John 7

It is unquestionable that we have different lines of teaching presented to us in the New Testament, in the scriptures which bear more directly on Christians. While every scripture is given by inspiration of God, there are certain scriptures which relate in almost an exclusive way to Christians. And I see increasingly, that the spirit and principle which pervades all such writings is unity; that is, all the teaching tends in that direction. It is a point that it is not at all difficult to demonstrate. Expressions which are common with us out of the writings of Paul sufficiently prove it. The end of Paul's teaching is "one body". I have been struck with this in the Epistle to the Romans. In the first eight chapters of that epistle, though the body is not named, the apostle gives you a sufficient doctrinal basis for the one body, so that in chapter 12 we find the statement, "We, being many, are one body in Christ, and members one of another". If you do not understand the truth of the one body, you are not intelligently in the will of God here. I might make other quotations from Paul; but everybody knows that the fact of the one body is almost the heart of the apostle's teaching, a body composed of Jew and Gentile, formed by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, of which Christ is set in the place of Head. God gave Him "head over all things" as head to the church, "which is his body, the fulness [or completeness] of him that fills all in all".

Now I find the same principle pervading the writings of John, namely, that what we are being led on to is the thought of unity. No one can read John 10 without seeing that the end to which the Lord was leading is expressed in this "And other sheep I have" -- speaking of the Gentiles -- "which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd". I can understand someone saying, But you are confounding the flock with the one body. I reply, No, they are parallel truths; it is a different idea, but there is no difference substantially between the one body and the one flock. There is another point connected with it, namely, that it is impossible for any one of us to enter intelligently into the idea of unity according to the mind of God if we have not first learnt what is true of us individually. That is as certain as anything can be.

Unity is a very important point; but I am not speaking about outward ecclesiastical unity. By unity I mean the unity as of one body, and the one body is the body of Christ. We learn that there is one body; and it is the knowledge of that which separates Christians from all the great religious bodies about us. It is not difficult to show to those who are really Christians the inconsistency of the great sects and systems with the truth of scripture, because it is so manifest. There is one body existing here upon earth; but when that is seen there is another truth to be learnt, which is almost a more important one, that that body is Christ's body. It is the vessel in which Christ is displayed.

It may be as well to stop for a moment to prove this, for I do not care to put out anything which cannot be substantiated from scripture. It is evident that the body is for the display of Christ, for scripture says: "The church, which is his

body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all" -- fulness is that which is adequate for the complete display. As we see in Romans 13, "Love is the fulness of the law". The text reads, "Love is the fulfilling of the law", but the real meaning is "the fulness of the law"; that is, love is that which is alone needful for the complete display of the law. When Paul was going to Damascus on the errand of persecution, there appeared to him a light above the brightness of the sun, and he heard a voice saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" He was persecuting Christ in His body; it was Himself, that in which He was displayed. I only refer to that in connection with the thought of unity.

Now I will, by way of preface, just briefly go over the main points of John's gospel. Down to the end of chapter 6 we get what is individual, namely, the great truth of life brought out in its principles and characteristics, and with it the deliverance of the soul from what is contrary to God. Then chapter 7 introduces a new thought: the change of dispensation, the time of the Spirit; and in connection with this we have the new company, the one flock. That, and the various glories of Christ, is the great subject of the section from chapter 7 to chapter 12, which is one continuous section. Then, from chapter 13 to chapter 17 you get the disciples viewed as the vessel which was to be here in witness for Christ, and the features and character of the vessel. By the vessel I mean the company which was to be here for Christ, and which was to be expanded into one flock, of which Christ was the Shepherd. It was to be here for Him, not for itself, just as the body is for the display of the Head. That is what comes out from chapter 13 to chapter 17. I am dividing the gospel in a human way; but I think if you bear in mind the division, you may be helped in the understanding of what I

want to bring before you. My object is to bring out the character of the new dispensation. I do not go further in this lecture, than to touch on what comes out in chapter 7, at the close of which the new dispensation is introduced. The main feature of it is that the Spirit is here. The Lord refers to it, and John adds: "This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified". Jesus had previously said that He was going away; but now we see that His going away would lead to another thing, that He would be glorified and the time of the Holy Ghost would be down here. There would be a new order of things marked by the presence of the Spirit here, and, for want of a better term, I venture to call it the dispensation of light. In the succeeding chapters man is viewed as completely tested by the light of Christ's word and work, both of which he rejects and is thus found wanting; and, consequent upon that, an entirely new and heavenly company is formed, composed of Jew and Gentile, "one flock", of which Christ is the Shepherd. So that you have a new dispensation which is marked by the presence of the Spirit here, and a new company, of which Christ is the Shepherd. And then the section closes up, in chapters 11 and 12, with witness to the varied glories of Christ, as Son of God, Son of David, and Son of man; and He, having been lifted up from the earth, is the point to which all are drawn.

Now, I have called this new dispensation the dispensation of light, and I touch on it for a moment, because of the importance of the thought that light tests. Light in divine things is positive, for light is the revelation of God, and the revelation of God necessarily tests everything. Thus it is the word of Christ which tests the Jew in chapter 8, and His work which tests him in chapter 9, and the Jew

rejects both. At the close of chapter 8 they took up stones to stone Jesus, and in chapter 9 they excommunicated the subject of His work; they will neither have the word of God nor the work of God. But then, consequent upon that, the Lord reveals that He is leading His sheep out of the fold; and in bringing in the Gentile there is the formation of one flock, and there is one Shepherd. But that could not be until the Jew had been completely tested by the presentation to him of the light. Then the Lord brings out His sheep; there is one flock, but not to take the place of Israel. When I go into that, we shall see that the characteristic of the flock now is this, "I know my sheep, and am known of mine, as the Father knows me and I also know the Father".

Now, as I remarked, it is before the mind of the Lord in chapter 7 that He is about to go away. There are four utterances of the Lord in the chapter, but I only touch on the last of them. "Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come" (verse 33, 34); that is, the Lord reveals the truth that He was on the point of going away. Then (verse 37 - 39), "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified". The time of the Holy Ghost could not be until He could bring down the report into this world of the glory of Christ. He has come down as Witness that God has accomplished for Himself all the counsel of His will in a man, and that that man

is at the right hand of God, and everything is delivered into His hand, He is glorified. Reconciliation has been accomplished for God, and everything is headed up now in Christ, all things are put under His feet, He is in glory: and the Holy Ghost has come down to bring the report of it. It is that which characterises the present moment. You may be sure that people are all tending in the direction of one man or of another; in the direction of Christ or of Antichrist. The world in the present day is tending in the direction of Antichrist, for the tendency is to give up Christ. Nobody is stationary, and if you are not going Christ-ward you are tending in the direction of man. I see this coming out in the Epistle to the Hebrews -- the tendency of the Hebrews was to turn back, and if they did not go forward to God, they went back to man.

I must refer for a moment to the occasion on which this truth in John 7 comes out, namely, the feast of tabernacles; for you cannot well understand it apart from seeing the occasion. You will see that the chapter begins a fresh subject. "After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world. For neither did his brethren believe in him". You must take account of the fact that the brethren of the Lord, the Jews, were lost in unbelief. No doubt the passage refers to His natural kindred; but I think it has a wider significance, and refers to the Jew after the flesh. What we find is, that the Lord

will not publicly identify Himself with the feast of tabernacles; but He goes up secretly to teach in the temple, He takes every occasion to carry on the service of His testimony here, though He cannot identify Himself in any public way with the Jewish feast. "My time is not yet come", He says; that is, His time was not yet come to bring in the feast of tabernacles in its true power. Then at the close of the chapter you come to what is remarkable: the Lord, having met all the different thoughts of the Jews in the early part of the chapter, at the close propounds something on the great day of the feast, which, I take it, means the eighth day, "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water". This leads me to refer for a moment to the feast of tabernacles. We read in Leviticus 23 that it took place on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. As far as I can understand the teaching of the feasts, everything for Israel was to begin afresh in connection with the seventh month. The previous principal feasts were the feast of unleavened bread and the feast of weeks; and on the first day of the seventh month everything began afresh. On the first day is the blowing of trumpets, on the tenth is the day of atonement, and on the fifteenth day is the feast of tabernacles. The teaching of it is, I suppose, that in connection with the seventh month, the history of Israel is taken up afresh.

In John the Lord ignores everything connected with Israel and the feast of tabernacles, and nothing comes out of His mouth about it till the great day of the feast. Then He stands and cries, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink"; and we have the interpretation of the Spirit of God,

"This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified". The first seven days of the feast indicate the completeness of earthly blessing and joy in Israel; but the eighth day brings in eternal things, that which is in resurrection, in conjunction with the earthly things; it is in that sense the communion of the heavenly and the earthly. Now you can understand how it is that the Lord begins to speak here about the heavenly things, because the feast of tabernacles was not for the time to have place, and what was to come in were the eternal and heavenly things in connection with Jesus being glorified and the Holy Ghost given. To me it simplifies the matter very greatly when we see what was the significance of the great day of the feast.

I will now say a word or two about Jesus glorified and the Holy Ghost given, because the presence of the Holy Ghost was to introduce another day. You can see the great contrast between Jesus being in humiliation here, and His being glorified. It is evident that the glory of Jesus must introduce the light of another day. It is a wonderful truth that Jesus is glorified; He is not yet displayed in glory, but everything is placed under His feet, He has "ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things"; and the church is His body, "the fulness of him that filleth all in all"; He is above all things, and the Holy Ghost is come down here to report His glory. It is a great thing to be in the light of it -- I do not know anything much more blessed. You know that all things are put under Him, and you do not look to man for anything, you look to God for all; and God, at any moment that He sees fit, can change the whole aspect and character of things down here. As the apostle says in Hebrews 2, "We see not yet all things put

under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour". A little period is left to men during which they can carry on their actings down here, but faith knows that God has put all things under the feet of Christ; the word to Him is, "Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool". He is saluted there as high priest, He is the minister of the holy places, and the Holy Ghost has come down as witness of His glory; it is the time of the Holy Ghost, and He could not be here until Jesus was glorified.

I am loath to leave the point because I think the light of the glory of Christ is the light in which our souls should be. I do not judge that anybody can enter into the great thought of unity until he is in the light of the glory of Christ. I believe it is that which delivers the soul from the influence and power of the world to a very large extent. You see the antagonism to it on the part of the god of this world, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not" -- what against? "lest the light of the glad tidings of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them". The great point in Jesus glorified is that everything that was lost in man has been recovered for God, that all things are put under Christ; they only await the moment of His display, and we shall see all things put under Him. It is not simply that He is exalted to be Judge, but He "has ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things" according to God. That is His place, that is true of Him, and the Church is His body, "the fulness of him that filleth all in all".

It is the time of the Holy Ghost now; and perhaps the greatest mercy which God has shown to us in these last days is in giving us the recognition of the presence of the Holy Ghost here. I remember

thirty or forty years ago, we were accustomed to look for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost; Christendom, even Protestantism, had lost all sense of the true character of the dispensation, the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost here. The very point of the moment is that the Spirit is here as witness of the glory of the Bridegroom. The position of the virgins is that they are waiting for the Bridegroom; properly, they know His glory by the report of the Spirit, and they are waiting to go in with Him to the marriage. The idea of the Bridegroom to my mind is that He is One who has rights; and the virgins are waiting, in the faith of His coming, but as knowing His glory. He sits now at the right hand of God, to the infinite satisfaction of God -- it is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. As has often been said, God is satisfied, and God is glorified, and Jesus is glorified. Everything there is to the perfect satisfaction of God. Stephen looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus in glory, and said, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God". Stephen was, by the Holy Ghost, under the blessed influence of the glory of Christ. You could not have a more perfect expression of it, for he was full of the Holy Ghost, and what the Holy Ghost made him conscious of was Jesus glorified; it was the fulfilment to his soul of what the Lord looked forward to here, the time when He would be glorified and the Holy Ghost given.

The Lord says, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said" -- it was to be a fulfilment of scripture, and I think you might find the scripture if you search for it -- "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water". I want by the Lord's help to give you an idea of what that means; and for that purpose I must refer to the previous chapters,

because I do not think that you can talk about rivers of living water flowing out of the belly of the believer if you do not see first how the believer is set in life. In the three previous chapters the question of life is solved. In chapter 4 the great subject matter is the communication by Christ to the believer of the Spirit as "a well of water springing up unto eternal life". The Lord says, "he that drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up unto eternal life". We have not come yet to eternal life, but we have that which springs up unto it. I do not mean that you have to wait till heaven to reach eternal life; but you reach it here in the power of the Spirit, that is, the Spirit in the believer will spring up to eternal life.

In chapter 5 you get the wonderful truth of a man raised up by Christ's word from the bed of legality. It is the revelation of God active in grace which delivers a soul from legality, for one learns that so far from our having to work, God has been working for our blessing; "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work". When once a person learns that his blessing depends -- not upon his working, but the Father's pleasure, then he is delivered from legality. That is what comes out in chapter 5, where the Lord raises up the man at the pool of Bethesda, who had lain on the bed of his weakness for thirty-eight years. God delights to be known as Father in the activities of His love. You were drawn to Christ by the Father; you may say that you were drawn to Him by preaching, but the real truth is that the Father drew you to Christ. And you were drawn to Christ that He might bring you to the Father; that is the way in which grace works. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work".

No one can come to Christ except the Father draw him; the Father works in drawing to Christ, and then Christ reveals the Father to those that are drawn to Him by the Father. The love of Christ to saints is explained by this, they are individually dear to Christ because they are the Father's gift to Him, and He makes known to them .the Father's name.

In chapter 6 another point comes out, that the believer is completely independent of the world because he has living bread for the food of his soul. The Lord Jesus says, "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live because of the Father". I understand by it that the Lord Jesus down here was in no way dependent upon man or the world, that He lived here completely independent of all that was here, because He lived by the Father. Then it goes on to say, "so he that eateth me" -- that is, that to the one who appropriates Christ (and the affection of the believer is entitled to appropriate Christ in the very fullest way), all that He is, is yours; you cannot make too great demands upon Christ; you are entitled to appropriate Him in that which He is as Man -- "he that eateth me, even he shall live because of me". When I appropriate Christ, He is living bread to my soul; I am independent of all that is here; I do not live because of the world, but I live because of Christ. Therefore I am in communion with His death, I eat His flesh, and drink His blood. Can you conceive anything more wonderful? You have the Holy Ghost in chapter 4, the Father in chapter 5, and Christ in chapter 6: the well of water springing up to eternal life in chapter 4, the Father revealed to you in chapter 5, and Christ as the living bread in chapter 6; and I say that is the portion of the believer's soul. Eternal life is this, "that they might know thee", the Father, "the only true God, and Jesus Christ thy

sent One" -- you have got to life. It is like a bird that has found its wings. Here am I still in this world, but no more dependent on the world; I use my wings; I am unfettered now. I no longer look to the world for promotion or advantages, for the satisfaction of my soul; but I live because of Christ, as He lived because of the Father. Eternal life in the very nature of it must, at the present time, be completely independent of and apart from all that is here, because "the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal"; and therefore eternal life must be in unseen things.

But you have not got all quite complete yet; you have everything complete as to you, but now there is what comes out in chapter 7 -- you are to be in the light of Christ's glory. I do not think that a believer would be content even in the enjoyment of the portion which I have spoken of if he were not in the light of the glory of Christ; for what he sees is this, if Christ is all this to me, if I have such a portion, then in the very necessity of things Christ must fill all things, everything must be put under Him, He must be glorified, He must be the Head of everything. The believer feels that he could not realize what is spoken of in the previous chapter without his soul -- if I may so say -- demanding this, he must have the light of the glory of Christ. The Holy Ghost has come down to introduce another day, and to place the soul of the believer in the light of the glory of Christ; and the effect of it is that out of the belly of the believer flow rivers of living water. By that I do not understand preaching or public testimony; but I think it means that the believer has got more than he can contain, and therefore rivers of living water flow out of his belly. And if we were instructed in the blessed truth of the preceding chapters, that is if we really understood how we are

set in life according to the grace of God, and were led by the Spirit of God into the light of the glory of Christ, I believe it would be true of every one of us that we should have more than we could contain, and therefore in that sense, "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water". The soul is brought into the presence of things that are eternal, where God has His supreme and perfect satisfaction in Christ, and everything is according to God's blessed mind, and Christ fills all things.

You may depend upon it that our lot is cast in a terribly evil day; and I am more and more convinced of the truth of what I said, that in the present day no one can be stationary, everybody gravitates in one direction or another; either you go man-ward or you go God-ward. If you go God-ward, you enter more and more, by the power of the Spirit of God, into the counsel and thought of God. And you can do this by the grace of God; for in principle God has accomplished all His counsel in Christ who is "crowned with glory and honour", everything put under His feet. Do you think anything can touch Christ, or hinder the exercise of His power? I believe the power of Christ is sufficient for everything now -- that there is nothing that can stand before that power here in the world. One single person converted is the proof of it. Christ is invested with all authority in heaven and upon earth, and the Holy Ghost is come down here to report His glory, and to inaugurate a new day, a dispensation of light. It is a time when God is completely revealed according to His nature, and in the blessed counsels of His grace. He has made known all that He purposes to accomplish, and in principle we see everything accomplished in the Person of Christ; He reconciles all things to Himself, and in a sense all is reconciled in Christ. We do not see it all displayed, but in principle all is

effectuated for God in Christ glorified; and the Holy Ghost has come down to report His glory.

I do not intend to go further as to it tonight. The next point which will occupy us is the way in which man has been tested by the light, and the necessary consequences of his not answering to the test. But I think you must first understand the new dispensation which has been introduced by the fact of Jesus being glorified and the Holy Ghost being given. I think you must see how entirely it is in contrast with all that went before, with Jesus in humiliation down here. In the end of the chapter, we see the patient grace in which the Lord met all the contrariety of the Jews, and every question which they could raise. What a contrast to this is Jesus glorified and the Holy Ghost given! That is the day in which we are placed.

THE WORLD TESTED BY THE LIGHT

John 8:2 - 20; John 9 35 - 41

My wish is, as I said in the last lecture, to bring before you the nature of the dispensation, as brought out anticipatively in chapters 7 to 12 of John. I indicated then a division of this gospel, that down to chapter 6 you get the solution by the Lord of the great question of life, which was the first and most important question to be solved in regard to man; for it is evident that in the things of God you cannot go one step until the question of life is solved. Then the chapters from the seventh down to the close of the twelfth form one continuous subject, namely, the dispensation which I called the dispensation of light, and unfold that which peculiarly marks the dispensation, namely, the principle of unity. It is brought out in chapter 10: "There shall be one flock, one shepherd".

I was seeking to show that in chapter 7 we get the introduction of the dispensation; two leading marks in it being that Jesus was to be glorified and the Holy Ghost given. These give you the principles of the dispensation. Now I think you can understand that the Holy Ghost could not be given until Jesus was glorified; for you could not have man glorified before Jesus was glorified. It may seem strange to speak of man being glorified, but man is glorified in receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. I do not mean to say that he is glorified as to his bodily condition; but the Spirit of glory is on him. What greater glory could be conferred upon man here than that he should be a vessel for the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost could not be here apart from a vessel. That was true even when the Lord Himself was here. Christ was the vessel in that

sense; He was anointed and sealed with the Spirit. Now the one body, the one flock, is the vessel. "There is one body, one Spirit"; one Spirit must make one body.. But my point for the moment is this, that in receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost the saints are glorified: "Whom he justified, them he also glorified". I have no doubt that passage goes further; and that the fact of our bodies being the temple of the Holy Ghost involves their being glorified. But man could not receive the gift of the Holy Ghost until Jesus was glorified. So long as He was here in humiliation, believers could not be glorified. The fact is, if man were to be glorified, he must first be extinguished, and the work of Christ effected that. "We are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ"; we are sanctified through our extinction in Christ; we are put out as to all that we were in the flesh. In that way we are sanctified; and you could not get the gift of the Holy Ghost till that was accomplished. But now Jesus is glorified as Man; He is exalted to the right hand of God, and all power and authority given to Him; He is glorified according to the counsel of God, and the Holy Ghost is given. And it is that which marks the present period. The Lord refers to it in connection with "the last day, that great day of the feast". He does nothing except teach for the first seven days of the feast, which were more particularly connected with Israel; but on the last day He speaks about what would take place when the Holy Ghost was given. Think what a wonderful thing it is for man to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost! It has become so doctrinal with us, we have got so accustomed to the sound, that we have lost the sense of the greatness of it.

I am leading on to the great truth on which I hope to dwell on another occasion -- one flock, one Shepherd. But there is first an intermediate

truth of great moment, that Christ is "the light of the world"; and that is what I want now to dwell upon. You cannot reach the truth of the one flock and one Shepherd without first apprehending the nature of the light that has come in, and the effects which it has produced. Of course, if I make such a statement I am bound to substantiate it. The truth is that the necessary consequence of the manifestation of the light was that something completely new, and which had no previous existence, was formed down here; the result being that there was one flock and one Shepherd. There had been a flock here before; God's people Israel was Jehovah's flock. But now there was to be a flock of a totally different character; "Them also I must bring" -- that is, Gentiles -- "and they shall hear my voice". Gentiles were to hear his voice, "and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd": one flock composed of Jew and Gentile, which was inconceivable and impossible when God was owning Israel. Hence it is in the setting aside of Israel you get one flock, one Shepherd, just as you get one body. It brings before us in a sort of parallel line what Paul brings before us in the truth of the mystery. In Paul it is, there is one body composed of Jew and Gentile, of which Christ is Head. In John it is, "There shall be one flock, one shepherd". I do not think the disciples understood it in the least so long as Christ was here. The truth of one body comes out afterwards in the teaching of Paul; and finally John comes in to show how the ministry of the Lord here upon earth indicated in principle what afterwards came out by Paul. The Lord brought out a great deal more in His teaching when here upon earth than was presented in testimony in the first instance in the Acts of the Apostles. The fact is, that the development of God's testimony in the world depended on various things being

accomplished; Israel had to be completely and finally tested, and hence all the truth of which Christ witnessed was not presented at once: it took a considerable time to come out.

Now my first point is one of great moment; Christ is the light of the world (John 8:12): "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: be that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life". And again in the next chapter (verse 4, 5): "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world". Now I apprehend that the law was the light of the Jew. And the godly valued it as such. Refer to Psalm 19, and see what the law was to a pious heart, what importance was attached by it to the law of God. "The law of Jehovah is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of Jehovah are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb". That refers to the law; and those verses give you the impression which a pious person had, by the Spirit, of the law. I think I may say, without fear of contradiction, that the law was the light of Israel: they had light from God undoubtedly; they had Jehovah's testimonies, His statutes and His judgments; and in that sense the law was their light. Hereafter the law will be written in their heart.

In the passage I read Christ says, "I am the light of the world". You can understand that the law was not God; but the very essence of the

truth in connection with Christ was, that, in Christ, God was presented to man in grace; Christ was not simply something given. It says, "The law was given by Moses"; it does not say, grace and truth were given by Jesus Christ, but Grace and truth have come to pass by Jesus Christ. There is all the difference possible between Moses and Christ; Moses was an instrument, and the law was given by him, and the law was light to Israel; but when Christ came it was not a question of God giving, it was a question of God come. It is true the Father gave the Son; I quite admit the gift in that connection, and that the Lord always took the ground of being sent; but I do not think any one here would question the thought that it was God come here in grace. I notice particularly in the Gospel of John that on two occasions the Lord distinctly makes the matter of His presence here a question between Israel and God; He sought to show the Jews that His presence and their conduct towards Him was not simply a question between them and Messiah, but between them and God. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up"; He could speak like that as Himself being a divine Person. So, too, afterwards in this chapter He says to them, "Before Abraham was, I am", and they took up stones to stone Him; but they took up stones to stone One who claimed to be "I am", that is, Jehovah.

I lay great stress upon the point, that in the service of Christ here it was not something given like the law, but God come down in grace; "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them"; there was a blessed vessel here in which God had drawn nigh to man. Therefore the Lord Jesus could say, "Go and tell thy friends what great things God has done for thee"; Christ came to this world to bring

God close to man, that man might see what the heart of God was towards him. Satan had deceived man about God; and it was of the grace of God that man's heart might be enlightened, that he might be undeceived as to God, that what was in the heart of God might be made known to man as light. I think you can very well understand that if that were the case, the bearing of it could not be limited to Israel: the law was limited to Israel; it was the light of Israel; but if it was a question of God come here in grace, that could not be so limited. Therefore the Lord takes this ground here, "I am the light of the world": not the light of Israel (though He was the light to Israel), but the light of the world; because it was God come here. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". And then you read afterwards, "the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father". It adds afterwards, "No one hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him". He came close to man in order that He might declare to man that God loved the world; and the proof of the love of God was the presence of the Son of God here. No one that accepted it, no one to whom the light came, could have doubted for a single instant what the heart of God was towards man, because it was evidenced beyond all question by the presence of the Son of God here. Therefore, as is shown in the early part of the chapter, He did not come to condemn; He says, "Neither do I condemn thee". The Jews could not execute law in the presence of Christ; and Christ had not come down here to judge, but He had come to reveal God according to what the heart of God was, that is, love. It is amazing to man that God is love.

But then there is another point, not only that God is love, but that "God so loved the world". The light of this comes out in chapter 3 of this gospel, where the Lord says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world" -- there is the truth -- "that he gave his only begotten Son". No one could have declared the love of God except the only begotten Son, because none other was in the communion of that love, but He declared it as being in the communion of it. What a moment it was when Christ was here, and any heart was opened to the truth that God is love, and that God loved man! And it being a question of the nature of God, the love of God could not be limited to the Jew, it must go worldwide; and therefore the word "whosoever" comes in. This was not simply because the Jew rejected Christ; but in the very nature of the thing the love of God must be world-wide, as being the full revelation of the heart of God. God revealed Himself as Almighty to the patriarchs, and as Jehovah to Israel; but all that was partial, it was not the full light of God. When God was here present in the Person of the only begotten Son, then the truth of all that God is came out, it was the full revelation of God, the declaration of God according to all that was in the heart of God, and God was proved to be love, and that He loved the world.

I think one may fairly call the present moment the dispensation of light. It is amazing that we poor feeble things should be in the light of the love of God! But then that light must completely expose everything that is in us. You can understand that divine love must of necessity have its own way. When you speak of love in connection with God it is infinite and almighty; and in the presence of

almighty love everything must give way. The great point for the Christian is that his heart should be filled with the love of God; the Holy Ghost is given to him to that end. "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us". The practical effect of it is to put me clean out; every bit of pretension, all high thoughts of myself, all have to go, because all is excluded by the light of the love of God; I am brought into the presence of that almighty love of God, and my heart is to be filled with the sense of it.

Now that is the light. The Lord says "I am the light of the world". He had come into the world, and even prophets were no longer the light of the world. It was very little light the Gentiles ever got from the prophets, though there were glimpses; but they were light in Israel. The character scripture gives to prophecy is that of "A light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts". To the Christian the day has dawned and the day-star has arisen in the heart; Christ in the heart is the day-star, the harbinger of the day. But then He is the day-star because He has brought to the Christian the light of the day. I feel how terribly feeble one is in attempting to speak of it; the thing is so inconceivably great.

Now I want to show you what the purpose of the light was. It was no part of the thought of God, if I may use the expression, to set the world again upon its legs. From the very beginning, I see in scripture plainly, when once this world failed God had another world before Him, and in the Epistle to the Hebrews you read of "the world to come". It says He has not put the world to come under angels but under the Son of Man. From the very outset, when sin came into this world, there was another man and another world before God. Faith

looked ever on to it. (See Hebrews 11). God went on patiently, and still goes on patiently, with this world; but the word that has come to it is this, "Now is the judgment of this world". But I want to show you what was the purpose of the light coming in; it came to man where he stood, but it came to lead man out of the world, not to leave him in it. Hence we read, "I am the light of the world"; and what next? "He that followeth me" -- and where do you think it is to follow Christ to? It was not simply a question of following Him in the world, but of following Him out of the world. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me". Where do they follow Him to? To where He is, outside the fold; and if He is outside the fold, He is outside the world. "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life". Christ is our life, and where Christ is, life is; but that is not in connection with this world. His life is taken from the earth; and if you want to find Christ you will not find Him in connection with this world, nor its order or religion; He is outside of it all; He took the place of reproach outside the camp. The truth is, Christ is to be found in the holiest of all, and that is where our life is. As the apostle says, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me"; I live where Christ lives. Properly, the life of the Christian is in the holiest; "our life is hid with Christ in God"; that is how scripture speaks of the life of the Christian. It is very important to remember that you can only be in the holiest in the life of Christ; no other life in man will serve for the holiest. It is your qualification for the holiest, for you go in by "a new and living way which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh"; you are in the holiest in the life of Christ; but you have to follow Christ

there. All the bright light of God, of divine love, has been brought to bear upon us where we are in the world, in order that we might be led out of the world. Satan is the god and prince of this world, which has rejected Christ; the judgment of God is pronounced upon it, but the light has come in to lead the believer out of it. I will give you one instance of it in scripture. The light of divine love came to Saul of Tarsus; he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Thus the bright light of God's grace was brought to bear upon him; and what for? To leave him in Judaism, in the world, in that in which he had been a persecutor? Not a bit of it; it came to him to lead him out of it. And so he says afterwards, "Christ died for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father". It is for this that the light of God has come, and I thank God it has led me out of the world; and now I can see every moral principle of the world to be in direct antagonism to God. The ruling principles of the world are "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life"; and lust is the very contrary to love. God is love. The love of God originates everything from God for blessing; the lust of man desires everything for his own personal gratification. I can indeed understand the apostle saying to Timothy, "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart".

I want to show you next, what the twofold effect of the light was. "And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see: and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say, We see;

therefore your sin remaineth". I understand the expression "For judgment I am come" to mean that His coming brought everything to an issue; things may go on long, as they did in Old Testament times, and not be brought to an issue; but judgment is that they are brought to an issue, moral or judicial. The end is -- "that they which see not might see" -- that is the first thing -- "and that they which see might be made blind", that is the second. I desire to make plain to you that those are the two consequences of the manifestation of the light.

From the time of Christ and onwards, whenever light came in, it had the effect of blinding people who said they saw. When a man says, "I see", he takes the ground of being competent, and such men are bound to be blinded by the light. I may not be able successfully to prove it to you, but that such is the case I have no doubt. When the Lord was here upon earth the scribes took the ground of being competent to judge in divine things, and the effect of the light upon them was that they were made blind. The Lord brings the light to bear upon them in chapter 8. He reveals to them where they really were, that they were the slaves of sin and the children of the devil, seeking to carry out the lusts of their father, seeking to commit murder, and refusing to receive the truth, because they were liars and the children of the devil. The Lord completely exposes their moral condition; but the brightness of the light only served to blind them. To a man who says, I am perfectly satisfied with the order of things down here upon earth, you may bring as much light as you like, but it will only blind him; he does not want to know the light of God or the love of God; he is well content with himself and things about him; he says, "We see", and he becomes blind in regard to the very light which he had, and in which he boasted. It is very much like

the people that are pictured to us in the address to the church at Laodicea, "Rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing", we are competent.

You see the same thing if you pass down to a time nearer to our own, the time of the Reformation. The ecclesiastical people, the Jews of that day, who said "We see", -- and there were plenty of them -- were blinded by the light that came in. I will give you a proof of it. It is remarkable, that in the Council of Trent, which took place after the Reformation, the apocryphal books were made part of the sacred canon. I have no doubt that the very light which the Spirit of God brought in at that time served to blind those who said, "We see". They said, We are competent, we can judge what is the word of God and what is not; and they fastened on to the sacred canon the unworthy books of the Apocrypha.

The same danger besets us. If we take the ground here of ecclesiastical assumption with an idea that we are something, we may be in very great danger of being blinded by the light that has come in to the true position and responsibility of Christendom. The people that are content to take the place of a poor and afflicted people calling upon the name of the Lord, get the benefit of the light, not the people who make great pretensions; they are often blinded by it.

I think you can understand that the great light which came in by Christ eclipsed all else; nothing could stand its ground in the presence of that great light. I do not mean to say for a moment that the light that came in by Christ was contrary to the law and the prophets; but it eclipsed them, like Moses and Elias they disappeared in the light which came in by Christ, and that is the light of the love of God. I have often thought in the study of the scripture that if I were more acquainted with the love of God,

more in the great light which came in by Christ, I should soon understand the law and the prophets. I have for long disbelieved in the man that is a specialist in scripture, in prophecy for instance; it is a settled matter in my mind that that man will never understand prophecy, because he is attempting to take it up by itself. If his soul were full of the light of God he would soon come to understand prophecy. Prophecy is "a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your heart". When the day-star arises in your heart you will understand prophecy, and law too, and every part of scripture. To have the heart full of the light of God's love is the way to understand the law, because everything in scripture was really leading up to that great light which was to come out by Christ. God never intended the law and the prophets to be the light of the world, but they were a light shining in a dark place; Christ was the light of the world.

But there is another class of people, namely, those who do not see; "That they which see not might see". it is beautifully illustrated in the case of the blind man, in John 9. Just consider what the light was; the light was the revelation of the love of God; and therefore in the very nature of things, if that was the light, the eyes of people must be opened to it, for man of himself could not understand the love of God. As the Lord opened the eyes of the blind man, so man's eyes must be opened, "that they which see not might see". It is the work of grace, which is really involved in the character of the revelation. The revelation is such that it demands of necessity the opening of the eyes of those who do not see. Those who say, "We see", are blinded; but on the other hand, those who do not see have their eyes opened to appreciate the revelation. That is what you get

in this chapter; it was a man born blind whose eyes the Lord opened. What was the great end? That he might appreciate the revelation. This comes out at the close of the chapter; Jesus says to him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" He says, "Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?" Jesus says, "Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee". What did he get eyesight for? Not to be cast out by the Jews; that was not the object; but that he might be enabled to appreciate the revelation of God in the Person of the Son of God.

And this must be the case, because the revelation never would be appreciated, or enjoyed, if it did not please God in grace to open eyes for it; God does it really by the revelation; it is the testimony of divine love used in the power of the Spirit to open the eyes of those who are blind, those who never saw. You remember the commission to the apostle Paul; he was to go to the Gentiles "to open their eyes". How? He could not of course do it in the sense in which God could do it, but he could do it by his testimony; and the testimony of the love of God was to be, in the hands of the apostle, the instrument for opening the eyes of the Gentiles; their eyes were to be opened, and they were to be turned "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance". To be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God is a much greater thing than to "receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance"; God is greater than any inheritance. And that is the wonderful thing which is effected; you are turned "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God". Look at this blind man; he had been a miserable blind beggar, but he is turned from darkness to light, and in a certain sense from Satan's

power to God; his eyes are opened that he might apprehend the Son of God who had come here to reveal God. That was the great mission of the Son of God here, to reveal God to man, to make known to man the love of God, that man might be led out of the world; but of necessity man was first exposed. You get in the next chapter that the sheep are led out of the fold, out of the world, that there may be one flock and one shepherd.

I do not purpose going further, because the one flock and one shepherd will form our subject on another occasion; but I think I have made it plain in some degree that you could not go on to that subject if you did not first apprehend the light that has come in to illuminate man where he is, and to lead him out of the world. The Jew was necessarily tested by the brightness of the light, and everything was brought to an issue; those who said, "We see", were made blind, and those who did not see were made to see. I think I can understand the effect of the light upon a man in the darkness of this world, wrapped up in pretension like those poor Jews. They said, "We were never in bondage to any man"; they were the seed of Abraham and the children of God; that is the ground they took in the presence of the Lord, and they had no idea of the slavery of sin, nor the faintest moral resemblance either to Abraham or to God. The light exposed it all, but they did not accept the exposure, they were blinded, and they sought to kill the Lord. They prove it in that they see the work of God in the blind man, and excommunicate him from the synagogue. But they were really only fulfilling what the Lord said. He had come into the world that the heart of man might be completely undeceived as to the terrible cheat of Satan, that the love of God might be made known to man in order to lead him out of the world. Life is not in connection with this

world, there is only death and darkness; you have to leave the world, and all that the world is morally, if you are to get into the light of life, where God is and where Christ is with God. May God give to us to see the greatness of the truth that Christ is the light of the world. If we do not accept the exposure we shall fail of that which the light reveals, and like the Jews be blinded as to the work of God.

ONE FLOCK, ONE SHEPHERD

John 9:39 - 41; 10

I was remarking last time, that all the scriptures given to instruct us in Christianity lead up to the principle of unity. Of course, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable; but there are certain scriptures which especially address themselves to us as Christians. And I think you will find that all such tend to the realisation of unity. I do not think that it is possible to attach too much importance to the thought of unity in connection with Christianity. What is the character of the unity is another matter; it has its own proper character. It is not a unity in the flesh; it is described in scripture as "the unity of the Spirit"; it has that character. Unity is what we are led on to in this gospel; and this is seen in what the Lord says in this chapter, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, one shepherd".

I just make this remark in passing, that John never gives us, so far as I know, what Paul does, the great system of profession. Paul gives us two great truths in connection with the church; the one is its identification as Christ's body, and the other its aspect as God's house. God's house, I have always thought, and still think, is founded on profession. It began in a few saints being gathered together by the testimony of the resurrection of Christ, and the Spirit of God came down and dwelt in them and among them. But among the Gentiles, at all events, the house of God has been formed by profession; and Jew and Gentile have been builded together in the Lord for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Now I do not think you will find that John ever gives you the outward system, and I do

not say that he gives you the truth of the body; it is not exactly his line; but he gives you what runs parallel with the truth of the body, and that is, "one flock, one shepherd". The truth of the one body, as I understand it, is given to us in scripture to show us the real power of unity. And so I get a corresponding truth here in John, that there is one flock, one shepherd. I do not think the one flock was in itself to be patent or evident to men any more than the one shepherd; but I think the effect of it was to be patent, that the world was to witness a unity, the spring of which it was impossible for them to understand. But I am anticipating a little, and will come to that presently.

Israel was God's flock, and in a certain sense Jehovah was the shepherd; that, I think, was patent to the nations; it was a flock in that sense, after the flesh. But that was never intended to be the character of the one flock and the one shepherd. None the less the one flock and the one shepherd are a great reality. So with the church: the house of God, the external system of profession is patent to the world, all know it; the world recognises Christianity as a system of profession; but they know nothing about the body, the truth of the body is the mystery. It has often been said that a mystery is something which is known to the initiated; it is made known to saints.

Before we pass on to the features of this chapter, I may just refer to what has been before us on former occasions, which as I judge is introductory. I do not think you can really understand the character of the one flock if you do not take it up in connection with what had been presented in the preceding chapters. What is unfolded in this chapter as to the one flock, is dependent on what is unfolded in the previous chapters. My object has been so far to give you the characteristics of this present time,

this dispensation, if you like to call it so. We have had two things a good deal before us -- Jesus glorified, and the Spirit given. The present time, it has been often noticed, is the time of the Spirit. "The Spirit was not yet", it says; that is, the time was not yet come for the Spirit to be here, "because that Jesus was not yet glorified"; but consequent upon Jesus being glorified the Spirit has been given. I was saying last time what an immensity it is to man that the Spirit should have been given, that man down here upon earth should be the vessel of the Spirit; it is the most wonderful change which could have been brought to pass. But the giving of the Spirit depended upon the great truth of Jesus being personally glorified; and man, in a certain sense, is glorified here in the fact of the Spirit having been given to indwell him. I do not enlarge on it, but there was the Spirit's time coming, consequent upon Jesus being glorified; and another truth connected with it is this, that man is the vessel of the Spirit, for the Spirit does not dwell here apart from a vessel.

Another point necessary to it which came before us last time was the light; the Lord takes that ground in chapters 8 and 9, "I am the light of the world". I tried to show what I judge to be the significance of this, namely, that you need to apprehend the character of the light that has come in. In a sense the law was the light of the Jew; but Christ says, "I am the light of the world", for He came here to declare God. It is true that Christ was a minister of the circumcision, to confirm the promises made to the fathers: He came thus to the Jew, but He was "the light of the world". If God reveal Himself in love, He does so in relation to the world. There were two things Christ came here for, to make known what God was, and to make good the Father's counsels of grace. It has often

been said that you must not confound nature and counsels -- God has His counsels, and they connect themselves with the name of "Father"; but at the same time there is the nature of God -- "God so loved the world": that verse does not convey the idea of His counsels, but of His nature. When it is a question of God's counsels, the name of Father is brought in, "The Father seeketh such to worship him", because it is to accomplish His counsels of grace; "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him": that is, there are counsels of grace in which the Father draws to the Son. But at the same time there is the truth, "God is love"; this is what God is in His nature, and not a question of the counsels of His grace. And Christ came here to make known, in the midst of the world, the nature of God. If you apprehend that, you can well understand the Lord saying, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life".

Now with regard to the concluding verses of chapter 9, I was saying last time that if divine light came into this world in fulness, as it did in Christ, of necessity it brought everything to an issue. That is what the Lord, I judge, means by the expression "For judgment I am come into this world". Two things are connected with it which I dwelt on; "That they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind". Bear in mind what I mentioned in the last lecture, that in the very nature of things, if man takes the ground of seeing, he rejects revelation. Until Christ came man took the ground, more or less, of expectation, not of seeing. When Christ came, men took other ground, and began to say, "We see". In the nature of things, if man says "We see", he does not want a revelation from God; he rejects it. And that is

the real reason why the religious, scientific, and literary leaders of the present day largely reject revelation, because they say "We see"; they take the ground of being competent. When Christ was here, the scribes and Pharisees were really infidel at heart; they began to say "We see"; they were competent, and rejected Christ's word. But there is another thing, "That they which see not might see"; the testimony and evidence that Christ brought of the goodness of God were used of God to the opening of the eyes of men, as seen in the case of the blind man in chapter 9. The grace of God has come down to man here in this world, to take account of him in his miserable condition, and of every effect of sin under which he laboured; and the fact of the grace of God having in this way visited this world in the Person of God's Son is used to open the eyes of those who never saw. They accept the exposure and are touched and affected by the grace; it is the very thing they want; the Spirit of God makes everything to them of the wonderful goodness of God in visiting this world in the Person of His blessed Son.

I am now coming to the putting forth of the sheep from the fold, and the formation of the one flock; and I desire to make plain to you, by the grace of God, two or three of the characteristics which mark the sheep. But first we get the thought of Christ entering the fold and leading out the sheep. You will notice that in chapter 10 the ground of the Lord's action is not His rejection by the Jews. The two previous chapters bring out His rejection both as to His word and His work; but His leaving the fold was not exactly a question of His rejection by them, but that when He puts forth His own sheep He goes before them. And the reason is simple; His going before them is by death. The sheep could not leave the fold until Christ left the

fold, and He actually left it in His death. His death is looked at through all this chapter as a necessity; I may quote the Lord's own words; He says, referring to His life, "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father". I think this an important point in connection with His leaving the fold. He came into the fold; but if the sheep were to be relieved of the pressure of death which lay upon them as the judgment of God, of necessity Christ must leave the fold. No one takes His life from Him. All through the chapter, when the Lord speaks of laying down His life, He lays it down, I will not say voluntarily, because that is not perfectly right: but He lays it down of Himself, He does it in obedience; "This commandment have I received of my Father". He is the first to leave the fold; no one could leave the fold until He left it. We get a type of it in the previous chapters. In chapter 8 Christ's word, the expression of what He was, had been rejected by the Jews, and the Lord leaves them; and in chapter 9 the man who was the subject of His work is excommunicated from the synagogue. Still the time had not yet come to leave the fold until the shepherd left it; He says so expressly: "When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them".

Now just a word about the fold, as being a point of importance. I think the fold was the enclosure, the system of ordinances, in which the people of God were kept up to a point -- the apostle Paul says, "the law was our schoolmaster up to Christ"; but the law never justified anybody. It could not; those under it could not be justified as long as they were in the fold; they were to be justified by the faith of Christ. Death being upon man, he could not be justified except by blood. "Without shedding

of blood is no remission". On the day of atonement the blood had to be carried into the holiest of all, because death lay upon man; and God could not approach man, nor could man approach God, without blood; that is, man had to recognise the sentence of death which was upon him. The great force and importance of blood in the Old Testament is that it witnesses the fact of death.

Christ had entered into the fold, and that in a legitimate way; but He did not enter it to abide there, nor to leave the sheep there. There were in God's counsels sheep down here, and Christ came to where the sheep were. The sheep heard His voice; that was the first thing. Think what the voice of Christ was when He was here upon earth, and what was the effect of that voice! What it was to Lazarus, for instance; "Lazarus, come forth". It was the voice of the Son of God, and His voice reached the dead. So, too, I might speak of other things; the Lord cast out devils: how? By His word. But the point here is that the sheep know His voice, they know the character of His voice. It is a wonderful voice that speaks here in this world; I believe the sheep felt it to be the voice of One that had power over all ill, of One that had come here with divine power over man's last enemy -- death: "They know his voice". There was no good for man down here save in the advent of One who could bind man's great enemy in his stronghold, namely, death. That is exactly what Christ could do, and what He proved He could do; and the sheep know His voice, they are conscious that everything has to give way to His voice.

Now, I want you to bear in mind three things, which you can put together, as marking this present moment, and describing the blessings of the sheep: the sheep are relieved of the judgment of death under which they lay: it being now the time of the Spirit,

the Spirit dwells in them: and they are in the light of God revealed in Christ. You cannot understand the privileges of the sheep, if you do not apprehend those three things; they are the marks of the moment. Death is annulled, so that man can be free here of the judgment of God in the very place where he was under that judgment; and the proof of this is that the believer receives the gift of the Spirit, he has the seal of God upon him, and is in the light as God has been pleased to reveal Himself in the Son. The love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given to him; that is, his heart is full of divine light by the revelation of God in His blessed Son. The passage in Romans to which I have just referred shows you how God has been pleased to display His love in His Son; and now the Holy Ghost has come to dwell in the believer to make the love of God effective in his heart. Those are the privileges of the sheep; they have left the fold by faith in Christ, they have come away from the system of ordinances in order to be justified by Christ, and are in the fulness of the light which Christ has been pleased to bring, in the presence of the love of God.

What I see in people all around (and in myself too) is how little practical confidence they have in God as to circumstances and their pathway through this world; and I will tell you why -- it is because they do not know Him. I am perfectly confident that if our hearts were in the light of the revelation which God has given of Himself, the practical effect would be that we should be full of confidence. "Perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment". You know as well as I do that people in the circumstances of this life turn to all sorts of human resources and schemes, because of not knowing the love of God; their hearts have not learnt to trust in God. I think I begin to see how great a

thing it is to trust God. If God has brought you into the presence of Himself revealed in perfect love (and He has) your heart can afford to trust in Him. "This is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us"; our hearts are full of confidence because we are in the presence of God.

The next point I want to dwell upon is in the seventh and following verses: "Then said Jesus to them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture". Now you have got the sheep entering in by the door; I understand it to mean that one enters in by the faith of Christ dead and risen, one is saved. That is, there is the realisation of deliverance from death and Satan's power. The believer goes in and out, that is, he has perfect liberty; and he finds pasture. He gets three things, salvation, liberty and pasture, and that in the presence of divine light, into which he is brought in the grace of God and in the power of the Holy Ghost that dwells in him. The secret of it all is this, that the sheep are no longer dependent on the system of ordinances, but are kept by a power within. It is a total mistake to suppose that the recognition of the power that dwells in the Christian will lead him to self occupation. It will do nothing of the kind, because the Spirit in the Christian corresponds to Christ presented to his faith; the Spirit is "the truth" in the Christian; but Christ is "the truth" as to revelation, and therefore the Spirit always leads to Christ. You cannot understand anything about yourself, or your blessing or privilege, except as you learn it in Christ. He leads us into it by the Spirit. But it is a very important point to recognise

that there is this mighty power in you, and that you are kept by it. I believe it to be a point of great moment for Christians to apprehend that by Christ's work death is no longer upon them as penalty; and the proof of it is that they are indwelt by the Holy Ghost. The effect is that they are in divine light, in the light of God as revealed in Christ, they are saved, they go in and out -- they have liberty, and they find pasture.

But now in the fourteenth verse we get to a further point in regard to the sheep. "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine, as the Father knoweth me, and I also know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep". I believe this passage indicates that the sheep are formed in the reality of the divine nature. And I am more and more convinced that this is the work of the Spirit in the believer, to form him practically in the divine nature; that just as he has had part in the flesh and in man's ruin, so now, being enlightened and indwelt, he is formed in the divine nature. "He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous"; and he loves according to Christ. Apart from that thought I doubt if you can understand the passage: "I know my sheep and am known of mine" -- that is in the divine nature -- "as the Father knoweth me and I know the Father". The Father knows the Son and the Son knows the Father in the reciprocity of divine affections, if I may use the expression. And so it is in regard to Christ and the sheep; He knows His sheep and He is known of them in the reality of the divine nature in which they have been formed by the Holy Ghost given to them. It is a wonderful work of grace, and I think it is a great step beyond the previous passage. You see the same thought of the divine nature in Paul's doctrine; he speaks of the having put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness

and holiness of truth; that is, the believer is made partaker by the Spirit's work within him of the divine nature, and it is in that he knows Christ and is known of Christ.

One word more. It is in the divine nature that we become one flock. Now you come to the great truth, "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold" -- that is, I suppose, to be gathered in from the Gentiles -- "them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one flock, one shepherd". I believe it to be one flock in the divine nature, not a body, patent and evident in the world; I do not think that is the idea of it; but it is very near akin to Paul's truth of the one body; "We being many are one body in Christ". This is an abstract expression; in Christ we are one body, and members one of another. So here, it is one flock and one shepherd; but the Lord does not bring out the truth of one flock and one shepherd until He had previously brought out the truth of the divine nature which is to characterise the sheep. I believe that the idea of the knowledge which is spoken of is of knowledge between kindred natures, not mere acquaintance. There are plenty of people with whom I am acquainted; but if I want to know a person intimately, there must be the possibility of affections of a kindred nature. And I think it is that into which the believer is brought in connection with Christ, as the Father knows Him and He also knows the Father.

Now we have come to the secret of unity. Unity rests in a sense on other grounds; but unity is accentuated by the consciousness that we are one flock, and that there is one shepherd. The one flock gives as I have said the secret of unity. Just as with the apostle Paul, the mystery of the one body is revealed that we may know the secret of unity, so in John the secret of unity lies for Christians in

the divine nature. You will not have true unity in any other way; unity cannot be in the flesh, it is in the Spirit; and in the very nature of what we are, and what we partake of, we become one. The new man is treated of as one, you "put on the new man", "where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all": it is the divine nature; and it is in the divine nature that we are "one body in Christ, and members one of another". While the world was to see the unity, Christians understood it; the world could not understand anything about the one flock and the one shepherd, but they could see the effect in the sheep. We find the Lord praying for it in chapter 17; "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me".

I will just say one word in regard to ourselves at the present time. We have to look at all these truths more or less in an abstract way, but as speaking of things existing. Although unity in the assembly is completely broken up (who will dare to say it is not), yet the flock is here; it has not ceased to be. It is just as true now as when this was written; there is the one flock and the one shepherd; but saints have lost the idea of it, and have all gone off into great independent ecclesiastical bodies and the like. And what is it that has brought you and me and perhaps most of us here, out of all these things around? I will tell you we found that scripture laid upon us the obligation to unity, and we saw that all that with which we were identified was inconsistent with the thought of unity. That brought us out of them, and I trust none of us will ever go back to them. Our standing apart from them is so far a protest against them; for in their very nature they deny the principle

which is of all moment as governing the conduct of saints, that is, unity. Now I have sometimes wondered, as being apart from all these things, what authority have I in Scripture as to my course here? I see my warrant to separate, that I am justified in purging myself from "vessels to dishonour", and in getting apart from all that practically denies unity; but what afterwards? I have been really exercised in my mind sometimes as to whether I ought not to stand completely alone; for we have all separated from these things individually, we have not separated in a mass; and what warrant have we in scripture for going on in company with others? Well, I thank God that I get a positive scriptural warrant; but I think it contemplates a fellowship which is based on moral principles, and which is not in character ecclesiastical: that is, you are to "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart". I am quite willing to be instructed, but I know of no warrant for our fellowship outside the established order of Christendom except that; and the foundation of that fellowship is as I said moral: "righteousness, faith, love and peace" are certainly moral qualities, which we are to follow "with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart". When I say moral I mean in contrast to ecclesiastical. I believe we have been greatly hampered by assuming to make an ecclesiastical basis of fellowship instead of seeing that the true basis of fellowship for those who have separated from all these things is moral.

There is one word more. If you come into that fellowship and are thus bound together, the question arises, How are you to be guided as to carrying out practically your fellowship? You are to be guided by the light for this moment, and the only light for the moment is the light that scripture has given to

us in regard to the order of the church of God. It is a fellowship in which there is no pretension, which is founded upon moral principles, and is ordered by the light which God has given us in regard to the church. It is a difficult thing, without setting up any kind of ecclesiastical pretension, to go on simply in such fellowship, and to avoid talking, as I deprecated last time, about being on this ground or that ground. The more simple we are, and the more we appreciate the real basis of our fellowship, the more we shall welcome all the light which God has been pleased to give us by His blessed Spirit as to the true order of the church of God, without assuming anything whatever; for assumption in the present state of Christendom, and of those who have been brought out in the last fifty or sixty years, is totally out of place. I pray God that He may give us to see the great truth of the one flock and the one shepherd, and to see the security of the sheep. They have to fulfil their path down here; but the Lord says, "They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand". The sheep have to go into the world, and to meet the difficulties and opposition and enmity there; but in the midst of all that, they are kept in the Father's hand. When you come to the one flock and the one shepherd it is another matter, because I think the one flock exists in connection with the one shepherd, in the blessed truth of the divine nature. It is a great thing to recognise that the one flock is here, and that no one can prevail against it; but we do not want to be gathered on the ground of the one flock, but to recognise the truth of the one flock, and to thank God He has given to us a fellowship in which we can enjoy and delight in all the truth of the church of God.

THE LORD THE GATHERING POINT FOR ALL

John 12

I suppose one might say that the utterance of the Lord at the close of this chapter is one of the most solemn that we have recorded. It is evident that the character of it is pretty much that of a last word in the world. What the Lord sets forth is that He had come a light into the world, and that the light was just on the point of departing, so that the world would be left in darkness; it was, as it were, the sun setting, so far as the world was concerned, and night and darkness coming on. The same apostle, John, takes up the thought in his first epistle, and says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world ... For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world". The passage is in that way of very great importance, as marking the gravity of the moment. All was on the ground that the world was about to be involved in gross darkness because the light of the world was departing from it.

I make that remark by way of preface. I read chapter 12, but I want to show you in a concise way the character of chapters 11 and 12, for they complete what has been before us on previous occasions, in unfolding to us the glory of Christ. The section of the gospel from the seventh to the twelfth chapter gives us what I may call a complete course of instruction, leading us up to that great point of the glory of Christ. It has often been noticed that John in his teaching very generally and naturally takes the opposite order to Paul. I think it arises from the peculiar nature of the apostleship of each.

For instance, we find Paul speaking of the Lord, and then of the Head. In these chapters in John I think you get what is analogous to that, but in opposite order. In chapter 10 it is the Shepherd, and in chapters 11 and 12 it is the Lord; Jesus was about to be glorified, and the two chapters bring before us in a very remarkable way the various elements of the glory of the Lord. Then for the moment the "corn of wheat" has to "fall into the ground and die"; everything is closed up in death, only to be taken up again in resurrection; and Christ, on the ground of having died, becomes the gathering point for all. The great point to which I shall come tonight, with God's help, is the glory of the Lord. I do not think this section of the gospel would be complete if we did not reach that point. And indeed, our fellowship as Christians here depends upon the Lord. Saints were formed in fellowship down here by the testimony of the Lord; and when in that fellowship they were instructed in the truth of the Head and the body, in what the apostle speaks of as the mystery, which gives us the vital unity of saints. But that is not their fellowship; fellowship, as I understand it, is not connected with the thought of the one body, but with saints being gathered to the name of the Lord: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism". That makes me say, therefore, that if we had not the truth of this chapter, there would be a lack as to a gathering point; but I think this lack is supplied in chapters 11 and 12.

I will glance first at what has been already before us. In beginning with chapter 7 I pointed out that the characteristic truth of the present time is the presence of the Spirit, that is, that Jesus being glorified, the Spirit is given. When the Lord spoke on the last day of the feast, as recorded in chapter 7, the Spirit had not yet come -- the Spirit "was not

yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified"; and He points on to a time when the Spirit would be given; and shows what would be the effect of the giving of the Spirit, in bringing to pass something of entirely a different character from all that had been before. The Lord says, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water": there never had been the like of that before. The effect of Christ's work on earth was to leave a vessel for the Spirit; the Spirit had come upon Him without measure after His baptism, and when He went He left, as the effect of His work, a vessel for the Spirit, a vessel cleared by redemption.

The next point which I dwelt upon was that of Christ as "the light of the world"; and I showed that, by the very fact of His being the light of the world, of necessity everything in regard to the world was tested. A dispensation marked by the presence of the Spirit could not be established until the world had been set aside; the world and the Spirit could not go on together. I dwelt on this in connection with the passage, "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind"; and I must say another word or two about the passage for it is so exceedingly important. The Jews were perfectly conscious that Christ was here in the ministry of grace. He gave them evidence that His mission here was to raise man up from every effect and consequence of sin. The Jew knew that; and I argue from it that he knew that the light that came in by Christ was the light of grace. The Jew had had the light of law and prophets, which was certainly light in darkness, but light only in measure; whereas in Christ the light was full, the light of grace. Law was intended to bring home to man the conviction of where he was as to his condition; but never

raised him up out of it. You find that in chapter 5; law never raised up the man who had been helpless thirty-eight years; Christ raised him up. Thus the Jews knew that Christ was here in the ministry of grace. But although it was the light of grace, yet by the very fact of its being light, it of necessity exposed. In chapter 8 it is shown that in the presence of Christ the Jew felt himself to be exposed; but as he did not care to be exposed, in result he rejects the light; in that sense he puts it out. And I can understand it very well, for on the one hand the Jew had no sense that the judgment of death was upon him, and on the other hand he believed in the competency of man. It is like plenty of people in the present day, they have no sense that the judgment of death is upon them, they attribute death to natural causes and ignore the judgment of God, and they believe in the competency of man's mind, just like the Jew. And therefore in the very nature of things they must reject light. In what follows in chapter 8 the Jew sets up all kinds of pretension; but he is exposed, and the Lord goes on patiently till the exposure is complete. They claimed to be the seed of Abraham and the children of God; but the Lord shows that there was no trace of moral resemblance between Abraham and them, or between God and them. Thus the Jew rejects revelation, that is, the word of Christ. But another thing follows on that, he rejects Christ's work, while declaring his inability to judge of it. If the work of grace is brought into the presence of people who reject revelation, they will account for it by some natural means, they will say the object of it is under some kind of delusion, or has turned religious, and so on, and in that way they refuse or discredit the evidence of Christ's work. But the result is this "For judgment", the Lord says, "I am come into this world, that they which see not might see,

and that they which see might be made blind".

That is the second point. The first is that the time has come which is marked by the presence of the Spirit. The second, that the world has been tested by the light, and has rejected both the word and the work of Christ. Now consequent upon that, the Lord has formed something entirely new. He had come into the sheepfold and He leads the sheep out; they have not to go first, but He leads them out, and when He has led them out He goes before them like a shepherd. But further, He has other sheep which He must bring, and there is to be one flock and one shepherd. One flock living in the life of Christ: the flock lives in the life of the shepherd, that is the idea to me of the flock and the shepherd. I believe it is not fellowship, not a public association, but a vital unity, analogous to Paul's truth of the one body, which is the body of Christ: "We, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another". That is the privilege and blessing of the saints. Through Jesus, Jew and Gentile both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. If they are alive to their privilege, saints are properly in the Father's presence in the life of Christ. Another phase of it is, "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren"; that is, we are in a company, and conscious of being in a company, that are bound up together in the life of Christ. I should not care about a miniature flock, or a little representation of the flock; I could not accept that for a moment, because the whole flock is here. I do not believe the flock is any more understood by the world than is the shepherd, but the flock and the shepherd are bound together in one life; that is, it is not they that live, but it is Christ who lives in them. So we read, "We, being many, are one body in Christ"; we "are all one in Christ Jesus"; not one publicly,

but one in Christ Jesus. It is privilege, and is esteemed as such where it is apprehended that Christ is the Head.

I have gone over these scriptures because I thought it was needed, in order to lead on to the truth on which fellowship practically hangs, that is, the glory of the Lord: you must be led to the Lord, not only to know that Christ is the good Shepherd and knows His sheep, but that Christ is Lord. And the effect of the apprehension of Christ as Lord is, that it brings you at once into the light of the day; as the apostle says in Ephesians, "Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord". You cannot connect the Lord with this world; for Christ's title "Lord" belongs to another world, what the apostle speaks of in Hebrews as "the world to come". Darkness has set in upon this world, but in apprehending Christ as Lord, we come into the light of the world to come; and it is to that this chapter brings you. The Lord says, "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all to me". The Lord having been lifted up, we are drawn to Him on the ground of redemption; and by the fact of being drawn to the Lord, we are drawn into fellowship one with another, that is the way in which it works.

Now I desire to speak a little about the glory of the Lord. In anticipation of the sufferings of Christ, God permitted witness to be borne to Him in all that He was; to every part of His glory as man. There are three characters in which the Lord is presented to us in John 11 and 12. In chapter 11, He is glorified as Son of God in the raising of Lazarus; Jesus says, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby". That is, in anticipation of His death, God bore witness to

Him as Son of God. In chapter 12, witness is borne to Him by the crowds, in the entry into Jerusalem, as King of Israel. Then in connection with the desire of the Greeks expressed to Andrew and Philip to see Jesus, the Lord bears witness to its being the moment for the glory of the Son of man; He says, "The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified". I think those three aspects constitute the glory of Christ as man. That is what I want to bring before you; and may God enable me to say a word or two as to it, for it is of much moment to us. The apprehension of the glory of the Lord has the practical effect of drawing saints out of the world. And there is another effect it has upon us, it makes us like one another; "We all with unveiled face beholding ... the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image"; it brings us practically into fellowship.

Now, "Son of God" I understand to be the title of Christ incarnate; I should hardly use "Son of God" as referring to His eternal Person, for which "the Son" is usually employed; He is the Son in contra-distinction to the Father. There are three divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In John 5 we have, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do"; it is one divine Person in relation to another; "What things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise". When He is spoken of as the Son of God, it is according to Psalm 2"Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee"; He is begotten in time. As Son of God, He is the last Adam; He is victorious over death, and a life-giving Spirit; that is what "the Son of God" conveys. It was proved very distinctly in the resurrection of Lazarus that He had complete authority over death, that is the first point (as now He says in Revelation 1, "I have the keys of hell

and of death"); and secondly, He raises man up in life. Those are two things which belong properly to the Son of God; and they are not equivalent, because it is one thing to set death aside, and another to raise man up. Death had to be set aside for man as the judgment of God; but then man needs to be raised up in life, like the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda. But in order that man may be raised up, the sentence of death must first be taken off him, and both things belong to the Son of God; He effects both; it is His office, His place as last Adam. Death came in by the first Adam, death is set aside by the last Adam; and He is a life-giving Spirit. That is what is connected with the Son of God, and is illustrated in the resurrection of Lazarus. How did He put death aside? By Himself dying. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone"; He puts sin away by the sacrifice of Himself, and He goes into death in order that He may annul death, and He has "brought life and incorruptibility to light by the gospel". I do not say He always raises man up in the same way; the Christian is raised up in one way, according to the Lord's word in John 5, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live"; and He raises up Israel in another way in the time to come. But whoever is raised up, whether it be the church now, or Israel in the future, is raised up by Christ; the One who has annulled death is the One who raises up in life, The raising up of Lazarus is the figure of it; it was "for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby".

The next thing is the King of Israel. What is connected with that is that He demonstrates to this world the faithfulness of God, and brings in "the sure mercies of David"; for in Isaiah it says, "I will give you the sure mercies of David". If you

read the Psalms, you will find the prominent idea in them is the faithfulness of God; God is faithful to David and to David's seed, and Christ, David's seed, the King of Israel, brings in in His own person the sure mercies of David.

As regards the Son of man, what is connected with that title is that it is of the One under whom the world to come is put. In Hebrews 2 we read that unto angels He has not put in subjection the world to come; the world to come is put under the Son of man. He is the One who has tasted death for everything, and God "has put all things under his feet"; He is called to sit at God's right hand until His foes are made His footstool; and when He comes into the world He does not come for judgment (though He does judge), but judgment is the means to introduce blessing. He puts down every enemy, every opposer; and universal dominion belongs to Him as Son of man, and He uses it to fill the world with blessing.

I trust that you may take in these three thoughts in connection with Christ; He is the Son of God, who, having annulled death, raises up man in life: He is the Son of David, to bring in the sure mercies of David, and to fulfil everything which God has promised: and He is the Son of man, with the world to come put under Him to fill with blessing. Now, all this is comprised in the idea of Lord; and I may add that you do not get Christ presented here as second Man, that is as pattern of a race, but as last Adam, that is as a life-giving Spirit, and as such a gathering point. He says, "I, if I he lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me". I understand by it that He will draw all to Him in the glory of His person. Witness is given in this way to the glory of Christ as Son of God, King of Israel, and Son of Man; but then for the moment all ends in death; the Lord says, "Except a corn of wheat

fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone"; He must go into death to accomplish redemption, but if the corn of wheat die it brings forth much fruit. And then another thing comes out in connection with this: the world is judged, everything has been brought to an issue in the world. The world would not have the light, it would not bear to he exposed, and for the world all closes in darkness: "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out". The Lord was not coming into the world to establish His rights, but He was going to be a point of attraction outside of it. That marks this moment; it is Christ known in the glory of His person as Lord, and His glory forming a point of attraction. It is the contrast to His coming out to establish blessing here in the world. In the early days of the church, saints were all gathered by testimony to the Lord. And in our days, our fellowship is that we "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart"; "the Lord" is the gathering point.

And there is another thing connected with it; that the apprehension of the glory of the Lord has a great moral effect upon us. I have alluded to one passage, but there are others. "We see Jesus crowned with glory and honour"; we are attracted there; "Beholding the glory of the Lord" we are all "changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit". The apprehension of the glory of the Lord must have a great moral effect upon us; for the thought of it fills the word, scripture is lighted up with the glory of the Lord. If you fail to apprehend Christ in the three aspects in which I have spoken of Him, it proves that you have but little light on scripture. But if you apprehend Christ as thus presented, you will find in what a remarkable way all scripture is lighted up to you;

for all these thoughts were ever in the mind of God, the Spirit of God had this before Him when He began to indite scripture. Scripture is full of it; people may not have eyes to see it; but when once your eyes are opened to the glory of the Lord, you will find that you have the key to scripture. "The Lord is the spirit", in contrast to the letter, as we read in 2 Corinthians, He is the spirit of scripture; and the glory of the Lord is the subject of scripture, as the Holy Spirit is the Author of scripture. It is as lifted up on the ground of redemption, and with His glory revealed to the soul, that Christ becomes, as Lord, the attractive gathering point to all here, whether Jew or Gentile.

All this is in connection with the judgment of this world. Thick darkness has come upon the world, consequent upon the rejection of Christ; all the moral principles of the world, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life", are to us exposed as being "not of the Father, but of the world". And it is exposed by the revelation of what is the opposite to it. Love is the opposite of lust; and by the very fact of God revealing Himself as love in Christ, all that is contrary to it comes out also. The purpose of love is to gratify its objects; lust ever seeks its own gratification. The world is full of lust and ambition; but "God is love"; that is, God lives, if I may use the expression, in the blessing of others: "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him". Every activity of God springs from love; and if there is light in the heart of the believer, the light is the revelation of God in love. Of course light exposes everything, just as it did the Jew, who knew that the light was the light of grace, though he did not care to be exposed, because he did not like to come to the humiliating thought

that he was incompetent. There are plenty of people in the present day who are in the same boat. But when it is brought home to a man, by the Spirit of God, that the judgment of death is upon him, he begins to feel himself incompetent. It is a great thing when you know that you are such as Christ has exposed you to be, with an evil will opposed to God; for then you begin to "see", and then it is that you are drawn out of the world to the One who is the good Shepherd.

Now, as I said before, we get in chapter 10 vital unity, and in chapter 12 the glory of the Lord as the true basis of christian fellowship down here; that is, that in the revelation of His glory, we get the point of gathering, the proper basis of our fellowship. As I said before, the general principle of John is to take the opposite order to Paul. Paul would give us first what is connected with the Lord, and then the truth of the body; John gives us first what is essential, the truth of the flock and the shepherd, and then the glory of the Lord as the gathering point for saints down here.

FELLOWSHIP, PRIVILEGE, AND TESTIMONY

1 John 1:6, 7; 1 John 3:1 - 3; 1 John 4:12 - 14

On previous occasions I have endeavoured to give the scope and bearing of a particular portion of John's Gospel, namely, from chapter 7 to chapter 12; and while all scripture in a sense is practical, yet to open up the scope of scripture is a different thing from giving a word applicable to the particular circumstances and difficulties in which we find ourselves; and this latter is more my object at this time.

The point to which we came last week in connection with chapter 12 of the Gospel of John was that, after witness had been given to the glory of the Lord, He, as lifted up from the earth, becomes a point of gathering. In chapter 7 the truth had come out that Christ was going away; and in connection with it, on the last day of the feast, the Lord refers to what may be called another day, namely, the Spirit's day. I see distinctly two things in connection with the presence of Christ here; one is that He Himself was about to be glorified; and the other that the effect of His presence and work here was to leave behind Him a vessel for the Spirit. You may say the vessel was a small one, and I quite admit it; but still He left a vessel, and the Spirit could not dwell here without a vessel. In chapters 8 and 9 we find the true character in which Christ was here, namely, "the light of the world"; and by the very fact of His being the light of the world, everything here had been brought to an issue. Those who saw, that is those who took the ground of competency, were made blind; and on the other hand those who did

not see, saw, for there was a work of grace down here to open their eyes. When we came to chapter 10 (it is all one line of truth), we find the new position in which Christ is as having left the fold, namely, that of the good Shepherd, and the sheep have followed Him out of the fold. There is now "one flock, one shepherd", but neither flock nor shepherd recognised of the world. An unseen shepherd and in a sense an unseen flock, but all bound together in the divine nature. That is the idea to me of the one flock, and the one shepherd; not a public thing at all, but it is this, "I know my sheep, and am known of mine, as the Father knows me and I also know the Father". But there is still a further point in chapters 11 and 12, that witness is borne to the glory of Christ as Son of God, King of Israel, and Son of man; but for the moment all closes in death, the world is judged, and Christ, as lifted up from the earth, becomes a point of gathering for all; that is, you have got two essential truths in regard to Christ, what He is to the flock, and what He is as a point of gathering. I spoke of the import of the various titles of Christ last week: that as Son of God, as witnessed in the resurrection of Lazarus, He sets aside death, and raises man up in life; that as King of Israel and Son of David He brings in the sure mercies of David; and that as Son of man He has universal dominion in the world to come on the ground of redemption. These are the three ideas, which are carried into and embodied in the thought of Christ as Lord; as Lord He administers the grace of God, all that God is towards man is presented to man in power in the Lord.

I desire now to present three points, practical in their character, as being given to us in an epistle. An epistle is not quite like a gospel, it has a different character; an epistle is written to help Christians, and is presented to their responsibility; but a

gospel is written to present Christ to us. I have observed in regard to the first Epistle of John that the platform is not nearly so large as that of the Gospel. In the epistle we find "that which is true in him and in you" -- that is, in Christ and Christians; but in the gospel, what is true in the Son and the Father, and the gift of the Spirit. I think any one must see that there is a very great deal of difference between these two thoughts.

It is possible that you may not see at a glance what my purpose is in the three scriptures I have read; and I will tell you what has led me to these passages. They contain the three main elements of Christianity, namely, fellowship, privilege, and testimony. Fellowship is the first lesson we all have to learn; the second is privilege, which leads to the truth of the assembly; and the third is testimony, so to say, God presented in us. And until souls understand something of privilege, you may be sure there is not much of testimony in them according to God. For I do not regard testimony simply as preaching, but as that which it was in the thought of God that the christian company, that is, the church, should present collectively to the world. John 17:20, 21, will substantiate that: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me". I understand by the passage that the unity of the saints and its character was the testimony presented to the world, though the world did not understand at all what was the secret of that unity; but it was the witness to the world that the Father sent the Son. It is most important to see that there was in the divine thought the idea of collective testimony.

Now I take up these three points, fellowship, privilege, and testimony, as opened out in the first Epistle of John, and I dare say it may be thought that I might treat them more readily from Paul; but I will tell you why I refer to John for them. John does not fill the place of Paul. Paul was the architect, and gives us the structure of the church and the character of the structure. But the structure which Paul was used of God to rear is in ruins, and it is well for us to recognise it; for if we lose sight of the ruin of the church and do not accept the remnant character, we are not of much account in the eye of God. The church is in ruins; and I am sure we ought to be more under the burden of this than we are. I have felt how little sense I have of the defection of the church, of how far the church is from the mind of God in regard to it. I think this ought to press upon us more heavily than it does. The fact is we have had far too much in our thoughts the idea of setting up an expression of the original, and have been pretty much contented with it. That means that we are losing sight of the ruin of the church. But we have to remember that the church is here at the present moment both vitally and responsibly. The body and the house are the two aspects of the church presented in scripture, and I say without any hesitation that the whole body of Christ is here upon earth, just as truly as the Spirit of God is here; and on the other side that the house is here in its responsibility as such, for scripture makes it perfectly clear that Christendom has the responsibility of the house of God. Hence it seems to me that it is entirely out of place for us to entertain the idea of setting up here upon earth a kind of imitation of the church; it means to my mind losing sight of the ruin of the church; and if we are not affected by the ruin of the church, I am sure that we are not in the mind of the Spirit.

The importance of the writings of John is, that though he does not give you the structure of the church, he gives you everything which is essential; for John always goes to what is essential and enduring, both in his gospel and in his epistles. Though the building may be in ruin and decay, John gives us what decay cannot touch, and therefore you can understand the great importance to us of John's writings. John does not give you the church, as such; I think the expression "church" is only used once in his epistles; but he gives you what is essential to the church, that which lies underneath the ruin, and which the ruin cannot affect. When I come to the first epistle I find these things which may in measure subsist even in the midst of the ruin of the church -- fellowship, privilege, and testimony; and it is on those three points I purpose now to enlarge.

First as to fellowship. In chapter 1 we read: "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin". I might call your attention to two parallel passages in Paul: 1 Corinthians 1:9, "God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord": and 1 Corinthians 10:16, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion" -- it is the same word, "fellowship" -- "of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread". There is no real divergence of thought in these three passages. Being in the light of the Lord, you are in the light as God is in the light. If I were to be asked, How is it that God is in the light? I should say that it is

in the Lord that God is in the light; that is, that there is the most complete revelation of God in His thought toward man in the Lord. No one can know what the thought and attitude of God is towards man, except in the Lord Jesus Christ; for it is in Him that it has pleased God to display Himself, and all the thought of God towards man is made good mediatorially in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore in the light of the Lord, I am in the light as God is in the light. We have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now it is the name of the Lord which is our bond of fellowship. And this is perfectly consistent with 1 Corinthians 10, for being in the fellowship of the Lord, of necessity you are in the fellowship of His death; the two things are bound to go together, for you could not be in the fellowship of the Lord and be going on in things to which He has died. He has become a gathering point on the ground of having been lifted up from the earth; and concurrent with that is, "Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out". It is a very great thing for our souls to be in the light of the glory of the Lord; I do not think they are enough there. We should be a different kind of people if we apprehended all that is covered by His blessed name, Son of God, Son of David, Son of man. If our souls were in the light of it we would not care to be in the current of this world, since the soul would be in the light of another world, what scripture speaks of as "the world to come". The apostle says to the Ephesians, "Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord"; it is in the Lord you are light, and that is where a soul first gets light -- in the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

Now I do not think we distinguish sufficiently between fellowship and privilege. Fellowship must

always be on simple ground. I do not know whether the term "fellowship" is quite understood. What I understand by fellowship is a bond of association which in its very nature separates those in it from the course and current of things around them. There will not be, I judge, any such bond in the millennium, because the outward state of things will be according to God; there will not be any need for fellowship. But here, in the midst of a world which has rejected Christ and is under judgment, fellowship is essential; there must be a bond of association between Christians which binds them together in one common interest. Now that is distinct from the idea of privilege, and depends really upon the name of the Lord, which is always our bond of fellowship: "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all to me": God has called us to "the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord". There is, on the other side, that which is perfectly consistent with it, the fellowship of His death.

So far I have only spoken of what was the proper fellowship of Christians to begin with. John puts it on this ground: "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light"; that is, if we are really in the truth of Christianity, namely, that God has been pleased to come out in the fullest revelation of Himself, so that there can be no further revelation of Him, that God's thought and grace in regard of man is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, then, "We have fellowship one with another". And at the present time, and at every time, there is fellowship, and it is in the true light of Christianity. And the true light of Christianity is displayed in the Lord, you cannot learn it elsewhere. Therefore I can understand the apostle saying to the Philippian gaoler, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ"; as much as to say to him, you get into the light of what is displayed in the Lord, and you will be saved and

your house. I think it is very beautiful to know that there is one point where you can fully learn what is in the heart of God toward man, and you see it displayed not in weakness, but in glory, in power. There is no power to equal the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Talk about power in this world, and what nations and man can do, it is not to be compared to the power of the Lord Jesus! He went to the right hand of God, and received and sent down here the most mighty power that could be, the Holy Ghost. Christ can effect everything, only He effects it spiritually, not yet in the way of display; but He effects everything in the power of the Holy Ghost. Nothing can stand against the power of the Spirit. We may have so little faith that we are unable to use the power; but if we had faith to use the power of the Spirit, I say nothing could stand before it. A servant might be in the presence of the most godless company that ever was brought together: if he knew what it was to be in faith and in the power of the Spirit, some of that company would be brought down before him. I am ashamed to talk about it, because I know so poorly how to use the power of the Spirit. But the Spirit is here, having come down from Christ, and Christ has all power over man for man's good and blessing. All the thought of God towards man is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the light of the Lord "we have fellowship one with another".

Now in a day of ruin, I find exactly the same principle, only that another question comes in, that you cannot commit yourself to people simply on their profession, you cannot take people up quite as they did at the beginning of Christianity. Things have lapsed into a condition of ruin, profession has become common and unreal, there are vessels to dishonour, and therefore you have to look for those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But the

ground of fellowship remains unchanged, and the ground of fellowship is calling on the Lord. It is very important to rightly apprehend fellowship, because fellowship brings in a different idea to that of the actual meeting. If people become associated with us in fellowship, it does not simply mean that they have the privilege of breaking bread, but we are bound to do all we can for them, they are received into our fellowship. So, too, if they are put out of our fellowship they are put out of it, it is not putting them away from the meeting, but that you have no more to say to them until God comes in in grace to restore them. It appears sometimes to be thought that in cases of discipline persons are put away from the meeting. It is not simply a question of the meeting, our fellowship subsists whether there is a meeting or not: we might not be able to come together to a meeting, but that would not affect the question of our fellowship; we have fellowship one with another, following righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. The name of the Lord is the gathering point, as it always was. We do not have to exact any amount of knowledge or intelligence from people who desire to be in our fellowship, we have never taken that ground, but have resisted and rejected it; but if we have reason to think that such are really Christians, and calling on the Lord out of a pure heart, we make no difficulty about receiving them into our fellowship, although their intelligence may be very small, because the name of the Lord is the bond of fellowship. It is very important to see that our receiving and putting away is to and from our fellowship. So it was in early days, if they had to put a man out of communion they "put away from among themselves that wicked person". If believers are brought into our fellowship, what we hope is that they will learn

their privilege; depend upon it, people do not learn their privilege very much until they learn the true ground of fellowship. I ask, Did any of you learn very much of what belonged to you as Christians until you found yourselves in a true fellowship? I do not think you did; I did not.

That is the first principle that comes out in this epistle, that "If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another", and there is no imputation, "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin".

I pass on now to the subject of privilege (1 John 3:1, 2), "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is". Now compare that verse with John 17, "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee" -- now mark the next clause -- "that they also may be one in us"; that "in us" marks their place, they are to be one in us. Now turn to 1 Thessalonians 1:1 "The assembly of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ". In all those passages we have the place of privilege of the church. And I might say shortly with reference to these two chapters, 3 and 4 of 1 John, that in chapter 3 saints are seen as in God, and in chapter 4 God is seen in the saints, that is just the distinction between the two. When I speak about our place of privilege, then I say saints are in God; when I speak about testimony, then I say the testimony is that God is in the saints. The place of privilege puts you in the Father and in the Son.

We little estimate the privilege which belongs to

the children of God. It is the same character of things as seen in the sheep; "I know my sheep and am known of mine; as the Father knoweth me and I know the Father". The place of children introduces saints, if I may say so, although I feel I understand it very poorly, into that system of affections which subsists in the Father and in the Son. They lie between the Son and the Father. That, I judge, is the meaning of the passage, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God". Why does Christ love the saints? Because they are given to Him of the Father. It comes out most beautifully in John 6; the Father drew to the Son in order that the Son might bring us to the Father, "No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him". The same truth comes out in Matthew 16; Peter confesses Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the living God": why was that revelation given to Peter? In order that Peter might be drawn to Christ in that light so that Christ might bring him to the Father, and on that rock build His assembly.

If there is to be Christ's assembly, all that compose that assembly must be in the same place with Christ; the place of the assembly is "in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ", the system of affections which is proper to the assembly belongs to that circle, that scene. It all hangs on the fact of Christ having become Man, and being able thus to take this place -- "In the midst of the assembly will I sing praise unto thee"; and it is His having become Man, and our association with Him as risen, which brings us into the Father and the Son. You are not apart from the Son. And if you are with the Son, how can you be apart from the Father? Of necessity you are there; "As thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us,

that the world may believe that thou hast sent me"; that is our place of privilege. But mark, although it belongs to us individually, and I quite admit everybody is brought into it individually, yet the very fact of our being in it necessarily constitutes us one band, and therefore the apostle speaks in the plural, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God".

In the same way we are brought in individually as members of the body, we are all baptised into it in that sense, but the very fact of being members of one body identifies us with the body, you cannot be apart from the body. So it is in regard to children. The moment I wake up to the fact that I am a child of God, that that is the place of privilege to which the Father has called me, at once I want to be identified with the company, that is the way in which it works, for there is no such idea as a single child of God. We are brought into that place by one Spirit; it is one Spirit that "bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God", we are all one by one Spirit. The very instinct of one who realises that he is a child of God must lead him to the truth of the assembly, because he feels he cannot be alone. It is expressed in the line of a hymn with which we are all familiar --

"In him we stand, a heavenly band,
Where He Himself is gone". (Hymn 12)

That is the idea in scripture connected with children, it is "we" and "us", a company, not the idea of the privilege of a single individual. The Spirit that bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God is the same Spirit in every Christian. I cannot understand a Christian content to be isolated and talking about how much he gets from the Lord at home; I am certain that person enters

little into the privilege of a child, for if he did, the craving of his soul would be to get into the company of the children; because as there is one flock and one shepherd, so the children are all one band. If therefore you want to realise the privilege of the children of God, you must get to the assembly; and it is there that you realise the privilege which is proper to the children of God, they worship the Father.

Now nothing can deny that to us. Just as in the ruin of the church there is the fellowship of "those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart", so whatever may be the decay and ruin of the church, the children cannot be displaced. I may be very sorry that all do not enter into their privilege, and I am sure we ought to mourn over it more than we do; but if we do come together in assembly, then our place as children is realised, for it is the calling, the privilege, which the Father has bestowed upon us. I can understand in a day of ruin that a person might say, Well, I have got a little light, and it has separated me from the confusion around, I cannot go on with the sects and systems because they are a practical denial of the truth of the Lord, I will stand completely alone. But I do not think a person could stand completely alone, because if he entered into the truth of his position, the very Spirit that witnesses that he is a child of God would draw him to other children of God. Though we are brought into the place of children individually, yet you cannot wholly individualise the children, for they are one company, and one Spirit is in them all. The same holds good as to sonship, it is one Spirit of sonship. I am sure we fail to see how that the scriptures which apply to Christians are instinct with unity, all is to bring us to unity; and if you have the Spirit of sonship, the Spirit that witnesses that you are a child of God, there will be a kind of

magnetic attraction towards other children of God, and of other children of God towards you. I believe it is for that reason that John gives us what I should call essential truths when the structure has broken down. The expression "children of God" involves what is vital; the Spirit bears witness, there is the spiritual link, and though you may mourn the fact that you cannot come together in company with the whole band, yet at the same time you cannot lose sight of the privilege which belongs to you in common with other Christians. If the Father has set you in that place of children, the Father's love is upon you, you are "in the Father and in the son".

Now I pass on to the third point, and that is testimony, in that God is in us. In verses 12 to 14 of chapter 4 we come to "us" and "we". And mark what a wonderful testimony that passage presents; "No man hath seen God at any time". That is an expression which is used first in the gospel, where it goes on to say, "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him": here it is, "No man hath seen God at any time, if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us" that is, that the divine nature is made good in Christians, in that they love one another, and the character of the love is such that the love of God is perfected in us. The wonderful thing is that God is displayed, not in one Christian, but in the company of Christians, in their love one toward another. Now mark the next passage: "Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given to us of his Spirit; and we have seen" -- now you get another thing -- "we have seen and bear witness that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world". It is a wonderful thing that there is a band here in the world in whom the love of God is perfected,

and more than that, they have seen and bear witness that the Father sent the Son as Saviour of the world. I doubt if it is an individual bearing witness, but the testimony is maintained in the band; that is the light that comes out in the band. But then the first point is not what they say, it is what they are; "If we love one another", that is what I was speaking about at the beginning in regard to testimony. It answers again to that passage in John 17, "As thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us"; that is their place of privilege. But they are to be "one in us", what for? "That the world may believe that thou hast sent me".

Of course, in the thought of God, all these things were to have been witnessed in the entire church. But what is perfectly clear to me from scripture is that even in early days comparatively few Christians entered into the proper privileges of the church: the majority were uncommonly slow to accept their true place and privilege. I argue from it that if comparatively few Christians entered in that day into proper christian privilege, there is no reason why a few Christians should not enter into it in this day. It is one thing to have a privilege belonging to me, and another thing to enter into the truth and reality of it. But I maintain that the privilege belongs to all, that the Father has set His love upon us, that the proper place of every Christian is to be of one band, in the Father and in the Son. It is our place, and in the realisation of our privilege we better understand the true character of the assembly. And it is apart from any necessity of ecclesiastical pretension, the point is to have the reality of it in our souls. Things must come out in the order I have indicated; and if saints do not understand the privilege of the assembly in some measure, there will not be maintained in them a testimony

which is according to God. It is in the assembly that we properly enter into our relationship with the Father and with one another; you may have accepted the light of it, but it is in the assembly you enter into and understand it. Properly we are all set in our place in the assembly, in regard to the Father and to Christ and to one another; and then we go forth from the assembly to be here in the world a vessel in which God is displayed. You must take these things up in the order in which they are unfolded in the epistle, our souls are bound to learn them in that order, first fellowship, then privilege which places us in the Father and in the Son, and then true testimony in which God is displayed in the heavenly band which stands in Christ; that is the divine order. I could show you precisely the same order coming out in Paul. You could not understand Colossians if you did not first understand Corinthians; in Corinthians you get fellowship, and the privilege of the assembly, and in Colossians you get the other side of it, that is, the divine nature coming out in the Christian company.

I do not want to dwell further on it, but I trust it will be a practical word to all of us. I took it up from this epistle as being suitable to the day of ruin in which we are; and I pray God to grant that we may be more prepared in spirit to come under the sense of the ruin, not to attempt to construct something here which is a kind of satisfaction to us. God keep us from setting up any kind of imitation! May we recognise that the church is here both vitally and responsibly, but so far as the thought of God is concerned, it is here in ruin. I take my share in the shame of the ruin; but at the same time I see, and this ought to be a great encouragement to us, that all that is essential abides, and I believe that if we enter into our privilege, though the company may be very restricted, yet at all events there

will be a real witness for God, a real expression of God even in the little company. I feel I am not much of a hand at attempting to give a practical word, but I trust the word may be accepted, and that we may enter more by the grace of God into our proper privilege and into what is the true testimony of saints here in this world.

CHRISTIANITY IN ITS MORAL CHARACTERISTICS

Lectures delivered in 1895

LIGHT

Acts 26

My thought is to bring before you, as God may enable me, the great moral characteristics of Christianity. I do not intend to speak of the doctrine upon which Christianity is founded, but rather of what Christianity consists in, in the hope that we all may be better instructed as to this. The doctrines may come out, but my object is to show you that which God saw fit to introduce into the darkness of this world, and into which we as Christians are brought. The great pervading evil in Christendom is that divine things have, in men's thoughts, been materialised. A common idea with many is that life is communicated through baptism; there is nothing moral about that, it is a material idea. Again, people speak of the "house of God", and mean by it a material building. Then such things as "harvest thanksgivings" are common, that is worship in connection with material blessings. All is materialised. It is well to get our eyes opened to the terrible departure in all this from what is of the Spirit of God.

Now what I want to show you is the contrast to all this of the divine thought in Christianity; for certainly Christianity is not materialistic, it is all intensely moral. It is not even like the millennium, namely, a condition of manifest blessing, or what one might call, for want of a better expression, a condition of actualities.

When I speak of the features of Christianity, I mean its moral features; and I think they may be put in this order -- first light, for that is the first thing with God, and it is the first with every one of us. What follows light is liberty. Then life; and finally unity and testimony. You see they are all

moral, and they are all characteristic features of Christianity as God intended it to be here.

I think any one can follow the points I have indicated, and their succession. I only intend at present, by God's help, to touch upon the first, for it is a very large field on which I have entered. When one speaks of Christianity in its moral characteristics it is impossible in the course of an hour to traverse the whole extent of it.

The first great idea in Christianity is light. God no longer dwells in the thick darkness as in times gone by; now the first blessing of the gospel is that God has shone out in light, and the practical result in regard to believers is that "we walk in the light as God is in the light". That is where the believer is understood to be. I want to make that point plain, for there are thousands of people professedly in Christianity, who as to their consciousness of things, as to the state of their souls, are not one single bit in the light. I know it as well as possible. I was many a long day professedly a Christian before there was light in my soul, and I do not doubt that most of us would admit the same. We were professedly Christians before a single ray of light from God penetrated into our hearts.

I say that in the divine thought of Christianity the first thing is light. The apostle says in 2 Corinthians 4:6, "God who commanded that out of darkness light should shine, hath shined in our hearts to give the light" -- what light? -- "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ". You see how the apostle puts it there, referring to Genesis 1. So, too, he had previously said in that same passage, "The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not, lest the light of the glad tidings of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine for them".

Now I dare say you noticed in the passage I read at the beginning, in which Paul gives an account of his conversion, the occurrence of the world "light". The first thing that affected him was light. At mid-day, as he was going on the road to Damascus, there appeared a light brighter than the sun. The greatest natural light was surpassed by the brightness of the light that appeared to him. That was the very first impression that the apostle got. Then afterwards, where he gives an account of his mission, he tells us it was to go to the Gentiles, "to open their eyes" -- that is preliminary -- "to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me". It is evident that light must have had a great place, in the thought of God at all events, in what was connected with the apostle. He was first affected by light, and it was the light of grace.

I will now try to show what I understand by light, and I think I can put it in a way sufficiently simple to be generally understood. Light is God in the revelation of Himself. Light and truth are very intimately connected. By truth I understand that which may be known of God. It may be even by creation. That is how scripture describes truth. Light being the revelation of God makes manifest everything which comes within its range. In 1 John 1 it says, "This is the message that we have heard of him that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we walk in the light as he is in the light". That God has thus shone forth, is the foundation of Christianity. The thought of God in the gospel in regard to man is, that man should be brought into the light, should be enlightened in his soul as to the truth of God, that is, as to what God is. Man's thought would be that he might get forgiveness of sins. He will surely get that, he

cannot have the light of God without it, but God's thought is that He may be known in the heart of man.

I will tell you what is to be dreaded at the present moment -- holding correctness of doctrine without really the doctrine being light in the soul. I believe it is a great danger to which we are exposed, for if doctrine has not the effect of enlightening the soul as to God it has not done its work. You will see how that must be, and how consistent it is with truth. The effect of sin was that man got into darkness. If I put it in other words, man lost the knowledge of God. That was the effect of the fall. God was lost to his soul. Therefore when he was left to himself (as God left the heathen to themselves) man became more and more degraded. They had lost the knowledge of God, they did not choose to retain God in their knowledge, and simply fell lower and lower. Men worshipped things that morally were inferior to man. They made gods of all sorts of things, even of serpents, that in intelligence were inferior to man himself. It only shows you how morally degraded man became when he had lost the knowledge of God. Man proved that he had fallen into utter moral darkness. Now in the gospel God virtually says, I will come in and reveal Myself in the heart of man. I will make myself known in the midst of the darkness of the world, in a way suitable to the state of man. That is the divine idea in the gospel -- a most wonderful thought. To me it is inconceivably blessed to think of God coming into the darkness of this world with the determined purpose, in spite of everything, sin, Satan, the world, and all here, to make Himself known in grace in the heart of man. That is what the commission of the apostle was, "to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God". What comes afterwards is what I should

call supplementary, "that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me". The great point of the passage is the turning from darkness to light and from Satan's power to God, that instead of men remaining in the darkness into which they had got as the effect of the fall, they were to be brought into the light of God revealed in love. The truth of God becomes light in the soul of man, because man gets light by truth. It brings his heart into the light so that he might be in the light as God is in the light.

I add a little more in detail of the grace of God in that respect, for it is a great thing to be established in the first principles of truth. It is very important for every one of us to get hold of the divine thought in the gospel. And the first principle of the gospel is that it is God's approach to man. I do not believe that the gospel in itself speaks about man's approach to God. It is the announcement to men of God's glad tidings concerning His Son.

There are four ministries spoken of by the apostle Paul in scripture, and I believe they are distinct. There is the ministry of the gospel, the ministry of the new covenant, the ministry of reconciliation, and the ministry of the mystery. You must not confound them, for the last three at all events are ministries to believers; but the ministry of the gospel is of God's glad tidings not to believers but to men. "The kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared". That is, God has been pleased to reveal Himself in the gospel to man, in order that man's heart may be enlightened with the knowledge of His grace.

Now before I speak of how we come into it, I must refer for a moment to the way which God has taken to reveal Himself. If God reveal Himself to man it must be in a way suited to the state of man. It would have been impossible for God to reveal

Himself simply as a Judge. It would not have been suitable. There would have been no grace about it. Man was sinful and a sinner before God, and therefore the very first principle of the revelation of God must of necessity be grace. Hence as the first step in this direction God provided a sacrifice, which should clear sin completely from before Him. If I look at the work of Christ in its first and most important aspect it is for God, and that is where a mistake is often made. People do not see what I should call the God-ward aspect of the work of Christ. In the Old Testament figure you get in the day of atonement the blood sprinkled on and before the mercy-seat; that is what I should call the divine aspect of the work of Christ, and the gospel is based upon it. If you want one word for it, common amongst us, it is propitiation. God in infinite grace has been pleased, before ever there was any approach on His part to man in the gospel, to provide a sacrifice which has cleared sin from before Himself. This is the witness of the grace of God, and is the first thing I see in Christ. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Victim provided of God, He who was to clear sin from before God, came out from God, and that is the witness which God has given of His grace.

There was the personal ministry of Jesus on earth before this work; but the coming of Christ here in that sense really anticipated His death, and the truth of the glad tidings could not come out fully until after His resurrection. Then, when sin has been cleared from before God, and the blood has been sprinkled on and before the mercy-seat, the witness that sin has been cleared, then God comes out to reveal Himself in the glad tidings to the heart of man. God can point to Christ and say, Can you have any doubt about My grace? I have Myself provided the sacrifice which has cleared sin from

before Me, in order that I might reveal Myself in grace to the heart of man. It was the divine way. Man had not a word to say to it. God did it entirely on His own account. It came entirely from the divine motion. Jesus says, "I come to do thy will, O God". It is not the common idea of a substitute which is presented here. Sin was cleared, not by a substitute for man, but by a divine Person. There is the truth that Christ was delivered for our offences, but the great point is that God cleared sin for Himself, by One who came forth from Himself -- a divinely appointed, divinely provided Victim. And when we speak of the grace of God, we do not speak of any particular Person of the Godhead. It is very important that, while we distinguish the Persons of the Godhead, we should maintain in our souls the truth of God, in the unity and counsel of the Godhead. It was the Son who became Man that He might be a Victim, and by His own sacrifice remove sin completely from before God: He appeared once in the end of the world, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. I have told you the divine object in this already, and I want you to ponder it. It is, that God might be revealed in man's heart. Do not miss this, because if you fail of the divine object, you will not get into a living Christianity. You will get into the sort of Christianity in which plenty of people are, but you will not get into the Christianity of God, to be in the light as God is in the light. Therefore, when I point to Jesus, I say, Do you doubt the grace of God? "God has set him forth to be a mercy-seat through faith in his blood".

The mercy-seat is, I judge, where God speaks to man. The mercy-seat in Israel was where God put Himself in communication with Moses to give him a charge for the children of Israel, viewed as a redeemed people. Now, in the gospel Jesus is the

mercy-seat. Why? Because in Him God speaks volumes. In Jesus is revealed to you the grace which provided the Victim which has completely cleared sin from before God. Jesus speaks to every heart now. The very name -- Jesus is "Jehovah saving".

Now another point. Jesus speaks not only of grace but of righteousness. God has set Him forth as a mercy-seat for the declaration of His righteousness, but you cannot touch righteousness until you have touched grace. The principle of the gospel is, that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life; but you must begin with grace, because the first thing which God provided was that which cleared sin from before Him, and that was a question of pure grace on the part of God, which took account of the state and necessity of man, and, in order that He might be made known to the heart of man, provided the sacrifice to remove sin. Now, sin having been removed and God glorified in its removal, the righteousness of God is in man's favour. The power of God has acted in righteousness, to release man from the penalty of death; and not only so, but to set man in the place of supreme honour and glory to carry into effect every result of the removal of sin. Righteousness is declared. It is not declared simply in terms, it is declared in Jesus. I do not know how better to express it -- Jesus speaks volumes, and God declares in Jesus His righteousness. Sin brought death into the world. Death came in as God's penalty on sin. "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die". When sin had been removed by Christ being made sin, and bearing its judgment on the cross, Christ went into death, because the penalty of death lay upon man, that in death He might glorify God, that everything might be accomplished. "Without shedding of blood is no remission". He went into death, but

as having first perfectly removed sin. He goes into death for the glory of God, and God is glorified in His death, and what then? The power of God raises Him again from the dead, and He is the witness of the righteousness of God -- righteousness in which God can act in power in raising man from the penalty of death. He must be the first to rise from the dead, but then the truth does not stop there. Christ is exalted to be the minister of everything that He has secured. He is Lord. He is raised again that He may have dominion both over the dead and the living. He is a quickening Spirit, set above all that He may fill all things. I do not believe that God has now a single thing to say to man apart from Christ. If I wanted to tell a man the way of salvation, what should I say? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved". And why should I say that? In my own mind the thought would be, that, in the Lord Jesus Christ, God is completely revealed to man. I can well understand the apostle saying to the Philippian jailer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house". I have sometimes said (although I do not want to be misunderstood) that man is saved by light. We often talk about man being saved by faith; but there is no substantive value in faith, and man is saved by light. He is saved by God being revealed to his soul. God could not be revealed to his soul if grace had not blotted sin out; but Christ removed sin in order that God might be revealed to the heart of man in grace, and that is God's way of salvation for man, and is the reason why I say that man is really saved by light. He is brought into salvation by light. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved". What is the meaning of that? Well, that you have got

divine light, the revelation of God in your heart; for you confess with your mouth, "Lord Jesus", the One in whom God has been pleased to reveal Himself, and whom God has raised from the dead. All that shines in the face of Jesus. It is the shining forth of the effulgence of God. There is the light of God seen in the way in which God is to be known in the soul of man, and that is the proper result of the presentation of God's glad tidings; God is revealed in the heart of man which, apart from that, was in utter darkness. The gospel went out to people who were in the darkness of heathenism to turn them from darkness to light, that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance. They do receive these things, for you cannot possibly turn to God revealed in grace, without getting forgiveness of sins and inheritance; but the point of it is that you are turned from darkness to light, and from Satan's power to God. I wonder if every soul here has a true sense of the Lord Jesus Christ as being the blessed revelation of God, who has come out of His own place to be known by man.

Now a word or two in regard to apprehension, because I have spoken of the truth on the divine side. If we look at things from our own point of view, we regard the gospel as it affects us, and the gain which we get through it; but I think it is very important to see the divine object in it, and I cannot doubt the truth of what I have said, that the light of God was to come into the heart of man, His glory was to be known there as seen in the face of Jesus, it was to be a revelation to him of God, suited to his state and condition. Now the first thing in the commission to Saul was "to open their eyes". The eyes of the Gentiles were to be opened, and that is what new birth properly effects. This opening of eyes was put in a certain sense into the hands of the apostle in his ministry, but the real

opening of the eyes is the work of God's Spirit. But though a man's eyes may be opened, he has not got light, but he craves light. When first the work of God begins in a man, you may depend upon it that man will not rest until he gets light. If you want an illustration I take Nicodemus. What he wanted was light as to God. Take any man where the work of God has begun, that man wants light. He has got his eyes opened like the man in John 9, he begins to see the falseness and unreality of everything here, but whatever he may crave, he has not got light as to God, God is not yet revealed to him.

Now the next point is, "To turn them from darkness to light". Darkness really is the degradation in which man was in heathenism. What was light? The revelation of God in grace in Christ. That was part of the apostle's mission, though first man's eyes were to be opened. Then he was to be turned from darkness to light, to the blessed revelation of God in the face of Jesus, and from Satan's power to God -- the latter went with the turning from darkness to light. When there was real turning to God, what then? Well, they turned to a God who had been revealed to them in the gospel, they were not to turn to an unknown God, or a God with whom there was any uncertainty -- that would not have been light; but to God as He had revealed Himself to them in the gospel. The gospel came to them first on the part of God to reveal what God was, then they turned to God as He had revealed Himself in grace and in righteousness.

"That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in me" -- two things that are commonly connected in scripture. But to me they are accompaniments of the gospel; the vital point to my mind is the turning from darkness to light, and from

Satan's power to God, so that God is apprehended in the soul as He has been pleased to reveal Himself. Now the light of God has taken possession of the soul of the believer, and thus it is we come to be in the light as God is in the light, that is in the full light of the revelation of God. That is the very first principle of Christianity, you cannot touch anything else until your soul is brought into the light of the revelation of God. You cannot talk about deliverance or life or testimony until you are brought out of darkness into God's marvellous light, into the blessed light in which God has been pleased to reveal Himself in the gospel. I do not think it has been sufficiently seen that the first aspect of the work of Christ was God-ward, in order that God might reveal Himself to man in grace. It began with God bringing Himself in Christ close to men in a Man; and now in the gospel God has revealed Himself fully to man in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, suitably to the state and condition in which man is -- that is, in grace and, in ability to justify. The full expression of it is, Christ Himself raised from the dead and set far above all heavens, in order that He might fill all things. That is what God has done for the display of Himself. Man is now the vessel of that display. What a wonderful thing it is to have turned to God in that way! So that now it is not simply that God is in the light, but we are in the light. That is the first principle of Christianity, and the effect of it is this, that you get your heart established in grace. I have greatly enjoyed lately the thought that I am in the light in which God has been pleased to reveal Himself. I can understand the expression, "Rejoice in the Lord". Why? Because in the Lord, God is revealed in all His thought to man. God has thus come out in blessed grace; and the benefit that we get is forgiveness of sins, and not only that, but the

Spirit given to us to indwell our bodies, so that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.

May God give us really to know the great light in which God has shone out, that we may better see the first great principle of Christianity as God has been pleased to establish it here. Amen.

LIBERTY

John 8:28 - 36

I desire to carry out the purpose which I mentioned last time, viz., to bring before you the leading features of Christianity in its true power -- I do not mean doctrinally, though of course you could not have it without doctrine, but morally. It is a very great thing to ascertain the true nature of Christianity, what the great moral characteristics of it are. I referred last week to the first thing, which is light, and explained that light was the revelation of God. Light makes everything manifest, but that is a consequence of light; you do not get things made manifest until you get the light, and the light, as I said, is the revelation of God; that is, the revelation of God makes everything manifest. "Whatsoever doth make manifest is light". That is the first great feature of Christianity.

The second, on which I purpose dwelling tonight, is liberty. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty". In the passage I have read, most of you will remember two expressions; the Lord first says, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free", and then afterwards He says, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be truly tree". The servant is brought forward in contrast to the son; "the servant", the slave, for that is the real meaning of the word, "does not continue in the house for ever", he has no title to permanence, "but the son continues ever" -- He has a proper title to a permanent place in the house. The first point is the power of deliverance from sin, the second is the liberty and privilege of the house. The last is a common idea even in human things;

we talk about a man having the liberty of a city. Here it is the liberty of the house.

Before I speak on this question of liberty, I refer shortly to what came before us last week. I said that God's purpose in the gospel was that He might be known in the heart of man. Therefore when the great truth of the gospel has come home to me, that God is love, and I know His love, then I am in light; I am no longer in darkness, I was once darkness, but now I am light in the Lord, my heart is really in the light as God is in the light. That, and nothing short of it, is the proper state of the Christian. Every Christian walks in the light as God is in the light; but the point is that his heart should be full of light, because otherwise he has not got the full enjoyment of what God is as He has revealed Himself. The first great characteristic of Christianity, is light for the heart of man; man's heart was by the fall in darkness, and in ignorance of God, and God having revealed Himself it was His pleasure to be known in the heart of man. You cannot conceive anything more gracious on the part of God.

One point to which I alluded last time was not, I think, generally understood, and that was as to the groundwork of all, namely, the putting away of sin. I was laying stress on the importance of propitiation. Many people, in their thoughts of the sacrifice of Christ, begin at substitution. But substitution is not the first aspect of the offering of Christ; the first aspect of it is that which was God-ward, namely propitiation. The great point in the offering of Christ was that sin should be removed from under the eye of God, so that God might be free to accomplish His will. "Once in the end of the world hath he [Christ] appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself". I understand by "sacrifice" in that passage that Christ gave Himself up wholly to it; that cost what it might, whatever it might mean to

Him in the way of suffering, He would remove sin from before God; that is what He came to effect, and to effect it for God.

Sin stood in the way of the accomplishment of God's purposes of grace. Those purposes had to be carried into effect; but it was impossible for God to come out to man till sin had been removed, and Christ came to this end for God's will. But that is not substitution, or Christ suffering in the place of others; it was a question of propitiation, of removing sin from under the eye of God. It was the exigency of God's will. I do not think any one will find any difficulty so far; but the point of difficulty was in this, which I suppose I failed to make clear, that when Christ died, sin was no longer under the eye of God. All that was due in regard of it had been borne. Christ was on the cross made sin, and it was thus completely removed. He, by divine appointment, represented sin on the cross in the presence of the holiness of God; but in the act of death the eye of God rested only upon absolute obedience and righteousness, and in the sufferer God was completely glorified; sin was removed in order that God might be glorified in man in death. Death was upon man, it was the governmental penalty, to which we are all subject, which God has attached to sin in connection with man's life in this world; Christ really died, but His death, instead of being the mark and fruit of disobedience, was in perfect obedience, entirely to the glory of God. Thus what came under the eye of God in Christ's death was perfect obedience and righteousness when sin had been removed. Of course all was effected upon the cross; it is only there that we find the Lord Jesus addressing God otherwise than as Father. He says, "My God, my God". But at the moment of His death it is, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit". And the blessed

answer to it comes out in resurrection, even that death was annulled, and man placed, in the Person of Christ, at God's right hand in the heavenly places.

I only refer to this subject again on account of the importance of the truth of propitiation, since in virtue of it God can address Himself to man; He has set forth Jesus to be a mercy-seat through faith in His blood. I quite admit that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins, but I warn all that death is not the final dealing with sin: "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment"; it is the lake of fire which is the final dealing with sin. And if Christ removed sin from before God, you may depend upon it He suffered at the hand of God what sin demanded from the holiness of God.

I pass on now to the great and important question of liberty. Many a person has light that has not got yet into the enjoyment of liberty. But it is not according to God that you should be in bondage; that would not suit the grace of God at all. I would not like my children to be in bondage; it would be a painful thought to a parent. If God makes known His love to our hearts, He does not want us to be in bondage, it is not of him. But it very often takes people a long time to get practically into liberty, because, if you are going to be delivered from the power of a thing, you must first judge the thing from which you are to be delivered. And this is the practical difficulty with every one of us, to learn what we have to be delivered from. But it is no pleasure to God that a man should be in bondage. From habit of soul, and experience, it may take us a long time to come into liberty; but the word is, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free".

I will speak of liberty in respect of three things (you can follow them up at your leisure), which are

brought out successively in the Gospel of John, and thereby the question of liberty is made more intelligible to us. The first is sin (what the Lord speaks of here), the second is legality, and the third is the world. They are three things which hamper every one of us grievously, and it is a long time before we break free from them. I can speak feelingly in that way, for I think that I know the power of all three. But it is a blessed thing to see that the grace of God is such that He would have a Christian here in this world to be free of all; and his soul to be in the enjoyment of liberty from all that to which he is naturally in bondage. I will take up the three points in detail in connection with John 4, 5 and 6. I cannot speak beyond myself, for no man can help others beyond where he is himself; it is not God's way that he should, for it would not be honest, but I think I can give you the thought that comes out in those chapters as to the liberty that God would have the Christian to enjoy.

The first point is sin. In Romans 6 we get, "How shall we that have died to sin live any longer therein?" The question is raised immediately grace is known, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Sin, I understand to be insubjection to God; it is will without goodness, for God alone is good. Man's will is sin, and "sin is lawlessness", that is, defiance of restraint, a man will do his own will; that is the principle of sin. It may come out in a variety of detail, but I only deal with the principle. Immediately a person comes into the light, to know the grace of God, and has received the Holy Ghost, the question comes up, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Then in Romans 6 the apostle takes up the principle of deliverance from sin. The same thing is seen in principle in John 4, in which the woman of Samaria represents a soul under the power of sin. It has

been said that if we had had the writing of John 3 and 4, or the dealing with the persons spoken of, we should have reversed the teaching -- what the Lord said to the woman of Samaria we should have said to Nicodemus, and what the Lord said to Nicodemus we should have said to the woman of Samaria. There is no doubt truth in this, but it only shows how much greater God is than our thoughts. The Lord spoke to Nicodemus the very thing that Nicodemus needed, for I do not doubt there was a work of God in him which drew him by night to Christ; and describes, it may be, what had taken place in him. But in chapter 4 the Lord has before Him a woman under the control of sin (the same was true in a certain sense of Nicodemus, but not in the same manifest way); and He brings before her in the chapter that His grace would communicate to such a person as herself a gift that would be in her the power of complete deliverance from sin. "Whosoever drinketh of this water" -- that is, the springs and streams of earth, for I think the Lord spoke morally, and referred really to that which was connected with this world -- "shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up unto eternal life" -- that is, springing up to emancipate the soul from the law of sin and death, which is so natural to it.

All the "water" of this world is sin; excitement, and that with which people seek to satisfy themselves in this world, is all sin; it is men doing their own will. A man thinks himself perfectly entitled to do his own will in this world, but it is "lawlessness"; man virtually makes a god of himself, he will not have the control of God, but says, I am entitled to take my own course. The pride of man practically says, and says continually, "There is no

one greater than myself, I do not want control, I want liberty for my own will, and I do not care to be thwarted or opposed". The woman of Samaria had done her own will, she had lived in sin, and the Lord reveals to her what it came to. "He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again", man is never content. Take a proud man, he is never satisfied, his pride is his bane, and it always exposes him to suffering, for he never can be certain that his pride will not be wounded; the pride of the greatest person in the country is liable to be wounded. Content does not belong to this world. Now the Lord adds, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up unto eternal life". The great end to which it springs up is eternal life; but in the meantime its effect is that it delivers a man from the bondage of sin, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free". Jesus says here, "Whosoever practises sin is the servant of sin", because a man's practice proves to what he is in bondage. If a man practises righteousness, it proves that he is the servant of righteousness. If a man practises sin, he is in bondage to the principle of sin. But the Spirit in the believer, which Christ gives, sets a man free from the law of sin and death. The first great thing which God would do for a believer, is to deliver his soul from bondage to sin. Not that I have not sin still in me, but I am no longer the servant of sin. I have sometimes contended against the idea of two natures in the Christian on the ground that I do not allow that one person can be characterised by two natures. A Christian is characterised by one nature, and an unbeliever is characterised by another nature; an unbeliever is characterised by sin, and a believer is characterised by righteousness. The thought of God in grace is to set man's soul free from the dominion of sin, and it is that which is effected by the

Spirit of life in the believer. How is it effected? I believe it is by the revelation to him of what is true in Christ; the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus introduces the soul of the believer into the presence of another scene where Christ is. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" refers evidently to life in another scene; Christ lives unto God, and the soul is attracted to Christ, is held, as it were, to Christ by the Spirit of Christ, and in that way the believer is emancipated by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

John 4 is a great study. The Lord comes out in the chapter as the Christ; He came here to accomplish all God's will in suffering, and being raised again He communicates the Spirit. I think He anticipates in John 4 the gift which He would give, since He gives the Spirit because He has accomplished all the will of God down here; He has glorified God on the earth, and finished the work which the Father gave Him to do, and now He communicates the Spirit, to be in the believer a well of water, springing up unto eternal life. The first element of liberty for the Christian is, that down here in the world where once he was the complete slave of sin, like the woman of Samaria, his soul is set free from the dominion of sin; he no longer practises sin, although sin is in him, because he is no longer the servant of sin. He is here for the will of God; as the apostle says in Romans 12"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God". The Christian says, 'I have been long enough here for my own will, and to please myself; now I am going to be here for God's

will, that is God's pleasure'. The will of God is "good, and acceptable, and perfect" to the believer, as it was to Christ. The will of God has been set in presence here by Christ, and the believer says, That is what I am here for.

Now I come to the next point, and that is legality. I think many people are set free, in a way, from sin, who yet are not set free from legality. We think we are going to make ourselves acceptable to God; many a one is hampered and hindered in that way. I have had that kind of thought passing through my own mind that I was going to make myself in some way acceptable to God, that I was going to be something super-spiritual. Now I want to show you that the work is all on God's side; it is not for man to work. If you remember, in John 5 the Jews accused the Lord of breaking the sabbath. The answer of the Lord to them was, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work". Legality is that man works. What the Lord reveals in the chapter is that God works, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work". And to what end? To deliver man from the condition in which sin had placed him. What for? That he might pass out of death into life; that is where the Father reveals himself. When scripture says that "God is love", that is God's nature; but when it says, "My Father worketh hitherto", that is not simply that God is love, but that God is active in love. There is a deal of difference between God's nature and His activity. I quite admit that what God is goes forth in activity; but the moment that God is in activity then it is the Father, and that is what the Lord brings out in John 5, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work".

Then He gives you the character of the work, "As the Father raises up the dead and quickens them". What does He do that for? His blessed name is revealed as Father in the sending of the

Son, and He raises up the dead and quickens, in order that those who are quickened may enter into relation with the Father, that they may not only know that God is love, but may know the activity of God in love -- that is what we as Christians have all tasted.

There is one verse in this chapter which is very often quoted; the Lord says, "He that heareth my word" -- what do you think that word was? It was His testimony revealing the Father. The next clause is, "and believeth on him that sent me"; the first thing is that you hear the word of the Son revealing the Father, and then you believe on Him that sent the Son. Then what follows is, "has eternal life, and shall not come into judgment", the Lord assures that, for all judgment is committed to Him, "but is passed out of death into life". How? In that the activity of the Father has been revealed to him, and now he stands in relation to the Father, he is brought into sonship; the Father raises up the dead and quickens, in order that the one who is quickened may know God, not simply in His nature, but relatively, because "Father" is a relative term, there is no meaning in the term "Father" except in connection with relation. The great truth in John 5 is the Father and the Son; the Father reveals Himself in the sending of the Son.

Now that is the end of legality, because what I apprehend is that it has been the Father's pleasure to reveal Himself to me actively in grace, to take me out of the condition in which I was, in order that I may enter into relationship with Himself, that I may know Him as Father, that I may know His love resting upon me as it rests upon His Son, as the Lord prays in the last verse of John 17, "that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them". Where this wonderful chapter, John 5, is entered into, it means complete

deliverance of mind and soul from legality. You will never get deliverance from legality until you know what it is to rest in the Father's love. The Father's love resting upon us as it rests upon Christ forbids the very idea of legality. I cannot improve myself for Him, and His great point is that I may be for His pleasure, He has made me for His pleasure, quickened me out of the state of death in which I was, that I may be for His pleasure. I fully believe the truth of what I say, that it is the knowledge of the Father in our souls as Christ has made Him known to us, God active in grace, which is the complete end of legality. It is not only that you have eternal life and will not come into judgment, but you know that the love of the Father rests upon you as it rests upon Christ. And what is the outcome of it? You love the brethren; that is what we read in the first Epistle of John, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren". And why do we love the brethren? Because we know the love with which the Father loves us, "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God"; we know the Father's love, and we pass out of death into life in the knowledge of the Father's love; but "we know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren"; we come into the christian circle, and the christian circle is everything to us.

There is the third point, which I think you get in John 6, namely, deliverance from the world. I have tried to show you the secret of deliverance from sin and from legality; now I will try to show you the secret of deliverance from the world (John 6:53 - 58): "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh

my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is the bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever".

There is one thing that must be true to all of us -- you must be in the communion of the death of Christ. You cannot shut your eyes to the great fact that Christ has died. You cannot allow that Christ has died to the world, and we are to live in the world; and therefore of necessity you must appropriate His death. If there had been anything here for God, Christ would not have died, and it was because in all that is here, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life", there is nothing for God, that Christ has died to it; and therefore you cannot live in it. You cannot righteously shut your eyes to the death of Christ. It is the great sin of Christendom that they ignore the death of Christ, that Christ has died to the whole course of things here. I quite admit that He died for us; but the great fact remains that He died to sin, He died to the whole course of things here, and it is not right on the part of the Christian to ignore the death of Christ. The Lord's table has this character, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" And you get the same in principle here -- you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you are in the communion of His death. Christendom is all built up as though Christ were living in relation to the world, as if the present time

were a kind of millennium. And therefore I refuse the thought that the sects and systems in Christendom know anything about the Lord's table, they are not in the communion of the death of Christ. But the Christian who really knows what the death of Christ means, "Now is the judgment of this world" -- that the whole system is judged, that Christ has died to the whole course of things here, because there was nothing here for God -- is in communion with that death. But that is not in itself deliverance. This is realised in having an object outside of it. The Lord said, "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live because of the Father". When the Lord Jesus was down here upon earth as a Man, He wanted no object here, and He had none. I quite admit that the saints, the excellent of the earth, were His delight; but they were not His objects, He did not live because of the world. A man of the world lives because of the world, and if you shut such a man up out of the world, it is to him a living death. Man cannot live without an object, and man's object naturally is the world. Christ lived because of the Father, He was perfectly independent of every object here in the world, He found His entire portion in the Father: "I live because of the Father". Now mark the rest of the sentence, "So he that eateth me" -- appropriates Him as the necessity of our souls -- for that is what it is to eat Him, to appropriate Him, the One who came down from heaven, the blessed One who became incarnate, to come within the reach of our appropriation -- "He that eateth me, even he shall live because of me".

What a thing to be able to say, I am no longer dependent on the world for joy, and the sorrows of the world do not in a sense affect me, though I feel them; I am independent of the world, it does not minister to me, I do not live because of it,

but I eat Christ, the living bread which came down from heaven, and live because of Him. Just as He, a Man down here upon earth, lived because of the Father, so I live because of the living bread that came down from heaven to bring my soul into the knowledge of all the good of heaven.

I think these three chapters bring to us in a remarkable way the completeness of the liberty into which the believer is brought, not left down here in bondage, but brought now into the most blessed liberty; the power of the Spirit of life emancipating his soul from the control of sin; the revelation of the Father's name liberating him from legality; and his satisfying portion found in the living bread which came down from heaven. As the Lord says, "If the Son shall set you free, ye shall be free indeed". He gives you the knowledge of the Father, the privilege of the house, revealing the Father to you. But when you get into the house, and have got the liberty of the house, do you suppose you are going to lose sight of the Son? The Son is the living bread, and that is what you get in John 6. It could not be, if the Father has been made known to us and we have the consciousness of the Father's love, that we should lose sight of the Son. He is the light of our souls, and a portion to us, as bread is; He lives unto God and we live with Him; we are as independent, in that sense, of the world as Christ was when He was here, living because of the Father.

May God give to us to know something about the reality of these things, not only that He has come out as light to make Himself known to us according to the truth of His own blessed nature, but in the divine thought that in the very place where we have been under complete bondage we should be in complete liberty in the power of the Holy Ghost who dwells in us, liberty from sin, liberty from legality,

and liberty, too, from the world. If you study those chapters attentively, you will see how the whole thing is worked out, what wonderful chapters they are, and what liberty they reveal for the Christian to be brought into in the very place where he was once in bondage.

LIFE

Philippians 2:1 - 16

I have stated on previous occasions my purpose in these addresses, namely, to bring under your attention the great characteristics of Christianity. I have tried to take them up in a sort of moral sequence, and have already spoken of light and liberty. If the state of the world and man is darkness, alienation from God, and ignorance, then the first thing that must come into the world is light from God, God must needs reveal Himself in some way suited to man's condition. But then, when God reveals Himself, there is this to be said, that man cannot go back to the knowledge of God which he had in the garden of Eden, that would not suit the case. What Adam might have known of God would not suit man now. He knew God as a beneficent Creator; but Adam was an innocent man, he had no knowledge of evil, and knew nothing about the grace or love of God; and the knowledge of God which was open to Adam would not suit man now as fallen and a sinner. For the fact that I have been in darkness and in ignorance of God, necessitates that if I am to be put in touch with God, I must know Him in the grace suited to my condition. The gospel is the glad tidings of the grace of God, God making Himself known in a way suited to man in the condition in which man is; God comes out in the light of what He is, in the light of His love. It is plain that the first principle and characteristic of Christianity must be light; "God, who commanded that out of darkness light should shine", the apostle says, "has shone into our hearts, for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ".

What I spoke of last time was liberty. And the

reason of that, too, is evident, for man is by nature in bondage to principles in this world which are contrary to God; and therefore, if he is to enter into blessing and into the enjoyment of God, of necessity he must be set free. The bondage in which man is held is dreadful: the Lord describes the condition of man, "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin". Man, though he commits sin, thinks that his heart may be good. The Lord does not estimate it in that way at all. Again, man is under Satan's power, as the god of this world; and when he is awakened he comes under law, here again he is in bondage. And I repeat that, if man is to be in the enjoyment of God's revelation of Himself, and to enter into relationship with God, deliverance from this condition of bondage is indispensable. Not only does he need to know that in the grace of God he is justified, but he needs to be delivered from the terrible condition of bondage in which he is. You get a simple illustration of it in scripture in the case of the children of Israel. They could not worship God in Egypt. To worship God they must be brought out of Egyptian bondage, and come into the wilderness. The call of God to Pharaoh was to let the people of God go that they might offer Him sacrifices in the wilderness; while they were in the bondage of Egypt they were not in a condition to worship God; they were in a condition to groan, and they did groan by reason of their taskmasters. But when God had delivered them from bondage, then it was they could worship God.

So in the present day, to come into the enjoyment of the light of God you must get deliverance from sin, legality, and the world; and the way in which deliverance from these things is reached, I think you find, as I pointed out in my last address, in John 4, 5 and 6. We learn there how a believer is set free from bondage that he may enter into the blessed

revelation which God has been pleased to give of Himself, in other words that he may enter upon life -- that is the first great point in the gospel of John. It is not simply a question of entering upon the knowledge of forgiveness, and enjoying the grace of God in that sense. It is perfectly true that a Christian is entitled to enjoy the knowledge of forgiveness, but that is not the end of God's purpose concerning him. The purpose of God is that he may pass out of death into life, into what is for him wholly new, as stated in John 3. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life". The thought of God does not stop short of eternal life. It is a wonderful thing to come into life while down here.

I purpose tonight to speak a little about life as revealed in Christianity, what the divine idea of life is. I can understand, to a certain extent, what life will be with God's people in the millennium, since the whole condition of things here will be changed. When Christ comes in glory it must alter everything here; He will come first to execute judgment, to put down opposition and oppression; Satan will be bound, and the power of death set aside. And as regards the people of God, they come under the power and influence of the Spirit, and the law is, in a sense, their life, because it is written in their hearts; they do not get life by doing, they get life by Christ; but the condition of their life is this, that having deliverance and the enjoyment of temporal blessings, they love God with all their heart, and their neighbour as themselves. They will be relieved of the judgment of death, and will all know God as the God of grace, and will be thus brought into the blessings of the new covenant. That is what will be brought to them at the coming of the Lord. But that is not the character of things

in Christianity. I have already used one expression which at once marks the difference, we pass out of death into life: we not only have eternal life, and do not come into judgment, but are passed out of death into life; if I may use the expression, we come on to a completely new platform where we never were before. That is not exactly the case with Israel. They come into the promises given to the fathers, but they do not reach an entirely different platform from that on which they were before. But in Christianity you do; you pass out of death into life -- that is what I want now to make plain.

If you ask me what life is, I reply that, in my judgment, life is power to live. Life in a natural sense is the power to live as a distinct being. When I speak of it in a moral sense in the Christian, life is the power to live in the position in which it has pleased God in His grace to place me. That is the idea of it in scripture, it stands in that relation. Hence you must first accept in faith the position which it has pleased God to give you, and it is quite useless to talk about life until you know the position in which you are to live. God put man in a certain position according to His own pleasure at the beginning, He "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul", and what for? To enjoy the position which God had designed for him. So, too, it is with the Christian. God in grace places the believer in a certain position before Himself, which is light to the soul, and life is the power to enjoy that position. I think that is perfectly simple. There may be a great deal which takes place in a man antecedent to that, the result of the work of God, but that is not the relation in which life stands in scripture. Life is dependent on the position. I will give you an illustration of it. In John 20 the first thing the Lord revealed was the

position. He said, "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God". Then He breathes on the disciples, and says, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost"; that is, He communicated to them the power to form them to enjoy the position in which it had pleased Him in grace to place them. Every family in heaven and on earth is named of God, in relation to our Lord Jesus Christ; He gives place and position to every family. If it pleases Him to put us in the position of children, he gives us the power of life suited to it. And you must remember this -- the position is one in which man never was before. I could not say exactly the same thing of an earthly people, because I think they have previously had something of the same position. But in the case of a heavenly people, as the church, the position is a totally new one according to the will of God. God has been pleased to reveal His name in connection with the new calling, or, to put it in the language of Hebrews 2, God is bringing many sons unto glory. It is a fresh revelation of God's will, a totally new calling and position, outside a man's position here upon the earth as God's creature. I am left here for a short time, it may be, to fill out the remains of my life in flesh. But the calling of God is apart from that; this is according to God's eternal purpose; man never was in it before, it is that which God has been pleased to give to us in His grace.

Then comes in the question of life. But to enter into life we must be in the enjoyment of deliverance, because we who are to enter into this new position were naturally in complete bondage to what is contrary to God, to sin, the world, and Satan; and therefore we need to be delivered from the bondage in which we were held. Liberty is essential; as the Lord says, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free".

In speaking of the liberty of the house, I must refer first to the new position in which the grace of God has placed us, and then speak of the power in the case of the Christian to enjoy that position. I would first notice two things in the passage I have read in Philippians. The first is in verse 12, you are to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling". And then in verse 13, "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure"; that is, we are to be here, as I understand it, for God's good pleasure, He works in -us to that end. Then it goes on, "Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless" -- now mark the position -- "the children of God" -- it is a totally new position -- "the children of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life" -- that is our testimony, it is the way in which we shine as lights in the world. But the first great point to seize hold of is the position, namely, "children of God" -- I have changed the word "sons" to "children", because "children" is the right word there. It is the verification of what is spoken of in John 5:25, you are "passed out of death into life", as we see in 1 John 3:14, "by this we know that we have passed from death into life, because we love the brethren"; "you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling". What I understand by this is the deliverance of the soul from the influence and power of all that is contrary to God, so that we may come out in the force of a new character; God works in us for His good pleasure, and we are here in a totally new position, the fulfilment of what we get in John 1, where, referring to the Lord Jesus, it says, "But as many as received him, to them gave he title to take the place of the children of God", to take a

completely new place in which they never were before.

Now I want to say one word as to the way in which it is reached in the soul. The first part of the chapter refers to the Lord personally, and you find there the path by which Christ has reached His present position in glory. It was through obedience unto death; He "became obedient unto death", in order that He might enter upon life according to the purpose of God in man. He was in life here: "in him was life": I do not speak of that at this moment, but of Him as He was down here, in the place of humiliation. This was not the setting forth of man according to the purpose of God; although it was man perfectly for God's glory in the place He was in, it was not man according to His purpose. As has often been said, in humiliation Christ came into the place of the responsible man that He might glorify God there, but then through death He enters upon an entirely new order of things; "He asked life" -- you get that expression in Psalm 20 -- and it was given to Him, "even length of days for ever and ever". His glory is great in God's salvation. That is what comes out here. Obedience unto death was the way for Him to enter into life, as man, according to the glorious purpose of God.

Now see how it comes out: "Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death". If He had not been in life He could not have become obedient unto death, that is plain enough. He takes death in obedience, He becomes "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every

tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father". He enters by resurrection into the place of glory which God had purposed for man, and "God hath highly exalted him", set Him far above all heavens that He might fill all things; it is obedience unto death leading into the scene of life according to the glory of God.

When we come to the following verse, we have the same principle coming out in the Christian. It says, "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure". I will tell you how you "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling", as I understand it. I think it is in the acceptance of death, that is, that in Christ God has in grace brought death in upon the man that offended, and reconciliation to God is in the acceptance of that great truth. We must not revive the offender, and I think it is in that way we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; the offender has to be kept practically in the place of death, because God has, by the work of the cross, condemned the offender in the One who stood in his place. You know who the offender was; I scarcely need to tell you that it was the man to whom God entrusted much, and who lost everything entrusted to him. But I say that in the cross of Christ the offender has been removed for the glory of God. Now you have to accept that; you have to accept what has often been spoken of, the end in death of the first man. If you mean to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, you have got to take good care that under no pretext whatever is the offender to be revived; because as sure as possible, if he revive, he will bring you into bondage. People do revive the offender under various pretexts,

and a very common one is prudence; they allow themselves to be influenced by the ways of the world, what the world would call prudence, but which is very near akin to covetousness. The flesh is always ready to bring us into bondage, if it be allowed, under all sorts of pleas and pretexts. But we have to walk in the truth that God has removed the offender to His own glory, that we might be a new creation in Christ; in other words, in order that He might introduce the new man.

Now in the application to us of the truth, the flesh has been condemned that we might live in the Spirit in connection with the new position in which it has pleased God to place us through redemption. It is the grace of God which has given us this position; the place of children is ours by Christ's gift and the Father's love, and that is the place we have before God. Now the point is this, the offender can only hinder you there; nothing will serve you but the Spirit of God; you could not possibly be in that relationship to God except as supported by the Spirit of God. Israel will not have the Spirit in that way. They will have the Spirit upon them, but they do not enter into our relationship with God. They are God's people here upon the earth, but they do not become a heavenly people, the children of God in that sense. If the grace of God puts us in that place, then nothing will support us there except the Spirit of God; "the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God".

I have spoken thus far of the position and the power by which you can be in that position. Now I want to refer to the office of the Spirit in the believer, to the Spirit as life in the believer. Scripture says, "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness". Life in the believer means that Christ lives in him. The apostle says, "I through law have died to law

to live to God", "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me". Allow me to say to every Christian here tonight, You live to God exactly in the measure in which Christ lives in you, for that is the only thing which God recognises now as life in the believer, Christ in the Spirit. The apostle says in the passage I quoted, "The Spirit is life because of righteousness". I understand by this that the believer's soul is now completely identified with the Spirit, and the Spirit with the believer; it does not say the Spirit is the power of life, for that would not be identification, and the identification is complete between the believer and the Spirit. You get the Spirit as the Spirit of sonship, but it does not speak of the Spirit as the Spirit of life in the believer. It speaks of the Spirit as "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus", but that is I judge, an objective thought; but when the subjective side is spoken of, that is, as to what is in the believer, "the Spirit is life". As the apostle says to the Galatians, "if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit". I urge this point, while I fully maintain the personality of the Spirit, but the Spirit is life in the believer. And the reason is "because of righteousness". As I understand it, the first principle of righteousness is this -- you do not allow sin. "The body is dead because of sin", it is held there because of sin, "but the Spirit is life because of righteousness". Properly speaking, there is no room for the flesh where the Spirit is; you have no title to revive the offender; that is the idea. But "the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you should not do the things to which you are inclined". The Spirit sets Himself against the flesh, so that the flesh should receive no quarter in the Christian, you are not to tamper with it, nor allow it in any

form or shape. It is a terrible thing on the field of battle where no quarter is given or asked, but that is the case between the flesh and the Spirit. The refusal of the flesh is the very first principle of righteousness. How could it be righteous for the Christian to save what God has condemned? Yet how often we do it! how often we give licence to the flesh! It cannot be urged too strongly that in reconciliation God has removed the offender for His own glory. We ought to be very much ashamed indeed where any quarter is given to the flesh -- it is not righteousness.

Now I come to another principle in righteousness, which is the recognition of obligation. You would not think of a man in the world as a righteous man if he did not recognise obligation. If I failed to recognise the obligation under which I am placed in regard to my wife and children, I should not be a righteous man. In common things in everyday life, if a man does not recognise his obligation to his fellow men he cannot be regarded as righteous. Righteousness under the law was this, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself". It was the recognition of obligation (which righteousness always is) to God and to a neighbour. Now how is righteousness carried out in the Christian? Simply in the Spirit. The Spirit brings the soul of the believer under the influence of the love of God: "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us", and in that way the Spirit maintains the believer in the sense of obligation. Every Christian is under the deepest obligation to God; and it is of the Spirit to keep your soul in the recognition of that obligation. It is a cardinal principle of righteousness in the Christian; and righteous conduct in the Christian is this, that I act

toward others as I have been acted to; what God is toward me I am to be toward others, I am to love as God has loved me. And even in regard to God Himself, "We love him because he first loved us". It is not the obligation to abstain from what a man as fallen is prone to, as was the case under the law. The Christian is taught by the Spirit the love of God, and every obligation of the Christian flows from the love of God towards him. You will not get on much farther if you are not there. We can make no headway except in proportion as our hearts are kept under the influence of God's love, the blessed spring of everything in Christianity. Therefore, when you come to what is practical in Romans 12 the first thing is love, "Let love be unfeigned; abhorring that which is evil, cleaving to that which is good". It is the essence, the very first principle of practical Christianity, that the soul is under the influence of the love of God. By the Spirit I recognise the obligation under which the love of God has placed me, and in that sense the Christian is righteous even as Christ is righteous. If I might speak with reverence of the Lord Jesus as a Man down here, law was not the measure of His walk. He was, as a Man down here, the perfect object of the love of God, and in this was the spring of His conduct as man. The Lord says, "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live because of the Father". He lived because of the Father. And so, in John 17, He prays, as to His disciples, "That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them". He says, "I have kept my Father's commandments, and continue in his love". The love of the Father to Him was the mainspring of all He was as a Man down here.

Now I come to another point, that is, by the Spirit we cry, "Abba, Father", that not only is the Spirit life because of righteousness, but it is by

the Spirit, and by the Spirit only, that we enter upon and live in the relationship in which it has pleased God to place us. Christ was the first to say "Abba, Father"; and there is not a soul here tonight which can cry "Abba, Father" except in the power of the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of sonship. It has been very often said that the sure sign of a person having received the Spirit is that he cries, "Abba, Father"; because no one can cry, "Abba, Father" without the Spirit. "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father"; that is, the believer has now passed out of death into life, he has come on to a completely new platform, into a new place which the grace of God has given him according to eternal counsels. I was dwelling on the fact last time in connection with John 5 that you get the Father's name revealed as a name of relationship to the believer, so that the Lord could say in John 20, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God".

I think you will see that the question of righteousness is a first principle with the Christian, because we have been under the power of sin, and it is righteousness that the offender should not be revived, and that we recognise the obligation under which we have been placed by the love of God. We cannot go on a bit without righteousness, and righteousness is the recognition of obligation. It must be so with the Christian; it is different, of course, with God; everything is different with God. He acts in the sovereignty of love. But with the Christian the love of God is the mainspring of conduct. He can do nothing right apart from it; he cannot originate love, no creature can; but he loves exactly in proportion as he knows that he is loved; that is righteousness, and characterises his condition, for "the Spirit is life because of righteousness"

Then equally, the Spirit is the Spirit of sonship. Here in Philippians you are to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling", which is, as I have said, the acceptance of death in obedience; you become identified with Christ's death by which you are reconciled to God. Scripture lays stress upon that; "you now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death". But what comes out next? "It is God that works in you to will and to do of his good pleasure". Now you come on to a new platform, children of God "in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation", they do not understand you at all. None the less you are "children of God, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life"; you are out of the wreck and ruin around, you are really out of death and have entered upon the platform of life, and you hold forth the word of life; it is the blessed collective testimony of Christians. "By this we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren" -- there is the testimony of life in the christian circle.

May God give us to understand it. I do not see any difficulty about it; but where I do see practical difficulty is in the soul entering into the deliverance that is there for it. It is the acceptance of death upon the offender which is the practical difficulty. If you get over that difficulty, the rest is plain sailing, for the simple reason that the Spirit is life, and the Spirit too, as the Spirit of sonship, bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. May He give to us to see the great truth that life is revealed, and that we pass out of death into life, that there is a new platform on which we can stand; though we still have to remain here in the world, and "live in flesh", as the scripture puts it, "by the faith of the Son of God" -- though that is not our

life to God, for there Christ lives in us. It is a wonderful thing to be down here in this world in the knowledge of the Father's name revealed to us as a name of relationship, so that we can stand in peace in the Father's presence, knowing that we are the objects of His love, and supported in it by the Spirit of God. May He give us understanding and lead us on by the steps which I have tried to place before you. First the light of the gospel, God revealing Himself there; then the liberty which properly belongs to the Christian from sin, legality, and the world; and then the privilege of being children of God, in which we are maintained by the power of God in us, though still living here in flesh.

TESTIMONY IN UNITY

Romans 12:1 - 8

I have endeavoured to keep before me the thought that I had from the outset in connection with these opportunities of addressing you. My object was to present the great moral features of Christianity. I have taken them up successively, and come tonight to the close, namely, the subject of testimony in unity. I will, in a few words, go over the ground again for the sake of maintaining the connection, for the more you study scripture, the more you will find how every one truth involves another truth. Truths are not all so many distinct items. There are different truths, and in ministry we may take them up as distinct truths; but you will find that every truth is interwoven with other truths, and that every successive truth you take up involves other truths. In other words, the greatest item of truth which you can take up depends upon some previous truth. I am perfectly satisfied that that is the character of what is presented to us in the New Testament. It was the same in measure in the Old Testament. We are told that no prophecy carries its own interpretation; every book of prophecy is interwoven in the general scheme and framework of prophecy, and you cannot rightly understand any particular prophecy apart from apprehending the place which it has in the whole scheme of prophecy. There is a foundation to all truths, and I judge the gospel to be that foundation; but after that, every truth hangs on some preceding truth.

The subjects which we had before us on previous occasions were light, liberty, and life; and now I want to speak, as I have said, if God enable me, of testimony in unity, involving a great truth which has

had much prominence amongst us, the truth of the one body; that is, I want to bring it before you in its moral aspect as testimony. Most of you will remember the prayer of the Lord Jesus in John 17, "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us" -- what for? -- "that the world may believe that thou hast sent me". The unity of saints was to be the testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son. You will see, therefore, the intimate connection between unity and testimony. One point more which I will just refer to for a moment, and speak of later on, is this -- one great truth which is insisted on through many of the epistles is that of the one body; but the one body does not present the idea of union, it presents to us the thought of unity: that is, that where there had been two bodies, Jew and Gentile, now there is one body. Just as you get here, "We being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another". That is my subject tonight -- unity, and in connection with unity, testimony. It is a very interesting subject, because, as I said just now, there is no truth which has been more operative amongst us than the truth of the one body. It has brought most of us out of the different associations in which we once were; we felt that the different things in which we had been brought up were inconsistent with unity. I shall also, by the grace of God, try to show you that if we fail to answer morally to the mind of God in the one body, we become the worst sect that ever was formed. That is a strong statement, but I have not a doubt about the truth of it.

Now I will just retrace a little what has been before us, and you will, I think, see how one truth, leads up to another. The first great truth is the gospel, and the gospel is light, because in it God is revealed, the revelation of God is light. I do not

speak now about the effect of light, which is to make manifest, although it is light which does make manifest. To get things made manifest, you must first have the light. Therefore the point is, What is light? and light is the revelation of God in the gospel -- in other words, in the gospel God has been pleased to reveal Himself. It is the glory of God in that sense that He has seen fit to reveal Himself, the great object of it being that He may be known according to what He is, that is, love, in the heart of man.

The next characteristic I spoke of was liberty. I took it up in connection with John 4, 5, 6; and sought to show that the great point in chapter 4 is liberty from sin by the Holy Ghost in the believer; in chapter 5, it is deliverance from legality by the revelation of the Father; and in chapter 6 it is deliverance from the world by finding a portion in the Son, as living bread come down from heaven.

My next point was life, which follows on liberty; and what I sought to bring out last week was the new position, and the power to live in that position. Christ having accomplished redemption has put us in an entirely new place before God, "To as many as received him, to them gave he title to take the place of children of God". The power has come in by which we can live in that place -- that is the meaning of John 20. The Lord first says, "Go, tell my brethren, I ascend unto my Father and your Father", and then afterwards He breathes on them, and says, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost". I touch on these things because life is essential for the Christian in relation to the new position which Christ has given us the title to take according to the will of the Father. Therefore when it speaks of the place of children in John's epistle, it says, "Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God". It is the

Father's gift; Christ gives us title to take that place, and the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God; you have come into life. But it is life in relation to a position which you never previously occupied before God, a totally new position which never previously belonged to man, which no one ever had till Christ gave it to him according to the Father's will.

Now I come to another point tonight, and that is the one body, which connects itself very intimately with what I have just been saying. You have to remember that the full height of the thought of God concerning believers is that they should be brought into sonship; in other words, that they should be brought to perfection, to glory, to be fitting companions of Christ. That is not precisely the same thought as that of children, because children is the position which we occupy down here; sonship is identification with Christ in glory, He is "the firstborn among many brethren". I quite admit that there may be but a shade of difference between the idea of children and that of sons; but there is that shade of difference, although the connection between the two things is very intimate. The full height of the divine counsel in regard to believers is that they should occupy the place of sons: "He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us to sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will"; we are predestinated "to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren". So, too, the same thought is revealed in Hebrews 2, that God is "bringing many sons unto glory". Now I say the truth of the one body hangs on that, and that is what I want to bring before you tonight, by the grace of God. The connection may not be

clearly seen, but I am perfectly assured of its truth. What has rather led me to see it is this -- that the truth of one body is introduced in Romans 12, and yet in the previous part of Romans then is no allusion in terms to it that I am aware of. Everything in the first eight chapters of Romans, which is the doctrinal part of the epistle, is in its immediate application individual, and yet one body appears in chapter 12. I argue from this that there must be a sufficient foundation of doctrine in the first eight chapters for the body, else it would hardly be possible for it to be referred to in connection with practice in chapter 12. And as we shall see presently, the body is the thought of God in regard to believers here at this moment. It is not that I get any instruction in Romans as to what the thought of God is in the body; but I get the recognition that believers are one body in Christ, and therefore I look to find in the previous part of the epistle a sufficient basis of doctrine for the body.

I will just refer for a moment to the truth of sonship. It is a curious thing that in scripture sonship is not presented exactly in connection with eternal life viewed as a present blessing; what comes in in that connection is the place of children. Sonship comes in much more in Paul's doctrine, in connection with the truth of the one body. The way in which we are brought into sonship is faith, "Ye are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus". The effect of faith is always to bring light into the soul; and thus when the truth of God's Son is apprehended, light has come into the soul as to God's thought in man: you have thus the light of it. What makes sonship effective to us is the Spirit of sonship. As scripture puts it, "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father". That is how you get into the good of it. It means in a moral

sense that the heart is by the Spirit of God in the enjoyment of God's love, and not only in the enjoyment of God's love, but able to respond to it in the cry, "Abba, Father". It is the Spirit of God's Son in the believer's heart which cries, Abba, Father. The Spirit makes us conscious thus, that the grace of God has associated us with Christ in glory; God has "predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren", and before I get to glory, I am enabled, by the Spirit of sonship to cry, "Abba, Father". In that sense, the Spirit discharges two functions in the heart of the believer; He sheds abroad the love of God in the heart, and on the other side He enables the believer to cry, "Abba, Father", because He is the Spirit of God's Son in our hearts.

Now there is only one Spirit of sonship, just as God's Son is one. I think no one will have the least difficulty in either the one or the other of those statements. The apostle, in Galatians I says, "When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me" -- God's Son is one. And what follows on that is equally true, the Spirit of God's Son is one, there is but one Spirit. Now every believer participates in the Spirit of God's Son, it is only one Spirit in all believers, no one here has a different Spirit from another; we all partake of one Spirit, and that Spirit is the Spirit of God's Son; it is not our spirit, "the Spirit bears witness with our spirit", -- that is another matter. It is the Spirit of God's Son who cries, "Abba, Father", in the heart of the believer. This is a very important point, for the truth of the one body really hangs on it. "By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body ... and have been all made to drink into one Spirit". It is one body down here, composed of

all those "many sons" whom God is bringing to glory, those who believe in God's Son, and who have received the Spirit of sonship. By receiving the Spirit believers are constituted one body, as the apostle puts it here, "one body in Christ". And that is what makes me say that while you have not revealed in Romans the doctrine of the one body, you have the basis of it, for in chapter 8 the thought of the Spirit of sonship is introduced; as the apostle says there, "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of sonship, whereby we cry, Abba, Father". I quite admit we are all individually sons of God, by faith in Christ Jesus; but when I come to the Spirit of sonship, by which we cry, "Abba, Father", what I maintain is that it is the Spirit of God's Son, and by receiving the Spirit of sonship, we are bound of necessity into one body: it is a heavenly band in Christ, united together in one Spirit, so that we constitute one body. That is what I believe to be the basis of the truth of the one body, and the apostle comes to it here, he says, "We being many are one body in Christ, and members one of another".

I desire now to say a word about unity in connection with the body. I need not go over the passages, but a great many scriptures will, I think, occur to everybody here. You will find the truth of unity is commonly pressed in scripture in connection with the body. For instance, in this passage in Romans 12, "As the body is one". You get the same thing in Corinthians, "By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body". The same truth is taught in Ephesians, "There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling" -- that is unity. So also in the early part of Ephesians, "That he might reconcile both unto God in one body". So, too, in Colossians, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which also ye

are called in one body". One body is pressed as a great cardinal truth of Christianity, in the sense that in a place where there had been two, Jew and Gentile, now there was one body in Christ. It is "the mystery", something which cannot be manifest in the public ways of God, but which is made known to faith. In the public ways of God Jew and Gentile cannot be one. How then are they one? What I have brought before you solves the mystery -- by receiving the Spirit believers are constituted one body in Christ and members one of another, and thus the obligation to unity is enforced. When Christ comes, Jew and Gentile will not form one body. Both the Jew and the Gentile will be blessed, but the position of the Gentiles will be rather to eat of the crumbs that fall from the Master's table; they will be blessed subordinately to Israel. Christ will take the place of the Head and Husband of His people, but He will take the place, too, of the Head of the Gentiles. Most of you will remember the very beautiful expressions of Simeon when he took the Child Jesus up in his arms; he said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light for the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel". That is the position in which Christ properly stands relatively to Gentile and to Jew. But in Christianity, while Christ is hid from Israel, He is made known to faith as Son of God; He is hid, but the Spirit of sonship is given, and the many sons whom God is bringing to glory are constituted one body, because they have received one Spirit. Thus the principle of unity is enforced by the body. Where the thought of union comes in, it is in connection with the place of the church as the bride. What I understand to be taught by union is, that the bride

shares the honours of the bridegroom, that all that is given to the bridegroom is shared by the bride. And that is what the church comes into; the exaltation and honour that belong to Christ as Man are shared by the bride. He is raised up and exalted, and so, too, the church is quickened together with Him, and raised up and made to sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That is not quite the idea of the body: it is the saints being in Christ there, sharing His honour and exaltation -- that is, union. Unity comes out in connection with the body, and the body in scripture is commonly spoken of as here, though I do not doubt that the body has its place in the glory, as "the fulness of him that filleth all in all".

Now I come to the testimony. I think everybody will accept the great truth that the body is one; but when I come to the testimony, that leads me to another thought, which is this -- the one body is a practical truth, not a mystical idea. The generality of Christians in sects and systems would admit the existence of the church as one body, but they take it up as a mystical idea, not a practical one. With the exception of the Church of Rome, which in a certain sense does hold to the truth of one body, to the Christians in sects and systems the one body is not a practical truth. They justify the existence of different bodies, and hold that there may be Christians in all of them, as doubtless there are. But that is not the truth of the one body in scripture; one body in scripture is a practical truth, "By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body". The unity of saints was the testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son. How could you, apart from one body, get the fulfilment of what the Lord prays for in John 17, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may

believe that thou hast sent me". All Christians were to be constituted one body in Christ; and the unity resulting from this was God's testimony to the world, that the Father sent the Son. Therefore it was a practical truth. And it has had a great effect in the present time in separating saints from the different bodies in Christendom, and in drawing us together, for we have felt that our fellowship must be consistent with the truth of the one body, as the dial of a clock must be in correspondence to the works. But where I feel we have been defective is in that we have failed to apprehend, as we ought to have done, what the one body was set here for. There is only one thing it was set here for, and that was that the body, being Christ's body, should be morally descriptive of Christ; there was no other purpose that I know of in the body here. Man was to be displaced in its practice and affections. And I say, if we are not exercised as to that, as to what the divine mind was in the body, we are like salt without savour.

I will give you an idea of the divine purpose in the body. The apostle speaks in Colossians 1 of God making known to the saints what was the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles, that is, of the one body; and what was it? "Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" -- that was the divine thought. Christ was in the Gentiles in that sense, in the one body, the hope of glory. In a later passage in Colossians it says you have put off the old man and have put on the new, "where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but" -- what? -- "Christ is all, and in all". It was the body of Christ; every member of the body stood in the same relationship to God as Christ, sons of God, and therefore it follows that, by the Spirit of God, the whole body was to be descriptive

of Christ. Study the Epistle to the Colossians, and see if the purpose in the body is not that it should be a vessel for the display here of Christ? Read chapter 3, and see how it was all to come out, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a complaint against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye". Spiritual affections in the power of the Holy Ghost were to carry saints right above the distinctions of flesh; these were not publicly set aside, but there was a power come in by which saints were to be borne superior to them. It is not levelling down or levelling up to make a unity in flesh, or to set aside the distinctions which exist in the government of God; but an energy of spiritual affections, which gave the members of the body to rise superior to the distinctions which existed. The energy of the Spirit of God was in the vessel to reproduce Christ in the body down here. That is the wonderful character of the mystery; what God intended as answer to what Satan had effected. Satan had caused the Son of God to be cast out of the world; and yet here was a vessel in which nothing was to be displayed but Christ Himself -- that was the thought of God in the one body. Who can gainsay it for a moment? You cannot read scripture without seeing it; and the unity of the saints was the great testimony that the Father sent the Son. It was not unity in flesh, but in spiritual affection. "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee" -- that is, in the reciprocity of affection -- "that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me".

I just add a remark. I do not think you can really understand the truth of the body if you are

not established in the truth of sonship. As I said at the beginning, one truth in scripture so hangs upon another that if you are not established in sonship, that is, in the purposes of God about you, I feel confident that you cannot really enter into the truth of the one body, as that which is here for Christ. The first thing is to learn that we all stand before God in one common relationship in Christ; having been predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son, and that we have all received the Spirit of sonship. If we have got hold of that, the next step is simple, to apprehend that by the very fact of partaking in one Spirit, we are one body in Christ, and members one of another. And then I think we can go a step further, and see that the one body is to be here descriptive of Christ. All that which when He was here was in a sense shut up to Him is now diffused, in the power of the Holy Ghost, in the body in which He is displayed. And then, though that is not my subject now, the one body, as the bride, is to share His exaltation and honour as Man -- that is its privilege and portion.

I do not need to say more. I do not think that any one will question the great importance of the different steps I have sought to bring before you. And it is of so much moment to us, because called out as we have been by the truth of unity from the various associations in which we were found, our position is a most critical one; and if we become ecclesiastical and fail to be in the reality of the truth, our position is easily forfeited, we may let it slip almost before we know it. The thing for us is to be really exercised as to what the mind and thought of God was in the one body here upon earth. That one body will be displayed in glory, but it will never be in its testimony here upon earth again. And if we have left different associations because these associations were a practical denial of unity,

then the truth of the one body is really to be fulfilled in measure in us, and we ought to be exercised about it. I quite admit no one of us comes up to it; but I think we ought not to be indifferent to it, or contented with a unity consisting simply in ecclesiastical order.

THE WILDERNESS AND ITS LESSONS

LECTURES DELIVERED IN 1898

THE PASSOVER -- THE TENT OF TESTIMONY

Numbers 9:1 - 5, 15 to 10: 10

It is one of the most comforting and at the same time most establishing effects of the study of the word of God that we learn how unvarying are the ways of God. We get the ways of God presented in the Old Testament largely in types and figures, and opened out plainly in the way of doctrine in the New Testament; but whether in the Old or in the New, one apprehends that the principles of God's ways are unvarying. What God set forth in His dealings with the children of Israel in type and shadow, we get the reality of when we come to Christians in the New Testament. "These things happened unto them for ensamples". This is very important, because it gives a sense of the unity of the word of God. There are many parts and many instruments, but perfect unity of purpose, of design, and of subject. We do not get one order of principles in the Old Testament and another in the New; but we discern a little beneath the surface that the principles of the one are the principles of the other.

Just one word in regard to the book of Numbers. It shows us the people of God in the wilderness. Although the children of Israel are taken up and dealt with largely as a people after the flesh, God's provision and ordering for them present to us the type of His ways with a heavenly people; hence Numbers shows us also the lessons which a heavenly people have to learn in the wilderness. The subject of the previous book, namely, Leviticus, is that of approach to God. Numbers is not that, but the history of the people of God in the wilderness, and that is no doubt the reason why you get the prophecy of Balaam introduced into it. He is used of

God to announce what His thoughts are in regard of His elect, redeemed people.

My purpose now is to show you the characteristics and the discipline of the people of God in the wilderness. I do not go on to Canaan -- heavenly ground -- but limit myself to the wilderness. That is our actual position, and it is a great thing to see what are the marks of the people of God in the wilderness.

The people begin in this scripture to be in movement. Movement is what properly marks people in the wilderness. There is no rest in the wilderness. Israel might have to tarry here and there, but the general principle of the wilderness was not rest but movement, and the reason is simple -- they were on their way to the land, and it was not the thought of God about them that they should rest in the wilderness. He might allow them to tarry for a month or a twelvemonth, or only for a night, but the general principle was movement.

I want first to show how it is that a soul begins the journey in the wilderness. No one begins the journey properly until delivered. I speak of deliverance in a limited sense, because there is a deliverance that has to be realised after you are in the wilderness. But there is a deliverance that is realised before you are started in the wilderness at all. In its full extent deliverance was not realised by Israel till they came to the land; the reproach of Egypt was not rolled away till they came to Gilgal. But when they entered the wilderness it is certain that they realised deliverance. An undelivered Christian proves that he does not know God, for the knowledge of God is bound up with the deliverance of His people. God is revealed as a Saviour God. In connection with deliverance there are two qualities of God which must be known by every Christian entering on the wilderness: the one is God's grace, the other is His power. There

never was a soul yet who came into the wilderness according to God but knew God in these two attributes. God reveals His grace in giving us salvation from guilt and sin; and He has revealed His power for our deliverance from Satan's power. That is the light of God in the heart of the believer. When Israel was brought out of Egypt through the Red Sea into the wilderness they knew the grace of God; they were delivered typically from the judgment of God and from the power of the enemy. The righteousness of God has been vindicated as to the question of sin, and the power of sin is broken by the apprehension of the righteousness of God in the conscience. The two things cannot dominate in the soul, sin can no longer rule when the righteousness of God is apprehended. Further, God has declared His power in bruising the head of the enemy. Death has been annulled: Christ is risen, and the power of the enemy has been broken. I think that no one comes into the wilderness who does not apprehend that God has come out in this way on man's behalf.

How blessed is the thought of the grace of God in giving deliverance from sin; God putting forth His power to break the spell of the devil under which man was held. Man is naturally the servant of sin, and spell-bound by the god of the world. God delivers him by making that which was most terrible in the eye of man -- namely, death -- to be the way of His approach to man in grace; and this with the purpose of breaking the spell of the enemy over man, so that man might know the power of God as well as His grace. "He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification", Romans 4:25; 5: 1. Christ is risen, and in Christ risen the believer is justified.

But to come now to the true characteristics of the people of God in the wilderness. In regard to this I see two things. The first is the demand for

moral cleanness; the next is the need of vigilance -- on the one hand the eye, and on the other the ear on the alert. The Passover demands moral cleanness; but as regards going forward, that demands that the eye should be on the alert. Israel had ever to be looking to the tent of the testimony -- that could not be apprehended by the ear but by the eye. But in chapter 10 you find that the ear must also be on the alert. These are the proper characteristics of the people in the wilderness according to the mind of God.

It is the experience of God's grace and power that has brought us there. Man does not naturally like the wilderness; he very much prefers the world and sin. But when you are come into the wilderness the first thing that God looks for is moral suitability, and then alertness both of eye and ear. The one enables you to apprehend divine guidance; the other keeps you alive to any summons on the part of God. This last comes out in connection with the blowing of the trumpets. The priests blew the trumpets, but the ear of the people had to be ready to hear and to discern. If the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself for the battle?

The first thing I desire to look at in detail is the Passover (chapter 9: 1 - 5). The Passover was the proper beginning of the history of the people with God. The blood of the Passover lamb was for God, but the lamb itself was for the people. The blood was not for the people, save for shelter. The blood was the witness of life having been taken. The judgment of death lay on man through sin; the blood was the witness that it had been met. But inside their tents the people ate the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. In the repetition of this we get what was in the nature of a commemoration. Feasts, which were institutions

with Israel, present truths which properly characterise the Christian. They are not typical of institutions for us. I think that we continually keep the feast; it is not commemorative for us. We should always keep in mind that Christ has been subjected for us to the judgment of God. The lamb roast with fire is a different idea from that of the blood sprinkled on the lintel. The remembrance of what Christ has been subjected to on our behalf would have a very great effect upon us. The practical working of it would be that we should not care to allow anything in ourselves inconsistent with it. We should feel the urgency of the demand to keep the Passover with moral cleanness. If the flesh in its contaminating power is allowed, a man is not fit to eat the Passover. Our ways have to be judged in the light of God, for we must be in moral consistency with that on which we feed. If we have the sense of what Christ has suffered, I am certain we shall walk in self-judgment as the servants of righteousness having our fruit unto holiness. There may be a great deal of evil within us, but nothing is sanctioned that is inconsistent with the truth that "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us".

I almost dread to dwell upon this. It is so solemn to think that Christ has been subjected to the judgment of God on our behalf. I do not allow myself to be contaminated, because I am keeping the feast. The admonition to the Christian is "Let us therefore keep the feast ... with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth".

You can hardly go a step without regard to the fact that God intends the Passover to be a test of our ways. It is our beginning, and I much doubt if you will be marked by the second characteristic if you have not the first.

The next thing is that the eye should be on the alert so that you get divine guidance.

There was no way in the wilderness. There were not roads, it is needless to say. Roads could not be made in a scene of shifting sand. Roads would no sooner be made than they would be obliterated. One mark of a wilderness is that in it there is no way. The children of Israel did not know the way, and, I take it, they had no guides. To make their way through they were entirely cast upon divine guidance. I believe the same is true in principle of us. We are entirely cast upon God for guidance. The Christian who is walking more or less in the ways of the world does not know the way he is taking, nor where it leads to. It may lead to spiritual disaster. If we realise the wilderness, we know that it is a paramount necessity to have divine guidance, or we shall all perish. This last may seem a strange statement; but we shall surely fail of the purpose of God if we are not guided of God. The children of Israel would never have got into the land of promise if they had not been guided of God.

The arrangement of the people, in fact everything about them was subordinated to the tent of the testimony, with which the people, were completely identified. The ordering of the camp was governed by it: the people were in that sense bound up with the testimony. Though the tent of the testimony was constantly moving they were always identified with it.

What do you think that the tent of the testimony represented? It was I judge a foreshadowing of the world to come. It was the pattern of things in the heavens; showing the range and extent of God's ways in Christ. All was contained there. What was to be fulfilled in the kingdom was foreshadowed in the tent of the testimony. It was the witness of God, and pointed to the revelation of God in Christ, but in connection with God's purposes in regard to

the world to come. There was the most holy, and the holy place, both were contained in the tent of the testimony. It was the shadow and not the substance. That has not come to pass fully yet -- except the holiest. We have that fulfilled, but as a whole I do not think that the tent of the testimony has its full anti-type until the establishment of the world to come.

But the point to which I am calling attention is that the arrangement of the people was in connection with the tent of the testimony. They were identified with it, and we have all the light of God's testimony now. God has illuminated our souls with a great deal more light than Israel had. We have God's testimony and are bound up with it down here. Christians are in the light as God is in the light. God is fully shown out in Christ; and not only have we the light of Himself, but of all His purposes accomplished in Christ. I venture to say that is our supreme interest. The family is not your supreme interest, nor is the business, but the testimony of God; and everything that you have to do with down here, according to the mind of God, should be subordinated to His testimony.

God will help you in your business, and in taking care of your family, but you must see that your paramount concern is God's testimony. I go further -- If you have to make this or that change in your occupation, or your residence, or what not, let all be subordinated to God's interests in the assembly. Your supreme interest is the tent of the testimony.

The guidance of God, the pillar of fire and the cloud were not on the tents of the people, but on the tent of the testimony; and if the people were not regarding the tent of the testimony, they were not alive to the guidance, because the cloud and the pillar of fire were there on the tent -- the guidance was there; the people were supposed to be identified

with the tent, and as so identified they got the blessed guidance of God.

No doubt you have seen people wandering about, and not getting guidance from God as to the path. Business or something has diverted them. The secret is that they have not had their eye on the tent of the testimony. If your eye were on the alert, and the testimony of God in view, you would have guidance in reference to the testimony. No doubt it wants faith, and courage, and it may be a little self-denial, to subordinate everything to the testimony of God. Few would like things pleasant down here more than myself, but it is not a safe path. You will remember in Psalm 32 the expression, "I will guide thee with mine eye upon thee"; but this is all in connection with the tent of the testimony.

What I would desire to press upon every soul is that we are identified with the testimony of God down here. And God makes way for His testimony. As long as the tent of the testimony is in the wilderness the pillar of fire and of cloud will be on it, for God will guard and support His testimony. Hence the importance of our eye being on the alert in regard to the testimony.

There is another point on which I wish to dwell. The impression that verses 19 to 28 give is that of the tent being commonly on the move; but you could not tell when it would move. It might rest for a month or for a twelvemonth; for a considerable time or only for a night. There was never any alteration in the order or arrangement of the tent, but there was very much change as to its location. So there is no alteration in the truth or testimony of God; but there is a great deal of difference in the position, so to speak, in which the truth of God is placed at various times. The testimony of God can meet every form or condition of things, but what

has to be met is continually changing. What had to be met fifty years ago is not what has to be met today. Circumstances have changed; forms of evil are varying, and you need to be continually with the testimony to learn the applicability of the testimony to any particular moment. A particular truth may be prominent for a time, but circumstances change. The tent of the testimony moves; and the great point for us is to know when it moves, and to be ready to move with it.

Imagine, if you can, a tent in Israel stationary -- a family that would not move when the tent of testimony moved -- what would have been the result? They must have perished. I think that I have seen it so with Christians. People have dropped away from the testimony because they did not see that though the testimony does not change, the place of the tent of the testimony does, and they have dropped out of view.

You will see the importance of the eye of the Christian being on the alert to follow the tent of the testimony in its movements. We are all of us identified with the tent of the testimony, and God guides as to that rather than as to us. If you are watching it you will move too.

You might ask what I mean by your eye being continually on the alert. It is that you take care that nothing obscures your spiritual vision. The keeping of the Passover will have something to do with this. If you are morally clean I think that you will see. Even in natural things your sight often depends upon your body being in good health. If you are morally clean, your vision will be good, and your eye will be on the testimony of God. It is a point of great moment to see that guidance has to do with the tent of the testimony. There is guidance for the people of God through the wilderness, but in connection with the tent of the testimony.

We come to the third point in chapter 10: 1 - 3, and here I remark that the first blowing of the trumpets is not the sounding of an alarm. When the priests sounded an alarm the whole camp was to be in movement. You get the moving of the camp in detail lower down in the chapter.

I will point out the necessity of the Christian having the ear on the alert. There are two things that deeply concern us in connection with the assembly: one is the normal gathering of the assembly; the other is the sounding of an alarm. The latter is not the normal gathering of the assembly. It is a painful thing to have an alarm blown. The whole camp has to be in movement, and the occasion is extraordinary. There may be something in the assembly, known to the spiritual, which is not according to God; an alarm is sounded and every one has to be on the alert; it is a summons from God. It is to be noticed that only the priests could blow with the trumpets. They typify those who are near to God, who enjoy access to Him. It is only such who can properly sound an alarm. Our ear has to be on the alert lest an alarm should be sounded. If there is something to trouble the assembly, then we must come together and purge out the leaven.

But there is the normal gathering of the assembly. I should speak of the Lord's supper in this way. The rallying point of the assembly is the Lord's supper. We do not want the blowing of the trumpets in regard of that, but we have to be vigilant about it. The assembly is brought together on the first day of the week by the testimony of the Lord's supper.

The only proper summons of the assembly is, I judge, the Lord's supper. That is on the first day of the week. The assembly is thus convened -- that is the idea. If the assembly should have to be

brought together to take account of leaven at work in it, the trumpet is blown as for an alarm.

Well, the Christian needs to be vigilant both as to his ear and his eye; and the first necessity is to keep the Passover, and in this to be regardful of moral cleanness, taking care that we are not contaminated, walking in self-judgment that we may be undefiled by the unclean things that we come in contact with down here. Do you think that you can go through the wilderness without coming in contact with what is unclean, a dead bone or something of that sort? Many dead things lie unburied there, and I am sure that it is a very difficult thing to go through the world uncontaminated. We have to keep the Passover in moral cleanness, and to have the eye on the alert, as being identified with God's testimony, and because the guidance is there; and the ear on the alert in case of the blowing of the trumpet to call the congregation together.

And I would add that the burden of the congregation rests on all. You must not think that it rests only on the elders. I have sometimes said to young people who are wishing to come into fellowship: You have had an easy time so far, and no responsibility; now if you break bread things become much more serious, because you put yourself under the burden of the assembly. Each one does so, and thus you need to be vigilant.

May God make us more alive to it in His grace!

THE INCAPABILITY OF THE FLESH TO PLEASE GOD

Numbers 15

What I have to bring before you at this time connects itself with chapters 11 - 15 of this book. They are remarkable chapters. They bring before us the incapacity of the flesh as regards pleasing God. That is the great point in the instruction. I will bring this out a little, by the Lord's help.

The result is seen in chapter 14. What is spoken of in that chapter is apparently referred to in Psalm 95. I judge this from Hebrews 3 and 4. The people were debarred from entering into God's rest. The reason was that they did not believe the glad tidings -- the report of the spies. They grieved God for forty years; but my impression is that the point in the mind of the Spirit in Psalm 95 is that of Numbers 14. None save Caleb and Joshua were to enter into the land; but the psalm goes beyond that, for God sware that they should not enter into His rest. Not entering into God's rest must, I judge, exclude from heaven, for it is difficult to understand that there should be any place in heaven for those who do not enter into God's rest.

I want to put two things in contrast: on the one side, the incapability of the flesh; and mark this, we have to go through the experience of these chapters. I quite admit we get in Numbers the history of a people after the flesh; but Christians have to go through the teaching of the chapters. But while on the one hand we get the perverseness of the flesh, we see in contrast to it, in chapter 15, the immutability of the purpose of God. God has His own unchanging purpose, and it is impossible for God to be diverted from His purpose.

In chapter 15 God speaks of Israel coming into the land, and what they were to do then. You get the accompaniments of the burnt offering; the meat and drink offerings. When our souls begin to enter into the purpose of God, then it is, I think, that the offering of Christ comes before us in the way in which it is spoken of in chapter 15; we get an apprehension of the offering of Christ, and what accompanied it, which we never had before.

In speaking last time of the tent of the testimony, and of the pillar of fire and of the cloud that rested on it, some may not quite have apprehended what would answer to this in the present time. It is evident that the testimony of God is not carried about in a tent, as with the children of Israel. The tabernacle presented an idea which the temple did not present. The temple was identified with Israel settled in the land. The people carried the tabernacle with them, according to the divine order; and their movements were entirely guided by the pillar of fire or of cloud upon the tabernacle. As long as it rested they remained where they were; when it moved they moved. My concern is only to bring before you what is the answer to it, the anti-type, in the present time. I was speaking of the great importance of the eye of the Christian being fixed upon the tent of the testimony, because it was there that the guidance was vouchsafed. There was no guidance for the people in detail, but in connection with the tent of the testimony.

Where do you think the testimony is now? The answer may be found in considering what was presented to Israel in type in the tabernacle. It set forth, as I understand it, the means by which God would put Himself in connection with the universe; the holiest and holy places both had to do with that, and presented the mediatorial way by which God would place Himself in connection with the world of

His purpose. This is all fulfilled, as I understand it, in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the One by whom mediatorially God has in grace placed Himself in connection with the universe -- not as it now stands -- but the universe of blessing.

Now where do you suppose that the testimony is now? The subject of the testimony is the Lord Jesus Christ; everything is embodied in Him. And where is He to be found now? I know of no place here but in the heart of the believer. If the Lord has the paramount, commanding place there, then you realise divine guidance. I do not expect a man to get much if it is simply a question of his circumstances. God can give mercy, and does; but if you want guidance it is certainly in connection with the testimony of God. If the testimony of God were the great governing principle in the heart of the saint, divine guidance would be realised in all his pathway through the wilderness.

You will remember a passage of the apostle Paul: "God, who commanded that out of darkness light should shine, hath shone into our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ". It is in Jesus Christ that God has seen fit to place Himself in relation to the universe. The light of God's glory has shone forth in Him; and the place of the Lord Jesus Christ at the present moment down here is in the hearts of those that believe in Him.

I plead for this, that the testimony of God should be the commanding principle in the heart of the believer in the wilderness. If you study your own ease or indulgence you will not realise very much of divine guidance. You may have to be held in by bit and bridle. But if the testimony of God has its place in you the guidance of God connects itself with that. The great thing is that the testimony of God should be in our hearts.

I come now to the chapters to which I referred in order to bring before you the perverseness of the flesh on the one hand, and the resources of the saint on the other.

I will take up first the perverseness of the flesh. Four things come out in these chapters: first, the murmuring of the people; secondly, discontent with the manna, the light bread, and lusting after the food of Egypt; thirdly, the outbreak of Miriam and Aaron against Moses; and then fourthly, the unbelief of the report of the spies. The murmuring brought in the fire of God; the lusting after Egyptian food brought in the plague; Miriam and Aaron's sin brought leprosy on Miriam; the unbelief of the report of the spies brought in the sentence of God that they should not enter into the land. Not one bit of flesh enters into the purpose of God. That is, that you, yourself, as to all that you are after the flesh, are entirely incapable of entering into God's purpose. We have every one of us to learn this. It is the lesson which the apostle reached in Romans 7, "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing". It is the new man, that is renewed unto full knowledge after the image of Him that created him, which alone is suited to God's purpose.

I do not want to talk much about the flesh. Two things always mark it. It is ever hankering after Egypt, and it does not care for Canaan. You may be sure of that: the life of the flesh is found in Egypt; its sustenance is there, and it does not care for the land -- in other words, for the purpose of God. I can understand this well.

The case represented by the children of Israel is that of a man saved from the judgment of God, and set free from the power of the enemy. Suppose a man in the flesh were brought into such a position, what then? He would perish by the flesh. Israel

came short of the purpose of God, because the flesh in its spirit and principle went back to Egypt; it was indisposed to go forward to Canaan. Why? Because flesh is essentially unbelieving. There is no link with God in flesh. We have to learn this in our experience, and it shows the necessity of God's work in us. It is absolutely true of the unconverted person, but it is true of the flesh for the Christian. The apostle speaks of it in Romans 7. "With the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin". It is a good thing to take into account that, as far as you are concerned, even after you are free of the judgment of God and the power of the enemy, you are yourself entirely incapable because of what the flesh is. The Christian must be enlightened and know that he is free of the power of the enemy; but if he were left in that way, merely enlightened, he would never come into the purpose of God.

Now what is the refuge? Supposing that I have a sense of the perverseness of the flesh, what resources have I? That is what I want to bring before you. And for that I turn to Hebrews 4 for a moment.

But first, I will read a few verses in Hebrews 3:15 - 19. It is that last verse that makes me connect the thought with Numbers 15. God sware to those who did not believe the glad tidings of Canaan that they should not enter into His rest.

If you read Hebrews 4:12 - 16 you will find what I understand to be the true resources of a Christian who has come to know the perverseness of the flesh. He has two things: one is the word of God; the other is the priesthood of Christ. They are exceedingly important, because they are very great resources. They divert you from the flesh, that is their practical working. The first is the word of God. That I understand to be God's revelation of Himself. It is "living", that is, in the heart of

the believer. You must not confound the ideas of living and life-giving. The word of God is both. It lives in the heart of the believer. It has been said that what is presented to us in the way of testimony -- the light in which God has shone out -- becomes the living principle in the heart of the believer. We have all the light of God in Christ. All that He has been pleased to make known of Himself becomes thus a living principle in the soul. And the word of God settles everything -- brings everything to light. But the first thing is, that it is living in the believer.

It is a common thing for us to say, "We are in the light, as God is in the light". I ask myself sometimes, Is the revelation of God really the light in my heart? As far as my experience goes, I think we live but little in the blessed consciousness of the light of God so that the revelation of Himself becomes really the vital principle in the heart. The effect would be a division "between soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow", and the thoughts and intents of the heart would be discerned.

But that is not all; there is another very important principle: you have not merely the word or revelation of God, but you have also a Priest who sympathises. What we have got to is this: that we have to go through the world and to discern between good and evil, and we shall never discern these in the world if we do not first discern them in ourselves. The moment the Christian is started on this path he has the sympathy of Christ. That comes out in verse 15: "We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, sin apart". We get the sympathy and support of the Priest. Have we realised this? The word of God, as the living principle, and the priesthood of Christ -- the expression of His sympathy and love.

I think that is the practical divine answer to the perverseness of the flesh. There is another answer, I admit -- the Spirit in the believer; but you have to learn the truth of what is here. The word of God has come to me and has been received in my heart. What came to me as light is now in me as life. And we have also the High Priest who has passed through the heavens; once started on the path of discernment of good and evil, we get His support and sympathy. This all runs parallel with the truth of Romans 6, 7. We start on the right path in chapter 6, and in chapter 7 we get the support of "the husband", the Priest. Christ is law to us. The practical working of all is that though the flesh is not changed a bit -- it is just as perverse as ever -- yet I am alive to its perverseness. That is a great point. I do not expect any change in it, or any amelioration; but I am diverted from it by the word of God and the priesthood of Christ. These are the great resources which God has given me. In everything, prayer, approach to God, it is a wonderful thing for us to realise how God has shone forth in light, and the soul is kept in His light; and then we touch the sympathy, the love of the Priest who has passed through the heavens, so that we come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

That is our side. The points on which we have touched so far are the perverseness of the flesh and God's resources for us. There remain with us terrible reminiscences of Egypt. The people brought into the wilderness had been in Egypt; and Christians too have been in the world, and bring the reminiscences of it with them, and this is a standing trial. The flesh is never disposed to go forward or to enter into the purpose of God. We have to accept the truth that it will never be any different.

But I want you to understand what the word of God is, the blessed light in which He has made Himself known to us; and to enjoy the sympathy and support of the High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, so that your affections are drawn out of the world.

Now I come to the next point, to look at the immutability of God's purpose. For that you may turn to Hebrews 6:13 - 20.

I think you will admit that the Hebrews had had opportunity of finding out the perverseness of the flesh. The Jews had crucified Christ; and yet after all they were allowed to flee for refuge to the hope set before them. And what was that? The immutability of the purpose of God. That is what I referred to in Numbers 15 in contrast to the previous chapters. God turns away from the perverseness of the people; enough has been brought in to show their perverseness, and now He brings out what the people were to do when they came into the land of Canaan (verse 1, 2, etc.).

To my mind this is most remarkable, as showing God's superiority to evil. In the previous chapter you get the exclusion from the land of all the people, except the children, and Caleb and Joshua. They were to perish in the wilderness. And yet in chapter 15 God begins to lay down what the people were to do "when you be come to the land of your habitation which I give unto you". It is an immense thing to see that if all has failed through man's perverseness, yet nothing diverts God from His purpose. He intended to give to His people the land of Canaan, and He does not waver from His purpose.

Supposing that I recognise and own the perverseness of the flesh, I seek the more to enter into the purpose of God. My soul is encouraged in this way. I have resources, and will seek by God's grace to

go on and enter into the divine purpose. Of course it was literally the land to the children of Israel; to us it is the entering into the purpose of God. Flesh never can; it has no disposition to do so, but we are to enter into the purpose of God in spite of the perverseness of the flesh, and with the knowledge of it. Do not trouble yourself about the flesh, God has given you resources to meet it; and as the effect of the Spirit's work in you, you will enter into the purpose of God.

"That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us". "The hope" depends entirely upon the purpose of God. You find His purpose stands firm all through scripture. God never was diverted from it for a moment. He has used His ways to bring out the contrariety of man, but has never Himself been diverted from His purpose. When once you are set upon that line, I think that you will get an apprehension of the offering of Christ which you never had before.

To illustrate this I turn to John 13:31: "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him". That is what Numbers 15 brings before us: the offering of Christ as that in which the glory of God has been completely secured. Not as the ground of expiation for man, but as that in which the glory of God has been completely and eternally secured.

It is the burnt offering that is prominent. Then is no sin offering in the first part of the chapter; but you get, I judge, what is apprehended when the soul is really set upon entering into the purpose of God. I begin to apprehend the offering of Christ in a way in which I never apprehended it before. "God is glorified in him". That refers to the cross. God's glory was maintained in every attribute and

particular in the Lord Jesus Christ. There was the solution of every moral question -- whether of sin, or of law, of good and evil, or whatever it might be -- in the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. God was perfectly glorified in the very place of sin. That is what came to pass; and the Lord speaks of it most remarkably, saying: "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him". The moral sequence necessarily is, "God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him". It is an immense point for the soul of the believer to apprehend how the glory of God has been effectuated and maintained in the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then you get prominence given to the meat offering and the drink offering; and I think that these things connect themselves with the land. Corn and wine are not the product of the wilderness but of the land. They bring before us in a striking way the perfect humanity of the Lord down here; but looked at in its moral character. The flour was the fruit of the land. All that gave character morally to the humanity of the Lord Jesus was from heaven. It was mingled with the oil, the Spirit -- and the wine was in the same proportion as the oil, exactly equivalent. That indicates, I think, that there was a joy even in connection with the offering of Christ -- it was in the maintaining the glory of God in such a way as that it might be the foundation of the vast universe of bliss, not merely the ground of the putting away of sin. That is, I think, what the soul would enter into if it is really set upon the purpose of God.

There are thousands of Christians who have not apprehended the offering of Christ beyond the aspect of a sin offering. They see the work of Christ, but they do not apprehend it as that in which the glory of God has been maintained, so that thus the glory

of God and of Christ becomes prominent. Ask nine-tenths of Christians to explain that verse in John 13! The stability of the whole universe of bliss depends upon it, upon the glory of God having been maintained and secured in the offering and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are blessed resources placed within our reach when the perverseness of the flesh is discovered and the heart is set upon entering into God's purpose.

Other things come out in the chapter. We find provision for unwitting failure on the part of the individual, and for restoration for the congregation. The grace of God becomes very prominent when once people are set upon entering into His purpose. He gives them light which they had not before, and makes provision for unwitting failure on the part of the congregation or of the individual. God gives restoration when His people are set in the right line.

Now another point comes in. The congregation was to be jealous as to profanity; a profane person is one who despises the word of God. It is exemplified in the case of the man who went out on the Sabbath day to gather sticks. He had to be stoned by the congregation. The congregation had to mark its sense of his profanity. The apostle arouses the Hebrews to this, and I think that we should be jealous as to it. This man set aside the word of God; did violence to the sabbath; despised the sign of the covenant; and in christian profession we need to be on our guard against a person who does not reverence the word of God.

That is the last thing that comes out in regard to the congregation. We come back to where we started from, the contrariety of the flesh -- its reminiscences of Egypt and its indisposition to enter on the purpose of God.

And yet God's purpose is unchanged. I do not know anything more comforting to the christian

heart than to know that God can never be diverted from His purpose. Let your heart be set on that line.

Where do you think you can get an idea of it? In Christ raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. He is the expression of it. The path of faith is illustrated in the Lord encouraging Peter to come out of the ship on the water to Himself. Peter begins to sink; the Lord puts forth His hand and draws him to Himself. That is what Christ does to us, He draws us to Himself; to His side of the sea of moral death; to Himself as the expression of the purpose of God. You cannot learn this except as you learn it in Christ raised from the dead.

I believe that every family will have to be formed from Christ; even as to Israel, where can they learn what a man is that has the law in his heart but in Christ? It is in Christ that we apprehend the purpose of God; and as Priest He draws us to Himself in order that we may be brought into the light of the divine purpose in himself. When you find yourself in conflict with evil in you, then you realise that Christ is with you in that. You have the word of God with you, the light of the soul. Everything is discovered, but at the same time you have the consciousness of the sympathy of Christ, and He draws you into the light of divine purpose as revealed in Himself, for He, and He alone, is the expression of that purpose.

I commend these chapters to you. They show us a people on the way from Egypt to Canaan, and our spiritual course is brought out before us in the history of the children of Israel. Very little that happened is recorded -- just enough to impress upon us the lessons that God intends us to learn. It portrays what we find in our own hearts, but shows what blessed resources we have in His word and in the High Priest.

May our hearts be really set, in divine grace, on entering into the purpose of God! If the priesthood of Christ acts for us, it acts for its own special object to draw us to Himself. (That is the hand of Christ.) "He is the true God and eternal life". You know nothing of eternal life intelligently but what you learn as to it in Christ.

THE REBELLION OF KORAH -- THE ATTESTATION OF PRIESTHOOD

Numbers 16:42 to end; Numbers 17; Numbers 18:1 - 7

I have read a long passage, but if you do not take in the whole, you will hardly apprehend the subject before us.

My object is to show how we get here in a typical way doctrine that is presented to us in the New Testament. In the New Testament we get the anti-type; but for instruction in the detail we have to go back to the type in the Old Testament. What we find in these early books of the Old Testament is to us of the deepest importance. Indeed, I do not think that any one can clearly understand the truth of Christianity if he does not apprehend the detail of the Old Testament. You will not understand the doctrine by the Old Testament; but you will get it very much more clearly before you by the help of what is presented in type. The importance of this is, that it binds the whole word of God together -- the Old Testament and the New. It shows us in the most unmistakable way one Spirit pervading the word. There is one subject and one Author. You may get doctrine, or type, or anti-type, but all present one thing; and there could not be greater evidence than this of the truth of the word of God.

You must remember that dozens of generations passed off the scene between the time that these early books, and the books of the New Testament were written.

I was speaking last week of the perverseness of the flesh, and how the wilderness serves to bring out its tendencies. We learn in a painful way what we really are. God takes occasion of the wilderness to allow everything in our hearts to come out.

He knew it from the outset. It has not taken Him by surprise, but it often takes us by surprise. I think many Christians are surprised to find what the depths of the flesh are. And when I say "the flesh" I speak about myself. I have nothing but the flesh. Whatever may be the light that God has given me about Himself, whatever His purpose concerning me, I have nothing but the flesh, and the flesh is myself. God may take account of me according to His purpose, and I am privileged to take account of myself according to that purpose; but when I speak of the flesh I speak of myself. I can boast in nothing save that I know God.

I go a point further. There is no difference in principle between the flesh in any two Christians. The tendencies of the flesh are the same in both, simply because they are the tendencies of the flesh.

In the earlier part of the book I spoke of what came to light in Israel in two ways. The first was the flesh in its reminiscences of Egypt -- that is, the lusts of the flesh, for the flesh always bears in mind the things of Egypt. It is a great mercy for young people to be brought up in comparative purity and apart from evil, for they have less reminiscences of Egypt. Of course, they have a link with Egypt, but not the same reminiscences. I do not say that there is more lust in a person who has been brought up in the world, but there are more reminiscences of evil. The apostle says "I would have you simple concerning evil"; and my wish for my own children is that they should be simple concerning evil, that they may not later on have the reminiscences of it.

The other thing which came out in Israel was unbelief. They would not enter into the purpose of God. The children of Israel were unwilling to go on to the land of promise; the principle of the flesh was unbelief. The apostle interprets this in

Hebrews 3, "They did not hearken to the word".

You can see in them these two principles, of which we are all conscious. Is there any one who is not conscious of them? Surely every Christian is, conscious that he carries about the reminiscences of Egypt; and is alive to the presence of unbelief -- spiritual dullness, and unwillingness to enter into the purpose of God concerning us, are proof of it. Flesh takes ever one direction: it goes back to Egypt and it does not go forward to the land because it is unbelieving.

The great answer to the tendencies of the flesh, when you become conscious of them (and it is a great thing to be conscious of them -- when people are first converted they are but little so, it comes afterwards), is found in the light of God's testimony. When the tendencies of the flesh are recognised, and it is seen that the flesh does not help me, for it does not go forward, then my refuge is in the light into which God has been pleased to bring me in regard to Himself. I could not exaggerate the importance of divine light. It is so blessed to be brought into the light in which God has been pleased to reveal Himself. God has brought us "out of darkness into his marvellous light". That is the real effect of the word of God -- the testimony presented to us has become a living power in the soul, and that is the antidote to the tendencies of the flesh, which is ever looking back to Egypt and disinclined to go on to the purpose of God.

Well, that is where we are. It is no use disguising the truth as to flesh. These two tendencies are the same in every one of us, as surely as that you have the flesh in you.

But I want to speak now on another element of the flesh, and a more deadly one, and that is its will. That comes out in the climax of evil in this book, namely, in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and

Abiram. This was the culminating outbreak, and I want to speak about its character. Some people might think the worst feature of the flesh was its lust or its unbelief, but I am inclined to think the worst feature is its will. It is more positive.

You see how it worked in the case of the children of Israel; they rebelled against the authority of Moses and Aaron; and I will show you how it works in us. What Korah and his company really rebelled against was the anointing -- the priesthood of Aaron; and they assumed that the Levites could do the priestly work without the anointing. It was in principle a deadly rebellion of the flesh against the Spirit; as I understand it, rebellion against the Spirit really means rebellion against Christ as Apostle and as Priest. We have to recognise that tendency in every one of us. There is a spirit in every Christian that rebels against Christ. "The flesh lusts against the Spirit", and in that sense it rebels against the place and authority of Christ both as Mediator and Priest.

I just mention the detail, and then I will show you by what it was met, that is, the antidote. The evil, as I have said, took the form of rebellion both against Aaron and against Moses. Moses prefigures to us the authority and mediatorship of Christ; Aaron, the priesthood of Christ. Every one ought to be able to discern between these two functions: Christ's place as Apostle and His priesthood.

The truth comes out in the type that authority does not in itself carry you into the purpose of God. You have to learn that it is the Priest only who can conduct you into that.

The outbreak before us is spoken of in the New Testament as "the gainsaying of Kore". It is rebellion against the Spirit of God, and hence against Christ's authority and priesthood. What can you know about the priesthood of Christ, or of the

authority of the Lord, except by the Holy Ghost? Otherwise all must be set up on a Jewish pattern. If you rebel against the Spirit, and attempt to bring the flesh into the ordering of divine things, you rebel against the authority and priesthood of Christ. It is the most serious thing now to attempt to bring the flesh into the service of God, to revive an order of things which God has repudiated; but it is what has been done in Christendom. It came in very early in the professing church; and in the present day you will see it in its most distinct form in popery. It is without doubt morally "the gain-saying of Kore". Christ's authority and priesthood have been practically set aside, and the authority and priesthood of man brought in.

It began in the will of the flesh ignoring the Spirit of God. That is what Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in principle did. The apostle Jude speaks of perishing in the gainsaying of Kore. This refers to apostasy from Christianity which brings in judgment. It takes the form, I do not doubt, of the Levites -- those who assume to be servants -- what are called the clergy -- claiming the priesthood. They really claim the place of Christ. That is "the gainsaying of Kore", and is the spirit of a clergy, the setting up of a priesthood according to man's own idea. You may say that this is strong language; but that is the spirit and principle of it. I am amazed to see any Christian who has been brought into the light going back to that which really ignores and resists the priesthood of Christ and His authority!

The flesh takes two forms in religious things. I do not speak now of the children of Israel, or of "the clergy" but of ourselves. Flesh, that is, human will, goes in two directions. It will take the direction of rationalism or of ritualism. That is the way in which the flesh works and intrudes into

the things of God. Flesh always is and must be an intrusion in the things of God. It works in them in a reasoning or in a superstitious way. You may remember the warning of the Lord to His disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees -- the one is in principle ritualism, and the other rationalism. You may be assured of this, that we all have a tendency to the one or the other; and both are expressions of the will of the flesh. If I were to speak about myself I should say that superstition has little hold on me; my mind is not cast in that way. I may not have sufficient of the imaginative element. If the flesh works in me it works more in the other direction -- rationalism -- reasoning, in the tendency to question. Broad church is just as deadly in principle as high church. In both we see the intrusion of the flesh into the things of God; both practically ignore the presence of the Spirit; and both have part in the rebellion against the authority of Christ as Apostle and as Priest.

It is well to be clear about these things. They exist around us; and it is important to see that things that are thought and spoken of highly in the world are but the workings of the flesh; and there is no sphere in which the working of the flesh is so deadly as in the things of God. The flesh may be unbelieving, or hankering after the things of Egypt; but when it begins to be active in the things of God it is deadly. It is an offence against Christ both as Apostle and as Priest.

I do not want to say any more about that, for I have other things to speak of.

I have referred to the outbreak, now I want to present the blessed answer to it. You can read verses 44 - 50 and then look at a verse or two at the close of Hebrews 7:21, etc. There you have the answer to this outbreak of the flesh and resistance

to the authority of Christ. When you have discovered the tendency, the answer to it is in learning the grace of Christ as High Priest.

Just let me refer again to the narrative. Moses and law were powerless for conducting the people into the purpose of God. Authority is good and important enough in its place, but it cannot conduct us into the purpose of God. Nothing can lead a soul into the realisation of God's purpose but priesthood. The principle in it is that it stands between the living and the dead. Now what we get in regard to Christ as Priest is this: "He is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them".

This is what Aaron did in regard of the children of Israel. He made intercession for them and the plague was stayed. I will endeavour to shew you the importance of the priest in regard to our entering into the purpose of God. Such as you are, you would be completely swamped by the things of the world if it were not for the priesthood and intercession of Christ. It is His grace that draws us out of them to Himself. The apostle speaks both in Romans and Hebrews 7 of the intercession of Christ. Not exactly of His help or sympathy, but that "He ever liveth to make intercession". Where would Peter have been after his denial of the Lord without the intercession of Christ? He would have been driven to despair but for that intercession. The Lord had said, "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not". And no one of us would enter into the purpose and calling of God, while we are down here, were it not that the intercession of Christ saves us from being engulfed by the things around us.

I quite admit the work of God in the Christian, and should insist upon it as much as any one; but

as one becomes more deeply conscious of the activity and restlessness of the flesh -- of its character and terrible tendencies -- one is more assured that no one would ever enter into the purpose of God were it not for the intercession of Christ.

God comes in in His discipline to break down the flesh in Christians, but that is no doubt the fruit and result of the intercession of Christ. God will break down our wills because He sees that in no other way can the evil be met. But we see what the watchful care of Christ is for His people that they should enter -- not into Canaan but -- into God's purpose for them.

You get a picture of it in the beautiful scene, so often mentioned, in Matthew 14, where Peter, emboldened by Christ's word, leaves the boat to go to Jesus; and he is about to be swamped by the waves, he is afraid and begins to sink, when the Lord puts forth His hand and draws him to Himself. He draws the Christian, as I understand it, into the light of God's purpose concerning him.

But I pass on, for what follows is of such great importance. In the next chapter (17) we get the attestation of the Priest. This teaches us very clearly that there is no real priesthood according to the flesh. The assumption of priesthood on the part of man in the flesh is deadly evil. The attestation of priesthood is the power of resurrection. You remember the narrative of chapter 17, how the rods, representative of the twelve tribes, were laid up before the Lord, the name of a tribe being inscribed on each rod -- "And it came to pass on the morrow, Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds", verse 8, 9, 10.

Now if you look at the end of Hebrews 7 (verse 23, etc.), you will find that we have the order of Christ's

priesthood brought out -- after the power of an endless life. It is a very important point that I touched on in Numbers 17. I used the word "attestation". The attestation is resurrection. The witness is that there can be no priesthood according to God after the flesh. As a matter of fact the priesthood of Aaron and his sons was after the flesh; but in the divine idea priesthood must be in One beyond death -- and thus it is that Christ "continueth ever". When Christ was on earth He could not be a Priest. He could not be so according to the law. The condition of His being a Priest is resurrection. In Him we have the anti-type of the rod of Aaron. It was but a dry rod -- no leaves -- but it brought forth buds and blossoms, and yielded almonds. A dry rod yielded fruits of life. Thus there is no priesthood but in resurrection. It is all after that order. The qualification of Christ to be Priest is that "He continueth ever". You could hardly have said that of Him in the order after which He was on earth; it was true in one sense, but He did not continue after that order. He passed through death, and is now in the condition in which He continueth ever. So His priesthood is intransmissible.

There is only one true Priest, for there is only One who is attested by resurrection. Christ is the only One to whom witness has been borne by life out of death.

Where is Christendom in the face of that? Where are Popery or High Churchism! There is no place for them. There is but one Priest, and He continueth ever and His priesthood is intransmissible. If a man said to me that he was a priest, I should reply, You must give me the proof of resurrection. It is the only real attestation. That is what comes out here in type and figure. It was the voice of God to the rebellious, and was unanswerable.

I will now pass on to the next chapter, which opens up some very important points as regards ourselves.

In chapter 18 the Lord does not speak to Moses, the chapter begins: "The Lord spake unto Aaron". Chapter 17 was spoken to Moses. Now we have Aaron addressed. "Thou and thy sons shall minister before the tabernacle of witness". The point now is with regard to the tabernacle of witness. You will notice that the priests, the house of Aaron, are distinguished from the Levites, and the Levites again from the common people. The house of Aaron was to keep the charge of the sanctuary and of the altar. Even the Levites were not to come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary nor the altar. In other words the ministers, as such, were not to assume the privileges of Christians as priests.

I am coming now to the anti-type. A Christian may be viewed in the light of a priest or of a Levite or of a common person; but it is as priest only -- that is, as risen with Christ -- that he is identified with the sanctuary and the altar, the service of God. Thus there are three positions which may he true of every Christian. He is a priest, identified with Christ on resurrection ground; having boldness to enter, into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way, and joined with Christ in priestly service. But in addition to that he may be a Levite; may have grace to minister to the priests. I am ministering now, and in that sense I am the servant of the priests. My object is that, kneeling at your feet, so to speak, I may serve you, as the apostle says, "ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake". When I return to my ordinary circumstances, to my simply individual path, I shall be a common person, that is, an ordinary Christian, and this is true even of one with the most distinguished gift.

The chapter teaches us to distinguish these

things. It is only as priest, that is, in association with Christ, as risen with Him, that you are identified with the sanctuary, the place of the service of God. You are compelled to distinguish yourself as priest from what you are as Levite. When we come together in assembly on the first day of the week, we come together simply as Christians calling on the Lord; but when we are in assembly in the power of the Holy Ghost, the idea of Aaron and his sons is realised. We are there not simply as individuals, but in the bond of perfectness.

"In him we stand, a heavenly band,
Where He Himself is gone". (Hymn 12)

It is a heavenly company typified by Aaron and his sons. All are priests. You are for the moment apart from the Levite and from the common person; and yet you have to fulfil the function of the Levite and of the common person, each in its own place.

If as a common person I get by the Spirit of God any real apprehension of the sacrifice of Christ, or appreciation in my soul, by the Spirit of God, of Christ, this contributes to me as priest. So, too, if as Levite I receive any joy or encouragement in service, this is to pay its tithe to the priest, and as the priest is contributed to himself he contributes to every other priest. The point in the chapter is that all, both the people and Levites, were contributory to the priests, who had charge of the sanctuary and the altar. There were three different classes in Israel; in Christianity they all are represented in the one person.

The priest, as priest, had no lot nor inheritance among the people. Jehovah was their inheritance.

It is a wonderful conception to my mind. I see the grandeur of the High Priest. Christ is the great High Priest in resurrection, and the power of life out of death is manifested in Him. Then there is

the company identified with Him and with the sanctuary, as Aaron and his sons. Then there is the service of the Levites, who minister to the priests; and then there are the common people, who by means of the priests and Levites are sustained in their relations with God.

You see what is brought out from the terrible rebellion of Korah. The necessity is seen of the distinctness of the priesthood. We should never enter into God's purpose for us except for Christ's intervention: "He ever liveth to make intercession for us".

There is no priesthood now after the flesh according to God. Such as you get is an ignoring of the Spirit of God, and is rebellion against the priesthood of Christ. The Spirit of God can hardly have done us a greater service than to open our eyes to the fearful and deadly character of what is around us. The ground on which the true priests minister to God is that they are risen with Christ, in that sense are outside of the flesh. They enter the holiest through the way which Christ has made for them, through the veil -- that is to say, His flesh. He has consecrated the way for them, and they are associated in the divine light and presence with the One whose priesthood is attested by resurrection; because He continueth ever, He hath an unchangeable priesthood.

I fear that some may not perhaps have understood or been able to follow what I have attempted to bring before you; but I think that if you ponder the chapters, things that may have for the moment appeared difficult will really bring light and help, by the Spirit of God, into your soul.

THE WATER OF PURIFICATION -- THE SERVICE OF PRIESTHOOD.

Numbers 20

I have read this chapter, but not as intending to confine myself strictly to what comes out in it; for I want rather to take it up in connection with chapter 19, which brings to light the provision of the water of purification.

I read the chapter for the reason that it forms the conclusion of what may be called the first part of the wilderness, or one might even say the conclusion of the wilderness proper. The proof of that is that Aaron dies. It was a principle in regard to Israel that a certain state or order of things came to an end with the decease of the priesthood. The people were not yet arrived at the land, but the wilderness proper closes. The next chapter, when we come to it, begins with the Canaanites, the brazen serpent and so on, and, with the rest of the Book of Numbers, is occupied with another subject.

The first part of Numbers, down to chapter 20, is occupied with God's dispositions for the people, and with their responsibility as in the wilderness but what comes more into view in the remaining part of the book is the people's state. Not exactly their practical or responsible state, but typically the state in which the people must be to enter the land. The introduction to that is in the brazen serpent. The connection between the purpose of God and our state is very interesting. Wherever you get light in regard to God's purpose in Christ, scripture invariably takes up in connection with it the state of the Christian. The purpose of God is not exactly in our responsibility to walk in the Spirit. The purpose of God connects itself with our state, that is, the state in which we are formed by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Two things overlap in the Christian: the work of God in us in relation to His purpose, and His provision for us in the wilderness. This latter part closes with this chapter.

The connecting link between chapters 19 and 20 appears to be water; but the use or application of the water is very different iii the two chapters. In chapter 19 it is outward for purification; in chapter 20 it is inward for want and weariness. I connect them in my own mind with what is brought out in the New Testament in Romans 6 and 7.

What we have had before us on previous occasions has been to a large extent the bringing to light of the perverseness of the flesh, and the answer which God has given to it. We all have to learn this. Not one of us can escape these lessons. Great as the light may be that we have, you cannot avoid the discovery of the perverseness of the flesh. Ninety-nine people out of a hundred have to learn it after they are Christians. If you do not learn it before you are a Christian, you must learn it after you are converted.

The first elements we find are in the reminiscences of Egypt, and the reluctance of mind to enter into the purpose of God. Every Christian is hampered by these. The good things of Egypt, or what are thought by the flesh to be the good things, are natural to man; and the lust of them hangs about us as long as we are down here. Not that we delight in them exactly, but they revive; and we discover that we are naturally indisposed to enter into the purpose of God.

That is what came out in Israel, and God met it by bringing before His people the stability of His purpose; and if I know what the flesh is, it is at the same time a great comfort to me to be assured that God is not for a moment diverted from His purpose.

Another thing we noticed, last week, was the evil

of the intrusion of the flesh into the things of God, as seen in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. The priesthood was claimed by the Levites. The principle of it was the intrusion of the flesh into the service of God. In contrast to that God takes up the whole question of priesthood; bringing to light in type what the true order of priest is; and what is the attestation of the priest.

The spirit of the book of Numbers, is in a sense in strong contrast to the letter, and I will tell you how: the book presents typically things which, when the reality came in, would completely set aside the letter. When you come to Hebrews you come to the spirit of the teaching, the anti-type, and the letter is evidently and completely set aside. That comes out in a remarkable way in connection with the attestation of the priesthood. God had set up a priest after the flesh, Aaron; and yet in the budding of his rod it is seen that true priesthood must be after a new order altogether, namely, in resurrection -- "in the power of an endless life". That sets aside Aaron and his sons altogether; and this principle holds good in regard to us as Christians. We are not priests after the flesh. If Christ was not a priest after the flesh, surely we cannot be. The truth comes out in the Hebrews that we are priests because we are sons of God, that is, as risen together with Christ. Christians, as priests, are looked upon as on that footing, quickened with Christ, risen together with Him; it is to that footing, as risen, that priesthood appertains. That is the spirit and principle of what comes out here. You see how a book which gives an account of, and lays down directions for, the priesthood after the flesh contains principles that set aside its letter. The principles that come out in it involved the setting aside of the system it established. This came out so early as Numbers. Do you think

that man could have devised such a thing? If it were of man would he, while propounding a system to the people, have underlaid it by principles that involved its dissolution?

Now we come in chapters 19 and 20 to two important elements of God's dispositions for His people in the wilderness. The one is the water of purification in chapter 19; and the other the water from the rock in chapter 20, in answer to the cry of the people. The important point in the latter is, that the water from the rock comes forth in connection with priesthood. Thus we have God's provision for us as left down here in a scene of death, where it is very easy to contract defilement -- a dry and thirsty land, in which we all stand in need of ministration to our want and weariness. The two chapters are full of God's grace. Nothing but grace can carry us, such as we are, through the wilderness. If there were not grace to wash our feet, to remove defilement, we should entirely fall out of the way. The Lord brings this out in answer to Peter in John 13, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me". The Christian soon finds out, too, that he is not enough for himself; he becomes conscious of his weakness and of need of support, and of a ministration of grace to his want and weariness. The way in which this is furnished is what these two chapters unfold, and I will dwell upon it a little, by God's help.

The "red heifer" is the subject of chapter 19. God saw fit to provide a water of purification for the people. We are all, no doubt, acquainted with the force of that. The water and the ashes -- the latter carrying the witness of death -- were laid up for purification: for this reason (in its application to us), that death is here, and that it is morally impossible for a Christian to go through the world having to do with things in it, without contracting

defilement. You are continually brought into contact with death in a moral sense. Even in the circle of fellowship itself, we are brought into contact with it. We have to do there with evil; things come in which compromise christian fellowship. Flesh and evil break out; we cannot avoid having to do with these things, and the effect may be defilement. I fear that it is impossible for us, being what we are, to come into contact with evil without danger of being defiled by it. The contact may be inadvertent, like a man coming across a dead body or a bone, but you may be defiled.

I will tell why it is that we are so readily defiled. It is that the evil with which you come in contact has so much answer in yourself; and the very fact of having to do with it may come, in a way, between our souls and God.

Well, we find a divine provision to meet this. The water of purification was laid up, and it had to be applied on the third and on the seventh day. The blood of the red heifer was sprinkled once and for all before the tabernacle. God's righteousness was vindicated, so that it is not a question of the claim of God, or of imputation, but of the practical state of the person. For that reason it is that application was needed on the third day and the seventh.

I understand that the water of purification had its value because of its connection with the ashes of the red heifer, which was a memorial of the death of Christ; and hence arises its cleansing power to the spirit and mind of the Christian. The remembrance is brought home to one's soul of the death of Christ. Whatever you have allowed of evil in yourself Christ suffered for. The truth of this being brought home, the soul finds itself morally in contact with the death of Christ. You have the sense of what Christ died for -- that we might be maintained in

suitability to his death. The death of Christ is the standard for the Christian here: "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you", and we have to maintain consistency with that death. You cannot sanction in yourself anything for which Christ suffered, and in that sense the death of Christ is the standard. It is the carrying out of the principle of Romans 6. You have been buried with Him by baptism to death; then you "Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus". But that has to be maintained, and there, I should suppose, it is that the water of purification comes in.

There are two great principles or developments in us of evil, namely, lust and will; and if you have any discernment you will soon find the subtle way in which they work. If you are a person of taste you will be fond of art and tasteful things; if you are a vain person you will be fond of dress and fashion, and you may find what ministers to that every time you pass along the street. The heart of man naturally goes after the artificial system of the world, and the more you have known of the world the greater the danger. What I want to maintain is this, that it is inconsistent for the Christian to allow in himself anything for which Christ died. You have to maintain consistency with Christ's death, and for that the water of purification is provided. The water was applied by another. The man did not apply it for himself. We are thus responsible for one another. "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet". It has been said sometimes (and the expression reminds one of one's weakness), that if I see a spot in another, I am responsible to remove it; we may say it is a very difficult thing to do, but we must admit the responsibility to do it.

As to the application on the third day and on the seventh, I suppose the first application cleanses as to the conscience; the second brings about complete restoration of soul.

That is one item of God's provision, and connects itself, as I have said, with Romans 6. The latter brings out what you do not get in Numbers, the attitude of the Christian in regard to sin: "dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus". I do not continue in sin; I am dead to it; but at the same time sin is in me, and I need the water of purification to maintain me in communion with God. Scripture contemplates the possibility of the Christian sinning: "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous".

And now I pass on to chapter 20, to touch on the other very important point. The first thing to be noticed is that the people were growing old in the wilderness. Now you and I may grow old in the wilderness, and the things that we began with may, in a sense, be growing old in our estimation of them. If you go on only with what you began the wilderness with, you will become feeble, for there is not that in it which will maintain you in sustained spiritual vigour. Many a Christian began well and joyfully enough. The grace of God brought home to him that he was forgiven, saved; and he sang; he knew that he was delivered. Thus he began happily and brightly; but by the end of the wilderness journey he has become drooping and weary. The provision for the wilderness is enough for the wilderness, but you may grow old, and the power of what you began with may fade for you. One indication of this is in that Miriam died. The song that Miriam led was not so bright now as at the beginning.

I desire now to show the character of God's gracious disposition for the people. They wanted

water; there was no evil in that. The principle on which God was dealing with the people was grace. Priesthood in its power had come in. The water of purification had been provided, and now it was of His grace to provide water for them in the wilderness, not now to purify, but to minister to their wants and weariness. The principle of it is, that you are not under the law but under grace. We become conscious of want and weariness, and provision is made by priesthood to minister to us, so that we may be sustained in freshness and vigour.

The blessed ministry of the Spirit depends upon the priesthood. The people murmured, but what they said here was in measure true; it was not a land of vines and figs and pomegranates, and there was no water to drink. The wilderness yielded no water. The answer of God was in telling Moses to take the rod and Aaron his brother, and go and speak to the rock. In all this mere authority was of no avail. God was going to minister through the priesthood, which had been vindicated by the budding of Aaron's rod.

Now Moses did not enter into the mind of God; he did not rise to the grace of God: he smote the rock, and for that reason he was prohibited from entering into the land. The goodness of God is seen overcoming the murmurings of the people by ministering to them in grace.

I see that same principle in Romans 7. You are attached to the priest, and it is, I think, that He may so minister to us in our weariness and weakness, as that we may bring forth fruit to God. How are you going to do this without water? Did ever a tree bring forth fruit without moisture? We want water, and that is the provision of God for us through the Priest. The people in our chapter drank; their want was met; they were refreshed.

The painful part was the way in which the failure

fell upon Moses, though one hardly cares to speak in such a way in regard to one of the most honoured servants of God. But though Moses forfeited his entry into the land, it could perhaps hardly have been otherwise. The law could never lead man into the light of the purpose of God. Life-giving grace alone could do it. Israel was brought into the land under the leadership of Joshua; Moses passed away; so too Aaron and Miriam; none of those who brought them out of Egypt were left. They could only go into the land under one who was the figure of Christ risen.

Now they come to the land of Edom and they have to compass it. I have no new thought about this, but I think Edom does not, like the Canaanites, represent spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, nor even what was seen in Sihon and Og. Edom was a people kindred to Israel, and the latter were not allowed to touch them. It made the people weary to compass the land; but there were those with whom they were not allowed to come in conflict. It contains a lesson for us. There are those, kindred in a sense to the people of God, whom we have rather to avoid than to fight with.

Then Aaron dies, and this is the end of the question of responsibility, pure and simple. There are two aspects in which you may regard a Christian: either as responsible here, or according to the purpose of God. The Christian regarded in his responsibility here has to continue in the faith; not to be moved away from the hope -- and that in a sense comes to a close in this chapter. We have seen what is God's provision for our support in responsibility; but after this chapter we come into-the light of life, and our state in regard to that. In the first part of the book we have found what the Christian is learning by bitter experience, the perverseness of the flesh, but at the same time have seen the stability of

God's purpose. We have noticed the true character of priesthood, and the blessed dispositions of God for the people in regard to what they had to come in contact with down here.

All this is very blessed. We are in a world in which it is very easy to get defiled, among other ways by getting into a false position; for example, in association with worldly kindred. In this way people get into positions for which their faith is not equal. It is a great thing to be kept out of temptation. You will recall Peter in the high priest's palace, he had no business there; he was not there for testimony, the Lord was. The Lord had prayed for him; and you get at the close of John's gospel the Lord setting Peter free from the effects of his contamination, and discovering to him what had led to the failure. Peter learned thus a very serious lesson, he could no longer trust in Peter; and we have to learn the same lesson. I think we sometimes rush into positions to which we are not equal. I echo the Lord's words: "Lead us not into temptation". It is a great thing to be kept out of temptation; to be kept from positions for which we have not faith. Humanly speaking Peter would not have denied the Lord if he had kept out of the high priest's palace.

There are many associations and places in this world in which I would not care to trust myself. The Lord went into many places into which I could not go, for He could not be contaminated. I can be very easily. But if contaminated there is the water of purification available. The first step of return with Peter was when he wept bitterly, and the second when the Lord spoke to him in John 21.

Then there is, besides, the danger of becoming weary in the wilderness. We need shepherd care and restoration of soul. We want the word to be so applied in the power of the Spirit as that the

soul may be refreshed and invigorated. Have you never known that want? That want finds its answer in the practical application of priesthood. The conscience of the Christian is searched by the word of God; and priesthood comes in that you may not be weary by the roughness and dreariness of the way: "He restoreth my soul" is a beautiful expression. You get renovated. That is the effect of priesthood; and the object is that you may bring forth fruit to God. The purpose of the priest is to draw you to Himself, and in drawing you to Himself He brings you into the light of divine purpose. Now you find that when He draws you to Himself you are consciously in company with Him, and He brings you into the light of the Father's love. If you would know anything about divine purpose it is expressed and revealed to you in Christ Himself, and there only. He draws you to Himself that you may know Him, not only as Saviour, but that you may know the divine purpose about you of which He is the pattern, and then He conducts you into the blessed liberty of the Father's presence. He will bring you into the Father's house by-and-by.

But that is beyond what has been before us at this time.

May the Lord give us to know experimentally the great reality of God's provisions for the wilderness!

If the Lord enable me, we may another time view the Christian on other ground; we may travel on to the light of God's purpose for him. That is quite another line.

LIGHT AND LIFE

Numbers 21

We come in this chapter to what may be called a second part of the Book of Numbers. In the simple history of the children of Israel the book runs on consecutively in the sequence of events related; but looking at it typically, in the moral significance of what is presented, this chapter opens up a distinct subject from what has preceded.

There are two things with which, as Christians, we have to do, namely, light and life. They necessarily meet in the Christian, but in themselves they are distinct things. We see this in Genesis 1. In Christianity the revelation of God is light, but the work of God in man is life. Most people realise that they have light from God before they know very much about life. Christ was the light of the world, and He also gives life to the world.

Now, so far as I understand, the Book of Numbers down to chapter 20 is connected more with light and the effects of light. From chapter 21 the subject is life and its consequences.

You get a great point coming out in chapter 21 in connection with the serpents -- the people were bitten by them, they were thus in the midst of death; but this principle is revealed: whosoever looked, lived. Their prayer to Moses was to intercede with the Lord to take the serpents away; but God did not see fit to remove the serpents, but gave the people an object of faith. Their looking was, I judge, the evidence, typically, of a work of God. You may say looking was the way of life. Well, it was; but in itself it was really of God. You cannot conceive that the power was in the look, but in the work of God which connected itself with their

looking. It was the way that God appointed. There is no power in faith; the power is in the work of God that is beneath faith. There was faith, I admit, but it would have been valueless but for a work of God beneath the look.

What we have had in the first twenty chapters, after the deliverance of the people from Egypt and from Pharaoh, and their being brought into the wilderness, has been God's ordering and appointment for them in the wilderness -- God's provision. From chapter 21 the subject of life gives character to the remainder of the Book of Numbers. I will tell you the proofs of this. One is, that you get very little more about priesthood. Priesthood has another application. Then you have the prophecies of Balaam; he looks from above upon the elect people of God, and announces the thought of God in regard to them. This could not properly have had place in the first part of Numbers. And then again, a great deal is said about the inheritance, and, in fact, Israel begins to possess it, for part of their inheritance fell to them on that side Jordan.

All this proves to me that the point of this part of the book is life, and life brings in the thought of divine purpose. In the gospel God comes out and brings salvation to man. In receiving that testimony people do not understand the purpose of God. God is sovereign in the question of life, because it is of the purpose of His love. "As the Father raises up the dead and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom He will". Thus God is sovereign in the question of life; but in the gospel, looked at as the revelation of God, He approaches everybody. The gospel is free to all, and the light shines to all. It comes out to man, irrespective of Jew or Gentile.

Now I desire to dwell upon the truth in these two lights, for I could not make this chapter clear otherwise.

The object of the gospel -- the glad tidings of God to man -- was to make God known to man. That is seen very clearly in Romans. God was approaching man in His grace with the object of making Himself known to man. Thus He reveals Himself in righteousness and love in the death of Christ, in order that, God being thus made known to man, the works of the enemy might be destroyed. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might undo the works of the devil". It is clear enough that when the work of Christ comes home to a man's heart, the work of the devil is undone for that man. He has power only because and where God is unknown.

It is thus that you get, in figure, the destruction of the enemy in the Red Sea, which was the figure of death as God's judgment on man. But now death has become in Christ the expression of His love; and God having come near in that way, "commending his love", we go to Him as to One who has come out, and come close to us in love. That is the way the truth works. When once it is apprehended that Christ has come down into death to give expression to God's love, the work of the devil is undone. I do not now fear the accuser. No doubt the enemy accuses the people of God, but he accuses them to One who loves them. What is the value of an accusation in the eye of the One who loves us?

That is what is apprehended in the Red Sea. Other consequences come in: for example, deliverance from sin, and the order of priesthood. They come in in the line of light, and are God's provision for a redeemed people in the wilderness. All this is connected with the light of God in the soul.

Now there is another line of truth that runs parallel with that. The gospel is not only that in which God has revealed Himself, so that the revelation

should be light in the heart of man, but it is that by which God effects the purpose of His love; and the moment you bring in the purpose of His love you must bring in the thought of life. And if God had not had a purpose of love man would have had no hope. When man had resisted every overture on the part of God, and set himself in defiant opposition of God, the only hope that remained for him was in the accomplishment of God's purpose. He had certain purposes to accomplish, and He comes out in Christ to give effect to the eternal purpose of His love. If we have "fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us", the basis of that hope is the purpose of God, and there is no hope for man apart from that.

I refer to a few scriptures to substantiate this. My point is, that in a sense a Christian begins with the brazen serpent. Historically this comes after a great deal else in the Book of Numbers; but in the presentation of the gospel a Christian begins there -- perhaps not consciously, but he does begin with it.

There are two distinct lines in regard to the gospel taken up in the New Testament. In Romans the gospel is presented as revealing God; in other parts it is presented as that by which God accomplishes His purpose. Wherever you have the latter you will find that the cross, as the anti-type of the brazen serpent, comes into view. In Romans 3, 4, 5, God is made known in righteousness, power, and love as set forth typically in the blood in Egypt and the Red Sea. But if we turn to 1 Corinthians, or to Hebrews or to 2 Timothy or to John, these all begin with the cross, that is, they begin with the condemnation of man's state in the flesh, in order that God might be able to communicate the Spirit to man, to form him according to His purpose in another state.

Now, that is where God begins to accomplish His purpose. He has brought man's state to an end in the cross of Christ to His glory, with the object that He might communicate the Spirit to man; and that the Spirit in the believer might, as a well of water, spring up in him to eternal life. That is not exactly the thought of God giving man light about Himself. The two lines appear to my mind to run parallel. If you take 1 Corinthians, for instance, the apostle recalls what he had preached among them, namely, "Jesus Christ, and him crucified". That was the anti-type of the brazen serpent. He says, "I was determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified". This is not exactly the thought of the Red Sea or of the blood in Egypt; not the glorifying in death of God's attributes, but the demonstration and condemnation of man's state in the flesh, in order that the Spirit might be communicated to the believer. In 1 Corinthians 1 the prominent thought is the cross; in chapter 2, the Spirit -- the one is the consequence of the other.

Again, in John 3 we learn that the Son of man must be lifted up, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness". And what follows on that is seen in John 4 in the Lord saying to the woman of Samaria: "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water". In one chapter it is the Son of man lifted up, and in the next it is the consequent gift of the water which Christ gives, which there can be little doubt refers to the Spirit.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews we have the same in principle: Christ in the grace of God having tasted death for everything, there is the development of God's purpose: God is "bringing many sons to glory".

In 2 Timothy we find the testimony of our Lord, who has "annulled death and brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel". How has death been annulled? I believe, in the condemnation of man's state in the flesh of Christ. But at the same time "life and incorruptibility" have been brought to light. Where do they lie? For us, evidently, in the Spirit. Where can you get the idea otherwise than in the Spirit? You get this most distinctly brought out in Romans 8"If Christ be in you ... the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he ... shall quicken your mortal bodies because of his Spirit that dwells in you".

Now I hope I have made that plain, for the distinction is of the greatest moment. Both things are proof of the goodness of God. It is wonderful goodness that God should make himself known to man as He has done in the gospel; at the same time God has the purposes of His love, and He will accomplish them. And His love relates to man -- "God so loved the world". How God has come out to give effect to that is, in the first place by the condemnation of man's state in the flesh in Christ crucified, and in consequence of that the impartation of the Spirit to the believer to be in him a well of water, springing up to eternal life.

I understand by Christ crucified the setting forth or demonstration before God of man's true condition after the flesh. The true place of man at his best was the cross, as under the curse of a broken law. So Christ took that place as hanged on a tree -- "The Son of man must be lifted up". Having been thus set forth, death comes upon the state, "God condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:2). For the believer the blessed consequence was that God could give His Spirit. I refer again to Romans

8: 2 - 4. The Spirit was to come in. Where the law had been broken the righteous requirements of the law were to be fulfilled. And by whom? By the one who is after the Spirit.

Have you ever looked at the cross in that light? The Son of God became man, "made of a woman, made under the law"; but He never was in the real position of man until He went to the cross, for every man except Christ Himself was under the curse of a broken law. Death too was upon man. All those that the Lord moved among were under the curse. Christ took that place on the cross, and only there; He was lifted up that there might be the full setting forth of man's true state and place. This was effected in the Son of God's love so that His purpose of love might be accomplished: "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have eternal life". That work was effected when Christ died; and the blessed answer has been in the communication of God's Spirit to man in order that man might be formed in a completely new state. That is where we begin as Christians.

I quite admit that having begun in that way we have need to learn the previous part of Numbers; but if we have accepted the testimony of the cross, and the Spirit has been imparted to us, it is clear that we have begun with what is typically set forth in Numbers 21.

The apostle had preached Christ in that way to the Corinthians: "Jesus Christ and him crucified". He would set forth nothing less. He would set Him forth thus in order to bring out the sovereign purpose of God's love: the condemnation of man's state in nature, that He might impart the Spirit to man, leaving no place for man in the flesh.

There are three distinct types of the death of

Christ: The blood in Egypt; the Red Sea; and the brazen serpent. They may be apprehended in detail, but you must remember that they all came to pass when Christ died. It was all one death, and when Christ died all was done as before God; and the apostle's testimony was of Christ crucified. All had been effected in the cross that God might accomplish the purpose of His love. But if I have apprehended the cross, and the Spirit has been communicated, I must apprehend the other part of the truth of the gospel, the light of God, of His righteousness and power and love; and other lessons, the lessons of the wilderness, have to be learnt, such as the character of the scene in which I am, my weakness, the need of support and sympathy, in a word the need of priesthood. But these lessons may be learned by one who has already learned something of Numbers 21, that is, the truth of the brazen serpent. If we are in the position of the Corinthians we have to go back to learn them. They had to go back, I judge, to Romans in a sense. These lessons are of vital importance to us morally -- I would not forego them for a moment. I would not be without the knowledge of God in His righteousness and power; and I would be conscious of my dependence upon Christ for support, so that I may bring forth fruit to God.

If it were possible to begin as in Romans 3 with the light of God, you might not have thus to go back; but the fact is that nine-tenths begin with what Numbers 21 presents, Christ crucified, man's state condemned, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, of which the Lord speaks in John 4.

There are three principal points which come out in this chapter: First the lifting up of the serpent on the pole; then the springing up of the well; and finally the victory over Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan. And yet the

people were not really out of the wilderness as a place, for the wilderness is mentioned in the chapter; and moreover in John 3 the Lord says: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up". They were not out of it as a place, but they were out of it as a course or order of dealings.

In the end of chapter 20 we had come to the end of the wilderness in a sense, for Miriam is dead and Aaron also. After that all was changed. We find in chapter 21 that whosoever looked lived; then there was the springing up of the wells of water, and finally victory over the two kings. In the doctrine of the New Testament you have the anti-type of it all in Romans 8.

The first part of the chapter involves as we have seen a very important point; that is, new birth. Many would say there is not a word about new birth in the chapter! but I am sure it is implied. There never was a person yet who looked at the serpent of brass and lived -- who really believed on the Son of man lifted up -- unless he was born again. That I have not a doubt about for a moment. I believe the looking to be the result of the work of God. The Lord brings this out in John 3. No one could appreciate the thought of the Son of God having come down from heaven (for that is the truth) and taking the place of sin upon the cross, without a work of God in his soul. I am confident that faith in the Son of man lifted up is the evidence of a divine work in the soul. If I were a gospel preacher I could go and preach the gospel to any one; but if you ask me whether a person can apprehend the Son of man come down from heaven, the only begotten Son of God taking the place of sinful flesh upon the cross, without a divine work in his soul, I answer, No!

The work of God has begun in making a person

conscious that he is bitten. The people were deeply exercised about the matter, they felt the bites; they had as to themselves come out in a dreadful character: "our soul loatheth this light bread". There was proved to be no affinity between man's flesh and the bread of God which came down from heaven. That makes evident that there must be a work of God even for apprehension. "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God".

And now to come to the great point: "Whosoever looked lived". You get the title to life here; but it is the way of it that I want to come to, and that is, that I live for God not as in the flesh but as in the Spirit. I do not live with God in my natural life so to speak, but in the Spirit. It is not in my natural life that the link with God is. It lies in the Spirit. So much so that scripture says, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his". I may carry out natural things as one of those who live to God; that is right. Everything is to be done to the glory of God, "whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God". But our life with God is not in eating and thinking, not in business or natural things, but in the Spirit; and if you want to live with God I think you must learn to distinguish yourself as, in that sense, apart from the flesh. I have a life in flesh, but my life with God is not there. I seek to fulfil every obligation of my life in flesh according to God; but I shall have to leave all these things. You must see that your life with God is in the Spirit, and that is apart from this scene. It is eternal. One of the most blessed things you can know down here is the ability to withdraw from all connected with the flesh, to live with God. The Christian delights to realise that he lives to God because his life is in the Spirit.

There is an appeal here, "Spring up, O well!" The water springs up from below. It was not water from the rock. It is the "nether well", so to speak. The "upper well" is Christ; the nether well is the Spirit in the Christian. You get in Romans 8 "The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus"; "the Spirit is life because of righteousness".

Now I will tell you what the effect is; where it brings you. It brings you to Christ; that is the great point in life. The Spirit of life draws you to Christ in a new light; you begin to apprehend Christ as the revelation and expression of God's purpose. I wish I could make this plain, for it is only in Christ that you apprehend life. You first know Him as Saviour and Lord; but in life you are drawn to Christ and know Him as the blessed expression of divine purpose. He is thus the illumination of the soul, and makes known now the Father's love. He makes Himself known too as Head; as the Firstborn among many brethren, the many sons whom God is bringing to glory. I begin to apprehend Christ in that light because my soul is drawn to Him. If you want to know anything about eternal life you learn it in Christ. Sonship too you learn in Christ. He is the Firstborn among many brethren. And now my soul has life. The Spirit in me springs up to everlasting life. And the Spirit directs, leads, draws me; He compels me to Christ, so that I may apprehend in Christ the full blessed light of divine purpose.

And another thing comes to pass: I begin to follow Him and, to conquer, I come in contact with the opposition of the enemy, Sihon and Og. Conflict is with the powers of evil -- the devil and the things he puts in your path, and these even before you get across Jordan; and what is the experience that results from it? That we are "more than conquerors through him that loves us". All this

is seen in Romans 8. You are conscious of Christ's love, and are more than conquerors through Him. He is the intercessor, and through His love you are a conqueror. The devil will come against you in some shape or form, but you are conscious that nothing can separate you from Christ's love; Christ intercedes, and thus you are more than conqueror through Him.

The power of the Spirit of life in you has acted in that way to draw you to Christ as the blessed light and expression of God's purpose.

I am confident of the truth of what I am saying, that many of God's people apprehend Christ as Lord and Saviour who have not apprehended Him as the blessed expression of divine purpose in regard to us. Scripture can say: "The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren". "The second man is out of heaven", and "As is the heavenly, such are also the heavenly ones". He is the pattern, the image or exact expression of what we are to be. He has become that, and is so made known to us, and the Spirit draws our souls to Him in that light.

I think the above are the three points that come out in this chapter: the serpent lifted up; the complete condemnation of man's state in the cross of Christ; this is apprehended and accepted, and the blessed consequence is, that we live in the power of the Holy Ghost who dwells in us. This emancipates you, and the Spirit, the mighty power in you, directs you to the wonderful point, the blessed Christ Himself, as the revelation of divine purpose. I apprehend Him now. I can say: "He is the true God and eternal life". I become conscious of His love, He intercedes for me, and I am upheld by His love. The great kings may come against us, seeking to terrify, but we are more than conquerors.

The apostle says, We are as sheep accounted for the slaughter; but he is persuaded that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You have come into a new region, into the region of divine purpose, and to the One who is the full and blessed expression of it. All is on the line of purpose and life.

If we have another opportunity I will touch on the prophecies of Balaam, which give us the elect people of God, the people who are to inherit the land.

May God give us to apprehend these things, and to have more understanding of them in His grace.

THE PROPHECIES OF BALAAM

Numbers 23:1 - 10, 18 - 24; Numbers 24:1 - 9, 15 - 25

I sought on the last occasion to draw a distinction between the first part of Numbers up to chapter 20, and the remainder of the book from chapter 21, which really presents another subject. I tried to show that in the experience of peoples' souls the two parts might probably go on together. A great many souls begin with Numbers 21 as the result of the presentation to them of the gospel. They have begun with the testimony of life; that is, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life". I think it has been said that this is not the beginning of the gospel. I admit it is not in a moral sense. In a moral sense I think that the gospel is the fulfilment of the type of the Red Sea -- the death and resurrection of Christ; but in the presentation of the truth as in John 3 the gospel begins with life. Other parts of scripture correspond to this. The apostle speaks to Timothy of life and incorruptibility brought to light by the gospel. People may get their first impressions from that, and thus begin really with Numbers 21. But then you cannot escape the other part! It is certain that if God goes on with us we must be affected by the light of God. You cannot conceive of a soul being formed according to God that has not been affected by the light of God. God must be known by man in all that He is in righteousness, power, and love. God shines out as light, and that in the presence of Christ. The light has come in to test man. Light must enter the soul of the believer, and there are certain consequences which are bound to follow, and these are

brought out in type and shadow in the first twenty chapters of Numbers.

I will just glance over the points that have come before us in these chapters before I go on to my present subject.

We began with the pillar of cloud and of fire, as connected with the tabernacle of witness. They were the means of divine guidance. There is guidance from God down here, but connected with the testimony. In a country there are roads, in a city there are streets, but in a wilderness there is no way, there are no roads. We cannot find our way; and we want divine guidance. God comes out to His people to guide them, but He connects the guidance with the tent of testimony; and to enjoy that guidance you must stand in relation to the tent of the testimony.

Then another point came before us: that was the perverseness of the flesh in two directions -- one, the hankering after Egypt, the land of flesh; and the other, the natural indisposition of the heart to enter into the purpose of God. That came out very distinctly with the children of Israel. Even when the testimony of the spies came to them, and they saw the fruit of the land, they betrayed the greatest possible indisposition to go up. While dealing with the perverseness, God most blessedly brings out His glory, the stability of His purpose. However contrary the people may be, His purpose and His glory will most certainly be displayed. God has been completely glorified. All hangs upon the sacrifice of Christ. Not only has sin been removed, but God has been glorified, and glory will yet be displayed. The earth is to be filled with the glory of the Lord.

Another characteristic of flesh which we saw was its readiness to intrude itself into the service of God. This came out in the rebellion of Korah,

Dathan, and Abiram. The Levites claimed the priesthood because they were Levites. The principle comes out in the most naked form in Christendom in the idea of a clergy. It is spoken of in the New Testament as "the gainsaying of Kore". God's answer to it was, that only the priests, who were in connection with the tabernacle, were to draw near, and the common people could not come nigh the sanctuary. The lesson for us is, that in the service of God we draw nigh only in the character of priests. The function of the Levite, or the duties of the common person, have to be left aside. We have to be conscious of our ability as priests to draw nigh, apart from what we are as Levites or common people. In the case of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the common people formed three distinct classes; but in Christianity all are combined in one person.

Then another point came before us, that is, the two principles by which God carries His people through the wilderness. The experience and lessons of the wilderness depend upon the light of God. God is revealed to the Christian, and that being so there must be certain moral consequences that flow from it. If God is made known to me in righteousness, it is a moral impossibility that I can go on in sin: I have no option about it. Again, if God is made known to me in grace the necessary response is that I bring forth fruit unto God. All this is not arbitrary, but what I should call the necessary moral effects of the light of God having come into the soul.

Now God helps us in regard of these things. In connection with righteousness and sin we have the "water of purification"; and in connection with bringing forth fruit to God we have the refreshment that comes from priesthood. Christ is interceding for us; He supports us; and we get refreshment

by the Spirit so that we may bring forth fruit unto God.

All that is what I should call the consequence of the light of God in the soul. The light is an immense thing; and there are certain consequences that must flow from it. If a person does not see the necessity of these things I very much doubt if such an one has the light of God. He may know texts of scripture, and yet not have the knowledge of God in the soul. Where the light of God is in the soul it is impossible that a man can go on with what is exposed by it. He cannot go on with sin. If he comes in contact with it he wants the water of purification.

That closes the first part of Numbers; the death of the high priest comes in. I say again that the wilderness is the consequence of the light of God in the soul; and we see His provisions that we might be helped, and that He may have fruit. God looks for fruit for Himself. Fruit and righteousness are very intimately connected. The apostle speaks to the Philippians of: "Being filled with the fruit of righteousness which is by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God". And again we read, "The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace".

Well, as I have said, all that ends with the death of the high priest. You may be sure that when you come to the death of the high priest another chapter is to be opened up. That is found in chapter 21. There the subject is the purpose of God, and life in connection with that purpose. We apprehend this in the death of Christ; we see in it the expression of the love of God toward man, but we see that death in another light, and that is, as the ground on which God accomplishes His purpose in regard of man. In Christ the state of man after the flesh has been condemned; and God can bring about another state in man to accomplish His purpose. That I

believe to be the force and teaching of the brazen serpent. God is love; His love to the world came out in the death of Christ; but there is also the sovereignty of love, and life comes in in connection with that.

The light of the gospel shines like the light of the sun to every one; but in respect of life God claims to be sovereign, and as sovereign He quickens. "As the Father raises up the dead and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom he will". In that connection, most unquestionably God claims sovereignty. He fulfils the purpose of His love in quickening whom He will. And I do not think this conflicts with the truth of the gospel, in which the light and grace of God is presented to every one. As a matter of fact many refuse the light, but God will none the less accomplish His purpose.

Two other points came out in that connection. One was the springing up of the well. The groundwork was the Son of man being lifted up, the state of man condemned in the death of Christ, as the apostle speaks to the Corinthians. He was determined to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified -- the condemnation of man, root and branch. The Son of man was content to take a place between earth and heaven. He had Himself glorified God on earth; but in the cross he takes a place between earth and heaven on behalf of others. He took that place that God, in Him, might bring about the purpose of His love, "That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life". He is thus the proper object of faith. As to the manner in which the purpose is effectuated in man, it is by the well of water springing up to eternal life. This is what Christ gives.

There was another point, namely, the victory over the two kings, Sihon and Og. We have come

here to overcoming. You are on firm ground, the ground of the purpose of God. It is a great thing to have the light of God in the soul; but it is equally important to have the soul established in divine purpose. If it were possible to have the light of God without the knowledge of His purpose, what security would you have as to yourself? Do you think you would be certain to continue in the faith? You would not have much security without the work of God in the soul, and that is connected with His purpose. "He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ". We have to look at the two things: there is the work of God for us, and there is the work of God in us, and the latter connected with His purpose. If aught depended on the responsibility of the creature it would fail, but all hangs now upon the sovereign purpose of God.

So we have begun with a new subject in chapter 21, and this involves another important fact: the people are now looked at typically in the light of the elect of God, who are to inherit the land. The apostle Paul said, "I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory". And so in the future, even with regard to the earth, there is the elect Israel. From chapter 21 you find another company, not the company numbered as having come out of Egypt. They are typical of the elect Israel, the Israel that are to inherit the land, not the Israel after the flesh. Flesh does not enter into the purposes of God.

Those that God brought out of Egypt were tested after the flesh and perished in the wilderness. But God intends to carry out His purpose in the elect Israel; and what brings them to light is life. I could not tell you who are the elect of God; I can only discern them by God's work in them, no one

could possibly tell them otherwise. What I am leading up to is the prophecies of Balaam. If you do not look at them as referring to the elect of God, it is impossible to understand them at all.

One thing is indisputable, Balaam never saw the people as they were. What he saw were the tents. He looked at the people from above, from the top of the rock. He saw Israel abiding in their tents by their tribes. He did not look inside the tents; if he had, he would have seen a very different sight; but he surveyed them from above in the vision of God. His utterances were prophetic. God took up Balaam, and held such possession of the man and of his mind, that he could not help uttering what God intended him to say, he could not do what he himself desired. You must look at him in that light, for he gives us a prophetic view of the elect Israel. The matter is simple if you accept the division I have already made in the book, and see that chapter 21 brings you to new ground, to the purpose of God and life.

I think that the Lord alludes in principle to the same thing in John's gospel in saying, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live" (chapter 5: 25). The Lord looked on all in the world as morally dead, and indicates that His voice would bring to light the elect of God, the subjects of divine purpose; and so it will be in the future with regard to Israel.

Now I just take up these prophecies in detail. I will only attempt to give you the leading feature in each prophecy -- I could not go into them fully. You notice that there are four distinct prophecies, they were not one utterance. Each one of these four utterances has its own distinct point and subject. It is very important to observe this. Can you conceive a more wonderful thing than our

getting such prophecies as these through such a person as Balaam? When you think that what Balaam really presented was the mind of God in regard to a heavenly people on earth, it is still more amazing. Without controversy these prophecies were uttered hundred of years before Christianity existed; and yet you get this man announcing what God's thought is in regard to Christians, God's true people in the wilderness. If any one wants a proof of the unity of the word of God, that the Author is one, that it is the work of one Spirit, you get it in such a fact as this.

Another point is, that until Christianity came in not a single soul really understood these prophecies. Until the Holy Ghost came there was no intelligence as to them. "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning". The people who were contemporary did not understand them. I do not even know that they ever heard them. They are recorded by Moses, God gave them to him; but we have no knowledge that the people heard them at the time. As a matter of fact they portray a heavenly people here in the wilderness. As I said, you must bear in mind that they relate to the elect people of God. Christians are that now. You must, in considering them, exclude the idea of flesh and profession for a moment, and look simply at the elect people of God.

What is the first mark that comes out as characterising such a people? A very important one indeed: complete sanctification. The people were to dwell alone and not to be reckoned among the nations. They had no part in the common history of the world. You cannot write a history of the people of God. The history of the children of Israel was never compiled. Scripture does not give you their history. If you were to take from the record of the Old Testament what is not history, namely, divine

interpositions, and so on, you would have little or nothing left. Their national history was never compiled. They were to dwell alone. Sanctification, setting apart to God, was essential, in their case it was national. In the true sense sanctification is by the Spirit, that is how Christians now are set apart; we have no wall of partition around us. Christians are set apart in the power of the Holy Ghost to God. And the great point to my mind is that there is such a thing as sanctification, not of a race, but by the Holy Ghost, who sets apart the people of God for God. I do not think there was the sanctification of the Spirit until He came; but from that moment there was the setting apart to God of God's elect people down here. Flesh and profession have no part in that. It is the course which the Spirit of God takes unknown to man, as, for instance, the apostle Paul was set apart from his mother's womb. The Spirit is conscious of every one and everything, and He is working, that the elect people may be a separated people. Why? Because the world is an evil world. All that is in it, "The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world". Therefore the Holy Spirit is here as the power of sanctification. The design of the Spirit in His dwelling down here, is the setting apart of a heavenly people. That is what Paul laboured for, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified in the Holy Ghost.

In the second prophecy the elect people are under the eye of God entirely justified, none can call them in question. God is the justifier. The truth of this comes out in Romans 8 as regards ourselves. "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth". His elect people are in His eye entirely apart from all possibility

of blame. They are out of the reach of the enemy, because no accusation can stand against them. "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel". What an amazing thing that God can view His people in that light! There is not only the Spirit's sanctification, but in virtue of what has been effected the people of God are without reproach in the eye of God.

There is progress in these prophecies, and the third prophecy takes you a point further, announcing something beyond the previous ones. It is not here sanctification, nor that the people are without blame; but the beauty of the people is presented in their divine order in the eye of God. The order of the people is that which God appointed. It was not left to Israel to pitch their tents according to their mind. Their tents were all pitched, according to the divine order, in relation to the tent of the testimony. It is most important to remember that Balaam did not see inside the tents. He saw Israel abiding in their tents according to their tribes, and said: "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!" The wicked man went to get enchantments, but they failed him; he was compelled to speak in the power of the Spirit, and to announce the ordered beauty of the people. This man was thus used of God to furnish these wonderful prophecies as to God's people. If the brazen serpent had not come in, it might have been possible to curse the people as Balaam wished to do. But now there was nothing to curse. God had anticipated the curse by the brazen serpent, and when Balaam comes upon the scene the curse had been met and sin condemned; and all that Balaam could do was to show that the people of God were sanctified, justified, and in perfect beauty and order according to God.

If he had looked inside their tents he would have

seen plenty of ugly flesh; God will deal with that in discipline; but when the enemy looks at the people, he can only say they are comely, they are beautiful.

What order has God put upon us? We are not a people abiding in our tents around the tent of the testimony; but I see a beauty put upon Christians; and their comeliness in the eye of God is that Christ is upon them, and not only Christ upon them but Christ in them. Christ is written in the fleshy tables of the heart in the lines of the Holy Ghost, so that properly speaking, in that sense, Christians are Christ's epistle. They are that in the eye of God; that is the comeliness and beauty which He has put upon His people. You get an illustration of this in the parable of the prodigal. His comeliness was the best robe, the ring, the shoes, all that the father ordered the servants to put upon him that he might be suitable to the father's eye, that his eye might rest upon him with satisfaction. So the eye of God looked upon Israel with divine satisfaction. All will be fulfilled without doubt in regard to them, but I am sure that what we have here is descriptive of a heavenly people now -- the elect of God in the wilderness.

In this point of view, in the purpose of love, God sees them as holy and beloved. Christ was the elect of God here, and necessarily everything that was beautiful and comely to God? It says of Him, "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth". And who have taken the place of the elect of God now? Christians are the elect of God, and God has put upon them the best robe that they may be beautiful in His eye.

Balaam had to announce this. His is an extraordinary case. He represents officialism invested with the prestige of the name of God. He had the place of a prophet, and the glamour of the name of God, and yet was a man going to the devil to get

enchantments! I am afraid there is a great deal of that kind of thing in Christendom in the present day. Men are invested with Christ's name, but they do not go for light to Christ; they honour the Virgin Mary, and saints, and all that sort of thing -- like going to the devil for enchantments. I strongly suspect Balaam prefigures such practices. We read in the address to Philadelphia (Revelation 3:9), "The synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie".

One word more as to the last prophecy. This has, I think, more distinct relation to Israel, for it refers to the Star and the Sceptre, and alludes to the hereditary enemies of Israel -- Moab and Edom and Asshur and Amalek -- these enemies of Israel would be completely set aside, and Israel would have his place cleared upon the earth. It brings before us, in fact, the coming of the Lord. Of course, you can look upon it in a different light, for these nations represent moral principles: Moab, the pride of man; Edom, the haughty independence of man, and so on; and all must be completely subdued by the coming of the Lord. What place will there be then for the pride and haughtiness of man? "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day". If He has His proper place in your heart, what place is there for haughtiness? The antidote to it in the heart of the Christian is the Lord; and He will be the antidote to it all in the world. The enemies of the people of God will have no place at all. They will be set aside and their power broken; and the One to reign springs from the elect people of God. "There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall arise out of Israel".

Thus we have the climax in the coming of the Lord and the complete displacement of all that is of man.

Amalek comes especially into prominence for judgment. They were the first people that Israel came into conflict with after their deliverance out of Egypt.

My impression is, as I have said, that you cannot understand these prophecies of Balaam if you do not apprehend them as having their application to the elect people of God. They were not spoken until the generation that came out of Egypt had passed away, save Joshua and Caleb. Hence, as relating to another generation, they show what God's people are to Him; their sanctification, their justification, their beauty, and everything crowned by the coming of the Lord.

May the Lord give us to apprehend much more distinctly than we have ever before done, the wonderful and blessed character of the word of God!

THE SNARE OF EVIL ASSOCIATIONS -- THE LEADER OF OUR SALVATION

Numbers 25:1 - 5, 16 - 18; Numbers 26:1 - 4, 63 - 65; Numbers 27:12 - 23

I just call to mind the way in which I tried in a previous lecture to present the Book of Numbers to you; that is, in two main parts -- the first, down to chapter 20, the second, from chapter 21. If you look at Numbers in the light of the New Testament you will readily see that in chapter 21 you come on to new ground; you enter practically upon another phase of experience. You leave spiritually the order of things which closes up with the death of the high priest, and enter upon another course of things which begins with the brazen serpent. The brazen serpent is a striking type of the death of Christ. You get in Numbers the brazen serpent and the springing well. The anti-type to both is found in John 3 and 4, and they begin a new subject. It is evident that God may, if He sees fit, approach man, and He may do this in the presentation of life, or He may approach man in what He is morally as light; and the practical result of the latter is, that everything in man is exposed by the light, and much that is found in the early part of Numbers is consequent upon the light having come in. Other things may be there, no doubt, but what underlies all is light, things are seen in their true character -- in the light of God; and so in Romans 6 and 7 -- death to sin and the bringing forth of fruit to God are the natural consequences of light having come in. The presence of light involves that you must be set free from the dominion of sin; you have become the servant of righteousness, and you bring forth fruit by Christ to God. You may say that life must be concurrent with this. I quite admit it; but the

subject is light, and the necessary consequences of light in a man's soul.

Light is not the subject in John 3, though the Lord does speak there of light having come in, and of men loving darkness rather than light. Life does not test people as light does. The Lord could say light had come into the world; but it only brought out that men loved darkness rather than light. Men preferred the darkness of nature rather than to be in the light of grace. Their deeds would be reproved by the light. No doubt why men dislike the truth is because they have an instinctive consciousness by it that their deeds would be reproved, and they do not want this; they prefer to go on in their own way; nevertheless light is the test of all. "Every one that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God".

But my point is that John 3 makes it evident that God, if He sees fit, will approach man as a life-giver. This comes out in 2 Timothy, where we read that "Christ has annulled death, and brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel", and the gospel is the manner of God's approach in John 3 -- it is said, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". God has seen fit to approach man thus, presenting life in the Person of His only begotten Son, the Son of man lifted up. But still if the truth of John 3 is accepted, you must of necessity go back to prove the effects of light. Light must come in with its necessary consequences in the soul. There is no short cut in divine things. The testimony of life consists in the presentation of the love of God, and the cross as the expression of that love. The practical result is that the objects of God's purpose are brought to light by faith in the only begotten

Son of God. I know of no other way in which they can be known. There are two things that mark them, they believe in the Person, and they have in them the well of water that springs up to eternal life.

By faith I apprehend the Person, and not only what has been done; and that which corresponds to it in me is the well of water.

Now, when the objects of purpose are brought to light, what you see in principle is this that the Spirit of God will pronounce on their acceptance, hence we have the prophecies of Balaam. God impressed Balaam and gave him a prophetic word, so that he should announce his mind in regard to His elect people. Faith has brought them to light, and they are marked by that and the springing well. Balaam had nothing to do with what the people were practically. He saw nothing, knew nothing of this. He was not the vessel of God in His ways with the people in discipline. He surveyed the people from above, and announced God's thoughts about them.

Now if we through grace can look upon ourselves in the light of God's elect people, there are certain peculiar dangers to which we are exposed. It is a great thing to be conscious of being an elect people, but if so you must be content for God to lead you. God has some intention concerning you. In the case of the children of Israel His purpose concerning them was simply to conduct them to the land of promise. They had many privileges in the wilderness, but that was not God's purpose. He had brought them out; His purpose was to bring them in. If we apprehend that Christians are an elect people, holy and beloved, that no charge can be laid against them, we must also accept the fact that God intends to bring them into the promised land, that is, into the full light and enjoyment of His purpose.

We ought to be prepared too to find that, when that truth is accepted, there are certain things that lie in the way and tend to hinder the children of God from entering into God's thought concerning them.

It is not now a question of the perverseness of the flesh, but of positive obstacles presented which represent the active power of the enemy -- the first thing is Balaam's counsel, and the Midianites. It is evident that the principle which is presented here is that of worldly associations; and the object of this is to get God's people to acknowledge the god and prince of this world, and thus to destroy their power. Satan is the god and prince of this world; and if he can entangle the people of God in unholy associations, they virtually acknowledge him in his domain. The purpose of the temptation presented to Israel by the counsel of Balaam was to draw the people into idolatry, so as to acknowledge the gods of Canaan, that thus they might be brought under the judgment of God and rendered powerless as to their testimony.

Now as to the application of this. When God's people recognise that they are an elect people, and begin to apprehend His purpose, this form of temptation comes in, and saints are in danger of being hampered by the associations of the flesh. They do not always make a complete break. Many are hampered and hindered in that way. Plenty of specious excuses may be found; but if you keep up worldly associations you are in great danger of acknowledging the system of this world and its god. The tendency to accommodate oneself to things here, in order to keep on good terms with others, is strong; but in it we sacrifice separation and lose all power of testimony. This is a temptation to which Christians are exposed. Natural affection is very often pleaded as a reason. I do not say a word against natural

affection, but I think you have to be on your guard as to what natural affection may bring you into. You remember what the Lord said, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple". The Lord knew the power of these natural ties and how disciples might he affected by them, and, when mere natural associations are kept up, it is with the effect of detaining saints more or less under the power of the world. There is more or less conformity to the world, and the ways of the world, on the part of Christians. Our true path is in separation. We arc called in sanctification.

I will show you how this is enforced in the New Testament. I turn first to 1 Corinthians 10:27 - 31 read also chapter 8: 9 - 13; and 2 Corinthians 6:14 - 18. You see that what I have spoken of was the snare of the Corinthians. They were detained thus undoubtedly; they had fallen in measure into the snare of Balaam, maintaining worldly associations, and the result was -- as it will be with us -- that they had dropped down to a worldly level, and their testimony was marred. If I keep company with worldly people on the plea of kindred, I shall not bring them up to my level, but I shall be in danger of sinking down to theirs. You may find yourself in difficult circumstances and places in connection with kindred after the flesh or friends, and the tendency is to drop down morally to their level. That is the effect of association.

Association is one of the things against which we have to guard. You may say we have to appear rigid and hard. This is possible, but if we maintain worldly associations and drop down to their level, we are likely to do things which, though they do not appear very flagrant, and are what other people do, are unsuitable in the elect of God. And, another

thing, we may stumble other Christians, brethren with weak consciences may be emboldened by what we do to do things which they cannot with a good conscience. The apostle puts the matter in a strong way: "Shall thy weak brother perish for whom Christ died?" The Corinthians were in practice giving a sanction to idolatry, and the weak brother was stumbled. So it may be with us in principle. God maintains His claim over His people as an elect people, and though we are not to be without natural affection, we have to be careful as to associations into which we may be drawn, or we may be dragged down to a worldly level, and stumble weak Christians.

You get an admonition of the apostle in 2 Corinthians 6, which brings before us in a very striking manner the defect of the Corinthians. "Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers", etc. (verse 14 - 18). You cannot enter into voluntary associations with unbelievers. Unbelievers are unbelievers, and I would not care to identify myself with them, to enjoy what they enjoy or carry on social intimacy with them.

I do not care to be where I am not at ease, and am not free to speak of the things of God. One has to come in contact with unconverted people in business and the like, otherwise we must go out of the world; but it is another thing voluntarily to mix with unbelievers.

The compensation for separation is (for you do get compensation from God), "You shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty". That is the character in which God would be pleased to recognise His people down here in this world. It is not exactly the idea of heavenly relationship, but of God making Himself known as a Father to us. "I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you". But it is on the condition of separation.

The Midianites were a snare to Israel. The priest put his finger upon the evil spot and executed judgment. The sin is regarded as a tendency of the flesh. Judgment has to be executed upon the flesh, and then Israel fights with the Midianites. But you cannot fight with God's enemies until judgment has been passed on the flesh. The secret of intimacy with unbelievers lies in the flesh. We have to put our finger upon the spot where it works. It has to be judged, and then we can, set to work to vex the Midianites. I do not want such associations any more. I can war with them, for I see the real danger, and how they serve to blind men so that they should not see the glory of Christ.

I pass on to the next point, and that is the numbering of the people with reference to entering the land (chapter 26: 63 - 65).

Now, you have to remember in connection with this, that it is a new Israel that enters the land; not the Israel that came out of Egypt. It is not the man that came out of the world that is going to enter heaven. It is another man morally who enters into the purpose of God. The people were numbered again, and with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, all were different. Those two had been maintained in faith, in order that there might be identification. I quite admit there is a link between the man that God brought out of Egypt, and the man that enters into the purpose of God, but it is individual not moral -- it is no more than a link. It is not the responsible man or the responsible Christian that enters into the land, that is, the purpose of God. If the Christian enters into the light of God's purpose it is as having put on the new man, as partaker of God's holiness. This is the result of the formative work of the Spirit. It is spoken of in scripture as the renewing of the Holy Ghost. You may be sure that you do not enter

into the purpose of God simply by faith; it is by love, and this is the work of the Spirit in you. You enter into the purpose of God in virtue of being a new creation in Christ. The apostle puts it thus in 2 Corinthians 5"Old things are passed away, and all things are become new". The new things are the things of God's purpose; the old are the things connected with man's responsibility. The latter belong to the man that God brought out of Egypt, and the former to the new man.

In this part of the book everything is consequent upon the elect of God having been brought to light. They are still down here in the wilderness. I am deeply conscious of this, and of the responsibilities and obligations here. We have to fulfil our responsibilities -- for example, to continue in the faith, and not to be moved away from the hope of the gospel; that is perfectly true, but that is not the order of man that enters the land. This involves a new creation where all things are of God.

I do not think that we realise divine things except by the Spirit. The Spirit uses the light which it pleases God to give us in order to form us according to that light. All the light that He brings into our souls He uses to form us according to that light, and it is in virtue of that work of the Spirit that we enter into God's purpose. It is a wonderful thing that we can enter a scene where all things are of God, and all things are become new! For this you have to begin with knowing that you are the elect people of God.

I come now to another point, and that is to the leader, chapter 27: 15 - 23.

It has often been said that it was impossible for Moses the lawgiver, to conduct the people into the land of promise. And it is remarkable with regard to Moses that he had in a sense to suffer under his own system. Moses rebelled, and was forbidden

on account of it to enter the land. He was a most privileged man personally, and had a very peculiar and distinguished place in connection with the children of Israel. As far as one can tell he had access at all times to the mercy seat; and yet, as connected with the legal system, he was not permitted in God's government to enter the land, as we see in verse 14 of this chapter.

It is a principle that the more distinguished a man is, the more severe God is with him in His government. An offence that might be passed over in a man of less account would not be passed over in one more conspicuous. It is a solemn thing to be conspicuous among God's people. It was thus with Moses; he transgressed and was excluded from the land. But I want to show you that in another sense he could not conduct the people in. I take him up in another light; he was the type of authority of Christ as Lord. It is not as Lord that Christ conducts us into the purpose of God. There is a link, however, between authority and the leader into the land. Moses was to put some of his honour upon Joshua. I do not think Joshua got exactly the place that Moses had. Moses was king -- he was typical of Christ as Lord to His people. The people are said to have been baptised to Moses in the cloud and in the sea. But Joshua was raised up for another purpose; he is more the shepherd raised up to lead the people into the land, which authority itself could not do.

What that teaches us is this: the Christian has to apprehend Christ in another light than that of Lord. When the Lord encouraged Peter to leave the boat to come to Him, it was to know Him in a character which would not allow Him to be free to stay in the boat. We apprehend Christ at first as Lord and Saviour; we confess Him as Lord; but there may come a moment in our experience

when we see what the elect of God are, when we recognise Christ as Leader in resurrection. We come much closer to Him then than ever we did before. Then we want to follow Him, and begin to see where He will conduct us.

Christ as Leader conducts our souls into the reality of God's purpose about us. The result is akin to Peter's confession in Matthew 16, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God", which really means that Christ is apprehended in a new light, and that the light is of the Father. It is a great point in our soul's history when Christ is recognised as Leader. This is not exactly the thought of priest. Eleazar was priest and Joshua leader. Priest and Leader are combined in Christ. He is the Leader of our salvation, and He is the Priest. Christ is all. As Leader He is going to conduct us into a scene to which we are perfectly unaccustomed, which in its very nature is outside of the sphere of our responsibility down here; He conducts us to the Father in the truth of the assembly; He is the Leader of our salvation and of our praises.

You see how all hangs together. The brazen serpent and the springing well; the elect people brought to light; the pronouncement of the Spirit of God by Balaam of what they are in the eye of God; then the snare of unholy and unhallowed associations down here which would entangle the people and ruin their testimony; the promises which attach to separation; the people numbered, taken account of with a view to entering the land; the link between those who came out of Egypt and those who were going into the land maintained by Caleb and Joshua, maintained really by the principle of faith. Faith links the two together. In one sense I am the man God brought out of Egypt, now the responsible Christian down here, but on the other hand I have, by grace, been formed by the Spirit

of God, and have put off the old man and put on the new; then Moses has to give way to Joshua. You never lose the sense of Christ as Lord as long as you are down here, but there is the recognition of Christ in the soul in another character, the Leader of salvation, who has gone in in order that He may conduct us in.

It is a beautiful thought that the Leader is also the Priest. It continually takes two men to set forth Christ: as Moses and Aaron, Moses and Joshua, and Joshua and Eleazar. You get both combined in Christ; He is the Leader and also the Priest, who sympathises and saves to the uttermost those "that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them".

It is a point of much interest to see these things presented to us in type in the Old Testament, so that you can work out the Christian history; and to see in the Book of Numbers how the Christian is led tends to confirm our faith in the word of God. The things that were written before-time were written for our learning, not for those who were contemporary. The Spirit of God instructs us in detail by what is brought before us here of the experience and path of the Israelites.

May God give us to know what it is to be very near to Him, and to follow close up! It is a great thing to follow close up so that Christ may lead us in. He does not look back; so that the great thing is to follow close that we may be conducted by Him into the full light of God's purpose concerning His people.

THE DANGER OF FALLING SHORT OF GOD'S PURPOSE

Numbers 32:1 - 27; Ephesians 3:14 - 21

I think one thing must strike any one at all conversant with scripture, and that is that scripture presents to us unvarnished realities. When the people of God are spoken of in scripture, not only what is bright about them is presented, but everything is recorded. So, too, in regard to the most distinguished men of faith that have ever lived, not merely their faith but their failures are recorded, and recorded unsparingly. I admit that the failures of God's people are not always viewed as men would view them, but they are brought out nakedly as God sees them; and yet these very men are held up as examples of faith. Scripture never gives us Utopianism, a state of perfectness down here. The people of God are brought into view, and the thoughts of God come out in regard to that people, but their failures are prominently brought before us. All that is proof to me of what scripture is, for "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning". The snares into which the people of God fell in times gone by are recorded for our warning, that we may not fall into them; they are snares into which we are likely to fall, for history repeats itself. We learn in the Old Testament God's ways as shown out in connection with the history of Israel. They fell sometimes into one snare, sometimes into another; and all are recorded for our learning. The Israelites are typical of a people going through the wilderness in a much more real sense than themselves, and to be forewarned is to be fore-armed. Being warned in this way, it behoves us to be vigilant so that we may not fall into their snares.

In the New Testament you find what will preserve you. That is why I read the verses in Ephesians 3, for there is the preservative from the danger. It lies in the apostle's prayer.

Another thing I wish to speak of. If scripture does not present to us perfection, on the other hand it does present to us a point to be reached down here. The point in the apostle's mind for the saints was not heaven -- he knew that the saints were safe enough for heaven, but he laboured for a point to be reached by souls. We find that in the prayer in Ephesians 3. You have there a point beyond which it is impossible to go.

You get the same idea in Colossians. The apostle says in regard to his ministry, "Whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ". You cannot go beyond that; but "perfect in Christ" is a point which I think is to be reached by the soul of the believer here. And in Ephesians 3 the end and aim of the apostle's prayer is that "Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith". What is the consequence? "That you may know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge".

If you ask me what is the great thing to be reached by the soul, I can only express this in one word, that is Christ. People say, Has not every believer come to Christ? Yes, by faith, but often not in another sense. I do not think you can say that you have reached Christ according to the mind of God until you know the love of Christ. You have to reach Him not only in faith, but in love. I suppose every one here has reached Christ in faith; but to reach Him in love is another thing, and that is done when you can say you know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge. He dwells in your heart by faith; you see the length and breadth and depth and

height, and know the love of Christ, and are filled unto all the fulness of God.

Now I go back for a moment to the scripture I read in Numbers. It presents the last hindrance to the children of Israel reaching Canaan. The great point in regard to them was that they might enter the land of promise. From the outset, in the commission given to Moses, God expressed His purpose. It was not simply to bring them out but to bring them in. God's purpose is not simply to save people; He does that; we could not go a step without it. He presents Himself as a Saviour God, He saves us and gives us the knowledge of salvation, He brings us out; but the same God who brings out brings in. He brings us into the light and knowledge of His purpose. It was so in the case of Israel. The same God who set to work to save the people from the bondage of the Egyptian, who delivered them from His own judgment and the pressure of the enemy, proposed to bring them into a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land which was the glory of all lands -- a land on which the eyes of the Lord were continually.

The same thing is true in our history; we are much like Israel. I suppose the bulk of Christians in the world are content with the knowledge of salvation, the forgiveness of sins, and building God a habitation; but are very slack to apprehend the purpose of God to bring them in. They know they are safe for heaven, and that the Lord will take them when He comes; but they have little exercise in regard to the present purpose of God, which is to bring them in. God's purpose was just as much to bring Israel in as to bring them out: "Thou wilt bring them in", and this was to the place where He dwelt, "the mountain of his inheritance", the sanctuary which His hands had established. He dwelt among them -- He had His habitation in the

wilderness, but the wilderness was not His thought, but the land.

In the course of what has been before us we have seen the hindrances of the people. Scripture is not, as I have said, at all silent as to their failures. This must be the case, for scripture is the light of God, and if it is light everything must be exposed. It is one property of light to make manifest, and the brighter the light the more manifest everything becomes. If you bring the electric light into a room, everything is very much more manifest than it would be if you had only the light of a candle. We find this principle in scripture. When God was dealing with an earthly people the light came out in the way of testimony, and everything contrary to it was exposed by it. It was so when Christ was on earth; He was the Light of the world, and in His presence everything was exposed. I quote one instance to illustrate this. In John 8 we have the woman taken in adultery brought before the Lord. The law convicted the woman. The Pharisees could boldly bring the woman to the Lord and claim the execution of the sentence of the law upon her. But they themselves were not without sin, and yet were not convicted by the law; but they were convicted by Christ. When the Lord said, "He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her", they were all convicted by conscience -- what the law failed to do, the presence of Christ did, for He was the light of the world. What comes out in that scene is that the light convicts, but at the same time it does not condemn; that is the character of light. It is not the part of light to condemn, but the brighter the light the more true is the conviction it effects.

I have tried on previous occasions to show you as simply as I could, that from the time of the brazen serpent and the springing well (chapter 21) we get

Israel regarded in a new light. They are looked upon more distinctly as the people of God's purpose. Two or three circumstances to which I have referred bring this out distinctly, and especially the prophecies of Balaam. They have without doubt reference to the elect Israel, the true people of God. The elect people are brought to light by life. That is, I judge, why the brazen serpent and the springing well are brought in. I do not know who the elect are. If I were an evangelist, I would not preach to the elect, but to every one. But if I cannot tell who the elect are, I know at the same time, without doubt, that life brings them to light.

Another thing then came in, the numbering of the people. They were numbered again. It was the Spirit of God taking account of the people who were to inherit the land; not of the people who left Egypt -- that had been done; but they are now taken account of in regard to enjoying the inheritance. It is very plain to me that the people are viewed, not in the light of profession but in the light of God's purpose.

Last time I dwelt upon one snare into which they fell, namely, worldly associations. The Midianites laid a trap for them, and the people fell into it and dropped into idolatry. That was the practical result. If you are assailed by the enemy, the purpose of the enemy never lies on the surface. The attraction was the daughters of Midian; beneath that lay another thing, and that was to draw Israel into idolatry. If a bait is put before us it is not the bait that is the object of the enemy, but the hook within the bait. His object is to draw the people down to the level of the world, so as to destroy their testimony. If he could succeed they would become idolaters like all the nations of Canaan. That was the temptation. What came to pass was that God came in and the people were delivered; the people

were brought under discipline, and they found that they had to enter into conflict with these very Midianites. Once they became faithful, and purged themselves from those unhallowed associations, God helped them and gave them honour, and they got the victory and spoil.

The same thing is true with us. We very lightly fall into a trap laid for us, but the time comes when, in the grace of God, we are recovered, and have in faithfulness to set ourselves against the very thing that was a snare to us, and God then puts honour upon us; we are more than conquerors through Him that loves us.

And now I come to another snare presented in the chapter before us. One object in every temptation is to prevent the people getting into the land. The previous one would have prevented their going in if God had not come in for them; and now the temptation is to make them stop short of the land. The people are in the plains of Moab, territory they had taken; the two and a half tribes are attracted; the place is agreeable and suitable, and avoided passing through Jordan. That is, they propose to stop short of the full purpose of God, and to utilise the land God had already given them. It was a good land, and they wanted to occupy it without going over Jordan.

I have no doubt that this pictures a temptation very commonly presented to Christians. I will speak presently of the advantages of going over Jordan, for there are advantages, and of the disadvantages of remaining on this side Jordan eastward.

I want you to remember that they had conquered this land by their sword. It was the land of Og and Sihon. No doubt, too, it was a land suited to their cattle and their children; there was much to recommend it. At the beginning the proposition

on their part angered Moses, and he refers to their fathers' conduct on the report of the spies; and no doubt Moses was right. It is remarkable that though Moses himself was not going into the land, he was unsparing in his denunciation of those who were prepared to stop on this side Jordan; and it is only when they offer to go over Jordan armed before their brethren that he consented. I do not think they had the mind of God in their thought.

I have said that they had conquered this land. What I understand by this is, that there may be ground which we have gained by spiritual faithfulness. Truth may have been recovered to us in large measure in these days by spiritual faithfulness. If, in the goodness of God, we have separated from many things that were contrary to His mind, we have gained much by the separation. God rewards thus, for He honours faithfulness, and gives the faithful possession of truth which others do not enjoy.

Now the danger comes in; having all this light, and having separated from what is ecclesiastically contrary to God's mind, we have come into the light of the church, have had our souls greatly confirmed in the word of God, and received an insight into dispensational truth which others do not possess. All that extent of "land" has been given as the effect of faithfulness. What are you going to do now? The tendency of the flesh is to say, Let us settle down quietly and enjoy all that God has recovered to us; and if we have flocks and herds and children in the providence of God, so much greater is the tendency thus to settle down. There is perhaps no snare greater than that of utilising the truth and light which God has given, and the confirmation of scripture in our souls, for our comfort here, and so stopping short of the land of promise. To enjoy truth is one thing, to be formed

according to it is another. The fact, too, of our having been blessed of God providentially may result almost insensibly in our settling down on the east side of Jordan, leaving death, if I may say so, between ourselves and God's purpose. The purpose of God in regard to His people is summed up in one single word -- that is, Christ where He is, the other side of death.

You ought never to be satisfied until you have consciously reached Christ; not only that you have believed in Him, confessed Him as Lord, or even that you own Him as Head, but you need to be conscious that you have reached Christ according to the purpose of God about us -- for that, you must go to the other side of death, because Christ is there. He is not on the east side of Jordan. The providence of God may be there, and much light, but Christ is not there. He is the other side of death, and we have to reach Him there.

I think most here must be conscious of the danger I have presented. The more one has providentially, the greater opportunity there is to gratify oneself. The danger is greater if I have opportunities of ministering to myself down here. Opportunities and means may become thus a great snare to the Christian.

But we see that the children of Israel had to go further; they had to cross the Jordan and to go before their brethren to war. The mischief was when they got back, and the people were settled for then the Jordan was between them and the ark of the testimony. They were not, eventually, where God was, and it is a great thing to be where God is. That is plain enough in regard to these two and a half tribes. They had to set up a kind of memorial altar because they were on the wrong side of Jordan, and not where the ark of the testimony was.

The apostle Paul was not content to be there.

He says about, himself, "This one thing I do; forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" -- or rather the calling of God above in Christ Jesus. That was the race of the apostle. Now I ask what attracted the apostle? I have not a doubt for a moment that what attracted him was the love of Christ. He was so sensible of the love of Christ that nothing would content him but to be where Christ was, and to be there not simply in faith but in affection. I believe that it is affection that carries us to where Christ is.

As a corrective to the danger which I have presented I will draw your attention to the prayer of the apostle in Ephesians 3, and you will see how remarkably every divine Person is involved in that prayer (verse 18, 17). The apostle prays to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that He would grant that the saints might be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. It is the Spirit of the Father by whom we are to be strengthened, and the object is that "Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith". It is important to notice the way in which the Christian is bound up with the divine Persons. The completeness of the Godhead is for the service of Christians. It is on their behalf. Does not God display His power at the present time? I am sure that He does! The great point for us is to be where He displays His power. He uses it on behalf of Christians, and the power in which He works effects abundantly above all that we ask or think.

Now, supposing the prayer of the apostle is fulfilled -- and beyond doubt it is God's purpose to fulfil it in regard to us -- we see to where we are brought. Strengthened by the Father in the power of the Holy Ghost, the end being that Christ may

dwell in our hearts by faith (verse 17 - 19). The supreme object with God becomes the supreme object to us. That would be the case if Christ were our object.

What is the object of your heart? What do you pursue? It may be you are pursuing many things. But if Christ is dwelling in your hearts you will pursue one object, that is Christ. The apostle says of himself, "This one thing I do". So the Lord says to Martha, who was a true saint and servant, but careful for many things, one thing is needful, not many, and Mary has chosen that good part. I think people are distracted by a multitude of objects. They pursue Christianity, and they pursue many other things besides: there is but one thing to pursue. If Christ dwells in the heart by faith I am not distracted, but governed by one object. God has one object, that is Christ.

But you may say, Have I not to provide for my family and attend to my business? Yes; but Christ in the heart is paramount. Christ will not be content to share your heart with another object. He will be the sole and engrossing object of the heart because He has brought the truth of God to you, and you must be content that everything else should be subordinate to that. He will not suffer a competitor. You get the thought in Isaac and Ishmael. When Isaac was weaned Ishmael had to leave the house.

Now what is the result of the working of God's power? I just ask your attention for a moment to verses 18 and 19. I emphasize three expressions, "rooted and grounded in love"; "able to comprehend with all saints"; "filled unto all the fulness of God". "Rooted and grounded in love" is the foundation of it, but you also comprehend, you know; and you are filled unto all the fulness of God.

Now the way to this is not faith. It is not a question of light. Here it is love; "being rooted

and grounded in love". Then it is you comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and know the love of Christ that passes knowledge. And shall I tell you why love alone can comprehend that? Because the length and breadth and depth and height are all the expression of love. I do not doubt that what is referred to is the whole range of God's purposes of love, and it is only love that can comprehend the great purposes of love. No other principle in the heart of a Christian could do so. I have thought of that verse until my mind has been excited, but I could get no idea of it, and I do not believe any one ever will in that way. I am sure it is only love that can take in the scope and range of divine purpose. It is not exactly the purpose of grace, but of love. Again, how are you going to know the love of Christ? Only by love. It is love that knows love. You are first impressed by His love, and then love knows love. No one who does not love knows God. Scripture says so: "He that loveth not, knoweth not God". How can you know the love of Christ that passes knowledge save by love?

In our christian experience we are led up to Christ's love. You learn it first in His death, then in His priesthood, then in His conducting you into the Father's presence. And He will bring us to the Father's house eventually; so now He conducts us to the Father's heart. So you get His love in death, in intercession, in service, and the climax is that you know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge, and are filled unto all the fulness of God. When you come to the intelligence and comprehension of the divine purpose of love, you see that Christ fills all things, and you are filled unto all the fulness of God.

The great thing is that Christians should be an expression of God down here. I call your attention

to a beautiful passage in John, which shows how John corroborates Paul; he says, "No man hath seen God at any time". This expression used of Christ in John 1, is followed by "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him". Now, as regards Christians it is followed by, "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us", 1 John 4:12. Now, with whom are we to comprehend? With all saints. I would ask, What is the motive for the Christian to love other Christians? It is that he himself is acquainted with the love of Christ. Never did a person love other Christians except as He was enjoying the love of Christ to himself. If He loved us we ought also to love one another. He says, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you".

I believe the effect of this prayer is that you really reach the house of God. You have got all the good of it. You have the knowledge of God's purposes; you have the love of Christ; you are in the land, the other side of Jordan; you have deliverance through the death of Christ from the course of things down here; you are not in concert with this, even religiously. My whole course ought to be a protest against current Christianity. I am outside of it. The soul has reached Christ where He is, the blessed object and centre of the counsels of God, it knows what it is to be in God's presence where He is.

One word more. I ask every one this question: Do you think Christ so loves you that He wants to carry you to where He is -- to attract you there? The love that seeks to lead us into the Father's presence is the same love that will eventually bring us into the Father's house. "That where I am there ye may be also". Is not that the utterance of love?

There is a little interval till that time comes, and it is filled by what you have here -- "That you may know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge; that you may be filled unto all the fulness of God". The attraction of love is great. The Lord says, I will present to you love that you can find nowhere else, that you can have no idea of. It is love that can attract you and draw you to Himself where He is, the other side of death, in that scene where our hearts touch Him consciously as the blessed centre and object of all the purposes of God. Let us see to it that we are rooted and grounded in love.

May God give us to know more of it. We are greatly short of God's mind. I do not think we are defective in faith, but I think we are so in love. The secret is, that we have failed to follow up the love of Christ. The love of Christ does not sufficiently impress and govern our hearts.

May God give us to know it! And may He give us to see the climax of that love, and how it attends upon us and attracts and encourages us, as the Lord attracted Peter to leave the boat to go to Jesus.

THE MAN OF FAITH IN THE HISTORY OF HIS SOUL -- ILLUSTRATED IN ABRAHAM

THE MAN OF FAITH -- HIS CALL

Genesis 11 and 12

I have taken up this subject with the idea of touching from time to time, as the Lord may enable me, on various incidents in the history of Abraham, because they are so deeply instructive to us.

The consideration that led me to it is that Abram marked a completely new departure in the ways of God. It is as plain as possible from the New Testament that what began in Abram God is continuing to the present time. The principles which come out in connection with Abram are the principles on which God is acting now, though for a time it appeared as though God had departed from those principles, and was acting upon other principles. For instance, in the law God did not appear to be acting on the principles on which He acted with regard to Abram, and the law was, in one sense, what we might call retrograde; but the law effected what God intended. It brought out the hopelessness of man's case, that his condition, so far as depended on himself, was irremediable, that where man had light from God it did not affect his practice, but left him where he was before with greater responsibility; but when the law had done its work, and had demonstrated what God intended it should, God reverts to the principle on which He began with Abram. He showed, too, that He had never really departed from it, that it was the principle ever before Him. It has been pointed out that the pious men of the Old Testament who were exercised and afflicted on account of the condition of Israel in their departure from the truth, such men as Nehemiah, and Ezra, and Daniel, when they came

before God, fall back on the promises made to Abraham, and plead those promises, because it was impossible that God should depart from what He had engaged Himself to. It is enunciated in the New Testament that "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance"; that, as Abraham believed, "what God had promised, he was able also to perform"; that is, that God has a way independent of man, by which He can fulfil the counsel of His will. It is a great thing to know that even the seed of Abraham after the flesh, not simply the spiritual seed, but the twelve tribes of Israel, have their part in God's purpose of blessing; they will be raised again, figuratively, from the dust of the earth, will awake to everlasting life, and be brought into blessing, according to the gifts and calling of God.

Now I want to make plain the completely new departure in the ways of God seen in His dealings with Abram. And one thing which marks this is that it followed upon the attempt of man to build the tower of Babel, and the consequent scattering of men. That is related in the preceding chapter; and the importance of it is that in it man showed his hand, what he was bent upon; it is not extraordinary, it is what I should call the natural consequence of the fall. The temptation of the devil to man was to be "as gods", but man was not content with that; chapter 11 shows that he was bent upon making a great political centre which would constitute a name for man; he was going, too, to build a memorial for himself, a tower, the foundations of which were to be deep in the earth, for the top was to reach to heaven. It is a figure of speech, but serves to show what was in the mind of man. And it all works out to its result in the future, in the beast of the Revelation, the great system of which the power is wielded by Antichrist, of whom we read that he "sitteth in the temple of God,

showing himself that he is God"; there is no place for God upon the earth. Chapter 11 shows us man's purpose, and chapter 12 God's purpose, and the principles of the two chapters have been working side by side from that day to this. If the principle of chapter 12 is at work, and God continues to bless, the principle of chapter 11 is at work too. The New Testament shows plainly enough that there are many antichrists now, and the climax is the great imperial system of the future, the power of which will be exercised by Antichrist; and things are, I judge, tending already in that direction.

I think I can give you, in passing, an idea of the distinction between the Babylon and the Egypt of scripture. Babylon is the artificial system which maintains the glory of man; Egypt is the world of the natural lusts of man. Everybody has to be brought out of Egypt, but, after that, may become captive to Babylon; it has been so in the history of the church, it escaped Egypt, the corruption of the world through lust, by the faith of Christ, but it has become captive to Babylon, that is, the glory of man. Man has got a place in it, and there is the spirit of Antichrist, too; even now there are many antichrists. Many of us have escaped from the Egyptian captivity, but Babylon is always a great danger; that is, man is ready to seek his own glory even in the church of God.

It has been said that the Book of Genesis gives us the roots and principles of things, and the Revelation the full ripe fruits; and it is the roots which we get in these two chapters.

I dwell for a moment upon the first principle that comes out in chapter 12, that is, the call of God. I understand the call of God to be an appeal on the part of God to man, in connection with the accomplishment of His purpose. That is a point I desire to elucidate, if I can. You see there is another kind

of call on the part of God. In the garden of Eden God called; but before man had fallen there was no call of God, nor can I understand the need of any, for man was with God. Adam and Eve had but to enjoy with God the benefits and blessings which God had been pleased to place within their reach: everything around them was a witness to the beneficence of God their Creator, and their part was to enjoy it with thanksgiving. When the call of God came it was a very serious one, for it was really calling to account. God called Adam and Eve to account, and Adam had to render a very serious account, for the command of God had been addressed to him, and he was specially responsible for infringing it; God made known to him what the terrible consequences would be of his disobedience, under which we are still suffering. Death, the judgment of God, came upon the man and woman because they had disobeyed the commandment of God, and man has been under death from that day to this. It is well to look this in the face -- what is there in this world that is not under death? The best things which man has in this world, the things which tend most to make him conspicuous, and which constitute the glory of man in the world, mind, taste, and affection, are all under death. The greatest man born into the world, with every possible advantage of birth and fortune, is under death from the moment he comes into the world, the judgment of God is upon him. Let a man secure everything in the world that can adorn man -- cultivation, knowledge, refinement, or what not -- he is under death. That is the terrible consequence of Adam's transgression of God's commandment.

But the call in this chapter is different, it is a call of God in connection with the accomplishment of His own purpose. The call here makes a point of departure. It is God working to accomplish the

purposes of His will. And that call has been going on ever since. I think there is an allusion to it in the beginning of Proverbs, where God says, "Because I called and ye refused"; and in Proverbs 8 wisdom cries to men; and I look upon the gospel as being the call of God now to man. God has to call man because man has departed from God, otherwise God would not have occasion to call him. But it is not calling him to account; but God calls because He has blessing for man, and that is, in accomplishing the counsel of His will. Now the call of God is a great test. It became a great test to Abram, and the first point in the history, of Abram is that he answered to the call. Look at the first verse: "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed". Abram was called to leave three things -- his country, and his kindred, and his father's house. It has been frequently noticed, in connection with this passage, that the call came when his kindred were idolaters but I connect the chapter more particularly with the eleventh, as to the point of departure. Anyway, Abram was tested by the call. And the test was this -- whether the call of God had more value in his eyes than country, and kindred, and father's house. That question must have tested Abram for he was called to come out from each and all.

Now there is not perhaps one of us but has been practically tested in the same way. You do not suppose Abram would have been called out in this way if God had been in the things from which he came. Had God been in his country, and kindred,

and his father's house, He would not have had to call Abram out from those things. I quite admit that natural relationships are of God, but, when man is fallen, God is not in them. There is a very strong expression in Luke 14 that a man has to hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and his own life also, if he is to be the disciple of Christ. With Abram it was a question of literally going from one country to another. But I think that we are every one tested, and that a moment has to come in the lifetime of every Christian when he has to determine practically between natural ties and the call of God. I have had to find, and many more, too, that natural ties are in themselves a hindrance, when it is a question of the call of God. Of course it is a little more difficult to apprehend this in the present day, because many have been brought up amid Christian influences by Christian parents; but natural ties, and country, and father's house, as such, have not God in them. They are of God, either in His providence or His ordering, but God is not there. It is a terrible consideration that the state of things should be such in this world that the moment has to come when the soul must determine between the call of God and these things. The test came to Abram, and Abram answered to it, and in principle he left all at the call of God, though for a moment he did not make what one might call a clean cut. We naturally trust those who are kindred to us here; and hence it is a great moment in a person's history when he goes forth because he can trust God more implicitly and more simply than he can any natural tie. God is better than country, or kindred, or father's house. I think the call of God involves the determination of the soul as between God and the closest possible ties here upon earth. We are not called to leave Mesopotamia and to go to Canaan; but I think that each one of us

has had to make the same determination in the soul that Abram had to make, and that was the beginning of our history with God. We listened to the call of the gospel, the presentation of God to us in grace, and in accepting that call we determined that the God presented to us in the gospel was superior to kindred, and country, and father's house.

If you have not begun there you have not begun well. I may in the will of God be left here to be an obedient child, or an affectionate father, or a loving husband; but God is paramount to all these things, He has a place with me which none of these things can have. I am persuaded that you do not go on with God if God is not supreme. If not, it proves that you have not really answered to His call. God must be everything to the soul of a Christian. Even if all the happiness connected with this world has to go, he must have God. God is bountiful to us in mercies, but we have no title to them, because death and the judgment of God are upon us. What you have, you have in the mercy and goodness of God; and if God permits it to you, the God who permits it to you is to be paramount to anything which may affect or govern your heart down here.

The next point is in what God made known to Abram, namely, that He was determined to bless, not merely that He was determined to bless Abram, but that in Abram all families of the earth should be blessed. I understand by this that God set forth in Abram the great principles of blessing. Faith saw Christ's day and the world to come. I think that God was anticipating the law. He had all His ways before Him, and knew that the time would come when the law would be given. The effect of law upon man was to bring him under curse; man as he is could not possibly be under the law without being under the curse. The great answer to it will be when in the future the law is written in the heart of

man, then he will be relieved of the curse, and there will be nothing to bring curse upon him. But if man is taken up of God as he is, with a covetous heart, it is impossible but that the law should bring curse. "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them". Now it is exceedingly beautiful to see that God anticipated the curse by making known that He was determined to bless. When the law came in, and the curse in its tail, God had already made known His determined purpose to bless. The law cursed, but God had no pleasure in cursing, His pleasure was in blessing. He makes no kind of requirement from Abram. The chapter takes up things entirely -- at all events in the first part -- on the divine side; it makes known in Abram the divine purpose to bless, and that in Abram all the families of the earth were to be blessed. The point is that Abram having responded to the call of God so far, God says, I will make known to you my purpose to bless. I do not make any demand upon you, but I will bless you.

Now, by the blessing I understand that God meant to provide for man a righteousness, a means by which man should be justified before Him, should be completely freed from imputation of sin. You will find the phrase several times repeated in the scripture "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness". God found a righteousness for Abram, a way by which Abram should be justified in His presence, and that without reference to a single bit of good in Abram. If the time had come, God might have communicated the Holy Ghost to Abram. The time had not come for it, but Abram was righteous in the presence of God; and therefore God could, and did do as He liked, and could give him promises, because, by faith, he was cleared in the eye of God. I doubt if Abram

knew his righteousness; it was not a question of what Abram knew or entered into; God knew it, but we do not read that God told Abram. It is the record of the Holy Ghost about Abraham, that he "believed God, and he counted it to him for righteousness". I think it is a wonderful thing that God should have made known at that early date, hundreds of years before the law came in, that he had a resource, a means by which He would be able to justify the ungodly, so that he might be completely cleared from every reproach in God's presence. Abram was thus cleared, not perhaps in his own consciousness, or knowledge, but in the eye of God, so that God could go on further with him, and make further communications to him. It is beautiful to see these actings of God. It is not like God giving man a law; He did not make a single demand upon Abram, or attach any reservation or condition.

We get an interpretation of these dealings in the Epistle to the Galatians -- the blessing of Abraham has reached the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, and what for? -- "that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith". In that epistle a contrast is presented as between blessing and curse. The Galatians were putting themselves under law, which brought curse; and Paul shows to them that the law was not really the way by which they could be connected with Abraham's line, and that what God spoke of to Abraham was blessing. And so the apostle argues, "Christ has redeemed us [Jews] from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us" -- what for? "that the blessing of Abraham might reach the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith". It makes it plain enough that the blessing of Abram meant what we speak of as justification, that is, that God had in view a way by which the

Gentiles could be justified in His eye, so that they could receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

It is doctrinally stated in Romans 5:1: "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ", and then a little later we get "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us". The Gentiles are righteous in Christ, He has been raised again for their justification, and, as the consequence of that, they are able to receive the promise of the Spirit through faith; and the blessing of Abraham has thus arrived at the Gentiles in Christ Jesus. The gospel makes known God's purpose and power to bless man, in the sense that He can justify the ungodly, so that the ungodly man can receive the promise of the Spirit. What a wonderful thing! I believe there is nothing more important than to see that what the gospel brings us to is what I should speak of as a change of man. This does not come out at the outset, because the man that is must be cleared. I have my personality or individuality, and in regard to that I must be justified, or else God would have to judge me. But God justifies me. He blesses me in that sense, and communicates to me the promise of the Spirit; and when I receive the promise of the Spirit I am connected with another Man, I reckon myself "dead indeed, unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus". The Spirit is the turning point of all.

God was pleased to set forth in Abraham the great principle of His dealing with all the families of the earth, not exactly the way by which He will bring it to pass -- that comes out more in chapter 22, when the promise was confirmed in the seed, "In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed". In chapter 12 it is, "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed". God demonstrated in

Abraham's seed the great principles on which He would bless the heathen, namely death and resurrection, that through Christ's death the blessing of Abraham might reach the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. There are two things that constantly come in connection in scripture, Christ crucified and the gift of the Spirit. The state of man as in the flesh was set forth and condemned in the cross in Christ crucified, but it was in order that God might impart the Spirit to man; and so the blessing of Abraham has come to the Gentiles, the Gentiles are justified by faith, and receive the promise of the Spirit.

Now I come to another point (verse 6): "And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him". There, I think, God brings in the light of another world, or, rather, to be more exact, the light of the world to come, and the principle which God announces is this, His title to dispose of the earth as He sees fit. Man thinks that the earth is his own. I do not admit it. "The earth is the Lord's, and its fulness". There are great people in the world to whom large tracts of the earth belong; and, on the other hand, the radical of the present day, who would nationalise the land. But God claims the right to dispose of the earth as He sees fit. The Canaanite was then in the land, the iniquity of the Canaanite was not yet full, but God gives the land of the Canaanite to the seed of Abraham, He disposes of the earth according to His pleasure. But my conviction is that a promise of that kind really looked on to the world to come. The land was given to Israel, not exactly in fulfilment of the purpose of God, but provisionally, and they lost it by their idolatry and

unfaithfulness. But the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, and every promise of God is to be fulfilled in Christ in the world to come. Abraham was the heir of the world, and the land belongs to his seed because of God's promise; but they have never enjoyed it according to God -- they had it under law and they lost it under law, and they have never enjoyed it according to the blessing of Abraham. And therefore it conveys to me the thought that God had the world to come in view. Abraham will have his part in the accomplishment of the promises, and the seed of Abraham, too, will have their part; they will enjoy the land, not under law, but according to the blessing of Abraham; they will be justified, and the Spirit of God will be upon them (God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh). I believe this world is near to being worn out. I think that the enormous pressure, and the competition, and the pace at which things are going will in time make the world intolerable. I am sure that God will weaken this world; He will eventually turn it upside down. All the great principles of the world come in review in the prophets, and the whole order of things, the great commercial system among the rest, will be judged; and God will bring upon the scene the world to come, which is not put under angels, but under the Son of man. Then the Jews will have their place in the enjoyment of the land according to God. They will be able to say, "The Lord our righteousness". Have you ever noticed the very beautiful interchange in that expression in the prophet Jeremiah? First it is, "This is the name by which he [Jehovah] shall be called, The Lord our righteousness"; but afterwards the same expression is applied to Jerusalem, "This is the name by which she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness". The name in which they glory is applied to the city; the Lord will be their

righteousness, they will not have any righteousness of their own any more than we have, but the Lord will be their righteousness, as Christ is our righteousness.

Now turn for a moment to the answer of Abram; he built an altar. To my mind that is exceedingly important, because it proves that Abram accepted the truth that he could not approach God in a natural way. Adam and Eve at the first did not need an altar, for if God drew near they could approach God as they were; they were innocent creatures, fresh from God, and they could have to say to God, not I suppose with any great intelligence, but because there was nothing in them contrary to God. Abram does not take that ground, he builds an altar, that is a confession that if he would have to say to God, it could only be through the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is true to us. You cannot come to God on the ground of personal excellence or merit, you are compelled to come through the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. You have access to God, but there is to be in the soul the acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus Christ as the way by which you approach God, and then, through Him, you stand in the favour of God. And there is the acknowledgment of that in the altar; the altar was the place of communion, and the setting forth of the burnt offering; it was really through the Lord Jesus Christ in figure that Abram had access to God.

I want you to notice this especially, because it demonstrates that God looked for no kind of goodness in Abram; and, on the other hand, Abram asserted no goodness; he did not set up his righteousness any more than God claimed righteousness from him. We do not have to build an altar as Abraham did. Christ is our altar, "Through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father". He is,

so to say, our place of communion with God; and through Him we "offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name".

The next thing is not so pleasing -- Abram went down to Egypt, I understand by this that he came for a moment under the power of what was natural, and had to learn that man lives not by bread only but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God; and you will find as we go on that he formed a link in Egypt the power of which had to be broken before he made much spiritual progress. One false step led to another; he was overcome by the natural, the famine, the need of bread, which brought him down to Egypt, and then in Egypt he had to resort to a subterfuge to protect himself from Pharaoh. If you ask me what should Abraham have done, I cannot tell you, and yet I think that God must have had some outlet if Abram had looked to God. I think that he followed human prudence, just what we should probably have done. If there was a famine in the land, and we had heard that there was corn in Egypt, most of us would have gone down to Egypt to get the corn. But I do not think it could have been God's way. There is hardly a greater snare for the Christian than natural prudence, for it comes in such a very subtle way, it does not affect people's consciences, but it takes a man away from the place of trust in God. But it is a blessed thing that even in departure God had His eye upon Abram, and on his wife, too, and brought him back. He was protected in the mercy of God, but in result he had formed a link which afterwards caused him great sorrow and trial of heart.

I think this chapter is full of the deepest interest. It is to me most blessed to see the purpose of God to bless Abram, without any kind of demand upon

him, and then the acknowledgment on Abram's part that he had no way of approach to God except by the altar. It is all very beautiful as demonstrating what the great principles of God were for the blessing of man down here upon earth. And does not the thought gladden your heart that all these things are to come out in display? Christianity has not set aside these things, the promises of God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have all to be fulfilled; they will have their part in the kingdom, they will sit down in the kingdom of God. It is a great comfort to think that all these things are to be fulfilled in the world to come, and the seed of Abraham will possess the land which God promised to their fathers.

And there is one thing to be said which does not appear on the surface in this chapter. God had in reserve His own way of accomplishing all these things; they were all to be accomplished in the Man of His purpose, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see Him "delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification", so that God might make known to us what He has secured for us -- peace, and reconciliation, and eternal life. God makes all that known to us in the Lord Jesus Christ; and that same Lord Jesus Christ is the altar by which we have access to God. Depend upon it, you cannot get on without the Lord, you have no light apart from Him, you do not know how God can bless you until you apprehend the Lord, nor can you approach God apart from the Lord. The great principle of blessing is a mediator. "There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all".

I have suggested these things, in the desire of drawing your attention to the scripture, so that you may get your thoughts from the fountain head, that you may be taught not by me but by the Spirit of God.

THE MAN OF FAITH -- HIS JUSTIFICATION

Genesis 14:17 - 24; 15

The freshness with which the history of Abraham comes before us in these days is remarkable, when you think of the great period of time which has elapsed since these things occurred. Looked at in a human point of view it is a wonder, but in the divine point of view it is no wonder, because the God that dealt with Abraham is the God that we have to do with, He is the living God, and His principles do not vary; we may change, but God does not.

I want, as the Lord may enable me, to point out what comes before us specially in this chapter, in the course of God's dealings with Abraham; and my main point is this, that Abram by faith got a link with the God of resurrection; and if we want divine light our souls must be with the God of resurrection, the God who is presented to us in the gospel. You need to have the sense in your soul that resurrection is the great principle of God's acting for man's blessing; it must be so, because everything in this world is dominated by sin and death; and if God is to bring anything out of the wreck and ruin, the power in which He must act is that of resurrection. If you want scripture to confirm this; read at your leisure 1 Corinthians 15. There you get the power of resurrection coming in, first Christ is raised, then, in regard to the saints at the present time, "this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality", and "then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory". That is millennial, it is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah; and the chapter proves that

this cannot take place until after the resurrection, or quickening, of the saints of this present time: when that has taken place, then death will be swallowed up in victory. My point now is to show how, even at this early stage of the world's history, a link was formed between Abram's soul and the God of resurrection; and then, when once that had come to pass, we see in the latter part of the chapter that Abram had in his soul to go into the experience of death. And I venture to say that no man could accept death if his soul had not first a link with the God of resurrection. That is brought out in Romans 4 and 6. There the soul is linked by faith with the God of resurrection, "We believe in him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead" (chapter 4), really on the same principle as Abraham, and then in chapter 6 we accept death. Romans 3 shows the divine basis, that is, the declaration of God's righteousness, and Romans 4 shows the principle and power of God's actings, that is, resurrection; and if you want to be conscious of blessing, and to know what God has established for man's blessing in the Lord Jesus Christ, your soul must be linked by faith with the God of resurrection.

Beloved friends, it is a most amazing thing to think that while in one's estate as a man down here, death is on the body (because, as to the letter of it, we are not free from death), yet the soul is in the light of resurrection. And the practical effect of it is that you will not care to remain very much longer in the scene of death, your anxiety will be to be free of its power, and to this end you will accept death.

I brought before you last week the beginning of God's dealings with Abraham, the first point being the call of God, which is simple; God was not in the natural things, and therefore when He was about to reveal Himself to Abram He calls him out. Since

the time that sin came into the world, separation from evil has been God's unvarying principle, because God was not in the evil. The world had practically become apostate, and the principle of God was calling, and calling involves separation. The gospel is the call of God, but it is the call of God to separate from evil. What Peter expressed in his preaching was, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation". It is separation from evil. Then we saw further, in connection with chapter 12 two great points: (1) the determined purpose of God to bless, (2) that God would dispose of the earth as He saw fit. When law came in, it brought a curse upon man; but God had anticipated the law in making known His purpose to bless. God reveals Himself in that light as the One who is bent upon blessing. The other point is also momentous. The earth was not man's, but God's, though God intended it for man's enjoyment; but God would dispose of the earth as He saw fit. I think that these were the first great principles which were enunciated in the case of Abram, and were the beginning of God's ways as the God of glory; Stephen says that "the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham". That was the beginning of God's ways, not as the God of creation, but as the God of glory.

I did not dwell upon the intervening chapters, 13 and 14. I touched upon the fact that Abram in going down to Egypt was hardly acting in faith. He got into trouble there, and it is very significant that in Egypt he had no altar. But in chapters 13 and 14 he has come back from Egypt, and now we find that before he gets further light from God he is subjected to two tests. It is an unvarying principle in the ways of God with us, that if God gives us light we are bound to be tested; and you will not get more light until you have been tested in

regard to the light which you already have. I can speak pretty surely in regard to it, because we see the principle in the word of God continually, and I think it is verified in one's own history.

The first point in which Abram was tested was in connection with Lot, and the test was whether Abram would assert himself, whether he would stand upon his rights; and rights, too, which he had by the promise of God. It is a very dangerous thing when a Christian asserts himself. Abram did not assert himself; he gave full range to Lot, Lot was to take whichever way he liked. Lot did assert himself in a certain sense, he took his own course, chose what he would, and got into the gate of Sodom; he had seen Egypt and was attracted, I suppose, by the similarity of the plain of Sodom to Egypt. But Abram answered to the test, and the consequence is that God comes to him and tells him to lift up his eyes to survey the land in the length and breadth of it, and God renews the promise to him. In chapter 14 we find another test. There, as I understand, the test is whether Abram would be beholden to the powers of this world. And these are two severe tests if you think of them. I wonder which one of us has not been accustomed to look to the world for advancement or recognition in some way? Abram was, in a certain sense, a great man, for God had greatly blessed and enriched him, and he had to do with the kings of this world, being drawn into conflict on behalf of his nephew Lot. But the question was raised, would he be beholden to the kings of this world? and we find that he would take nothing "from a thread to a shoe-latchet". He would not allow that the King of Sodom should make him rich. I think it is important to see how the grace of God enabled Abram to overcome in both tests; he would not assert himself, being simply content to be in the hand of God, and,

on the other hand, he would not be made rich by the kings of this world.

He had been blessed of Melchisedec after the return from the slaughter of the kings; he had his reward in that way from God, and it is after that the King of Sodom comes to him and proposes to him to take the spoil. Abram refuses on the ground that no one should say, I have made Abram rich; he was enriched by the blessing of the Lord. Many people run after the wealth of this world; but you may depend upon it that the blessing of the Lord is true riches. It was so to Abram, he had the goods of this world, but what really enriched him was the blessing of the Lord.

Now we come to this chapter 15, in which we get what I may call a very considerable accession of light (Genesis 15:1 - 6). "After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed; and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them, and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness". In connection with that, I will call attention to the end of Romans 4"Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, before him

whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were; who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken. So shall thy seed be ... being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification".

Now, beloved friends, it is plain enough from the beginning of chapter 15 that the soul of Abram was linked with the God of resurrection, that is, that Abram regarded God in a light outside of all that is natural. We can understand how a pious man would connect God with all that is natural, because God is the God of creation; but the soul of Abram was by faith in the light of the God of resurrection. I quite admit that there was to be a further test. At this time Abram was eighty-six years old, and he had to wait till he was ninety-nine for the fulfilment of God's promise; but the principle comes out here which comes out still more clearly when he was about an hundred years old, "he believed God, and he counted it to him for righteousness". And how did he believe in God? He believed in God who quickens the dead, and calls those things which be not as though they were; his soul apprehended Him in that light. He had not looked simply in a natural way for a child; he was childless, there was no hope in nature, and he raises the question as to how he was to inherit, for Eliezer, the heir of his house, was a stranger; so that Abram did not look for the accomplishment of God's promise in a natural

way, but his soul was linked with God, who is above nature. It means this to me, that Abram apprehended a scene outside of this scene, a scene which will be brought into presence in the world to come. It is certain that when sin came in and death on man, this world was spoiled for God, though God has borne in patience with it for thousands of years, and has worked out His ways here. In fact, so terrible is its condition that when Christ died all were dead, the condition of things generally was very much analogous to that of the flood; there was one family covered in the ark, and death was upon all else. And so when Christ died, all were dead, by His death all were proved to be under death. But from the very outset God had had another world before Him, what is spoken of in the Epistle to the Hebrews as "the world to come"; which, says the apostle, is not put under angels, but under the Son of man. The great principle of God's actings in view of the world to come was that God would be known as the God of resurrection, and that man would be accepted on the principle of faith; man's soul would have light with regard to God, and he would thus be linked with the God of resurrection, the God who quickens the dead, and calls the things which be not as though they were.

I want you to see how these principles run through scripture, so that the principles which are brought out in the Epistle to the Hebrews are the principles which come out here in regard to Abram. "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness". I understand by this that Abram was justified in the eye of God in view of the world to come. That I believe to be the great idea of justification, that God counts a man righteous in view of the world to come. In a certain sense it is a small matter if I am justified with regard to this world, but it is a very important point to me that

I should be justified with regard to God's world. I cannot lay too much stress on the great importance of the soul having to do with the God of resurrection. Resurrection opens up the sphere of God's dealings, Christ raised again from the dead was the beginning of that new sphere which God has opened up in the power of resurrection; and if there is not a sense of that with us I do not think that we shall make very much progress in our souls. If you want to have to do with the Lord, where is He to be found? It is in the sphere of resurrection that the Lord is known. I do not think that the Lord interferes in human circumstances and that kind of thing down here. He has been into them, but now He is not known after the flesh, and if known at all, it is in the sphere of resurrection. When you are baptized, you are baptized to His name, to His death, because we have to know Him in the sphere of resurrection. I know God as the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who has operated in that way, and I know the Lord in that blessed sphere. There it is, too, that we enjoy peace with God, and favour and reconciliation, and victory over death -- "grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life". It is all in the sphere of resurrection; it is outside of what is here, and depends upon the apprehension in the soul of God's power, and of the Lord Jesus Christ as the One whom God has raised again from the dead. We all have to do with the things of this world, in passing through it; but the delight into which God has brought us is in the knowledge of Himself, whose righteousness has been vindicated and established, and who, in virtue of the vindication of His righteousness, has displayed Himself to us in His power as the God of resurrection. And if we have the light of the God of resurrection we come into the line of Abram, for even in those early days the soul of

Abram had a link with the God of resurrection: "he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness". Abram was troubled for the moment as to the way in which God was going to fulfil his promises, but God is not limited; death limited man, but not God. God "quickens the dead, and calls those things which be not as though they were". Many people in the world seem almost to think that God is limited. Man cannot go beyond nature or death, he is himself limited, and in his mind would impose upon God the limits which bind himself.

Now I desire to turn to the other side of the picture, and to show how, having this link with the God of resurrection, that is, with God in that character, everything here really has to go down into death, so that God should take everything as it were out of death. I think that point comes out in the last part of the chapter. "And when the sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward they shall come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass that when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates".

What follows upon Abram being accounted

righteous is that God talks to him again about the inheritance. And it is a curious thing that in scripture inheritance is commonly associated with the gospel. There are two things which the gospel proposes to bestow upon man, forgiveness of sins and inheritance. You will see this if you look at the commission which the Lord gave to Saul; he was to go to the Gentiles and to open their eyes, that they might turn from darkness to light, and from Satan's power to God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins and "inheritance amongst them that are sanctified by faith which is in me". In the chapter before us when the point arrives in Abram's history that he is accounted righteous, then it is that God speaks again about inheritance. It must be so. Supposing I had forgiveness of sins, and God's grace terminated there, what have I got? God must give me something or else I am left a bankrupt; I might have my debts forgiven, but I have no capital. What God does is this; He not only gives me forgiveness of sins, but He gives me inheritance. He gives me inheritance because He cannot as yet give me possession. This seems a strange thing to say; but I think that it is the truth, and for this reason, that though the inheritance is purchased it is not yet redeemed. And inheritance manifestly refers to the world to come, just as justification refers to the world to come. But then it is plain that in the present God gives you the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance; He cannot yet give you the inheritance, but He gives you the pledge of it until the inheritance is redeemed.

Abram here raises the question as to how he is to know that he shall inherit. Now the answer to that is to my mind most remarkable. Abram in the first place has to prepare certain things, to take certain animals and birds, and he divides the animals in two, but not the birds. I suppose it is

a figure, not exactly of atonement, but of the death of Christ in another light, for it is in the death of Christ that God has given, as it were, the confirmation of His covenant. But that is not all. A deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a horror of great darkness fell upon him; Abram had to go down into death in spirit. And the next thing is that God makes known to him that his seed would, figuratively, go down to death. They were to be brought up out of Egypt into the land, but they could not have it for 430 years, and in the meantime they would have, in a certain sense, to go down to death. Egypt for the moment meant death to them as a people -- they were lost to sight there for the time being. It prefigures, in a way, what has taken place in the present time, viz., that Israel is lost in the dust of the earth, but God is going to bring them up out of it. You will remember the vision shown to Ezekiel of the dry bones, and what struck the prophet with such amazement was that the bones came together, and flesh came upon them, and sinews, and they became living men. It is a representation, or figure, of what God will effect in regard to Israel; He will bring them up from the dust of the earth, from the state of death in which they are nationally. "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake". And the sleeping is prefigured here in the seed of Abram going down to Egypt to sojourn, they would be lost to view in Egypt, but God would bring them out of it. And all God's ways are bringing man out of death, just as it was here set forth figuratively with Abram and his seed. But the most wonderful thing is this, that when the sun went down a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between the pieces. What did that mean? It is a way we read of in scripture of confirming a covenant; a calf was divided in twain, and the parties to the covenant passed between the pieces. Now God

adopted that way in regard to Abram here, and the object of it was that the covenant might be confirmed in the mind of Abram; God took a human way to give a confirmation of the covenant to Abram. I do not doubt that it prefigures the great truth of how God in a certain sense came into that place in order to confirm the covenant. In the death of Christ you get the veil of the temple rent in twain, from the top to the bottom; God was there, God came into it in His testimony. What the death of Christ meant to anybody that had eyes to see was redemption; but it meant another thing, too, that God intended to carry out all the purposes of His will. Christ came to do God's will, and He went down into death, and, if I may venture to use the expression, God was there in divine presence; but the testimony on the part of God was that He would accomplish all the blessed purposes of His will. That is presented to us in the death of Christ. There is a passage in the Hebrews which will substantiate this, Jesus "was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death". What for? "That he might taste death for everything". It was in the death of Christ that God gave the confirmation of the covenant, and the death of Christ was the pledge and witness on the part of God that every purpose of His will would be made good. And then you get the promise in regard of the seed; because Abram was not to enjoy the inheritance personally (he may enjoy it in a fuller way in the time to come), but he was to go to the grave in a good old age in peace, and the enjoyment of the inheritance was to be in his seed. It has been pointed out that the seed of Abram never, or scarcely ever, really enjoyed the extent of the inheritance which is spoken of here, from the great river, the river Euphrates, to the sea.

The whole point of the chapter, to my mind, is

in the great principles of death and resurrection. God is the God of resurrection. That we know; but it is a wonderful thing that the soul of the saint can be linked with the God of resurrection. And when once the soul is linked with him in that scene where Christ is, we are prepared to learn another lesson, that God has to take everything out of death; and, as Christians, we have to accept death. It is only by death that I can reach resurrection experimentally. How can I understand what it is to be risen with Christ if I do not first know what it is to have died with Christ? We have to accept death, to drink the bitter waters of Marah -- it is man's portion, what belongs to him -- and then it is that we learn really in spiritual power, not simply what it is to be identified with Christ in death, but what it is to be risen with Him. But here we get the great truth that Abram had to taste death in type and figure, in the horror of great darkness; Israel had to go down into death; and even God Himself, in His testimony, came down into death, giving witness in the death of Christ that He would bring to pass all the blessed purposes of His will.

Now, that stands good, not simply for the moment and for Abram, but in the book of Genesis you get the great principles of God's ways; you do not get redemption there exactly, but the state of man and the purpose of God. The state of man is brought out, his innocent state in the first instance, and his sinful state afterwards, and then, in the men of promise, the state of faith. At the same time, the purposes of God's will are largely unfolded, and the great truth comes out that God makes Himself known. He puts Abram in contact with Himself as the God of resurrection, as we know Him. It is a great thing for our souls to be in the resurrection sphere. I feel so few Christians are really there as to the state of their souls. They have a great

deal more to do with the God of providence than with the God of resurrection. They look to God to care for them down here, which He certainly does, and to prove His mercy; but the great thing is to be in spirit outside this world altogether, in the sphere in which God is free, and in which He operates. There it is that you find liberty with God, and you get the sense of His power, and entrance into all the blessed counsels of His will. God invited Abram there, and linked him with Himself, and when once that is accomplished things come in perfect order.

May God give to us grace to anticipate the day of the Lord. We are not children of the night, but children of the day, and in the light of the Lord; and the great point for us is to rejoice in the Lord, having the consciousness in our souls that we are not of the night nor of darkness, but we are of the light and of the day. The day-star has risen in our hearts, we are in the light of the God of resurrection, and in His presence in peace and righteousness, being justified. And we have put off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.

THE MAN OF FAITH -- HIS RELATIONSHIP AND CIRCUMCISION

Genesis 17

We have come, in this chapter, to a most important and critical point in Abram's spiritual history. You cannot attach too much importance to what comes out in this chapter, for it is to the time mentioned here that the apostle refers in Romans 4. He takes up there the case of Abraham, and uses it to show the principles of God's actings. He lays stress on the character of Abram's faith, and marks the age of Abram, "When he was about an hundred years old", so that it is evident that the apostle is referring to what comes out in this chapter. When Abram's age was previously mentioned, he was eighty-six; thirteen years had elapsed, and, in a certain sense, thirteen years had been lost. When he came out of Egypt he brought an Egyptian link with him, Hagar, and the link hung by him, was a cause of trial and sorrow, and hindered him, as far as I understand it, thirteen years. In this chapter he goes back to what came out in chapter 15, his powerlessness in the presence of God's power.

I purpose dwelling now upon what I understand to be the beginning of Abram's relationship with God. I do not see that he entered into relationship with God previously to this chapter. And in the spiritual history of a great many Christians, it is some time before they enter into the sense of relationship with God. To be a forgiven person, to have listened, for instance, to the call of God, or even to be justified, does not in itself put me in relationship with God. If I am to be in relationship with God I must be so according to the name in which it has pleased God to reveal Himself to me, that is an unvarying principle in scripture. This principle comes out in the history of the children of Israel;

if they were to be in relationship with God, it must be according to the name in which God was pleased to reveal Himself to them. We all know that God made Himself known to the children of Israel by the name of Jehovah, and that was the name under which they stood in relationship with God. Now the first time that God made Himself definitely known to Abram by a name, appears in this chapter, and He gives Abram himself a name; this is the ground of his relationship with God; and no one can deny that this was a very important point in the history of Abram.

Three things come out in this chapter: (1) God reveals Himself by a name; (2) God gives Abram a name, He changes his name, which God alone could do, and gives him a new name (and Sarai also, though I do not dwell upon that); and (3) God gives him the covenant of circumcision. And I venture to say this, that after all that comes out in this chapter there was not very much left morally of Abram. And so it is with us, for God was dealing with Abram according to the great principles on which He deals with Christians; and I think that we can read those principles in this chapter. So, again, the principles on which God dealt with Israel, in redeeming them, and setting up His tabernacle among them, are the principles on which God has dealt with us The principles of men throughout scripture are unvarying, too; what man was at the outset, after he fell, man is still, and will be to the end. Babel came out very early, but it comes out again at the end as plain as daylight, and God comes out at the end, too.

I made a statement, which I think will need to be enlarged upon a little, that this chapter is the beginning of Abram's entering into relationship with God; though the previous dealings of God with him had been of the greatest importance. I will

tell you what I think is the course of God's dealings with everybody. Where we begin with God is in His call I think everybody is called, and the reason (as I pointed out when speaking on chapter 12) is because God is not in the things out of which man is called. The effect of the fall has been to exclude God from the course of things down here, and the consequence is that when God has to say to man, the first thing is to call him out. That is just as true now as it was when God called Abram out; God was not in kindred and country and father's house idolatry was there. So, too, Israel was in Egyptian bondage; and though God interfered and made known His judgments in Egypt, God was not in Egypt, and so Israel had to be called out. Christ had to go down into Egypt that He might be identified with Israel's history, that it might be fulfilled, "Out of Egypt have I called my son".

And when we come to Christians, what is the truth there? "Whom he called, them he also justified". The first thing is the call of God; there is the beginning of God's dealings with everybody; and the fact of God calling is the clear proof to me that God is not in the course of things down here. The course of the world, the fact of what man is, and the principles of the flesh, are such as to exclude God. "The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life", all the ruling, dominating principles of the world, exclude God, and hence God calls man.

Then, the next thing, after the call of God, is that a man is justified; we see this in the prophecies of Balaam; the first prophecy relates to the call of God, and the second announces the justification of God's people. God had not beheld iniquity in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel -- -- they were justified in the eyes of God. So with Abram, he is called, in chapter 12, out of country and kindred and

father's house, and then he is accounted righteous in chapter 15, but not (as I pointed out last time) in respect of the present course of things, but in respect of God's world. And God's world is not yet displayed, but when the time comes for its display Abram is clear in respect of that. He can have his part there consistently with God's righteousness.

So it is now with the Christian; if justified, I am justified in respect of God's world, and when God displays His world, that is the day when I shall be found clear, not having my own righteousness, but that which is by the faith of Christ. I do not much care to be vindicated in this world, but it is a very great thing to know that I am clear as before God.

The next step is, "Whom he justified, them he also glorified". But I think that in a certain sense there is an intervening step, and that is, that when a man is justified, God enters into relation with him. You can very well understand that God could not do so with a man that is not justified; a man must be clear in the eye of God for God to enter into relation with him. God might have mercy upon a guilty man, and show His grace towards him; but how could He enter into relation with him? There is a vast number of people in the world that have a sense of the grace of God, and may know that they are justified, but yet have very little sense of relationship with God. And that is what we come to in chapter 17; the important point there is that God was pleased to enter into relation with Abram; and if God enters into relation with a man, He must make known His name, He must define the character in which that man is to be in relationship with Himself. For man has lost his place with the Creator, he cannot have to say to God simply as Creator; and if he is to enter into relationship with God, it must be according to the name by which

God sees fit to reveal Himself, whatever that name may be. Read the first verse: -- "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect". Also Revelation 1:8: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty". I just refer to the latter scripture because I am going to dwell upon the name "Almighty" for a moment, and we get in the passage a certain connection in which the title of Almighty stands. As we have seen in chapter 15, God made a certain revelation to Abram, and Abram believed God, and in the eye of God was accounted righteous in view of God's world. But I do not think that Abram got the good of it at that time; it was true in the eye of God, but I do not think it was realised in Abram, or that Abram understood it. The faith was there which God could own, and on the ground of which God could account him righteous; but before Abram got the good of it he was to be subjected to a test. And he did not answer to the test, he fell into the temptation suggested by Sarai, that it was possible to carry out the mind and will of God in a natural way and by natural power. And what was the practical effect? It connected him with Egypt, for he had a link with Egypt in his house, and Abram came for the moment under the influence of what was of Egypt. And, if you are disposed to it, you can bring in natural endowments and powers to carry out the mind of God, but the practical effect will be to bring you under the power of the flesh. I know that there are plenty of people who do it, but they do not understand what the call of God is, and they connect their Christianity with their human circumstances, and maintain certain links down here.

They attempt, as I said, to carry out the things of God in human ways and by natural power and ability. The practical result is that they do not escape the influence of Egypt. Abram fell into the snare, and his soul was darkened to a certain extent, it appears to me, by the influence of Egypt for thirteen years. You read in the preceding chapter how it brought trouble into Abram's house, and caused jealousy on the part of Sarah; but in this chapter we have come to the end of the thirteen years, and God reveals to Abram, for the first time, the name by which he was to know God, just as God afterwards gave to Israel a name according to which Israel was to know God, and has given to us a name according to which we know God; and we are to be in the light of that name. The name by which God revealed Himself to Abram was "Almighty". It is a very simple name, and the idea which it conveys to me is this, that there was nothing beyond the power of God; and it is a name which involves therefore (and I think Revelation 1 proves this) the thought of resurrection. Death is the greatest enemy, the greatest power, in a sense, as against God; but "Almighty" implies that there is nothing beyond the power of God. Evidently, if God is Almighty, He is superior to every power, superior even to death. In the beginning of the Revelation, He is the One that was, and that is, and the One that is to come, the Almighty, and that is what God made known to Abram; His power was illimitable. If there were one single thing that could victoriously assert itself against God, it would prove that God was not Almighty; but God is Almighty. The God whom Abram believed was the God "who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were"; he believed in the Almighty God, the God of resurrection.

I quite understand that a person might read this chapter and view everything that occurs in it as come to pass after the flesh; and indeed what God spoke of here was accomplished after the flesh. But that is not the scope of this chapter; I am sure that such is not all that was in the thought of God. And what is more, the thought and faith of Abraham went beyond this, for his faith is brought before us in Romans 4; he is the father of all who believe, before Him whom he believed, that is "God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were"; and quickening the dead is really the power of resurrection.

That is the way in which Abram believed in God, and God gave him a name, and in connection with the name God gave him an injunction, "Walk before me, and be thou perfect"; he was to be perfect in respect of the name in which it had pleased God to make Himself known to him. In the same way God makes Himself known to us in the name of Father, and we are to walk in the presence of God as known according to that name, and to be perfect, that is, to be established and confirmed, to be true according to the name of Father. I dwell upon this as a point of vital moment. The name by which God reveals Himself to us is our great standby, and we are to have all the benefit, support, and comfort of that name. What a Christian has in the name of Father is the comfort of love. And I think that the name of Father covers every previous name. It is the foundation on which I am to build; my stronghold, and my joy is to be in that which the name imports to me, and what the name of "Father" imports to me is love. It is a great thing to know God as Almighty, so that I am conscious that there is no evil power that can assert itself against Him; in His presence everything has to give way, for God is superior in power to everything.

The name of Jehovah speaks of the faithfulness of God, that He is the eternal One, unchangeable in faithfulness. But when we come to the name of Father, that name imports the love with which the Son is loved. It is a great thing to be brought into the presence of God's goodness; but it is a greater to be in the presence of His love, and to know that God loves us as Christ is loved. One passage will convey the idea, "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ".

To Abraham God did not make His love known, the time for that had not come; I do not think that God could adequately make known His love until the Son came. God was revealed only partially in the time of Abraham or of the prophets; the revelation of the name of Father was reserved for an after time. The name by which God made Himself known to Abraham implied that nothing could deprive him of the promises, because they rested on the all-sufficient power of God.

The name under which God has revealed Himself is the light of our souls, and we do not want more. Christ "was the true light, which coming into the world lighteneth every man", and He was the true light because He revealed God. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him". He revealed Him according to all His pleasure. We do not want the light of science or of literature; they are spurious lights, they inflate man, and give him a most undue idea of man's power; but they are not light to the soul. The light we have is the light we need; and the light we have is the name in which it has pleased God to reveal Himself to us, the blessed name of Father, in the light of His love. And if you know this you

will not be carried away by the pretensions of infidelity, or of science, or anything of the kind; there is no good in them morally. I pity the man who turns aside from the light of God's love to pay attention to the false lights by which men try to divert souls from the truth.

The next point is that God gave to Abram a name. "As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God". Now it is evident that God here gave Abram a new name; you may say that it was only a change in name, but it was virtually a new name, there was in the change a real significance. When God speaks about His own name, the name means the way and character in which God declares Himself; but when God gives to man a name, that name imports that which God intends to set forth in that man. Now the name that God gave to Abram was Abraham, and the meaning of Abraham is "the father of a multitude", and that is what God purposed to set forth in Abraham. So that Abraham had two things, the light of God as the Almighty, and the knowledge of what God intended to set forth in himself. Those things were to be the life of Abraham's soul, and I think that his soul and mind were to be taken up with them. A reference to Romans 4 will make it

plain that the thought of God in giving to Abram that name went on to resurrection, for Abraham was to be the father of all them that believe, before "God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were". He is the father of all of those whom God touches by the testimony of resurrection, for that is the testimony in which God has come to us; and Abraham is thus the father of many nations.

Now, in the application of that principle to Christians, I would ask what is it, do you think, that God intends to set forth in us? The name in which we know Him is Father, and what is the name which God has put upon believers? I think that it is Christ, and I judge that Christians are designated "Christ" in scripture because they are anointed of the Spirit. The expression of the apostle, "For me to live is Christ", gives me the impression that God has no mind otherwise in regard to saints save that Christ may be set forth in them; and it means that in the thought of God Christ is practically to displace all else. If you can apprehend what Christ is, then you can understand the force of the name which God has put upon you. We are one body in the baptism of the Spirit, and in that one body Christ is to be set forth; and as you understand the virtues and sensibilities and affections of Christ, so you will understand what is to be set forth in Christians. I think that God intends us to be in the light of the Father, that is, of God revealed in love; and as Christ personally was under the eye of God when He was here upon earth, so now, in the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Ghost, Christ is reproduced here in the one body. It is the subject of the Epistle to the Colossians. The saints are looked at as circumcised, complete in Christ, and in chapter 3 they are spoken of as having put off the old man and put on

the new; and in the new man Christ is all and in all. Chapter 3 of Colossians is the simple setting forth of Christ in the Christian circle here. The Christ is the name which God has been pleased to put upon saints, and it expresses that which God intends should be set forth in us. We are to walk down here as a forgiven people in the sense of the grace of God, but that is not the greatness of God's thought in regard to us. It is seen in that we have put off the old man, and put on the new, which after God is created in righteousness and holiness of truth. And it is evident how completely one's name is displaced! I may, or may not, have had part in the renown and glory of man ("name" often has the force of renown in scripture), I may have been a great man in the world, or a crossing-sweeper, or anything else, but my name is now completely set aside for that which God has given.

One speaks of these things, but as conscious of how poorly we are up to them. Most of us are content to walk down here piously, as knowing something of the grace of God, but that is not the height of the divine thought. I believe that all that which will be displayed in the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem, should characterise the saints morally now; just as the apostle said, "For me to live is Christ"; and just as the new name and the child, which God gave to Abram were intended to exclude all that was naturally of Abram. All was new.

I come now to the third point, and I wish to connect the three points together. "And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in thy generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin;

and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant". Then, in verse 26, you see that in the selfsame day Abraham, and Ishmael, and all the men of his house, were circumcised. This shows in figure the truth that the flesh has to be put off; Abraham has received new light and a new name, a revelation of the purpose of God as to what was to be set forth in him, and in the light of the new the old goes. Circumcision is looked upon in Romans 4 as the seal of God upon Abraham. And the way in which I should construe that in regard to Christians is that the flesh is set aside because the Spirit is there; as the apostle says in Romans 8"Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you". From the moment the Spirit is received every bit of the flesh in the believer has to be disowned. Abraham had to learn the lesson in figure that there was no room for confidence in the flesh; the teaching was of course typical in his case, but it meant that the sign of the covenant as between God and himself indicated that God would not own the flesh. Abraham was to become weak, and so, too, all the strength of his house, because God intended to make clear in Abraham that He had nothing to say to the strength of flesh.

Now this is of the last moment to us. The shape in which it comes to us is that for those whom God

has called, and who are justified, the Spirit is the seal; and the meaning of receiving the Spirit is that we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. The moment the Spirit of God is received, it ought to be a settled thing with that person that the flesh is no longer to rule, for the Spirit has come to dwell, and to take the entire control.

Now I will try to put these things together in their application to us, which is my main object. We are in the light of God's love, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us", and God has made known His purpose concerning us, viz., that which is to be set forth in us; He has put a name upon all of us, and that is Christ. And, further, God has given to every Christian a power adequate for the setting aside of the flesh, so that there is simply room for Christ to come out. It must be one or the other with us, either flesh or Christ; that makes up all the life of a Christian here. But if the Spirit is there, He alone is the power to set aside the flesh, in order that the body may be the vessel in which Christ is displayed.

Now I will give you a practical rule by which you may know when you are in the Spirit -- it is when you are consciously in the light of God's love; for you may be confident that if the Spirit of God is effective in you, He is bound to keep you in the light in which God has made Himself known to you; and when that is the case, Christ will come out in you, and hence the flesh will be practically set aside. The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you may not do the things to which you are prone. And the rule of the Spirit means that the soul of the Christian is kept in the light of the love of God, and you cannot be kept there without responding to that love. We love God

because He first loved us. And hence what describes me in my character here is Christ. I think that the apostle was kept continually in the light of the Father's name; he apprehended the purpose of God about him, and accepted it, and the flesh was practically set aside in him in the power of the Holy Ghost, so that not the flesh but the Spirit ruled, and there was not much of Paul seen.

I want everybody to bear in mind the great principles of God's dealings with Abram; and I think that it is most important to remember that Abram had to do with the God of resurrection. God was not merely making certain promises to him which were connected with his seed after the flesh; but in the name in which God revealed Himself, and in the name which He gave to Abraham, and in the covenant which God made with him, the thought of God went far beyond all that was after the flesh: it went really into the resurrection sphere, in which all these things will come out. It is in the resurrection sphere that God will be really known as God Almighty, and that Abraham's name will come out as the father of many nations. It is there, too, that you get the flesh practically set aside in the power of the Holy Ghost. God grant that we may know something more of that sphere. Abraham had a glimpse of it, but we know it more perfectly, as being in the light of the God of resurrection. This is the true beginning of our history with God; and the Holy Ghost has come down, because Christ is risen and glorified, to make God known according to what He is in love as Father.

I trust that you may have apprehended what I judge to be the great principles which come before us in the chapter; and I think that it is in our power, by the Spirit of God, to understand these things a great deal more clearly and distinctly than even Abraham understood them.

THE MAN OF FAITH -- HIS ECLIPSE BY THE SEED OF PROMISE

Genesis 21:1 - 13; Galatians 4:21 - 31, and 5: 1

We were dwelling last time on a most important point in the history of Abraham, viz., that God formed a special link, as it were, with him by the name of Almighty, and by this name he was to know God. And, further, that God gave to Abram a change of name, which signified that which God was pleased to set forth in Abraham, and this was that he was "the father of a multitude of nations". A third point was that God gave to Abraham the covenant of circumcision, which signified that he was in the world, apart from the flesh, for God. Before I pass on to the passage I have now read, let me say that Abraham is the typical man of faith, that is the feature specially characteristic of him. He is called the "father of the faithful", the "father of all them that believe", Jew or Gentile; and it is in that sense that he has become morally the "father of a multitude of nations". I think, too, that he is typical of the heavenly man down here; not perhaps exactly of Christ, but he represents a man walking in the light of God; that is the peculiar testimony of Abraham all through his course. Of course we do not see very much of him in scripture; there are long gaps in his history, one of thirteen years, in which we get no account of him, but when he does come before us we see a man evidently not in the darkness of the world. The world was in terrible darkness in those days, the darkness of departure from God and of idolatry; but it is evident enough that Abraham was in the light of God, for he was a man of faith. Faith means light in the soul from God; faith is the gift of God, and if God gives a

man faith it means that God gives him light from Himself. Light comes in to man by faith; and faith means practically that a man, instead of being in the darkness of nature, is in the light of God. And that is what peculiarly marked Abraham at the various points at which he is brought before us -- when he parted from Lot, and told Lot to choose where he would go, he acted as a man that had light from God. So, too, when he believed God, and God counted it to him for righteousness, it meant that he had light from God. I think people misunderstand faith; they think that faith is that a man simply acts disregardful of consequences. I quite admit that a man of faith does not count the consequences of what he does; but I think that there is no real faith where there is no light; believing is the principle in man's heart that appropriates the light that God gives and hence light and faith go together.

Now this connection comes out peculiarly in the chapters coming between the 17th and the 20th. In chapter 18 we find that God conferred upon Abraham a great favour. There was there a man of faith, a man prepared for more light, and when the light came he welcomed it; he appreciated light, and God gave him light. And it is so with us, if you want light you get it; if people do not want light they do not get it. Abraham was a man of single eye, and God gave him light, and it was in this way that He revealed to him what he was about to do in regard of Sodom, where Lot was. And having received the light, he begins to plead with God for the sparing of Sodom, and has a promise that if God found only ten righteous men there He would not destroy the city. In result there were not ten righteous men found there, and the only righteous man that was found there God brought out of the overthrow. The chapter brings

before us a man who had light from God, and who acted on the light he had. And if God makes known His mind, that which He makes known becomes the subject of communion with Himself. This is always the case; the reception of light from God increases the area, so to speak, of intercourse with God. Thus it was with Abraham: he could and did venture to talk to God freely in regard of Sodom and the sparing of the city. The chapter reveals to us the confidence which God had in Abraham. It is most wonderful to see God reposing confidence in a man. God has pleasure in our confidence, but He has pleasure, too, in giving His confidence to His people. God gave His confidence to Abraham, and that unreservedly.

But another point comes out in chapter 19, viz., that if God reposes His confidence in a man that man must be transparent. You see there had been a subterfuge on the part of Abraham in regard to his wife, he had kept concealed from the king of the Philistines the relation in which he stood to her; and before God fulfils His promise that reserve has to be brought to light, for if a man has the confidence of God there must be nothing hid, there must not be the leaven and reserve of human prudence.

One word before I pass on to chapter 21. You will find that another man comes prominently before us in this history, and that is Lot. His history is a sad one; he began in an idolatrous country, he afterwards dwelt in a tent, he sat in the gate of a city, and he finished up in a cave -- that was the history of Lot. On the other hand, the life of Abraham, after God called him out, was marked by two things, a tent and an altar. He held to the true pilgrim character, a stranger and pilgrim upon earth, but where he went he had an altar. Lot was a godly man, but do you suppose that he ever had an altar in Sodom; do you think Sodom

was the place for an altar to be tolerated? He dwelt in the gate of the city, was a conspicuous man, a judge there, and he had to end his life in a cave, with disgraceful consequences, which resulted in trouble to Israel all through their history.

I only just make these remarks to show the connection of what will come before us now with what has preceded. We have done now, in a certain sense, with Abraham, and come to the accomplishment of God's promise, to the introduction of the promised seed, which evidently is much more important in the ways of God than even the history of Abraham. Everything was bound up in the promised seed; and in this chapter God fulfils His promise, the promised seed is born, and I will dwell a little on the consequences of the introduction of the promised seed, for they are significant. "And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him; and Abraham was an hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age".

Now the special promise was of the birth of a son, in whom the promises of God were to be fulfilled; and when Ishmael was born, Abraham probably thought that he had got the son, just as when Cain was born, Eve thought she had got the man from the Lord. But Abraham made a mistake,

and the birth of Ishmael simply brought confusion into his house; just as Cain brought sorrow and confusion into Adam's house, for he killed his brother. Ishmael did not bring in peace, nor what was of God. Hagar despised Sarah. But now the true seed is born. God, after keeping Abraham waiting, for good reason, for fourteen years at least, now fulfils His promise, and the child is called after the name that God had given to him. I do not know that God gave any name to Ishmael; but in chapter 17 you find that God had given Isaac a name, and a name in scripture indicates that which is set forth in that person, and hence a name carried with it a certain significance. The meaning of "Isaac" is "laughter". The idea, I suppose, is that he was to bring in unexpected gladness, no doubt because he is typical of the true seed of Abraham -- Christ. The name was not of Abraham's devising.

Another point is that Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God commanded him. That brings out this important point, that Isaac was set apart to God from the outset. Probably he was the first child that was ever circumcised at eight days old. Abraham was circumcised when he was ninety-nine years old, Ishmael when he was thirteen years old, Isaac when he was eight days old: signifying, I think, that just as Isaac had a name which was appointed him of God, so from the outset, from eight days old, he was set apart by circumcision for God, and is a type of the true seed of promise.

It is very beautiful to see that Sarah was the first to realise the significance of Isaac's name; "God hath made me to laugh", she partook in anticipation of the gladness which was to be set forth in Isaac. It means this in principle, that she derived from Isaac and not Isaac from her. In natural things a clever man born into this world is almost un-varyingly the offspring of a mother of parts. But Isaac, as

I said, did not derive from his mother, but she from him. The Lord Himself gained nothing morally from His mother, but she gained everything from Him, as Sarah gained in that sense from Isaac.

Now we come to the effect of the introduction of Isaac. "And the child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son". It is evident that in the mind of Abraham the weaning was a great thing, it was then that Isaac was delivered from dependence on the natural supply, and from that time he stands out in his own existence and distinctness. The effect of the introduction of the child of promise was that it brought trouble for the moment into the house. Isaac was not the cause of the trouble, but what Abraham had tolerated, the Egyptian maidservant and her son, were the cause of the trouble. I think very often that when trouble comes people put it on the wrong shoulders, just as they might have said here that the cause of the trouble was the birth of Isaac, but it was not so.

Then, again, Sarah is more instinctively right than Abraham. He is greatly attached to his son Ishmael, and the strong natural link to a certain extent blinded Abraham. Men are blinded in that way sometimes by natural affection, as Isaac was blinded afterwards by affection for Esau, and would have blessed him because he was his firstborn, and that he ate of his venison. But Sarah insists upon the bondwoman and her son being cast out, because the child of promise had come, and the child of the

bondwoman could have no part with the son of the free woman.

Now, in the application of this, we see that there is nothing at all in common between Christ and the flesh. It is a most solemn lesson to learn, however you reach it, that though flesh may be of the most estimable character it has no natural appreciation of Christ. Christ came into the world, and the flesh was tested by His presence; but what came out was that the flesh had no kind of appreciation of Him -- a terrible thing, but only too true. And I think I can understand it, because Christ necessarily brings in the light of God, and the flesh does not want the light of God. His ministry down here upon earth was all light from God, the pleasure of God prospered in His hand; whatever He did or said was an expression of the pleasure of God, the light of God coming in. He was not a man acting in his own intelligence or independently, but everything was the effulgence of divine light. If He touched a leper, it was the pleasure of God that the leper should be cleansed; if He raised the dead, it was equally the pleasure of God. We read that He was "anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power", the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Him, He "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him". He was anointed at the outset of His ministry with the Holy Ghost, in order that He might set forth here upon earth the pleasure of God in regard to man. This was grace; it was of the pleasure of God to relieve man from the pressure that sin had brought upon him. And what was the effect of this presentation? It made manifest that man did not care for Christ. Israel loathed the light bread. Man would have the world as it is, with all the ills that are in it, rather than have in it the light of God. And that is still true. Do you think that the cultivated

and refined want the light of God? But, after all, it was impossible that Christ could be here to support man as he is, for, by reason of what He is, Christ must bring in the light of God, and so expose man. Wherever He was, there was a halo, so to speak, of moral glory, an effulgence of God; but men do not want that light; the best of men after the flesh, the most refined, the most advanced, want the light of God the least; they do not care for Christ, they believe in man, and if they believe in man they do not believe in God. If man were not fallen, he would not have to believe in God at all; Adam did not need to believe in God; and if man were not fallen, the link that originally existed between the Creator and man would remain, and there would be no necessity for faith. All would be of sight. The very fact of faith being here is evidence that man is fallen. But, alas! men, as I said, do not believe in God, but in man. This is very marked in the present day; man has great confidence in himself and in his powers, which do go very far, for God has given to him great ability, and powers of investigation, collation, invention, and the like; and man uses these for himself and is proud of them, but does not care for the light of God. The light of God is not pleasure nor gladness to him. But to a man who is conscious of the pressure of things down here, of sin, and death, and Satan's power, with judgment to come in view, what greater gladness can there be than to have the light of God's grace brought to him? All of us feel that when sickness and the fear of death and the thought of eternity come upon a man, that which alone can give him joy and gladness is the light of God's grace; and that is what Christ has brought. He shed the light of God on every step of His pathway down here. But the flesh does not care for that, it is not going to be set aside for Christ if it can help it. And so

at every step of His pathway the Lord had to meet antagonism and self-assertion on the part of man; men did not want the light that He brought, and did everything they could to discredit what He did and said.

It is a great point to apprehend that there is nothing in common between Christ and the flesh; and, practically, that means that every bit of the flesh has to go, not this bit or that bit, but the whole. There are two great principles in the operation of God which go together, the one being consequent on the other; one is Christ crucified, and the other is the gift of the Spirit. In John 3 the Son of man must be lifted up; and in John 4 Christ gives to the one that asks the well of water that springs up in him to eternal life. In other parts of the New Testament you will find the same sequence; for instance, in chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, we have Christ crucified, in chapter 2 the spiritual man, the flesh judicially and completely set aside, it is possible that you may fail to carry this out in practice, but I want you to accept it as a truth, that there is nothing in common between Isaac and Ishmael, and if Isaac comes in Ishmael must go out; if Christ comes in, the legal man must be set aside, every bit of him. He that is after the flesh persecutes him that is after the Spirit; Christ was after the Spirit, was full of the Spirit, and was persecuted by man, who was after the flesh. That was the history of Christ down here, and the principle remains good to this day; the flesh will not tolerate the Spirit, and, on the other hand, the Spirit will not tolerate the flesh, there is no compromise. God, in His grace, saves my person, but has condemned my state; He does not save one single bit that is of me morally, the flesh has to go completely.

One word as to the application of this to Israel. When the child of promise came in, Ishmael had

to go out with his mother. And when the true Isaac, the Christ, had come in, what came to pass then in result in the history of Israel? Jerusalem below had to go, and her children. That is what we are taught in the Epistle to the Galatians; Jerusalem and her children were in bondage, and they had to be cast out because the seed of promise had come in. The fact is that they first put Christ out, but they themselves had to go out -- that was the divine way. Men are short-sighted; they think that they have carried their point, but they only pave the way for their own overthrow. So it was with the Jew. On the other hand, though for the moment outside the camp in the place of reproach, Christ has gone to the right hand of God; and when He comes again the man after the flesh will not be tolerated, nor the legal system. Jerusalem represents the legal system; and there was the progeny of Jerusalem, those who were educated in that school after the law, and they have to be cast out with the system, because the child of promise has come in.

Now, the apostle says to the Galatians, "We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise". Christ was the true promised seed; and, as partakers of the Spirit of Christ, we are children of promise. But, then, if we are the children of promise we are not in bondage, we are children of Jerusalem above, and Jerusalem above is free. It is not the divine thought about saints that they should be in bondage. If we apprehend Christ as the true expression of God's purpose in regard to us, it is sure that the flesh will have completely to be repudiated. Many a Christian tolerates the flesh in measure, but it is because he has never entered into the revelation of God's purpose about him, in Christ. I think it is exceedingly possible to enjoy the grace and light of God to a certain point in its application to us as men down here, and yet after all, to a very large

extent, allow the flesh. But, on the other hand, if God has given to us any light of His purpose in Christ concerning us, and that is what God has done, then we see that flesh has no part in that purpose. If we apprehend our priestly place, as sons of God, and thus companions of Christ, and the truth of the assembly, and realise what it is to have boldness to enter into the holiest, we have to give up all that is of the flesh, and then it is that we have "put off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ". We realise that we are buried with him in baptism, there is no more of the flesh tolerated. We are continually hindered and baffled by the flesh; but all has to go in the light of the divine purpose concerning us, and that is what I should call the introduction of the child of promise.

There are two sides to the gospel; there is the side connected with the grace of God, and there is the side connected with the love of God. There is the grace of God which brings salvation to all men, as in Titus 2, and I do not doubt but that many a Christian follows that line; but there is not a word in the passage about the purpose of God as to man. It is "the grace of God which brings salvation to all men hath appeared", and it has its teaching in those who appreciate that grace, and the teaching is that "we should live soberly, righteously, and piously in this present age, looking for that blessed hope and the appearing of the glory". But there is another line of things that God has revealed in Christ, viz., the counsel of His love, which is that we should be before Him as children according to His nature; and that is what comes to light in the child of promise. And if you apprehend the true Isaac, and the light of divine purpose in Him, then you learn that God has "chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in

love, having predestinated us to sonship through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will".

Now, if the child of promise in that sense, and what is revealed in Him, should take possession of your heart, the practical effect will be that the flesh will not be tolerated, for it is nothing but a hindrance. The flesh will be continually clinging to this thing and to that thing down here, like certain creatures which cling so tenaciously to a rock that it is most difficult to remove them. The flesh clings as tenaciously as ever it can to the world and to what is seen; and that baffles and hinders many a Christian, so that he enters to a very small extent into the light of God's purpose about him. If it please God to give you the light of His counsel in the child of promise -- and all the counsel of God is revealed in the child of promise, the true Isaac -- then you will realise that Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother -- we are all the children of promise; and then the flesh, Ishmael, is cast out, and we stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and are not entangled again with a yoke of bondage. That is the path marked out for the Christian who gets the light of God's purpose in Christ.

Many Christians are, alas! in bondage; and there are two reasons for this. The first is that they have but a very poor apprehension of the counsel of God's love; and the other hangs upon this, that they tolerate to a large extent the flesh, and what they tolerate becomes their scourge; they find the flesh continually clinging to something natural; they perhaps give too much place to objects of natural affection, and that may hinder the soul and keep it in bondage. The contrast to this comes out here in type; Isaac is weaned, he is separated from the natural, and then it is that the counsel of

God is revealed in him. And so, too, all God's counsel in regard of us is revealed in Christ apart from the flesh; and God has given us the power by which that counsel can be effectuated in us, the well of water which springs up in us to eternal life, and as the well of water springs up, the rule of the flesh is refused.

God has thus given to the believer a power that is superior to the flesh. You cannot get rid of the flesh by any effort of your own. If a man were to shut himself up in a monastery all his life, he could not get away from the flesh, nor really from the world. In a babe there is no image of the world yet formed; the principle of will is there, and as the child grows up and comes to years, the image of the world is formed in the heart, and it can never get rid of it. If a man shuts himself up from the world, he has got the image of the world in his heart, and can no more get free from it than from the flesh. No power can free you, nor anyone, from the flesh except the Spirit of God. He is the well of water in the believer that springs up unto eternal life. You are entitled to be free from the flesh, for God has condemned not only sin, but sin in the flesh, in order that He might impart the Spirit. And the practical benefit that you will gain will be a full entrance by the Spirit of God into God's purpose concerning you, and you will not get it otherwise.

It is wonderful to have these things set forth in type hundreds of years before the actual things came to pass. And it is to my mind exceedingly beautiful to pass away from Abraham, who is no longer prominent, to the child of promise; Abraham, as I said before, represents to us the man of faith, the man who walked here in divine light; and Isaac the true child of promise, and that is Christ.

One word more, have you real enjoyment with God? I think people sometimes mistake light for

enjoyment. Many persons read, for instance, Romans 5, and mistake the light of the chapter for the enjoyment of what is presented. What you need for enjoyment is state; to be brought into liberty in the power of the Spirit, as the apostle says in Romans 8, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death". I think it is of importance to distinguish between the two things. Ministry may help you as to light, but it cannot give you enjoyment. In the Epistle to the Ephesians the apostle can enlighten, but he cannot give people state; when it is a question of state he has to pray about them. He gives them a great deal of light in chapter 1 as to the gospel, and in chapter 3 as to the mystery; and when he has enlightened them to his utmost he sets to work to pray for them (that is as to their state), that God will give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Himself, that they may get enjoyment. God might even through me give you a little increase of light, but I cannot give you enjoyment. It is a great thing to get light; you get light first, or else you would have no title; and the Spirit of God gives you the state for enjoyment, liberating you from the flesh. He brings you thus into the enjoyment of all that He has presented to you in Christ. May God grant to you to know it in yourselves.

THE MAN OF FAITH -- HIS TESTINGS

Genesis 22

This chapter closes up, in a sense, the history of Abraham. He disappears from the course of God's ways here. And so, too, we are all diminished and eclipsed. I do not mean to say that there are no allusions to Abraham afterwards. There are such, but they are casual allusions, and hardly a part of the connected history. I hope to make the point to which I have just referred plain. When we have appreciated what the way of God is in the gospel, then we disappear. When I believe in God "who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead", I disappear, because from that point it is no longer myself, for I have no more place before God after the flesh; what God puts before me is that I am to enjoy all that which is secured in the Lord; it is no longer the question of what I am, for I am gone. The moment I appreciate Christ risen, in the eye of God I am gone; and my portion is to enjoy the fruits of victory which God has gained in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what I understand to be the true beginning for the Christian, for remember that the foundation of Christianity is that the man that was under judgment has gone in judgment, that the righteousness of God might be vindicated. And if the man that was under judgment (and I am that man that was under judgment), has gone in judgment, how can he survive? There is nothing of me left, in that sense. But then the righteousness of God having been vindicated, the glory of God has come in to raise Christ again from the dead; and I, as a Christian, am permitted to enjoy the fruits of victory secured in the Lord Jesus Christ, the details of which you will find expanded in Romans 5.

Now what I have put before you is one of the first principles of Christianity; it is the truth of Romans 3 and 4; it is not where we leave off as Christians, but where we begin, having received the truth of the gospel. But in the history before us it was the point where Abraham left off, not where he began; the anti-type of this chapter is found in Romans 3 and 4. To begin with, you get the burnt offering; Abraham is to offer up his son Isaac, the type of Christ after the flesh, and eventually, in place of his son, a burnt offering. That is the first part, and it was in order that the righteousness of God might be vindicated. Then afterwards you have the statement, "In thy seed" (no longer "in thee", Abraham is gone) "In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed". The point now is that the good things of God, the good things of His house, are secured in One whom God has raised again from the dead; the fruits of victory for the Christian's enjoyment are in the Lord Jesus Christ. I am not called upon merely to enjoy the thought that I am forgiven, or that I have received the gift of the Holy Ghost; but to appreciate what God has secured for His own glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Take, for instance, peace with God, it is through our Lord Jesus Christ; or reconciliation, we have received it through our Lord Jesus Christ; or the reign of grace, grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Though our personality, or individuality, remains, morally there is nothing of us left under the eye of God. And that is what Abraham came to in this chapter. I think that many of us have been greatly hindered and affected by not beginning right in our Christian course. If we had begun on right lines we should have made much greater progress. If I were an evangelist, I should feel now the greatest responsibility as to how I presented the truth,

because it is so important that people should be started on right lines, so that they may understand what the way of God is. And it is a point of the deepest interest to me that where Abraham left off we begin.

But what I want to bring before you now is not exactly what I have just been speaking of, but the various tests to which Abraham was subjected, the final, and in a sense the most trying one being in this chapter. God tempted Abraham. There had been, after his call, previous tests (I think six in all are recounted to us in the Word) to which Abraham was subjected, and these I purpose to bring before you now. Everybody is tested. Every Christian here is just as important in the eye of God as Abraham was. Abraham stands out a conspicuous figure in scripture, he is the father of the faithful; but do not think for a moment that there is any respect of persons with God, or that Abraham was any more to God than is any Christian in the present day. The most apparently insignificant amongst us is just as important as any other in the eye of God; and if you are going on with God do not think that you are going to escape testing; I cannot tell you how the tests may come, but tested assuredly you will be, or if let alone it would be a bad sign.

It may help if I try to bring before you what is the object of testing, why God tests His people. Abraham, as we shall see presently, was subjected to test after test, and it was to prove whether God was enough for him, whether he could do with God, and without human resources. People want God and human resources. Even in the work of the Lord one constantly sees people turning to human resources and expedients. But saints are subjected to tests in their circumstances, in their health and in other ways (and God knows how to test people);

and the point of the testing is to prove whether He is enough for them. Naturally, people turn to human resources and supports, but by that they prove that God is not their resource.

Now I want to show you on the one hand what a man gains if he answers to God's test, and on the other hand, what he loses if he does not answer to the test. If God gives a man a little light, that man will certainly be tested. If he answers to the test he will get more light. Now that is as certain as anything I could tell you; I could prove it from scripture, and I know it in my own experience. But if a man does not answer to the test he will not get more light, though God may put him under discipline, and so on. And where people do not answer to the test, when put to the test, they will simply in result bring in trouble and confusion by their own ways. If it is the way of God with a person that he should give up some object which he has cherished, or should surrender something to which he has clung, if that object is still clung to, and not given up, though agreeable and pleasant for the moment, it will, in the long run, be his scourge, and will, beyond all question, bring in trouble and confusion.

Now I think you will see how this comes out in a most remarkable way in the history of Abraham. I will take up the various tests in succession, and will substantiate what I have said. And there is a very interesting point in scripture, viz., that God never in it traverses the same ground twice. Having brought Abraham before us, and His ways in dealing with him, God does not go over that ground again.

Look at chapter 12: 10: "And there was a. famine in the land; and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land". Also chapter 13: 1 - 4: "And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and

all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south ... unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first; and there Abram called on the name of Jehovah".

Now here we have the first test. The famine came in and proved a test to Abram, and he did not answer to the test; that is to say, he turned to human expedients, and went down to Egypt. Egypt was a fruitful country, and it was common, I suppose, for people to go down there when a famine arose in the land of Canaan. Abram did not answer to the test, he went the way of the world, went down to Egypt on account of the famine, and while there he got no light, but on the other hand he brought trouble into his house; he exposed himself to the world power, and if it had not been for the providential protection of God disaster might have come upon him. It has often been said that in Egypt he had no altar; and the time between his leaving Canaan and his coming back to the altar that he had at the first was lost time spiritually. It is humbling that he did not answer to the test, and the result was that he gained no ground spiritually.

The next test is in chapter 13, and it was a simple one (chapter 13: 7, 8, and 14 - 18). "And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen, for we are brethren". "And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the

dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it, and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto Jehovah".

Here the test is Lot, and the strife of the herdsmen. Now what is going to be the course of Abram? Is he about to assert his rights? No; in principle he fulfils an injunction in the New Testament, he makes manifest his yieldingness, and gives Lot complete liberty to take any direction he likes. Then, at the end of the chapter, God gives him a great confirmation of the promise; he is to walk through the land in the breadth and length of it, and God will give it to him; he is allowed to survey, if I may use the expression, the inheritance in the whole extent of it -- that is the compensation that he got. As I said, the test was whether God was sufficient, whether Abram was content to make no claim, not to assert himself, God being his portion. And he proved that God was his portion, and enough for him; he answered to the test. Christians often want a little something in the present, they look to be prospered in the present life, that is a natural feeling; but if a man makes that his object I do not think that he will prosper spiritually; he will be much what Abram would have been if he had not answered to this test. Abram pursued nothing, he gave the greatest liberty to Lot, and Lot went to the gate of Sodom and brought trouble on himself. Abram, on the other hand, though led by God through the length and breadth of the land, has no present possession. And the same principle applies to us, we have no present possession, we cannot have it, because the inheritance is not yet redeemed; but we have an inheritance, and God would give to us,

as He did to Abram, to survey the whole extent of it, the breadth and length and depth and height, in the power of the Spirit. He would have us to walk, as it were, through it, and would lead us into the intelligence, by the Spirit, of the greatness of the inheritance which we have in Christ. But this is all dependent on our answering to the test, on our being content to accept God as our portion without seeking a portion here.

Now we pass on to the end of chapter 14: 18 - 24: "And Melchisedec, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine; and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand. And he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich; save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, let them take their portion". (Chapter 15: 1) "After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward".

The test here, as I understand it, is that of receiving recognition from the world; and it is a test to which many of us have been more or less subjected. But previously to Abram being subjected to that test God had given him encouragement. Melchisedec had come to him, who was the priest of the most high God, and had blessed him. Abraham thus

received blessing from God before being subjected to this test; and when the test came he answered to it, and would take nothing from the King of Sodom, from a thread even to a shoelatchet, lest he should say, "I have made Abram rich"; that is, he will receive no reward from man. And in this Abram comes before us as the heavenly man; and for a Christian to receive recognition from the world, as though he had done a service to it, is a reproach to him. People will try to justify it in saying that Christians are sometimes placed in circumstances where they cannot avoid it. That may be the case; but it does not alter the fact that in itself it is a reproach to the Christian, as it would have been a reproach to Abram, if he had done so, to take anything from the King of Sodom. And then an accession of light comes in, for God appears to him and says, "I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward".

Are you prepared to go through the world without reward or recognition from man? I would not care that men should praise me as a good servant, or should distinguish me on that account. I would go through the world "as hireling fills his day", not wanting any recognition from man. A Christian does his duty not seeking honour from man, but for the sake of conscience towards God. If people obtain reward from man I think they receive injury to themselves. I say this experimentally, being assured that it is a great thing neither to be courting nor expecting anything from the world, but to be content with having God for your portion, and your exceeding great reward. The fact is this, that all depends upon whether your eyes are fixed on this sphere or on another. If you have before you what is spoken of in the Epistle to the Hebrews as "the world to come", you will regard everything in reference to that sphere; but if you are looking at

the world that is, you will want recognition on the part of man, and that is a snare, because the world which is, is in the sight of God an evil world.

I pass on now to chapter 16: 2: "And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing; I pray thee, go in unto my maid, it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai".

Here we get a test of a much more subtle kind, because the question of bringing to pass God's promise came in. It was not like the test of the offer of the King of Sodom, that is, of gaining recognition on the part of the world, but the suggestion had the promise of God in view, being a proposal to Abram to secure that promise in a natural way, by natural means; this was specious, and alas! for Abram he yielded. It reminds one of attempts to carry out the work of God by human expedients, and there is a great deal of this around; in fact, the effort in the present day is to utilise natural powers, eloquence and the like, to further the work of God.

It was very much the same in principle here. The promise was certain, Abram was to have a son, but under the advice of Sarai he sought to bring about the fulfilment of the promise in a natural way. And it terminated in confusion and trouble to his house; he did not answer to the test, and for the moment he got no further light, just as when he went down to Egypt. Whenever Abram did answer to a test he received an accession of light; when he failed to answer to the test he brought in trouble; and it is the same in God's ways with us.

The next test is in chapter 21: 9: "And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be

heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son".

Now it cannot be denied that as things go on the tests to the saint become more searching. This test of Abraham was of a different order to anything to which he had yet been subjected. The famine, the test in regard to Lot, and the test of the King of Sodom, were neither of them tests of this order; for in this Abraham's affections were involved. Evidently he was deeply attached to Ishmael, his son, but he had to cast him out; the bondwoman and her son were to be cast out of the house because the son of the bondwoman could not be heir with the son of the free woman. Now to Abraham, whose affections were involved, this was a test of a very trying description. And you will find the same principle of test in the case of the apostle Paul. He clung strongly to Jerusalem and his kindred according to the flesh; but he had to learn the lesson, which Abraham learnt here, that the son of the bondwoman must be cast out, he could not inherit with the son of the free woman. And this comes home, too, to us. We have, as Abraham had, to accept separation from what is after the flesh, because our associations are with the children of promise; there can be no mingling of the two, you cannot mingle converted and unconverted people together, nor keep up associations with the two. As the children of Jerusalem above, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, we are compelled to have done with the children after the flesh. The more light we get that flesh has no place before God, and that, for God, the children must be of promise, the more separation will be brought about between ourselves and the children after the flesh. That is the lesson which Abraham had to learn here, he was not to expect his seed after the flesh to be blessed,

but it was the seed of, promise that would have the blessing of God. The blessing of God would descend, not in the line of natural generation, but in the line of the promise of God.

And I have no doubt but that God will fulfil that in the future in regard to Israel. It is not the seed after the flesh that will be blessed in the time to come; if it were, Ishmael ought to be blessed; but the children of promise will be reckoned as the seed. To put it in other language, to be truly the children of Abraham they will have to be the children of God, and they will not be accounted as children of Abraham unless they are children of God, i.e., in virtue of the work of God in them. They will be born again, and brought into the light of God; and because they are the children of God in that sense they will be accounted as the children of Abraham. And Abraham had to be content with that.

I do not know whether we quite enter, in the same way as many of those worthies did, into the strength of links after the flesh. I have wondered, in reading the New Testament, at the strength of the link which bound the apostle Paul to his kindred after the flesh. This is seen in Romans 9, he was willing to be accursed from Christ on their behalf. But Abraham had to learn the lesson even at this early date, that the child after the flesh was not to be accounted for the seed. Sarah was more right as to this than Abraham. Thus we see that the very principle which God had to work out in the history of Israel, was taught at the outset to Abraham himself. Abraham learnt those lessons which took God hundreds of years to work out in detail in the history of Israel, and the same principles are verified to us in Christianity.

Now we come to the final test (chapter 22: 1 and 2): "And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham;

and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of".

As I said before the tests with Abraham became more exacting and severe. To cast out Ishmael was a severe test; but here was one much more terrible, to offer up Isaac. No test could have been proposed to Abraham equal to this in severity. But it involved a lesson which he needed to learn if he were to understand the way of God. And we too, need to learn the same thing. The fact is that, at the close of God's dealings with Abraham, He taught him the great principle of the gospel, that there was no hope for man even in connection with Christ after the flesh. As the apostle says: "If we have known Christ after the flesh we know him no more". Why? Because the righteousness of God was not so met. If it could have been met apart from Christ's death, it might have been another matter; but it could not, and hence there could be no hope for man in connection with Christ after the flesh. The truth is that Christ came into this world to die. I quite admit that on the way to death man was tested by His life that He was the last test that God applied to man, and that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. But, none the less, there is no question that Christ came into this world that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for everything; He partook of flesh and blood that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death. In view of Hebrews 2, who can gainsay the fact that Christ became Man in order that He might die for the righteousness of God to be vindicated? Abraham had to learn in principle this lesson, and we, too. With all the relief from pressure that Christ afforded to man

when He was here in this world, it was impossible for Him to abide here, nor could the blessing of man be connected with Christ after the flesh; and all blessing in connection with Christ has to be found in the sphere of resurrection. All hope in connection with the flesh has gone, and so, too, in connection with this world. Christ was the light of the world as long as He was in it; but the light of the world has left it, and darkness has come upon it, as the Lord said.

Now in figure Abraham had to learn that lesson, his son had in figure to go for a burnt offering; and so Christ after the flesh had to be offered for a burnt offering. But God was glorified, and the ground completely cleared. Abraham did not actually offer up his son; but he offered up the ram provided, for this lesson could not be fully learnt without the sacrifice being completed. The ram represented his son. The true burnt offering has now been offered, the righteousness of God declared and vindicated; the man that was under judgment has gone in judgment, death has been there, and God has now a clear field, and His glorious power has come in raising Christ again from the dead. And now you have, "In thy seed" -- Christ risen from the dead -- "shall all the families of the earth be blessed". It is explained to us in the Epistle to the Galatians; the curse is gone in the judgment of the cross, but the blessing of Abraham has arrived at the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. That is what has come to pass, the righteousness of God magnified, God vindicated, the man that was under death completely gone to the glory of God; but, on the other hand, the glory of God has come in to raise Christ again from the dead according to His own will and purpose, and to establish blessing for man in Him. Therefore, in coming to the close of

Abraham's history, it is exceedingly interesting to see that the test was in order that he might learn the first principles of the gospel, which were presented to him in type and shadow; but where he left off there we begin.

Now it is a great thing for a believer to make a good start, and to see that he is called upon and entitled to enjoy the blessing that prevails in Christ risen. He is not to look for anything in himself in the way of reformation, but enjoy what God has secured for Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ raised again from the dead. Man had no hand in that, it was all a divine work between God and His Son, and God has Himself gained the victory in the Lord Jesus Christ His delivering power has come in, and He gives to us to enjoy the fruit of the victory which He has gained, everything which He has secured for Himself. "In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed". The curse is gone, but the blessing is established. I think I pointed out that the beginning of God's dealings with Abraham proved that blessing was in the mind of God, and not curse. Curse came in by the law, but as we find in the Epistle to the Galatians, the curse has gone in the cross, and the blessing is established in Christ raised again from the dead. Now, it is a great point for you and me to get there, and you will not advance otherwise. The light of it prevents your having any expectation from yourself. All must be of God's power that raised Christ. We have to be raised up from the place of death. God has called us to the enjoyment of His good things, and wonderful blessings they are. The love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost given to us; all distance is gone, and grace is reigning through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

May God give us a better understanding of His

way. I have brought it before you very imperfectly, but I have at all events suggested to you the thought, which is substantiated by what I have said, that wherever Abraham answered to the test to which it pleased God to subject him, he received an increase of light and a confirmation of the word of God. It is a great thing to get the word of God confirmed in your soul; and if you answer to any test to which it pleases God to subject you, it may be in a very little thing involving some little self-abnegation, you will most surely get the word of God amplified and confirmed in your soul. If you do not answer to the test you bring trouble upon your own head. These things are brought before us in a typical case such as that of Abraham, and the object is that we might have a better understanding of God's way.

THE SERVANT OF THE LORD -- HIS ENLIGHTENMENT AND RESOURCES

THE SERVANT

2 Timothy 1

I do not know that the moral order of the truth in this epistle has always been clearly apprehended, but it has struck me; and you will find that you really have to learn divine things in the order in which scripture presents them, though you may hardly be conscious of learning them in that order. They have to be put in place in the soul in the divine order, for God knows what we want, and what we are able to take in. He knows better than we do; and, while we may apprehend truth in part here and there, there is a process which goes on underneath, and that is the Spirit of God putting the truth into shape in the believer, that is in its oneness. The apostle says, "Now I know in part". It is the work of the Spirit in the believer to put the truth into shape, and to make it one whole in his apprehension.

The great importance of this epistle, to my mind, is seen in the second chapter, for there the Spirit of God opens the eyes of the believer to the ruin and confusion of what passes as the church -- the great house. When your eyes are opened the course you are to take is marked out, and you find what are your resources; and you must know what your resources are before you attempt your work. The resources you find in chapter 3, and the work of the servant in chapter 4. Timothy is the pattern of a servant in the present day, who continues until the coming of the Lord. Timothy was not an apostle, though I admit that on certain occasions he was employed as a delegate of the apostle. He was not one whom God used to introduce the truth; the work entrusted to him was to stand for the truth when the truth had been delivered. And I may say here that God looks for faithful witnesses,

and not for people who are simply holding the truth in terms. He looks for those who are themselves exponents of the truth. We are of very little use or value here except as we are exponents of the truth we hold; the mere fact of holding the truth is, I believe, in the thought of God a small matter. But I think that by the fact of holding the truth you incur responsibility. It is a poor thing to simply incur responsibility.

I would just say here that chapter 1 is in a certain sense a preface. The point of view comes out in chapter 2, in which the eyes of the saint are opened to the confusion which prevails in God's house, or rather, in that which has the place of God's house. But before the apostle comes to that, he refers in this chapter to the gospel according to the purpose of God; and I am convinced that no person is competent to take into account the ruin of God's house if he is not first established in the truth of the gospel. You may depend upon it, that people are not able to look in the face the confusion and ruin that prevails if they do not know the stability of God's purpose. Therefore the apostle first refers to the truth of the gospel, that is, that God "hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, etc". In connection with this you have the blessed truth of the gospel brought in, by which life and incorruptibility are brought to light. Not simply a gospel that justifies a man and enables him to walk piously in this world, but the gospel in which is accomplished the purpose of God. The great point here is the purpose of God. God has called us with a holy calling according to His purpose.

Now I desire by way of preface to say one word which may possibly for a moment startle you, and that is, that it is impossible for any person in Christendom to change his ecclesiastical position. That

is what I want to impress upon you. I daresay some may not be prepared to accept that; and yet I feel pretty confident that it is right. I suppose a great many here may have the idea that they have changed their ecclesiastical position; but I do not believe that such a thing is possible in the eye of God, though you can do it in the eye of man. As far as I understand it, christian profession -- the great house -- presents itself as one whole under the eye of God. The Lord in looking down here sees one thing; and if you apprehended that, you would understand that you cannot change your ecclesiastical position. In other words you cannot get out of Christendom; every one forms part of the great house. This cannot be altered until the Lord comes.

I think that ought to be plain to all. Perhaps some may say, But what have we done? The answer is, We have severed ourselves from associations which did not answer to the demand of righteousness. That is, we were mixed up in certain associations from which it was impossible to purge out evil, and therefore we separated from them; but though we cleared our own consciences we did not thereby change our ecclesiastical position in the eye of God. I do not think that is possible. For instance, I have separated from the State Church, but the reason I separated from that was that I saw that there was no possibility of discipline being maintained in the State Church; and if I take the great dissenting bodies the same thing really prevails there. In such institutions it is impossible to maintain discipline, because they are worldly in character and seek to accommodate themselves to men. Hence discipline cannot be maintained in them; the attempt would simply bring into them utter confusion, and therefore they do not answer the demand of righteousness, for if discipline be not maintained, as things are here, you may be sure

you cannot have righteousness. I do not feel bound to be identified with such associations; for when evil is dominant in the church and the church has come to be a great house, the first requisite is to regard righteousness. Therefore, every one that names the name of the Lord is to depart from unrighteousness, and we have to "follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart". Righteousness stands at the head of the list. On the one hand you are to depart from unrighteousness, and on the other to follow righteousness; and in this we are brought into a fellowship, the basis of which is, in a sense, that our eyes have been opened to the ruin of the church, to the confusion which prevails in the state of things around. We avow the principle that separation from evil is God's principle of unity. This, to a large extent, has been the ground on which we have been brought together.

Our eyes have been opened, and we have seen that things around do not answer to the demand of God. They will not bear to be measured. Do you remember how accurately the dimensions of the heavenly city in the Revelation were measured, and how all completely answered to the requirements of divine righteousness? So it must be, properly speaking, in the church, and I thank God that if I cannot change my ecclesiastical position I am not bound to go on with unrighteousness; and to go on with the great systems around, after we have received light, would be to go on with unrighteousness. I repeat that our fellowship has been founded to a large extent upon this, that our eyes have been opened to the ruin of the church, that is to the confusion of Christendom. Now my point is that you are not really in a position to look that in the face if you are not first established in the truth of the gospel. The apostle urges upon

Timothy, "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God", etc. At the time when Paul wrote to Timothy the gospel had come into reproach. The application of that to us is that if you want to go on with the gospel, you must go on with it perfectly independent of all worldly support. You must not look for patronage or support from man; you have to suffer evil together with the gospel. I think that a great many who preach the gospel in the world look to Christendom for countenance. I understand that to mean that they are counting on toleration, they have not escaped from Babylon. Babylon is the great world power; and where there is the effort to court the world and to accommodate our ways to the world, we are not free from Babylon. The apostle foresaw that the spirit of Babylon was coming into the church, and that is what led, I do not doubt, to a good deal which comes out in this epistle. A great point, if you are going on with the gospel, is to suffer the afflictions of the gospel, not to accommodate your means of preaching the gospel to what man may think right. One should be wholly independent of all that, because prepared, if need be, to suffer with the gospel according to the power of God.

I come now to the terms of the truth as stated here. It says, "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath annulled death, and hath brought life and incorruptibility to light by the gospel". A great many people think that the gospel is simply the instrument in God's hands of saving man. I quite admit that it is that, and that

man is justified through faith in what is presented in the gospel. If a man believes in the death and resurrection of Christ he is justified in the eye of God, he then receives the Spirit and is to walk suitably in this world. "The grace of God ... hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world", etc. The gospel brings home to the heart of man the light of the grace of God. He is relieved of the pressure under which he was, and the Holy Ghost is given to him, and he is to walk soberly, righteously and piously here. Many think that to be the limit of the gospel, but if you make that the limit you have not touched the purpose of God at all; and more than that, so far as the believer is concerned, you have never put him off the ground of responsibility. I quite admit that the ground of responsibility is changed; the believer is no longer under law, but he is responsible as being under Christ and having the gift of the Spirit, and therefore he is to walk piously here. This aspect of the truth looks at the Christian as on the earth in Christ's absence, and therefore in the place of responsibility. But you have not yet touched the purpose of God. It is important to distinguish between the gospel as God's means of saving man, and as that by which God gives effect to His purpose. This latter you get here. There are two points in it. He has saved us, and called us, not according to our works: that is not on the line of our responsibility at all, "but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus". When? Before we had any works at all -- "before the world began". When I talk about man being justified, he is justified in regard to that for which he is responsible. If he were not justified he would have to answer for his works in the day of judgment; and because he is

justified God gives to him the Holy Ghost. But then there is behind this the fact that the gospel is the means by which God effectuates His purpose. He has saved us and called us, "not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began".

I will endeavour to give you an idea of what the salvation and of what the calling is.

What I understand by the salvation is this: it is the deliverance of the soul from the world. It is expressed in what the apostle says to the Galatians in speaking of "our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins" (that is our responsibility, but the purpose of it was), "that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father". That is what I understand to be really the salvation. God has brought to pass a means by which a man down here, while actually in the world, may be set free from it. If you ask me the way, I think it is not simply in having drunk the waters of Marah, but in being dead and risen with Christ. It is a most important point to accept the fact that death is upon man. Christ died because men were dead, that is the teaching of scripture. "If one died for all, then were all dead". The fact of His dying for all is proof that all were dead. By His death the bitter waters of Marah have now become sweet; but drinking them is hardly the way of deliverance from the world, this lies in the great truth of our being risen together with Christ. In the power of the Holy Ghost we are conscious of being free from the power and influence of the world. It marked, I think, the fathers in the first Epistle of John; the young men are charged not to love the world; but the fathers had judged the world system, and what we read about them is that they "have known him that is

from the beginning". The great system has been judged, and that is what we must do in the Spirit if we wish to be free. We are risen with Christ out of it all. I think you can understand that a risen man has in spirit done with the whole thing. When Christ rose again, He was wholly parted from all that was after the flesh; and as risen with Christ we are free from the whole system in which the flesh lives. We are over Jordan, really touching the border of the land. The Red Sea brought Israel into the wilderness, and the passage through the Jordan brought them into the land; so resurrection brings us to the border of the land where life is. Scripture identifies life with the land, for being risen together with Christ is coincident with being quickened with Him. The effect is that you are to set your mind upon things above and not on things on the earth. I only speak of it because I think that is the idea of salvation here. Christ died for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world.

Now the other point is, He has "called us with an holy calling". He has given to us a calling which connects us with heaven, the privilege of which is to know God as He is known in heaven. God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. The calling refers to heaven; to know the Father, not simply as He is known of angels, but as He is known of Christ. Christ has revealed to us the Father; and we are brought into the place of sons in the presence of the Father, and Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. There is a hope attached to it, because you are not yet actually in heaven; but the calling brings us into the present enjoyment of heavenly blessings, to know the Father as He is pleased to be known, not on the earth, but in heaven. It is not simply saying, "Our Father which art in heaven", but it is having to do with Him as He is known in heaven. With God everything

originates in love, and you will not understand the things of God if you do not understand that the purposes of God originated in love. It was His purpose to bring many sons unto glory that they might come under the influence of His love, and Christ was to be the Head of this company, the firstborn of many brethren. So He says, "I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it". Why? "That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them". We know something about love in a natural way; how much do we know about divine love, what it is to be loved of God? I know very little indeed of what it is to be an object of the love of God; and yet God has so made Himself known that we might be at home in His love. He has not only saved us, that is, has given us a present deliverance out of this evil world, but He has called us with an holy calling, that we might be in His presence, in the place of sons. He has given us the Spirit of His Son whereby we cry "Abba, Father". There are many Christians in the world who know that they are justified, and who seek to walk godly here; but there are two things I see about them. On the one hand they have not got deliverance from the world, and on the other hand they know but little about the purpose of God concerning them. They do not see the gospel in the light of its being God's means of effectuating His purpose, which is the introducing us into the place of sons before Him, that we might be conscious of the love of the Father to be the companions of Christ in the Father's presence, and to know that we are loved with the love wherewith Christ is loved. I cannot conceive a more wonderful privilege. But then it is not according to our works, but according to God's own purpose. It is not a question of responsibility, but of privilege. It is what we are called to in common, for it is many sons

that God is bringing to glory; it is hence what we are privileged to enjoy in common. It is perhaps a little foreign to the subject; but the eating of the old corn of the land in Joshua 5 is, I think, typical of the common privilege and enjoyment of saints in the assembly. They did not eat the manna in common, that was individual; that was gathered for each house and according to the need of the household. I do not think the old corn of the land is eaten in the same way, but in common. I should say that the old corn of the land is the natural fruit of the land; the children of Israel had not the old corn of the land in the wilderness, they were fed on heavenly bread, expressed in what Christ was down here in heavenly grace. The old corn of the land is Christ according to what He is in heaven, that is in the place which is proper to Him and to which He is proper. It is given to us for our communion and common enjoyment according to God's purpose in Christ Jesus before the world began. Every purpose of God was in Christ, that is what is found in scripture. If I speak of a believer simply as such, he is justified and has received the gift of the Spirit, and that constitutes his standing here as before God. That is, that instead of being a guilty man he is a justified man, and his body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. But I see another line of truth, and that is the revelation of God's purpose in Christ, and in Christ I learn what the purpose of God is in regard to Christians.

Now I come to another point. "Who hath annulled death and hath brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel". How do you think life and incorruptibility are brought to light? God has revealed all that He is in His nature, and has also brought to light what can live in his presence as thus revealed. There are the two sides: on the one, all the activities of His love, but when

that has been brought to light you must have the other side, and that is, what can live in the presence of God so revealed; and therefore Christ has brought life and incorruptibility to light. I think it is brought to light in His own Person. I see a man who subsists in the light of God according to all that God is; Christ lives unto God as Man, in the light in which God is revealed. And when I come to the application of this to the Christian, we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin because Christ has annulled death, but, alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It is, for faith, a most wonderful moment in which we are set, for nothing can be more blessed than the way in which God has been pleased to make Himself known, not simply in righteousness and holiness, but in the activities of His love. He is working to satisfy the pleasure of love. All the activities of God have sprung from His nature, which is love. It is perfectly true that God is light, and that there can be nothing inconsistent with that, and everything is exposed by the light; but "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him". You cannot understand what it is to live through Christ if you do not understand first the incarnation of Christ; this stumbles man, for it is so inconceivable to man that a divine Person should become man. But God sent His only begotten Son into the world. It is the proof and expression of the love of God towards man. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". And until you apprehend the love of God you cannot talk about living to God. Can you conceive anything more blessed than to live in the light of God's love? That is where Christ ever lived, but now He

lives there as Man dead to sin, and that is where we are privileged to live.

I will tell you the first thing which the Holy Ghost does in the heart of the believer. He sheds abroad the love of God; He brings home to the believer the truth that the gift of God's blessed Son is the proof of divine love; and when that is brought home we get the consciousness by the Holy Ghost that God is love, and our part is to live in the presence of that love, to live there as Christ does.

THE SERVANT OF THE LORD -- HIS ENLIGHTENMENT

2 Timothy 2

What is brought before us in this chapter is the way in which the apostle by the Spirit of God is instructing Timothy for his service. I daresay some may think that Timothy had no special need of instruction, having been so long with the apostle. But if Timothy needed instruction in this way, how much more do we who have come into the state of things predicted here; if Timothy needed a path marked out for him we need it much more, and that is the value to us of the instruction here. And this leads me to seek to make plain the way in which the Spirit of God has been working during the last fifty or sixty years; I want to show what the action of the Spirit of God has been in regard to saints, though most of us may be familiar with it. Doubtless there have been mistakes, but what the Spirit of God has been doing is clear to me, and I think it is upon the lines that we get in this chapter. I do not think it has always been apprehended, for many have had an idea that the Spirit of God was doing something which I doubt if He has been doing. I think if you follow the course of the chapter it will make clear to you what the Spirit's line is; and you will see that such a state of things has come to pass as the Spirit of God predicted, that is, that the church of God has come to have the character of a great house, in which are all sorts of vessels -- for in a great house there are all kinds of vessels, some to honour and some to dishonour. The great point in the chapter is instruction to the servant. It has often been said that in the first Epistle to Timothy the apostle gives instruction for the servant when the house is in order, and in the second Epistle marks

out the path of the servant when things are all in confusion; and that is the word for us.

I was saying last time that I believe it to be of moment to see that it is impossible for any one of us to change his ecclesiastical position. If you want to change this you must needs go outside Christendom, which has in a way the place of the church of God. Otherwise there you are and there you must remain; and, if you apprehend that, you will not think about establishing any other ecclesiastical position, you will be free from any idea of setting up any kind of thing here upon the earth. I believe that the last chapter of Hebrews has sometimes been a little misconstrued. It has been thought that to go forth to Christ outside the camp meant to go outside the professing church. To the Hebrews it did mean leaving Judaism, which was a religious position, and they left Judaism for Christianity. They did change their position, they had to leave all that was connected with the temple order and to "go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach". Religiously they were no longer Jews. Well, the same thing almost has been urged upon us; but though Christendom to a large extent has the character of the camp, you cannot really leave it, though you may do so in spirit and morally -- you cannot go forth literally. Christendom has the responsibility of being God's house, and you cannot go outside of the responsibility of the house of God; you have therefore to be a little careful in applying such a scripture as Hebrews 13. You may stand apart from a great deal that is going on in Christendom and bear the reproach of Christ, but at the same time you can hardly construe the exhortation in Hebrews 13 in the way in which the Hebrews would construe it. I believe one great thing is to escape the bondage of Babylon, and you cannot escape that unless you are prepared to bear the

reproach of Christ. What I mean is this: you must no longer care to be accredited religiously by the world or by the powers of the world. It is a great point when you come to that. That is what I should call bearing the reproach of Christ. I do not care to be accounted of at all in a religious way by the world. If I am looking for that, I have not escaped Babylonish captivity. Babylon represents the great world power. If we go back to the Reformation, the work was only half done. They escaped the corruptions of popery, but they set to work to establish State Churches, and instead of one great mustard tree they set up a good many; that is the kind of thing that went on. In the different breaks that have occurred since -- I mean from the established Churches -- the religious bodies which we see around us and with which many of us have been connected all look to be recognised and accredited by the world power.

In the history of Hezekiah you have the principle illustrated. The messengers who came from Babylon to congratulate the king on his recovery were shown all the things of the house of God. Hezekiah recognised the power of Babylon, and the Spirit of God predicts that they will all go captive to Babylon. The two marks of having escaped the great world power are that you recognise no power but the Spirit of God, and are prepared to bear the reproach of Christ.

I think this second chapter is leading us on to this, and I wish to point out specially the intense individuality of the chapter, and the great prominence which the Lord has in it. Those are, I think, the two great distinctive features of the chapter. Individuality must be prominent when things are in a state of confusion, and also the very distinctive place which the Lord is to have to the individual, that is to me. But, you will say, the Lord always

had to have that place. But when things around are in confusion I think the Lord comes more intensely into view as a resource. The need of the Lord is more realised individually than when things were all in order. The fact is, when confusion exists all round, the Lord is the only resource, and it is no good turning to man, to systems and such like. The great point is to be fit for the Lord, to be apart from all that would come in between the Lord and me, or that would unfit one for the Master's use.

I just refer for a moment to the order of the epistle. You could not put the second chapter before the first in moral order, because you could not touch the second if you were not more or less established in the truth of the gospel; and when I speak about the truth of the gospel I do not mean the gospel simply as meeting the responsibility of man, but as an unfolding of the purpose of God. That is the gospel which comes out in this first chapter; it is not exactly the gospel which meets the question of man's responsibility, and shows how he can be justified, but which makes known that Christ has annulled death and brought life and incorruptibility to light by the gospel. That is not on the line of man's responsibility. I could preach the gospel to people and show them how completely sin has been removed from before God by the blood of Christ, in virtue of which God can justify the ungodly. But that is not all the truth of the gospel -- there is the purpose of God, "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works" -- not on the line of our responsibility -- "but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began". And in the gospel life and incorruptibility are brought to light. You get an equivalent statement in John. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son", etc. It is there a question

of purpose. It was to make good the purpose of His love that He gave His only begotten Son; it is that man may "have eternal life" according to the purpose of that love. There was a purpose hidden behind all the dealings of God, and that is of life, and incorruptibility.

I think we all want that foundation in our souls before we are prepared to have our eyes opened by the Spirit of God to the confusion around. Consequently when the church was in ruin the writings of John became of great importance, and they have been so to us. Special attention has been given to the writings of John, because he brings out, in the failure of all here, the great truth of eternal life according to the purpose of God.

Now I come to chapter 2. I will first give you an outline of the chapter.

The first point I take up is this: You need .to be in a certain line -- what I may call the line of considering -- and you will get understanding from the Lord. Then you next find the conditions under which you can have to do with Christ as Lord and Master. He is both Lord and Master, and you find how you can be at His disposal as such. Then the next point is that you find your company here if you are with the Lord and Master, and when you have found your company you will find your service. This all comes out very simply in the course of the chapter.

The admonition which the apostle brings before the mind of Timothy is this: "Consider what I say", and this referred to certain great principles of God's ways. The first is, that if a man is a soldier his object is to please him who hath called him to it; then, if a man strive he must strive lawfully; and the husbandman must labour to be partaker of the fruits. The fact is, there was ever the danger of Christians settling down into worldly

ease, and that is what the apostle will not have, it is what he contends against. If you think of a soldier, there was no worldly ease in the apostle's day in being that, a man needed to be free from entanglements; if people strove in games they were perfectly in earnest, a man who entered to strive in the games did not give himself up to indulgence; then the husbandman must labour before he partakes of the fruits, he is not going to partake of the fruits before he has laboured. The Roman soldier had not much ease, he had to be in the camp away from home for years on the frontiers of the empire; the great point with a real soldier is to please him who hath called him to be a soldier. Timothy was to consider these things. If you want the Lord to give you understanding you must be in a certain line -- you must ponder. Take Gideon for instance, he was pondering over the state of things in Israel, and the Lord came in, called him, and gave him understanding. So with Christians, if we ponder over the principles which the apostle brings before us the Lord comes in -- "Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things". What a privilege for the Lord to give you understanding; it is what I should call the soul in contact with the Lord. No fellow Christian can give you understanding, it is the Lord alone, it is His prerogative.

Then a further point. How are you going to be here for the Lord? The first thing is, "Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity". The way in which I construe that is, that you have to keep a clear conscience, and so to leave many things that you have been accustomed to go on with; for with increased light it is necessary to maintain a clear conscience. If you find yourself identified with things in which unrighteousness is admitted, or where righteousness is not maintained,

you have to leave them, but you do not thereby change your ecclesiastical position. I think that it is simply a question of leaving unrighteousness, because every one that nameth the name of the Lord must depart from iniquity. Therefore if I am mixed up with anything by which my conscience is painfully affected as to its principle, there is no course but for me to leave it; and it is not an ecclesiastical but a moral question. When the church has become a shelter for evil "the Lord knoweth them that are his". Man may not know them, but the obligation lies on them, "Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity". What drove most of us out of things with which we were once connected was that we saw that righteousness was not maintained in them. In any system in which discipline is not recognised there will be unrighteousness, for to tolerate evil is unrighteousness; and when such a state of things affects my conscience I have no course but to depart from it; but that is a question of individual faithfulness, I want to be free from all that which has the character of unrighteousness because I name the name of the Lord. Christians generally know very little about the name of the Lord, for they go on with so much that is unsuitable to that name. It is true that they may be ignorant, and the Lord bears with their ignorance; but when they get understanding they are bound to depart from unrighteousness.

I come to the next point. I suppose every one of us would desire to be at the disposal of the Master. There are two titles of Christ in regard to saints, namely Lord and Master, and I suppose all would like to be vessels meet for the Master's use. I hope that is the case; and if you would wish to be a vessel at the disposal of the Master you cannot be a vessel to dishonour, serviceable for any base purpose. Despot is the literal meaning of the word here

rendered Master. Christ is Master over the house, and if you want to be at the Master's disposal you must purge yourself from vessels to dishonour. Therefore you have to look at other vessels to judge of what they are, that is, to see if they are vessels to honour or dishonour. I see a great many people active in Christendom who are not concerned about the Master's work; they are concerned to do, to a great extent, the work of man, and it may be the work of Satan; while professedly christian ministers they are propagators of all sorts of false things, they are not vessels to honour. The point that I wish to urge upon all is not to be content to call upon the name of the Lord, but to be zealous to be vessels at the disposal of the Master. I want all to recognise Christ in the two characters, so that as Lord you call upon Him, and as Master you are at His disposal, a vessel for His service, a vessel that He can employ, that is ready for His will, or, as I should put it more properly, for God's will. Do you believe that the Master does employ vessels down here? I am confident that He does; and if He does, it is imperative that the vessels should be purged from vessels to dishonour. And here again it is a moral question rather than an ecclesiastical one; it is purging oneself from those who have evidently the character of vessels to dishonour, because of the desire to be a vessel fit for the Master's use and prepared unto every good work.

The next point is finding company, for you are not to be alone. Here again it is not a question of changing your ecclesiastical position or of setting up a new one; it is to "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart". There is the path marked out, and we get company. I do not doubt at all that it is on this line that the Spirit of God has been leading in these last days.

He has first opened the eyes of the saints to the confusion and ruin around, then He has led them out in their souls to the Lord, to call on the Lord, to place themselves, in that sense, as vessels for His disposal; and then to find a fellowship, and that is to "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart". We all have to look at what we are pursuing, to see that it is a question with us of following righteousness to begin with, not sin: then faith, which means God's will, not man's: then love, which is the nature of God: and peace closes the train. They are all moral qualities or characteristics which God has made known to us, and these things we have to follow. I cannot exactly know who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart, there may be such with whom I am not acquainted; but I can see people following righteousness, faith, love and peace; and that is the line God has marked out, and I seek simply to walk with such.

I want you to mark how simple it all is. If I am going to name the name of the Lord I must depart from unrighteousness. If I wish to be a vessel to honour for the use of the Master I must be apart from vessels to dishonour; and then when I have got so far, if my soul is blessed in that way in close relation to the Lord and Master, I see that there is a company following righteousness, faith, love and peace. This is very positive; it is not only that you are apart from things that are not correct, but are going on with the things that are agreeable to the Lord and Master.

I am sure all will fully recognise the point which I dwelt upon at the beginning, namely, the intense individuality which is seen in the chapter. I quite admit you do come into fellowship with others, but after all, the exhortations in the chapter are intensely individual.

There is one point more. "But foolish and unlearned questions avoid ... the servant of the Lord must ... be gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will". Here we have the character of the servant marked out. He is to be apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, for in a day of confusion you may be sure you will have to encounter those who oppose the truth. Very few come into the light of the truth without first opposing it. That is the first impulse, because we want to maintain our ground and defend that to which we cling naturally; and if we have ourselves opposed the truth we may come into contact with others who oppose it also; then we have to be apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. You may be sure that people are not going to receive the truth and give up all their preconceived ideas without defending the latter, and you must expect to meet opposition. The first thing requisite is meekness, and the second inexhaustible patience, never to be confounded and never to weary. It is not that you are going to convert or change people or set them right; when people set to work with that idea they sometimes set themselves wrong. The point is this: "if God peradventure". I can do nothing. I have to count on God. "If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth", etc. The end is that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil for God's will.

Now I believe you must take up scripture in the order in which the Spirit of God presents it to us. I do not think that any one can properly touch this

chapter without first understanding the gospel as that which gives effect to the purpose of God's love. When once you come to that, you have the light of eternal life, which is the purpose of His love, a foundation upon which the Spirit of God can work; then the Spirit of God opens our eyes. He wants us to listen to what He says to the churches. He opens our ears to receive instruction as to the confusion around. Then the question arises, What am I to do? Well, the answer is, look to yourself, see what you are doing. The point is to get to the Lord, and in order to do that you must depart from unrighteousness, and you must purge yourself from vessels to dishonour if you are to be a vessel unto honour, fit for the Master's use. And having got that far I recognise the importance of fellowship, and in view of this while fleeing from youthful lusts -- everything to which youth is prone -- I find myself among those who are following all that which is according to God in abnegation of their own will; and there it is that the Lord may use you in service for the deliverance of others. But you have need to be patient and meek in instructing those that oppose themselves, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.

May God give us grace to recognise both characters of Christ -- Lord and Master. In the one light to call upon Him, and in the other to be vessels sanctified and meet for the Master's use.

THE SERVANT OF THE LORD -- HIS RESOURCES

2 Timothy 3; 4: 1 - 8

I think it is very plain from the last chapter of the epistle that the thought in the mind of Paul was that Timothy was the type of servant to fill up the interval until the Lord should come. The apostle was evidently conscious that he was about to pass off the scene; for he says, "I have finished my course". He regards Timothy as a faithful man, brought up specially under his influence; he could speak of him as being his genuine son, and he was looking for him to fill up the gap when he himself was taken. And it is wonderful what God can effect by the agency of one man. There were not a great many people in that day upon whom Paul could depend, but there is no limit to the extent to which God can use one man provided He has confidence in that one; and though Timothy is regarded as a servant that continues until the coming of the Lord, that does not convey to my mind that Timothy was to be the sole servant: he was the typical servant.

What I want to bring to your attention now is the constructive work which Timothy was to carry out. We had before us last time the necessity of separation from evil; but separation is not all. Separation is not that which is exclusively to mark our path now, I think that would in itself be but a poor thing. You have necessarily to get away from what would come between you and the Lord: if you are to be with the Lord you must be apart from what is unsuited to Him. Then, when you are with the Lord you are in separation in that sense; but your work is to be constructive, though it is not a question of building up anything external. Chapter 3 shows us the resources that Timothy had in order that he might be constructive; resources

which God put at the disposal of Timothy to that end. It is a great thing to be constructive in a right sense. I think constructive work is work which is carried on in people's souls; and what we get here is that which would enable Timothy to carry on this work.

I can understand the question being asked, when did the church become the great house? It was when man got a place in it. Ever since the fall, when man has got a place he has uniformly brought in confusion. I ask anybody in the present day if the effect of man, as such, getting a place in legislation is not to bring in confusion, because there are as many wills as men in the world, and if you have as many wills as men how can it end but in confusion? There is only one will, properly speaking, and that is God's will; and when God's will is recognised and has its place there is an end to confusion. I only speak of that in regard to the church: I think confusion came in, and the church had the character of the great house, the moment man had a place; and the practical effect plainly enough was to displace the Spirit of God. When the church was first set up here the Spirit of God directed all. Jew and Gentile were builded together for an habitation of God by the Spirit; no one had importance in the church at all except as he was spiritual. But when man came in as man, and with that the will of man, or it may be the judgment or cleverness of man, it turned the church into a great house. No doubt it came in under all sorts of specious pretexts, it may be with the idea of maintaining order; but it was the influence and rule of man displacing the Spirit and thus bringing in confusion.

I was saying last time that my strong conviction is that the Spirit of God has been of late opening the eyes of saints here and there to the true state of things around, as the apostle was seeking to open

the eyes of Timothy that he might have a true sense, according to God, of the state of things which the apostle speaks of as the great house. So that instead of glorying in the present condition of Christendom, as thousands of people do, we see that it is a scene of utter confusion before God, and there is certainly no ground for boasting. If people boast in the present state of Christendom it only shows that they are outside of the leading of the Spirit of God. But, again, I do urge there is no such thing as changing your ecclesiastical position; the point is, when your eyes are opened to the true state of things, to get free of anything that might stand between you and the Lord. It is an unvarying principle through scripture that to go on with the Lord you must have a good conscience, you will not otherwise get light from the Lord; therefore it is a necessity that you depart from unrighteousness, because unrighteousness must affect your conscience. "Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness", and a great many things would come under that term. I do not want to be identified with anything that has that character, because it is incompatible with the name of the Lord. Then there is not only the question of principles but of persons. If you want to be a vessel here for the Master's use you must purge yourself from vessels to dishonour. It is a question as to whether you are going on with man or with the Master. I was dwelling last time upon the important principle which comes out in chapter 2, that you are really recognising Christ as Lord and Master; if you call upon Him as Lord you depart from unrighteousness; and if you want to be a vessel for His use, as Master, then you must purge yourself from vessels to dishonour. Then you have the path marked out, that is, that having departed from what would affect your conscience, and freed

yourself from vessels to dishonour, you follow "righteousness, faith, love and peace", etc. Righteousness first, because sin is all around; and not only that, but also faith, that is to walk in time light of God's will as He has been pleased to make that will known.

What I come to now is this: the resources which the servant has in order that he may carry on constructive work. It is all very well to get free from everything that is unsuitable to the Lord; that is a necessity, and so, too, to follow righteousness, faith, love and peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart; but the servant does not stop there, he comes now to constructive work. I do not mean the setting up or attempting to build up a church or ecclesiastical system; but what I mean by constructive work is the work of God in souls. The apostle brings before Timothy the resources which were at his disposal for that work. Timothy was a man peculiarly fitted for it, because he had been the constant companion of the apostle. "Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life", etc. He had in that way had peculiar advantages. Now when you set to work on this line you will find that the first thing that meets you to baffle and upset you is imitation. This comes out in the beginning of the chapter, and it is a mode of opposition all through scripture, it is nothing new. What is referred to here is that when Moses stood before Pharaoh, Jannes and Jambres stood there too, and sought to counteract the influence of the word of God by imitation, and up to a certain point they succeeded. They said, in effect, we can do as well as Moses, and apparently they did so. I have no doubt that it was by working lying wonders; but it served to neutralise the influence of the word of God by Moses.

If I were to carry you through scripture you

would find the same sort of thing repeated. If God raised up prophets, false prophets were raised up to neutralise the word of God by imitation, this was the special work of the enemy. Now when I come to our own time, when Christianity was brought in it had a great moral effect upon people, it introduced a light and morality which had its effect in every circle and relation of life; and then Satan changed his mode, and, as the apostle says, transformed himself into an angel of light. I believe it means that he took up what God had set aside, as for example the law, with the idea that by it he might produce a practice equal to the practice which flowed from Christianity; and in that way the truth would be neutralised, for it was virtually saying, we can produce practice as good as that which can be produced by the truth: it was an effort to discredit the truth in the eyes of man by imitation. That is what the apostle had to contend with. I go a point further. What do we see existing later on in imitation of the truth? Popery. I suppose Popery is one of the most remarkable and wonderful counterfeits of the truth. It is an imitation of the truth of the church by a mere outward objective system; and it is a curious fact that there is no system on earth which can claim to be an imitation of the church except Popery. Popery claims to be one body and universal. There is no other system that I know of which maintains that pretension.

Imitation has been an unvarying principle of evil from the time that evil came in. That is what the apostle warns Timothy of. It is very difficult to counteract imitation, for imitation confounds people; and when you bring forward the truth you have to deal with people who are not well instructed in the truth; and when a great many counterfeits exist it is exceedingly difficult to convince people

where the truth is. It is one of Satan's tactics to distract the attention of people and so to prevent them finding the truth; so that you must not be surprised when you meet that kind of work. What I want to show you is how it is to be met. Look at the chapter, verse 9 to end: "But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works".

To be perfect is not a small thing, and yet how needed in the present day. How is a man to be that? The apostle was bringing before Timothy the qualification for the moment. Paul's doctrine was to be the great safeguard for Timothy. He had the great advantage of fully knowing Paul's doctrine; and if you have not an intelligent sense of Paul's doctrine you will not be able to meet the imitations. What I mean is, that you want to know the spirit of the thing, not simply to remember passages of scripture, or even epistles, but to see what the heart and pith of that doctrine is.

I think that there are two great points in Paul's doctrine. One is, there is one body, and the other is, there is one new man; and I do not believe that any one of us will be effective to meet what is abroad if we do not apprehend these two things, that is on the one side the heavenly privilege of saints, and on the other side what the new man is which God has been pleased to introduce down here.

I may as well give you a passage of scripture which I think substantiates this. Look at Ephesians 2:14 - 16. You will see in verse 15; He has abolished the enmity "for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace". The other thought comes out in verse 16, "That he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross". To put the passage in my own language, it is one body for God in the sense of heavenly privilege, and it is a new man where the old man was. It is on those two points that I will touch.

Paul's ministry differed in a way from the ministry of the twelve. The twelve built the church in the first instance. It has often been remarked that when the church, the holy city, comes down from God out of heaven in the Revelation it has in the foundations the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb; that does not include Paul, and, as has been observed, for the reason that while the twelve were building the church Paul was persecuting it. The church looked at in that sense is the seat and source of heavenly government in connection with the kingdom, and it is founded on the work of the twelve. They were the first to whom the Holy Ghost was given, they were the first to preach the gospel, and their preaching impressed the thought that those who suffered here for Christ would be glorified together with Him.

But you see that Paul comes in with something additional; and the heart of Paul's teaching was

this, that we being many are one body in Christ. He brings to light the wonderful truth of what had been formed here in the power of the Spirit; that is a body in which Christ is the firstborn among many brethren, who stand with Christ as His companions, who are quickened together with Christ. Paul brings that to light; it is the church of the firstborn which are written in heaven. He brings to light the eternal counsel of God, which was that Jew and Gentile should form one body in Christ.

Here we get what God has prepared for Himself for the satisfaction of His love, "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ ... and hath raised us up together and made us sit, together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus". God has raised Christ up, but He was not content with that, He also raised up those who were to be the companions of Christ, for it was in the purpose of God's love that Christ should not be there alone. Christ broke down the wall of partition "that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross". Reconciliation means all distance removed; and as one body we are associated with Christ in heavenly blessing in the presence of the Father.

What a wonderful thought that we shall be companions of Christ in heaven. God is bringing many Sons unto glory. That is the highest aspect of the church. The greatest thing that can be is what God has prepared for Himself, that is, for the satisfaction of His love, that is what the church is. Why do you think God is bringing many sons to glory? For the satisfaction of His love. His love is so great that He will have objects in whom that love can be displayed. That is what the church is. He has to that end chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. It is a wonderful conception.

The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one, Christ is the Head of the body, He is the firstborn among many brethren, pre-eminent, for that is the idea of firstborn; He is the centre of that company.

Then there is another point, and that is, one new man. I do not think you will talk about one new man in connection with heaven, the fact is there is only one order of man in heaven. No, the idea in scripture is that the new supersedes the old, in the place where the old was; there would be no meaning in the term "new man" if there had been no "old man". I believe the old was displaced for God when sin was condemned in the flesh in the cross of Christ. The Holy Ghost came down to make practically good in saints that which had been effected in the cross of Christ; and just as every one that has the Holy Ghost has part in the one body for God (though he may not know it), so I believe that every one that has the Holy Ghost has part in the new man. I am sure that the work of the Spirit is not to foster the old man in any sense, but to set aside the flesh in order that there may be place for the new man.

The new man is characteristically Christ, that is the only Man for God. Christ occupies the ground, but in order to do that He had to clear the ground of the old man; it went in the cross for God with the sin that predominated and governed it. I could not speak of Christ being personally the new man; but the new man is characteristically Christ. It is in all that is of God as seen in the saints down here created in Christ -- righteousness, holiness and truth. God has brought in the new man where the old man was. You see every man here asserting himself, for there are as many wills as men; nevertheless God has brought in the new Man, and it is important to remember there is only one new Man, just as

there is only one body. There are a great many Christians, but there is but one new Man. The point is that every saint should bear some trait, some feature of Christ; Christ comes out in the new man, there "is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all".

How do you think it is effectuated? I believe that affection between saints in the power of the Holy Ghost sets aside the distinctions which existed in the flesh. What is the church worth without affection, what is a man worth without affection? He may have all the gifts that have come down from an exalted Christ, but without love he is nothing. We are too doctrinal. I do not believe that people are powerfully affected by doctrine, but by the light and knowledge of God, and our souls want to be nearer to God to know more of His love; we want to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.

Those two things are what I call the pith and heart of Paul's doctrine -- the one body and the new man. What affection should prevail between those created in Christ! That is what Christ died to effect. He died "to reconcile both unto God in one body".

I will tell you another thing that Timothy was conscious of. He knew that Paul was up to the mark, not like Jannes and Jambres, an impostor or juggler. The apostle was according to his doctrine, not like a man trying to keep one leg in the world, or seeking to serve any selfish or interested ends: he was wholly given up to the work, and Timothy had seen that. Now Paul says, "Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of", etc. It was virtually to say, you are the man now, you have a great responsibility put upon your shoulders, having had great opportunities. And we have incurred great responsibility from the

fact of having an insight into Paul's doctrine. It is not given to us that we should hide it under a bushel, we have to make it known and to use it for the service of the church of God; circumstances, to a certain extent, may narrow our sphere, but the heart of the Christian should be very large and take in the whole circle of the church of God. The apostle says to Timothy, your path is to continue in the things which thou hast learned, "knowing of whom thou hast learned them".

To be able to trace what you know to its source is a great safeguard; if I know anything about the one body or the new man I can trace it to its inspired source. I know the source it came from, it came through Paul. I can trace the particular lines of truth which are presented to us in scripture to their sources. I can tell (if I am an intelligent Christian) what I have learned from Peter, from Paul, and from John, and I know thus the man who taught me. The best of us learned all he knew through man. When people take the ground that they never learned anything through man, I say then you know nothing, because if you knew anything you must have learnt it through some inspired instrument. We not only want to know a man's doctrine, but his manner of life to commend that doctrine, and God has allowed that. He has enabled us to know something about Paul's manner of life, and it has had a great effect upon us. Now the obligation is to continue in the things which "thou hast learned and been assured of".

But another point claims attention, namely, that the special doctrine which is given to us through such an instrument as Paul is founded upon the basis of inspired writings, and hence the apostle reminds Timothy, "From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works". It is not some new thing coming in and contravening what had existed before, for if it is of God it could only have the effect of substantiating all that which went before.

I believe that such is the case with Christ and the church. It substantiates every part, and in a sense binds together all the divine revelation. It shows us what God had in His mind from the very outset, and makes clear many a point which otherwise in the Old Testament might have been obscure. For instance, all that took place with regard to Adam and Eve had in view Christ and the church. I find in the New Testament that Christ is the spirit of the scriptures, and when I go through the Old Testament I read Christ everywhere. It is not then a mass of dry detail or of mere history, but in every part Christ is the spirit of it.

It is a most wonderful book! It has one author and one subject, and is so intimately connected with God Himself that you cannot separate scripture from the idea of God. Christ is the subject, and the Spirit is the author. And if you want an intelligent understanding of the scriptures you must know the apostle Paul's doctrine; and the two cardinal points are, as I have said, the one body and the new man. That is the resource which Timothy had; and in the next chapter he is pressed to make use of it. The apostle puts this responsibility upon him, and charges him "before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom". There was no escape from it, he knew the truth and he was bound to set forth the truth. The apostle was passing off the scene, and Timothy was to preach the word, to be instant in

season, out of season, and so on. It was not likely to be an easy time for him, he was to stand for the truth. It is no light responsibility to have the truth, for if you claim to have the truth you are bound to make it manifest that you have the truth. It is only by making evident that we have the truth that we can expose the imitations. No imitators have the truth in the spirit of it; they may have the terms and even the doctrine, but they have not the marrow and vitality of it, and in this way they will be exposed.

Chapter 3 is a serious one, and so is the fourth; the second is preparatory, showing how you are to be with the Lord and at His disposal; the third shows how the servant is furnished for this constructive work, and how God intends him to do it. I think we want not simply to know the truth, we want to be ardent about it, so that we make it evident that we really have it. If that is the case we shall exercise an influence far greater than you can suppose. What I have seen in this epistle is the extraordinary use which God can make of one man, if he be a man of faith, and the truth is the one thing that governs his heart. Everything must be given up to it, it must be a man's life. I do not think a man is a fit vessel for the Lord until that be the case. A man may have to work with his hands in order to support his family; but he must be wholly for the Lord in a day of evil, for a half-hearted man will not do. You want a man who is prepared to sacrifice all here in order that he may be close to the Lord; then I think the truth will be paramount, and what is more, we shall be ardent to make it manifest, not satisfied simply with knowing it.

GOD IS IN THE LIGHT

It is worthy of observation that every revelation of God's name centres in Christianity -- nor can any name under which God had previously made Himself known be understood in its full significance, except in the light in which God is now revealed. All centres in the fact that "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him". The consequence is that we, as Christians, get the power and force of every name under which God has been pleased to set Himself forth. This appears to me to come out very distinctly in the Epistle to the Romans. In chapter 4 we are in connection with Abraham, in presence of "the Almighty", in whom Abraham believed; and in chapters 9 to 11, we are, in the reasoning as to Israel, clearly in the presence of "Jehovah"; but all the truth presented has its character from the fact of God being now declared as "Father" in the Son. This light is now thrown on all that preceded.

The import of the name of "Almighty" is seen in the power of resurrection; this may be gained from Revelation 1, where the name of "Almighty" reappears; and as regards the revelation of this name to Abraham, it is plain that the promises could only be fulfilled by One having the power of resurrection; this lesson appears to have been emphasised in the offering up and typical resurrection of Isaac. God tested Abraham to see how far the revelation which He had given of Himself was effectual in him.

The name of Jehovah, on the other hand, seems to set forth the idea of the eternal faithfulness of God in contrast to the perversity and unfaithfulness of man. Hence in it lies the hope of Israel, who will hereafter sing, "Give thanks unto Jehovah, for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever". If they

have for many long years forgotten all that belongs to them in the calling of God, He has not forgotten it; "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance".

Now assuming the above to be true, it is evident that the revelation of either name could not, in itself, indicate completeness, for the reason that each revelation was dependent morally on some other and further revelation. Thus though resurrection might come to pass as an exercise of divine power, so that God's rights over all might be enforced, yet if it was to come in in the way of resurrection to life, then death, as being God's judgment, consequent on sin, must be removed in the removal of that which had brought it in -- "Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead". Thus resurrection involved really a moral question, and not simply an exercise of power; and the moral question must be solved, and that by God Himself, in order that the power might come into exercise.

The same holds good in regard to the name of Jehovah. The curse of a broken law lay upon Israel; and their ingathering from all lands, and ultimate restoration in the eternal faithfulness of God, depends on the removal of that curse. It was morally impossible that God could ignore it.

This we are brought face to face with the fact of the judgment of death, and the curse of a broken law standing in the way of the display of the names by which God had revealed Himself, and had been in measure known; and it is this that brings in a "must" of the New Testament. "The Son of man must be lifted up". It was in divine purpose to come out in holy self-sacrificing love, which would charge itself with that which lay on man by the righteous judgment of God, in order that that love might satisfy itself in the activities of those names under which God had revealed Himself. The bearing of the curse of a broken law, and the

entering into death by the Son of God, removed all that stood morally in the way. He who accomplished this was the Creator of all. "God over all, blessed for ever" -- the Son sent of the Father, that He might accomplish His will; and thus we have God now revealed in self-sacrificing love. He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.

I think from what has been said that it will be seen how the partial light which God had given as to Himself depended on the full revelation in which God has now been pleased to shine forth in holy splendour. The power of resurrection, and that to life, has vindicated the name of Almighty; and the gathering of a remnant of Israel into the church, the name of Jehovah; and it need hardly be added that the power and faithfulness of God expressed in these names will yet come out into full display. But all this awaits the results of an activity of God, which is going on at the present time -- the formation of a company of sons by whom God should be known in such a way as that they can freely approach Him and in the midst of whom Christ should be pre-eminent, the Firstborn among many brethren; and further, in whom every moral trait of Christ should be set forth -- His fulness; and, still further, in whom, as the bride of Christ, God should show, in the presence of the universe, the exceeding riches of His grace -- the witness of His triumph over all the power of evil. While we are in the light of that particular name, under which in Christianity God is revealed, we evidently have the good which attaches to every name, if we are prepared to accept the condition of separation which was distinctly marked in the case of the fathers and of Israel -- for it is said, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty".