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[00:00:00] Prophecy of Joel, chapter 2, verse 28. I'll read that first.
[00:00:08] Joel 2, chapter 28. And it shall come to pass afterward. And I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids. In those days will I pour out my spirit, and I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth. Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord cometh. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those that escape, as the Lord hath said, and among the remnant, those whom the Lord doth call.
[00:01:11] And then in chapter 37 of Ezekiel, verse 1, the hand of the Lord was upon me. And he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones.
[00:01:32] And he caused me to pass by them round about. And behold, there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord Jehovah, thou knowest.
[00:01:51] Again he said unto me, prophesy over these bones and say unto them, o ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
[00:02:00] Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto these.
[00:02:04] Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you and will bring up flesh upon you and and cover you with skin, and put breath in you. And ye shall live. And ye shall know that I am the Lord.
[00:02:23] So I prophesied as I was commanded.
[00:02:27] And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, an earthquake. And the bones came together, bone to its bone, and I beheld, and lo, there were sinews upon them, and flesh came out, and skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them.
[00:02:46] Then said he unto me, prophesy and say to the wind or to the Spirit. Thus saith the Lord. Jehovah, come from the four winds. O breath. And breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
[00:03:00] So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them. And they lived, and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
[00:03:17] Behold, they say our bones are dried up. Our hope is Lost, we are clean cut off.
[00:03:25] Therefore prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord. Jehovah. Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves and my people and I will put my spirit in you. And ye shall live. And I will place you in your own land, and ye shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord.
[00:04:07] I didn't really know what to do about the sea about this evening, and I spent quite a lot of time reading the Word and nothing seemed to come very much to life. And then all because I just didn't seem to be able to get anywhere, I just ran my finger along the book in their study and drew out one that has always been a great blessing to me. I expect it's been that to many others. The pilgrim church by E.H. broadbent. I think it's one of the finest accounts of church history written and certainly one of the soundest.
[00:04:47] And I was looking through it, just wondering, well, I wonder whether perhaps we should read a little of this after what we said last Thursday. And I came to what he calls conclusions. And I can't ever remember, though I've read the book once or twice, I can never recall having read these conclusions. They struck me as if I had never read them before, though I believe I must have done once or twice. And so I thought it would be very good for you to hear what was written right back in the earlier part of this century by a very great and godly man, Broadbent, who was used so much of the Lord in Russia and in Eastern Europe. I might just say that this man, his account of church history, as I have already said, is standard. It's a standard work accepted now by Christians of all different thoughts and viewpoints.
[00:05:50] So I'm going to read this first, and then I'm going to make some final observations on what we have said concerning the prophet Jonah and the prophet Joel. Now, it may not be to everyone's liking, so I might just say right now that if you feel that this dear brother is critical, I suggest you read the whole book first before you criticize his conclusions. After all, his conclusions are based on, upon the other 17 chapters of this volume.
[00:06:29] The church question, that is to say, the question whether we can and should continue to carry out the New Testament teaching and Example as to the ordering of churches has been answered in various ways.
[00:06:47] There is, firstly, the theory of development, which would make it undesirable to do so because, as is claimed by the ritualistic churches such as the Church of Rome, the Greek Orthodox Church, and others like them, something better than that which was practiced in the beginning in the New Testament has been attained, and the Scriptures have been modified or even supplanted by tradition.
[00:07:14] Secondly, rationalism gives the same answer, looking upon it as retrogression to go back to the original pattern, since it denies that the Scriptures provide an abiding authority. Thirdly, the reformers of existing churches have tried to effect a compromise, returning in part but not altogether to the acknowledged pattern as Lutheran Spina and others.
[00:07:43] Fourthly, some have abandoned the attempt as the mystics who devoted themselves instead to the attainment of personal holiness and communion with God, examples of whom are Molyneux and Madame Guillaume ter Stegen and the friends who set aside the outward ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper and occupied themselves rather with the testimony of the inner light than than with the outward Scriptures. Others, as Darby and his followers, repudiated the obligation and replaced it by a witness to the ruin of the church. Fifthly, evangelical revival set it aside as unimportant, concentrating on the conversion of sinners and organizing what seemed suitable to meet practical needs as Wesley's Methodist societies or the Salvation army or Sixthly, but there have been in all time but there have in all times been brethren who have answered yes to the question, though they have been called by many names Cathars, Novatians, Paulicians, Bogomils, Albigenses, Waldenses, Lollards, Anabaptists, Mennonites, Stunnedis, and others. Innumerable many congregations also are Baptists and independents and and assemblies of brethren. They have been one in the different centuries in their endeavor to act upon the New Testament and to follow the example of the New Testament churches.
[00:09:13] Closely connected with the former question is another Is it possible today to preach the gospel as at the beginning? And might not a much more rapid spread of the gospel result from so doing?
[00:09:28] Indeed, the question enlarges and presses itself upon us. Is it not only by a return to the Scriptures that the unity of the children of God can be manifested and the evangelization of the world be accomplished?
[00:09:45] In the beginning of the Gospel there was no distinction between home and foreign work. Gradually the spontaneous spread of the churches, irrespective of country and nationality, was modified by the change from primitive apostolic churches to the organization that developed from these, and missions began to be sent out representing the central authority that sent them. As organized Christian denominations multiplied, missions to other lands increased, each preaching Christ, but representing also its own particular scheme and development of Christianity, thus introducing among the heathen that confusion of conflicting sects from which Christendom suffers.
[00:10:36] The original way was not dependent upon material wealth, but on the power of the Holy Spirit, and was always connected with poverty. The methods the that have developed are expensive because the gifts of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the newest believer and supplies the needs for testimony of the least company of disciples are not recognized. A mission station being established to supply all needs, this has to be supported, and it becomes necessary to appeal for money at the home base or when where this is thought unworthy of faith, Some reliance is placed for the awakening of interest in the work on the publication of moving incidents or distressing needs.
[00:11:25] In this way, too, the direction and support of the work abroad being largely in the hands of those at home or their representatives, it remains an alien institution in the land where it is carried on and the spread of the gospel is impeded to an incalculable degree.
[00:11:45] Following Christ and denying self may well include readiness to sever the most cherished traditional ties that bind us to our different denominational organization and to find means of practicing genuine fellowship with all the Lord's people, exercising that forbearance with one another which our present weakness would necessitate.
[00:12:13] If we ourselves kept the teachings of Scripture, we might then put it into the hands of men of all nations and by precept and example show them that it is given for them as much as for us, in the sure belief that God would keep and guide them and give them their place as independent churches and their inheritance among the saints. This next paragraph is prophetic. I might say. It was written before Brother Borbent ever knew about Brother Neil. In fact, I'm not even sure that Brother Borbent ever did know about boxing or Brother Neal. We do not know what gifts the Holy Spirit may awaken in places outside the scope of modern missionary activities and in circumstances manifestly beyond our power to control. The persecuted Russian churches have experiences beyond ours, and a zeal and devotion is quickened among them to which most professing Christians in easier circumstances are strangers. It may well be that in their midst miracles of unity and testimony will be wrought, such as we have failed to accomplish. That's a testimony which has come true. Out of the heathen world leaders may be raised up so filled with the Holy Spirit. That they will be able to leave behind both the divisions and the wealth of European and American missions, and will see conversions and the growth of churches of God among their own people. Churches which may indeed have to learn from mistakes of their own, but will be free from ours in the west, with God, nothing is impossible. He might call, even out of Islam, submissive, devoted disciples of Christ whom he could use in his service among that people.
[00:14:13] All this does not leave out of account the value beyond price of the devotion and service that has so long flowed and still continues to flow through missionary societies and institutions to the world. But it envisages the multitudes that are unreached and will remain unreached at the present rate of progress, pointing out the one way of revival which is a return to the way of the word of God.
[00:14:45] God is manifested in Christ by the Holy Spirit as the lover, the seeker, the Saviour, and the keeper of lost mankind. There is no revelation more affecting than this that God is of such a nature that the misery of fallen man has constrained him to lay aside his heavenly glory to become man, to bear all our sin and more than all our sorrow, and by death vanquish death and give to dying sinners eternal and divine life.
[00:15:23] Everyone who by faith receives this life is under the same necessity as he from whom he derives it. So that on this account every Christian is naturally a missionary.
[00:15:39] He hears in his soul as an impelling command the words go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. In the New Testament there is no distinction between clergy and laity. All the saints are priests. So also there is no distinction between missionaries and non missionaries. Every believer is sent or has a mission to be a witness for Christ in the world. The formation of a separate missionary class grouped in missionary societies, supported by special mission funds. Working through mission stations, though it has accomplished so much for which we thank God, is dearly bought. While it contents the vast bulk of Christians to be non missionaries dims the vision of every saint, as in every circumstance holy the Lord's and devoted first and last to his service.
[00:16:38] The aim of the Gospel is the conversion of sinners into saints and the gathering of these as churches. Since each member of a church is called to be a missionary or witness for Christ, each church is a missionary society or a society of persons who are collectively engaged in the testimony of of Christ.
[00:16:59] The difference between a mission station and a church is that a mission station with the missionary society of which it is a branch, is the center to which the natives of the country in which it is look for guidance and supplies. A church, on the other hand, in the New Testament sense of the word, is from the beginning, from the moment of its beginning, when two or three are gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus on the same foundation as the oldest established church, having the same centre and the same principles different, it is true, in gift and experience. It is yet partaker of the same grace, and draws its supplies from the same source. Moreover, it is the most suitable instrument for the furtherance of the gospel among the people from which it has been called, and with whose thoughts, language, customs, and needs its members have perfect acquaintance.
[00:17:58] A mission station may be of great value, but should never be made the centre around which a church gathers. That centre is Jesus Christ.
[00:18:08] There is also a difference between a church and an institution such as a hospital or a school. These may be of the utmost value, commending the gospel, gaining the confidence of the people. But if a hospital or school of foreign origin comes to be regarded as the center around which the church is gathered and upon which it depends, such a church cannot develop according to the New Testament pattern. It remains a foreign religion, dependent on supplies from abroad. It may even develop a system of salaried native evangelists, destructive dependence upon God, and hindering growth in learning to know Him.
[00:18:47] Scripture does not lead us to expect that the Gospel will prevail so as to bring about the conversion of the world. On the contrary, we are taught to look for increasing departure from God, bringing terrible judgments upon all the earth. The return of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory is the hope which is set before the church. Awaiting that great event.
[00:19:09] We remember the Lord's last prayer for his disciples, that they all may be one, and that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. These two things, the unity of the people of God, and the making known of the Savior in the world, are the desire of all who are in communion with the Lord. The history of the church shows that revival comes through return to obedience to the word of God. This prayer of the Lord is certainly promised also.
[00:19:50] It will be accomplished even as he prayed. Doubtless the full accomplishment of it will be when he comes.
[00:20:01] But it may be that the last great revival in world history will be a foreshadowing even here on earth, of that which is shortly to come to pass, both in heaven and on earth. I found that very interesting in the light of what we said. I read it again. Doubtless the full accomplishment of it, that is, that all may be one, and that the world may believe that thou sent me doubtless the full accomplishment of it will be when he comes. But it may be that the last great revival in world history will be a foreshadowing even here on earth, of that which is shortly to come to pass, both in heaven and on earth.
[00:20:48] When the disciples of the Lord repent and forsake ways that are ways of departure from his word, and gather as churches in immediate dependence upon him, free from the bondage of human federations and organizations, and free to receive all who belong to him, they will experience his sufficiency as those did who went before them in this path in the Pilgrim Church, being delivered on the one hand, from fellowship with unbelievers, and on the other from separation from fellow saints.
[00:21:21] Moreover, in taking the Gospel to people of all nations and races, they will apprehend that the whole word of God is for others as well as for themselves that all who believe are brought into the same relationship to him, and that no difference of nationality can affect the standing of a church in the sight of God. The work of the Spirit in all will manifest the truth that Peter had learned when he said, God, which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they as we review the long path already traversed by the Pilgrim Church, certain salient points appear, rising above the mass of detail so poignant at the time to those whose lives made it up. They rightly claim attention, for they turn the experience of the way that lies behind into guidance for the track that stretches before one is that the Pilgrim Church has possessed in the Scriptures a safe and sufficient guide for all the way from Pentecost to the present time, and has the assurance that it will suffice until that lamp shining in a dark place shall pale before the glory of the appearing of him who is the Living Word. A second thought is that the Pilgrim Church is separate from the world, though in it it is not of it, it never becomes an earthly institution, though a witness to the world and a blessing in it. Yet since the world which crucified Christ does not change, and the disciple is content to be as his master, the pilgrims still exhort one another with the words, let us go forth, therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach, for here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
[00:23:32] A third is that the church is one insofar as we know ourselves to be members of the Pilgrim Church, we acknowledge as our fellow pilgrims all who tread the way of life. Passing differences, however keen at the time, grow dim as we view the whole pilgrimage spread out before us. In deepest humility. As we think of the littleness of our own part, and with heartfelt delight in our fellows, we claim them as such. Their sufferings are ours, their testimony ours, because their Saviour, leader, Lord and hope ours. By enlightening of the Holy Spirit, we have learned with them to rejoice with the Father when he says, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. With them, too, we will rejoice in the prospect of that day when the Son will present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such.
[00:24:40] Well, you may not entirely agree with that. That was published in 1931 for the first time.
[00:24:48] Broadbent was certainly a living example of what he wrote. He was an indefatigable laborer who gave his life from the moment he was saved to the end in tireless activity in the Lord, and has become the means of bringing so many churches into being in Siberia, which to this day have stood to the fiery test of the last 30 or 40 years. So what he says does have weight, even though we may not agree with it all. And all I can suggest is that you read Pilgrim Church from beginning to end. I don't think you'll find it a boring or a dull account at all. I think you'll find it a very thrilling one. I know one or two have said they found it a bit too much, but I think it's a very exciting account.
[00:25:47] Well, now, just from that which in some ways sums up a little of what we have sought, say, in the last two weeks, there are one or two final observations that we would like to make this evening.
[00:26:04] One is that the heart of everything is the Church.
[00:26:12] That sounds blasphemous, but it is not.
[00:26:18] It sounds blasphemous if we accept the modern conceptions of the Church, but it is not, when we understand the idea in Scripture, what the Holy Spirit has revealed to us as the Church is something altogether different to the subconscious idea that we have of what we call the Church.
[00:26:51] Christ's preeminence in all things is linked with his being head of the body, which is the church. If you look at Colossians 1:18, it says quite clearly that in all things he is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
[00:27:18] It is interesting that the Holy Spirit has linked these things. Head of the body, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. The preeminent place of Christ, the supreme place of the Lord Jesus, is linked with the Church, with His being head of of the body. And that's the most important point. For instance, we can maybe take another another step in that the headship of Christ, the lordship of Christ is really a church matter. If you and I accept the Lord Jesus as Lord, we immediately become related to other Christians. You cannot really accept the lordship or headship of Christ without becoming vitally related to brothers and sisters. The whole concept in Scripture of His being head and we being the body means that each member has got to be rightly related to the other members in order to be in direct link and contact with the head.
[00:28:34] My body is made up of a multitude of members.
[00:28:39] Each member is directly linked by thy nervous system with my brain, with my head.
[00:28:49] But in fact, if you were to dissect my body, you would discover that all the many parts have got to be related to all the other parts in order to be directly linked with the head. Now this is exactly what the Holy Spirit has tried to get over when he has described the Church, Christ and the Church as the head and the body.
[00:29:17] To really accept the Lord Jesus as Lord and head means that we have got to come into relationship to our brothers and sisters, not in a theoretical way, but in a real, genuine, practical and down to earth way.
[00:29:34] I cannot overemphasize that, for the Scripture reveals to us quite clearly that the Church is Christ.
[00:29:42] Therefore, when we say that the heart of everything is the Church, we are in fact saying that Christ is the center and the heart of everything.
[00:29:53] He is the head over all things, the Lord of all. But if you look through Scripture, you will begin to discover that all the whole world being brought under the headship of Christ, all the other things being reconciled to God, is linked first with the Lord Jesus producing a people, the Church.
[00:30:18] So if you look at 1 Corinthians 12:12, you get this little phrase, so also is the Christ that we often mention. If you look at Romans 12, you will discover again the same little phrase, so also is Christ. We being many members, are yet one body. So also is Christ. The many members comprise Christ. He is himself the head, but his body is just as much part of Him.
[00:30:49] And that's a tremendous point. When we begin to see what the Church really is not in our traditional conception. But in God's conception, what does he mean by this word church? He means that just as you have a head and just as you have a body, so Christ is the head and we are the body. We are essentially part of one life, of one great entity, of one great unity, if you like, by redemption, by new birth, by the Holy Spirit. We have been made partakers of Christ, members of Christ. We have become his very flesh and bone.
[00:31:40] Sometimes when you start to talk along this, people begin to think that you're getting unbalanced. But it is amazing how, in fact, we have a remarkable capacity for overlooking a large number of scriptures which deal with this, with this whole point.
[00:31:59] So I want to underline it. For instance, in John 15, the Lord Jesus himself gave us the basis for all Paul's doctrine of the Church. You can't, just as it were, throw it out as a Pauline conception. The Lord Jesus said, I am the true vine, ye are the branches. But what is a vine?
[00:32:24] A vine is almost wholly made up of branches. At least if you've ever been in the east and seen the little vine straggling, it's nearly all branches, just a little knob, and out of it come the branches. Jesus said, I am the vine, ye are the branches. But when he said, I am the vine, he meant, I am the totality of the vine. I am the root, I am the little trunk, I am the branches, I am the leaves, I am the blossom, I am the fruit, I am the vine. But ye are the branches. When you begin to understand the Lord's own words, you have come for the first time into a glimmer of what the mystery is, which Paul called the mystery hid from all ages, this remarkable mystery that somehow or other we are in Christ and Christ is in us. But one step further. It's not that we're just in Christ and Christ is in us, but we have become part of Christ.
[00:33:26] Just as he said, I am the vine, ye are the branches. Try and work it out, our little finite minds say, now, just wait. Either he must be it or we're it. We can't both be it. But that's just the point. That's where the Lord Jesus was trying to lead his disciples to the first basic understanding they ever had of this thing you call the Church.
[00:33:53] You see, he was saying, I am the church and you are the Church.
[00:33:59] I am the totality of the Church. Everything is in fact derived from me. Its character, its source, its energy, its constitution, its very meaning.
[00:34:13] It's all me. And yet in some marvelous, wonderful way, you are the church. The Lord Jesus again took this up in other ways when he said, I am the light of the world. Ye are the light of the world. Not two kinds of light.
[00:34:30] He is the light and we are the light. He is the vine, we are the branches, we are in the vine.
[00:34:39] He is the church. Yet we are the church. He is the head, we are the body. You are. In all these different illustrations. You are coming back to the one great basic fact.
[00:34:51] That this thing that we describe in human language as the Church. Is the most remarkable fact in the whole universe.
[00:35:02] For it is bound up with the very Son of God himself.
[00:35:09] And by redemption, you and I have been made partakers of Him. Not that we might live our own little individualistic lives. And receive a little bit of Christ into our old man, but that by our old man having been crucified with Christ. We might now come into a new life altogether.
[00:35:34] And might, by receiving him, become part of him.
[00:35:39] And become, as it were, the very body of God. If you like. The church is the container of God. In the same way that my body is the container of my personality. It is the means, the vessel by which I express myself, by which you see me. Why, if I was here this evening without my body, it would be a very remarkable time altogether. Some of you would probably have a very difficult time. By just listening to a voice coming out of the air. You see, the whole point is that God has so ordered constituted us.
[00:36:17] That we have what we call a body which expresses our inner person, our inner man, our personality is expressed through our body. Now, when the Holy Spirit took this term up, he was only taking up finite human terms.
[00:36:37] We must never, ever forget this fact that Scripture, although it is wonderful it is the word of God which abideth forever. Is nevertheless human language.
[00:36:53] And it is as if the Holy Spirit has wrestled with human language. To try and put into terms and words which we can understand what God is and what he has done and what we have become through Calvary and the Resurrection and Pentecost.
[00:37:20] Therefore, you see, take the term body. Some of us imagine somehow the church is a kind of body.
[00:37:27] But all Paul was doing when he described the church as the body. Was that, you see, this body is a system. It's a unity. It's a vessel, a container, a means of expression. Now, the church is just like that, you see. It's a unity.
[00:37:43] It's a container, it's a vessel. It's something through which God can express himself. He lives in it just like you live in your body, so God wants to live in the church.
[00:37:57] It is his mode of expression, if you like. I don't know how else you can approach it. So when you begin to get that, you begin to come to an understanding of what the church really means. Never divorce the church from Christ.
[00:38:16] When you do that, it's the beginning of all the trouble.
[00:38:19] Always, whenever you think of the church, think of it as Christ.
[00:38:24] Alright, go right back to the seed plot of this all. When Christ said again, over the vine, abide in me and I in you. That is the church. You and I leave the ground of our own individualism and get into Christ. Christ becomes the foundation and the basis of our living.
[00:38:46] Then Christ is in us and he becomes the new life and nature and character of our being. Do you understand? Now, if all of us get into Christ, we're all found in the same same place. And if Christ gets into all of us, then a strange thing has happened. One person is in us all and all of us are in one person. Do you understand? That's the church.
[00:39:15] That is the whole concept of the ecclesia or the called out ones. They've been called out into Christ and Christ is now in them.
[00:39:27] When that is understood, you have begun to understand this word church.
[00:39:36] Therefore, you see, to be Christ centered is to be church centered. That's all. You cannot be centred in Christ and not centered in the church.
[00:39:45] You cannot have Christ as head and not be properly and genuinely related to your brothers and sisters. And you must not just think that that means a little group here practically. It means those who are prepared to be built together wherever we are, that we've got to be built to. But you know, it means that if you and I are out of gear with any Christian anywhere in the world, the life is hindered.
[00:40:12] Some of us have got a weird idea that as long as we're all right with everyone in the little company we are, say here in Halford House. Oh, that's wonderful. The Lord's with us. He'll bless us, he'll keep us, he'll use us and all the rest of it. But you know, I can think the most terrible things about brother so and so or sister so and so who's 500 miles away or 100 miles away or 50 miles away or even 3 miles away or even in the same locality, but not coming to the same company. I can say anything, do anything, feel anything, but you're all right, the Lord will bless you. But you see, that's just where you're wrong.
[00:40:45] The church consists of every true born again believer alive, as well as those in the glory.
[00:40:54] And therefore, you see, practically, you and I have got to be related and built together with those who are prepared to come onto the same ground of Christ.
[00:41:07] Be together. But beyond that, it means that you and I cannot afford to be out of gear with anyone. Any harsh attitude, any exclusive attitude, any superior attitude, any divisive attitude is immediately a trick on the Holy Spirit. See, the whole root of this thing comes down to what we were talking about in the book of Jonah. Exclusivism.
[00:41:30] Exclusivism. You see, it's the greatest danger of seeing something when so many people understand what the church is. And as you have read in this wonderful account of those in every generation have seen what the church is and have been obedient to the Lord. When you begin to see it, the greatest danger is exclusivism. You can't help feeling, why don't. Why doesn't everyone else see it? Why? Why? Why? Why? And gradually a superior spirit begins to develop.
[00:42:00] You look down your nose at the others and. And, well, you would lovingly serve those in the company sometimes, but you certainly wouldn't lovingly serve all the saints. Do you understand what I mean? The rest of them, they're outsiders. They're outsiders.
[00:42:23] So you get this amazing mentality that you can believe in what we call the church and speak of some of the Lord's people as outsiders and some of them as insiders.
[00:42:33] And it's a denial of the whole thing.
[00:42:37] So you see here you're up against the great problem. To be Christ centered is to be church centered. But do we really understand what this term church means that we talk about so often for so often? We think we understand up here, but in experience and attitude we deny the very thing we believe.
[00:42:58] Thus, it was with Jonah, that dear man who represented the Lord and was the ambassador of the Lord and was perfectly happy to represent the Lord and speak to the Lord whatever the cost amongst his own people in Israel. As soon as he found the Lord had interests further afield, he closed down on the spot.
[00:43:22] It wasn't that he was being malicious. It wasn't even that he thought he was being unkind. He just felt the Lord was wrong. That's all.
[00:43:32] And so began the great contention of the Lord with Jonah and Jonah. With the Lord, Jonah felt the Lord was wrong and the Lord felt Jonah was wrong. Because we know who was right. But it's an amazing thing that many of us are just like that. We won't of course, admit it. We would never say the Lord is wrong. But in our hearts we find it very, very, very hard to accept what the law does when it's contrary to what we've said or what we feel.
[00:44:01] Somehow or other we've got little safety mechanisms that give us a way of escape when we see it happening. And we sort of say, oh, well, it can't be. There must be some other explanation for it. It can't be the Lord, so on.
[00:44:17] So it's very important for us to understand that the heart of everything is the church.
[00:44:25] Christ in his body is the very heart of the creation. You may or may not accept this, but we believe that this world was brought into being, this whole universe was brought into being for what we call the church.
[00:44:42] In other words, if there had been no fall, we probably wouldn't have had a term church. We would have just called it perhaps man.
[00:44:51] That's all we call it church. Because there's a fallen man and then there's a new man. There's an old man and there's a new man. The new man is what God calls the church. But at the very beginning, when there was no old man, but only a new man, the whole concept of God was, now this man's on probation, but there's a tree of life. And if he takes the tree of life, he comes into me and I come into him. And then you're immediately introduced to marriage. This is going to be the relationship, it is symbolized in marriage between the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, and man. They are going to be united together so that man becomes the focal point of the natural creation unity with God, the means by which God controls and governs the natural creation and the means by which the natural creation reaches God. Man was the great link.
[00:45:57] One often speculates what would have happened if there had been no fall. If in fact Adam and Eve had taken the tree of life. Well, they would have without sin. They would have been what we say. They would have received the Holy Spirit and would have become a new creation. You see, when they were first created, they were created sinless but not perfect. Do you understand? Sinless, but not perfect.
[00:46:25] Sinless but not complete.
[00:46:28] They had got to find for themselves that they needed God. There was an emptiness and it begins to come out when Adam by himself is shown all the natural creation. See? And there's no distance. I've got a vacuum inside. I can't understand. I've got a vacuum inside. He didn't look for the Tree. But in the end, Eve came out and filled the vacuum. But, you know, after a while, there'd been no fall. Adam and Eve were. Would have found a vacuum, and then they would have been forced back to the Tree of Life. Now, some of the old Puritan commentators have discovered within Eve's readiness to take the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil an awakening sense already of a vacuum.
[00:47:13] Adam was not enough. She, with the woman's greater perceptiveness and intuition, had already begun to sense that there was something much more to life than just Adam, wonderful as Adam was.
[00:47:30] You know as well as I do that if she had been absolutely satisfied with Adam, any serpent speaking to her wouldn't have done much. She would have anyway gone back to Adam, I'm quite sure, and talked it over with him. But the point was that she felt a vacuum and no doubt did Adam, because immediately she spoke to him about this Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And he wasn't a fool.
[00:47:53] He accepted it. She knew what she was doing when she took that tree. Ye shall be as God.
[00:48:01] Eve knew, somehow become aware that there was something of a little vacuum. See, now, just supposing she hadn't done that and had been forced back to the Tree of Life. Well, the whole course of history would have been different. We would have begun right back there in what we now call the Church. Only without sin, there wouldn't have been any of this terrible conflict over our old natures. That would have been away. So you see, the whole. The whole heart of the creation has to do with that. But Christ in his body, not in the heart of creation. It is the very heart of history.
[00:48:37] When you take books like 1 and 2 Chronicles, you know, it goes right back to Adam and goes right on to Christ and spans the whole of history. Why do we have two big books in the Bible which tell us, all the other books have told us anyway?
[00:48:52] What a waste of time and words. Why does the Holy Spirit sit down and write history all over again?
[00:48:58] Because he wanted us to understand that the temple, as it's called continually in Chronicles, is the heart, symbolically of history, of Old Testament history going right back to Adam and right onto Christ. The heart of it is this dwelling place of God. Well, that's only a symbol, of course, of the Church. The body of Christ just was a picture of that. And so, you see, the whole of history has as its heart Christ and his body. Daniel is the one, of course, who takes this up supremely. He shows us all the great empires of gentile world history. And gradually he traces them right the way down. And we discover that the heart of it all is his saints possessing the kingdom forever and ever. He paints for us a picture so dark, so black, with the balance so overwhelmingly on the side of evil and of Satan. And yet in the end, it is the church which comes out on top.
[00:50:05] Christ and his body is the heart of history. It has been the heart of history. Of course, in the last centuries since Pentecost, we are still in the vision of Daniel. And every time you know that evil systems have started to temper with the church, well, in the end, though they may seem to have succeeded, it is the Lord Jesus who triumphs. So it will be in the very finish. So Christ and his body is the heart of history. Human history is literally bounded by this church.
[00:50:43] As soon, as Dear Kalpa's hymn puts it, the last one is brought out and saved. Human history as we know it will be ended and the Lord will come. He's only holding back, as it says in Scripture, because he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The Lord Jesus will hold back for longer. If there's one person that can be brought out of darkness into light, then again, Christ and his body is the heart of redemption. If you look in Ephesians 5, you'll discover that it speaks of Christ loving the church and giving himself for the church, that he might present it to himself. A church without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing. So redemption, the very heart of redemption is the question of what we call the body of the Lord Jesus. And so you see, we can just go on service. Take this question of service.
[00:51:42] Service, sacrificial service. The heart of it all is the church.
[00:51:48] If you read this great commission of the Lord Jesus, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every nation, to all nations, to every creature.
[00:51:59] If you read on the book of Acts, is the exemplification of that, the illustration of the fulfilling, the beginning, the initial fulfilling of that commission. And where does it all center? In the church.
[00:52:12] Men go out from the church. Take Antioch, Paul and Barnabas go out from the church. And when they go out, what happens? They proclaim Christ. And then they gather all those who believe into what they call the church, and they leave everywhere they go, just simply the church in different places.
[00:52:31] And those churches become themselves the centers of evangelistic activity and testimony wherever they are. So that Paul could write letter to the church at Thessalonica and Say from you, the word of life has sounded forth into the whole of Archaea.
[00:52:49] You see, the whole concept is that first the preaching by which men are saved, they're being built together, and then they becoming themselves a center by which others are brought into and saved. As Paul says, they will come amongst you and fall down and will worship, saying, God is here.
[00:53:13] So you can go on, go on. And you can go on if you like. It's true to say that Christ in his body is the heart of a new heaven and a new earth. When you come to the end of the Bible, you've got a new city, a new Jerusalem, and it's the heart of a new heaven and a new earth. It's in between the two. And it rules and governs everything. It's the heart of it all.
[00:53:32] What a tremendous thing the Church is.
[00:53:35] It is Christ all that he set his heart upon.
[00:53:39] So you see, out of that comes another point. That is that the recovery of the true nature, the organic constitution and the function of the Church is of the greatest necessity.
[00:53:56] It is of the greatest necessity that the church of the Lord Jesus, the body of the Lord Jesus, its organic constitution and nature, should be recovered amongst God's own.
[00:54:07] That's the point. It has been sadly compromised and lost that a few Christians take ourselves. How few of us understand this thing that is mentioned not once, but hundreds of times in Scripture, and yet few of us understand it. We have been saved into it, and still we don't understand it. Isn't it amazing?
[00:54:28] The heart of it all? God's great method, if I may say so, is the Church. His method is the church. Get that clear into your hearts. And then you take the multitudes of Christians in the world in this 20th century, how many of them could tell you what the church is?
[00:54:46] We've been saved into it, and we don't know what we're saved into.
[00:54:52] The greatest necessity is the recovery of the Church.
[00:54:58] Now, don't get it wrong. We're not saying this in a kind of introspective way. Someone suggested to me that in saying this, aren't we being introspective?
[00:55:10] You see, the commission of the Church is to go out, not to just try and put itself all the time into order. But I want to question that. You see, our great point is if the house itself is all upside down, there's no point in going out.
[00:55:28] The thing is to tackle the heart of the problem and the rest will take shape. Now, let me explain it like this. Supposing we could, by the Holy Spirit reproduce something not as an imitation, but originally and organically like that at Pentecost.
[00:55:49] Well, we would exceed all the missionary activity of the last 10 years within a few weeks.
[00:55:59] When you take the Book of Acts, which covers just a few years, you have the whole of an empire traversed from end to end.
[00:56:08] And in the sub apostolic era, you have missionaries going right out to India. Indeed, tradition tells us that it was the apostolic one of the apostles himself who died the martyr's death in India. Taking the Gospel right down to the farthest tip of India and right out farther afield. You had them going all within literally half a century.
[00:56:30] And then you think of our heavy and so painful and so slow. Great. And we're not being critical, but we're just stating a peck. The money that goes into it, the manpower that is in it, the interest that's in it, why, it just doesn't bear any comparison with the New Testament. If the New Testament had all the wealth and the money and the interest and the backing and the manpower that we've got in the 20th century, I don't know what would have happened.
[00:57:03] But you see, with all this, we are still not really producing the simple eternal heavenly results of the first 20 years.
[00:57:19] Now that's what I just simply mean when we say that the greatest necessity is the recovery of the nature of the church. I don't think it's introspective at all. I believe it's being absolutely sound. If your car is beginning to crack up and fall to pieces, the right thing to do is to get the thing put right. Not just go on and on and on and on until finally the thing just drops into a heap in the middle of some road somewhere. The thing is, you've got to put it right. Isn't that so? I mean, supposing this place here, we just said it's no good, it's no good time to put it right. It's got dry rods, got everything else wrong with it. No electricity, nothing else. You go through the floor and everything else. Let's carry on. Come on. We've got to get people in. We've got to. So we pack them in and suddenly the whole thing falls and we're all killed.
[00:58:12] No point in it.
[00:58:15] The thing you do is to tackle the basic things first. The rest takes shape. And so it is with this. It is of tremendous importance that. That the church should be recovered. And I think that's the thing that we must underline in this. It is after all only being sane and balanced to review and to examine what we are really in as Christians and whether in fact what we are sayed into is functioning.
[00:58:49] That's the point. And then you see, oh, how important all that is. It's necessary recovery of the church. The nature, organic constitution and function of the church is necessary for God's purpose. It's really necessary for God's purpose. It's necessary for the effective evangelism, and it's necessary for the building up of God's own. So three essential points which necessitate the recovery of the church. And I think we ought to note the great amount of scripture that is taken up with this theme of recovery. When you take the prophet's ministry, you have to recognize, because scholars of varying shades of thought all agree on this, that the main emphasis of their ministry is recovery. Something's been lost. Before we can do anything else, we've got to go back to it. It's no good Israel trying to proselytize the nations. The Lord Jesus himself said, you're putting the cart before the horse. You make them worse than yourselves. The thing is, put the nation right at the heart, then go out. This is the burden of the prophets. So they began with judgment, terrible judgment and woes. Then they went on to the promise of restoration and blessing. And they nearly always finally ended with all the nations flowing into Zion. Most of the prophet's ministry is based on that simple division.
[01:00:24] First judgment, then the promise of restoration if there's repentance, and finally, all the nations flowing into Zion and into Jerusalem. And the Lord as it were, saving the nations. Got that in all the prophets. So I do trust that you see something of the necessity of the church being recovered. And so, you see, I come back to what I am in these few final observations, seeking to underline that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is the only answer to such a necessity.
[01:01:05] If the church, in its organic constitution is to be recovered, then it needs a pouring out of the Holy Spirit.
[01:01:14] It is very interesting that Scripture speaks of the early reign and the latter rain.
[01:01:19] And that James, in speaking of the return of the Lord Jesus, says that the farmer, the husbandman, has patience for the early and the latter rain. And then he says, you also establish your hearts. The coming of the Lord draweth near. Isn't that interesting that he should speak of early and latter rain in connection with the Lord's return? The coming of the Lord drawing near the fruits.
[01:01:46] Is there not perhaps something there for you and I to follow up? Is there not harking back to the prophecies of Joel.
[01:01:54] We spoke of the dual nature of Joel's ministry. We have read the scene in that tremendous vision of the valley of the dry bones that Ezekiel had. Oh, it was impossible. Supposing I had gone to Ezekiel and said, Ezekiel as he stood up there viewing all those dead, dry bones. Well, Ezekiel, you know, the Lord's got to have this, all these bones. It's impossible.
[01:02:20] Well, I should say to him, if the Lord Jesus is to return, something's got to happen to these dry bones.
[01:02:28] The key was the Holy Spirit, the word of God and the Holy Spirit, and the whole thing happened. It was a miracle. It was supernatural, but it happened.
[01:02:40] And so I believe Pentecost is the character of the New Testament age, as we have said. And it may well be that there is obviously not in the same initial character of Pentecost, but there may well be a corresponding counterpart that will end or close this age.
[01:03:06] So I say that there is very great need for the most urgent and relentless prayer, for such an outpouring of the hope that it based on scripture. If you folk did nothing else but went back and started to search the scriptures on this point, I think your prayer life would be transformed.
[01:03:28] You'd have the solid rock, impregnable rock of God's Word under your feet in prayer.
[01:03:36] The whole point again and again. The key to all this is prayer. And may I just say that we ought to be very careful of despising the prayer in so many different circles of God's children for revival.
[01:03:52] We may feel at times it's misguided, and in some quarters it is true. People want to fill their churches, that's all. It is true that in some quarters it is so, but not so in the majority. There is a great concern in many of God's children's hearts. They perhaps don't understand what we mean by the church. They don't understand much about God's great eternal purpose. But they've got eyes to see this far that something is empty, something's wrong. And so they're doing the right thing, saying, lord, revive thy work.
[01:04:25] It has always been that when people have called upon the Lord to do this, he has answered them not according to they are asking, but according to his own word.
[01:04:35] When Evan Robert started to pray for a Bible, he had no idea what it entailed. It smashed him up as well as wales.
[01:04:43] And it is so that people who pray, they don't really know what they're praying. It may be that they have, in their mentality, our own little gospel hall or mission or something else being filled and blessed and so on. But when it comes it entirely different, sometimes it sweeps the whole thing away. When John and Charles Wesley and Whitefield pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, if you said to them, you know it's going to sweep you out, the Church of England, they would say, then we won't have a revival.
[01:05:11] They won't have it. But the point was they went on praying because they knew there was a concern. The thing came and swept them out.
[01:05:19] That's always what happens. So it has been in every move of God's Holy Spirit. You begin by asking the Lord for something. You've got your own little concern, conceptions of what it means, how the Lord's going to answer and what it will mean. But when it happens, it's entirely different. Don't despise prayer for revival. Encourage it everywhere, encourage it. Let people know that you're with them in their prayer for this outpouring of God's Holy Spirit. Because when it comes, it will not come to just a few, it will come to all. It will be upon all, as in every single outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So I think that we should remember that it's a very, very great thing if God can take hold of a man like Saul on his way to Damascus, intent on killing people left, right and center, and in one single hour change him from the great persecutor of the church into the great apostle of the church. I do not believe that the 20th century presents any great difficulties to God.
[01:06:17] He can do exactly the same. I do believe that God could take hold of a man like Christ Khrushchev and save him in an hour if he so wanted to do. But the key to it all is the faithful devotion and prayer of God's people. You and I, the dear CT stud said, why ask God for an egg if you can ask him for an elephant? Most of us are asking God for eggs. Oh, give us little things, because somehow we cannot believe that God could do a big thing. But I do believe that the prayer of faith is to take hold of the Lord inwardly, knowing that he can do very much bigger things than we ask. Don't we confine the Lord to what we think might be possible? What is our own experience? I think I've never heard anyone here pray that Khrushchev might be converted. I haven't prayed myself or him. But is it because we don't believe it's possible? My church history is full of such things. Men who are violently against the Lord, suddenly being apprehended by God and turned right round to the opposite. It's hard to believe, isn't it? But with God, nothing is impossible. And if women can turn to flight armies of aliens, it says, through faith, well, why can't something happen when there are people who really trust in the Lord?
[01:07:36] So I hope that you will take these final observations I've made as a result of. Of our studies in Jonah and in Joel. Insofar as we have left all that divides and are on ground simply of Christ and seeking to be obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word and the Holy Spirit, Give the Holy Spirit his sovereign place amongst us. We are in the apostolic succession of the Pilgrim Church.
[01:08:04] Poor and weak we may be, but we are in the apostolic succession, the Pilgrim Church, and therefore also in a mighty conflict.
[01:08:17] You know, every big thing begins with a little thing.
[01:08:22] Remember that a breakthrough always begins with a little trickle. Read church history. Read this pilgrim church, if you like. It always begins with a little trickle. And the devil's whole point is block a little trickle.
[01:08:38] If you don't stop that little trickle, you wrecked everything. You all know the wonderful story, the wonderful duck story of the little lad who was out one day running along the dykes, and he found a little hole that size with a little trickle coming through, and he knew what that meant. If that hole was left in the great dike that held out the sea, if that was left for another two hours, it would gradually bear a great hole. The whole thing would collapse and hundreds of miles of fenland would be swamped by sea water. So the little lad put in his arm into the hole and stemmed it off. Well, I'm torn on the other side. Do you understand what I mean? A little trickle is the beginning. The devil's got a big dam that he's going to dike, if you like. And one little trickle cannot be left for long. It wears it down and goes. Gradually the whole thing collapses and out flows a huge river of life.
[01:09:33] No, we ought to recognize that Satan's out to deviate us. And he will deviate us in any way that's possible as long as he can get us off the path.
[01:09:44] If he can't do it from without, he will do it from within.
[01:09:47] And if he can't do it from division within, then he will do it by continual wearing down of our attitude to the Lord and his people, till in the end, unbeknownst to ourselves, we become a little exclusive interned group who are standing for the Truth concerning the church, Europe scattered with them, little groups standing for the truth concerning the church. And the Lord never does a thing in or with them. That's why it's tragic.
[01:10:21] Can you do they never pray for anyone to be saved? They never pray for the other Lord's people. They're all wrong.
[01:10:28] And yet they've seen something. So they feel no, we must. Our greatest need is a renewal in first love. That's our greatest need. It will result in three things. A passion for the unsaved and a new love for all God's children.
[01:10:48] And it will result in a preparedness for and a committal to being built together.
[01:10:55] You will never get it without love.
[01:10:58] Never. Never. And that's the problem with so many of us. We can't even pray for unsaved people because we've got no real love for them or we know it.
[01:11:06] We also seem to be afraid to pray for renewal of love. That's what we need, renewal of love. That will just break down the whole thing and make at least put us into a position to pray for the Lord to do something.
[01:11:21] Oh, do listen to what I have to say. We need a minute re examination of our whole history of all that we believe.
[01:11:29] Not in an introspective way, but a re examination and assessment of everything. There are some things we had in the beginning which. Well, they're counteracted now by feelings and ideas that we don't really, when we, when we really get down to it, we shouldn't have them.
[01:11:51] Needs re examination and assessment before the Lord, the Holy Spirit in charge. And it needs also beyond that thirdly a great prayer ministry that will take hold of the Lord in these days and really, really pray into being the promises that God has made in his word.
[01:12:18] I don't know whether you really believe what I say, but there you are. If there hadn't been a Daniel to pray into being the return to the land, there would have been no real return. As far as I can make out. There hadn't been others who prayed and prayed into being other things. It would never have happened somewhere or other. There's always God's link on earth with anything he does from heaven.
[01:12:40] And so it is with us. But you can't do it without love trying. You can't do it. If you try, it will only show up the emptiness that's in us.
[01:12:54] No, we have to be forced to a new appeal to the Lord to renew our first love. And in that way I believe we will discover that the Lord himself is able to do a much deeper and fuller thing in us all. Well, let us pray that we might really learn from the prophet Jonah and from the prophet Joel might learn from the prophet Broadbent too, if necessary. In what we have read this evening, it may be that from these dear ones amongst God's people we might really come to see what the Holy Spirit is seeking to apply to us as a people. Shall we pray?