BUILDING
[p. 288] BUILDING
In Ephesians 2: 20 - 22 it is not a question exactly of who builds, but of the character of the building and the object in view. It is also important to notice that it is a present structure brought into being in conditions of responsibility, because it is in Jesus Christ, and in the Lord, and in the Spirit. It is also contrasted with the former state of being “strangers and foreigners”. It is what we are brought into here and now, the apostles and prophets being men who have lived and laboured in this world, and who have become the foundation of what stands here for God. That building is distinguished by its corner-stone. One Person is pre-eminent there in contrast with every other. It is Jesus Christ the Man of divine pleasure — each saint contributes something to set Him forth, for Jesus Christ is to be recognised as in us, as the result of Christ speaking in some one. If Jesus Christ is not in us we are reprobates, i.e. we are worthless for God (2 Corinthians 13). Jesus Christ being in us involves that we are able to move in His life morally as set forth in Psalm 16. There is a vast company here on earth in whom Jesus Christ is thus made prominent, and in all the spiritual activities of the company, in all ministry, He is the pre-eminent One as the great Adornment of the structure. And it is in Him the whole building is fitted together; i.e. it is in the features and characteristics of that Man.
From the Corinthian point of view, Jesus Christ is the foundation, and each one who builds on it must be careful to build what is in keeping with it. He must build what has spiritual value before God. Corrupting the temple would be by false teaching or in making prominent the man after the flesh.
It is important to see that fitting together leads to increase in temple conditions. If fleshly elements are at [p. 289] work there cannot be fitting together nor increase. Of course this must be secured locally if there are to be temple conditions. As we are together templewise we get divine light, and then we can be together bodywise and the light is diffused so that all gain by it. But this is a matter of growth.
[p. 290] NOTES OF AN ADDRESS Ephesians 2: 13 - 18; Ephesians 3: 14 - 21 I want to speak of two things, the calling of God and the state that is suited to it. First, the wonderful calling with which we are called. In the mind of God it is His blessed purpose and pleasure and delight that we should know what His calling is.
The only part of it I would now speak of is “access ... to the Father”. “Through him we have both access by one Spirit to the Father”. It is a most wonderful thing, beloved brethren, because it is very evident that we could not have access to the Father if He had not made Himself fully known, and, on the other hand, we could not have access to Him if we were not suitable to Him. Now what a blessed thought it is that the Father has told Himself out, for there is not a single thing in the heart of the Father that has not been fully expressed; it has all come out in the Son of His love. And, beloved brethren, it is really in the company of Christ that we know the Father. It is a wonderful thing that we should know the Father by being in the company of the Son. The Lord says to Philip, “Am I so long a time with you, and thou hast not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14: 9).
The assembly is the place to learn the Father, because in the assembly we are in the company of the Son, and He makes known the Father’s name. Now, beloved brethren, what a circle of love! It is necessary that we should be completely outside of the flesh. There are lots of believers who are not clear in the presence of the Father; they cannot get free from the thought of their imperfection, they are always under a cloud.
We cannot get into the presence of the Father except as deriving from Christ. We are not there as children of Adam at all, and we are free to enter into a sphere where there is [p. 291] no imperfection. The calling is that we should have access to the Father. There is a blessed circle into which our hearts can come, conducted into it by the Son.
What is worship? Our appreciation of the Father, that is what it is. And our appreciation of a divine Person must be adoration. We enter into it by the Spirit. It is a scene of ineffable love, and there is no room in it for anything but adoration. There is nothing less than that in the Father’s heart for every one of us.
We get the state of the calling in chapter 3, the state which qualifies us to enter into the calling. We could not possibly enter into such a calling without a divine state. If I am to know the Father it must be by the Spirit of the Father. “That the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”, that blessed Person occupying our hearts. He has been everything to God, He has filled the heart of God. The thought is that the One who fills the heart of God fills the heart of the saint; that is, He has His place there. Everything else has gone out of the believer’s heart but Christ, and the result is that we being “rooted and founded in love ... may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge”. It is a great thing that in the assembly we are brought to know the calling of the Father, to enter into it — this wonderful calling! — that we should have “access ... to the Father”. And that we should be suitable to it, that Christ might dwell in our hearts by faith, Christ filling the vision of our souls.
Let us see that we do not despise the pleasant land. We shall fall in the wilderness if we do not go in for the calling of God; we shall miss the present thought of the Father’s heart. We shall have it by and by but we could miss it now. It is a question of going in for it and of getting on our knees about it.
May the Lord give us to know the wonderful character of [p. 292] it, and to know what it is to be formed in that state which enables us really to enter into [p. 293] it.
NOTES OF A READING Ephesians 3: 13 - 21 The whole chapter from verse 3 is a parenthesis, it was pointed out last time.
Ques In verse 12 we have the thought of “boldness and access in confidence by the faith of him”. To what is the access?
CAC Well, I suppose the whole character of the mystery would come out in the way that the saints approach God, because the object is that principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might learn through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God.
Rem It is the working out of the mystery He had in mind.
CAC Yes, I think the working of it out is in the actual coming together of the saints.
Ques Do you refer to the order seen in the assembly?
CAC Yes, I thought so, and the intelligence of the assembly is seen in the access to God.
Rem This boldness corresponds with John’s epistle where love emboldens.
CAC Yes, “boldness and access in confidence” go together, the wonderful system of approach to God being set up according to the truth of the mystery, and set up for the instruction of principalities and authorities. We refer sometimes to the assembly as an august company.
Rem If the unbeliever is impressed at the ministry meeting at the divine presence, how much more the principalities and authorities would be impressed by this.
CAC They would be impressed to see creatures, who are far inferior to them in point of creature glory, so superior in point of intelligence and access to God, and would see the all-various wisdom of God in it; that should come out in the assembly, I think.
Ques What are the “all things” in verse 9? Does it stand in relation to the assembly or does it mean all things in a general way?
CAC I think it means “all things”. The wonderful thing is that the assembly has a kind of central place in the “all things”.
Ques Is the assembly like the great divine masterpiece?
CAC Yes, I think so. It is the deepest expression of the wisdom of God. There is nothing like it in heaven or on earth; and to think of that coming out intelligently in the assembly in expression and utterances by men that the angelic host can take account of intelligently! They can only take note of it as it comes under their notice in human beings. It gives a wonderful idea of the assembly as convened and lifts us out of human thoughts altogether.
One feels the greatness of it, if there is ability to express to God all that is in His mind and heart. Eating the Lord’s supper is not the end of our coming together.
Ques Perhaps you will explain that?
CAC Well, is it not the beginning? It claims the attention of the youngest and feeblest believer and sometimes they think it is the end to be reached in itself, but it is the beginning. The all-various wisdom of God coming out in the assembly and being given expression to there is the main thing, is it not?
The apostle always gives a reason for his prayers, he says why (verse 14, “For this reason”).
Ques Would it give a high order of intelligence when it is so, so that all should be edified as well as God praised?
CAC That is true; we are so slow to take up the service of God in the true character of it. We not only take up the service of praising God, but are to say why we praise, so that the principalities and authorities in the heavens listen with wonder. That is something to covet.
Ques I should like to ask, does it here view the [p. 295] assembly as having no previous history, or as persons viewed as in chapter 2, dead in offences and sins?
CAC Well, the epistle clearly takes account of the former condition, and Scripture takes account of redemption. Everything that God does is based on redemption. It indicates that there has been a state contrary to God; but He works in a scene of death and the saints are quickened, raised and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ. That is God’s working. And God’s thought comes out in Jew and Gentile being set together, showing that there is a former status that was contrary. We should not know God at all if not conscious that a state of sin and death had come in. We could not worship without it. “Boldness and access in confidence” all seems to suggest that once it was not so. But now by the faith of Christ, “by the faith of him”, we have boldness and access in confidence, so that we must have Christ before us in order to have any liberty. So I suppose that is why the Supper is the first thing, as it suggests Christ to us and gives us to feed upon Christ.
Rem So that the object of this prayer is “that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”.
CAC Yes, I think it is most important as the condition for worship. The prayer really gives the state in the saints that is essential for worship.
Ques I would like to ask in connection with the thought of the cup — the blood — is it more in connection with the sprinkling in Exodus 24, the thought of the covenant?
CAC I think that Exodus 24 illustrates it, because the result of the sprinkling is that they go up, and Moses higher still eventually. There is liberty to go up. I think the Lord’s supper, especially the cup, would fill every heart with liberty.
I think there is a wonderful going up in this chapter; we go up into that which is eternal, “Glory in the assembly in [p. 296] Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”. We go up into the eternal.
The intelligences see not only what God is abstractly, but what He is as known to creatures — so known that they can worship as none others can. Each member of the body is a contributing factor; every sister and silent brother contributes — not but that he might do better!
Ques I suppose it would be seen in every coming together of the assembly, not only at the Supper?
CAC Well, the Lord’s Day morning is particularly the time for going up. It is the only occasion when we come together with worship distinctly before us. This is the state of heart in the saints who have received through the apostle the truth of the mystery. We are poor in it, but it is for us to see that we enter into it, so that we approach in the light of the mystery.
Rem What a wonderful vessel the assembly is — God expressed in it.
CAC Yes, indeed.
Ques I should like to be clear on the scope of this chapter; would it not have a bearing on the saints in a general way, the light of the mystery?
CAC Then the more we apprehend it through ministry and the study of Scripture, the more concerned we should be to see it worked out.
Ques What is the administration? How does it work out in a practical way?
CAC Well, it works out in the assembly as convened.
Rem We meet in the wilderness position.
CAC Oh yes, and if we are not right in the wilderness position we should not be right in this position. The Supper is to put us right in the wilderness position. Order is in the wilderness position. There is more than that, there is a going up into the elevated region of the mystery, and a going up together too.
[p. 297] What goes on then in the assembly convened is that all might be brought into line with the truth; so that brothers taking part bear in mind, or should do, the great variety of states of soul there is, and have in mind that all are to come into it. God’s mind is that not one is to be left out in this wonderful approach, not approach as poor sinners but in the light of the mystery.
Rem The “Amen” at the end of this chapter would show all are brought in.
CAC You can say “Amen” to lots of things that you are not up to! One might feel, Well, I cannot understand that, but it is very good — Amen!
Ques But should there not be understanding?
CAC There should be the ability to appreciate it, which should be in every one indwelt by the Spirit, and they should be able to appreciate everything of God when it is expressed.
Ques Why does the apostle say “not to faint” (verse 13)?
CAC There might have been a disposition to faint. I think that Paul’s being a prisoner would naturally be a discouragement, and though outward circumstances were very depressing, Paul is saying, It is all right. It pleased God that this wonderful truth of the mystery should come out in a man in such circumstances. ‘My suffering is your glory, you ought to boast in it’.
Ques In what way did it work out for their glory?
CAC Well, I suppose his tribulation arose because he would give the Gentiles such an extraordinary position. When Paul told the Jews that the Lord had said, “I will send thee to the nations afar off”, then they would not hear a word more (Acts 22: 21). But he suffered because he would have the blessing go forth to the Gentiles.
Ques Does Paul refer to it when he says, “I rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly” (Colossians 1: 24).
CAC [p. 298] Yes, it is another expression of the same thought. The ministry of it to us has cost something. Do the Gentiles value the truth of the mystery generally? They do not. Well, we must not let it fall, we must love and cherish it more than ever, for I think God has peculiar delight in a few poor souls who cherish the mystery.
So in the light of all this we can see what moves the apostle in prayer; for we come into it. He bows his knees to the Father, of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named.
It brings out how the family thought is a very extended one. If God comes out as Father, it suggests the family thought. He is going to impress the family thought on every company, so that all stand in some relation to Him as Father. Father is the name of revelation. Every family will take its character from the Father; the Father puts some impression on every family. The Old Testament saints will carry an impression eternally of the Father. They did not know Him as the Father, but the Father will name them.
Rem In Revelation 14 His name is written upon their foreheads.
CAC And it is His Father’s name, is it not? There is going to be a certain unity between all the different families of saints, whichever you think of; the saints of the remnant, the millennial saints, etc.
“One God and Father of all”, it says (Ephesians 4: 6). “My Father and your Father ... . my God and your God” (John 20: 17) — I think that belongs to the assembly.
Rem So that there is a certain relationship also between all the families.
CAC There is an extraordinary measure of divine giving contemplated in verse 16, “That he may give you according to the riches of his glory”. The riches of the Father’s glory — that is the measure of it.
Rem He makes a lot of “riches” — the riches of His mercy, of His grace and of His glory.
[p. 299] Ques Is it not a similar expression used in Philippians 4: 19; is there a connection?
CAC Yes, in seeing the immensity of it; this is the great possibility.
Rem Our blessing never drops down to the level of Old Testament saints; even the riches are according to His glory.
Rem In naming all the families, they each will have some distinction.
CAC Yes, some impression of Christ to the Father’s glory.
Ques For the earthly saints in the millennial day, will it be Jehovah or the Father?
CAC Well, they will stand in relation to Jehovah, but we cannot exactly keep the Father out of it, can we? The Father’s appointments will be carried out in relation to every family, His thoughts of blessing realised. It is God known in the supreme name of grace. And all are going to be blessed in relation to Christ, with an impression of Christ in their affections. That is the reason for the prayer for strengthening, so that the One who is the centre of all God’s counsels should dwell in our hearts through faith.
Of the Old Testament saints it says that “they should not be made perfect without us” (Hebrews 11: 40); so that they will have to wait for the assembly and not get their blessing before us.