The Brethren In Unity
THE BRETHREN IN UNITY
I desire to speak, dear brethren, of the service of God and the unity of the brethren. God attaches the greatest importance to unity; the Godhead itself is marvellous in this respect. You could not find in the Scriptures the least trace of divergence of thought or feelings between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Lord said, when here below, “I and the Father are one”, and the unity of the Godhead, which is in truth and love, should affect us, because God is pleased to make His abode among the saints. God being love, it is evident that He cannot dwell with satisfaction in other condition than in a condition of love. This is why, although we have in Psalm 134 the idea of the service of God maintained all through the night by those who stand in the house of Jehovah, in Psalm 133, the unity of the saints is particularly stressed. It could well be said as I have already remarked yesterday, although bearing with one another in love is an important thing. And it will be necessary as long as we are down here, it does not produce unity; it helps to hinder disunity, but of itself it does not produce unity. Unity is only produced by having only one object before us. That is why Psalm 132 is important as coming before Psalm 133, because in Psalm 132 we have in David a man who has only one object before him, and it is a thought which is sufficient to command the interest of all the saints. The thought which is found here is a place for Jehovah. It is an objective which is great enough to unite the saints together wherever they are, to provide among them a place where the Lord can receive the honour which He is due and where God can find His pleasure among the saints.
Now in David’s case, this is not arrived at without exercise; this is why he addresses himself to Jehovah to take account of all his afflictions, how he had even not come into the tent of his house, he had not gone up to his bed, that he had not given sleep to his eyes or slumber to his eyelids, until he had found a place for Jehovah. I believe that we well be assured that the Lord loves to see resolution and desires with us, and we can understand that this purpose of heart will be developed with us provided that we take account of Christ. What David desired was the ark; he wanted to find a place for it. Now the ark is a type of Christ as having become Man and just with the object of effectuating all the will of God. There was no selfish thought whatever with Christ; He had taken this place of subjection which He is pleased to retain eternally, so that all the will of God might be established. This has necessitated the incarnation, His precious death, His ascension to the right hand of God and all the service which He has accomplished and will continue to pursue. The more we contemplate Christ, the more we consider one who had only one thought before Him. In coming into this world, He says, “Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me—to do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart”. It was for the ark that David sought a place, and I might allow myself to say, dear brethren, that the more that Christ is exalted in our hearts, the more we will be delivered from every selfish interest, for we see in Him one who is entirely devoted to God, ready to go the whole way in sacrifice so that the pleasure of God might be manifested. Now, one might well say that it is necessary to remember this each Lord’s day morning at the Supper, for the Lord speaks to us freshly each time: “This is my body which is for you”. It is not only the fact that He has given His body in death for us, but He is presented to us in a fresh, new way each time, so that we should appropriate to ourselves all that has been expressed in His body. Thus, He is set distinctly before us, for He who is in Himself God and who in His glory is equal with God, is pleased to take a place of subjection and to serve as Man so that the pleasure of God may be realised.
Now, one part of the pleasure of God is found in the fact that He acquired the assembly as being a place of habitation for Himself. It is said that Jehovah has chosen Zion; that He has desired it for ever. He says, “This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it”. We need to think about this, it is a very great expression of God’s grace: both now and for ever; we are a habitation of God in the Spirit. I could not emphasise too much that God could not rest with satisfaction in conditions other than love; every other condition grieves the Holy Spirit; this is why it is so important and so urgent that in every place where the truth is appreciated, where the saints desire to walk in the truth, conditions of unity among us should be assured and maintained. The service of Christ and of the Holy Spirit has this end in view, and the enemy’s activities are always directed at breaking it. But where such conditions are assured, God says, “I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her needy ones with bread”. It shows His appreciation in giving abundant provisions, and He promises to clothe her priests with salvation and that the saints will shout aloud with joy. David’s prayer had been that the priests should be clothed with righteousness, and that is evidently an essential thing, for if there is anything lacking on our side on the line of practical righteousness, we will not have the liberty to exercise priesthood towards God. But thanks to God, there is always a way open for us, even if there is some fall; we can always confess our sins to God and He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The Holy Spirit will always find His pleasure in keeping us under the influence of Christ, so that we should not fall, but that we should be led in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake.
Then, to be clothed with salvation is more than to be clothed with righteousness; somebody might be clothed with righteousness and not be clothed with salvation. One could be burdened with difficulties, the sorrows of the way, and one would need to be saved in order to have liberty to serve God, so that the promise is here that where there are conditions that are agreeable to God, God clothes the priests with salvation. This brings in the priesthood of Christ Himself: it is good to understand that the service of Christ above, as Priest for us, is not only in view of our being relieved of oppression and temptation, but to maintain us in liberty in a victorious way, so that we are available to serve God, as He says, “I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy”, that is to say that the joy will be heard. We read in the book of Nehemiah that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off, and it is a great testimony if the saints are found marked by this joy.
All that being in view, the Spirit of God in Psalm 133 draws attention to the blessing which is found among the brethren dwelling together in unity. In the epistle to the Ephesians, in chapter 4, we have a three-fold allusion to what brings us to unity. Thus, “There is one body and one Spirit, as ye also have been called by one hope of your calling”; that is all that which we enjoy together in a spiritual way; we enjoy it in the Holy Spirit Himself so that the Holy Spirit Himself and the things which He brings in for our mutual enjoyment, all of which is a great power for unity among the saints. We see this in another evident way at the beginning of the book of the Acts where as a result of the coming in of the Holy Spirit, it is said that the saints were together, that they had all things common and that the hearts and souls of those who believed were one.
Then, in Ephesians, it is said that there “one Lord, one faith, one baptism”, and this is a very real power for unity among us. We all recognise and confess the same Lord, if anyone suffer for the Lord, then the affections of all of us go towards them. This simply illustrated the unifying influence of the Name of the Lord. The Spirit has to do with what is enjoyed inwardly. The Lord with the outward position, as is seen in the book of the Acts where Saul of Tarsus is found breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, that is to say that the Name of the Lord was an object of attack, and those who bore this Name and who confessed it were attacked. But the Lord converted Saul and sent Ananias to him. When Ananias came to him, he said, “the Lord has sent me, Jesus that appeared to thee in the way on which thou camest, so that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit”. It is as if Ananias had said to Saul: Jesus is my Lord, and now He is your Lord; there is the link which unites us to one another. He addresses himself to Saul in these terms, “Saul, brother”. The Name of the Lord immediately became a link between these two men. This simply illustrates the power for unity which there is in the very Name of Jesus.
Then the passage in Ephesians introduces a third unifying link, in the Father. It is said, “There is one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all”, as if the grace and the love of the Father poured into the Christian circle. It is a third link of affection among the saints. More than this, there is the important fact that the three Persons of the Deity are united, so that the more the saints are affected by the knowledge they have of divine Persons, the more there is unity among them.
Then this Psalm says, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together”. It speaks of the precious oil poured on the head which is an allusion to the dignity that the Holy Spirit confers in the character of the Spirit of Christ on the saints as being marked by the oil, which must give character to the whole company; it is that which comes from Christ and comes down to the hem of His garments as if to indicate that the whole system comprising the saints in relation with Christ must give a sweet odour of this precious oil.
Then it speaks of the dew of Hermon which answers, I suppose to the refreshing influence that is found in the affections of the saints. I think that we can all say that we have found it during these two days. But this must be continued and developed more and more, for if there is one thing which Satan is relentless against it is indeed the idea of unity among the saints, just as there is only one thing to which the Lord and the Holy Spirit are working together: it is the unity of love, the testimony to which the world cannot deny. And unity which man can produce will never bear the test. You will remember Joseph’s dream when he said, “We were binding sheaves in the fields, and lo, my sheaf rose up, and remained standing”. And the rest? Then his brothers’ sheaves bowed down before his sheaf. The superiority of what the Lord has in His hand in the saints united together in love, this must be demonstrated in the presence of every effort of man, who produces the unions and different associations. There is always the element of break-up in what man has brought together, but what the Lord draws together, bound and maintained under His influence is capable of holding.
Next, I refer to Psalm 134 and I also desire to allude to the passage in the epistle to the Romans where the apostle speaks of those who are strong in contrast to those who are weak; and the presence of those who are weak should become the occasion for love to be expressed on the part of those who are strong, because love is manifested in bearing burdens. One has been impressed, dear brethren, in considering what the Lord carries at the present time. The Lord on high carries all the saints on His shoulders. He does not do it just in any way, but He does it in interceding for them in the present moment, and each of the saints has his place on His shoulders. It is the power of love that enters with feeling into every exercise of the saints individually, because the stones on the shoulders of the High Priest were according to the people’s birth. This is an allusion to the saints considered individually. But equally, the High Priest carries the people of God on the breastplate in four rows of three, that is to say, according to their tribes. That indicates I think not only that the Lord carries the saints individually, but He also carries on the breastplate all the different localities in relation to their assembly exercises, because this is what is indicated by the position of the tribes. In consequence, dear brethren, if we seek to have an impression of the love of Christ, let us think of a part in His precious death, as He says, “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us”, but let us consider also His present service at the right hand of God. If you think of the number of saints who are found on earth at the present time, and of the varied circumstances in which they are found, and of all the difficulties, the temptations, and the sorrows that they have, all this is carried by the Lord at the present time. It is said that He is always living to intercede for us. It is also said, in Romans 8, “It is Christ who has died, but rather has been also raised up; who is also at the right hand of God; who also intercedes for us”. By extending the thought, Paul was formed in that way, because he says he was beset every day by his concern for all assemblies. He also says, “Who is stumbled, and I burn not?” That is to say, he not only carried the exercises of the assemblies, but every individual question that arose, by means of which an individual could fall, was felt in the apostle’s heart. He says here, “Let each one of us seek to please his neighbour with a view to what is good, to edification”. It would keep us from seeking to please ourselves in a natural way; we have to seek to please one another with a view to what is good for edification. Then to underline this, the Holy Spirit adds, “for the Christ also did not please himself, but according as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproach thee have fallen upon me”. It is a quotation from Psalm 69 and the context is this, “For the zeal of thy house hath devoured me, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee have fallen upon me”. It was in the moment when the Lord was considering for the things of God that the reproaches fell upon Him, but this is given to us as an example and as an encouragement that even the Christ did not seek to please Himself. It is added that all that has been written beforehand has been written for our instruction, that by the patience and consolation of the Scriptures we may have hope. Then God is presented as the God of patience and encouragement, because it is a time when we have to continue in patience. The call to patience gives occasion to be devoted to God and to consider for Christ, all this being expressed among us. Thus what is proper to the assembly is developed by means of these exercises which call for patience and love among us.
Now, finally, in this passage, we are to take account of the infirm and weak and to esteem one another so that we are able, as it says, “with one accord, with one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. It is striking that it should say “one mouth”. It is not fifty mouths saying the same thing, but it is one mouth, showing how the saints are entirely together, they have just the one mouth, and the Holy Spirit works to this end in such a way that the Spirit and the bride say only one thing. You can see that there is one mouth for the Spirit and the bride. But before that happens, there has to be one mouth among us, and this one mouth employed to glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This leads us to Psalm 134, where it is said: “Behold, bless Jehovah, all ye servants of Jehovah, who by night stand in the house of Jehovah. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless Jehovah”. It is the great end reached. At the end of the Songs of Degrees, there is the service of the blessed God, which is assured and maintained through the whole night, that is until the Lord’s return. It is time to stand, that is to say, at God’s disposal to serve him, accepting the exercise necessary to maintain suitable conditions.
At the end of the Psalm, it says, “Jehovah, the maker of heavens and earth, bless thee out of Zion”. The service of God being assured and maintained through the whole night in conditions suited to unity among us, God’s blessing will be given to His people.
May the Lord help us in all this, for the love of His Name!
VALENCE
1st November 1949
From Paroles d’Édification Mutuelle
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