The Church

We are told concerning the Church that they did not have all things in common, but all things common. Will you notice then, they all didn't wear the same kind of tie that I wear, or have the same kind of suit that I've got on, or have the same kind of car, if they can afford one, as I've got. So that as the Apostle Paul speaks in 2 Corinthians 8 that there might be equality there were those that had need, and those who had abundance brought to meet their need, so that there was no deficiency among the people of God. For in those early days the sufferings were great because they professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He takes as an illustration the manna, and you'll only notice it in the second epistle to the Corinthians chapter 9, that some gathered much and had nothing over; and some gathered little and had no lack. Not because the one had a big appetite and the other had a little appetite, but the one that gathered much was able to give to the one that gathered little, so that there was no lack gathered much today might only gather a little tomorrow, and he would be dependent upon his brother to meet his need then. So we get that glorious illustration, 'for ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich, So that is the thought, they didn't have all things in common, they had all things common.

Now brother, they went from house to house breaking bread, and eating with singleness of heart. That is not the Lord's supper. Reference has been made to the Lord's supper before that, and it constitutes one of the fundamental things belonging to the local assembly. "They that gladly received his word were baptised, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine,' and these are all proceeded by the definite article. In the fellowship, and it's after the fellowship that you get the breaking of bread and in prayers. So the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians in the first epistle and the eleventh chapter he says: 'when ye come together.' It is an assembly function. So they weren't just going from house to house and just doing it as some Christians are doing it today.

I know, and it is quite sentimental, that some of my aged brethren and sisters and sick ones would long to be with us to break bread. But you don't take the bread and the wine to the home just for the benefit of one or two. There is nothing vicarious in the breaking of bread, it is as often as ye do this ye do show, and not show forth, brother, ye do show His death until He come. It is an assembly function. So that he has already referred to that assembly function there in the fundamental principles of the local assembly. When it just what I have been enjoying this week and this next week if the Lord will, invited to the saint's house to eat meat and enjoy fellowship. But it is not the breaking of bread, it is just enjoying the fellowship of the Lord's people. Now those are just two points that I wanted to get home.

Some of my brethren said that this is a chart of seven dispensations - well it isn't. It is the chart of seven crises. Five have happened and two are yet to happen. But brother and sister, it doesn't mean to say that dispensations are not involved.

I'm hearing it in a number of different places that there are no such things as dispensations. You remember James and John the sons of thunder, they said to the Lord Jesus against the Samaritans that would not have Him, 'shall we call fire down out of heaven as Elijah did?' The Lord Jesus said: 'Ye know not of what spirit ye are.' So that the conditions of Elijah's day were not the conditions of their day. They were entirely different the one from the other. In the period of law he that doeth these things shall live by them. But in this period we are not justified by the deeds of the law but by the hearing of faith. We see that there are differences in the times and the periods.

Now, I am mentioning this because if we do away with dispensational truth we do away with the singular and individual character of the church, the work that God is doing today.

Let me tell you a story, because this is where I want to begin, and this is where I want to show that this church work is completely distinct from any other work that God has ever done, and He will never repeat it again after the rapture of the saints.

Some of you may know that I was in the fire service during the war, and they knew that I was a Christian, and I must say that I profited by it because if ever I had an engagement to speak they always let me go. I don't think I ever missed a meeting, unless, of course, there was a fire on. I led two of them to the Lord, too, and by the grace of God they went on. On the station there were three Jews, and two of them were orthodox Jews. Five of us had been out to a fire, and when we got back again the whole of the station, somewhere about forty men, were at dinner. So we collected our dinner, and as we walked into the room a blanket of silence fell over the company, and you have premonitions, that you are going to be involved sooner or later. As I looked around for a chair I could see one nudging the other, as if to say we've had the sparks before, we are going to have the fire now. Well, after a while the conversation started, and these three Jews had been holding the floor. They couldn't understand the senselessness and the foolishness of these people who persecute the Jews, seeing that the one that they call Christ, He was a Jew Himself. Christianity is the child of Judaism. Well, you know what David says, while I muse the fire burns, and you try to keep your peace, but then I spake with my tongue. So I stood up in front of them all, and I turned to the ring leader of the three Jews, and I said 'If God is pleased with the child then he would be pleased with the mother. We know He's pleased with Christianity, but He's not pleased with Judaism - He's rejected you.' For a gentile to say that to a Jew, they were really up in arms. What they weren't going to do! When they had finished I said I am going to prove it from your own book. Whether you have got chapter and verses in your Old Testament like we have in ours, but you will find It in the book of Hosea, and as far as I'm concerned it is in chapter 3. 'They shall abide alone many days, without a prince, without an ephod, without a sacrifice,' I said there are the evidences that God has rejected you and you have no means of approach to God. Show me your prince, show me your High Priest that can wear an ephod, show me a sacrifice, and here and now I'll apologise publicly before all the people. If you can't, it is the proof that God has rejected you. ' The three of them stood up and they walked out without another word.

The church does not belong to Judaism. As we pointed out Judaism was begun in the earth and carried on in the earth and will be finished in the earth. But this one does not belong to the earth from the beginning to the end. It's all together different. Our names are written in heaven; we are born from above; our spiritual blessings are in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus; we have been made to sit with Christ in the heavenlies; we are exhorted to set our affection on things above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God; and the Lord Jesus has gone to prepare a place for you, that the Apostle Paul calls 'home' to the child of God. So that from the beginning to the end, from the beginning at Pentecost, or from the beginning of my salvation, to the time when the Lord Jesus comes and takes us home, the whole character of this work is heavenly, and not earthly. So we get that distinction.

Let's come to Matthew 23. The Lord Jesus is turning to Jerusalem, and He says: '0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that stonest the prophets and killest them that are sent unto thee, how oft would I have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her brood under her wing, but ye would not. But now your house is left desolate unto you, and ye shall see me henceforth no more, until ye shall say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.' And you know when that is, when His feet touch the Mount of Olives, and the Mount of Olives is divided in two. So in Matthew 23 the Lord Jesus speaks of the house as a desolate house, a house that has been put upon one side, and will never come back again into the purposes of God until the church is gone, and Daniel's 70th week begins.

Did you notice in the reading in Acts 2, 'Save yourselves from this untoward generation.' Have a look at your margin, 'save yourselves from this perverse generation.' What is it, just those people that were alive? 0 dear, dear, no. I know some of the folk who love to dabble in prophesy, my, what they can get out of it! 'this generation shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled. ' Generation. That means from the time that the state began in Jerusalem, the recovery of the state there of the Jews, one generation and all these things that the Lord Jesus Christ has spoken of is going to be fulfilled. 'Save yourselves from this perverse generation.' Will you have a look at Matthew chapter I and verse I? You will discover that it is the beginning of the generations Of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham. Is that right? Well have a look again. Because it is not in the plural it's in the singular. It's the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. That generation takes you right from Abraham to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Generation .brother and sister, and if you have a look in your concordance it bears the interpretation of the word 'race'. That's the word in Matthew chapter one, the race, from which Christ came, into which he was born, and that's why that genealogy begins with Abraham, because he's the father of that race, 'have we not Abraham to out-father.' It is 'save yourselves from this perverse race', a race that had been rejected, and if they had wanted acceptance before God they had to disassociate themselves from that race, and from the verdict of that race upon the Christ of God and stand away from that race and identify themselves with the despised Nazarene and acknowledge Him as both Lord and Christ.

Alright, come into Acts chapter 15, and it is James that is now speaking, and he is speaking concerning God moving among the Gentiles. After He has finished His work among the Gentiles, the Church, he says after this I will return and build again the Tabernacle of David which is fallen in ruins. And so the Tabernacle of David was in ruins. So a three fold cord is not easily broken, is it? It's a desolate house, it's a perverse race, and it's the Tabernacle in ruins. And that's where Israel is today.

I don't despise a ministry that is going on to the Jews, my, they make good evangelists. But you'll not put a difference between a Jew and a Gentile today. There is no difference, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God will save a Gentile as willingly and as gladly as He'll save a son of Abraham's race. So I think I've said enough to show that dispensationally this work here is completely different to all that God has done before; that positionally this is different, that these two works that God has begun, and that He'll finish here belong to the earth; but this belongs to heaven. And doctrinally God has rejected the nation because of their rejection of the Messiah, and has started a work that Paul calls a mystery not revealed unto the prophets as it is now revealed unto the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now my younger brethren, as well as some of my older brethren, please get hold of that distinction, because if you are not going to make that distinction then you can fall foul of a number of different theories that I have no intention of going into.

Just to give you some idea of how big the subject is, this work that God is doing is described in 5 different aspects. It's spoken of first as Church, then as Body, then as House, then as Temple, and then it's spoken of as Bride.

I do believe that the Church is the bride of the Lamb. Oh, but how can the body be the bride? Well you don't mix your metaphors. And if God is speaking about the Church then He is speaking about the Church, and He is not speaking about the body. He is not speaking about the house, and He is not speaking about the others, although they are the same people, He's speaking of those people in a particular aspect, and you'll keep it in that aspect if He's dealing with it. If He is dealing with the Church as the body He is not dealing with the Church as the bride, that is a distinct subject, though they are the same company of people He is dealing with them in a different aspect. But if you want to take it back to Genesis 2, what was Eve before she became his wife? Bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. And that's how it's put in Ephesians 5.

There are only two, shall we use the word, ceremonies, I don't like the word sacrament. There are only two things belonging to the conduct of a local assembly that can be seen and appreciated by a world outside. To both of these things a world may come and see and listen - but a world has no part nor parcel in it. They can come and watch a believer baptised, but they are not in a position to be baptised; they can come and they can watch the saints celebrate the Lord's supper, (and brother, just to be a little bit narrow, I believe there's a difference between the supper and the table, have a look at it, brethren, that's by the way) but will you please notice, that if the world has the opportunity to watch and listen in both of these occasions they are reminded of the death of Christ.

When they watch the baptismal service they are reminded of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, as they see one associating themselves with that death, burial and resurrection through the waters of baptism. When we come to the Lord's supper we show the Lord's death until He come.

So in both of them they are allowed to look, they are allowed to listen, but in both of them the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is made the chief feature of their attention. The Spirit of God can use that. I remember on one occasion a sister was in the meeting, and her husband wasn't. He came, and he sat at the back, and before that meeting was finished he had left his seat and come and had knelt down there and was breaking his heart, there where the elements were. He was saying 'I'm a sinner, a sinner, and I need to trust Christ.' That was a good testimony, wasn't it?

Here is the distinct work. It has but two ceremonies, we'll use the word, so we can understand better. Two that can be appreciated by a world outside, but they both remind the world of the man that died upon Golgotha's tree.

What does 'Church' mean? Do you know, we are living in an age today when you walk outside the place and you'll see a notice: The Evangelical Church. I think we're getting to be a bit too proud to be called 'Gospel Hall', aren't we? I was invited to a place on one occasion, and it was an Evangelical Church. Well, I know quite a few assemblies that have changed and have called themselves Evangelical Churches, and there was one word that made me suspicious. They invited me, not only to a week's meetings, but to begin with a Convention on Saturday. I noted that, it's a word that we very rarely use in the assembly. So I wrote back, I said I've never been to your town, and I've never visited the place where you go, I would like to know to whom you belong. I belong to those people who are known as 'brethren', I belong to an assembly. According to your answer my decision will have to be made. So he wrote back again, he said we don't belong to the brethren, we are a non-denominational church. Well, brother and sister, he got the answer, I didn't go. You can see the danger, brethren, can't you? You can be just led astray. Don't get too proud. You know there was a time when we were just content to be called a meeting room. That's all it is.

This is not the church. The church is not bricks and mortar. Christ didn't die to save a building like this, but He loved the church, and He gave Himself for it.

There were two men, and they thought they were on virgin territory, and they were in the Papuan islands, and this Sunday morning they were breaking through the bush, and they came upon an opening in the forest. There were a company of natives, and they were sat in a circle, and there on a rough mat there was a piece of bread and there was a vessel with liquid in it. They looked in amazement, and they just stayed in the bush. And when it was all finished they came through. You know, when a stranger sees a stranger with a Bible you know he's safe. So in their pidgin English trying to make themselves understood they ask them who they were. they said we are the ekiesia. My, that was a good man that went there and taught them. You can't mistake that word, can you? I wish they'd left it in the Greek instead of putting it in English. It would have been better if we had been called an eklesia instead of a church or a chapel, or whatever it is that they do call themselves today.

'Ek', of course, is always 'out of, 'Ek'. 'Klesia' is a company. So 'Eklesia' is a 'company out of. That's the word 'church'. Let me give an illustration. Stephen makes reference to Israel being the eklesia in the wilderness. The word eklesia is used on a number of different occasions, but it means the same thing: 'a company of people out of. Now here are a company of people out of Egypt. They couldn't have been called an ekiesia if they had stayed in Egypt. They had to be out of Egypt to be an ekiesia.

The church is a company of people out of. Out of what? Listen to the words of the Lord Jesus in His prayer in John 17: 'They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.' So the church is a company of people brought out of the world. Let's go a step further, how were they brought out of Egypt? How were they made distinct from Egypt? They were made distinct through the blood of the lamb, on the ground of redemption. So how was I brought out of the world, to belong to that company that doesn't belong to the world anymore? How? I was brought out by the blood of the lamb. Redeemed, ye are not your own, you are bought with a price, even the blood of Christ.

Now, have I made it simple enough for you younger ones? That when we speak of the church we are not speaking of bricks and mortar, we are speaking of a company of people brought out of the world, not belonging to the world anymore, and we have been brought out by the blood of Christ, the sacrifice. So, we've been translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. If that's the case then let us behave ourselves in accordance with the condition and position that He has brought us into.

Now, I'm speaking of course of the church which is His body, and that includes every Christian. It does not matter where they go or who they are, or what they are, simple faith in Christ puts them into the church which is His body. At the rapture, they will be caught up to meet the Lord Jesus, but then at the Judgement seat of Christ they will have to give account. There are some Christians who say that the local church is a little reflection of the church which is His body. It isn't. Let me put it like this, simple faith in Christ will put me into the church which is His body, but simple faith in Christ wont put me into the assembly.

You can sin like the man sinned in I Corinthians 5, and you can do all the sins that are recorded there at the end of I Corinthians, but if you belong to the church which Is His body you'll still belong to it; but I'll tell you this, you wont belong to the local assembly, because you'll be put out of fellowship immediately. You see the difference, brethren?

Let's go a step further, and I reckon this will answer a question or two. Galations 3 is a scripture they use to support their argument. When we are talking about the church which is His body there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, bond nor freed, we are all one in Christ. Alright, they say, if we are in the church there is neither male nor female, and so the females can take as much part as what the males can. That's in the church which is His body but in the local church it's wives be in subjection to your husbands; husbands, love your wives; children obey your parents; and the difference is they are in the local assembly. So you'll be careful when you are talking about the church which is his body and the local assembly.

Let's consider a little the local assembly, because it's that which we are involved in mostly. As far as the church which is His body is concerned there isn't a body of elders in charge of it. We have no central government. As far as the local assembly is concerned there ought to be, scripturally, a company of responsible brethren responsible to the risen Christ.

Next is order in the local assembly. Now my elder brother, as I've said before I can't rebuke you, and I don't want to rebuke you, but I can entreat you as a father. Have a look down I Timothy 3, go on to Titus I, and then go back to John 10. And in one phrase the Lord Jesus sums up all that Paul has to say. He says: 'My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me.' Now, that's a good shepherd, isn't it? I was going along a country lane and there was a flock of sheep coming. So I had to stop. I started going again, and I stopped again and got out of the car and had a look. And I'd never seen it before and I've never seen it since. I've always seen a couple of dogs, and a man behind the sheep, but on this occasion the man was walking in front of the sheep and the sheep were following. That's a good shepherd.

My dear brother, never covet what some people think is an office, I know I Timothy 3 says that, but the word is ' the work ', ' If any man desire the work of an elder.' And why does he desire it? I'll tell you why, not for his own aggrandisement, but in accordance with Acts 20, 'among whom the Holy Ghost has made you overseers.' It's the Spirit of God that puts the desire in the heart of a man to care for the flock of God, and to care in such a way that he'll have the confidence of that flock, and they'll come to him for advice, and follow that advice with confidence. I've often thought about Psalm 23, and it's written by a shepherd, and he's talking about the greater shepherd. He said: "The Lord is my shepherd.' What a list he goes through, because the Lord is his shepherd. My elder brother, could the assembly say, 'Mr so-and-so is a shepherd, I shall not want, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters.' That's a shepherd. The one that has the confidence of the sheep.

Have a look in Hebrews 13, 'obey them that have the leadership.' I prefer that word rather than 'rule'. Obey them that have the leadership, as them that must give account to God, that they may do it with joy and not with weeping, for that is unprofitable to you. So my dear elder brother, you're responsibility is such as an undershepherd upon whom the Holy Ghost has given this work to do. There is a day coming when you will give account to the chief shepherd for the way you have treated the flock that have been put under your care. What a lovely assembly where there are godly elders upon whom the saints can rest and rely upon.

It's not everyone that is on the oversight that is an overseer. I lived in Norwich, and one morning I met a brother, and my, he was so vexed, he could hardly contain himself. He said: 'Last night I asked the oversight "could I join the oversight." They said no.' When I saw the man in his rage I said to myself they made a good decision. I said 'Brother, if they don't accept you on the oversight they can't stop you from doing the work of an overseer.' When I go into strange places, or where I've never been before, and you don't know who's who or what's what, I tell you what I do do. Not to criticise, just to make sure, I watch the sheep, and I see where they go, and I look at the man that they go to, and I say there's the shepherd alright. They trust him.

I know the terms of I Timothy 3, they are perfection. No-one has reached up to that height yet, but every one upon whose heart the Holy Spirit has laid the care of the church, then it ought to be their concern to reach that pinnacle which the Spirit of God has set, that he might be an example to the flock. Happy is that assembly that has elders.

That's where order comes in, Godly order. My dear elder brother, you'll never use preference, and you'll never use bias, and you'll never gloss over for any reason at all whatsoever, If you have got to deal with a matter you will deal with it in the fear of the Lord. You will deal with it to preserve the Temple of God in all its purity as it should be, and you'll deal with it righteously. Of course you'll deal with it with the objective of discipline with a view to restoration. I know some men, they wouldn't have them back if they came back weeping on hands and knees. Discipline with a view to restoration.

When the apostle Paul went on his tours he didn't go alone, he'd take a company of men with him, and when God blessed the word that was preached and souls were saved then he'd leave a couple behind. That's a good work. I remember being over in Holland a few years ago, and he was the son of an Australian woman and a Scots man, living in Holland. He was my interpreter, and his father and mother were missionaries. His father had had quite a serious accident, and so he took me out to see him on one occasion. His father was telling me of how much blessing they'd had here and there. I said: 'what have you done with those that have made professions?' He looked at me in amazement. Listen, brother and sister, when a child is born you don't throw it on the rubbish heap. You don't say: "There you are, you've got life now, look after yourself.' There Is a lot of work to be done, and so Paul left men behind.

Just because some sinners have been saved that does not constitute an assembly. You want my scriptures? I'll give you one in I Corinthians I, 'Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.' There it is, brethren, 'so that ye came behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' That is an assembly, that is the testimony, where the preaching of the gospel is, and is believed by people who have now been blessed by gift, so that, by the Spirit of God exercising the gift, they can maintain that testimony, even without the help of. some of the others.

It is nice to live in close proximity to other assemblies, and good to enjoy fellowship the one with the other. But in the days of the apostle Paul they were hundreds of miles apart. You can pull Corinth to pieces as much as you like but they came behind in no gift. I know a lot of assemblies that are not bothered about gift. As long as they've got two or three in the meeting that can keep it going, they'll sit back and do nothing. You'll give credit to the Corinthians, they came behind in no gift. Mark you, they were using gift in a wicked and unlawful way, they were using it to cause division, 'I am of Apollos, I am of Paul, I am of Cephas, I am of Christ, ' they were condoning with fornication in the midst, that produced heresy according to I Corinthians 15. Gift can be misused, but where gift is used in the power of the Spirit of God it's for the edifying of the body.

Which would, of course, lead you on to another line of thought. If you turn to Ephesians 4 you'll discover first of all a foundational unity. The unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There are 7 things given. One Lord, on faith, one baptism, and so on. There is no fundamental unity except they stand on the ground of those things.

Then he goes a step further and comes to a structural unity. 'To some he gave apostles, to some prophets, to some evangelists, pastors, teachers, for the re-adjusting of the saints, for the edifying of the body, until we all come in the unity of the faith.' You can't damage that fundamental unity, that's the unity of the Spirit. In the days in which we live we are almost breaking the structural unity to pieces, one believes this, and another believes that and another believes something else, while we ought to be coming to the unity of the faith, to the perfect man, the fullness of the stature of Christ.

That belongs to eternity? It doesn't! That's the purpose of God for today, and I'll tell you why - because Paul goes on to say: 'That ye be no more children, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, and the cunning sleight of men that lay in wait to deceive.' So that if we acknowledge the gifts, the structural gifts, until we come to that perfect manhood, that mature manhood, then no strange doctrine would ever affect us or bother us at all.

The local assembly is God's testimony in any given place. God dwells in the midst of His people, and please let me say, let's get hold of this truth: there's a difference in coming together to a meeting and gathering to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. '0, it's the meeting night tonight, you going?' Brother and sister, they do that when they go to the cinema; they do that when they go to the football match. When we gather, we gather to His name, and our conduct will be such that it may bring more honour to that name, and we'll maintain it in its purity.

We have been talking about gifts. I've been to many an assembly, it's been a lovely assembly, but I've been back a couple of years later and you'd wonder if it was the same assembly that you'd visited. Why? because the Lord has taken one or two brethren home. The rest of the assembly had depended on them. 'He giveth to every man.' Listen again, 1st Corinthians 12, 'He giveth to every man severally as He wills.' So that there is none without gift, and it's my business to know what that gift is. And it's your business to know what that gift is.

Now listen, young men, you want to know how to discover what God wants you to do? Then you won't sit in your house and do nothing. I'll tell you what to do, show God that you are willing to do anything. If there are houses that need tracting, if someone needs a little help over their difficulty, if someone is sick there and needs visiting, if there is something in the hall that needs to be done. Listen, 'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, that do with thy might.' You'll discover it's not God opening the door, but that it is God shutting the door, until you get that there's only one door left open, and you keep on walking through it. I've been doing that now for the last 50 years. That's what God wants you to do. You'll keep on doing it until He tells you to stop.

My brethren, when you get a soul saved you won't put him on the platform until it becomes evident to the assembly, that God has given that man the gift that needs a platform. When you discover the man's got the gift, whatever it is, then my brother, my sister, you'll make use of it that the man might exercise his gift, because that gift is for the benefit of the local assembly.

At the judgement seat of Christ, you'll be as responsible as I am for the gift. I trust you are not going to be like the steward with one talent and bury it, and bring it back and say "There it is. I knew you were a hard and austere man, there's what you gave me.' What are you going to do? Are you going to trade with it, and bring a bit of interest as well? It'll be for His glory. But be careful how you do it, because it'll either be wood, hay or stubble, or gold, silver and precious stones. If you want to know the difference: wood, hay and stubble are the dead things that are left behind when the things that really matter are taken away. Wood not trees, hay not grass, stubble not grain, the things of value are gone. There they are on the surface, and everybody can see them. I tell you this, there'll be some of the brethren bringing it up in cart loads there at the judgement seat of Christ. My, it'll make a lovely big fire. The fire will be there ready to burn it, but the gold, silver and precious stones, a waistcoat pocket full of them will be worth far more than a cart load of wood hay and stubble. It's stuff that is buried, and is cultivated in the secret place, and has come into being because it has already endured the fire. So when it's brought out to light you'll find faults and blemishes in the gold and silver and the precious stones, of course you will. I've been to the gold mines, I've seen them there culling for diamonds, in fact in its raw state I wouldn't even know it was a diamond.

You might find the flaws in the gift now, but when that gift is taken up to the judgement seat of Christ all the flaws are going to be burnt and it's going to be pure gold, and pure silver, and there are going to be diamonds fit for the crown of the One that loves us.

Now please, brother and sister, esteem the local assembly because of its heavenly character. I haven't mentioned it is His greatest work, or the fact that we've got two comforters: a comforter in heaven - an advocate with the father, a comforter with the father, and we've got a comforter down here, 'I will send another comforter.' He have gifts which the Spirit of Christ is ready to exercise and use. I don't know why the assemblies of God's people are in such a state as they are, when they ought to be going on from strength to strength that we be not ashamed before Him at His coming.