LOVE FOR CHRIST AND THE ASSEMBLY

W. Lamont

Ephesians 6: 23, 24; Psalm 122: 1–9; 2 Timothy 4: 6–8

I would think most of us would admit that where we are really tested is in our affections. We have the Scriptures, and we may have a good knowledge of the Scriptures—that in itself is a fine thing—and of the ministries also. There is nothing wrong with these things—would that we knew them more. Would that we had a greater knowledge of the Scriptures—the word of God. Would that we had a greater understanding of what has come to us in the way of good teaching. But the great test is where we are in our affections—where we are in our love for Christ. I believe that is the challenge of the present day in the presence of the coldness and the lukewarmness of Christendom. The test for every one of us, old and young, is, Where are we in our affections for the Lord Jesus? The Lord said to the saints in Laodicea, “because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spew thee out of my mouth”, Revelation 3: 16. The Lord abhors lukewarmness. He abhors indifference. You might come to a meeting and be indifferent. Some of us have known that experience, coming to a meeting just because it was the thing to do, and it meant very little. That is indifference.

In the history of the testimony, when the truth of the Person of the Lord Jesus was at stake, some were indifferent to the glories of Christ. He hates some things. You might say it is terrible to speak of the Lord Jesus hating. He loves and He hates. He loves righteousness. He hates lawlessness. That is the word of God (Hebrews 1: 9). That is the Man we have to do with. One who loves everything that pertains to the glory of God and His rights, and has upheld them at all cost to Himself He could say, “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”, John 17: 4.

What a Man Jesus is!—perfect in every detail. Spotless, holy humanity is seen there in all its perfection. He loved righteousness and He upheld it, fulfilled it and established it; and He hates lawlessness. What could be stamped right across this world as a system, and its activities, is lawlessness, lawlessness against God, and men in rebellious disobedience right around the circle of the earth. No nation is different in that sense from another. Men as away from God are basically lawless, and God hates lawlessness.

The One who loved righteousness and hated lawlessness is the One who in His Person is God (Hebrews 1: 8). Beloved brethren, we should have a holy awe in our souls as to the greatness of the One with whom we have to do. We have to do with Him as Man, but we must remember that He is God as to His Person. He never ceased, as another said, to be what He was on account of what He became. Someone was asked by an agnostic, ‘Who died on the cross; was it God or man?’ The answer was, ‘The Man who died on the cross was, is, and ever will be God’.

In Ephesians Paul touches the key to everything in the last verse, “Grace with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption”. That means, beloved brethren, that we analyse our lives, our beings, and see to it that we love Him without mixed motives, love Him purely.

That brings to mind Mary in John 12 where she produced that pound of ointment of pure nard. That is an example of one who loved the Lord Jesus in incorruption. Do we fit in here as those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption, or do we morally belong to the mass of Christendom where there is little heart for Christ? What comes out in Ephesians as to the great truth of the purpose of God is not of much consequence as far as we are concerned unless held in our hearts as those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption. Otherwise it is only doctrine, only theoretical. It must be held in the affections of the saints or else there is nothing in it for God. I believe that when this epistle was written to the Ephesians love in incorruption was their current state. The Lord has personally to say to them later, “Thou hast left thy first love”, Revelation 2: 4. I believe they allowed themselves to stray from this state of loving our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption. So the Lord would appeal to us to keep in this holy state, our affections being pure for Himself, with nothing corrupt, nothing to intrude that would spoil our affections for Him, both individually and collectively. In the day in which we live we can walk in the light of the assembly and maintain it as persons who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.

Well, I go on to Psalm 122. This is one of the Songs of degrees. Literally it depicts the journey of the Jewish remnant from captivity to freedom. This freedom is known in the company of the saints now and in the area we speak of as the assembly. So the psalmist says,

“I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah”. Now the house of Jehovah is what exists down here. The Father’s house is what is eternal. The Lord said, “In my Father’s house there are many abodes; were it not so, I had told you”, John 14: 2. And the Father’s house is large enough to contain every family. What a wonder that will be in the eternal day, the scope and largeness of the Father’s house that will accommodate every family in the

heavens and on earth named of the Father. But the house of God applies down here and every believer is in it. We are always in it. We are never out of it.

So the psalmist said, “I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah.

Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem”. What a thing it is to be a person who has the assembly enshrined in his affections and whose desires, whose activities, relate to that great and holy area where God is known. He has made Himself known and there is an area where His presence is known. In spite of the conditions that existed at Corinth Paul spoke about someone coming in who acknowledged that “God is indeed amongst you”, 1 Corinthians 14: 25. That ought to be so in all our localities. If a person should come in he should recognise that the presence of God is among the saints. It is possible today, small as things are, that persons can recognise that there is something amongst the saints that can be found nowhere else.

So it is said here, “Our feet shall stand within thy gates”—what stability that is, where persons can stand on their own two feet. It is like the man in Acts 3 who, when coming into touch with Peter and John and put in touch with the Lord Jesus, had his feet and ankle bones made strong. If there is one thing needed today, beloved brethren, it is that there should be persons in the testimony who can stand on their own two feet, who move from the standpoint of their own links with the Lord Jesus and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. That is what gives strength and character to a local assembly, persons like that set together and finding themselves together as having their links solidly established as having the Holy Spirit.

Jerusalem involves a system that God has set up. I use the word ‘system’ in a right sense because

there is a divine system and it has never failed. The systems of men will always fail, but the divine system will never fail, and by grace we are given a part in it. God’s intention is that our feet shall stand within the gates of Jerusalem, where God is known—where His work is known, where His love is known.

Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together. That is not like the city of Auckland.

One’s observation is that Auckland is not very compact. The cities of this world generally are not very compact. But Jerusalem is a city that is compact together. I believe it is bound together by the love of God flowing in freshness, flowing in power, and reaching every part.

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem—they shall prosper that love thee”. Jerusalem represents Christ’s assembly which He loved and for which He delivered Himself up (Ephesians 5: 25).

In our case we not only learn to love one another as individuals—brotherly love among ourselves—but we learn to elevate our thoughts and our affections and love the assembly, understanding what it is to Christ. Sometimes we look at one another’s faults and failings, but look at the beloved saints and see what they mean to Christ. There is a secret in that that removes everything petty, everything that is merely from the level of human thinking, and gives a divine view of the assembly. Get Christ’s view of His church.

There are prayers needed for the peace of Jerusalem. One has observed the sorrow and disruption that there has been, especially in this part of the world. We should be on our faces before God and pray for the peace of Jerusalem that we might be preserved to the end, preserved till the Lord comes. I believe it is urgent that we should do so; pray that there may be no more disruption. Then it says, “They shall prosper that love thee”.

We are not in the assembly rightly unless we are in it with our affections. Oh the love of Christ for the assembly! We should learn from the intensity and freshness of His love for His assembly and love the local brethren, love the saints universally, all the saints. As to those we cannot walk with, we are entitled to view them abstractly. Some dear saints we cannot walk with because of what they are going on with, worldliness, and so on. We cannot walk with them, but we love them. We love them in view of the assembly, love them in view of what they are potentially to Christ for the satisfaction of His heart.

Well, it says here, “They shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy bulwarks, prosperity within thy palaces”. Beloved brethren, if we follow what we have had today there will certainly be peace within the bulwarks, and prosperity within the palaces. The way has been set out for us very clearly, how we should move in the testimony here and move in our local assemblies in order that peaceful conditions should prevail.

It says here, “For my brethren and companions’ sakes”. The Lord could say, “Go to my brethren” (John 20: 17)—His companions. It remains, and will remain eternally, that He is anointed ‘with oil of gladness above His companions’ (Hebrews 1: 9). We will never forget that He has the supreme place, and that is the object of the word today that He should have the supreme place in our affections. If that is so everything else falls into proper perspective.

Everything else is easily adjusted if the Lord Jesus has His rightful place in our hearts.

Now I finish with a brief word as to the passage in Timothy. The life of Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul, is a very interesting study. On

the Damascus road he committed himself to the Lord Jesus and he never went back. That is an important thing, to yield ourselves to Him and never go back. That is what characterized the life of Paul and here he is, an old man, at the end of his days. Christianity embraces young and old. Moses said, “We will go with our young and with our old”, Exodus 10: 9.

Christianity makes full provision for every age. No matter how old you are, no matter how young you are, God in His goodness considers for you and He has put everything in the local assembly whether we are old or young. Mr. Taylor remarked as to Matthew’s gospel that it was the children’s gospel, but not the Sunday school gospel. Everything is in the local assembly. That is what we have to learn. Everything that is necessary is in the households of the saints and, by extension, in the local assembly, which provides for old and young. There is no other sphere like the local assembly. Well, Paul learned that. I believe it is one of the lessons he learned in Damascus. He learned there .was provision in that local assembly for everybody.

Here he is an old man—he speaks of his life already being poured out—“the time of my release is come”. He does not speak about dying. He speaks elsewhere of “departure and being with Christ, for it is very much better” (Philippians 1: 23), but here he says, “the time of my release is come”. I think you get in this passage Paul’s desire to go to the Master whom he loved. What labour was seen in Paul. “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Henceforth the crown of righteousness is laid up for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will render to me in that day”. There are some matters we can leave—the righteous Judge will take care of them. Some things have happened in the history of the testimony that we have had part in that we cannot put right, things that are beyond

our power to rectify, but the righteous Judge knows, and we can leave it there. We were thinking elsewhere of the “Just One”, Acts 7: 52, One who can view a situation without bias, without prejudice, and assess it perfectly according to His own standards. That is what Paul is referring to here. “The Lord”, involves His supremacy, His absolute rights. We may think of matters and be entirely wrong in our assessment of them but there is One who knows perfectly every situation and can assess it accurately.

I pass on something that was said many years ago—‘That fine preaching you gave—the Lord may tell you that there was little in it—and He may tell you how much He valued that small thing you did for Him that you may have forgotten about’. He is the righteous Judge who has a perfect assessment of us day by day in all that we say and in all that we do. He never makes a mistake in what He does, in what He says, and one of His titles is “The Lord, the righteous Judge”. Paul says, He “will render to me in that day”. There is no expenditure for Him that will go unrewarded.

There are others in this race, and I would like to be included among them. Paul says, “but not only to me, but also to all who love his appearing”. We “await his Son from the heavens, whom he raised from among the dead, Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath”, 1 Thessalonians 1: 10. That is one aspect of the truth, but there are persons today, nearly two thousand years later, who not only wait for, but love His appearing. What a day it will be when the Son of righteousness will arise with healing in His wings. All these troubled nations, these difficult matters among the saints, matters that have arisen in the course of the testimony and in the history of local meetings that have not been put right down here. He has a perfect assessment of them and He will arise with healing in His wings. What a wonderful thing! He is the Lord, the righteous Judge, and there are those who love His appearing. I covet to be among them. I trust the word today encourages all of us to be among those who love His appearing. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”, Revelation 22: 17. It is not the cry of need, it is not the cry for relief. It is the cry that He should come and take up His rights. He will put everything in order; He will reverse the whole situation. Strong natural personality and charisma, as they call it, are seen in this world, but in the day to come, as Isaiah 11: 6 says, “A little child shall lead them”. That is the millennium. How wonderful it is!

That is the day when the righteous Judge will come into His own and will claim the whole scene for Himself. He will put right matters that no one else can put right and He will reign

“from the river to the ends of the earth”, Zechariah 9: 10. The saints will come out in that day to reign with Him. But we await first His assembling shout. And it is so very near. He will come and claim the assembly for Himself. What a moment that will be when for the very first time the Lord Jesus has the assembly for which He delivered Himself up as a total entity.

Well, are we all among those who love Him in incorruption, who love the assembly, and who love His appearing? May we be so, for His name’s sake.

Address at Auckland
16 April 1988