of your calling. That word endeavoring is the word to be diligent, striving at this, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bonds of peace. What is the unity of the Spirit? I don't think it's a state of mind that we are of one accord though that's certainly wonderful but I think the unity of the Spirit is given in the next verse there is one body and one spirit even as you're called in one hope of your calling now in the case of the church we've seen that some of the glory of it in its origin, in its nature, in its purpose in this world, and also, though we didn't dwell on it, the future of the church, that he might present it to himself. That's not yet. That's in the future. That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. That's its glorious future. And we mentioned the fact that the local church should correspond to the church. If you took a globule of mercury in your hand, I always liked to experiment with mercury in chemistry class. And I remember dropping it on the table, and it burst into just a jillion little globules of mercury. But when you examine them, those little globules of mercury, you would see that they were identical with the original. The only difference was size. The same color, same shape, same chemical properties, but just a smaller size. And that's what the local churches are to the church. They are to represent the church as a whole. And they, like those globules of Mercury, they correspond to the original globule that I had in my hand originally. It's very much like that as to the local churches. And so we look at what's true of the church, And then we say, that should be displayed in our local church. And I would like for us to consider that tonight. First of all, we've seen the glory of the church. And now I'd like us to see the glory of the churches. In the Lord Jesus' eyes, first of all, would you look at Revelation, chapter one. Revelation one, beginning at verse eleven, eleven and twelve, and then verse twenty. Revelation one, verse eleven. A boy says of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest, write in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia. unto Ephesus, unto Smyrna, and Pergamon, Tharthara, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. Then the end of verse twenty, the Lord is speaking to him, and he says, The seven stars of the seven, or the angels of the seven churches, And the seven lampstands which thou sawest are the seven churches. So here he's seeing the local churches through the eyes of the Lord. And they are marked. They are golden. And God couldn't have put a better figure of the glory of a local church than by choosing this symbol gold. it's a golden lampstand and that should set before us the glory of the local church and it's in his eyes as he looks at the assemblies here and there and everywhere and he examines them as he's doing in this the next two chapters and he's doing it in the character that we see here I couldn't believe that that little granddaughter of Brother Steve and his wife could quote this portion of the word. It just doesn't seem possible that a child could remember these things, but she had it word for word, and she was quoting his whole section in here about the Lord Jesus. You know, some people think this is how the Lord's going to look when we see him, but that's not what he's telling us here. It's how he wants to see us now in the midst of the churches. And he hasn't sent out a bishop or some authority in the church to do this job. He is inspecting the churches himself. And we need to take this to heart and make it part of our... understanding of our responsibility collectively, not only individually, but collectively as a church. For he says this is the way he's approaching the church now. He's in the midst, but it's not in the midst of the two or three in that precious way. We see him in Matthew, sixteen, eighteen, where two or three are gathered in my name. There am I in the midst. Here he's in the midst of the seven churches, which speaks of all the churches, in fact, since it's the number of completeness. And it represents, of course, the churches, the local church on earth until he comes back. And he is examining, and it's a fearful view of the Lord Jesus. It is something to behold, and it ought to affect us now. No wonder John, when he saw the Lord walking about among the churches, examining them and trying them, and saw him in this light, he fell at his feet as dead. You would say, John, that's the Lord Jesus, who loved you in a special way. And you would call that disciple whom Jesus loved. Why are you falling on your face? And he would say, I knew him, but I never knew him like this. because it's an awesome view of the Lord Jesus. It's serious business. The Lord has put his estimate upon a local church. It's golden in his sight. And he's seeing to it that it walks accordingly. And he is in doing the judging here and now. Now look at Paul's estimate of the local church. You know, the only reason for local churches is simply geographical. We just can't get the whole church together, physically impossible. And so that's the excuse, that's the only reason that it's such a thing as churches, plural. Now, John, Paul gives us his view of the church. In Acts Acts XIII, we read about Paul and Barnabas being recommended to the grace of God, commended to the work of the Lord, and as they go out, they preach the gospel where it hasn't been heard. They cross the sea and go to Cyprus, and then they preach from the east side of Cyprus over to the west side as far as the town of Paphos. Then they cross the ocean again and they are in the land of Pamphylia and they go up into various cities to Lystra and finally to Derby. They go to Antioch and to Sidia and then they've gone so far inland And Eastwood as well, that when Paul decides they ought to go home and report to the assembly what the Lord has done, the most natural thing would have been to continue that way, because they didn't have to cross the ocean again of a sea, and they would be safer traveling, more direct paths back home to Antioch. And they could have gone that way. And I would think Paul would have gone that way. Just continued the circle, or sort of a circle, going back home and reached the cities along that side that hadn't heard the gospel. But he didn't do that. When he got as far as Derby, northward, then they turned around and came right back over their steps. And you would say, well, why the waste? Think of all the other people they could have preached to, the gospel. But the word tells us what they did. Look at chapter fourteen and verse twenty-one. When they preached the gospel to that city and they taught many, they returned again to Lystra, to Iconium, to Antioch. Why? Here's what they were doing, confirming that. the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. And when they had ordained elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord on whom they believed. So what they did was to turn around and come back and visit the same places where they had previously preached the gospel. But this time it's to establish the believers and to establish them as local assemblies or churches. And so you can see the importance of this side of the Lord's work in what Paul does in this case. He preached the gospel. He said, woe is me if I preach not the gospel. But he also said, showing his intent, He spoke of Timothy in First Corinthians four, seventeen. Timothy, he works the work of the Lord as I also do. And he tells the Corinthians that he'll teach them my ways that be in Christ, which I also teach in every church. Notice the emphasis on one hand of the gospel and the other hand. the establishing of local churches look at second corinthians please chapter eleven and see paul's concern for the local church it's such an important thing in the lord's eyes second corinthians eleven here paul describes the things he suffered in his labors for the Lord. And it makes you want to weep for him and weep because of our own lack of suffering for Christ's sake. Second Corinthians, verse twenty-three. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. In other words, he's going to compare himself with others, and he knows that's not the proper thing to do, but he's doing it. with a spiritual purpose, of course. Are they ministers of Christ, these other traveling itinerant preachers? I am more in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times received thy forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I had been in the deep. In journeying Boston in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. I think if I had to endure that, I would be apt to say, well, the Lord didn't want me in the works, and I would retire. But now, Paul, with all of that suffering, notice what he says about it. in conclusion verse twenty eight beside those things that are without that's the he calls these the outer sufferings they were physical mainly of course there was also the emotional as well but here is mainly physical sufferings and us which was so terrible and now he says beside those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily anxiety for all the churches. He seems to take the inner suffering, the burden, the anxiety for the Assemblies as the greatest suffering of the month. Certainly Paul points out the fact of the importance and the glory of the local church. In Colossians one, let's read some final words of Paul about the church. Colossians chapter one, verses twenty-four and twenty-five, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, that is for this church at Colossians. and fill up that which is behind or lacking in the sufferings of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. Of which I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill of a complete the word of God. Paul is telling us here that he has been especially chosen for this work of giving us the truth of the church and of the churches. And he calls his sufferings that which is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for his body's sake. That's almost puzzling, isn't it, when you first read it. Surely there's nothing left. No redemptive sufferings to be accomplished for the church. The Lord did it all. And yet he says, I'm filling up the sufferings of Christ. What is filling up? What is lacking in the afflictions of Christ? In other words, His job is to proclaim the church and the truth of the churches and the place of all this in the eyes of God and of our Lord Jesus, and therefore should be the same in our eyes. And to make this truth known, he suffers for it on every hand. And that's why he says, I suffer for it. the afflictions of Christ, which are lacking. That is, for the teaching, the establishing of the truth of the church. And it was his lot to do that. The Lord Jesus left before he got to that point, and he sent Paul to finish it, to proclaim this wonderful truth of the Christ and his church and his churches. So it's evident to me in these scriptures that the church, the local church as well as the church, held a very important place in the heart and mind of the Apostle Paul, and therefore it should be in ours. Now we read in Ephesians and verse three to keep the unity of the Spirit. How do we keep the unity? Well, that's just our point. It's that the local church should correspond to the church. What's true of the church should be the basis of what the local church is like. And the important thing that he emphasizes there in Ephesians four, And verse four is the oneness of the body. You remember in the parable that speaks of Israel, it's a treasure that a man finds in a field. And when he's found it, he sells all that he has and buys this whole field, and then he hides it in the field. And of course, that's so obviously Israel. Israel is now hidden in the field. They're set aside. And Israel is called my peculiar treasure in the Scriptures. The Lord speaks of Israel that way. But the next parable in Matthew thirteen is of the church. And this man buys one pearl. Notice it's one. Of great price. Sells all he has to buy that one pearl. How eloquently it speaks of the church. The pearl is produced by suffering. And the oyster gets some grit in it and irritates it. So it builds this wall of a mother pearl around it till it forms that lovely pearl. It's through suffering. And so the church is taken out of the sea as the pearls come from the sea. speaking of the church largely Gentiles. And the thing that I would like to especially underline is that it's one pearl. How perfect these parables are and these types. The oneness. How do we carry out this truth of the church as a local church? Well, first of all, we noticed last night when our time ran out, we were talking about the name that we bear, that we take the name of the Lord Jesus Christ only. That's our name. That's our banner. We are gathered in His name for His name, and that's all. Now, in First Corinthians chapter one, he mentions this, and he tells us that if we take other names that we are being divisive, that's not keeping the unity of the Spirit, is it? He's made one body, and then if we take sectarian names, we are dividing the body of Christ. As far as you can do that, that's what our testimony is if we bear a sectarian name. Verse twelve of First Corinthians chapter one. He said there are contentions among them and now this I say that every one of you sayeth I am a Paul or I of Apollos or I of Cephas or I of Christ. The friction is more obvious when you read it according to the Greek. It's the preface, the conjunction, the adversity conjunction, dead, which is argumentative, and it shows the friction among these Christians. And they were saying this. Now this I say, one says, I'm of Paul, but I of Apollos, but I of Cephas, but I of Christ. You can hear the friction and sense it as you read it, as the Greek puts it. And that's what human names do. When we take any other name than the Lord Jesus, then we have gone, we put something in competition with Christ's own name. That was what really shook me as I read this years ago and I realized that he was saying any other name you take you're putting it in competition with the name of the Lord Jesus you see if that isn't Paul's suggestion in the verses that follow is Christ divided was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul So he's saying, if you take these names, you're putting them in the place of his name. They're in competition with the precious name of Christ. You know, when I came out of the denomination in which I was brought up, my father was a pastor, and then I studied to be a preacher, and then I was ordained, and I went along as a pastor of the church. And finally, I was the associate pastor to my father in his church, which was three thousand members and on radio and all the rest. Just terrific opportunity, you know. And this kept hitting me. that I was calling myself by a sectarian name, and I would try to argue with the Lord. I would say, oh Lord, I'm not a, and call the name of my denomination. You know I'm trying to serve you and all that, but it never satisfied my conscience because I realized I was forbidden to do this. So when I, along with other scriptures, forced me to get out of my unscriptural position, just finally in obeying the Lord, I was out. And then later we began this little meeting, just four others started a meeting just gathered in the Lord's name and trying to go by the book. And I didn't even know what assemblies were. I didn't know that we thought we had a special revelation from the Lord. And then we the Lord led us to some of these brethren, and they thrilled our hearts, and we found there were many others that were meeting in the same way. And so we just rejoiced in going that path, and realizing we were obeying the Lord. But to my amazement, when that assembly that we helped start commended us to the work in Africa, I went up to New York and we were ready to go overseas. And I was signing the papers to get my passport and visa and all the rest. And I suddenly looked down and I saw where it said church or denomination and it was Plymouth Brethren number two. And I nearly fell over backwards. I almost decided not to go. Because when you take off a label for his sake in obedience to the word, you're not about to take on another label. And the only way I could excuse it was say, Lord, you know, and his artist felt you're calling us out there to the mission field, and we're not going to put the brethren on the two. But that's what these brethren have put us down as, and we just have to go along with it. But that thing really shocked me. And I never called myself a Plymouth Brethren. I don't even say if they say, what church do you go to? I don't say a Brethren church. I feel like we've lost, we've fumbled the ball when somebody asks us what church we go to and we say the Brethren. Do you realize what you've done when you say that? When you take a scriptural word that includes all believers, and you apply it to our church where we fellowship, you have perverted Scripture. The word brethren is used in the Bible to include all beliefs. So you ask me, well, what do you tell them then? Well, I don't have any problem about it. I just tell them that I meet with a group of Christians in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I find even the unsaved accept that. It's just Christians that want to argue with that. And I can't understand why. It's perfectly clear to me that that's the answer. And you might say again, well, they won't understand that. Well, that's not my problem. That's their problem. If they can't understand... that I'm in fellowship with a group of Christians gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus, then I'm not God's lawyer. I'm just his witness. And I leave it there. And I do think we need to beware of any title, any label that men put on us. I see some good book on the church and everything, and it's good, except the title of the book. And it says... those gathered in the name of the Lord or known as brethren. You kill the very thrust of the truth of keeping, guarding is that word, keep means. It means keep the eye upon so as to watch over, to guard. And we must guard the truth of the church that there's one body and we are all under that one bound, and we don't carry any other name. Now, we also carry this out, the oneness of the body in reception. I used to feel like, you know, we had to learn a lot of things because we started on our own and we didn't have any teachers until after we've been meeting for over a year or two. So we had to work some of them out the hard way. And one of them was reception. We just hardly dealt with it. We felt like if somebody came in and wanted to come into fellowship, that that was just their business. Come on in, you know, door wide open. But I find that in the Word of God, that that's not the way it is. There's such a thing as official reception of a person into the fellowship. Let's read some verses that tell us that. I'll read them for you to save time. In Colossians four, verse ten. Paul says, if he, speaking of Mark, come unto you, receive him. In Romans sixteen, verses one and two, Paul says to the church at Rome, I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Centria, in order that you may receive her in the Lord, worthy of the saints. Romans fourteen one again you have the matter of reception him that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful dissipations not to passing judgment on disputable matters in other words and he gives a reason Romans fourteen verse three says for God has received him receive him that's weak in the faith For God has received him. In Romans fifteen, verse seven, Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God. I don't think he's talking about Christ receiving us when he uses the words to the glory of God. I think he's talking about our receiving one another to the glory of God. even as Christ received us. Now, there are different ways in which this is carried out in the Word. The Word to receive in each of these verses and many others, Dougie Vine says this Word denotes it take to oneself or receive always in the middle voice which means to yourself that's the thrust of the middle voice always in the middle voice signifying a special interest on the part of the receiver when we receive somebody there should be that welcome there should be that warmth and desire to receive everything and not to exclude any that are walking with him he says it suggests a welcome as in acts twenty eight verse two the foreigners showed us no little kindness for they kindled a fire and welcomed us everyone because of the present rain and because of the cold so the word to receive indicates a desire to have folks, not just put an iron wall up and keep them out. That's a terrible thing. It's just the thought of it. It puts a chill on me to make it hard for people to come into our fellowship. And yet some do. It should be with a heart that's receptive and anxious and welcome. And practically this is carried out in the Word. First of all, and I think the best way, is by a letter. Second Corinthians chapter five, I believe it is. I'll have to check again. Let me check. Second Corinthians chapter five. Verse three. Wrote it in my notes, but I can't find it. Just go to the book and find it. No, that's not it. Paul is saying, oh, I'm in the wrong Corinthians. Second Corinthians. He's speaking about his nonsense. meeting letters as others do, but that he is already known among them. However, he indicates the use of letters. I'm sorry I can't find that verse. Three one. Thank you. Second Corinthians three. Verse one. That's it, yes. Do we begin again to commend ourselves Or need we as some others, epistles or letters of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Now you notice he says that others do need this, but in the middle of verse one. Or need we as some others do, epistles of commendation to you. So he's acknowledging that this was the custom. But it would be ridiculous for a man like Paul who's so well known and who actually established this assembly for him to need a letter. That would be like having our dear brother T. Ernest Wilson, who's been known among assemblies for so many years and for him to. need a letter that this is our assembly. It'll break bread with us. That would be just a letter of the law and be utterly ridiculous. And that's what Paul is saying of himself. You know, I need letters of commendation, but others do because they are not that well known. And so I believe that the ideal way to receive a person is for that person to have a letter from some other... assembly that commends them. You know, this works so beautifully, too. I remember Brother Hutton, I think it is from Iowa. We've never heard of him, but he called one Sunday and said they were traveling through, and he wanted to be at the worship meeting, and that's all they could stay for. They had to keep moving along. And he brought his letter from his home assembly. in Iowa. And so a correspondent of our assembly read the letter at the beginning of the meeting, as I noticed our brother did last Lord's Day, and immediately we relaxed, you know, this stranger, he was at home. The letter just took away all fear, any suspicion of somebody trying to wiggle in that wasn't really born again, something like that. And it also made him feel at home. And at the worship meeting, he brought a word and it was a blessing. And I think that is the ideal way to receive a person. But of course, sometimes you can't do that. Maybe the person hasn't even been an ascended. But it claims to be a real Christian. Well, one way that can be settled is like in the case of Saul, or Paul, as he was later called. When he went to Jerusalem the first time, the brethren wouldn't receive him. They just wouldn't have him. They said, this is the man that's been killing us. You think we're going to receive him? But Barnabas came along. Acts chapter nine, verse twenty-six through twenty-eight tells us that. I won't read it. This takes too much time. But Barnabas vouched. for Paul. In other words, he told them about his conversion and knew he was for real, and so they received him. And that's another way in which a person, we keep this oneness. We're seeking to receive every true believer, and we want to be careful. Remember the door to the tabernacle was thirty feet wide. Imagine a door that wide, the gates was thirty feet wide but it was also just one gate and we have to keep that balance is welcome but we also got to be sure that the person is saved the person and is not some person let's say under discipline and running away from it or something like that to the best of our ability we determine that and another person who knows that believer can vouch for him and is simply dissatisfied. Another way is on a person's own testimony. That is probably the most dangerous way. It's very easy to get a person in who's not really born again. But that's left up to the elders, of course, to how they talk with that person. And if the person comes in at the last minute, I think the elders generally get up and explain what this meeting is all about and for whom it is and make it clear all about. And so then the person has to make his own mind up whether he fits that and is to take the Lord's Supper. I saw a case of this in New Smyrna Beach. And you may do the very same thing. I don't know what your custom is. But the elders there were going to have a young lady to come in and meet with them. She wanted to be in fellowship in that meeting. And so they asked me if I would like to sit in on the meeting, and I really got a blessing out of it. And they told this young lady they wanted a testimony as to how she was saved. And they wanted to tell her what they believed in general and give her clear-cut view of how they operated. And what they expected of her, if she came into fellowship, she would fulfill her responsibility as a Christian in that local church. And they... made it so plain and clear and so gracious, and it was a delightful time. And I do think that it's wonderful if we receive people in this definite way, and not that they just simply slide in, as it were, into the fellowship. Doing it in that welcoming way, wanting that being in our midst, and yet explaining what it's all about. and what a person should be. I believe that about covers the matter of reception. And you notice what it's doing is seeking to receive all that believe truly in the Lord Jesus born again. And of course, they're not walking in any open sin or any flagrant disobedience of this. listed in the book itself as grounds for discipline. All right, then the next thing this one body needs, and I'll stop by quarter after I'll leave that at the time, is discipline. There is one body. Look again at First Corinthians chapter five. First Corinthians chapter five. Verse seven, purge out, therefore, the old leaven that you may be anew of, as you are an leaven, for even Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.