HOW DO WE VIEW THE CHURCH TODAY?
Garth McKay
Revelation 1: 9-2: 1; 1 Corinthians 12: 12-20; Ezra 3: 10; 4: 10-13
What is in mind to speak of is how are we to view the church in our day? We live in a difficult day, a dark day, when evil is very advanced in the world. There is a reference in Revelation to the “vine of the earth”, (14: 18). Evil is rampant in the world and it is flourishing; it is like the vine of the earth. That is one thing we have to deal with in our day, evil is so advanced. There are special tests given to God’s people in the day in which they live. Other Christians who have lived in years gone by have faced other tests. One of the tests we face today is the advancement of evil, that vine of the earth which is flourishing.
Another aspect of the day in which we live is that the Lord is about to come. It says just before where we read in Revelation, “for the time is near” (v 3), and the time for the Lord’s return is nearer today than it ever has been before. I ask myself a question, How am I to view His church in such a day?
I began in Revelation – here you have a view of the church, but before that you have a view of the Lord Himself, in connection with the church. Let us not rush into a judgment of the church without thinking of the Lord. John is very skilful here and he presents the Lord in a certain way. This great vision that he has of this one who is like the Son of man, “clothed with a garment reaching to the feet … his feet like fine brass”; it could be none other than the Lord Jesus Himself – a vision of our Lord Jesus Christ, and He is presented in a certain way. I want to bring out a couple of things. Firstly, “out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword going forth” – this view of the church is the church in its responsibility to the Lord, what the church is as left in the hands of men, and the Lord is, for a reason, presented in a certain way to that church. He is presented at the One who has, “out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword going forth”, His word will be final. His judgment will be final. There is no word which has any more authority than the word of God Himself and it is that which is seen going out of His mouth.
The other thing I want to remark on is His eyes, “his eyes as a flame of fire”. These two things show me that nothing will be hidden from His gaze, divine perception, perfect judgment of the state and condition of things, will be what He brings in. I also want to draw your attention to where He is. “These things says he that holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven gold lamps”. That is where He is, walking in the midst of the seven assemblies. He is walking around Christendom to see what He can see, to judge what it has become. He is walking in the midst of the seven gold lamps; these are the seven assemblies, and you can apply this to the whole of Christendom, every corner of Christendom that professes the Lord’s Name. This is speaking about profession, some of it is real and thank God for that, but some of it is not. Here is the perfect judge, the Lord Himself will walk in the midst of the seven assemblies, and He is walking today. He is there, He is in the midst of the seven gold lamps, He is looking at you, He is looking at your locality, the different churches that there are, He is looking at everything that professes His Name. Then you can read on in these addresses to the assemblies to see what He finds. He finds that the strength of first love has been departed from, and He finds that there is falsehood, those who say that they are Jews and are not. He finds that there is allowance of evil and evil doctrines. You can find all these things in Christendom – it is one thing to have a judgment of what the world is, but it is a very solemn thing to see that the Lord’s church has embraced these things and has become a ruin. As left in the hands of men, as left to their responsibility, that is what the Lord will find: a ruin.
At the very end of all these addresses to the assemblies He comes to Laodicea and he finds apathy. There are certain tests for the Lord’s people in our day and I do not know whether this is true of the whole world, but I know it to be true of this country – a great test today for the Lord’s people is apathy. It appears from what the Lord says of it that there is nothing that He hates more than apathy; “Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold not hot, I am about the spue thee out of my mouth”, Rev 3: !6. I do not want to dwell on this side of the church, but I do want to say this, that I would like to suggest to you that maybe we do not feel this enough. We are not excluded from it, you cannot exclude yourself, or the brethren, from the failure of Christendom and this aspect of it. Responsibly, we have failed the Lord. You say, what is left then? It is wonderful grace that to every assembly, even Laodicea, there is the possibility of overcoming. The systems themselves will not be saved, they will be discarded, there is nothing for the Lord in them. They are finished, but it is possible for persons to overcome, even in such a day as we are in, even in such conditions of apathy, it is possible to overcome. It is possible that there will be those who have not defiled their garments, it is possible that there will be those who will open to the Lord’s knocking – let us be among them. But, let us feel the departure, maybe we do not feel it enough. The Lord, how He feels it, walking in the midst of the seven assemblies, how He must feel the departure, the allowance of the world in all its wickedness and evil, in His church, that which professes His Name: let us feel it too.
In Corinthians I want to speak about the church again, but this is very different. This is what we often call the assembly, or you can use the word church. I somehow prefer to call it the church, this is the true church. This is not now just a profession, this is not now a falsehood, not now what is entrusted to the hands of men, this is what is established in the power of the Holy Spirit here on the earth. It is as real as the precious aspect of the church that I spoke about. You can find it today. It exists. The Lord Jesus Christ having completed the great work of redemption, risen form the dead, glorified on high, crowned with glory and honour, the Holy Spirit was sent here to the earth to establish His church. It says, “even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body”. What a difference this is! This is something that is established on the earth that cannot be overthrown. The Lord said, “on this rock I will build my assembly and hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”, Matt 16: 18. You might say, they have prevailed to an extent in Christendom, but they will not prevail against this church, His assembly, that which is precious to the Lord and that which is established here in the power of the Holy Spirit of God.
Consider for a moment the wonder of the fact that the Spirit has come. You have believed on the Lord Jesus, you have asked for the Spirit and the Spirit has given to you. What a thing that is, that you should not be alone and helpless in the world but that you might be empowered by a divine Person! He has come. It is not that God has given a little of His Spirit to you, He has given His Spirit! The Lord stood up at the great day of the feast and He said, “He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”, John 7: 38. This is the power of the Spirit that is available to you and it is a wonderful thing to know that for yourself, individually, to know that a divine Person indwells you, and to know the power that He can give you, and to know how He can help you overcome the world.
I want to draw your attention to something greater, because if the Spirit is in you individually, He will draw you into this great body of persons that He has established here on the earth as the church of Christ. His true church, that which is true to Him, and which will not be overthrown. You see it there at Pentecost when the Spirit came, you see there the one body. You ask yourself, what about now? The Spirit is still here. These are easy words to say, but a great profound truth to get hold of, that the Spirit is still here, and if the Spirit is here, has His mission failed? Could you say that of the Spirit of God, that His mission has failed? You could never say that. Therefore the one body is here still, and it will be here until the Lord comes for it. The Lord will not come for profession, the Lord comes for the assembly. The Lord comes for that which is established here for Him and you can find it. That is the test for us today – you can find it, have you found it? Have you found the body of Christ where you are?
Later on in the chapter it says, “if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it” (v 26), have you experienced that? We have experienced it, if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it: what sorrow there is to bear, but the members of the body bear it together. There are many members in the one body. If you can say that you have experienced it, you have found the body. You have found the assembly. Have you found a place where there can be glory to God in the assembly unto the ages of ages; have you found that? A place where God is worshipped in Spirit and in truth? If you have found that you have found the body. It is a wonderful thing! Well, you may say, I do not know anything about these things, but if you ask yourself these simple questions, you will find that you have found the assembly. What rejoicing there should be in our hearts when we have found the assembly. You do not just find a part of it, or a representation of it. In the past I have described the fellowship as being a representation of the assembly, but a brother has helped me to see that you cannot really have a representation of the assembly, or a part of the assembly. The assembly is the assembly, the one body, and it is one. You need faith for it, you cannot see where all the members are, but the Lord knows those that are His, and the test for us today is to find the assembly where we are. Touch it! Touch the body of Christ, it is a wonderful experience, not only to know that it exists, not only to believe it, but to find it practically. Find the features of it among your brethren, find it in your locality. Great possibilities exist in our day regardless of the failure of men, regardless of the ruin of Christendom, great possibilities exist because of the presence of the Spirit here. This true church is what the Lord Himself will come for.
Think of the terrible division that there is in Christendom and how many recognised churches there are (it is a fearful number, a testament to failure), but it is a wonderful thing to me that when the Lord comes, in a twinkling of an eye, the divisions will be gone. That which is beyond you and me to accomplish, beyond any man, except for Him, there is one answer to that situation, and that is the coming of Jesus Himself. In a moment, what is true and what is false will be divided from each other, and what is true will go to be with Him forever. Think of it! The Lord Jesus is coming back to the earth to reign for a thousand years, a reign of peace and happiness and righteousness, coming here to receive the acclaim of the whole earth, more than that He is going to receive acclaim from heavenly, earthly and infernal beings. His influence is going to be universal. All of that He has before Him, but before that, the first thing is that He will come for His assembly, “that he might present the assembly to himself glorious, having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things”, Eph 5;7. It is possible, dear friend, to reach that great vessel today. Let us weep about the departure, but let us rejoice in what is possible in the power of the Spirit, even in our day.
I just refer to Ezra. You could say that this is a terrible day, a dark background, that the Jews had been taken captive, after all God’s promises, everything is finished. Just like those chapters we referred to in Revelation, you might say, everything is finished. Yet there is a wonderful thing; a day of recovery. These men come, full of faith, and they set the altar on its base. The house and the walls and everything was ruined, there was no house, there were no walls, where did they start? They started with the altar. What possibilities these men had in their hearts! What was possible if God prospered them? They set the altar on its base so that there might be glory to God. I have this vision of them standing around the altar, no house, no wall, the threat of attack from these people of the countries (their opposition became clear later on), and yet they set the altar on its base. I want to encourage you, the Spirit is still here, what possibilities there are for His people even in such a day.
Later in the chapter it summarises what I had in mind. You have the foundation of the temple and you have the praising and the singing, “And all the people shouted with a great shout to the praise of Jehovah”. I would like the joy of the assembly being here, and the possibility that we can touch it, to encourage us together so that there might be this great shout of joy. In this section the two aspects I have spoken of are brought together because also these ancient men “wept with a loud voice”, and what it says is, “And the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy form the noise of the weeping of the people” – let us feel deeply the departure which is around us, and of which we are part. Let us weep, not exactly for what it means to us, but for what it means to the Lord. These men had seen the house in its former glory, they saw what it was in the beginning and they wept. Why did they weep? They wept because of the breakdown that there was, but you could not discern the noise of the weeping from the shout of joy. I think in some way this summarises the view we can have of the church in our day. I trust that it might be of some help, to bring clarity, because there is a terrible danger in giving up either one of these things. If you give up the weeping you are at risk of taking high ground, of saying “we are The Church” and have not failed: you cannot do that. But if you give up the other, God alone is robbed because there is a possibility now, in the assembly, for glory to God until the ages of ages. May we be faithful to these things, ready for when the Lord comes. His coming is very near. When He comes He wants to find us actively functioning in the body the place where the Spirit is.
I just want to finish with a reference to the prophet Haggai because at the same time as the section in Ezra the word through the prophet Haggai comes, “But be strong, Zerubbabel, saith Jehovah; and be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak” (Haggai 2: 4). You can put your own name in here, be strong, “all ye people of the land, saith Jehovah, and work”, do not be afraid, do not let the departure weigh you down, feel it, but do not let it weigh you down, “work: for I am with you, saith Jehovah of hosts. The word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, and my Spirit remain among you”. I finish with that, very interesting words in the Old Testament, “my Spirit”. It is a word for us all tonight, the Spirit is still here, the assembly is here. Let us be found faithful when the Lord comes.
Malvern
August 2001