever they are. There could be a cardinal living in Richmond, but he might be excluded because he's not in Christ. There are many Protestants in Richmond, but they're excluded because they're not in Christ. But there might be some Roman Catholics who are in Christ therein because they're in Christ. And because Christ is in them. Do you see? [00:38:49] We have no choice. God has already made the choice. [00:38:54] Those whom he has called and whom he has chosen. The elect of God. [00:39:00] And so, you see, it doesn't matter what you and I feel. [00:39:05] It includes everyone who's in Christ and in whom Christ is and excludes everyone. Whether he has a dog call or title or a church office, or is christened or confirmed or baptized or anything else. If he's not in Christ. And if Christ is not in him, he is not of the church. [00:39:26] It's as simple as that. Upon no other basis whatsoever will God build his church. [00:39:34] A basis with additions. [00:39:37] Disruptive. Or take Christ plus nationality, you've divided. Take Christ plus race you've divided. Take Christ plus social level you've divided. Take Christ plus teaching and you've divided. Take Christ plus experience and you divide it. You must have Christ alone without additions, and you won't have disruption. [00:40:04] A basis less than Christ is counterfeit. [00:40:13] It doesn't matter whether it calls itself a church or what it calls itself, whether it has the name of Christ on it. If it denies the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's nothing to do with the Lord Jesus whatsoever. [00:40:27] There's no part in him. [00:40:30] If it has a basis less than Christ. [00:40:35] There then is what we mean. And the authority of Christ that we've talked about. Will lead us finally to this ground. [00:40:46] And the organic life of Christ demands it. If we're going to know. If we're going to know in a corporate way. [00:40:57] That life develop and grow and be fulfilled. [00:41:04] And the unity of Christ requires it for its preservation. [00:41:10] It cannot be preserved in any other way. And so, you see, practically, it means three things. [00:41:19] Church ground means simply three things. [00:41:23] I must leave all that divides my brothers and sisters. [00:41:29] And refuse to touch what divides. Or become involved in it in any way. [00:41:37] That's the negative side. [00:41:39] I must leave all that divides. Because all that divides is sin. [00:41:48] You can try and get over it. You can try and talk your way out of it. But if I say I am of Luther and I am of Wesley and I am of Fox, what am I doing? I am doing exactly what they did in corridor. I am of Paul. I am of Apollo's. I'm. Of course, I'm not going to have anything to do with you. And say you're old. So and so and so and so and so. I'm of Christ. We're the. We're sort of exclusive. [00:42:13] I'm still wrong. [00:42:18] I've got to take a ground which includes every single one of those believers. In those different groups. [00:42:26] So I must leave all that divides. And I mustn't touch it. I mustn't become involved in it because it's sin. [00:42:32] Scripture is quite clear about division. And what to do about division. And how to avoid it to keep clear. [00:42:40] Secondly, I stand in Christ alone. As found in my locality. And embrace all who are his simply because they are his. Whatever their condition. [00:42:56] Now, in practice, that is not easy. [00:43:00] But you see, you've got to fight to hold that position. [00:43:03] Of embracing every single brother and sister. Because they are the lords. Simply because they are the lords. [00:43:11] And thirdly, I can never leave my brothers and sisters for any reason whatsoever. [00:43:21] Other than a change of locality. [00:43:24] Father knee once said, if you wish to change your church. You must change your address. [00:43:32] Is the only way. Oh, says someone. I don't agree with all this, but just wait. You see, division characterizes this world. Look at the paper this morning. Division, division, division. Every other column's division. What is it that characterize Christendom? Division. [00:43:51] Everywhere there's division. [00:43:55] Now, what is it that characterized true christian division? [00:44:02] Not unity, division. You can't keep a group of people together in Christ because sooner or later we fall out, because we all talk about it. [00:44:16] The Lord led me here, the Lord let me there. The Lord did this, the Lord did that, and so on. It's all terribly spiritual. But, you see, there is a ground upon which, when finally, the Holy Spirit brings us where, thanks be to God, we cannot any longer leave. [00:44:35] I may have the most terrible time with some of my brothers and sisters, but I've got to stay whilst the candlesticks there, I'm there, I've got to stay. That is all there is to it. I can't eject anyone. I can't. I can't remove anyone. I can't resign. How can you resign from the church? How can you resign from the church? First thing is, I didn't join it, the Lord joined me. [00:45:05] The only way I can be resigned is by the Lord resigning me. Then there's no other way. It's all in the sovereignty of heaven, you see. [00:45:15] And so, consequently, when you and I see this, you and I have found a ground upon which we can't be divided. It's rather grim in a way, because it means I look at you and you look at me, and all our high polluting excuses. They don't walk. [00:45:31] They don't walk. Oh, we've had them all, but they don't walk. [00:45:37] They can't, because, you see, nowhere in the world, when God finds a company on that ground, does the Lord ever say, lead in one company in broad, in revelation two and chapter three, they've got jezebel in the midst. But the Lord never says to them, now, those of you who are walking in, like, get out. No, they've got to stay because they're not on church ground. They've got to stay. While the candlesticks there, they've got to stay and overcome. [00:46:07] The Lord will use that Jezebel to make the others overcome. [00:46:13] And then there's Nicolaid, and there's elsewhere. Error. Terrible error. [00:46:18] But you see, they're not told to get out, these old churchmen. Why aren't a candlestick lit? They've got to stay and overcome so we can go on. [00:46:29] Many of us need far less an excuse than a jezebel to go, far less an excuse than nicolaitonism. We've only just got to just see a few folks in our brothers and sisters, and we're off, because that's this world. This is this world. You join a stamp collecting club. And then you have a collision with someone, what do you do? You walk out, go to another stamp collecting club. Even if you have to travel some miles. [00:46:57] Yes, go to the next locality right away. But you'll go somewhere because you don't like so and so's there. Oh, the world is full of it. All the time we're being told by people this kind of thing. Well, I went to such and such. And then I didn't like a woman who was there. And so I left. And now I go over to so and so, to such and such a place. She said, you see, isn't it all petty? Isn't it all small? [00:47:23] That's not church ground. Church ground is when I find a ground upon which I cannot be divided. [00:47:30] Well, it may be a bit grim, but it's a bit glorious too. [00:47:33] Because, you see, you and I are saved from becoming cranks, from becoming unbalanced, from becoming old, spiritually old bachelors and maids by our brothers and sisters. Oh, you laugh, but it's true. You see, when you and I go out, everywhere we go, anything we don't like or anything that starts to sort of put its finger on a sword point in our lad, we're off. [00:48:02] There's no hope for us. We just become more and more queer and we don't know it. Everyone else knows it, but we don't know it. We become. But in the house of God, you get punched by this one and punched by the other one. You can't leave. You've got to stay. You go through. But what happens in the end, when you do go through? Something comes out of christ in the end that was never there before. [00:48:27] There's a sanity, a spiritual soundness, a spiritual sanity, a spiritual balance, a spiritual poise that's come through. Having to stay with people. [00:48:39] And not just having to stay, but overcoming so that you really serve them and love them and can be built together with them. [00:48:55] I fear there are some people, like hermit crabs amongst us, who have withdrawn into their shells. They've had the battering and now they say, I'm on church ground. I've seen what church ground means and I cannot leave. But if they think I'm going to love them, if they think I'm going to be built into them, if they think I'm going to serve them, they've got another thing coming. [00:49:22] And we all go through that phase, don't we, sooner or later, where we rather withdraw. And our attitude is, all right, I'm here and I can't go because to do so would be spiritual suicide. But I'm not going to go any further. [00:49:41] And we think ourselves great saints and great martyrs to have even got to that position. But that doesn't mean a thing to the Lord, you know, truthfully, it doesn't really mean a thing to the Lord. [00:49:53] The Lord just isn't interested in you being and I being here like a company of little hermit crabs, all sort of withdrawn into our own shells, all sort of together. [00:50:04] But that's as much as it goes. Oh, no, no. The Lord's not interested in that. The Lord is interested. When you and I begin to pray, practice church ground and go to the brother and sisters that we find the most difficult and begin really to serve them in the law. When we start, the shoulder, the spiritually paralyzed, the spiritually dwarfed, the spiritually diseased, when the real spiritual difficulties are carried by the others, that's church ground in practice often, you know, when we have a real difficulty coming through the door. I wish with all my heart that we weren't on church. Now. I know full well from experience in the past and other places which will not be mentioned, how we got rid of it. [00:50:57] We all just cold hurt. [00:51:00] But they knew jolly well that they weren't going to get a look in. [00:51:06] Sometimes when I see someone who's very difficult and very ardent and who brings reproach to the name of Christ so often, one would lo if we could get rid of that one. [00:51:18] But I think it was Spurgeon who said, those are your treasure. [00:51:27] Never get rid of them. He said. [00:51:30] No, truly. One pastor once went to Spurgeon, told him all about a difficult person he'd got in his congregation. And Spurgeon said, my dear brother, if you get rid of him, you've lost your treasure. [00:51:41] He's your treasure. Hang on to him. [00:51:46] She, Spurgeon perhaps knew more than a lot of us about these things. You see what we're getting at. When you and I hang on to every brother and sister, whether we temperamentally like them or dislike them or whatever they are, just because they are brothers and sisters and because they belong to us, we belong to them, then the Lord comes. [00:52:10] He does something in us. There is a beauty upon us. [00:52:15] The glory and the joy, peace. You dont have any other way? [00:52:24] Well, they were. See, there's all that about church ground. And I know you know such a lot about. You've heard us a lot about it. But you see, it's all very practical, really, when it comes down to it. [00:52:36] I would like to speak very simply in closing about a further lesson which we will not need to take very long over. [00:52:46] It's in one corinthians 14. It's verse 26, the last phrase of one corinthians 1426. Let all things be done unto edifying. [00:53:00] And this word is building up. Let all things be done unto building up. If you look at verse twelve, you will find it again. [00:53:10] So also ye, since ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may abound unto the building up of the church. [00:53:18] Now, here's something very wonderful. Here is another lesson that I want to add to the lessons that we have already spoken about. I have called it the harmonizing law of the body. [00:53:33] Now, my body has a harmonizing law, otherwise the body would go to pieces. [00:53:40] What is the harmonizing law of my body? Well, every part of my body has one objective, building up the legend. [00:53:51] It's as simple as that. I can have thousands and thousands of functions, but if they've all got one objective, there's harmony. [00:54:03] All the functions in my body are all doing different things. [00:54:08] Have you ever seen a great big machine? You stood in front of a huge machine with lots of wheels. Some of the wheels are going that way, some of the wheels going the opposite way, some are big wheels, some are small wheels, some are whirling around quickly, some are going around very slowly, and you think to yourself, well, that's funny. Some are going well. Of course, I'm not scientific or technical, so you can understand my girls and these eyes. I look at it and say, well, isn't it funny? Something's going that way. Some things are going that way, really. I wonder how it all works. But you see, all those wheels which seem to be doing opposite things are in fact all obeying one law at all. They're all thinking about the product, the producing of something, that's all. And so they can all be doing different things, seemingly, but in fact, they're all harmonized. [00:55:05] And if all the wheels went one way, I understand, the whole thing would stop. [00:55:10] And some christians think harmony means everything must go the same way. But, you know, the marvelous thing about the church is some people seem to be in reverse and some people seem to be functioning, and some of us, you know, with our petty little minds, when we see people in reverse, we think, oh, dear, that's wrong. I'm sure that's wrong. They should be flowing that way, and they seem to be, you know, holding back, you see? But in fact, it's quite right for there to be a 1001 different functions as long as there's one harmonizing law and the harmonizing law, the one objective is the building up of the body. Everything can be judged in the light of that. It does not matter what it is. All right, let's take the church, which is the body of Christ. Take evangelism. Take evangelism. Paul says only one objective of evangelism. What is the objective of evangelism? Building up. Does that mean that our gospel messages, we say our messages to the unsaved have got to be filled with strong meat for believers, as some people seem to think? No, not at all. [00:56:31] The messages that go to the unsaved can be simplicity itself. But if their objective, if their objective is the building up of Christ, that's all. [00:56:46] You see, the objective is simply of. The objective of evangelism is providing material for building up. That's all it's providing all the material. All right, go farther. Take teaching. [00:56:59] The objective of teaching Bible teaching must be the building up of the saints. Anything other, anything disruptive, anything that sort of divides it. Wrong. [00:57:11] But if it's building, building up, we can have 1001 teaching ministries. It doesn't matter. [00:57:19] And mind you, these ministries of teaching, they can all have different emphases. One's emphasis may be grace, and another's emphasis may be the coming of the Lord, and another's emphasis may be the redemption of the Lord, and another's emphasis may be the house of God. But it doesn't matter what emphasis it. You can have them all if their objective is building up of the body and you've got harmony, and so we can go on. You see, God makes allowance for every kind of work so long as there's one objective. Now, some of us, you see, we don't see that. And once we begin to see what the church is, we become a little narrow and we think, oh, I have no time for a Bible society. I have no time for the scripture. I have no time for evangelistic convention. I have no time for this, I have no time for that. I've seen what the church is, you see, but the point is, God, in his amazing wisdom, has allowed for every kind of work, so long as there's one objective. [00:58:25] You can have all these different things. You can have literature work, you can have radio work, you can have a convention work, and you can have children's work, you can have open air, you can have all these kinds of things. [00:58:40] And, you know, if there's one objective, the building up of the church is found in that locality. They are all harmonized. [00:58:51] I sometimes people find it hard to see. But it's so simple. [00:58:57] You see, all are harmonized into one by obeying this law of the body. [00:59:05] Just supposing we could forget the 20th century situation. [00:59:10] Supposing we had an evangelistic campaign, and the objective of that evangelistic campaign to put every single believer into the church of God. [00:59:21] Wouldn't it be wonderful? And then supposing a brother came to us who had a wonderful gift about the coming of the Lord. He'd seen something. Well, it was glory. And in he came and we said, we're going to have a whole weekend of special meetings. And he poured out what he'd seen about the coming of the Lord. And you know, all those young ones, they were thrilled. And all the older ones, we were thrilled. As we wait, we got a new glitch, glimpse of the Lord. And then a bit later, well, I don't know how we can go on. We could say something else. Someone else came with another emphasis some months later, and his object was only building up of the church. At pitchman, you see what would happen. We could have all these different gifts, wider than the local company, all these works, and they'd all be harmonized by obeying the simple law. [01:00:17] The great danger, you see, is that the means of building up become an end in themselves. So you get a Bible teaching ministry about the Lord's coming, and what does it become? It becomes a parasite. It draws everything to itself. It divides, it begins to segregate and sectionalize, so that fellowship with all who don't see that it's jeopardized. [01:00:46] And then something else comes. You get a literature work, and instead of it building up the church, it becomes a thing in itself. And it draws all the support and everything into itself. And that's, that's consoles something that has not obeying the law of the body, but has become an end in itself. [01:01:10] Instead of sharing with the rest of the body, it suddenly begins to draw the goodness to itself, will grow itself. [01:01:18] And so that really is the danger. And this is the tragedy of church history. [01:01:24] When you look back into church history, those of you who know it, you'll find this written in large letters. Again and again things have happened, and the means of building up the church of God have become the means of building up a church. [01:01:42] A theme. [01:01:45] The means to become a theme. Now, in the last hundred years, a new movement has started, and we call it the interdenomination. [01:01:55] And now, thank God, we have interdenominational conventions, interdenominational missions, interdenominational work, we are in the era of the interdenominational. Before everything was denominational. Baptist Missionary society went out to build baptist churches. The Methodist Missionary Society went out to build Methodist churches in the same locality sometimes. And then you've got the CMS and they built the church of being run in China and Japan still exists today, all alongside. So the believers in these countries come to us and say, what shall we believe? We have 5678 churches in one small town, and we don't know why we're divided. [01:02:38] But now we have the era of the interdenominational, and it's a great advance, but it is also a failure, because now we have the greater interdenominational campaign, evangelism. We have thousands converted and then handed over to various things. And a few months later, you can't find thousands. [01:03:06] They've gone. [01:03:10] You have great convention work. We all go to it. We're all together, and on Sunday morning we'll all break up and all split. [01:03:21] After two weeks, we all go back and we're all separated again. [01:03:25] You see, it's the advance, a wonderful advance, but it's also a tragic failure. [01:03:34] You see, all this brings us to this simple point in the New Testament, this simple law saved from division. [01:03:49] All right, take the church. Take the church at Ephesus. Here comes Paul. Paul has a definite emphasis, you know, he's deaf at emphasis. And he comes and he spends a month or two at Ephesus. And the saints are so helpful. But what is Paul after building the pauline church in Ephesus? Oh, he just wants to build up the church of God at Ephesus. But then Paul goes on his way and Peter comes in. Now Peter and Paul don't see eye to eye. Well, now, is Peter going to undo Paul's work? Oh, no. Peter has one object, building up, building up. And in one of his letters he says, you know, I don't understand all that Paul writes. That was honest, wasn't it? It's gone into scripture as well. I don't understand all that Paul writes. He says, but, you know, he says some wonderful things. And he calls what Paul writes scripture. [01:04:42] Have you noticed that? He calls it scripture. And these two men didn't exactly harmonize. [01:04:50] But you see, both had the same objective. So Paul and Peter build up the church at Ephesus, not into a triangle or a Paul, but just as the church of God. How long comes Apollos? [01:05:07] And Apollos is very learning, and Apollos spends some time at Ephesus. And what does he do? He builds up the church of God in Ephesus, that's this picture of this. It doesn't matter. [01:05:22] You can have these different brothers with their co workers, coming in their little parties, settling down in the church at Ephesus for a while, helping everyone, encouraging everyone, correcting what needs to be corrected. And then off they go. [01:05:41] And in comes Peter with his party, and he's there for a while, and then off, and then in comes apollos. And so it goes, Aquila and Priscilla come and others come, and there's all this backwards and forward, but they've all got the one objective, building it up. And so you see, when you see that, you begin to understand how wonderful it is. The church just grows and develops because all these things have just one objective, building up. [01:06:07] Today we haven't got that. [01:06:10] We have so much that's building up itself, instead of just building up the sentence, building them together. [01:06:19] Church of God in given localities. [01:06:23] And so we want to understand, not only is this law important on a wide scale, it's important within a company. You see, the law that should govern everything inside a company is the law of building up the harmonizing law of the body. You can have, everyone can have a different function. But if we've all got one objective, building up the church, that's all that matters. All that matters. We can all be doing different things, but in fact, we're all contributing to one great objective and we're building up the church. Everything should be judged by that. So take on the game. Here's a dear sister, she's got a terrific gift of speaking in tongues, has got out of hand. [01:07:14] She doesn't realize it. And she's up in every church meeting. And she probably had the gift also of, I was going to say the gift of the gal was rather wrong, but she not only spoke tongues, but she spoke at great length in tongues. And others began to follow suit as well. You see, no one could understand what she was saying. [01:07:35] So dear Paul, they liked Paul said, paul, what do you think about this? [01:07:41] Probably I wouldn't be at least a bit surprised if the apollonian section weren't the section that were very upset about these towns. I don't know, possibly it was in the Petrine section of the church that the towns had such a big sort of part. I don't know. But the point was, it's all part of the situation. And, you know, everyone probably thought, Paul's going to vindicate us. He'll squash them. He'll squash them. Wait till Paul comes. Paul's all for order. Paul's all for law and order. He'll, he'll put his, he'll put his fist hard down on this. But what does Paul say? [01:08:23] Paul says I speak in tongues more than you all. [01:08:28] I speak more than you all in tongues. That was a shot for whoever it was. [01:08:33] It's been more than you all. But he says, you know, I think speaking in tongues, in public, that was a shock as well. [01:08:44] I speak in private, and so he gives this simple law. If you got to speak in dance, all right, let three of you speak, as long as there's an interpreter there. [01:09:01] But let this be the thing that governs you, the building up of the body. [01:09:07] And if those tongues are disrupting, if they're tearing down, if they're causing dispersion and disintegration, stop it. [01:09:17] You who've got the gift, stop it. Like I. I speak more than you all. [01:09:22] I'm not going to do it. You stop it. But if it's building up, manifestly. Go on, go on. You see, there's the law. You can judge everything by that. Whatever your function is, whatever your gift is, if it's helping to make the saints more cohesive, if it's sort of sticking them all together, if it's, as it were, fitness them together, if it's helping in binding them one to the other, go on. [01:09:54] Let everything be done to build enough. And you know, that's not only to do with gifts, it's to do with the kind of meetings you have. If there's a meeting that just doesn't do that, we'll cut it out. It all be to building up, it all be to meeting the need of some section of the company, the building, above all, that's the law that is to govern. And so you see, every single function and gift has to obey that law within the company, as well as all the works that there might be on the wider scale. [01:10:32] And when that happens, according to Ephesians chapter four, the body builds itself up in love. [01:10:41] Do you see? When every one of us is contributing what we've got and functioning in our place, giving what we have of Christ, and our objective is the building up of the church, then the body builds itself up. [01:11:03] Well, all those laws that we've been talking about this evening, the two of them anyway, are to do with the unity of Christ, the unity of Christ, the oneness of Christ, and the maintaining of that and the developing of it. [01:11:20] I do wish that every one of us might understand more, more clearly, more deeply, more fully just what these and might be adjusted by. The Holy Spirit. If in any way we have departed from first things, we may be adjusted back to those simple principles upon which everything is dependent in the life and the body of the Lord Jesus. [01:11:52] Shall we pray together?