The
True Nature of the Church
That makes it necessary
to say just a few words here in parenthesis about the
true nature of the Church. What is the Church? Well, to
begin with, it is the spiritual relatedness of the
children of God. That is the first, shall I say the
lowest, level of the meaning of the Church, the most
elementary, the starting point - the spiritual
relatedness of all children of God; and it is not
necessary for me to take up time to say that all truly
born-again children of God have a basic and fundamental
oneness, that they share one common life. That we know.
But that is where the Church begins. That is what the
Church is in its beginnings - a spiritual relatedness, by
the possession of all of this one life which is the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we must not leave
it there. The Church is that, but the Church is something
more than that. The Church is the active functional
relatedness of the children of God. We have said in a
previous meditation that it is one thing to possess life
in a human body, but it may be quite another thing for
that human body to be functioning as a body. It may be,
poor thing, lying there alive, and yet for all practical
purposes be as good as dead, useless. It is not a
functioning thing. The whole of its organism may be
upset, its co-ordination of function may be destroyed.
And can you think that the Lord looks upon His people
with anything of real contentment when He sees that they
have life, but as a functioning related Body there is
little or nothing? Surely we cannot think that the Lord
is satisfied with that? What the Lord would call His
Church is not just something that has His life. When He
would say, "I will build my church", and speak
of "My Church", He would think of His Church as
a related and functioning thing, and not just a thing
which possesses the gift of His life. In the thought of
God, to answer to His thought and purpose, the Church is
this active, related, functional oneness of His people.
It is there that all
our difficulties and problems arise. Things become, of
course, very practical, and it is just there that a lot
of people get into a great deal of confusion and mess,
because they fail to recognise that to have spiritual
fellowship, and to cooperate with what is of the Lord in
His people, is one thing, but to be actively associated
with what is unscriptural in men's systems is another
thing. I mean this, that some people think that, in order
to have fellowship with certain Christians, you have to
go into the thing where they are, and become part of it;
their systems, their denominations, their religious
orders. In order to show that you are in fellowship, you
must go in. That is quite another thing from active
spiritual fellowship with them as the Lord's children on
a spiritual basis.
The point of departure
arises here. When anybody says, either in words,
inference, or by their attitude, "If you are going
to prove your fellowship with me, you have to come in and
belong to what I am in, and work with me in that",
then that is another question altogether from this one of
spiritual relatedness. That is where all the difficulties
arise, and that is where the Lord so often has to make
His drastic breaks.
The two difficulties
are these. In order to get a real living expression of
the Church as a functioning related thing, so often the
Lord has to break in upon that impingement of systems
upon people and cut them clear. He has to. It is
unfortunate, it is a pity, but if you put it to the test,
you find it is usually that way. The system impinges and
becomes something which is distinct from that heavenly,
spiritual and universal nature of the Church. It is
something which is sectarian, and, being that, is
schismatic and divides the Lord's people here on the
earth, and the Lord so often has to cut right into that,
and to draw His people away from it, and put them on
neutral ground where they can live and function, not as
something apart from the children of God, but as
something which is not a part of something that is
unscriptural.
Then the next
difficulty is for such people to maintain a purely
spiritual position without becoming another sect. That is
a very practical difficulty, but it can be done. But it
calls for much watchfulness and a constant guardedness
against anything, not only in your doctrine, but in your
spirit, in your mentality, in your attitude to others,
constant vigilance against the coming in of the spirit of
that which you are supposed to have left behind. Oh, the
difficulties are very real and very practical, but not
insuperable.
Life
the Answer to Every Problem
It resolves itself
mainly into a question of life. Life is the answer to
every problem. Oh, I do feel, beloved, that God's
universe is entirely constituted on the biological
principle. It is the answer to everything, the
explanation of everything, the principle of realisation;
the infinite wisdom of God in just resolving everything
into one simple proposition and method, and saying,
"I will put life into a seed, and I can leave it! I
do not begin by forming this flower, making so many
petals, shaping them, colouring them, and then building
them into one another, and joining them up and fastening
them on to a stem, and working like that. That is
artificial. I will put life into a seed and leave it, and
presently you will have the flower, the perfect
flower". That life itself has all that organism, all
that organization, all that shaping, all that colour, all
that form. The life has it, and if the life is only given
a chance, it will produce that, it will be manifested,
whether it be by the flower or the tree, or the bird, or
the fish or the animal, or the man. Everything is the
result of the life which has the peculiar nature of that
organism in it, and if once that life can be introduced
and given a chance, you will have the organism. That is
the biological secret of God in realising His creation.
But the natural
creation is only a type of the spiritual. It was only
intended to be that. The spiritual is on that principle,
and the secret and solution of everything in the
spiritual realm is the biological principle. Put the life
of God's Son into anyone and give it a chance, let that
life be sovereign, let that life have free course, let
that life be in lordship, and you can leave it. You need
not fret over trying to put members together, and make
them look pretty, nice, happy and cheerful. Oh no, the
life will do it. God has one key, namely, the sovereign
life of His own beloved Son given a chance unhindered.
The result will be as sure as day follows night, and this
whole matter of the expression of the Church, and the
safeguarding of a true expression of the Church, is just
a matter of the Lord's life; that life preserved by the
working of the Cross all the time against death, its
great enemy, and the ground upon which death works, which
is the flesh. Let the Cross be kept there over the flesh,
the ground of spiritual death, preserving the life, and
we need not worry about the technique; that will look
after itself. Church technique will look after itself if
the Cross is doing its work and the life is having its
way; which only means the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus
expressed in the power of His Spirit in terms of life.
We shall be a sect, we
shall again be resolved into some thing, as apart from
other things on this earth amongst the Lord's people, if
we get down on to any other level and ground than that of
the sovereign headship and life of the Lord Jesus. Get
down on to the ground of teaching, on to the ground of
spiritual leaders, men, or on to any other ground, and we
shall become some thing. But maintain that
position in relation to the living, exalted Lord Jesus,
holding fast the Head, and whatever people may say, the
truth remains that there we shall have a living
expression of God's thought of the Church, a company of
the Lord's people on the basis of heavenliness,
spirituality, universality, in life.
I would like to stay
much longer with that, but I trust that sufficient has
been said to indicate this tremendous difference. So the
Church is that spiritual relatedness in a functioning
way, on the basis of the Lordship of Christ in life; the
risen Lord in the midst, where nothing of man has a
place. It is on that basis that we are to seek
fellowship, and if it really comes to the point, we must
be prepared to say: "Look here, I will meet you on
spiritual ground, the ground of Christ, the ground of our
one life, I will co-operate with you in all that is truly
spiritual, but if you want me to come into your
organization, to become part of your system and join in
your institutions, then you put up a barrier, you
interfere with fellowship". Now, that is not a
denial of the Church, that is not a contradiction of
oneness. To take that course is simply to refuse the
imposition by anyone of something that is not of the
Lord, not scriptural, something that is extra to our
spiritual life and fellowship; and where men will do
that, there is the interruption. We must remain on the
free ground of the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit.
Now, that is very
practical; but, beloved, do not forget that bound up with
that is the whole question of spiritual fulness. The
whole matter of the fulness of Christ is bound up with
our being on the ground of His Lordship and of His life,
and not on any other artificial ground as made by men.
And that raises other practical points. Oh, all the
practical points are raised by that.
The
Church and the Opposing Forces of Evil
The Church, we are
saying, is a thing which functions in relatedness. Well,
conflict is mainly connected with this Lordship of Jesus
Christ, and the Lordship of Jesus Christ is bound up
mainly with the Church: so that the conflict is to be
dealt with by the Church. You see, the opposing forces of
evil are to be met by the Church. "I will build my
church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it", said our Lord (Matt. 16:18), as though the
Church were the main objective of the powers of evil. It
is the Church and the gates of Hades. Well now, those
powers of evil have to be met by the Church in
representation. And here let me warn you to be very
careful of single-handed assault upon the powers of evil.
If you do, you will find yourself unable to meet them;
and that is saying a thing very imperfectly. You will
find that you will be mightily knocked about. Be very
careful of making personal, singlehanded, individual
assaults upon the powers of evil. This is a Church
matter. The Church may be represented by just two or
three. The corporate principle is essential. That does
not mean that you are not personally to resist the Devil,
that you are not personally to stand, and withstand, but
if you are going to make assault upon strongholds of the
Evil One, you will need to stand on Church ground for
that: for the Lord has made this a Church matter, a
corporate matter, that is to say; and doubtless you have
proved it. Some situations can never be touched
single-handed; you have to call in co-operation. Well,
the Lord holds us to that. If you have professed to have
seen the Church, the Body of Christ, if you have given
any testimony to it, the Lord will hold you to it; you
will not get through a situation singlehanded. He will
make you come to the Church about it, and your whole life
will simply be tied up until you make a Church matter of
it. The Lord is very jealous over His Church. Satan can
make an awful mess of a life, if that life moves out to
meet spiritual antagonism without the Church.
Do lay to heart what is
being said, for it may touch you at many points. It is
very true. Do you really know Church life? You
understand, when I speak about Church life, I am not
talking about what men call "the Church". I am
talking about the spiritual relatedness of the Lord's
children, the interdependence of the members of Christ.
They do depend upon one another, and the Lord has ordered
it that it shall be so, and in the main issues the Lord
will hold us to that. We can go out to our work and be
withstood effectually by the enemy, if we do not
recognise this law of God, that the Church has to move
with us and we with the Church. There has to be a
corporate life in this matter. If you did but realise and
recognise it, dear friends, you would see that this is
the explanation of so much frustration. Go back to Ezra
and recall how they put the altar in its place, and laid
the foundation of the house of the Lord. They got no
further than that, before the adversaries came on the
scene. And what did they do? Well, they did all sorts of
things; but it is all summed up in one word, they set
themselves to frustrate the work. Frustrate! Oh, this
terrible sense of frustration! Are you conscious of that?
Frustration! No word suits the situation better than
that. You make a move, you are brought to a standstill.
You move again, and again you are brought to a
standstill. There is no getting through. It is
frustration, frustration in all directions. I am glad
that word is there.
Well, the people fell
for a time under that frustration, and were held up for a
number of years. But the Lord did not accept that, and
God re-acted to that. "The Lord stirred up the
spirit of Zerubbabel... and Joshua" (Hag. 1:14),
through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah, and the
Lord said, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my
spirit" (Zech. 4:6). The frustration of the Evil One
is countered by the Holy Spirit through the Church. The
Church is the instrument of the Holy Spirit's work
against the enemy. Oh, may the Lord give us a new sense
of the tremendous importance of the functioning reality
of the Church!
We are speaking of what
the Church is. It is something more than an entity just
possessing life. It is a functioning relatedness of the
children of God, and its function on the one hand is to
counter this tremendous challenge to the Lordship of
Jesus Christ, and if there is a new rising up of this
corporate activity, co-operation, amongst the people of
God, this frustration of the enemy can be dealt with. We
are not going to sit down under this frustration of the
enemy, but we must be stirred up in our spirits. My name
is not Zerubbabel and not Joshua, but humbly may the Lord
be pleased to have the same effect upon you through this
word as their word had upon the people of their day, to
stir up corporate action against frustration, and to say,
We will not accept this frustration of the enemy!
The
Wiles of the Devil
Now let us go on. The
conflict is always intended to counter the true meaning
of the Cross and the true nature of the Church, because
they both involve the Lordship of Christ. How is it done?
Well, there is a lot of light for us in the Scriptures on
this, Paul sums it all up in one word - "the wiles
of the Devil" (Eph. 6:11). Both Nehemiah and Ezra
will give us a good insight into the wiles of the Devil.
The first movement, as you notice in Ezra 4, was along
the line of attempted paralyzing through mixture. The
adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children
of the captivity were building, and they drew near, and
said, "Let us build with you: for we seek your God,
as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him..." Let us
build! One of the most subtle forms of Satanic activity
against the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ is mixture,
bringing in elements that profess and pretend to be in
true alliance with the purpose, but which in nature are
not, but are a contradiction. The enemy is always trying
to bring about that state of mixture through alliances
with things which are different in their nature. Oh, let
this word search us! Has the Cross really done its work
in us, has it been so planted in us that we can say we
are not just outwardly associated with a thing, but that
deep down in our very being we have a burden about this
House of God? What is your relationship to this matter?
Really, beloved, is there in you an ache over the state
of the House of God? These adversaries - and, with all
that they said and professed, they are still adversaries
- came and said, We seek your God, we do sacrifice to
your God, let us build with you! Are you quite sure that
your association is not merely outward, objective,
something with which you have a certain amount of
agreement? Are you quite sure that you have gone into
this thing and this thing into you, and that deep down in
your being there is a real concern and travail about this
house? These adversaries had no such concern: they were
not really burdened and troubled about the state of the
house, as is soon seen. Frustrated along this line, they
will seek to frustrate the building of this house. The
Lord must have the pure essence of a real burden
concerning the spiritual life of His people. It must be
in us, a real concern. It must be true, genuine, our very
life, not something from which we can resign and go away,
because we meet with some unpleasantnesses, some
difficulties, some things that go against our personal
interest. Oh, John rightly names those people -
"They went out from us, but they were not of
us" (1 John 2:19). You cannot go out from something
that is your very being. We may have had thoughts about
retiring and giving up, but when it comes to the issue,
that which we have perhaps called an 'it', from which we
were going to withdraw, that and ourselves were so much
one we could not divide between them. The thing is
wrought into us in the very fires of God. Are you sure it
is like that? The enemy cannot do much with that, but he
is always trying to get a conglomeration of people, some
really burdened, and others who, however much they think
it so, and protest that they serve the same God and offer
sacrifices to Him, have but taken something on, and have
no real concern deep down in their being. They have but
joined themselves to something into which the Holy Spirit
has not planted them.
Alliance! And when they
failed in that, their subterfuge was exposed. Then they
turned, with threats and terrorizing, and moved out to
spread a false report and misrepresent these people,
saying they were building this temple with the intention
of revolting. As to Nehemiah and the building of the
wall, the false report was, He intends to make a name for
himself, to get a following, to be something himself!
False reports, misrepresentation, the Devil's work of
opposition; and they brought tremendous pressure against
this thing. A little thing comes out in Haggai about it,
which I think is significant. You remember as Haggai
opens his prophecies, out of which there came the
reviving of the building of the temple, he says,
"This people say, It is not the time for us to come,
the time for the Lord's house to be built." But they
had made a start: they had put the altar in its place and
they had laid the foundation. They have changed their
mind. They have come to another conclusion. "The
time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should
be built." Why? They had met opposition severe and
terrible, opposition from the adversaries, and the
adversary had not only opposed from without, but he had
got inside and made a suggestion, and his inward
suggestion was this: You see all these difficulties,
these adversaries, these troubles, these persecutions,
these misrepresentations; they mean that the Lord does
not want you to do it, this means the Lord's time has not
come; if the Lord's time had come, the thing would go
through without any difficulty! Has it ever been so? Tell
me the time when the Lord did a great thing and it went
through without opposition. You have difficulty in
finding a time in history when hell has not risen up
when God has set Himself to do a new thing. Satan says,
The opposition means the Lord's time is not yet come, the
Lord is not with you in it; if He were, He would carry
you through swimmingly. It never has been like that. But
you see how Satan gets inside and gives a false
implication to difficulties, and says, If the Lord were
with you, you would have no difficulties; the Lord would
simply carry you through without any trouble at all! No,
not at all; that is the work of the enemy, to hinder by
any and every means he can, because of the tremendous
issue that is involved.
Now, ask the Lord to
show you what it means, to make this word to have real
issues in your own lives, to get what He really has set
His heart upon. And do not forget the enemy will seek to
frustrate. I think he has been at it in this Conference,
by the spirit of death, of blinding, of paralyzing. Oh,
ask the Lord to stir up your spirit to resist this. Say,
If the Lord is seeking to do something, then I resist all
paralysis of mind and spirit, all deadness, and I stand
for the Lord's purpose to come clear!