THE ASSEMBLY IN EVERY PLACE

G. W. Brown

Matthew 18: 20; 1 Corinthians 1: 1–3; Acts 18: 22

This occasion is in a local setting, nevertheless the Spirit of God might use anyone at this time or at any such time. He knows what we need, whereas one visiting may not know. What is pressing upon one at this time is the truth concerning the assembly as anticipated by the Lord in the first verse we read. It is a position which is surely open to us now. When the Lord spoke these words the Holy Spirit had not come. In the sense in which He was speaking, I suppose, there would not be “two or three … gathered together unto my name”; but the Spirit having come, this became possible and it is possible up to the present moment. “Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”. I wonder, dear brethren, if we are in faith as to that. We would desire to be in such a company, but whether we are in faith as to the presence of the Lord and His power, or whether in the secret of our souls we acknowledge His presence, would be a test to us. “There am I in the midst of them”. In one sense that would be anticipative, the Spirit then not having come.

But when we come to Paul’s word to the Corinthians, the Spirit had come. He says, “The assembly of God which is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints”, that is, saints by divine calling in that city. And what he is about

to say to saints in that city would apply to saints in every place in such a setting—“with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours”. Now you have the fulfilment of that of which the Lord spoke anticipatively, “there am I in the midst of them”. It is a most blessed privilege if we can rise to it, and if we have faith to realise it. Now, the Spirit having come, the apostle can refer to “the assembly of God which is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus ... with all that in every place” (that is, in a similar setting in other places) “call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours”. What respect becomes us, dear brethren, for every such setting, wherever it may be! “There am I in the midst of them”. It is the assembly of God. Corinth is gone, and the well-defined position in that city does not exist today. But surely what follows provides for our own time—“all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours”. Now I say, dear brethren, what respect becomes us as we contemplate the saints in every city.

When we come to Acts, we see what respect Paul had. It says, “And having gone up and saluted the assembly, he went down to Antioch”. I think that implies, as do similar references to “having saluted the brethren” and “having saluted them” (Acts 21: 7, 19), the respect Paul would have for the assembly in each place.

I do not feel that more need be said, except that one prays for oneself and for one’s brethren that we might be kept and maintained in a holy respect for the saints in such settings, as Paul anticipated.

Word in meeting for ministry, Plainfield. N.J.
11 November 1975