OUR RESPONSIBILITY IN THE ASSEMBLY IN A DAY OF RUIN - PHILADELPHIA
[p. 266] OUR RESPONSIBILITY IN THE ASSEMBLY IN A DAY OF RUIN - PHILADELPHIA
JBS The first thing is to realise that it is a day of ruin. The last four churches are not looked at in the aspect of the candlestick, but all four run together to the end.
WW We should not, I conclude, look for repair, recovery, or rebuilding?
JBS Not recovery certainly, though that has been the great attempt.
The candlestick implies that you are known as the light-bearer.
Ques Was it lost at Ephesus?
JBS Ephesus had already departed from its character as a light-bearer, but the candlestick was lost at Thyatira. The church has ceased to be a witness. A candlestick is a bearer of light; the church was to be this characteristically, but the candlestick is gone. I do not mean that all the light is gone. If you assume to be the light in the place, you assume to be the candlestick.
FER I venture to think that is a rock on which many have stumbled. A common idea abroad has been that those called brethren are a body of saints separated from system and holding a certain number of truths peculiar to them, instead of being marked by absence of pretension, a people in whom the power and reality of the truth might be seen.
JBS A candlestick was that by which all who came in might see the light.
One great thought, long ago at Plymouth, was to be a testimony - that was the first great blunder.
Ques Was the candlestick gone in Paul’[p. 267] s day?
JBS No, it was not. If Ephesus, which was the brightest, lost its place, what about the rest?
Ques What is meant by, “Thou hast left thy first love?”
JBS First love gives up everything that interferes with company. The Lord never forgets your brightest day, although you may; and you are sure sooner or later to go back to it - even though it may be on your deathbed. We ought to get back to first love, though we do not get back the candlestick.
FER We may come back to first love, as indicated in the cry in Revelation 22: 17: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come”.
JBS You could not be in this attitude of “the bride” without first love; but we get back to it in the character of the remnant. What we find is that the darkest day closes with the brightest light. Historically we are in Laodicea. What are we to do? Our only resource is Christ Himself; having Him before us we get light, and that is what is seen at the end. People are looking for light, but if you had the Person, you would have the light. He is “the morning star” to Thyatira, but to the bride He is “the bright and morning star”. There could not be this bridal affection apart from a true knowledge of union. I must say I do not know many who really enjoy union with Christ.
Ques How can you tell when a person knows union?
JBS The one who has been led by the Spirit into this wonderful truth must be absorbed with the interests of Christ.
We ought to take it greatly to heart that it is so very little known; I often hear people praying for the conversion of souls; but I wish there were more prayer that we might know the purpose of God as to union [p. 268] with Christ.
AMP Would you not say that we all accept the truth of union?
JBS Yes! Yes! But I want you so to know it that you may be entirely engrossed with Him; it is not that you lose your individuality, but His interests become yours.
No one knows Christ as Head, until he is in the sphere of life in which Christ is; for that you must have crossed the Jordan. If you do not know Him as Head, you cannot know what union is.
John speaks of communion, and you could not be in communion without union.
WW Will you say a word again as to those seven steps you mentioned?
JBS The first step is, you know peace with God; second, deliverance, that is, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made you free; you did not gain that by faith, but by the Spirit’s work in you; third, you have come to Christ as the living Stone, and are on altogether new ground, and a component part of that structure which will ultimately come out of heaven as the new Jerusalem, having the glory of God; fourth, you know Him as the great Priest over the house of God, and you are in present association with Him in that bright scene; fifth, you have learned that He is your Head in heaven, and that you are in His life; sixth, you are united to Him, where He is; seventh, then you come to this scene to be for Him, during the little moment of His absence.
Ques Is not every believer a “living stone?”
JBS Yes, all are stones but all are not built in. Some say every one converted is on the rock, but it is not so. You first taste the Lord is gracious; then coming to the living Stone, you are builded on the rock.
Ques When are the living stones built in?
JBS When they come to Him - the living Stone. I do not believe anyone ever came without knowing it.
[p. 269] The Scriptures give you nothing, though they show you what you get; but it is by the Spirit alone that anything is made yours.
In the state of things given in connection with the last four churches, what is so encouraging is that there is One who can enable you to surmount everything. And the church is called to take a path like His own path here; that is, whilst in everything He was for God, He did not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed: Philadelphia answers to that - it has “a little strength”. That is commendatory, because if we had not a little power we could not act upon it; but He Himself is the Resource, and it is Himself as the holy, the true One, and who has the key of David. We should not be looking for the candlestick, but for the One who presents Himself again in this connection in Revelation 22:16 as “the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star”.
EC What is our distinct responsibility?
JBS To cleave to Christ.
FER There can be only one aspect of the assembly in which responsibility can come in, and that is as God’s house. You could not bring it in in connection with the body.
The first point of responsibility is to hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies; and that is to have in our souls a sense of the ruin. No doubt the more light you get, the better able you are to answer to your responsibility. It is well to see that it is not the assembly that is called to answer to its responsibility, but the individuals who form it.
Ques What do you say are the responsibilities?
FER First, to hear what the Spirit says; and the second is, to cleave to the Lord.
What I see in the second epistle to Timothy, where the apostle contemplates the ruin, is that one is cast on the Lord; that is what characterises the epistle.
JBS And in casting him on the Lord the apostle [p. 270] reminds him of what he had been taught: “Thou hast fully known my doctrine”. No one can under-stand what the ruin is, unless he knows what Paul’s doctrine is.
FER The church is here as God’s house, and will be judged as that.
FHB I think what F.E.R. says clears up a point; that is, it is not the responsibility of the assembly, but that of the individuals forming it, in a day of ruin.
Ques What is involved in the word, “And hast not denied my name?”
JBS It has been denied all round. His name is that in which He is declared, and that has been denied and man exalted.
FER It is very apparent that all has been falsified. He has been rejected from this place, and God has exalted Him on high; but man is seeking to exalt his own name here.
As to Israel, responsibility extended to every one of the nation in the day of ruin; but very few recognised the state of things, and sought the Lord. The more light you have, the more capable you are of carrying out your responsibility.
JBS Responsibility is, you hear what the Spirit says, and unless you have the Lord before you, you will never be able to meet the state of things. He has the key of David, and He sets before them an opened door, which no one can shut. He is the Holy, He is the True; there is no ‘and’ between.
If you want to come up to your responsibility, the first thing is, you must be holy. Separation is the first great mark, and as you are holy you are true. You are true, because you come to everything that is according to God. He is true; everything is true as seen in relation to Him. I think you get the principle of it in the armour named in Ephesians 6: 14, “Girt about with truth”. In a scene of confusion and disorder [p. 271] I am separated to Him; in that I come to what is true.
FER The great thing in regard to what is said of the Lord is that it is morally characteristic. He introduces Himself in that way, and you have to answer to it. The idea of His name is that in which He is declared; not denying His name stands in contrast to the implied denial of it. We know how His name all around is falsified. All christendom is built up as though He were accepted here, but our true place in the assembly is that we are in the fellowship of His death.
JBS At the Supper I have two things before me - death and glory; death where man is, glory where God is. Hence you announce His death until He come.
FER I think two things are very much confounded, namely, the Lord’s supper and the Lord’s table.
He says, “This is my body which is given for you”, Luke 22: 19; that brings out His affection in giving Himself. The Lord’s supper is remembrance, therefore I can understand that expression.
The Lord’s table is fellowship and responsibility. Up to chapter 11 (1 Corinthians) you have not come to any collective remembrance, and you come through chapter 10 to chapter 11, where you find the assembly come together.
Ques Is not the unity of the Spirit connected with responsibility?
FER There is a practical unity brought in down here by the Spirit, which can only be carried out by the Spirit; if the flesh comes in it must spoil all.
JBS No one will ever know what the unity of the Spirit is, until he knows the Head.
EC What is the difference between the union spoken of in the epistles and that in John 17?
JBS In John 17 it is not union that is spoken of,
[p. 272] but unity. The Father and the Son are in perfect unity. We ought to be in the unity of the Spirit, but that is not union.
The Corinthians did not. as far as I see, know the truth of the mystery, the only reference in the epistles to it being in the statement, “So also is the Christ”, 1 Corinthians 12: 12. I think they understood that they were the body, as we get it in Romans.
FER I should like to refer again to the point of Christ’s having “the key of David”. I think it is a truth of very great moment to recognise that the Lord has the power of administration here.
JBS I believe the last type of the church in the Old Testament is Abigail. She sought the rejected king, and she eventually reigns with him.
FHB She left Nabal, to own the true king, and she shared his glory.
JBS I am assured if we were really separated to the Lord, as the holy, the true One, He would prove to us that He had given us an “opened door;” not an ‘open door,’ but one that has been opened.
THR It is what He leaves to you; but there must be the recognition of Him as “the holy, the true”.
FER J.N.D. pointed out that in the last three churches the Lord introduces Himself under titles either characteristic or millennial.
In the present day men open a door for themselves - it is all organisation, carrying everything by banding together.
There is no idea of getting to the Lord and finding His opened door; there is not the idea that He holds the power of administration to the last.