Having a Spiritual Congregation
It is possible to have a congregation of professing saints who are really saints. To be a people who love one another, who love God, who live holy lives, who live in harmony and fellowship with one another. That is my ideal congregation. That is the New Testament ideal. The question is, how can we have such a congregation?
To have such a congregation, it is needful, first of all, for the pastors to be up to the full measure of the New Testament pastor. Herein lies the secret of a holy and spiritual congregation. Open your New Testament to Acts 20:28: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” The first thing for a pastor or overseer to do is take heed unto himself. What does this mean? It means that he is to have a care that he is all that God and the Bible requires a pastor to be. There is no excuse. God will help every overseer to be all that God desires that overseer to be. The preacher needs to fully realize this, and instead of making allowances for human frailties and weaknesses, must set to work with his whole heart to be the man of God that God intends him to be.
Listen to the testimony of Paul: “Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” (Philippians 4:9) “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.” (Philippians 3:17) Read these texts in other translations. “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.” (1 Thessalonians 2:10) “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.” (1 Timothy 1:16) Meditate on that statement. Here he says that Jesus Christ had made him a pattern of all longsuffering to all who should hereafter believe in Christ. This does not mean longsuffering only, but in all the graces of the Christian life. We, as pastors and preachers, are not up to the standard, unless Christ has made us a pattern of all the graces of Christ in their fullness. That is what the overseer is to take heed unto. He is to see to it that he is just that pattern and nothing less than that.
There are a number of other Scriptures that would help you to have a better understanding of the standard of measurement of a New Testament pastor, but we will mention only one more. “[Jesus] breathed on [His disciples], and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” (John 20:22) They did not receive the Holy Spirit at that moment, but what Jesus meant was that it was in this manner that they were going to receive the third person in the Trinity. When God made man, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. That mighty rushing wind that came from heaven on the day of Pentecost was the breath of the Almighty breathing into the disciples, and they became filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now read verse 23: “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” (John 20:23) This is the standard. What do these words mean? Has a pastor power to forgive sins? Has he power to retain or refuse to forgive sins? And if he has power to refuse to forgive sins, will Jesus also work with him and refuse to forgive the sins of the same one? Has the preacher power to heal people? Did not Peter say, “Such as I have give I thee” (Acts 3:6)? Peter had healing power—not independent of Jesus Christ—but Christ had entered into the life of Peter and possessed it in such a manner that the life of Jesus became the life of Peter. He lived and yet not he, but Christ lived in him (Galatians 2:20). He had healing power and yet not he but the Christ that is in him.
To make this still plainer and more comprehensive, a preacher is to be so filled with Christ and have the Spirit of discernment that he will never let a soul up from the altar until he knows that soul has been forgiven of God. How can he know it? It is his privilege to know it, and he is not fully qualified as a minister of Christ except he can so work with Christ that none can profess forgiveness who do not get forgiveness from God.
You say that is a very high standard. If that is not the standard, then please give the meaning of the text. You say that it does not mean that much, but you do not know what it means. It means just that much. It means also that a pastor must have such spiritual discernment that none can profess in the congregation that he is overseeing who are not saved without his knowing it. What is he to do with those who he knows not to be saved? He is to deal with them just as Jesus would deal with them. Christ will give him wisdom to know how to deal with them. We cannot tell you, for no two perhaps should be dealt with alike. But one thing is certain, they must at no great distant day be brought to an experience of salvation or take their place among the non-professors. The old leaven must be purged out or it will leaven the entire lump. Certainly we believe in showing mercy, longsuffering, and gentleness, but God will lead each pastor in this matter who lives under the direct leading of the Holy Spirit.
There are pastors right among us who to a great extent have left off judgment. It is all mercy and toleration and no judgment. Worldliness is getting in, division, strife, contention—and no man to lift a voice against it. Pastors have become so easy that they allow those to profess in the congregation who are proud, covetous, worldly, and are living for the dollar more than living for God. The preacher must be true to his nearest and dearest friend, even to those of his own household. Some are so indifferent that they allow young women who are dressed like the world, and who bear no fruit of the Spirit in their life, to teach a class of children in the Sunday School. All they do is profess to be a Christian, but there is no evidence of spiritual life. All is cold and dead, and their teaching is merely mental theory.
We all wonder why there is not more of the power of God among His people. We have given some of the reasons. The judgments of God in the power of the Holy Spirit are not being rendered. Too many pastors are suffering that woman Jezebel to profess among them in her pride and worldliness (Revelation 2:20). God is love, certainly, but love is severe. Tolerating worldliness, formalism, pride, covetousness, and unholiness is not love. Love will keep the Church pure.