THE GRACE AND BLESSING VOUCHSAFED IN THE ASSEMBLY
[p. 352] THE GRACE AND BLESSING VOUCHSAFED IN THE ASSEMBLY
No one can read the Old Testament with any attention without being struck with the remarkable place given to the tabernacle and the temple, where the glory rests; Exodus 40: 35; 2 Chronicles 5: 14. If the type was so important and conferred so much blessing, how greatly is this surpassed in the assembly, where now the Lord of glory is found! Believers at peace with God, rejoicing in the risen Christ, feel that it is their first duty and privilege to come together in one place to break bread. When they know that they have come to Him, the living Stone, it is not only that they know that the Son of man is the Son of God, but they know Him as the Son of God, Jesus crowned with glory and honour. Then they are in their place as living stones of His building, a heavenly company; hence when they break bread, they necessarily, as has been said, turn back to the earth where Christ died; because in breaking of bread they have “the communion of the blood of Christ”, (1 Corinthians 10: 16) fellowship with His death. No one has entered into the solemn blessedness of the breaking of bread who has not truly fellowship with Christ in His death; he is pledged to it by the fact of breaking bread; so that once the light of this has entered into his soul, everything on the earth has a new aspect for him. Christ’s death has occurred here, and this gives a character to everything where man is here, the golden bowl is broken, the silver cord is loosed; all the daughters of music are brought low. Though you know Him and rejoice in Him beyond death as Son over God’s house, it is not merely the benefit of his death that is before your soul, but the moral effect of it on you as to everything in this place where He died. Man’s day is over and there is no hope for him but in the death of Christ.
[p. 353] Israel were idolaters because they could sit down “to eat and drink, and rose up to play”, (Exodus 32: 6) in the absence of Moses; how much worse for those who have professed communion with Christ’s death, to be in levity, or seeking honour in the scene where He died! It is incongruous to the last degree for anyone to come to remember the Lord in His death while assuming or maintaining worldly position; and after partaking of the Lord’s supper, to return to it is unbelieving and heartless, or to come from it conversing together, as if they came from a feast instead of from the Lord’s supper. Henceforth the true heart must say, “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”. (Galatians 2: 20) All that is of man here is a vain show, a shadow that passes away, and the death of the Lord is man’s only hope and only glory.
Christendom loses sight of the chief point in Scripture as to the remembrance of Christ in His death, because it adds, ‘Take, eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee’. That is perfectly true; we have the remembrance that He died for us, but the prominent thought before us is, not that He died for us, but the affecting remembrance of the One who died for us. ‘As risen and associated with Him in glory we look back to that blessed work of love and His love in it, which gives us a place there.. .. It is the remembrance of Christ Himself.. .. Impossible to find two words, the bringing together of which has so important a meaning, the death of the Lord. How many things are comprised in that He who is called the Lord has died! What love! What purposes! What efficacy! What results! The Lord gave Himself up for us. We celebrate His death. At the same time it is the end of God’s relations with the world on the ground of man’s responsibility - except the judgment. This death has broken every link - has proved the impossibility of any.. .. The object of the Spirit [p. 354] of God here (1 Corinthians 11), is to set before us, not the efficacy of the death of Christ, but that which attaches the heart to Him in remembering His death, and the meaning of the ordinance itself ... The shed blood of the Saviour claimed the affections of their hearts for Him. The Lord Himself fixed our thoughts there in this ordinance, and in the most affecting way, at the very moment of His betrayal’. † We get it truly presented in the consecration-offering; Leviticus 8. The work of salvation is not only presented in the sin-offering and the burnt-offering, but the second ram, to all intents and purposes, is equal to the first ram. Christ gave Himself a sacrifice that we might be of the consecrated company, that we might pass from the altar where the remembrance of His death, and the virtue of it, were before our hearts, in company with Himself in the sanctuary, where we are in all the blessedness of His own acceptance before God.
As has been said, in the Lord’s supper there is allusion to John 6, in that the way into life is through His death. But this christendom has reduced to the grossest fiction, namely, that eating a bit of bread at the hands of a priest could convey the deep spiritual meaning of “eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood”, John 6: 56. It is not my intention here to expose error, but to insist upon the truth of God. Now, being in the blessed sense of His presence, in the greatness of His acceptance, a holy priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, we have come to the highest and brightest place, to joy in God, as companions of Him who is greater than Aaron, who has fulfilled all that was foreshadowed in the holiest of all. But we still have to learn from Him who is greater than Moses, like the disciples in divine seclusion with the Lord; John 13 and 14.
†See Synopsis, Volume 4, page 178; 1958 Edition.; 1 Corinthians 11.
[p. 355] He drew them around Himself, and prepared them for all the trouble and trial in their midst, and concurrently opened out to them the vastness of the resources in Himself; so that not only was He in their midst, but He furnished the disciples with the ability to serve Him. The Holy Spirit was to come in His name to “bring all things to your remembrance”. (John 14: 26) This was special to the apostles, but we come in on their foundation. This is the great groundwork in the soul, which we now learn from the four gospels, but it is only in His presence that the light of them becomes available to our souls. We have been set in His presence to the satisfaction of our hearts, and now in seclusion with Himself we are fitted for His service we are in the sense that we are not left “orphans”, for we are in His presence, and we are learning that “in that day” - the Spirit’s day - He is in the Father, we in Him, and He in us; John 14: 20. We are now at the oracle, where our hearts are instructed as well as delighted “There I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee”. (Exodus 25: 22) We are arrived at the blessedness of the consecration. In the presence of the Son of God, Son over God’s house, we receive instruction from Himself, for He says, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren”. (Hebrews 2: 12)
It is not so much what we have to give out as what we receive in His presence. It is only as we abide in Him that we bring forth much fruit; and our paramount interest is always with His own. “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you”. (John 15: 12)
It is only with the impression of this fresh upon our hearts that we are of any help in the assembly; and the nearer we are to Him, known where He is in glory, the better qualified we are by the power of the Spirit to be His witness here, both in the church and in our own house, and against all the force of the enemy.
Now, if anyone speaks or takes a part in the assembly [p. 356] he turns to the company, he comes fresh from the Lord. Each one ought to have faith that it is from the Lord he acts. The one who gives out a hymn is not thinking of what suits himself, but of that which is an expression of the heart of the company to the Lord. The one who prays should truly express the leading desires of the company; the one who speaks should come in confidence of heart that the Lord will support him in propounding his mind for the moment to his fellows.
In conclusion, I would add that in a day of ruin and declension, the one great object of each one gathered together is exclusively the Lord Himself. When the church was in power and freshness there were gifts of healing, gifts of tongues, to give the church a marked place among men, and the true ones were like the disciples at the beginning; but now, as has been said, we are like the Lord Himself when He was upon earth, not in power, but in weakness, and in unbounded faithfulness to God; so that those who follow the Lord to the close are not seeking to revive the candlestick, or to make an impression, or an appearance to obtain a place among men; but the Lord says to them, “Thou hast a little power, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name”. (Revelation 3: 8) They are not dwelling on the greatness of God’s grace to themselves; of that they are assured; but they are set on following the Lord: “Follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart”, 2 Timothy 2: 22. They seek to recover that which the church first lost, namely, “first love”, and like the disciples at the beginning, their one thought is the Lord Himself, and to have His company, which alone can satisfy true love. To this end they edify one another.
The Lord grant it may be true of each of us, more and more till He comes.