What is God Doing? – Building His Church

[00:00:00] We just bow together in prayer, dear Lord, we do want to worship thee and to praise thee that thou art so utterly faithful to thy word and to thy people. [00:00:12] We thank thee that were found here in thy presence this morning. And we thank thee, Lord, that thou canst take thy word and make it live to us. How we praise thee, Lord, that through thy word everything that has come into being, has come into being. [00:00:29] We thank thee, dear Lord, that when thou dost speak, it is done. [00:00:35] And together now we pray, Lord, that thou wilt speak a word into our hearts that will be active and living sharper than any two edged sword dividing between soul and spirit. Lord, we need thee in these days. We need to hear thy voice. We need to receive of thee. And we pray, Lord, that thou'lt use even this time, this morning to that end and wherever else thy people gather. Truly in the name of our Lord Jesus. We remember, Lord, all the family everywhere and especially those in need. And we pray for our nation also at this time. That, Lord, thou wilt use the present unrest and agitation to, Lord, turn many, many people to thyself. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. [00:01:37] If you would turn to a very well known passage in Matthew, chapter 16, verse 18. May I just say that in the last two Thursdays we have taken a series of two studies on church history. [00:02:03] Of course, it had to be a bird's eye view of church history. And we traced really from right through the last 2000 years what God has been doing in his own been looking at all these strange sounding names and finding how amazingly identified we are with them and they with us. [00:02:34] And you will remember that last Thursday evening we spoke of the period from the Reformation onwards, spoke about the different great recovery moves of God, the reformation itself. The Reformation era was the recovery of the foundation stone, as it were, for all God's building. [00:03:00] Luther referred to the previous years as the babylonian captivity of the church. [00:03:07] And although there have been all these amazing movements of the spirit of God which returned to the original principles and sought to live according to those principles as revealed in the word of God, yet the general trend was downward, into error, into institutionalism, into organizationalism, and so on. Reformation was the first great intervention of the spirit of God in church history. And in it, the foundation stone, the cornerstone of the whole council of God, of the gospel was recovered, which was simply that man is justified through the finished work of Jesus Christ. He's justified by faith alone and not by any works of his own. That man has direct access to God through Jesus Christ. And there is no need of a human clergy to mediate. And the third thing was that the word of God was the sole authority for all matters to do with life and faith. Now, these three things were recovered after much controversy and much conflict in the reformation. Then began a series of interventions, each one really, in its own way, as remarkable as the reformation itself. When the Holy Spirit broke in again and took things further, we studied the. [00:04:51] The puritan era. [00:04:54] They broke up into four groups, three of which we looked at the Presbyterians, with their insistence that Jesus Christ was the head of the church, and no monarch could be who may be unsaved, or anyone else could be the head of the church. It was Jesus Christ alone. And the Baptists, with their insistence on baptism of believers by immersion, and the independence of congregationalists, with their insistence that every congregation is independent. No other church has a right to boss another church, and so on and so forth. We looked at the Quaker movement, perhaps one of the most remarkable movements in church history, because without either the Lord's table, without baptism, without any outward form, they recovered inwardly a life with God. And I think that the essential point that God recovered with the Quaker movement in its beginnings was the fact that everything is really essentially a matter of spiritual life, and that you can have all the other things. But if you haven't got the spiritual life, it doesn't mean anything. [00:06:11] Here. You've got a group that were charismatic, completely in character, a group that knew the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit, the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, moving over the whole country, changing the face of Britain. [00:06:27] And yet, in many ways, they didn't believe in singing, didn't believe in music. [00:06:36] I didn't believe in any kind of noise unless it came out of quietness. [00:06:41] Think that out. [00:06:44] If it came out of quietness. They said, this was the spirit of God and people. No, nothing worked up. [00:06:51] And then, of course, we had the great Methodist recovery, and the emphasis on new birth and the emphasis on personal holiness, sanctification. Later on the. [00:07:05] Remember, we read some of the hymns of the early Methodists, which Charles wrote, which make it only too clear exactly what John and Charles thought. They had no idea of forming a Methodist denomination. [00:07:22] They spoke out very much against sects and names and parties, and spoke again and again the need just to be the people of God. Then we have the Brethren movement, with their recovery of the truth that all God's people are one people. This had been intuitively understood in all the other recovery moves, but it had never been defined. But the Brethren movement, of course, none of these movements called themselves Quakers, Methodists, brethren, Puritans. In the beginning, they were just the people of God. It's what the name given to them entirely. Things went on. But the brethren, they have recovered a tremendous truth. They defined clearly once and for all the fact that all God's people are one. And the oneness of all God's people is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. [00:08:09] And that that is the sufficient and only ground for fellowship and gathering together and for the building of the church. Then, of course, we've had the pentecostal movement, the beginning of this century, in which was defined quite clearly the fact that gifts, the gifts of the spirit did not go out with the apostolic age, even though many wished they had. [00:08:36] They have not gone out with the apostolic age. [00:08:39] They are still with us, and indeed have been with us all through church history. It's quite ridiculous to think that they only came back in the 20th century. Century. They did not. [00:08:50] In all these groups, cathars, Montanists, donatists, Brazilianists, Waldenses, Anabaptists, the Huguenots, especially the prophets of the Sevin. And so on, all the way through the early Methodists, the Quakers. [00:09:13] Not amongst the early brethren, but all the way through these things reappeared again and again and again. We've come right up to our own time now. And what God is doing now, all I want to do this morning is simply to put my finger on one or two lessons. Just very simply underline them. And so, as it were complete, what we have said now, in Matthew 1618, we read these wonderful I, that is Jesus, also say unto thee that thou art Peter. And upon this rock I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Here we have the dogmatic, categoric, simple words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Upon this rock I will build my church. Not the churches of men, but my church. [00:10:28] Upon this rock, I will build my church. [00:10:35] There's the first great promise. It is absolutely tremendous. And it underlies all that God has done in the last 2000 years. [00:10:46] It is the word of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Upon this rock I will build my church. Then we have a second promise, which is just as wonderful. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. [00:11:03] Then we have a third. I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom. Now, in every intervention of the Holy Spirit in the whole history of the church in the last 2000 years, it has been the word of the Lord Jesus Christ which has been fulfilled. Upon this rock I will build my church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Even when it has seemed, in all the institutionalism and organizationalism and denominationalism that has followed, that the real thing has been lost. Yet God has intervened again. The third thing is that he has given to frail human beings, saved by the grace of God and anointed by the spirit of God. Keys. [00:11:53] Now, it doesn't matter whether it's Lutheran, or Wycliffe, or John hus or Jeremy of Prague, or whether it is Zwingli or John Calvin of Switzerland, or whether it is the many others that we know, George Fox, John and Charles Wesley, George Whitfield, or whether it's the early brethren. The marvelous thing about all these men is that they had divine authority. [00:12:20] They stood against a whole system of things. And there's only one explanation. They have keys, and they used the keys. They locked things up and they unlocked things. [00:12:32] And the influence of these lives has been permanent upon the whole church of God. Now, if we turn to one Peter and chapter one and verse 24, we read this. All flesh is as grass, and all the glory thereof is the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower falleth. But the word of the Lord abideth forever. The word of the Lord abideth forever. What a wonderful commentary that is upon the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Upon this rock I will build my church. I thought of two other scriptures, one in Isaiah, chapter 14, speaking of a word that the Lord gave concerning the Assyrians. [00:13:32] Isaiah, 1424 27. The Lord of hosts hath sworn saying, surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. And as I have purposed, so shall it stand that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him underfoot. Then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulder. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth. And this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed. And who shall annul it? [00:14:08] And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? [00:14:14] And then again in Isaiah 46, verse eight, again speaking of the same people, remember this and show yourselves, men. Bring it again to mine. O ye transgressors, remember the former things of old. For I am God, and there is none else. I am God. And there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things that are not yet done. Saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my council from a far country. Yea, I have spoken. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed. I will also do it. And then another verse that we have used a number of times in Zechariah. Four, six. [00:15:20] Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, who art thou, o great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain. And he shall bring forth the top stone with shoutings of grace, grace unto it. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it. [00:15:51] What is then? What can we say? [00:15:55] Are the lessons from our studies of the last two Thursdays on church history? [00:16:03] I think, first of all, we can say this, that within a generation, most living movements of the spirit of God die. [00:16:18] They become formalized, crystallized, overdefined, institutionalized. [00:16:26] Now, let me get this quite clear, Lester. Those who hearing me go off and say that we are sort of wiping the floor with everything that exists, what I am saying is this. I am not saying that God is not found in all the traditional institutional denominations. [00:16:48] God is very much found amongst some of them, and surprisingly so in some. For instance, take the Roman Catholic Church. What God is doing in the Roman Catholic Church is quite remarkable. There's no doubt about it. We can't take issue with it. The fact the facts are there for those who have eyes to see. [00:17:08] God is still using. But we are talking about this great purpose of God, to build the church of God, the city of God. [00:17:20] It appears that in all these movements, within a matter of a generation, the thing has died. [00:17:31] Generally speaking, most have lived on for at least another century in the power of the first generation, and then it has slowly died. And though you find blessing and salvation and much else amongst it, it's lost all its original character. Indeed, you find that many of the things that now take the name of the so called founders of these things quite deny what they taught or practice, something quite contrary to what they believed and practiced. [00:18:11] It would seem that vision determines how far any movement of the spirit goes, the quality which is produced in it, in life and character, both personal and corporate, and how long it remains in life. Therefore, where you've got real movements which were very clear in vision as to what God's objective was, quite clear they remained much longer in life. Now, this is very true of the Brethren movement. The Brethren movement is still today as sound as it was in its beginning. It may have started denying. For instance, I can, I'm not all that old, but I can remember the days when, if you ask someone, what are you? He said, I'm a Christian. And I remember when I was a Baptist, I used to get very irritated with them. I said, christian? What do you mean? You must be something. It must be some kind of Christian. No, I'm a Christian. Oh, but then you're brethren. I used to say, I am not brethren. They would say, I myself have witnessed the little christian brethren meet at so and so. [00:19:17] The whole thing has changed just in the last few years from the insistence that they were nothing but christians. Nevertheless, this movement is still a sound today. You don't find any liberalism or modernism or anything like that amongst them. They have remained sound and alive and pure in one sense longer than any other move, because they were the clearest as to objective in the beginning. But I don't wish to be wooed, especially if there were any among the assemblies amongst us. But I must say this in all fairness today, that there are very few of the modern generation of brethren who know what it's all about, no idea as to what the beginnings were or what the real vision was. An objective. [00:20:03] I think this is an important point that we all really ask God in all that he is doing today, that we have vision, and that we really understand what it is that God is seeking, what his objective is, because it is the vision which determines the understanding of the purpose and objective of God, which determines how far that movement goes, how deeply it goes, the quality which is produced of spiritual character and power within it, and how long it remains in life. [00:20:40] A third thing I would like to say is that new wine, we learn from all, from church history, that new wine needs new wineskins. Now, I know this brings me into conflict with, with many others who insist that all that God is doing ought to remain in the existing and everything else. But we have to face facts, and the facts are quite simple, that every time God has done something in church history, the new wine has had to get a new wineskin. Now people will say, ah, but what about the pietist movement? What about some of these other moves that have remained within the. Yes, but they've got their new wineskin that's the interesting thing. They've stayed within the hole, but they meet separately, and they are a church within the church. Indeed, Spener, one of the beginners of the pads movement, called it a church within the church. He meant the church, the true church within the institutional. [00:21:37] So it still doesn't deny the fact that new wine has to find a new skin. [00:21:46] We have to face that fact. We cannot get round this simple principle. Whatever. We may waffle however deep loyalty we may feel to some institutional traditional system and so on, we cannot get round the simple fact of church history. Many people, of course, will say, ah, but it was all a mistake. It was all a mistake. But they do not understand the dynamic of the life that came into the people in the time, in the beginnings of all these moons, they were carried along by a tide of life. [00:22:18] It wasn't, if you read back to the, get back to the fountainhead of all these movings of the spirit of God in church history, not one of them speaks about becoming a sect or a defined denominational group. It's not there. [00:22:33] It all came in the second generation. [00:22:37] In every single one of them. [00:22:41] I'll find it all the way through. I take again the brethren, if I may. [00:22:46] In the early days the brethren used to accept all believers without any letters of commendation. [00:22:52] And JN Darby used to accept men with clerical collars at the Lord's table, never put them behind a rope at the back, as became more fashionable latter years. He would accept as long as they knew they were believers. [00:23:15] I think there are two points we could make here. In talking about the lessons of church history, it seems to me that the law, there are two things we need to be kept from. [00:23:30] We must ask the Lord in all that he is doing in our day, right over the face of the earth, that we be kept from any idea that we are it. [00:23:45] Every time any one of these groups has decided everything else has failed in church history, and now here we are, the success that has meant that it's out at that point. But you do find it again and again. [00:24:02] You find not in the beginnings, but very rapidly, people begin to think everything else has failed. We are it. [00:24:11] I think we, we need to be very, very careful of a spirit like that that would divide us from all that God has been doing. God has been doing only one work in the whole of these 2000 years. [00:24:29] We must never forget that only one work has God been doing. He has been building the city, and this has been the all governing purpose, all evangelism, as far as God is concerned not always in the question of. For those of us who are engaged in the work, but as far as God is concerned, in evangelism, in conventional teaching, teaching for deepening of spiritual life, everything, as far as God is concerned, is only one objective, and that is to produce the material for the building of the bride, to produce the material for the building of the city of God. [00:25:12] I think those things that go off the rails are nearly always the kind of groups that tend to have a view of church history, that every single thing in church history has failed. Failed. It's failed, it's failed, it's failed, it's failed and it's failed again. And here we are, and we are not going to fail. [00:25:31] We are going to go through, but they fail. [00:25:36] The fact of the matter is we've got to get a correct idea of church history. Now, here comes another point. The Lord appears. I hope this doesn't upset anybody, but the Lord appears to be supremely disinterested in keeping anything going merely as a form or an organization. [00:25:53] If the Lord wanted to, he could have kept any one of these movements going all the way through, but he hasn't. It appears that when the Lord has, in that first generation or so, really, as it were, got something, he seems to be disinterested in keeping the thing going. It's the most extraordinary thing. I think we have to face it as if once having done something, God steps back and sort of says, now we let it die, we'll bless it, we'll use it, we'll go on, but we'll stand back now, let it die, we'll start again. [00:26:31] I remember a very angry missionary speaking to Bakht Singh, the great indian leader, and I was present, and she really sought to sort of debeard him. She said to him, well, she said all that you're trying to do, all this wonderful work that you're doing and all the rest of it in India. But she said, believe me, she said, I think it's just a new denomination, that's all. And he said, no, we're not a denomination, we're just christians. [00:26:59] We would accept you. You may not accept us at the Lord's table. We would accept you if you're a believer. [00:27:06] So she wasn't to be finished on that point and said straight away, well, she said, when you're dead, you just wait, it'll be a denomination. I shall never forget the way she was floored. He just said, they said, you're quite right. [00:27:22] When I have died, they will turn the whole thing. When I and the first all this generation have died, they'll turn the whole thing into a rigid denomination. So she looked aghast at him, having given to her what appeared to be the argument. And then he said, do you know what the Lord will do? [00:27:39] The spirit of God will come upon some young man amongst us and he will start to return. He will go right back to the original things again and we shall get so angry with him, we'll kick him out and then God will start the whole thing over again. [00:27:52] That most deeply upset that lady I can well remember today. But it is partly true, it seems, that God is disinterested in keeping anything going. For instance, when God really got things in Bohemia to the point where there was a tremendous expression of the church throughout Bohemia, then it seemed as if he allowed the forces of the Catholics to come in and completely destroy in the Hundred Years war, so that today there's hardly a vestige left. [00:28:29] Look what's happened in China after 30 years or so of real church building. Just when Brother Ni said in that great conference in 1949, for the first time in the history of the church as far as China is concerned, we are at the point where I believe we can take China for God. [00:28:48] Within a month, the communists had marched into Shanghai and within two years, Howden Road, the premises where they met, had become a communist indoctrination center. [00:29:04] Many of the elders and deacons throughout the whole length and breadth of China had been martyred. Other Ni would spend 20 years in prison and was finally martyred. [00:29:15] It seems that the Lord is supremely disinterested in keeping anything going merely as a form or an organization. [00:29:22] Now, having said that, we must go a step further. The materials for the city of God, gold, precious stone and pearl produced by the spirit of God during the beginning of these movements, is never lost, but has already gone into the city and will be found there eternally at the end. Now, this to me is a thrill, because it means that if you and I, by the grace of God, are serving the counsel of God in our own generation, when finally we come to the end, we shall find that we've been in a stream of life that started at Pentecost and will go right on through to the rapture. It began at Pentecost, ends with the rapture, the Holy Spirit came with Pentecost and will go back at the rapture and take us with him. [00:30:18] And this whole marvelous work, when we're back in the presence of the Lord and we see it with new eyes and with a new body. [00:30:25] I think then we shall understand how absolutely marvelous that all that God did in all down through the ages and all these queer sounding groups has all the value of it is there forever. [00:30:40] They could burn hus at the stake, but the values of his life are in the city. They could martyr, watchman, knee, but the values of his life are in the city. They could destroy thousands of christians in the inquisition, but the value of their life are in the city. Gold, the gold of Christ, the precious stone of the pearl of Christ's nature. It's all been as it were. [00:31:05] How was it obtained and worked upon, wrought upon. And at the end we shall see it in the city. [00:31:16] This to me is a tremendous thrill, because it means that I don't know whether you have any sense of continuity. [00:31:28] Some people don't have any sense of continuity at all. They're just little individuals that are born. They have no sense of continuity, of energy. I always find it thrilling to think that you come from a line of people or families or just human beings going back, going back, going back, going back, going back. It excites me. I must be a conservative, but I just find it exciting, this sort of thought of something that's a continuity. It's not just some little thing that God has suddenly decided to do. You're not just some person that God has saved without any regard to anything that's gone before. As far as I'm concerned. I go right back to Abraham, and so do you. [00:32:13] God began, as far as the people was concerned, with Abraham, and he's never let go of that thought right the way through. So when we come to the city at the end, we find twelve patriarchs, twelve fathers of Israel, and we find the twelve apostles of the lamb, 24 elders, representing the elect people of God under the old Covenant and the new covenant. Continuity. But how very few christians, even today, have any idea of continuity. We say, we should say in the queen, I believe in the communion of saints. This is what it means, continuity. I believe in the communion of saints. Hus and Augustine and Wycliffe and Luther and Zwingli and all the others and thousands of others. [00:33:00] Saint Teresa. I'll just put her in if anyone thinks I'm getting too out on the other side. She was an extraordinary Madame Guyon, Catholic to the last of her days, an amazing saint. These people, I believe in the communion of saints. [00:33:16] I'm joined to them, indissolubly joined them. Just as you and I are joined together, I'm joined to them, we are joined to them. They are part of us. We are part of them. And what God has been doing, he's been doing all the way through this. E in the end, we shall find it. We therefore have a tremendous. [00:33:36] We are at the end of the age. Some people are always harking back to the beginning of the age saying, oh, how much they wish they'd been that day of Pentecost. They wished they'd seen this and that and the other. Oh, dear child of God, what's wrong with you? [00:33:48] It's just as wonderful to be at the end of it. I think in some ways it's even more wonderful to be at the end of it because we've got all the wealth behind us. We've got the wealth of experience of thousands upon thousands through this age. [00:34:04] It's been Pentecost all the way through the intervention of God by the spirit of God, again and again and again and again. Doesn't this give us comfort? We've got the 20th century. We've got. We believe that the night coming when no man can work. We are facing now the period of Antichrist and the beast. But we have a tremendous confidence in God, Jesus, who said, upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I have given unto thee the keys of the kingdom. [00:34:44] We're going to go through, dear child of God, even if you find it hard to believe, we're going to go through because we have the Lord on our side. Thats not the right way to put it. [00:34:57] We are on his side. [00:35:00] We are on his side. So were going to go through. Weve got the keys of the kingdom. Keys. A funny little thing. [00:35:07] You never see the value of keys till youve lost them. [00:35:12] And then things which are so simple become insuperable. [00:35:19] You have to climb up to the first floor, turn things inside out. Phone. Make long journeys all over some little thing that's no bigger than that, a key. Keys make things very simple. [00:35:38] I feel sorry for believers who haven't got the key or haven't discovered that they have the key. [00:35:46] Keys make the work of God simple. Only in this way. Doesn't mean there's no conflict, no controversy, no antagonism of Satan. But the keys mean we go through. With a key, you can lock up something, just insert the key and the lock and a little twist and the thing is locked up. [00:36:08] What a wonderful thing to be able to do with enemy power, satanic power, just to lock up something in the name of Jesus Christ from the throne of God or just to unlock something, just as simply in the name of Jesus Christ. [00:36:29] God is absolutely sovereign. He is never at a loss. [00:36:36] Be good Calvinists, all of you in this matter. God is never at a loss. Even when things are at their darkest, God is never at a loss. And the lesson of church history is this, that when everything appears to be lost and everything appears to have sunk into abysmal darkness, God steps in. [00:37:01] And when he steps in, he does something which all of hell itself cannot overcome. The values of it are eternal. They may not last and remain on the earth in one sense forever. They've gone into the city. But in the end, the city itself will come down out of heaven to the earth. [00:37:23] All the values will come back and they will be, to put it in one sense, at the disposal of a new earth. [00:37:37] May God help us then, in our understanding of what he's doing. His hands have laid the foundation. His hands will also finish it. [00:37:56] Yes, Lord, we need thee and we praise thee, that thou hast said, go, and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age. [00:38:08] We praise thee, Lord, for all that we have in thy word, which reveals to us that that city is going to come down out of heaven having the glory of God adorned as a bride for her husband. [00:38:23] How we worship thee and praise thee, Father, for such a prospect. We pray that every one of us who is saved may, Lord go on with thee. We may all be true overcomers by thy grace and thus have an inheritance, Lord, in what thou art doing. And we pray for any who do not know thee that they may come into what thou art doing and be saved by thy grace. [00:38:48] And know, Lord, something of the workings of thy Holy Spirit. Father, we commit this morning to thee together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.