The Holy Spirit in the Assembly
There are mysteries of Redemption, which lie beyond this present life, that no one of us can explore. Rev. C. G. Moore well sums up the practical teachings of the Apocalypse, when he says: “As I study that difficult book, I discover three things: — (1) That there are two sides; (2) that one side
always wins; and (3) that the winning side is my side.” These are the final triumphs of the Kingdom. But let us remember the present age is that of the Church rather than the Kingdom and one of our greatest duties is to study the great source of all true power and victory in this age and it is the Presence and Presidency of the Holy Spirit in the Church.
In my recent visit to Wales I was more impressed by this than almost anything else: The Holy Spirit of God in the assembly. The Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost, “like a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting,” You cannot be in a place filled by an atmosphere without being yourself filled by the same atmosphere. Here we find that paradox: You are in the Spirit and the Spirit is in you. ‘‘ Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit dwell in you.” There is only one thing of which it is true that I am in it and it is in me and that is what we call an “element.” The fish is in the water and the water is in the fish, the fire is in the iron and the iron is in the fire, the bird is in the air and the air is in the bird. No other figure of speech expresses so well as this the fact of our relation to the Spirit of God. He is a Person, but He is spoken of in the Word of God as an element in Whom we live and move and have our being. Especially are we taught that He is the element in which the Church abides: and this fact should produce a deep impression about the solemnity of the assemblies of God’s people.
There is something quite different from anything which we are taught about the individual believer, in the teaching about the assemblies of God’s saints.
Take the illustration of the atmosphere — a wonderful figure, as all God’s figures are. We find in the atmosphere two conditions; one of rest and one of motion. In rest, the atmosphere brings to us three things — life, light, heat. In motion it develops force so mighty that, while in its gentleness it ripples the streams and moves the leaves with its breezes, in its more tremendous manifestations it rends the very earth and mountains in its violence, and tears up sycamine and cedar trees by the roots. What an illustration this is of the Holy Spirit in the true assembly of God’s saints I In rest, He is as the life of God’s people. He is as the light of truth to them. He is as the warmth of love to them. He is a vital atmosphere. He is a luminous atmosphere. He is a melting atmosphere. But, in other manifestations df the Holy Ghost, He is like a tremendous force moving over and amid a congregation, moving to convict and convert sinners, to condemn the ungodly, and sometimes in judgment upon those that oppose the progress of God’s Kingdom, and set themselves against the truth as it is in Jesus Christ.
In the Acts of the Apostles and in 1 Cor. xiv. this truth is treated of — what the Holy Spirit is in the assemblies of God’s saints, giving life to God’s people, distributing varieties of qualifications, and spheres of labour and activity, leading them so that when they come together, one has a psalm, another a doctrine, another an exhortation, another an interpretation of Scripture. There is all this variety for the edification of the saints; and yet, under certain circumstances, in a congregation. He moves also judicially, to convict, to convert, to condemn, to subdue, and even to destroy. What the Bible teaches us about the Holy Spirit in the assemblies of saints is awe-inspiring.
The responsibility of being in a Christian assembly is proportionately great. I want to emphasise this idea of responsibility. Everyone of us helps either to create or to corrupt the atmosphere of such an assembly, imparting life-giving or death-dealing properties from our own spiritual state — discord if we are discordant, or harmony, if we are harmonious with the Spirit of God, and the great body of God’s saints.
This lesson is taught in the Book of Daniel. When Daniel and the wise men were in danger, on account of the tyranny of the king of Babylon, when the vision on his bed could not be told him, nor its interpretation — not even the dream being known to himself; it had escaped him — what did Daniel do? He called together his holy companions and got them to unite with him in prayer to the God of Heaven. That is an early glimpse of an assembly, a very few saints, united in prevailing prayer. “Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision.” Here is a glimpse of the power by which even so small an assembly, consisting of only four believers, could unlock the secrets of God to a single man by means of united prayer. “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven,”
The Holy Spirit in the Assembly 6i
Understand that every man and woman in an assembly is contributing to the character of the spiritual atmosphere that invests it. You cannot coop up such an atmosphere by narrow sectarianism, any more than you can confine the literal atmosphere, without corrupting it. We must put sectarian bounds away, and give the atmosphere of the Holy Ghost abundance of opportunity to move to and fro, if we are to have a pure air for God to work in and saints to breathe in.
Remember that in the atmosphere of
the^^H^ Ghost there is;
but it is for to do what
hut do.what^H.e M There are
many whose idea of liberty in an assembly is freedom to carry out their own notions, prejudices and preferences which they sometimes elevate to the rank of principles. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty,’’ not for me to do what I want, but for Him to do as He wants with me.
That implies continual humility: even th speaker waiting on God for his message, or ] he has no business to be there. He must be i willing to lay aside his best preparations, and keep silence; otherwise he is out of place, i That is giving the Holy Ghost liberty to I use us as He will for the purposes of His J grace.
He must not really bring his own message at all — no word that is not written in this Book; nor must he seek for new ideas. I am very suspicious of new ideas, and have never found an idea worth giving to my fellow men that is not found in this Word of God. If there is any room for originality at all, it is only as one discovers something that perhaps others have not discovered in the Word. That is the only kind of originality that there ever ought to be in a Biblical teacher — not the novelty of an invention, but of a discovery. Thus the Bible becomes a Book that speaks to you as though you were the only person for whom it was written, and that is to you the greatest proof of its inspiration.
We must maintain the purity of this spiritual atmosphere. To allow any man or woman who is not living a godly life, who is corrupt, who is a blasphemer, who is impure, drunken, or heretical — to allow such to remain in the assembly of God’s saints undisciplined, is to corrupt the atmosphere of the Church. When discipline disappears, purity and power also disappear.
Notice two or three things: One is that, in every truly conducted assembly
so FAR AS THE HOLY SPIRIT WORKS, SATAN WORKS.
The more vigorously the Spirit works, the more vigorously evil spirits work. I noticed this in the recent visit to Wales, and it was one of the most impressive things that I saw. I went into assembly after assembly, where spiritually-minded, godly men were sitting around in the little enclosure in front of the pulpit, with heads bowed in prayer. Some of the exercises were in Welsh, but one could discover by spiritual sensibility when something was going wrong. Nothing was said — -no interposing or interfering to stop what was evidently unhallowed, or discordant, or displeasing to God. Those brethren gave themselves to silent prayer, and presently there was a change of atmosphere. One felt that discord had melted into harmony; that somehow or other a different state of things had come about; and, although, I did not understand the “language of Canaan I came to the conclusion, nevertheless, that something in the assembly was radically changing the conditions under which the meeting began. When I communed with those brethren I found that, when anything came up in the assembly opposed to the mind and will of God, and calculated to create discordance, they gave themselves to silent appeal to God the Holy Ghost, to take care of it, and presently it got out of the way.
We have had, at Keswick, examples of the way the Holy Ghost answers prayer to remove obstacles. When it was proposed to hold a meeting in the tent for an all-night of prayer, it was obvious, within a few minutes that there was some disturbing element, the nature of which we scarcely knew.
Some remarks were made, not altogether charitable, but accusative in character, and sounding a little revolutionary in tone, and they caused some distress and dissatisfaction among those who were jealous that there should be only harmony, love, and concord. But a few godly souls gave themselves to prayer that God would graciously over-rule what was felt to be a Satanic disturbance.
After a while, being present myself, I felt a deep impression that the Spirit led me to speak to those present. I said: “There are many people in this vicinity, lodging in these houses. Some are partially invalided and weak in their nervous system, some aged; they all need sleep, and any boisterousness on our part will disturb them. Be content to stay here till three o’clock in the morning and then quietly disperse; let us not look on our own things, but on the things of others. If you consent to that proposal, raise your hands.” Every hand went up, and from that time forward the demon of noise and discord was defeated, and the Holy Ghost reigned in that assembly; but the conditions before and after, were as obviously different as the contrast between darkness and dawn.
That was one of the most remarkable meetings we have ever seen in Keswick. There were 468 written requests sent up for definite prayer, and as almost every paper had from two to three requests upon it, we had upwards of
A THOUSAND REQUESTS FOR PRAYER,
occupying one-and-a-half hours of time in reading. Confessions of sin followed — all sorts, from all quarters, the tent meanwhile filling up with about seven hundred or eight hundred people. Then came a scene such as one seldom witnesses. It was suggested that those who were ready, without any dependence upon feelings to take God as a matter of faith, depending upon His Word and standing upon His promise, should rise. One after another rose, till, to our amazement, in the course of ten minutes, every man and woman in the tent were on their feet to take Almighty God as a God of faithfulness, and claim His promise simply on the ground of confidence in His Word.
The hush of God came on us all. A man had come in who was drunk. He found Christ and went out of the meeting, and brought in his wife with a nursing babe, and her sister. Christians laboured with those two women to bring them to the knowledge of Christ. One man prayed for was a minister of a church in England, and when the request was read, he got up and said: “You may change prayer to praise, for I am here and have got the blessing! ’’ When it came to be within a half-hour of three o’clock, it was suggested that it would be a good time to acknowledge in praise what God had done for us; and, just as we had
F seen all rising to claim the power of God by faith, we now saw” all rising to testify for blessing then and there received. Among others, a man who had believed that he had committed the “unpardonable” sin rose, and told how his great burden had been rolled away.
Thus, at that very meeting we had a striking exhibition of how, when everything is brought into accord with the Spirit, and all disciples are brought into harmony with each other, in a Christian assembly, God at once begins marvellously to work for His own glory.
The most solemn part of this subject concerns the Holy Spirit in the assembly acting judicially — acting to condemn to afflict and even to destroy.
In the Acts of the Apostles this conception is illustrated. When, in the fifth chapter, Ananias and Sapphira combine together to defraud God of His dues, Peter said: “Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? And down fell Ananias, dead — the Holy Spirit in the assembly actually destroying a man guilty of defrauding God. And when Sapphira came in she was addressed in similar language, and Peter said: The feet of them which
have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost; and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband” — the Holy Ghost in the assembly acting judicially, not constructively but destructively — a most awful and overwhelming fact.
Then, in the 8th chapter, we read with regard to the case of Simon the sorcerer, how an awful judicial rebuke was administered to him by Peter, who read the secrets of his heart by the power of the Holy Ghost, and said: “Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God” — the Holy Ghost in the assembly exposing and condemning.
In the case of Elymas the sorcerer, Paul, acting in the Spirit, actually inflicted judicial blindness on him, because he was turning away the deputy from the faith. Then, in Acts xii., when Herod had stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church, and had taken Peter and put him in prison, an assembly was gathered together in the house of Mary the mother of John Mark, praying for Peter, and while they were praying for him his prison doors were opened, and he himself came to the gate. And the same prayer that brought deliverance to Peter brought judgment to Herod; for, in the latter part of that same chapter we read that the Angel of the Lord smote him, and “he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.” Most of us have had some observation and experience on this subject. In Northfleld, several years ago, a man whom Mr. Moody believed and confidently felt to be a fraud, had, however, been engaged to speak on the platform, and Mr. Moody could not very well cancel the invitation without having adequate and justifiable ground. He said to me: “What can we do? This man has got hold of people; he ought not to speak here; but I cannot well silence him, for I can give no satisfactory reason.’^
A few of us suggested united prayer about this perplexing case, asking God to solve the problem, and the man was stricken with serious illness and went home, and has never been in Northfield since I
I have been told of a young man who shamefully trifled with the affections of a young woman to whom he was engaged, and was dealt with by the officers of the Church. He proved stubborn, and rebellious, unwilling to pay any attention to advice, and married a woman to whom he had afterwards become attached, throwing off without cause her to whom he had been engaged, before. He was brought up before the assembly, and the venerable pastor said to him; My brother, we have exhorted and admonished you, but you have gone forward in an obstinate and perverse course. I say to you in the name of God that, until repentance comes, judgment will follow you.’’ It was so. Divine chastisement pursued him year after year, so long as he continued in impenitence and sin.
I heard also of a young woman advocating errors and circulating heretical tracts and pamphlets. She was admonished and suspended, but persisted in her course, and afterwards was attacked by cancer of the tongue. Divine disapproval fell upon the offending member — the tongue.
I knew a preacher who had attained the age of sixty, and was about to be displaced by the congregation simply on account of his years. Nothing was said to him, but a worldly conspiracy was formed, on a certain Communion Sunday, when the people were gathered in larger than usual numbers, to call a meeting, when he should be asked to resign. The day came, the church was filled i At the close of the service, as the pastor retired to the vestry those conspirators called for a man who was to take the chair 1 and whose name was supposed to carry great weight, as he was a member of the Legislature and a distinguished lawyer. As they looked round for him to take the chair, a messenger came in and said he had just fallen dead in the vestibule!
They know not what they do who trifle with the Holy Spirit’s control in the assembly of the saints! How sad that from the eyes of so many ministers of Christ there seems to be judicially hidden the fact that they are in charge, in the name of God, of
70 The Spirit’^ Voice to the Churches
an assembly over which the Holy Ghost presides!
On one occasion three men in my congregation were making hopeless discord, and could not be by me reconciled to each other. I tried to bring them and their differing brethren together, but in vain. After eighteen months of effort, I carried the thing to God in prayer. I said, “I cannot take care of this business; either reconcile these men, or take them away out of this church.” Not one of those offenders has ever been inside the walls of that church from that day. In the family of one of them disease rapidly developed, and he moved out of the city, at the recommendation of the physician, as otherwise the life in peril could not be saved. A second man had his rent raised, and he moved away. The third came under accusation of defalcation in business, and was ashamed to show his face.
If a man is an obedient servant of God let every other man keep his hand off him. ‘‘Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm.” God is the avenger of all such. If God puts a man in charge of a congregation, it is his peril that any other conspires against such a servant of God unjustly. He can safely give up all his affairs entirely into the hands of the Great Protector of his interests, and be calm and quiet.
Prayer in the assembly is a mighty power. Hence, in such gatherings we urge and entreat sinners to come to Christ, and restless disciples to throw off burdens, to drop weights, to make confession, and accept the fulness of blessing Not that they cannot get blessing elsewhere; but that there is an atmosphere of God that pervades the place of assembly, where hundreds unite in prayer for their well-being, interested in them, surrounding them as far as they can with the helpful atmosphere of the Holy Ghost.
It is a perilous thing to come to a Christian assembly and get no blessing. Better almost to stay away if you are not in earnest. It is perilous to trifle with the things of God. While large numbers of people are united in praying it is a golden time to yield to God. Let the power of the Holy Ghost in the assembly help you forward to take that winning side, to which every saint, from Abraham to the last believer, gloriously belongs.