PRESERVATION OF THE TRUTH PROVIDED FOR IN THE ASSEMBLY
[p. 379] PRESERVATION OF THE TRUTH PROVIDED FOR IN THE ASSEMBLY
Matthew 16: 13 - 19; Acts 10: 25 - 27
These two chapters, quite familiar to us all, I believe, have been read because of the suggestions set out in them: first, as to the matter of a structure or building definitely named; and then the matter of keys, conveying the idea of administration. The building that is designated in the Lord’s own words, “my assembly”, suggests many things, what is in mind now being the idea of a place of preservation; the preservation of the truth of the Lord’s Person, and of the administration which is in His hands. Christianity, coming in as it did in such a lowly way in the Lord Jesus, is exposed to attack in a peculiar sense. Indeed, those who are in any way characterised by the Spirit of Christ are themselves exposed to attack. The enemy never fails to attack as he finds an opportunity, including the use of violence; and so the word is, “ye have condemned, ye have killed the just; he does not resist you” (James 5: 6). Non-resistance exposes us, but heaven knows this and finds means of protection; and if, in divine wisdom, physical protection is not afforded, there is grace and strength given to endure. The Lord Himself says, “Fear not those who kill the body and after this have no more that they can do” (Luke 12: 4). That is, “they”, that class, are the enemy’s instruments of physical persecution. The Lord continues, “But I will shew you whom ye shall fear: Fear him who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell; yea, I say to you, Fear him”.
So coming in, as He did, in a humble way, the Lord Jesus began to be talked about by unhallowed persons. In our scripture the Lord would first bring [p. 380] out what the world said about Him; then He asked, “But ye, who do ye say that I am? And Simon Peter answering said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. The Lord proceeds from this revelation, given to Peter and confessed by him, to speak of two things: the structure and the keys. Material for the former had just come into evidence and He proposed immediately to use the material to carry out His purpose. This would ensure a secure place for the precious truth relative to Himself; it should not be bandied around by unhallowed tongues. It is a most holy matter. We read of holy things and most holy things; we read of the holy place, and the most holy place. The ark, a type of Christ, was kept in the holiest of all. When in movement it was carefully covered by the priests and carried by the Kohathites. So that the Lord is saying in effect, These unhallowed spoken opinions about the Son of man must be condemned. He is not saying, however, that the world must be cleansed, but that the truth of the Person of Christ must be jealously guarded amongst His own. Christianity does not imply that the world is altered or changed to receive it; Christianity is capable of ‘holding its own’, speaking simply, even in such a world. In the final analysis of operative powers, “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4: 4). Notice, it is not ‘greater is he that is in heaven’, it is “greater is he that is in you;” that is, in us. And in all battles the mightiest prevails. The great battle began as Christ became Man in testimony here. As He began to witness, the Holy Spirit having come upon Him, Satan immediately challenged Him. It could not be said there was no discharge in that war. There was, — the mightiest prevailed. Satan was bound by the Lord. He is not yet put into the abyss, but he is bound in a limited sense. The stronger than he, Scripture says, took away from him [p. 381] his armour in which he trusted and spoiled his goods; a most humiliating set of circumstances, that his goods that he treasured so much are now being spoiled by a greater than he.
Yet although limited, he is still in the conflict. But presently he will be in the abyss for one thousand years; he will not then see what is going on, he is not omnipresent as God is. He will be bound for one thousand years and great things will happen in the interim. This earth never saw such a thousand years in the sense of exploits, in the sense of the display of power in government, as the one that is coming. Every divine thought as to Israel, the nations and men generally will be maintained, and they all will be blessed. Today the Lord is allowing the world to go on; for nineteen hundred years He has allowed the present course of things, but He is around us. He is carrying on, not in a haphazard way, one victory here and one victory there, but in a systematic way, proving the power of the kingdom of God in its present form. All is in the Lord’s hand; from this point of view nothing is going awry at all, not an item. The great structure is going on day and night, already functioning, not simply waiting to be finished. From the very outset it was functioning. Indeed, before the Spirit came the idea was there. The Lord Jesus had been here and died and risen, and remained forty days on earth and then gone up to heaven. Who will take care of His interests now? They are not exposed at all. The eleven apostles are in the upper room, and His mother and His brethren: no one would dare say anything against the Son of man there! He would be quickly answered and rebuked. Then the Spirit coming down ten days after the Lord went up, the assembly was formed. It would exist without the upper room, the upper room was just a prepared place; it was over against current established religion, still owned of God but [p. 382] morally superseded. For the moment it was the home of the apostles and of all that was dear to Christ. The Lord’s mother and His brethren were there. But as the Holy Spirit came down He acted in a public way. It was a question of power, power out of heaven, the same power with which God wrought in raising Christ. It was as “impetuous blowing”, and it filled all the house. It was from the very heart of God. The very affections of God were involved in this power, it was love acting in power. And it filled the house — the same upper room, undoubtedly — but it is now where they were assembled, where they were sitting. God is intimating that His people may be restful in His presence. It is said that there appeared to them parted tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them; it was where they were sitting, and now “it sat upon each one of them”. It is a restful scene notwithstanding the power that came in from heaven; there is no disturbance. Christianity is not to be a disturbed state of things, it is marked by restfulness.
I have said all that in relation to this matter of conservation — the conservation of the truth of the Person of Christ, and of the truth as a whole. The Spirit Himself has taken the matter on, saying of Himself that “the Spirit is the truth”. What can overcome that? What can interfere with it? But then it is to be housed, and that is what I had in mind, that the Lord had the idea of a structure and that material for it had come into view. He calls it “my assembly;” He says, “thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly”. Material had come into evidence and He is going to use it. It is not, What can be done with this? What use can be made of this material? What is this foundation for? But it is all in purpose; nothing is accidental at all, and it is to be invulnerable. The Lord Himself had spoken about heaven [p. 383] being immune from the attack of thieves; thieves cannot break through and steal there, He says; and the assembly is like that. It is something here in the presence of the thieves. And not only can mere thieves do nothing but the very gates of hades, the places of counsel belonging to hades, can do nothing. They shall not prevail against the assembly.
Well, that is one great thing that I was thinking of, dear brethren, and of course it suggests a great deal, especially how it is with each of us locally. For this great period that we call ‘the present dispensation’ is worked out in localities. It is not worked out in one great centre on earth, like Jerusalem, it is worked out in localities, each locality having the principles that govern all. They are universal principles, principles applying anywhere on earth. But we must have material for the building, and the material implies that there is a foundation — which is a great objective thought. The material implies persons, and persons who are not delegates at large but people resident in cities, towns and villages. The Lord has this in mind. Take any town, like Corinth: the Spirit of God took that city — a very unlikely place — for the working out of the truth of the assembly. It was a very wicked city. Athens, which was nearby, was not nearly so wicked; but the Lord did not select Athens to work out the great spiritual structure — the foundations of it; He took up Corinth. Indeed we may wonder that unlikely persons, morally unsuitable from man’s point of view, should be taken up so frequently in Scripture for the working out of divine thoughts. Corinth is a good example of this. That the Spirit of God should have passed by Athens — there was something done there, but very little — and gone to Corinth is noteworthy. Paul was at Athens a little while and he became acquainted with two persons, Aquila and Priscilla. They were not there accidentally. It is not said that they were [p. 384] Christians at that time. They were tent makers by trade who had been recently expelled from Rome. Many Jews are being expelled now from places; God will reckon with whoever does it. But Aquila and Priscilla were expelled from Rome, not because they were Christians, but because they were Jews. Let us not forget that Judaism externally is the cradle of Christianity; it is worked out from Judaism. Judaism has not been destroyed, it cannot be destroyed. Even unregenerate, it is under God’s protection as Cain was; it is under God’s eye. But these two, Aquila and Priscilla, were in Corinth, and Paul abode with them and worked with them, all being tent-makers. It does not seem as if he had any religious link with them at first. While he was there he wrought with them, but that is all the Spirit of God says about them. He made tents as they did.
Presently Silvanus and Timotheus came down to Corinth and as they arrived there, “Paul was pressed in respect of the word”. Why should he be pressed in regard of the word because they came? Why did not Aquila and Priscilla occasion his spirit being pressed? They did not. It would indicate that there was not much spiritual power in Aquila and Priscilla then; we know it marked them later. But as soon as Silvanus and Timotheus came there was a movement in the soul of the great apostle, a remarkable thing. He was pressed in regard of the word of God; not in regard of the tent-making, or the difficulty of getting materials for the tent-making, he was not pressed about these things, he was pressed about the word of God. I cannot go any further than that on that line, but it is full of interest. The Lord says, “I have much people in this city”. He is thinking of the structure in that city and it is to be invulnerable. You say, History does not say it was. But we have to take it from the divine side and Scripture says that “hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”. That is what the Lord said of the assembly. The Lord also intimated here that He would look after Paul’s body. Doubtless Paul anticipated what he had found elsewhere, severe persecution as the testimony proceeded, but the Lord said, “no one shall set upon thee to injure thee; because I have much people in this city” (Acts 18: 10). Paul stayed there for a year and six months, we are told. There was a careless sort of proconsul over Achaia at that time called Gallio, before whom the Jews brought Paul, accusing him of causing men to worship God contrary to the law. But Gallio had no sympathy with them, and he drove the would-be persecutors of the apostle from the judgment-seat. But Paul was not disturbed, he carried on his work; all this agreed with what the Lord had said to him.
Matthew 16 comes in here. Without something corresponding with what we get in this chapter we cannot look for the preservation of the truth, first as to the Person of Christ and then in its other features. We must have conditions locally to guarantee these things; and the first, as I said, is the structure, the conservatory of the truth. The Lord had that in mind, and not only that, but administrative ability. The truth must be spread out. It is said, “For this was not done in a corner” (Acts 26: 26). There must be publicity, and for this there must be administrative ability, and administrative ability in accord with the greatness of the structure. That is why I read the few verses in Acts: they tell us of the historical carrying out of the commission to Peter. The Lord made no mistake in selecting him. It might have seemed so but He made no mistake. His commission did not defer to his character as a stone — that is what he was “thou art Peter”. The history of that stone goes back. I suppose the [p. 386] history of every stone goes back; it might be thought that stones are indestructible; I do not think they are. But this kind of stone is indestructible, and it goes back to the eternal purpose of God. There was a beginning of this history. The Lord says, “thou art Peter;” it is what was right before Him. The Lord is engaged with what is before Him, and He names it. According to Matthew He names it as material, and according to John He names it as having a personal character, “thou shalt be called Cephas”. That is what comes out as regards a stone, that is Peter’s part in the general position. If it be applied to any one in a locality it is the same thing: “yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2: 5). That truth applies to us locally as well as generally, and it is what each one of us is. If one has not got that character, the character of abidingness or permanency, he is not fit for the building. Fickle people are not very much use. It is the idea of permanency, acquiring a mind which is the mind of the Lord, the mind of God, and standing in that, increasing in it; but no fickleness, no changeability, no exposure to mere influence of persons. Permanency is needed or the building will give way. There is not only the idea of the foundation, but of the corner, and all that is between those two great features. What is between has the character of the foundation and of the corner. The corner refers to what is on the top, what is ornamental and binding. You cannot have a local assembly apart from these great principles. Fickleness or changeability renders us useless or worse; we must get the mind of God, which is conveyed in His word, this is what is true, and what is true today is true tomorrow and true eternally. The living stone has that character.
Now coming on to Peter in Acts 10, it is not here the stone that is especially in mind, it is the administrator [p. 387] The building is already up and the principles entering into it are conserved there; but these are to be expanded as applicable in every locality where God is working. That is what is in mind. So that Peter is first, we may say, a workman; for nobody can be really an effective head of an institution who is not trained in it. Peter is in mind in Matthew 16, and he has been holding the keys which the Lord had given him. The Lord had said to Peter, “And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of the heavens”, and he had kept them. He used them at Pentecost, and used them nobly. He was dealing with Jews, of course, his own people, the circumcision. No doubt, he was peculiarly gracious towards them; you may be sure he was much readier to deal with them than he was to deal with a Roman soldier; and he served them nobly and in a large way. He was a divinely appointed administrator, able to take on things in a large way; three thousand were secured and cared for on that day. They inquired of him, What shall we do? One could spend considerable time in going over the verses depicting his wonderful address in Acts 2 that we were looking at this afternoon. The apostle, as I said, dealt with the Jews nobly and graciously. There were proselytes from abroad, from many countries, but nevertheless he was undoubtedly at home with them. They addressed him and the other apostles: “What shall we do, brethren?” He answered immediately, furnishing instructions as to what they should do.
But he is not answering immediately to Cornelius’ messengers. We have to watch such things in our local positions. Leadership and eldership are much needed. We cannot have local assemblies without both. So according to what is related in our chapter, Peter is not ready; he is not ready in spite of the revelation the Father had made to him and the [p. 388] authority the Lord had given to him. The Lord had said, “And I also, I say unto thee that thou art Peter ... And I will -give to thee the keys of the kingdom of the heavens; and whatsoever thou mayest bind upon the earth shall be bound in the heavens”. Still, as I said, he is not ready to use the keys of the kingdom at Caesarea. In view of this notable failure in a great divinely qualified administrator, I urge on the dear brethren the great need of leadership in the gatherings of the saints, leadership, of course, in what is right. Binding is the first thing mentioned in Matthew 16: a legal mind is apt to have recourse to binding. But the Spirit of Christ would lead in loosing, as seen in John 20: 23, “whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them”. Remitting is there put before retention of sins. But Peter is not ready for this. Not that I would cast an aspersion on the great apostle, but did he not release the Jews quicker than the Gentiles? We ought to learn from this chapter that if we are to be employed in carrying out any commissions that the Lord gives us we must judge in ourselves personal bias and prejudice. I do not think a brother will ever be much if he does not have something in the nature of a commission, a transaction with the Lord as to something he should do, and that he binds himself to do. Peter accepted the commission given to him, but here he is not fulfilling it. I am not saying he did not fulfil it ultimately; he is just weak in the matter. The part of the commission that referred to the Jews he did immediately and well, according to Acts 2, but the kingdom of the heavens extended far beyond the Jews. This Peter should have understood, but he is not acting in that light. Heaven itself is active in the most remarkable way among the nations but Peter is not in this activity.
The immediate person in view is Cornelius, a Roman officer who has a household. He is in the [p. 389] mind of heaven. He had already invaded heaven through his prayers. The angel tells him, “Thy prayers and thine alms have gone up for a memorial before God” (Acts 10: 4). I do not suppose that memorial has ever been removed. It reminds heaven of him, of the kind of man he was. And yet Peter was afraid of him! Heaven was not; he has, as noted, a memorial up there. He is known up there. “Thy prayers and thine alms have gone up for a memorial before God”. He has that memorial still; I am sure heaven has never changed its mind about him; yet Peter had not come to the mind of heaven about him or those he represented. There is much more I could say on this great matter, for it is a wonderful story; it is the introduction of the Gentiles, not simply of one Roman officer. He is a representative of the Gentiles. Simeon in Jerusalem had said that Christ was to be “a light for revelation of the Gentiles” (Luke 2: 32), that is to say, to take away the veil that was over them. Well, that veil was over them in Peter’s mind yet, but God has removed it in Christ. As I pointed out, He was “a light for revelation of the Gentiles”. The idea of ‘revelation’, as many know, is ‘unveiling’, the cover is removed; and so it is removed from Cornelius. Look at him! Christ in heaven is shedding light on him. He is marked off for blessing, and he is already answering to this in his prayers and alms. Peter has not yet met him, but still he is seen in the sheet let down for Peter’s eyes. He is, however, not drawn to him. This is a very searching matter. I might be mistaken about persons that seek to be in fellowship — the veil may have been removed and I have not noticed it. In the case before us a good deal happens, as you know; the angel told Cornelius what to do and Cornelius did it. He yielded prompt obedience in what God told him to do. Look at the kind of people he has in his house: one is a pious soldier.
[p. 390] Could you find one like that in the whole world in a man’s house? A pious Roman soldier would surely be exceptional, but this one is clearly a subject of the work of God. And Cornelius sends him to see Peter; he is one of those that went to see Peter, and Peter saw him. Was he impressed? Was he reminded by him of what God was doing among the Gentiles? Did he link him with the sheet? Undoubtedly the truth was dawning on the apostle’s mind; he was being made ready for the great transaction at Caesarea. This soldier could tell him a good deal about Cornelius and Peter would listen to him. Did he, by hearing that pious soldier speak about Cornelius, begin to think that maybe those beasts in the sheet represented him? They did. It is one matter and it is Peter’s matter.
And so it is, dear brethren, that the Lord is looking for administrators in all the gatherings of the saints: those that can exercise grace and patience; but not only that, but who can, if necessary, exercise binding and loosing too. Here the principle is loosing. The Gentiles are being formally admitted into the liberty and protection — and not only this — but into the dignity and blessedness of the house of God. It is a question of grace. It is one of the most beautiful chapters as to grace, and that is the leading idea of administration. Grace is reigning. The idea of grace reigning runs into all divine administration — certainly all that refers to Christianity. It is a day of grace — grace reigns “through righteousness to eternal life”.
I just wish to close with a few further comments as to Peter. How wonderfully amenable he was to heaven when the real turn came in his soul! It was a crisis in his history: Peter is in the balances. Will he shine in the test? Will those messengers of Cornelius go back to Caesarea without him, or will Peter go with them? Yes, he will go on the morrow,
[p. 391] rising up, he went away with them, and “certain of the brethren from Joppa went with him”. He says later that six had gone. It is a big matter now in his mind. Moreover he told his questioners at Jerusalem that at Caesarea he found it was a question of what God was doing; his administrative service had but little part in what was accomplished. He did have part, however, for he preached the word of the glad tidings to those gathered in the house of Cornelius; and after the Spirit came upon them he commanded them to be baptised in the name of the Lord. Who was I, he says, that I could forbid God? What a fine thought that is! What a fine expression! God is doing the work; woe be to him that interferes with what God is doing! Peter did not interfere. God brought him into line and he became amenable to His guidance. That was a beautiful feature in Peter, he was always convertible. He became a convert more than once; he had to be changed around. At first when the voice from heaven said, “Rise, Peter, slay and eat”, he said, “In no wise, Lord;” but he changed his mind. He became obedient to the heavenly voice. Three times the word was, “What God has cleansed, do not thou make common”. Peter changed his mind, obeying the divine direction. Now he is on the high road of God; he is on the right road with his keys, letting in the Gentiles ‘en masse’, so to speak. It is not simply a question of one Gentile any more than it is of one Jew. There were three thousand added at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. We are not told how many were assembled to hear Peter at Caesarea, but no doubt there was a goodly number; there were enough to represent a great collective thought. And, dear brethren, we ought to be big in our minds in this sense, big in our minds and affections to include all saints. Peter expanded himself in the house of Cornelius. No doubt it was a goodly house,
[p. 392] he was a Roman officer, but we must not think much of that. There is what is suitable or seemly, but I do think the bigger a man is spiritually the less pretentious his house is likely to be. Still, I am not saying a word about the size of Cornelius’ house, but I have no doubt it was a suitable house for a Roman officer in the city of Caesarea, an important city. He went out to meet Peter and he falls down. You say, Is he idolatrous? No; he has such a sense of the value of the man before him that he expresses it in this way. He should not have fallen down, I know, but it is not mere idolatry; it is great appreciation of the man. Peter did not charge him with idolatry; he lifts him up. He says, “I myself also am a man”, implying that Cornelius and he were, as men, on the same footing. They walked into the house together. It was a fine sight, but it was grace: grace in Peter, love in Peter too; and in Cornelius submission and appreciation of the work of God.
The Holy Spirit fell on those who heard the word as Peter preached. It was a beautiful word; not just as full and fresh and powerful as what he said at Jerusalem: Peter was in special liberty and power at Jerusalem. He was, we may say, in his element — full of the Holy Spirit, full of the sense of divine commission. But now he is at Cornelius’ house among the Gentiles, and his speech is not just quite so full, not quite so lengthy. It is enough, however; in fact, the Spirit of God hindered him. The Spirit of God says, in effect, I am first in this matter. God is saying, I am first in this matter. And Peter could well say, I am thoroughly with God. What divine greatness and love and glory and blessing entered into the whole scene! Peter had a better judgment of himself than Cornelius had. He said, “who was I?” It was God that was doing the work. Thus as we are with God and in His things we shall find that the saints will come in [p. 393] and be with us; and I confidently hope there will be something of this after all this terrible sorrow of war is over. God is going to turn the tide. The elect are going to be saved; we have that assurance. But at Caesarea it was a question of God’s activities, and so it is in our localities; if God is working there will be additions to those already gathered. I am afraid of the words ‘applicants for fellowship’, nor would I use the words ‘reception into fellowship’. These great privileges are not conferred by the saints; those who wash their robes “have right to the tree of life, and that they should go in by the gates into the city” (Revelation 22: 14). The Spirit of God received those who were hearing the word in Cornelius’ house; Acts 10: 44. While Peter was speaking the Holy Spirit fell on all those who were hearing the word. This corresponds with the action of the father of the prodigal, Luke 15: 20: “his father ... fell upon his neck, and covered him with kisses”. Peter’s address was reduced by the Spirit of God. It is evident that he stopped as the Spirit fell on those who were hearing him. He was reminded of what happened at Pentecost. In both cases God was acting and what was done was done forever. The baptising was Peter’s part; at least he commanded those upon whom the Spirit fell to be baptised. The chapter narrates a wonderful work of God; it exceeded Pentecost in the sense that the Holy Spirit fell on the listeners while Peter was yet preaching. That had not happened before, it was a new thing. God is ready to do new things in that sense, to show how His love is active. The time of stressing love had come. Grace had been reigning, but in view of Paul love is more in evidence in the activity of the Spirit. Thus the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word of God.