ASSEMBLY MATERIAL
[p. 124] ASSEMBLY MATERIAL
I have read this long passage having in mind to speak of assembly material as it is referred to in this chapter in a man, in a woman and in a child. Those who accept the gospel become assembly material. The gospel of the grace of God has in view the deliverance of man from the power of Satan, from the world, from sin and from death; but what God has before Him in thus saving man is to form the assembly.
In the epistle to the Corinthians, God addresses a company of christians in that city as “the assembly of God”. It was composed of men and women, and doubtless young people too, who had been converted through Paul’s ministry; they formed therefore what is termed, “the assembly of God which is in Corinth”. Before they were converted, the Lord had said to Paul, “Fear not ... because I have much people in this city” (Acts 18:9,10); at an opportune moment, these people were called by the gospel, so that they are qualified to be “called saints”. God’s call reached them in the gospel, and they left the world, and as having the Spirit were constituted an assembly: “the assembly of God which is in Corinth”. Although only a few members of the assembly may be available to God, there is here in Marseilles the assembly of God.
It should be noticed that it is a matter first of a man who had demons; then, of a woman who had a flux of blood for twelve years, and lastly of a young girl of twelve who was dead. The three cases can be referred to as three features in a believer, or in a wider way, as three features marking a local assembly.
In the man, “sitting, clothed and sensible, at the feet of Jesus”, we see the result of the gracious service of Christ: he would represent the side of authority in a local assembly. It says that he was “sitting, clothed and sensible, at the feet of Jesus”; these are important [p. 125] features to be found in a local company, and the presence of such a company in a wicked city is a marvellous triumph of God. The area referred to here is called elsewhere Decapolis, showing that it was characterised by the number of its cities, Decapolis meaning ‘ten cities’. Beloved brethren, the present period is characterised by the multitudes of cities. Cities have existed in the world since the time of Cain, but at no period in the history of the world have there been as many cities as there are now; they indicate growth and concentration of wickedness. In this passage, the wickedness is viewed as acting specially upon the men, and, of course, it acts also upon women and children. Modern cities would hold little of interest for man according to flesh were it not for the amusements and attractions, often too shameful to describe, which are found there. It is, therefore, significant that Luke represents this man as coming “out of the city ... who had demons a long time, and put on no clothes, and did not abide in a house, but in the tombs”.
Quite recently a brother told me that in his country the idea of a home did not exist; this reminded me how in the world the idea of a home is being abandoned. The enemy is seeking to break up the home circle, and is doing so universally. Concurrent with that is to be seen the power of Satan acting against the young, for there is no protection for them. A home is intended to be a protection for the young; God has conferred authority upon parents, and the object of such authority is to protect the young, specially in towns, and to save them from the terrible conditions existing there.
It says that this man “had demons a long time”; I do not suggest that anyone in this town has demons. The light of christianity which has spread over Europe has broken the power of demons in this way, but their power is still to be found in heathen countries. That does not imply that Satan has no power; he has; there are persons who have been in his power for a long time.
[p. 126] Very likely this was a young man who had left his home, despising the authority of his parents, and had no protection. He went where he would, wherever Satan led him, hence it says that he “had demons a long time”. It adds that he “put on no clothes”, which is a feature of modern times. The world is marked by a certain lack of modesty in dress and in behaviour. Satan delights in this, but God is dishonoured, for He made clothing for Adam and Eve when they were naked; He hates nakedness. This man was naked; he “put on no clothes”, showing the kind of man he was. How had he acquired such features? He had given up the authority God had set up for his protection. He “did not abide in a house”, in other words, he was uncontrollable, hence his terrible state. Now it says in a very significant way that he came to meet the Lord: “As he got out of the ship on the land, a certain man out of the city met him”. Verbal distinctions are often very important in Scripture. It might be said with accuracy that the Lord met him, but the Spirit of God says that he met the Lord, and this is attributed to the man. In this connection I would say that often people come to meetings as though they have little or no interest, coming because a friend has invited them, but in doing so they come to where the Lord is. What a favourable position, dear brethren!
This man usually lived in the tombs. What a contrast between living in a tomb and coming to the meeting amongst the children of God! They do not live in tombs, they are living people. We do not go to tombs to look for living people, as the angels said to the women, “Why seek ye the living one among the dead”, Luke 24:5. This man lived among the dead. In Proverbs 9:15 - 18, the foolish woman calls “passers-by who go right on their ways: Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. And to him that is void of understanding she saith, Stolen waters are sweet, and the bread of secrecy is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there; that her guests are in the depths of Sheol”. That is [p. 127] where this man was living; what a terrible state of things, dear young brethren! But he met the Lord. How often he must have thanked the Lord for this event! It may be that some of you here have tonight come in by invitation, and in doing so you will meet the Lord Jesus; He is here to help you. You may not have come seeking help, but He is here to help you. It is noticeable that when this man saw Jesus, “he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus Son of the Most High God? I beseech thee torment me not. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to go out from the man”. It was really the demon speaking; so terrible was his condition that the demon spoke through him. It was an abnormal condition; a demon had actual control of him. But the Lord had commanded the unclean spirit to go out of the man, and it may be that the Lord is uttering a commandment this evening as to some of us here. You have behaved badly, having come under the power of sin, but you have met the Lord here this evening, and it may be that He is ordering this state of things to end for ever. Do I feel my state? Am I judging it? If so, I shall be thankful for His command. We must not dwell longer on this passage, but, as we all know, the demons go out of the man, and the people of the country “found the man ... sitting, clothed and sensible, at the feet of Jesus”. What a marvellous change! What a triumph for God! What a deliverance for this man! Sitting at the feet of Jesus, never again will he be seen with no clothes, he is clothed and sensible.
That is the first of these three features, and I would add that a sober and balanced mind is of great value for the assembly. As I said earlier, the man represents the side of intelligent authority in the assembly. Authority must be maintained in the assembly, and this can only be as we have sober and balanced minds and sit at the feet of Jesus. This man would make an excellent brother, and Mary of Bethany an excellent [p. 128] sister in a local meeting. It does not say that this man was listening to His word, but can we doubt that he did? Mary listened to what Jesus was saying; she did not ask Him to speak on a certain subject, but she listened to all that He said. There are some who only accept part of the truth; that is how sects begin. Mary would not want only part, she would say, ‘I need every word of Jesus’. She is a true model for every brother and sister. Every word of Jesus is as pure gold; we cannot afford to neglect a single word He says. It says of Samuel that none of his words fell to the ground, nor do the words of Jesus. They fell into Mary’s heart, as they have done into the hearts of millions of others. Nobody should allow himself to miss a single word of Jesus. The Lord thought of that, knowing how forgetful we are, so He said, “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and will bring to your remembrance all the things which I have said to you”, John 14:26. This is the present service of the Holy Spirit, or rather part of His service, to remind us of all the things that Jesus has said. That is what is involved in the position of this man “sitting, clothed and sensible”. What need there is of such men as he, whether at Corinth, Ephesus, Marseilles, Paris, London, or New York; wherever there may be an assembly, God needs such men in each local meeting. This man represents one of the great features of local assembly material.
In the second passage we see a woman who had been ill for twelve years, representing thus another view of the same person. The man had had demons a long time; but the duration of this woman’s illness is specified. What is in mind in her case is inward sin. If we regard her state as representing sin in a man or woman we must remember it is there from birth. It says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh”, and it cannot be improved; but we do not discover all that immediately we are converted. After I am converted, I become [p. 129] deeply affected by the discovery of my terrible condition, hence it says of this woman that “having spent all her living on physicians, could not be cured by any one”. Such is the inward state of a believer who has discovered what sin is, a state that is analysed in Romans 7. We cannot dwell on this now, but at the end of that chapter, the writer cries, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?” He has discovered his wretched condition. Possibly there is a believer here who has never yet discovered his wretched state; this woman had, and she had suffered under it for twelve years, until she touched the Lord Jesus. Crowds were pressing upon Him, but she said to herself, “If I should only touch his garment I shall be healed”, Matthew 9:21. You will notice that she had no doubt about it. When the light of the gospel of the Son of God penetrates the soul it brings confidence. “If I should only touch”. Here she touches Him; in other cases, as with the leper, it was the Lord’s touch which brought blessing, but this time it is for you to approach Christ. You have suffered for twelve years, but now light has reached your soul and you say, “If I should only touch his garment I shall be healed”. Do you understand such language? There is none like it in the world; there are many languages, but this is the only one known and valued in heaven. What language is it? It is the language of faith. You will not find it on any list of human languages, for there is none like it. It is the language of faith that this woman utters when she says, “If I should only touch his garment I shall be healed”, and in spite of the crowd she does so. The crowd is there only as representing the many difficulties arising when one has decided to touch Christ. She was only a weak woman, who might easily have said, ‘In spite of my desire, I cannot reach Him because of this crowd’; but the language of faith has no such expression. She is determined to touch Him, and she does. This touch caused power to go out of Christ,
the word ‘power’ here indicating an irresistible power. All the medicine in the world could not have produced such an effect; she was immediately healed. Would you not like to be relieved in this way? Well, if you are suffering from the consequences of your sins, or from your inward state, it is in your power to touch Christ. Jesus is here this evening and you can touch Him. You will understand that I do not mean physically but spiritually. You can make up your mind to touch Him, expressing yourself in the language of faith, and as a result power goes out from the Lord, and He knows it. Millions of persons could touch Him, and this power would go out; such is our Saviour. He is God, and we cannot limit His power. What a Person we have to present to you, dear friends!
On the other hand, this woman exhibits the dissimulation of man. We are all inclined to dissimulate and deceive; the Lord knows it and He will not let you go. If the power that has gone out of Him has entered your soul, He would like you to let it be known, so He asks, “Who has touched me?” It may be that a million people have touched Him, but each should confess that he has done so, and has been healed through this touch. In confessing it as this woman did, one becomes qualified as suitable material for the assembly. In Scripture, women always represent the subjective or the affectionate side of the assembly. Not that divine love only exists amongst the sisters, it also marks brothers, but women represent that side. So what happened to this woman is a type of the formation of a member of Christ; power is gone out from Him and has acted inwardly in her, and what has been produced abides eternally. We become members of Christ as a result of power operating in us, and as such, we become transparent and no longer try to deceive. She fell down before Him and “declared before all the people for what cause she had touched him”. How important that is in our local meetings! Reservations and little deceptions [p. 131] only cause difficulties to continue. The body of Christ cannot function without transparency: I must say the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That is what this woman did, whom the Lord calls, “Daughter”. What a bond, to be called “daughter” by this great Person! You are incorporated into the heavenly family. You are one of those who stand upon the sea of glass, indicating that you are transparent, that you speak the truth; everything is open in your relations with the brethren and with God. “For even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ ... and have all been given to drink of one Spirit”, 1 Corinthians 12:12,13.
In such conditions the body can function, dear brethren, but it cannot function if this disease is not cured, and if we do not speak the whole truth. I am in the assembly as a result of the work of Christ. The Lord calls this woman “daughter” and says to her, “Thy faith has healed thee; go in peace”. It was her faith which had done it, and I would add, that if you have a little faith, it is God who has produced it in you. Faith is not a fruit of the flesh, but a gift of God. We have therefore the man who represents intelligence and balance and rule in the assembly, whilst the woman represents transparency. With such material we should have a good local meeting.
A third aspect of the assembly is freshness. It is a question here of the daughter of Jairus, who was twelve years old. There are children here who are about that age, but I do not wish to speak of that, but rather of youthfulness spiritually as characterising a local company. The believer is viewed simply in another way. This young girl was twelve years of age, a period corresponding with the duration of the disease of the woman, and in a certain sense to the period of time this man had been enslaved by demons, “a long time”. Twelve years is a long time to be possessed by demons. So [p. 132] this young girl simply typifies another aspect of a local company. It is a peculiar spirituality which is in view; it is marked by youthful freshness in all our meetings, and is what is termed in Colossians 3 the “new” man. This word signifies what is young and fresh. That means that in the meetings I do not always give out the same hymns, nor use the same expressions in thanksgiving, nor say the same things in readings; it would indicate that the Holy Spirit is not grieved.
In order to produce this feature, the Lord turned out all who are governed by natural sentiment; “When he came to the house he suffered no one to go in but Peter and John and James and the father of the child and the mother”. There were those there weeping, who derided Him when He said that the child was not dead but was sleeping. Such persons had only natural sentiment. In Matthew it says there were flute-players. All that is but a hindrance to spiritual freshness, so the Lord turns them all out. That may seem very arbitrary, but if we want spirituality we must do the same. He took with Him Peter and John and James and the father and mother of the child. Then it says, “But he, having turned them all out, and taking hold of her hand, cried saying, Child, arise. And her spirit returned, and immediately she rose up”. See, dear brethren, what a wonderful scene, how holy and spiritual! The Lord of glory was there; the three principal disciples — the most spiritual men on earth — were there; the father and mother, those most directly affected and responsible, were there too. In such a holy circle the Lord says, “Child, arise”, and it adds, “her spirit returned, and immediately she rose up”. Now see what a wonderful state of things follows; the Lord commanded something to eat to be given to her, indicating that this state of youthful spiritual freshness must continue, it must be maintained amongst us. You can see, dear brethren, how essential these three features are in each local company of God’s people.