Turning to 1 Corinthians chapter
11, it just happens to be a passage of scripture that we use often, and that is in observing the
Lord's Supper. So there is much to be gleaned from the 11th chapter. that we simply haven't gleaned,
but I hope we get something here as we read together. So 1 Corinthians
11, I want to read one verse there for the sake of time, and
that is found in the 17th verse of the 11th chapter. Here you
have it. Paul is speaking here of the
people who make up what we call the church. Now, I know the church
is invisible. body is spoken of as the people
of God, the church. But at the same time, we here
on earth, it is sort of like somebody said that marriages
are made in heaven, but they're lived out on earth. So after
all is said and done, we people who belong to the Lord are the
militant, I think that's a good word to use, the militant church
here on earth. And while we're invisible to
some people, we are visible, we're real. And this word church
right here is used, as Paul is using it, when you come together
at a given locality, at a said time and a said place, for the
purpose of observing the Lord's Supper. That's what he's dealing
with right here. And he gives some instruction, but to verse
17, having read the rest of it, you possibly could get the light
that you need on verse 17. Now he says, when you come together,
and that in certain certain places or a place, there's some things
that you're doing that you're doing wrong, there's some things
that you're leaving off that are right, and he said, I can't
praise you, and that's what he's saying. Now in this that I declare
unto you, I praise you not, that you come together for the better,
but for the worse. Now the passage that I dealt
with the last time I spoke on this subject is that passage
in the book of Hebrews there in the 10th chapter, in the 26th
verse I guess it is, Paul admonishes us not to forsake the assembling
of ourselves together. And I use that strictly as a
group of people in a given locality, in a geographical area, moving
together, as we're moved here this morning, to worship and
to propagate the truth. Now, after the message there
last Sunday, the first portion of the service that you brought,
I agree with that portion of the service, too, that there
is, throughout the Scripture set forth, a coming together
bodily presence of people, an assembling of people together,
but not being there at heart. I'm not going with that again
this morning, but it is so that the Word of God teaches us. In
fact, over in the book of Amos, the Lord says, I hate your feast
offerings and your sacrifices and so on and so forth, as you
mingle those things as though they were real or not real. So
you can come together. And I'm well aware of this. You
can come together and assemble yourself together and still not
be there. You can be that you're not regenerated. You can be that your heart is
one place and your mind's another and your body one place and your
mind another and on we go. I know those things are prevalent.
And I know the Scripture censors people for being such. In vain
do you worship me, says the Lord Jesus Christ. But what we're
still dealing with this morning, as we deal with this second portion
of the study that I brought before you last time I spoke, is simply
assembling ourselves together, meeting together, when you come
together. So Paul says here, when you come together, that
is in one place, he says. He says, and this that I declare
unto you, appraise ye not, that ye come together, not for the
better, but for the worse. That's terrible if you come together
and leave worse off than you were when you came. For first
of all, when you come together in the Church, I hear that there
be divisions among you, and I partly believe that. And then, rather
than Paul's sanction, Now, this is sort of a long line of what
you're talking about, this chastising work of God Almighty. Instead
of Paul censuring these people for these diseases, listen to
what he says. He's going to get out of that which is wrong and
evil. He's going to get right out of
it. Now, I know that God deals with these people for sinning.
And He deals harshly with His people. I know that. But at the
same time, He makes all things work together for good to them
who love God, who the object of His calling. Nothing thwarts
the purpose of God. I can't put that together like
that, but He does, just like a dovetail joint. So what Paul
is fixing to say in the next word, instead of using the word
division, he's going to call it heresies, causing these divisions,
and then going to tell you that it's good that it happened. Now
look what he says. There are divisions among you,
and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies,
schisms, and he uses the word also here, but he just raises
these sites, if you'll study the record here, divisions among
you, and now he says heresies among you, and this for that
purpose. that they which are approved
may be made manifest among you." Not the folk who are disapproved,
but the folk who are approved. He makes all this schism, division,
and heresy when people come together, makes that work together for
those who are approved of God. We're making something here out
of nothing, you might say. I'm just saying that when we
come together, we come together for the purpose to thank God
in our heart as a child of God. I don't want to go with some
wrong attitude. I don't want to come with some
wrong sort of a basket, or a veil and no bucket, or a bucket with
holes in it or something of the kind, and then swear that I didn't
get anything. I want to come with some way that there's a
capacity I can take away something. Well, you come with something.
We've long since departed from the truth concerning what the
Church really is. Here I am, just a one-man standing
here this morning, but this is not a one-man ministry. There
is what the Scripture speaks of as the ministry of the saints. That means that we talk back
to one another. And what was it Malachi says
over there? In the days of the Old Testament
we have that statement there that the saints of God, they
often spoke one to another. if you remember, and the Lord
made a record of that. He kept record of their speaking
together. And when he made up these jewels, he still had a
record of those people who spoke one to another. So there is a
ministry of the saints, whereas today it seems as though you
almost got a, what shall I say, a bishop and a prelate and a
pastor and all this to the extent that the person in the pew never
has a word. Well, I hope it's not that way.
Well, I believe that the child of God has a ministry. And when
we come, if we come with the right attitude, come with the
heart prepared to meet together, you don't just come to take something
away. You come to bring something. I look forward for you people
to come. Suppose I had to stand up here this morning, not a soul
in the building, not a soul in the building. Well, that wouldn't
work too good, you see. So we're glad you're here again.
And we come for a purpose. And I think it's And I think
it's a good purpose. So let's look at some of the
things that might take place here as we study together concerning
God's purpose, I guess you might say, and his people, certainly
included in that purpose, and then God. He has promises. He
promises some things we don't like, and he promises some things
we cherish. He says, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.
That's a promise you want to claim. Those promises that you
read this morning, I promise you that if you disobey me, I'm
going to give you a whipping. You hate to claim them, but he'll
whip you in the head if he stays good with his promise. So let's
look at some things here concerning the people of God. Now, when
we come together, I alluded to this, but turn to 2 Timothy 3,
verse 16, and we'll get a few things here if we possibly can
that will help us to realize our purpose of of coming together,
or being, I rather think, being gathered together, where two
or three are gathered together. And the Lord Jesus Christ does
the gathering also in the midst of those people that he gathers. Now he seems to tell us that
his reason for us coming together, and when we do come together,
come together with the thought in mind that we are instructed. There's a reason for me being
in the capacity that I'm in and others in the capacity that they
operate in. The Church has been given gifts. The Church has been
given teachers and apostles and days past have gone, if you want
to use that word. And those gifts are folk that simply act in the
capacity we act in and teach the people. There's nothing wrong
about that. You relate that to people. And
they say, well, I don't want to think of somebody just teaching
me, I think I can learn without being taught. But that's not
the truth. The sheep of God are just somebody without calling
who eat. And I say that respectively.
They don't have a calling. They just eat the food. And the
person who feeds that sheep is responsible to feed the sheep.
And that is the gift to the Church. of people who act in their very
capacity, and I'm acting. So when you come, you say, I
come with the intention of being fed. There's nothing wrong with
that. You should come with the intention of being fed. But don't
forget the fact that while you're being fed, you're being helpful
to someone else. Look at that passage. Don't turn
to it just in essence. In Matthew 25 where there is
some sort of a judgment scene there, you might say, and the
righteous are acquitted. But those righteous folks, It
was said of them, I was in prison and you visited me, I was hungry
and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. Well,
when did it ever happen to me? And the Lord Jesus Himself said,
as much as you did it unto the least of these, My disciples,
My brethren, My children, you did it unto Me. Well, I'll inject
this right here. I used to use just a little humor
along that line. They were unconscious of the
fact that they had done all this good to somebody, the average
person. Oh, and spaced it from the pulpit. Oh, look what I have
accomplished. And the pastor said this, and
the pastor said that. You don't know what you believe
until you go ask a pastor. Those folk were not like that.
It was sort of like, let me get just a little humor here, then
I'll move on. It was sort of to tell this story on the Jew,
and I'm a Jew, so don't worry if you're a Jew. They tell this
story on the Jew, two Jews driving down the road, and you know how
they say they talk, you know, like this as well, you know,
just keep their hands going as well as their lips are going.
The man under the wheel, you know, he, too, was doing that,
and lo and behold, he didn't just wrap the vehicle around
a tree. And they were both conscious, so the one over on the seat where
my wife drove, she said, look what you did that time. I said,
what did I do? He said, look what you did. You
rammed us into this tree. I said, I thought you were driving.
So now a little humor there. Brother, I'm going to tell you
something. It's to me, oh, look how the pastor helped you. Look
how much I did for you. You forget how much you do for
me. It's a mutual thing. That's what I'm talking about.
So when you come together, you come together with a thought
in mind. Well, I just won't go. I'll go somewhere else. I'll
go fishing somewhere else. Wait just a moment now. Not only are you
being hurt, but somebody else is being hurt. You need to know
that. The church is not what we hear today so much about,
just organized. It is organized. It's just about
organized now, but it's an organism. And it's a person acting in the
capacity that God puts that person in. So, well, I can't preach.
Well, maybe you can pray. Well, I can't pray too well.
Well, maybe you just have faith. That's one of the gifts. Help
is a gift. And I think possibly this thing
of assembling ourselves together, you're unusual if you're one
of those persons who just have a hobo religion and just catch
this train and that train and you land at this place and land
at that place and don't have any place to settle down where
you worship people together. You'll possibly be like that
with your propagating the work and the giving of your material
substance as well. If I'm here one day and gone
the next, Come back for a month or two or something. Can you
like that? I know that just natural now. If you're unusual along
that line, you're completely unusual. But I guess that could
happen here. The little box out there on the
wall as you come in is something that takes place, a collection
place here. So we don't just stick something under your nose,
just hold it there, and somebody sees whether you give anything
or not. And if they see you, then they'll give something.
We don't do it that way. So there's a grave danger, you
know. When you don't assemble yourselves together, you come
slack on other things. This passage of Scripture tells
us, then, that there's gifts for the church, and those gifts
are distributed by you coming and saying, well, I was taught.
I was taught. Well, I can be taught without
coming. Wait just a moment now. This group who meet together,
meet together with the thought in mind that God has appointed
certain people as teachers and so on and so forth. All right,
we have it then. In 2 Timothy, Chapter 3 and verse
16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof. Now, doctrine, the
word doctrine, we say, well, I believe in the great doctrines
of grace. That's fine, but it's a little misleading. For doctrine,
the word doctrine is nothing more than teaching. I believe
in the teachings of grace is all right, but we sink the five
points of Calvinism and say the great doctrines of grace, and
I'm not aiming to vilify that state, but I love the five points
of Calvinism and believe they should be cherished. But at the
same time, doctrine is teaching. So I came to be taught. And there's
a passage in John that says they should all be taught of God.
That doesn't mean everybody, it means folk who are teachable.
And the folk who are teachable are the folk that God Almighty,
in His way of doing business, and He does that, why a man is
just passive as passive can be, he doesn't believe to be regenerated,
God gives him new life. And out of that new life flow
repentance and faith and those things that make him a disciple. And we make disciples by saying,
here's a man, here's Lydia, her heart's been opened. And she
attended to the things that Paul and Silas had to speak. So you
see, that's the whole thing in a nutshell. As to coming, coming
with a heart, I'm hungry. I want to study with you. All
right? Doctrine, been teaching. For reproof. Now, it gets a little
strong. Now, some of you say, well, I want to be taught. I
want to learn. Well, when it comes down to reproof,
I'll not get into it this morning to get too much of a practical
application, but sometimes reproof of a person for a thing is like
Peter just in a congregation, someone wanted to play the game
of being a Jew one time and a Gentile the next. And Paul said, I just
simply rebuked him, reproved and rebuked, if you get a little
stronger, rebuked him publicly. Well, now you don't like that
kind of thing. And there are such things, I think in the churches
today, we're mixed up along the line. of personal and private
and public matters. Bring some public matter, bring
some private matter into a public arena is wrong. Those things
should be handled in the environs of the area that they're committed
in, so on and so forth. But we are coming together to
be taught, and we're coming together for reproof. See, you don't just
agree with the person every time they turn around. We teachers
can't do that. We say, well, I don't see that just now. Maybe I'll see it tomorrow, or
maybe I'll see different tomorrow as we study together. And for
correction, here it is again, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness. Now, if you just take that verse
of Scripture on Saturday night, when you want to waste the rest
of the evening and the night, And instead of using it for a
springboard, you can lose the service on Sunday, on Saturday
night. You can lose the service on Sunday
by how you operate in those closing hours of the day, Saturday and
Saturday night. Then you come out here on Sunday
morning, you're not able to handle the situation, you haven't prepared
your heart to receive the truth, and then you wonder, well, why
did I not get anything out of it? I know that to be so. And some
of the things that the Saturday night that we would waste time
over are sure not worth wasting time over. It is, people. I'll
tell you what. We're entertained. Entertainment,
entertainment, entertainment, and then suddenly you settle
down for two hours or two hours and a half, or an hour and a
half like we have here this morning, and no entertainment, not a thing
to entertain you, well, my goodness, you'll pull up your clothes. We're not to be entertained.
That's the whole thing. And that's part of the thing
that's got the people today, just entertain. You've got to
have some sort of entertainment. You've got to have some sort of what
they call music. They've got some of that junk
on the telephone now. You can't even wait on it. For
bad enough to wait on a person and say, could you hold just
a moment? Yes, and about that time, charade, boom de boom de. I want to throw the phone down. By the way, if you're in business,
suppose you do just a little different. Just be real still
and quiet. Don't take up somebody else's
idea about that. Maybe somebody would like that. Nothing beats quiet, do you?
Just get quiet a moment. Now you're talking, then, of
doctrine. Now, I agree that doctrine is first as we come together. I'd have to say it's first, teaching.
And those things, I think they're in order. doctrine, reproof,
and correction for instruction in righteousness, that the man
of God may be perfect, thoroughly," or the old rendering there before
us, thoroughly, "...furnished unto all good works." Well, that's
not just the man of God, and I'm the man of God, and you're
not a man of God. That's the thing we're talking
about, that the people of God, both men and women. And that's
the thing that we find first, I think. But there's more than
just doctrine. There's more than doctrine. While
we're in the book of Corinthians, back up, while we have been in
the book of Corinthians, back up to the 1st Corinthians epistle
and the 5th chapter of that book as we look at something here
together. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 this time. This sort of fits in again on
the heels of what you're saying this morning. There are word
studies in the Scripture that will help you. You insist this
morning that we're not cast away. Insist we're not cast away. I
insist we're cast down. See, that's the language, that
we're cast down but not destroyed, you see. Well, those branches
were cast off. They were cut off. They were
cut off for good, whatever that meant in the Book of Romans,
you see. So God does the same thing with His children, only
for a time. In fact, the difference really, the difference between
God dealing with a person in time and in eternity is that
one stops at the brink of eternity and the other goes on. Look at
the reprobate. That's the ten virgins. Look
at that. Ten virgins, all of them going
along together. Apparently they were all the
same until they got in sight of what's called a judgment scene.
And ten of them were divided. Five of them went one way and
five of them went another. Though the life seemed to be
the same, and the tariffs were weak, they looked the same, you
see. But the difference is, brother, as God put His stamp of approval
on His Son, and then the Son chosen you, and in Him is life,
and in Him is the love of God, in Him all those things are hid,
and He's determined to have some playmates in glory like Himself. And that's predestination, brother.
I'm for that. I want to be one of them by His
sovereign grace. And I believe I will be on that
ground only. So here now, let's raise our
sights just a little bit and say, well, I appreciate doctrine,
I appreciate teaching, and though reproving and rebuking me sometimes
is a little tough on me, after all is said and done, it won't
do me any harm, it'll do me good after the smarting is over, you
see. I agree with that, and you do too. But to get just a little
more out of the Word of God, let's use another word here,
that in this fifth chapter here we have Discipline. He used the
word chastisement this morning here. Discipline people. Now
that's disciplining people. Now let's see what Paul has to
say here. And where does this take place? You want to be disciplined
of God? You want to run from Him? Or
do you want to find your place where people of God meet together
and have an interest in each other and say, Brother, I'm going
to preach this. It hits you. It just hits you.
And if it does, it's good for you. That's the thing you need.
That's the thing, it's blessed of God. So here in this passage
then, Paul has something to say. And he mentions to begin with,
it is reported commonly that there is fornication among you,
and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles,
that one should have his father's wife. And he said, you puffed
up over this. Rather than mourning, you puffed
up over it. And that he that hath done this deed might be
taken away from among you is what I have to say about this
now. Taken away from among you. Here's the discipline along that
line. Now let's skip all those verses for the sake of time and
go to verse 13. Well, we're going to get something
in here to help you if you're not acquainted with the subject
matter. Let's go just a little farther
here. to show you that Paul is saying that this takes place
in a body of people who are gathered together just like we are for
the purpose of propagating the truth, disciplining people as
well as teaching people. And this is it. He said, verse
3, I go back there, "...for I, barely as absent in body, but
present in spirit, have judged already as though I were present
concerning him that has done such a deed." Now Paul was an
instructor of the churches. Today we don't have, let's forget
about the word apostle, we just don't have a servant in the capacity
that the apostle Paul is in, though a lot of these folks call
themselves evangelists. Paul wasn't an evangelist, he
was a teacher, he was a preacher, he set several callings here.
But the one thing Paul could do and did do, and that was not
only preach, but he could set the preachers, the pastors right. Today you have a pastor who's
in the capacity I'm in and another pastor down the road somewhere.
So they have a good salary and they have a pretty nice setup.
And along with that, they're good horse traders, I call them.
One goes to another and says, well, I think that I should tell
my people, that's the worst thing you ever used anyhow. God's people
are His people for they're your people. They are my people's,
thy people shall be my people," said Ruth, I guess it was. But
they said, now I think that, and this is behind closed doors,
they do it and erect evangelism. God has simply permitted them
to do so to their own hurt. There's no evangelist on the
scene today to set the preachers, the pastors, right. And they
go down the road and say, well, I think that you should come
over to my church and my people. So he tells the people who to
bring in rather than the people have any voice in that. And then
they pick up a little piece of money on the side, that's what
it's all about, and then he goes back to that man's people in
church. That is not scriptural. A man told me one time after
having me for several times, in the pulpit. He said, I really
think, he said, that this thing of one person going to another
pulpit and a person going to another pulpit should be equalized. Well, I said, I don't know about
that. I said, if I have a ministry that's worth anything to you
and you want me to come to you and I can bring it to you, fine,
there's no question about that. I want to be sure it's so that
you're not just playing a game. So the Apostle Paul could set
not only to preach, but he could set the preachers right. even
the Vanguards. And so he says, when you all
gather together in my name, they said, well, Paul wasn't a member
of that church. Well, whatever he was, he had
that kind of authority to take a vote at a distance. And he
said, when you come together in my name, you're coming like
this, verse 4, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye
are gathered together, this is the very word I'm dealing with,
forsake not that gathering together, gathered together in my spirit
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such-and-one
unto Satan, for the destruction is his fate, that the spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord." Now, I really believe
this man was a saved man. I think you go farther. He's taken back
in with possibly a little conjecturing here. But I think what happens
is what you preached this morning is that if this person here is
disciplined in the church, if this person here is guilty, and
you know he's guilty, and somebody says, We judge from the outward
appearance and God judges from the heart. That's not censuring
a child of God. There's no possible way for you
to judge me except by my overt acts. That's the judgment of
the New Testament church. That man, he's living with somebody
else's wife or husband. That's the way you ought to judge.
So final judgment comes from God. I know that. But this man
right here, he's guilty. Now what are you going to do
with him? Are you going to just completely get rid of him? No. And here's
the test. Turn him over to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh. That means to simply ignore him. It means not to even eat with
him, if you'll study far enough. It means just to simply tell
him, say, we think that you're wrong in what you're doing. Well,
I don't care what you think, I'm going to keep coming, and
keep coming. Now, we've gone for so-called bishops in the
church and said, well, we'll take your name off of the church
roll, and before you get over with, you need the sheriff there.
One of those business meetings where everybody votes and counts.
Grandmother's tombstone, if her name's on a stained glass window.
Just about that bad. That's not church discipline.
Church discipline is for a people, a body of people to be together
in such a capacity that they say, well, we think you're wrong.
Don't discipline a man in some harsh manner like that, but just
simply ignore him. If he wants to talk to you, ignore
him. If you meet him out on the street,
ignore him. If he wants to eat with you,
don't eat with him. That's discipline, brother. That's turning him over
to Satan to destroy that old flacely, carnal nature that wants
to dominate him. And, now here it is, that is
chastisement. If he endures such and comes
through clean, then forgive him. If he doesn't, let him alone. He has the characteristics of
a lost person instead of a saved. Now, that church discipline.
Now, why can't we do like that today? Why can't we discipline
people like they should be disciplined? I'll tell you why. And I'm going
to say it again. The problem is not necessarily
in the people. Well, you can't discipline people.
The problem has always been and always will be, as the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself puts it, with the man in this area that I'm
in. In the first place, if he disciplines
a member nine times out of ten, He's so guilty, he's going to
be caught as well, and could be number one in the disciplinary
area. That's what it is. So today,
the churches are so polluted, and you go to discipline somebody,
or you say, well, I'm not going to have that. That's my brother.
That's my sister. That's my this, that, and so
on and so forth, which is always a weak element among a group
of people. And the thing of it is, we don't
have much discipline. In the pulpit today, you have
all kinds of things. Just this man right here, this
man right here, would have been recognized and would have been
ordained and put into ministry and stand right in the capacity
I stand in, in today's criteria. Is that right? That's how far
we've drifted from the truth. You say, well, I know I'm going
to heaven. Be careful, brother. You're not going to heaven on
this bandwagon where so-called religious folk are riding. You've
got to come back to this book, and we sure have departed from
it. There is doctrine, thank God. And there is discipline, thank
God. Brother, it's in the Church. I see that as I study the Word
of God, so you can't ignore that. And I could have said there,
just to use a homiletical outline, I could have said there's danger.
When he started off here, he said, now listen, when you come
together, he said there's a danger that you come together for the
worse instead of the better, that you don't come with a thought
in mind that certain measures should be corrected, there should
be some discipline as well as doctrine. I would say there's
a danger along that line, I sure would say that. Well, to make
that word still greater, and to reflect not on this gathering
as we gather again this morning here, but to reflect on the home
from whence we come, there are certain things that were never
customary in the Church. Some misread this in the Scriptures,
but Paul would say, we have no such custom in the Church. And
possibly he's talking about dress at that time. Well, why do we
not have such custom in the church? Because that was paneled in the
homes. Didn't need it in the church.
The woman's place in the church, you didn't need a law and an
arrangement that simply created a lot of excitement, for the
husband was the head of the house. Now, I'm not picking anybody
in particular. But listen, we have drifted so
far from the truth and biblical truth that for a person to jump
up and say, oh, once in grace, always in grace, I know I'm headed
for heaven, I'm just one step more from earth to heaven and
so on. Listen, we better get back here and search the Word
of God and see where we are. For our problem in the churches
and our problem in society and our problem on the streets did
not start there. The reason that your child will
not listen to a man who has a blackjack and a gun in his hand is nine
times out of ten he didn't listen to you. I said nine times out
of ten. There are exceptions to all kinds
of rules. A man told me, he said, I'm actually afraid of my child.
I'm actually afraid of my child. I told my wife, you all know
our children, the oldest boy grew out to be quite a man. And
he's a lot like his my wife's mother's people. You can always
trust them with that manhood. But nevertheless, I told my wife
one time, I said, these boys, I'm getting old, you know, not
quite as super as I used to be. And I said, they're getting up
here. Here's a giant of a man. I said, just suppose I tell him
sometime that he's wrong, and he tells me, shut my mouth, and
the thing looks like it's going to get rough. I said, let me
give you just a little advice, and thank God for a woman who
took advice. I said, when they get either one of them, both
of them, or the girl either, you know, I can't handle them,
I said, you call the man who can. She said, she'll do it.
I never had to call him. I thought a time or two I would,
like some rest of you always learn. But that's so, people. We're afraid, afraid of some
little flimsy object in life. I tell you what I'd be afraid
of, rather than be afraid of you or somebody else, I'm afraid
of God. I fear God. He'd get us both. He'd get us
both. So this thing didn't start in
the churches. It didn't start in society. It starts right in
the home. I say that it's not only the
dangers I've read there, but there's doctrine there, and there's
discipline there, but there's something else. In this same
chapter, 1 Corinthians 11, I'm going to go read that verse over
again and get something else out of it that we didn't get
out of it. And that 18th verse, let's read
that together now and see what we get here. For first of all, when you come
together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among
you, and I partly believe it. Now, a few moments ago, I used
that word, heresies, as I magnified the word divisions. So it may
mean more than divisions here. But there are divisions among
you. I think that one of those things
that we have to bow to, we don't like to bow to it, but we have
to bow to it that it's so. And that is that there are divisions
that are well-organized divisions by the Spirit of God for our
sake and for our good. Now, I think the people of God,
though these divisions and heresies here are for their good. We see
that. It brings those people together.
Well, it's the same case with those who make up families. The Scriptures teach us, brethren,
That there's something in life that we need to learn over and
over and over again, that if we don't learn, we're doing harm
to ourselves and doing great harm to God. We need to be tight
along this line. And that is that the Son of God
never did come to divide a relationship that pictured that of His bride
and Himself. The Son of God's purpose for
coming into this life never was and never will be a picture of
that which would divide what represented He and His bride. The true husband and wife relationship
is never said to be divided in the Word of God. What God has
joined together, let that not be divided, let that not be separated. Now we have separations across
the country. There you read about it. Now what's the problem? Let
me go just a little farther and I'll see if I can tell you what
might be the problem. But there is a truth that the Son of God
himself set forth. This relationship with the bride
and the groom which is set forth in the Book of Ephesians, Chapter
5, is that of your husband and your wife, a wife and a husband,
a wife and a husband. that is to be cherished in such
a manner that it is a picture of the relationship that Almighty
God has to His bride. And he says, well, I've joined
this situation together. I didn't come to divide. No word,
no word of God. Can you find that? But I'll tell
you what he does tell us. Turn over to Matthew 19 for just
a moment here. Talking about an out of vision
here. Go back to chapter Matthew 19. Okay, now watch this. I hope
you get this. This is serious. I'm a man with
a wife and children. I've come through some of the
brackets that some of the rest of you are coming through, and through
some of the brackets has brought me to where some of the rest
of us already are. This idea, this idea of a family and we
as men being head of that family is the most serious thing under
heaven. I look back now and see where
I failed over and over and over again. You can't lord it over.
A wife and children, that's not the idea. It's a matter of relationship
between a husband and wife that works, that the child as well
can see something. But the relationship that the
parent has to the children, watch this. I don't want you to ever
thought of this now. The relationship that a parent has to a child
is a flesh and blood relationship. You see, that's as close as you
can get. Wait just a moment now. The relationship that a parent
has to children is a flesh and blood relationship. But the relationship
that the husband has to the wife and the wife has to the husband
is beyond the flesh and blood relationship. It is that relationship
that so infused two people together is likened to the love of God
flowing abroad in your heart. It's definite. It's closer than
anything else. Therefore, that particular relationship must
not be construed with the relationship that we have to the children.
God knows you love your children. If you're a parent at all, you
love your children. But at the same time, the book tells us,
brethren, that the Son of God never came for the purpose...
I'm talking about things happening from the standpoint of the household
and reflecting in the church sense. The book tells us that
Christ never came for the purpose of separating mother and father.
Not a truth. It's not there, husband and wife.
It is just not there. But there is something about
family. And you try to put this thing together on the same level
as this relationship of husband and wife, which is a picture
of the church, you're in trouble. I just have to be kind to my
children. Kindness is all right. But a
child soon knows whether you're austere enough to be a parent
as well. Okay, here we go. We're going to read something
here. But the book gives us, and I wouldn't say it without
it, I want to read in the 19th chapter of Matthew, "...And it
came to pass, when Jesus had finished his sayings, he departed
from Galilee and came into the coast of Judea beyond Jordan." And great multitudes followed
him, and he healed them there. The Pharisees also came unto
him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a
man to put away his wife for ever cause? What did the book
of Malachi, you've been reading the book of Malachi, say? What
did he say about putting away? Forget about all the discussion.
He said, I hate putting away. Now he's talking about husband
and wife relationship. And he answered and said unto them,
Have ye not read? that he which made them at the
beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause
shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave
to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. Therefore there
are no more twain, but one flesh. For therefore God hath joined
together, that no man put asunder." You've got two words right there
you need to learn. Leave and cleave. They're simple to remember. Leave and cleave. It is the mother
It is the wife's imbue here. Now listen to this. For he said,
For this call shall a man leave father and mother, and shall
cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. It
is the man who leaves, and it is the woman who is led because
he does leave. And if he doesn't, he's stuck.
If you make a clean cut, you leave father and mother, and
they shall cleave to his wife, and they
twain shall be one flesh." Now, that set of a husband and a wife,
that relationship, there's no division along that line. But
there is a division along the line when it comes to considering
who's who and what's what in respect to the children. The Lord Jesus said in the passage
I thought I had right before me right here, in respect to
who is my mother and my brother and so on and so forth there
in the Scripture. Where is that in Matthew 12? Now, that's what
we want to look at for just a moment right here. I'm just saying that
these things are rather dear to us, and yet they're rather
severing when we have to be cut loose from these things along
that line, for the Lord Jesus Christ himself said what I'm
saying. He said, now you're not to be
separated, but I'm saying that there's some separation along
this line, and one of the areas where you see this separation
is the very thing we're talking about, family. Read that verse
if you turn to it before I do there. Brother Lane? Yes. Who is my mother and my
brother and so on and so forth? Doesn't he give that there? All right. Do you notice something missing? Do you notice something missing
right there? He doesn't mention the wife. He didn't mention the
wife. For later on in the scriptures
here, he tells us that when the Son of God came to this earth,
he came for the purpose of uniting, but at the same time he came
for the purpose of separating. I'll close here. He said, the
other passages, he said, there shall be five and one house.
And he says the daughter shall be against her mother-in-law,
the mother-in-law against her daughter. He breaks his family
fair up many times in this life. We have to find out over and
over again that the relationship that we have to children and
the relationship that we have to relatives and on we go is
a different relationship altogether than a person has to a husband
and a wife having that relationship to a husband or the husband having
the same relationship to a wife. What we're saying is that this
relationship reflects not only in this household, but it reflects
into the Church, and the first thing you know, you find out,
well, my relationship to my Heavenly Father is that of a bride and
a groom. For unless the child is part of that bride, we might
say, making up the bride, well, then the Son of God has already
exchanged everything. He exchanges mother, sister,
brother, father, all these things in the flesh, as long as you're
dealing in the flesh. He exchanges that for one thing,
a bride. He never brings a bride in. always
the wife, that the wife is not to be separated from the other.
Now what the church is, is just what we're talking about. It's
made up of people who have that kind of relationship. That's
not being mean to the children. It's just saying, I have a relationship
between someone who I never knew, never knew they even existed,
and suddenly God brings those two people together on a ground
that far exceeds any other relationship you can have, place and blood
excluded. And this is what church is. That's what I'm trying to
get. This is what the church is. Some of the things that make
the church are the things that separates us as individuals. So my family don't go along with
it. Forget about your family going along with you, brother,
if God's leading you. This is the whole thing. And
I'm saying that that little old cliché right there many times
will give us trouble along the very lines that I'm teaching
you. The church is the living God. I forgot the last time to mention
to you all, we'll meet again together at 4.30. Brother Wayne
will bring the message along with a line of study.