Should we turn in our Bibles to Hebrews
chapter 10, please?
Hebrews chapter 10.
I'd like to begin reading in verse 19.
Hebrews 10, 19.
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest
by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way which he consecrated for us
through the veil, that is, his flesh, and
having a high priest over the house of
God, let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the confession of our
hope without wavering, for he who promised is
faithful.
And let us consider one another in order
to stir up love and good works, not
forsaking, this is the golden verse for this
morning, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as is the manner of some, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more as
you see the day approaching.
First of all this morning, I'd like to
think with you about the privileges and responsibilities
of fellowship in a Christian gathering, Christian meeting,
Christian assembly.
But let me say at the outset, we
often hear the expression, assembly distinctives.
And I'd like to say at the outset,
there should be no such thing as assembly
distinctives.
And the reason for that is, the truth
is all here in the Word of God,
and it's for all the people of God.
Now it may be true that some adhere
more closely to the principles of the Word
of God than others, but I'd just like
to remind myself that there are really no
assembly distinctives here for every Christian and every
Christian fellowship.
And certainly there's no reason for pride among
God's people, is there?
I often think that if we could see
ourselves as God sees us, we'd have enough
failure to sink a battleship.
I mean, seen in the light of God's
holiness and God's purity, that's true.
So there's no reason for us ever to
be prideful, but to seek to press toward
the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus.
And so a lot of the things I
say today would be true of privileges and,
for instance, responsibilities in any Christian fellowship, in
any group of people who gather in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Privileges.
First of all, there's the promised presence of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, for two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in
the midst of them.
Think of that.
Think of meeting together with your creator in
the midst.
With the one who gives you the breath
to breathe at this very minute.
With the one who formed the starry universe,
the millions of galaxies and millions of stars
in every galaxy.
Billions, sorry.
Billions of galaxies and billions of stars in
every galaxy.
Of the one who threw Orion out into
space and keeps the heavenly bodies in their
perfect orbits.
That's really what it means.
But not only that, to gather together with
the promised presence of the one who died
on Calvary, the one who formed us and
was willing to die for us, to put
away our sins by the sacrifice of himself,
so that we might dwell with him for
all eternity.
With him, as like him, forever.
It's no mean privilege to meet with the
Lord.
And then, of course, there's the privilege of
collective worship.
The privilege of collective worship, and I'm thinking
especially of the Lord's Supper.
What a wonderful thing it is to meet
with like-minded believers and just put all
the cares of the world aside.
Blot out all the things that tend to
distress us and just be there in the
presence of the Lord.
For in worship, by faith, we leave this
earth and we go into the holy presence
of God.
And we have audience with the King of
all.
That's what really worship is.
It's by faith leaving this present scene and
just going into the sanctuary, the throne room
of the universe.
As I say, having audience with the great
God and with the Lord Jesus Christ.
I tell you, if we really entered into
these things, it would have the hush of
eternity in our hearts, wouldn't it?
It really would.
It's awesome when you really think of it.
And then the privilege of collective prayer.
What it means to gather with God's people
and go into the presence of the Lord
with our praise and with our prayers, with
our petitions.
It's really wonderful.
And to see those prayers answered, to see
God moving the checkers on the checkerboard, to
see Him working in His sovereign way and
to see Him answering prayers in a way
that would never have happened according to the
laws of chance or probability.
Thank God for prayer meetings where the presence
of the Lord is felt.
And I like to remind myself in that
connection.
I think some of our young people or
brothers are afraid to pray publicly.
Afraid that they might make some theological disaster
or something like that in their prayers.
Revelation 8 has been such a help to
me where we have a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ there standing between us and
God the Father.
And our prayers ascend to Him.
And He adds incense to them.
And then they go on to God the
Father.
And I think that incense is the fragrance
of His own person and work.
How do you like that?
The fragrance of His own person and work.
He removes all impurities from our prayers.
And there are plenty of them too.
He removes all of those.
And when they get to God the Father,
they're absolutely perfect.
That's an encouragement prayer for me.
Sometimes you might hear some young brother and
he thanks God the Father for dying on
the cross for him.
Of course, God the Father didn't die on
the cross.
It doesn't make any difference.
God knows what He means.
And as I say, that's all removed and
corrected.
When it reaches God the Father, it's absolutely
perfect.
The privilege of collective prayer.
Then instruction in the Word of God.
I look back to my own boyhood when
we sat under the ministry of the Word
of God and how indebted I feel to
those men.
The first Sunday school class I ever remember,
I was taught the parables of the mysteries
of the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 13.
Can you imagine it?
A kid studying that.
Still with me today.
And I can remember sitting around tables in
that assembly and going through the book of
Isaiah.
Isaiah?
What about John's Gospel?
No, Isaiah.
And you know it's still with me today.
What a privilege.
I tell you, I'm very indebted to the
fellowships that I had the privilege of being
in down through those years.
And I wasn't even a Christian.
But the Holy Spirit was putting the coals
on the fire to ignite them some years
later.
I personally have great sadness of heart when
I think of how biblically illiterate the church
in the United States is.
Biblically illiterate.
It used to be that you could talk
to people and they had a smattering of
ignorance about the Bible.
But they really don't have that anymore.
And so what a wonderful privilege it is
to be in a fellowship where the Word
of God is taught and where people's minds,
young people's minds, are filled with the Word
of God.
A sacred deposit.
And then of course there's the blessing of
serving with others.
And we heard about that last night a
great deal.
The blessing of serving with God in the
Sunday school class.
And who can know?
Who can know?
I think of teachers who have become discouraged
along the way.
They thought nothing's going to happen.
Things do happen.
I want to tell you, the Word of
God is never taught and ministered in the
power of the Holy Spirit without producing results.
Do you believe that?
I believe that.
Well, the Bible says it.
He said, His Word will not return to
him void.
It will accomplish a thing that he has
sent it forth to do.
So when you're engaged in that work, in
ministry, in teaching the Word of God, you're
in a work that can't fail.
It's got the promise of success right in
the Word of God.
Privilege of serving the Lord in gospel work
and witnessing for the Lord.
Recently, a hundred people went out to Little
Rock, Arkansas.
And they paid their own expenses out there.
And they paid their own hotel out there,
a hundred people.
And they went to every house in Little
Rock, Arkansas.
Every house, including the house of Hillary Clinton's
mother and left a packet of literature with
her there.
And if you'll read the last issue of
Uplook Magazine, it's really historic.
It has stories of the things that happened
in that outreach.
And I want to tell you, the people
were bubbling.
They were really overflowing with praise to the
Lord.
They were out there in 107 degree temperature.
And they went to one door and knocked
on the door.
And a person came to the door and
said, You people must have something if you're
willing to go house to house in 107
degree temperature.
They went to another door.
And the lady opened the door and they
talked to her about the Lord Jesus.
And she said, I've lived here for 24
years and you're the first people who ever
came to talk to me about Jesus.
And that magazine is just filled with stories
like that.
A fellow went to a home to see
if he could get the little fellow to
come to the children's meetings.
And it was a foster home.
And the foster mother said to him when
he went to the door, Well, he doesn't
like men.
I think he had been abused, this little
fellow.
And she said, he doesn't like men.
And the little fellow said, I don't like
men.
But you know that dear brother, he kept
persisting.
He'd go back and he'd bring gifts to
that little fellow.
And pretty soon the little fellow went to
the meetings.
And pretty soon he was practically glued to
that Christian worker.
He wouldn't leave him out of his sight.
And now they're thinking of adopting him.
I mean, the magazine's filled with stories.
I don't know whether that one is in
it, but it was told to me personally.
The joy of serving with others.
I'll tell you, it made an impact on
the lives of a hundred people that they'll
never forget.
The joy of visitation, including hospital visitation.
You know, a lot of people are afraid
to visit in hospitals.
I don't know why.
But there's a tremendous joy in doing that
kind of work.
And oftentimes you come away more blessed than
any blessing that you were able to give.
The thrill of Christian literature work.
And I might say this just in passing,
that I believe that the distinctive ministry that
God has given to assemblies like Hillview down
through the years has been the ministry of
Christian literature.
It has had an impact on the whole
evangelical world.
Then the privilege of giving.
Perhaps we don't think of giving as being
a privilege, but it is a tremendous privilege.
It's a tremendous privilege to be reaching out
to the far ends of the earth with
our gifts and sacrifices for God.
And who knows what is ever accomplished by
that.
But nothing is ever done in the name
of the Lord Jesus and for his glory
that will not be rewarded at the judgment
seat of Christ.
I think that's wonderful.
God is a good record keeper.
He's a good accountant.
And nothing you ever do and nothing you
ever give for him passes without its reward.
I tell you, it's starting to think of
a reward that some people are going to
get in that connection.
The privilege of fellowship.
Of being with Christian people.
We feel this very strongly.
In a country where the anti-Christian bigotry
is increasing all the time.
Where the media never loses an opportunity to
whack away at Christianity, at Christ, and at
Christian people.
It's a wonderful thing just to come together
with like-minded believers in the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And be able to talk about the things
that matter.
And then, of course, a caring family in
times of sorrow, trial, and distress.
It's a wonderful thing.
A caring family.
Maybe somebody is hospitalized.
Maybe some mother is hospitalized.
The meals just flow over into that home.
Nobody has to worry about the food.
People there to help.
Take care of the children.
And just moving together.
Let me give you the other side of
that story.
There was a fellow in the Navy with
me.
I prayed for him for 50 years.
And he died, as far as I know,
without ever coming to the Lord Jesus.
And his wife would call me, his widow
would call me, and she would just be
left.
And I said to her, and they had
no faith at all.
I said to her, do you have any
friends?
She said, we don't have any friends.
She said, we just saved money until we
had enough money to go on a tour.
I said, do any of your neighbors take
it?
No, she said, we have not associated with
our neighbors.
And she was sitting there all by herself
in a home in Arizona.
And nobody cared.
That's the way she had always lived.
That's the way it was now.
And I thought, what a contrast.
What a contrast.
A fellowship with like-minded Christians and how
they just come together.
A beautiful thing happened up recently with us.
A young fellow had to go to the
University of California, San Francisco, for a liver
transplant.
And you know what an emotional roller coaster
oftentimes it is when something like that is
happening.
Well, his wife went to the home of
one of our sisters one day, and she
was really at the edge, as it were.
She went in, and there were two ladies
talking in there, two Christian ladies talking.
And she just was about ready to dissolve.
And when one of those ladies saw her
ready to dissolve, she quickly got up from
her seat and went over and sat beside
her and put her arm around her.
And she said, I'm connected with a prayer
fellowship, and your husband's name is going to
go on it, and it will reach 2
,000 people.
I tell you, that means something, doesn't it?
It made her day.
2,000 people enlisted to pray for our
Barry.
And the good news is that Barry Coleman
is doing wonderfully well.
And then a worldwide fellowship.
Some of you have traveled various parts of
the world.
I don't know many parts of the world
where you couldn't go and find real Christian
fellowship.
And you're with those people for just a
short time, and it feels that you've known
them forever.
And there's no fraternity, sorority, or society in
the world to compare with the Christian fellowship.
The world has nothing to offer comparable to
it.
I think of places that I have visited
and the friendships that have been formed, and
they go with you through all of life.
Privileges of fellowship in a local assembly.
But there are also responsibilities, aren't there?
And oftentimes we forget these.
You know, the French have an expression, noblesse
oblige.
Nobility has its obligations.
It means that nobility obligates.
It's the obligation of honorable, generous, and responsible
behavior associated with high rank or high birth.
And dear Christians, we are people of high
birth.
Children of the Heavenly King.
And there are responsibilities that go with that.
Let's think of some of those responsibilities.
There's a responsibility to exercise our spiritual gift.
Because it's only as we do that that
the body grows, functions, matures.
We saw that as we were in Ephesians
chapter 4.
The body needs you.
It needs your contribution to the body.
You should be willing to do for the
Lord what you wouldn't be willing to do
for any secular employer and beyond.
You know, employers today, they can tell you
go to Singapore and you go.
But God might tell you to go to
Madagascar and it's a different story, isn't it?
We should be willing to do for the
Lord what we would never do for any
secular employer.
An obligation to endeavor to keep the unity
of the spirit and the bond of peace.
Not to be the source of conflict, but
to be confessing faults to one another.
Learning to live in brokenness before the Lord.
In other words, in order that the assembly
might not suffer.
There's the obligation to attend meetings faithfully.
One of the few places today where you're
sure to find commitment is in the dictionary.
You can always find it there.
But it's less and less obvious in many
meetings of Christian fellowships.
I think that faithful attendance at our meetings
is one of the casualties of the frenzied
lives on the one hand and our weekend
escapes on the other.
What is a valid reason, for instance, for
not attending the breaking of bread?
Remember the king is there.
Remember the one who died for you in
Calvary is there.
What would be a good reason for not
attending?
Aunt Minnie's birthday?
A family get-together on Groundhog Day?
What would be a good reason?
It's pretty hard to think of a good
one, isn't it?
If we really believe the Lord Jesus is
there, it would be pretty hard to find
a good reason for not being there.
He requested it.
He said, this is my body which is
broken for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
And he is there when we do meet
together.
We appropriate, as I said before, we appropriate
this fact by faith.
We don't act as if it were true.
We act because it is true.
Someone may object, as I said, that, well,
he's everywhere.
I know he's everywhere.
There's a special sense in which he's present
when his people gather together to worship him.
The early church was faithful in its commitment
to the local assembly.
We've already referred to Acts 2.42. It
says they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine,
fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer.
It doesn't say they continued in those things.
It says they continued steadfastly in those things.
And the apostle Paul knew that when he
left Philippi to go to Troas, he'd find
the believers there breaking bread on the Lord's
Day.
Could Paul depend on us to be there
at that time?
I like to remind myself that when I
am not present, the Savior misses me.
And he misses you, too, when you're not
present.
I often think of that time when he
went to the house of Simon the Pharisee.
And he got kind of a cold welcome.
The Lord Jesus said to him, you didn't
give me any water for my feet.
You gave me no kiss.
You didn't give me oil to anoint my
head.
You gave me no kiss.
Do you ever think that when you're not
there, and he is there, he misses your
kiss?
I believe that.
I'm just a simple believer that I really
believe that with all my heart.
If he missed the kiss of an unregenerate
Pharisee, how much more does he miss the
kiss of one whom he redeemed by his
precious blood?
Attendance at the assembly is an index of
our love for Jesus.
It's an index of our love.
He said, if you love me, keep my
commandments.
That's one of his commandments, isn't it?
This too is remembrance of me.
And it's an index of our priorities, as
I already suggested.
Which is more gripping, a prayer meeting or
watching the Super Bowl?
Well, it depends on how you're looking at
it.
If you're looking at it from a natural
standpoint, the Super Bowl is far more gripping.
But if you're looking at it through the
eyes of faith, it's not.
That makes all the difference in the world.
Because in the prayer meeting, you're having intercourse
with the God of all creation.
In the Super Bowl, you're getting excited about
scores that 100 years from today won't make
any difference.
It just depends on what kind of glasses
you have on.
What kind of lenses you have in your
eyes.
Which is more important, to do routine repairs
on a house or to be at the
prayer meeting?
Things like that.
We have to think about our priorities and
get them straight.
When we go away on vacation, are we
careful to be somewhere where we can meet
with the Lord and with his people?
Or when we're being transferred, does the presence
of a scriptural fellowship weigh in our decision?
Or do we go anywhere and then regret
that there isn't any scriptural assembly there?
And in weighing all of these responsibilities, we
always have to remember that what we do
is more for our good.
Commitment is more for our good than it
is for his.
I mean, what does it matter to the
great sovereign of the universe?
Relatively speaking, but it matters a lot to
me.
We're the poorer when we're uncommitted.
I remember he said to the disciples, You
are those who have continued with me in
my temptation, and I appoint to you a
kingdom.
He takes note of our commitment to him,
and he has appointed for us commitment.
And just let me say this, too, that
I think that the meetings of the assembly
have a sanctifying influence on our lives.
For instance, every time we come and remember
the Lord in his death, we're reminded of
what our sins cost him.
It increases our hatred for sin and our
desire to do that which is pleasing in
his sight.
In going to a prayer meeting, we learn
how to pray.
The best way to learn how to pray
is to be with Christians when they're praying.
I listen to the prayers of people, and
I think, that's wonderful, I never thought of
that.
You make a mental note of it, and
it helps you along the way.
We learn to worship, we learn to give,
and we learn to develop rapport with our
fellow believers.
So the golden text, as I said, is
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as
the manner of some is, but exhorting one
another, and so much the more as you
see the day approaching.
I have some friends down in Nashville, Tennessee,
and they met John and Mary Lou Phelan.
John was in the Second World War, and
he was down in Southern California, and he
ran into a man named Harold Kessler.
Some of you may know Harold Kessler.
Harold Kessler led him to the Lord and
did a great job in discipling him, including
the truth of the New Testament church.
After the war, Johnny and Mary Lou were
back there in Nashville, Tennessee.
The local Methodist church asked him to come
as assistant pastor.
It would have been a prestigious position.
John was sold on the principles of New
Testament Christianity and the New Testament church, and
he and his wife remembered the Lord for
one year in the living room of their
home, just the two of them.
That is commitment.
At the end of one year, some brothers
went down there with a tent.
They pitched the tent at 65th and Louisiana,
and they started preaching the gospel, and souls
started getting saved.
Today, there is a large assembly in Nashville,
and there is a hive off in an
adjacent town, and there is a camp just
as big as this one, Horton Haven, and
they are all the result of that couple
being faithful to the Lord, being committed to
Him, and meeting for one whole year, just
the two of them, to remember the Lord.
I want to tell you something, friends.
That's commitment.
And God honors it.
Them that honor me, I will honor.
Jim McCarthy and I were at a conference
up in upper Minnesota recently, and there was
a couple that came there, Jack and Charlotte
Mostert.
Jack and Charlotte were for many years in
fellowship in the Laughlin Street Assembly there in
Chicago.
And of course, then there was a flight
to the suburbs.
All the people fled out to the suburbs,
and in a way, Laughlin Street, it became
something like a ghetto, you know, that whole
area.
The whole complexion of the assembly, the people
in the assembly, all changed.
Jack and Charlotte stayed with it down through
the years.
A few months ago, Charlotte and another lady
were walking out of the Laughlin Street Chapel,
and there was a gang fight going on
in the neighborhood, and a random bullet came
and hit the other lady in the leg.
Jack and Charlotte are still there, carrying on
for Jesus.
It didn't drive them away at all.
I'm going to tell you, that's commitment.
And God prizes it very, very highly.
Other responsibilities.
Share in the fellowship of the assembly, expenses
of the assembly, and in sending funds out
to missionaries.
You know, what the local assembly is largely
determines what the missionaries are going to be
on the field.
They're an expression of the local assembly.
We have a responsibility to pursue personal holiness.
Very important.
Pursue personal holiness.
That's before we come to the Lord's Supper,
we should examine ourselves before the Lord, confess
and put away all known sin.
I know that when there's an ulcer in
my body, it affects the whole body, doesn't
it?
It's not a private matter.
An ulcer isn't private.
It affects my whole body.
That's true in the local fellowship, too.
When there's sin there.
An assembly not far from here.
And the young people's work wasn't going well.
Wasn't going well.
And the other elders, they thought, what's going
on here?
We just can't understand what's the trouble here.
And finally it came out.
One of the men carrying on an immoral
liaison with a woman in the assembly.
That was the ulcer.
And when that was taken care of, the
work among the young people became very vigorous
and very helpful.
We should practice mutual help, exhortation and edification.
Edifying one another, not criticizing one another, but
edifying one another.
We should love one another fervently.
And we should pray for one another.
And I think one of the great things
we can do is share in the ministry
of hospitality.
The longer I live, the more I realize
how important hospitality is in connection with a
local fellowship.
I can just go back to that visit
that Jim and I had in northern Minnesota.
At the end of one of the meetings,
a sister came to me and she said,
I want to tell you a story.
I said, tell me.
She said, well, she said we had been
in the church and she said we were
hurt something terrible.
She said we were really offended and really
hurt.
And we decided that we were never going
to allow ourselves to get into that corner
again.
We were going to maintain our distance from
people.
We were going to maintain our distance from
a local fellowship.
She said, but one time, she said, my
husband and I and the children, we decided
to go to the local Bible chapel.
And I've been to that Bible chapel.
I want to tell you there's nothing to
appeal to the flesh in there.
But God is there.
The Lord is there.
And they went there and they went in
and one of the brothers met her.
And he said, you know, when I left
home, the Lord laid it on my heart
to bring this book to give to somebody.
And he said, you must be the somebody.
And I just want to give you this
book.
And she said to me, the Lord laid
it on my heart.
She said, I never heard of anybody talk
like that before.
The Lord laid it on my heart.
But anyway, they sat through the meeting and
they looked around and they saw all these
women with head coverings on, you know, mantillas
on their head.
And on the way home, the kid said
to her mother, what was that?
Why did all those women have head coverings
on their head?
And she said, she said, don't even think
about it.
She said, we'll never be back.
So they went back home.
That was it.
You know, they were going to hold people
at arm's length.
They weren't going to become deeply involved in
anything like that.
Well, the next Sunday, her husband said to
her, are you ready?
And she said, ready for what?
He said, ready to go.
She said, ready to go where?
He said, ready to go to the chapel.
She said, ready to go to the chapel?
He said, yes.
She said, am I supposed to wear one
of those things on my head?
And he said, yes, I think so.
And they went back that Sunday and they
were invited out to dinner.
And for 22 times in the months to
follow, they were invited out to dinner.
She said, we had attended churches for years.
We had never been invited out to dinner.
I said to the kids, don't worry, we'll
never be back.
She said, we never left.
The importance of showing hospitality.
And then, of course, the responsibility of sharing
in the work in the local chapel.
Cleaning, repairing, and submitting to the leadership of
the elders.
Now, just some closing thoughts in connection with
assembly life.
Try to look at other Christians the way
Jesus does.
That's not easy, is it?
It's really not easy.
But that's the way we should do it.
Try to look at other believers the way
the Lord Jesus does.
Avoid a critical spirit.
I don't know anything that's more detrimental to
the spiritual life of an assembly than a
critical spirit.
Some of us feel that we really have
a talent for criticism.
Well, that's one talent the Lord wouldn't mind
you burying.
It's a good thing to recognize the difference
between matters that are fundamental, that are important,
and that are secondary and peripheral.
There are some things that are fundamental.
We went over that previously.
They're the basic truths of the Christian faith.
There's no compromise with those.
There are other things that are important because
the Bible teaches on them.
But there's a difference of opinion among Christians
in the interpretation of them.
I think in a case like that, the
assembly should adopt a position on those issues.
And then when you come into fellowship in
that assembly, you can believe differently, but you
mustn't push it publicly or privately.
That keeps peace in the assembly.
And then there's other matters that are peripheral.
There are matters that God doesn't care about.
God doesn't care whether you're a vegetarian, but
he doesn't.
He's not too concerned whether you use leavened
bread or unleavened bread, or grape juice, or
wine, fermented wine.
He leaves many of these things to the
local assembly to work out.
Again, I say what I suggested before.
Get convictions for yourself.
What your parents believed about the truth should
not be enough for you.
Get your own convictions from the Word of
God.
Maybe that could come out of our meetings
here, where you go to the Word of
God and see it written in the Word
of God.
And if you see it written, when you
get those convictions, stick to them.
An old man, Alfred May, said that to
me years ago.
He said, Bill, when you get scriptural convictions,
stick to them.
And I have sought to do that.
I would also say this.
No man's gift is too big for God's
principles.
I might be in a little nondescript assembly,
and I might think, well, my gift is
really too big for this type of thing.
I should seek a wider sphere of influence
and leave the principles and just go off
to where I'd reach a bigger audience.
No man's gift is too big for God's
principles.
Stick to the principles and let the Lord
lead you.
I think it's interesting that when other people
have abandoned something, we discover it.
And when people discover something wonderful that we
have, we abandon it.
That's been going on.
I thank God for the great truths of
the New Testament assembly.
And it's strange to see people abandoning those
truths for something less.
There, at the same time, others are coming
to see them.
I read you all of those quotations from
clerics who say, look, this is the New
Testament way, where the gifts are given for
the perfect, for the saints of the work
of the ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ.
And just let me repeat what I've said
several times already.
Remember that just following the pattern is not
enough.
We want to have the right pattern based
upon the word of God, but we want
to have the spiritual power that is necessary
to go with it.
I believe the spirit of God is moving
in a special way in our days, in
connection with the whole subject of assembly planting.
God seldom reforms a movement.
He begins something new.
I want to be involved in God's work
of beginning something new in the United States.
The same principles, but a fresh display of
those principles.
I believe God is doing that.
Doing it in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Doing it in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
And hopefully he'll be doing it in this
area as well, in more than one place
as well.
It's in the air, friends.
Let's be part of it.
Shall we pray?
Father, we thank you for these times when
we can be together.
When we can sit at the feet of
Jesus and hear the voice of the tender
shepherd through the word of God.
We're reminded of how precious the church is
to you.
And we want it to be precious to
us as well.
Help us to be more faithful, we pray.
Help us to be more committed.
Help us to be the men and women
of God that you would have us to
be.
Make these truths real in our lives and
through our lives to others as well.
We pray in the Savior's worthy and precious
name.
Amen.
And
it's
strange to see people abandoning those truths for
something less.
At the same time, others are coming to
see them.
I read you all of those quotations from
clerics who say, look, this is the New
Testament way.
Where the gifts are given for the perfect
of the saints for the work of the
ministry.
For the edifying of the body of Christ.
And just let me repeat what I've said
several times already.
Remember, that just following the pattern is not
enough.
We want to have the right pattern based
upon the word of God.
But we want to have the spiritual power
that is necessary to go with it.
I believe the Spirit of God is moving
in a special way in our day.
It's in connection with the whole subject of
assembly planting.
God seldom reforms a movement.
He begins something new.
I want to be involved in God's work
of beginning something new in the United States.
The same principles, but a fresh display of
those principles.
I believe God is doing that.
Doing it in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Doing it in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
And hopefully he'll be doing it in this
area as well.
In more than one place as well.
It's in the air, friends.