You will never enjoy “Christ in you” unless you enioy you “in Christ”. And how did l get into that place? He took me in! He forgave my sins, He gives me help day by day in the exercises that come up,

Satan tempting me at every quarter, but l have a place in Christ, that
nothing, dear brethren, – nothing – can disturb. lt is a settled place of
favour in Christ. Then if l dwell on that the Holy Spirit is here that there
may be an expression of Christ in me. l think that is the great work of
the Holy Spirit, to form Christ in our affections.

From a Bible reading with our brother Bert Taylor, Glasgow, 5 October 2013

Published in ‘A Word in its Season,  January 2014

I write rather because of the importance of the point than for any immediate occasion of circumstances: I mean leaving an assembly, or setting up, as it is called, another table. I am not so afraid of it as some other brethren, but I must explain my reasons. If such or such a meeting were the church here, leaving it would be severing oneself from the assembly of God. But though wherever two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, He is in the midst, and the blessing and responsibility, of the church are, in a certain sense also, if any Christians now set up to be the church, or did any formal act which pretended to it, I should leave them as being a false pretension, and denying the very testimony to the state of ruin which God has called us to render. It would have ceased to be the table of the people and testimony of God, at least intelligently. It might be evil pretension or ignorance; it might call for patience, if it was in ignorance, or for remedy, if that was possible: but such a pretension I believe false, and I could not abide in what is false. I think it of the last importance that this pretension of any body should be kept down: I could not own it for a moment, because it is not the truth.

On the other hand, united testimony to the truth is the greatest possible blessing from on high. And I think that if anyone, through the flesh, separated from two or three walking godlily before God in the unity of the whole body of Christ, it would not merely be an act of schism, but he would necessarily deprive himself of the blessing of God’s presence. It resolves itself, like all else, into a question of flesh and Spirit. If the Spirit of God is in and sanctions the body, he who leaves in the flesh deprives himself of the blessing, and sins. If, on the contrary, the Spirit of God does not sanction the body, he who leaves it will get into the power and liberty of the Spirit by following Him. That is the real way to look at it. There may be evil, and yet the Spirit of God sanction the body (not, of course, its then state), or at least act with the body in putting it away. But if the Spirit of God, by any faithful person, moves in this, and the evil is not put away, but persisted in, is the Spirit of God with those who continue in the evil, or with him who will not? Or is the doctrine of the unity of the body to be made a cover for evil? …

Suppose clericalism so strong that the conscience of the body does not act at all, even when appealed to; is a simple saint who has perhaps no influence to set anything right, because of this very evil, therefore to stay with it? What resource has he? I suppose another case. Evil goes on, fleshly pretension, a low state of things on all sides. Some get hold of a particular evil which galls their flesh, and they leave. Do you think that the plea of unity will heal? Never. All are in the wrong. Now this often happens. Now the Lord in these cases is always over all. He chastens what was not of Him by such as separation, and shows the flesh in detail even where, in the main, His name was sought. If the seceders act in the flesh, they will not find blessing. God governs in these things, and will own righteousness where it is, if only in certain points. They would not prosper if [they act in the flesh], but they might remain a shame and sorrow to those they left. If it be merely pride of flesh, it will soon come to nothing.

“There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest” (1 Corinthians 11:19). If occasion has been given in any way, the Lord, because He loves, will not let go until the evil be purged out. If I do not act with Him, He will (and I should thank Him for it) put me down in the matter too. He loves the church, and has all power in heaven and earth, and never lets slip the reins.

I have not broken bread, nor should do it, till the last extremity: and if I did, it would be in the fullest, openest testimony that I did not own the others then to be the table of the Lord at all. I should think worse of them than of sectarian bodies, because having more pretension to light. “Now ye say we see”. But I should not (God forbid!) cease to pray continually, and so much the more earnestly, for them, that they might prosper through the fulness of the grace that is in Christ for them.

I am indebted to our dear brother Bill in Wheaton Il for drawing my attention to the second of the following extracts from Charles Coates’s Outlines.  If we had more of the spirit of the overcomer in Philadelphia with us, we would, in brotherly love (‘Philadelphia’ means ‘brotherly love’), labour with one another so that we would be of one mind in Christ.

The first passage was one I alighted on myself whilst looking up the second.

1. Division among saints is the fruit of self-will.

Division among saints is the fruit of self-will. If no will is at work, brethren would never divide. If we are really brethren we shall never divide, but there are those among us who do oppose the truth, as we find in 2 Timothy 2:25. If they are not really bad they will be recovered by the servant “in meekness setting right those who oppose”. If there is nothing bad at the bottom of a man’s heart he will be recovered, but if self-will is working he may be allowed to go on and fall over the precipice.

CAC Vol 33 p 57

 2. Brethren do not Divide

The word to the overcomer gives it all a bearing on the individual conscience. We must never allow our personal exercises to diminish even though we might be surrounded by most devoted and spiritual Christians.

Philadelphia is a beautiful name — it suggests a company bound together in brotherly love. If you get a company in accord with Christ because Christ is formed in them, that company must be bound together in love. Brethren do not divide; it is because people are not truly brethren that they divide; there is something else at work rather than divine love. If brethren could not agree about some matter of truth or discipline, they would say, ‘We do not see alike on this matter, but we must see alike, and we will pray until we do see alike’.

Everything for God hangs upon Christ, and if nothing had place with us but His word and His name, we should be wonderfully bound together. If our coming together today has the effect of bringing us in that direction it will be a blessed thing.

CAC Vol 33 p 450

Excerpts From: Charles Coates, “CAC 033 Volume 33 – Miscellaneous Ministry on the New Testament Thessalonians-Revelation.” – Downloadable from goodteaching.org

I am grateful to our brother Ben for drawing this letter of JN Darby to my attention.  It was current in 1881; maybe it is current in 2014!

• The first fruit from this bad root is, that brethren are occupied with themselves to the exclusion of other Christians who are equally members of the body of Christ: they think of themselves more than of the Lord. They do all they can to keep the gathering together, losing sight more or less of the great truths which have acted upon hearts individually”

• We must have patience, and help each other: a lack of patience has caused some to act too quickly, and though they acted with the best possible intentions, of separating themselves from evil, the result has been unsatisfactory. We are quick at seizing the reins when we see danger ahead; but the Lord knows better than we do what has to be done: in due season He will deliver all who look to Him. But this must be real not trying to escape the test, or to delay the time of action when the evil is clearly manifest. Another valuable lesson the Lord would teach us is, I think, to occupy ourselves more before Him with the state of individual consciences. It is easy to neglect pastoral work. One is inclined to act by means of outward pressure, instead of waiting for the inward action of the Spirit, who would lead the assembly by the healthy and spontaneous action of all who form part of it. This ought always to be the aim, but alas! very often it is not possible on account of a corrupt influence which has been already too active, and for too long a time, so that morally, many have become incapable of a spiritual judgment; thus division is inevitable when the test comes to the door. But in any case we ought to wait until God sends the test. A man cannot be hung because he intends to kill me. We must wait until the act is accomplished before taking action, doing all we can, at the same time, to raise the spiritual standard by a healthy ministry of the word, as the Lord in His grace may give us. Then when the test does arrive, some, at least, will be able to act according to God.

• The present struggle is between intelligence and the Spirit. It is a subtle thing which exercises the heart to its depths — must I be guided by my intelligence according to the things that I know, or must I walk in dependence on the Lord. Some pretend to be an expression of the assembly of God when their acts prove that they have no sense of the Lord’s presence in their midst. To admit their pretension, would evidently be to deny the presence and action of the Spirit of God, for such walk by human intelligence, and override conscience

JND Letters (Vol 3 p 201 – 26/11/1881) – Originally in French – Downloadable here