The Unity of the Spirit 2 – Brethren Dwelling Together in Unity

[00:00:00] Could we read together the 133rd psalm? [00:00:08] Psalm 133. [00:00:21] Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that came down upon the skirt of his garments. Like the dew of Hermon that cometh down upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. [00:00:56] For those who were with us on Thursday evening, you will know that we have embarked on a series, a mini series, on this little psalm. And I will not go over it this morning because otherwise, with the little time available to us, I will not be able to complete what we were saying on Thursday evening. Just to say this. This psalm, which is such a small psalm, one of the shortest psalms in the psalter. [00:01:30] Its shortness bears no relationship whatsoever to its importance. It contains and expresses tremendous and vital truth. And we began to look at the first, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. We have looked a little bit at the language of this verse, of the Hebrew, of this verse. And then I was beginning to say something about brethren dwelling together in unity. It does not say that this is to be a passing, transient, fleeting experience of unity. A kind of high point. When we go to a conference, when we go to Keswick, when we go to another big convocation, we suddenly feel that we've touched unity. The unity of the spirit we're touching the oneness of the body of Christ. This does not speak of something like that. It uses the word to dwell. [00:02:35] How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. I think that's our problem. We can all be one for a few days, and we can all be one, especially if we're strangers gathered together in a conference that we have not known each other before. But to live together in oneness, to be established together in oneness, to be settled together in oneness. To make our abode, as the Hebrew is to make our abode in this oneness. That is far more difficult for most of us. And we have said something about the nature of this unity, the oneness of Christ. Now I want to just take up the matter of the expression of this unity. You will remember I said, it is spiritual. It is not something humanly organized, humanly concocted, humanly created. It is a spiritual unity. It is, according to John 1721 to 23, the same oneness that exists between the Father and the Son. Into that unity we, by the grace of God, have been brought. That is why this whole matter of the unity of Christ, the oneness of Christ, the unity of the spirit, the unity of the people of God, is of such vital and tremendous importance. It is why here, for instance, we refuse to label ourselves with any other label than Halford House. [00:04:08] This is the house we meet in. And we didn't want to call ourselves Baptists or Methodists or Presbyterians or what have you. It's not that we are against what God has done in the past, but it is the fact of labeling ourselves in such a way that we become partner and supporters of division. [00:04:30] This we do not want. [00:04:32] That is why originally we began to come together, that we might just gather simply as believers born of the spirit of God and placed by God the Father in the one Lord Jesus. It doesn't matter who we are, what our nationality is. I have no doubt that there must be something like 25, 26 nationalities here this morning. I suppose we counted every. There are different races here this morning. There are certainly different temperaments. [00:05:04] All the different major temperaments and all their combinations are all here this morning. Different social backgrounds, different working background, and of course there are different denominational backgrounds, if you ever had one. We've got them all here. But it is our unity does not consist in that we are good Britishers or we are good white people or whatever else, or good gentile stock or whatever you like to say. Our unity does not exist in any of these things. Our unity lies precisely in the fact that we have all been placed in the one Christ, and the one Christ is living in all of us. This immediately means that this unity is a spiritual unity. It is not something which can be concocted. It is true we have to be perfected into this oneness. That is true. It is true that we need a real work of the spirit of God upon our lives and in our lives doing something with us. But the fact remains that we are in an essentially spiritual unity. [00:06:22] Then we also said something about the variety of this unity, which means that once we recognize that we're in Christ, we can be ourselves. We do not have to be uniform. We do not have to all look alike, speak alike, think alike, dress alike, and all the rest of it. We can be ourselves. We each have something to give of the Lord which is quite original, and we can relax, as it were, and be ourselves in the Lord. And we said quite a bit about that. Now I just want to take up another matter this morning on the expression of this unity. It is not only that it has great variety, but it is to be locally expressed. If you turn to one corinthians and chapter one, one corinthians and chapter one, and verse one and two, we read this. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. And Soston is our brother 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, their Lord and ours. There is no distinction made here of the believers, except that they are those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus. The word means set apart in Christ Jesus in Corinth. This is the church of God which is at Corinth. Those that have been set apart by the converting grace and power of God placed in Christ Jesus. Now, their unity with all other believers is apparent. It called to be said with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord and ours. Now, this unity, it says, oh, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in. Now, dear friends, there's only really one place that we can dwell in at a time. [00:08:43] I mean, you cannot be in China at the same time you are here in Britain. It is a geographical impossibility. [00:08:53] You are either here or there. [00:08:56] And the fact remains that people who sort of get over spiritual in the sense that they say, oh, this spiritual, this unity is a spiritual thing. It is absolutely is all up there in the clouds there we are one. Down here we can fight like cats and dogs. Up there is all pure down here. There can be every kind of worldly method and technique used up there. The church is without spot or blemish down here. Every kind of spot and blemish is to be found. It is a kind of dichotomy. We have completely divided between the church and the churches on earth, as if what exists in the churches on earth has bears no relationship to the church. Now, it is perfectly true that God is perfecting the eternal church, but that church has to be expressed in time and in place. [00:09:53] And you see, everything is put to the acid test here by whether we can dwell together in oneness in the locality in which we are living. [00:10:04] It is all very well to say, I believe in the unity of the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Catholic Church as it says in the creed, not meaning the Roman Catholic Church, but the Holy Catholic Church. That is, the Holy Universal church. That is the oldest statement of belief that has come down to us right down from the beginning. This statement has come but what do we mean when we say it? I mean I can say, oh, I feel so much love in my heart for the believers in Washington. Of course I can love the saints in Washington. They are 3000 miles away. Anyone can love people who are 3000 miles away. I don't have to serve them. I never have to go mow their lawn. I never have to go and put a picture up for somebody. I never have to bake a cake to take in for someone who's in need. I never have to go and help in a family situation. They're 3000 miles away. Anyone can talk about being one with people, providing they're a certain number of geographical miles away. [00:11:11] God is not taken in by that kind of talk. God says, of course all of you are one. [00:11:17] So are you one with all those that have gone as the creed says? I believe in the communion of saints. [00:11:24] I haven't been going all Anglican while I've been away. But I'm just telling you that that's the oldest statement of belief in the church. I believe in the communion and sense. What do we mean? I believe in the communion of sense. I mean this, that Paul belongs to me and I belong to the apostle Paul. Peter the apostle belongs to me. I belong to the apostle Peter. And Augustine or Martin Luther or Zwingli or Calvin or the Whitefield or the Wesleys or George Fox or any of the others. We believe in the communion of saints. They've gone on into the presence of the Lord. There are some here that we have actually buried in the name of, of the Lord Jesus, but we believe in the communion of saints. They're not dead, they're alive. [00:12:09] I should never forget some years ago a great saint in the United States, someone went up to say, I remember your dead husband. I happened to be with her. I remember now. Her dead husband happened to be extraordinary servant of the Lord. And this dear one went up and bubbled all over her and said, I remember your dead husband. I saw her rise up to nearly all six foot that she was and she said, dead, my husband dead. He's never been more alive. [00:12:42] She meant, of course he was in the presence of the Lord. It's perfectly true. But you see, we believe in the unity of the church. We are not some little bit and piece, a little bit of spiritual debris that comes in the 20th century that bears no relationship to what God did at the very beginning. In Jerusalem. We are one church. And in the end, when time is over and the former things have passed away, we shall find that we are part of a tremendous work that God has been doing down through the centuries of time of this age. How wonderful. But, my dear friend, of course I can say I believe in the communion of saints. If they're up there, what have I got to do with them? Being a good Protestant, I don't pray for them, so I have nothing to do with them. I can just say I believe in the unity of God's people. [00:13:45] God is not taken in by this kind of hogwash. [00:13:50] God looks at you and says very simply, what about that person who is a believer, who is in the same company that you're in and in the same group meeting? What about that person? Do you serve them? Do you love them? Do you care for them? Do you pray for them? Are you concerned for their spiritual increase and their spiritual fruitfulness? Not are you a busybody in their affairs? Are you always trying to manipulate them? Are you always trying to corner them with various pamphlets and books that will lead them into greater blessing? No, that's not the way to do it. But what the Lord wants to know is, have you got a heart of concern for your brothers and sisters, or are they anonymous faces? [00:14:37] Do you ever bother to find out who they are, what they are, what their background is? [00:14:44] Do you ever take up this thought? We've had at times that if we would all in our groups only pray for one another, just if only we had two or three a day, we would soon begin to develop a concern and an interest in one another. [00:14:57] Now, this matter of dwelling together is not all a garden of roses. [00:15:05] I mean, God has designed it so that there are many thorns in the roses. [00:15:12] If you think that God is going to be taken in by bringing all sweet people into the circumference of your life so that you can move along again. God is not taken in by this kind. He knows very well what lies just under your skin. [00:15:28] You've only got to get the wrong kind of person to have to work with the wrong kind of person, to have to live with the wrong kind of person to be in a team with. And all that's bad under you will come out the sweetest person. I have seen people who are naturally noble, naturally sweet, reduced to being irritable, bad tempered and almost vicious by the way God puts them with somebody who just rubs them up the wrong way at every available term. But, you see, God knows what he's doing. All that nobility, all that sweetness is skin deep. [00:16:12] While the circumstances are right, the real situation will never, ever be exposed. But the whole point of dwelling together in unity is to put us next to people that are quite different to us and we just have to come through or die. [00:16:30] Now, I know some of you feel like dying at the present time, and maybe that's why the Lord spoke about this. I don't know. But the fact of the matter is, I know of no other matter that reduces us to the place where we feel like giving up than coming up against one another. Now, we can all smirk about the United nations. We can refer to it as disunited nations. We can say that, of course, it has no basis because they don't know the Lord Jesus. And in fact, the name of the Lord Jesus is not. [00:17:04] It is not permitted to use the name of the Lord Jesus in United nations. And we may all smirk about this thing, point out the weaknesses and say, of course it's of the Lord Jesus, is the answer. But when it boils down to the real heart of the matter, are we any better? [00:17:27] When we look at the christian scene, when we see the factions and the divisions, big divisions, institutional divisions, divisions that are very respectable, you know, people find it very, very sort of highly decent and respectable thing to name a division they belong to. [00:17:48] It's not in heaven. [00:17:51] No such things are known in heaven. [00:17:54] You got there and said, have one of the angels asked you at the gate, what are you? And you said, I'm a Lutheran. [00:18:04] Immediately the angel would say, Lutheran. [00:18:09] We know no Lutherans here. You have no Lutherans. Oh, you mean they're in the other place? [00:18:19] No. The angel would say, do you mean Martin Luther? [00:18:23] Oh, Martin Luther, he's here. [00:18:27] But we have no Lutherans. We've only got believers here. [00:18:33] No, Luther, Wesleyan. We've never heard of them here we've got the Wesley brothers and the Wesley mother and some of the other Wesleys, too. They're all here. [00:18:51] She has got a medal for bringing up a christian family. [00:18:56] Misses Wesley. [00:19:00] But there are no such things as Wesley. Now, my point is, when it really comes down to it, we are as much divided, practically realistically, as the world. This ought not to be. One of our problems is that we all think we should have the same temperament, or we should. We've got an ideal kind of temperament, we feel is the thing, and we're all going to try and be the same thing. But that's impossible. The only way you and I can be one is to see that we have. We are in the one Christ and the one Christ is in us, and then we can relax and be ourselves in a right way, allow the Lord to discipline us and allow the church to discipline us, then things begin to happen in our lives. This whole matter of the unity of the spirit has got to be expressed locally. [00:19:51] It's got to be expressed in the place where we're living. That's why we get more and more afraid when people come to us from vast distances. Why do we talk about living within the locality? Why do we talk about living within the limits of this particular borough? Because we feel it to be important. If we start going on out and out and out, what should we do? Finally include the whole of London? And then we defeat the objective. Because what happens is people become Sunday, go to meeting believers. They travel such a distance, they can only get there on Sunday. And then what happens? You don't have this practical teamwork, this practical having to get down to prayer issues together, this having to work things out together, this having to be together in outreach and many other problems and difficulties. The church down here, it is perfectly true, is not perfect. DL Moody once said, you will never find the perfect church. When he asked the man what he was doing, why he'd left one particular group and was going to another, the man said, I am searching for the perfect church. Moody said, you will never find the perfect church on earth. And when you find it, it will no longer be perfect. [00:21:10] The fact of the matter is, we had this idealistic conception that somehow or other the church ought to be perfect. Therefore, all the time we leave this group to go to that group because we say, this one is better. But that is not the basis. [00:21:25] You see, the church down here is always like a builder's yard, like a cutting out room of a tailor, like the kitchen in a big family. It's always where everything's being done that's got to be made. [00:21:40] Thats why God is building the eternal from the local. [00:21:46] And it is our relationship to the Lord as head, our relationship to one another in him that is put to the test. [00:21:55] Thats why this whole matter of brethren dwelling together in unity is so vital. Now I'd like to say just another point here. It is also a matter of holding fast the head. Colossians two and verse 19, Colossians 219. [00:22:25] And not holding fast the head, from whom all the body being supplied and knit together through the butt joints of man's increaseth with the increase of God, Ephesians 415 may grow up in all things into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplies, and so on. Now the point is that this unity is a matter, too, of holding fast the head. We do not, in fact, come through by holding fast to one another in this way, and we've seen it in the history of the church. Whole movements of the spirit of God have gone off the rails, because they've all tried to hold fast to one another and somehow get a kind of corporate mind on everything, and slowly they go right off the rails. The thing to emphasize in this, brethren, dwelling together in unity, is that every one of us must hold fast to the head. [00:23:22] Then we act as the guarantor to one another. We act as the security to one another. We are. If. If things begin to go off, we can say something and it can be respected. We may not always be right. Often people say, oh, dear, dear, they're afraid of this, they're afraid of that. It's amazing, once you get together, how somehow or other, as soon as there's some kind of leadership or authority, immediately we become sort of so suspicious of everything, to the point where God can never take a new initiative, you know, immediately he mustnt do that. He must do. No, no, no. [00:24:02] That is unbelief. But if we can hold fast the head, the moment the head says take a new step, were ready for it, were together. We act as the security to one another. We pray about it together. We know the Lords mind and act in oneness over the thing. It is a matter of life and light and love, basically. And that's why we must hold fast the head, because he is the light and he is the life and he is the love. When we hold fast him, we shall be safe and we shall grow. We shall find one another. If I hold fast the Lord, surely I must find you. If you are holding fast, the Lord, mustn't I? Of course. [00:24:47] Well, then, in this matter of the oneness of Christ, brethren, dwelling together in unity, what is the way? Four very simple things. I will only mention them and just say a sentence or two on each. The first is to recognize one another in him. This is the basis of dwelling together in your. Now, if I will not recognize you because you happen to not believe in a millennium, we're not going to dwell together. [00:25:27] All the time. I'm irritated by you because you don't believe in a millennium, and I think you're plain dumb and stupid. I think worse, I think you're in darkness as far as I am concerned. The whole Bible screams from Genesis to revelation that there is such a thing as a millennium, that you are dogmatic about this matter and say you can't see, a millennium anywhere in the Bible upsets me. No. And therefore I cannot dwell together with you and unity. [00:25:59] But there may in fact be. You may have just got something. Of course, if you're going to be entrenched and I'm going to be entrenched, we're going to have troubles. [00:26:08] But it seems to me that there is a place where we're on non fundamental not touching the person of God the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit, not touching the authority and inspiration of the word of God, or of those fundamental essentials of the gospel and of the faith. It seems to me we have to give a freedom to one another. Now, romans 15 seven says, wherefore receive ye one another, even as Christ also received you, to the glory of God the Father. It says in chapter 14, verse one, him that is weak in faith receive ye, yet not for decision of scruples. That doesn't make much sense, I fear to most people. A modern version says, investigation of his conscience, which is much better. [00:26:55] You see, the trouble is, we're always investigating one another's conscience, aren't we? As soon as we meet someone, we want to find out, are they baptized? [00:27:05] Not b. Oh, my. [00:27:08] See? Why aren't you baptized? Don't you see it in the word? [00:27:12] The poor little soul has been brought up in a completely different tradition. [00:27:16] Splutters and mutters for a while and we say, but don't you know that every real believer has to be baptized by immersion? [00:27:25] We're investigating their conscience, giving it a good plug. Something's wrong with the person's conscience. If they. You know, we're very amazing in this way. We give God a few days to do something, and when he doesn't, we say, it's okay, Lord. We'll make up the lap. [00:27:41] If you don't speak to so and so about smoking, I will. If you don't speak to so and so about their attitude to drink, I will. If you don't speak to so and so about their will, does, I will. Don't worry. That short skirt. I'll get onto it. We'll get something done about that. It'll be dropped by a few in June, by next week. Fear not. [00:28:01] The point is, if the Lord doesn't speak to somebody, we will. But normally, if we're a little bit spiritual, we'll wait for a little while. [00:28:09] And then if we are a little spiritual, we will drop a pamphlet or a book or some little hints or give a testimony, quite spontaneously, of course, as to how we were delivered. [00:28:23] This does more to destroy the unity of God's people than anything else in the world. Because a young believer who hasn't thought about these things is suddenly subjected to an investigation of his conscience. Why doesn't he do this? Why hasn't he woken up to this? Why hasn't he settled this issue? Why is he not walking this way? We all do it. It is amazing. You remember that word of the apostle Peter. As soon as the Lord said to him, do you love me? Feed my sheep? He said, well, what about this man, Lord John? And the Lord said, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. But we're all the same. We can't help it. As soon as the Lord speaks to us, as soon as he deals with us, we turn around to the next one and say, what about him? [00:29:04] If you're going to deal with me like this, what about so and so? You've got the lipstick off me. Get it off her. [00:29:17] And then our attitude is very similar. Simple. All right, Lord. I'll pray about it then. We feel so and so is so, so thick spiritually that God can't get anything through. Then it is up to us. We'll get it through where God has failed. [00:29:35] Now, we do tremendous damage in this thing. The Bible says that we are to receive one another also as Christ received us, to the glory of God. How did Christ. He received you as a sinner saved by grace. If that was the minimum ground upon which we received every other brother or sister, it would transform our fellowship. [00:29:58] We wouldn't all the time be wanting to get them. Now, let me say something about this. You see, there is a great difference between a spiritual concern for somebody's increase in fruitfulness, a vastly different thing between being really concerned and having prayed. There are times when we should speak, but, oh, how blessed it is when it's under the government of the spirit, and when suddenly someone says, and instead of the other person blowing up, they're ready. They're prepared by God. It really is the Lord. Oh, that's a very different thing. [00:30:31] But the damage we have done in this matter of brethren dwelling together in unity is because we will not receive one another as the Lord received me. You know, it's taken the Lord years to get me to recognize simple things, hasn't it? With you, I found that sometimes I suddenly think, oh, my goodness, he's taking me all those years because of my particular temperament. Now, other people have got settled, got these issues settled in their lives, but they've got weaknesses in other ways, which I got settled years ago, but I've been holding out on something because I don't see it. And the Lord has said, it's no good talking to him about that. It would finish him up. [00:31:13] He's such a strong willed person. [00:31:16] It's best just to go along, because I love him so much. I'll go along with him, but right at the right moment, after so long, I'll hit him hard and he always does it. And then, what a lovely thing it is when saints come along and pick you up. [00:31:31] Ah, that's a very different thing, isn't it? The Lord has given you a real blow, and now the saints come in and minister, minister. [00:31:40] And you wake up on this issue at last, and you say, ah, that's one thing. Here's the next thing. Give diligence to maintain the unity. Well, we've said quite a bit about that, but it is interesting. Ephesians four, two, three. It says, give diligence, be careful to keep or maintain the unity of the spirit. This unity does not just remain in a static way. We have to give diligence to maintain it. Now, it is not the big issues that sometimes divide us. It's the little foxes that spoil the vine. Those little darling, little cuddly foxes, rather smelly. A bit later, but when they're young, they're not too bad. They get out into the vines and chew the tender blossoms. [00:32:21] They do it not because they like to eat, it's just because they like the smell. Evidently. [00:32:27] They dive in and out of the vines. You must remember, the vines are not strung up as they are in Italy, right up high. They're on the ground in Israel. So these foxes dance in and out of the vines and do a tremendous amount of damage. Just one family of little foxes, so sweet, so cuddly, don't look as if they're very lethal creatures. They don't seem to be too harmful, but they are the things that destroy the vines. [00:32:53] Now, that's so in our fellowship, isn't it? So often, because we do not give diligence to maintain the unity spirit, then somehow or other, our fellowship begins to deteriorate, and somehow or other insinuations come in, and we all know what it is. When a person has got so fixed in their suspicion of us that there's not a thing we can do, they sort of look at us in a dark way, under a cloud, never a smile, never a civil word, because somehow or other, something's happened which has made them suspicious of us. They no longer trust you, can't do anything if something had been done at the beginning, a word in season, a word of apology, a word of explanation. Maybe a whole situation would be said. Christian work is riddled with this kind thing. When I go sometimes to servants of the Lord, there they are in the front line. Three, three, two. Sometimes two of them, sometimes three of them right in the front line. But somehow or other, they won't talk to each other. Two of them have got a long standing battle. It goes back to some silly little issue, years and years back that was never mentioned, never dealt with, nothing was ever done. And now it is almost impossible. [00:34:05] Maintain the unity of spirit. You can never be too careful about keeping the unity of the spirit. And then the third thing we find in one corinthians 1426, and also in Ephesians, Ephesians 416, and Colossians two and 19. If you want to make a note of those scriptures, I'll say them again. One Corinthians 1426, Ephesians 416, and Colossians chapter two, verse 19. It is building up the body. If you and I are going to be brethren, dwelling together in unity, we must make our contribution. We have each one something to give as well as something to receive. And no matter what it is, it may only be in simple ways we can all do it. [00:34:52] May God help us in this matter of really building up the body of Christ in our home gatherings, as well as in our major ones. May the Lord help us all to be under the government and direction of the spirit, to know how to follow the anointing and to give whatever it is, whether it's a testimony, whether it's him, whether it's the exercise of a gift, whatever it is, that we may do it as the Lord empowers and directs. But more than that, there are other ways in which we can build up the body. Some people have got practical gifts. They can release others to do things by stepping in and doing a simple, practical job. In this way, as the law of the word of God, is that those that care for the baggage and those that go out to war shall receive the same reward. Now, this is going to be true in the great giving of rewards at the tribunal of the Lord Jesus Christ for all believers, those who've had to stay behind and do very simple little things. Sometimes, you know, it's a very simple thing. Like, here's a person who's at work and has very little, no ministry of the word, nothing like that. But they're at work, but they have a good income. And what do they do? Make sure. They give at least a percentage of that income to the upkeep of some servant of the Lord somewhere, either here or somewhere else. [00:36:15] Do you mean to tell me the law one day when that other person out there gets their reward, does not reward in exactly the same way the person who all through the years has quietly given of their income to the support of that brother or sister? [00:36:30] Oh, not at all. They are partners in it. Therefore, they shall have the same reward. Now, in this way, we can come into something so blessed. All kinds of practical things we can do. It's part of brethren dwelling together in unity. The strain and pressures that come upon some of the brothers and sisters in the work of the Lord, simply because people don't think about them, they don't care for them, they don't think about some of the practical needs. [00:36:56] Indeed, sometimes there's almost a kind of jealousy. So and so out there, sitting around looking at lovely views, having an exciting life, nearly being eaten by cannibals. [00:37:11] Quite exciting. [00:37:16] Weighted on hand and foot by servants. [00:37:20] Lovely. [00:37:22] Wouldn't mind that kind of line myself, instead of this humdrum thing that I've got here at home. [00:37:29] O may God preserve us from devilish propaganda and make us, those who really support one another. The last thing about this brethren dwelling together in unity is perhaps the simplest, but it's certainly the most profound and it's the most powerful of all. It is just simply love. [00:37:48] We can never forget the fact that one corinthians 13 comes between the great chapter on the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, chapter twelve, the great chapter before that on the Lord's table are now gathering together. [00:38:08] And after that, the. I'm sorry. Yes, that's right. And after that, the great chapter on the exercise of gifts. [00:38:19] Don't you think that's amazing? Again, some people looking through would say, how extraordinary this little poem, just like the apostle Paul, suddenly fell into a kind of poetic trance and wrote a poem that has very little to do with the other. I think we can lift it out of this, all this business about gifts and diversities, of ministrations and all the body and eyes and ears and feet and hands and belonging to one another. What's it got to do with this most perfect way? Love. [00:38:48] But it has everything to do with it, because when you love a person, you care for them and you find time to serve them. [00:39:00] You know, whenever we say, I have no time to go and see so and so, it's because basically we're saying, I don't love them enough, whenever I say, I've got not time to do this or to do that. [00:39:12] It's very often the case. I'm saying I really haven't got. Now, I'm not saying you're not busy, I'm not saying that you've not got a lot of pressures upon you. But what I'm saying is this, as I said on Thursday, every time a young man falls for a young lady, suddenly the person who had no time finds time. [00:39:30] He has time to be up late, he has time to walk her home, he has time to do all kinds of it the other way around. Suddenly the young lady has time she never had before. [00:39:41] What is the key? Love. [00:39:44] Love has made a way, and so it is with you and I. This matter of love is all important. It comes down sometimes to the simplest things, does it not? I remember in some of the great crises of my own life, it has not been the people who have been great spiritual giants, who've been a comfortable, but sometimes some of the very simple, ordinary members of the family of God who just made us a cup of tea at a time when we were under colossal pressure. It meant a lot. Sometimes it's a little practical thing that someone does and you suddenly think, well, you're remembered. Someone has thought, someone has gone to the trouble just to say to you, I'm remembering you in the trials through which you're passing. Love is the key to everything. May God preserve us from falling from first love. If we have fallen, may he restore us, may he give us a baptism in love that will submerge all our problems. I do not believe that as a company, we are an unloving company. I have known over the years a tremendous amount of care and love if we compare ourselves with many others. But that's not the way. [00:41:03] If we look at this and that and the other, and we see these cold, institutional things, we say, oh, what love we have. But that's not the way, is it? The fact is, we're all busy. We all have commitments. We have many, many duties, family duties, work duties, church duties, many things to do. Oh, what we need is to never allow ourselves to fall out of love with the Lord, because then all these duties are submerged in a sensitiveness to him and to one another. [00:41:37] Its when that sensitiveness is lost, you cant cut down on the amount of commitments youve got. In one sense, youve still got to do them. But when the tide of love comes in the break, I can't think of the words but the words used, but the barriers, you know, that go out are simply submerged. May God help us. And if you feel, as I often do, a need of love, may he help us to come to him. And put it as simply as that. Lord, I feel a need of a baptism of love. I feel a need to be submerged and overwhelmed, immersed in your love again, so that the duties become somehow gilded. They take on a new light, a radiance shines upon them. And certainly we all know what it is to be served with love. The person doing it may be quite unconscious, but we all know it, don't we? The difference between something which is just a duty and something which is our of love. [00:42:44] Shall we pray? [00:42:50] Father, we have been speaking about this psalm 133 in this first verse, about how pleasant and how good it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. [00:43:03] And Lord, we all want to dwell in that unity. We dont want it to be something fleeting experience, some high point. We want it to be our routine experience, the basis upon which we live and from which, as it were, we serve. O Father, thou knowest all the problems we have, these collisions we have of temperament, of outlook, because of background, because of different cultures and all the rest of it. Lord, thou canst give us revelation as to our place in the Lord Jesus and the place of all every other believer here in him. And Lord, above all, you can touch our hearts with thy love. Thou canst melt us afresh, immerse us afresh, Lord, in that love of thine that will bring to us all a new sensitiveness to thyself, to the direction of thy spirit and to one another and to the world outside. Lord, do this we pray, because we want to be in the experience of thy word, that when everything else fails, love never fails. [00:44:24] This we want as our experience. Lord, we want to have that most perfect way of all, and we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.