CHRIST AND THE ASSEMBLY
[p. 246] CHRIST AND THE ASSEMBLY
Isaiah 22:20 - 24; Revelation 3:7; Revelation 22:16,17
JT The links in these verses will be apparent to us. The thought is to call attention to the Old Testament and the New to show how linked together they are, and how Christ is the theme throughout, as He Himself said, “Ye search the scriptures, for ye think that in them ye have life eternal, and they it is which bear witness concerning me” (John 5: 39); and in Luke 24:44, “that all that is written concerning me in the law of Moses and prophets and psalms must be fulfilled”. So that in view of what came before us this morning at the breaking of bread, it would be good to enlarge on it and see how the Scriptures are bound together, and how the assembly is the end in view and how she is bound up with Christ in Revelation 22:16, and then the Spirit and the bride immediately come in. But the immediate thought is the Spirit and the bride, and Christ and the assembly, and how this thought runs through Scripture. We have it first in Genesis 2:18 where Jehovah Elohim says, “I will make him a helpmate, his like”; and then Adam is put to sleep, and Jehovah Elohim built the woman, and Adam says, “This time”, referring to the time in which he had named the lower animals, but this time it is the assembly really. There is no link with the lower creatures, and the bride of Christ must be out of Him, taken out of Man, and built by God Himself. The assembly runs through all Scripture.
Rem That follows well on what we had this morning; according to Genesis 1 you could never think of the man alone, and anyone who loves Christ must think of the [p. 247] assembly.
JT Yes, and as we had it at Bristol we must think of the sisters, the man and the woman.
Rem The marriage bond is a reflex of what God had in His mind as to Christ and the assembly.
JT To leave sisters out from special meetings is really not according to the mind of God.
Rem We really lose the full thought of the assembly.
JT Yes.
Rem Ephesians 5 in speaking of wives and husbands is really speaking of Christ and the assembly.
JT That is right. The main thought is Christ and the assembly.
Ques Do you think that in all the gatherings the saints should be the expression of this?
JT I do.
Ques Is “the Spirit and the bride say, Come” on the same line?
JT There are two voices, but both saying one little word, ‘Come’, making their thoughts very united.
Ques Does Isaiah 22 indicate the supremacy of Christ?
JT Certainly. In regulating the Lord’s supper it is not an afterthought; it is the positive side, for everything for God is to be hung on Christ. At the Supper we have the thought of pouring out; it is one satisfying thought. As now on the first day of the week we have unbroken joy; that is the positive side of things that God has in His mind. All else will disappear and the one thing that remains is Christ and the assembly.
Ques What does the “nail in a sure place” imply?
JT “And I will fasten him [as] a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father’s house: and they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the [p. 248] issue, all the small vessels, as well the vessels of cups as all the vessels of flagons”, that is to say that the first day of the week the Lord’s supper comes in as a positive thought in God’s mind; we are so many individuals to begin with, but all merging into one, yet each pouring out individually. The Spirit is in mind, and in the positiveness of blessing the Lord’s Spirit leads up to the service of God, and then the individuals taking part, and the Spirit is needed for this.
Rem The capacity of each vessel comes into view.
JT Each soul takes on his part in the blessing.
Rem Including brothers and sisters.
JT Well, the sisters do not speak in the assembly, but they are there in an unspecified way; they join in the singing, of course. We must remember what Paul says, “I do not suffer a woman to teach nor to exercise authority over man” (1 Timothy 2:12), but she has a voice and can join in all the assembly services.
Rem She adds her quota.
JT A very good word; it is just that.
Ques What is implied in the nail being “in a sure place”?
JT That it will not be removed until it is in God’s purpose. The man spoken of earlier, Shebna, was removed; and Saul was spoken of as removed to make way for David (Acts 13:22); but that is not the divine idea.
Rem The Lord’s service requires that each should hold his vessel as usable ready to be poured out.
JT Yes.
Ques Does the “house of David” refer to the assembly?
JT It would refer to the peculiar quality of David. References are especially seen to him in Revelation 22:16 where Christ is spoken as “the root and offspring of David”. The “root”
[p. 249] implies God; He has His root in Deity, and was no less than God.
Rem David’s name is the first to be mentioned after Christ in Matthew, and the last name mentioned after Jesus in Revelation 22.
JT You mean in the gospel of Matthew it is called “Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham”; the generation of Jesus Christ, that is the real idea; David is mentioned before Abraham; it is a question of Christ Himself and His generation; think of what a list of persons who have part in the generations; Kingship is in mind.
Rem It gives an impression of the opened door and all that comes in in the assembly.
JT Very good; and it is the male side in Matthew.
Rem So “Judah prevailed among his brethren” (1 Chronicles 5:2); that would refer to David, “and of him was the prince”.
JT Yes, there is peculiar quality in David, especially as seen in the last reference to him in Revelation 22.
Rem So that the truth of the Lord’s Person is involved in this expression; it is a major disclosure preparing the way for the Spirit and the bride to say, Come.
JT It speaks of the integration of Scripture, and how at the end all is explained in this “root of David”, and at the beginning, in Genesis 1:26 it is “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” so that we have the thought of likeness and image in the man, but in verse 1 it is “In the beginning God”.
Rem Your suggestion is that the assembly is not an afterthought.
JT No indeed; it was designed, and the “root” means that it is a prime thought.
Ques As to David in Matthew 1, have you in [p. 250] mind that the glory of this should enter into assembly service? In Chronicles David set on the service of God.
JT So in Revelation the twenty-four elders serve there, and David is the author really of their service.
Ques What would we understand from “the key of the house of David”?
JT It is the power to open; we are let into things by Christ, to positive things; He has the right of way into everything. When the Lord says in Matthew 16:13, “Who do men say that I the Son of man am?”Peter says, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”, and the Lord then says, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens. And I also, I say unto thee”. The Father had made the revelation, but Christ, as Man, lets Peter into the whole matter, and lets us in, too, that “hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”. It is a time of opening things up to us.
Rem This applies to the “opened door” in Philadelphia; Revelation 3:8.
JT In Smyrna and Philadelphia things are all right, and all intact, so the Lord says, “Behold, I make them of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews, and are not, but lie; behold, I will cause that they shall come and shall do homage before thy feet, and shall know that I have loved thee”, Revelation 3:9. The Lord loves all the assemblies, and lets us into the secret of things, especially in Revelation.
Rem It is in order that we all should enter in and understand the truth.
JT Take all the religious bodies, a hundred at least; they do not get anything of this, and yet the Lord Jesus lets us into this, and opens things up to us. He opens and “no one can shut”. He has the right of way in everything.
[p. 251] Rem And the believer has to be on the line of faithful love.
JT Yes, and Ezekiel 37:24,25 speaks of it, “And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd ... and David my servant shall be their prince for ever”. In religious associations they do not get let into things, but by the power of the Spirit they are opened up to us.
Rem Because they glorify the wrong man.
JT Well, there you are, but upon Him “all the glory of his father’s house” shall be hung. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope do not get anything. It is the Lord Jesus and the Spirit that open up the truth to us.
Rem As to the nail in the sure place, even the cups as well as the flagons hang upon it.
JT Yes, and the pouring out and the hanging on Christ; even the smallest of us, we all hang on Him. The Lord opens and shuts, and “all the glory of his father’s house” hangs upon Him; and there is the pouring out referred to in Acts 2:17,18, the sons and daughters prophesying, pouring out and pouring out, and the visions coming in for the young men and the dreams for the elders, all comes in in the Spirit, because Christ asked for the Spirit and the Father poured out of His Spirit.
Ques Does the filling with the Spirit referred to in Acts 2:4 show what is normal in the assembly? And it says in Acts 2:33 “he has poured out this which ye behold and hear”
JT Indeed it was an active, living state of things. The meetings are so important, even the preaching of the gospel is something positive to build up the assembly.
Rem Eve was built, not just created.
JT It is a living positive thought. God built her from the rib; Adam was not built of the same [p. 252] material; Adam was made of clay; but Eve was taken out of Adam, a living thing, built up and completed.
Ques As to Genesis 1:1 beginning with God and then man later, was Christ and the assembly God’s prime thought?
JT Yes; both man and woman are included in the word ‘Man’ in Genesis 1:27, “male and female created he them” and they are named ‘(The Adam)’ (see note). It is an enlarged thought on that of the previous verse.
Ques It says in Genesis 2:22, “And Jehovah Elohim built the rib that he had taken from Man into a woman; and brought her to Man. And Man said, This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of a man” Is that Christ saying it?
JT Yes; Jehovah did not say it; but “this time” means that Eve was different, that is the assembly is different from anything else. The Lord Jesus lets us into things, that is the Lord Jesus as Man. He has become something He never was before; it is a question of the incarnation.
Rem He does not say a word to Adam as to her.
JT That is it; He leaves Adam to say what there is to be said.
Rem He invented new words.
JT ‘Ish’ and ‘Ishshah’; she was just ‘out of Ish’.
Rem His affections constantly cherishing the woman.
JT According to the New Testament He “nourishes and cherishes it”, Ephesians 5:29.
Rem So that it is not an inferior stratum of humanity out of Christ.
JT And yet not divine; a creature after all; she is not part of the Deity, in which there are the [p. 253] three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Ques Does the Lord Jesus open up to us the kind of manhood in the assembly?
JT Let us read the passage in Revelation 3: 7,8 “And to the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: These things saith the holy, the true; he that has the key of David, he who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open: I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an opened door, which no one can shut, because thou hast a little power, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name”. You mean that this is seen in the assembly.
Rem Yes, an appreciation of it, and hence “the key”. The failure of the assembly publicly was the failure to recognise Christ in His place.
JT Yes; and in the last chapter they are so close together; the Spirit, a divine Person, and yet together with the bride, saying, Come.
Rem The fact that she is a creature keeps the assembly among the companies of the Revelation.
JT Just so. She gets the revelation to her. The Lord says to Peter in Matthew 16:17, “flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens”. He was dependent on revelation; but the double thought is there, of the Father revealing the name to Peter, and then the Lord giving him the keys of the kingdom, and the binding and loosing. The two things I want to put together, the Father revealing to Peter, and the Lord, too, so that this is a double thing.
Rem The two divine Persons come in there.
JT That is it. And now we have chapter 22.
Rem It is very striking for it says, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”; she is not independent; it is not the Spirit telling the bride.
JT The “and” begins the whole matter, and it runs back into infinitude. The Spirit must be infinite; we are let into what is infinite, yet we are not divine.
Ques Is the bride brought into unity with the Spirit?
JT Yes; peculiar unity, for she says the same thing.
Rem We are learning now through the Spirit how to speak and when to speak, and to say the right thing; it all enters into the present time.
JT That opens up the present time, and John’s gospel; and we know how to identify divine Persons, and what They say, and when They say it.
Rem So John 12:41 speaks of Isaiah seeing His glory.
JT What we were saying of John’s gospel is of prime importance, as to divine Persons saying things and when They say them, especially in John 14:16, “And I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter”, and then in many instances divine Persons are identified and identifiable.
Ques Does this imply the place They each have taken?
JT Just so.
Rem It is necessary for us to discern.
JT Certainly. We are not left in the dark as to what is spoken, and what They are saying. Then we have Matthew 28:19, the full revelation of the economy.
Ques Is the service of the Spirit to the bride connected with His being in us, and alongside of us?
JT Every feature of His service is in us. His sayings are in us.
Rem I meant two separate entities, the Spirit and the bride; and the bride rising to the Spirit’s [p. 255] feelings, what she becomes through the Lord’s word in John 14:17, “for he abides with you, and shall be in you”, thus there is a distinction between the Spirit in us, and with us, as the Paraclete.
JT Yes. He is with us here this afternoon, as Paraclete, as objectively seen amongst us.