THE STEPS IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE CHURCH
THE STEPS IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE CHURCH
To every believer at peace with God, through the work of Christ, it must be a question of paramount interest, What is the church in which he is, and where and how is he to meet according to the mind of the Lord? If one is not assured by the Holy Spirit of favour with God, into which we have access through our Lord Jesus Christ, one has no real leisure of heart to ascertain which of the many denominations, if any, is owned of the Lord. But when he is at rest, in the assurance of God’s love shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit, he will inquire diligently what is the true way for christians to meet together. The answer to this interesting question is “For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”, Matthew 18: 20. Now this is the simple and unalterable ground for an assembly meeting. It is the beginning. The smallest congregation is sufficient to secure the presence of the Lord. There can be no church meeting which has not this as its basis, for if it has not this, it is, in spirit and nature, independent. Man acting for God, without the leading of the Holy Spirit, is independency.
Now, to be gathered to His name involves a great deal. There must be nothing consciously allowed unfit for Him; and there must not be any rule or form which would hamper or limit the action of the Holy Spirit in the company. If Christ could not be present where anything was allowed (as far as the consciences of the two or three went) which would in any way compromise [p. 228] His name, He could not be present where there was any rule or form to define His action; for if He were, the rule would be greater than He, which is impossible. This condition must be faithfully fulfilled, in order to obtain the great favour of His presence. He will come to any company, avowedly and conscientiously gathered according to this condition. If professors, or those out of communion, join in that assembly, they do not enjoy the blessing of His presence. It is possible, and soon became common, that there were those present in the assembly who were not in faith there — they were mere imitators of the truth; so that, in this first step in the knowledge of the church, mere professors were found; but the presence of the Lord would be there, so long as the assembly was gathered to His name.
Surely we may regard John 20: 19 - 23 as a pattern of the assembly in its first stage — the risen Jesus fitting the disciples for the august position they were now constituted to hold. They were to exercise discipline; thus the assembly would be kept pure. Acting in concurrence with the Lord, they admitted or excluded:
“Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained”. This was the scope of their discipline, which they were qualified to carry out, without knowing more than that they were gathered to His name. Discipline dated from this point. The more truly I understand what is due to the Lord’s presence, the better do I comprehend the discipline incumbent on the assembly. Lose sight of the Lord’s presence, and you can form no adequate idea of the discipline to be observed. It is a point of great importance, that the strictest discipline dates and springs from the first great step in the knowledge of the church. I can grow into a fuller apprehension of what the church is; but as my first step is to be gathered to the name of Christ, so is my sense of discipline to be ever connected with my very beginning in the assembly. The breaking of bread marked the meetings of the first disciples, and “[p. 229] the Lord added to the assembly ... those that were to be saved”. Consequently in 1 Corinthians 5: 4 we find that when there was a case for excision, the assembly is described, “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ”. The Lord would come to the Corinthian assembly, though there was evil still in their midst, when they were gathered to His name. The apostle, according to the grace of God, awakens their conscience to put away the evil, by ministering the word, and thus preserves them from the miserable condition in which christendom is now found — namely, many saints among the many denominations, without the presence of their Lord in the midst, and hence without true discipline.
If the believer had not learned more about the church than this, he would be where the disciples were in Acts 2: 47, and he would be able to understand the holiness and order which became such an assembly. Every new step only increases in every way, and deepens the sense of the preceding step. This is always the case with truth. When he has come thus far, he knows that not only is the Holy Spirit residing in himself, but that he is joined to the Lord — is one Spirit with Him; and then the next step — even that he is one of the living stones of Christ’s building, would, I conclude, be very easy to him. This step would open out to him much more about the church; he would see that though there is much hollow profession, yet that there is Christ’s own building in the midst of it. Also, while he had learned from the first step the nature of the discipline to be observed, and how plainly incumbent it is on him to be dissociated from everything unsuited to His name, he now knows that there is a building (Christ’s own work) which is growing unto a holy temple in the Lord, and then he understands that the church is God’s habitation through the Spirit. He understands now that the Spirit of God resides in the whole church, and that He is the [p. 230] only power there. Of course, to the one gathered simply to His name, the Spirit’s leading is known; but when he apprehends that the church is the house of God, he is filled with reverence for His dwelling-place, and seeks to behave himself in the house of God, and keep it clear from everything unsuited to God. But when evil is dominant in the assembly, he knows that he must purge himself from vessels to dishonour, and thus be sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use; while he cleaves to the clean corner of the house, where those are who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. He also bears in mind that he must be preserved fit for the Master’s use. Christ’s place in the assembly must ever be remembered and respected.
We have seen that it is possible for mere professors to join the assembly by tacitly accepting the condition of its constitution; but we have also noted that, if they betray themselves, they will either leave us, or, if they gain the upper hand, we must leave them. We read, “They went out from us, but they were not of us”. They must have been in, or they could not have gone out; as also, “These be they that separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith ..”. so that we are in this step of our knowledge of the church let into the true way of acting with regard to the saints in christendom, and our relation to them; as we had learned in the first step, what holds good for ever, that the great source of all our strength and blessing is the Lord’s presence in the midst of us.
I might enlarge much on the privileges and responsibilities of being in the house of God, but I pass on to the next step in knowledge; and that I should say is, as it is written in 1 Corinthians 12: 12, 13, when we learn that we are all baptised by one Spirit into one body; that it is not only that the Spirit of God is dwelling in each believer, and that each one in the house is under the claim and care of the Spirit of God (He “filled all the house where they were sitting”), but that each believer is joined to all other believers by the Spirit of God, as each member of the natural body is united to all the other members. Now this step opens out quite a new responsibility to one. We are in the assembly as members of the one body; we must have the same respect for the one as for the other. The weakest member is necessary, and whatever would injure me spiritually, would injure every member of the body. I cannot isolate myself. I cannot allow myself a licence of any kind which would grieve the Spirit, for the loss is not confined to myself:
“If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it”. Hence I must take care that no member be connected with anything that could damage it, because if one suffer, all suffer. I seek not my own wealth, but the wealth of others. “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others”. As a man would suffer from poison wherever it had entered into his system, and hence could not suffer its introduction anywhere, so is the believer who is intelligent in this step, careful and watchful that every member, no matter where, should be preserved from any spiritual poison. There would be a great lack in my knowledge of the church, if I did not apprehend this step. As I do, I learn how the body of Christ is formed, which ever remains true, though the house externally is in ruins. An immense flood of light pours in on the soul when this step in the truth has been laid hold of. I must see that I either help or hinder every one in the assembly, and that each member does the same to me. I am therefore not only very careful as to my own course, but I am very jealous as to the course of every member; and as this relates to the actual meeting together, I cannot accept or co-operate with any one who in any deliberate way disregards the leading of the Holy Spirit; for this is independency. As the Holy Spirit is the bond, and as it refers here to the assembly meeting, there must be no sanction of the wilfulness that sets aside the Spirit of God. This step in knowledge of the church [p. 232] enables us to see the responsibility we are placed in towards one another in meeting together; and in a day of confusion like this, it is extremely important.
One step more in this great knowledge, even that of the church as the mystery, as taught in Ephesians and Colossians. I do not here enlarge on this step, but I commend these scriptures to my readers, as opening out the power of the Head in connection with His body on the earth; and surely no one can have a true apprehension of the greatness of the church, and what it is in the counsels of God, and how it is the fulness of Christ, who has not in faith grasped the mystery. In Ephesians we are taught the power by the Holy Spirit in which each member of the church is to set forth the mind and life of Christ. Through this power the unity of the Spirit is to be kept, and so on in every detail here. In Colossians we are taught the nature and state in which we enter into this great power. I must not add more now, but it is a subject of the deepest interest, and as we enter into it, the greatness of the church becomes known to us. I trust I have said enough to awaken a more careful inquiry, in this day of imitation, as to what the church is in the mind of God.