THE ASSEMBLY EXPRESSING THE GRACE OF HEAVEN
[p. 11] THE ASSEMBLY EXPRESSING THE GRACE OF HEAVEN
Ques Would you say that the kingdom of the heavens stands connected with the One exalted, and the kingdom of God more in relation to the Spirit?
CAC I thought so. The Lord in Matthew’s gospel was on His way to the heavens to be the source there of an entirely new kind of influence, and it is a question for us as to how far we have entered into the kingdom of the heavens.
Rem It is remarkable that the heavens rule, and that what corresponds with that is the spirit of a little child.
CAC Yes, I suppose one must be conscious of dignity with God in order to become as a little child amongst men or with the brethren. The previous chapter ends with the light of sonship, “Then are the sons free”. The Lord identifies Peter with Himself in that place of dignity with God; that gives wonderful support in view of taking up the exercises of this chapter.
Rem That was seen perfectly in the Lord Himself; being who He was, there was great moral dignity in going down.
CAC Yes; one in conscious dignity as a son can afford to dispense with any greatness that might attach to him in the world or amongst men, or even amongst the brethren. The importance of a little child lies in the fact that it is a subject of affection. It is a great thing to move about in the consciousness of being a subject of affection, loved by God and the Lord Jesus. I think that is how a little child according to God thinks of himself.
Ques What would that mean here?
CAC The Lord’s words indicate that naturally we are otherwise; there is the necessity for everything being reversed. We have to be taken to pieces and put together on a new principle: “Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child”. We reach the condition of being a little child through the spiritual exercise of humbling oneself. It is an entirely new thought of greatness. Naturally we do not care for the kind of importance which being the subjects of love would give us; naturally we want some other kind of dignity or importance.
We read elsewhere of the Lord taking a little child in His arms, and He speaks of receiving one such little child. How good to be received as one who is in the arms of Jesus! People sing sometimes, ‘Safe in the arms of Jesus’; but it is a most blessed thing to be received by the brethren as one who is in the arms of Jesus; that is the kind of importance that is covetable, and, after all, that is our true importance. “One such little child” becomes a true representation of Christ, so that those who receive such a little child receive Christ.
What spiritual importance that confers on us! If we lose natural importance we get spiritual importance. I suppose the most important person in any meeting is the brother or sister who is the best exponent of Christ; not the brother who has the greatest gift or the most attractive personality, but the one who is the best representative of Christ. Persons like that are of the most immense importance with the Father; that “little child” spirit is so important to the Father that He always has it represented before Him: “Their angels in the heavens continually behold the face of my Father who is in the heavens”. It suggests the delight of the Father in having that condition represented before Him continually.
Rem This chapter gives us what God values, and consequently what we are to value.
CAC I think so. And it is a true conversion to get one’s mind and affections free from the things that have place with men, and which are really an abomination to God, and to get, in place of all that, what has value with God and what is descriptive of Christ. There is in one who is truly “a little child” the absence of self-consideration because he is assured of the affection of which he is the object.
[p. 13] Rem There could not be true administration according to God till we get this spirit.
CAC That is the basis of the whole thing. When we think of administration we think of something big and official.
Rem The Corinthians reigned as kings.
CAC Yes, but there was no divine administration at Corinth; they were endowed with everything, but unable to use it rightly. We often have gifts and spiritual abilities without the power to use them rightly.
Rem This is a wonderful conception of the kingdom of the heavens: the spirit of a little child.
CAC Yes, the influence of the heavens has come in to produce it; the spirit of a little child will not come about any other way than by the personal influence of the One who is in the heavens. There is a tabernacle set in the heavens for the Sun, and that Sun in the heavens is exerting His influence: “There is nothing hid from the heat thereof” (Psalm 19: 6). A certain sphere of influence stands in relation to Christ as the Sun in the heavens, and everything in that sphere is affected: “There is nothing hid from the heat thereof”.
The thought of this raises a very important exercise as to things which would hinder that influence; we must do nothing to hinder the production or manifestation of that kind of spirit; so the Lord speaks of offending one of these little ones who believe in Him. He says of the one who does it that “it were profitable for him that a great millstone had been hanged upon his neck and he be sunk in the depths of the sea”. We see thus the terrible character of any influence that would operate contrary to this “little child” spirit. If I bring in the influence of self-importance, and not only manifest it myself but influence others by it, it is a terrible thing in the sight of God.
Rem What follows would show how this is to be dealt with.
CAC Yes, we find it a very serious matter. Certain things which are as close to us as our own members may be [p. 14] active to hinder this spirit, they may become an offence and a cause of stumbling. There is an exercise first about becoming an occasion of stumbling to another; then I find there are occasions of stumbling in myself. It may be a hand, or a foot, or an eye.
Rem That shows what true self-judgment is; you not only cut off the offending member, but cast it from you, as having measured what it is in relation to God.
Ques What is the thought of entering into life?
CAC I suppose it is just the contrast to being cast into eternal fire. Life is that condition which is according to the thought of God for man in contrast to that which He rejects and casts into the hell of fire. There is such a thing as life according to God; that is, movements and active sensibilities that correspond with the pleasure of God. We find in ourselves certain things which are inconsistent with life. It is not simply we see they are wrong, that is negative, but the soul has apprehended something of the preciousness of life in a divine sense, and has set life before it as a prize to be won and entered into. What is unsuitable for entering into life, what would hinder one entering into life, must be dealt with with uncompromising severity.
Rem It is only in the power of life that we can do that.
CAC That is a most wholesome thing to remember. We can never get the victory over the flesh except in the power of life. A great many people are trying to be dead to the flesh, but we can only overcome what is of the flesh by being in the power of life.
Rem That is always the way God works; we turn to God first and then we leave idols.
CAC Yes, there must be a sense in the soul of the blessedness of life. Peter says, “For he that will love life and see good days, let him cause his tongue to cease from evil and his lips that they speak no guile” (1 Peter 3: 10). If I allow something which is contrary to the thought of life, my influence will tend to promote it in others, and I shall be a snare to them. The Lord’s words suggest that we are to be quite prepared to be deprived of one eye, or to be maimed; we want to enter into life whatever the cost. I have often thought that if one had gone to the man in Romans 7 and said, ‘If you will consent to have your right arm or leg taken off you will be perfectly free’, he would have answered, ‘All right, off with them!’ We get the right eye and the right hand in Matthew 5, which emphasises the importance of it naturally. There may be that which is extremely important to you, and which you would not at all wish to lose as a natural person, yet coming into view of life, and having some appreciation of the kind of spirit suitable to God, you are prepared to deal summarily with it.
The Lord puts things in an extreme way; and he raises questions with every one of us as to the issue of what we are going on with. Is it the hell of fire? Is it something which must be absolutely refused by God and dealt with in consuming judgment? Or is it something which has the character of life, which is a matter of approbation with God? We do not always like to have things put so strongly, but the Lord puts them in the most serious light. The Lord raises questions, and He puts things in a serious light. Things that are a snare are not to be trifled with; whether it is an eye, or a foot, or a hand, it must go. It may be a thing you would greatly value naturally, but in view of life it must go. All this shows the character of persons who make up the assembly.
Rem A soul who has gone through this exercise, and is characterised by the spirit of a little child, is an asset in the assembly.
CAC Yes, he is severe on himself, but it is the severity of a little child. We have to put together these apparently incongruous figures; they all really fit together beautifully.
Rem Severity with oneself in the administration of grace should mark us.
CAC Yes, and it grows out of the “little child” spirit; it is in the sense of having come under divine affections, and [p. 16] having learned touching lessons, that the Lord would teach, of the greatest importance in relation to the influence of heaven.
Then the more severe you are with yourself, the more tender you are in relation to others. Going after the straying sheep brings this out beautifully. The Son of man has come to save that which was lost. The man with a hundred sheep seeks one gone astray. I think it stands here in relation to the spirit in which you would regard a brother who had sinned against you; you would look on him as a sheep gone astray, and you would want to gain him.
Ques Why does he rejoice more over the one recovered than the ninety-nine that went not astray?
CAC I suppose because the recovered one has given occasion for peculiar activities of love. If you had a sheep go astray among the flock at S. you would expend a great deal of labour and exercise of love on that soul; and when it was recovered you would have more joy in that one than in the others, because of the peculiar intensity of exercise which you have had about that one, and not about the others. You would have peculiar exercises about that one, and you would have your compensation. What a beautiful spirit in the assembly!
The assembly is to take character from Christ, the little child is a representative of Christ; so if you receive a little child you receive Christ. Then those terrible influences which are so powerful in nature, and which often come in to turn one aside from that path, have to be judged uncompromisingly so that Christ may be in evidence. Then there is the beautiful spirit of gracious care going out to the straying sheep, the attention of the Owner more especially given to the one gone astray than to the ninety-nine! I have thought sometimes that brethren paid too much attention to those going on badly, but I see it is a beautiful feature of Christ.
“If thy brother sin against thee”. We are all more or less a test of each other’s state of soul; that is one reason why we [p. 17] are put together. J.N.D. said that often when we think we are judging other people, the Lord is really by their means judging our own state of soul. That is an exercising thing to remember. I may see much that is wrong in another person, and I may think I am right in being severe in my judgment of it, but the Lord may be really using it to disclose the condition of my own spirit. If a brother sins against me I have to think of it first of all as a test of my spirit.
We often begin by assuming that it is a manifestation of his bad state, but we ought to begin by considering that it is a test of our own spirit. It is very nice to sit down in a reading and admire the conception of the “little child” spirit, but it is another thing when we are tested as to whether we are of that spirit! We may find that instead of being little children we are very self-important personages.
The true character of the testimony now is that it is the manifestation of influences which emanate from Christ in the heavens. There is not a single feature in common between the present world system of things and the kingdom of the heavens. In the early part of this gospel the kingdom of the heavens is announced as drawn nigh; it was then within three and a half years of taking form in Christ in heaven; from heaven He was going to exert all those influences to which He gave expression in His ministry here; and He is doing so now. He does not support anything else; so that any administration that is contrary to it must be human, not divine. The brother who sins is to be reproved with the object of gaining him. If my brother sins against me he is a sheep gone astray; he would not have sinned otherwise. Now my concern should be to gain him.
Very often we go to get what we suppose to be our rights, very much like the man who took his fellow-bondman by the throat and said, “Pay me if thou owest anything”. We are not to go in that spirit. We should wish to gain our brother — to have him again in brotherly relations. We have, for the moment, lost him, but we want to gain him. No pains are too [p. 18] great to take to gain him. It is not exactly that I want what is due to me; that would be like trying to make him pay up; I want to gain my brother.
Ques Is that why the question of repenting is not brought in here? You do not even demand that?
CAC Yes. On the governmental side it may be necessary that there should be repentance and even restitution, but that is not dwelt upon here. Your concern here is to gain your brother. Hence if you find that your brother will not listen to you, you are grieved to find that you have not grace enough to make any impression on him. So you say, ‘I must bring more grace to bear on him, to gain him’, and you take with you one or two besides. The thing becomes more serious now because every matter now stands upon the word of two witnesses or of three.
Your exercise is of such a character that it commands the support of one or two others. That safeguards the assembly from being troubled by frivolous or vexatious complaints. If the brother, or the other one or two whom he took with him, had known what it was to cut off a hand or a foot, they would have power with the one who had sinned. The chapter supposes they are that kind of person — persons who have the spirit of a little child, and who know how to be very severe with themselves but very careful and gracious about others.
If one goes to see a brother who has sinned with that spirit, or takes one or two more with that spirit, he is very likely to gain his brother. But if the brother will not listen there is a further course open; it can be told to the assembly. The assembly can hear such a matter, and can speak with divine authority.
Ques The assembly would bring more grace to bear, would it not?
CAC Yes, the assembly would speak according to the grace of heaven. There is nothing on earth that can speak with the grace and authority of heaven like the assembly; it is the last and greatest voice, so that if a person will not hear [p. 19] the assembly you are exempt from any further regard for him as a brother. The Lord absolves you from any further obligations to regard him as a brother. You are not called upon to determine whether he is a brother or not, but “let him be to thee as one of the nations and a tax-gatherer”.
Rem The question here is not raised as to what may be eventually done.
CAC No, the assembly is left to speak or to act with its own spiritual intelligence; no instructions are given as to how the assembly is to act or what it is to say. But whether it binds or looses the Lord commits Himself to it, the thing is bound or loosed in heaven, it is ratified in heaven. Where things are done in assembly conditions the Lord commits Himself absolutely to what it has done.
Rem If the spirit of a little child predominates in the assembly, and if there is the spirit of grace in all that is done, and each one is self-judged, cutting off hand or foot, one can understand how a company like that would act according to what is pleasing to God, so that what they did would be ratified in heaven.
CAC Yes indeed, and all that accentuates the terrible condition of anyone who will not hear the assembly. But all this raises great exercise as to assembly action. What may be regarded as assembly action is not the product of fleshly indignation and strong feelings.
Ques Do you not think perhaps that there may have been with us a danger of being too much on the judicial line?
CAC I think so. But one has hardly known a single instance of this scripture being carried out; I have never known a case in my experience of anything of this kind being told to the assembly. With what a voice the assembly could speak! This supposes the assembly has a voice, but I doubt whether we know much about the assembly speaking. This suggests the assembly speaking to the brother who has sinned with divine authority in a restorative way. It is not telling him that he is excommunicated or that the brethren cannot walk [p. 20] with him; there is a previous speaking to that. Have we left sufficient room for the assembly speaking as the supreme voice of grace and heavenly authority — speaking, not in a judicial way, but in a restorative way?
I have thought for some time that this has been largely overlooked, and that the Lord has provided a resource that we have not availed ourselves of as we might. I quite own the difficulty of the present state of things, but the principle abides. May it not be that many local grievances and roots of bitterness, which seem to go on interminably, do so because we have not used the supreme influence which the Lord has made available?
Rem You tell it to the assembly in order that the brother may be recovered.
CAC Yes. You want the assembly to speak to him in the same way that you have been speaking to him, and also in the same way that the one or two you took with you spoke to him, but to speak with the additional weight which belongs to that august company which is here on earth as the representative of the heavenly Christ. If the assembly speaks, it must surely speak with the same kind of voice as the heavenly Christ.
Ques How does the assembly express its voice?
CAC The Lord clearly intimates that the assembly is capable, not only of hearing but of speaking. I think that we should consider this. In what follows, the Lord speaks of “two of you”. J.B.S. said, “two of you”, not any two, but two of you. Two of the assembly, and of true assembly spirit.
People say that there is no assembly now as a known company to which things can be told, and that therefore we can not hear the voice of the assembly. That in a sense is true; and to take things of this kind up today we need a plentiful supply of the “little child” spirit. But we could hardly think that this wonderful provision would cease to be available — at any rate in the principle of it — as long as the assembly is on earth. In this day of the church’s presence on earth it is the power of a heavenly influence that is felt.
[p. 21] The power is inimitable and irresistible, so that if a man will not hear that voice — the power of it, the tenderness and expressiveness of it are so great — if a man will not hear it, he is absolutely an outlaw; he puts himself in the place of a heathen and a publican. If even two persons spoke in the power of that voice, it would have the same character, whatever the ruin may be. One feels much exercised by the thought of it as feeling how little one is spiritually able to act in such grace and power. But the Lord distinctly calls us to consider this as a spiritual reality which in His mind characterises the present system.
The case of the wicked person in Corinthians is on a different line; public, disciplinary action of the assembly became necessary in that case. There are certain things that are altogether unsuitable to God’s assembly, and cannot have their place there, but even so, action is with a view to recovery and restoration. The Corinthians did not understand this, they were first careless and lax, not even exercised about the terrible sin among them, but when they did act they acted with great zeal and were perhaps inclined to overlook that their action had restoration in view. Then the apostle had to write them another letter to tell them to confirm their love of him. But in Matthew 18 the assembly speaking is on the line of gaining the brother. If he will not hear, other action may become necessary, but that is not quite the speaking of verse 17.
Rem The year of release would show that debts may be discharged by being wiped off altogether.
CAC Yes, the year of release brings out the wealth of the people. A privilege is extended to every creditor of making a release, and making it to Jehovah. If you transfer the account to Jehovah it is not a bad debt. What a compensation to one’s spirit to be able to smile on all one’s debtors as having made a release!
The coming to light of our true measure is the real starting point of increase. The very fact that we are made to feel how small we are is the way to begin to get a bit bigger; we [p. 22] acquire growth that way.
Two or three gathered together to Christ’s name are commanded by the name of the One who is in the heavens. He is in the heavens, but His name has exerted its power and brought two or three together in the interest and bond of that name; such will have the support of the glorious One in the heavens. Not only may Christ be seen in a single babe, so that if you receive one such you receive Christ, but there is a collective setting forth of Christ, and all in virtue of His support. He supports “two or three” in their prayers so that they pray with the support of Christ. I should like to know more of it as a spiritual experience.
The “seventy times seven” indicates an illimitable capacity for forgiveness.