Praises Of God In The Assembly
PRAISES OF GOD IN THE ASSEMBLY
2 Corinthians 1: 3, 9, 10, 19, 20
I desire to speak on the subject of praise to God, as that which God looks for in every company of saints, in each assembly. One of the greatest answers to the lie of Satan which has possession of the hearts of most men, is that there should be a company in each place, a vessel, which is characterised by praising God in liberty, in the consciousness of knowing God and being blessed—not in any formal system of worship, but, as the Lord says in John 4, “in spirit and in truth”. Along with that, of course, there will be the testimony of the grace of God to men, and the setting forth of the character of God in the movements amongst men of God’s people, but it is an important feature of the testimony that there should be a vessel marked by praise to God, and each of us should be concerned as to how far we know what it is to praise God, not only when together, but privately. The psalmist says, “Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever”, Ps 145: 2. If one of God’s people in the old dispensation could speak thus—“Every day will I bless thee”—how much more does it become us of today to see to it that not a day passes that we do not bless God, and not simply in relation to His mercies to us, but in relation to what He is as known by us through grace.
These three passages bring in the thought of praise to God. The first one, in Luke’s gospel, has reference to the works of power which the disciples saw (v 37); that is to say, the evidence of divine grace working effectually in the practical deliverance of souls became the occasion of praise to God. In Corinthians the apostle bursts out, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, from the point of view of knowing Him as One who raises the dead and has raised up from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in whom everything is yea. Things are established in an affirmative way in Christ, so that positive blessing to us is an assured, secured thing. I believe the more we dwell on resurrection the more it brings the glory of God before our souls, for, when God operates in resurrection, He is doing that which God only can do. Men and the devil are shut out and God stands out in His glory as able to raise the dead, and the Son of God is before our hearts as the One through whom and in whose love everything has been brought in for God and for us. Then in Ephesians l the praise of God is the highest note; it is based on the light of God’s purpose, but it is apprehended as having actually come into view, so that the apostle can say He has taken us into favour in the Beloved. That is, Christ is apprehended in that blessed light, the Beloved, and God has taken us into favour in Him.
Now in Luke 19 we see a man, Zacchæus, who had desires after Christ. It says that “he sought to see Jesus who he was”; he had genuine desires to see Jesus, but the difficulty was that he was small of stature. That is a practical difficulty with many of us, beloved. We could see much more than we do if we were not so small of stature. We are able to touch the precious things of God just when we have the stature equal to them. So the Lord took account of Zacchæus’s desires; but He said to Zacchæus, as it were, It is no use getting up into a tree; it is no use taking short cuts to these things, it is a question of finding your true level first. He said, “come down”; then, when you find your true level, you can begin to grow up to things. That is, I believe, the force of the passage, that Zacchæus, with right desires, overlooked that, when it is a question of touching the things of God, it is a question of growing up into them, it is a question of stature; so the Lord says to Zacchæus, “come down; for today I must abide at thy house”. That is to say, He would say to Zacchæus, It is quite right to wish to see Me who I am, but there are other questions to be taken up first, it is a question of what place I have in a practical way in your house. The house is the centre of one’s operations on earth. It is a question of what place the Lord has with each one of us, as to whether, to put it in scriptural expression, we are practically in the kingdom; whether our house, our own personal responsible life, affords a sphere where the Lord is practically recognised. Unless that is the case, there will be no ability to grow up to that which is greater. Zacchæus was ready for it—“he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully”. Now I recognise that I am speaking for the moment of that which is fundamental and elementary, but it lies at the foundation of spiritual prosperity and growth, the question whether the Lord has a place, a recognised place, given Him without reserve in our lives. There can be no power to touch what is greater in spiritual things unless an unshakeable basis is laid in our souls, connected with receiving the Lord into our houses, which means that we give the Lord the place that is right in every sphere of our responsible life.
The Lord, in coming into Zacchæus’s house at his invitation, said, “This day is salvation come to this house”. It means practical salvation to every believer who will take up this exercise and go on in it, giving the Lord the place that is His due in every sphere of his responsible life. It underlies what is greater, it leads up to the thought of praise in the assembly. Obviously, if I come under some moral disability in some phase of my responsible life owing to having failed to give the Lord the place that is His due in it, I shall find myself unequal to having part practically in the praise of God in the assembly, for God desires that His priests should be clothed with salvation. The Lord says, “This day is salvation come to this house, for so much as he also is a son of Abraham”. Now the effect of this on Zacchæus is seen in practical results, it was no theory with him. While his business was marked by a good deal that was unpopular, and such as in other hands would not bear the light, so far as Zacchæus himself was concerned, his business was conducted on different principles. He says, “the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold”, showing clearly that he was prepared to conduct himself as in the fear of God all the day long.
Now I pass on to the second incident I read in that chapter . If we are individually marked by salvation as coming under the control of the Lord, the next thing is that we find and take up our links with God’s people, because the assembly is the great thing that is in view. It is quite true that there should be praise marking us individually, as the psalmist says, “Every day will I bless thee”—God looks for His food every day from His people—but at the same time the great vessel of praise, according to the divine mind, is the assembly. With that end in view, it is important that every believer, having been brought through grace to practical salvation as subject to the Lord and recognising the Spirit, should also take up his links with the people of God. It was never intended that anyone who loves Christ should remain unconnected with God’s people. It is never intended that anyone should go on in an isolated, independent way, just deriving the benefit of the light there is amongst God’s people and enjoying the warmth, in measure, of their affections, but not committed to the fellowship which God has established here on earth, the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. That is indicated in this incident as to the colt. We are living indeed in a broken day, when in actual fact you cannot get the whole assembly, either universally or in one place; but there are saints of God who are moving through this wilderness in fellowship as governed by divine principles, by whom the Lord is practically owned, and the Scriptures are given their true place. In these conditions what is proper to the assembly can be, and is, realised, and God would have every one who loves Christ to find his place in relation to it.
Now that is illustrated in this incident. The Lord sends two of His disciples—only two, but they are sufficient to express the idea of fellowship. They also express the idea of smallness, so that this colt, as being claimed by these two in the name of the Lord, would, so to speak, become connected at that moment with something that was extremely small—nothing imposing. At the same time there was the idea of a fellowship that was under the control and direction of the Lord and in relation to which the claims of the Lord were asserted in regard of this colt. So that they were to say, “The Lord hath need of him”, and they loosed the colt and brought him to Jesus. The colt is, of course, a picture of a young believer, a young person, who has been held, but has never yet definitely committed himself to the fellowship or recognised the Lord’s claims. I would press it on any believer here who has not yet taken it up, that, if you love Christ and have received the Holy Spirit, you belong to the assembly of God, and, not only so as a matter of title and privilege, but you are yourself an integral part of it; you are yourself a living stone, you are needed to have your part in the movements of affection Godward which are to form the basis of the praise of God in that vessel. There should be no believer who simply comes to meetings with the thought of enjoying what he gets for himself, but every believer should come in the consciousness that he or she, through grace, is a living part of a vessel which is capable of being touched in response and led out in praise Godward. The Lord put in His claim in regard of this colt—“The Lord hath need of him”. Then it says, “they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon”. I would mention this in passing, appealing to our young brothers and sisters, and the older ones, too, if it should be necessary, that in coming into this fellowship, you are to come into it with the garments of a disciple of Jesus. It was the garments of the disciples of Jesus they put on this colt; that is to say, there is a certain demeanour, a certain behaviour, that is becoming to saints moving in the light of the assembly. So this colt was not brought to Jesus just as he was, but, having been loosed, they cast their garments on him, that is, the garments of the disciples of Jesus. He was, typically, to take his place in the fellowship as characterised by what is suitable to the followers of Jesus.
Then Jesus sat upon him. Think of the dignity and privilege that, as thus secured, you are to have your part in carrying the testimony of Christ in this scene. Jesus sat on him, involving, not only that the Lord took control of him, but that the colt itself had the privilege of carrying Jesus in the scene of His rejection. One thing more: it says, “when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples ...” Now this is something different from two. When you come into fellowship as responding to the claims of God, you may find yourself linked up with a very small and weak company, but they have a living part in the universal fellowship, and when you take your part in it in a spiritual way, you will find that you are linked up with the whole multitude of the disciples. Time after time you will be taken out of what is small and insignificant and find you are linked up with the whole multitude of the saints. Every time you take the Supper you will be reminded of the greatness of that with which God has connected you. “From the rising of the sun even unto its setting my name shall be great among the nations”, Mal 1: 11. I love to think when I break bread that already those in the East have taken it up, so that you are linked up with the whole multitude of the disciples. If there is one here who has not taken it up, surely you want to be linked up with this great thing that God is bringing in at the present time. It is good to see young men and young women taking up their part in this thing and having a living part in the assembly. It is a wonderful thing, and there is no reason why anyone of us should not have part in it. So it says, “the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen”—they praised God in the sense of His mighty works. Every one of us can surely do that. The sense of the grace that has taken us up where we were and set us among the saints, giving us the Holy Spirit that we might have part in these things, must surely cause praise to God.
Now the Pharisees said, “Master, rebuke thy disciples”. “And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out”. Now that should have its place with us; not indeed that one would wish to encourage any activity in praise, so-called, that is not in the Spirit, for that is not praise. Better indeed to bold our peace than to force things in the energy of the flesh. But at the same time, if I am always holding my peace, I might well be exercised before the Lord as to why. If I am dumb, why am I dumb? In the eleventh chapter it says, the Lord was casting out a demon, and it was dumb; so that, if there is anyone dumb who should be speaking, the Lord is able to set you free. It would be a great rebuke to you if the stones cried out; if, because your voice is never heard in the praise of God, the stones suddenly cried out, what a rebuke it would be to you! Dear brethren, let us see to it that, if we do not know what it is to have liberty in praise to God, we get to the Lord, who is able to make the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Often our failure to speak is because we do not hear aright, but the Lord can enable us to hear aright and then make us speak aright.
Now in 2 Corinthians, as I indicated at the beginning, the apostle breaks out, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, but, as you read on in the chapter, you find that what is before him is the fact that he knows God as One who raises the dead. In his experience he had been brought down to despair even of life, in order that, in a practical way, God might become known in his soul in this light. I think one can see the result of his exercises in this chapter, that he comes to a point where he says in regard of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that “yea is in him”. As though he were to say he had come to it that if he had died, if the circumstances had become too much for him and he had died, nothing was lost, everything was established in the Son of God, and that afforded him great comfort and rejoicing. He says, “the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us ... was not yea and nay ...”—how one loves that! You are often conscious of “yea and nay” in yourself, there is a great deal of changeableness and variableness in oneself, but you turn to God, “With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”, and you turn to Christ, the Son of God, who is in the presence of God as Man, and “yea is in him”. There is not a shade of variableness, and, as you look into the face of Jesus where He is, you see that God, in His Son, has met every question as to the state in which you were and has dealt with it in death, and in Christ in the presence of God there is a perfect and abiding answer to it, and you will see that your place is in the presence of God in Him. This is something we need to keep our souls in the light of, and the more we do so, the more we shall be prepared to judge all that Christ died to set aside. If we are to come into the liberty and joy of it, we must go this way, that we judge all that was dealt with by Christ in His death. The Spirit of God brings in liberty for our spirits as we take account of Him who is in the presence of God, and all the favour of God shines upon us there. As it says, “perfect love casteth out fear”. You see perfect love in its triumph in Christ where He is, and it casts out fear.
Well, this is important when we are together in assembly. We have before us in the Supper the love of Christ in the loaf; we have also the great expression of the love of God in the cup, the great lengths to which divine love went in giving up God’s beloved Son, because only so could moral questions be solved and we ourselves brought to God in nearness. God was so intolerant of distance that He was prepared to go that length, giving up Christ in death, the One in whom His soul delighted, that we might be brought to God, and the blood of the covenant is the reminder of how God wants to have us in nearness to Him. But there is more than the blood of the covenant, there is the glory of the covenant that is shining in the face of the Mediator. Not only has divine love in its depth been expressed by Christ, but the One who expressed it is out of death, and all the glory of God shines in the face of a Man, One whom we love and shall actually be with and see face to face. It shines there for us in a real way, and the more we know what it is to look on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, the more we shall be free in spirit and able to take on successive glories; we shall be able to move in the direction Zacchæus wanted to move in, and to move from glory to glory as set free in the presence of all that God is towards us, shining now in the face of Jesus Christ.
Well now, if Christ is thus before our hearts, not only in the depths He has been to for us but in His present position in the presence of God, for it is there the glory shines in His face, it becomes, so to say, a simple matter for the Lord to present Himself to us in a yet further light, that is as Son, the beloved Son; and we begin to apprehend that in Himself now in that relationship in the presence of God, what God has purposed for His pleasure before the foundation of the world has come into view. This is a matter entirely apart from any question of need or of moral questions being worked out. We apprehend in Christ, before the Father’s face, that what God has purposed for His own satisfaction has actually come in in Christ in manhood, and it marks out the thoughts of God for us. Indeed, we have received the Spirit of God’s Son. So we have not only the light of the position God delights to set us in, but we have the power to correspond with that position as having the Spirit of God’s Son. I think that links on with Ephesians, where the apostle bursts out in this expression of praise saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Now these verses, if I may say so, are not intended exactly to occupy us with the blessedness of our portion, but are intended rather to impress us with the blessedness of God, the God who has desired such things. Think of God making such a purpose “according to the good pleasure of his will”! It gives us an impression of what God takes pleasure in when we see what the good pleasure of His will is. “Chosen us in him” (that is the status) “before the world’s foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love; having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself ... wherein he has taken us into favour in the Beloved”, Eph 1: 4-6. The whole light centres in the Beloved; Christ is apprehended in that light—the Beloved, and in that light all that God has purposed for His own pleasure shines before our hearts, and through Jesus Christ.
What a wealth there is in those words, involving the incarnation! That alone would be a theme for worship to see divine wisdom expressing itself in such a movement, and divine love coming into expression, wonderful love coming into expression in incarnation. And then the death of Christ, the great expression of divine love, and every moral excellence shines there too. Then the resurrection of Christ, the great expression of divine power, where all that man is is absolutely excluded and all is of God. All that and much more is, I believe, involved in “through Jesus Christ, and we are to go over these thoughts in order that there might be substance in our souls that will take form in praise and worship Godward. So we are in the present consciousness, in the Spirit and in the light of Christ, of what God is in His blessedness.
May the Lord help us in these things! They are open to us if we are ready to acknowledge the smallness of our stature, and not assume that we are something, as Zacchæus did in getting up a tree. He had to come down to his true level and then give the Lord the place He sought in regard to his own affairs. If we are prepared to take that road, we shall find the Lord is able to lead us on and add to our stature little by little, so that we are able to take our place in the assembly and have our part in that wonderful vessel, to the praise and glory of God.
place and date not given
From Words of Grace and Comfort 1937
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