THE ASSEMBLY IN THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
MEETINGS IN VALENCE
30th OCTOBER-1st NOVEMBER 1954
(SATURDAY TO MONDAY)
Reading 1
A.J.G. We could keep in mind this chapter 13 of Matthew’s gospel in its entirety. This part of this gospel has the assembly particularly in view. The Lord speaks of the assembly as being “my assembly” and says that the gates of hades shall not prevail against it. In chapter 18, He speaks of it as being what must be respected by us all.
Peter comes into view from chapter 14 to chapter 18. We have him in chapter 14 leaving the boat to go to Jesus; in chapter 15: 15 saying: “Expound to us this parable”, then in chapter 16 as being one to whom the Father had made a revelation and to whom the Lord had something additional to give. We have him again in chapter 17, not only as going up the mountain with James and John, but also as being one who receives a special education at the end of the chapter. We find him again in chapter 18 as raising a question as to forgiveness. Peter is always in view as representing someone who must receive education in the assembly.
Chapter 13 is preparatory. It is important that in each of our localities we should have the assembly before us, in a very clear way, and the assembly particularly as belonging to Christ and drawing its character from Himself. This is what must be kept in each locality and it is also what Satan will attack, if not with violence then at least with corruption. So in this chapter, the Lord leaves the Jewish system and He takes His place by the sea. He begins to speak in parables. This raises the question: why should He speak in parables? The disciples ask Him why He speaks in parables; He answers saying to them that to them it is given to know the mysteries but not to those who are around them. That brings in the thought of divine sovereignty, but at the same time a feeling of responsibility on our side, because the Lord says in verse 12: “for whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall be caused to be in abundance; but he who has not, even what he has shall be taken away from him”. So the understanding of divine things is given to us in the measure in which we desire to have it, and not just to have it but where we desire to be governed by it.
The Lord gives the parable of the sower to show the different grounds into which the seed falls. That brings in the new element of responsibility on our part. In every case, persons are in view. For example, in verse 20, the Lord says: “he that is sown on the rocky places”; in verse 22, “he that is sown among the thorns”, verse 23, “he that is sown upon the good ground”, so that the thought that God works is emphasised. So there should be results for Him, at the same time as the thought of responsibility on our side as to the way in which we receive the word that is given to us. After the parable of the sower, the Lord gives six similitudes of the kingdom. The first three represent what is public; in the last three, it is a matter of what is vital and secret. This is very important for us to understand so that the truth should be maintained in purity, that we should not be deceived by appearances which are around us, but see things as God sees them, so that we should be encouraged to continue with the truth in purity, recognising that what is vital will be small publicly.
We have the parable of the darnel first, and then that of the grain of mustard, then that of the leaven which is hidden by the woman in three measures of wheat. In each case, the public position is presented. In the first case, it is what is of God and what is of the evil one; it is allowed to grow together. In the second case, what was of God was to be small, but put in man’s hands it became great and full of pretension. In the third case, the whole position is marked by leaven. I believe that there is an answer to these three similitudes in the following three, so that if there is evil in the profession all around us, there must be an answer to that in the maintenance of the truth of the assembly. The answer to the parable of the darnel is found in the parable of the seine where there is discernment between what is good and what is bad, the good fish being put into vessels while the bad are cast out. In the world which surrounds us, good and evil go on together, and the Lord allows that it should be so, until the end, but in the assembly good and evil must not go on together, there has to be discernment to retain the good and to reject the bad. If the grain of mustard becomes something great, in the parable of the treasure, it is said that something is hidden in a deliberate way. It is said, “which a man having found has hid”; the real thing is hidden. That corresponds to the epistle to the Colossians where it said that our life is hid with the Christ in God; that is to say that the assembly, if indeed I understand it, is content to be hidden as long as Christ Himself is hidden.
Then in the parable of the leaven, the whole position is characterised by what is of the first man: that may bear the Name of Christ publicly, but all has been marked by the leaven of self-will and the mind of man. What is suggested in the pearl is its particular beauty, and this beauty is found in the fact that she is entirely for Christ, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he had espoused them to one man to present them a chaste virgin to Christ. I believe that is what corresponds to the pearl. These last three parables are in correspondence with the truth suggested in the first three.
E.J.S. At the end of the interpretation of the parable of the darnel, the Lord says, “He that has ears, let him hear”, and in Revelation, the Lord addressing Himself to the seven assemblies says, “He that has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies”.
A.J.G. That is very significant. The Lord seems to attach a special importance to the understanding of the parable of the darnel. If He allows that publicly in the profession good and evil should continue together, He shows that there is a day coming when they will be definitely separated. But in the maintenance of the truth of the assembly, this separation of good and evil must work now. That calls for faithfulness to Christ. The Lord indeed desires that we in conditions publicly should develop faithfulness to Himself, which is the first feature of the assembly.
L.M. Why do the disciples ask for light as to the parable as to the darnel and the wheat, and they do not ask about the last three parables?
A.J.G. I believe that shows that they were in exercise.
The Lord shows in verse 12 that it is him who has that it will be given, and in verse 18, it is said, “Ye, therefore, hear the parable of the sower”. He develops this parable so that we should act accordingly. But in verse 36, the disciples ask that the parable of the darnel should be explained, which shows that they are following the subject with interest. In verse 51, the Lord says, “Have ye understood all these things? They say to him, Yea, Lord”. He does not put them to the test; they say that they understand, and He accepts it. The Lord says that, “For this reason every scribe discipled to the kingdom of the heavens is like a man that is a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old”. The “householder” suggests, I think, the local company and the responsible element which is found in the locality, which brings out of its treasure things new and old; that is to say that he sees not only old things; he is maintained in the gain of the power of the Spirit which is available to us to be faithful to the truth, so that new things come before old things for us. The things that are brought out are the new things and then the old things.
S.C. Is the thought of the kingdom beyond the time of the assembly here because the Lord Himself speaks of what will be the consummation of the ages?
A.J.G. The kingdom of the heavens is the present period of the assembly; as I understand it, it is the period in which Christ is exalted above and the saints are here.
S.C. I wonder if the character of the kingdom is extended after the assembly leaves?
A.J.G. The time of judgment in this sense is not going to be beyond the period of the assembly (see 1 Peter 4: 17). But I think that the Lord’s thought is that He allows the good and the evil to go on together, that is simply temporary; that will not always continue like that. The Lord allows it for some wise purpose, but we must understand that all that is evil must be cast out into the furnace of fire: we must not therefore make any compromise with the evil. The last parable shows a perfect discernment; the good are gathered into vessels and the bad cast out. That cannot always be achieved in a practical way, but what must always be in our mind is that the good should be kept in view of the local assembly, that is to say, placed in vessels, while what has no value is cast out.
E.J.S. In order to act according to these parables, is it necessary to accept and also to submit to the ministry of the apostle Paul?
A.J.G. Yes, I think that. I suppose that this Scripture particularly supports Paul’s teaching, and also Luke’s elsewhere. Matthew considers in a particular way the power of opposition to the truth and has an objective to edify us in the appreciation of the assembly as being what is invulnerable, and that every effort of the enemy cannot destroy it.
P.A.N. As you have said, Peter is in view up to chapter 18. Will it be important to follow the apostle in his ministry, for protection in relation to the formation of the assembly?
A.J.G. The idea of the kingdom is that of protection. There are certain principles set out in the first part of this gospel which apply to us individually and which have in view to prepare material for the assembly. But in the allusion to Peter in these different chapters, I did not have in view so much the ministry of Peter, but rather Peter himself as representing each of us. He is a living stone and thus you find that he is taught himself.
A.G. Could it be said that the intervention of the angels is in view of the consummation of the age, then that we have our personal responsibility in verse 48: “they gathered”?
A.J.G. Yes, it is indeed so. The Lord will be served by angels in a day to come, to purify the scene of all that is opposed to Him, but what He is looking for now is that what is proper to the assembly should be maintained in every locality. That implies discernment between what is good and what is bad. Wherever God has worked, you can be assured that there is what is good and we must have always in mind that what is good must be put into vessels; that is to say, that the assembly must come into view, being composed of those in whom God has worked. It is important that we should understand these things. The Lord says, “Have ye understood all these things?” In Christendom, it is taught that the world must be Christianised and that by means of what is leaven. The leaven is considered as being under an influence for what is good. But leaven is only ever spoken of in Scripture as being what is bad; hence the importance of understanding these parables.
L.M. In Acts 8, we see something like it with Simon the magician?
A.J.G. Yes. Simon continued with Philip, but Peter discerned that he had neither part nor lot in the matter and the Spirit of God leaves him aside. The Spirit had come upon those who had received the imposition of Peter’s hands: “they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Spirit”, while Simon is set aside. The Spirit of God would have a perfect discernment. It is very evident that Simon had not received the Holy Spirit because Peter says to him, “Thy money go with thee … Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not upright before God”. There would have been a perfect discernment on the part of the Holy Spirit at that time.
P.S.C. Why is the order of the last three parables the inverse of the first three?
A.J.G. I wonder if we can arrive at a discernment of good and evil before we have appreciated the thought of the treasure and the pearl. The thought of the treasure emphasises the fact that the assembly is truly hidden, while in the profession all around us the church occupies a great place publicly, and that finds its culmination in Babylon. On the contrary, in the parable of the treasure, the Lord says that, “The kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hid in the field, which a man having found has hid”; so that it is not only hidden at the outset, but deliberately hidden by the One who finds it, as if the Lord would emphasise this character of being hidden for what is truly a treasure in His eyes. We must not therefore be afraid to be out of sight publicly, but our great pre-occupation must be to take character from the pearl. It is one pearl, which emphasises the thought of unity in our localities, having the beauty of what is particular to the assembly. This beauty is found in the fact that she has only one Man before her, as being the great ideal of her heart; she does not draw her character from any other than Christ, and I think that we will not be able to discern what is good and what is evil except so far as we grasp this.
A.G. We now have the mind of Christ: if thou shalt separate what is good from what is bad, thou shalt be as my mouth.
A.J.G. All that is so necessary: “if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth. Let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them”, Jer 15: 19. Jeremiah found himself for the truth at that time; those who were far from the truth had to return: “Let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them”.
J.V. In verse 36, the Lord goes into the house and the disciples come to Him.
A.J.G. The Lord taught His disciples; He dismissed the crowds; nobody had been interested among the crowds; in the sense that they are not joined to the disciples. The fact of dismissing the crowds indicated that the Lord is not occupied with what is great publicly. Then He goes into the house as if to emphasise the importance of what is private and separate from what is around us, and in this position, in the house, the disciples come to Him. They show what the Lord had said before: “whoever has, to him shall be given”; they show the desire to follow the truth to know more.
P.C. I wondered if there was a prophetic bearing for Israel in relation to the kingdom. The Lord would give us its characteristic bearing as to its principle for us. He says, “thus it shall be”, which is what He will do Himself as to the introduction of the kingdom.
A.J.G. It might well have that significance. At the end of chapter 12, the Lord disavows His mother and His brethren, and He stretches out His hand towards His disciples; then He goes out of the house and sits down by the sea. All that indicates God’s present work among the nations, Israel put aside, and the assembly being brought into view. It is a feature of divine grace characteristically come from heaven, drawing its character from Christ, and Satan is terribly opposed to it. There is no doubt that when the Lord had been crucified, Satan had thought that he was rid of Christ, but when he found a company of saints on the earth drawing its character from Christ as bearing Him in their affections, he was full of rage and did all that he could against them. This opposition against the assembly has continued until now, first of all by persecution—and that is evidently repeated from time to time—but particularly by means of corruption of the truth, hence the importance of cultivating greatly sensibilities relating to the Spirit, who is here to the end that we are led into all the truth. He is always faithful to Christ and to His death, so that He is always ready to expose what is produced among us which is not according to Christ. We need the teaching of Colossians. Even among the Colossians, there were things present which were not according to Christ, but the apostle shows that One in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily is One in whom we have all that is necessary and that we must not get away from what is of Christ.
P.A.N. Would you say that we would have the hidden treasure in the epistle to the Colossians, while we would have the pearl in the epistle to the Ephesians?
A.J.G. Yes, I think so, but I am not sure that the pearl is not rather attached to the epistle to the Corinthians, because in 2 Corinthians the apostle says that he is jealous as to them with a jealousy that is of God because he has espoused them to one man to present them as a chaste virgin to Christ. I believe that is the idea of the one pearl; it is the beauty of what is found in the fact that one has only one heart, the same feeling. Matthew does not only have in view the assembly established in heavenly places, but the assembly down here, in the presence of opposition, faithful to Christ.
P.A.N. I thought rather of Ephesians 5, because the price is paid and the pearl is found, while in Corinthians, the level is lower; it is not yet the wife, but the fiancée.
A.J.G. I believe that there is a certain link between Ephesians and Corinthians. The state of things was really very low in Corinth, but Ephesians unfolds to us the heavenly portion of the assembly, while Corinthians envisages the assembly that has this portion in her position of responsibility down here, and I believe that the pearl is linked more with this last thought, rather than with Ephesians. But the thought of faithfulness to Christ down here would flow out from the fact that we have some appreciation of the position that we have on high.
P.A.N. Does the last parable give us the exercise Paul speaks of in 2 Timothy 2?
A.J.G. Yes, I believe that the parable of the darnel and that of the seine are two very important parables. God will allow that good and evil continue together publicly to the end, but He shows that that will not go on forever, the evil must find its place in the furnace of fire. That principle must be dealt with now in the assembly, and it is in doing that, in the very presence of evil, that faithfulness to Christ is developed in those who are faithful to the truth. It is just the way in which God deals with everything to develop His own thoughts.
P.P. Do we see two great principles in these parables which operate now: the darnel is tied into bundles and the good fish are put together in vessels?
A.J.G. I am sure that can be seen being produced now. The tendency men have to join together is the wicked being put together into bundles, and the saints are occupied more and more with having no part in men’s associations, finding their place in the assembly, the vessel, and our only fellowship is the fellowship of God’s Son.
A.R. Why is there an allusion to the earth and the field, and an allusion to the sea, in these two parables?
A.J.G. The sea is a figure of the nations; it is an indication of God’s work among the nations in contrast with the work that had preceded among the Jews. But then with the field, we have the sphere of the enemy’s operations; that refers to men, I suppose. In bringing out the parable of the darnel, the Lord says, “the field is the world”. Then, in the parable of the treasure, although the same expression is used, the treasure is hid in the field. I believe that the thought is nevertheless more limited than the thought of the world; it is the field in contrast to a town. That would suggest certain elements of separation from the world of man. You always find this element wherever God is working. So it is said in Luke 2 that there were in that country shepherds abiding without and keeping watch by night over their flock, so that, if in one sense, the field is the world, it would also be an allusion to what is really of God and what can be found where God is working. There are persons who are not really part of the world, and so the field in this parable is in contrast with towns.
P.G.B. Why do you think that in verse 44 we have the present and in verse 46 the past?
A.J.G. I think that Mr James Taylor has related7 verse 44 to the present activities of the Lord in the gospel; it is something that continues at the moment—the treasure being brought to light by means of the gospel—while in verse 46, it is a matter of something which is done once for all. It is said that Christ loved the assembly and gave Himself for it. That belongs to the epistle to the Ephesians.
P.C. Would we have the thought of the treasure when Paul received this word from the Lord: “speak and be not silent … because I have much people in this city”?
A.J.G. Yes, I think so. Paul had worked for eighteen months in Corinth, the Lord having said to him that He had much people in this city. He had a treasure hidden there and Paul’s ministry aimed to bring it to light, but after Paul had left Corinth, the saints abandoned the idea of being hidden and they sought the honour of the world. Paul says to them, “ye have reigned without us”. They really abandoned the idea of being hidden. Here the idea is that the treasure was hidden, and when the man had found it, he hid it. So there is a lot of safety in being a small thing in the eyes of the world. The Lord Himself was a small thing in the eyes of the world. It is said in Isaiah 53, “he hath no form nor lordliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him”. He had this character of having no form in men’s eyes, in a general way, but He could not be hid on account of the power that was found in Him. In the course of His ministry, you see that He always shrank from what might be appearance.
P.M. Do we have the same thought in John’s gospel when the doors were shut for fear of the Jews, and Jesus came there?
A.J.G. It was to exclude the religious man, but it is more a matter of entering into spiritual privileges here; it is the counterpart of the public position.
E.J.S. The Corinthians would make a great thing of man’s wisdom, and Paul writes to them on the subject of hidden wisdom, God’s wisdom in a mystery.
A.J.G. Yes, divine things have this character of being hidden, so that the mystery refers not only to God’s things but equally to the saints. That is why it seems important that this passage should end with the idea of a scribe who has been discipled into the kingdom of the heavens and who is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old. The Spirit being definitely recognised, the things brought out in localities are new things and old things. The old things are not abandoned, but what is new is in evidence. Obviously, it is not a matter of novelties, but it is a matter of what the Spirit is saying at this moment.
P.A.N. When you speak of old things, it is a matter of fundamentals and principles?
A.J.G. I would say that. The old things are fundamental truths; they must always be continued with, but the Spirit introduces what is characteristically new. In order that we should be preserved from the efforts of the gates of hades, it is necessary that we should be maintained in life, and the Spirit must have His place among us for that.
J.P. Is what the Lord says in John 16: 12, “I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now”, part of the new things?
A.J.G. Yes, indeed. He says, “But when he is come, the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth”, so that in the address to the seven assemblies, in Revelation, the Lord says: “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies”. The Lord first adjusts the conditions in each locality, then He directs attention to what the Spirit says to all the assemblies.
P.A.N. I am going back to verse 52 because of the expression, “brings out of his treasure”. Is there not a thought of living production?
A.J.G. It is what the man possessed, I suppose, and he brings out of his treasure things new and old. It is what the Spirit can produce from what God has put there. We shall see when we come to chapters 14 and 15 that when the Lord feeds the multitudes, He takes what the disciples have; He does not give something additional, but simply what they have. He uses it, making it enough for the moment.
E.J.S. We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassingness of the power should be of God and not from us.
A.J.G. Yes, the treasure is what God has put in our souls.
P.P. Why does it refer to a scribe and not simply a man?
A.J.G. Mr James Taylor has spoken8 of a scribe as referring to someone who desired to be exact. A scribe transcribes things with precision, he must establish everything with exactness according to what it is. That would underline the question how far our exercises are defined and exact?
E.J.S. Luke begins with this thought in his gospel, and Paul and John were also good scribes.
A.J.G. Ezra also in his day was a good scribe.
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