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THE ASSEMBLY AS PRECIOUS TO THE HEART OF THE LORD JESUS

D. B. Robertson

I was thinking, beloved brethren, of the particular value of arriving in our moral and spiritual exercises at some understanding of what is precious to the heart of the Lord Jesus. It is right to be thankful in relation to the blessings that we ourselves have been brought into. Like the psalmist who could say, “how precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand”, Psalm 139: 17, 18. What blessings we have been brought into, far beyond the psalmist, because we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, but there is something beyond our own blessing and I want to speak about it.

It is a moment of particular distinctiveness when we begin to understand, perhaps even in a feeble way, what is precious to the heart of the Lord Jesus. I think it is

set out in these two verses we have read in Matthew 13 where the Lord is presented as a Man, a merchant, and He is seeking beautiful pearls. It would be right to say that the Lord Jesus, in manhood, would be governed by no ordinary desires; His desires are perfect and holy and pure, and He could only be satisfied with what corresponds to Himself; so He is seeking beautiful pearls, and then it goes on to say, “and having found one pearl of great value”. That sets out what the assembly is in the eye and to the heart of our blessed Lord Jesus. I believe He had seen what would compose the assembly in its qualities in His disciples. It is not an abstract thought. He found it; it was there to be found, He found one pearl of great value. A pearl represents an entity, its beauty depends on that; it is one whole thing. I feel measured in what I can say, but it is a wonderful thing just to be able to understand it is the assembly. The Lord has found what His heart as Man longed for; He found it there and finds now in the assembly what no other vessel could afford to Him.

I am saying these things because I believe there is a current need for persons to be assembly-minded, and not give up the preciousness of the truth of the assembly, because there is nothing like it in the mind and heart of Christ; it is precious to Him. We sang the hymn on Lord’s day morning, and it was that which set me on this line of thought, although I have often had it.

‘O how precious, Thine assembly

Is, Lord Jesus, in Thy sight’. (Hymn 359)

It was a great point reached in the present recovery. Mr. Darby and others of course had the light of a glorious Man in heaven, and it is a wonderful thing to have that light, the light that there is a Head in heaven and our relationship with Him is meaningful. It is not just a kind of abstraction but we have a real link with Him, not only by faith but by the Spirit. Then the corresponding truth came to our brethren with great force at that time, that if there is a Head in heaven there is body here on earth; that is His assembly. He is head of the body; that is in the epistle to the Colossians as the brethren know; the truth there is presented in an organic sense showing that the body, which is the assembly, is derived from Christ as Man.

Beloved brethren, we need to hold on to the truth of Christ and the assembly. Paul says, “I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly”, Ephesians 5: 32. Mr John Welch, now with the Lord, urged us to be exercised to be maintained in the mainstream of the recovery. The danger with us all is to go back a little, or to be diverted a little, or to be occupied with lesser matters, which in themselves might be quite glorious. But beloved brethren the great matter for us is to seek help to be preserved and maintained in spiritual exercise to cling to the truth of Christ and the assembly; and to begin, especially if we are young, and to increase in the understanding of its preciousness to the Lord Jesus. It says, “he went and sold all whatever he had and bought it”. I think there are depths in that statement beyond what perhaps we are able to take in. Where it speaks about the treasure it is put in the present. It says, “which a man having found has hid, and for the joy of it goes and sells all whatever he has”. That is, there is a current estimation of the cost; but as to the pearl it says “he went and sold whatever he had”, that goes back. In some ways it is a historical reference, as we have been taught, and I think refers back to divine counsels. I believe Christ found something that was according to these counsels. He sold whatever He had and bought it; He made it His own.

One is thankful that, as far as one can see, the saints are very much sustained everywhere on a Lord’s day morning. One is deeply thankful for that, I am sure we all are. We not only remember the Lord, we enter in with the Lord to great matters, and one of the holy matters that we enter into is Christ’s relationship with His assembly, and by the Spirit we are able to answer to Him. We have some understanding of its preciousness to Him. There in that blessed vessel He finds what His heart as Man longs for, and ever will long for, and will ever be satisfied with. It is a great and eternal matter; it is the mainstream of the recovery. What a great thing it is to have an impression of Christ’s valuation of the preciousness of the assembly. O that we all might have such an impression, beloved brethren.

The question is asked in Proverbs 31, “Who can find a woman of worth?” I have been thinking of the possibility of an exercised soul searching for this truth. Think of the multitudes of rebellions there have been and the scatterings of the people of God. We may think of so many groups of beloved people of God. We would not speak disparagingly of them, but if the Spirit exercises a person and gives him or her some impression to search for what the heart of Christ is looking for, I wonder how long their journey would be before they find it. “Who can find ...?” it says. You go somewhere and you might find persons rejoicing in Christian blessings, and you might go to another place and you might find a great measure of piety, but where is the searching soul to find a company (I speak carefully) where the blessed matter is treasured of Christ’s relationship with His assembly? These are searching questions, beloved brethren. I am sure that there are searching souls, it is a moral and spiritual journey I am speaking about.

Mr. Darby says that the true man will eventually come to the true source, and the Spirit would help an exercised soul. You remember that word which says, “he led them forth by a right way, that they might go to a city of habitation”, Psalm 107: 7. I think that is just what the service of the Spirit does; He leads exercised souls the right way, and we ourselves need to be exercised, beloved brethren, that we hold on to something that belongs really to every true Christian, but alas every true Christian is not in it. The question for you, and equally the question for me is, Am I in it? Have I found the woman of worth, I mean spiritually? Have we really found our place in relation to the assembly and begun to understand the depth of Christ’s feelings about it? The writer here says, “her price is far above rubies”. Mr. Pellatt in one of his hymns (No. 143) speaks about a light that outshines every other light. That is the light of Christ and the assembly, there is nothing like it. There is glory coming in the millennium, there has been glory in the past, even in the Mosaic and in the Davidic days, but the light of Christ and the assembly outshines every other light. O that our hearts might be attracted to it and set to be developed spiritually in it, so that we might be maintained from drifting on to lower ground. I hear a little now and again of persons who are very interested in all sorts of things, missionary journeys and so on, some very interesting; such can be left to God and His sovereign mercy. Our part, beloved brethren, is to abide in the mainstream of the recovery, and that involves the glory of the blessed light of Christ and the assembly. May the Lord bless the word.

Word in meeting for ministry, Dundee
22 February 2005

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