ACQUAINTANCE WITH CHRIST IN THE ASSEMBLY
[p. 361] ACQUAINTANCE WITH CHRIST IN THE ASSEMBLY
It is very interesting to know that this verse is quoted from Psalm 22. Twenty-one verses of that Psalm describe what the Lord endured on our account, seven different sufferings; and then when He is “heard from the horns of the unicorns”, He utters verse 22. Mark the place where it occurs, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the church” — (the assembly) — “will I sing praise unto thee”.
The subject I desire to present to you this evening is, knowing the Lord in the assembly. We have believed on Him in resurrection when He had finished the work; and seeing Him there, the work finished, we were sealed by the Holy Spirit: “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us”. That is first acquaintance.
Secondly, we know Christ in glory, a condition of things in contrast to all that is here. Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. Glory is not so much a place as a condition of things; we are in the habit of thinking of it as a place. Doubtless, the glory is in heaven; but glory, in itself, is the expression of God’s satisfaction according to all His attributes resting upon the Man Christ Jesus, who was in the deepest humiliation here. It is called the gospel of the glory; we become acquainted with Him there, for we are accepted there. Instead of being repulsed or afraid, like Isaiah, we find out that we are at home. We are fully justified by faith here, where the sin was committed; but in the glory, there is a ministration of righteousness; we are transformed according to the same image.
[p. 362] Thirdly, we are here in the place of Christ’s rejection; and now comes the question, How are we to get through it? We know Him in the glory of God, and know our acceptance there; but how are we to rise above all the opposition here? Not only the opposition, but we have another obstruction, our own infirmity; not sin, but the fact that we are poor, weak things. Here we learn the Lord in a new way: He says, “My peace I give unto you”. He makes you superior to the circumstances here. He supports you in your infirmity; He who is “made higher than the heavens”, sympathises with you under the pressure.
Well, having the peace of Christ, you are superior to the circumstances here, and supported by Him under every infirmity. Now the question arises, Has Christ a place here? First, you must own that He has been rejected from the earth, and has no place in it as such. Christendom does not own that He is rejected, but assumes that His right is acknowledged here. On the contrary, when the rejection of Christ by the nation was indicated in the beheading of John the baptist, the Lord prepared His disciples for a new structure on the earth, which He calls “My assembly”. I would awaken you to the great fact — we are too insensible to it — that He has a house on the earth. In Psalm 16, the Psalm that tells of His resurrection, we read, “to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent in whom is all my delight”. As rejected by man, you might have expected that His delight would be only in heaven; on the contrary, you find in John 20, that He came unto His own, He sought the company of His own here on the earth. Until He rose from the dead, He could not have His assembly, He had not “brethren” after His own order. See Hebrews 2: 11.
It is important to see that when God had a redeemed people, He says, “I will dwell among the children of Israel”, Exodus 29: 45. Now in Christendom they [p. 363] make the material building the house of God; they do not see that everything on the earth with respect to God has altogether changed. If Israel, in their day, made the house of God such an object, how much more should we, for we are “builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit”!
I make a solemn appeal to each of you, because I fear many are satisfied with the assurance that they are saved, and this has led to merely believers’ meetings. To a young believer happy in the Lord, I should say, Would you like to meet the Lord? Would you like to be in His circle? It is not merely to know Him as superior to your circumstances here, but to know Him in His circumstances, as He is in His own house. A believers’ meeting is not, in itself, His house, of course believers are there, but He is Son over God’s house, He is paramount there. You are not really in the truth of His assembly if you have not a sense of the greatness of His presence. It is the only spot He claims now on earth. It is there you first become acquainted with a heavenly Man; you are in company with Himself, as were the disciples in John 20. He gave them peace and life, the qualities of the new order. The great thing to maintain is, that the blessed Lord has a house on this earth. You may see everything in a broken up condition; but Christ has an assembly on the earth until He comes. When He takes away His own, then all corrupt professors are spued out of His mouth.
One word more on this point. The Songs of Degrees are an interesting part of Scripture for this day. There are fifteen steps, they describe the remnant, and the great desire of their hearts. They have gone through much in order to reach the house of God. It is not so much the question where they were, as to see all the obstacles in their way. They look to God to remove them, and they were removed, and at length, by night, they arrive at the house of the [p. 364] Lord, in the fifteenth step. If you would say, Everything is gone in this day of ruin; then I recall to you the Songs of Degrees, and ask you to read Psalm 132, “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, nor slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob”. Are you really set for it? Remember the scripture in another place, “Glory and honour are in his presence, strength and gladness are in his place”, 1 Chronicles 16: 27. I fear that we do not sufficiently take to heart that we are where Christ has been rejected. I see around me many Christians, truly evangelical, who call a building, made by man, the house of God. Christ, rejected by man, could not have such a structure set up upon the earth. Until you learn the nature of God’s house now, you will never be according to the Lord’s mind here. You may be very devoted, but you will not know His mind. How could you work apart from the centre? In the human constitution, if the heart is not in true action, there is imperfection in everything.
I turn to Matthew 14: 10, “And he sent and beheaded John in the prison”. I am showing first that the Lord has been rejected, for this beheading of John plainly indicated that His own would not receive Him. Now the question arises, What will the Lord do? In human language it is a great crisis. Rejected by His own, He goes into the desert and there He feeds the poor of the flock who seek Him. But that is not all. Read verse 26, “When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled”. He had taken the place of supremacy. I think the youngest in this room can keep two words in mind. The last evening I was dwelling on superiority over the circumstances by the power of Christ: this evening my great subject is His supremacy. It is as the supreme One that He is in His assembly. I can imagine a devoted soul in this room saying, Oh! what a delight to be in a place on this earth where the Lord is supreme [p. 365] over all the evil here. The Lord was educating His disciples for this new place; and you will be greatly helped by studying from chapter 14: 10 on to chapter 16: 18, where He says to Peter, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church”. Peter had said, “Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God”. John says, “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” He is above everything here, and He is Son over God’s house, where He declares the Father’s name. In chapter 14 the great teaching is that Peter, the man of faith, will leave the ship to join the Lord; he walks on the water to go to Jesus. It is evident that you cannot realise the presence of the Lord, if you do not leave your own side of things. You cannot join Him risen from the dead, and the One you know in glory, without leaving natural things. I do not mean that you are to die, but that, like Peter, you are to leave your own side of things in order to join the Lord.
When the Lord came into the midst of His disciples in John 20, He introduced them to a new order. He fits them for it, He gave them peace first, and the Spirit as life. He breathed on them. That was a pattern. Our subject is to know the Lord in the assembly. Peter knew Him in an out-of-the-world order of things, where he joined Him. You join Him there, by the Spirit of God, as we read in Hebrews, “In the midst of the assembly”. “Both he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one”. It is not that He is one of us, but, thank God, we are of one with Him. We have His Spirit and are in His life; for, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”.
Now it is in the assembly that you know Him as supreme. He was asleep in the storm — in divine tranquillity in our circumstances; but now He is outside of all here, He is supreme; and as supreme, He comes into the assembly. In Matthew 15 is set [p. 366] forth His grace to us in the lowest condition here. The Syrophenician woman’s child is grievously tormented of the devil, but faith counting on His grace, without any title to it, proves that His grace is sufficient. Stephen sees the Lord supreme at the right hand of God; while Paul, buffeted by Satan, hears from Himself in glory, “My grace is sufficient for thee”. So that on the one hand you see Him supreme above everything; and on the other hand, however oppressed by Satan here, Christ’s grace is sufficient for you; and like the apostle you can say, I take pleasure in infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
In Matthew 16 the Lord, because of the lack of faith of His disciples, refers to His two miracles in feeding the multitude. Then He turns to them and asks, “But whom say ye that I am?” Peter says, “Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God”; then He said, “Thou art Peter”. When Simon was called (John 1) the Lord named him Cephas, a stone, but he was not qualified for that place until now; he is now consciously in the building. Every believer is a stone, but every believer does not take his place in the building. Would to God he did! You take your place in the assembly when you acknowledge Christ in His place supreme over all here; a building not made with hands, but His own building. “I will build my church” — My assembly. “To whom coming ... ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house”, 1 Peter 2: 4. It is a great moment when by faith you apprehend this, when you are confirmed like Peter in your place in the assembly. The Lord had educated the disciples for it.
We realise then by the Spirit that “the prince of this world is judged”. There you are in fellowship with the Lord, who is above all the power of evil here; and when you know that you are united to Him in heaven, you are “strong in the Lord and in the power of his might ... above all taking the shield [p. 367] of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked”.
I hope you all will apprehend the nature of the Lord’s presence in the company, which He calls “my assembly”.
Now I turn to Hebrews, in order that you may enter into the great blessings in His house. Our subject is acquaintance with Him in the assembly. As the High Priest He passed through the heavens, and He so sympathises with your infirmities that you are supported by Him, and so rise above the pressure, that you are in company with Him. You can accompany Him into the holiest. In Hebrews 10: 19 we have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh”. That is His death: at the other side of His death a new place is opened out. He was ever in heaven, even when here, and when He died He opened the way for us into it; you are in company with Himself in a new order of things, in His things risen from the dead. It is a great thing to apprehend that now you enter His things; you have not gone to heaven, but you are in His company, you are in the presence of the High Priest who has so supported you under pressure that you can be in company with Him in the holiest. You learn this individually, but it is for the whole house; according to my text He is in the midst of the assembly. He has lifted you from the lowest, in order to lead you into the highest in company with Himself; you are like Aaron’s sons, the consecrated company; He is a great priest over the house of God. Now you come into a new order of things, the holiest of all. It is the moral atmosphere of God’s Presence made known to you by the Lord in the midst. In Old Testament times, as we see in Psalm 73, the psalmist in trial went into the tabernacle, where there was only the cloud of glory. What was the effect of this, “I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end”. Surely the Lord of glory is much more than the cloud of glory in the tabernacle.
The Lord lead us to apprehend more and more what the assembly is to Himself; built here by Himself when He had been rejected by this world, and “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. You make acquaintance with Him, not only in His supremacy, as you see in Matthew 14, but you know Him in the holiest of all, you are in company with Him there in all the fragrance of Himself. Like Aaron’s sons accompanying their father into the holy place, to eat the consecration offering. We are always in His presence; we are in Christ’s acceptance in the glory, as you have already seen.
Now we may consider the object of the assembly. He there directs you as to His interests. In John 20: 21 He sends His disciples. He fulfils His word: “I will declare thy name unto my brethren”. He is greater than Moses and greater than Aaron, He is both; He not only maintains you in the brightest spot, the holiest of all, but He there makes known to you the Father. In 1 Timothy 3: 15 we read: “That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God” (always, not merely when assembled) “which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth”. It is plain, I submit, that if you wanted to know the Lord’s mind about His things here, you should go to the assembly to learn it. You might say, That was true when all was in order, but can it be true now when all is in disorder? In 2 Timothy, Paul’s teaching and the scriptures are enjoined on us, the former with respect to the church which is the pillar and base of the truth, and the latter because of the authority of the word of God. It is not, as Romanism asserts, that the church interprets the word, for the word directs the church, the Spirit [p. 369] interprets it. The church, however in ruins, is here for the Lord. If you bear in mind my reference to John 20: 21: “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” — you will admit that it gives a great character to the assembly; that is, there the servant learns his mission. Many are running who are not sent by the Lord in the assembly. You have to learn that you are here for the Lord.
Now bear in mind, because a great deal depends upon it, that He is in the assembly to give direction; as you read in Acts 13: 2, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them”. I am afraid that we do not sufficiently regard the assembly as the sphere of Christ’s interests. For example, you may have heard it said by one who had remained at home, when remonstrated with, ‘I can have the Lord at home’. I quite admit that, but there is a difference between the two. In the assembly you meet the Lord in His own house; but when He comes to you individually it is with respect to your circumstances. There is a great difference. I am sure that all truth opens up to you more fully in the assembly than in your own room. I believe if you were right, you would go to the assembly to learn the Lord’s mind.
In Acts 2, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, the Holy Spirit came down and filled all the house where they were sitting. He sat on each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. It does not appear from the Acts that the saints knew the mystery; there is a difference between the ordering of the house and that of the mystery. If a soul is walking simply in the Spirit of God, he really defers to Christ, and hence is led right to the assembly, though he does not know the mystery. It is evident that the Colossians did not know the mystery, and yet they are commended for “their faith in Christ Jesus and love to all the saints”.
You are “builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit”; and if you walk in the Spirit, He will always lead you to Christ; but you are there for Christ’s interests on the earth, and not merely for your own refreshment and enjoyment; quite right for the worshipper, but you are to be fitted and prepared in the assembly for the Lord’s service. In Romans service begins from the body; in John 15, you begin from the highest circle. The eleven disciples started with this, “That ye love one another as I have loved you”. It does not say what they are to do outside yet, but they are to begin with one another.
Now I come to 2 Timothy for a moment, and there we are told how to behave ourselves, though the house is in disorder: “vain jangling”, etc. When you are true to your Lord, like the wise woman in Proverbs 31, the order of the house is cared for. In 1 Timothy the assembly is in order; in 2 Timothy it is in disorder. What then are you to do? Certainly to be more zealous than ever; purge yourselves from the vessels to dishonour; every one who does shall be a “vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work”. Think of this great favour! Could anyone expect a higher position? It is a most encouraging word. We learn from the history of Luther that as long as he was separate, he was greatly honoured of God; and the more separate you are, the more thoroughly you are sanctified and meet for the Master’s use, prepared for every good work.
Next, Timothy is directed to “follow”; he was not to originate a reformed church, but to “follow ... with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart”. “Holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever”, and this primarily marks Philadelphia: the company there seek the Lord, they do not deny His name. Meeting in His name was surrendered in Christendom.
[p. 371] The revival of it characterised the recovery of the truth of the church, which synchronised with the midnight cry: “Behold, the bridegroom”. If you are seeking the Lord in separation (He is holy and true), you have a little power. (The word is ‘power’, not ‘strength’.) You will not succumb; you have the Spirit of God, you have some power: He is the only power. Thou “hast kept my word, and has not denied my name”.
This company runs down to the end. The Lord not only never gives up the body, but He never gives up His house until He comes; and then He spues out of His mouth that which is unfit for Him. After the Lord has taken away His own, the beast carries the harlot.
In conclusion, I trust the Lord will impress our hearts with the greatness of the assembly — as He calls it, “my assembly”; He has not given it up — and that we will be truly suited to Him.
Beloved friends, may you believe in the Lord as supreme in taking His place in the midst of His own, and be acquainted with Him there.
I trust you will look to the Lord that we all may apprehend better the Lord’s place in the assembly, and what the assembly is to Him, and rejoice in being acquainted with Him, there, for His name’s sake.