Today in Bijie in Kweichow province, no one has taken the standing of establishing a church on the ground of locality. If anyone desires to establish a church, it is all right for him to go to Bijie because in one locality there can only be one local church. If an additional church appears there, God will say that is a division. It is just like a woman matching a man. If a man does not have a wife yet, she can marry him and be his wife. If he already has a wife, how can she become his mate? She can only be the mate of a man who has no wife. The whole New Testament tells us this one thing: The church is local. We must see that the church is local. The Epistles speak of the church in Corinth and the church in Ephesus. Revelation speaks of the seven churches in Asia. In each locality there is only one church. The church cannot become independent of locality.
Please remember that a church can only be established in a locality where there is no church. If there is a church in a certain locality, we can only join it; we cannot set up another one. Once we set up another one, that is a division, a sect, which is condemned by God. I want to ask, “What is the difference between a woman who is a man’s wife and a concubine?” Everything is the same, except the position. Only the ground is different; everything else is the same. Though outwardly they may appear alike, something is lacking in one-the ground.
What is division? Division is to be without the ground, and to be without the ground is to be divisive, and is something condemned by God. Please forgive me for using Bijie as an example again. What is the difference between going to Bijie to preach the gospel, to save people, and to edify saints and going to North Szechuan Road in Shanghai to do the same thing? Outwardly, there is no difference. It is not that people cannot be saved and receive eternal life when the gospel is preached at North Szechuan Road; neither is it that the people at North Szechuan Road will lose their experience of salvation. The gospel truth is the same, and the messages may be the same. Everything seems to be the same. But we cannot establish another church at North Szechuan Road. If we go to North Szechuan Road to establish a church, that is a division. The messages given in Bijie may be exactly the same as the messages given at North Szechuan Road, but in the two different localities there are two different grounds. In Bijie it may be the church, while at North Szechuan Road it is a division. The same message is given at these two localities, but what a difference there is! Suppose we set up the Lord’s table in Bijie, that is, the Lord’s supper, the breaking of bread. If we move the table with all the attendants from Bijie to North Szechuan Road, we may pray in the same manner as before, study the Bible as before, and praise the Lord as before. In these things there is no difference at all, but in Bijie there is a church, while there is a division at North Szechuan Road. When a woman marries a single man, she is his wife; if she marries a man who is already married, she is not his wife. When we go to a place where there is no church, we can establish one. But in a place where there is already a church, we can only join it, we cannot set up another one. This is a basic principle in the Bible. If we do not care for the boundary of locality, everything is finished. If we discard this basic ground, we have no ground.
I hope that before God we understand these two points: First, God’s church is established upon the authority of the Holy Spirit; second, God’s church is established with the boundary of locality. The ground of the church is something according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We cannot say, “The Holy Spirit has guided us to meet at North Szechuan Road.” In regard to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the first thing He would argue is that the place where we are meeting is wrong. Consequently, we violate and offend the first limitation of the Holy Spirit, and we have no ground on which to stand. Saying that we have the Holy Spirit is not enough; we must also pay attention to the boundary of locality, which is set up by the Holy Spirit. We can never violate the boundary of locality; we can only submit. Men have no freedom in the jurisdiction of locality set up by the Holy Spirit.
Home | First | Prev | Next