draw Mr. J.M. Davies will now speak. I almost hesitate to read the three scriptures, but I want to read with you. For they have been read and they have been spoken on until possibly many of us think they are threadbare and war. Some things with regard to what the apostle brought before the sage Corrin in order to set right things that were wrong in their midst, bringing before us things relative to the assembly. Someone, a brother in the Lord, was going to minister in a certain assembly and he said to them, What would you like? give us some church truth, brother. He says, church truth. You've had enough to sink a ship. And that is one reason why I hesitate to speak on these scriptures this afternoon. And yet I feel constrained to turn your attention to them. I certainly do not wish to say anything that will... beget any spirit of pride in our own heart with regard to any position we may consider we occupy and any witness we hold. The history of the church has been too sad for too long for any company's to have anything but a bowed head and a bowed heart. Failure has dodged the footsteps of the people of God for so long. I'm speaking now of the church and its general witness since apostolic day. The Lord said, Repent or else I will remove thy lampstand. It will either remember and repent or removal. And that was in apostolic day. And the history from then on has been a history of continued failure, as Revelation two and three makes clear. And things are not improving. And forgetting the history of the church in general, of all believers, in all associations, the history of assembly, in the last hundred and twenty-five years is not something that we can glory. Oh, there's much to thank God for, much to give God thanks for, as a great yield to cause us to bow our heads in shade. The envy The strife and the division of the past hundred and twenty-five years or so, I hope is too well known by all of us for us to have any pride of place and position or any glory in the fact that by grace today we meet. in the way we do. Limit your circle, if you like, and come to your own highly privileged north of Ireland. What has been the history of assembly? Much, of course, as I said before, to thank God for. But a stranger coming into the country is not here very long before he knows that there are currents and cross-currents and under-currents. Much what our brother has ended with has been characteristic of the testimony of assembly in Beloved Ulster. And so with these introductory remarks shall we turn to the three scriptures that I want to read. And I'll just read three and dwell upon them. You may already have anticipated what I'm going to speak about. Three well-known scriptures. First Corinthians chapter three. And we'll read from verse, just read verse seventeen. If any man defiled the temple of God, him shall God destroy. The word for defiled and the word destroy is a translation of the same word, as is used again in second Corinthians eleven, there translated karah. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Verse sixteen. Knowing not that ye are temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. The twelfth chapter, verse twenty-seven. Now ye are, leaving out the definite article, ye are body of Christ and members in particular. Now, Second Corinthians chapter eleven, in verse two, that I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, that I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you with chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear that by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his Saturday, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity. Following the Revives here, please, and purity that is towards Christ. It has nothing to do with simplicity of gathering. It has to do with simplicity and purity towards Christ. Heart devotion to Christ. Well, here are the three very well-worn, very well-known, very often-cooked portions of the Word of God, very often spoken on, I'm sure, in believers' meetings in various assemblies in Northern Ireland. This will not be the first time for all of us here to have had these scriptures read in our hearing. And I quite readily confess it's not the first time for me to draw attention to them either. and likely it will not be the law. I did hardly draw your attention, of course, to the fact that these are only three of many other similes and metaphors that are used in the New Testament. And I did hardly mention possibly that these three are found for us in the Epistle to the Ephesians. where we have the exposition of the truth relative to the Church given to us by the Apostle. And every occasion, every one of the nine references where the word Church is used in that epistle, it refers to the Church in its entirety. I prefer that word to the Church in its universal character. The church in its all-inclusiveness and exclusiveness. And in another epistle we have these three metaphors used. So whatever is true of the church in its entirety should characterize any company of believers. And that's what I want to emphasize this afternoon. What are these characteristics? And when we measure ourselves alongside of these characteristics, where do we find ourselves? How do we measure up to these New Testament standards? For they are New Testament standards. When you think of the assembly of a company of Christians and Corinth, spoken up as Enoch's temple of God. They were not the temple. They were characteristically temple of God. They were characteristically Bobby of Christ. And they were spoken of as a chaste virgin. Now when you think of these three together, there are certain things that clearly come before our mind. The word temple refers not to the temple in its the outer court and the holy place and the holiest of all. It refers just to the holiest of all, to the inner sanctuary. Now the first thing in connection with that sanctuary in the old economy, whether it be the tabernacle of the temple, was this, that here was a place that was illuminated by light. Not the light of nature, not the light of the lampstand, but the light of the Shekinah glory. Here was a small, confined place. There was all a glow with the glory of God. The brightness of God's glory was there, the light of God illuminating. Company of Christians then, according to what we have got in this epistle, should be a company, a company that is illuminated by divine light. that the light and the holiness of God should have its home in the abyss. In him there is no darkness at all. When you think of the term body, you don't think of light. You think of light. There is an organism that's animated by life. and a company of Christians, such as we read them in the New Testament, is a company that's animated by divine life. Life shared in common with the head, and life shared in common with every believer in the Lord Jesus. Life that links the individual believer to Christ the head, and life that links him equally with every believer in our Lord Jesus Christ. Life. Now when you think of the bride, the chaste virgin, you don't think of life. Nor do you think of life. You think of love. Here is an individual whose hearts have been won, whose hearts have been wooed and won by another. and she's waiting for the day of her household. It's love that's there. Love for the one to whom she's going to be united. And that's the teachers of everything that's hard. Her life is concerned. She's motivated by love. Now let me ask. as we hurriedly pass along. To what extent is the assembly with which you are associated, illuminated by the light of God's words and the light of God's Holy Spirit? To what extent is it animated by divine life? To what extent is it motivated by divine love? You see, these are the three of the attributes of deity. God is life. God is love. And of the Lord Jesus we read in him was life. In other words, that's why the church is the church of God, because there are characteristics in that company that belong to heaven, not to earth. There's something ungodly about that company. The life of God is there, and the life of God is there, and the love of God is there. Go back again, really. Where do you think of the temple? You think of where the priests worshiped. There were priests that were treaded, that were treading the courts of the sanctuary. to the place for priestly communion with God, place for priestly worship. The holiest of all I know is the place where only the high priest went. Here is Godward, ask me. Here is the assembly in its responsibility, Godward. To what extent is it? To what extent do we as companies of believers exercise our priestly ministry? To what extent do we enter in into what our attention has been going through? True worship. True worship. Occupation of heart to the glory of Christ. Occupation of heart to the person of Christ. Delighting before God with all that Christ is to the heart of God. How high do we lie? In the nature of worship. Is there any truth in the charge at times that the art of worship is becoming lost? And brethren who can really lead the saints of God in worship are few and far between. Well, in the Apostle J, you give us, thou give us thanks well. Oh, what a joy it is when you listen to somebody who leads the saints of God. in true spiritual worship. O brethren, those of you who seek to lead in the tainted worship, let us not think that we can do so by suddenly arising to it on a Lord's Day morning. If there is not a life lived in the attitude of soul worship before God, our worship on a Lord's Day morning will be a very empty one. Temple then is the place for worship. The body, not worship. It's not one word now. It's edification. It's edification. It's building up. It's not worship. It's work. It's not priestly ministry. It's Levite ministry. Have you noticed those ten deacons mentioned by Paul in chapter twelve? It's a master of illustration is the Apostle. The foot and the hand, the ear, the eye and the nose. Two feet, two hands, two ears, two eyes, two nostrils. pairs of deacons, and all of them working for the upbuilding of the body. You see, it's fellowship by virtue of being possessed of a common life and by virtue of submission to a common authority. These two hands have never agreed to do anything. They've never been in any disagreement. For the simple reason that both are subject to the one head. Sellowship in service is the result of submission to a common authority. It's work. Years ago I saw an ad in a Toronto paper of an argument between the ears and the nose and the eyes of truth. Who are the most important individuals? And the years they said, of course, they said, everything hangs on us, they said. Everything hangs on us. And then the nose laughed. You two fellas, there's not a bit of backbone in you. You know them with a bit of crystal. Pretty healthy if I wasn't there. I'm the only one with a backbone among you. Of course, that's not in Ireland, but far away from here. And yet come out of the Paul's illustrations are very up-to-date, aren't they? They're very modern, very modern. And the eyes listened, and they laughed, and they said, You fellas, Your only help for us to look through those cloutes. Does it one of the poets in England? He's speaking of this. He wrote a piece of poetry on it. The thing went to court, he says, according to that piece of poetry. And at last, the judge ordered that the eyes be closed because these two and the nose, they quarreled so much as to their responsibility, and so the eyes were closed and he was ordered closed, so the man fell and broke his nose. Now when you think of the church as the chaste virgin, you don't think of worship. You don't think of work. You think of one whose heart has been won and whose life is a witness to everybody. Her affections are not something to be played around with with everybody else. But heart has been captivated. And she's separated. Nobody can come to her anymore and offer her his hand, or seek her hand. She walks in separation from all of that, in the power of a new affection, in the power of devotion to the ones to whom she is engaged. And you go back over these three gates. The devil has a great interest in the assembly. The Lord Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. And that clearly indicates that he had a great interest in it. He'd like to prevail if he could. That's why we read so much about the devil in these first and second epistles to the Corinthians. That's why we read seven times about Satan in Revelation two and three. Out of the eight times that Satan is mentioned in the book of Revelation, five of them are in Revelation two and three. And the devil is, the word devil appears once. That's the fear where he's active today. What did he, what was he after in Corinth? You see the assembly, the temple is a clean place. A holy place. Unfortunately, unfortunately in Old Testament days, when a revival came, they had to clear out a lot of rubbish that had come in into the sanctuary. and in Corinth, but yes, what the devil wanted to do was to rob the assembly of its sanctity. Well, as there is among you envying and strife and division, are you not carnal? Do you not walk as men? For, as James, where envying and strife is, There is every evil work. That's why in chapter five we've got fornication. The envy and the strife for chapter three paves the way for the fornication of chapter five. Where there's envy and where there's strife. There's every evil work. I will remember out in India. Going along the lake with Sandy Bird and I had been together in Calicut. We went on to another place and there was a bit of trouble there. And I went along first. When I got there and began to listen, that scripture in James came before me, where envy and strife is, is every evil work. And I said, oh Lord, what is there to be brought out of this? What is it that needs to be unearthed? What is there that eats to be? To be brought to daylight. To be brought out. What is there that's hidden here? Is the envy and the strife, that which is the cause of this origin, something that hides it up? The devil wants to rob the assembly of its sanctity. same as he did rob the temple of his sanctity in John chapter two by introducing commercialism as we have heard about. When you think of the church as the body, and the assembly is to give expression to that truth. Every assembly is to give expression to the truth of the church as the temple. Every assembly is to give expression to the truth of the church as a body. And every assembly is to give expression to the truth of the church as the case version. These things are to be characteristic of any assembly. When you think of the unity, or rather the church as a body, the devil says, I'll rob it of its unity. Not only will he try to rob it of its sanctity, but robbing of its unity. He did it in Corinth. Some said, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, and the worst party of all said that they were of Christ. The worst of the poor, were those that made the highest claims of the four. Secretariat isn't it something like a virus that's cached into the very bloodstream of the church? They have to get rid of. Medical science doesn't know how to get rid of the little virus that gives the shingles, as I know you well from last nine months. It's a little thing. God knew anything with it. And some or other, this thing that came in in the early days of Ephesus, it persisted all down the century. The devil's interested in propagating it and in keeping it up. Keeping Christians divided. That's what the chapter twelve, that's the very aim of the chapter, he teaches us. That there be no schism. That there be no schism. Now he says, the foot can't say to the hand, because I'm not the hand, well then, I'm not coming to the meeting. And the ear can't say to the eye, well, if I can't get doing the eye's job, well, then goodbye. I'm going to the next meeting. Over y'all. That's the illustration, of course. I'm introducing things that are not exactly there, because Paul didn't say that the eye or the foot will come to leave and go somewhere else. But you don't need to have a very vivid imagination to see what's happening. Maybe I'm blessed with two vivid imaginations of dying. But after fifty years of moving amongst the people of God in various countries, some are other these things come to life. And they live. You see them carried out. You see them. Can't take it into life everywhere. The eye can't take to the hand. I don't need you. The more valuable can't take to the less valuable. I can get on without you. The man with the money says, all right, you carry on. I'll go on. I'll build a place of my own. The man who is the preacher... Just Pante, just Auntie Thompson, for instance. What a mighty, what a mighty man Thompson was. My, what a brawny army had. What strength there was in those muscles of his. You get a hold of those gates of Jason, carry them away. Tremendous power. Just a Pante, supposing the publishers was alive in his day. And Mephibosheth limps along after Othro. Johnson said, Sir, can I be a Batman, sir? Can I come along and carry a bag, sir? What do you think Johnson would have said to him? Get home. Look after the chicks, really. And said a brother in India. the very fact that he was able to do so much on his own, that the very thing that led to his ruin unto his death. My brethren, we need one another. We need one another. This is not a day to pull apart. This is a day in the language of Philippians chapter one. not to strive with each other, but to strive together for the faith of the gospel. That's the call for today. The head cannot say to the foot, I don't need thee. Oh, the grace that's given to us. He says, that member that hasn't got any gift, it may be adorned with grace. It's not a hand, it's not a piece. not the ears of the eyes that are always there, to the eyes, to the gaze of the public, a hidden member. Remember, gift is only for time. There will come a time when there will be no need to preach the gospel. There will come a time when there will be no need to evoke one another, as we do today. There will come a time when the teaching gift will be passed, but there never will be a time when grace will cease to be to the glory of God. A carnal man can appreciate gifts, an unconverted man can do that, but it's a spirituality to appreciate grace. To appreciate grace. Oh, that God may give us grace to go on seeking his way. And if the devil wants to rob the temple of its sanctity, and if he wants to rob the body of its unity, and thereby rob it of its ministry, assemblies, assemblies rob the ministry because of division. Servants of God having their hands tied because of this. The devil says, if I can rob the body of its ministry, of that food which will build up the same, I'll do it. I'll do it. If he does that with the other two, what does he do with the chaste version? The robber of a chastity. The robber of a purity. The robber. of her devotion to the Lord. She'll rob her of that. She'll rob the assembly of their warm heart and love to Christ. And love for the Lord and love for the people of God. And rob the people of God of their chastity. It's the same thing when a young woman Looties are chastity. Young sister, God, your chastity. We're living in days when you hear them editing. Morals are degraded, degenerated, fathers and mothers. God help you to be on your car and give wisdom to guys in these matters. that the assembly and the homes of God's people may be preserved for his glory. Oh, how the devil would rob the assembly of its chastity. And if she had robbed of her chastity, she has been robbed of her testimony. Testimony will have gone. God bless His Word. Shall we pray together?