TWO OF YOU
[p. 102] TWO OF YOU
Matthew 8: 28 - 33; Matthew 20: 30 - 34; Matthew 21: 1 - 7; Matthew 18: 19, 20
I selected these four passages from Matthew because they present a scriptural feature of the use of numerals. The- Lord in Matthew deals with twos. You will find that these same incidents as recorded in the other evangelists contain only one of each of the couples spoken of. Matthew has in view that the world-system has proven itself reprobate and opposed to God and therefore must be broken up morally. It is not yet broken up by external power. That will come in its own time: “At the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with the angels of his power, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who know not God, and those who do not obey the glad tidings” (2 Thessalonians 1: 7, 8).
We who believe understand that the Lord has the power to come out and take vengeance on those who know not God. It is appalling as we take into account how little God is known, but ignorance of God and disobedience of the glad tidings are culpable, and the Lord Jesus will come out, as we are told, in flaming fire, with the angels of His power, to take vengeance on all who know not God and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But, as already remarked, Matthew has not only this in view, but the break-up of the world-system for believers at the present time; hence we have in this incident of the demoniacs an illustration of this very thing. There were two of them, which suggests collective power, and they come out of the tombs, not out of the city, as in Luke, but from the area of the dead, so to say; and they were exceeding dangerous, so that no one could pass by that way.
What is to be noted here is Satan’s power in a combination which interferes with the right of legitimate [p. 103] journeying. Satan would thus challenge the rights of God. God had sent His servants who were ill-treated and slain, and finally He sent His Son, and Him the husbandmen killed. This terrible deed was committed at Jerusalem. When on His way to that city a Samaritan village refused Him. It is said, “They did not receive him” (Luke 9: 53), but that is not a question of danger: it may denote hatred, but a non-reception is not in itself an attitude of violence. The violence was at Jerusalem; Satan had power there and so it had slain the prophets and finally it slew the Lord Jesus. Paul says of them “who have both slain the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and have driven us out by persecution” (1 Thessalonians 2: 15). Now that is what God deals with, according to Matthew. He will not brook the interference of satanic power in His right of way. He must have that right of way, and so the Lord breaks up this power. Wherever there is such a combination as this, whether in the world or in the assembly, there is material for satanic interference with the divine right of way. We have, therefore, to be on our guard against combinations, against twos and threes possessed by a common feeling and interest, as influenced by some current of feeling other than what is of Christ, for this interferes with the divine right of way.
It is a serious thing for any to be dangerous to those who are on legitimate journeys, as occupied in the Lord’s service. The demons recognise the Lord, but not as Lord. Satan never recognises or owns Him as such. They address Him as the Son of God, but He gave them no quarters in these two men; He cast them out. In doing so, He allows them to enter into the swine: “And lo, the whole herd of swine rushed down”, it says, “the steep slope into the sea, and died in the waters”. The danger is thus disposed of at its source, as showing the Lord’s power to effectually deal with evil. As I was saying,
[p. 104] the Lord suffered in the place of danger; where also the prophets were slain, and Paul himself was seized. So that you see there was a danger spot, the outcome of a combination in which Satan had his part.
I mention all this so that we might take to heart any disposition to partisanship, however far removed from being intentional it may be. Wherever it exists, in whatever degree or form, it makes room for Satan and interferes with the rights of God. As already stated, He sent apostles, He sent prophets; He sends evangelists, pastors and teachers, and in doing so commands the right of way, and He will have it. Any partisanship active amongst the saints becomes a dangerous spot, so that servants of God are interfered with in their service and in the carrying out of the principles of the assembly. You cannot have such service under partisan conditions, so that Matthew in recording these things brings in twos, and as the ecclesiastical evangelist, he shows how the Lord deals with evil in a collective sense.
Well, now, in Matthew 20 you have two blind men. They are not demoniacally possessed, but are blind. If the combination be broken up, the next thing needed is light. The question is, What am I to do? I have been supporting a brother in a partisan way and have come to see that this is wrong; I have been acting blindly and have exposed myself to the enemy. What am I to do now? It is not a question of demons now, far otherwise, but rather of exercise coming into the soul which brings the sense into it that you have been influenced adversely, and now you want to know what to do. Well, evidently you must have light and direction, and what you find first of all is, that these two men have a sense of the Lord’s dignity. You may be sure that as you are released from the danger area, whatever form that may have taken, you begin to respect the authority of the Lord; and so what you find here is that the two of them say, “Have mercy on us”. Notice what follows, they say, “Lord, Son of David”. The men in chapter 8 did not thus address Him, for Satan will never, of himself, recognise the lordship of Christ. He may say much about Christ as the Holy One, or the Son of God, but he never recognises Him as Lord so that these men are not in the least degree influenced by the demons. They had respect for the Lord, which is the secret of deliverance from everything. It is as subject to Him that we get the Spirit, for Peter lays down as a great dispensational principle, that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Christ; Acts 5: 32.
Think what it means to receive the Holy Spirit! Everything is bound up with it: eyesight and all else is involved in the reception of the Holy Spirit. These men have respect for the authority of Christ, who is the Lord, Son of David. They cry, “Have mercy on us;” and although rebuked by the crowd that they might be silent, they cried out the more, using the same words; upon which the Lord stops. Wherever there is a cry like that, whatever the need, whether collective or individual (and I am speaking now from the collective side), the Lord will stop. He was on a journey; but was at no danger spot. He had passed that in the sense of which I am speaking. If there is thus a cry of need, you may be certain of it that He will stop on His way. It is a matter of deep importance to Him, so it says, “Jesus having stopped”. The Lord was on a definite journey, blessed be His name! He was going to Jerusalem to die, but there was a cry, a collective cry, mark you, a cry as it were, from a meeting, and He stood still.
In seeking to care for the saints, I believe we often let things drift too long. There was much to deter these two men from crying out to the Lord. The multitude would have stopped them. We know this should not have been done, and how much there [p. 106] is to hinder today! What is needed is courage. The need exists and is felt. “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David”, they cried, and He stood still. He virtually says, I am deeply interested in this cry of need. So now, He would adjust the differences of the little companies of His people. Indeed, He has charged Himself with that service. He says, “Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”. For what purpose is He there? To help them. In chapter 18 it is not so much a question of privilege but rather of support; and it comes out as the result of the cry of two. “If two of you shall agree on earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to [p. 111] them from my Father who is in the heavens”. You see, it is the cry of two, as representative. They know the need that exists, they ask collectively and the Lord will stand still.
Divine interest manifests itself where a genuine cry of need is uttered collectively — “Have mercy on us;” and then they tell Him what is needed. Could you tell just what is needed in your locality, if the Lord were to appear there and ask you to make a request? You see, they are constrained to do it here: “Jesus ... called them and said, What will ye that I shall do to you?” The question is addressed to them collectively. They do not ask each other what answer to give for they know the need. There are those who know, and such are with God. They are conscious of the need, and as soon as it is expressed, the need is met. They say, “Lord [it is a question of His authority and the power that He has to relieve], that our eyes may be opened”.
Applying this to complicated local conditions, exercised saints would say, We want to know what to do in these matters; we need direction, we are like blind men. Where there is exercise, the Lord will give light. In Mark 8: 22 - 26 we have an illustration of [p. 107] this. He first spat upon the blind man’s eyes, having led him out of the town of Bethsaida, and asked him if he saw ought. He says, “I behold men, for I see them, as trees, walking”. It describes a state in which men who are prominent are before us. It is right that you should respect those that labour: “Know those who labour among you, and take the lead among you in the Lord, and admonish you, and regard them exceedingly in love on account of their work” (1 Thessalonians 5: 12, 13); but do not regard them unduly. The Lord laid His hands on the man’s eyes the second time and he saw all things clearly. That is to say, the landscape becomes perfectly clear. You see the trees, the hills, and every object in its true proportion. So it is as regards any particular difficulty: You see its different features clearly, as the result of the second touch, which involves the reception and recognition of the Spirit. It is this which enables you to see everything in its right relation.
I now go on to Matthew 21. As we see all things clearly, there is that which the Lord can now use. A dark and divided state of things He cannot use, whatever the outward appearance may be. He wants unity of action, and so we find the ass and the colt. As previously remarked, the two are peculiar to this gospel. The suggestion is that there are the old brothers and the young brothers; they should be a source of strength mutually. In millennial days there shall be old men and old women sitting in the streets of Jerusalem. Think of the experience that these old persons will have! And then the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. What an evidence of life in the old and the young. How delightful! There will be no danger on the streets then. No need of a traffic squad in that day! The boys and the girls shall be perfectly immune from danger as they play in the streets of the city. The old men and the old women,
[p. 108] as stated, are there: Each one with his staff in his hand for multitude of days. I can understand a boy going up to an old man in those days and asking him what happened at the beginning of that wonderful time. Oh, he would say, it was a glorious moment when the Lord Jesus came out of heaven, right down to the earth! Many boys and girls would not see that, but how glad they would be to hear the older ones tell them of it! They will gain by the older ones, for they shall have what the young ones could not have, i.e., experience. They will have seen things that the younger generation never saw, and the younger ones will, in turn, be interested to hear details about those things. See Zechariah 8: 3 - 8.
Today, the old brothers have experience, and in having this, they have what the young ones as such, cannot have. It is well to revert to old times and thus be reminded of the work of God; of how He did things then; it is the same God that works now, and it is one work. Take, for example, Ephesians 2: 5, 6: there it is said that He has quickened us, raised us up and made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. It is all one work, though taking hundreds of years to accomplish it, and that one work is going on today. It was going on when the old brothers and sisters of today were young men and young women. They saw it in the feature that marked it then, and can tell you of it, for divine operations take on peculiar features according to the necessity of the moment.
The disciples then find the ass tied and the colt with it. We are not told who tied the ass. I would say, in the light in which I am speaking, that the ass and the colt illustrate how we are bound by divine principles, and are held by divine restrictions. Thank God, even if no more can be said of any of us than this: They have obeyed the commandments of the Lord; and if so, the Lord has respect for us. There [p. 109] was the ass tied, and the colt with her. They are together, and the message was, “The Lord has need of them”. A while ago the blind men had need of Him, and He answered to their cry. Now we may say, He needs those men, for, in principle, they are identical. The two delivered from demoniacal power and the two whose eyes were opened, are in principle the same two who are found here, bound, as I may say, by divine principles. And, beloved friends, a most remarkable thing is that He sat upon both of them. How He did it physically, I am not prepared to say, but I do know how He does it spiritually. With the old brother and the young brother as subject, you have a beautiful combination; and as subject to Christ, they are available to Him as a unit.
It would be extremely difficult for any man to ride on an ass and a colt at the same time, but the Lord sat upon them, to control them for His pleasure. He will not sit on the young ones separately, but will use the old and the young together. If the young brethren in a meeting are apart in spirit from their older brethren, the Lord will not use them separately. The assembly is composed of both, and the Lord will use them, or sit on them, so to say. Here He rides triumphantly into Jerusalem, answering to the scripture, “Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh to thee, meek, and mounted upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass”. Is it not worth while to surrender all our wills, so as to be in unity and thus available to Christ; that He may ride triumphantly upon us into His capital? That is what He is doing at the present time: He is availing Himself of His people, as united, and using them to proclaim His rights as Lord.
Well, now, I want to add a little word as to chapter 18: “If two of you:” not two demoniacs, not two blind men, nor two asses, but two of the assembly — two of you. The truth of the assembly had [p. 110] been introduced in chapter 16 as you remember, so that we can understand what two of it are like. In answering Peter, the Lord had said, “Thou art Peter”. He was Peter, which meant that he was part of the Rock. Christ is the Rock “On this rock I will build my assembly”. Peter was of it, and that thought runs through. As a stone, he was durable, and it is a question now of endurance. Peter stands the test; and so you find in this eighteenth chapter, which treats of trespass, that the assembly is the final court of appeal.
In the passage read, the Lord says, “Again I say to you”, meaning that the condition might arise in which the assembly as such should not be available, but you may have two of it. Not two believers simply, but “two of you;” and they are agreed. What are they agreed about? You reply, Some party movement. Not at all, they belong to the assembly. They would say in the language of the Psalm: “If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill” (Psalm 137: 5). Her very dust was precious in the eyes of the remnant, and so it is with two of the assembly. As you look abroad on the desolation of the church, you weep over it. It is in 2 Timothy we have tears, and Paul remembered them. When you look at the desolation that exists, you weep, but nevertheless you are of the assembly, whatever its condition, and you are thinking of the rights of God in it, and so you agree concerning a matter, and you ask. Two of you may do this, any two of the assembly, and, He says, “it shall come to them”. Think of the possibility of prayer! “It shall come to them from my Father”. God will thus honour you, and will show that you have asked for it. The whole assembly on earth may get the blessing, but He will show that you have asked for it, “it shall come to them;” that is, those two have got their answer, and it is known that they have got it: “it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens”.
Then the Lord adds, “For where two or three”. The circle becomes enlarged after prayer. You are confident; you take in another. You are now getting your answer from heaven; you needed power on earth, and have got it. One can speak experimentally of this. The Lord says: “Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”. He is there to support them in their deliberations. The gates of hades are not to prevail against the assembly. It is a question of taking counsel, and the Lord is there to support us, so that the enemy is frustrated. What we ask for we get, but the answer will come on earth in the way of increase. It will be realised in two or three gathered together in Christ’s name here. The power is experienced as He is known in the midst. The presence of the Lord Jesus is no mere theory; it is a known thing, and thus nothing can overcome those who are truly gathered to His name. The way is made for them, and the purposes of God are accomplished. Two or three thus gathered are signalised by the known presence of the Lord Jesus.
That is all I have to say: The object before me was to show from these few passages how Matthew prepares for the working out of church principles, and these may be found in two or three, so we should be more concerned about the principles and the quality of the persons than about their number. The quality is determined by the word “Peter”. You must look for that quality which is akin to Christ. It must be what is of Christ. As remarked, it is more important to see that right qualities and divine principles are present than mere numbers. One would not despise the numbers, but the great thing is the quality of the persons and the principles by which they are governed. When these are according to God we are invulnerable, for the Lord Himself is with us.