Are You A Member and of What?

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

As long as the solemn question of the soul's eternal salvation is left in dark uncertainty there will be little, if any, freedom of spirit to think of that which interests Christ or concerns His glory, apart from the bare matter of the sinner's peace and safety.

In case this should fall into the hands of a troubled soul, it may well be to add here, for his comfort, that

How should I like, before we proceed further, to fill your heart – if it is not already full – with the warm and heavenly rays which shine forth from that little sentence in John 13: 1

"Love that no tongue can teach,
Love that no thought can reach;
No love like His.
God is its blessed source,
Death ne'er can stop its course,
Nothing can stay its force;
Matchless it is."

Now I need not say that you are not the only one in this poor world loved by Christ and saved by His precious blood.

BE RIGHT WITH GOD IN SECRET

And would earnestly press upon you the deep importance of personal piety, and the wholehearted devotedness to Christ, apart from the question of any other saint on earth.

Mark, I am not going to say a word against right order, but rather to urge its importance. Yet I do see the necessity of pressing upon you a prior thing.

Now pause here a moment, and let me ask myself and you a practical question:

Well, the more you become at home with Him, to use a familiar expression, the more you will joyfully anticipate being with Him at home, and the greater heavenly glow and fervor will your testimony have until you get there.

Ever may it be –

"Our only grief to give Him pain,
Our joy to serve and follow Him".

What a luxury it is to one that loves the Lord to have the consciousness in his soul that he is ministering pleasure to the heart of Christ!

STEPS RIGHTLY DIRECTED,
A FALSE WAY DETECTED

It is well at the commencement of your Christian career to be fully alive to the fact that it is the word of God, which must be the touchstone for everything in your path, whether personally or relatively. Look at Psalm 119: 104,

Now do not let this apply only to the question of your salvation and personal state, but to that also which I now desire briefly to dwell upon; viz.,

YOUR GROUND OF FELLOWSHIP
WITH OTHER CHRISTIANS;
OR, IN OTHER WORDS,
YOUR CHURCH POSITION.

One of the first things, I believe, which the renewed heart craves for is fellowship with God's people.

A few years ago two Christians, hitherto strangers to each other, were traveling together in a railway carriage,

He agreed at once that it was the word of God alone that could with certainty direct him.

'But', replied the first speaker, 'does not the word of God exhort us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together,

'Yes, it does. But a Christian need not belong to a denomination to obey that word; for the Lord Jesus said,

Now, dear reader, if you look at 2 John 6, you will find that he exhorts the elect lady, and those with her, thus:

Now John had seen the Lord in His wondrous life; had seen Him die upon the cross; and was a witness of His resurrection; beheld Him taken up into Heaven;

Now apply this principle today, and you must find yourself in one of two positions –

  1. either on God's ground of gathering the disciples at the beginning,

  2. or on some ground that man, in his fancied wisdom or mistaken zeal, has set up since the beginning.
THE ONE BODY AND ITS MEMBERS

In Acts 2: 42, it is said of the early disciples

There are two classes of Christians in the world.

  1. One practically says, 'Man has formed many bodies, and I being a member of one of these – the best according to my opinion – desire to serve its interests in every possible way I can'.

  2. The other says, 'God has formed one body and made me a member of it, and now I desire by His grace to serve the interests of the Head of that body, according to the principles laid down in His Word who formed it'.

Now, dear reader, to which of these classes do you belong?

Alas! How many a precious saint of God is represented by the first!

Do you not often hear a Christian talk about 'joining' this or that body? Surely such as one forgets – if he ever knew –

What sad confusion then to talk of joining some other body.

Now the Holy Ghost certainly never baptized believers into a 'sect' or denomination.

THE LORD'S TABLE.

If you turn to 1 Corinthians 10: 16, you will find that just as twelve loaves on the table of showbread expressed what Israel was; viz., twelve tribes – Leviticus 24: 5-6 –

* The fellowship in the Church of England is much broader than Scripture owns, because every moral-living baptized and confirmed parishioner is admitted to the Lord's supper, whether he be converted or not; while, on the other hand, that owned in all the dissenting bodies is much too narrow, because in them only those are recognized as 'members' who hold the views of this or that particular sect or denomination.

If Scripture therefore is to be your guide, you must be on a ground wide enough to include every member of the body of Christ, whose walk and ways are according to holiness and truth, and narrow enough to exclude all that scriptural discipline would shut out.   Geo.C.

I would just add here, that while the tenth chapter of this epistle speaks of the Lord's Table, the eleventh speaks more particularly of

THE LORD'S SUPPER.

Here our divine affections are called forth in remembrance of the blessed worthy One Himself, and whilst doing this together

Yet in our day some consider the first Sunday in a month sufficiently frequent, others once a quarter, and many even allow a still longer time to elapse

Now what shall be said of him – with whom it is well indeed – who, without a single merit or the slightest cost, receives these infinite and blood-bought blessings at His hand, and the words of eternal; life from His lips, and yet can hear Him say,

Not long ago we were told that a few Christians in a country village were often kept, for more than a year together, from eating the Lord's Supper,

It might be well to say here that, according to God's words, all true believers are now priests – Revelation 1: 6; 1 Peter 2: 5, 9 – and as such

How sadly has human interference set aside the simplicity of divine order, robbing the Lord of His glory, His people of their blessing,

But, returning to our subject, let us never forget that the Lord's Supper must be received in the spirit of self-judgment. See 1 Corinthians 11: 28-31.

But there is another feature of THE HOLY GHOST'S PRESENCE ON EARTH

which is important to be clear about.

Alas, how human arrangements have set aside the word of God in this matter, robbing His people, and quenching His Spirit!

YOUR POSITION TESTED

Now, with these simple facts before us, suppose that Peter, James, and John, with a few others of the early disciples, should have lived until the present day, say in one of our English towns,

But, to bring the question somewhat nearer home, if you were living in that very town yourself, would not you like to have the apostles' fellowship? I am sure you would.

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED

This may perhaps fall into the hands of some older Christian, who says,

'But' reasons another, 'ought I not to stay in the place and among the people where my soul was converted?'

One is saved on the battlefield; and only tonight I heard of a young man brought to God while tempest-tossed and well-nigh driven to despair in the Bay of Biscay.

A man may enlist for a soldier in the common dram-shop, in the public market, or wherever the recruiting sergeant can prevail upon him to join the colors, but as you are aware,

There may be another who says, 'Nearly all my Christian friends are in such a sect; and, besides, is it not right to go where you can get the most good?'

Ah, dear fellow-believer, depend upon it, neither the opinion of your friends, nor your own judgment of what is most for your good, can guide you in these matters!

But there is yet another objection which is sometimes raised against leaving a human for a divine ground of association and fellowship; viz., the failures and inconsistencies of those who professedly occupy this ground.

This, however, no more proves the position wrong than the failure of Her Majesty's Ministers in the House of Commons proves that it is not the true House of Parliament,

CONCLUDING REMARKS

God has ever claimed the right to fix a gathering centre for His people,and to settle the order of priestly service and worship;

What a solemn thought for us, since a similar state of things in Church history has been foretold by the apostle Paul in Acts 20: 30,

"Then all that grieves shall pass away,
And saints shall see a glorious day".

Not a division among them, nor a stain upon them! Till then

"Watching and ready may we be,
As those that wait their Lord to see". Amen.

Earnestly do I entreat you, dear reader, in view of that day when His eyes shall surely meet yours in glory,

Geo. Cutting