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THE GOSPEL AND THE CHURCH

Romans 1:1 - 7, 16:25 - 27; Colossians 1:27 - 29, 2:1 - 3; Ephesians 1:22, 3: 20, 21; Malachi 1:11

My objective, dear brethren, in this word is the last verse we read, that we should have in view God's own word: "For from the rising of the sun even unto its setting my name shall be great among the nations; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure oblation; ..." And if that is to be brought to pass at the present time in our dispensation, it involves the truth of both the gospel and the church. The enemy has sought all down the ages to divorce the gospel from the church: if we allow that, we shall not reach God's present purpose -- for He has a present purpose (see Ephesians 3:8 - 13). Men may be blest in the sovereignty of God, but God's end will not be reached. Therefore we need to be vigilant to see that in our minds and activities the gospel and the church are not separated. A true workman, striving diligently to present himself approved to God, will never separate them. But since the enemy is unceasing in his efforts we need to be on our guard all the time.

If we look back at recent conflicts, I have no doubt that both in 1890 and in 1908 an underlying cause of division was the separation of the gospel from the church. Those who were foremost in preaching the gospel, and used of God too, in their way, failed to connect it vitally with the church. A well-known evangelist, known to many here, told me soon after the Glanton division, that if God had not come

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in the truth as to the church would have been lost amongst the saints.

But in the present conflict the divorce is the other way round; the church has been separated from the gospel. Of these two things the latter is the more deadly. If you separate the gospel from the church, you lose the church vitally and also the best of the gospel; but there are still some elements of the gospel left. But if you separate the church from the gospel, you lose the church -- because you cannot have the church vitally without the gospel -- and you have given up the gospel, too. What is left? Nothing. And that is what I believe those who fail to move out of the religious association we have had to leave will find. The Lord will be faithful to devoted individuals, but as a body they have lost vital Christianity. It is a very solemn and sad thing. In divorcing the church from the gospel our brethren have lost the church. Claiming to have it, claiming to be it, they have lost the reality of it entirely. The enemy has come in, the sanctuary has been defiled and vital church truth has gone. And they have lost the gospel too. For if you bring in Judaism and Pharisaism you necessarily lose the gospel, and you have also lost the church.

But then the call for us is to see that in our minds and affections the two are not divorced, and that is the great test. How are we going to come out of the present conflict? It will help us if we face it now. We shall not come out according to God unless we see to it that in our thoughts and activities there is no divorce whatever between the gospel and the church. Both ministries are needed to secure incense to God's name and a pure oblation; and the great end in view must be God Himself.. The gospel, as a ministry,

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brings in unspeakable blessing for man; but the truth of the church secures what is for God, because what is adequate for God cannot be rendered by isolated individuals however blest. Therefore you must have the church if Christ is to have a worthy portion and if God is to have His; for the church is the body and the bride of Christ and it is God's house, His habitation in the Spirit.

There are many believers who have not the light of these things, and I am not saying anything derogatory about them; but if anyone has light as to the church, then it exhibits great heartlessness as to Christ and to God not to pursue it. It is right to think of men and their blessing, but let us not be heartless as to Christ and to God. Should there not be an adequate return to God? You must have the church for that, the final thing being: "To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages".

Well now, Romans shows that the mystery, which involves the truth of the church, goes out as widely as the gospel. In the first chapter Paul speaks of being separated to God's glad tidings concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and that by Christ Jesus our Lord he had received grace and apostleship on behalf of His name for obedience of faith among all the nations. That was Paul's gospel commission. Paul never gave up his commission, even when a prisoner; in 2 Timothy, he says as to the gospel: "to which I have been appointed a herald and apostle and teacher of the nations" (2 Timothy 1:11). He was not only an evangelist, he was a teacher. Peter was not only an evangelist -- a fisher of men -- but at the end of John's gospel he received his commission as a shepherd.

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Those gifts are complementary and are essential if the gospel is to bring in material for the church. The evangelist is for the edifying of the body of Christ, just as are the other gifts (Ephesians 4:12), and if anyone of us has anything less before him he is not with God.

The gospel blesses men in the fullest degree with a view to their filling their place in the church, and so we need evangelists; may the Lord raise up more evangelists! They have the full scope in their mind, all the nations; who knows where God may yet send some -- where the Spirit is working? The wind bloweth where it listeth. Surely God will have His servants ready -- true churchmen -- but having the gift of an evangelist; He will have them ready to take up the work wherever the wind blows, wherever the Spirit works sovereignly. And then we need the shepherd and the teacher so that those secured by the gospel do not fail to find their place in the body, the assembly. All gifts are for the edifying of the body of Christ, until the church is complete, "until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ" -- that is the woman entirely answering to the Man -- the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ. That is the objective in view, therefore, in all ministry. To regard one ministry as separate from another or rival to another is not of God.

And so at the end of this epistle (Romans), Paul says: "Now to him that is able to establish you according to my glad tidings and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, ..." He wants them established according to his glad tidings and the preaching of Jesus Christ

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and according to the revelation of the mystery. The first two, the glad tidings and the preaching of Jesus Christ are in view of the mystery. And as to the mystery, he says, "as to which silence has been kept in the times of the ages, but which has now been made manifest, and by prophetic scriptures, according to the commandment of the eternal God, made known for obedience of faith to all the nations". So that the truth of the mystery is to be made known as widely as the gospel is preached, that is to all the nations.

And this is very solemn; because how much have we been concerned about making known the mystery? The gospel is preached, the mystery made known. And you cannot make known the mystery by simply talking about it: right words come in and are needed, but to make known the mystery you must show it. I saw it working first in a farm labourer's cottage; and when I saw it working I was delivered from all the religious associations of men which we call Christendom. I saw the mystery working among the poor of the flock, and that is how it was made known to me for I did not know the doctrine of it then. I came into the company of simple folk who loved one another. They had love among themselves. Masters and servants were there according to the truth of the body, without respect of persons, and riches were flowing in from the ascended Head. They had not human learning, but proved that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were available in the mystery, because all are in Christ, the Head of the body, the assembly. The mystery, in that sense, was made known in that little company, and it freed me once for all from the whole dead weight of Christendom as built up by man.

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But have we not kept this truth mainly to ourselves, clothing ourselves with it, priding ourselves in it? And the moment you pride yourself in anything you have from God, you lose the power of it. So now if it is known at all, it is known in terms but not in power; the reality is gone, the substance is gone. The pride began long ago, pride in what we have got, what ministry we have got, what light we have got. Yet God was patient with us, and continued to teach us as to the mystery as we were ready to hear. But now that time has passed; brethren have turned aside their ear from the truth and turned aside to fables. It is a very solemn thing that instead of holding what God had given as light for all saints and for all the nations, we kept it for ourselves and prided ourselves in it till we lost it. But if we repent and are restored to the gain of these things, God may even yet give us an opportunity, as disentangled and freed from what is Laodicean, to make known the truth of the mystery among the nations. So that we may yet see in many more places, incense offered to God's name and a pure oblation.

We must be in the good of it if we are to show it. And so Paul says: "Now to him, that is able to establish you, according to my glad tidings and the preaching of Jesus Christ". Now Paul's glad tidings are clear enough; he says "But when God, who set me apart (even) from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, ... that I may announce him" (that is God's Son) "as glad tidings among the nations". (Galatians 1:15). Paul's glad tidings are clear enough, they are the announcement of God's Son as glad tidings. God has sent His Son that He might redeem us and that we might receive sonship (Galatians 4:5).

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Paul's glad tidings in the essence of it is sonship, the highest blessing for man. We need establishing according to Paul's glad tidings; we need the epistle to the Galatians to preserve us from every Judaistic tendency, every yoke of bondage, so as to be in the liberty in which Christ has set us free (Galatians 5:1); walking as He walked, not of the world as He was not of the world, led by the Spirit of God as sons of God. The present attack is intended to rob us of Paul's glad tidings.

Then he says, "the preaching of Jesus Christ"; that is another essential if we are to know the mystery. The preaching of Jesus Christ links with 1 Corinthians 2:2 -- he determined to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So that in Romans, when he is putting the whole gospel forward, he says the gospel of God concerning His Son "Jesus Christ our Lord". In Galatians he stresses God's Son, but in Corinthians he stresses the preaching of Jesus Christ. God's Son gives glory and liberty to the divine system; but Jesus Christ refers to Him as the pattern, the pattern of the whole system. God is building up a system, and soon is going to display it, where there is nothing but Jesus Christ, not a thing, everything will bear the character of Jesus Christ, like the tabernacle; every bit of it was typical of Christ, and nothing but Christ; either Christ personally or Christ in the saints.

So Jesus Christ is the pattern: "And see that thou make them according to their pattern, which hath been shewn to thee in the mountain" (Exodus 25:40, 26: 30). And the cross removes that which hinders the pattern being carried out. Our old man has been crucified with Him. The great thing we need at the present

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moment is the cross. It is not enough to say we have left the old system and that we do not want to bring any of it over; if you bring yourself over you have brought everything that can damage. It is our old man, yours and mine, which will do the damage. We don't want to bring over features of the old system that we are not of God; although we should bring over everything that is of God -- separating the precious from the vile. But above all let us not bring over our old man. I would like you to ask me just as I would like to ask you 'What has happened to your old man?' John stood by the cross; have you stood long enough by the cross to come to a judgment of the old man? Paul says: "having put off the old man with his deeds, and having put on the new", Colossians 3:9.

Paul ends the second epistle to the Corinthians by saying: "examine your own selves, if ye be in the faith; prove your own selves: do ye not recognise yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed ye be reprobates?" The truth is if Jesus Christ is not in me nor in you, we are not Christians, we don't belong to the system. If through grace Jesus Christ is in us, then do not let us obscure what is in us by allowing our old man any scope at all. He has been crucified with Christ when He bore what we deserved. Crucifixion is the only fitting end of our old man.

Christ was crucified for us; Paul was not crucified for you and he could not deliver you from the old man! Strange how we love the old man! But let us accept the crucifixion of our old man with great relief and love him no more. Let us see him buried. One hanged upon a tree was accursed and had to be buried the same day (Deuteronomy 21:23); why do not we bury our old man the same day? I would think John was prepared

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for that after standing by the cross until he saw the blood and water flow from Christ's side.

To be established according to the preaching of Jesus Christ is a root matter. Let us get down to the roots. If what we have passed through does not get us down to the roots, whatever will? And so let us be established according to Paul's gospel, that is, in the liberty of sonship, free from the Jew and all his principles; and not only that, but free from our old man in every way. So that Jesus Christ, who is in us through divine grace, may give character to us now. If so there will be nothing to hinder us entering into the gain of the mystery, for we will fit into our place in the body without any difficulty. If you take the tabernacle, every part typically was Christ, so that it all fitted together perfectly. But if anything extraneous had been introduced, all would have become spoiled. A man in the liberty of sonship does not quarrel with the place God gives him sovereignly in the body; he is ready to do anything. He would be also in affairs of this life. I remember a brother, in the army days of the 1914 war, saying that as a son he could break stones just as happily as carrying out an administrative post, if God appointed it.

But then the place God appoints to each member of the body is a precious place, even if obscure; it is wonderful to be in the body at all. And in the liberty of sonship we gladly accept the place God has given us. At the same time if I am in the gain of the preaching of Jesus Christ I would not bring in anything extraneous. So you see how you are ready for the mystery. The body is of Christ and we are not to bring in anything that is not of Christ. What happy local meetings we should have if we were in the gain

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of this! We should all fit together, each knowing his place and carrying it out in the liberty of sonship, no one bringing in anything extraneous. You look at everybody and you see the Spirit of Jesus Christ; you say what a lovely brother, what a lovely sister -- nothing but Christ! That is what God has in mind, but it takes some working out!

The Scriptures show us the high road to the working of this out; let us get down to it. The exercises of Romans 7 and 8 are involved, indeed chapters 7 to 12. Scripture shows us plainly the way to work it out, offering our body a living sacrifice, and fitting into our place in the one body in Christ in Romans 12; finding in it our place according to 1 Corinthians 12, as available for the manifestations of the Spirit; then coming to Colossians where we find that Christ is the Head of the body, the assembly. It is in Colossians we really come to the truth of the mystery. We are not only set together as one body and subject to the Spirit in His rights in the body, but we discover, in a practical way, Christ as the Head and the unlimited resources we have in Him. That is Colossians. He is the Head of the Body, the assembly. Who? The greatest Person imaginable! The One by Whom and for Whom all things were created; the One in Whom all the Fulness dwells bodily, He is the Head of the body; you could not have a better Head! And, you see, if you have not passed through, in some measure, the exercises of Romans and Corinthians, so that you fit into the structure, you will miss the gain of the Head. It is not worth allowing anything to lose that -- the flow that comes from the glorious Head of -- the body. "The riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you" and that implies

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not only in you characteristically, as we have been saying that every part of the structure is Christ, but also Christ among you, as Head.

No wonder Paul got to work, and we need to get to work. "Whom we announce", he said. What did Paul have in mind when he said "Whom we announce"? Both ministries -- the gospel and the church. He announced God's Son as glad tidings among the nations with a view to gaining people for the church, and you are not "perfect in Christ" until you are in your place in the one body in Christ. To present every man perfect in Christ involves everyone being in his place in the divine structure. Well, that is a big labour; "Whereunto I toil", he said. How little we are prepared to accept toil! the toil involved in helping souls to be established according to Paul's gospel. Think of the labour involved in freeing people from Judaism! Then the preaching of Jesus Christ, getting people into deliverance from their old man; and then getting them fitted into the body. To present a man perfect in Christ is a great work, and Paul set to work to do it. Have we set to work to do anything of this kind? We have not, unless we have got the gospel and the church in our hearts.

If we have not the pattern before us, we labour without knowing the end in view, like a builder getting to work before he has the architect's plan. And he says, "admonishing every man and teaching every man, ... to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ". Think of the scope that Paul had before him! So far as the largeness of his heart was concerned he had every man in the world before him -- every man in the world was potentially for Christ. And he was labouring that, so far as lay in

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him, every man should be in the gain of the gospel and the church. This is the thing we should have before us in our small measure, and the hardest work, no doubt in many ways, is to be done in our localities. That is where love is tested, that is where patience is needed, longsuffering, forbearance. He says, teaching every man and admonishing every man. Even in human affairs a teacher needs much patience. He has to be prepared to say the same thing many times over before it finally goes home, but at last his patience is rewarded.

So we need to be prepared to work with a view to presenting every man perfect in Christ. And not only work but combat; "Combating according to his working who works in me in power". It was heavy work for the Merarites moving the boards, fifteen feet long and I suppose 27 inches wide; but in addition to all this heavy work there is combating in prayer! -- how much time do we spend in prayer? He says: "For I would have you know what combat I have for you, and those in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh".

So think of Paul labouring, giving addresses in the day-time and going into houses in the evening to see how much had been understood before continuing public teaching the next day, and when all that was finished, agonising in prayer. The Lord would help us not to be superficial, but to get down to things and accept the fact that it is toil and combat; toiling in the actual working out of things and combating in prayer. Even a saint who is sick and cannot do active work, can combat in prayer. That is how Ephesians ends; "Praying at all seasons, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching unto this very thing

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with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints". (Ephesians 6:18.) What a labour! What a combat! Wrestling in prayer, "because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies". (Ephesians 6:12). They are encompassing us and we prove the terror of them, the terrible forces against us. The only way to meet them is to "be strong in the Lord and the might of his strength". But then, that cannot be without prayer, and those who have perforce to be restricted in activities can yet have part in that conflict in a very real way. Such persons can realise the forces against the testimony and withstand them in prayer before God. And so we need to take up these great matters. Let us not be feather-bed Christians; let us combat in prayer so that there may be results for God in these days.

And as to prayer, I would just say a word about prayer in Timothy. Prayer in Ephesians 6 and in 1 Timothy 2 are complementary. Both exhortations were for the Ephesian company. Ephesians 6 calls for all prayer and supplication in the Spirit for all the saints and for Paul; 1 Timothy 2 requires supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings for all men; and for kings and all that are in dignity. The Ephesians side would link with the golden altar, and 1 Timothy 2 with the brazen altar. Solomon's prayer at the brazen altar included all peoples of the earth (2 Chronicles 6:33); "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations", Mark 11:17.

At the golden altar you are thinking of the purpose of God and the saints as they are before God, so you pray for them that they might come into the gain of

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His purposes. But at the brazen altar you are thinking of the sacrifice of Christ "He gave himself a ransom for all", and so you pray for all men. The service on these two altars must never cease -- a continual burnt offering and a continual incense. Both must go on. Resort to the holiest, to which we have access at all times, and where we contemplate the glory of God shining forth in the glorified Man, will maintain us in spiritual energy for service at both altars continually.

I touched on Ephesians 1 and 3 to indicate the end in view in the mystery, that is Christ's portion and God's. In the end of chapter one the church is presented as His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. We need that conception to give us heart and strength for the labours. That is the objective. Adam named the creatures and finally he named the woman. The Lord named the church, no one else could. He said: "Why persecutest thou me?" The church had been there since Pentecost, but no one could name it but Christ. And He named it to the Apostle of the nations. It was Himself -- His body. What an impression that made on Paul! So we need to have the complete thing before us, what the church is to Christ; and then what it is to God -- "to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages".

The gospel produces lovers of God, and if you love God you will not be heartless as to Christ's portion nor as to God's. It was the man who appreciated most what the church is to Christ and to God who was the greatest evangelist; evangelical in outlook and desire. There was never such an evangelist as Paul, but what was his motive in his labours? He carried on the work

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of the gospel as a sacrificial service in order that the offering up of the nations might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:16). The offering up of the nations! -- think of what he had in mind! There was a new meat offering at the feast of Pentecost in Leviticus 23. It had leaven in it, two wave loaves baken with leaven, but the leaven was not active because it was baken. We can apply the type in this day to what is secured through the gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. If we are established according to Paul's glad tidings and the preaching of Jesus Christ, there will be substantially the new meat offering, composed of persons who present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Think of having substantial results like that in your locality through sanctification of the Holy Spirit!

And, as I said before, that lays the basis for the mystery. Paul had before him that his gospel and his preaching of Jesus Christ should bring about moral conditions that the mystery might become a working reality. And he agonised in prayer that it might; combating for all who had not seen his face in the flesh, which includes ourselves (Colossians 2:1 - 3) that our hearts might be encouraged, being united together in love. Think of what we get as we come into the gain of the mystery! A simple company in a country village become endowed with the wealth of heaven! They need the services of the evangelist and teacher to set them up in the gain of the gospel; but once they come to the truth of the mystery they learn to derive directly from Christ as Head. So while they are glad to see a gift at any time, they are not dependent on gift. As united in love and in touch with the Head in heaven

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(and known among them too), they learn that in their locality all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are available to them.

And that is the way we get our full portion and, in consequence, God gets His. If there is the new meat offering and the flowing in of the treasures it will mean that God will have His portion; that in every place -- whether in the country village or in the big town -- there will be incense offered to God's name and a pure oblation. May God grant that we may be helped in these matters -- and I do not add these words as a formality, but I say from all my heart -- for His Name's sake! Amen.