The Assembly in Its Local Aspect

Henry Allan Ironside

Sailing with Paul

Side by side with the truth of the Assembly as the body of Christ, is the counter truth of the local assembly, the company of believers in any given locality, acting on the ground of the one body. Perhaps it might be said that, strictly speaking, there is no declared doctrine of the local assembly, but both the Acts and the Epistles give us many illustrative incidents and historical notices which enable us to clearly see the divine method of ordering these companies of believers gathered to the peerless name of the Lord Jesus Christ. For His own words: “Where two or three are gathered together in [or, unto] My Name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20), clearly apply to all scriptural assemblings of His people. He will ever be the Center and recognized Head, who will lead the praises and worship of His saints, as it is also written, “In the midst of the church [assembly] will I sing praise unto Thee” (Hebrews 2:12). In the beginning the local assembly at Jerusalem and the Assembly, the body of Christ, were one. Every member of that body was, for a brief season at least, a part of the local assembly in that city. Then, as these believers were scattered abroad, as visitors from Pentecost returned to their  homes,  or  others  were  driven  from  Jerusalem  by persecution—as the gospel also was carried to Samaria, and then to the Gentiles—wherever a company of members of Christ’s body was found there was another local assembly. This was the only way in which separate gatherings were formed. “Two or three” in any given locality were drawn together by the Spirit to the Name of the Lord Jesus, and thus a local assembly sprang into existence. To this little company others were added, as grace revealed Christ to their  souls,  and  they  in  turn  became  partakers  of  the blessings of the Spirit’s baptism, owning the rejected Jesus as Lord.

Thus all was simple. There was no human organization, no  cumbrous  ecclesiastical  machinery,  no  sectional membership.  He  who  was  recognized  as  a  member  of Christ’s body in Jerusalem, traveling or going elsewhere, upon making himself known there as one subject to Christ the Head, was at once accounted as one of them. He had found his own company. From an early period letters of commendation  were  given  to  such  brethren  that  they might be, at once, accredited in places where they were personally unknown (Romans 16:1,2; 2 Corinthians 3:1; Acts 18:27). But this was all. There was no dismissing a “member” from the church in Ephesus that might “join” the church in Philippi. If someone was a known member of Christ’s body in Ephesus, he was gladly acknowledged as such in Philippi when his claim was properly attested. As one goes over all this, how the conviction is forced upon the soul that Christendom has gotten far indeed from the simplicity of early days! And that very fact leads us to inquire: is it possible now to act just as they did then?—when love was warm and before evil and pernicious doctrines had honeycombed what should have ever been in an outward way “The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). The answer is that all this declension and failure was foreseen by the Holy Spirit, and directions have been clearly given how to proceed when such unhappy ruin should have come in. In Acts 20, where Paul delivered his farewell address to the elder brethren of the Ephesian assembly, he warned them of the very things we have been considering; but at the close he simply says, “I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace ” (verse 32). God’s Word therefore is all-sufficient, whatever the cold-heartedness and backsliding that may be prevalent.
What course, then, are we directed to take when such evil  days  have  come?  Build  sects  and  systems,  walled about  with  iron-clad  creeds  and  buttressed  by  human regulations? Not at all. What then? Go back to “that which was from the beginning.” Find out how things were at the first, and act on what the Word of God makes known. But shall we not then be literally swamped by unholy errorists of every description? This does not necessarily follow; for the same Word clearly tells us who are to be accepted  to  communion,  and  who  refused  Christian fellowship. We are called to receive all whose doctrines and ways give evidence that they are members of Christ and subject to Him as Lord and Head. If a man is not sound in his teaching, he may be a member of Christ but he is not subject to Him, and is not to be received until the evil is judged. And the same applies to moral questions. One who has fallen into unholy ways, may, after all, be a believer whose failure is but temporary; still, we dare not receive him in that state. We must wait until we see the evidence of his subjection to Christ in the judgment of his sin. This  is  largely  ignored  in  Christendom  generally, which has become like a great house in which valuable and common vessels are all mixed up together. If a man would be a “vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use,” he is called to purge himself out from this mixture, by separating himself from it. He is then to find fellowship among similar separated ones, and to “follow righteousness, faith, charity [or, love], peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:19-22); and so walking together the ground of the one body is maintained. If companies in different places are similarly gathered, they occupy the same position, and thus, in principle, go back to “that which was from the beginning.”

To do so involves no pretension. It is not “rebuilding the Church.” It is owning the ruin of the Church and, in simplicity, “endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). Difficulties may and will arise. Troubles will come up. Sorrows will have to be faced. But if there be a cleaving to Christ and His truth, the Word of God will be found all-sufficient to meet every case that appears. Owning  to  the  broken  and  defiled  conditions  in Christendom, more care will need to be exercised as to whom fellowship is to be extended. But the heart should ever be open to all whose ways and doctrine give good evidence that they are of the one body and subject to the one Lord. Special discernment will be needed, lest by association with the unholy, such become partakers of other men’s sins; for to go on with one who is in an evil course, even to the extent of greeting him in a brotherly way, is to make oneself “partaker of his evil deeds” (2 John 7-11). But if the Scriptures are allowed to be judge, every difficulty will vanish. In the beginning what applied to one assembly applied to all, as all were one; and if the same principle is recognized by believers gathering in the simple way indicated above, it will solve many perplexities and keep from isolation and independency, which are the twin
enemies of practical fellowship between local companies of believers.