When God saves a person, they enter into a new relationship with Him, becoming a child of God and a member of the body of Christ. This new identity brings with it the authority to be God's child, adoption into His family, and unity with all other believers through the Holy Spirit's baptism into one body. The sermon emphasizes that this unity is crucial for the world to recognize God's sending of His Son, and it calls believers to actively maintain this unity through humility, meekness, and forbearance, separating themselves from iniquity and apostasy to live as vessels of honor for God's glory.
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John chapter one, verse twelve. John chapter one, verse twelve, verse eleven. John chapter one, verse eleven, he came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power. The Greek word here is exosius. It means authority. To them gave he the right, the title, the authority to become Children of God. John never uses the word sons, except in one case. John always uses the word children. The Greek word for children, children is techna.
The Greek word for son is yios. And John doesn't use yios. Paul uses it a great deal, the sons of God with all the dignity of sonship. John uses it once and only once. In the twenty-first chapter of Revelation, it says, He that over the one that's on the throne speaks, He that's on the throne speaks out in eternity, He speaks. He that overcome it shall inherit all things, and I will be his father, and he shall be my son, Eos. The only time that John uses the word son, every other occasion where it's translated son, write in the word child or children. So, As many as received him, to them gave he the authority to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
First Corinthians chapter twelve. First Corinthians chapter twelve and verse twelve. For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not the body, is it, therefore, not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now God has set the members, every one of them in the body, as it has pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body?
But now are they many members but one body? Many members but one body. Ephesians chapter two. verse nineteen now therefore ye are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of god and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, in whom all the buildings fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Ephesians chapter four, verse one. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that he walked worthy of the vocation, really the Greek word here means the calling. We have been called with a heavenly calling, that we walk worthy of the calling wherewith we are called, with all loneliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.
And then finally, Second Timothy. Second Timothy chapter two, verse nineteen. Two Timothy two nineteen. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, He shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.
May God bless the reading of his own precious work. Shall we pray? Blessed God, we thank thee again, as we always thank thee for this wonderful book, the Bible. We thank thee for the book without mistakes, the book without errors, the book which is perfect, thy word which is forever settled in heaven. of which thou hast said, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall never pass away. And we thank thee we have the written word of God in our hands. O Lord, that we might value it and read it more and more. And we thank thee the entrance of thy word, give it light. And we ask thee that tonight the Holy Spirit of God might take the Holy Word of God and apply it to our hearts for thy glory.
We seek thy blessing on this meeting in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, over a period of some months, when I have been speaking on a Sunday evening here, I have been speaking, talking in a series on the... Well, I've tried to explain it this way. Many years ago, God saved me. He saved me like a, just like a flash, when the man said that whosoever believeth in him, when he said believeth, God saved me. Just as instantaneous as that, God saved me. And I suppose all, every one of us here tonight, who saved and look back to some moment in our life when God saved us.
Little did we know what took place. I had no idea. And over the years and sixty-two years have passed since God saved me, and over the years I have been learning more and more and more of what took place that moment that God saved me. Wonderful things took place. I knew nothing about it. All I knew was that I was saved and I rejoiced in it. I remember as a little boy I was ten. I remember going to school next day and I said, it can't be. I prayed so long to be saved. It can't be true. And I hurried home lunchtime. And I went up to the bedroom and I got my Bible. And I read John three sixteen once more.
Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. I said it's true. And I have never doubted from then to now that I've got eternal life. Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I take it we're on that ground tonight. But what happened then? I had no idea. And we've been talking about it. If I can recall the subjects we've mentioned, we talked one night about the fact that we were forgiven. That moment when God saved us, He forgave us. All the guilt of ours was forgiven. That moment we were justified. Before that we were condemned. We were condemned to the judgment of God.
But the moment God saved us, we who were condemned were counted justified, just as if we had never sinned from that moment on. He justified. Then we talked about the fact that we were redeemed. You see, we were in the house of bondage, like the children of Israel in Egypt. We were in bondage, and God redeemed us. It took place the moment God saved me. I didn't know it. I've learned it since. And then we talked about the fact that we're sanctified. Now, to be sanctified is to be counted in God's presence, to be counted holy. In the temple, in the tabernacle, in the old Jewish economy, there were certain vessels that were sanctified.
And they were set apart to be used only for divine purposes, only for holy uses. And when God saved me, He sanctified me. He set me apart for Himself. This isn't a process that I have to do. He did it. He counted me sanctified as set apart to Him then. Oh, there are many times when I haven't lived up to that standard. But in God's reckoning, that's what took place. He says to me, Now be ye holy, for I am holy, we have to do that. But in God's reckoning, He set me aside when He saved me. Thank you, Father. I remember the last time we spoke, about six weeks ago, our subject was adoption. When God saved me, He adopted me into His family.
Wonderful truth. I didn't know it, but that's what happened. Adopted into his family. And adopted in a very wonderful way. When God adopted us into his family, he adopted us that we might be just like his son and conformed to the image of his son with the New Testament teaching or adoption. Those wonderful, wonderful truths about the great future we're going to have with Christ. We talked about that last time. But tonight... I want to talk about, I don't know if I've really got my title for tonight, I want to talk about our new relationship. You see, when God saved me, then he put me in his family.
He put me into his family. For as many as received him, to then gave the authority to become children of God. And the moment I accepted Christ, I became God's child. Wonderful relationship. To think that we live in a world of sin. We live in a world of wickedness. And we are here as God's children. Long ago, God's own son walked this scene for thirty-three years. And God looked down upon him in pure delight with all that he did. We were reading this morning of how he said, The works which the Father has given me to finish. I've got to do them. And he finished all the work that God gave him.
Now, sometimes when I used to talk to Christian businessmen's committees, I used to talk about the Son of God in a workshop, you know, as a carpenter. The Son of God amidst the sons of men. I believe in those long years he worked in a workshop because he was thirty when he came out to his public ministry. You know, I believe he was the most perfect carpenter that this world has ever seen. I'm a perfectionist. So when I do things I like them straight and square and round and perfect. I don't like any shoddy work. I can't stand it. But the Lord Jesus did perfect work. I believe when he made tables and chairs.
You couldn't see where the wood was joined together. The joints were so perfect and all the wooden dowels and pins that held it together in those days before they had screws like we've got now, I believe they were so put in that you could even see them. He did a perfect job. If he could make the universe so perfect, how wonderful was the work he did. And God looked down upon his son, working in a workshop, And after thirty years he said, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well seen, everything he did. He was making tables and chairs and yokes for oxen. God was pleased with it. The Son of God amidst the sons of men.
But today we are the sons of God. It says in Ephesians chapter two, verse fifteen, I mean Philippians chapter two, fifteen. I wasn't intending saying this tonight, I'm kind of wondering. Philippines, it says, Philippians two, fourteen, do all things without murmuring and disputing, that he may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, near the word sons is correct, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom he shined as lights in the world, holding forth a word of life. God looks down today. His Son is in heaven, but He looks down today and He's bringing many sons unto glory and He's looking down upon you and me and we're in the family of God, His Son, and He's expecting us to be like this, blameless and harmless, the Son of God.
So that one day God will be able to say of us, as He said of His Son, this is one of my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. I wonder if you could say that about you and me this last week, in whom I am well pleased. I'm digressing. So this great thing happened to me. I've called it our new relationship. When we were saved, we came into a new relationship. We became children of God. But more than that, that brought us into the family and into the household of God. But more than that, let's go over to I Corinthians chapter twelve, the verses we read.
One Corinthians chapter twelve. It says, For by one Spirit, verse thirteen, verse thirteen, for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. I believe that's what happened to me when God saved me. I'm not talking about water baptism, that's another thing. The baptism of the Spirit... in relation to the Church of God, is to baptize us into one body. Every born-again believer is baptized by the Spirit of God into the body of Christ.
So this is our new relationship. Not only am I a child in God's family, but I am a member of the body of Christ. This is very important. As I talk to people, I know how many people come to Park at the Palms, you know, we've had so many visitors this week. Most nights we've had practically every room taken this week because the Christian Missionary Alliance Church in Florida have held their annual week's conference at Lake Swan. Lake Swan belongs to the Christian Missionary Alliance Church, and they kindly loaned it to us for three weeks for our camp horizon this year. And some very wonderful people have been coming here. Lake Swan, they are developing.
They're building sixteen, I think, new motel rooms, modern rooms, but at the moment it's a kind of a camp over there, and they've been sending some of their, mostly their ministers up here with their wives. And I've had some interesting conversations this week with some beautiful people, some lovely men I've met this week. But do you know the first question they asked me? What denomination are you here talking about? What's your denomination? How do you answer a question like that? What's your denomination? And one man, he said, I don't know much about the Plymouth Bread, and I said, neither do I, sir.
He said, what do you mean? I said, well, I don't know. I never call myself Plymouth Bread. You call me Plymouth Bread. I don't. Because I can't read anything about that in the Bible. It's not there. By one spirit, we are all baptized in a one body. And to each of these men this week, I've been saying to them, Do you know, first Corinthians, twelve, thirteen? For by one spirit we are all baptized into one body. Oh yeah, yeah, that's right, that's right. We're all baptized into one body. And we are one body in Christ. Four times in that wonderful seventeenth chapter of John, The Lord Jesus prayed four times that they all may be one.
That they all may be one. Father, as thou, oh, let's read it just as he puts it there. I love the way he puts it. Verse twenty-one, that they all may be one, as thou father art in me and I in thee. You think of this divine relationship of the Father and the Son, as thou father art in me and I am in thee, that they all might be one, that they also may be one in us. What a relationship.
As the Father was in the Son, and as the Son is in the Father, so he prays that we might be one. In us, we are linked up for eternity with the Father and the Son. What a relationship, right? That they all may be one. And it seems to me, or the Lord goes on to say, He puts it here somewhere, that the world may know. Yeah, this is it. That they all may be one in us, that the world may know that thou hast sent me. What the Lord is saying here is, the way the world is going to know that God the Father sent the Son, the way they're going to know is if the members of the body of Christ are one.
If we can show the unity of the body of Christ, The Lord's praying. By that way, the world is going to know. So Satan, the arch-enemy of God, I think he must have said to himself, Now, if I can break this bit up, if I can break this up, then the whole thing is smashed up. It'll never succeed if I can break them up. And that's Satan's work. One man was talking to me this week. He said to him, Why are you people called Plymouth Brothers? I said, let me ask you, why you call us Plymouth Plymouth. We don't call ourselves Plymouth Plymouth. Why don't you call us Plymouth Plymouth? He said, I don't know. That's what they say.
Well, I said, no, I'll tell you. And I told him a little bit about a wonderful work of God which took place about a hundred and fifty years ago. of how God spoke to certain men all over the world. Christian men, devout Christian men. At that time things were in a great decline. The religious denominations of that day were like they are today falling away and things were very bad. And over there in Great Britain there was a lot of ritualism but very little reality. And there were certain men over there, a student in Trinity College, Dublin, And there were ministers in various churches over there.
And there were certain men in Switzerland. And there were other Christians in British Guyana down there. And the West Indies. And out in Australia. And New Zealand. And Germany. And all over the world. Men devout men. Who were so dissatisfied with things that were going on around. That they read the Word of God. And the Holy Spirit of God in a remarkable way taught them certain truths. Up till that time, the coming of the Lord Jesus was a neglected and forgotten theory. People didn't, they'd forgotten that the Lord was coming back. All down through the Middle Ages, when the Church of Rome ruled supreme through the world, the coming of Christ was forgotten. And God revealed this, and I told this man, God revealed these truths, truths which you enjoy.
I said, you enjoy these today. God revealed them to these men a hundred and fifty years ago. And whilst they were preaching in their churches, they met earlier, before they went to church Sunday morning, they met in a house here or a house there, and they remembered the Lord together in the breaking of the bread as we did. And this thing happened, not all we talk about Dublin, it did happen in Dublin, but not only there. It happened in Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand. I was reading this week of a group that started, even before they met in Dublin, it started down in British Guyana, and before they met in Dublin there was a thousand strong meeting there, remembering the Lord on the first day of the week.
A movement of the Spirit of God throughout the world. And they said, we want no denominational name, and they called one another brother, and therefore the newspapers called them brethren, isn't it? But there was one group at Plymouth, Plymouth, England. Now, I've been to Plymouth. I know Plymouth England. Very badly blitzed and smashed up by the Germans in the war with Plymouth, and it was from Plymouth that the Pilgrim Fathers sailed. I've been to the very spot where they got on board their boat and sailed over here. And one group at Plymouth grew very fast until there was a thousand members in the group. And all the newspapers called them the Plymouth Brethren, the Plymouth Brethren.
Now they call me a Plymouth Brother, and I never lived in Plymouth in my life. But that's how it's come about, see. And he asked me to explain all this. So I said to him, now then, by one's faith, we're all baptized into one body. And I said, I believe it's Satan's work to smash up the body of Christ. And I said, he did exactly that with the people you're calling Plymouth Brother. He broke them up, all right. He said, oh, yes, I know. I've looked up the yearbooks and so on, and I see there's eight groups of people called Plymouth Brethren.
I said, is that so? I said, well, I don't worry about things like I'm a member of the body of Christ. I was in a house once up in Massachusetts twenty-so years ago, and there was a very beloved brother there, and he was teasing me, you know. He was really teasing me. Because he was a Baptist, I don't like mentioning denominations, but he was a Baptist and he said to me, ah, you, Plymouth Breton, you're all smashed up and you're all broken up, see? And the house in which I was living, the man said, well, now let's check this out. Oh, yes, he said, you were all broken up. So he got a yearbook and he said, Plymouth Breton, and he read eight sections. And then the brother said, now let's see what it says about the Baptists.
And he turned over Baptist. Twenty-eight sections. I said, who's broken up now? Who is broken? Twenty-eight sections. And I'm not talking, I don't want to talk about denominations. But what I'm saying is, is I don't care what the denominations are. Mention any denomination you like. They're broken up. They're split up. Why? Because that's the work of Satan to break us up. Father, I pray that they all might be one, that the world might know that thou hast sent me. And Satan said, I'll break them up. He did it. And so today we have hundreds of denominations in the world. But I'll tell you something.
Amid all those denominations, there are born-again believers. And every born-again believer, when he was saved, he was baptized by one Spirit into the body of Christ. And we are one. We are one in Christ. Outwardly we may be broken up. But when the Lord looks down, he knows them that are his. We read that just now. The Lord knows them that are his. The foundation standeth sure. And the Lord knows having this. We read it in Timothy. The foundation standeth sure. Having this, he says that the Lord knows them that are his. I mean all the breakup.
The Lord knows them that are his. And when God saved you, and when God saved me, we were made members of the body of Christ. Personally, I don't want to be a member of anything else. You know, everybody wants you to be a member today. I mean, you get letters over your desk all the time. so much a year for a membership for this and a membership in that and a membership in the other. We must join up into groups and be members of this and members of that. That's not for the Christian.
Let me say that's not for the Christian. When I was going abroad for the first time and leaving the shores of Great Britain, a friend of mine said to me, Bob, you're going abroad and he said, you'll find many problems and I'd like to help you. I said, it's very kind of you. What would you like to do for me? He said, I can get you, if you'd like, I can get you a membership in one of the greatest societies in the world. And if you'll join, he said, it's not easy to join, but I'll get you in. I can do it. And he said, if you'll join, wherever you go, you'll have a friend.
I said, indeed that was to be very, very wonderful. What kind of an organization? He said, it's the Freemasons. The Freemasons. Will you join? I said, thank you. I appreciate your kindness. But I'm not joining because I'm in a far bigger society than the Freemasons. What? There's no bigger, even the Great Masons. No bigger society than the Freemason couldn't be. I said, oh, yes, there is. I said, there's the body of Christ, a membership of the body of Christ. And wherever I go, I've got friends. More than that, I've got brothers. I'm going to Greece, I said. I don't know a soul there. But I know they're brethren there, and I'll have the most wonderful fellowship out there, better than I could ever get in the Freemasons.
But they want you to join. They want you to be a member. I've mentioned a few things tonight. I don't like mentioning denominations and names of societies and so on. But I'm trying to explain a point. We are members of the body of Christ. And this took place the moment I was saved. I was baptized into the body of Christ. Now, let's pause a minute. Do you realize this? Do we all realize that we are members of the body of Christ? Our new relationship. Ephesians chapter two and verse nineteen. He says...
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. I am in the household of God. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what happens. This is one of the great things that happened to me, and I didn't know anything about it. I'm only learning about it as the years go by more and more. But I'm in the household of faith. I'm in the body of Christ. More than that, I'm a citizen of heaven. We may talk about that some night. We have a new citizenship. Our politics are up there, not down here all this nonsense they got going on down at Miami Beach just now.
We're not in that sort of business. Our politics are up there in heaven where Christ is at the right hand of God. And he says, set your affection on things which are above, not on things which are on the earth. We belong up there. And we are here not to take part in the politics of this world, but we are here as ambassadors to tell men, be your essence of the God. That's our business. Ambassadors, strangers, pilgrims, not connected with it. So we are members then of the body of Christ. Our new relationships, our new responsibilities. You see, when you join something, They expect you to take your part, you know.
It's no good to be a member of some society and never turn up to the meetings. They very soon write your letter and say, we don't consider you a member at all. You don't come to any of the meetings. I think we ought to do that to some people that never turn up to the midweek prayer meeting, don't you? I can't say that here at Park and the Pounders because everybody comes to the prayer meeting midweek. But I've been in many, many assemblies where You can get a lot of people at the Lord's table, but they're not there at the midweek prayer meeting. I'll ask you a question. Are they in fellowship? Are they in fellowship? I don't think they're in fellowship. They'd say they are. And some of these that never turn up at the midweek prayer meeting, they'd have a lot to say Sunday morning about who should be in and who should be out.
But they don't come to the prayer meeting. That's not fellowship. With my new relationship goes my new responsibilities, and if I'm a member of the body of Christ, I better find a group of Christians and get with them, you know. There is one church, the body of Christ, the universal church, but there are many local churches, many local churches. And somewhere in this great world, I've got to find my position in some local church. Some people say, oh, I can go on my own. I got my Bible. I can pray. You can't go on your own. Because the Lord's plan is that we should have fellowship. Our strength is in our fellowship. Our joy and happiness is in our fellowship.
How much we realize and know this at heart of the problem. So we have to be in some local fellowship called in the New Testament the church, the local church, the churches which are in Galatia, the church which is at Corinth. That's how Paul, that's the language Paul uses. You never hear Paul say the assembly, which is at Corinth. No, he didn't say that. The Bible language is the church, which is at Corinth. Never hear Paul say the chapel, which is at Corinth. The chapel can't speak nor read nor talk nor anything. Well, what can that do? He says the church, which is a living organism, the members of the body of Christ, and death. Paul writes to these.
He says, you're no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens were the saints. And we're built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief coroner. Stone, in whom the whole building fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for inhabitation of God by the Spirit. And as members of the body of Christ, and as members of this mystical thing in the church, which is called the building of God, The Lord dwells in our midst. That's the church. The church is the Lord dwelling in the midst of his faith. Now, we have to find our spot somewhere. We have to find people like-minded.
In this great big world, we've got to find some people that meet as we meet. Let me put it a better way. Now, I don't put it that way. That meet according to the pattern of the New Testament. Let's say that. I remember when I went to Greece and there was a soul that I knew that was a Christian. What a thrill it was to find a group of believers meeting there. And then I asked them, I said, now what do you call yourselves? They said, Christians. But I said, yeah, that's good. But are you linked with anything? Are you linked with the Lord in heaven? And they gave all the right answers, all down the line, you know, all down the line.
See? And they were just believers in the Lord Jesus. And they came together on the first day of the week to break bread. And what a thrill it was, I couldn't understand how word they were saying, but I could see their happy faces that I knew what they were doing. I joined into it. And I said, who came and taught you this? Some missionary came to Greece and told you to do what you're doing. He said, no missionaries ever been here and no missionaries allowed to come to Greece. The Greek government would not allow missionaries to go foreign missionaries, and we never learned it from anybody except from that book. How wonderfully the Spirit of God works. And I found men who believe what I believe.
And if I looked down a list of all the brethren missionaries, I wouldn't find one of those people in Greece mentioned. That didn't matter to me a bit. I found believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are members of the body of Christ. Oh, I remember so well in the World War II days, we spent years, four years in Egypt, we spent cut off from everything, but not cut off from God's people. And as one and another came along, men from Australia, men from New Zealand, men from Canada, men from the United States, men from Scotland and Ireland and England and Wales, we gathered there and we gathered on one ground.
We were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we had the greatest fellowship, I think I had ever known up till that time, all one in Christ Jesus. And I don't think anybody ever asked, are you a Baptist or a Presbyterian or a Plymouth Brethren or what are you? Never asked that question at all. We were members together in Christ. This is what God brought us into. A tremendous fellowship God brought us into it when we were saved. Our responsibilities, Ephesians chapter four, verse one. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that he walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all loneliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
That should be our great business, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now, you can't do it if you're going to be stubborn on certain points and have your own way and say, I'm right and everybody else is wrong. It can't be done that way. It's got to be done with all lowliness. Look at the words. Lowliness, meekness, long suffering, forbearing one another in love. That's how you keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. You don't do it by being a big noise yourself and saying, I believe it this way, and if you don't agree with that, then I'm going somewhere else, or you go away and lead me and I'll run it my way.
That's not how you do it. We have to have patience with one another. And we keep the unity of the Spirit with all loneliness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. You see... God didn't make your nose like my nose. Perhaps you're very thankful for that. But still, God didn't make your face like my face. And there's nobody here that's got the same face. And if our faces are so different, don't you think our minds and our thoughts and so on are the same?
How could I make somebody's brain to be patterned according to my brain? Can't be done. But this is what sticks the church up. Men get all the certain theories and they say, now you've got to look at it just as I look at it. Why should they? God didn't make two people the same thing. I can agree with what he says. I may not, I can listen to what he says. I may not fully agree, but I tell you what I can do. I can be lowly. I can be me. I can have all long suffering and forbear the brother-in-law. And then I'll keep the unity of the Spirit. We won't be splitting up, you know. And hiding off and starting something over there and have nothing to do with the people we were with before.
That's what's broken the church up. Our responsibilities then is to remember that Lord Jesus prayed that they all may be one that the world might know that thou hast sent me. And we should endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now finally, I put down this word that our new relationship, our new responsibilities, our new regulations, I couldn't think of another word that would fit in, but our new regulations. You see, there are certain rules. When you join a society, they send you the book of rules. I remember when I joined the Christian Businessmen's Committee many years ago.
I said, well, I don't want to be in any membership of anything, but I love these men, and I signed up, and then they sent me the rules. Book of rules. That's what you have. Well, here's the book of rules. When you get in this society here, you get the book of rules. And we have to obey the regulation. We've been talking a bit about them tonight, keeping the unity of the Spirit. Let's turn over to Timothy. To Timothy chapter two, rather wonderful chapter here. To Timothy chapter two, verse nineteen, nevertheless the foundation of God stands its shore. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.
So as we said before, in all the denominations around us today, the Lord knows them that are his, and there is one body. The Lord knows them that are his. and let everyone that nameth, the name of Christ, depart from iniquity. Now, it doesn't say he's got to depart from fellow believers. This is where the mistake's being made. It doesn't say he's got to separate himself from fellow believers. He's got to separate himself from iniquity. He's got to be clean. He's got to come out of things that are not clean. Where there's iniquity, he's got to get out of it. I can't be going to the places where the men and women of this world go in their dens and places of iniquity.
It can't be. I belong to Christ. I'm in the body of Christ. I'm God's child. I belong to the household of faith. I'm a member of the body of Christ. I've got to be separated. I can't do what other people do and what I did before I was saved. It can't be. Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house, and now he's talking about the church as a great house, you know, as a great house, the house of God. In a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and earth, some to honor and some to dishonor.
If a man therefore purge himself or cleanse himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. I believe I have to separate myself. I'm talking personally. I have to separate myself from those things that are dishonoring to the Lord. In the great house Christendom, the so-called church today... There are many vessels. Some are gold, some are silver, some are wood, and some are earthen. We could talk a lot about this, but we won't.
But he says, you separate yourself out of it. Purge yourself from the unclean, coming out from among them and be clean. And I think we have to take our position somewhere along the line. has separated from these things that are not... Now I know many people, they say, well, I go to certain church and I say, well, are there modernists in the church? Oh, yes, there are modernists there, but you see, I go because I think I'll be like a leveling influence there, and I'll try and by my influence there, I'll get it right. You ain't gonna get it right, I tell you, it's getting worse and worse.
The apostasy is already coming and it's getting worse and worse and darker and darker. You can't put it right. If you want to keep your own life right, you better get out of it. You better get separated from it. Let a man purge himself from these unclean things. How could you sit at the Lord's table with men professing Christians who are not Christians who taught, who don't believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. It couldn't be. How can you be a member of a thing like that? You couldn't be. You've got to get out of it. This is the regulations that we should separate ourselves from things that are unclean, from the world in all its filth, the world in all its ways, and from apostate Christendom, I believe today we must be separated and be a people for God's name and His glory.
So these are briefly some of the things that I believe God will have us learn. One of the great things that happened to me the moment God saved me, he made me a member of his family. I became his son. He made me a member of his household. I considered his table. And he made me a member of the body of Christ. And in that I have membership and fellowship with other fellow Christians. And my responsibility is to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we thank thee for these wonderful things that happen when thou didst save us. We thank thee, Lord, we are redeemed. We thank thee, we are sanctified. We thank thee we are justified. We thank thee we are forgiven. We thank thee we have a salvation. We thank thee we have received the adoption to which we are in God's family. And now, Lord, we thank thee again tonight for saving us. And as the years go by, if the Lord Jesus be not come, reveal more and more to our heart of the great things thou hast done for us. We believe, Lord, for all eternity we will go on learning, and learning and learning.
All the wonders thou hast for those who have accepted Christ as Savior. Think it away, Lord, with joy in our hearts to try and put into practice the things we heard from thy word. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.