MY ASSEMBLY
J.A.Petersen
Matthew 16: 17,18 ; Genesis 20: 3
I felt encouraged to remind the beloved brethren here of this well-known scripture. What we read in Matthew are the Lord's own words. We are reminded that in this gospel He said, "The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but my words shall in no wise pass away", chap 24: 35. In the day in which we live, beloved brethren, there have been matters which shake us, and the Lord is bringing us back to our relations with Himself, our relations with the Fat her, our relations with the Spirit and our relations with the brethren.
So it was in mind to encourage us with the Lord's expression here as to "my assembly". He is the only Man that can use that expression. No servant can say that; no brother, no sister can use that expression; He reserves it to Himself. He will have no intrusion on that. It says in the section we were reading this afternoon, "Christ... loved the assembly and has delivered himself up for it", Eph 5: 25. He alone has done that. The assembly has been secured through "the blood of his own", Acts 20: 28. God has brought this great vessel into being through the work of redemption and through Christ's death. How great it is! We need to understand that flesh and blood has not revealed this to us; it has not come that way. The Lord says, concerning Peter's confession as to the Person of the Son of God, that "flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee". He leads on from that to the great thought of the assembly. There is its heavenly position, but here in Matthew it is in the scene of testimony, in the scene of difficulty; nevertheless we are reminded of the power of God in regard to the revelation given to Peter here, and the power of God that comes in to establish in our souls the great thought of the assembly, and to get back to the beginning of things, the Lord's own words. Is it not wonderful, to think of the Lord's own words about the assembly, to think of the Father's own words about Christ? How wonderful to start with that, to get right thoughts in our souls. Much else has to be put out. In the chapter we read this morning (1 Cor 2) there are, I think our brother said, some eighteen negatives. For the moment we are not dealing with that, except that the Lord says here, "flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee". It does not come that way; the knowledge of the Son of God, the knowledge of the assembly, is a question of divine communication to our souls, that you have something in your soul that is unshakable in the knowledge of God, and in the knowledge of what is revealed as to the assembly, and the Lord's own committal to it. O, beloved, are we committed to it as He is? The truth of the assembly: even in our small localities we are to hold on to the light of it. As Mr Taylor sen used to say, We keep to the light of it and we act in the light of it. You act as if every believer in your city and mine were there, and you are carrying on the testimony for God, because Matthew has in mind what is down here where the tests are; but the light comes from the Father, it comes from above. The Father gives something to Peter to establish him in his soul as to Christ, and the Lord Jesus gives Peter something to establish him in relation to the assembly ; and He is telling Peter that it is Mine - "my assembly". It is a great matter to lay hold of that only one Man can say that.
We are faced in this chapter with the great matter of conflict; men are saying different things but the Lord is guarding the position; He is saying, This is My matter. The testimony is Christ's matter. He has left things with us but He is saying, It is My matter - "my assembly". God said as to Abraham, "Touch not mine anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm", Ps 105: 15. They are God's property. The servants are God's property, the prophets are His property. We are not to speak lightly of them, or against them. If any brother prophesies, we are not to speak against him. We are not to do harm to one another. God says that about a servant, Abraham, at a time when he did not hold to the great thought of the assembly. In the 20th chapter of Genesis Abraham was on a journey, difficulties arose, and he adopted an unspiritual contrivance to get through, as we would say, an assembly difficulty. That is what he did, and that is what our tendency is. The Lord says about the assembly, "On this rock I will build my assembly, and hades' gates shall not prevail against it". Now that is something we need in our souls. We need the faith of that in our souls, so that if we have, like Abraham, to go on a journey - perhaps he should not have gone the way he did - on whatever journey we are going, we are going to remember that no Abimelech, no Egyptian, no Philistine is going to intimidate us and we are going to hold to the great thought of the assembly. We are not going to say that the brethren are our sister but we are going to say it is a question of the wife. God said to Abimelech, "Thou hast... a man's wife"; that is, God was bringing this matter back by Himself. "God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son", 1 Cor 1: 9. We have not been faithful, but He has been faithful. "He cannot deny himself", it says, "He abides faithful", 2 Tim 2: 13. So God comes into this matter. He says, The issue is a man's wife. The Lord says it is "my assembly". We are in a very broken day, small in our localities, but let us hold on to this great matter of the Lord's committal. He said, "On this rock I will build my assembly, and hades' gates shall not prevail against It. Now beloved brethren, let us get that into our souls, that until the Lord comes hades' gates not only will not prevail against believers, against the redeemed, but they will not prevail against the assembly. We need the faith of that in our souls, and to hold the faith of it and not give it up, and not let anything intrude on it either, any unspiritual contrivance whatever it may be. How we are guilty of them! You can see that Abraham had a heavy matter to solve - the fear of man in his heart. We know what these things are, but let us trust God. Let us trust the words of the Lord Jesus: "The heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall in no wise pass away", Matt 24: 35. Let us hold on to what He is saying about His assembly. Let us hold on to what the Father said about Christ: "This is my beloved Son"; Matt 3: 17. He is "the Son of the living God", Matt 16: 16. The assembly is a question of the living; "The living, he shall praise thee", Isa 38: 19. The assembly is going through in spiritual vitality, beloved, and God is going to preserve it, not only in relation to heaven, but in relation to earth. This is where the test is, down here, and the Lord Jesus has committed Himself to this matter and He wants us to lay hold of it by faith at this time, that it may be in the soul of every brother, especially of those who minister. Think of Abraham, a great servant; for a moment his faith failed. How we have done that! But God recovered him, and God would not all ow him to be attacked either. He said, "Do my prophets no harm", Ps 105: 15. So we are to love one another, we are to protect one another. God recalls His people to this great matter of the assembly, and to see that it is a living and vital and work able matter which He will see through, and that we may trust Him for it.
LONDON
18 October 1974