CHURCH AFFECTIONS
[p. 258] CHURCH AFFECTIONS
Proverbs 31: 10; Revelation 19: 7
I have before me to say a little tonight about church affections, believing that the Lord is working to bring about such affections, so that the wife feature of the assembly may appear before Him.
In referring to the Book of Proverbs it may be of service that we should be reminded of the nature of the Old Testament and of the ministry of its early prophets, lest we should be in any way misled as to their apprehension of the truth. They did not know as much as we are prone to accredit them with. Peter tells us, “holy men of God spake under the power of the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1: 21), and that they “searched out; searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them pointed out, testifying before of the sufferings which belonged to Christ, and the glories after these. To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves but to you they ministered those things, which have now been announced to you by those who have declared to you the glad tidings by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, which angels desire to look into”, 1 Peter 1: 10 - 12. Mark you, these same things are now announced to you, and it is they that the prophets desired to look into; God revealed to them that the things they ministered were not for themselves, they were for us. It was the Holy Spirit by whom they spake, and so the things spoken were spoken anticipatively in view of Christ becoming flesh, the Son becoming flesh; and so this book anticipates the assembly. Not that the speaker could open up to you and tell you what this chapter meant. He could not. It was revealed to him that the things he ministered were for the future, even for us. And so he is made to enquire here by the Spirit, “Who can find a woman of worth?” The same writer in the book of Ecclesiastes says, “one man among a thousand have I found, but a woman among all those have I not found”, Ecclesiastes 7: 28. Now, in a [p. 259] way, the book of Ecclesiastes does not require the woman, because it announces the preacher — a preacher who speaks and writes, and the theme for the preacher is the man. If you have found a man you can preach. Thank God, preaching goes on in this world by many who have no knowledge of the assembly at all, but who have some knowledge of Christ. They can preach accordingly in fact, the preaching is about Christ. As it is said, “God’s glad tidings ... concerning his Son (come of David’s seed according to flesh, marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead) Jesus Christ our Lord”, Romans 1: 1 - 4. So that in the man we have the subject of the preaching, but then the book of Proverbs is the counterpart, really, of the book of Ecclesiastes and the more you become acquainted with Christ as the subject of the preaching the more will be the necessity for the woman to appear. For “it is not good”, it says, “that Man should be alone”. God brought the animals to Adam and among them there was not found one his like. Doubtless they exhibited remarkable variety of instinct and intelligence but there was not found one his like; and so God would provide her. And she must be his like.
Now that is what one had in one’s mind: that the features of Christ should be reproduced femininely. You see, he would see a lion, or maybe a sheep coming to him, but he would see nothing like himself. He had intelligence to discern the characteristics of each, for whatever name he gave to a creature it is not altered. God altered nothing. But there was nothing like himself, and so the woman comes out. I need not go into detail; but Adam is not present. He is not in his senses; he is asleep and God forms her out of his rib and brings her to him. This was the supreme test of his intelligence. Where did she come from? He says, “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall be called Woman”. It was a test of his intelligence and he answered to the test. The woman is there. Now that is what was in my mind — something for Christ answering to that, for that is the necessity. One would speak with reverence of the necessity of his love — [p. 260] the necessity of the love of Christ. The Holy Spirit, who is God, is here with that in view; He is here in relation to the necessities as it were of the love of Christ. You will remember how Abraham selected his servant, the eldest in his house. Sometimes we call him Eliezer but Scripture says it was “the eldest of his house, who ruled over all that he had”. Abraham had already light as to Rebecca; after he had offered up Isaac it says that he returned to his young men and went with them to Beersheba and dwelt there; and one came and told him that Rebecca had been born. He knew; he had light about it. But then she has to be sought, and he has to find her — select her by certain qualities. Abraham might have given him the name of her father and sent his servant there. No, that is not it. We have to find the bride; the wife is to be found by certain traits. The Lord could have told the disciples when they said, “Where wilt thou that we prepare ... the passover?” Matthew 26: 17. He might have told them the street and the number in it and the name of the man who owned the house. But, no, “Go ye into the city”. You see divine things come before our spiritual intelligence, hence he says, “Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water”, Mark 14: 13. You have to look for him; it is a question of having your eyes opened. I refer to that to indicate the principles upon which divine things are. That we have spiritual intelligence is suggested and so I do not refer to the Spirit Himself, but to the principles upon which divine things are here: “There shall meet you a man”.
Now there may be someone here tonight who would love to be where Christ is, where He eats the passover with His disciples, for that is where He eats. If there is one here who would love to find that place I would suggest to you the necessity for spiritual insight. The Lord says, “Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. And wheresoever he shall go in”, that is the thought.
Well now, the servant is the chief ruler in Abraham’s house and he is to select the bride, the wife of Isaac, by [p. 261] certain traits, and I wanted to speak of one or two scriptures so that we might see these traits. The Lord is looking for them: the Holy Spirit is looking for them: in all His dealings with us He has these traits in view. Now in Psalm 45 the Psalmist delights to speak about the King. He says, “Upon thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir”. That is what I would call, if you bear with me in the use of the word, the abstract idea; and I am persuaded that we shall never arrive at an understanding of the assembly unless we see it in that abstract way — in the counsels of God. We read that the Lord depicts Himself in the parables of the kingdom as a merchant seeking goodly pearls, and when he had found one pearl of great price he sold whatever he had and bought it. The Lord found the church. He sold everything in His life-time here. But then it was not yet the concrete thing. It could not be until the Holy Spirit came down, but he saw the thing; and so it says “Upon thy right hand doth stand the queen” — the counterpart of the King. Now, how have I to reach that? For it refers to you. One has to learn to take account of the thing in the abstract and, if so, I have to begin with the ideal wife, with what is in view. God purposed that the King must have a queen at His right hand and Isaac must have a bride and so Christ must have the church. And hence the believer begins. The light of the gospel comes and what is that light? It is the light of a Man. If the gospel is rightly presented to your soul it is a Man that is presented to you. “Come, see a man”. I have no doubt the woman at Sychar is representative of the preaching in the latter days. She is not the official preacher — she speaks of what she had discovered. “Come, see a man”, she said. “Is not he the Christ?” The thought is put into the soul and nothing is more important to preachers than to present Christ. As I was saying of Ecclesiastes, it is one man among a thousand and that is all you want — one Man to preach about.
Now in chapter 30 of this book the speaker says, “What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?” so that the preacher has a man, but there is more than a [p. 262] man. He is the son; and preachers should be able to tell what his name is. If you begin to tell the name of Christ you have a wonderful theme. The apostle Paul, as you will remember, entered the synagogue in the city of Damascus, and preached “Jesus that he is the Son of God”.
It was his first sermon — it is His name. The eunuch said, “Of whom speaketh the prophet this?” The prophet had spoken about a man — wonderful delineation of Christ.
Isaiah could not have held a reading on chapter 53, nevertheless he saw it and John says, “These things said Esaias because he saw his glory and spoke of him”. Hence Philip announces Jesus and you may be sure he spoke about the name. And so Paul in the next chapter, as I said, went into the synagogue at Damascus and preached at once ‘Jesus is the Son of God’: that is His name. He tells us later “God ... was pleased to reveal His Son in me”. He made him known in his soul “that I may announce him as glad tidings among the nations”, Galatians 1: 16. So the preacher has got the name of the Man and a man becomes attractive to the soul. The apostle himself sets the example: he says he “loved me, and gave himself for me”, Galatians 2:20 Think of one who loves you — you! I do not know of anything that comes to one’s soul more forcibly than this — He loved me. As he speaks of “the brother for whose sake Christ died”, 1 Corinthians 8: 11. That is what the Son of God is; He knows you; He died for you; He loved you and gave Himself for you. Now the presentation of Christ in that way brings about affection. We have been speaking of the eunuch and I have no doubt that he is a representative believer. We have been seeing how he was an individual object with God. He traverses the desert and presently a man joins his chariot as if he had fallen down from heaven; it was really so in principle. The man is reading the book of Isaiah the prophet and Philip says, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” — a voice from heaven! — a voice to which every one of us should pay attention. I am afraid there is very little reading of the Scriptures. Nothing, no amount of ministry, will take the place of the reading of the Scriptures, the private reading of the Scriptures and the [p. 263] family reading of the Scriptures. If these are neglected you will not be much attracted to Christ; and think what a mine of wealth you have in the word of God. And so Philip says, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” What is the good of reading if I do not understand? A great deal of reading is done, I admit, without any understanding, but I do urge the importance of reading. Daniel says, “I ... understood by the books”, Daniel 9:2. He meant the inspired books. If we read with the understanding we shall understand the light of God. Christ would be before the soul, because “they are they which testify of me”, He says. Philip preached to him Jesus. “How can I, except some man should guide me?” and Philip began at the same scripture and announced to him Jesus. He came, as it were, from above to him and announced Jesus, so the eunuch says, “Here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” He goes out in that way and goes on his way rejoicing, and Philip is caught away as if he were a heavenly vision. The scene is a heavenly one.
There are many who love the Lord but they have not breasts. Someone has said that orphans do not develop affection and those who have no mothers particularly are wanting in affection. One says, “We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts” (Song of Songs 8: 8), not that she did not have love; that is not implied. The point is that she had not developed what she had and therefore she did not come beneath the notice of Solomon. But the other says, “My breasts like towers; then was I in his eyes as one that findeth peace”. It is as if we are set down together in the light of the love of Christ. There is one brother there — not a movement in him. He breaks bread like the rest, takes part physically but no spiritual response. There cannot be a doubt but that he loves Christ but what about development? The Lord is set for the development of our affections, so that these breasts are like towers. That is what I had in my mind, that there might be development in the saints of church affections. But you say, what do you mean by church affections? It may be someone here has some conception of love for the Lord in a personal way, but how,
[p. 264] you enquire, am I to love churchwise? That is an interesting question, because that is what the Lord wants. He does love to have your personal affections; but what about the church, about loving churchwise? The Lord’s supper is to teach us how to develop church affection. And I will tell you how it comes about. If you love Christ you love a brother. You say, you love one brother; it may be you have only learned to love your neighbour — very good if you have. It is a triumph if one can maintain love for a neighbour day in and day out. Suppose we can do that; if you can love him, you can love with him. If you have learned to love him, you can love with him, that is two of you can learn to love the same object. That is simple and that is what I understand by church affections. And the circle becomes far wider until I love all the saints, and hence I understand and enjoy what we have in the Colossians, “Quickened together with him”. If I am quickened with Christ, I want all the saints quickened with Christ; and if in Ephesians I am raised up and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ, I want the saints there. That is how I understand the Lord would develop church affection. Hence one has the breasts like towers. She says, “We have a little sister and she hath no breasts”. She has wanted to have her little sister with her. She could teach her how to love and it is a great opportunity of teaching one another how to love. God teaches us. “Ye yourselves are”, says the apostle, “taught of God to love one another” and it is in this constant exercise amongst the saints of God that the Lord develops church affection. He sees the thing permeating the company. That is what He is looking for.
So that is what the Spirit of God has in view in this last chapter of Proverbs: “her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband confideth in her”. The Lord is confiding in the assembly because He loves her; hence He says, “For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and whosoever has not, even what he seems to have shall be taken from him”, Luke 8:18. The Lord will not entrust anything to anyone who does not love Him. Love is the thing. Her husband confides in her; that is a prophetic view of the [p. 265] assembly; it is based on what the Spirit would provide as the result of the death of Christ. This woman could be confided in, and so “the marriage of the Lamb is come”, an occasion of great joy, “his wife has made herself ready”. She has done it herself; that is the thing. What are we doing in view of Christ’s coming and the marriage? She is wise. It is not here the bride, it is the wife, because it refers to what we are to Christ in the time of His rejection; it is the marriage of the Lamb. The next chapter gives us the glory of the church, but the point is that it is just the wife here, His confidant, the one in whom His heart can safely confide. Can anything be more enticing to the heart than that the Lord can confide in you in His absence? Here it is simply the wife, and she has made herself ready; she has put on such garments as are becoming, and so to her it is granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, bright and pure. It is not here a gorgeous display of colours. The colours in Scripture have reference to variety of public glories. They are for display. It is essential purity — that which is known in private. “And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and pure; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints”. The King has a queen, but how do the saints come to the good of the position? Well, the first thing in Psalm 45 is “Hearken, daughter, and see, and incline thine ear ... and the king will desire thy beauty”. The Lord sees His own beauty taking form in you and He desires it. And it goes on to say “All glorious is the king’s daughter within; her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of embroidery”. Embroidery is one stitch after another; it is not a power loom: it is not machine work. Christendom is full of machine work; things are turned out in the mass but that is not divine. Fine linen is the righteousnesses all put together divinely, one stitch after another. It is the daily thing, the work of the Spirit through the exercises of the saints. That is what it is, so that she is all glorious within. This is the King’s palace; it is within His apartments. That is the exercise, you see. One speaks of His unrebuking gaze — lovely thought! He sees you in [p. 266] His own perfection so the heart is perfectly at rest. There is not a discrepancy, the assembly is in accord with that palace.
We learn in part and we can only minister in part, but the thought is to offer a suggestion, and if we have before us that the Lord is seeking to produce church affections and to bring about the ability to love together, we see that it is thus that the assembly is formed. So it says “His wife has made herself ready”; things are granted to us so that we should be arrayed in fine linen, that we should have the very best.