⬇ EPUB

THE ASSEMBLY

^[p. 308] THE ASSEMBLY

JBS Our subject this evening is the assembly. The first point is, what is its object and purpose? Secondly, how you are in it. Thirdly, the privileges and responsibilities of it. Fourthly, the moral effect of being in the assembly.

The first thing to see is Christ’s rejection. In Matthew 14 John the baptist has been beheaded, and the Lord is going to prepare the disciples for His own rejection, and to give them instruction as to the new ground. It was a moment of profound interest, what is called in political language a crisis. From chapter 14 to chapter 16 He is educating His disciples for the new structure.

Ques Why do you connect it with the beheading of John?

JBS John was the forerunner of Christ. It is like a courier going before a king. If they kill the courier, it shows they are ready to kill the king. The Lord plainly accepts it as indicative of His own rejection; and what does He do? He goes into the wilderness. Do you understand that? Do you accept His rejection? That is the first step towards the assembly. There are many pious men in system who cannot find the assembly. Why? Because they do not start aright. They do not start with His rejection. The object and purpose of the assembly is to supply a place for Christ on earth where He has been rejected. How little is known of it!

The Lord goes away to the desert where the poor of the flock can find Him, and feeds them there. Then He sends His disciples on the sea, that they may realise the state of things on earth. He Himself goes to the mountain. They are in the midst of the sea; the ^[p. 309] winds and the waves - the power of Satan and the world against them. And He goes to them. BUT HE TAKES NOW A NEW POSITION. He is not now, as in chapter 8, quelling the storm; but He is above it in a new position - supreme now, not only superior; He was always superior; now He is supreme, outside of it all. I ask each one of you, Do you believe that the Lord is in a new position?

Rem I think I can say I do.

JBS You admit He has changed His position; He is walking on the water, supreme above all here - outside of it - He is declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead. If you could meet the Lord now, I ask, could you find Him on earth?

Rem The only way we could know Him now is as the glorified One.

JBS The Lord is rejected, disallowed of men. He is declared to be the Son of God with power. He is outside the whole thing. Has He any place on earth? Yes; He has His assembly; He comes into the assembly; He has no other spot here. He is there as Son of God. You come to meet Him there, not as your Saviour, but as the Son of God. He is Son over God’s house. If we meet Him in the assembly it is as Son of God. In these chapters 14 - 16, He is preparing His disciples for the new structure, which they would belong to in the place where He was refused. In the gospel narrative all is pattern. In the Old Testament you get types, not patterns.

Our second point is, How do you get in? The assembly is formed of living stones. How do I get to be a living stone? Matthew 14 describes the step - coming to the living Stone. We come to Him first. Peter illustrates the step. He leaves the ship, and gets to Him across the water. If you go to Him now you must cross the water. How do you do that?

Ques Water represents death, does it not?

^[p. 310] JBS Yes; the water represents death. If you appropriate His death you are in His life. That is the step. I believe a great many brethren have never taken that step: they have not got to the Lord personally as the living Stone - the new material. John 6 and Matthew 14 happened at the same time. One is His side, the other our side.

Rem Peter had been dealt with by the Lord previously.

JBS Yes; there must be conversion. The current idea is that when you are converted you come to the living Stone. Nothing of the kind. You come to Him in His new position, and then you are come to the new structure, to form a constituent part of the assembly where He dwells. I do not think a person can come to Him as the living Stone if he has not deliverance. It is a great thing to get deliverance. We were speaking of that subject on a former occasion. Tonight it is the Person we have before us - He is our life, and we are in the place where He is.

It was affection in Peter that made him leave the ship to join the Lord. If a young believer has affection he will never be satisfied until he gets to Him.

Rem It is the heart that is drawn.

JBS Quite so. I often give an illustration of it in the way young birds are taught by the parent birds to leave the nest and fly. They flutter over the nest, and the young ones in their desire to join them, discover that they have wings - the power for it. The power for us is the Spirit of God. We have the power; what we want is the affection to join the Lord. When you do join Him, you find He is your life - He is everything.

Ques Is the step easier now than in Peter’s time?

JBS Not a bit. Coming to the living Stone is the act of the Spirit of God, and then it is you are built in. In John 9: 35 the man who had been blind has come to the Son of God. “Dost thou believe on the ^[p. 311] Son of God? ... Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? ... Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee”. He has come to the living Stone; he is in the solitude of light, outside of man.

Ques Do you mean that joining Christ means giving up?

JBS No; I am not thinking of giving up. I am thinking of one thing - the Lord Himself. I want to join Him, and to do so I must step outside of myself and of man. It is only in His life that you can cross the water.

Peter began to sink. There is where priesthood comes in. The Lord stretched out His hand to him. He did not smooth the water, as in chapter 8; but He draws Him to His own side. Relief is what most christians are looking for.

Rem To join the Lord is really to know Him in His new position.

JBS Exactly. It is the same order that comes out in Hebrews, “He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one” (Hebrews 2: 11).

Rem I do not see the difference between a person being converted and being a stone.

JBS Every converted person is a stone, but he is not confirmed yet - not in his place. In 1 Kings we see that the stones for the temple were in the quarry, but they had to be brought from the quarry to Jerusalem, to be a component part of the building where God would dwell, and covered with cedar and gold for God’s presence. All saints are stones out of the quarry, but all are not built in. You are a stone but you are not a living stone till you come to the living Stone. It is actual contact with Christ Himself.

Ques You would say that a person might be converted many years before he got to that?

JBS I say it is so with thousands in christendom; and I come closer; I think that many among brethren ^[p. 312] have not taken that step though they have peace. It must be by the Spirit of God that you take the step. The Lord is on the other side of death and you cannot be on the ground that He is on except through death. If you are in liberty you practically realise John 6.

Now we come to the third point: the privileges and responsibilities of the assembly. The first thing that characterises us is that we remember the Lord’s death. It is a weak meeting when the breaking of bread is postponed. There is the altar and the door of the tabernacle; I have death and glory before me; I with the consecrated company join Him; I am in the holiest of all. There is no type of it in Scripture because it is so transcendently great. The high priest went in alone in the Old Testament. He has companions now.

Ques. What do you go for?

JBS I go to remember Him, and to listen to Him. Wherever Christ is, is the holiest of all. He is the greater than Moses and the greater than Aaron. Moses received communications. We listen to Him. He would give the suited word, and even if no word is spoken, a wonderful effect is produced. “Beholding ... the glory of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3: 18) is the holiest of all for the gentile. When He comes to me in my room, it is to my circumstances; when I join Him in the assembly, I go to His. Verbal ministry, if in the Spirit, always indicates freshness from the Lord. The Father is made known. There are two things in John 14 - “I will not leave you comfortless”, and, I will let you know who I am - “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father”, etc.

Ques You expect communications in the assembly as nowhere else?

JBS I do. Psalm 84 is a time of ruin a valley of Baca. I get into God’s house; I come forth, as a royal priest, to show forth the praises of Him, etc. This is our fourth point, the moral effect of being ^[p. 313] there; the royal priesthood explains it - what you are outside.

Ques You couple responsibility and privilege in the assembly?

JBS Yes. A man who says not a word may be a. hindrance if he is in a bad state. How often the giving out of a hymn may lead the meeting astray! It is a great responsibility to take part, but blessed. A true minister of the word never speaks beyond what he knows. There is no ring in it unless he is in it himself. If you have to do with the Head you will get light on the spot, and though you may give it out feebly, it will be telling. If you are with the Lord you are thinking of Him, and of His people, and you get direction from the Head, and the light He gives you being from Him, brings a blessing with it. All do not know the Head, but if they seek the welfare of His people, He gives a word to help them. You may get an impression from the Lord that brings the word in a fresh way to you.

Rem Explain the difference between ‘believers’ meetings’ and the assembly.

JBS In ‘believers’ meetings’ believers come together to rejoice in the Saviour and salvation, but in the assembly you go to meet Him as Son over God’s house. In the former you go for yourself. In the latter you go for Him. You form part of a building where He dwells. It is entirely new ground. You find yourself in a new position.

Ques In speaking of our being brought into the assembly, would you say it is individual?

JBS We learn it individually; we learn everything individually. If you talk of sins in His presence He is not supreme to you.

Rem When we speak of sins in the assembly we speak of ourselves.

JBS Quite so. You have gone to your own house instead of to His. If you were to go to court ^[p. 314] you would not tell the Queen that you had a dirty face yesterday, you would go to her suited to her presence. All the sons of Aaron had the right to go in, but if they had a blemish they could not go in, though they could eat the bread. You must be in the perfection of Christ. There are no sins connected with the christian; there is no more conscience of sins. There may be consciousness of it. If I sin, I cut a rod to beat myself. I do not deny that we sin; we do; but the brethren of Christ as such do not sin.

Rem If we apprehended the new order, we should not be occupied with the old.

JBS Surely we should not. The consecrated company enjoy Himself. It is not that you go in in the acceptability of His work only, but in the acceptability of Himself. I do not think we realise, on the Lord’s day morning, when we come together, what it is to be a building for Himself. The longer I live the more I see how little I have apprehended the nature of the new structure. How different our coming together would be if we apprehended it more! It was very soon spoiled, bad material brought in and ruin. But the Lord is not lost; the living Stone is not lost; and we come to Him. We never understand the Lord until we come to Him. We may understand Him as Saviour, but we do not understand what the living Stone is until we come to Him. The mass of christians do not get beyond conversion; and among ourselves how many are not beyond having peace with God? If you have not that, you have nothing. But is there nothing beyond? Faith tells me what God has effected for me, but it is only by the Spirit I enjoy it, and if not walking in the Spirit 1 do not enjoy it.

← Previous 49 of 78 Next →