Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Welcome to the Lance Lambert Ministries Podcast.
[00:00:04] For more information on Lance's ministry, visit lancelambert.org.
[00:00:28] Now I wonder whether we could turn to the word of God.
[00:00:33] There is just really one matter I want to speak about this morning.
[00:00:41] It is from that Psalm 2, Psalm 2 and verse 6.
[00:00:50] Yet to I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. What a wonderful world.
[00:01:02] What a truly wonderful world. Simple, dogmatic, categoric, and absolutely factual.
[00:01:14] Yet I have set my king upon my holy hills of Zion. I love the word yet because it implies that in the midst of all the disturbance, of all the trouble, of all the antagonism, of all the opposition to God and to his Christ, yet says the Lord, I have set my king upon my holy hill of thine. The Lord himself is unshakable.
[00:01:50] His throne is forever and ever established in the heavens.
[00:01:58] Now, I don't need to tell you that we're living in a very disturbed world, a trifle more disturbed than when I last saw you face to face.
[00:02:13] Then I suppose I spoke, and I've often thought, you must think I'm a prophet of gloom. I spoke the last time upon the shaking that must come. If we are in the last era of world history.
[00:02:28] And you know, that shaking, it really does seem as if it has started.
[00:02:33] I never thought I would hear a cabinet minister say that there is a possibility of revolution in England.
[00:02:44] Yet Wedgwood then has said publicly to a party meeting, Labour Party meeting in Wales, that there is a distinct possibility of revolution, bloodshed in Britain.
[00:03:04] You must realize that power now lies in the hands of young people.
[00:03:10] Do you know that over 60% of the population of Poland is under the age of 21? 60%.
[00:03:18] And this is the same all over Europe.
[00:03:23] Power is passing out of the hands of responsible people into the hands of wild and irresponsible people.
[00:03:33] Now, that's one side of the picture.
[00:03:37] I had been traveling in the bastion of freedom, the United States, and I never ever thought that I would see some of the sights I saw.
[00:03:53] The last time I went to the States, they had the worst transit strike they'd ever had in their history, followed by some other disturbances.
[00:04:02] I wondered what I was in for this time.
[00:04:05] This time Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated and all the troubles. And when I was in Washington and saw some of those, in my estimation, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
[00:04:21] When I saw the result of the writing, unless you've seen it with your eyes, you cannot believe it. It was just like London in the Blitz. Great departmental store, size of Harrods gutted from end to end, twisted steel girders, apartment block, blocks of flats simply gutted.
[00:04:44] House after house, heaps of rubble. For 20 minutes in a car, we went down 14th Street Street. And that's all that was on every side. And that's only one part of the trouble.
[00:04:56] If that can happen in the capital, the bastion of freedom, what else might we expect?
[00:05:04] The world is being shaken to its foundation, the stablest economy in Europe. France is not Britain, but Francis is now almost in ruins.
[00:05:21] It is almost impossible for our minds to take in what is happening now. We mustn't be gloomy and pessimistic.
[00:05:34] The fact is, for years we have all believed that the end of the age would bring such disorder and confusion.
[00:05:44] And though we believe about the coming of the Lord, yet we have this amazing capacity, all of us, not to really believe.
[00:05:53] We believe and yet we don't believe.
[00:05:56] And when we begin to see these things happening, we're absolutely shocked.
[00:06:02] Yet in fact, although there may be fear in our hearts as to what will happen to us if once things public law and order breaks down altogether and the possibility of bloodshed and trouble, strife, we must understand what the Lord is doing.
[00:06:27] What is the Lord doing here it is. Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. The people rage, the kings of the earth set themselves, the rulers take counsel together, and so on. The peoples meditate vain things. The nations rage. Yet the Lord has set his king upon his holy hill of Zion. The fact is this, that above and beyond everything that is happening in this world, our Lord Jesus Christ is infernal, absolute king. And to me it is of.
[00:07:12] I just can't tell you the encouragement and strength it is to me to know that Daniel, 600 years before Christ was born, saw all this.
[00:07:27] He saw it all. He read to us this morning.
[00:07:31] He saw the whole thing. He saw the whole course of what we call the times of the Gentiles, beginning with the Babylonian empire, passing to the Persian empire, passing to the Greek empire, passing to the Roman empire of which our present civilization is the extension according to the Bible.
[00:07:52] And the wonderful word is this. And the saints shall possess the kingdom.
[00:07:59] In the end, Daniel looked down the hundreds and hundreds, the millennia of time, thousands of years of history, of human history, but the ultimate thing was this.
[00:08:18] The saints will possess the kingdom.
[00:08:21] The saints will possess the kingdom.
[00:08:24] It doesn't always look like it, does it?
[00:08:26] When we see what has happened in China, we know that in China the only thing that exists above the ground is A false church, utterly false. From top to bottom.
[00:08:38] We know that the only thing that exists in Russia for the most part, is a false church.
[00:08:45] The real thing is underground.
[00:08:48] Yet the word of God stands forever true.
[00:08:52] The saints will possess the kingdom.
[00:08:57] And that's why little word in Hebrews chapter 12 is so applicable where it says about everything being shaken that can be shaken. In verse 28 it says, wherefore receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace whereby we may offer service well pleasing to God with reverence and awe.
[00:09:25] We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
[00:09:30] We may have the shaking.
[00:09:33] We, we are, after all, flesh and blood.
[00:09:36] We are, after all, within this world system.
[00:09:40] And even if we're not inhabitants, we're. We're pilgrims and sergeants were still in it.
[00:09:46] So we're going to feel the shaking.
[00:09:49] And furthermore the shaking is going to come to us, as I think we've already felt, must have necessity. Always times of political and economic instability are times of spiritual shaking related.
[00:10:07] Great movements in the unseen have an effect upon spiritual things.
[00:10:14] Because in the final analysis, these things which seem to be only flesh and blood, are spiritual forces. Make no mistake about it. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We wrestle against principalities, against powers, against world rulers of this present darkness and hosts of wicked spirits in the heavenlies.
[00:10:34] Now what is the Lord doing?
[00:10:36] Well, this is what he's doing.
[00:10:38] He's building.
[00:10:41] Very simple.
[00:10:43] That's what the Lord. He's building.
[00:10:46] And although at times you and I may feel that we're all in pieces, the Lord is building. For this is the word of the Lord. He says in Matthew 16, verse 18, Thou art Peter, shaky, impetuous, not really knowing yourself, full of the best intentions in the world.
[00:11:11] Thou art Peter.
[00:11:14] But upon this rock I will build my church, that is, upon the rock that is myself, I will build my church.
[00:11:26] And the gate of hell shall not prevail against it, shall not, shall not prevail against it. To thee have I given the keys of the kingdom.
[00:11:45] Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loose in heaven. That is a wonderful, wonderful word to thee, to Peter, to thee, not to you all. But the Lord was saying, peter, thou art Peter, the shaky, impetuous, well intentioned Peter who doesn't really know himself yet, the Peter who's going to be sifted by Satan, but for whom the Lord prayed that his faith failed. Now thou art Peter.
[00:12:25] And to thee such flesh and blood as you I have Given the keys of the kingdom.
[00:12:34] Keys are symbol of authority in the Bible.
[00:12:39] The keys of the kingdom.
[00:12:44] Now, my dear family, the fact of the matter is that the Lord's objective is to build his church. The Lord has never given up.
[00:13:01] We've given up.
[00:13:03] But the Lord has never for one single instant at any time given up his plan, which is to build. And that's why the shakings.
[00:13:15] We are so compromised, so apathetic, so lethargic, so centered on the things of time and of sense that the shaking's got to come. Not because the Lord wants to shape this world, he could fold it up in an instant, but to get you and me.
[00:13:38] That's why it says in Revelation 19 and rejoice and be glad for the for the the marriage feast of the Lamb is come, and the wife has made the bride hath made herself ready.
[00:13:50] Has made herself ready. Not God hath made her ready, but she has made herself ready.
[00:13:58] How can the Lord get you and I, as the church of God, to make ourselves ready?
[00:14:08] If the Lord wanted to fold up this world system, all he has to say is one single word and it's done.
[00:14:18] Heavens will depart as a roll up, as a scroll.
[00:14:21] He doesn't have to indulge in long period of shaking.
[00:14:26] As if the Lord is interested in simply a kind of demolition. He's a kind of demolition expert, wants to sort of shake everything into pieces and cause all the ruin and chaos and confusion. No, not at all. But the Lord has got an objective which is of supreme value to himself, and that is the building of this church.
[00:14:50] Gradually, if we're spiritually sensible, if you have an ear to hear what the Spirit says, you and I will wake up to the fact that spiritual things are more important than temporal things and that in the end, all, everything that is of real value is in fact that which the Lord is doing.
[00:15:17] That which the Lord is doing. Well, let's be practical for just these last few moments. What does that mean? What does that really mean in practical terms? It means simply this.
[00:15:29] The church is a unity.
[00:15:34] The church is a unity.
[00:15:37] Its unity does not consist in all of us trying to be one.
[00:15:44] Its unity consists in the fact that Christ is its unity.
[00:15:51] We are not we. We don't mean by unity, uniformity, that is, to exchange one system for another.
[00:16:02] We believe that Christ is himself, the unity of his people, due diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit.
[00:16:12] Is Christ divided. It says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. Can he be divided?
[00:16:19] It is impossible.
[00:16:20] Christ is one. I'm in Christ, you're in Christ. Christ is in me. Christ is in you. Have I got a different Christ to you? Have I got a tailor made Christ?
[00:16:30] Have I got a personal Christ? Terrible term, this cliche in evangelical circle, personal Christ.
[00:16:38] I have a personal knowledge of the one Christ, but I haven't got a personal Christ. As if I've got like my own toilet soap, my own face flannel, personal to my use.
[00:16:55] For me alone, Never, never.
[00:17:01] There is only one Christ.
[00:17:04] I have a personal knowledge of the one Christ. You have a personal knowledge of the one Christ. I have a personal experience of the one Christ. You have a personal experience of the one.
[00:17:21] This church that the Lord is building is tied up with our fellowship together, our keeping of the unity, our experiencing of the life of Christ together as his people.
[00:17:38] What does that mean? It means this.
[00:17:42] We have to receive every single one whom Jesus Christ has received.
[00:17:49] Are we exclusive?
[00:17:51] Never.
[00:17:52] If Pope Paul VI is a true believer and Christ has received him, I will receive him and he can come here to the Lord's table.
[00:18:05] Did I mean it?
[00:18:07] I doubt for a moment he was going to come.
[00:18:11] But I am saying that if Christ has received him, he can leave the trappings at the door, but he's welcome at the table.
[00:18:18] How can we reject any single person whom Christ has received? What does the word of God say? Listen to it. Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received you to the glory of God?
[00:18:34] How has Christ received me? Did he receive me as an apostle? Never.
[00:18:40] Did he receive me as someone with measure? Never.
[00:18:44] Did he receive me as a devoted, zealous Christian? Never.
[00:18:50] Do you know how he received me? As a worthless sinner?
[00:18:55] He received me on this basis that I was a helpless, worthless sinner and he saved me through his grace. That was the basis upon which he saved me. Then I am to receive you. We are to receive one another in the way that Christ received us.
[00:19:12] How did he receive me? He received me as a sinner. How must I receive you? I receive you as a sinner, saved by grace, the lowest common denominator.
[00:19:21] I don't receive you as a marvelous Christian welcome.
[00:19:27] I don't receive you as a knowledgeable Christian welcome.
[00:19:31] I don't receive you as a zealous Christian welcome.
[00:19:34] Or a gifted Christian. Well, I must receive you as Christ received.
[00:19:41] That goes to the root of the whole thing.
[00:19:44] All this kind of trouble amongst us so often is because we're not receiving one another on the basis upon which Christ received us.
[00:19:57] Having got in ourselves, we like to make the platform elite.
[00:20:02] We like to make a kind of inner kind of circle, you know, we're in now. We'll make it difficult for anyone else, But this is human nature.
[00:20:14] It's human nature all over the world, you know, these kind of groups that grow up and then suddenly they put a ring around themselves and say, now you've either got to accept everything we accept or you're not in.
[00:20:25] But that's not what we mean by the unity of Christ.
[00:20:30] The unity of Christ is simply that every single one who is a member of Christ, every single one who's been by Christ, I must receive.
[00:20:42] Once we are clear that they have been received by him, then they're in the family as much as I.
[00:20:53] And that's why it speaks in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1 and verse 2. Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, even them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, Cold saints with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in every place, their Lord and ours. There's only one church. Did you know that? There's only one true church. I remember when I first saw that, looking through the Scriptures in Revelation chapter two and three. And I saw. It says the church to the. To the church at Ephesus, and then it says to the church at Taratara and to the church at Smyrna and to the church at Pergamum, and then to the church at Philadelphia and to the church at Laodicea. There was only one church. It was a question of where you lived. You weren't a member of the church at Ephesus in the church of Philadelphia.
[00:21:54] If you were in Philadelphia, you were in the church of Philadelphia. If you lived in Ephesus, you were in the church at Ephesus. If you were in Laodicea, you were in the church at. There was only one church. It was just a question of locality where you live. That's all.
[00:22:07] My dear friends, that releases us from an awful lot of problems. People say that this matter of what we call church ground is exclusive. That's rubbish.
[00:22:15] It's inclusive.
[00:22:17] It means that we receive every single one who Christ has received.
[00:22:23] Of course, we can't give the platform to everyone.
[00:22:26] We would be in a mess.
[00:22:29] But, I mean, we receive everyone who Christ has received.
[00:22:36] We can do no other.
[00:22:39] And what does that mean? It means, my dear friend, that once you've seen that there is only one Christ, there is only one body, there is only one church. It is a question of residence.
[00:22:52] That's all.
[00:22:53] And I'm In New York. I'm not a member of the church in Richmond in New York, I'm in the church at New York. I'm only in the church. Happen to be in the church in Richmond because I'm resident here.
[00:23:03] When I'm there, I'm in the church in New York. When I'm somewhere else, I'm in the church somewhere else. It's as simple as there's only one church, our locality. The name of our locality is attached to it because that's where we are.
[00:23:15] That's what you find in the New Testament. I defy you to find anything else. Go home if you don't agree with me. Search through the whole New Testament. Find if there's anything else. Is there any other church in the whole New Testament than this?
[00:23:27] Is there any other church today? In spite of all the labels we've given, there is no other church. There's only one church. God ignores all the labels. When one day we get to heaven and we knock on the door, as it were, the angel opens it. We say, I'm a Lutheran.
[00:23:47] Where are the Lutherans? Do you think the angel is going to say? All over there, he's going to say Lutheran.
[00:23:55] Never heard of them. Never heard of them? You've never heard of Lutherans?
[00:24:00] No. There are no Lutherans up here. No Lutherans up here.
[00:24:03] You mean they're all Catholic?
[00:24:06] No, no, the angel would say. No, no, no. Just wait. No, no. There are no Catholics up here either.
[00:24:14] We've only got Christians up here.
[00:24:17] You're not talking about Martin Luther?
[00:24:19] Well, yes. He wants the bastard of it. Well, he's here. You'll find him down that street to the left in the mansion. Someone else comes in.
[00:24:28] Where are the Wesleyans?
[00:24:30] Wesleyans? Never heard of them.
[00:24:34] Oh, you mean John and Charles Wesley? They're here or someone else comes in. I'm a Baptist. Where are the Baptists, the angels Baptist?
[00:24:47] The only Baptist we've got here is John the Baptist.
[00:24:51] There are only Christians up here now. That's true. You won't find any names in heaven banded around. You're not going to take all the things that have divided us down here, up there, nothing of it. Nothing at all.
[00:25:07] That's why the apostle Paul says, I beseech you by the name of Jesus Christ that there be no divisions among them. No other name, not a palace, not Paul, not see fast.
[00:25:15] I beseech you by the name of Jesus Christ. There's only one name.
[00:25:22] Take that name and you're safe.
[00:25:25] Do you know when we see that brown, you know, there's no back door of escape.
[00:25:31] It's a terrible thought, but there is no back door of escape. Once you see that, you're caught.
[00:25:40] The Lord's caught you.
[00:25:42] He's caught you. You can't get out.
[00:25:44] You're in.
[00:25:46] How can you escape? As Brother me once said, the only way to escape is to change your address.
[00:25:52] Go and live somewhere else altogether. You're out, but you can't. There's no back door. There's no fire escape when it gets too hot.
[00:26:03] This kind of thing in Christian circles, you know. Oh, you come to the company at which we. Oh, they're marvelous people. Absolutely. Are they really marvellous? Oh, so devoted. They're wonderful people. I come three years later and where do I find you? In another group, say a Pentecostal group or a holiness group, And I say, oh, what's happened? Why have you left them?
[00:26:26] Saw through them in a year.
[00:26:28] No good at all, really. Oh, I did. You left because you didn't like. Oh, no, I didn't leave because I didn't love like them.
[00:26:38] The Lord showed me that my place was here.
[00:26:41] Well, if we do that, we can go anywhere.
[00:26:44] We can escape the discipline of God, we can escape the education of God. And this is what happens. People fly from place to place. They're running away all the time. The funny thing is, the lesson goes with them. They never learn it, but the lesson goes with them.
[00:27:00] For even in place they go to, the same problems come up.
[00:27:03] Isn't that so?
[00:27:08] There's no back door of escape in the church of God.
[00:27:12] We're caught.
[00:27:14] We're caught. No fire escape when it gets too hot. I remember dear old Brother Harrison once saying years ago, it's like a pressure cooker.
[00:27:24] You're all inside with the lid screwed down and only a safeguard valve for steam. And something's being done inside.
[00:27:32] You can't get out.
[00:27:35] Once you've seen that, the Lord can start to do something.
[00:27:40] Because it is in the sphere of the church, which is the pillar and the ground of reality, that the Lord starts to knock off our corners.
[00:27:50] If we can only spiritualize it and run away from such a disaster discipline, we never learn ourselves and we never learn Christ.
[00:28:05] So that's what happens, you know, people go to live with each other. They think it'd be lovely. Christians, they say, lovely to live together.
[00:28:15] We Christians, no problems, no divorce amongst us Christians, no strife, no rioting, no trouble. But you get a few Christians living together and within a few months of all the problems in the World.
[00:28:33] What shall they do? Split up and divide and run off? My dear friend, you'll run off only to find the same problem. You take the problem with you. The problem is in yourself. We all like to say it's so and so, so difficult.
[00:28:45] But so and so isn't any more difficult than someone else. You run off and you'll find someone else difficult. It's like people who go from job to job because they say so and so. They've always meet a difficult person there. They meet one difficult person, they run off and the same difficult person emerges in somewhere else and then someone else. And it doesn't matter. Even if you emigrate to Australia, you'll find it just the same.
[00:29:08] You can't escape.
[00:29:13] That's a blessing because it means that what we call church ground is inclusive, includes every single believer in the area who lives within the boundaries of the area. Everyone. We cannot. I can't say to you, look here, you're a bit critical. Go.
[00:29:28] The moment I say that we're a sect.
[00:29:33] You have as much right to be here as I.
[00:29:36] So don't look upon me as something glorified.
[00:29:40] You have as much right to be here as I.
[00:29:46] Because Christ has received you. He's received me.
[00:29:49] We have to get on together now. Unity is not this idea. Some people have got of everything. Just being sweet and, you know, sugary, the icing sugar on the top, the poison inside.
[00:30:06] It's not that at all.
[00:30:09] Unity is this. That we, with our different temperaments, our different constitutions, our different backgrounds and sometimes our different opinions stay together and are prepared to admit that we are wrong.
[00:30:24] When time proves us wrong, that's where the problem comes.
[00:30:29] When time proves that we're wrong, we won't admit it.
[00:30:33] Quite simple.
[00:30:36] Many things we can say. There are lessons to be learned. That's why it's so important to let the Lord do this work.
[00:30:43] Will you run away from the lesson?
[00:30:46] Well, you will be yourself eternally. The poorer, eternal. For the Lord's building his church. If you don't want to be in it, all right, Potentially you're in it.
[00:30:59] Potentially, you're in it. His grace has won for your position there.
[00:31:03] His finished work has bought for you a place.
[00:31:09] But if you don't want the lessons, what can he do?
[00:31:15] It's the building. That's why there's so much in Scripture about being knit together, fitly framed together and so on.
[00:31:26] Lessons.
[00:31:27] Don't we learn a lot.
[00:31:29] Sometimes it's the simplest child of God that teaches us a lesson, isn't that so, you know, some people like to keep everything at a high quality, see, Keep it all at a very high level. Rule out all the chatter that so often we have in an open time.
[00:31:48] They would feel. Which isn't too good.
[00:31:52] But you know, sometimes the simplest child of God comes out with a thought that meets the oldest child of God in a new way. Why, I was tremendously blessed by a statement that a young brother made in a meeting in Los Angeles. He was a Japanese Hawaiian, an American Japanese Hawaiian.
[00:32:15] Work that one out yourself.
[00:32:17] He had been. He had been saved. Three weeks ago.
[00:32:21] Three weeks ago and in the middle of this meeting suddenly someone had been thanking the Lord for the fact that the Lord Jesus was on the throne. And he just suddenly said, Lord, I can't copy his accent. Lord, he said, we're on. We're relaxing on the throne.
[00:32:40] I thought that was simply marvelous. We're reluctant, relaxing on the. That's exactly what it means. Made to sit again, fancy. Only three weeks old.
[00:32:50] We're relaxing on the phone.
[00:32:55] Well, what. That was a blessing.
[00:32:58] That's what it means. This matter of.
[00:33:01] It simply means that everyone is free to be themselves.
[00:33:04] We don't all peg an artificial. This is what the devil's always trying to get us to do. You know, Ron is a very spiritual person. We're all trying to be spiritual trouble.
[00:33:15] See, we'll all try and be up there, see Bla and Ron and, and Derek, they're so. And Eric, they're so fine.
[00:33:25] We must all try and get up there. Or some sister we look at, we say oh, we'll try and get up there. And what happens? We all try to talk the language up there. We try to live up there. And quite honestly we're on an artificial level.
[00:33:39] And so the Lord if he wants to deal with us, has to deal with us down here. But we're up there.
[00:33:44] How can the Lord deal with us down here when we're up there? So he has to wait for us till we fall.
[00:33:53] Sun dung below has to wait a long time, but he waits.
[00:33:57] This is. Caught you now.
[00:34:00] Now we can do the job.
[00:34:02] Now we can do the job. Now you're down the basis of reality. How is it that a person gets shaken from their artificial position by the church?
[00:34:11] You see someone so sweet natured, so meek, so humble, you put them to work with some other person and before them they can't.
[00:34:20] They're living with her, they can't. All the sweet nature goes, all the weakness goes. And suddenly they think what's wrong with Him. Am I a Christian at all?
[00:34:31] Am I a Christian anymore? When I was first saved, I was so lovely. I was so full of joy. I had such a humble nature. Now I find I got full of bad thoughts.
[00:34:43] Not at all, my dear friend. You had those bad thoughts all the time.
[00:34:46] It was all there.
[00:34:48] It was only that it hadn't been exposed.
[00:34:51] Now in the church it's exposed.
[00:34:54] So we don't want to try and be up there. Let everyone walk according to the rule where unto he has attained.
[00:35:00] That's the word of God.
[00:35:02] Let each one be fully persuaded in his own mind.
[00:35:07] The Lord has spoken to you about smoking. Don't smoke if the Lord hasn't spoken to you. Carry on.
[00:35:14] The Lord has spoken to you about this. You don't do it if the Lord hasn't spoken to you about it. You carry on. Let everyone be fully persuaded in their own mind.
[00:35:22] All right, that's the way. Don't let us all meddle with one another, interfere with one another.
[00:35:28] Let each one live their life rightly built together.
[00:35:32] Built together.
[00:35:33] Being built together is not that we all try to be the same. It is that we all go on with the Lord holding fast the head, not the body holding fast the head. We find the body quite simple. Originality, oh, tremendous need in every part.
[00:35:53] Just this matter of reality and originality just to be yourself. The other last point I make is that it's a great relief to be ourselves and just to have what we have of the Lord. I am by the grace of God, what I am, said Paul. It's a great relief. You know, when you can come down to that level and you can go on. Now this doesn't mean that you become a boar, that you just become like a tank.
[00:36:21] You think you can go on impervious.
[00:36:23] Try it. In the church we have anti tank mines.
[00:36:31] Before long such a person finds that they're knocked out.
[00:36:36] It's your own fault.
[00:36:39] You can't just inflict yourself on others because the church is not there to be inflicted upon.
[00:36:46] That's the point, you see. That's why I say we must be ourselves.
[00:36:50] And yet we shall be tempered.
[00:36:55] We shall be shaped and cut and polished and built together.
[00:37:04] But my last point is simply that it's protection.
[00:37:09] There is protection in the house of God.
[00:37:13] Our being hid in Christ together.
[00:37:17] I've been saved from some classic mistakes. I've made enough already. But I've been saved from some even more classic mistakes by fellowship.
[00:37:27] And I look back just a few things.
[00:37:30] Just share, just asking folk to Pray.
[00:37:34] Afterwards, one's realized what one's been saved from, the security of the house of God. It's not that they're there to dictate, they mustn't, but they're there to cover.
[00:37:51] Well, we're living in a very troubled and unhappy world.
[00:37:56] But the great thing is the Lord is doing something, and we can be encouraged in this, that the Lord is going on with that work till he's finished.
[00:38:07] And when the top stone goes into place, there will be shouts of great grace unto it. What is the top stone? Who is the top stone? The top stone is Christ.
[00:38:22] That's the coming of the Lord.
[00:38:24] When the house is built according to pattern. No cement.
[00:38:28] One cement single blank for the top stone.
[00:38:34] And the top stone will be fitted not with human hand.
[00:38:39] Top stone is Christ himself.
[00:38:42] That's the day we're looking for. When the bride has made herself ready and the top stone, as it says in Zechariah 4, is put into position.
[00:38:53] So the foundation and the cornerstone. And the top stone is Christ.
[00:39:01] Well, though we thank God, let's just pray now. Lord, very simply, we commit ourselves to Thee.
[00:39:08] And in these troubled days in which we live, Lord, we pray that Thou would steady us and calm us. And above all, Lord, get us into the place where we really are going on with Thyself in a real way, a genuine way, where we know, Lord, how to give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
[00:39:36] We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:39:41] Amen.
[00:39:48] See?
[00:39:50] Washes over the.
