HOLDING FAST WHAT WE HAVE

Matthew 15: 29–39; 2 Timothy 1: 13–18; 1 Corinthians 11: 20–26

EJM The Lord says in Revelation, “I come quickly—hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”, Revelation 3: 11. The great need today is in holding fast what we have, and I think what we have is what the Lord has given, what He has given for the dispensation.

The recovery nearly two hundred years ago has been the recovery to what the Lord has given, and especially what has come through the beloved apostle Paul. Paul says twice to the Corinthians as to what he received from the Lord. In chapter 15 he speaks about the glad tidings received from the Lord “which I announced to you”. And then in chapter 11, as to the Lord’s supper, he received it from the Lord. I think the origin of things is very important, and in these days in which we live when things are deteriorating rapidly all around us in every sphere of life, religiously, politically, socially and economically, things are on the decline.

We know that the world is a system of man’s glory and on the surface things may look good, but there is tremendous decline all around us. I think the Lord would stimulate us again today to hold fast what we have. In this parable in relation to the four thousand, this mountain here is the third mountain in Matthew. I think there are six or seven mountains in Matthew and this is the third one, and the Lord “went up into the mountain”. I would think this is really the mountain of the glad tidings. It says, “great crowds came to him, having with them lame, blind, dumb, crippled, and many others, and they cast them at his feet, and he healed them”.

Something that has been sustained amongst us is the preaching of the glad tidings, all with a view that persons may be healed and then taught. So I think that is the point in this parable, that persons are healed, material is secured in view of the house, which comes in in chapter 16, where the Lord speaks of His assembly which is God’s house;

and the persons that are secured have to be taught. We need teaching, which really is in mind in the feeding. I thought there was a slight difference between the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand. There was more for the four thousand than there was for the five thousand. For the five thousand there were five loaves and two fishes; here for the four thousand there are seven loaves and a few small fishes. In the hands of the Lord there is more than enough. In the scripture in Timothy, it is how things are held. I think things are held in the power of the Spirit, “Keep, by the Holy Spirit ... the good deposit entrusted”. So things are held spiritually and held for the glory of God. Finally in Corinthians, the great matter of the Lord’s supper, it is obvious that the Corinthians were slipping away from it. He said that what they were doing was not the Lord’s supper, and he brings it freshly before them as to how he received it from the Lord in glory. I think we continually need stimulation in relation to it; it is the crux of things amongst us, the crux of things in Christianity, it is a rallying point. If you eliminate the Lord’s supper from a meeting, what have you? You have nothing really. Everything centres in, and everything flows out from, the Lord’s supper. Paul received it from the Lord in glory. It says, “the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread ... and said, This is my body, which is for you—this do in remembrance of me”. I wondered if we could help one another on these lines; we feel the need of holding things rightly, do you think?

JAG I think so. Do you feel that the elevation of this mountain is to characterise the dispensation, because we know that this feeding relates to the Spirit’s day?

EJM I think that is right. The Lord on high, and the seven loaves, and the seven baskets full is really an allusion to what we have in the present moment; the completeness of what is here in the Spirit, seven being the complete number. There is a reference in the Revelation to the seven Spirits which are before the throne (Revelation 1: 4), showing that the Spirit is here at the present time in full support of the throne.

JAG Yes, and we feed restfully, “he commanded the crowds to lie down on the ground”. That is a very fine touch, and should mark our meetings that we are restful in feeding and enjoying the food.

EJM David says of the Shepherd, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul”, Psalm 23: 2, 3. That was a wonderful thing for David, who was a shepherd, to speak in such a way. He had such a love and care for his father’s sheep, but when he writes that psalm he speaks of himself as a sheep, “Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want”.

JAG I wondered if that is very beautiful because whatever the ailment the Lord heals them; He can heal persons.

EJM I think that is the first point, a soul must be healed, and the Lord is the Healer. There is no one else who can heal. According to the teaching in Leviticus, the priest did not heal. The priest had to do with the cleansing, the associations, and so on, but God alone heals.

JAG I am sure that is the case. Where the defect was it is very evident that the healing has taken place because the dumb speak, the crippled are sound, the lame are walking and blind are seeing.

EJM It was quite a thing for them to bring these people to the Lord. I mean they had actually to take these persons to Him.

JAG It shows exercise on their part, and if we are exercised like this and relate ourselves to the moral elevation which the mountain would have in mind, there is bound to be an answer and an effective result in our souls and in the souls of persons we may bring before the Lord.

EJM So Peter in the day of Pentecost speaks about “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”, Acts 2: 36. It would link with this position in the mountain. It is the stability of what there is on the other side of death and resurrection. At that point when Peter was speaking it was not only that Christ was raised from among the dead but He was glorified at the right hand of the Father.

HT It is really as a result of the Lord’s service here that persons are set up in sonship. Is that in line with your thoughts? The thought of “dumb speaking, crippled sound, lame walking, and blind seeing”, and then, “they glorified the God of Israel”, I think these things belong to sonship.

EJM Yes that is very good, and that is the fulness of blessing really. There is no blessing apart from being brought to Him and being healed by Him, and what you say of sonship is really the fulness of blessing. I mean, you begin first of all by having peace with God, “Therefore having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ”, Romans 5: 1. That is really the first blessing we know, the forgiveness of our sins and having peace with God.

HT Mr. Darby says, ‘And here we walk as sons, through grace’ (Hymn 120). What God is looking for is that answer for Himself.

EJM Yes. He has nothing less in His mind. And He has even “sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts” (Galatians 4: 6) whereby we can glorify God.

HT I think the connection that has been made with the seven and the fulness of the Spirit is very helpful because it links with the Spirit’s day; and the complete setting free of mankind in relation to God is resulting in a complete answer to God Himself, the glorification of the God of Israel.

EJM I thought in the seven it is really what we have. You might say, We do not have this today, and we do not have the next thing, but since Pentecost the Spirit has been here and the power, the availability of His service, is ever the same. There were dark ages, and very little is known and recorded of these times, but I think the Lord shows that this has been characteristic of the position since He has gone on high.

JAG The Lord would test us as to how we can cope with this situation. He called His disciples to Him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have stayed with me already three days”. He would not send them away fasting. The disciples said to Him, “Whence should we have so many loaves in the wilderness as to satisfy so great a crowd?” It is quite a problem for them, and it is for us if we are unable to get this kind of food.

EJM Those who preach, and all of us really, should have some sense of being called to the work, do you think? As you referred to in verse 32, “having called his disciples to him, said, I have compassion on the crowd”. So the Lord brings in persons who were called to the work. There are the twelve disciples brought in in Matthew 10 and Luke presents “seventy others also”, the Lord seeking to involve them and extend His own operations.

JAG In Luke He says, “rejoice that your names are written in the heavens”, Luke 10: 20. If we follow the teaching of Matthew 16 through 17 we get the sons are free and “take that and give it them for me and thee”, Matthew 17: 27. That is following the wonderful manifestation of Christ in glory on the mount.

EJM I think there is tremendous teaching in these chapters. The Lord has been rejected. His works, His ministry, and He Himself has been rejected. Then He brings in chapter 11, babes to whom the Father can reveal things; and Peter obviously was in that dependent state and had a revelation from the Father. Then He says His brethren are those who do the will of My Father in the heavens (Matthew 12: 50). His own have rejected Him but He is able to declare who His brethren are. In chapter 14 He has gone on high and is interceding for His own in difficult circumstances; here He is securing material with a view to chapter 16 where He brings in the thought as to His assembly, what was for Himself for His own pleasure; and then His glorification in chapter 17 in the mountain, and flowing out of that the great truth of the liberty of sonship.

JS Do you think the way that the truth has been

recovered in these days would be the evidence of the Spirit still operating in the dispensation?

EJM Yes I think so. Things will be operating and maintained right till the end. In Revelation “the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come”, Revelation 22: 17. This will go on right to the very end, do you think?

JS So do you think the important thing for us would be to be kept in the line of the Spirit’s operations?

EJM Yes, I think that would be the exercise with us, that we may be free really so that the Spirit can use us and bring to light what He is operating in. What He is operating in relation to is Christ and the assembly.

JS So that the recovery as we know it has been not simply to Pentecostal days but to the full light and enjoyment of Paul’s ministry.

EJM Well that was my exercise in relation to the first and the last scriptures, and the cry has gone out in the recovery, “Behold, the bridegroom”, Matthew 25: 6. It was not, Behold, He cometh. We know He is coming, but it was to stir persons in mind and in affection really to answer presently to the Bridegroom.

JS Paul says, “I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly”, Ephesians 5: 32. Do you think it is important for us to keep in mind in the glad tidings that we are not only presenting Christ, but we are presenting the divine thought in the assembly, so that persons should be brought into it?

EJM That is right, and that really is what is unfolded in these chapters, persons must be healed and brought into the house as material for it.

AMcK So the first one that is mentioned is the dumb speaking. It would be that you would be speaking well of Christ. It would be some impression of the Jehovah Healer; “I am Jehovah who healeth thee”, it says in Exodus (Exodus 15: 26). This was a man who had possibly been born dumb and He is able to heal him. So that would be in view of the service of God, would it not?

EJM There has been a divine operation going on to secure men, and to secure in men a response to God

Himself. He said, “My son, give me thy heart”, Proverbs 23: 26. From His earthly people He wanted that, and He wanted them to have part in the service of praise. Is that what you had in mind?

AMcK Yes, so that later on it says that full-grown men have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil (Hebrews 5: 14), so they are able to discriminate.

EJM If there are lame, blind, dumb, crippled, and many others, these are all persons who are in need, and there is only one Person who can meet that need; that is One who has been into death for us and has poured out His blood, but who is now risen and glorified.

( Remark not recorded)

EJM Yes, three thousand souls in one day. That was a tremendous matter. Mr. Raven said in his day that now there may be three thousand preachings and only one soul saved; but on the day of Pentecost, Peter was preaching and three thousand souls were added. Then in Acts 3 there was one soul healed, the lame man at the Beautiful gate of the temple, showing that while there was that great number added, every one was an individual and every one had to do with the Lord.

( Remark not recorded)

EJM Yes, because the assembly was mostly composed of Jews at the beginning. Paul says that in the teaching of the glad tidings in Romans, the righteousness of God has been revealed in the glad tidings to the Jew first and then to the Greek, to the nations, coming down to us.

( Remark not recorded)

EJM I thought in this company, this four thousand, there is something working. There is real exercise to bring them to the Lord and to this result in glorifying God. The Lord felt it in Luke 17 where the ten were cleansed and only one returned to give glory to God. He said, “but the nine, where are they? There have not been found to return and give glory to God save this stranger” (Luke 17: 17). So the Lord was looking for full results in men. Many are content just to be relieved of the burden of their sins, to know they have come under the shelter of the precious blood of Jesus, secure for

eternity, and saved from all the wrath that is to come, but I think the Lord is desirous of quickened response to Himself in glory.

AB Is that why “they cast them at his feet, and he healed them”? They would be coming this way in relation to the assembly.

EJM That is what the movement is, is it not? In Luke 7 the woman found her place at His feet. She had a need and she realised that those feet were going to take Him into death. He could say, “Her many sins are forgiven”, because she knew that those feet would take Him to the cross to take up the matter of her sins. I like what you say that the movement here is really towards the assembly.

AB The 2 Timothy 2 way in our day is a way that reaches to the assembly.

EJM Yes that is right. That comes into all these chapters really. Previous to this the Lord has to go out of the house and He sat down by the sea. He left one order of things, “A wicked and adulterous generation”. He calls them. He had to leave that, and went out and took His place down by the sea, having in mind the whole sphere of the Gentiles.

JAG It is quite a thing to sustain the Lord’s presence for three days.

EJM Yes, in the five thousand it was the end of a day. The day was declining and He did not want them to go home empty, but here He says of them, “they have stayed with me already three days and they have not anything they can eat”.

JAG There would be great teaching, they would see wonderful things as they stayed with Him for three days.

EJM So in John, it says, “And they said to him ... where abidest thou? He says to them, Come and see. They went therefore, and saw where he abode”, John 1: 38, 39. They saw that He was living in and enjoying the Father’s bosom. He had come into that place in manhood, had He not? He ever lived and moved in the sphere of the Father’s will and the Father’s affections. I

think these three days without eating show that their needs had been fully met and they were held by this Person.

JWeb I wondered if the teaching proceeds in an area where things are relaxed; Make them lie down, He says, there is no agitation. Do you think the teaching goes on in that kind of area?

EJM There is not too much comfort, in a sense, there is no green grass or anything like that; but I like what you say that the Lord has in mind their comfort and that they would be restful. Mary was restful at His feet.

JWeb You get the idea of commandment entering into it, as you do in 1 Corinthians 11.

EJM Yes, that is right. Peter in chapter 14 had said to the Lord, “command me to come to thee upon the waters”. And He said, “Come”, Matthew 14: 28, 29. I think it is one glory of the Lord that He is a commander. I think Isaiah brings out that, “I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a prince and commander to the peoples”, Isaiah 55: 4. Everything is at His bidding in these chapters. Have you more to say?

JWeb Just that the Lord Himself went up into the mountain and sat down. There is a certain deliberateness about things, then, “he commanded the crowds to lie down”. There is an ordered state of things, and that is where the teaching can really proceed and be effective I think.

EJM The teaching proceeds where persons are healed and are satisfied. As rejected, the Lord says, “learn from me”, Matthew 11: 29. These are the words of One who has been rejected, and yet He says, “ye shall find rest to your souls”. I think in Matthew 11 the first thing is objective, “learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart”, but the second is subjective in the soul, you find peace for yourself. He says, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls”. I think these persons found rest for their souls, and they were willing to learn from Him.

JS Do you think the way He raises this question with the disciples, “How many loaves have ye?”, would be to bring out what there may be among persons who are learning from Him?

EJM We should have substance, do you think?

JS I was thinking of what is available among the disciples. There is something the Lord can bring out and make much of.

EJM So in Luke 24 He says, “Have ye anything here … ?”. He would say that to every local setting, “Have ye anything here to eat? And they gave him part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb” (Luke 24: 41, 42).

JS It is interesting to see that the Lord did not look up to heaven when He was blessing here. He blessed in the consciousness of what was available among the disciples down here.

EJM That is a point in the five thousand. He looked up to heaven, but here He just gives thanks. It says, “having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples to the crowd”. So it shows it is what is available here that is being used.

JS I thought it is a help for us to realise just what there is down here by the Spirit, and to allow the Lord to use it.

EJM Yes, I think so.

HT It links with your thought as to what has been deposited, “the good deposit entrusted” (2 Timothy 1: 14); that is what is in the saints here.

EJM Very good.

RG Do you think it is only persons who go through the exercise of the three days with Christ that can appreciate this food as available?

EJM That is fine. You think of Paul himself. He went through three days in Acts 9.

When he came to know the Lord he was three days without eating or drinking. You had more to say about that?

RG I was thinking about Acts 9, because it says, “having received food, got strength”. But there has to be the exercise with us, do you think? Anticipatively the three days would be what we have to go through with the Lord in death, and then we can appreciate the gift of the Spirit as available to us here.

EJM So it says that of Saul, does it not, “having received food, got strength”, and the Holy Spirit? So I think that is very good that every soul goes through a process. It is the principle of death and burial and resurrection. How that applies to us, you go through that matter and then you come out in the power to glorify God. The power to respond to God must be in the Holy Spirit.

AMcK Matthew was a tax gatherer but he is gathering revenue for the heavenly kingdom, is he not? The great idea is that there is a gathering up, so there is formation in the souls of the saints, so that there is bound to be increase, something Godward.

EJM That is good, there is an abundance in the seven loaves and two fishes. Man naturally might look on it and say, What is this for four thousand people? but a little of what is food, a little of what is real, a little of what will sustain souls in the Lord’s hand is more than enough.

AMcK There is no little boy here, is there?

EJM No, that is right. It is John that says, “There is a little boy here”, John 6: 9. We may make little of one another and what we have, but the little that we have in the Lord’s hand is more than enough, is it not? There is a psalm that says, “I will abundantly bless her provision”, Psalm 132: 15. There is an abundance of blessing in the seven loaves and the two fishes. The loaves would be heaven’s resources. What there is in the divine side is abundant.

The small fishes might be our gathering up, what has been wrought in our souls. The preciousness of the work of God in the souls of one another might be little but it is real; but the bread might be what comes from the Lord Himself, the One who is the Bread of Life.

JAG It is a natural impossibility they say, “Whence should we have so many loaves … “. Hence we need to trust the Lord and faith is greatly needed.

EJM Faith in the Spirit in our day, do you think?

JWeb In Psalm 78 they said, “Is God able to prepare a table in the wilderness?” (Psalm 78: 19). The disciples said, “Whence should we have so many loaves in the wilderness ... ?”.

So do you think we need to have faith in what is available to us in the Spirit?

EJM We do. You think of the children of Israel coming out into the wilderness and the initial tests as to water and bread, and so on. They said there was no water, and God came in abundantly in the wilderness. Man’s resources are stretched in the wilderness, but the wilderness only brings out the wealth of God’s resources.

JWeb Do you think that we need to look to see what we have? Jesus says, “How many loaves have ye?” So instead of thinking of what we may not have, do you think we need to be exercised to think about what we do have?

EJM I think so.

JRC One thing the Lord has here, we have often spoken about it, “I have compassion”.

EJM He says, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have stayed with me already three days and they have not anything they can eat, and I would not send them away fasting lest they should faint on the way”. It shows how real the Lord is, how feeling He is, knowing that we need something for our souls.

JRC Should that not be the background of teaching amongst us, compassion?

EJM Very good. I think that is a fine way to look on one another and think of what souls need. So that it is not just a question of unfolding my ability or gift, but thinking of the souls that are under the Lord’s attention.

JRC They stayed with Him three days. They must have been aware of the whole atmosphere of compassion for that.

JAG There was no lack, “all ate and were filled”. It is very blessed to get a satisfied company. There are no moans or groans or anything like that. The heart is full of Christ.

EJM We sang that, did we not,

‘Lord, in Thee we taste the sweetness

Of the Tree of Life above’. (Hymn 50)

It is fine, and especially when we come to the Supper we come as satisfied persons. We are not just struggling to get to the Supper but we come as having proved divine resources in the wilderness.

JAG Yes, and it is not just a few crumbs left but there are “seven baskets full” which certainly would fill out the whole week, would it not?

EJM Yes, you might say one basket for every day, if you like, and there is an abundance daily. What do you say Mr. P.?

KNP I was wondering if the man in John 9 would help us. He held on to what the Lord gave him, and as a result he came to know Jesus as the Son of God. That would link with glorifying God, he did Him homage.

EJM He said, “who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him? ... and he did him homage”. I think that is good because it shows that if you hold to the light you have you will get more. He says, “One thing I know, that, being blind before, now I see”. He was marked by the obedience of faith in relation to Jesus, and he got more light as to the Lord Himself, that He was the Sun and Centre of another universe.

KNP Even in the face of adversity it did not change what he knew. He held on to it.

And it is important for us to hold on to what God has given us so that we can go forward. He gained more than the Pharisees had with all their knowledge because he came to know the Son of God, “Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he”.

EJM I think the circumstances are very adverse in Matthew here, it was very tough going for the Lord, and yet this is what it brings out, that there is a fulness of blessing with Him for His own.

JAG The disciples are the dispensers of it, which is very interesting, “gave them to his disciples, and the disciples to the crowd”, so the disciples are in this administration.

HT In that regard the administrative side is not overlooked, the twelve would come in there. The seven would be the spiritual side of completeness and fulness, but it needs the twelve for the administration of it. Was that in your mind Mr. G.?

JAG Yes, I think the whole position is functioning normally under the Lord’s hand.

HT You were speaking earlier about holding fast what we have. I think it is incumbent upon us to hold fast the assembly truth to which we have been recovered, because attempts are constantly being made to get us to leave the elevation of the position into which we have been brought and to accept something lower.

EJM Yes, that is right. All these mountains in Matthew are elevated. Jerusalem was a beautiful city according to the psalmist, “Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth”, Psalm 48: 2. Even the wall of Jerusalem and the gates that were round about it would have been fine to see, but there are these added thoughts of “mountains are round about her, and Jehovah is round about his people, from henceforth and for evermore”, Psalm 125: 2. You can see that the system that is now for the pleasure of Christ is protected, as typified by the various mountains and what they speak of connected with Jerusalem.

HT So that while we are here and the testimony is here in this scene, yet it is above the level of what goes on here in the world.

EJM Yes, so in Ephesians the gifts are given from an ascended Head. The gifts are given all with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ. We have mentioned the twelve here in this administration.

HT I think headship operates in this section. It is Christ’s headship that is operating here so that the whole administration flows smoothly as coming from the ascended Head.

Now it is of interest that the truth came out originally in a very orderly way through the twelve, and then by extension through Paul to the others. The recovery to the truth coincided with the light breaking in to Mr. Darby that if there was a body here on earth there was a Head in heaven; the headship of Christ made way for the recovery of the saints to full assembly truth in a very orderly manner.

EJM That is right. Reference has been made to the mystery, “I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly”. The mystery is just that, is it not? There is a Head in heaven and there is a body here on earth. In the Roman system they have their pope, and the English have their archbishop, and here the moderator, and so on; but in this system, into which through grace we have been brought, there is a Head in heaven and things are operating in the power of headship, which involves love and affection. There is resource to meet every situation in headship. I thought we might go on to Timothy. The footnote to “Have an outline of sound words” says ‘hold fast’. Paul says, “Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted”. In between these two scriptures I was thinking of how things are to be kept; they are to be kept spiritually for the glory of God. Not mentally or in any other way, but things are to be held and kept “by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us”.

RG I was just going to ask if it is interesting that you have seven baskets, and John sees seven assemblies, and in each one is the allusion to the overcomer. Is Timothy not an overcomer here? And if we are to get the gain of the Spirit’s operations now in our localities, it is as we are overcomers, do you think?

EJM Yes I think so. When Paul was writing to Timothy it was a very dark day, and he drooped a little, but in this chapter Paul speaks about rekindling the gift of God which was in him. I think Timothy was one who appreciated Paul and appreciated Paul’s teaching.

RG I believe that we are to be challenged today as we read this, because the Spirit has been here for nearly two thousand years, and we in our time have had a forceful reminder of the place the Spirit should have amongst us in Mr. Taylor’s last ministry. Now here we are today, fifty years further on, and the Spirit is still here, but are we overcoming to be able to avail ourselves of what the Spirit would bring to us through Paul and through Timothy and through others?

EJM It is the overcomer who has an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying, is it not, in the last four?

JS I was just thinking of what Paul says here, “Have an outline of sound words, which words thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus”. The words were heard from Paul. Do you think it is very important to think about the source of things in our day?

EJM Yes, I thought that, the origin. My exercise in the first and the last scriptures is to know the origin of things. Things come from the Lord Himself, and Paul’s ministry is of the Lord in glory, in a glorified condition. Many cling to the Lord in the gospels in His life down here, but for the fulness of the blessing in the day in which we are, we need to see that our link is with the Lord in glory and things proceed from Him there.

JS I wondered if there is a danger amongst us of turning to sources of ministry, preachings, and so on, that really are not related to what the Spirit is saying to the assemblies.

EJM Yes, in the next chapter he writes, “profane, vain babblings shun, for they will advance to greater impiety ... men who as to the truth have gone astray, saying that the resurrection has taken place already; and overthrow the faith of some”. What has come out in Paul and Paul’s teaching is basic and foundational, and, like Timothy, we need to have an outline of what is really Pauline.

JS We need to have this outline in our souls. It is not just something put down in writing but it is to be in the soul of the believer, held there by the Spirit.

EJM Yes, and by the Spirit who dwells in us. It is a fine touch, is it not?

JS I thought what you said about the importance of the Spirit in this connection is to be noted because it is the only way that the truth can be held.

EJM Yes, “holding the truth in love” (Ephesians 4: 15), is it not? Reference has been made to the matter of headship, and following on that the apostle says, “holding the truth in love”.

JAG And filling that out will measure up to the outline. The outline is a kind of guardian of the whole thing. We get outlines of meetings, but that is not the meeting, just part of it.

EJM We should go on to Corinthians. I thought the Lord would stir our minds again, because our minds come into this, it is for a calling of Me to mind, to see that we begin week by week with this great matter of the Lord’s supper. Paul says, I received it from the Lord. I think that would be from Him in glory. He says, “that the Lord Jesus; in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread, and having given thanks broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you”. This is special really to the assembly, do you think?

JAG Yes, I think so. The Lord’s supper is the answer to all the defects in Corinth. It is quite remarkable that he puts it there, he trusts them with this light and to be conformed to it.

Because as we partake rightly of the Supper we are ready to leave the wilderness at any moment.

EJM So we break bread in the wilderness, but this is really our means of access into what is eternal and heavenly, what is over Jordan.

JAG Yes because this is the public side of things. The breaking of bread is the inward side, but this is the public side that we show forth His death until He comes in the eating and the drinking.

EJM So that marks the dispensation. It is a question of the public side of it, showing forth His death till He come. The Lord’s supper has to be kept and maintained, and there is a testimony to it.

JS Do you think when Paul says, “I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you”, that really he handed it over to the saints without any change?

EJM Yes. At Troas he says, “And the first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread”, Acts 20: 7.

JS I wondered if there is some help for us in this change he makes from the Lord to the Lord Jesus. “I received from the Lord”, involves that the Lord’s authority is connected with it; but then he says what the

Lord Jesus did, “the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread”.

EJM It is a bridal touch; it is an assembly touch, do you think, “the Lord Jesus”? In Romans we are exhorted to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”, Romans 13: 14. It is putting on Christ as related to the kingdom. I think there is something very fine in these words, “that the Lord Jesus, in the night”. There is something for our affections in that.

JS I thought there is the side of the Lord’s authority, and believers need to be subject to that; but then there is this other side of the use of the title, “Lord Jesus”, which is an appeal to assembly affections.

EJM Yes, so you think of a man like Stephen in Acts 7, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7: 59). What affection came out in Stephen at that time of greatest trial!

DD Does the title “Lord Jesus” involve that the Spirit is free? If we use that title properly the Spirit is free with us. As we approach the Supper there should be no hindrance in our relationships with the Spirit.

EJM So it helps us to value the morning meeting, as we speak of it. The Lord comes in and we are free in our spirits with one another, and free with the Holy Spirit, and there is response to the Lord Himself.

CJGB Is it important to see in Acts that “they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers”, Acts 2: 42? Do you think energy is greatly needed in these closing days of the testimony?

EJM Perseverance, yes. And since then there has been Paul’s teaching. There was the apostles’ fellowship and the apostles’ teaching. They started to break bread every day until Paul brought in the light that he had as to the Lord’s supper; he placed it in the first day of the week, “And the first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread”, Acts 20: 7. I think that is good, the thought of perseverance, endurance. Keep on at it all the time. You think of these sisters the Lord is taking home one by one; one in Manchester this week,

and one in Dundee last week. The Lord is gathering in His own one by one, is He not? We think of them when we think of the bread; we embrace every one of His own. Some of these older brethren are a tremendous testimony to this matter of the Lord’s supper, their whole life centred round the Lord’s supper. I think in them, these dear old sisters and brothers, there is some tremendous affection. They can use these words the apostle uses here, the Lord Jesus, because of their devotedness to Him in their life and how everything in their lives centred round the Supper. It is a great matter for the Lord Himself. They were an evidence of persons persevering, do you think?

CJGB I think it is a wonderful thing what you find, particularly in encouraging the younger ones to visit some of these older ones, they will find what quality is there in the local assembly in the place.

EJM Well it is fine, especially in persons who are about to be taken, to find that there is no fear of death, and they have a real link with the Lord on the other side of death. The Lord has died and made a way for the saints to go over. It is a good thing to visit the saints, especially those going through much discipline and much weakness of body and mind; you will get something that you will get on no other occasion, the preciousness of His own work.

HT The Jordan being out of sight, the waters having receded.

EJM There is a Man who has been into those waters. The power of death has been broken. The scripture speaks about annulling death. Do you think the Jordan is a type of the tremendous power of death? It says in Jeremiah, “how wilt thou then do in the swelling of the Jordan?”, Jeremiah 12: 5. That typifies the tremendous power of death, and yet the Lord has annulled death, the article of death, He has broken its power, so that the believer is really put to sleep in Jesus, is he not?

HT I have had very good impressions from older brethren of how the fear of death is gone completely, the Jordan was not in sight. They can pass on impressions of

that, and it is very stabilising in your soul. The fact that the Lord Himself set on this matter of the Supper is something that should touch our hearts. It did not come through a conclave of cardinals or through a general assembly. He Himself gave it to Paul and Paul set it in the local assembly. That it comes from the Lord in glory is a very great matter.

EJM I think that is the beauty of Pauline ministry, that it all comes from the Lord, and from the Lord as glorified.

AMcK “I” is emphatic at the beginning of this section, verse 23.

EJM “For I received from the Lord”.

AMcK There has always been a tendency to weaken the Pauline teaching.

EJM The word to Ananias initially was, “Go, for this man is an elect vessel to me”, Acts 9: 15.

AG It is interesting at Troas that Eutychus had to be brought alive before the Supper proceeded. We have been speaking about older persons and those who may not be old but are facing death and going to be with the Lord, but it is an experience that we should all have something of, do you think, as we come to the Supper? So that the Lord, as He comes in, can take us immediately onto the other side.

EJM It is a fine thing to respond to Him. I think there is a sense in which the Lord invites us over. In the Song of Songs, He says, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away!”, Song of Songs 2: 10. The Lord sees us, and He sees overcomers, and He sees real affection, and He says, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For behold, the winter is past, The rain is over, it is gone ... The time of singing is come, And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land”. It is fine through the occasion of the Lord’s supper, to be free in our spirits to move with Himself into a realm that is untouched by death or fear. The hand of man has no place in this sphere where the Lord is supreme.

JAG He Himself is the resurrection and the life, and all this is available. It is there when He comes to us. It has been said that we prove in our links with the Lord at the Supper what is beyond death. It is not death you are thinking about, or anything else, it is Himself.

EJM Very good. ‘O Lord, it is Thyself’ (Hymn 209).

JS It is a wonderful thing to touch a realm where everything takes its character from Christ.

EJM Yes, it is God’s purpose when you are touching that. I think we are touching divine purpose.

JS So that these twelve stones that were taken out of the Jordan would remind us of what can be associated with Christ as being of His own character, do you think?

EJM Yes, it is the same order as Himself, “both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”, Hebrews 2: 11. Our hearts should be affected on Lord’s day morning as He gets His place amongst us. The glories that belong to Himself are innumerable. Sometimes we get impressions through the hymns we sing, sometimes we get an impression from someone giving thanks, and you just latch on to what the Lord gives; the whole system is living and Christ is there, the pre-eminent One.

RC Luke, in his account of the inauguration of the Lord’s supper refers to the desires that the Lord had in relation to it. Do we get a sense of this here with Paul in the way he is writing to stimulate the saints as to the Lord’s desires?

EJM That is fine because Luke’s account brings us back to the night, it was “the night in which he was delivered up”. Think of how the Lord rose above everything, all the pressures that were upon Him, showing His desires and how He wanted to be remembered and known during the time of His absence from this scene. It is still night morally, is it not? Judas “went out”, it says, “and it was night”, John 13: 30. The whole world is in darkness because the Originator of life and light has been rejected.

DD It says, “And having sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives”, Matthew 26: 30. That is in the context of the Supper, is it not?

EJM That is right. Well that is one of the other mountains in Matthew. It says, “they went out”. It is not that He went out, but they went out. I think it is a mutual environment. We have our individual exercises in view of the Supper, but I think when we are set together we work collectively and we move collectively. Did you have something more in mind?

DD How the Lord was in the thing totally. I mean it seems as if He was in the singing too.

EJM That is right. In Hebrews 2 it says, “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises” (Hebrews 2: 12). The Lord is a real man and we have to allow for that, He can sing.

It has been said undoubtedly the hymn would be to the Father. Once the Lord has a place amongst His own, the next thing that He has in mind is the Father, the One who is supreme in love’s economy, the One whose will He has done. He has in mind that we should move on, through Christ and in the power of the Spirit, to the great spiritual realm that is represented in the mount of Olives.

KD “My heart is welling forth with a good matter—I say what I have composed touching the king”, Psalm 45: 1. That is the effect of being in the presence of the Lord Himself. There is a response, “My tongue is the pen of a ready writer”. That is really what you were speaking about, is it not?

EJM Yes, that is someone speaking out of a full heart.

KD They had an appreciation of what they had been brought into, did they not?

EJM She is brought into the royal apartments in that psalm. “She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of embroidery” (Psalm 45: 14). It is a very fine psalm.

JWeb Does what Paul brings in here help you over, “that the Lord Jesus ... took bread”? Sometimes you might get a touch from a young brother saying, Lord Jesus. It just touches your heart and helps you over.

EJM So it is really the Person who does it.

RG At a few meetings I have noticed that nearly always the first words of the brother are Lord Jesus.

There is something very special about that, is there not? “No one can say, Lord Jesus, unless in the power of the Holy Spirit”, 1 Corinthians 12: 3. There is a link immediately with the Lord. We are breaking bread in the wilderness, but immediately you say, Lord Jesus, you are waiting for Him to come and take you immediately into His own realm.

EJM I think the order of the occasion is important. “Thy name is an ointment poured forth—Therefore do the virgins love thee”, Song of Songs 1: 3. Real affection uses that term.

We begin with the announcements, they are made in the Lord’s name, and if the Lord will; then all the thanksgivings and praises are in the name of the Lord Jesus. The whole occasion is fragrant, but we begin by gathering to His name. He is no longer here, but His name is here and we gather to it, and I think the Lord’s supper is very fragrant as we gather there. As you say, “No one can say, Lord Jesus, unless in the power of the Holy Spirit”.

AB It is very intimate, “This is my body, which is for you”. It is in view of the assembly.

EJM This is something special for the assembly, but when we come to the cup we widen out, do you think? Mr. Dickson used to tell us that we should be more brief when we are giving thanks for the bread, but when we come to the cup there is expansion in mind, what has gone before and families that will come in later. There is a tremendous expanse when we drink into the cup. We are ourselves liberated, but we can think of the great scope of what is secured through redemption.

Reading at Aberdeen, Scotland
25 August 2001

KEY TO INITIALS

C. J. G. Brodie

D. Duthie

K. N. Pye

A. Buchan

J. A. Gardiner

J. Strachan

J. R. Cumming

Dr. R. Gardiner

H. Taylor

R. Cumming

A. McKay

J. Webster

K. Drever

E. J. Mair

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