"SO MUCH THE MORE, AS YE SEE THE DAY APPROACHING"
“[p. 23] SO MUCH THE MORE, AS YE SEE THE DAY APPROACHING”
In the epistle to the Hebrews, an epistle peculiarly applicable to the saints nowadays, † the apostle warns us against a practice even then not without followers. And if in his day, when only the habit of ‘some’ called forth a censure, how much more in this day, when not only ‘many’ adopt the practice, but there are found among them advocates of it, “who seemed to be somewhat,” Galatians 2: 6. It is evident from the context (chapter 10), that the subject is connected with the care and service every soul which has drawn near to God must have for His brethren - followers with him in the same grace. We are not asked of God to serve others until we know how He has served us; for it is only as we learn of His service and grace to us, that we shall be able usefully to serve and care for others. “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet”, John 13: 14. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them”, John 13: 17. The Lord is no hard Master. He expects not usury where He has not given the principal. He looks not for grapes from His vine till He has removed every impediment to its growth. He fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also
†It is evident that the Hebrew saints were suffering, not from ignorance of Scripture, but from wrong and imperfect interpretation of it; so that the apostle had to contend with errors both in doctrine and hope — nay, even as to the assurance of salvation, which are not alluded to in the epistles to the gentiles. So much for learning Scripture imperfectly. Easier to instruct the entirely untaught, than to correct the self-sufficient master of inaccurate theories, however extended his knowledge.
[p. 24] made a winepress therein, and then He looked for it to bring forth grapes. God brings me into the circle of His own light and glory to meet my brethren. In the region of the mercy-seat, where my own soul sits happily before the Father in Christ, do I learn to care for my fellows in the same blessing (1 John 1: 7), and know them as members of the body of Christ. The moment the soul gets into a lower region than this, that moment your service and care for the members of Christ must assume a lower character, for all my love for them I must acquire in Christ. The more I know that I am set in Him, the more I am for them. Religiousness apart from Him - even devoted religiousness - is but Cain’s, and the brother is neglected; nay, worse, for he that gathereth not, scattereth.
Here the apostle had reached the climax, or rather result, of all his teachings in the preceding chapters. The soul has been carried through, and made acquainted with, all the services of Christ, and is now placed through the new and living way within the veil, in the bright and wondrous sphere of glory - in the holiest of all - in the presence of all the revealed majesty of God, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Yet it is from this height of bliss and wonder we are called to consider one another, to provoke unto love and good works, and, as a means to this end, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching”. Now that the day approaches nearer, there is a manifest disposition to undervalue the custom of assembling together; at least, such an indifference to it as if it were but of secondary importance. It has been such an acknowledged custom for the people of God to meet together in all ages, that many have pursued the habit, not because they had learned it as imperative on them, but following the example of others; consequently, there is no principle in their conscience for doing so, and,
[p. 25] therefore, necessarily no responsibility following them as to the observance of it.
Let us, therefore, enquire into the value and importance of assembling together. The church is constitutionally an assembly, as the word in the Greek (ekklesia) denotes; and if there be no assembling together, there would be no composition of the church here. There is no question but that the Holy Spirit sets all the living members of Christ in Him in heavenly places; but also, He fashions us for our place there by varied exercises here. After we have suffered a while, He perfects or matures us. Here the talent is to be put to usury. How, where, and in whom death and the power of Satan were dominant, must life and the power of Christ be manifested; and this not by one witness, but by many, in one strict unbroken testimony, which was at first exhibited, and produced such blessed results; ‘the people magnified them’; the power of evil was suppressed and overawed for a moment. But though that may be passed, yet by the church now the manifold wisdom of God is learned by the powers and principalities in heavenly places. I err much if I consider myself individually apart from the family of God. All saints now are baptised by one Spirit into one body. The moment I become alive to the glory of my position in the body of Christ, I seek not the desert, like John the baptist, taking a position peculiar and uncongenial to all, but, like the regenerate Saul of Tarsus, I assay to join myself to the disciples. Vitality demands sympathy. Relationship, even without acquaintance, has its charms and its claims. In nature, a brother I had never seen has a ready passport to my affections. The church I am in is not one member but many, and, as in our natural body, power redounds from the harmonious adjustment of all the members, and from the happy consent of each to its peculiar office, so is it in the spiritual body; and the readiness of a member to engage or return to its place,
[p. 26] nay more, to seek its place in the body, must be sought more earnestly and strenuously where there is spiritual life, inasmuch as the spiritual exceeds the natural, and, what is true of the natural must, after all, be but a faint representation of the spiritual.
Well, then, the principles of life draw us together. There is an immediate and necessary impulse, to be in association with saints, for our life, and power, and joy, are identical. But more than this - our benefits are contingent on one another. I am not only impelled to association from the power of a common life, but I find that in this association the varied powers of usefulness of the members towards one another are alone evolved. I cannot merely feel that I must associate with saints (which must be so, and could not be otherwise if I have any energy of life) but that my place is to receive blessing as well as to impart any. To every member there is given a gift of grace (Ephesians 4), not so much for himself but in his relation to the church “for perfecting of the saints.” Where, then, can he exercise this gift, or be profited by another, but in or towards the assembly? If I sanction individuality, or even partition or multiplied sections, I must undervalue the gifts and services, through them, of those from whom I license myself to be absent. In the first enunciation of the church, the blessing of Christ’s presence rests on two or three meeting together in His name. Now, those who argue for individuality or practise it, either disbelieve this or undervalue it - either bad enough. But it is with His gifts through the Holy Spirit His presence is known, so that even the unlearned may acknowledge that God is in you. He now is the messenger of Christ, the gift of the Father, giving power to one after this manner, and to another after that, to perfect the church unto the stature of Christ, of gifts for the perfecting of the saints. I shall not particularise any; but if gifts for this especial purpose are denied, then there must, as a necessary [p. 27] consequence, be a cessation of the perfecting of the saints; or, let such a one say how is the perfecting to be accomplished otherwise. Is any bold enough to say he wants no perfecting, and that he derives no blessing from others of God’s people? Supposing for a moment (which we must) that his heart is deficient of that quality in life which, like light, blends with all parts of itself, no matter how disproportionate the amount from any source; but then it will be allowed that gifts did at one time exist for the perfecting of the saints, and then there was no doubt of the blessing of assembling together, that each might learn and be comforted and then it was culpable to forsake the assembling of ourselves together; but now it is not so, for gifts are so weak and profitless, that the benefit is not proportionate to the sacrifice. But, says the apostle, you are to be more careful not to forsake assembling, as you see the day approaching. So that the darker grew the night (the more, as some would say, that the gifts decline, the less the personal benefit there would be attendant on association), the more necessary that we should observe it. We must not relinquish that the saints are to be exhorted in the assembly the more the day approaches; and let us put the question: Is it the more spiritual or the less who are unedified by a small amount of gift in the assembly? I think it is always the less spiritual. The more spiritual, of course, can see and feel irregularity or want of power more acutely, but I submit that they bear with it better than others, as the cruse of oil and barrel of meal which God increases. Healthy men may require much food, but they can endure with a very little longer than the weak. Jonathan but tasted the honey on the end of his rod and his eyes were enlightened. The hungry soul closely hunts for food where it ought to be found. The keenness of need sharpens his scent for it. A jawbone of an ass refreshed Samson.
[p. 28] Thus, then, if I depreciate the assembling together of the saints, I am disregarding the warning of the apostle, proving my little sympathy with the members of Christ’s body; decrying, or at least undervaluing, the gifts for edification bestowed on the assembly, whereby the presence of Christ is known amongst them not only thus injuring myself, but also an injury to the church, for they lose my services; and, finally, I am unhesitatingly declaring that my spirit little blends in happy fellowship with saints around the throne, when I am so indifferent to them, and they so unattractive to me down here.
On the other hand, let us enumerate the blessings of assembling together. I am obedient to the word of the Lord, and obedience is greater than sacrifice, for it is the yielding of myself to His will. If Thomas had not absented himself from the first meeting of the disciples, he would not have been eight days behind the rest of the apostles in faith and knowledge. I am seeking the place where Christ meets with His people. At the supper table (John 13: 14) He opened out the treasures of His grace to His disciples - the church in type - and where now, by His servants He edifies, exhorts, and comforts His saints, for that assembly is the proper sphere of the gifts of His grace; 1 Corinthians 14. I am joining with many witnesses to show forth His death till He comes; and the very act of my going to “one place” in company with others, is not only an evidence of my own appreciation of Christ in contrast to all around, but I am an example to others to do likewise. I go to feast, as well as to present myself before the Lord. Lastly, the more my heart rises into the glorious scene of the family group around the throne - ever praising, ever exulting in the Lamb that was slain, and yearning to take my place there - the more shall I value every even faint shadowing of it in this wilderness of sin and sorrow.
[p. 29] In conclusion. I shall add but one word. Practically, it will be found that the most spiritual are always less absent from the assembly, and that the one who begins to absent himself seldom ends well. O, may we all be admonished, for surely the day approaches!