THE LORD'S TABLE AND THE LORD'S SUPPER IN CONNECTION WITH THE ASSEMBLY
THE LORD’S TABLE AND THE LORD’S SUPPER IN CONNECTION WITH THE ASSEMBLY
1 Corinthians 10: 17 - 23; 1 Corinthians 11: 20 - 26
FER Before the apostle came to this point, he had to deal with a certain sluggishness of conscience in the assembly.
Ques Do you refer to chapter 5?
FER Yes. He had to awaken the assembly conscience.
Ques What do you mean by the assembly conscience?
FER It is difficult to define. It was the conscience of the assembly — not simply of the individual. It was this which had to be awakened.
Ques Did the apostle first approach the individual or the assembly conscience?
FER The assembly conscience, I think.
Ques “I hear that there be divisions among you”. Is that it?
FER Yes. There is a certain conscience in a collective body, such as the House of Commons. There was a something which would affect them collectively. It is a very simple thing to allow matters to be managed by clergy, but that is not the idea of scripture. Many get a certain management of affairs, perhaps with the best intentions, but that is not the idea of the assembly.
Ques Are sisters responsible as well as brothers?
FER I do not think it is a question of that here, but of the assembly conscience.
Rem “All the congregation of Israel stoned him with stones”. (Numbers 15:36; Joshua 7:25.)
FER Yes; you get the idea in Israel of collective responsibility in all of them casting stones at the offender. I think the apostle in 1 Corinthians 5, intended to appeal,
[p. 237] not to individuals, but to the assembly as a whole.
Ques The constitution of the assembly was involved?
FER I think so. There is a danger of a kind of management instead of a collective conscience.
Rem Trying to set things to rights.
FER Yes — with the best intentions.
Rem It affected the whole company, not only the elders.
FER Yes, it is the assembly as a whole — the assembly has to take certain things to heart.
Rem It is easy to be understood, as in the case of a family. If there were some sorrow or trial, you would expect the family to take it up.
FER There were many things among them that were not according to the apostle’s mind.
Rem I think you were going to speak of the steps that led up to this chapter. You were speaking of a sluggish conscience. How would you seek to awaken it?
FER The very existence of the assembly as such was at issue. He brings in the Lord’s table, chapter 10, to enforce separation.
Ques Was it for instruction or correction?
FER For correction, I think — to insist upon the obligations of fellowship. There must be certain obligations attaching to fellowship.
Rem The bond of partnership?
FER Quite so. It is not here a question of what is within. Chapter 5 takes up that. They are exhorted to flee from idolatry.
Ques It compromised fellowship?
FER Quite so. They appeared to be tampering with it. The fellowship of Christ’s death is exclusive of every other fellowship. Chapter 10 is separation from what was without.
Ques How does that affect us today?
FER We must take care that we are apart from every other fellowship. I could not understand a brother being a ‘freemason’ or an ‘oddfellow’. “The [p. 238] cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the fellowship of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the fellowship of the body of Christ?”
Fellowship with the death of Christ carries you farther than baptism. You are identified with His death intelligently. Fellowship is your own doing — your own mind.
Rem We express identification with His death.
FER I think so. The expression of it is in the Lord’s supper. The point is that it is exclusive of every other fellowship.
Rem The obligations of fellowship come before the privileges.
FER I think so. You have to recognise the obligations, and not get entangled with any other fellowship.
Ques What would you say to a partnership with a man of the world?
FER That is of a business nature. I meant what was of a religious character.
Ques Are partnerships according to God?
FER I do not think this scripture refers to that.
Rem I meant in reference to what you said about sluggishness of conscience.
FER But the sluggish conscience I referred to is in regard to the assembly.
Ques What do you think about religious associations, many of which exist around us?
FER I think that all associations or fellowships of that kind are inconsistent with the fellowship of Christ’s death. They have the improvement of society before them. They are useful movements in the world, but they are not consistent with the death of Christ.
Ques In what way are they inconsistent?
FER In the fellowship of the death of Christ you have passed out of the world.
Rem And though they are religious in character, they are part of [p. 239] the world.
FER I think so. I do not depreciate them as movements in the world, but they are not consistent with Christ’s death. They are intended for the improvement of man as such.
Rem Divine fellowship is ignored.
FER Quite so.
Ques Do not fellowships of that kind tend to sluggishness of conscience, if gone on with?
FER Quite so; it identifies the assembly with things that compromise the assembly.
Rem This is not the exclusiveness of ‘brethren’, but the exclusiveness of christianity.
FER Nothing can be more exclusive than the death of Christ. I think people ought to lay these things to heart. They ought to be concerned as to whether the things they are identified with are suitable to the death of Christ. They ought to think of their individual ways as really compromising the fellowship of the whole assembly.
Rem It is our united responsibility as to separation from what is around us.
Ques How would young people coming amongst us be led to apprehend this?
FER If they come amongst us, bring them under good instruction, and if they are true, they will come in sensibly into it. It is the gravity of fellowship with His death that people do not see; they are so conformed to the world.
Ques Are we to consider the company as having passed out of this order of things?
FER We are identified with His death, and we must be consistent with it. Fellowship with Christ is a reality.
Ques Would not partnership with an unconverted man compromise fellowship?
FER I think you must distinguish between what is business and what is of a wider character. I must say I should be sorry to be in partnership with an unconverted [p. 240] man, but I think it is more of a religious character here.
Ques In chapter 5 did not the man compromise the company?
FER He compromised the very existence of the company as well as the company itself. People ought to lay it to heart that it is the fellowship of Christ’s death. Christ is severed from everything here, and I am as much severed as He is in the fellowship of His death.
Rem This chapter is christian versus un-christian fellowship.
FER Quite so. The point is to be clear of all other fellowships.
Ques Could there be the fellowship of the “table of demons” today?
FER The way many people go on shews that they recognise the god and prince of this world. They give a certain place to Satan. That is the subtle idolatry of the present day. It was in the absence of Moses that “the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play”. That is worldly conformity.
Rem I have known many who have hesitated about coming into fellowship, knowing the demand it made upon them.
Rem Responsibility rests upon us to instruct them.
FER I would like to instruct them by being a good example. If every one here were inclined to set a good example, that would be instructing well. The best help you can afford is to set a good example.
Rem And when they do come in, they find there is a good example for them. “Of the rest durst no man join himself to them”.
FER Quite so; that is just it.
Rem It is really a matter of affection. You only accept fellowship as you are under the control of the love of Christ.
Ques Would you exclude young converts?
FER Oh no; I do not think so at all.
Rem When they come, they should [p. 241] find the example of real separation in those who are already inside.
FER Many do not find things as they expected, when once they are inside.
Rem It is not the young converts that do harm, but the old ones who are not going on who do the harm.
FER To a large extent. The Bridegroom is absent, and it is a time of fasting, as the Lord said.
Ques What does “fasting” mean?
FER Abstaining from many things to which one might be entitled, but which are unsuitable in the absence of the Bridegroom.
Rem We get it in verse 23 of this chapter. “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not”.
FER Quite so. You measure all things by the fact of Christ’s death. If you accept that, you get the comfort of all that follows in the next chapters. In chapter 11 you get the Head, in chapter 12 the body, in chapter 13 what is the life of the assembly — love — and in chapter 14 the intelligent bond, the ability to put yourself in intelligent relation with others. The inability to do so is owing to the lack of love not being in exercise. (chapter 13). Love is the principle that makes a man intelligible to other people. The defect of the Corinthians was, they had gift without love.
Ques Where do you get the Head in chapter 11?
FER It is the subject of the entire chapter.
Ques Is fellowship recognising the Head or the company first?
FER Recognising Christ as Head. Christ takes the place of pre-eminence in love.
Ques Why is there no evangelist in chapter 12?
FER It is all for the inside; the evangelist is for outside — the way in which God approaches man.
Ques Is there any idea of breaking bread privately?
FER The Lord’s supper is bound up with the assembly.
Ques What do you understand by “breaking bread from house to house” in Acts 2?
FER At home — they were in a transitional state, they had no settled place.
Ques Can there be breaking of bread for a time, and then cease?
FER I do not know. It is very difficult to settle all points. I want all of us to get the great spiritual idea of these things, to see what Christ is to the assembly, and what the assembly is to Christ.
Rem It was, “This do in remembrance of me”.
FER The Lord’s supper was never really celebrated except in the presence of the Lord. It was done in the Lord’s presence. You have a living Christ before you, and He calls to mind how He went into death.
Rem It is a great thing to the Lord — speaking reverently.
FER It is a great thing to take the bread and wine in His own presence.
Rem A present Christ leads us back to all that has been done.
FER Exactly so — that is it exactly.
Rem If we realised His presence more, we should understand it better.
FER I think so.
Rem The Lord meets us there, and we meet Him there.
Ques What would characterise a meeting for the breaking of bread?
FER It is the assembly, the Lord is in the midst, directing, ordering, and controlling every affection.
Rem Mr. Darby said, when some one asked him that question, that it was characterised by simplicity.
FER Yes, but you want something more than simplicity.
Rem And you soon find out if people really are in the presence of the Lord.
FER I think you get the present application of it in the hymn that says: —
‘[p. 243] Glory supreme is there,
Glory that shines through all;
More precious still that love to share
As those that love did call’
Rem It leads to worship.
FER Yes, I think so.
Ques. What is worship?
FER It is one of those things it is next to impossible to define ... The idea to me is, you get back to the secrets of the heart of God, and the spring of His ways. I do not think you can worship except as you are conformed to the glory, to appreciate the character of the scene.
Ques What is ‘conformed to the glory’?
FER You cannot be in the presence of glory except as conformed to it.
Rem “Holy and without blame”.
Rem You get morally affected by what God sets forth of Himself.
FER Exactly. You go right back to the spring of it all.
Ques Do you think small companies are an advantage?
FER I think the circumstances were peculiar at that time. You may attenuate meetings too much by breaking them up into small companies. In London, for instance, it would not do to break up the larger meetings, and have breaking of bread at home.
Ques How can we be assured of the Lord’s presence?
FER If you are in the fellowship of the death of Christ, you become sensitive to the presence of the Lord. There are certain conditions on which Christ will meet us.
Ques Is ministry admissible in a gathering for the Lord’s supper?
FER Christ may lead to it. You cannot lay down any rule in the face of chapter 14. If you accept the presence of the Head, you leave all direction to the [p. 244] Head. I can only say this, that if I ever spoke in the assembly, I never knew five minutes before what I was going to speak upon. The assembly is the place for the exercise of divine affections. It is wonderful to me that, in a selfish world like this, there is a scene where all is regulated by divine affections.
Ques To go back for a moment — may I ask one question as to the assembly conscience? Could you say a word as to those who lead in the assembly, in connection with that?
FER There are leaders who have a kind of responsibility. They would be waiting on the Lord about things, and would put things rightly before the assembly, but they could not act for them.
Ques “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God”. What does that mean?
FER Not to speak with levity. A man ought not to minister, or address the saints, unless he had something authoritative from God to say — “that in all things God may be glorified”.
Ques What is the mark of a leader in a day of difficulty?
FER That he is an example to the flock.