THE DISCIPLE AND THE ASSEMBLY
Our Lord searched the heart of Peter (in John 21: 15-17)
with three questions, which brought up to Peter's mind the roots of his
failure, rather than the overt act of denial. And He graciously closed up each
probing with a word of comfort: Feed my lambs (v. 15); Shepherd my sheep (v.
16); Feed my sheep (v. 17); thus breaking the self-confidence of His servant,
both in himself and man, ere He confided the sheep and lambs of Israel to his
care. Then He adds, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young
thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest; but when thou shalt
be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee, and carry
thee whither thou wouldest not" (v. 18). What a Lord He is, and how
admirable in all His ways! Many of us, too, when young, thought of "what
we would do for Him," and we, too, have had to learn that the happier
question is, "What will He do with us?" You will, I am sure, go along
with an aged pilgrim in admiration of this wisdom and these ways of our common
Lord and Master. He did not turn Peter off and send him away as a failed
hireling, but used the failure as a means of fitting him for a more important service
and place; and He would not accept Peter's rejection of the crown of martyrdom,
but would take His own way of putting that honour upon him; no praise to Peter.
Counting that, as an aged one, on reviewing your course from England, through
India, England, and hither, you must have made your experiences (in a long
residence here, too) as I have mine in other scenes, I have selected you as one
to whom, in grace and love, I may fairly address a few thoughts connected with
the work of the Lord in New Zealand. I will only add that, in doing so, I
desire to remember, and myself to act upon the Lord's own words to Peter,
"Follow me" (v. 19), and "Follow thou me" (v. 22).
There are, as men speak, very many gatherings in New
Zealand to break bread and drink wine together, weekly and professedly, in
memory of Christ and of His death until He comes (1 Cor. 11: 17-33). To
interfere in the house and at the table of any one would be wrong for me and
unlovely. And who, or what am I to venture to dictate at the Lord's table? I
would be aware of so doing; the Lord keep me from it. But my place is, at what
is His table, as a guest; and if in any measure I can guard others from sinning
at it, or, in my little measure, after the line of Paul's conduct, can stay the
Lord's hand from sending weakness and infirmity upon many, and cutting a good
many off in discipline, by arousing the attention of the guests to any existing
cause for His discipline, I would desire to do so humbly, but freely. The Lord
was indeed in discipline cutting off many, that they might not be condemned
with the world (v. 30-32), and Paul knew it ere he wrote his first letter,
calling attention to sins, and among them to the awful one named in 1 Cor. 5.
I would, also, as one desiring to find grace to be faithful,
warn the simple ones as to what are the marks of His table; and so, also,
arouse the attention of some who assume their table to be His, while there is
still cause to question its being so. And, indeed, God is the God of reality,
and, if I and others go to a table and call it "the table of the
Lord," we should expect that He will make manifest to all what it really
is in His sight, whether it is His table, or whether it is not, and so, I
think, He is wont to do; as well as, if it be His, to make all that is at it
manifest, for He is light and is present there.
And now, firstly, there is an expression connected with our
being together in His name, which is important as connected with His
assembly, and is if understood, helpful to us. It occurs in Matt. 18: 18, 20,
"Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them."
The gospel of Matthew gives us the history of our Lord's
life here below, when looked at as Son of David (securer of the sure mercies of
David) and Son of Abraham (father of the faithful, having promises for earth
and heaven). Himself, the heir and alone holder of all promised blessings and
the object of faith, was to have a kingdom and a church also. And it is by
reason of this, as I judge, that the church, or assembly, is brought out here
as in none of the other gospels. See Matt. 16: 13-28 and Matt. 18: 15-20. The
word "church" never occurs in the gospels, save in these two
contexts; the word occurs here, though the church was not set up until Pentecost.
Now, in the second of the passages the words I have cited are found,
"Where two or three are gathered together in my name there
am I in the midst of them." In v. 15-17 we learn how a private injury of
one individual brother against another is to be met: Christ gone to heaven,
there could be an appeal to the church, which would have responsibility and
authority (not infallibility, but authority,) heaven-sustained, v. 18; then v.
19 a promise as to prayer; and after that v. 20. To me it is clear that this
last verse contains the strength and limits of the whole and that which
qualifies it: it must be in His name, whether the gathering together or
the prayer. And here I must remark that the term "name" in Scripture,
as applied to God and the Lord Jesus Christ in their various titles, is not
merely a conventional sound without meaning. The name of "God"
(Elohim) had its illustration, as first recorded in the paces of Scripture, in
the first chapter of Genesis. Creation made manifest and stood forth as witness
of the eternal power and Godhead of the incorruptible Elohim (Rom. 1: 20.) The
second chapter brought out to light another part of His glory, viz., as
"Jehovah" — God, in His provision for and association with man in
Eden. The meaning of the word Jesus is "Jehovah-a-saving"
(compare Matt. 1: 21); He was made Lord (Acts 2: 36, and Phil. 2: 9-11)
and Christ (Acts 2: 36), "Anointed," with a glory as such in heaven,
even as He is to have a glory as "Anointed" on earth, under His
Hebrew name of Messiah (John 1: 41). And what is the manifestation, now, from
the throne of God and heaven of the Nazarene, once crucified, now ascended and
seated on the throne under these titles, "Jehovah-a-saving for heaven,
Lord of all things, the Anointed Son of Man?" This is His name, and
those who come unto Him and shelter there, find every need met. A company
being, in whatever humble measure, in the liberty and life-giving power of this
manifestation which God has made by Jesus, and is ours through faith and the
Holy Spirit, is a very different truth (for truth it is) from man's thoughts,
when, from whatever motive, he merely spreads a table and sits down at it with
others on the first day of the week. I judge we should all do well to
stand under the light of these rays shining down upon us from the newly
announced name (or manifestation) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit. It is a flood of blessed light, making all manifest, and of love
telling itself out as none but God, who is love, can tell it; and the people
into whom it shines know the hallowing effect of it on themselves as to the
world, the flesh, and the devil.
Secondly. Before coming to certain tests of the
table and company at it, which the scriptures give, and in the very nature of
things, suppose (or take for granted): tests, therefore, which they who
accredit it as the Lord's table in any place, are bound, by their allegiance to
their Master and as His friends met to remember Him, to look for — let me say a
little word as to what they (the guests) are supposed to be.
Does it not suppose, as being given to disciples
(who were first called Christians at Antioch), that the guests at it are a
people who have been separated unto Himself in heaven (John 17: 19) from out of
the world, as not of it even as He was not of it (v. 15)? His death stands
between them and the world and worldliness as the Red Sea divided between
Israel in the wilderness and Egypt, the house of bondage and land of captivity.
He who dwells in them now is the spring and regulator of their life here below,
as the flesh once was. And now, instead of being deluded by Satan and led down
to destruction by him, body, soul, and spirit, they know and have been owned by
Jesus, the mighty conqueror of Satan as His own, and they have found in Him,
risen from death and the grave and glorified, an object of joy and rejoicing.
They sing His victory and enter with joy into His having
triumphed gloriously and anticipate the songs of His triumph and the
rejoicings of that day. One man has been found who has done nothing amiss; and
He has won, by His lowly and perfect obedience unto God, a place from God, a
place and glory which He has opened unto them. His complete self-surrender when
here below, "Lo! I come to do thy will, O God" (the whole of that will,
and nothing but it); and the beauty of His ways and thoughts and the marvellous
moral display He has made of His Father and God have laid hold of their hearts
and (forgetting all that is behind and looking forward to meet Him), they live
to Him and Him alone. Dust of this earth they think not to collect as their
portion; the old selfishness of flesh they have judged; Satan they resist,
knowing that he will soon be bruised under their feet. The supper is a feast in
the wilderness pilgrimage of life. in the entering into the land and amid the
wars thereof — but they at it are the church militant and are fighting, through
grace, the good fight of faith. Many a fall and many a wound they each may have
had, and yet they can sing "In all things more than conquerors through him
that loved us." Is it not so, beloved? The church is the house of God, the
body of Christ, and serves as exhibited down here, for the nursery, the
schoolroom, the guardroom, the hospital of God's own heavenly people. But it is
only for those who on credible testimony can be received at first as already
His. And here, observe, that (in Scripture) the seeker and the inquirer were
not as such called Christians. The saved were those who could take their places
in the company that owned the apostle's doctrine and fellowship (Acts 2: 42);
and they were of one heart and of one soul (Acts 4: 32) through the presence
and power of the Spirit.
Christ never forgets His Father's choice of us, nor His own
call, nor the faith and purpose of the Spirit in us — even in the days when we
were not self-judged; as we should have been, surely. He is the alone faithful
and true One, and His ways change not. He has, too, for you and for me, little
as we may be, tokens of His love and good pleasure just suited to our littleness
and low estate.
Thirdly, there are the habits and ways of His people and
assembly down here, to which attention will have to be called if we come to
trace the way back to their original position of those who have wandered from
it. These I leave for the present, and turn to
Marks whereby the Assembly of God was
and is to be known.
It is the assembly called out of this world; one and holy.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven was what Peter
preached at Pentecost when he called on those that believed: "As many as
the Lord our God shall call. . . . Save yourselves from this untoward
generation" (Acts 2: 39, 40). The apostle's doctrine and practice and
fellowship were clean outside of Judaism (v. 41). The church was formed through
faith upon Christ gone up out of this earth into heaven and made Lord and
Christ there on the throne; it was thoroughly worthy of Him as being there, and
had been formed and was sustained by the Holy Spirit come down to dwell on
earth among poor sinners who believed in the Messiah martyred and rejected, as
now alive and on the throne in heaven — the fountain of all grace. Paul was
called out of all earthly and worldly blessings by a Lord gone into heaven; and
he called people to go out to Jesus the crucified and ascended (Heb. 13: 12,
13, and Gal. 1: 4 and 6: 14); it presents one body and one Spirit, and it is
holy in principle and practice, sanctified to God.
As to the one body and one Spirit: a few remarks may
suffice to show how far the one body and one Spirit are essential characteristics
of the church or company called out of earth for heavenly places and blessings,
even as Israel and saints before had been called out of idolatry for earthly
places and earthly blessings. A king is yet to reign upon earth centre of
government and worship on God's behalf. A king supposes both a kingdom and
"subjects." The king is the higher party of the two; the
"subjects" are the people who are blessed by relationship with him, members
of his kingdom; not members of the king. The word "subject," not
"member," answers to the word king in the official relationship of
king and people in a kingdom. On the other hand no Englishman would say,
speaking of a human body, "the head and its subjects," but the head
and its members. A human body has but one head; and many "members"
are required to make up the complement of the body. Our Lord Jesus Christ has
had all things put under His feet (Eph. 1: 22, 23), and has been given to be
Head over them to His assembly; but then, likewise (and the truth is distinct
from that of His being Head over all things in the sense of His causing all
things to work together for our good), He is Head of His body, which is the
fulness (or complement) of Him that filleth all in all. May [we] grow up into
Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ from whom the whole body
joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to
the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body
unto the edifying of itself in love (Eph. 4: 15, 16, comp. 1 Cor. 12: 7-27).
There is but one such Head, but one such Body.
It is not that there is but one Spirit in this one body,
which is all that we need to remember. He is God, a person in the Godhead, the
Holy Spirit, who has wrought in creation, in providence, in government, who
now, in eternal salvation and redemption, takes a new place and comes down to
dwell in the body the church; the alone power that ought to work in it too. The
apostles had to wait for Him as the promise of the Father, Acts 1: 4, 5, 8. In
Acts 2 He came down and made their company to be the church, and gave out a
bold testimony for the Lord on the throne on high, forming a company and a
teaching and a fellowship and practice which were new. Note the word Spirit
through v. 4, 17, 18. This he continues in Acts 3 and Acts 4, adding certain
things, however. In Acts 5 He is the power of discipline inside the assembly
and putting Peter forward (v. 3, 9, 32), making the place a terror to the
unrepentant. In 6 He shows Himself as the One, fulness of whom would fit a man
for diaconal care, or for the work of an evangelist (Acts 6: 3, 5, 8; Acts 7:
51, 55); leading on to (7) Stephen's becoming, through Him, an adequate
testimony against Israel; that, as they had rejected a Christ in humiliation
upon earth, so they rejected Him now in glory, and giver of forgiveness of sins
and of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 8, when the twelve apostles, under the first
persecution of the church, tarried in Jerusalem. He used those that were
scattered abroad to go everywhere through Judea, and Samaria preaching the
word. He was with them, and v. 17-23 met new difficulties. Read, too, Acts 9,
Saul's conversion, and mark v. 17, 31 — (compare Acts 13: 2, 4, 9, 52, etc.). I
will not write more, but I commend the careful reading of the Acts, as showing
how the presence of God, the, Holy Spirit, and His using men, and working by
men, is stamped in divine grace upon every part of the narrative.
Fourthly. Ere I come to holiness, I would say a few words
on the church as a depositary of the Scriptures, and so, of truth. Isaiah 8
gives us part of the trial of Israel; and there we read of the word being
sealed up among His (Immanuel's) disciples;" v. 12 to 20 are very
important, and apply to Pentecostal times, as also, to the hour yet to come to
the remnant. The term "disciples" is a name new, and marks a
relationship new to the Jewish mind as a line of blessing. The old line of
blessing to them was that of lineal descent from Abram. The one new was,
"You have His word." This is more developed in John 15 than in 16,
where their relationship in the Spirit is given. Study John 17 and Rom. 11:
12-24, as giving very different connections of the same truth about the word of
God, and in His people down here. Also John 14, Acts 20: 32, 2 Tim. 3: 14-17,
etc., and 1 Tim. 3: 16.
The Lord Jesus Christ in the revelation of God and the
Father. Christ is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1: 15); the image of God
(2 Cor. 4: 4); in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2: 9);
the man that is Jehovah's Fellow (Zech. 13: 7 and 11: 12, 13). He that has seen
me has seen the Father also (John 14: 9; read from v. 6 to 20, and John 1: 18).
The written word is the place where alone all
about Him can be found by those that are taught of God (John 5: 37-47, and John
6: 45).
The scriptures may be said then to be, in a certain sense,
God's letter to the assembly; and believers and the assembly are responsible to
be His letter to the world.
Fifthly. The assembly is responsible by privilege and
calling to be holy.
For our sakes the Lord has sanctified (or set apart)
Himself on the throne on high, that we may be set apart (sanctified) by the
Father through the truth (John 17: 17, 18, 19). He is, as it were, the vow of
our Nazariteship. We are to be holders forth of the word of life (Phil. 2: 16).
But more than this, He is there as the Head of the body, the church. If Christ
is Head of the body the church, if God the Holy Spirit indwells it, is it
unable to find out, to see and to judge of evil which may be in it? To be
unwilling to admit sin and sins in one's own family and to tolerate it in the
assembly, is to cast dishonour upon the Lord Himself; making Him out to be more
indifferent about sin than we are; a very awful sin it is too. This has been
done by many, avowedly, too, as to doctrine, morality, and spirituality;
and where tolerated, and in principle adopted and sanctioned by any company, it
ceases, if it perseveres in so doing, to be part of the holy catholic church.
If my principles are such, the sooner I were separated from the better.
On the other hand, there may be infantine weakness and
excessive ignorance in an assembly — and the more of these there be, the more
would the Spirit of God and of Christ recognise there all that is of God — all
that makes the company to be part of the church; and so ought 1, too, to
recognise it and seek to make it consistent with Christ's mind about it. But
what if I find a company whose principles might be, 1st, the denial of
the one body and one Spirit; 2ndly, the maintaining the independency of the
churches; 3rdly, the setting aside of responsibility as to the truth and
pleading against holy discipline in word and doctrine and walk of life. Should I
accredit it? Nay, I ought to leave it as an assembly to its own principles, as
antagonistic to Scripture and to mine; and (counting it neither heavenly nor
divine) leave it alone. To their own master they, in it, will individually
stand or fall, and I would pray for them each and all, and try to help each
into a better position. But why waste time through giving them credit for being
that which they are not, for being that which they disclaim? The state and
condition of individuals may be very low in an assembly which owns Christ in
His Headship and as Head, which owns and recognises the living God the Spirit
to be with and among them; which desires to purge out all leaven that it may be
an unleavened lump, etc.; in such case I own the assembly and try to keep the
individuals. But if the assembly is anti-scriptural and anti-christian in principle
as an assembly, I say the word applies to them in it, "Come out of her
my people." I cannot own such assembly as God's "The Spirit and the
bride say, Come," mark that which pastoral power now-a-days, should seek
to bring forth among God's people down here.
I mean not, dear brother, to tax you for an answer
to this. I publish it without your having seen or heard of it, so that you can in
no wise be looked upon by any as responsible to repudiate or approve any
part of it at all. Glad shall I be, if we do meet, for any remarks you may
kindly make to me upon it, if you feel it worth while so to do.
In respect and, affection, as in God's presence, I write
it,
Yours in Him,
G. V. W.
Christchurch, March 14, 1874.
To Mr. J. G.
Deck, Motueka, Nelson, N.Z.
P.S. — Read 2
Cor. 5: 14-17; if it has hold over me, "I know no man after the
flesh."
Nor human
kindness, nor leaven, can be allowed in any sacrifice — they would spoil and corrupt
it; but the salt of our God, in plentiful measure, will preserve.
As to one's
labours among the professing world, take Jer. 15: 19, for your motto; and for
those in the Gospel Rom. 1: 1-7.