THE LORD JESUS AS FOOD FOR THE BELIEVER (3)
Leviticus 7:11-21; 1 Corinthians 1:9; 10:11-22
P.M. We touched a little yesterday on the Lord Jesus as food for the believer, seen first in the manna given to the people of Israel in the wilderness. A heavenly food came down from heaven to sustain a people here in heavenly character while moving through the wilderness. Then we looked at the bread of life, the bread of God, in John 6, and the feeding on the death of the Lord Jesus as eating His flesh and drinking His blood. In the next reading, we looked at the sin-offering, and had some impression of what it was for the Lord Jesus to be made sin for us. We had an address last night on commitment, seen in Mary of Magdala. She was someone who had had a moral history with the Lord Jesus which resulted in her commitment to Him when all others had gone to their own homes. She was not only committed to a path of reproach, but, after His disclosure to her, she was committed, as the believer is to be, to a path of glory in association with the Man who is the Centre of that realm.
That all lies behind what we might touch today in the peace-offering. The law of the sin-offering and the trespass-offering precedes the giving of the law of the peace-offering. It means that not only is sin cleared, but the man that sinned has had to be removed also. There could be no enjoyment of fellowship, which is what the peace-offering speaks of, were the moral basis for it not laid in the death of Christ. We have in the peace-offering the suggestion of fellowship; that is what it speaks of. The priest was to eat it, but not only the priest: any who were clean were to eat it. It links very much with Corinthians because in 1 Corinthians we have the thought of fellowship. The basis of true Christian fellowship lies in the death of Christ. The character of it is the fellowship of God’s Son, and that brings out the dignity of it. The expression of it is in the Supper. We have not read about the Supper, we have read about the Lord’s table, but these features are important for us to carry with us in our enquiry. Fellowship is not just a common agreement of two individuals to walk together. That may be found in a social club, but the fellowship is not a social club. The fellowship is the fellowship of God’s Son. We said in the reading yesterday that approach to God must be on a moral basis, and equally, the enjoyment of fellowship must be on a moral basis because it is the fellowship of His Son. I thought we could get some help together in pursuing this enquiry.
J.C.G. The reference to the peace-offering stresses thanksgiving, which is mentioned three or four times. Do you think that the basis of the thanksgiving is in the references to the oil, “mingled with oil … anointed with oil … saturated with oil”? The Spirit of God, which the oil would suggest as a type, would help us in our thanksgiving in relation to the fellowship.
P.M. Certainly He does, and He helps us to appreciate the One in whom that oil was seen in its perfection. As feeding upon Christ, it gives us some impression of the fulness of what God’s thoughts are in relation to the Christian path, that there was a Man here in dependence in whom were the features you speak of; “anointed with oil”, “saturated with oil” and “mingled with oil”. That was seen in its perfection in Jesus, but it is to come into expression in some measure in the saints, because what we are touching together in fellowship does not derive from the world or the scene through which we are passing. It derives from the Man who has been here and been into death, and is now living as glorified and who has established the basis whereby those that are His can be together in the spirit of thanksgiving.
J.L. Although we are stressing the idea of fellowship, which is right, is it important that first of all the peace-offering was presented to Jehovah? Could you say something about God’s own delight in the peace-offering?
P.M. We would think of what divine Persons enjoy. Think of the delight that there was at the beginning of this dispensation as presented to us in the book of Acts. What a testimony there was in Peter and John going up together (Acts 3:1), walking in the same path in the light of the One who had been here, who had just been crucified but had been received up in glory. The Spirit had come. It brought out the pleasure of God that there were believers beginning to move here as united for the pleasure of God.
J.L. That is very good. It all proceeds from God’s own delight in fellowship. Do we share in the links in fellowship because of all that He rejoices in, through what has been accomplished for His own satisfaction?
P.M. Yes, He had such delight in Christ, and of course He still does. That delight which God had in Jesus as a Man moving here, He has now, if we might say carefully, in an extended way in those that are His moving together and set together in the fellowship of His Son.
J.C.G. So that Christ becomes an object in that sense. The reference in Deuteronomy 27 says, “And thou shalt sacrifice peace-offerings, and shalt eat there, and shall rejoice before Jehovah thy God” (v.7). The idea of rejoicing is coupled with thanksgiving. Is it the Spirit that helps us to appreciate what God has done for us?
P.M. Yes, and that God has brought us into a body which derives nothing from this scene through which we pass. It is here in testimony, but it derives nothing from this world. The Spirit would help us to be knit together in the appreciation of Christ and in an order of life that is outside of this world.
G.A.B. When Ananias greeted Saul, “Saul, brother” (Acts 9:17), was that really extending the fellowship on the basis of an exalted Christ, deriving nothing from this world?
P.M. Very good. Saul would have touched something then that he had never experienced before; he touched what was in the fellowship of God’s Son and found that it was for his blessing. The fellowship, while it must have an exclusive character, and I use that word carefully, is a great system of supply coming from God Himself on the basis of the death of Christ. It is a system of supply and life that is for the blessing of the believer, but it is proved as it is held in relation to the death of Christ.
R.D.P. It seems distinctive among the law of the offerings that this is the law of the sacrifice of peace-offering. I wonder if the principle of sacrifice permeates fellowship; it becomes part of the character of it. You were speaking about what Saul found. As he was brought into Damascus, he had reservations, but he found a man who was ready to set them aside in order that this thought of the peace-offering might be experienced. So Christian fellowship is to be marked by the thought of what is sacrificial.
P.M. It is characterised by that, because the One who Himself has been into death gives character to it. At the Lord’s supper we are reminded each week of the fact that our Lord’s devotion to the will of God is expressed in that His body was sacrificed. When we come to 1 Corinthians 10 the loaf represents His body here. We form part of that body, and we partake of the loaf which represents it. It involves that the feature of devoted commitment to the will of God is to be formed morally in the believer in some measure as it was seen in the Lord Jesus in fulness and perfection.
D.A.B. Is it striking that God should ordain this offering in addition to the ones through which peace could be made?
P.M. Yes. This was not for the making of peace, was it?
D.A.B. No, it was for the celebration of peace.
P.M. That links with what our brother said as to the thanksgiving character of it. The peace-offering is a great offering representing the enjoyment of all the supply that has come from God’s heart. In the present day, that is known in the fellowship of His Son.
D.A.B. I was thinking of what our brother said, that there were offerings whose whole purpose was to restore peace that had been interrupted between the people or an individual and God. There were also offerings that would allow you to restore your broken relationship with your brother. But this offering is additional to all those; it is to celebrate that conditions of peace have been established and to celebrate the One in whom they have been established. It is not simply that He is made peace, but He is our peace.
P.M. It is very important to lay hold of that, because there could be no enjoyment of true Christian fellowship if peace had not been established, both in the general and wide sense, and in relation to each of us individually. If I do not have peace in my relations with God, I will never fully enter into the enjoyment of what Christian fellowship really is. What is here in the peace-offering is the celebration of all that has been made, a pouring out from the heart of the believer in appreciation of the One who has established peace and brought us right in to the sphere in which divine purpose can be enjoyed.
R.Gar. Ananias said “the Lord has sent me, Jesus”, Acts 9:17. Immediately after referring to the One who is in supreme authority, he said, “Jesus”. It would cause us to think of the One who was anointed, “To-day this scripture is fulfilled in your ears”, Luke 4:21. Who did He speak of? He spoke of the captives, the blind, the crushed, the poor; every one of us in this room is included in the catalogue of persons that Jesus has delivered. They wondered at His words of grace, but He was introducing what would result in the feast of tabernacles.
P.M. That is helpful, because Saul of Tarsus had a moral history, as we all have had; we were reminded of that in the address yesterday. I trust that we have all come by way of having our moral histories met by the Lord Jesus: there is no other way. The Lord Jesus not only said to Saul, “I am Jesus”, but Ananias also knew that it had been Jesus. There was a link immediately with this man who had just been met by Christ, who had been broken down on the Damascus road. He came into the city of which the Lord had said to him “and it shall be told thee what thou must do”, Acts 9:6. The One who spoke to Ananias was the same living Man that had appeared to Saul. Fellowship is based on the death of Christ, but stands related to the living Man. That is why the eating of it had to be on the same day.
P.A.G. Could you help us then as to the distinction between the thanksgiving and the vow which are presented in this section?
P.M. I wondered if the vow was something additional, and came from spiritual energy and exercise as worked out with God. If a person made a vow, the food of the peace-offering could be eaten for two days. It is not that it is left exactly, but it could be eaten for two days. It shows the commitment that there is to the death of Christ, and the present life of Christ. There is energy and strength for the maintenance of it, but the initial thought is that we have to have what is fresh. Fellowship is not dependent on what the Lord gave ten years ago. The maintenance of life in Christian fellowship is dependent on what we receive livingly, day by day. Is that right?
P.A.G. I am sure of it. I wondered if the thought of the vow, involving additional energy, would remind us that we have to maintain our commitment to the fellowship. As we commit ourselves to the fellowship in the breaking of bread, we must maintain that in life, and we must maintain the principles of it in life. It is a once for all committal, but it has to be maintained at the standard that was set at the beginning; it does not change.
P.M. That is most important. We speak of coming into fellowship, and I think we understand what we mean, but fellowship is established before a person breaks bread. Persons are in fellowship before they break bread, because the exercises that are set out in this passage in Leviticus 7 have already been entered into, but they have to be maintained. I can lose the enjoyment; I may not walk away from the circle in which we are, but I might not be maintained livingly in it. I can lose the enjoyment of what the Lord is giving in that circle by not continuing to eat from the peace-offering.
D.A.B. I wonder if we make the kind of commitment that our brother was talking about last night. This law about the second day shows that it governs us not only when we are together but when we are not together. The fellowship is not just for the meetings, is it? We might neglect the meetings and move on to the third day, and it all goes sour. Is that the balance that is struck here, that it would govern us when things are fresh and we receive something in a meeting, but then it governs us between the meetings as well?
P.M. That is important. We are not only in fellowship when we are together; we are in fellowship with one another all the time. The eating is not only when we are together. I feel the danger for myself of coming to the meetings and going home and forgetting all about it, and therefore the personal, private devotion and commitment to Christ which is required for the maintenance of a living relationship in the fellowship of God’s Son may be lost.
R.T. All that was involved in the offering – the grapes, the oil, the oven – all would be found in the household. Was there something brought from the household that added to the sweetness and savour of the offering?
P.M. Yes, and it shows in principle that something was being worked out in family circumstances in the appreciation of the One who had been here, and who had gone out of this scene by way of death. The household would be devoted and committed to that blessed One. It raises the question, what do we have in our households? Would it form part of the ingredients of the peace-offering?
R.T. Was it not the lack of the maintenance of it in the households that was really the background of the failure in Corinth? Paul goes back to the Old Testament, they “sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play”, 1 Cor.10:7. These cakes must have been very tenderly made, you may say.
P.M. What you say is helpful, because we should not convey a negative impression of fellowship. But what happened at Corinth was that the eating of the peace-offering and the feeding on the death of Christ had not been maintained, so that when something arose in their midst that was blatantly evil, Paul had to say that they had not mourned. They did not even feel it. Why? Because they were not taking their bearings from what had been established in the death of Christ. That is where believers have to take their bearings from today. I cannot take my bearings from what is around. If I take my bearings from Christendom, I shall end in confusion. We have to take our bearings from the One who has been into death and is now living.
D.M.C. Boaz said to Ruth, “Let thine eyes be on the field which is being reaped, and go thou after them”, Ruth 2:9. She had to make a determined effort to go after his maidens. Would that link with the fellowship?
P.M. I think it links with the feeding each day; you are reaping each day. Where are the men of Boaz reaping? The enemy is set against the food supply, because he wants to stop the enjoyment of assembly life. The enemy is set against that. Our responsibility individually, if we are to rightly be in fellowship, is to feed on the death and the present life of Christ.
R.T. We have to go after it, do we not?
P.M. Oh yes, it does not fall into our laps. It has often been said that in Christianity the forgiveness of sins is free, but you have to go after everything else.
R.Gr. I was wondering if the fact that Paul refers to “Sosthenes the brother” (1 Cor.1:1) so early in his letter to the Corinthians would bear on what you are saying. Paul says in effect, ‘We cannot go any further here unless we carry forward all that is involved in the thought of the brother’. It is encased in the statement as to his apostleship, so is the brotherly link of fellowship really underpinned by the authority of the Word of God?
P.M. That is helpful, and links with what we have at the beginning of the Acts, that they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and prayers (Acts 2:42).
A.M. The apostle introduces the thought of fellowship in Corinthians by calling attention to the faithfulness of God. God is faithful. Is that to create exercise with us that there should be faithfulness on our part?
P.M. Yes, God has to be faithful to the fellowship because it is the fellowship of His Son. He has to be faithful, does He not? Think of what He has vested in His Son. How much is centred for God in that blessed Man. Everything for God is centred there; it is “the fellowship of his Son”. If God is faithful to it, it is my responsibility to be faithful to it, to walk in the dignity and light of it and, as was said, not just when we are together. Another word for fellowship is partnership: partnership involves responsibility to God and responsibility to one another. What I do involves all the brethren, and where I go involves all the brethren with whom I walk in fellowship. I might refer to something that happened in the locality where we were brought up. An old brother was walking home past the Odeon, and he saw a young person in fellowship walk in there. The old brother looked at the pictures on the placards outside and next time he saw the young man, he said ‘That was an excellent film; did you like the way it finished?’ The young man said, ‘But you would not have gone there’, and the old brother said, ‘I did’. The young man said, ‘I am surprised’ and the older brother said, ‘You took me’. That is what we do, dear young people; when I go somewhere, I take all the brethren with me, because we are bound together in partnership.
G.B.G. God is faithful, and He is also faithful to those who have part in this fellowship. There will be tests in relation to practical fellowship, but will God support those who are faithful?
P.M. Yes, He will always stand by those who are seeking to be here for Him. Paul says that “At my first defence no man stood with me”, 2 Tim.4:16. Think of Paul standing there alone in front of the mighty power of Rome. He was one man standing alone, and yet he was greater morally than the whole power of Rome; he said, “But the Lord stood with me, and gave me power” (v.17). The Lord will always stand by those who seek to be faithful to Him.
D.B.R. Does verse 13 of Leviticus 7 link with your thought of responsibility? Something has to be offered besides the cakes; “he shall present his offering of leavened bread”. That would be a self-judged order of things that is so essential for the maintenance of the purity of fellowship.
P.M. That is important. I am thankful you refer to that because while leaven was not to be in the offerings, yet here the offerer comes to a judgment of the fact that what he is according to flesh has no part in the fellowship of God’s Son. If allowed, it will lead to what is of a lower character and eventually to corruption. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul traced things to their source. He says that a thing is either of the Lord or it is of demons, either of the Lord or of the devil. We may think that that is rather strong, but it is to help us. There are many things which we might not say were of the devil or demons, but Paul helps us to trace things to their source. Is it of the Lord or is it not? Is it according to the word of God or is it not? And if it is not, then it must be from another source.
D.B.R. Is that what you had in mind in the second reading as to the sin-offering? I thought what we arrived at was that holiness underlies the fellowship, and that has been established so clearly in the sufferings of Christ.
P.M. So would it be right to say that, while our Lord Jesus was suffering on the cross and addressed John, He had in view what would be maintained here in the testimony in fellowship with one another, right through this dispensation?
J.C.G. You used the word ‘partnership’ in relation to fellowship; the other word in Corinthians is ‘communion’. Does that bear on the way that we move with one another in the fellowship as we speak of the Lord’s things, the Spirit helping us? It involves speaking to one another and being free with one another. There is no suggestion that there is any distance.
P.M. No, because the bond between us lies in another Man. How could there be distance? There should never be distance in local companies. The bond together is not how we get on naturally, it is our link in the Lord. When we come to the body presented in 1 Corinthians, our link is in the Spirit, but the side of fellowship involves that our link is in the Lord.
N.J.H. In Matthew 5, the altar seems to dictate how the person moves.
P.M. Yes; we have that in 1 Corinthians 10, “communion with the altar”.
N.J.H. You could visualise the two persons in Matthew 5 coming back and partaking of the peace-offering. The two are reconciled as brothers, and they come back to the altar. The altar dictates our fellowship within the Christian circle.
P.M. That is most important, and shows that everything must take its bearing from the holiness that has been manifest in the death of Christ. Dear brethren, our links together are not on a social basis. We thank God for what we enjoy together in our houses, but our links together must be founded in the death of Christ and in communion with the altar. Now someone may say, ‘That is a very high standard’, but it is the standard that God has established in the present dispensation – the enjoyment of eternal life maintained in a circle where nothing is allowed to interrupt it.
D.A.B. You spoke of the source of things. Is that especially important in relation to what we eat? Where did it come from, and especially what do I offer to somebody else? I might offer my brother something that would entertain him, but will it feed him healthily?
P.M. What we read has a very large part in that. If I am not occupied with what is holy and what has been developed under the Spirit’s hand in the temple, I shall lose the taste for what is spiritual.
G.McK. I was thinking about privilege. Does it help us to see that fellowship is a thing of great privilege? You were speaking of peace being established, so if I have addressed myself to a moral exercise, is it right to think of fellowship? Fellowship is like the reward; it lies at the end of the exercise. It is a great blessing. We may take it for granted, but it is a wonderful privilege to have our fellowship with one another on this basis.
P.M. It is. The fellowship is not a negative thought in any sense. What we begin with in 1 Corinthians 10 as to the Lord’s table is the cup. This is not exactly the Supper in 1 Corinthians 10, it is the Lord’s table, and we begin with the cup. In the cup there is the witness that a righteous and moral basis was laid in the death of Christ for all that was in God’s heart to be known and enjoyed – known and enjoyed by me in the circle where He has His rights. Think of the fulness that is involved in the “cup of blessing”. It does not say here in 1 Corinthians 10 that we drink it, but it is the “cup of blessing which we bless”. You could hardly think of someone blessing the cup, in which all that is in God’s heart is available to us, then turning his back on it and doing something inconsistent with it. The enjoyment of that love which has been so fully manifested is available in the Christian circle to sustain satisfaction and life, and Paul says that it is something that we bless.
D.J.W. Is that not confirmed in Numbers 15, because connected with that is the half hin of wine, and it finishes with a sweet odour? I was thinking of what was said as to privilege and freshness.
P.M. That is very important. The establishment of the fellowship of God’s Son is for the satisfaction and blessing of the believer. God has not left us as individuals to tread a lonely path. He has brought us into a fellowship that takes character from what has delighted Him so excellently in Jesus, and delights Him still. He has brought us into that which takes character from Him, and all the resource from the divine side is available to maintain us in satisfaction and life in the midst of it. We will not need fellowship of this character in heaven, will we?
D.J.Wr. In Psalm 23 you get the expression, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies” (v.5); does that confirm what you say?
P.M. Yes, that is while we are here, and the Father has prepared it for us in order that we might be here in the enjoyment of what He is and of what His Son is.
R.D.P. The passage in Leviticus is permeated with the thought of thanksgiving. Do you think that we should be thankful that God has provided a sphere of things, apart from all that is around us which is becoming increasingly hostile and distant to Christ? We should be thankful for what we have, because as was said, it is a celebration. It is not the making of peace, but the celebration of the peace which has been made. There is a circle of things in an increasingly hostile world in which the objectives and the aims of all those in it are completely different to what is around, and are of God.
P.M That is Colossians 3, “let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to which also ye have been called in one body, and be thankful” (v.15). Dear brethren, we have everything to be thankful for, have we not? We have been called to walk in the light of the assembly, the greatest creature vessel that has ever been on the face of the earth. It may be an inferior thought in the eyes of men, but for the believer indwelt by the Spirit, it is the most dignified and glorious calling that we could ever have. In that calling, God from His own side has poured in all the blessing that was ever in His heart, that we might know and live in the enjoyment of eternal life. Why should we not be thankful?
J.C.G. You could help us more about your remark that we will not have fellowship in heaven. What will we enjoy in eternal conditions, do you think, in contrast to what we have here in the fellowship of God’s Son?
P.M. What we shall enjoy then will not be in the conditions of mixture which we find in ourselves, and in which we need the sin-offering. What we shall enjoy then will not be worked out in circumstances where there is corruption on every hand. That is one of the reasons why we need fellowship now, because God has established here upon the earth that which is for the protection and blessing of His people, and for the representation of His Son. It seems to me that is why fellowship belongs to the present day, but when we are with Christ in glory we shall not be in those circumstances; we shall be in conditions of perfection. We shall have bodies of glory like His own. We shall be united to Him as His bride. What an answer there will be then!
J.C.G. The service of God in praise and song as worship will predominate. Is that what you have in mind?
P.M. Yes, and any need for protection will have ceased.
R.T. It has been said that that Christ’s death regulates my position here; the world crucified Him. How can I be in fellowship with that? But His place in glory determines my position there. These things regulate us.
P.M. That puts it very clearly and helpfully for us. Christ’s death is the basis on which the fellowship of God’s Son can be enjoyed. It is known in a scene that has rejected Him, and it is apart from it all.
J.L. What about John’s reference in his first epistle, “our fellowship is indeed with the Father, and with his Son”, 1 John 1:3?
P.M. That reference in 1 John is to what the apostles had, and John writes to us that we might have fellowship with them. It seems to me that while the apostles had what was absolutely distinctive, yet we are at no disadvantage to them, because John’s desire was that we should have fellowship with them and that we should know the Father and the Son in the way in which they are available to be known by us now, without any hindrance.
J.L. I am wondering if there are different aspects to fellowship. There is fellowship in adverse circumstances down here, and as our brother said, Christ’s death governs our position down here. Will we not enjoy a particular aspect of fellowship in glory and Christ’s place up there determining it, and our links eternally enjoyed?
R.Gar. I was going to refer to “Every circle gathered round Thee” (Hymn 84). Mr Darby’s hymns help us to see that Christ is the centre and everything else fits in.
P.M. Yes. He will be the Centre of every circle, and everything will take character from Him. What we shall enjoy will be relationship with Himself and with one another, but the thought of partnership, of which we are speaking now and which belongs in the sphere of testimony, will not be quite the same in that day. It has been said that fellowship as we are speaking of it now is a sphere of protection in an adverse scene1.
J.L. Yes, I fully agree with that.
D.A.B. Is your thought that food is especially for here? We do not know what we shall be, but we are not told that we will eat in heaven. I was thinking of our brother’s remark earlier that I would seek to share with my brother here what I share with God. That is something I can do when there are corrupt things as alternatives around us. We have, as our brother said, the privilege of sharing with one another what we can share with God.
P.M. Yes, and that is the basis of thanksgiving. Our brother referred to the things around us; that involves what is religious as well as what is secular. There is much that we could feed on which is not pure, but the fellowship of God’s Son involves purity and holiness in what we feed on and in our relations.
D.A.B. Paul puts that point to Timothy, “knowing of whom thou hast learned them”, 2 Tim.3:14. That should govern us in what we feed on and what we offer to one another, things that we can reliably bring in our communion to God.
P.M. Yes, and we have so much that we can feed upon which has not just been what one person thought. Many books that are written are largely the thoughts of one person. What is available for us to read, dear brethren, is what the Spirit has given in the temple. That seems to me to be distinctly glorious; it is not just the thinking of one individual. I do not seek to decry any true believer, but temple enquiry has the character of communication from divine Persons and that is to become food for our souls.
D.B.R. What would you say about partaking of the Lord’s table? It is not the Supper. Partaking of the Lord’s table is the provision that the Lord would make, do you think? Would that be a right way to look at it?
P.M. The loaf is peculiarly connected with the table here. The cup in one sense is distinctive; it is the “cup of blessing which we bless”, but the loaf seems to me to be peculiarly connected with the table. That would bring out the devotion of one blessed Man to the will of God, even to death. If I seek to walk in the light of the fellowship of God’s Son, it requires from me a commitment to the will of God. It was seen in perfection in Jesus, but it requires our commitment to God’s will in order that we might be in keeping with the one loaf and the table. The Lord’s table is not the piece of furniture that we assemble round on Lord’s day morning. It is a moral thought established here in which we can know the richness and blessing that is available to us as we are committed to the will of God. Would you agree with that?
D.B.R. Yes I would, and it is very helpful to see that there is a supply there that furnishes all that we need. You are speaking about books and other things, but the Lord’s table would involve a provision that is all that we require. It is full, it is bountiful.
P.M. It is wonderful that we have everything we need as seeking to walk in the light of the fellowship of God’s Son. We are moving through conditions different from those in which the Corinthians were. If you went along the street in Corinth, there would be the Jewish synagogue and the heathen temple, and the assembly of God. That would be all there was. Paul says in principle, ‘You cannot go into the heathen temple, you could not mix with that’. But in the day in which we are, there is a multiplicity of companies, and that is where we are tested. The test that Paul applied in this scripture as to the origin of things is the same test for us today.
D.M.C. Is the Lord’s table a local thing or is it a universal thing?
P.M. Fellowship is both local and universal. Our responsibility to work it out is local, but it is universal in its character. Each local company is related in its responsibility to every other one, but your responsibility is in the place in which you are set, and my responsibility is in the place in which I am set. While that is where we work it out, it has a universal character.
R.Gar. There was an old sister in Plainfield who was going to the Supper, and her neighbour said to her, ‘You are going off to the church’. ‘No’, she said, ‘I am part of the church going to the meeting’. She was part of what was universal going to a place where what was universal characterised those who gather in small numbers, “where two or three are gathered together … there am I in the midst of them”, Matt.18:20. The Lord referred to “my assembly”, Matt.16:18. He sold all whatever He had; how precious it is, and we should always remember that. How precious His assembly would become to us, both universally and locally.
P.M. Yes, it is His because He purchased it. Think of the Lord going into death to secure the assembly. How much it means to Him – a living vessel which derives everything from Him and lives for Him here in the scene of His absence. At the moment she is here as His wife; He trusts her. The addresses to the seven assemblies in Revelation bring out the universal character of the fellowship. John was to write one letter and send it to the seven assemblies. The same word went to each company, but the answer to it was in the overcomer in each local company; and that is what the Lord is looking for today.
P.A.G. Why, in the setting of 1 Corinthians 10, is the cup first and then the loaf? In 1 Corinthians 11, as to the Supper, the loaf is first and then the cup. Why is that distinction made in these two chapters?
P.M. I thought that the cup being presented first in relation to the Lord’s table is to give us the sense of the cost of everything being established on a moral basis, and to give us an impression of the resource that is available for us to move here in the enjoyment of the love of God. That provides the impetus and basis in the believer’s heart to want to be here faithful as represented in the loaf. Would you say that?
P.A.G. So that the blood was for God, and God’s rights come first in the scene of testimony. As they come first, we are brought into the supply that the Lord’s table would represent. But in privilege, we come to remember the Lord, and He leads us out of the scene of testimony, out of the wilderness, and the cup opens up the love of God to us. But we cannot go from the love of God to the rights of God; we have to come from the rights of God to the love of God.
P.M. I am sure that is right. I have to acknowledge and come under the sway of the rights of God, and as I do, all that is available in the heart of God can be known in a collective way as we seek to walk faithful to the Lord’s rights.
P.A.G. I should add that of course we come into blessing on the basis of the love of God; that is where we start. But in terms of the fellowship, if we do not accept the rights of God, we do not really get the full benefit of the love of God.
P.M. Yes, that is very important. We are living in a world where my will and my rights are just as good as yours, and we have a generation growing up that is taught this at school. That is a sobering matter. My rights have gone in the death of Christ. I do not have any rights any more because the man that sinned has been removed, and all my rights have gone at the cross. But the rights of God still stand, and there is one Man who has answered to them and met them fully, and that Man is available to us.
N.J.H. I was thinking that God said to Aaron that once he saw Moses he would be glad in his heart (Exod.4:14). The enemy is attacking our relationships together. I think we have to work at relationships, so that we arrive at the mind of the Lord for the moment.
P.M. That is important. The Lord has set us in our local companies with a responsibility to work at our relationships together, and that often involves going down, like Abigail did. Abigail had the resource, but she went down. She did not surrender anything, she went down. Can I go down with a brother and meet at the bottom in order that we might move together on the right basis in the right path according to the will of God?
Q.P. As to what has been said about the cup, I wondered if there is a link with what John wrote in his epistle that “if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”, 1 John 1:7. We have had light in this meeting as to fellowship, but then every moral question, every question that could be raised between us, is settled by the blood of Jesus Christ His Son.
P.M. The reference there to walking in the light is in the light of the revelation of God. That is the light. Nothing less than that is to govern us. Dear brethren, we are liable to have limited views of what is available to us because we are in conditions of breakdown, but all that has come out from God is available to us, and is ours to walk in the light of. Whether others are walking in it is their responsibility, and I feel it that they are not. There are many real believers in the place in which I live, and we feel the fact that when we come to the Supper they are not there, but we must hold the fulness of the light that has come to us in the revelation of God, and the fulness of His thoughts, otherwise we shall become a sect.
D.A.B. Did Abigail use the peace-offering pre-emptively?
P.M. I thought that.
D.A.B. She reached for food before the situation got out of hand. Is that a good thing to do?
P.M. Yes. We are tested when matters come up amongst us, dear brethren. What is our resource? What do I have? If I do not have anything except what is stunted, the result will be stunted, but if I have some resource like Abigail had, there will be the breaking down of strongholds and reasonings and every high thought that lifts itself up against God (2.Cor.10:5).
Reading at Grangemouth
9 August 2014