AUGUST 15TH, 1928
AUGUST 15TH, 1928
MY DEAR BROTHER, — I would have replied earlier to your letter of July 31st, but have been unable to do so. When things are challenged the result is either corrective or confirmatory, and one would wish to be, through grace, prepared to accept the first, if need be, and to be thankful for it.
You say, ‘This thought of visits by our Lord is constantly introduced here ... Prayer is made that we may be prepared for such visits and that the conditions may obtain. This latter is legal. Of old He was the coming One, Matthew 11: 3. Now He has come and abides wherever we view Him. He came characterised by water and by blood. He came by a greater tabernacle and by His own blood. Having come He announced the glad tidings of peace. I can see nowhere in the words of our Lord or of His apostles warrant for the thought of visits in the way it is presented here. I think the root of it is the confounding of experimental realisation, which is intermittent, with what objectively abides, like being always outside the camp but not always having the experience of that place of reproach’.
I am truly sorry to differ from you, but I am persuaded that Matthew 18: 20; John 14: 18, 23; Revelation 3: 20;
[p. 170] Hebrews 2: 12, do clearly suggest that the Lord comes to His own, whether individually or collectively, in a way that does not objectively abide, but which is dependent upon certain conditions, and I cannot see that it is legal to desire that those conditions may obtain.
Matthew 18: 20 is very specific. If “two of you” — i.e., two of the assembly — agree on the earth as gathered together unto His Name, He is in the midst of those persons thus gathered. He is there — spiritually of course — in a real and personal way to give His support to those who are commanded by the interests of His Name. His being there is dependent upon the condition annexed to it by His own words — “gathered together unto my name”. It cannot be that He abides in the midst of two or three gathered together when they are not gathered together at all. The Lord’s words convey to me, and I think to most who have considered them, that He does take His place in the midst of two or three persons who are gathered together in any locality unto His Name. It is clearly conditional.
I believe that “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”, Hebrews 2: 12, presents the Lord as having taken His place in the midst of assembled saints, and that His doing so is dependent on the existence of assembly conditions suitable to God. The Hebrew word kah-hahl — used in Psalm 22: 22 — is translated some seventy times in the Septuagint by the Greek word ecclesia (assembly). The word “assembly” was thus familiar to the Jewish mind, and the disciples were prepared for its use by the Lord in reference to the new company which was to be the result of His death and of the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is also to be noted that the word in the Old Testament is used in the same twofold way that it is used in the New. That is, sometimes it means Israel generally, but sometimes it means the congregation as actually together. In which sense it is used must be determined by the context and by spiritual discernment. I believe that everywhere in the Psalms the word means the company of God’s people as assembled together. The scriptures which refer to one speaking to or in the congregation, or praising there, must be taken, I apprehend, as meaning the company of God’s people as assembled together. The congregation or assembly of God never had, nor could have had, its true character according to His mind until His Name [p. 171] had been declared by His Son as upon the earth in manhood, and as in resurrection after glorifying God in death. Any thought of a congregation of God previous to this could only be prophetically or figuratively anticipative. It is in connection with the passover lamb that Israel is first spoken of as an assembly. Nothing previous to the death of Christ could be in any full or spiritual sense the answer to what God had in His mind as to a praising congregation or assembly. It is as answered from the horns of the buffaloes, and as brought up out of the pit and His feet set upon a rock that Christ sings praise. The congregation takes prophetically in Psalm 22 its true and spiritual character as standing in relation to Him who has been the holy Sufferer — the forsaken One — but who has been answered in resurrection, so that He can declare God’s Name to His brethren. The true congregation of God now appears — His people assembled for the service of praise. There is the thought clearly in the Old Testament, as in 1 Chronicles 29, 2 Chronicles 29. But it gets its full answer now in that which is at the present time the assembly of God. Things are not centralised now in Jerusalem, but secured in every place where saints assemble according to the truth for the service of God.
The writer in Hebrews 2 quotes Psalm 22 as one of the blessed proofs of Christ’s humanity, into which He has come in view of the suffering of death. By the grace of God He has tasted death for everything, and has been made perfect as the Leader of salvation through sufferings. The whole teaching of the epistle stands connected with the fact that God has spoken Son-wise, that purgation of sins has been made, and that Christ is in heaven as Priest, Forerunner, Leader of salvation, etc. Hence, as it seems to me, the writer designedly quotes first from Psalm 22 as showing what comes about as the fruit of the sin-offering sufferings of the Messiah. He can declare God’s Name in the fullest possible way to those whom He has sanctified. There is an assembly in the midst of which He can sing God’s praises. He puts this in the first place as securing God’s portion in the service of praise in the assembly.
Prophetically “the congregation” or “the great congregation” has reference to Israel as convened in the world to come on the ground of their Messiah’s sin-bearing, resurrection and exaltation. The only instance of Christ singing in the days of His flesh was after the eating of the passover and the [p. 172] institution of the Supper. It followed the presentation of Him in death to His own in a figurative way. There could be no congregation of God to praise Him according to the truth until after that. It was so typically in the Old Testament. All that properly belongs to the congregation of God must be secured through the death of Christ. Acts 26: 22, 23 is illuminating: “Whether Christ should suffer; whether he first, through resurrection of the dead, should announce light both to the people (Israel) and to the nations”. There might be pious souls looking for redemption, or awaiting the consolation of Israel, or even believing on Him as drawn and taught by the Father. But it needed His death and resurrection to secure a congregation who could praise God according to His Name as declared in the full truth of it.
Christ speaks prophetically in Psalm 22 of praising in the midst of the congregation, It has in view the time when all the ends of the earth shall turn to Jehovah and all families of the nations worship before Him. That is, it applies as a matter of strict interpretation to the world to come when Christ will be spiritually present in the midst of God’s praising congregation, and will praise in their midst. But the epistle to the Hebrews put the remnant of that day into the light and power of the world to come anticipatively in a spiritual way. They were in the gain of God’s speaking and of Christ’s expiatory work, sanctified according to the value of His Person and offering, and therefore at that present time they constituted the true congregation of God, and as such were exhorted not to forsake the assembling of themselves together. The holy convocations were to continue in the present light of what belongs to the world to come, and by those who have the additional peculiar privilege of boldness for entering into the holy of holies — a privilege distinctive, as I suppose, of the present interval of Christ’s being within the veil.
I do not think it can be questioned that the thought of a praising congregation or assembly of God is continued through this present period. It is not a thought that has lapsed, Paul quotes the prophetic utterance of Christ in Psalm 18: 49 as having a present application, Romans 15: 9. He certainly did not sing to God’s Name among the nations in the days of His flesh, nor in His days as the risen One upon the earth. It is now, in the days when those of the nations are being called, that He sings amongst them, anticipating, as before [p. 173] said, a future day, but to be known now in a spiritual way, To sing in the midst of a congregation can only be understood as referring to a company gathered together. There is no recorded instance of His singing in the midst of the assembly as now constituted by the presence of the Spirit — no example at all of His singing among the nations. But that He would do both is a revealed fact in Holy Scripture to be cherished by faith and love as a very precious reality. Our thoughts are turned to it in Scripture, not as known historically, but as something to be known spiritually. How could He be found in the midst of any assembly in such a character unless there were suited and holy conditions? He is in the midst of the assemblies in Revelation 2 and 3 truly, but it is not to sing. He is otherwise engaged there, as we well know!
And this brings me to say a word about “the conditions” essential to secure His presence. I am surprised that you should say that to pray for such conditions is legal. Is not John 14: 15 - 23 expressly conditional? You may say, What believer is there who does not love Him? In one sense every believer does, but could you say that they all keep His commandments? Are not the conditions of John 14: 15, etc., normal, while those of the assemblies today are very abnormal? Is it not “the last hour” when many antichrists have come? Have not many been seduced, and is not first love left, and overcoming essential everywhere? Do all believers now keep His word and not deny His Name and keep the word of His patience? If so, why are you found walking in separation from so many of them? Does He come in to sup with every one in Laodicea?
Revelation 3: 20 shows that where certain conditions are found the Lord will “come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me”. There is distinct movement on His part; it is not an abiding objective reality, but a spiritual movement dependent on personal conditions. Now if He will come in to an individual thus, or as in John 14: 21, 23, what difficulty can there be in accepting that He proposes to come to His saints collectively as in John 14: 18, where there is love for Him evidenced by the keeping of His commandments? I believe that, in spite of all the ruin, it is still possible for two or three to be found together in conditions suitable to the assembly, and to have the Lord with them as so gathered. It is a supreme and blessed privilege.
I have left a word on Luke 12 until now, for unless it can be [p. 174] proved from other scriptures that the Lord does propose to come to His own during the time of His public absence, there can be no ground for applying His words in Luke 12: 36 - 38 in a moral way at the present time. But if, as I believe, other scriptures give us the thought of the Lord coming to His own I cannot see that there is anything unsuitable in applying the principle of Luke 12: 36 - 38 to His coming in a spiritual sense. Luke habitually presents things in their moral bearing, and Luke 12 presses the moral conditions suitable in those who wait their own Lord. That it looks on to the appearing I have no doubt. The Lord will actually come to His household, and it will be blessed for those who are found in suited condition. The thought of His actual coming raises the question of conditions suitable to Him, and He would have that exercise to be ever present with those who compose His household. But if there is such a thing as His coming in a spiritual manner to His own before He comes publicly it raises the same question. So that I do not see that there is anything incongruous in giving it present application, and I think the Lord’s saying, “And if he come in the second watch, and come in the third watch”, suggests that He might come more than once, and would thus support the moral or spiritual application of it to any occasion when He should come to His household. His girding Himself and making them recline at table and coming up serving them might thus be applied to His present service of love. I am in no way anxious to press this as interpretation, but I do feel concerned that the precious truth — so long cherished by thousands of hearts — of the Lord coming to His gathered saints should not be obscured or weakened.
That Jesus came and stood in the midst on two successive first days of the week (John 20), fulfilling to them His own word in John 14: 18, was surely intended to show that their being together on that day was of peculiar account to Him. He would come to them. It has been precious to many to gather that in coming together on the first day of the week to break bread His presence in the midst might be looked for. It is not laid down in precise terms that it would be so, for this is a matter that belongs to lovers, and to the quick understanding of love, but there is enough to give love its blessed clue to His spiritual movements and manifestations in this way.
I gather then from Scripture that the Lord does come to [p. 175] His own in a way that does not objectively abide apart from spiritual conditions. When certain conditions obtain He is with His saints for support as in Matthew 18: 20, to sing praise as in Hebrews 2: 12, to satisfy love collectively as in John 14: 18, or individually as in John 14: 23, Revelation 3: 20.
With love in the Lord Jesus to Mrs. — and yourself,
Yours affectionately in Him,
August 15th, 1928.