"THE LORD KNOWS THOSE THAT ARE HIS"
Jim Gray
I had a thought about this scripture, about what our brother has been referring to, what the Lord knows. That comes into this passage, "The Lord knows those that are his". That is a great comfort, He knows everyone, He knows each of us here tonight, He knows whether we belong to Him or not. I think everyone here does belong to the Lord, but the Lord knows that, He knows everyone, everyone who has trusted in His precious blood, who has had their sins washed away, He knows them. Wherever they are, in whatever country they are, whatever colour, or race, He knows them, they belong to Himself. They come into a wonderful category. Verse 9 of the first chapter brings that in - "according to the power of God; who has saved us, and has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time". That is the company to which we belong, everyone who knows Christ. It is wonderful the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, He knows them.
Paul is comforted by that, comforted in a day when he himself cannot be sure even as to those who were in fellowship at that time, whether they were Christ's or not. I understand that "Hymenaeus and Philetus; men who as to the truth have gone astray", as far as it was concerned at that time, were still in fellowship. But they had gone astray as to the truth and were leading others to be uncertain as to their salvation. It says they "overthrow the faith of some". But such conditions amongst the brethren at the time gave rise to Paul commenting as he does, under the Spirit of God's inditing, this passage of scripture for which we are ever thankful. I was thinking when reading the Acts recently of Paul's imprisonment, and his going to Jerusalem, where he really placed himself in relation to God's government, that out of it all, God used it to give us a word for the last days. If he had been a free man, it may have been that evil would have been restricted in his presence, as moving amongst the brethren, but God removed him from the scene in His own way. He was still there in the prison, he could still write his letters, but his personal influence in the assemblies was to some extent weakened and it gave rise to things coming out, that the Lord used to give us this scripture. It may not have been acted on much in the early days, we do not know, but it surely is a word for the last days.
I was thinking in speaking about this how we found the Lord and how we found one another. That is really what was on my heart. When you are brought up in fellowship you commit yourself, speaking personally, in relation to what you have been instructed in, many of us from our parents. We loved the Lord Jesus, we trusted the Lord as our Saviour, we desired to commit ourselves to the remembrance of Him in the breaking of bread. That was fine, the Lord would honour that. But then the time comes when you have to assess the matters for yourself. The time comes to exercise discretion. Maturity comes in the life of every one of us - why am I here? It says there is "a great house". Paul says "Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity. But in a great house". What is the great house? One did not have much idea what the great house was when one broke bread, but the time comes in your history when you wonder, you not only wonder, you enquire into what is the great house? As we have been instructed, it is all who profess to know Christ. It is every person who takes the name of being a Christian. There are persons who belong to other religions in the world, Muslim, Buddhist, they do not belong to the great house. The great house is everyone who says that they are a Christian. But, the Lord knows those that are His, those who are true to Christ, they belong to His body, the body of Christ. That is intact and goes through, despite all that has come in in Christendom; the body of Christ remains true to Himself, as linked with Himself by the Spirit: every true believer.
Then there is another thought of the house in scripture, God's house. Ephesians 2 speaks of a holy temple in the Lord. That is the true thing. Man has nothing to do with that. Then in Peter's epistle the spiritual house, that is the true thing. It is the house in testimony that is in mind there. What man has done has made Christianity into what Paul calls "a great house", and we can never get out of that. We are still part of Christendom. The Lord does not differentiate between companies publicly, He does not put a hallmark on any, to say that He is committed to any, He does not put a hallmark on any one publicly. We all belong to the great house. But then as we name the name of the Lord we have to withdraw from iniquity. There is a way of escape. In the town in which we lived there was a Roman church, there was a church of Scotland, there was the 'open' fellowship and then there were the brethren with whom we walked. That was the public situation and you have to find your way through. It is incumbent on all of us, the younger brethren in this city too, to come to it, why they are here, how we have found one another. We might take it that we have found one another because we have been brought up in fellowship and we have come into fellowship and we find one another that way, but that is not what is in mind. Everyone has to come the moral road, the moral road with intelligence. Paul speaks in Corinthians, "I speak as to intelligent persons" (see chapter 10). So intelligence comes into it, as to where I am. There is a need to understand the issues of the truth so that we find one another.
It says "purified himself', he takes a step alone. Follow through in your mind what it would be to take a step atone. Some brethren here may have taken that step alone, feeling what was inconsistent with Christ's name, walk out of it, seeking the Lord's guidance. That is the moral road, where they would find company that was suited to the Master, "serviceable to the Master". "Shall be a vessel to honour", that is the first thing. The person becomes a vessel to honour. We all have to come that way, we become a vessel to honour "sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work. But youthful lusts flee, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart". We find one another that way. That gives us a bond together. When you have found each other "with those" - and I do not think it is a local "those", Paul has in mind the general situation - such a company can be found. The Lord would direct us to that company, it is not what man would do. It involves exercise. I think there is a need in our souls to go through these things with the Lord as to finding one another and then you find the "with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart". What is their outlook? Affection for Christ and the truth. It is affection for Christ, it is "with those that call upon the Lord". It is His name, name the name of the Lord", it is His Name, His honour. There is much in Christendom at the present which is inconsistent with His honour, in the establishment, in the national churches, things in the great system of Rome too that the believer who is taught in the Scriptures would not be free to go on with. All this enters into your path, where would you go. Then the history amongst brethren too would come into our minds. How do we find one another? We find one another "with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart". Christ's honour, Christ's glory, is the outlook, the desire of the heart. What a thing to find one another, find another brother who is seeking to call "on the Lord out of a pure heart". What a thing to find a brother, a sister. That is what we have found, we have found one another, finding a brother, finding a sister, whose desire is to call on the Lord out of a pure heart. That is how they found one another in the 1820s, found persons dissatisfied with what was then available to them, and they found one another, and they sought the Lord's guidance as to how to move. That is the way to come. If we have not come that way, there is a lack in our foundation. It makes each one precious to us. What a thing it is to find one another, find a person who is prepared for this path, with its suffering and sorrow. We find one another in a broken-hearted manner. Most of us have come through divisions, and it has broken our hearts. One man said, he was a brokenhearted churchman, but I think there is more than one man could say that here. A brother in this city used to say to some of us, 'The coast is strewn with wrecks of better men than ourselves'. That is true, some of us have known men better than ourselves, wrecks in the testimony. But we have found one another, we have found one another and we are precious to one another.
That is what was on my heart, to draw out the preciousness of each one. One goes astray and another turns back; we feel it. We are all tested by this, "pursue". It is not something one does for once when one seeks to remember the Lord Jesus: it is a constant thing. May we rejoice in the constancy of pursuing righteousness; faith, love and peace with those, the appreciation with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. When one draws back, discontinues, fails to pursue, it is a sorrow. It is a sorrow, because once they were pursuing. Pursuing involves the expression of fellowship in the Lord's Supper - pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart, would include the Lord's Supper, because the Lord's Supper is the expression of fellowship. Let us continue in the pursuit, be a comfort to one another. When we find one another we are comforted, persons who have come a moral road, come a road through Christendom to where we are. You may say, what about other believers? The Lord would guide, we are confident in that, the Lord would guide an enquiring soul as to where he would find Himself. The desire is to find Christ, affection for Christ, an unofficial position, an informal position. But to find Christ, the reality of it, in the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we pursue! The Spirit of God's power would be in that, meekness, lowliness, the desire for Christ and Christ alone, the desire for the truth. If we desire Christ, we desire the truth. Christ and the truth are not to be parted. The Lord is the truth, "I am the way, the truth and the life". If we seek Christ we seek the truth. And so we continue. I say again, when one departs from pursuing, it brings sorrow into the heart, because once they were bright. Let us continue as pursuing, let us appreciate one another as those who have come this way. You might say, it has not been straightforward altogether for some of us, but it is straightforward if you follow the Scripture. But experience shows how tan led we can become through influence, many influences that ·influence the believer, yet with that one desire to please the Lord. That is Philadelphia, "I have set before thee an opened door". We have taken advantage of the opened door, we have found Christ through that opened door.
May the Lord help us, for His Name’s sake.
EDINBURGH
October 1997