THE ASSEMBLY OF GOD
Genesis 24: 15-25
Matthew 16: 13-20
Acts 20: 26-32
RGr These scriptures refer to the matter of the assembly - either typically or actually. I suggested them because in each scripture we have some suggestion of the relations that divine Persons have with the assembly. We think of ourselves as part of the assembly, and that is true and it is a blessed privilege, but I think as we understand how God values the assembly and the lengths He has gone to to secure it, it would enhance the thought of the assembly in our minds and hearts. It is something that the enemy would be against. The light and truth of the assembly is universal, but the actual working out of the features that belong to the assembly largely takes place locally. In Genesis we have Rebecca, a well-known type, and the servant has often been referred to as a type of the Holy Spirit. I have the impression that our prosperity in walking in the light and practice of what belongs to the assembly depends very much on the Holy Spirit. We may say it is God’s assembly and that is true. It is the Lord’s assembly - that is also true, but I believe that the Holy Spirit has had a very great deal to do with the formation of the assembly in the present dispensation. I suggested Matthew’s gospel because there we have the Lord’s own valuation of things. We could have read many scriptures from Matthew but time does not allow us to go into detail. And then in the Book of the Acts we have the reference to the assembly which He, that is, God, “has purchased with the blood of His own”. This is very dignified and spiritual suggestion as to the assembly and the extent to which God was prepared to go to secure it in the working out of His thoughts. I hope that we can make something of this together.
RT I am sure that it will be very helpful. Following the ascension of Christ the assembly has been committed into the hands of the Spirit to sustain, and to bring into expression down here.
RGr Yes, that is true. John’s gospel would teach us that, especially from chapter 13 onward. It is a fine thing to think that the Holy Spirit is with us and in us forever; that is not going to change. The exercise at the present moment is to look for and foster assembly features in the saints, not only in our own hearts, but to look for them in one another. It is plain from these scriptures and from others that divine Persons respect - if that is a right word to use - the work of each other. We have it here in the reference to the man being silent and waiting to see what would proceed. We have similar references in the Lord’s pathway here when He took account of the Father’s work, and wondered at it, and made way for it.
MC There is something very special that came on to view in Rebecca, was there, that the servant could take account of immediately? There was something in Rebecca that was entirely according to God’s will, and what had been formed in her was coming to light.
RGr Yes, I think that helps because we know perfectly well from other scriptures that the working out of matters connected with the kingdom flowing into the assembly involves much exercise, and there is weakness that comes in from our side, but in this scripture there is no suggestion of that. Rebecca’s lineage is right, her attitude, and her willingness to trust herself to this person whom she had not seen until very recently, is commendable. She says, “I will go” with this man. All of that points to a very fine line of things, do you think?
TDB Could you say something about the presence of the Spirit? The Lord was here according to Scripture about thirty-three and one-half years, but since Pentecost that divine Person has been present here in the saints.
RGr Well, it is something that I would like help on myself. Many of us have been brought up among those who knew the terms of the truth and so on. I wonder for my own part whether I value the fact sufficiently that there is a divine Person here in the assembly. I think there is much parallel between the Lord’s service to His own when He was here; there is much that runs parallel with that in the Holy Spirit’s service to the saints now. He is our Comforter and Guide, He leads us,and so on.
TDB All I was thinking about was the matter of time and the number of persons that have known dealings with the Spirit.
RGr Yes; when the Lord was leaving His own He said to them, “he shall do greater than these”, John 14: 12. That really refers to the time of the Holy Spirit, and we must not underestimate the fact that the Lord was here for a limited period in the ways of God. That was according to divine counsel, but the Holy Spirit has been here for about 2,000 years. What a service that is! What a patient working out it involves.
RG Peter, in his first epistle, says, “Ye are a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession, that ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful light”, 1 Peter 2: 9. I was wondering if we should get our eyes lifted to see what divine Persons think of the assembly in that way. Peter was telling us really what he had gathered up from his contact with the Lord about this. We are precious: precious stones. He is the One who is “a corner-stone, the elect, precious”, v 6. What a vessel the assembly is, in the midst of darkness. Do you think we should value it more?
RGr Yes, I do, and you have touched on quite a vital point, because we think of failure a lot, and we have to judge ourselves. We have failed, and there is no mistake about that, but God is not going on with failure. He is going on with His thoughts in purpose, and He is going to work them out and is working them out. So you may say, ‘Well, we are just a feeble handful here’; but less us remember that we are here for no other reason than that we have been drawn by the Father to Christ, and we are to be maintained here by the Holy Spirit. So, unbelievers or others who have a less view of things might say, ‘Who do you think you are? Why make yourselves so special?’. We did not make ourselves special: God did! “Ye are a chosen race”, as you have just quoted.
RT Was not the assembly in the mind and purpose of God before ever sin came into the world?
RGr Yes. Go on; help us.
RT She is not a remedy merely or a way out, but the assembly was something that was conceived in purpose, was it not? And the Spirit has come to substantiate that until the time that she is taken back to be in glory.
RGr That is exactly the truth, and something we need to carry. I have the feeling at the moment that the enemy is peculiarly against the expression of assembly feelings and due assembly order. He would seek to bring in division, bring in disruption, bring in this that and the next thing. God is not in that; He is going on with His thoughts, and the great thing is that He will secure them.
RG That is what I thought about Peter’s expression, because he says, “that ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful light”. We are here for a purpose, and the purpose is to “set forth the excellencies of him who has called you”. Would we get some impression of these excellencies at the Supper, and then it would be in testimony that these would be shown forth?
RGr Yes, I think that is right. And I think we should remember that “as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come”. So who are we announcing it to? We are just a handful of Christians; that is not the point. The angels take account of the Supper, and others do too. Others may be looking on and seeing the regular proceeding to a particular meeting room or whatever, and there is some testimony in the Supper and the gospel flows out of that, of course.
MC Mr James Taylor said that the assembly is the greatest vessel in the universe at the present time, JT vol 89 p338. That helps us to see just how great it is, and the dignity that belongs to it, do you think?
RGr Yes, I do think that. We have to be neither pretentious nor imaginative, which is what belongs to the first order, but we have to keep our eyes on what God is doing and will do. The fact is that He is going to show Jerusalem, the holy city , to a wondering universe. And it will stand the most scrupulous examination.
RG We have often been reminded in our lives, have we not, amongst the brethren, that no locality would claim to be Philadelphia? But what is Philadelphian should be exemplified and seen in every locality.
RGr That is the truth. I am sure brethren have heard this many times; I certainly have: God does not present glorious impossibilities. He presents to us what is attainable and is attainable because a divine Person is involved. The power of the Spirit is involved.
MC It has often been said that the Acts of the Apostles could be called the Acts of the Spirit. I wonder if that bears on what we are saying about the Spirit. Wonderful activities took place as the Spirit came, and then as Paul acted in ministering features in localities, all formed as a result.
RGr Yes. You have opened up a very wide sphere of enquiry there. The activities of the Holy Spirit in the beginning of Acts are remarkable. And the way the saints responded was remarkable, but we have to remember that the blessed Holy Spirit - I want to speak carefully and wisely - is not to be thought of as assertive. You might say that is a strange thing to say about the Holy Spirit. But if I hinder Him, or if I am not amenable to what is right, He will retire. He does not give us up; He does not go away and leave us exactly, but we must remember that we are dealing with a divine Person with all the holiness and greatness that that involves. But the fact that He appeared in bodily form as a dove is something we should remember. Would you say?
MC Yes, that helps. So in the beginning of the Acts it says, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”, Acts 2: 4. So there was not room for anything else, do you think, and does that help us to make room for the Spirit?
RGr Yes, I think it is a continuous exercise that we should, and do, make way for the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is what marks off the Christian pathway. You might say, ‘We follow the Lord’. Yes, we do. Let us not confuse any of our young people; the Lord is the One who is on high, and we have our eye on Him, and we follow Him, but if we make way for the Spirit, what will He do? He will help us to follow Christ more actively and more fully.
TDB How do you do that? How do you make way for the Spirit?
RGr I know that in the beginning of the Acts when He came in there was the sound of violent, impetuous blowing, v 2. That was irresistible power working in the saints, but in the way that He operates we have to make way for Him and be sensitive to Him. I am often comforted by the end of Galatians where things were quite difficult; Paul says, towards the end, “ye who are spiritual”, 6: 1. Where do they come from? There must have been some in Galatia with all its shortcomings and failures; there must have been some making way for the Spirit. And in Galatians you get, “he that sows to the Spirit” (v 8); “walk also by the Spirit”, chap 5: 25. You get the fruit of the Spirit, chap 5: 22, 23. Really we have to engage ourselves with Him in an intelligent way, would you say? You help us.
TDB I was thinking of that very scripture you referred to; sowing to the Spirit involves making time in our lives, but He needs to be given time.
RGr Yes; I do not want to confuse any of our younger brethren. The Lord is on high on our behalf, and He is the One we follow. We keep our eye on Christ; He is our Saviour and He is our Lord. But the Holy Spirit is One whom we vitally need. We need to make way for Him and hence the importance of our now being free in addressing the Spirit.
RT Elisha says to the widow that was in debt, to borrow “empty vessels; let it not be few”, 2 Kings 4:3, 4. She came into the wealth of it through an empty vessel, did she not? He needs room, does He not? The Spirit needs room to operate.
RGr That is distinctly helpful and goes some way to answer the question as to how we make way for the Spirit. It is a thing that I have been exercised about in years past. If I am sitting reading the newspaper excessively (and I am not saying that we are never to read newspapers), or occupying myself excessively with any other thing that is not exactly evil, my mind is not open or receptive to the working of the Holy Spirit. So what you say is important: “Bring me empty vessels”. That is those vessels that are ready to receive a word. Is that is what is in your mind?
RT We are to take up our responsibility. The Holy Spirit is very sensitive, is He not?
RGr I think your word “sensitive” is important, and maybe better than the word I used; there is a gentleness. He is God; let us never forget that, and let us not in any sense be irreverent, but He is very gentle, and we can put Him off if we do not make way for Him.
DS snr Could you help us with the way Rebecca answered the servant here? “Drink, my lord!”, she says.
RGr Well, what comes out is Rebecca’s breeding; that is, that she came from a very good family, and I am talking spiritually now. Her instincts, her spiritual instincts, were right; and she saw in this person someone whom she could address respectfully and whom she could serve. And I think the touch - it is more than a touch - the time after the breaking of bread when the Holy Spirit is addressed, is very important. I do not want to get things unbalanced in our minds. The service of praise as we have it, as it has been given to us by the Lord through enquiry, gives opportunity to bring out the quality and the variety of the Holy Spirit’s work in the saints. He is with us when we speak to the Lord Jesus; He is with us when the thought of the assembly is in our minds and hearts; and He is with us as the Father’s Spirit too. It brings out the variety of His service.
DS snr The Spirit has feelings too, has He not?
RGr Well, I have been thinking recently about what Paul says; he speaks of “the love of the Spirit” (Rom 15: 30), but he also speaks about “your love in the Spirit”, Col 1: 8. This suggests an acquaintance with the Person, a reverent acquaintance with the person of the Holy Spirit. That is something that we do well to think about.
HS Is verse 19 the answer to that? She did this instinctively; the servant did not ask her to do this, to pour water for the camels. It is an interesting thing, is it not?
RGr Well, what you say is helpful; when we come to the Supper - who asked us to come? It was not announced, as we often remark. We come into an area where we are drawn by love for the Lord, and our desire to remember Him, but what follows is not the subject of rigorous rules. There is a sphere where the Holy Spirit is free in the saints, and what follows is spontaneous, and very pleasing to the heart of God.
HS In that verse when she had given him enough to drink she says, “I will draw …”. She made the move, did she not?
RGr Well, I have never calculated it myself, but it has been suggested the amount of water that she drew out of that well was very, very considerable; many, many gallons. But she had the capacity - God-given - to meet what was required at the moment, and it says there, “And the man was astonished at her, remaining silent, to know whether Jehovah had made his journey prosperous or not”. Really, this suggests the work of God appearing in this person, which was equal to the occasion.
RG Do you think there is a counterpart in the woman in John 4? She had been going back and forward to that well, but now, ”the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”, v14, There is the abundance of water that this woman was drawing here, do you think?
RGr Yes. The fact is that when we are under the control of the blessed Holy Spirit and absolutely subject to Him, without a cloud, the progress that can be made is remarkable. That woman suggests one such.
RT Typically, everything in this chapter depended upon Rebecca making room for the one who represents the Holy Spirit, did it not?
RGr Yes. I think that is an important remark. You might say, ‘Well, that was just a little aside’. Not really. The whole thing pivoted on the fact that she responded in this way, and it reminds me of the passage we sometimes quote on Lord’s day morning:
Before I was aware,
My soul set me on the chariots of my willing people, (Song of Songs 6: 12).
It is a matter of willing response, do you think?
RT Do you think there is some expression of this in the Supper being maintained in an assembly setting in the present time?
RGr Yes, I do; I think that is important. In the past two thousand years there have been endless efforts to modify the Supper, adjust it, make it different; but what we have today is the Supper as the Lord gave it through Paul. And the fact that it has been maintained is a tribute to the blessed Holy Spirit’s service, would you say?
RT That is very important because it has become a custom publicly, and a reduced custom publicly in Christendom, has it not? I think the maintenance by the Spirit of the Supper in its integrity is something that should sober us and it brings refreshment to Christ. He appears for it, does He not? “This do in remembrance of me”, Luke 22: 19.
RGr I heartily agree with what you say; I would not like to try and survive without the Supper. Where would we get to? It is the Lord’s provision; He values it and He blesses us as we value it.
TDB Is the Spirit dependent on vessels? The Spirit will see things through, as we are dependent on Him.
RGr The Spirit will see things through; God will not be defeated: that is unthinkable. But I think what you said first is important; the Spirit is dependent on vessels. What vessels? He needs vessels currently that have room for Him, and hence as they have room for Him they have room for Christ.
MC It is interesting that it says, “it came to pass when the camels had drunk enough, that the man took a gold ring, of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands, ten shekels weight of gold”. I wondered if that helps us in the understanding of how pleasing Rebecca was to the servant here. We might say how pleasing it is to the Spirit that something of this kind this has come on to view; and He is able to adorn immediately with what answers to this ring and the bracelets. Is there something distinctive in the weight being referred to?
RGr I believe so. Someone might say, ‘Well, we come together every Lord’s day and we go through the same sort of line of things, and it is always the same’. No, it is not. It is never the same. It is always fresh, and I think these matters that you have referred to, speaking of the wealth that has come from the Father’s house that the Spirit bestows on the saints, would remind us of how attractive the Lord finds His saints to be, because we have a fresh, living touch from the Holy Spirit.
RG What the Spirit gives you is valuable and will always be valuable, but we should hold it like that; it is precious. I was thinking about how the Spirit gives impressions. That is what is suggested here in this chapter - articles of silver and of gold, and clothing. Well, it does not tell you the date when the servant did that, but a time came when he said, “That is my master!”. Rebecca sprang off the camel and she took a veil; perhaps that was the clothing - part of the clothing. I suggest she had kept it all that journey but the time came when it could be useable typically for the pleasure of the Lord.
RGr That is good. You might ask who these were ornaments for, and think that perhaps they were for Laban to see, or the others that were around. They were really for Isaac to see; that is who they were for, and I think we should have an impression in our hearts that the Lord actively finds pleasure in the presence and responses of His saints. It is not just that this is what we do on Lord’s day morning. It is fresh and living and eternal in character.
Maybe we should look at Matthew; again we get a sense of divine pleasure. The Lord says, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens”. The Lord greatly values this intelligent response from Peter. And it is on that revelation He is going to build His assembly.
RT Is there is some touch of the Spirit in Peter, although He was not here as He is today, but there was some expression of the Spirit’s work about Peter: “on this rock”.
RGr Yes, I am sure there was. I think just to pursue that line a little; I think we little realise just what a difference the activity and presence and power of the Holy Spirit makes. Suppose we try to carry on what we normally do - breaking of bread, reading of the Scriptures and enquiry, preaching of the gospel - without the help of the Holy Spirit: it is unthinkable. It would be barren and dead and lifeless, but because the Spirit is here we have this living response. Is that what is in your mind?
RT Think of what this must have meant to the Lord. “Who do men say that I the Son of man am?” And they are saying all sorts of things, but He heard something from Peter that was the result of divine workmanship, was it not?
RGr It was, and it is an interesting study, too, to think of the way in which divine Persons value the work of each Other. You get it in Matthew 11 when the Lord was really in outwardly depressing circumstances: Capernaum and other cities were failures; “Woe to thee, Chorazin!”, and so on (v 21-24), but it is in that setting that He says, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth”, v25. He took account of what God was doing and praised Him in relation to it.
RG It says there, “Jesus answering said, I praise thee Father”, as if there was a conversation going on all the time, and that the Lord was answering.
RGr That is helpful because, being what I am, I tend to compartmentalise things, but God is not just active - I speak reverently - on Lord’s day. God is active every day, every hour of every day, every minute. He is active in relation to the assembly and those who form part of it.
TDB The Lord asked the disciples, “Have ye understood these things?”, Matt 13: 51.
RGr Yes; I feel sorry for the disciples sometimes. They did not have the Spirit, and it is quite evident from Scripture that they did not always follow what the Lord was saying. But He is very gracious. He says in Luke‘s gospel, “ye are they who have persevered with me in my temptations”, chap 22: 28. He does not lose patience with them. But we have the Spirit. There is nothing that should be opaque or cloudy in regard of the truth.
RG It is a remarkable thing that they did not have the Spirit. Paul says, “I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you”, 1 Cor. 11: 23. There was a communion between Paul and the Lord.
RGr Yes. Well, we do not have apostles now, we do not have these pillars that they had in those days in God’s ordering, but we do have the Holy Spirit, and what Paul said to the Corinthians was unerring. That is, he said what the Lord wanted him to say, and he placed it where it would be valued.
MC These impressions are very honourable, are they not? Any impression of Christ that you or I have is something we get from the Spirit, and that involves the freshness that we are speaking about. I was just thinking of the value of such impressions, and they are shared with one another. That belongs to assembly life as such, do you think?
RGr I do. But that is what the enemy is against. If he can produce a situation where my brother and I do not get on, or are at loggerheads with one another, he has successfully damaged, for the time being, God’s operations in the place. So, we get the Supper. What is it meant to do? It is meant to set us together.
MC Yes, I am sure it is.
RG “But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord … are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory”, 2 Cor 3: 18. We have one objective.
RGr We are not short of exhortations in the Scripture. The Lord’s own prayer in John 17 is “that they may be one as we” (v11), and then, “but also for those who believe in me through their word”, v 20.
MC This is very reassuring, that hades’ gates shall not prevail against it. Can you say something about that?
RGr Well, it is reassuring, and it is something that we should dwell upon. When I was young I remember when I began to sit up and pay attention a little and it was a time when the brethren could not be agreed about a matter current in the ministry. I would go to the meetings and everybody did what they usually did and so on. And then there came a day when I recognised that brethren whom I respected and valued and had been long in the testimony were not agreeing. Some said that we should do one thing, while others said it was contrary to Scripture. But God uses situations like these to bring out what He can do. I remember the Lord’s day when somebody said, ‘Brethren, we are not agreed; we should have a reading; that is what the temple is for’. So that is what happened, and we had a reading in the week. We had six scriptures, some ostensibly suggesting one thought and some not. I will never, ever forget the sense I had in that reading. The brethren’s voices quietened down; they stopped being angry with each other. The Lord came in and helped us, and the reading went forward. It was not all like a blinding flash of revelation, but what we had at the end of the reading was a united company. And that is one of the earliest lessons of my history. It was a real experience. The Lord is doing that today.
RG Do you not think that just as that was an experience amongst the saints, we should be exercised to reflect on our own personal experiences with divine Persons? I might ask every brother and sister here whether they can you remember the day when they received the Holy Spirit and what was it that happened. It is something I think we should be concerned about that it is not theory. Christianity is practical if it is anything.
RGr I could not agree more that we need personal experience. Joshua says to Israel when they came to the Jordan, “Hereby shall ye know that the living God is in your midst”, Josh 3: 10. Is the living God here?
RT Perhaps knowing you have the Spirit grows on you, of course.
RGr That is true. Just to be simple, I do not think I could point to a particular day in my life when I was conscious that I had at last received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
RT You become conscious that you have a different taste. The things that you would have said before you would not say now.
RGr Yes, and I would say to our younger brethren, if you do have a sense in your soul that there is something working, that your tastes are changing, do not ignore it. Do not rebel; let it work and God will bless you.
RT That is part of the treasure we have in earthen vessels, 2 Cor 4: 7.
RGr That is helpful. We might say, ‘If it is always as wonderful as this, why do things go wrong? Why do we not just all go on untroubled?’. What you have said is in the Scriptures. We have this treasure - it is very real - but it is in earthen vessels. We still have to learn dependence and obedience.
I just suggested Acts because it is a scripture that appeals to me greatly: “Shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. You might ask, ‘Where do we see that here amongst the brethren?’.
MC Is shepherding an essential feature for things to be maintained for the Lord?
RGr Yes, it is.
MC It means essentially that we value one another. We are to act like the Good Shepherd, who goes after the sheep that He might save it; I wonder if that activity amongst us would be of great value. I feel there is a need amongst us for more shepherding.
RGr I agree most heartily.
RG It is interesting how Paul commends Timothy, is it not? One who cared with genuine feeling how the saints got on; he was a shepherd.
RGr Yes. I think what has been said about valuing each other is very important. It astonishes me sometimes that you can have a situation where brethren will go on for a while. and then some problem comes in and overnight it almost seems as if they have become enemies. That is not of God; we are not enemies. We might not always agree - we are still in flesh and blood - but the Holy Spirit would keep us, and shepherd care would keep us.
TDB “The Holy Spirit has set you as overseers”; say something about that.
RGr It says here, “wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers”; they were in the flock, they were part of the flock, and they were filling out their responsibility in it.
RT It says, “the flock”; then it says, “shepherd the assembly of God”. The flock can be all sorts of things in a sense, but the work of God is there. “Shepherd the assembly of God” means you maintain the dignity and the status, you may say, of what we have been brought into.
RGr I think that is helpful. In fact it is something I need to pay more attention to; that is, a healthy respect for my brethren. It is something that we used to hear a lot more about. We are set together by God. It is not haphazard; we are plants of the Father’s planting, and we should respect the work of God in each other. Not only on account of that work, but on God’s account, we should respect what He has done in His saints.
RG “Each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves” (Phil 2: 3); that is the scripture for it.
RGr Well, it is, and it is an important scripture. That involves calculation.
Kirkcaldy
16th October 2016
List of initials (local in Kirkcaldy unless otherwise shown)
T D Beveridge; M Cowan; R Gray. Grangemouth; R Gardiner; H Smith; D Speirs Sr, Grangemouth; R. Taylor;