THE LOCAL ASSEMBLY

2 Corinthians 11: 1-3; 1 Corinthians 11: 23-28; 15: 20-28

A.J.E.W. These letters as we know give us rich teaching concerning the order of things in the assembly locally. This is the character that the assembly of God takes in the time of testimony; that is, the testimony is found and the service of our God proceeds in local assemblies. It is a remarkable thing that in the cities of men there should be something which answers to Christ and sets out in testimony what is due to God for His pleasure. It is good to see how the enemy's territory has in that sense been invaded; how the Spirit of God has thus points on earth where the truth is held, where Christ is loved and glorified, and it is wonderful grace that gives us any part in this precious matter. We were speaking last night of the way in which the Lord would draw us to the high level from which He is working. Our relations stand to a glorified Christ operating from heaven and through the Spirit down here. The thought is to see how, in this remarkable locality where much of the activity of Satan had to be met, the apostle goes forward with his ministry cherishing the fullest and richest of divine thoughts - a practical matter for us.

So after he has largely unburdened himself to the saints in the two epistles he gives us an impression of what was working in his heart as to his service: "I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ" - a fine disclosure of the way in which the dear writer had held the saints in Corinth in relation to God's greatest thoughts and laboured that they might be established in the gain of those same thoughts. Paul had spent a year and a half at least among the brethren in Corinth - quite a substantial part of his total service - and it was clear that they had a very distinct place in his affections; so he laboured and laboured still to present them, as he says, "a chaste virgin to Christ". This would lift our minds to the proper level of what is to appear in a local assembly. It would give us in love a great incentive to sustain the kind of service that the beloved apostle rendered: not that any one of us is an apostle but I am thinking of the kind of service that he rendered among the brethren.

J.S. The apostle moved with the purest motives in relation to the assembly in Corinth. He brings out what his motives were so that his activities in relation to Corinth could not be gainsaid in any way that they were other than what was commendable, so that the force of what he was ministering would be received by the brethren; because Satan was active, was he not?

A.J.E.W. Our motives therefore are to be searched out as we seek to move together. His motives were pure, as you say, and they stood related to God's thoughts in the mystery. It is just a point for us what our motives are because there was no admixture of personal interest with Paul.

J.S. It is obvious that his thoughts would be no less than the Lord's thoughts. It was not for himself that he laboured.

A.J.E.W. His labour was sacrificial. You get many evidences of that. This is a searching point as we continue together.

W.A.M. This is a very interesting section in that the apostle goes into a lot that was secret that he had never told anyone before; this would be his secret relations with the Lord. The espousal with which he had charged himself, and what he says later about knowing a man in Christ and so on, were all matters that would have been secret but he brings them out for the help of the saints.

A.J.E.W. So what are our secret relations? Although they are secret the Lord knows them, the Spirit knows them, and the Lord will delight to use a man whose secret relations are so pleasing to Himself. It brings in power and it was power that was needed at Corinth to meet the subtleties of the enemy's activities spoken of even in this scripture.

W.A.M. Would you think that this is the most difficult part? He had helped the saints so far but it required great spirituality to meet these pockets of resistance where the enemy was moving subtly.

A.J.E.W. You feel the need of that: yet at the same time we realise that the Lord is quick to help us to acquire the spirituality that is needed. We have come into this matter finding everything from God's side in our favour. We might have stopped short in taking up service related to something so exalted and so precious before God.

W.A.M. Some of us might have been satisfied with what had been accomplished already but Paul was not; he recognised that there was still a danger of the enemy getting their affections.

A.J.E.W. It would be a great matter to cherish the finishing up of this period of testimony with something which answers in wealth and depth to the thoughts of God. Nothing less than that should govern us as we continue in regard of our local assemblies: nothing less than this will content one who loves Christ. The genuineness of our love for Christ is often tested in these days - just what depth those affections have. Genuine love for Christ would not stop short of anything of what His thoughts are in respect of His own heart and this is, as he says, "a chaste virgin to Christ". It is what is directed to Christ and for Him.

W.A.M. You get two things: the one Man and the chaste virgin to Christ.

A.J.E.W. That is it. The chaste virgin is the answer to the affections of the one Man and this touches the inward secret side that you spoke of which must be the strength of the saints. There will be a tendency to shallowness and lack of power unless the secret side is lined up with the prime thoughts of God, and the Spirit is here to help us that that may constantly be so that nothing less than what is in the divine counsels is governing us as we go on.

W.A.M.. So that there seems to be an answer here. To Ephesus he said he had not shrunk from announcing to them all the counsels of God (see Acts 20: 27). The enemy would be against that but this would be the answer to it in our day.

A.J.E.W. It would indeed. So there is a sense in which the local assembly appears in its true features through the labour that God uses of those that are committed to His thoughts. We each need to be found in our local relationships with such objectives as this in our hearts. As Mr Soukoreff says, the purity of motive with Paul is very fine to see and our motives are being searched in these days that what is lacking in genuineness may be done with.

J.S. I suppose that the apostle would bring out the glory of the truth and the enemy did not exactly attack that; he attacked the person of Paul to discredit the apostle personally. It seems to be a characteristic of the flesh that if the truth is brought out it is not a question of the truth that is discussed but an attack on persons is made to divert from the issue. The apostle brings out his own motives to answer even that in grace. So the Lord seems to be moving in grace to secure the affections of the saints in attachment to Christ.

A.J.E.W. Very much so, though securing those affections to set the saints together with one heart as to what is precious to Himself. You feel the need of the life springs, so to say, of this time of reviving. What was it that so affected the early servants in the revival? It was the great truth of Christ and the assembly, the union of the assembly to Christ and the holy answer there is in the assembly for His heart, the unique answer which He finds nowhere else. The uniqueness of the assembly's place in union with Christ is the life spring of this revival into which God, in His wonderful mercy, has called us, in a certain reviving of it in our time. Let us not get far from this line of truth which is so characteristic of the whole course of things in this time of the Spirit - Christ and the assembly.

J.S. What you are speaking of is distinctive to those in the recovery: assembly truth being worked out, and the service of God.

A.J.E.W. It would help us to be watchful as we realise how vigorously Satan is set against this side of the truth, the way in which he relentlessly attacks the assembly. The Lord said, and we often turn thankfully to it, "hades' gates shall not prevail against it" (Matt 16: 18) ; that is, the assembly; but there is no question that hades' gates operate. They will not prevail but they have to be contended with in the course of things in our local assemblies. One of the prime intents of the foe at the present time is to disunite - to bring in something which is not in "the unity of the Spirit", Eph 4: 3. It is the great effort of Satan which we need to watch for in a vigilant sense in love for Christ. The enemy is seeking in our time to disunite, whether it be within a locality or between localities, and invalidate the preciousness of what is established for Christ's heart in local assemblies by an attack against the characteristic unity of it. This needs to be in our minds and in our prayers.

W.A.M. So that Satan transforming himself into an angel of light and his ministers as ministers of righteousness is a very subtle line (see 2 Cor 11: 14,15).

A.J.E.W. It is indeed! The question is how is that to be met? It says earlier in this epistle, "For walking in flesh, we do not war according to flesh. For the arms of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful according to God to the overthrow of strongholds; overthrowing reasonings and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God", chap 10: 3-5. That is a very comforting scripture. We are made to feel sometimes the rigorousness of the conflict, the intensity of it, that it is too much for us, but the Spirit of God in epistles such as these would strengthen us in that the power of God is involved and, as we make way for that to operate, what belongs to Christ and to the assembly will go through.

W.A.M. You get that in Hezekiah's day; he spread the letter before Jehovah and made it His matter (see 2 Kings 19: 4).

A.J.E.W. Pointing to great simplicity in his links with God - a fine thing, the simplicity of such a man! When a time of crisis or unexpected development comes up he flies to God about it in the most simple and positive way. You feel that simple spontaneity in our relations with God is a wonderful way into profiting from the full extent of divine resources.

A.N.T. The apostle was wonderfully formed in regard to what was for the pleasure of the heart of Christ, so that conditions in Corinth weighed heavily with him. In the first chapter he desired to bring them up to the level of the truth and addresses them as to what they are in the purpose of God. He does not start with their failures but would build them up. He sets it on himself and would encourage the saints into it.

A.J.E.W. The vital thing for us to notice is that, while he holds in his heart the choicest thoughts of God for the saints, he gets to work to establish the saints in the gain of those thoughts. There are the two sides to the matter you are speaking about. On the one hand we see tile objective; secondly, we commit ourselves to the objective and labour with what is necessary to reach it. There are many ways in which that labour can come into expression, by which we can help one another and local companies to come into the height and blessedness of what is their true position; but it does call for unceasing labour such as Paul had sustained in Corinth and which he was still sustaining while away from Corinth in writing to them such letters as these. The scope of these letters is remarkable, and the measure of power that comes in through the exalted aspects of the truth being asserted from time to time as the teaching goes on gives a kind of heavenly colour to what is proceeding under the apostle's hand. I believe that is to mark our affairs in the assembly; the heavenly colour is always to be there.

J.R.B. Would you say something as to his fear that their thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ.

A.J.E.W. Is anything of man creeping in or our thoughts being governed by mere human conceptions instead of the great divine thoughts which he is presenting? How easily our minds are diverted into channels which are not of God. How easily we may bring in methods and lines of activity which are not distinctively of God, not related to Christ and the assembly at all. It is the enemy's subtle effort to divert in some way from the full le el of what is due to the heart of Christ.

J.R.B. I wondered as to the fact that the apostle says, "so your thoughts should be corrupted", as though divergent lines begin in our thoughts. He does not say 'your affections' but "your thoughts".

A.J.E.W. The Spirit would help us in our minds so that our thoughts are in positive channels. We need that especially perhaps when we are quiet and alone, as we may be in the waking hours of the night and at other times too. What is engaging our thoughts? There is much that righteously must occupy them in reference to our callings and so forth. Full room would be made for that but to what do we have recourse when the time of release comes when our thoughts can be engaged for the moment with what is dearest in our hearts? What is most precious to us?

J.R.B. "Simplicity as to the Christ" would involve the singleness of motive that was referred to, would it not?

A.J.E.W. Precisely so! It is in that simplicity that Christ is the real objective, not just the professed objective. The man is governed by Christ; that was true in a singular way with the beloved apostle. Christ filled that man's heart and governed him in everything. And you feel that that is the kind of spirit that the Lord is looking for; in simplicity, as it says here, but in genuineness amongst us in the present time. The young can come into this in a very full way - they love Christ! That is the prime thing.

W.A.M. The enemy would seek to bring in Christ and something else; that is not simplicity.

A.J.E.W. It is not. It is the subtlety - "as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft". We have a crafty foe to deal with who exploits what we could speak of as our weak points, so we need to be with God about them. Maybe we should recognise what they are and be with God about them so that the enemy does not exploit them to the damage of what is precious to Christ in the local company.

G.H.B. So the enemy's tactic before was, and still is, to question. "Is it even so, that God has said", Gen 3: 1? That is the way things start, is it not?

A.J.E.W. Sowing doubts and questions. It is exactly that that is contemplated here: "as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft". Not in any sense to overlook the power of the foe but we know a power which is greater and we need to be in the expression of it in our localities that the saints may be protected from the enemy's attack.

G.H.B. So we are exhorted to gird up the loins of our minds, to be strengthened there (see 1 Pet 1: 13).

A.J.E.W. That is a very good point to bring in; our minds are to be under control. The matter comes up in Romans 7; as the mind is under the Spirit's control we can ensure that it moves in channels which are of God. There is power in the Spirit to have to say to our minds - a very great comfort! Why should we be diverted by things that are of no consequence whatever?

W.A.M. So if our minds are governed rightly we will make straight paths for our feet.

A.J.E.W. That is the concern. The way is a straight way, an upright way, a simple way.

W.A.M. So none would be diverted, the lame will not be turned out of the way. I feel that in these days the enemy is very subtly trying to get the 'open' principle in again, along the line of being gracious or in largeness of heart and so on.

A.J.E.W. This would perhaps emphasise what I think was quoted last night: "If ye love me, keep my commandments", John 14:15. The 'open' principle involves an extensive setting aside of principles which are of God, the setting aside really of divine commandments.

W.A.M. It has been the most successful weapon that the enemy has had in relation to the recovery.

A.J.E.W. And it has had its place in almost every prominent conflict since the recovery began. Hence the need for watchfulness in what we speak of as 'open' in character.

G.H.B. The apostle Paul says "I have shewed you all things", Acts 20: 15. It is in relation to the weak there, helping one another. So if there is an 'open' element creeping in, if we take on what the apostle had received and have the Spirit's help to give a demonstration of being those that have the Spirit of Christ, we should be able to help one another to keep things right.

A.J.E.W. That is fine! The beloved apostle is speaking there to men who have in principle accepted responsibility. Whilst the idea of elderhood is a distinct one by itself, we should be in our local assemblies as accepting responsibility. That is the only right way we can function there. Those men are addressed that they may be arouse to use their responsible place for the benefit of the saints. It is a responsibility to be one of a local company because that commits me to serve the brethren and to strengthen them in what is precious to Christ. You feel the need of the responsible acceptance in love for the Lord of that committal.

G.H.B. So that the answer with us is to be that we are to build one another up in love.

A.J.E.W. That is it, and of course this can operate at the level we were speaking of last night. We have such expressions as in Ephesians: "speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (chap 5: 19) - the power of stimulation spiritually. Just a simple word as to the Lord and His glory or some fresh touch of the truth that has come in can stimulate a person and enliven him so to speak, in what is peculiarly precious to Christ. There is much that goes on that is practical and needs to be done but let us see it in relation to the greatness of this chaste vessel, this chaste virgin to Christ.

A.N.T. As to this subtlety of the operations of Satan, we would have to see to our own personal links wit h divine Persons because we can deceive ourselves. Samson roused himself up; he wist not the Spirit of God had left him: he thought he could go forward as he had before. Does not that have a bearing on us? It is a very sensitive matter to be near to the Lord in communion so that we go forth in the Spirit's power.

A.J.E.W. We all realise that our links of communion with Christ were very sadly entrenched upon at certain points in time. It is good to bring up, the simple point of communion with the Lord that we may all be in the gain of it - kept near to Christ personally and impressionable by Him as to what His thought is as to any matter. This is very necessary with us in our local assemblies that the Lord may have full access to what is there, have His way with every person and access to what is increasingly wealthy under His hand in the local companies of the saints. The truth in its grandeur stands related to the assembly, the glorious vessel that answers to the heart of Christ, but he is not speaking just of that here; he is speaking of the expression of that in a particular locality - Corinth. It is in our own locality that we labour, and if some of us are away from our localities the labour is going on in another locality. The conflict is maintained and the upbuilding of the saints goes on in the local assembly. This is the great sphere of activity and growth in which what is for Christ is being secured. I think your point is particularly covered, Mr Thomson, in what we read in 1 Corinthians 11. After setting out the detail concerning the Lord 's supper we have the word, "let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread, and drink of the cup". So that the Supper as partaken of week by week becomes a ground of challenge of an inward kind tending to the purifying of our motives and thoughts and brings us suitably into the assembly for that which peculiarly relates to the pleasure of our Lord. So "let a man prove himself" is what you spoke of as a sensitive matter and concerns each of us. It concerns what Mr Moseley spoke of as our secret history: "let a man prove himself". But the intent is not that the man should come to it that he is an abject failure and refrain from eating and drinking. The point is that as having proved himself, having his links in communion with Christ established and right, he comes to the Supper and partakes rightly of the emblems.

A.N.T. So there is greater spoil for divine Persons.

A.J.E.W. Think of the Lord's supper being ministered to the saints in Corinth in the first letter. Think of the disorder that there was among them, the incestuous person that apparently had liberty among them, the divided condition that existed. How real those conditions were and how real in the mind and heart of the apostle! But he is opening up the truth from the viewpoint of which we have been speaking. He has heaven's thoughts and he is proceeding from those to get right down to the situation as it is in the local assembly. The Spirit helps as to that.

J.S. It has been said that Paul did not shut the locality up. He laboured with what was there and kept the channels open. Corinth was not shut up.

A.J.E.W. No, quite so. You feel that that enters into the enemy's efforts at the present time. But we come back to the prime truths of the first and second letters to the Corinthians and see that in spite of those conditions at Corinth the apostle is labouring on there still and labouring in relation to the objective which he tells us in the first scripture we read. He is not allowing the level of his labour or the level of his objective to be diminished one whit, although he is up against, you might say, the toughest problems in this local assembly. What a comfort for us!

J.S. It almost seems impossible that he could get that situation cleaned up and yet the spiritual level of his ministry, his faithfulness and his affections are very strong to bring them around.

A.J.E.W. The secret of it surely is the way in which he addresses them at the first. He dwells on the abstract side; that is, what the saints are in God's thoughts for them. If we keep that in our minds it helps us to move on and to labour: so that the first nine verses of the first chapter of first Corinthians are largely concerned with the abstract side of what the saints are in the mind of God and he clings to that. Then he comes to the practical situation that there is disunity among them. But as he approaches that situation he has in his mind that there is a house of Chloe in Corinth that had shown him the conditions that were there - not told him only but shown him - and you feel how often he would come back in his mind to the house of Chloe and that there is something in Corinth. Therefore he is not allowing Corinth in his mind to be degraded below the proper thought of a local assembly - the assembly of God in Corinth.

W.A.M. He does not proceed to deal with the man himself; he exercises the saints. He is prepared to be with them - "ye and my spirit being gathered together" - but nevertheless it would be an assembly judgment arrived at in Corinth.

A.J.E.W. That is a very important point because, as you say, he does not deal with the man himself in his apostolic authority. He does link himself with the judgment of the saints in chapters five and six and in that sense the matter goes forward; but it is, as you say, something reached in the place by those who are there.

W.A.M. The idea of an assembly judgment would carry great dignity.

A.J.E.W. Dignity is the word and the local assembly involves dignities. Things are there as God would have them to be and not just on the level of man 's affairs.

W.A.M. That is what came to light at Glanton; we did not understand the dignity of the local assembly and Christ's absolute rights in each local assembly.

A.J E.W. That is something which the enemy, I believe, is challenging. We have to cling to what is right in that connection at the present time.

A.N.T. The assembly in any place is not infallible, yet authority is there. So a judgment is accepted. Adjustment in the Lord's time will come in; He will see to that in His assembly, do you not think?

A.J.E.W. There may be failure in our working out of what belongs to the assembly and yet the assembly characteristically is trustworthy in respect of matters of discipline. The Lord indicated that in John 20. The main thought there is not retention of sins but remission, that the grace of the dispensation is brought into evidence by what the assembly may do or determine. That is a fine thing.

W.A.M. So even if it comes down to one or two, as it did with the house of Chloe, if there is anything that represents the assembly, that is trustworthy.

A.J.E.W. That has to be reckoned with. We have to speak very tenderly of administration in a day of brokenness and yet the administrative thought is a right one.

W.A.M. We have to stay by what is abstract - abstractly true in a broken day. The principles never change.

A.J.E.W. May we stay by that; it is the salvation practically of the brethren going on together to stay by the principles and to resist especially what you have named as the 'open' principle coming in. You feel the dignity of what is in a place where there is something which is in the light of God's assembly. He regards that very highly. It is under the eye of heaven as bearing a dignity all its own. You feel that God is very pleased with the maintenance of that and of standards that He has Himself established and for which He provides every necessary resource. It may seem that the assembly involves the demanding side - that is, everything is to be right - and it may tax us to maintain that side; but the answer to that is in the divine provision, especially in the Spirit, that everything that is due to Christ should find its answer in the local assembly. The provision from the divine side is wonderful.

A.N.T. Where there is weakness it is met through ministry, is it not? So that the apostle holds the Corinthians in such a way that he can minister to them, he can get access, just as we are together now. We get help through ministry but if we stay isolated we do not have access to the ministry that we need to bring in help and adjustment.

A.J.E.W. Ministry is a Pauline thought in a special way; he stayed a year and a half in Corinth and laboured among them. How did he labour? By ministry: of course involving not only the word passed on but the exemplification of what he ministered in himself. That would be a very vital side of it. That would be distinctive in Paul that he would exemplify what he ministered.

A.N.T. Do you think we see the outshining of the result of the Damascus road in what you are saying?

A.J.E.W. That is right.

W.A.M. Do you think the evidence where the Lord is found is if there is prophetic ministry? That is what governed me - that is what I found and then I thought, well the Lord must be there.

A.J.E.W. So we might inquire about Ephesus. We know how Ephesus represented the wealthiest features of the truth not only in what was set out in teaching but in a substantial answer to it in the saints. What brought that about? Think of the apostle's time in Ephesus, his labouring publicly and in every house to bring the brethren into the gain of the counsels of God. Where did that condition of things in Ephesus arise? The Spirit brought it about but it arose very largely through the course of ministry which Paul carried through.

W.A.M. He insists on the basis of repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

A.J.E.W. Quite so. So the ministry, as we have said, is very important. It is good that in our local companies we have ministry not only from visitors but that the truth is maintained and that there is a course of teaching going on in the local readings, for example, that will help forward the young people with the basic elements of the truth and keep us all fresh as to the structure of the truth itself. It is of all importance that ministry is proceeding.

A.N.T. You feel that the Lord is raising these matters with us that we be exercised that it will be so as, judging our past, we press on; but we want to carry the gain of that with us and, in dependence on Christ and in the power of the Spirit, there might be that which would in power come into the souls of the youngest.

A.J.E.W. The word impart is a good word because it has to be on that line. I cannot bring anyone else into something which I am not in the gain of myself, in some degree anyway. It is a question of impartation. It is good for us in our several local companies to be sure for example that there is right food for the young believers there; something for them, not by special occasion, but that there be handfuls of purpose which will nourish and strengthen the young hearts that happily have their place amongst us. But to come back to the Supper, what an affecting thing it is that in the midst of the Corinthian teaching the apostle brings in the truth of the Supper - the only place in his written canon of scripture that it appears in such a definite way. He gives the instructions as to the Supper to the saints at Corinth to keep them at the real level of divine thoughts; because it is wonderful how the Supper does that, bringing us back to the person of Christ, to the love of Christ, to the work of Christ, to the efficacy of that work, to the glorifying of Christ. All these things become prominent in the Supper and they keep our minds on the stable level of what God has established for Himself.

D.F.H. Would you say that he brings in the thought of one body? There is nothing less than that or anything partial to be in our minds, is there?

A.J.E.W. You mean that the body is a complete thought. It is a full thought and that is to be in expression. We need to be together bodywise; that is, our relations together are governed by the truth of the body. They are not just casual relations, far less social relations, but we are together as of the body of Christ. That is important, I think.

Now that last passage was read to bring in the due sense of victory, the grandeur of what the beloved apostle's mind was rightly engaged with. This great resurrection chapter is one of the most stimulating to read when things press heavily upon us. The truth of resurrection is asserted in a way so glorious and we get this parenthesis which leads on to the ultimate triumph of God Himself over everything that has stood in His way. To get something of that into the soul is of the greatest comfort when we are faced maybe with local pressures and matters that would tend to stand in the way of what is for the heart of Christ being secured. What a sense of victory this chapter brings Christ is the Victor!

W.A.M. There is a sort of spring in the heart as the result: "be firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord" (v 58).

A.J.E.W. It is a special touch of the Spirit that gives us this parenthesis. We discern a certain coming into the matter by the Spirit of God to assert the final glory of everything when God shall be all in all, the great ultimate point of divine triumph. Having this in the heart we can go forward with fresh vigour and fresh devotion and fresh dependence, which is what we need in view of what is precious to Christ being maintained in our own place.

W.A.M. The enemy would try to discourage us by smallness and failure and what we see around publicly.

A.J.E.W. Oh, indeed! especially perhaps when there are particular features of conflict in view. Unless we are careful he would use our minds to build up situations which are unreal, by which we become discouraged. But the idea of discouragement is foreign to the Pauline course of ministry. He would maintain the level of things so that the saints are always encouraged. There is a need for self-judgment, there is a need to face the issues that are raised by the enemy's attack in different respects but Paul would never allow us to fall below the proper level of the truth of God which I think is a most comforting thing.

 

VANCOUVER

3 April 1976

 

Key to initials

G.H.B. G.H.Ballard: J.R.B. J. R.Bellamy: D.F.H. D.F.Hugill; W.A.M. W.A.Moseley;

J.S. J.Soukoreff; A.N.T. A.N.Thomson; A.J.E.W. A.J.E.Welch (London, England).