THE ASSEMBLY OF GOD
I desire, dear brethren, to speak of the assembly of God, the masterpiece of divine wisdom, in which we have been called to have part, so as to enlist the interest of everyone, from the youngest upward, brother and sister alike, in this great thought that we belong to the assembly of God; having also in view that God’s thoughts concerning it are to come into practical expression now. It is of special value to God. He has purchased it, as we read, “with the blood of his own”, Acts 20: 28. God esteems it thus highly, and would have us to do so also. 1 Timothy 3: 15 speaks of it as “the assembly of the living God”, showing that it is that in which God is known in living affections.
I want to speak, in the first place, about that aspect of it in which it is seen as the great vessel in which God at the present time, as well as in eternity, is praised worthily of Himself, in affection and intelligence. Then secondly, as that in which God is expressed in His nature, that expression itself resulting in glory to God. The great thought of God at the present time is that the features proper to the assembly should come into expression now. I have no doubt that is what was in view in the recovery that the Lord has brought to pass during this last century, that a way should be made for the expression of the truth of the assembly, and this, not only in the way of teaching, although there has been the liberation of the teaching as to it—but that there should be the expression of it livingly, in those who have availed themselves of the teaching.
So in the address to Philadelphia which deals, as we know, with the great line of recovery which is characteristic of our day, we find the Lord says to the overcomer—the one who appreciates the opened door and avails himself of it, and continues on that line to the end—“Him will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more at all out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven, from my God, and my new name”, Rev 3: 12. That is to say, that things are not merely expressed in the teaching, but in persons, and the overcomer has all these features of the truth written upon him, so that they are seen in living expression for the pleasure and glory of God.
Now the apostle Paul in writing to the Corinthians, referring to the truth of the assembly, speaks of “that hidden wisdom”, which he says “God had predetermined before the ages for our glory” (1 Cor 2: 7), and he contemplates that we will glory in this great thought, that God has taken us up in His grace, with a view to connecting us with what was in His mind before the world was. It is therefore intended to eclipse the world for us, and to displace it in our thoughts, by substituting for it in our minds this great thought of the assembly of God. That will involve testing and suffering; because if God is set to attain any end, we may rest assured that Satan will oppose it. In Genesis, after we get presented the great thought of God regarding Christ and the assembly, before sin came in, we immediately get the activities of Satan to frustrate it. We find him bringing in a man—in Cain—who commenced a line of definite opposition to all that is of God, setting up a world which Satan intended should eclipse what God had in mind for His people; and the line of Cain continues to this day. Religiously it continues, and goes on to the perishing of Core; that is to say, it eventuates in the great apostasy, but there are other ways also, in which Cain and his line show themselves in murderous opposition to every feature of righteousness. We read in 1 John 3: 12, “not as Cain was of the wicked one, and slew his brother; and on account of what slew he him? because his works were wicked, and those of his brother righteous”. The saints of God have to contend with that in the world today. They have to contend with the spirit of Cain in the business world, in all kinds of unions and associations through which men, energised by the spirit of Cain, seek to make it impossible for a man to live who maintains righteousness in the sight of God, and keeps himself from these unholy associations. The spirit of Cain shows itself, in that way, in the attempt to deprive of the means of livelihood a man who fears God and seeks to maintain righteousness.
Now, the resource of the people of God is in understanding that God intends that His thoughts should be carried through to completion, and that though they may have to suffer, they can count upon the support of the Lord in continuing on the line of righteousness, without which no thought of God will ever be realised. So it says, that in the days of Enosh—whose name means ‘mortal’—“Then people began to call on the name of Jehovah”, Gen 4: 26. The idea is that God is set upon continuance. He had brought in Seth, whose name means ‘appointed’, for God had given “another seed instead of Abel, because Cain has slain him”. The murderous opposition to what is of God is recognised, but in the face of it the saints understand that God intends to go through with His thought, and in pursuing it they find their strong tower in calling on the name of the Lord.
Romans 10 gives us two thoughts. It speaks of calling on the Lord (v 12), and of calling on the name of the Lord, v 13. Calling on the Lord is the secret thing, it is what goes on between your soul and the Lord. You call upon One whom you know and trust, but calling on the name of the Lord is the public thing: you are calling upon One who is not here; you call upon His name, and that becomes a testimony. It says in verse 12, “for the same Lord of all is rich towards all that call upon him”, and then it says, “For every one whosoever, who shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved”. We have the promise of the support of the kingdom as we call upon the name of the Lord, but the object of calling upon the name of the Lord is that the thoughts of God may go through in spite of opposition, and be realised for His pleasure and glory.
Now in the well-known scripture in Hebrews 2 we have, I suppose, one of the greatest thoughts connected with the assembly of God. The writer says, “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. A marvellous conception, beloved brethren, of the assembly as a vessel—a company—with which the Lord Jesus delights to identify Himself, and whom He is not ashamed to call brethren, saying, “I will declare thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. He Himself is singing the praises, but the assembly is the vessel in which that singing is given expression to. It is the singing of Christ, the singing of God’s Son, but it is voiced through the assembly. How can we adequately measure what it is to God to be praised in such a vessel? Of what affection, of what intelligence is such a vessel capable, as identified with Christ! That is the divine conception, that in the midst of the assembly, Christ Himself praises God. Well now the writer says, “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”—that brings in what will appeal to every one of us. It is taking account of us down here, as set apart for the service and pleasure of God. How much it has involved in order that we might be set apart, dear brethren! It has involved the coming in of Christ, the incarnation, that great expression of divine wisdom, the incoming of a divine Person into manhood, in order that through His death we might be set apart at the present time for the pleasure of God, so as to form this wondrous vessel.
If we may speak for a moment of the point in our spiritual history when we first got our link with Christ, we were touched by the expression of His love in His death, for there divine love has come into perfect expression, on the basis of accomplished righteousness. These great things have come into expression in the death of Christ, and form a moral basis in our souls, as having received the testimony of God as to what was effected at the cross. The Lord can take account of that basis; He says, ‘There is something there that is not of the flesh, there is something there that is of God’. It is of course entirely the work of God, but the Lord takes account of you—I am taking account of the youngest believer here as one who has begun to love what is right, and to hate what is evil. You have begun to be affected by the love of God. A response to that love, however small it may be, has sprung up in your soul and has marked you out as of God. You bear features that are of God, and the Lord takes account of you in that light; the Sanctifier, and the sanctified, are “all of one”. You are morally akin to Christ Himself, and He takes account of you as one of whom He is not ashamed. Whether you apprehend it or not, God has laid hold of you in relation to this great thought of the assembly of God, this masterpiece of divine wisdom, “predetermined before the ages for our glory”. It is contemplated that you and I should glory in it, and that, as doing so, we should entirely repudiate the world as unworthy of our attention, or of our being in any way characterised by it.
I read the passage in 1 Peter in order to say a word that may be of service to the younger ones, as to our growing up into these things practically, that we might see the importance of recognising that each one of us has an essential part in it. The apostle speaks of a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, and he speaks of living stones. Now we all understand that the stones forming part of a structure are, as we may say, an integral and necessary part of the structure; and the apostle would bring it home to us that each one is a necessary part of this spiritual house in which are to be offered up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. It is composed of “living stones”; that is, of persons who have living affections capable of being moved Godward, by our Lord Jesus Christ; we are to grow up to that. The Lord would encourage everyone to understand that he is to be available, as a living part of this living structure in which the blessed God is to be served.
Now with a view to that, the apostle exhorts us to lay aside certain things; not to expect that they will drop off, but to lay them aside, as judging them to be entirely incompatible with this great thought of the assembly of God to which we, through grace, belong. He says, “Laying aside therefore all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envyings and all evil speakings”—they are to be laid aside. You will remember that in Luke 12: 1, the Lord said to His disciples, first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy”. Hypocrisy is more innate in us than many of us realise—the desire to appear something that we are not—and the apostle calls upon us to lay it aside. Then he says, “desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word, that by it ye may grow up to salvation, if indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good”. He would stress the necessity of desiring earnestly this “pure mental milk of the word”. It is an important and practical thing to consider what we feed our minds upon in these days. Let us bear in mind that God has called us to a great system of glory and wisdom, great enough to displace and eclipse all that this world can afford, and if we will only go in for it, and give our minds to Scripture and the ministry which the Lord so richly affords, we shall not be disappointed, but shall find a sufficiency to satisfy both heart and mind. The Spirit searches all things, yea, the depths of God; there is nothing within the realm of revelation which the Spirit does not search, and He is capable of making it all known to us as we, on our part, are ready to receive it.
Then the apostle adds, “If indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good;” that is, he would encourage every one of us to put the Lord to the test in our own individual exercises, to make Him our Confidant, to draw near to Him continually, to prove that He is good. It says, “To whom coming”—that is to be habitually characteristic of us. The intent of our mind is to be near Him, “To whom coming, a living stone”. He is the One around whom the whole company is gathered. The more we get near to the Lord, the more He will impress upon us the blessedness of God, and that causes to spring up spiritual affections characteristic of the assembly of God. Even in the very early days of our conversion, how the Lord would draw near and teach us that in His own death God was commending His love towards us, “in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us”, Rom 5: 8. It is as though when we come to appreciate Christ, He would take us in hand and say, ‘Yes, but I want you to appreciate God’. “God commends his love to us”. Then later on we begin to take account of the greatness of Christ as a divine Person who became Man, in order to bring to light and carry into effect all the blessed purposes of divine love, and as coming to Him we apprehend them as all secured in Him. The Lord loves to turn us in worship to God, who is the Source of all, and to give us to understand that we have been apprehended in order that we may form part of this structure in which the blessed God is to be served.
The apostle Peter speaks most touchingly to us of the Lord Jesus: he says, “cast away indeed as worthless by men”—that is man’s estimate of Jesus, but with God He is chosen and precious. Are we going to range ourselves alongside of the world that has cast away as worthless our Lord Jesus? Or shall we keep our hearts in the sense that He is chosen of God and precious? If we do the latter, we shall be greatly helped in the refusal of features that are inconsistent with the Man that God so highly delights in. There is a tendency with most of us to carry over certain features of the man that God has judged, perhaps in the form of worldly ways and expressions in speech; behind all of which is the desire to evade the reproach of being identified with the Man that the world has cast away as worthless, but who is chosen of God and precious. God would have us grow in the positive appreciation of that Man, and to understand that if we are to have part acceptably in the assembly of God it is essential that we should take on the features that are suited to it, features that have been set out in perfection in Jesus.
To refer back to Hebrews 2, we have there the greatest conception of the assembly of God as a vessel down here, in the very presence of Satan’s influence and power, in which God is praised, not according to the smallness of the thoughts of men, but in the spirit and intelligence of God’s Son. It is a marvellous conception. God has not only set us in the position of sonship for His own pleasure, and has given us the Spirit of His Son, so that we become capable of the same character of affections Godward as marked Jesus Himself, but it is also true as we have it in Ephesians 1: 7-9, “according to the riches of his grace; which he has caused to abound towards us in all wisdom and intelligence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure”. God delights in the intelligence of His people, not only in their being formed in the affections of sons, but also in their being intelligent, so that they may be sympathetic with Himself, and able to praise Him in a way that is worthy of His great name. What vessel other than the assembly could be capable of such wondrous response to the blessed God? A company of which Christ Himself is not ashamed, and in the midst of which He takes His place, in order that praise may find adequate expression.
Now in closing, I want to refer to the scriptures read in Timothy and in Corinthians, in order to draw attention to another feature of glory connected with the assembly of God which is to come into practical expression. Thank God it is already seen thus. In 1 Timothy 5: 5, the apostle describes one who is “a widow indeed”. It reads, “She who is a widow indeed, and is left alone, has put her hope in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day”. God allows such persons to be found among His saints. We might say, ‘Why should God allow a poor lonely woman to be desolate? Why should she be left without any natural support or resource?’ I think it is, on the one hand, to draw forth from her that trust in God which so greatly glorifies Him, and, on the other hand, as she thus trusts in God, from whence comes the answer to her trust? It is, of course, from God Himself as Source that she gets her answer, but it is expressed through the assembly, which thus becomes to her the expression of the glory of God. In verse 16, we read that a believing man or woman having widows depending on them is to care for them, that the assembly be not charged, so that it may come to the relief of those who are “really widows”, v 3. One who is really a widow trusts in God, and He causes her to find the answer to her trust in the assembly, which thus becomes the expression of the glory of God to her. He proves, in this way, that He can be trusted by the one who is desolate, He will not fail to succour and support her. Whatever responsibility the assembly assumes in charging itself with what she needs, that is to be welcomed by us, not as a mere matter of charity, as with the world, but as an occasion for the expression of what God is, in a vessel in which confidence in God shall find its answer.
When we come to the passage in 2 Corinthians, we find the apostle dealing with need outside the immediate circle of the assembly concerned, and it is an occasion for the saints to move out, even to brethren they do not know, in an expression of love and care that glorifies God. The apostle is seeking to develop this feature of the assembly, he is greatly concerned that this feature, proper to the assembly of God, should be developed and expressed. Hence, dear brethren, God may allow things to arise among His people in one part of the world which are intended to bring into expression in saints in another part, whether near or far, this feature of the assembly as the vessel in which the divine glory is resident. In order to encourage the saints to be on this line of giving, the apostle says, “he that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that sows in the spirit of blessing shall reap also in blessing”. The spirit of blessing—what a beautiful thought that is! God is the Blesser, and He loves to bless, as we see in the priests of old, who were to bless in Jehovah’s name. So we are to be representative of God in His character of Blesser. We are to give in the spirit of blessing, because in so doing we are expressing the blessed God, and what could be greater than that? The apostle adds, “God is able to make every gracious gift abound towards you, that, having in every way always all-sufficiency, ye may abound to every good work”. As though he would say, ‘If only the saints show themselves ready to come out like God in this feature of giving in the spirit of blessing, God on His part will see that they do not lack what is necessary for it’. He is concerned that this feature of divine glory should come into expression.
Then finally he says, “enriched in every way unto all free-hearted liberality, which works through us thanksgiving to God”, and in the next verse he says, “the ministration of this service ... also abounding by many thanksgivings to God; they glorifying God through the proof of this ministration ... and in their supplication for you, full of ardent desire for you, on account of the exceeding grace of God which is upon you”. Then he closes on this note, “Thanks be to God for his unspeakable free gift”. The very giving of the saints to other saints causes thanksgivings to God, and then causes both the hearts of the givers and the hearts of the recipients to join together in the sense that the source of it all is the blessed God Himself. May the Lord enable every one of us to lay hold of the fact that we have been apprehended for this great conception of the assembly of God.
CROYDON
May 1937
From Ministry of James Taylor—Old Series, vol 137
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