In this sermon, the speaker discusses the four essential elements of a true church as described in the book of Acts. These elements are receiving the word, being baptized in water and the Holy Spirit, steadfastly following the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and engaging in the breaking of bread and prayers. The speaker emphasizes the importance of these elements and how they were immediately embraced by the early church after being baptized in the Holy Spirit. The sermon also highlights the role of Luke, the author of the book of Acts, as a traveling companion of Paul and a reliable source of information about the early church.

We can avoid a lot of error and misunderstanding. I'm sure of this. So then, I want to start tonight with the simple way that Luke speaks about breaking a bread. Now, I am not going to turn into his gospel yet, if we do tonight. Some other time we'll do. But, I want us to turn into the other book that he wrote, The Acts of the Apostles. You know, of course, that he wrote this second book. I also want to remind myself at this period, because I think we should get as far as Paul tonight. He was a traveling companion of Paul's. You do know this, don't you? That Luke was not an original apostle. He never witnessed the Lord taking the bread and the cup. In the beginning of his gospel, he will tell you that he has received what he is writing from eyewitnesses. And he said that these were the things that were most certainly believed among them and accepted. Amen. He also was a companion of Paul's, as I said, and traveled with him. And you know that Paul, too, was one who came in after the first twelve apostles. He was not in the upper room when the Lord established this great feast. He was not there. He had to have a special revelation from the Lord. Now, the wonderful thing is that they corroborate each other. Of course, it's possible that when they traveled around together, they talked over the great truths that they had. But, it may be also that they both had the same sources of information. I would think that's true. But, you see, you have this wonderful two-fold approach, and the Bible is like this, you know. It's the freshest book. Do get to know it. Get to love it. Live with it, day and night. You will find that, A, you have Luke coming up in the beginning of his gospel saying that he received these things from eyewitnesses. Paul says, I received it direct from Jesus Christ. So, you have from man and from God. The authorization and inspiration to write was upon both the men. But, the thing that Luke writes, which he received, oh, and please keep this very clear in your mind, which he received as sources of inspiration from men, it is corroborated and established by the direct revelation of God to Paul. So, we have them both saying the same kind of things. Now, what a precious thing this is. Praise God. Now, you will know that the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles tells us the story of the birthday of the Church, when God baptized those original people in the Holy Spirit, and the Church became what it had ever been in the heart of God. They were baptized in the Holy Ghost. Before the day is out, another 3,000 people were baptized in the Holy Ghost. Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful if the Church multiplied at this rate today? If this great baptism of the Spirit that we talk about, it was so dynamic that it did this kind of thing. And we're not trying to hang on to some sort of experience we've had, but the experience we have sweeps on and takes us with it. What a glorious thing that is. Well, now, at the end of the day, there were these other 3,000 people joined to the Church. Okay. Now, reading down. The Church was, of course, the original 120. All right. There was no Church of Jesus Christ until then. And I'm so glad that when he said, I will build my Church, he showed us how to do it. 120, 3,120 in a day. That's pretty good building. If these were all stones in the temple, I don't know any bricklayer that could lay at this rate. Do you? I don't know any mason that could lay at this rate. Praise the name of the Lord. Well, when it's all, we're told about it, we'll read it like this. Verse 41. They that gladly received his word, that is, Peter's word, were baptized. And the same day, there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. Of course, we understand, don't we, the people that gladly received the word don't quibble about anything. They gladly received the word. He said, be baptized. They said, show us the water. You see, no, no, no messing around. You see, they gladly received it. They didn't, they didn't have any big arguments about it, whether they should or whether they shouldn't, if and but and perhaps. They gladly, were only too glad that anything you say, why, praise God, they're the hearts that are going to get on, aren't they? And perhaps you know why you're not getting on then. Anything you say, praise God. What an attitude. I'll ask you a question. Do you reckon this message reached their hearts or not? It reached their hearts. Glory. Amen. You better put that out, it's going to worry you. It won't worry. All right. They gladly responded to the Lord from the depths of their hearts. And there were added, in verse 41, about 3,000 souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayer. Now there you have a list of the fourfold things, the four things into which the early church instantly moved. They received the Word. They were baptised in water and baptised in the Spirit at the same time. That's three things. And from that they completed the four to make seven. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and the fellowship and in breaking of bread and prayers. That's the sevenfold perfection, the simple sevenfold perfection of a true church in its basic elements. Take any of them away and you cannot be a true church. Any one of them. This is the whole glorious thing. And notice that this was instantaneous. It followed on straight away from being baptised in the Holy Ghost. They were baptised in water, in the Holy Spirit, came into the glory of the fullness of the life of Christ. And they just started to break bread together. It was spontaneous and precious. They had the apostles' doctrine and the fellowship of the apostles. Marvellous thing. And of course the breaking of the bread as we know and prayers. What a blessed foundation for a true, true church. But what a wonderful, simple way of talking about this blessed feast. Breaking of bread. Now, let's get it clear for a start, shall we? Let's read down. Go on, shall we? Fear, verse 43, came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved during those days, of course, or such as were being saved. It has nothing to do with Calvinism, that phrase there. It has to do with what was going on. But the thing I want you to notice is that the phrase breaking of bread occurs again. It occurs in verse 42. And it occurs in verse 46. Now there is a difference. In verse 42, I hope you're not getting bored with this way of getting down to your Bible and comparing spiritual things with spiritual. In verse 42, breaking of bread is in the context of apostles, verse 42, doctrine, fellowship and prayer. In verse 46, it is in the context of social care and behaviour. All things common, verse 44. Selling possessions, verse 45. Parting them to all as every man had need. Not saying, we'll have a share out. What we've got? 10 million pounds. How many people all have the same amount each? That is communism. That's not what the church did. They only gave as the need arose. They didn't have a share out. Will you understand that very clearly? All right? Yeah. Wonderful Bible, isn't it? It's all here. Precious. True. And it's so wonderful. What they did, of course, was what we're told about in the Acts of the Apostles further on, about Joseph who afterwards was surnamed Barnabas. He sold his possession and he laid at the You see? The apostles had the oversight of it and they only gave it out as the need arose. All right? Isn't it lovely, this Bible? It's all here. God's got a lot of sense. Don't you think he has? Because you see, a fool and his money are soon parted. It's no good giving out to anybody and everybody. You'd better store it if you've got some fools around and only give them when they've got real need. That's according to the scripture. All right. Then, you see, it's in the context of these things and it says they continued daily in the temple, they broke bread from house to house, they ate their meat, so there's meat eating as well here, with gladness and singleness of heart. You see, one is in the context of the church, apostles, doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayers. The other is in the context of the common everyday meal. And that's the difference that you must always understand. When you read about breaking of bread in the Bible, you must distinguish whether, between whether it is the thing that the church is doing, called by this lovely common name, or whether it is what everybody does. That is, every meal is not a communion. Now, you've got a lot of this idea talked about that, or every meal is a communion in our house. Now, listen, we'll settle that one and we'll settle it quite clearly, shall we? Now, I didn't know I was going to talk to you quite like this tonight, but never mind. We're at the beginning of the conference. And in the first book that Paul wrote to the Corinthians, we'll get this very easily settled. In this eleventh chapter, where Paul does talk about the communion, he also talks about something else. You know that he had a lot of things to put right in this Corinthian church. They were lovely people. But even lovely people can go wrong. And these people have gone wrong on many issues. So Paul had to write the letters to them and put them right. And he starts off this chapter like this. Let's read it. Chapter 11. And will you notice the ways of God as we read? Chapter 11, verse 1. Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren. Isn't that lovely? That you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. Isn't that a precious thing? He starts off by praising them. Now let's go down. Verse 17. Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not. It's a blessed method, isn't it? If this, you know, if you've got to put someone right, praise them first. Praise them for the things they haven't done wrong. That's the way to start. That's the way rounds start. That's the way arguments start. If only you'd learn the way of the Spirit of God. He praised them for all the things he could praise them for first. For instance, if somebody's got a smut on their nose, you've got a dirty nose. Now you've got lovely hair and you've got a beautiful dress on and your shoes are shining. But you see, there's a little something. Now that's rather different, you see. And that's the way. That's the way of love. That's the way of inspiration. That's the way of the Spirit of God. That, if I might say, is good psychology. Lord's a marvellous psychologist. What we do is start off with all the things we can see wrong. Don't we? Well, we ought not to. Now in this, verse 17, I declare unto you, I praise you not. That you come together, not for the better, but for the worst. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you. And I partly believe it. For 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. For in eating, every one taketh before other his own supper. One is hungry, and another is drunken. What? Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? They had some homeless ones amongst them, beloved, in the Corinthian church. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. And away he goes. And I want to tell you that the Lord Jesus never had a house to eat in. The Lord Jesus never had a home to go to. He said, Go into that village, he said, where you see a man carrying a pitcher of water. He said, You follow him into the house where he goes, and say to the good man of the house, Where's the guest chamber? Jesus couldn't say, Come to my house. And if you shame people that are homeless, you're shaming Jesus Christ. He was never ashamed to associate himself with the sick and the imprisoned. In fact, in Matthew 25, this is the way he spoke about sheep and goats. I was in prison, you visited me. I was hungry, you fed me. I was sick, you visited me. I was naked, you clothed me. He said, When, Lord, when did we see thee in prison? When did we see thee hungry, naked? He said, Inasmuch as you've done it unto one of these, the least of my brethren, you have done it unto me. Oh, beloved, if we're going to get into this great truth of communion properly, we've got to get this whole idea of complete identification clear in our hearts. Unless you'll never know communion, though you break the bread and drink the wine, you've got to come to an understanding. The whole basis of everything that the Lord Jesus ever did or said is upon this. It's all founded here. The Lord's love, the Lord's identity, the Lord's power, the Lord's self, by his spirit, by his flesh, by his blood, by his strength, by his sweat, by his tears, by his cries, by his birth, by his life, by his death, he identified himself with his own. And nobody's ever communed unless they've seen this. They've just gone through a ritual, like these three dear girlies that said to me, It's just a ritual that we do. It's the thing we do. What's it about? Well, it's about this. You never expected to hear me talk like this, but this is what it's about. It isn't whether you dice the cubes or whether you snap a wafer. It isn't about that. It isn't about whether you have individual cups or one cup. It isn't whether you wipe the glass or whether you vault. It's about whether you know the Lord. That's what it's all about. Glory to God. That's why you can see the difference. Paul made the difference. These people were all bringing, some of them had plenty of money, eating duck and green peas, I expect, and some other poor beggars, and I mean it, I mean the word beggar, I'm not using it in any colloquial sense, had nothing, no home, no house. Jesus had saved them all. Jesus had washed them all in his blood. Jesus had added them to his church. And they were saying, eating their meal was the Lord's supper. This is our communion. Paul said, it's a lie. All this business about every meal a communion is a lot of talking out of the top of your head. It isn't true. You've got to learn to distinguish between the things that differ. There is a communion that goes on whether you eat meals or whether you don't. That's another thing than that which I'm speaking about. We may have time to consider it tonight. But the great truth, beloved, that God wants us to enter into is so wonderful. Let me turn back with you now, having made the point. Let's go back to Acts 2. Oh, hallelujah. Verse 42. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship. What a glorious company. Apostles in their doctrine. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And the fellowship. And in breaking of bread. And in prayers. Amen. Breaking of bread. We speak of the breaking of bread service. What a marvelous. I love this phrase, you know. I don't say we broke bread from house to house. If we went to our friends, we'd say we had a cup of tea and they gave us a cake. Or, you know, they laid us on a nice meal and we enjoyed it. And we'd have knives and forks and polished table tops and table napkins and candles burning and all the paraphernalia that the flesh likes so very much. Why not say it's desperately wrong to burn a candle? Don't misunderstand me. But we've got to know in which area we're living. Whether it's in the flesh or in the spirit. We've got to know it very rarely. We've got to know where each belongs. And, but they used to say they broke bread from house to house because that's literally what they did. They used to break their bread and eat it. You know the people that break bread, don't you? Who are the people that break bread in your family? Perhaps, perhaps you're so old now you've forgotten. Well, I'll tell you who they are. The babies. Don't they? Don't they? Isn't it always the babies that break? You give them a crust or a rusk or a bit of bread, they break it up. And you're longing for the day when you can teach them to use a knife and a fork properly. So they don't disgrace you when your friends come. And that sort of thing. But they break the bread. I love this. Don't you? You see, it speaks of a father with his family. That's why I like this phrase for the great feast. A father with his family. Shut in love, he's got the door shut. They're all gathered round. Breaking the bread. Amen. Isn't that a lovely thought? It's the sort of thing that goes on with a husband and a wife and children. Just their exclusive company. I want to tell you that the church is an exclusive company. It has nothing to do with the installations or institutions or establishments of denominations. I'm not talking about that. What I'm talking about is the true glorious living church of Jesus Christ. And he gathers us all together. And I trust that tomorrow morning, when we come together, if we do go through with this, this is how we'll gather. You're to come, beloved. You're to come. Just like a child. Yeah, that's how you're to come. All simple. Break the bread. That's what you're to do. You and I, of course, know that the bread itself is only a symbol. We know there's no more virtue in that piece of bread than there is in the piece of bread you'll probably have with your lunch. Not in itself. But you see, there is this great speciality conferred upon it. When Jesus had been through the normal meal for Passover time with his disciples, they ate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Did you know that? That's what the children of Israel used to do. They were gathered together on that great occasion in Egypt, when God was going to bring them out. And they all had to get inside, father with his children. Father, mother, all the children, especially the firstborn, he had to be in there unless he was going to die. And there, with their loins girt about, their staff there in their hand, they had to eat their meat, that lamb. And they had to eat the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs with singleness of heart and gladness that the death that was passing through the land that night would pass them by. And in the morning they would all be saved, alive. Oh, with what gladness and singleness of heart they all gathered. Don't you think so? That's right. Now God intends us all to get like this, like a great, glad family. And after they'd done that, the Lord instituted his precious meal. He took bread. And when he had given thanks, he'd break it and gave it to them. Amen. It was their bread. He broke it and then he gave it to them. And he said, this is my body. And he gave to the church his body. The church and his body are one. He gave it to them. You read, you must read it yourself. We won't have time now. But I'm sure so many of us are familiar with the glorious words. He just took it and he gave thanks for it. And he broke it and then he gave it to them. Take, he said, take my body. Take my body. Eat my body. That's what it was all about. Breaking bread. Isn't that lovely? Do you feel this glorious intimacy? This, I belong. I'm in. That's how you're to come tomorrow morning. Father and his children. You know, some people are gluttons for punishment, if that's what it is. But they, I can see some people here that were with me in a conference only the other week at Cliff. So they take it day after day and meeting after meeting. I don't know how they do it. But there it is. And in this conference. I heard someone stand up and cry out in a way I've never heard anybody cry out before. There's a young fellow, I was only really lately, come into the things of God, starting the movement. And he stood up and he cried. He kept calling him Daddy. Daddy. I've never heard anybody cry. I, I don't believe in over familiarization too much with the things of God. I believe in simplicity. But I don't believe in over familiarization. God is great. Marvellous. Never mind. I saw it. I heard it. I looked at him. Daddy, he kept saying. Daddy. First he sat in the front there so I couldn't miss it. He sat right in the front where you're sitting me, you see. Only, quite like that. There was. Well, bless his heart. Amen. Amen. But you're to come with that idea, you know. That's how you're to come tomorrow morning. In that simplicity. That sweetness. You have a right there. You belong to the family. You're in. Glory. You're in. Oh, to receive. Oh, oh, just to relax. Oh, tonight's all right. Everything's secure. Bless God. Amen. Do you come like that? And then you'll break the bread. Won't that be wonderful? This is my body. Which is broken for you. Now you've got to understand this. That when the Lord Jesus hung on the cross, all from that moment onwards, when he went to the cross, for through all that he went, at the whipping post, in the prison, in Herod's palace, in Pilate's judgment hall, carrying his cross along the road to Golgotha, nailed there to the cross, hung up on that awful tree, hanging there in all his great love. Listen. His body was never broken. That was the great thing. That's the testimony of the Scriptures. A bone of him shall not be broken. His skin was broken. But his body was never broken. And he offered unto God one full sufficient sacrifice and oblation for sin. Perfect. Not a bone broken. Disjointed, yes. But his body was not broken. To God, he went back whole. Hallelujah. But to you and I, he says, here is my body, which is broken for you. For you, it has to be broken. You will only take it in little pieces. For God. Oh, perfect. Come on, little children. This is how John wrote. Come on, little children. My little children. These things I write unto you, that you sin not. So come on, little children. Come right in. The bread's broken. For you. Bless the Lord. He takes it. He breaks it. He says, you do this in remembrance of me. That's what he said. He took the cup when he had sucked. And more or less did the same kinds of things. I won't be able to talk about debt tonight, I can see. I've been going for an hour already now. But I want to come on to the great next thing. Still on the body at the moment. And take the next thing that he said. The other simple phrase. Breaking of bread. The next one, as you know, is in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Anybody too hot, feeling they're going to faint or go to sleep, because we can stop. Between us, the sister reminded us in a prayer we've covered thousands of miles today, I should say. Perhaps tens of thousands if you add up. Oh, I think you're a wonderful lot of people. Don't want to drive you off to sleep. Shall we stop? Right. 1 Corinthians 10. And in this great 10th chapter, by the way, I felt a bit guilty when Malcolm was talking about drinking and water. I had all this on the table. Change places and you can have it. 1 Corinthians 10. And this is what we read. It's a blessed thing that he's writing. But before we do so, I'd like you to look at the opening part of the chapter. And in verse 1, it says, Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They were under the cloud, which you know represents the Holy Ghost. They were under the Holy Spirit. And they were baptized in the Holy Spirit and in the sea at the same time. So you see, he started off this chapter where Luke starts the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles with the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And in water, same place, you see. You see the affinity between Luke and Paul. They start the same. They go right down through and you can read right down through this chapter if you wish. But what I want to come to is in verse 14. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from my idolatry. I speak as to wise men. Judge you 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 being many, are one bread and one body. The word and isn't there in the original. One bread, one body, they are the same. For we are all partakers of that one bread. Alleluia. And here is where we get that other lovely word, the communion. The breaking of bread, the communion. The communion. Wonderful word, communion. Actually, it's the same word that is translated in that 42nd verse of 2nd Acts. You know, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, there it is, and communion and breaking of bread and prayer. Same word. Fellowship. Communion. Amen. Is that what you're going to do when you come tomorrow morning? Amen. Will you be in the communion? In the communion. Alleluia. What a precious thing it is. Now, you will know that there's nothing, no figure more blessedly able to illustrate communion than the figure of a body with blood flowing in it. That's right, isn't it? Marvellous communion. You see, there it is, isn't there? It's such a wonderful communion, the body and the blood. It's pumping around through all your arteries, veins, pilary system. It's all going right the way through your body now. In fact, there's so one that you never think of them as separated. Do you? Just one. Body and blood. One. Only scientists have discovered a way, quite artificial of course, of keeping blood live and flesh, preserving it from corruption by the ways they do it. But there's no life there. It's all artificial. You take blood away from the body and it's dead. Take the body away from blood, it's dead. The blood and the body. One. Alleluia. This is the basic necessity for personal existence. No body and blood, no personal existence. That is as a human being. Now this is the blessed way in which the Lord is teaching us this great and marvellous thing, the communion of the body. Praise God. And you know that unless this is so, all the rest of the teaching about the body, which is to come following this chapter, quite useless. See, before he talks about the gifts of the Spirit in the 12th chapter, he says, no, let's stop here, shall we? Start with the baptism in the Spirit in the 10th chapter, you see. That's right. And we're going right down through this fact of the great communion of the body. Oh, beloved. How in the world could there be communion in a body like that, that those Corinthians? I may be talking about the place where you worship. I don't know you, so many of you. I am ever so glad. Well, you know what I mean is that you can't say I'm talking from knowledge about where you gather. I'm sorry in the other way. I hope for this week we'll get to know one another. And those who I do know and love very much, more love. But how in the world can you have communion when you've got this business of the rich eating their meals and the poor standing by and watching? The communion. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I'm so glad, and you listen, that the Lord Jesus Christ reduced those 12 men who would follow him to the same poverty that he lived in himself. That's what he did with them. You let that sink in, especially if you move in areas where there's a lot of talk about being apostles. You let that sink in. He reduced those 12 men to his own state of poverty. Why? You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That though he was rich, yet he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. When they at last laid him in a borrowed tomb, he was so poor he hadn't got a drop of blood in his veins. Any offers for apostleship? God keep it in perspective. God help us. Beloved, the communion, the communion. Do you know that you've been invited into the communion that the Lord Jesus Christ knew within him of his own self as blood and body? Basic, absolutely basic. Do you know that you're invited, when you're invited to the communion, you're invited to the communion between Father and Son? Did you know that? Did you know that? This is what we shall be doing in the morning. Oh, glory. I don't know whether the sense of wonderment grips your very bowels and moves through you as it does through me at this moment, just to talk about it. The awe and the wonder and the glory and the grace and the love, intimacy. If the first picture was intimacy of a father gathering his own in that room, how much more is this? What could be more intimate about a human being than a man's blood in his veins, in his body? What can be closer than that? Hence stems all life. There, that's what we're talking about. That's what Jesus has invited you into. This is the thing. No wonder, of course it's all of a piece and you can't imagine any other way, but no wonder he had to go to the cross. No wonder he had to go to this extremity. No wonder. No wonder it couldn't be done upon some sprinkling of water or upon some acceptance of a gift from a man or a woman. No wonder it can't be done on any other level. It can't be done by men muttering prayers over you, mumbling this or that from a book or whatever they do. Of course it can't be done. It's common sense. The cross. No wonder it had to be this. No wonder there was no advice given. No wonder there was no kind of laws laid down by Jesus Christ, save this, that thou should love with all, whether it be God or neighbor or enemy, and especially one another. This is the thing that goes to that cross. Hallelujah. There it had to be this. And there, there, glory be to the name of the Lord. He poured the blood out of his veins. Amen. Until in the end, it was just a body. Just a body. Glory. And he gives us the body. He says, take, take my body. No wonder he had to say, drink my blood. No life unless you do both. This communing in one kind, of course, is absolutely false, that some people have hatched up. It's lunacy, ludicrous. Cannot be in the nature of things. Death, death in one kind, that's all it is. Both together, it's alive. Blood in a body. Praise God. The basic elements of everything that's real. So, this great communion, and you know that this word, communion, comes from the Greek, which means the act of making common. And of course, the word common here doesn't mean base, or of a lower order or nature. It's the great word meaning, sharing, making what you have common to everybody else, so that we all have it. Like, the most common thing among us tonight, for instance, is what? What would you say? Air. We all breathe it commonly. It's the most precious thing there is. Anybody got anything more precious than air? No, no, it's a bit warm. And all that, there it is. Common. Yes, the most precious thing there is. Withhold it for five minutes and we're gone. It's common. So common, we don't walk about saying, I'm breathing air. Oh, because it's common. It's the way we live. Simple, precious, marvellous air. Blood is common to the body. My toe doesn't exalt over my scalp, say, aha, aha, I have blood. You see, it's common. My scalp says, yes, well, so have I. What are you making all this fuss about? It's common. Mind, your brains may not be quite so common among us, but air is, and blood is, and things like that. So, we can distinguish, but we've got to see this is what the Lord is talking about. It's the act of making common. The great act. Something done with the will. Something done with intent of purpose. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And so, this is what he did. He took the bread and he broke it. He said, take it, it's my body. He gave it to them. It's a lovely thing. You've got the body in it? You see, he's going to talk about the body and its members in the twelfth chapter. But what's the use of talking about them? They're not members. They're not members if they're not in the communion. What's the use of talking about all these sort of extra powers and gifts? They're useless if you're not in the communion. It's the communion that is the most important. The communion. And he told you that all these people that are old, that were baptized in the Holy Ghost under Moses' great mediatorial work. Yes? He says, many of them God wasn't well pleased with them. They rose up to play. They sat down to eat. They were overthrown in the wilderness. He slew them. Though they'd been baptized in the figure, being baptized in the spirit, God overthrew them. You can read about it. I didn't bother to read those verses because you must read them yourself. It's not quite our subject. But here's the tremendous thing. Let's get right down through here. Let's get right down through here. If you don't, and you remember I included the words about idolatry. If you don't come to this marvellous communion, you're in idolatry. That's the thing that he's talking about. Who are you feeding on? Who are you worshipping? What are you doing? To whom do you belong if you're not in the great communion? The communion is the bread, blood, life of you. The communion. Not a communion. Not a communicating. The communion. Of course, we do have communicating. We talk to one another. And all this, I'm preaching it, been going at it now for over an hour. But here's the tremendous thing. It's are we in the communion? Have we entered into this blessed life of the Lord as into his secret, like the secret flowing of the red plasma now, not only through, pumped through your heart and cascading down across your lungs, or being, or going out through our, these great arteries and veins, but in those little capillary things like hairs. Are you unblocked? Are you right? Are you clear? Are you in this communion? Is it flowing? Is it free? That's what it's all about. Amen. It's just as though God says, oh, how can I get over to these people? How can I make them understand this most vital thing of their spiritual life? Oh, it wouldn't matter if you were cast on some desert island and you couldn't come, and you couldn't eat the bread, and you couldn't drink the blood. If you were out there to drink the wine, I mean. It wouldn't matter if you're in the communion. The communion, the elements just symbolize it all. That God has caught up this idea and put it there as a visual aid to us. That we, we have, if you like, classwork. As though we're a lot of children, and we gather together, and we're given a pencil and a paper, or a tray of sand. Hallelujah. And we're all in this glorious thing. In the communion. I think I'm going to stop.