THE ASSEMBLY OUR MAIN INTEREST
I desire to speak of the assembly as being a supreme interest for Christ and as becoming a supreme interest for us, not only in what it is for God, in a general sense, but in what is expressed in a concrete way in the various localities where God has set us. The assembly that Christ has loved and for which He delivered Himself up is the complete thought, but actually it is expressed in different localities. This, although the epistle to the Ephesians treats of the assembly as an entity in the mind of God and loved by Christ, the epistle to the Corinthians is occupied with the assembly in a concrete form that is seen locally and this form can be small or great, very weak often, or a little stronger perhaps. It is important to have the assembly in our thoughts and in our hearts.
We read in the first chapter of Genesis that God says, “Let us make man in our image”. He created him in God’s image; He created them male and female. Then in chapter 2 as we know, God made a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, took a rib from his side, and closed up flesh in its stead. He formed a woman from the rib that He had taken from the man and brought her to man. It is then that the man says: “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of the man”. We can imagine what it was like for man. He had considered the various creatures that God had made, they had been brought to him, he had given them their names, considering no doubt in the wisdom that God had given to him what particular features of divine glory existed in each of them; but then, finally, the woman is set before him, he sees in her something which answered completely to what he was himself. It was a distinct person with her own beauty, her own intelligence, her own affections. She was nevertheless entirely drawn from him; so that it is said by the Spirit of God: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh”. God has therefore established this thought from the beginning, man and woman, the woman being entirely suited for the man, and he never being separated from her.
However, what was thus in the mind of God from the beginning had not been revealed, although it is there in the Scriptures but in a hidden way, until Paul comes on to the scene. It may indeed be that the Lord said something to the disciples, He certainly did in parables. In the first chapter of the Acts, it is said that He assembled with them so as to teach them no doubt how they were to assemble. It was also said that He “came in and went out among us”, and this is a feature of the assembly presently. The Lord visits us, and He leaves us, and He visits us again and He leaves us again. He comes in and goes out among us, while on the other hand, the Holy Spirit never leaves us. It is a distinct feature of the present period. The Spirit is with us in a permanent way. When the Lord converted Saul of Tarsus, He said to him, “Why dost thou persecute me?” We can understand what light had shone upon Saul’s soul when he meditated on such words. The Lord did not say, ‘Why persecutest thou my saints?’, but “Why persecutest thou me?”. The Lord had taken account of what was seen in Stephen and many others that Saul persecuted, entering into houses and dragging men and women to prison. The Lord saw in such persons what was really of Himself, as it is said in the epistle of James: “ye have killed the just,; he does not resist you”; that is to say that he did not allude to Christ personally. In saying “he does not resist you”, he is referring to the saints by this feature that has shone in Christ. He has not resisted when He was persecuted, and in the same way the saints bear this feature of Christ, they were really of Him. It is in this light that the assembly is viewed. She is entirely of Christ.
Thus we can understand what it says in Ephesians: “Christ also loved the assembly”. God has had this marvellous conception, that the assembly should be particularly for the heart of Christ, His companion and helpmate for time and eternity. I have no doubt that He has seen in the disciples and in others that the Father had drawn to Christ the core of the assembly. All these thoughts of God being in His heart, He loved the assembly and delivered Himself up for it. It is then said, “in order that he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself glorious, having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that it might be holy and blameless”. I believe that the word “washing” used here is not the word used for feet washing in chapter 13 of John, but more what we also have in the same chapter of John when it says “he that is washed all over”. It is an allusion, I believe, to the way in which the Lord would desire that the word should have its effect upon us, acting on our spirits and on our minds relative to the full import of His precious death, by means of which all that we were in the flesh has been ended, leaving thus only before our eyes what we are as the result of the work of God. For in the work of God, it is not possible to have either spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things. That which God works in us is entirely of Christ and it is very important for us to understand in the appropriation of the death of Christ what love has been expressed in it, so that we can identify in our minds with this work and so that we reject anything else. We also need to see the saints in this light and link ourselves in our affections with those who are the product of the work of God.
The Lord has therefore in view to present the assembly to Himself glorious. In a sense, we can anticipate this at the Supper, but in its fulness it will be realised at the rapture. What a vision the day will be when we actually see the Lord face to face for the first time and at the same time the assembly all complete, the fulness of Christ, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. The assembling shout that we are going to hear will be the occasion when the assembly all complete will be seen for the first time in its complete and glorious state; and the Lord would have us keep this in our minds. If the Lord has the assembly for Himself, entirely for Himself, she should be able to enter into His thoughts. She has sympathy with Him from His own perspective, and this thought leads us to chapter 16 of Matthew, where we see the assembly that the Lord calls, “my assembly”, which is down here in the place of testimony in the presence of all the power of evil. The opposition and the powers of evil are considered because the Lord speaks of “hades’ gates”, that is to say that Satan and all the powers of evil take counsel continually to find a way in which they can “prevail against it”. The Lord has been down here in the position of testimony and has maintained the light of God in a perfect way, as He has perfectly served the heart of God.
Now, Christ’s assembly is down here for a double purpose, that is to say to maintain the truth of God perfectly and to serve what is for the heart of Christ. These two features are very precious to Christ. It is on the one hand that God should be glorified, and on the other that the heart of Christ should receive what is suited to Him. His desire is that such thoughts should be maintained by His assembly.
Then the Lord says to Peter: “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens”. Peter had confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. “The Christ” signifies that every other man is excluded, there is only one Christ, although there are many antichrists. “The Son of the living God” brings in the truth of the glory of His Person in a relationship of affection. It is this light that is cherished in the heart of the assembly; and the enemy attacks the assembly, trying to introduce the influence of another man and the thoughts of men, and not Christ’s thoughts. The epistle to the Colossians thus has particularly in view that we should be completely delivered from the influence of man’s thoughts and that we should apprehend and reject all that is not according to Christ. I believe that the enemy works thus to try to oppose the truth of the assembly, but the Lord says to Peter that “hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”.
I have already remarked that the truth of the assembly should be developed in localities. This thought leads me to the first book of Kings. The history of Elijah is set in a time of extreme public weakness. The wicked Ahab was king over Israel and he was pushed by his wife Jezebel, even much more wicked than him. In such conditions, it was necessary that some support should be found for the testimony of that time, represented by Elijah. Given the public state, God could not set the testimony in any place in Israel. Elijah had to leave its confines and go to a place called Sarepta, where God had commanded a widow woman to feed him. Thus, Sarepta speaks of conditions of great outward weakness in which God would furnish the support of His testimony. The woman did not yet have the mind of God. She supposed that she was going to die with her son. It is important not to think about the end of the testimony in a locality where it is set. This woman had something: meal and oil; these are two necessary things which answer, I believe, to Christ and the Spirit. Thus, although the woman’s thought was to eat and die, God’s thought was that she would not die, but that on the contrary she should support Elijah. Elijah therefore goes to her and first asks for a little water in a vessel. As she went to get it, he said to her, “Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand”. Notice that it is said a little water in a vessel and a morsel of bread in thy hand. The Spirit of God thus draws our attention to the necessity of a vessel in which the testimony can be expressed. She replies to this new request saying that she had only a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse. It is remarkable to see how she brings in the idea of a receptacle. It might be that up to then she had been unintelligent, but she says very clearly that she has a handful of meal “in a barrel” and the oil “in a cruse”. The Lord would have us take account of this, in each place where the truth is appreciated, it must be presented in a vessel, that is to say in the assembly, according to God’s mind, however small the expression of it may be.
But something more is needed. Elijah says, “Fear not; go, do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first”. It is a case of giving God the first place, and it is upon this point that Elijah insists. It could have seemed very selfish, but if he can say to this widow, “make me thereof a little cake first”, it is that he insists upon the fact that God’s rights must be considered in the first place, and if it is so, the testimony will continue in life. There is another thing to notice. He does not say, Bring me a little meal and a little oil, but “bring me a little cake”, that is to say that she must use the meal and the oil, she must work with it all and cook it. This is an indication of how we merge together and move together. Anyone who is a true believer has some appreciation of Christ, in that he has received the Holy Spirit. There is therefore in him the possibility of merging with the saints in one and the same entity, typified by this little cake which comes into view. To achieve this, there may have to be much patience and certainly the activities of love, which hopes all things, bears all things, believes all things, and never fails. Love is essential; in its practical form for our mutual relations with those among whom God has set us. God makes no mistake as to those he sets in the different localities where we are found, and if we have Christ and the Spirit, if we are ready to move in love, it is possible that some expression of the assembly will come into view in a real way for the pleasure of God. So the woman does everything according to the word of Elijah, and it is said that “she, and he, and her house, ate a whole year”. There was a continuation of life, and this is what God seeks.
I finish with some verses in chapter 19. It is very striking to see that Elijah, after having been so distinctly faithful, as chapter 18 shows, could become fearful. In chapter 19, he is fleeing from before Jezebel. God had sustained him with marvellous power in chapter 18, when eight hundred prophets of Baal and the Asherahs had been slain. Now, he flees before a single woman. He asks God to take his life, and he lies down under a broom-bush. But there is an angel who touches him and says, “arise, eat”, and opening his eyes, the first thing he sees is a cake. This is remarkable, as if God would remind him of his own ministry, when with the woman he had insisted upon the cake. Now he abandons everything. It seems that God would say to him, If you abandon everything, I abandon nothing; I always have the cake before me. He looked, and behold, at his head, was a cake”.
I believe that this is a word for us, dear brethren. It reminds us of what we can provide. God desires that in each place where the truth is known, we should be occupied to provide conditions in ourselves, however weak and small we may be outwardly, that the features proper to the assembly should be preserved until the Lord comes, and that we should maintain the truth, on the one hand, and what is for the pleasure of God on the other. May the Lord help us in this!
ST ETIENNE
11th November 1957
From Paroles d’Édification Mutuelle
_____________________