LOVING THE ASSEMBLY
J.Strachan
I should like to say something, dear brethren, about the assembly firstly as loved by Christ, and then as loved by believers. When you think of this scripture in Ephesians there can be no uncertainty about the love of Christ for the assembly, for He has delivered Himself up for it. That is how much He loves the assembly, and what He is doing now by the ministry of the word - what is referred to here as the sanctifying it and purifying it by the washing of water by the word - is I think the evidence that He loves it still. We are in a day when things are broken, when things are very fragmentary, but Christ still loves the assembly. Let us be assured of that, dear brethren: His love for the assembly remains. He is going to present it to Himself and in view of that presentation, so soon to take place, He is actively engaged in His personal service of love in making it in every way suitable to Himself. As you think of Christ and how He is going to have the assembly with Himself, you cannot but think of a vessel that is going to be suited to Him in every way. So, even when things publicly are broken, yet there is something that can be relied on in the love of Christ for the assembly. He has proved His love by giving Himself for it, and He is presently engaged in this wonderful service so that He might present the assembly to Himself, glorious. What a day of presentation that is going to be!
Think of such a glorious Person, a glorious Man, patiently waiting for His assembly at the moment, but actively serving it, and He is going to have it in every way suited to Himself. He is not going to have the fragmented condition of things that we see publicly. He is going to have something that is glorious, because He Himself is glorious and He is going to have the counterpart of Himself. He will be able to look at the assembly and say 'That is myself over again’. Is that not wonderful? We are accustomed to days of brokenness and smallness, days of public humiliation, but, dear brethren, what Christ is working to secure is something that is glorious, something that is compatible wit h Himself, compatible with His love. Oh! think of the love of the Christ, what a love it is, perfect in every way, perfect towards God, perfect towards men, perfect towards the assembly. That love is going to have an answer in every way suited to itself. So it says He is going to "present the assembly to Himself glorious, having no spot or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that it might be holy and blameless." What a wonderful product the assembly is going to be, the product of the personal, devoted love of Christ.
Is it not a wonderful thing that we have been called to have part in such a vessel? Do not we value this day in which we are found! We could not be found in any greater day than this day, when Christ personally is engaged in serving and securing vessel. What a vessel it is! Have you thought what a vessel the assembly is, a vessel the Lord would speak to us about? Have you ever stopped to think what a vessel she is, dear young people? The nearest thing there is to deity: not deity, of course, she will always remain a creature, but the nearest thing to deity. It says in this very epistle, "the fulness of him who fills all in all" (ch 1: 23). Oh, what a thing the assembly is! We are so accustomed to brokenness and smallness, sometimes we tend to lose sight of what the assembly is. In the millennial world, she is going to come down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. The holy city, Jerusalem, what she is going to be! Wonderful substantiality in that city! Its dimensions are extensive. You can see in the end of Revelation how substantial, how glorious she is, coming down to influence the millennial world. It speaks of her shining: what shining in that vessel; "having the glory of God" but it speaks of her shining. Think of a vessel that will be able as of Christ to influence the world in the millennium, influence things on the earth from heaven. What a vessel she is going to be! That is what we have been called to have part in.
What she is going to be in eternity! A bride adorned for her husband. That is what she is for the heart of Christ, but then it says "The tabernacle of God is with men" (Rev 21: 3). Think of God having a dwelling place, the assembly the divine dwelling place eternally. So there is going to be the day of presentation. Do not you look forward with joy in your heart to that? In the light of it and the sense of it, let us submit ourselves to what the Lord is doing, and what He is saying, and have our ears tuned, alert and attentive to what He would give, because of the effect it is having, this purifying effect. The tendency always with the world is to entangle believers and bring us into what is impure, but the Lord faithfully goes on with His service to bring about this purifying, the process by which He will have the assembly absolutely suited to His thoughts. Well, the Lord has not given that up. Some believers behave as if the Lord had given that up. He has not given it up, dear brethren. I would seek to encourage all our hearts this afternoon, that the Lord is continuing with this service. What comes to us by way of ministry is a proof of it. The way He has delivered Himself up is the proof of His love, and the way He serves us by ministry in freshness and power is the proof that He loves the assembly still, and He is going to have what is in every way presentable to Himself. Well, that is Christ's love for the assembly, and there is no doubt, no uncertainty, about that.
Now what was in my mind in reading this Psalm is that the Lord would bring us as believers to love what He loves. As the Lord takes us up for Himself, appeals to us, and acquires a place in our hearts, our minds, you might readily say "I love the Lord Jesus"; and He is worthy of our affection. Then I think He would say, 'There is something down here that I love. I love the assembly and I want you to love what I love'. Prosperity is connected with that according to this Psalm. If you would like to prosper in your soul, if you would like to get on spiritually, I would say 'Love the assembly'. Love Christ by all means, but also find that you can love what Christ loves.
It opens up a wonderful range of interests. There is a wonderful range of interests in the assembly. The Lord spoke to Saul of Tarsus as he was journeying to Damascus. He was going to persecute the saints there, but the Lord spoke to him and I think from that point he would love the Lord. The Lord directed him to go into the city and what did he find there? He found a company of disciples. I think that is how you begin to find that you can love the assembly. You find there is a company of saints in a certain place, a company of disciples, a company of followers of the Lord Jesus, and you can find out how to be amongst them, how they become lovable to you.
I think these dear brethren in Damascus must have become very lovable to Paul as he was with them. It says "He was with the disciples who were in Damascus certain days" (Acts 9: 19). I think that is the beginning of how you come to love the assembly in your own local meeting, move in and out amongst them, and come to appreciate them as per sons who love Christ and who love the assembly, and you will find yourself loving Christ and loving the assembly. It is the way to spiritual prosperity. You see what the Lord opened up to Paul, not only in service, but the things He opened up to him, wonderful things about Himself about the assembly, about the service of God, about sonship. But the beginning was that first of all he had a transaction with the Lord Jesus and then he came to love these disciples in Damascus.
After that beginning you can start to look farther afield. You find that the Lord has a company of believers in a certain place in the light of the assembly - Thank God there are those who want to walk in the light of the assembly today. Thank God they are available to us. Oh that persons who are sitting at home could come to that point that there are persons available who seek to work out the truth of the assembly. Then you can look around and see persons maybe in a nearby meeting who want to walk in the light of the assembly. Paul would find out persons in other places. It is a good thing to remember that there are brethren in nearby meetings who also love the assembly, and to make contact with them. There are dear brethren in some parts of the world who are so far from another meeting that it is not easy to go and see them, but here we are very privileged. We have brethren half-an-hour's run away, an hour's run. Well, what is that if you love the assembly. Let us go and see them, and make contact with them. You find that they get encouragement and you get encouragement: that is a wonderful thing, mutual encouragement. If you want to prosper in your soul, this is how to prosper. Do not just be confined to the work of God in a place, start to think about the work of God in the places around you, and then you can think about the work of God universally. There are some parts of the earth where it does not look as if God is working. That is in God's own wise ways. He directs the course of the testimony in a certain direction; that is where the treasure is, dear brethren. So you keep in that field where the treasure is. The Lord has treasure. He regards the assembly as treasure. If there are persons walking in the light of the assembly, he regards that as His treasure, and if you love the assembly, you will have regard for where the treasure is. So you do not want to go and operate in areas where the Lord is not operating because the treasure is not there. Where the treasure is, there you can happily be engaged. There is a wonderful range of interests that you can be engaged in.
This Psalm is a song of degrees of David. These songs of degrees help us to understand how the remnant will come up from a position of captivity into the position of blessing, for Jerusalem in that day will be the centre of blessing for the remnant. I just want to apply it to our day, to our Jerusalem, Jerusalem above, the assembly, what the Lord loves, what we are to love. So it says, "I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah". There is joy connected with it. It is not a doleful thing, loving the assembly. "I rejoiced", it says. "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem". It is a wonderful thing to stand within Jerusalem, not as a spectator outside, but within the gates. How often this word "within" is mentioned in this Psalm. So you stay within. Dear young people, stay within the compass of the assembly, stay amongst the local brethren, move amongst them. It is a wonderful situation to be in. What a privilege is ours! "Jerusalem, which art built as a city that is compact together". How God delights in persons being set closely together. That is the idea of a local assembly; it is not to be so large that you could not compass it, but the idea is of being compact together. "Whither the tribes go up". You have to go up to these things. You do not go down. Things in the world are going down, down, down. The call is to go up to the assembly, Jerusalem above. You have to go up to the Jerusalem above. "To give thanks unto the name of Jehovah". Well, we are going to do that tomorrow morning, to go up to give thanks to the name of Jehovah. Believers in the light of the assembly are to be characteristically thankful. It is a special opportunity to be thankful when you can go up to the Lord's supper. What an opportunity to go up and give thanks. A brother stands up and gives thanks. In a world so marked by thanklessness, there are persons who are on this line of thanksgiving, "unto the name of Jehovah". It is not only that we are thankful for the mercies of God which we appreciate, but we are thankful for how God has made Himself known, how He has made Himself known in Jesus. God has made Himself known and we are thankful.
"There are set thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David". A place where decisions can be arrived at, where there is justice. "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee". What a scope for our prayers. So you can look at your local meeting, or at the nearby meetings, you can look at the meetings you know where there are brethren we can walk with, and you can even look out beyond that. You can look out on believers everywhere. When the Lord speaks about the assembly He is going to present to Himself. He is thinking about all believers. In our prayers, dear brethren, we can take in something of what the feelings of the heart of Christ are. If He can love, we can love them and think about them in our prayers. "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem". How the idea of peace comes in! We are thankful for the peace we have proved just recently and we want to make the most of it, that the truth should prosper amongst us. "They shall prosper that love thee". Would you not like to be the kind of person that prospers? Then just love the assembly. Daniel was the sort of person that prospered. It says of Daniel "This Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus" (Dan 6: 28). It would seem that Daniel prospered over a very long time because he was quite an old man at the end, but at the beginning of the history he was a young man. In that chapter where it says he prospered, it tells us that his windows were open towards Jerusalem. That is the kind of outlook he had, He was a man with an assembly outlook and it says that three times a day he kneeled on his knees and prayed. Can you imagine what Daniel would be praying about? Why do you think his windows were open towards Jerusalem? He was a man with an assembly outlook. Oh, to acquire an assembly outlook and to pray in the light of that. It is the line, I am sure, of spiritual prosperity.
"Peace be within thy bulwarks, prosperity within thy palaces". The bulwarks of the assembly. The assembly is a place of safety, a place of protection. We are going through a world where protection is needed. Dear young people, stay with your feet within Jerusalem, inside those bulwarks, and know something about those palaces where there is prosperity. There are palaces, not just ordinary dwelling places, but palaces, and there is prosperity there. "For my brethren and companions' sakes I will say, Peace be within thee! " How he is going over this matter of peace. Then he says "Because of the house of Jehovah our God I will seek thy good". It is interesting how this Psalm is constructed. He starts in the first verse with the house of Jehovah and he ends in the last verse with the house of Jehovah, and in between he is speaking about Jerusalem. What that means to me is that you have a city and a wonderful range of activities goes on in the city, but there is a house within that city and it is the house of Jehovah, God's dwelling-place. It is the place where God is to be served. Think of that, "Because of the house of Jehovah". You are thinking of a place where God will dwell, where God will be served. So as you think about Jerusalem and you are active in relation to Jerusalem, and you are praying about Jerusalem, you are thinking all the time about the house of Jehovah that is within it. All the activities of the city would stand related to what is for the pleasure and service of God. So it is not only that you are prospering in your soul, prospering in yourself, but that divine interests are prospering. God is getting, more and more, His portion in His people. That is being enriched. It is a wonderful thing in our day to be found as lovers of the assembly. "They shall prosper that love thee".
Let us be assured, dear brethren, of the continuing love of Christ for the assembly, and let us be prepared to commit ourselves to love what Christ loves, and find that there is prosperity connected with that, prosperity for our own souls and prosper ty and enrichment of what is for God's pleasure. May the Lord bless the word.
GRANGEMOUTH
16 November 1974