========================================================================
  PRINCIPLES OF CHURCH-GATHERING
  by G.W. North
========================================================================

Summary: The sermon emphasizes the importance of the spirit of
contention in the church, and how it is essential for spiritual growth
and maturity.

Duration: 1:54:25 Topics: "Gathering"
Scripture References: Matthew 6:33, 1 Corinthians 3:5-7, 1 Corinthians 6:1-3, 1 Corinthians 10:33 - 11:1, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Ephesians 5:1-2

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

In this sermon, the speaker uses the analogy of athletes in a race to
emphasize the importance of striving for spiritual victory. He
highlights that in a race, only one person receives the prize, and there
are no consolation prizes for trying your hardest. The speaker urges
young men and women to adopt a spirit of determination and perseverance,
warning that disqualifying oneself by not having this mindset will
hinder progress. The sermon also emphasizes the need to imitate the
speaker, who encourages running the race with fervor and avoiding
complacency.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I did say that we would look into principles of church gathering and I
know that that could be a vast subject. I want to do it in the first
letter of Paul to the Corinthians chiefly. It may be that I've been
exercised about it in that I've moved around a bit and seen various
groups gathering and I have in many senses been glad that I've been a
member of the church at Auchinheath.

That may surprise you but nevertheless it's true and there are many
reasons why I see such disorder in churches. Now I don't mean that there
is a disorderly crowd like you find at football matches fighting one
another and throwing toilet rolls about and beer cans or anything like
that. That's not what I mean at all.

But there's a sad departure from the revealed ground of gathering on
every hand and I cannot help but think that it is moving toward worse
things. Now it's a sad thing when we throw over the things that God has
revealed on any excuse. The fact that we're twentieth century people
doesn't mean that God was hatched out in the twentieth century or that
he has changed his mind about things at all.

He hasn't given us a Bible to be written in the twentieth century. We
haven't been able to write a new Bible. God has not inspired one to get
hold of original truth and try and doctor it.

Sorry about the word doctor but you know what I mean. Doctors usually
make you better. Doctor it to make it fit into a sort of a decadent
notion of things.

Then I believe we're on very very sad ground and troubling ourselves
needlessly and as the next generation comes up it'll want to fiddle
about with it again and as the generation beyond that comes up they'll
also want to do more fiddling if the world goes on. And where in the end
shall the church of Jesus Christ finish up? It is not only correct but
safest to come back to this. And so this afternoon I want to look into
this epistle and remind ourselves that oh I see my arms come off my I
fiddle until it's come off.

It always does it. Well all right I'll just have to. You mend the mic
will you? Good job I've got a good mend mate.

A pin will do thanks. Is it a screw? We'll have to examine the Hoover
tomorrow Jack. All right then beloved.

Remember that this epistle to the Corinthians was written by a man who
cared. If you turn for instance to the end of the ninth chapter you will
find this man speaking of himself as an athlete. You know the thing it's
sort of based on what we might now call the Olympic Games before they
were developed to the outrageous place they hold today in the worshipful
company of sportsmen.

You will find he's talking about running a race. You'll find he's
talking about wrestling and he's also talking about boxing. He's running
a race and he warns us as we approach this subject that though everybody
runs only one gets the prize.

Apparently in those days there were no second and third prizes. Only one
gets the prize. The first one passed the post.

There were no consolation prizes for trying your hardest. That is a very
human thing. Try your hardest and we'll make some kind of reward.

Rather reminds me of the days when I used to be superintendent of a
Sunday school many years ago now as you will know. And when we were
giving out the prizes we not only had to have the prizes for those who
won prizes but for all the other disappointed people too. Because little
people didn't understand that they hadn't got the top prize.

As though little people really were the people that counted. It was
their stupid parents who didn't send them along. It wasn't the
children's fault.

And so the children, the parents were rewarded for getting their
children to miss 50% of the Sundays and not bringing their Bibles or all
sorts of things like that which were scoring points in the league. In my
day anyway. I don't know what you do at Ockenheath.

I guess you're even more sentimental than that. I don't know. But here
then is where God is concerned.

Notice and this man he says he's in the race. And you know in a race you
may contend with say a hundred other people. But only one he's got to
get in front of a hundred people who's going to win.

Now think. That's what he's talking about. Because that's the spirit and
the mentality in which he is approaching it.

And this is why so many people can't get on in the true Church of Jesus
Christ. The lackadaisical. 50% attendance if you like.

Whether or not you pay attention to know what's being preached doesn't
matter. As long as you're there. Now I know that with some people work
keeps them away.

That's not what I'm talking about. The normal person. Paul said I don't
care how many people are running in this race.

It may be a million. I'm going to be first. That's the spirit Paul.

Or reduce it to the other contests. Wrestling. It's just man-to-man.

Got to beat one person. That's right. Or boxing.

It's man-to-man. So that whether it's one among a crowd or one-to-one. I
am going to win.

Now that's the spirit. Once you let this grip you and stop all the
lackadaisical approach and see what it's all about and realize that
there's only a church because one man not Paul but Jesus set himself out
to beat everybody. If it was face-to-face contest with the devil then
he'd wrestle him out of existence too.

That's right. Now that's the spirit. And that is the spirit of the
church.

If you haven't got it you must doubt whether you're in the church.
That's the spirit that's in the body. Amen.

You will recall this. Turn your Bible over into the 12th chapter and I
think it's verses 12 and 13 of 1 Corinthians 1. It says that as the body
is one and hath many members so also is Christ. For we have all been
baptized into one body.

We've all been made to drink of one spirit. Now that's the spirit I've
been talking about. It is the spirit of Jesus.

It's the spirit of Jesus firstly. And secondly it was the spirit that
was in Paul. Same spirit.

Paul got it from Jesus. You're supposed to get it from Jesus. It may
come down through a Paul or an Apollos or a Cephas but let's have a look
at them.

We're turning to the end of chapter 3. We're moving about in the
epistle. The Lord, He says in verse 20, knoweth the thoughts of the wise
that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men for all things are
yours.

There it is. You've got the one spirit of Jesus Christ and everything is
yours. The fight is yours.

The race is yours. Let's go right through it. Whether Paul or Apollos or
Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to
come, all are yours.

All are yours. What a tremendous thing for us to understand. Well, who
then is Paul? He says in another place.

Who is Apollos? They're just ministers by whom you believe. That's all.
That's all they are.

The thing is for you and I to receive this glorious spirit. Now I want
to ask you, is this spirit of contest and of running to win, is it in
you? Is this spirit in you to fight and triumph? Well, is it? This is
how you're going to know that we don't sort of dream along saying, oh,
I'm baptizing the spirit. I've got the spirit and all this.

And when you come to check up with the book, you find you're not of the
spirit at all. Anything knocks you down. You drop out of the race at the
least thing.

The prize never enters your head. Run for the prize. All you're
concerned about is you're hurt or that you're lame.

Or that something's happened and you drop out. Places full of dropouts.
I don't necessarily mean this place.

Full of dropouts. People to whom Paul could write and say, oh, you
foolish people, you did run well. What's hindering you? So now I want to
waken everybody up.

God give me a voice like a clarion trumpet to wake you up unless you're
going to drop right back out of it, beloved. And you will know even as I
do that mere attendance at meetings is no criteria that you're there.
Whether you've got a spirit in you that's going to go through with God.

Now that's the thing. Hallelujah. Well, having got that and realized
that this man who's speaking to us is quite like this.

We are, I hope, prepared to receive what he has to say. Glory is a man
that's gone through with God. He's going to go through with God.

And I think that in the end you'll have to say, well, if you're not
coming with me, I'm going to go on alone. I'm going to run on. That's
what I'm going to do.

That's the position in the end. Is it in you? Well, yes or no. I hope
you're answering the question.

Not only that you're striving to get the idea of it, but the spirit of
it is in you. If the spirit of it all is in you, you can't help it.
You're urged forward.

Overcomes everything. All tiredness, all offenses, all things. It just
goes on.

What a glorious thing. Don't try to puzzle everything out. Realizing, as
we read here, that God has made foolish the wisdom of the world.

It's no good trying to philosophize and work it all out. When you arrive
in heaven, I guess you're going to arrive bruised. That's how Jesus was
in the grave.

Bruised and torn. But that didn't matter. What a wonderful thing it is
for the Lord to make these things clear to us in the book.

Lest we get into a world of fancy. And you will remember in verse 1 of
chapter 11, this is how he speaks. He says, now you are to be followers
of me.

That's clear, isn't it? Now the word followers doesn't mean to say that
I'm expecting to be beating you in the race, so you're sure to be
following me, that is behind me. It's the word imitators. You're to be
an imitator of me.

That means you're going to be right out there, running, running. Well,
that's the glory of it all. You know, it's so easy to settle down and be
comfortable.

So easy. And Paul knows that. So he exhorts us.

The basis of our gathering together then, beloved, is this, that we're
all in contention. Now that sounds funny, doesn't it? Well, we're all
supposed to be here, sort of like little lovey-doveys, all huddled
together in a nest. Yeah, you know, even the person sitting beside me, I
hope he's a good man or a good woman.

We're going to run. We're going to go on. That's what we're going to do.

Praise God. Not that we're reaching out for false crowns or anything
like that, but seeing that only the one that wins, wins. What a glorious
truth it is.

All right then. Understand so clearly, too, that Paul puts something
that we're to see in this tenth chapter, right down at the end. We're
not to give offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to
the Church of God.

That's not what we're to do. We're to please all in all things, not
seeking our own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
Isn't that lovely? Do you go about to please everybody? Do you? Going
about to please everybody.

Now you say, well, that's impossible. That's right. But that doesn't
mean that your attitude has to change toward them.

If you can't please them, don't stop trying to please. See, that's where
people drop out of the race, chicken-hearted. Well, I've tried, but I've
given up.

After about the second attempt, anyway, given up. But you see, a spirit
produces an attitude. And this race is this attitude of heart.

We're in it. We're going to keep on, Lord. We're going to keep on.

We're not throwing up the sponge. We're not throwing in the towel. We're
not dropping out of it.

Oh, that God would baptize and really immerse us in this glorious truth.
Now, all of us artists see it so clearly that we belong to the church of
Jesus Christ. The church of Jesus Christ we belong to.

We don't belong to our own church, certainly not to any denomination or
anything like that, or nation. The church is not a national thing. Paul
successfully killed that idea of a national church, you may remember.

He did that with the Galatian epistle. You must understand these things
when you read your Bible. The Galatians was written primarily to destroy
the idea of a national church or a racial church.

There's no such thing as a racial church on the face of the earth.
Couldn't help thinking of Brother Tong. He's going home to his people,
that is his natural people, in a week or two.

Or at least for a week or two. But there's no such thing as a national
or racial church. Glory be to the name of the Lord.

This thing is a spiritual thing. It's spiritual. But you know, in the
end you can't gather with people who aren't of the same spirit.

You can't. You can try it. They may speak another language.

They may use different phrases. They may approach in an entirely
different manner from us these great things. But beloved, you can't in
the end have fellowship with and continue to gather with people if
you're not of the same spirit.

Not in the end you can't. Have you ever tried it? You can try to get
fellowship with people, say, that they're a very sort of free people and
they can sing and that. Or you can try to get fellowship on the fact
that they do certain kinds of works and so on and so on.

But in the end, although your personality may be molded along certain
lines, you'll only have fellowship with those who are of the same
spirit. You've been made to drink into one spirit. That's right.

Isn't this a glorious truth? Let's look at it this way. Chapter 10,
verse 1. Brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, that our
fathers, all of them, were under the cloud, and all passed through the
sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud, in the sea. What a
tremendous thing that is.

Everybody of ancient Israel had that same one baptism. That's right.
They all had it.

There were no exceptions anywhere. Isn't this a glorious truth for us to
understand? They were baptized unto Moses in the cloud, in the sea.
Praise the name of the Lord.

One baptism. In that baptism, you've been made to drink into that one
spirit. Have you or haven't you? That's the thing that decides it.

Hallelujah. It isn't my spirit. It isn't his spirit.

It isn't her spirit. It's His glorious spirit. Amen.

She may have it. He may have it. I may have it.

We may all have it, but it's not ours. It's His. There has been a
definite turning away from everything else, and a giving, a complete
application of self.

Oh Lord, I realize I must have this spirit. I want this spirit. I
forsake every other spirit.

I forsake every other attitude. I leave it all to this. Has it ever got
you? That's the spirit in which the athlete enters a race.

That's the spirit in which the wrestler goes into the ring. Oh. Amen.

One baptism. Baptized unto Jesus Christ. It means that you've come to
Jesus and said, Now Lord, I am unto you.

Utterly. That's what it means. I am completely unto you Lord.

Is that what the baptism is about? Yes, that's what the baptism is
about. Glory. Before that, you will know these children of Israel, they
didn't know where they were or what or where they were unto or whom they
were unto.

You'll know they were standing at the Red Sea, and they were looking at
Pharaoh, they were looking at Moses, they were looking back, they were
looking forward. You know, a typical Mr. Facing Two Ways. And that's
exactly how many people are.

But once they got into the sea and through the sea, they knew that they
were then unto Moses. Yes. They'd been baptized unto Him.

Glory. And nobody is fully unto Jesus or can be unto Jesus unless
they've been through this glorious baptism. Amen.

It was a spirit and water baptism. The cloud, as you know, representing
that blessed Christ after the Spirit, into whom they were baptized.
Wasn't that a wonderful thing? Now, nobody can be in this.

They may desire to be. God bless you if you do. That's what it's all
about.

But let me tell you this. You can't be there until you've gone this way.
You can't be.

You may want to be. You may turn up here and go there, and you may
strive about this and strive about that, but God knows, and this is why
He's provided it, that there's no way that you can be in and unto Jesus
Christ except by this baptism. Glorious baptism.

That is not possible. What is called Christianity so many times is
nothing but good human endeavor, a wanting to be, commendables, better
to want to be that than a drunkard or a drug addict or a spiteful,
wretched, worldly, whatever it may be. It's better to be that, better a
thousand times, but, oh, always to be on the borders of it and never in
it.

What a tragedy. Yet men call themselves under these conditions
Christians. I want you to know, says Paul, I want you to know that all
our fathers, verse 1, they were all baptized, verse 2, unto Moses in the
cloud and in the sea.

And, listen, they all ate the same spiritual meat, they all drank the
same spiritual drink, all of them. One baptism, one head unto Moses, one
food, one drink, everybody. Now, that's a principle.

That's a principle inescapable. How foolish for any of us to think that
it can be in any degree less or other than this. If you are baptized
unto Jesus Christ, if this has happened to you and He is your Head, Lord
and Leader, then, beloved, He provides the food, He provides the drink,
He is your Lord, He is your Head, He has undertaken to supply you.

He has committed Himself to it. But there are those, and it says, it's
here, with many of them, God was not well pleased, verse 5, and they
were overthrown. They lusted after this, they tempted the Lord on that.

They did all sorts of things. You could read the verses in your spare
time. Here is a great principle, beloved, as we approach this.

Is this spirit in you? Lord, I only want this one thing. That's all I
want. Hmm.

Are we wanting in this realm Him among several other things? Do you
know, beloved, there must come a time in everybody's life when the
blessed desires and intentions of the Lord so grip you that you can't
shake them off. That has to happen. If you are more powerful than the
Holy Spirit, you haven't even got an idea of what it's all about.

The great urge and desire that comes on you. David said that it was more
than his necessary meat. Hmm.

His wife would say to him, sit down, you must eat this. Look at you.
You'll starve if you don't eat.

And David was so taken up with these great things of the Lord. Is this
more to me than my necessary food? Tremendous. And that's an Old
Testament man.

Glory be to God. Some of these had really learned, beloved, hadn't they?
Glory, glory, glory. Now, you, my beloved, verse 33 of chapter 10,
you've got to please the true church of God.

That's what you have to do. Doesn't mean to say that everybody's got to
sort of design and fix their lives to please the whim of any member of a
local church. But what you have to do is to live to please the church,
the true church.

Because the true church is the body of Jesus Christ. This is taught us
very clearly on another principle of life in the church, chapter 6. Go
back. He says this, dare any of you having a matter against another go
to law before the unjust and not before the saints.

This morning I was talking about people having matters against another
and talking about them behind their back and murmuring and muttering and
complaining. I hope you read or are going to read in chapter 10 that God
destroyed the murmurers. A murmurer destroys him or herself.

The tragedy is they may destroy others too that listen to them and say,
hey, you're right. In which case that person is as bad as the person
they're listening to. So you've got two people destroyed straight away.

Not effective. Nothing at all in the church. Now this time we're reading
about legal matters and he says this.

You know, I suppose you've read this chapter. I hope you're familiar
with it. He says, verse 5. Is it so that there is not a wise man among
you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren.

That's right. You see, the church, the real church of Jesus Christ is a
court of appeal. That's what it is.

It isn't to take the place of the laws of our land. That's not what it's
about. But on the great matters over which many people want to go to
law, the church should be able to do that.

We've got to please the church. You see, we're so far removed from this
reality today that that probably shocks you to hear me say that. It
probably startles you.

And you've never thought of doing that. Never. Yet there it is.

Principles of life in the church of God. Glory be to God. It's so great
that if we go back to chapter 10 again, this is what we read.

Again, he's speaking to the wise in verse 15. You judge, what I say, the
cup of blessing which we bless. Is it not the communion of the blood of
Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of
Christ? For we, many, are one bread, one body.

We are all partakers of that one bread. Hallelujah. Isn't it a great
thing? Beloved, we should be so desirous, so full of love one for
another, that we regard one another as bread.

That should mean that we seek out each other's company. That isn't to
say you aren't to go and visit your relatives at times, and all that
sort of thing. I mean even your unsaved relatives.

That's not what I'm talking about. But I think, and I'm absolutely sure,
that in most hearts there's been such a denial, or a constant wittering
away of the real truth, that this is completely lost sight of. We're
looking for different food.

We're looking for different drink. That's what we're doing. We're
wanting other sources of inward satisfaction.

The bread that we break, it's the communion of the body. Hallelujah. Now
you know that the bread that we break, broke this morning, was not the
real body, but it was the symbol of the body.

Glory. So you were symbolizing that it was your joy to feed on everybody
else. Now if you don't have the right approach to this, it means that in
the end, you become idolatrous about what's called the morning meeting.

And that's why occasionally, I like to miss the breaking of bread and
drinking of wine on Sunday. I know, well it's a pity. But nevertheless,
I'd still break it, because it will weave a bigger bondage around
people's hearts.

I'll take the risk of cutting out sister so-and-so on a Sunday morning
or two, or brother so-and-so if they're going to be away for some good
reason. I'll take that risk, because I know that the bigger bondage is
that we just come together, and the bigger risk lies in, well, every
Sunday morning we come to break bread, that's right. It gets so
important we have to run with a plate of this and a glass of that to
some brother or sister who's having to sit up on the landing, because
it's become almost an idol.

I'll tell you this, if I had my way, I'd rather break it Sunday nights
than Sunday mornings. Hope that shocks you. But I would.

God instituted it at night time when the Lord instituted it. He
instituted it at night time. That's what he did.

After all, it's called the Lord's supper, not the Lord's breakfast.
Here, I'd like to do that, personally, because I'm always coming up with
revolutionary ideas that everybody would say no to in the church meeting
tonight, and I'm not trying to prime you for it. Don't think I am.

I won't even mention it. I've said it now. And it's on tape.

Here is the whole glorious thing, beloved. It's the communion of the
body. It's the communion of the body.

Praise the name of the Lord. Well, of course, if you've been building
everybody up in your conversations, thoughts and prayers during the
week, if you haven't been niggling and nagging about them and saying all
this and grumbling and groaning, it's a great feat. At least when you
come together on Sunday mornings, or when you come.

That's what it should be. A church should be the company of people that
you think to be the greatest in the world. That's what it should be.

If you're inclined to be cynical about that, that may be you have good
reason, or it may be you've found a neat excuse. I don't know. The heart
that's filled with God.

The heart that doesn't look upon another to judge that one. The heart
that looks upon another to see the love of God in that person. The heart
that just wants to really build that person up.

I'm coming there again before I'm through, if I have time. This is the
whole glorious approach to it, beloved. Amen.

Somebody said to me, it isn't the first time it's been said, but it gets
said to me fairly regularly, aren't you tired of meetings? They say to
me, because you know I live my life in them. Well, perhaps a good part
of it. Aren't you tired of meetings? And if I'm very honest, I say, well
I do get a bit weary, but you know when I get in the meetings and we
worship God and the Spirit of the Lord comes over, I want to go around
and put my arms around everybody and love them and hug them.

And I know some of them look very sort of straight at you. And some have
got good old square granite Scots faces. And some have got stupid
English ones.

You know, yeah, that's right. More so than anything about Malaysia, Tom.
Yeah, he's got a lovely face, hasn't he? Look, that's it.

You see, here is the whole glorious truth. Oh, beloved, that quickens
you. I never go out of a meeting exhausted, unless perhaps I've had
about three two hour sessions and in between when I'm physically tired.

Oh, we come together to feast. We come together to see the light dawn on
another face and say, Amen, Lord. That's right.

We come to hear the lilt in another's spirit. That's what we come for.
And we're hungry for that.

Are we not? That's what it's all about. This is food. This is natural
air.

This is the sweetness. This is light. Christ in his body.

Not all day I've got to go to a meeting again or I've got to go do this
or go that or something else. There's one thing about it, beloved. Men
and women have got to sort out their priorities.

They've got to see what God says is first and what God says is
important. But more important than just seeing what God says, we have to
receive the spirit of it all. Amen.

I wonder if we have that spirit. Glory, glory, glory. And then, excuse
me, and here is one of the reasons why I said I'm glad I'm a member of
the church in Ockham Heath.

Here's one of the reasons. I'm not glossing over or passing over the
past, the ones I've mentioned, but for this reason I am very pleased.
Verse 2 of chapter 11.

Now I praise you brethren that you remember me in all things and keep
the ordinances as I deliver them to you. And here's one of the
ordinances. But I would have you know that the head of every man is
Christ, the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.

Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth
his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head
uncovered dishonoureth her head. That is even more one as if she were
shaven, which you know means that she is an immoral woman.

If the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame
for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed
ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of
God.

But the woman is the glory of the man, for the man is not of the woman.
But the woman of the man, neither was the man created for the woman, but
the woman for the man. For this cause the woman ought to have power on
her head because of the angels.

Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman
without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is
the man also by the woman. But all things of God.

Judge in yourselves. Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it
is a shame unto him? If a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her.
For her hair is given her for a covering.

But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither
the churches of God. Well, that's great. And I say, I'm very glad I
belong to this church on that issue.

For over and over again, I say to elders and men round the churches, I
say, you will have to deal with this matter again in your churches. That
the original people, the women that came in in the beginning, once they
got this matter clear, they immediately covered their heads. But in come
others that have been used to going other churches, other ways, they've
been taught other things, they've read all other kinds of literature.

And so, there they are. Uncovered. Oh, you know, Beloved, as I say, I've
no criticisms about you, precious sisters, none at all.

And that's a wonderful thing. And it's a good thing. As long as it isn't
just a bondage thing that we keep, you know, and then it becomes just a
tradition among us.

But nevertheless, to have a true custom, as Paul says, talking about
customs, is good. Like it may be customary for you to get up at six in
the morning and have your breakfast or a cup of tea. It's not bad,
provided you don't put too much sugar in it, I guess.

But there it is. This is the way, you see, with us. And I'm so thrilled.

And you women do see this. I'm thinking perhaps I'll call in the tract
I've written on sign of authority and add to it and expand it. I'm
talking on my home ground now.

You'll have to scrub this off the tape sometime, I guess. I don't know.
Here is the tremendous thing that you have to see this.

You precious women, you understand this. But by you covering your head,
do you know what you're doing? You're covering the men. Now, you've
always thought it was the men covered the women.

So it is in certain relationships. But in this relationship, you are
covering the men. Because the man is the head of the woman.

Did you read that? In verse three. The head of the woman is the man. The
woman must be covered, verse six, right at the end.

Because she is saying, the men are my head. Their heads need to be
covered. You say, well that's funny, I thought I was covering my own.

So you are, with a hat. But you're covering the men. Who, you will
remember, now you've got this clear, in the Old Testament used to have
to cover their heads.

The men had to wear the hats under the old covenant. They still do. The
Jews cover their heads when the law is written.

But now the man is commanded not to cover his head. It's a complete
reversal. And the woman has to provide that cover.

He mustn't cover his head, because if he covered his head, he would be
covering Christ his head. And Christ is God's. Alright.

And the head of Christ is God. We read it. Have you got that? That if I
covered my head, I would symbolically be covering Christ.

And he doesn't need that, because it's all in the Spirit. And God, his
Father, is his head. But when a woman covers her head, she is saying,
we're covering this man.

Covering this man. Thank you for covering me. I know it's only symbolic.

And I don't know whether it's ever appealed to your heart that way
before. And if it hasn't, let it appeal to it now that way. And see the
privilege.

And see how much we depend upon you, sisters. I don't understand it.
Well, Paul said in chapter 13, in case you may have forgotten it, but
we'd better look to see, verse 12, now we see but through a glass and
only darkly.

That's all. So, if you say to me, can you give me every explanation for
it? No, I can't. But I know that it's an ordination in God.

And I obey it, just as I obeyed when I read that I should be baptized in
water. And when I was baptized in water, I couldn't explain all that I
can explain about it now. And I guess all that I can explain about it
now is only seeing through a glass darkly.

Everybody wants to get into the church by their mind. I sat out in
Canada talking with a wealthy man who made his millions in dollars and
his wife. She was a great woman, she's a dear soul.

But she was arguing for not covering her head. Now, you just imagine me
sitting here like that. You say, get that old rag off you.

It's not a cloth. Well, we know all about that. When you get married,
Mike, buy your wife a good hat, a nice one.

I mean, I'm not complaining about her, I'm just giving him a way to
start properly. Amen. Well, here then is the whole and glorious truth.

Part of what I say is my personal feeling. The principle of it, beloved,
is that you cover your heads. Congratulations, all you ladies.

Congratulations. Because for some mysterious reason that I don't fully
grasp in my mind, yet somehow my spirit understands. That's very
strange, isn't it? Don't you know what it is to understand by your
spirit when you don't understand with your mind? If not, you haven't
drunk of the same spirit.

You haven't drunk of the same spirit. You see, somehow we say we feel
it's right. What we mean by that is we feel with our inner man.

That's what we mean by that. Not whether we feel thrills running up and
down our spine or something like that. That's not what we're talking
about.

Here is the great and glorious thing. If a woman be not covered, he says
in verse 6, let her also be shorn. It's a certain proof that she's not
right in her own home, she's not right in the church.

That's what he's talking about. A disobedient woman. Amen.

But then a disobedient woman means a disobedient man. Doesn't it?
Doesn't it? Why have I had to say to all these brethren, you must deal
with all this head covering in your church because they've been
disobedient. In other words, they haven't stood up and filled their
office up.

Hallelujah. God is wanting us to see the truth. Praise God.

So I pray and I prophesy and I preach and my head is uncovered. My
blessed Jesus is home and he's out of this world. Glory.

When he went into the synagogue to read that day, he put a hat on his
head. See, it doesn't say that. Well, that was one of the things they
would have thrown at him.

You know what I mean. They would have thrown this as an accusation if he
hadn't. Of course he did.

But now, hallelujah, he is home with God, his Father. He doesn't need
any kind of submission position. He's there.

Glory. Isn't that wonderful? It's all a delegated thing, as we've said
before. God the Father is the head of Christ, who's the body of God, who
in himself is the head of man, who is the head of the woman, who is his
body, and that's how it all goes on.

It's a matter to do with head and body all the time and how glorious it
is to move in this realm of understanding. So I want to say thank you to
you ladies. Thank you so much.

I guess Jack will stand up and give you his thanks presently and Jim
will do the same. Why should I always be the spokesman? Now there's
that, and then he says in verse 17, in this that I declare unto you, I
praise you not, that you come together not for the better, but for the
worse. First of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that
there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it.

Well, if this is a letter from a man that was partly convinced of it,
what would it have been if he was wholly convinced of what he was
saying? You know, it's like that isn't it? I suppose really you hear
things, don't you? And you partly believe them, but not wholly. Ever
been in that position? My word, you're very strange if you haven't ever
been in that state. But here then he's talking.

There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may
be made manifest among you. When you come together, therefore, into one
place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. Why? Because a heresy was
being manifest among them.

For in eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper, and one is
hungry, and another is drunken. What, have ye not houses to eat and
drink in? Or despise ye the church of God? And shame them that have not
houses to eat and drink in. How about that? They were pretty poor,
weren't they? Hadn't got houses to eat and drink in.

They'd probably had a drink out in the road. What would you have done?
Sold up a lot of your surplus stuff to provide them with a house? What
would you have done? I don't know. What shall I say to you? Shall I
praise you in this? May I praise you not? For I have received of the
Lord that which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same
night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given
thanks, he breaket and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken
for you.

This do in remembrance of me. I guess, really, that should have settled
all the other business, don't you know? This is my body which is broken
for you. And there were some sitting by, gluttonously eating their own
meals, while their brothers and sisters in Christ were sitting there,
starving to death.

This is my body which is broken for you. To me, that's spoken so much, I
could sit down there and just be in the presence of the Lord about it.
Hmm.

How many of us are broken for one another? Really broken-hearted about
one another? How many of us? For all you know, there may be someone
sitting in this meeting who doesn't know where they're going to get
their dinner tomorrow. I don't know. Hmm.

I don't know. After the same manner, also, he took the cup, exactly the
same manner, exactly the same attitude, exactly the same spirit, exactly
the same thought. When he had supped, he said, This cup is the new
covenant in my blood.

This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as
ye eat this cup and drink this, eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do
show the Lord's death, till he come. Praise the name of the Lord.

What an attitude. Ye do show the Lord's death, till he come. Do you know
what that is meant to do? That's meant to destroy all heresies.

Showing the Lord's death. It's meant to destroy all wrong behaviour.
It's meant to destroy all unfeelingness and unconcern.

Unless, beloved, it has already become a mere habit in you, over which
your soul can sentimentalise and pour out a lot of guff, when you break
bread and drink wine, you should be concerned for others in the room.
Don't you see that when Jesus broke that bread and drank that wine
originally in the first room, he was concerned for everybody else in
that room? That was why he was doing it. And unless you're doing it that
way, you've already missed the point.

And when you go on to read about people eating and drinking unworthily,
you've already done it. Blindness leads the church into complete
powerlessness. We're not only impotent half the time, we're imbeciles as
well.

We don't understand. We don't know. Have we passed into the spirit? Have
we or haven't we? Have we been made to drink into this one spirit? It's
amazing how other people's spirits or other spirits can infect a
meeting.

Somebody being merely human, affecting us. It's amazing. Oh Lord, keep
me finely honed, Lord.

Keep me keen and sharp. Keep me absolutely loving. For that's where he's
going to come in the 13th chapter, as you know.

You give your body, you give it to be burned, and you don't have love.
There's nothing, you see. Lord, aren't we all mixed up in our
approaches? Lord, we've got to drink into your spirit.

We've got to be sure that we're filled with your love. We've got to be
absolutely certain we have your concerns about us. That's what we have
to be concerned about, Lord.

We have to come here and let self be gone completely. Let other people
concern themselves about me. I will concern myself about them.

As I told you, women, this is what it's all about. You cover your head
because you're concerned about me. You may be concerned about yourself
that you want to do the right thing, but the covering is for the men.

In other words, it's for the whole church. It's a glorious thing. And
so, you may stand in front of the glass to see whether it's on right,
that covering, but that's not the particular thing.

Concern. Mutual concern. It's all based on that.

Jesus is concerned for Father's glory. Jesus was concerned for the
glorification of the church as well. Jesus was unconcerned about
himself, except that he just wanted to do Father's will.

That's all. Hallelujah. Blessed is the man who's got to the place of
self-unconcerned and the woman who has ceased from worrying about
herself.

Blessed are they. They've surely drunk into another spirit. People who
don't come to me say, I wonder what he's thinking.

I was at a brethren's meeting some time ago. I won't say where, I won't
touch your brain too much. And I said to them quite openly, I said, stop
sitting there trying to suss the meeting and psych the meeting.

Brethren. All I want to do is put my arms around everybody. And when I
gave them a dig, they began to get a bit loose after that.

Here, beloved, this ship sunk. It's sunk already. It's making no
progress.

It's down at the bottom of the sea. The church is not a submarine. The
whole glorious truth lies here.

We're to eat and drink this cup worthily. Because if we don't, we'll be
guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Paul, verse 27.

29, we'll eat and drink damnation to ourselves. 30, we shall eat and
drink weakness and sickliness into us. How about that? How about that?
It was very important to you, beloved, this morning.

Very important that you did that. Hallelujah. It could have been eating
and drinking the Lord in simple, eating and drinking one another in
simple, showing forth the death of the Lord Jesus in simple, declaring
that you're expecting Him to come back again, saying, Lord, it's all
going to be consummated in your coming and in the beyond.

It's all so lovely. I love my brothers and my sisters. I think they're
the greatest crowd I've ever known.

Your heart's not yearning for some other place and longing for someone
else, somewhere else. I was talking to a young man not so long ago and
he'd left his home fellowship down in the south and he'd gone up into
some place in the Midlands and there he was and he wanted to talk to me
and he said, you know, I've never been able to sit in this fellowship.
I've never done this.

I've never been able to. Not the same as our fellowship down there, you
know, he said. I said, oh, yes, you know, and that's right.

I had a talk to him and then he came to see me a little while and he
said, it's gone. He said, I'm happy here. And he thought that was a kind
of a lovely, loyal spirit he'd got to his home fellowship.

He was deceived. You should be at home in every true company of the
Lord's people. Now, I'm not saying trying to sort of catch on at the
perimeter of some church that's carnal and worldly and ultra-
denominational and all that sort of business.

That's not what I'm talking about. And saying, well, I've got to stick
it here. No, no, that's not what I'm saying.

I'm talking about a true church. Blessed be the name of the Lord. God,
give us eyes that can penetrate into spirit and see it all.

If only we had to be able to move in this great thing. Here are
principles that govern our glorious coming together. These are they.

People can't sort out sentiment from spirituality. People can't sort out
the call of God from their own desires. They can't do it.

People cannot abandon unto what God wants for wanting to satisfy
themselves how they feel about it. Now, I know it's natural to have a
spiritual home. I know we go to our own company.

We can get support for that from Acts chapter 4. But blessed be the name
of the Lord. When God took a man or a woman out from somewhere, then he
put them there. That was it.

That was home. That was home. Glory be to the name of the Lord.

We're in one spirit. Not just one company. One spirit.

That's where the church is first. Now, beloved, see this. Because of
this unworthy approach to this tremendous truth of that which I have
already said, that we're here as a church only because one man said he
was going through.

One man said he would die for others. One man said he would lay down his
life that others may have it. Because one man went through and another
man named Paul had the same spirit.

He wasn't the only one to get it. But this is the man that's writing the
letter. Then the Corinthian church came into being, you see.

And he was afraid, if I may use this word, that they departed from the
spirit that gave them birth and life. They'd moved off it because of
social and carnal and family and national things. They'd moved off it.

That's what they'd done. And the result was damnation for themselves.
The result was weakness.

The result was sickliness. Coming together, beloved, should be a
liberating experience, not a condemning one. Coming together should be a
health-giving experience, not a sickening one.

Glory. Coming together should be a strengthening, not a weakening
ministry from God. What a life! What a church! This is what we have to
aim at, beloved.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if here and now God revolutionized us all? And
right through this coming year in which we've entered together, build us
all up in it. Wouldn't it be wonderful? Hallelujah. This is only a
little humorous illustration, but it'll point out what I mean.

We walked in here this morning and there was nobody at the door to greet
us, so somebody said, nobody at the door to greet me. Little humorous
experience, little humorous illustration. But the truth of it speaks
volumes.

Is it Jack who reminds me occasionally of a time when I said, if you're
not there ten minutes before the meeting, consider yourself to be late?
If you've never heard that before, it's time you heard it. If you're not
there ten minutes before the meeting, consider yourself to be late. Why?
Fancy being the first to greet someone when they come.

Oh, I've hardly got my eyes open. Well, I was up at five o'clock this
morning. Not boasting, I had a little indigestion.

I don't normally get up at five o'clock every morning, but I don't get
up at five minutes to ten expecting to be here in proper shape at eleven
fifteen. Here then is the wonder and glory of it. Oh Lord, thrill us,
thrill us with this.

Oh God, keep us wide awake, vivid, on our toes, moving in. Where are the
athletes? Where is this spirit of victory? Where is this person that
says, a mile? I'll go two miles. What do you want? Blessed be the name
of the Lord.

Especially you young men. You've written your own doom already, if this
isn't in your spirit. You've already disqualified yourselves.

You'll never get anywhere. I'm telling you, you'd better take it from
someone who knows. Well, I think I do.

You're already disqualifying yourselves. Don't you see? Oh, glory. Young
women as well, of course.

Perhaps some say, well, I'm not young now, won't you include me? Yeah,
I'll include you, bless you. There's a mental attitude that's
destructive. A thousand excuses, I can give them to you.

You're tired, you have to get up every morning in the week, the baby's
been crying, you've got indigestion. You're this, you're that and the
other. A thousand telephones.

Take the telephones off then. That's the way to do it. Take them off the
hook.

I know many ministers who do it. Many, many, many of them. So as they
don't interfere with you.

I could tell you now of a name that you probably, everyone would know,
an author of books, not myself, I'm not trying to be secretive about
this. Every morning, if you ring him at a certain hour, you'll get the
engaged signal. He's praying, that's right, and you'll have to wait this
through.

Well, somebody may be dying, that's right, of course there may be.
Somebody may be in need, that's right, that's right, but you put God
first, he'll take care of the needs. Don't you see? It's getting
priorities right.

I know, because I tried to phone him one morning. He said, I kept
getting engaged. Oh yes, that's the time we pray.

Yeah, that's right. Amazing, isn't it? It's what you put the importance
on. It's where you set your sights.

It's what are the priorities. Is the church the important thing? The
church, which is the body of Jesus Christ, next to him it has to be
loved. Next to him.

Unless he must have loved in vain. Chapter 12. Now, right at the end,
we'll go into chapter 14.

Right at the end of chapter 14, it says this, verse 32. The spirits of
the prophets are subject to the prophets. Now, there it is.

Listen. You may not be a prophet. He's only using this prophecy business
because, you will see, he's talking about praying and prophesying.

I think it was some time back, the Lord gave us a prophecy along this
line. It's the prophets that build up the church and the preaching was
from the outside. I shall never forget that.

God spoke to me as well as anybody else. Isn't it? You see? Praying and
prophesying. Alright.

Now, what he's saying is this. Whether you happen to be a prophet or
whether you are a prayer or a praiser or a tongue speaker or an
interpreter or what you be, your spirit is subject to you. You sit in
the meeting and you are in control of your spirit.

It's subject to you. You're king. You're ruling in your own life.

And that shows you, if you come week after week after week, you may
think I'm going to wrap you on the knuckles. I'm not. I'm just telling
you, beloved.

And you never participate because you won't. It isn't because you can't.
Your spirit is under your control.

And if you're one of those who come every week, you have to be the first
one that prays. You can't control your spirit either. Do you see that?
There are some people, you know, they dominate me.

I was in a meeting not so long ago and there was a woman, of course. The
men are so slow. I reckon that we men just about get you women down.

We're just about like lumps of dough or lead. It's all according to
whether you're thinking about head or feet. And the whole thing,
beloved, it lies in this realm.

The men will not get on. They won't. They crow about headship.

They want to subject women to themselves. They won't do it. Listen, you
men.

You've got to understand that by nature and by choice, you won't go.
That's it. You've got to get hold of your spirit.

You are controlling it, sitting down there, whatever you're waiting for,
I don't know. And the women all eager, you know. Just the same in the
night when the baby cries, they get up.

The men keep, they never hear it. Same old thing. It's the same.

You think it's humorous, but I'm telling you it's the truth. Well, it is
in most households. I have known it different.

But the whole... But here, here, beloved, is the truth. Do you see how
someone is... There is this woman. Every time I've been to this place,
she's going.

You see? She's going. All right. And the men sit there and say, I know
what they say.

Oh, dear Lord, shut her up. They may be saying it about sisters in this
room. I don't know.

Oh, shut her up. Well, I didn't. I got up and preached about it.

See? Oh, I wasn't just aiming at her. I preached about this state in the
meetings. It's all wrong.

If I pointed at you and you and you, you men, you're all sitting here.
What do you do in these meetings? That's right. And you know what these
women are doing? They're thinking, I wish this man of mine would get on.

That's what they're thinking. They may not say it. That's what they're
thinking.

And do you know this is the ruination of churches? Women pushing their
men too far. You say, well, how does he know that? I just know. Women
with ambition.

Men whose ambitions are like clods. Women with ambitions that are like
stars. And between the two, where in the world are we getting? Now, when
you come into a meeting, you ought to realize that you are controlling
your spirit.

When I came into the meeting this afternoon, for instance, let's take a
little homely illustration. It was said to me that a certain brother who
shall be nameless said, he may be late, get on with the meeting. I said,
right.

Three o'clock. Shut that door. We're starting.

Bang. And I chose the hymn. See? And away I went.

Oh, why don't you sit back, brother, and let everybody take. Yeah, I
know. We might have sat back till four o'clock.

Here's the trouble, you see. Beloved, oh, God wants us on our toes. He
wants us moving on in the great things of the Spirit of God.

And everybody's spirit is subject to themselves. That's the fundamental
thing. Paul said it last in this section, almost.

In other words, you are controlling the meeting. I'm trying to say all
the time it's the Holy Ghost that's doing it. As though the Holy Ghost
every week shuts up all the same people and every week opens the mouths
of all the same people.

Here is the glory of God, that He honors you in baptizing you in the
Spirit. He honors you in placing you in His body. Jesus Christ is our
head.

You are to cooperate with Him. And work in this glorious realm. Your
spirit is subject to you and shame on you.

If you come to a meeting week after week, you never have a prayer, you
never have a hymn, you never have a prophecy, you never have a tongue,
you never have an interpretation, you've never got a word, you've never
got a Bible reading. All you've got is your own repressions,
inhibitions, darknesses, silences. As though the church could exist
forever in silence.

Now, you've got to do something about it. Amen. Don't say, oh, I'm one
of these demure little people.

You're not. You're a great big thing that's worshipping yourself. And
you are to see that this immersion into the Holy Ghost is completely
liberating.

Utterly liberating. Self-freeing and giving us a new control of self
into the will and mind of God. A new disciplining of self under the
headship of Jesus Christ.

A new cooperating, not an old withdrawing. A new opening up, not an old
shutting in. Communion is of spirits.

Amen. What a glorious truth it is for us to realize. All right then.

That's the first thing I want you to see in this section. I suppose I
should soon have to stop preaching as we've got a meeting tonight and
Jack hopefully announced it at seven o'clock. Here is another great
thing that you have to see.

Turn back into chapter 12. Everybody, when they come together, must
understand this. That you are absolutely necessary.

Verse 22. The members of the body which seem to be more feeble are
necessary. You, my beloved, are necessary to me.

Absolutely necessary. We are necessary one to the other. But I don't
need anybody, really I don't.

I don't need anybody to come and sit beside me in a meeting week after
week and do nothing and take no part. I don't need that. That's not
necessary to me.

I don't need that. I don't need that example. And I'll refuse to eat it
as a sample or an example of real food, spiritual food.

It's not right. It's not true. Glory be to God.

But we are all to be considered necessary to one another. And if we are
in the Spirit, as we are bound to be if we say we're in the body of
Christ, then we should be free to minister one to another. Have you ever
thought, for instance, as a beginning, to turn round to the person
sitting beside you and give them a lovely smile and say, hello brother,
I was thrilled at lunchtime a certain young lady who should be nameless
walked up the dining room and put her arms round me from behind and
said, it's good to have your back, brother.

You see? Do you want us all to do it? Well, if you like. But that's not
the particular point. I'm talking about the Spirit of it.

That's right. I know I'm like a wanderer returned to the fold. But
nevertheless, beloved, it's wonderful.

And when I come next Sunday, do it again. And when I come the third
Sunday, do it again, if God wills. And the fourth Sunday, do it again.

And come Tuesday night and do it. And come Wednesday night and do it.
Will you? Praise the name of the Lord.

There are some people who think that the height of spirituality is to
retain a face like a poker mask. Give nothing away. You don't let
anybody see how you feel.

You ever met those people? I suppose they're the most exasperating
people you can ever meet. Are these church members? You're here to give
everything away. Complete opposite.

You say, well, it's not my nature. Then you need it changed by your own
confession. You need it changing.

So I'm one of these thoughtful persons. Meaning that people that sort of
smile aren't, I suppose. Now, come off it.

Nobody really believes it. Nobody. We're to be a loving, open-hearted,
open-faced, open-pursed people.

That's what we're to be. And you better get to God and say, oh God,
change me. And the whole purpose, too, is, we'll go back to chapter 14.

In verse 5, right at the end, the church must receive edifying. We're
here to build up one another. That's why we're here.

Glory. We're here to do it. Praise Him.

Say, what have you come here for today, brother? To build you up,
sister, brother. Not lift you up, though I'm prepared to do that if
you're down. But lift you up.

Not puff you up, by just giving you a lot of knowledge, for that puffs
you up. But to build you up. Amen.

See, look at him, look at her. I wonder what's happened. Something
tragic hit them.

See? To love them. To be concerned. Care.

What a marvelous thing is real care. Oh. I wonder, looking back twelve
months, I suppose you were allowed to do that at the beginning of the
New Year, whether the church is more built up than it was twelve months
ago.

Jack, don't answer me. Look back. Is it? If not, you know what we've
done.

Wasted twelve months. Wasted twelve whole months, 365 days. We've
wasted.

When did you put your back into it? When did you give your shoulder to
it? When did you strip right down to get on with it? When did you make
it a priority? Are you any further advanced, spiritually, than you were
twelve months ago? Or six months ago? Or a month ago? What we've got to
do, beloved, is get to a clear understanding of the fact that meetings,
meetings, meetings, where people just come together and clap their hands
and wave their hands and sing and have a mighty sort of a praise time
and go home, with or without guitars, of course, in the praise sessions.
Oh, nothing. Unless there's growth and development.

New songs only become swan songs if we're not growing, going on with
God. Do you believe this? Why, in the famous thirteenth chapter, which
we could look at, except for time, not to prolong it too much. Hear that
man? The man talks about giving his body.

Giving his body. Do you give your body? I know it says giving your body
to be burned. For whatever reason you give it.

Have you given your body? You say, of course, if I have not love, if I
give it to be burned, no profit to me. But if you give your body with
love, whether it's burned or whether it isn't, what profit? Not just
give your spiritual gift, give your body. Hallelujah.

I guess if you give your body, it'll cause all sorts of things,
discomfort, upsetting of well-laid plans, sweat, perhaps. And when
you've given all, even if you give your blood, what have you left? Only
ashes, if it's burned. It was never anything much.

It's only worth something if the fire of God is burning in it and if
love is dominating everything. And you're giving, giving, giving,
giving, yielding. Beloved, we're in the race.

We're in the race. Hallelujah. There's our call out.

The call is out. First chapter. You see your calling, brethren.

Verse 26. Do you see your calling? Verse 27. God hath chosen.

Middle of the verse. God hath chosen. Verse 28.

God hath chosen, chosen, chosen. In other words, He's chosen you for
this position, beloved. It isn't just to give you a sense of eternal
security that He's chosen you, though you need that.

You can't build on insecurity. But He's chosen you, chosen you, and in
the choice there is a calling. Can't you hear it? When a man's got a
call in him, he can't sit down and do nothing.

When a woman knows the call of God, she can't lie back and become
useless. The call. Glory.

Everything's based on the call. Don't you see that? Whether it starts
with Samuel, Samuel, or Saul, Saul. It starts with a call.

That's right. And you've got to go down the line of that call. You've
got to give yourself to it unrelentingly.

Hallelujah. You say, you're calling me for pressurized strength. Of
course I'm calling you to pressurize strength.

I don't like to be put under pressure. Why not? That's when the truth
comes out, when you're under pressure. That's when everybody sees who
and what you are.

When the pressure's on. Paul lived under pressure. He wrote it in the
second letter of the Corinthians.

He didn't say, oh, forgive me, I was under pressure when I wrote that
letter. I'm so sorry. Like so many say, I was under great pressure, you
see, at work.

I had pressure in my home. Pressure? You know what pressure does to
grapes, don't you? Presses out the wine. You've got to live under
pressure.

God forgive all these psychiatrists that are trying to stop us live
under pressure. That's what it's all about. Amen.

I know there's a time when we all need a rest, and Jesus said, come
aside and rest a while. Just a while. He didn't say, go off for six
months to the Caribbean or something.

That's right. This is what it's all about. People give in.

People are overcome by their circumstances. People don't stand up and go
in the strength of the Lord. They try it again in their own strength and
down they go again.

That tests whether you're in your own strength or in the Lord's. That's
the test of it. They that wait on the Lord renew their strength, he
said.

Go and wait on the Lord. That's the way to get your strength back. Have
the spirit of the Lord in you.

The spirit of the man of Calvary. Have this, blessed spirit, your
chosen, your call. Oh, but I like doing other things.

I like doing this. I like doing the other. Yeah, I know.

I know. Didn't you think Paul ever liked doing anything else? Now do you
or don't you? I guess Jesus liked carving wood into lovely shapes. I
guess it would have been marvellous.

He'd have made his fortune. And then he could be so relaxed doing a job
he liked. He could have a lovely studio and he could have carved it all
out and he'd have got more money for his effigies than anybody else on
the face of the earth.

So relaxing, so nice, working at the ears of an organ, lovely studio,
sunshine and all this business. He was on a call! Praise God! Amen!
These are principles that work in the church. These are the things that
govern our gathering together to fulfil the calling of the Lord.

Amen! And worship. I think I'm going to finish in the opening part of
that chapter 12. We're dealing with worship.

Now, I want to say again, I'm glad that I'm a member of this fellowship.
I am. And I'll tell you why.

Here's another reason. I told you the bit about head covering, which I
was so pleased about. And the next bit I'm pleased about is this.

God has taught us how to worship. Now, I go around and I find people
don't know how to worship. They know how to praise, lots of them, of
course, and that's the big gimmicky thing now.

As long as you can sort of, don't know how to worship. Listen, not so
long ago, in that beloved Nepal, that has a place in some of our hearts
that's ineradicable, where the saints of God have been so filled with
God, where they gather despite all official denunciations and threats
and all sorts of things, and run the risk of imprisonment, every soul
that's converted, the one that converts them runs a risk of six years
imprisonment, just for converting a soul. And the converted and baptized
soul, man runs a risk of being in jail for 12 months and so on.

Where the fires burn and popularity with more man is a factor in their
lives, you see. And to see them worshipping the Lord, when I've been
among them, so wonderful. Latterly, a man went out from England, a
couple of men went out, and they went out with the new praise idea.

And they were jumping and skipping about on the platform and trying to
show them how to praise, you see. And the beloved pastor called them
aside, the elders afterwards, he said, this isn't what we want. Jumping
about like rabbits, he said.

This isn't what God's taught us. He said, we should never have that.
Yeah.

Some people don't know the difference between praise and worship.
Worship. I thank God we know how to worship.

I don't play a big note on that trumpet, but I wanted to make a clear
sound according to what Paul's teaching is in this section. A clear
sound, a certain sound, to worship the Lord. Worship the Lord with the
glory softening and changing your countenance as though you're in
transfiguration.

Worship the Lord so that love comes. Now that's what the first part. Now
he said, I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit
calleth Jesus accursed or anathema.

No man can say that Jesus is the Lord except by the Spirit. And I
pointed this out before, not to labour it or weary you, that the Greek
is no man can say Jesus, Lord. It's direct worship.

That's how the section on the gifts and functioning of the true church
starts. Men and women able to say Jesus, Lord. The realization of the
headship.

Now do you see why chapter 11 precedes chapter 12? Women covering their
head in acknowledgement of true headship. The body communing. Breaking
the bread and drinking the wine.

Hallelujah. Not coming together under condemnation. Coming together
devoid of and apart from all heretical notions and ideas such as those,
for instance, that would banish the gifts from the church in these days.

Coming together in the glory and love and knowledge and worship of the
Lord. Hearts opening. Sisters with heads covered praying and partaking
as Paul directs.

Moving as we go on, loving and worshipping the Lord. Worship. Can you
worship? Listen, I've seen it on many of your faces.

I've seen your faces change under the power of the Holy Ghost. I've seen
it. Have you not seen it? Yeah.

To worship the Lord. That's where it all starts. I was in a place, was
it last Sunday? Yes, last Sunday morning.

Remember this name, James, I want to talk to you about it afterwards. A
man named Supramaniam. Go back to your doctrine days in the beginning.

See if you can think of it. That's him. His son.

His son was in the meeting. All the way over from Singapore. Okay.

He was in the meeting there. Young man. He's made it.

He's good. Talented, gifted, artistic, musical. Would play the meetings,
play the instrument in the meetings and then walk out.

He had no part of this Christian life at all. Came in the meeting. And
the meeting worshipped, just worshipped the Lord.

He's in England studying law and economics in the university. Most
talented, refined and gifted young man. And he said to me afterwards, he
said, it's the first time I've ever felt the presence of God or God has
ever moved on me.

Will you pray with me? I want this Jesus. Yeah. Worship.

He saw and heard souls liberated into another sphere. All barriers down.
No more guards up.

Nothing. Purified souls uttering, outpouring, worshipping. He met a
church.

Functioning as it should. Worship. Worship.

Can you worship? Can you? Can you lift up your head or bow it? According
as the Spirit moves on you. Just worship the Lord. Amen.

When God has gotten into a man and he's synchronized everything. Spirit,
soul, mind is brought in. It's not hovering around something else.

Brought in. Everything is unified and on the basis of one which is life
and union. That's right.

Head, body. You see how it all inheres? Head covering. Christ the head.

God the head of Christ. We're in oneness. We're all under this great
Lord.

It's marvelous. It's all based on the Trinity where Jesus, I rather
think, says Father, I love you. I worship you.

With all my soul, with all my strength, with all my heart, with all my
mind, I love you. I worship you. Do you think that's right? I rather
think it is.

Something in here makes me know, though I may not have worded it
properly, it's right. It's right. This is it.

Let's finish now, shall we? Can you worship? Let's do that, shall we?

========================================================================
Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/29/SID29160.mp3
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/gw-north/principles-of-church-gathering/
========================================================================