FELLOWSHIP, ESPOUSAL, PRIESTHOOD, RIGHTEOUSNESS
W. McKillop
1 John 1: 3–5, 7; 2 Corinthians 11: 1–3; Deuteronomy 21: 1–9
I do not suppose that I shall say anything that is not known among us, at least by those who have spiritual experience. But I think it is helpful for us to review things together, especially at the conclusion of the three days we have had. In fact the apostle in writing to the Corinthians says, “we do not write other things to you but what ye well know and recognise”, 2 Corinthians 1: 13. I assume that would be the position among us in these meetings. And he goes on to say, “I hope that ye will recognise to the end”. I think the Lord is counting on us to recognise the things that we well know to the end. And I think, by ‘recognise’, the apostle means that they should not only be understood among us in the way of teaching, but practised among us as a way of life in our localities.
I think there is a link in this first passage with what we began with in Luke 1: 35, “the holy thing”. The apostle says, “That ... which we have seen”. It is not exactly the Person that is in mind, but what was seen in Him. I would like to emphasize that what we are dealing with in Christianity is what was seen in Christ. It was there in fulness and infinite perfection. That is what is to hold us in these last days when the truth is being given up. The apostles, the twelve saw that. John says, “that which we have seen and heard we report to you, that ye also may have fellowship with us”. I would like to make the point that there is no other fellowship than the fellowship of the apostles. What was set on by the twelve is what has come down to us. It is the only fellowship there is. Even Paul, the great minister of the assembly, came into it just as we come into it. When he went into Damascus he came into the apostles’
fellowship, the same as Ananias and those in Acts 2 did. I think it is needful that we should cling to that. With all the changing ideas there are current in Christendom, we need to cleave to this, that what has come down to us is the apostles’ fellowship. They had fellowship with the Father and the Son, but we have fellowship with them. That characterised those converts in Acts 2. They persevered in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship. I think the Lord is counting on us to persevere in the apostles’ fellowship until He comes. There is not any other.
It is not brethren’s fellowship, it is not something else, it is the apostles’ fellowship. And John is saying that what he reported and what the others reported, was that we might have fellowship with them.
It is important to notice that this fellowship is in the light. He says, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all”. That is the God we have to do with. He is light, infinite purity, and “in him is no darkness at all”. Now it is important to notice in this epistle that the apostle begins with light, not with love. He will come to love because ultimately love is the final thing.
What we get later in the epistle is that “he that abides in love abides in God, and God in him”, (1 John 4: 16). We might say that is the great objective the apostle has in mind. But there are many things that need adjustment. Light is the means of adjustment. When Paul writes to the Ephesians he says, “that which makes everything manifest is light”, not love, light (Ephesians 5: 13). Where adjustment is needed, what is needed is light from God. Then if we are to have fellowship with one another, it can only be as we walk in the light, and that involves movement. We heard about the elder son who would not go in, he remained in the darkness.
If we are not moving in the light, we are going to be in darkness. And if we are not moving according to divine principles we shall be in darkness. I think we need to take that to heart.
The Lord has appealed to us in these days together, graciously and appealingly and encouragingly, to come into line with the truth, and to remain in line with the
truth. That means we must be governed by divine light in all our affairs, individually, householdly and assembly-wise. God is light, but He is in the light. All the operations of God at the present time, through Christ and by the Spirit, are in the light of the revelation of Himself in Christ. There are no divine operations outside of that. So he says, “if we walk”—
that is to be characteristic—“in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another”. So that means our individual links with one another, but it will lead to what is collective. So as I look at my local brethren and I say, I can walk with that one, and I can walk with that one, I think that is how it works out. They are walking in the light, I am walking in the light, and if that be true, we have fellowship with one another.
Reference was made in the earlier meeting to persons who set up something that is apart from the Lord’s supper in the assembly in a place. That is not fellowship, that is darkness. Those persons may assert that they are acting according to principle, but that is darkness. There is no basis for true fellowship in that. It does not belong to the apostles’ fellowship, because in that same section in Acts it goes on to say that “they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers”, Acts 2: 42. It was one matter.
To dissociate the Lord’s supper from the light of God and the apostles’ fellowship, I would say, we need to accept is darkness. We need to pray for brethren who have done that, that they will be delivered from that darkness.
Now the connection among these scriptures lies in their current bearing on us in our localities. So this passage deals with light and fellowship. What I read in 2 Corinthians 11
deals with godly jealousy and the saints in localities espoused as a chaste virgin to Christ.
Godly jealously is right. We should have godly jealousy about what is for Christ in our localities. God commended Phinehas saying, “he was jealous with my jealousy”,
Numbers 25: 11. As we maintain our links with the Holy Spirit in regard of our localities, if something intrudes that would negate the character of a chaste virgin for Christ in the place, we need to rise up in godly jealousy about that. It is no time for hanging back, no time for being uncertain about issues, no time for letting Satan intrude into what is for Christ.
Now you notice in this passage it is not the full thought of union, it is espousal. The full thought of union requires the full thought of the assembly. Now in the service of God, as we were referring to it, we do touch the thought of union, no question about it, we have that experience. But the thing to get hold of here is that in Corinth the apostle had wrought with persons, men and women, perhaps children, and his objective was to espouse them as a chaste virgin to Christ. Well you say the apostle is not here. That is true, but the Spirit of Christ is here, and He is still maintaining this in regard of our localities. Corinth in that sense is the pattern local assembly, as to how features of the truth are taught among the saints, and how the work of God proceeds in the saints, so that there is something that is wholly for the heart of Christ, “one man”. Usually we think of the epistle to the Romans when we think of the one Man Jesus Christ. But here it is again, that the apostle had espoused the saints in Corinth to one Man, “to present you a chaste virgin to Christ”. Think of what an objective he had. I think the Spirit of God would give us to share that objective about our localities. Not that we are presenting our local meetings, I am not suggesting that, but that our objective is, that there should be something of this character there which is for the heart of Christ. But notice what he says, “But I fear”. We had a warning earlier today in Genesis 24: 6, “Beware”. This is a warning, “But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent deceived”—not Rebecca, not Abigail—
“Eve by his craft”. Now when you think about that, the deception began very simply. The serpent said to the woman, “Is it even so, that God has said ...?”,
Genesis 3: 1. Have you thought about that? How crafty that was. There was no open denial of what God had said, no challenging of it. But this subtle question, “Is it even so, that God has said ...?” Think of the seriousness, to apply that verse in Genesis 3 to a local assembly, that the serpent gets into a local meeting and raises a question and the woman falls into transgression. The local assembly loses its connection with Christ, at least in those who are subject to the subtlety of the serpent’s question. Now I am not trying to be fanciful in saying that, but think about it soberly. The serpent gets into a locality through somebody. The question looks innocuous, but it raises the whole issue of the authority of divine speaking. “Is it even so, that God has said ...?” I think that one thing that the devil is at is to destroy in localities the authority of the ministry of the recovery of the truth. “Is it even so, that God has said ...?” The next thing will be that he will impugn the whole question of the Scriptures. It is an easy step for persons who cast overboard divinely accredited ministry to find themselves unable to cut in a straight line the word of truth. So the Scriptures lose their power over the conscience and over the heart, and over the mind. So he says, “so your thoughts should be corrupted”. That is what the enemy is at, our thoughts. If our thoughts are subject to the darkening influence of the enemy, you may be sure that our affection for Christ will soon wane, and the virgin character of things in localities will be lost. We must be jealous with a godly jealousy about this, to preserve what the Lord has in our localities until He comes.
I refer to the passage in Deuteronomy 21, and my point here is not to go into the detail of the chapter, but to call attention to priestliness and righteousness. You notice in verse 5, the priests the sons of Levi shall come near. Then the section finishes with, “when thou shalt do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah”. We had that word the other night about, “thou Observer of men”, Job 7: 20. The Observer of men is also the Observer of local
meetings. “When thou shalt do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah”, has a bearing on our local meetings. God is scrutinizing what is going on there. You remember in Proverbs 15: 3 it says, “The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, beholding the evil and the good “. It alludes no doubt to the Spirit acting in persons. We had that in 1 Corinthians, those in Corinth, “with all that in every place”. The eyes of Jehovah relate to every place where the Lord’s name is.
They behold the evil and the good. That is what it says. So as our brother said in the earlier meeting, this man is found slain. That means that someone acted in lawlessness. And it says,
“then thine elders and thy judges shall go forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain; and the city that is nearest unto him that is slain, even the elders of that city”. Notice that expression occurs three times in this section; in verse 3, “the elders of that city “, in verse 4, “the elders of that city”, and again in verse 6, “the elders of that city”. I want to reinforce what our brother said, that when the Lord raises an issue in a locality it belongs to that locality. I want to illustrate that simply by how Paul dealt with Corinth. He put matters on the Corinthian saints. Now you might say, ‘Paul, why do you not bring Cenchrea into this, it is only nine miles away, there are good people there, why do you not get Cenchrea involved’. But I do not think you find anywhere in Paul’s writings to the Corinthians that he suggested anybody in Cenchrea should take up the Corinthian matters. It was very close, nine miles only. We have some things going on that involve a lot more mileage than that. But let this come home to us— Just because we are near to where the Lord has made an issue does not mean that He wants us to take it up. It is the elders of that city. It is what it says here three times. Once the responsible city is identified, the Spirit of God through Moses insists that it must be the elders of that city that meet the matter. Now the priests the sons of Levi are involved because fellowship is general as well as local. But priesthood has a universal bearing. There is no
suggestion that elders from other cities are involved. The priests are mentioned, meaning that what is to be exerted in this sorrowful matter is a heavenly influence. The priests’ lips keep knowledge, if you do not know what to say, do not say anything. Better to not say anything than to engage in matters that are beyond your competence.
Then I want to point out, too, it says, “for them Jehovah thy God hath chosen to do service unto him”. That is their primary function. Priests settle matters by their word, not by administrative action. But their primary function is to do service to Him and the next, “to bless in the name of Jehovah”. That is to bring in the gracious, heavenly influence of the truth among the brethren.
I want to say something now, about how the matter is met by the slaying of the heifer. It says,
“the elders of that city shall take a heifer that hath not been wrought with, that hath not drawn in the yoke”. The heifer is a type of Christ. The Lord was never under the influence of man at all. You remember even when His mother came and said to Him, “They have no wine”. He said to her, “What have I to do with thee, woman?” John 2: 4. He would not be influenced on natural lines even by His mother. You might say, ‘Was He disrespectful?’ Far be the thought.
The Lord was putting the matter where it belonged, in another place as He was speaking to the crowds, one said, “thy mother and thy brethren are standing without, seeking to speak to thee”, Matthew 12: 47. The Lord is going on you might say with the meeting and somebody comes in and says, ‘Well, the natural link has a claim here’. I think there is a lot of that in the current exercise among us, people influenced by what they hear from their relatives. If they are priestly, that is another matter. But think of these elders going with this heifer. What a study for these elders to look at that heifer as they go down into the valley to the watercourse.
What a study for
responsible persons in localities to take account of Christ as the One who was only ever governed by the will of God and by the word of His Father. Even He says, “the Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what I should say and what I should speak”, John 12: 49. Think of such perfection, that He never said a word that was not commanded by His Father; what He should say and what He should speak. Well this is the heifer, and I would suggest that, if we are dealing with anything in our localities, we need to handle it as having gone down into the valley alongside the heifer. Then face the exercise that the heifer’s neck must be broken, meaning that because my will has been active something has happened, and that required the death of Christ. This is not the general thought of sins now. This is something that has happened in a locality and the death of Christ is required to meet it.
So I would appeal to us to think about these things, and to ponder them. And if we are meeting something in our locality to go alongside that heifer, so to speak, down to that point where the heifer’s neck is broken. I think we would come back with our own wills broken. So they say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it”. I want to say plainly that where brethren are acting in their localities to maintain divine principles, they cannot be charged with the blood of persons that they have had to deal with because they were lawless. Maintaining divine principles is essential if the Lord is to be among us. I hope no one here would think that because a local assembly is dealing with something within its sphere of responsibility that those brethren are guilty of anything but maintaining divine principles. This has a bearing on the whole position. It is worked out in the locality, but they say, “Forgive thy people Israel, whom thou, Jehovah, has redeemed”. They are thinking of the whole position universally, and every exercise that is worked out in any locality, wherever it is, has in mind the whole position of the assembly on earth at the present moment.
So I come to this last verse because it says, “when thou shalt do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah”. We have had a good deal in these days, which has searched us, of divine scrutiny.
And I would like to leave us with a great desire to do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah.
Never mind what your relatives think, never mind what somebody else in another meeting thinks, the issue for all of us in our localities is to do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah.
Remember that verse I mentioned earlier, “The eyes of Jehovah are in every place” (Proverbs 15: 3), they are in Corinth, in Cenchrea, in Philippi, they are in Laodicea, or wherever it is.
The Spirit of God is there in some priestly person or persons and God is taking account of the evil and the good. But the great point is to maintain righteousness assembly-wise in what we do. That is the real test. Is it righteous in the eyes of God? I trust, beloved brethren, as we take account of these meetings that we have had, and I would venture to say including this one, the Lord intends this ministry to benefit the whole assembly. It has been given in this place, and therefore, you might say primarily for the brethren here, and then for those of us that are here from elsewhere, but I have never had such a sense, as I have now since I have come here, that the Lord intends what we have had here to affect the universal position. I trust what we have had will be disseminated and the brethren will get the gain of it. What we need among the brethren universally is restful conditions. There is too much excitement, too much agitation, too much unspiritual communication. What we need is to be at rest. Think of the Lord effectuating that among us as we come under His influence. I think the way to it is the contemplation of the heifer whose neck had to be broken. What a subduing effect that will have. May God grant it for us all.
Address at Plainfield
25 May 1992