Address—C. Hendricks
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John, Chapter 8.
Verse 37.
In the last day, that great day of the feast.
Jesus stood and cried, saying.
If any man thirst.
Let him come unto me and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
But this spake he of the Spirit.
Which they that believe on him should receive.
For the Holy Ghost was not yet given.
Because that Jesus was not yet glorified.
And then a verse in the 14th chapter.
Verse 16 and I will pray the Father.
And he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you.
Forever.
And in chapter 16.
Verse 7.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
It is expedient for you that I go away.
For if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you, But if I depart.
I will send him unto you.
And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment of sin, because they believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to my Father, and you see me no more of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now, albeit when He the Spirit of Truth is come. He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it.
Unto you.
And then in Acts chapter 1.
In verse 8 the risen Christ says, well I'll read verse 5.
For truly John baptized with water.
But ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence now, verse 8. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses.
Unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
And then in chapter 2.
When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with 1 accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
And began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And chapter 4.
Verse 31.
And when they had prayed.
The place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were of 1 heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common.
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
That 32nd verse, I'd like to read it as it is in the new translation.
And the heart and soul of the multitude that believed was one.
The Lord prayed in John 17 that they all may be 1.
As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Our greatest shame is the divided state of Christians of the Church.
He prayed that we might be 1 he died to that he might gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
The enemy has done his work.
Acts 20, he said after my departure, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock?
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And also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
This is the day of the Holy Spirit.
This is the day that he is prominent.
He is here a divine person on earth, dwelling in each one of us individually and in the assembly collectively.
And I said one of the greatest failures was the divisions, and that's true. But another, probably even worse, is the ignoring.
His presence here.
They're not counting upon Him. They're not relying upon Him as we should. When I say we, I mean Christians.
All of us.
And I could include us, of course, in that.
Many ways that we can.
Not look to the leading and the guiding of the Holy Spirit.
We can grieve him.
We can quench him.
We can ignore his leadership in the Assembly.
And as man has done.
To his shame.
We can set up a hierarchy of men and displace.
The Spirit of God.
Oh, but we can't do that.
Don't say that.
Yes, we can.
It has happened.
Among those who were once gathered to the Lord's name.
Now I want to turn you to Ephesians 4.
And we'll read some verses there.
Ephesians 4, verse one.
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord.
Beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.
With all loneliness and meekness.
With long-suffering.
Forbearing one another in love.
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all.
But unto everyone of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all things, that he might fill all things.
Far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Unto a perfect man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about within.
Every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up unto Him in all things, which is the head. Even Christ, from whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body.
Unto the edifying of itself.
In love.
I want to.
About especially the unity of the Spirit. But I want to read First Corinthians 12.
Should have read that first, but I read it now and verse 12.
For as the body is 1.
And hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many are one body.
So also is Christ.
For by 1 Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many. And then he goes on.
How was the body formed? Well, we learn here it was formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
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He united us together and to the risen glorified head in heaven.
When he was exalted to the right hand of God, Peter says that he received the Spirit and.
Sent him down.
And he was explaining to them what had happened on the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God came.
I want to impress upon his tremendous impression. I hope we can make it that the Spirit of God is here. He's been here now for nearly 2000 years and he characterizes the the day. He characterizes Christianity. He's involved in in all the functions and the activities of us individually. He's the seal. He's the the gift given to us. He's the anointing. He's our teacher, He's our comforter.
He is the one that by whom we have been born again, born of the Spirit and all the blessings that are ours.
We are made the brought into the wonderful position of children of God by the the presence of the Spirit who enables us to cry. ABBA Father.
Have a father.
The Spirit of God. I could go on and on, but I want to dwell more upon the baptism of the Spirit that was that took place on the day of Pentecost, and it's the forming of the one body, especially that truth.
He's also the one who inhabits the house.
And his dwelling place is the House of God, and we are that house.
And he dwells among us, not just in us, but among us collectively.
But I want to look at the truth of the one body. You can be in the house and not be real. You can be. You can be in the house as a mere professor, but you can't be in the one body and not be real.
If you're a member of the body of Christ, you are real.
Itself shows that no unsaved person should partake of the Lord's Supper because that loaf on the table represents the body of Christ, which is composed of nothing but true believers. There's no unsaved person represented there. And that answers the question, was Judas Iscariot? Did he partake of the Lord's Supper? I don't believe he did.
It's certainly not for an unsaved person. Doesn't mean that someone cannot creep in who's not real and sit down and partake of it. But he's not represented in the loaf and he's not covered and cleansed by the precious blood.
So when he eats the supper, eats the loaf and drinks the cup, he's really committing a lie because it's not true of him.
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord Paul never calls himself the prisoner of Rome.
He was the prisoner of the Lord. He looked beyond the.
The immediate problem and cause of his being there to the first 'cause.
He says, I beseech you.
That she walked worthy of the vocation. That's another word for calling.
Well, we were called in the 2nd chapter, he speaks of us called to be members of the body of Christ, and that's what we've been called to, to walk worthy of that.
To walk worthy of that. Now, that's not that loaf on the table doesn't represent Plymouth Brethren. It doesn't even represent a small group of Plymouth Brethren. It represents the whole body of Christ, every believer, regardless of what he might be connected with ecclesiastically. It represents every believing member of that body.
And to be gathered on the ground of the one body, which is the proper principle of gathering, is to embrace every believer on the face of the earth to embrace them.
There may be reasons why they cannot partake, but they're represented there and they have a place there. I'm not looking at administrative problems that might have come in. And I'm talking about the, their, their title is there because they are at the they are members of the body of Christ.
Represented by the one loaf.
Now to walk worthy of that, if we're going to give expression to that in our in our feeble.
Company.
We can falsify it in two ways. We can. We can have a fellowship that is larger than the one body.
Church of England is an example of that. If you're an Englishman, you can be a member of that church. You don't have to be necessarily a member of the body of Christ, you can be a member of that church.
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So there they have a membership which is larger than the one body.
There that are not truly saved.
And then you can have a fellowship that is narrower than the one body and that's that's called sectarianism. And you can set up rules and regulations and stipulations for one to break bread that really don't involve the doctrine or the practice of the person. It's just the particular rules and regulations of the church that you might be a part of.
And that would be a sectarian thing.
Narrower than the one body. So to walk worthy of that calling, we've been called to be members of the body of Christ is not to have a fellowship broader than the one body, and not to have one narrower than the one body in principle.
So to walk worthy of it, that's what we're exhorted to do.
And that means that in everything that transpires.
The whole body is considered.
We don't operate on the principle of independence. Each church is an independent church, having nothing to say to others.
When one is received to the Lord's Table in Chicago, that person is received to the Lord's Table the world over, wherever Saints are gathered on the ground of the one body to the name of the Lord.
Wherever one is put away from the table at a place is put away everywhere.
That's the truth of the one body carried out with respect to disciplined matters or to reception.
How are we going to with all of our different backgrounds and nationalities and temperaments and.
Biases and.
Ways that we were brought up and.
All these different things, how are we going to go on together in a harmony?
He exhorts them to walk worthy of that calling.
Wherewith we are called.
Well, the only way we can do it, the only way he could do it, when Paul Saul of Tarsus, Pharisee of the Pharisees, when he was saved, the Lord said to him, I'm going to use you to proclaim the wondrous truth.
Of the one body.
To Gentiles.
That would have been the last thing he naturally would have wanted.
To go to a people that had been steeped in idolatry and wicked ways and practices and all that was characteristic of the Gentile world.
And he a strict religious, self-righteous Pharisee.
That's where the Lord sent him. How could he do it with all lowliness and meekness?
With long-suffering forbearing one another in love, that's how he could do it, that's how he did do it, and that's how we are to do it as we go on together.
In Unity.
What a mixture.
There is in the body of Christ.
Well, loneliness.
And meekness, one brother said to me just before the meeting. Loneliness has to precede meekness. I believe that's right.
You won't be meek if you're not lowly.
Loeth thy seat, Lord Jesus, This is the place for me. There I have learned deep lessons. Truth that has set me free.
That's where we belong, low at his feet.
He the highest, took the lowest place.
And he said learn of me.
Learn of me ye shall find rest unto your souls.
The main problem?
That has plagued the Church of God.
Is man assuming a place?
For his own glory.
For himself.
That has caused more problems.
Throughout the ages.
Men's exalting themselves. That's probably the hardest thing we have to learn if the Lord has given it to us how to exercise authority.
I'm a father.
I failed.
Quite badly.
In that role.
Many of you feel that too. I think the older you get, the more you'll feel it.
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The exercise of authority.
Do we know how to do it?
Not many of us.
With all loneliness and meekness.
As one has well said, the thought of exercising discipline upon another who I am to esteem more highly than myself.
A beloved brother or sister in the Lord.
And I just a saved Sinner. Who am I to exercise discipline or even to think of it?
And to do it in a in a feeling of superiority, you're not in the state of soul to exercise discipline at all.
If one has that feeling.
Because grace puts us on the same level, does it not?
There's no one better than another.
And the Spirit of God is here to glorify, not us in any way.
No, but Christ.
After my departure, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, And also of your own selves shall men arise.
To draw away disciples after them.
Speaking perverse things.
That has done its awful work.
We still keenly feel the effects of it.
And we should.
I believe one of the reasons the Lord has allowed it to happen amongst us is because we were looking down our noses in a superior attitude towards our brethren there in system.
As though they weren't our brethren.
I noticed an expression at the prayer meeting this morning.
That.
The trouble in India hasn't affected our brethren. Oh yes it has.
Many of them.
We don't know them.
But they are our brethren.
We fall into that. I'm not citing that to criticize. I'm citing that to blame myself.
And how narrow minded we have become.
And just thinking of our little circle.
With all loneliness and meekness.
With long-suffering.
Forbearing one another in love.
I feel like a hypocrite up here because.
What I'm saying, don't take it as though I'm saying it to you and that I don't think it's true of me because it is probably more so.
Than any of you.
Endeavoring to keep using diligence to keep.
The unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The Spirit of God has united us.
Into one body.
Can 1 member say I have no need of you?
No.
Every member is in need of every other member.
Man I want to speak about 3 unities.
The two are man made unities and they're not of God.
The first one is what I would call the ecumenical unity.
It's when men agree to disagree.
An ecumenical unity.
You can have your view.
You can believe in the virgin birth. I may not believe that, but that's all right. We're all Christians and we can throw our arms around one another.
And truth is no longer paramount.
Well, that can't be the unity of the Spirit, because the Spirit is the spirit of truth.
You can't be a holy unity because he's the Holy Spirit. So if it's a unity of the Spirit, it has to be holy and it has to be according to truth. So those unities that that exist in Christendom where Christians get together at the expense of truth just because they're Christians, it's like the umbrella of love and it's brotherly love. It's not divine love because divine love would not admit any unholiness or any untruthfulness.
But human love will.
A good example of it is Promise Keepers. That's the only reason I mentioned that name is because I'm familiar with a little bit with them and I haven't heard much about them of late, but.
That's a unity that they have amongst themselves.
Of all kinds of.
Different beliefs and practices and goings on.
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And not considering the truth of God.
That's not.
God's unity at all. That's an ecumenical unity.
I remember when we were considering in a fellowship I used to be with of reuniting with other brethren, leading brother said in our brothers meeting. We have to learn to disagree.
And that's that's that kind of unity, agreeing to disagree.
And that's a profoundly wicked principle.
And we do not believe it.
But there's one far worse than that, far worse than that, and that's agreeing to agree.
What do I mean by that?
Now, I mean that if you for instance, our Roman Catholic.
They will say you can read your Bible.
They'll allow that, although they discourage it in many countries. In our country they don't because it's predominantly Protestant. But in most countries that are strongly Catholic, they don't even want you to read the Bible. But even if you can read it, you can't interpret it. The interpretation has to come from the Church, from the hierarchy of the system, and you dare not.
Hold a view that differs from that hierarchy.
So you have to agree to agree with what they tell you, with how they teach you. The Jehovah's Witnesses are the same way. All cults are the same way. You have to agree with what the Watchtower Society in New York City teaches. As to the Scripture, you dare not contradict that. You dare not have your own opinion. That is when you join a cult like that, you give up conscience, totally give up your own conscience.
And you just agree with what they tell you.
That's the worst ******* you can you can have. It's it's called potpourri.
You have to submit to what one man says, right or wrong.
You ever heard that expression? Right or wrong, you bow to it. Right or wrong?
That's the worst kind of ******* that there is.
We all have a conscience and we all have the Word of God.
To tell us.
If the doctrine that is being taught is right or wrong, if it's wrong, we reject it.
I was talking to A to a brother and I knew exactly what his response would be. And I said, I said, I don't like that expression bowed to an assembly decision. Right or wrong, he said. I agree with it 100%. I said. I knew you'd say that.
I said what if an assembly decides to shield? This actually happened in 1890 to shield a heretical teacher.
He even signed a letter of commendation to another assembly, and that assembly that he wrote to, that they wrote to Greenwich, was the name of the assembly where Mr. Raven resided, sent a letter of commentation down to Beck's Hill.
Bexhill refused it. In refusing it, they refused the assembly.
Because they were shielding and heretical false teacher.
But that assembly was doing was wrong. It was evil.
And.
In that case.
You don't submit to evil.
When a government tells you to bow down to an idol and worship it like they did in Daniel's day, you say no.
I belong to God. There is an authority that is over yours. Every delegated authority is.
Fallible and can make a mistake.
If your government tries to force you to worship an idol, you have to say no, I belong to God.
I have a higher authority.
If you're a child in a family and your father's a wicked man and he tells you to fall down, he's an idolater. To worship his idol, you would have to say no, I'm a Christian.
So there are times when we have to say no to authority because it is so evil.
Most times.
We bow to the authority because we have no scriptural basis.
That would counter dictate it, contradict it.
But this?
Bowing to without reservation, bowing to religious authorities has created the false cults.
The worst one that I know of is called the gems.
I don't know if you've ever heard of them.
James Taylor.
James Taylor, junior.
And James Symington, the gems.
The leaders of the Raven Party.
That's a cult.
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Following the dictates of a dictator.
Of a.
That imposes rules and regulations.
On the company.
I cite them simply to impress upon us. Don't think, oh, that could never happen amongst us.
Yes, it can. It happened amongst those who were once gathered to the Lord's name.
So it can happen.
The church is filled with that kind of thing.
Where people give up their consciences and follow the leader, right or wrong.
Talking about serious things now, not talking about minor things.
We always submit to authorities.
In general.
But the absolute statement right or wrong?
And when I started that example to this brother, he backed off. Backed off.
And he said, I see what you mean. So there's the ecumenical unity that pretty well let's anything go, doesn't make anything.
Doesn't impose any restrictions to fellowship.
Doesn't matter whether you hold the truth or not.
That's not of God. And then there's this.
Agreeing to agree kind of unity.
Where even though?
What has been done is manifestly wrong.
It has to be submitted to.
Well, usually he ends up in a division when that's the case.
But there is a recourse in the truth that there is one body.
There's members in the body of Christ all over.
And as Mr. Darby.
States an individual has a right.
To present his concern to any other assembly, whatever they've done.
I remember in the case of the the peeing problem.
And I called up a brother in Nepean, and I urged him.
To consider and I presented something to him.
And he said we'll consider that.
And I said this was not a, this is not a fundamental matter at all. This was just something I had to present to him. And he said, we'll consider this. And I also said, whatever you decide, I'll submit to that.
And that's the normal.
The normal way when an assembly passes a judgment.
But if you carry that to the fullest extreme.
You get leaders that are in authority.
That have the power to make decisions by themselves without really the decision of the assembly.
That's potpourri.
In principle.
That's not the unity of the Spirit. What is the unity of the Spirit? It's the unity which is formed by the by the Spirit of God working in the hearts and consciences of all the Saints.
A true leader is one who leads the Saints by the word of God to understand why we should take the action, why we're going to take, or why we propose to take the action that we propose.
And everyone is included.
Because all are members of the body of Christ.
We've gotten away from that many, many times, and just a few makes the decision.
And the others are left out. They just rubber stamp the decision and they don't know anything about what's.
The reason for it, we don't have to go into details. I'm not talking about nasty details with the with the main ones, but the leaders are to look things over and arrive at a decision.
There's a beautiful instance of this in Acts 15 and I want to turn back to it.
I've heard it spoken on.
In ways which I don't think they've gotten the true force of the chapter.
In Acts 15, there was a serious problem.
And certain men which came down from Judea, taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised, after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
When, therefore, Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, you see, they didn't arrive at this easily. There was a lot of discussion, a lot of dissension.
They determined that Paul and Barnabas and other certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders. About this question we're also told in Galatians chapter 2, that Paul received by revelation that he should go. And he did. He went up to Jerusalem, and they brought on their way by the church. Being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phanica and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. And they caused great joy unto all the brethren. And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church and of.
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The apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them. And there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, which believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
Why didn't they just settle it at Antioch? They had two apostles there, Paul and Barnabas. They could have, but no, that's not where the problem came from. The church is 1 and so they were going to settle it at the most the least likely place to render a favorable decision on behalf of the Gentiles. Jerusalem.
That's where the problem came from. That's where they went.
The apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. Verse 7. And when there had been much disputing, again not an easy conclusion arrived at Peter, rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe, and God which knoweth their hearts.
Bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us, and put no difference between us, us Jews, and them the Gentiles, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear, But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they wonderful, wonderful sentence from Peter that they were not.
To to be put under law, these Gentiles.
Now it doesn't say much that Paul and Barnabas said, it just says in verse 12. And all the multitude kept silence and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.
Paul knew far more than any of them at Jerusalem. Yes, he did.
Yes, he did.
And yet he doesn't say much.
And after they'd held their peace, James, the the most Jewish oriented one there at Jerusalem, makes the final sentence.
Quite striking.
And he wasn't an apostle, he was the Lord's half brother. And he says, men and brethren, hearken unto me. Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. Now he's just citing a scripture in the Old Testament that that evidences of the fact that the Gentiles were to be brought into blessing. And he says to this agree.
The words of the prophets as it is written. After this I will return and will build again the Tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up. Now that's still future. This is not the fulfillment of that prophecy, but he's citing it to show that yes, God was to.
Bring blessing from the to the Gentiles, that the residue of man might seek after the Lord. And all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord. And who doeth these things? And that was not a fulfillment, but it was an indication that Gentiles indeed were to be brought into blessing. Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God, but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols.
And from fornication and from things strangled.
From blood.
Now notice how he appeases the Jews. Notice how he calms them down. I'm sure that they were disturbed at this. But what about us? For he says, For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.
So he wasn't depriving the Jews of being under the law. They were still under the law, very much so. But the Gentiles were not to be put under it and and analogous. It was a wrong situation.
But that's what God tolerated for a while, and then he wrote Galatians and he wrote Hebrews to tell the Jews to quit Judaism altogether.
Altogether, that took time.
Then pleased it. Now notice then, please, that the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, surname Barsipus, and Silas, chief men among the brethren, and they wrote letters by them. After this manner the apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. For as much as we have heard that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words subverting your soul, saying You must be.
Circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment. It seemed good unto us. Being assembled with 1 accord. Now they've reached a united judgment. It says with 1 accord. We read earlier that much disputation and discussion took place. Now he says being assembled with 1 accord.
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Verse 25 It seemed good unto us, being assembled with 1 accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent, therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. And notice this 28th verse.
For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost.
And to us.
To lay upon you no greater burden.
These necessary things that she abstained from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled and from fornication. Now that's the same thing that James sentence stated, but now it's the Holy Spirit.
That puts his approval on this.
That she abstained from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, From which, if you keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle, which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation. Well, this is the way that the Spirit of God worked in those early days to maintain unity.
He led them to a common judgment.
It's the unity of the Spirit and when men.
Impose their wills.
They may even be right.
But if they exclude the assembly.
This is what Paul did with the Corinthians. He was seeking to exercise the conscience of the Saints at Corinth so that when the assembly acted, it was truly an assembly action. It wasn't the action of a few.
Wasn't the action of a leader.
Or just a few leaders. They're there to lead the assembly to an understanding of the reasons from Scripture why such an action should be taken, not leave them in the dark.
There's a very beautiful pamphlet.
That's been written by Mr. Witherby. HF Witherby. It's called acting in fellowship in matters of discipline.
I strongly advise you read it if you haven't.
And also.
The letter.
The article by Mr. Darby, Ecclesiastical 1, Volume 1, entitled On Discipline.
You will see that.
These principles.
That it's the Spirit of God that makes the decision. It's the day of the Holy Spirit and when we ignore Him and make a decision ourselves.
Thinking that he has delegated that authority to certain ones, when what he's delegated is the gift of leading them to an understanding of the Word of God so that we.
That we have the mind of God.
The mind of God and the Spirit of God who is here to glorify Christ.
To exalt him.
There's a problem that can come in and it's mentioned in the. I'm going to turn to it. It's in 3rd John.
3rd Epistle of John.
It has come in.
In verse 9 the apostle John writes, I wrote unto the church.
But diotrephes who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
Wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth.
Praying against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, but forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the Church.
It's hard to know how one can have that kind of authority and power.
To refuse an apostle, and to cast those that would receive brethren that should be received, cast them out of the church.
But so it was.
And then he says, beloved, follow not that which is evil.
But that which is good.
Well, in this epistle where he writes to the beloved Gaius in all his sweet and loving and tender, and he uses the word beloved 4 times there's.
Serious.
Serious problem.
Diastrophes was his name.
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There's a lot of dioptras in Christendom who want to have.
The first place.
Well, we've been talking a lot in these meetings.
About loneliness.
And meekness.
And to go on together.
In the unity of the Spirit.
Where the Spirit makes the decision and not man.
Not man.
Endeavoring to keep.
Using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit.
In the uniting bond of peace.
There is one body.
And one Spirit, even as ye are called, in one hope of your calling, 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. I was at a meeting once.
It had been called to.
Determined from the scriptures.
What the truth was.
And.
The interpretation that was given on verse 4.
There's one body and one spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling. But that's the gathered Saints.
And then one Lord, 1 faith, one baptism. That's the rest of Christendom.
And I don't know what he said about verse 6.
And Needless to say, that's dead wrong.
Verse 4 is the whole body of Christ. There is one body that includes all the Saints who have been baptized into that one body by the one Spirit and who have the same hope. All have that one hope of their calling. So that's reality. Verse 4 and verse 5 is profession 1, Lord 1, faith, one baptism. All those who are real are in that. But there's those who are merely professors, and they're not in the circle of verse four. And then there's the circle of creation.
One Lord, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.
Creation.
That's all mankind, so you've got.
Christians.
Members of the one body, those who are real, that's verse 4. There's one body, 1 Spirit, even as you're called, and one hope of your calling. And then there's a broader circle. 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism. Everyone that is baptized and professes the faith of Christianity and professes Jesus is Lord is in that circle. Not all are are real. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out?
Demons and done many miracles and I will say I never knew you.
So there are those in that circle who are not real, but they're Christians outwardly. And then there's the circle of creation. One God and Father of all is above all and through all. And then in you all takes you right back to the circle in verse 4 of reality.
Well, we're in that circle where the Spirit has formed one body.
And we all have one hope of Our Calling. And he's formed a unity.
And He's the power of it. What is the unity of the Spirit? Very simply, it's to walk in fellowship with a divine person on earth. And if you walk in fellowship with the Spirit of God, and you walk in fellowship with the Spirit of God and I, do we walk together? And He will lead us to the same mind and give us the same judgment if we really do that.
But if we resort to the judgment of leaders, like in an army, you have the Sergeant telling the privates what to do, and the privates don't have to think or do anything. They just do what they're told. That's that second kind of unity, where you agree to agree with whatever you're told without being any part of it.
And the Church is not that.
It doesn't have a hierarchy in it.
It's all ye are, brethren, the Lord said. And he has given gifts, yes, to be a help and to to lead. I don't like the translation that says those that rule over you, that has that austere tenor to it. Those who are your leaders, that's what it means, those who lead you.
They don't force you. They don't compel you, They don't threaten you with threats if you don't bow to their judgment.
That's not the Spirit of God.
That's not the Spirit of God.
Spirit of God is the one who sheds abroad in our hearts the Holy Spirit, the one who is to exalt Christ, the one who Christ in glory the head. He sends down the instructions, the Spirit of God carries them out down here, and that's the way the assembly is to function.
In every way.
Well, we know the church at large has failed in that any kind of a clerical system. You can have an unofficial clericalism, we can have an unofficial clericalism.
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Where the laborers are given a place, just like the clergy in Christendom.
That's wrong.
That's wrong. There are leaders, that's true, But they're not leaders for their.
Will to predominate over.
The flock.
We know little.
We know little a father.
In disciplining his child, he needs to discipline if he loses his temper in doing it.
The discipline becomes very ineffective.
Than he has lost.
The respect of his child.
How many of us have done that?
I'm guilty.
Not used the authority he's entrusted to me properly.
You know your sisters are in the place of subjection.
The brothers are in the place of authority.
It's not easy to be in the place of authority and carry it out properly.