ASSEMBLY EXPERIENCE

A. P. Devenish

Song of Songs 2: 8–10, 3; Galatians 4: 4–6; 1 Corinthians 13: 9–13

It is in mind to speak, with the Lord’s help, about assembly experience. We value the light of the assembly and cherish the doctrine, but what enjoyment do we have as having real experiences when we are together in assembly? It is to be a time of experience. The writer of the Song of Songs refers to the time of singing. The reference in Galatians is to the time of sonship. There is an interesting reference in Corinthians to “when that which is perfect has come”, and I thought we might touch these wonderful ‘times’ by the Spirit, particularly as we are together in the assembly. In the Song of Songs, it would seem that there are certain things hindering; the wall and the windows and the lattice. Perhaps the Lord is seeking to get our attention.

It says,

“The voice of my beloved!

Behold, he cometh

Leaping upon the mountains,

Skipping upon the hills”.

but then do we apprehend Him? Is it a time of singing, of spiritual buoyancy? It says, “the winter is past”. We can say for our brother whom the Lord has taken, “the winter is past”, he is in the unclouded sunshine of His love. Then we all have our winters. You think of those in Scripture who had their winters. Mary of Magdala, she had her winter until the sunshine came out, you might say; then the Lord said to her, “Mary”. I do not think there were any windows, any walls, any lattices. At that moment, in John 20, she was in the unclouded sunshine of the Lord’s personal love.

I would that we would come to that, dear brethren. The winter might be past, we may have to go through these experiences of the winter, the suffering may continue, the sorrows may continue; but then perhaps we can touch by the Spirit, particularly when we are together, the joy of the Lord’s presence, the joy of the Lord’s voice, “The voice of my beloved! Behold, he cometh”.

He would surmount every obstacle to get to us, but on our side we need to be ready, ready for Him to come for us, and ready too for Him to come to us. Let the sunshine burst upon you, dear brother and sister, in the sense of the unclouded enjoyment of the Lord’s love. We can get it at a moment like this. You say, we are experiencing the winter. There is warmth and there is joy, there is sunshine as by the Spirit we have some apprehension of the Lord coming, “Leaping upon the mountains, Skipping upon the hills”. He calls her, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away”, and there is a whole scene of fruitfulness and joy, “The time of singing”. You might say it is not the pilgrim’s portion in a world which has rejected Christ, it is a time of weeping. Surely that is so, and we are not to be unfeeling either about the sorrows of humanity, the sufferings of mankind. Especially, we are to sorrow with those that sorrow amongst us. But then, I desire to suggest that we value assembly experience; for a moment the darkness is gone, the winter time is over, and the time of singing has come.

There is a holy buoyancy and joy as we begin to appreciate the Spirit as the Earnest, and a very real sense of the Lord’s presence and the Lord’s voice. Well, I think we should value our comings together more, beloved brethren. It seems easy to miss a meeting. Many excuses come up that we could justify, I suppose, but I would suggest there is great value in assembling, that by the earnest of the Spirit we touch a scene of holy jubilation, of holy joy, of holy buoyancy, “The time of singing is come”.

I read this further section because it is a blessed experience to sit down in His shadow, “In his shadow have I rapture and sit down”, to be at the Lord’s feet. It has been said about Mary in Luke 10 that one of the furnishings that the Lord provides for the local assembly is someone who will sit down and listen to the Lord, to hear His words. The Lord would provide that furnishing. Beloved Mr.

Taylor said that Mary would be adjusted. We may say, Surely Mary did not need adjustment; Martha needed adjustment evidently in Luke 10. (J. Taylor. New Series. Vol.18, p.451 ‘Mary of Bethany in chapter 10 represents adjustment in regard of the word of Christ’). I believe it is one of the furnishings the Lord would provide in a local assembly, maybe a sister, maybe a brother, maybe more than one, that characteristically find their place at the feet of Jesus, particularly as we come together, “In his shadow have I rapture and sit down; And his fruit is sweet to my taste”. Paul says, if we think we know anything, we know nothing yet as we ought to know it (1 Corinthians 8: 2). If we think we know anything, as if we all have to start again, we all have to begin over again. I believe that has been the experience of many of us.

Perhaps that is what the Lord had to do; He had to do that because we were so steeped in our own understanding and our own knowledge of the truth. We had to realise that we really knew nothing as we ought to know it. We had to come to the Lord’s feet and find adjustment and help and learn all over again. I would suggest to the brethren that it is one of the furnishings, one of the most valuable furnishings we can possibly have in the local assembly, that there are persons who are characteristically sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to His word. You may say, Oh I know I am right, I know I do not need adjustment. If Mary of Bethany came to the Lord’s feet and found His word precious to her, but that she needed adjustment, she needed to come under the influence of His love, she needed to begin to know things differently. I believe we all need it, dear brethren. One would just suggest to the brethren that we should therefore get the more out of our gatherings as we experience the infinite source of blessing and joy and fruit there is in the Lord Jesus and in His words. It says, “his fruit is sweet to my taste”.

I just pass on to Galatians. It says, “but when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman”; a wonderful time, a time of sonship. It says earlier, in the preceding chapter, “faith having come, we are no longer under a tutor; for ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3: 25, 26). The wonderful light of sonship comes into this epistle which has in mind to set us in liberty, in holy liberty. It says, “God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law, that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive sonship. But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. I would that this precious light, the light of sonship, may shine into our hearts to set us in liberty, free from elements of legality that may still hold us. I fear what is carried over. We know in our own experience, we may have grown up in a system of things and we are likely to carry things over; but the light and glory of sonship is to set us free, and the Spirit in our hearts crying, Abba, Father. It is lovely to come into such an atmosphere, wholly free from the principles of bondage of this world. That is what he speaks about, the principles of the world in which we were held in bondage. We were held in bondage under the principles of the world, referring no doubt to Judaism, but then elements may still yet be with us that we would carry over. But this is a wonderful time in which the glory and liberty of sonship is to effect something in our souls so that we are set free. The Spirit of God in an urgent way is crying, Abba, Father. You may say it was because of the way in which Judaism would restrict the flow of life and love among the brethren, the outgoing of our hearts to God, the Father. These things would hold in check and restrict and restrain this wonderful life and liberty that the Holy Spirit has in mind in this section. One would just suggest that we want to come into the gain of this.

This is not exactly the state arrived at, it is the light of sonship, the wonderful light of sonship from God’s

side. It says, “but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son”, and it was to bring us into holy liberty. The corresponding passage, I suppose, is John 10 in the gospels, when the Lord comes in. “To him the porter opens” (John 10: 3). He came in this way, it says He came under law “that he might redeem those under law”, but He comes in that He should go before us and lead us in and lead us out and find pasture. It is wonderful to be in such liberty. The Spirit is urgently crying. It is not just ‘He said’ here, but He is crying, Abba, Father, as if He is seeking to draw us into the holy liberty that is ours as sons of God, so that we should cry, Abba, Father. Well one would just suggest that the Lord might help us to be free of these beggarly principles. Not that liberty is licence, indeed it is not, it is not licence to do as we please, but we are brought into the holy liberty which the Spirit of God affords in the outgoing of our hearts to God.

I would refer lastly to this scripture in 1 Corinthians 13 which is very interesting, “when that which is perfect has come”. You say, Well, that is in the future. I would venture to suggest that we could touch “that which is perfect” in the assembly. As to how much we do touch it would be as to the measure in which we make room for the Spirit of God. So that instead of seeing through a dim window obscurely, we can see things clearly. Stephen looked directly into heaven. Mr. Taylor has a remarkable piece on ‘A Cloudless Dispensation’ (New Series Vol.90, p.1). Stephen looked right into heaven. There was nothing between him and that sight in heaven. I believe we can touch in some measure, as we make room for the Spirit, what is exceedingly precious, it says in Hebrews, the book of the open heavens, “we see not yet all things subjected to him, but we see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour”, Hebrews 2: 8, 9. The fulness of things awaits, of course, the day to come, but I believe we have the privilege, if we make way for the Spirit, to touch these things in the assembly, so we see things clearly. It is

wonderful to have some impression of seeing Jesus now, “but then face to face”, it says. But then, is there any sense by the Spirit that we can see Jesus? There is some suggestion of it in the second epistle of Corinthians in chapter 3, “we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face”, that is His face, it is unveiled. You say, That is spiritually. Of course it is spiritually. Is it any the less real? I do not believe so. By the Spirit it is our privilege, “we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face”. His face is unveiled; we can look into the face of Jesus. The fulness of it no doubt waits the day to come, but I believe it would be right to suggest that as we make way for the Holy Spirit in the assembly, we can touch these precious things. He says, “now I know partially”, and that would be true, “but then I shall know according as I also have been known”.

But then it is our privilege, beloved, by the Spirit in the assembly, to see that wonderful vessel in its completeness, to see what John saw when he was taken up. The angel said,

“Come here, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife”, Revelation 21: 9. It was not partial.

He saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, in its completeness. Is there any way that we can touch this in the assembly? I enquire, but I believe there is, believe by the Spirit we can see beyond what is merely partial, we can see the whole assembly as the product of divine counsel, of divine workmanship. It has been said that a day will come when all the scaffolding will be taken away. What is going on now is hidden by the scaffolding, the discipline, the sorrow, all the exercises which the beloved saints go through. It is like scaffolding, but one day it will all come down and you will see the holy city in its grand completeness. Is there any way in which we can touch that now in the assembly? I believe there is. It says in 2 Corinthians 5, a chapter that brings us to the very threshold of eternity, “Now he that has wrought us for this very thing is God, who also has given to us the earnest of the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 5: 5). I would suggest that the reason we do not

experience these things is because we are not making room in our hearts for the earnest of the Spirit.

Then I would enquire in closing as to this reference, “but then I shall know according as I also have been known”; is there any way in which we can experience that in the assembly, as we are together? When all the camouflage has gone. How much of it there is, beloved brethren. When all the incongruity, the inconsistencies, all the things we perhaps make much of, have all gone. We see one another as the product of divine workmanship, free from all these incongruous elements, know as we have been known; that is, we shall see things as God sees them. How often we regard one another as we are in our inconsistencies and all that is there, perhaps in fleshly activity. It will be a wonderful day when all that will be gone in actuality. I suppose some sight of that was granted to Peter and James and John on the mount of transfiguration. They saw Moses and Elias. They would discern who they were, it would be the way in which they would be known. There was no question with them. They did not ask, Who are these? They knew who they were. There would be nothing in their view about Moses’ complaints; nothing in their view about Moses saying he was unequal to the commission that the Lord gave him, or of Elias running away from Jezebel and resigning his commission. They would see these personalities as spiritual personalities, the fine finished product of divine workmanship. I believe in some sense and I would suggest to the brethren, not dogmatically, that by the Spirit, who is the Earnest, we can touch these things. It says,

“we know in part, and we prophesy in part—but when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child”. Well it is very sad when we act like children. I believe this is a good word for us. I would speak for myself.

Then he says, “when I became a man, I had done with what belonged to the child”. So maturity is in mind, spiritual maturity. How often we slip down into the way a child

would behave, whereas Paul says, “when I became a man, I had done with what belonged to the child”. That element of conscious manhood should be surely amongst us. Mr. Taylor said about the Lord when He came up out of the Jordan, “being about thirty years old” that was conscious manhood, (New Series Vol.25, p.20). I believe there is a great need for manhood among us. Having said that, one would just like to close with this word as to love. He says,

“now abide faith, hope, love; these three things”. I suppose it would suggest that faith and hope were on the same level, but it says, “and the greater of these is love”. Not ‘the greatest’, but “the greater of these is love”. Paul was seeking to help the Corinthian saints as to love. It says earlier in the chapter, “if I ... have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13: 2); not ‘I have nothing’, but “I am nothing”. So it refers to the measure in which we are formed in the divine nature. It is wonderful to come into our gatherings and realise that what is in expression in a predominating way is love. I am sure it is to be experienced. You come into your local meeting and you realise what is in expression in a predominating way is love, divine love. Oh how that would help us together, help us as we seek to work out the truth together. Love is impartial. This chapter tells us what love is; “Love has long patience, is kind; love is not emulous of others; love is not insolent and rash, is not puffed up, does not behave in an unseemly manner, does not seek what is its own, is not quickly provoked, does not impute evil, does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13: 4–7). What does that mean, “Love never fails”? You say, Well we do fail at times, and it is not because there is not love. I think as this quality is in our hearts, there is in expression a love that never gives up, never surrenders, but keeps coming. We have been here for a few days, and we have been often reminded about “grace upon grace” being like the waves of the sea. This is love which is of God, and it keeps

coming no matter what disappointments there may be, what failures there may be. Love still keeps coming, never runs out, love never fails in its fulness. One would desire to touch, in some greater measure, these things that I have suggested to the brethren. I trust there has been some profit in what has been said, in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Address at Barbados
19 October 1996