WALKING AS APPLIED TO LOCAL ASSEMBLIES
A. P. Devenish
Hosea 11: 3, 4; Acts 14: 8–10; Psalm 48: 11–14; Isaiah 21: 11, 12
It is in mind to speak about walking, in particular as applying to localities. In Acts 14, we may regard the man as representative of a locality. We know that the reference to AEneas in Acts has been applied to local assemblies. Peter says to him, “Aeneas, Jesus, the Christ, heals thee—rise up, and make thy couch for thyself. And straightway he rose up”, Acts 9: 34. The responsibility, therefore, is on us to attend to matters in our localities, and attend to them well. Peter is preparing us for Paul’s ministry and Paul’s economy of local assemblies. Mr.
Taylor suggested that Peter, under the Lord’s guidance, hastened to extend the railroad grade preparing for Paul’s train, (NS Vol.21, p.102). There was not to be one grade for Judaea and another outside of Judaea. So we see the development of the truth in this book leading to Paul.
So I thought to apply the scripture in Acts 14 to a locality. One feels led of the Lord to speak of this because I believe there is a current need amongst us, I speak for myself too. It says, “a certain man in Lystra,
impotent in his feet, sat, being lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked”, doubtless alluding to the Gentiles. The lame man in Acts 3 would allude to the Jews. It does not say that he had never walked. This section refers to this man as having never walked, but it says, “This man heard Paul speaking, who, fixing his eyes on him, and seeing that he had faith to be healed”. That is a remarkable thing, “seeing that he had faith to be healed”. His faith was apparent, his faith could be seen, he was transparent. It is a wonderful thing to see faith in the local company. How much there is need of that, beloved brethren. There is faith in the local company in view of healing, faith in God. The Lord Jesus says nothing is impossible with God. It needs to lay hold of our souls when we think things look impossible. How many of us have experienced this in relation to our families, our children; we may think things are impossible; you see persons going away. Can we take account of faith in the local company?
Faith that is active, faith in God, “Have faith in God”, the Lord says (Mark 11: 22). Nothing is impossible with God. Let us take comfort in that.
The wealthy woman of Shunem says, as to Elisha, “I perceive that this is a holy man of God”
(2 Kings 4: 9), she perceived it. It is what can be taken account of. This man heard Paul speaking. Then Paul, “seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Rise up straight upon thy feet”. What need there is for moral integrity and moral uprightness. There is to be nothing devious or crooked with him. Moses was king in Jeshurun, king in the midst of the upright. The Lord is to have such a place in our midst, king in Jeshurun. There is to be uprightness with us. Then it says that “he sprang up and walked”. A man who had never walked, would he be able to walk? Would he be able to walk in a balanced way?
I read in Hosea because it speaks about God teaching Ephraim to walk, “I it was that taught Ephraim
to walk”. In this book Ephraim is alluded to as representative of Israel, there is Judah and Ephraim; but also Ephraim is a tribe, one of the tribes of Israel, and God says, “I it was that taught Ephraim to walk”. Think of God teaching us to walk in our local companies. You have seen a child trying to walk, stumbling, being able to walk a few steps, and then being caught by his father and mother. But we are to walk, in a balanced way, in a mature way. It is remarkable what it says about the Lord in the beginning of John, “grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ” (John 1: 17), everything was in perfect balance in him. We are to walk in our localities in a balanced way, not arbitrarily stressing the truth at the expense of grace, or, what is more often perhaps amongst us, stressing grace at the expense of the truth.
Referring again to the man in Acts 14, he could walk because he listened to Paul. Something had entered into his constitution through Paul speaking by the Spirit which caused him to be able to walk, to spring up. There would be energy in his movements, energy, life and balance.
There is a great need for the truth to be held in love; not arbitrarily but in love, and yet not give it up for a moment, not surrender any item of it. So God would teach us. God walked in the beginning in the cool of the day, and He would teach us to walk.
It goes on to say, “He took them upon his arms ... I drew them with bands of a man, with cords of love”. You can see how the local assembly, as I might apply it that way, is formed by the “bands of a man”. What do we know in our localities about the “bands of a man”. Oh, you say, That Man is Jesus. But then that character of Jesus is to be seen in the saints, the
“bands of a man” are to be felt in the local assembly, gentle yet firm. You would not easily let anyone go, would you? God is gently teaching us. Ephraim had a very interesting place in relation to the tabernacle and the arrangement of the tribes around the tabernacle, perhaps the closest tribe to the ark. You say, Well he was in the westward position. Judah would surely be in a more favourable
place. But if you look carefully it would seem that Ephraim along with Manasseh and Benjamin were the closest to the ark. Oh, you say, I think I would do better somewhere else where there is more fellowship; we are a long way from the nearest meeting. But each local assembly is close to the ark. We have our immediate relation with Christ. There is no disadvantage therefore. One thing to be noticed about Paul’s economy of local assemblies, is that Jerusalem is no longer the centre, heaven is the centre of divine operations. A voice came from heaven. The centre of operations is transferred to heaven, and Antioch, a local assembly, is immediately in relation to Christ in heaven. Therefore, wherever we are local, we are at no disadvantage.
God says, “I drew them with bands of a man, with cords of love; and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I gently caused them to eat”. Surely these precious features that have come out here are what God is showing us, what God is teaching us. We speak about the Lord Jesus in the gospels taking the children into His arms, putting His hands upon them and blessing them. Where are those arms today? The strength and the firmness and the affection of those arms, where are they today? Christ is in heaven but His body is here, and He is to be expressed in His body. Take the little ones into your arms. May they feel the strength and the firmness and the affection of the arms of Christ, the arms of Jesus, in our localities. “I gently caused them to eat”. Well can we gently cause them to eat? I do not think we bring the truth down into kindergarten terms; I do not think so, but I do think there needs to be simplicity among us as to the truth. Paul speaks about simplicity as to the Christ (2
Corinthians 11: 3). “I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws”. What may be hindering persons from appropriating the truth needs to be removed. That is a most lovely expression, “as the truth is in Jesus”, Ephesians 4: 21. There is nothing to obscure the outshining of the truth in Jesus.
but it is there in that Man in such an attractive way that would appeal to every heart, even the youngest heart that is present.
I believe this man in the Acts is representative, therefore, of our localities. Brethren will excuse me for referring to the need of moral adjustment, but the Lord’s word may be in it, so that we should be able to walk, not stumble, but go straight forward. It says about the milch kine that they went straight forward, lowing as they went What does it mean? They went sufferingly, but they went on a straight way. Oh, you say, I find it hard to leave behind what is natural, it has such a pull, it is so strong. But let us go on a straight way. It says, “they went by the one high way, lowing as they went; and they turned not aside to the right hand or to the left”, 1 Samuel 6: 12. They “took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home” (1 Samuel 6: 10). These things are to come into expression amongst us.
How often we may give way to the natural claim and surrender the rights of Christ in our localities. We want to go by the one high way, not turning to the right or to the left.
I refer now to Psalm 48, “Walk about Zion, and go round about her—count the towers thereof”. What a wonderful privilege it is to walk about Zion. It says. He has chosen Judah,
“the mount Zion which he loved”, Psalm 78: 68. What a privilege it is to be in liberty to walk about Zion. It says, “count the towers thereof”—how important that is. I suppose they are watch towers. How the enemy is seeking to overthrow the testimony! How persons have stood by the truth; one great truth being separation from evil is God’s principle of unity! The enemy is constantly attacking, trying to modify the truth as to separation. “Count the towers”; see how God has used the watchmen to protect the testimony.
That is why I read in Isaiah, “Watchman, what of the night?” It is a remarkable reference. I do not know
its interpretation, but I would make an application. It says, “He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night—if ye will inquire, inquire; return, come”. We want this feature of watching in our localities. How wonderful that will be when the morning cometh, but it says also, “what of the night?” We want to be preserved until the morning comes; preserved in the truth, preserved in the testimony of our Lord until the morning comes. But it is a challenge to us as to whether we are watchmen in our localities. We see the enemy coming in like a flood to undermine and modify the principles of separation, the principles of the truth. Are we alert as to what the enemy is at? He would quench the fire of the testimony of our Lord. Dear young people. Do you know the history of the recovery? Can you count the towers? Can we take account of the issues that have arisen in the testimony and how the Lord has met them through persons who have been watching, who have been faithful to the truth?
It is good if there is inquiry. Look into the truth. I love to hear young people come and say, What happened in the matter of Bethesda, or in this matter or that matter. Why was that tract written, ‘Separation From Evil, God’s Principle of Unity’? We want to inquire, find out what has happened in the history of the testimony, count the towers. Why can we walk in liberty about Zion? Because of the watchmen, because of those who have stood by the truth.
Then he says, “Mark ye well her bulwarks”. What are the bulwarks of Zion? Zion represents the principle of sovereign mercy. That is one of the bulwarks, I believe, of Zion. Zion too is referred to as David’s city. It speaks about the place that Christ has in the hearts of His people, and that is a wonderful bulwark. David found the Jebuzites in Zion, found them there still. He took the stronghold of Zion, which is the city of David, and David said on that day,
“Whoever smites the Jebuzites and gets up to the watercourse”. Then it says,
“So David dwelt in the stronghold, and called it the city of David”, 2 Samuel 5: 8, 9. On the one hand it speaks of God’s sovereign mercy, He chose Judah, “the mount Zion which he loved”; but then on the other hand it speaks about the place that Christ has in the hearts of His people, a place that He has won. What a bulwark that is against the onslaught of the enemy if Christ has the supreme place in the hearts of His people. He is the most lovable Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what David represents, the Lord Jesus as exceedingly attractive.
Where Christ has the supreme place in the hearts of His people that is a great bulwark. That is better than any legal understanding or apprehension of the truth. That is a bulwark that will resist the onslaught of the enemy, Christ in the affections of His people. That is what Zion represents, David’s city. Every locality should be like David’s city.
So it goes on to say, “consider her palaces”. Well, palaces are very magnificent, I might say, or ornamental. It was seen in the house that Solomon built, it was palatial, it was magnificent.
Now we do not have that magnificence outwardly, but we have that magnificence inwardly.
Do not in any sense under-rate or belittle the work of God in the saints. It is precious, it is magnificent inwardly. As you walk about Zion you see it. Consider the beauty and magnificence of the work of God, what He has done in the saints; the moral beauty of God’s work, “if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation”, 2 Corinthians 5: 17. Let us consider her palaces “that ye may tell it to the generation following”. What do we convey to our beloved younger brethren? That the testimony is petering out? That we are coming to the end? What do we convey? Let us tell them of the magnificence of what God is doing amongst the beloved saints, the inward glory of His work as it comes into manifestation in one another. All these things we can pass on, the glory of them we are to pass on.
Then it says, “For this God is our God for ever and
ever; he will be our guide until death”. That is a very affecting reference, “this God is our God”. This is a very touching way in which God links on with us in our present circumstances, that He is our God. I would like to leave that with us in finishing what I have to say, “this God is our God”. What the saints are going through in the way of suffering (and how much there is amongst us, beloved brethren, of suffering), facing death, facing the actual moment of death, disembodiment, but the great comfort that should flood into our souls is that “this God is our God ... he will be our guide until death”. It is an interesting way in which the psalm finishes, as if the heart of God, in tender sympathy, enters into our circumstances of sorrow, suffering and death. Oh that something of the infinitely tender sympathy of the blessed God should comfort our hearts at this time. May it be so in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Address at Ormond Beach
27 December 1997