1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 13
F.E.R. The subject which the apostle takes up from chapter 11, verse 17 is the coming together of the Assembly. It is a great thing to see that in Scripture there is no such thing as an Assembly-meeting.
F.E.R. There is no such thing as an appointed order of meeting, a system of meetings arranged and settled; prayer-meeting, reading, etc., all that kind of thing is not known in Scripture.
F.E.R. The idea presented is of the Assembly come together in one place.
Ques. What is the difference between an Assembly-meeting and the Assembly come together?
F.E.R. The Assembly-meeting is a certain appointed order of things which we stick to.
P. "Upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread".
F.E.R. Well, they were rallied by the Lord's supper, you do not want any arrangement save as to time. The Assembly is brought together by the Lord's supper. I do not see such a thing as an assembly prayer-meeting or an assembly worship meeting. I have seen circulars passed about among saints fixing prayer-meetings and soon. I do not see it in Scripture, nor do I think it is the right idea.
H.D'A.C. Once gathered we have the Head to order as He sees fit. We cannot lay down any order.
F.E.R. There is only one thing fixed, the Lord's supper. There are many points of detail. I do not like to see the box passed round at the end of the meeting, but in connection with the Lord's supper, neither do
I like to see anyone closing the meeting in a formal way praying for the gospel.
P. We do not think the meeting over unless that is done.
Ques. Do we ever come together in Assembly except on Lord's Day morning?
F.E.R. We must take into account the state of things. In a ruined state of things we cannot expect anything magnificent, we must be thankful that anything is preserved to us.
G.C. The danger is that we drop the thought of the Assembly after the meeting is over.
F.E.R. Where is the authority to arrange any system of meetings? I do not think of an Assembly prayer-meeting but a meeting of those interested in the Lord's work coming together to pray. If the Assembly comes together you cannot lay down any form it will take, but you must give place to the Head, to direct and order. If I come to lecture, I come with something before me, otherwise I should not be doing honour to the saints. But I would not have anything before me in the Assembly. The purpose of the Supper is to give the Lord His place as Head, that is the proper work of it. So the Supper in chapter 11 gives the Lord the prominent place. In chapter 12 we are baptised into one body by the Spirit. In chapter 13 we get the principle which excludes the flesh ... anything that is uncomely in the Assembly.
Ques. Do you think that in the early days when they came together they began with the breaking of bread?
F.E.R. It seems so in apostolic days, but later it seems to have settled down to the first day of the week.
Ques. Could we come together in the week without breaking of bread?
F.E.R. I should look at that as a continuation of the Lord's Day meeting, e.g., a discipline meeting is
called on testimony. No one brother can do it. It must be in the mouth of two or three witnesses. So in regard to persons desiring to break bread. You do not call a meeting together to discuss whether a person should break bread. Persons break bread with us on testimony. They are accepted on testimony.
Ques. Suppose there is any special difficulty with any case, would you call the Assembly?
F.E.R. No. I would call two or three to pray about it. I find there are those that bear the burden of the meeting and they would be the people to pray.
Rem. I should like you to say a little more about receiving.
F.E.R. I object to receiving because some have a difficulty about it; every Christian known to be orderly has a title to be there. If so, how can you talk about receiving? We have not an exclusive fellowship. It may be called that, but we do not seek to make it so.
Ques. What do you mean about being accepted on testimony?
F.E.R. It must be known that they are Christians and not connected with evil.
Ques. "Not forsaking the assembling", etc. Does that take in week-day meetings as well?
F.E.R. I think the Hebrews were in danger of neglecting to come together for fear of persecution. If a brother only appears at the Lord's supper, it shows he has little interest in the Lord's things. If he had he would come together with his brethren to pray about them.
Ques. You would not object to fixing an evening for a prayer-meeting?
F.E.R. Oh no! The principle of the Assembly: "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee". You must give the fullest place to Christ. On the other hand you can come together on Matthew 18. The Lord says, "There am I in the midst". It is not as in
Assembly. I rather doubt if many of us could give a distinction between Head and Lord. Christ is Lord to the individual; He is Head to the Church.
Ques. Would you speak of a meeting breaking bread as gathered in Assembly?
F.E.R. Well, the Lord's Supper is what brings them together. Having taken the Supper they are then in Assembly. I take chapters 11 - 13 as describing what is proper to the Assembly. When convened you get instruction in the principles which are to guide and govern in the Assembly. The instructions were given to the Corinthians to remedy the confusion.
Ques. Would you think that the Assembly coming together as such at other times than Lord's Day an indication of spiritual power?
F.E.R. We have to accept things as they are. It is no use to fret and vex ourselves about the state of things. People who look for great things are doomed to disappointment. In meetings for prayer you can count on His presence, "Where two or three", the Lord is universal -- so they have a sense that He is supporting and they have His countenance also in readings, but it is not the same thought as the Assembly.
Ques. Would it be correct to say that the Assembly, as such, took the place of the sanctuary?
F.E.R. Yes, in a spiritual way. The prayer-meeting may be two or three exercised about difficulties, and their outlet is the Lord. They come together for prayer and they have the Lord with them in their exercises. There are few things less understood than the sanctuary.
Ques. The prayer-meeting is not connected with priestly or levitical service?
F.E.R. It is more as common people. "Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people". "Men ought always to pray". It is not gifted men only.
Ques. Is there a gift of prayer?
F.E.R. I am afraid so. I only judge so because
many brothers pray at such great length. There are two things very trying in a meeting -- long prayers and long pauses. Some pray about everything. There are few amongst us who can really do that. That hinders others taking part. I do not care to pray about some things that have already been asked.
Ques. Do you object to pauses?
F.E.R. Long pauses, specially in the prayer meeting, indicate a great spiritual deadness.
Ques. Will you say something as to the service of the sanctuary?
F.E.R. For the service of the sanctuary you must have saints divested of the flesh. You cannot have flesh in the sanctuary. The only ground on which you can have priests is risen with Christ, you cannot have a priest after the flesh, not even the Lord on earth. If you are risen with Christ you are outside of flesh, outside of every order of man, whether religious, philosophical, sentimental, educated. We may not know much of what a risen man is like, but he is clear of every order of man here. You may judge that if you get sentimentalism or eloquence in the Assembly, it is not priestly work. The spring of everything must be God Himself else it is not the divine nature. In chapter 13 you get the practical exclusion of the flesh. In the early part every movement of the flesh is excluded, the second part brings you to God outside of all knowledge, etc. That is where love brings you.
Rem. If we were built up more in the divine nature we should know more of the Father in Assembly. Why is the Lord brought in in the beginning of chapter 9?
F.E.R. It is the Lord as Administrator, because it is in regard of gifts. The Lord bestows them. What I understand by gift is, a divinely given impression of Christ to be expressed. If a gift were anything else it would not be something expressed of Christ. I think the great thing in the chapter is to give Christ His place in the Assembly, the place of pre-eminence in love.
That is the practical working of the Supper if rightly understood. In chapter 11 it is His side, in chapter 12 our side.
Ques. What is the meaning of remembering the Lord?
F.E.R. It is calling Him into presence; His death is the vehicle, the means, and is so because death is the expression of His love. The death of Christ is an incident in the pathway of love, the most important incident, and so through death we call Him to mind. Love was there before death, and after death just as really as at His death.
Ques. Is it the remembrance of His death in the past or the remembrance of Him as absent?
F.E.R. The latter. You call Himself to mind yet are sensible of His presence. You could not remember another death in that way. You might remember the death of the Duke of Wellington, but you could not call him into presence. The Lord makes His presence felt to hearts prepared for it. They get Him as Head and He is pre-eminent. In pre-eminence the point is He is one of us.
Ques. Does that correspond to the great Priest?
F.E.R. Yes, so He is the Firstborn of many brethren. If we are speaking of the Lord, He is not one of us, but is Lord on God's side, as Head He is on our side therefore He is pre-eminent, anointed above His fellows -- that is where you join the Lord.
Rem. People may get to the breaking of bread and never join the Lord.
F.E.R. That may be so, but that is where you get the Assembly.
Ques. Should we not come together as risen with Christ?
F.E.R. There is no other ground. There is no idea of the Assembly coming together in Romans. The important point in the Assembly is to be done with all that is formal, the passing of the box and
notices. I would give out the notices after the passing of the box, not at the close of the meeting.
F.E.R. Because no one has authority to close the meeting, there might be the feeling that spiritual power had declined.
Ques. Why should all that is formal take place first?
F.E.R. Because it is only then that you come to a true sense of the Assembly. The Lord is called into presence by the Supper and thus it is that the Assembly begins. In the midst of the church will I praise thee.
Ques. It is after the breaking of bread that the Lord takes His place as Leader?
F.E.R. I would not say that. Chapters 12 and 13 are the exclusion of the flesh and the bond that which holds together. There is no such thing as a brother feeling his responsibility in the Assembly. The object of chapter 13 is to shut out the pre-eminence of man. Take the idea of the body, the head is not pre-eminent in the human body. By one Spirit are all baptized into one body. As Head He identifies Himself with us; in the kingdom He is Lord; He becomes leader of the praises in the great congregation, it is a different idea from Lord -- that is administration. The bread and wine are separate emblems of death. Announce His death till He come is incidental, you cannot think of His death without thinking of His love, and you cannot think of His love without thinking of Himself -- it is an undying love. The love abides although He went into death. Look at the pleasure He had in coming into the company of His disciples during those forty days -- as much pleasure as before, or more.
Ques. What is the connection of the breaking of bread with the two going to Emmaus?
F.E.R. It is significant, though that is not the Lord's supper. He was known unto them in the breaking of bread. It was an act very familiar to them -- He had
always taken that place among them as pre-eminent. If you go to take a meal at a friend's house, he takes the place at the head of the table, but he is not lord. A man is not lord to his wife, he is head, she reigns with him.
H.D'A.C. When Christ is before us, no one in the Assembly has any pre-eminence.
F.E.R. The effect is that there is no such thing as clericalism in the Assembly.
Ques. On that ground can you sing every hymn given out in the Assembly?
F.E.R. I would not like to be compelled to sing every line of a hymn given out, but I would not give public expression to my inability to do so.
Ques. Would putting on the new man have any connection with the Assembly?
F.E.R. No. It is not connected with testimony, it comes out in the walk towards the saints and towards all; God's testimony is that He has set up a new man in new creation here. Chapter 13 is a great study -- it brings out what man's spiritual stature is. Most men know their physical stature, you can find that out by standing against the wall; but it is a great thing to know your true height in the Assembly.
Ques. Can we find that out for ourselves?
F.E.R. Yes. It is very important to find it out. Gift and abilities do not indicate your stature. Chapter 11 bears intimately on it especially where people in the Assembly maintain almost hatred to one another. Love is our measure. You must have faith, but that is not your measure. It is impossible for man to be less than nothing -- then the chapter tells us the characteristics of love. The practical working is to exclude the flesh. Love is the divine nature. It is exclusion not correction of the flesh. In the most advanced Christian that ever was, you do not find the flesh improved, the only way is to exclude it. At the end of the chapter you are brought to God above all knowledge.
F.E.R. It must be so when things are imperfect. Knowledge implies that everything is not known. There is something to be learned. It is that which is placed within the reach of man to acquire. It is important to see that this chapter is not an exhortation but a description. You can only love as affected by love; you cannot get love up. If we are really affected and controlled by the love of Christ thus, verses 4 to 7 is the effect in the Assembly. When the heart is affected by the love of Christ I lose sight of everything that would tend to bring in distinction of flesh. I do not want to love those only that are agreeable to me. As an individual you may have to return to those distinctions but in the assembly you are above them.
1 Corinthians 10 and 1 Corinthians 11
Ques. Why "flee from idolatry"?
F.E.R. Because of the exclusive character of Christianity. He might as well have told them to flee from Judaism. If they went on with Christianity, they must separate from the things of this world. Idolatry is a much wider thing than we think. Christianity is intensely exclusive. It is the temple of God and it is therefore holy and so it excludes all that is not holy, and certainly idolatry is not holy. There is a vast amount of idolatry all around us, for there is the universal acknowledgement of the god of this world in the Christianity of the present day. With these Corinthians there was not absolute separation from idolatry.
Ques. Why does he use the word "flee"?
F.E.R. Flee is a very strong word, you flee from what you are afraid of.
G.B. The principle would be the same today and you must not tamper with these things; by doing so you involve others. What you do in that way you cannot ignore, because of the effect upon others.
Ques. Suppose you go into Westminster Abbey, would that be bad? would it involve others?
F.E.R. I will tell you the effect that it would have upon me. It would be that I should think you did not consider the thing so very bad after all. All these cathedrals are relics of popery and idolatry.
Rem. Fleeing is our only safety.
F.E.R. Yes, you must not tamper with them.
Ques. What is the meaning of verse 7: "The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play"?
F.E.R. It is most solemn; it is in the absence of Moses they did this; with us it is the indulgence of ourselves in the absence of Christ, as if it did not matter
whether He is absent or not, "They sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play".
Rem. It is a sacramental system without separation; they ruled as kings "without us".
F.E.R. Exactly and in system everything is neutralised because there is no separation.
J.S.A. This separation would lead up to the assembly.
F.E.R. Yes. Chapter 10 is separation; chapter 11 is seclusion. We come to the Lord's supper through the Lord's table.
Ques. What is the Lord's table?
F.E.R. It is the fellowship of the death of Christ morally. The apostle takes up the Supper to set it forth, but he might just as well have used baptism: only baptism is the act of another, whereas the partaking of the Supper is your own act. You commit yourself to His death. It is your own act and deed. The Lord's table is not only for the Lord's day morning, but always. The bread is the table. He might have taken them up on the ground of their baptism and if the Corinthians had been true to their baptism they would not have needed this tenth chapter. He takes them up on the ground of the Supper because it is their own act to partake of that. Where people are content to go on with the world you will find there is a great element of idolatry.
F.E.R. Anything that usurps the proper place of God in the heart. Children may be: anything may be.
E.H.C. We may say that the normal thought of the Lord's table takes in all Christians.
F.E.R. Yes, it undoubtedly takes in the whole. I never heard of the table when I was in the Church of England, because they had no idea of fellowship. Here the apostle brings in chapter 10 because there must be separation before you can have seclusion in chapter 11.
Ques. Why is the cup prominent in chapter 10?
F.E.R. I do not know unless he takes up the sacrificial order.
Ques. What connection is there between the passover and the Supper?
F.E.R. You should always be keeping the passover -- the feast. I am always in the fellowship of His death, but in the fellowship I am bound to regard others. The feast of unleavened bread is always going on for us.
Ques. Was the blood significant of the intensity of their separation?
F.E.R. Yes, he takes them up on a ground with which they were familiar.
E.H.C. Is "we bless" we eulogise?
F.E.R. Blessing the cup is like the Lord's doing it, we all break the bread, it is one act in fellowship.
Ques. The meeting does not begin properly till after the breaking of the bread?
F.E.R. No. I always break the bread and pour out the wine together, for people look upon it as a dual service. You must have the figure of death in their separation. It is better that the wine should be poured out already and in the cup when we come in.
Ques. You do not look upon the breaking of the bread and the pouring out of the wine as if it were the Lord doing it?
G.B. It is not a ministerial act; one does it as representing the rest.
F.E.R. There is no pre-eminence in the body. In 1 Corinthians 12 the head is not pre-eminent, all the members are inter-dependent. I utterly repudiate the idea of any pre-eminence in the body, every member is dependent upon the other.
Ques. If it is all one service why do we have a giving of thanks between the bread and the wine?
F.E.R. I should not like to pass over the word "The cup which we bless".
J.B.D. What is the fellowship of the body of Christ?
F.E.R. You must take it up in connection with His body -- death. Verse 17 is the mere fact that by our own
showing we are one body and so we partake of one loaf. By the fact of our partaking of the one loaf we become one company -- one body. When the fellowship of Christ's death is recognised we are in one fellowship -- one body, and we must be careful not to do anything to compromise the fellowship. I cannot say, 'I will go to that mission or this chapel or church'. It is a partnership and we must not compromise that partnership.
Ques. What are the deeds of the partnership?
F.E.R. The bond is the death of Christ. We all form one company by partaking of one loaf -- one body. The priests were all of one company, one family by partaking of the one altar.
Ques. Does the loaf represent Christ's own body?
F.E.R. Yes. He says, "This is my body".
Ques. Is the unity -- the fellowship -- expressed in our each partaking of it?
F.E.R. Yes, by your own act and deed.
W.W. There is a question which it seems to us would involve the fellowship greatly exercising the saints here just now, it is as regards marriage.
F.E.R. Oh! better there were none!
W.W. But this is the difficulty. Suppose someone in fellowship were to marry an unconverted man, would that act involve the fellowship?
F.E.R. Well, it would be a thing done without the fellowship of the saints.
F.E.R. No, but she subjects herself to rebuke because of doing in self-will what she did not do with the fellowship of the saints.
F.E.R. Some one with the needed amount of moral power.
J.B. The very naming of it in the meeting would be a rebuke.
Ques. Must the subject of the rebuke be present?
F.E.R. You could not make that compulsory, but I should take good care she would know she had been rebuked. I have a great horror of defiling the temple of the Lord. The ceremony of marriage is simple in itself, but it is most serious not to have the fellowship of the assembly in it.
Ques. As to marriage what do you think about it?
F.E.R. There should be none. It is not the time for it.
To return to our subject, the Supper is intended to call the Lord into presence. "He was known of them in breaking of bread". It is in the Supper we get into company with Him; it brings Him into presence, John 20"He showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord". The Lord Himself was present the first time. We touch Him in affection, in the Supper. He was going to be present in a new way. In 1 Corinthians everything is presented in a very elementary way. It begins with "the same night in which he was betrayed". In John 13 we find treachery comes in and breaks the company. Twelve is a significant number; it is complete. When treachery has broken all up He gives a new way in which He will be present with them.
E.H.C. What is the form of the word "remembrance"?
F.E.R. It is Himself who is remembered. He was dead, and is alive again. You call Himself into presence. You could not do that with regard to anyone else who had died -- they are not alive again -- say the Duke of Wellington, you could not call him into presence for he is not alive again. "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore". We call Him to mind in His death, that is in the greatest act of His love.
Rem. If it is in the breaking of bread He is called into presence, it is a long time in our meeting before that takes place, for it is put off so late.
F.E.R. We do things better in England. You
notice how heavy the meeting is when it is deferred, and hymns and prayers take its place. The Supper is introductory, it would produce in the hearts of the saints that which they try to bring about by prayers and hymns. The four chapters in 1 Corinthians which treat of the subject are continuous, 11 - 14 and the Supper is the first thing touched.
Ques. When should the box be introduced?
F.E.R. I think immediately after the breaking of bread in order that everything of a formal nature might be done together. I would give out the notices after the box has gone round in the early part of the meeting. You then have freedom for the Lord to act on His own line; no one has any authority to close the meeting. I think it is presumption for any one to take upon himself to close the meeting. It is wonderful what an effect the Supper has on people. They come to the Supper meeting often from pressure at home, and where things must be seen to before they can start, and they come in a bustle, but after the Supper has been partaken of there is a calm.
Ques. Would it not be better to have the box at the door going out?
F.E.R. No. I connect it in my mind with what is an expression of fellowship and in going round I would connect it with that part of the meeting which expresses fellowship.
Ques. Why introduce it into the morning meeting at all?
F.E.R. What then would you do? It is a necessity, and a thing which should be done in fellowship and consequently connected with the meeting, which is of that character, and as we are speaking of it, I would take the opportunity of remarking that there is not enough liberality in putting into the box, for if it is a thing done in fellowship it should be done liberally
Ques. You say we bring the Lord into presence in partaking of the Supper, does that bring Him into the midst
F.E.R. No. He touches the affections as you call Him to mind, and gives an impulse to the whole thing. The object of the Supper is to put everything into place. No one should break up the meeting, but we would all have a sense of the spiritual power declining.
Ques. Would you pray for the gospel at the end of the meeting?
F.E.R. We find that done because people in fellowship imitate instead of setting an example. We are good theorists, but we are improving in our practice. Faith will not help you in the assembly -- only love will do that, that is why at the end of 1 Corinthians 12 the apostle breaks off his subject and brings in affection -- love.
Ques. We need not meditate upon a subject before taking part?
F.E.R. No. We do not go there to speak. J.B.S. used to say he went like a blank sheet of paper. Worship is better than speaking, but the Lord may perhaps make use of the opportunity in that way to help the saints.
Ques. What about ministry before the breaking of bread?
F.E.R. You have not given the Lord what is due to Him in the Supper and I think it is very objectionable to read, minister, or do anything of the kind before the breaking of bread has taken place.
Rem. The breaking of bread itself should do that in the soul which reading and ministry, etc., has been resorted to, to effect.
F.E.R. Yes, the Supper has a great effect upon people in quieting them and putting them in touch with the Lord and it would do it at once only that hymns are given out and spoil it.
Matthew 11:16 - 30
What I wanted to draw attention to in this passage is the change from one order or course of things to another. It would not, I think, be seen until pointed out, but the Lord points it out here. No one would otherwise have understood the two things which were going on together here, namely, on the one hand the testimony of grace, and on the other the Father's work. It is just these two things to which I wish to draw attention a little as coming before us in this passage. Although the change in position indicated by the Lord's words is not publicly seen, the truth comes out that there is nothing effective in man, nothing that abides for ever, except the work of the Father.
The first thing that the Lord shows in the passage is, that in place of the mighty works He had done, another order of things was to come in, and that based upon the revelation of the Father; in other words, Christianity was to take the place of His presence and power. It is a painful reflection, but only too true, that man has refused every testimony of God. The testimony of Christ, when He was here, differed from all previous testimonies. It was not like the law -- not that He set the law aside, for He had come to fulfil it -- it was not like the prophets, nor like that of John the Baptist; it was entirely different and new. It was in the power of the world to come; and the Lord appeals to the works as that which the cities had seen, but they had not repented. I judge that the testimony of the Lord here was the testimony of the kingdom. I think that He came here in the mighty power of the kingdom, that is, in the power of grace, showing forth those mighty works which relieved man of the pressure of evil. That testimony God addressed to man, and man refused it,
did not respond to it. In the first part of the scripture that I read, we see how John the Baptist had come, but they did not answer to him. And then the Son of man came "eating and drinking and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber". They no more responded to the testimony of grace presented in the Son of man than they had done to John's testimony in righteousness.
It has to come home to us painfully that the heart of man refuses whatever testimony God is pleased to present to him, but none the less the testimony of grace goes on; God will cut it short, but it is still here. It is the form of God's outward dealings with man, the glad tidings are the glad tidings of the grace of God. The testimony of grace began with Christ, and continues in the mighty power of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. But this does not alter the statement I made, that man does not respond to any testimony of God. Such testimony may produce a transitory effect, as in the case of Nineveh, but no lasting effect; for man, apart from a work of God in him, is not really affected by any testimony, hence the breach between God and man is complete.
This ought to come home to us. It is a point of the last moment, but one which we are very slow to accept. We sometimes imagine that we might affect others by the testimony of God's grace, but man is not really affected by the best testimony of God's grace; was not even by the ministry of Christ Himself, save where souls were drawn to Him by the Father; and surely no ministry can be better or greater than His. As we have seen, the testimony of Christ was quite distinct, and of another character from that of John the Baptist, yet neither found favour. The same was true of the testimony of Elijah and Elisha. The testimony of Elisha produced no more permanent effect than that of Elijah. I have said this much to pave the way for what I have before me.
I want to bring home to you that everything has to start from the Father, if there is to be anything at all for God. The Son came to carry out the will of the Father, and let me say as to the will of the Father, that you have to accept it and its sovereignty. Broad and wide as may be the testimony of grace, and it is like the sun in the heavens, you must come to the work of the Father; and the work of the Father is sovereign, or rather, the Father is sovereign and must be sovereign in His work. This is brought out by the Lord in the passage before us.
We read in verses 25 - 27: "At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him". Now there is hardly a passage in Scripture that brings out the sovereignty of the Father more distinctly than this. The beginning is that the Father has "hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes". The Father reveals to the babes, and the Son also speaks about revealing. He reveals the Father to the subjects of the Father's work. Every one of us was a subject of the Father's work before we knew it. You see that in John 6, where this comes out unmistakably: "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day". The Father's work is that He draws to the Son, and the Son's work is that He raises up at the last day. A great deal may come between, but these are the two extreme points in the Christian's course. We are waiting for the last, but the first was the secret of our coming to Christ. Did you come to the Son of your own accord? I think not. It is an expression of the
sovereignty of the Father that He draws to the Son, for He draws whom He will. Man in this light has nothing to say to it save to come when drawn. I quite admit that the testimony of grace is going on towards man, but it would be ineffective save for the work of the Father. Man does not come to Christ, for it is not his will to come.
There is not ability or power in man for the knowledge of divine Persons. No one knows the Son but the Father, and no one knows the Father if not revealed to him. We have no more power to know the Father than we have to know the Son. The Father was the subject of the Son's revelation; but as to knowledge, you no more know the Father than the Son. We were the subjects of the Father's drawing before we knew the Father. Then the Son follows the Father's work, He reveals the Father and thus makes Him known. The Son is not looked at here as the subject of revelation. He was presented to man, and bore testimony as to who He was, but His work was revealing the Father. In His mind the Father was the source of everything, as we see in the most distinct way in John 5, the Father's will and the Father's pleasure was His work down here. The Son revealed the Father to souls. There could be no knowledge of Him else. And here again comes in the point of sovereignty. No one knows the Father, save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. The Father hides from the wise and prudent and reveals to babes, and the Son reveals the Father to whom He will. Now, I refer to this because it is so important to be able to take account of ourselves as the subjects of the work of God. If I look at myself historically, I have come to know the grace of God. I was once unconverted, but by the grace of God was led to turn to God to receive remission of sins and the Holy Spirit; all that is the outward history; but when we come to be a little intelligent in the things of God we can regard ourselves in another light, that is, in the light of the
sovereign work of God, and in that view whatever we have, originated with God. The Son has revealed the Father to us; that is what He came to do, and but for that all would have been a blank for God.
Now the point I am coming to is this -- in the presence of the Father and the Son we have another order of man. The first order of man has been tested in every variety of way in which God could approach man -- law, prophets, John the Baptist, Christ, and even by the presence and testimony of the Holy Spirit -- but man has failed, he does not respond to any testimony of God at all. Thus man's case is hopeless. God cannot touch him except in sovereign grace. Without God's sovereign work, in which man is born again, man's case would be hopeless. It is of all moment to accept this. But then by this fact you have a man of another order morally before God, and that must be the case if the first man is not to be touched by any testimony of God. All must begin with a divine work in his soul, as we find in John 3"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God". Then in verse 5 you get a subsequent statement: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God". But first you have to see that he cannot accept any testimony addressed to him by God. But in the presence of the Father you get a man of another order, and if you want to know what the character of it is, you get it here in the person of Christ Himself, for in the subsequent passage He speaks of Himself very evidently as Man. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls". One may venture to speak of the Lord as presenting Himself there as in the place of Man in the presence of the Father, and the character brought before us is "meek and lowly in heart". I
think there could be nothing more remarkable than the Son describing Himself in that way. That is what a man is in the presence of the Father's love, that characterises him down here; but you never find that in man after the flesh. It was said of Moses, that he was the meekest man upon earth, but you must remember that this was after and the effect of a long course of divine discipline, and it was, I doubt not, in view of the One who here says, "I am meek and lowly in heart". If you find a man in the presence of the Father, I do not doubt he will be thus characterised. It is, I judge, in contrast to man in his assumption and self-confidence and pride. The first thing the Lord proposes is, "I will give you rest". You get rest in the apprehension of the glory of God; there righteousness and love have been perfectly reconciled, for that is what I understand by the glory of God, when the question of sin has been raised. The Lord says in John 13"Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him". God has been glorified in the Son of man, righteousness and love perfectly reconciled in the place of sin. I believe it is in the apprehension of it that we get rest. While righteousness and love are opposed in regard of man, you cannot have rest. Righteousness is God's measure in regard of the creature, and it must be answered to. So if sin is in question, righteousness and love must of necessity be opposed; but when I see them reconciled, I get rest. All this was effected at the cross, and no one can now know God except as revealed in love and righteousness, and this we learn in the death of Christ. Then we have the admonition, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart". You are to be subdued to Christ; Christ is now the starting point morally. Every subject of grace has to take his character from Christ, and we can approach Christ from the very fact that He is meek and lowly in heart; He is approachable. That is the idea which the passage presents to me. You can venture to approach one who
is meek and lowly in heart, and He is the Man in the presence of the Father's love.
Now, in being brought to Christ, and learning of Him, you get wonderful instruction which you can derive only from Christ. We all seek to help, and to point out the lines to one another, and to direct each other's attention to the things of God. We can in this sense be as sign-posts to others, but each one of us has himself to learn of Christ. You cannot be impressed too much with the importance of that. Christ is the Teacher, He instructs us, and leads our hearts into the knowledge of the love of God. I think we learn every true lesson from Christ. Our hearts get instructed in divine love, and the love of God is the true source of our moral being. There is never a breath of real life in man except in response to the love of God. There may be an antecedent work in the soul, but until the love of God is apprehended, until we have learnt that "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", we can hardly be said to be conscious of living. God began, of His love, and the first breath of spiritual life was our response to that love. And the great expression of that love is beyond all controversy in the death of Christ. God so loved us that He gave His Son for us. Every one of us has the spring of his moral being in the love of God. "Rooted and founded in love". Two great effects are produced in us by the love of God. One is holiness, and I think that is the point where man is naturally wholly unfitted for God. The holiness of God is unbearable to the natural man, though he has but little idea of it.
The love of God is a holy love, and must be so, for God is holy; and the natural man cannot enter into the thought of holiness. It is really foreign to him. You can understand this. The fact is that we never reach holiness except by love, and as we drink
into the love of God we appreciate holiness, and thus holiness is promoted. It is in this sense that holiness is progressive in the Christian.
Another great effect produced by the love of God is growth in intelligence. We come to the clear knowledge of the Son of God. The spring of intelligence is love. Thus the apostle speaks of it in Ephesians 3"Rooted and founded in love", that ye "may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge". And so in Colossians, "That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the clear knowledge of the mystery of God, ... in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge". There is evidently great gain in that in which Christ can instruct us, that is, the knowledge of the love of God; and indeed, Christ went to the cross to bring us into that love. It was to maintain God's glory and righteousness that He died; but with all that there was the purpose that in it might be expressed to us the perfect love of God. It is there Christ instructs us, and there is the secret and spring of the true moral being of the Christian. I am thoroughly convinced that as we advance in the knowledge of God, as our hearts are in the sunshine of His love, so holiness is promoted in us, and we grow in divinely given intelligence. Holiness and knowledge are thus promoted in the Christian by learning of Christ.
I am sure that your experience must be the same as mine. I have studied Scripture for a long time, and as much as most, but I have not grown in that way in the love of God. I had not the capability. Many study Scripture beyond their capability. We learn from a Person. Scripture tells you what you are to learn, but the things presented in Scripture are learned from a living Person. He encourages us to learn of Him -- to sit at His feet and hear His word. I could not express
too strongly the thought that we do not learn of one another. We are privileged to suggest to one another, but I do not think that we really learn of one another. The force of this Scripture is, that all originates, and must originate, in the sovereign will of the Father. The Father begins by revealing to babes, drawing to the Son, and the Son takes up the same line and reveals the Father. To that end He encourages us to come unto Himself to learn of Him.
2 Corinthians 3:16 - 18
My object in reading this Scripture is to say a few words in regard to the thought of the new covenant, and in general as to the force of a covenant. It is an idea which is presented to us in Scripture in different ways from time to time, and it is evident enough from the passage I have read that it has a very important application to us. The apostle speaks of being made competent as ministers of the new covenant, and then gives an idea of the terms and character of that covenant. Covenant was a thought with which those instructed in Scripture were familiar, and no doubt the new covenant spoken of literally, has its application in the future to Israel; it will be established for the house of Judah and Israel. But we find the truth here in its application to Christians, showing that the apostles' ministry was, in principle, the ministry of the new covenant.
I purpose to refer to two or three instances in Scripture of covenants established, to show their character, and then to refer to the new covenant to see the import of it in regard to ourselves; and in connection with this, to show what it is intended to lead on to.
I suppose the new covenant when established with Israel will, in a sense, be the end of things for them, they will not look to anything farther, and power will be there to enable them fully to enjoy what is present. But covenant comes in in regard to us, not merely that we may enjoy what is set forth in it, but to lead us on to what is beyond; and the proof of that is found in this epistle. In chapter 5 we have the ministry of reconciliation, and it is plain enough that this is something beyond the ministry of the new covenant.
Now I want first to give you the idea of a covenant.
As far as I understand it, a covenant describes the terms on which God can be with an individual or a people at any given moment, the object being to secure to that people or individual the benefits of God's previous intervention on their behalf. That is rather a long sentence, but I hope you will take it in. A covenant invariably follows upon some intervention of God on man's behalf; and it is brought in in order that the benefits of that intervention may be enjoyed by the subjects of it. So that if God comes in to establish a covenant, that covenant lays down the terms or conditions on which God can be with man. We shall see this better and more clearly when we come to illustrations of it.
Another point incidental to this is, that a subsequent covenant usually embodies the conditions of preceding covenants, so that you are not at liberty to go back to a preceding covenant; if you do, you transgress. This is an exceedingly important principle, and comes out in Scripture very simply. What makes me refer especially to this is because of what we see in Christendom. There has been a general going back to the form of a preceding covenant, and in this sense they have transgressed. The Galatians were in great danger of doing this, of turning from the new covenant to the old, and the apostle shows that they were going in the direction of apostasy, and were in danger of falling from grace. It is this that very largely characterises Christendom. It has gone back from the new covenant to the form of the old covenant -- to Judaism. It is not therefore, I think, too much to say that Christendom is apostate, that is, the mass is apostate. I do not look with the least satisfaction on Christendom, and am only too glad to have escaped in measure from its corruption, and rather than be mixed up with much in it, I think I would stand alone all my days. I feel in spirit more and more apart from it. If you have your eyes open, you cannot but see the enormous increase of pretension in it, and yet, as a matter of fact, almost every pulpit
in the country is used to undermine the truth of God. That is pretty much the character of things in this country, and largely throughout Christendom.
To return to my subject. The first covenant to which I will allude (although it does not fully illustrate my point) is that which God made with Noah, and which followed on God's intervention on behalf of himself and his family. When the flood of water was upon the earth, Noah and his family were saved by God's intervention. They came forth from the ark on a regenerated earth, and that led to the covenant made with Noah. I have no doubt the basis of the covenant was the burnt-offering, and the object of it was that they might enjoy God's intervention on their behalf. The world had been destroyed on account of its wickedness, but God having saved Noah and his family, His thought was that they should enjoy His salvation, and therefore God made a covenant on certain terms with Noah. I do not go into the detail of the terms, but there it was.
Now we pass on to Abraham, where more of the moral character of a covenant comes out. The covenant with Abraham, as I understand it, was circumcision, a covenant in the flesh of Abraham and his children. Abraham was circumcised himself; and all the males of his household. That was the condition of God's covenant with Abraham, and the purpose and moral force of it was separation. They carried this sign with them in order that they might enjoy God's intervention, and that intervention was that God had accounted Abraham righteous. God had not only blessed him, but He made this covenant with him -- that Abraham might enjoy God's grace. God lays down the condition on which He could be with Abraham, and the condition was circumcision. He was to be separate from the nations of the earth, a stranger and a pilgrim apart for God.
We will pass on to another case and look at the covenant
made with Israel. God made a covenant of law with the children of Israel, and the purpose of it was that they might enjoy His intervention on their behalf, that is, their redemption from Egypt. I do not go much into the matter, but the law expressed the terms of the covenant, and these terms were good and beneficent. We find God afterwards appealing to the people on this ground, and raising the question whether any other people on the face of the earth had had righteous statutes and judgments such as they had. They were far better off than any other people. They had an amount of light from God that no other nation enjoyed, and righteous judgments to guide them in government; and the object of the covenant was that they might enjoy the intervention of God, who had not only delivered them from Egyptian bondage, but brought them to Himself in the wilderness. The covenant with them embodied the covenant made with Abraham. We read that circumcision was not of Moses, but of the fathers. Thus the covenant made with them in the law embodied the principle of the preceding covenant, and described the terms on which God could be with them, and they with God.
Before passing on from this to the covenant in connection with the coming of Christ, I may remark that there was a kind of covenant made with Israel on their return from the captivity in Babylon, which return was a remarkable intervention of God on their behalf. If you search the Scriptures, you will find that God laid down certain terms on which He would be with the people after their return. There was a modification of the original terms, because many things were scarcely possible after their return which had been laid down under the original covenant. They came back, you must remember, from the captivity under the protection of the Gentile power, but they no longer had the throne of David. They were brought back to wait for Christ under Gentile domination.
Now we come to the presence of Christ in Israel, and in this we see a new intervention of God on behalf of His people, the greatest intervention of all. What could be equal to the thought of Emmanuel, God with us? In the early part of the prophecy of Isaiah we get this intervention of God on their behalf referred to prophetically, in allusion to the time when the Assyrian will yet come into the land, and the prophet says (chapter 9): The darkness will not be like the darkness was in the past, for "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder". That was the character of God's intervention on behalf of Israel. A sign was given (chapter 7), and the sign pointed to Immanuel. At the birth of Christ the angels say to the shepherds: "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord;" and the sign which they gave them was of a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, because there was no room for Him in the inn. The force of the intervention was "God with us". And when Christ came in thus, there were new conditions laid down for those that received Him that they might enjoy this new intervention of God. Not that Christ was come to set aside the law, but to fulfil it; at the same time, where there was faith to appreciate this intervention of God in Christ, there were new conditions for those who accepted it. The angels celebrated this at the birth of Christ in the song, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men". That is very different to anything that had gone before. I have a strong impression that those who received Christ, and were associated with Him here, came under the favour of God, under that favour in which Christ stood, the object being that they might enjoy the wonderful intervention of God on behalf of His people. This intervention is celebrated in a very blessed way in the song of Zacharias in Luke 1 "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and
redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David". While the occasion of the song was the birth of John the Baptist, the song is remarkable in its celebration of the coming kingdom of Christ. He was the "horn of salvation". The position of those whom Christ described as "blessed" may be seen in Matthew 5 - 7. It is very interesting to trace out how those associated with Christ, when the Lord was here on earth, came under the favour of God, and that this was the character of the covenant consequent on the introduction of Christ.
I pass on to the passage I read, which speaks of the new covenant, and this refers to ourselves. Now, in order to lead up to the new covenant, I will say a few words about God's intervention, as pictured in the great supper (Luke 14), and what I understand by it. The great supper brings before us, I judge, the glory of the Lord, as the celebration of righteousness accomplished; and you cannot understand or appreciate this intervention on behalf of men save as you apprehend the glory of the Lord. Then the new covenant has come in in order that we may behold and be changed by the glory of the Lord. You first have the terms of the new covenant, then it is added, "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding ... the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image".
Now, as I have said, the great supper connects itself with the glory of the Lord, and the glory of the Lord is a great celebration! God will have His house filled, and filled with those who are prepared to have part in the great celebration. Now, if you ask what I mean by the great supper being the celebration of righteousness, I reply that the supper is the answer to the cross, and that the cross was the accomplishment of righteousness of God. Where sin had been, sin has been removed, and at the same time righteousness established in the righteous
One. The righteous One glorified God, and vindicated God's righteousness. All was completed at the cross. Righteousness was established, nothing can be added to it. You remember the words of the Lord Jesus, "It is finished". That put the seal on righteousness; and the next step was the resurrection. The resurrection was the testimony of righteousness, and therefore becomes the ground of faith. It is God's testimony of righteousness accomplished. The reason for that is perfectly plain, for resurrection testified that death was no longer triumphant. It had reigned up to that time, but resurrection proved that the power of God was triumphant, that death's power was annulled. Therefore the resurrection of Christ becomes the testimony of righteousness and the ground of faith, and righteousness is imputed to us "If we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification". He was raised again in testimony in order that we might be justified.
Now we come to a further point, the glory of the Lord is the celebration of righteousness. I do not know whether we all enter into the meaning of celebration, but the idea is brought before us in the great supper. I would like all to appreciate the glory of the Lord. You get a foreshadowing of it in Psalm 24, where we read, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in". When Christ went up on high, surely He was received with rejoicing. If there was such heavenly rejoicing when Christ was born into the world, do you not think there was great rejoicing when He went up as Man on high? When the Lord entered Jerusalem, at the close of His course here, to suffer, the children sang, "Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest". Now when righteousness was completed, and Christ went to heaven in the value of that completed work, do you not think He was received there with
acclamation, that there was rejoicing in heaven? All the will of God accomplished, and the One in whom God had been perfectly glorified, who had accomplished righteousness in the place of man's judgment, gone up on high. If there were not rejoicing, I think there would be very poor spirits in heaven! And if there was rejoicing in heaven, I think we must be very poor things if we do not rejoice here. I doubt not that there was acclamation in heaven when Christ went back there in the power of His accomplished work -- rejoicing that can only be made good down here in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has come down to report the glory of Christ, and to bring us into the celebration of the great supper, the rejoicing consequent upon Christ having entered heaven in accomplished righteousness. He came from there to do the work, He goes back as having fully glorified God. The Holy Spirit has come to bring our souls into the rejoicings of heaven. If that is true, and I think no one here would be prepared to dispute it, there is not one but would wish to join in the acclamation. Every one here, I suppose, knows and confesses Christ as Lord, but how far have we entered into the rejoicings of heaven? I feel the poverty of my own spirit in this way, how little I am in accord with heaven. If we were in the spirit of what characterises heaven, we should be very bright; how much rejoicing there would be here on earth! We must be all conscious how very soon we feel the effect of a ray of sunshine; and if you got a little ray of sunshine from the glory of the Lord, from that scene, what an amazing effect there would be on the spirits of God's people down here. The Spirit of the Lord is come, and we, in the liberty of the Spirit, beholding the glory of the Lord, enter into the rejoicings above, which really began when Christ came into the world and which have not yet ended in heaven. Christ has been received there as Man, and is seated in the highest place of honour and dignity. He has taken His place
at the right hand of God, He has ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.
Now we will refer again to the covenant as that by which we may enjoy what we have been speaking about. The Spirit brings out the terms on which God is pleased to be with us, consequent on His intervention on our behalf. The terms are very simple: love and forgiveness, or love and righteousness. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and in the presence of the love of God it is impossible that there can be such a thing as imputation of sin. These are the spirit of the covenant, the love of God, and forgiveness or non-imputation. The love of God is the first principle of Christianity, and when the Holy Spirit is come, the love of God is shed abroad in man's heart. What is Christianity without love? I think the sense of grace would grow old in us, if you understand me, if we had not love. But love cannot grow old; love is ever fresh, because it is what God is. The sense of grace might in measure fail in the heart of a Christian, but there is no failing in the love of God. Indeed, we get the expression in 1 Corinthians 13"Love never fails". It is eternal, and the Holy Spirit sheds it abroad in our hearts. He is given to us to that end, that we might be in the blessings of the new covenant, love and righteousness. And, I judge the object is, that by beholding the glory of the Lord, we might be brought more and more by the power of the Holy Spirit into correspondence with the mind of heaven. There is a company in the Revelation that puts us to shame, a company on earth who learn the heavenly song. We do not sing it much. Our hymns have not much the character of it. The company I refer to learn the heavenly song. We ought not to have to learn it, for it belongs to us as a heavenly people. It is not for us to listen to, and to catch its tones; we ought to know it and to sing it ourselves, to be in concert with heaven. We can get on very well with such a hymn as:
But that is hardly the acclamation and rejoicing of heaven; very different from it; and I think the Holy Spirit is come down here to bring our hearts into the heavenly song.
In speaking of the covenant, I have looked at it as being on our part, because covenants, though of God, are on man's behalf. A covenant, as we have seen, describes the terms on which God can be with us so that we may enjoy His intervention on our behalf; thus covenant is on our side. God does not make a covenant for Himself but on our behalf. There are two parties to a covenant. God makes the covenant, lays down the terms, and we accept the terms. But at the same time, I believe that the new covenant is to lead us into the apprehension of what is on the part of God, and the point where we begin to touch that, is the ministry of reconciliation.
If I speak of God's love and righteousness, of sin not being imputed, that is on man's behalf; but when I come to the ministry of reconciliation, the word of reconciliation is that every man and every order of man has disappeared in the death of Christ from the eye of God, that but one Man may remain, and that Man is Christ.
Consequent on reconciliation, you have this: "If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new, and all things are of God". That is not on man's part, but on God's part. The terms of the new covenant are to lead you to the apprehension of what is on God's part, and if you apprehend that, you have a very much clearer sense of what is on man's part. It is a great point for souls to go on to the apprehension of what is on God's part. Reconciliation is so, and it began when Christ was on earth. Then He was morally outside of
everything and every man here upon earth; He was addressing man, but as being Himself morally outside all; He had no part morally with man, but was outside of all and every man -- the corn of wheat alone; and in the cross He removed every man.
Christ is now the blessed starting-point for God. God will have none other. If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation; new things have come to pass, and all things are of God. Christ is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might have the pre-eminence; and that we must accept.
Another thing comes in as connected with this: you have to get free from everything that links you to the course of things down here. You will feel the need of deliverance, the need to be set free from everything to which the flesh would attach you; and the flesh would attach you to everything here. You become conscious of the urgent necessity that every moral tie should be broken; you have put off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, and then you prove the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, by which you are formed in everything that is after God. You partake morally of Christ.
One word more, to refer again to the covenant. In Christ you get the good of every preceding covenant -- you get circumcision. You may not get the good of every covenant in the letter of it, but you get the spirit of it. In the new covenant you get the circumcision of Christ. So as to the covenant of law with Israel, we get the good of it, for "the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit". You get too all the good that Israel should have had in the coming and presence of Christ here. You are in the favour in which He is -- "peace in heaven, and glory in the highest". At the same time we have "access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God". You stand in divine favour. "As he is, so
are we in this world". Thus you get the good of every preceding covenant; and to go back, as the Galatians were doing, to the form of some previous covenant, is really apostasy from the truth. I see cases of departure from us now, people leaving us, and going away from the light which they have been brought into, to something out of which they had come, to what is set up after the terms of another covenant, and that really means apostasy from the light. I pray God to preserve every soul from it. We are brought into the light and pleasure of God, and we ought to understand the terms on which it pleases God to be with us.
I touch on one other point. We read, "He hath made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him". That is, that we should be the eternal witness of the righteousness and consistency of God. There was in the cross the perfect solution of every moral question, and the reconciliation of love and righteousness. We are, in virtue of it, the objects of God's love, and at the same time the witness of His righteousness. If you want to learn great and eternal lessons, there is one point where you learn them, and that is in the death of Christ.
Colossians 1:24 to Colossians 2:23
F.E.R. I think from verse 24 of chapter 1 down to verse 5 of chapter 2 is a parenthetical passage. It introduces the sufferings and conflict of the apostle, but the general run of the truth is before and after. This is important because it shows that ministry is not a light thing. Two things are sure to accompany ministry, i.e., suffering and conflict.
H.C.A. When you say suffering and conflict, do you mean what is internal and external?
F.E.R. Yes, the conflict is internal and the suffering is external.
J.S.O. Paul had conflict in his soul as to the saints he ministered to.
F.E.R. Apparently it is striving, really.
J.McK. Would there be power with the ministry if there was not conflict?
F.E.R. The danger in connection with the ministry is the minister getting disheartened sometimes, that is not conflict, conflict gives the impression that he must be in conflict with something, it is that there is opposition.
Ques. Is it always outward opposition?
J.S.O. Do you refer to the sufferings in verse 24 of chapter 1?
F.E.R. Yes, and the conflict we have in the end of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2.
E.D. Does the conflict include exercise before God?
F.E.R. I think so; conflict supposes that there are elements of opposition, it indicates the thought of that.
D.L.H. Would it bring in the idea of Satan's opposition to the truth?
F.E.R. I think so; conflict is more in regard to influences, the consciousness of influences at work,
spiritual opposition to prevent the light of God taking its full effect. The light and revelation of God is there and it is to have its full application and effect; that is where influences come in and hinder. It is rather striking that the conflict carries you right down to Laodicea and to ourselves, because it is to as many as have not seen the apostle's face in the flesh. The apostle's exercise embraces a good bit.
D.L.H. Is there any reference to Laodicea as subsequently developed in the Revelation?
F.E.R. There is something striking in the end of the epistle, it was to be read to the church of the Laodiceans.
H.C.A. In what way were you speaking of this chapter as parenthetical?
F.E.R. I was speaking of this passage which alludes to the apostle's ministry, the first five verses; he takes up the saints again in verse 6, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him". It would have a very great effect on saints to understand what the apostle went through on their behalf; the interest of the apostle.
J.S.O. Paul seems to have had a sense that they did not enter into their proper portion.
F.E.R. Yes, he desired their hearts to be encouraged being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the knowledge of the mystery of God.
Ques. Was his exercise on account of the difficulty to find their exercise, or on account of their receiving the truth?
F.E.R. There was exercise on both sides. The apostle could say, "Who is sufficient for these things?" He had the consciousness of adverse influences at work, and I fancy his exercise had a great deal to do with that. There were certain spiritual influences at work in the world whose object was to frustrate the revelation of God. The revelation is there but there are certain
satanic influences at work to neutralise it. I strongly believe that the real seat of spiritual wickedness is not earth but heaven; their source is not earth but heaven.
E.D. In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, it says, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not".
F.E.R. Yes, and so, too, Ephesians: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities", etc.
D.L.H. When you speak of the source of these influences being heaven and not earth the actual things that are used to counteract the truth may be earthly may they not?
F.E.R. I think they are spiritual, not material.
D.L.H. Could you illustrate what you mean?
F.E.R. I think infidelity is spiritual not material; it acts on the spiritual part of man's being; the part in which the question of God is raised.
Ques. How would you understand it coming from heaven?
F.E.R. Satan is the source of everything evil, and he seeks to counteract the revelation of God because the revelation of God in this world undoes the work of the devil.
Ques. Does that come out in Matthew 13?
F.E.R. That is only the foreshadowing of the kingdom.
J.S.O. It would include the ritualistic idea?
F.E.R. Yes, it would include superstition and infidelity.
Ques. What you say as to Satan being a heavenly power corresponds with his being cast out in the Revelation?
F.E.R. Yes, when he is cast out his tactics are totally different. The great point now is, that he seeks to frustrate the revelation of God.
Ques. When the Lord says in Luke: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" is it future?
F.E.R. It is, but then he gives satanic power today.
H.C.A. And the truth we have here is calculated to meet that?
F.E.R. I think so; the agony of the apostle had reference to that kind of thing. The point now is, the full assurance of understanding, that they might be divinely intelligent.
J.S.O. The knowledge of the mystery would be a security against these evil powers.
F.E.R. Yes, it is the only way you can meet these things in the world.
Ques. What is "The riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles"?
F.E.R. The mystery is a wonderful thing. I think the mystery now is the vessel in which every testimony of God is; that is its resting place, the Church, the body. Nothing comes out in display until it has been given in testimony; that is part of God's ways.
J.S.O. Here it is especially among the Gentiles.
D.L.H. Do you refer to the three points you alluded to on a previous occasion -- blessing, dwelling and reigning, when you speak of the church being the vessel of testimony?
F.E.R. Yes, because the church is to come out as the Lamb's wife, the bride; everything is to come out in the church. The kingdom comes out in the church; the dwelling place is God's dwelling place; there is no temple, the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it, and it is the source of living waters. All that comes out in the church. God's three great testimonies were blessing, dwelling and ruling, and these are bound to come out in the heavenly city. The real vessel of them is Christ -- His body. Christ is set forth in His body.
D.L.H. And that is what the Church is set to be here on earth, before the public display comes and it is set up in power; it is to be morally all this?
F.E.R. Yes, it is not a testimony coming out in detail, but it is all centred, that is the fulness of Him who
is the Head of all principality and power, He is Head over all things to the church. It is what is adequate for the complete setting forth of Christ.
D.L.H. This would have a wonderful effect if only we entered into it.
F.E.R. It is marvellous to see that God has allowed nothing to slip out of His hand. Nothing would give me more gratification than to see people waking up to this because it would entirely absorb them -- the completeness of God's triumph in the church.
H.C.A. It would be a continuance of what was displayed in Christ.
F.E.R. Yes, Christ sets forth in the church everything which belongs to Himself. The church has that place in regard to Christ.
D.L.H. With regard to ruling, would you say a word?
F.E.R. The saints in the kingdom are not simply subject to Christ, they have part by the Holy Spirit in the joy of the kingdom; we are to rejoice in the Lord.
J.S.O. The translation into the kingdom of the Son of His love would be that.
F.E.R. You are suffering for the kingdom and if you are suffering for it you are worthy of it. The kingdom means suffering with Christ; it means we have joy. To me it is the celebration of what was effected at the cross.
D.L.H. Would you say the counterpart?
D.L.H. The cross being the suffering side?
F.E.R. Exactly; the kingdom the glory side. The cross was the declaration of righteousness, the kingdom is the celebration of righteousness. The Holy Spirit has come down to bring us into all the joy of the kingdom.
E.R. Receiving Christ Jesus as Lord would bring you to the kingdom?
F.E.R. It goes further; that was the effect of reconciliation. He refers there to the first chapter; that meant that they were really in the value of reconciliation
and he goes on to say, "Walk ye in him rooted and built up in him", that means that you have nothing but Christ. You are rooted and built up in Christ, and there is nothing but Him. It is not building up the old man in Christ, it is that you are rooted, and not only rooted but built up in Christ.
D.L.H. So that one man has gone and another remains?
F.E.R. If you are rooted in Him; He is the start.
Ques. How is Christ among you the hope of glory?
F.E.R. I think Christ is in the Gentiles the hope of glory; it is the mystery; it is the way of life.
Ques. Is it by the Spirit's power?
F.E.R. It is by life. He is the life of the Gentiles. Christ is our life.
D.L.H. This is what we were on a few minutes ago, the vessel?
F.E.R. Yes, the heavenly city is among the Gentiles. It is now set forth in the way of testimony.
D.L.H. The nations that are saved shall walk in the light of it.
F.E.R. Yes, you get nothing Jewish there except the names of the apostles of the Lamb. The point is that the heavenly city is among the nations. Christ in you is a moral thought; it is what the apostle was labouring for in regard of the Galatians, until Christ was formed in them. The church was a transcript of Christ. The Gentiles were in the life of Christ.
D.L.H. Do not the moral features come out in chapter 3, "Bowels of mercies"?
F.E.R. Yes, they put on the new man. The idea was that there was the reflection of God among the Gentiles. All the moral perfection of Christ was set forth in the Gentiles.
J.J. The proper place for this Man is glory, is it not?
F.E.R. Christ being in them was the pledge of glory.
F.E.R. I suppose so; it may go further. The great difficulty is to understand that the church is Christ. If the church is not Christ it is nothing at all, but it is Christ as we see in, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"
D.L.H. It was not an ecclesiastical idea.
F.E.R. You cannot separate between a man's body and himself. Man is expressed in his body. You cannot separate Christ from the Church. The Church is Christ morally. It would be exceedingly difficult to separate from Christ what is rooted and built up in Him.
D.L.H. It is really that against which the gates of hades shall not prevail.
F.E.R. Yes, our difficulty to understand it arises from the present state of the Church -- it is difficult to enter into divine thoughts in the existing state of the church because the church has dropped down to a kind of Judaism and they have not got what a Jew will have in the millennium. He will have the sense of forgiveness in that day, and the bulk of Christians today have not got even that.
D.L.H. The priests' occupation would be gone if they had.
F.E.R. You only get the consciousness of it as you enter into the divine thoughts about you. You must enter into the divine side to get the consciousness of our side. In Ephesians and Colossians, too, we get the divine thought about the saint's place: spiritual blessings, predestination, accepted in the Beloved; and then he says, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins". You have the consciousness of it because you have entered into the divine thought, and that is sonship. You have come to God's side and then you have the consciousness of all that is for you. The same principle comes out in Hebrews, "By the which will we are sanctified". That is brought to sonship; and then you get further on, "He hath perfected for ever", etc. Many have the
faith of forgiveness who have not the consciousness of it. To get the consciousness of it you must enter into God's side.
D.L.H. I remember some weeks ago that there was some question as to the gospel; that forgiveness was the first thing that a soul received by faith, and I remember a distinction between what was received by faith and the consciousness of it.
F.E.R. "No more conscience of sins" is not faith. It is consciousness, not faith; it is more than that.
F.E.R. It brings in the divine nature, you have justification of life. There is the justification of faith, but the justification of life is beyond that; it is more apprehension. The great point in Christianity is the consciousness of it -- you have all that a Jew will have in the millennium but a great deal more besides.
D.L.H. The prodigal in the Father's house was in the consciousness of it all.
J.H. Might we not have a great deal more than we have the consciousness of?
F.E.R. You apprehend a great deal more than you are conscious of, even in human things. I have not a doubt that there is such a place as Paris and if I were to see a map of Paris I might understand it perfectly and not have the consciousness of it, simply because I have never been there.
H.C.A. Believing that there is such a place is believing by faith.
F.E.R. If you want to get the consciousness of what you believe, the point is to enter through grace into God's thoughts about you and if you do so you will have the consciousness of forgiveness.
E.D. There must be the Spirit of God for that?
F.E.R. Yes, you could not touch it unless. You do not reach enjoyment until you reach God's side. You get the consciousness really in knowing the divine thought.
Rem. It is the difference between the witness to us and the witness in us.
F.E.R. The witness does not give exactly consciousness because that lies in the man, in the new man, not simply in the Holy Spirit.
H.G.A. Is it not rather in what the Holy Spirit forms?
F.E.R. That is it, "we should be holy and without blame before him in love", is what you are formed into; it is not simply having the Holy Spirit that does that.
J.McK. But the first thing is faith in the testimony?
F.E.R. Quite so, testimony is your title to it.
D.L.H. Thus one sees the immense importance of souls being led on from the point of testimony to apprehend what we are now talking about.
J.S.O. That is what the apostle's agony was about here?
J.McK. What is the difference between the prodigal being welcomed and his being in the house?
F.E.R. When the testimony of grace is accepted by a man he gets the sense of welcome, but when he enters into the Father's thought, the house, the best robe and eating the fatted calf, he gets the consciousness.
W.B. At what point in a soul's history is it sealed?
F.E.R. When he believes the testimony.
W.B. May a man receive the Holy Spirit without the consciousness of forgiveness?
F.E.R. Yes, if a man had only the witness of it be would sing, 'We bless our Saviour's name, our sins are all forgiven', and if he had the consciousness of it he would not sing it at all.
J.McK. Why would you not sing it at all?
F.E.R. Supposing I had been in your debt and you had freely forgiven it, you would not like me to
tell you much about it afterwards. I would not like to forget it, but I would not like to say much to you about it. I have the sense of His grace but I would not like to talk much to Him about it.
J.S.O. The same thing comes in in restoration; if the sin is gone it is gone.
D.L.H. You never lose the sense of His grace but you are in the consciousness of all the favour and love.
F.E.R. In the sight of God all that is immensely small; His great thought is the accomplishment of His purpose in us; that is what He would bring us to.
W.J. In Ephesians forgiveness is incidental.
F.E.R. You have it in having entered into the divine thought about you.
J.S.O. The greatness of it comes out in its being the delight of His heart to do it.
F.E.R. Yes, you are accepted in the Beloved and if so you are very conscious of the forgiveness of sins. "Blotting out the handwriting", etc., brings out another point, that deliverance is in the divine nature. My impression is that there is no deliverance in Romans.
W.J. Is it in Philippians 2, "worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure"?
F.E.R. Where you get deliverance is in Colossians, being quickened together with Christ. I think that Romans opens out the divine way to it, and you have to take that way, but you cannot take that way as a question of intelligence and faith, it is only in proportion as God works in you. There is the way of deliverance marked out and you have to take that way, but your taking that way is another matter.
W.B. I had thought that if a man was in the 8th of Romans he was a delivered man?
F.E.R. If he is, but if you read Romans 8 you must see that it is all in the Spirit.
W.B. A man may be delivered today and not tomorrow.
F.E.R. I think not according to the divine thought.
W.B. If you speak of deliverance from the world a man may be free today but that is no guarantee that he would be free in twelve months time.
F.E.R. That is not the divine thought, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed". There is a moment when you stand fast.
J.S.O. There is a difference between being made free from sin and death and being in a new sphere of life.
D.L.H. According to the divine way a person made free by the Son is truly free.
Ques. Does that go beyond actual deliverance, whom the Son has made free?
F.E.R. There are two thoughts, (1) the freedom of the house, that is privilege, like a man having the freedom of a city, (2) the truth shall make you free. I think that is deliverance, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free".
E.D. Does risen with Christ cover everything?
J.S.O. You are brought to a new sphere altogether.
J.McK. I should like to be clear about this; I have always gone to Romans for deliverance. Do you learn God's thoughts in Romans?
F.E.R. Yes, baptism has marked out the way in chapter 6, but you have to come to the truth morally. In chapter 7 you are free from the law; law is gone, but then you come to a serious part in the end of chapter 7 and chapter 8 -- the question of flesh. What the Spirit of God opens out in chapter 8 is you have everything in the Spirit and you have to get into it. It is all the difference between having the Holy Spirit and being quickened with Christ. No man can separate between himself and his life.
Colossians 2:6 - 23
D.L.H. I think last time you said there was a parenthesis from chapter 1: 24, down to verse 5 of chapter 2?
F.E.R. The apostle introduces parenthetically the subject of his ministry, and then he speaks of himself, his service and his conflict, and then he takes up the thread again in verse 6 of our chapter. He takes them up on the ground of what he had unfolded to them in chapter 1, "as therefore ye have received the Christ", etc.
E.D. Do you connect Christ Jesus the Lord with the subject of the gospel?
F.E.R. It covers the entire unfolding of chapter 1. In chapter 1 there is the simple unfolding of Christ, but a very full unfolding. It is of all-importance to apprehend Christ as the One in whom God has acted entirely independent of human intelligence. God has not availed Himself of human intelligence but has acted entirely from Himself and for Himself by Christ and what comes out in chapter 1 is the great truth that Christ is everything on the divine side and also on the human side. Reconciliation is brought in to show the place that Christ has on man's side.
D.L.H. And has every man to be brought to God according to God's thoughts?
F.E.R. Yes, it has all been brought to pass in Christ; God is wholly independent of man and human intelligence; human intelligence is nowhere; He has effected everything for Himself outside of man and human intelligence, whatever it may be.
J.H. What is the force of "so walk ye in him"?
F.E.R. Walk in the truth of Him, you are not diverted in the world though there is a sort of systematic effort to turn you aside.
D.L.H. In the world there is no other man than the first.
F.E.R. No, and therefore the effort is to turn you aside from Christ.
D.L.H. It cannot be otherwise.
F.E.R. There is an effort abroad to beguile people. There are more voices in the world than the voice of the Son of God and they are seeking to attract people who are right on their ways. I think the spirit and principle of Colossians is that it is intensely exclusive of man.
E.D. That is by reconciliation.
F.E.R. I think so, reconciliation has been brought about by the exclusion of men and that is the real foundation of it.
Rem. A man with the forgiveness of sins only could not be said to be brought to God.
F.E.R. No, if the grace of God touches a man it does not touch him to leave him where he is, it touches a man but never to leave him in the dispensation in which he is. What I say in regard to Christians is that the grace of God in Romans is to bring you into another scene. In Romans you are justified and come into the scene of God's ways -- the wilderness. In Colossians the grace of God touches you there to bring you into the land of His purpose.
E.D. And therefore to Himself.
W.B. When did the prodigal receive the forgiveness of sins?
F.E.R. I think he got the assurance of it when the Father met him, he got the sense of the grace from the Father.
W.B. The individual has learned much when he is brought to the Father.
F.E.R. But the Father was brought to him. When the prodigal was brought into the house he was brought to the Father.
J.McK. Is forgiveness of sins brought in in Luke 15?
F.E.R. It is not the point, but if you speak of the
point of forgiveness it must have been when the Father kissed him.
Ques. Is not one brought to God in the wilderness?
Ques. Then what about Exodus 19?
F.E.R. That was because God came down to them. If you take the song in Exodus it is "Thou shalt bring them in", etc.
Rem. Surely morally we are brought to God in the wilderness?
F.E.R. I admit it but if you look at things right He is brought to us and then saints are the habitation of God by the Spirit. The divine thought is to bring you to Himself in His own habitation.
D.L.H. We have there the old saying that the Red Sea and Jordan coalesce a good bit.
F.E.R. They do, here you have got no wilderness.
W.B. Do you mean in the experience of souls Mr. H.?
D.L.H. Not exactly, but you could not understand the song in Exodus without seeing that the Red Sea and Jordan coalesce.
F.E.R. If you look at things in the light of purpose they do coalesce; the statement of purpose was to bring them in there was no word about the wilderness.
.Ques. Would you not call the Jordan experimental?
F.E.R. But the Red Sea was experimental, they had to go through it on foot; the dividing of the sea was the power of God, but they had to go through experimentally.
D.L.H. We used to be told that the Red Sea was Christ's death and resurrection for us and the Jordan was our death with Him.
Ques. Is that ancient history?
D.L.H. I thought that was good truth which you could not very well improve upon.
H.C.A. There is forty years between the two.
F.E.R. Yes, the perfect period of testing, it has to do with experience.
Rem. As a matter of fact there was no Jordan between Israel and the land until the incident of the spies. If they had not turned back in heart there was no Jordan for them.
F.E.R. And what do you deduce from that in its application to us?
Rem. They returned to the wilderness and their subsequent journeys were the result of their having failed to enter into God's thought.
F.E.R. They could not enter into God's thoughts except through death; the wilderness came in and the brazen serpent came in. Certain things had to come out before the serpent came in, undoubtedly it was part of the divine purpose from the very outset and it comes in in connection with the perverseness of the flesh when the perverseness of the flesh comes to light. It was no afterthought with God.
Rem. You could not speak of anything being an afterthought with God.
F.E.R. No, and thus you cannot bring any hypothesis in on the part of the people. What comes out in the ways of God is that the man who comes out in the wilderness does not go into the land and that has to be worked out in the wilderness. Caleb and Joshua are only brought in to maintain the link.
Ques. What is the thought as regards life in the brazen serpent?
F.E.R. Life is objective, it is in another Man. You partake of the spirit of another Man. The Jordan is the complement of the brazen serpent -- the brazen serpent was simply for faith; the experimental side has to come out in Jordan. Self has to be got rid of in Jordan because God has got rid of it in the brazen serpent. It is very interesting to look at the two epistles Romans and Colossians in contrast. The grace of God in Romans is to bring you into the scene of His ways
and therefore you are justified. A man is justified and comes into the scene of His ways. In Colossians it goes further, you are risen together with Christ to be brought into the land of His purpose. It is just the difference in the individual between the ways of God and the saints in the assembly.
D.L.H. So we get in Colossians "risen with Christ" but not so in Romans.
F.E.R. Yes and you are quickened with Him.
E.D. It must be individual in Romans.
F.E.R. It is always individual. The grace of God teaches us and disciplines us in the ways of God. God has brought to light His own purpose and brought us into it in the assembly. The line of God's purpose is not individual. He has called us to unity. The brazen serpent and the Jordan were necessary because of what the people were.
W.B. Do I understand you to say that the brazen serpent was not experimental?
F.E.R. No it is not experimental, it was an object for faith, whosoever looked lived, it was that principle. In a sense we begin with the faith of Christ crucified.
E.B. While it is not experimental yet there must be experience to enter into it.
F.E.R. Yes you begin with faith and the next step is, I am crucified with Christ. Many a person has faith in Christ crucified who would not say "I am crucified with Christ".
D.L.H. The brazen serpent meets the state.
F.E.R. It has met it for God so that God can impart the Holy Spirit and the believer receives the gift of the Holy Spirit a long time before he can say he is crucified -- you can only say so by the Holy Spirit, God has not waited for us arriving at that point; He arrived at it in Christ, we arrive at it by the teaching of the Spirit.
D.L.H. No person could say "I am crucified with Christ" apart from the Holy Spirit.
F.E.R. You never arrive at the mind of God except by the Holy Spirit.
W.B. Do you mean by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, Mr. H?
D.L.H. I should say so: that you could not say so except from His indwelling.
F.E.R. And apart from His teaching I should say; you have no spiritual mind, except by the Spirit it is impossible.
D.L.H. If it were a question of the forgiveness of sins undoubtedly we must have the instruction of the Holy Spirit for that.
F.E.R. I think this, that you can accept what is of God, what He has effected for man that there is forgiveness of sins, that that is God's mind for man but that is no mind about Himself. It is the gospel really, the light in which God presents Himself.
D.L.H. Would you connect that exclusively with faith?
F.E.R. Yes, faith is connected with divine testimony: you must begin with accepting the testimony and the work of God is to lead you into God's mind about yourself.
E.D. As to the teaching of the Spirit it is what you enter into.
F.E.R. Yes, that is divine teaching so that I am really in accord with God's mind by the Holy Spirit: there is the setting forth of God's mind in regard of man in the resurrection of Christ and faith accepts that you are "risen with him" -- that is not experimental: it is the acceptance of God's mind as set forth in Christ as regards man. You are risen with Him by faith of the operation of God: who raised Him from the dead. It is faith accepting God's mind; but when you come to be dead with Christ that is not faith, it is the teaching of the Holy Spirit which has brought my mind into accord with God's mind.
D.L.H. Is there a point where risen with Christ becomes experimental?
F.E.R. It is not stated in that way, but what goes with it is "being quickened with him" it is not faith, you are quickened with Him.
E.D. The evidence of it is seeking things above.
F.E.R. It comes out in that way. It is the beginning of the realisation of the assembly, the consciousness of being identified with Christ.
D.L.H. Is "risen with Christ" the recognition of God's purpose?
F.E.R. It is what you are as affected in love towards God and towards Christ; that is what I think.
E.D. Then you would expect the soul to reach the platform of resurrection?
F.E.R. Yes, but the two things are together; the heart is moved in divine affection towards God and towards Christ.
Ques. Are some truths only objectively spoken of with the subjective side to them? You sometimes speak of God's side and ours.
F.E.R. There are certain truths which are objective and things which are true in Christ; and there are things which are spoken of in Scripture which refer to us as part of God's work in us -- evidently that is subjective. If I were to speak of being born again, that is evidently subjective, but eternal life is in God's Son, that is objective. When God speaks of His work in us that is subjective.
D.L.H. But eternal life is a matter of faith?
F.E.R. Quite so. Quickened with Christ can only be known by the effects it has. That you may live before God with Christ; the great point is to see the idea of it. We have to take into account that the divine thought is to bring us into association with Christ. We are predestinated, etc. It is the association of affection. Whatever could it be if there were no affections in it -- it would not be much.
W.B. That certainly is very simple.
Ques. Why is circumcision before baptism?
F.E.R. It is identified with baptism. The flesh will not do for God: you have to put off the body of the flesh. You come to Jordan in that way. As being a man in the world I have to do with the things of the world. As quickened with Christ I have to do with the things of Christ: the apostle says: "In that I live I live by faith", etc. We have to go through the world in faith. In the assembly you are there as being quickened together with Christ: it is connected with our association with Christ. It is only realised in the assembly though we may accept in a way apart from it. I do not say that it is collectively that we have association, but it is collectively that association is realised. It is the portion of every saint, but at the same time there is the realisation of it and I see that the realisation is in the assembly.
D.L.H. The fact is that individually we are not adequate for it, you must take in the company to have the right sense of association with Christ.
F.E.R. What you get in connection with the individual is the grace and sympathy of Christ, so the Lord says: "If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him, and will sup with him", etc., that is individual; that is a different thing to being quickened with Christ.
W.B. When you speak of the company do you mean the Church?
F.E.R. Yes, the assembly proper.
W.B. It is in a very broken condition.
F.E.R. And we suffer; you cannot help suffering on account of the condition. It is really a very little taste we get of the divine purpose on account of the condition of the Church.
Ques. "Lo, I am with you alway" -- Is that individual?
F.E.R. Yes, the Lord could be with His servants in testimony.
D.L.H. As to association a good deal hangs on it.
I do not know that Scripture speaks of "a child of God"?
F.E.R. It is not the idea of it: "Ye are children" it is a collective idea.
E.D. That follows from Hebrews 2.
F.E.R. Quite so. And God is bringing "many sons to glory", that is the idea.
W.B. If we are children you may be a child.
D.L.H. But you will lose the thought if you do not see how Scripture puts things. Take another point. If one addresses God as my Father I think one would be going upon ground that hardly belongs to him as an individual.
W.B. I expect that you in your private prayer may speak to God as your Father.
D.L.H. That is quite right but if I individualise myself and say my Father that is not my ground only -- there are other children. I have done it often but I only know of One Person who was in a position to say My Father, that was Christ. The Lord Jesus could say My Father and we can say our Father because of our association with Christ and in the privilege into which we are brought with Christ.
W.B. When you come to the practical working out of things I expect you call God your Father.
F.E.R. If I say Father I do say Father and challenge myself how often I do say Father, but I say it with a consciousness that there are more children than myself. We have thought of John 20 "My Father", "Your Father", etc.
D.L.H. Do you go with what I said about individualising?
F.E.R. I think so. The Lord distinguishes Himself; He does not say I ascend to our Father but "to my Father"; you have to regard that He was Father to Christ in a different way to what He is to us.
E.D. I do not see that in a family the children would hinder a child from saying father.
F.E.R. But I think he would address him as father of the family. In connection with God I am a man and responsibility comes in, but I do not think it is the same thing with Father.
D.L.H. You cannot work on the lines of human relationship, I should be afraid of it.
E.C. I see what you say as to the collective position of the family, yet if you go before God you say Father.
D.L.H. That is true, I went with Mr. Barker on that.
Ques. What is the meaning of chapter 3, verses 14, 15?
F.E.R. I think it is in connection with being quickened with Christ, the effect of it is that we all become partakers of the divine nature, we have conscious association and there is the consciousness of deliverance. In coming to association with Christ you are delivered from everything that was against you, trespasses, handwriting of ordinances, principalities and powers.
Ques. What is the force of "In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily"?
F.E.R. The Godhead is set forth in Him completely revealed. There is in Him what is adequate for it, and then we are complete in Him; you want nothing outside of Christ.
Rem. The completeness being in Him, you are above all that is in the world.
F.E.R. If there is an order of things in which Christ is everything, anything of man can be no good to you -- it would be of no use to you. I would not care to read twenty volumes of philosophy, because the whole thing is entirely outside of Christ -- it is of men.
J.McK. It would not help you a bit.
H.C.A. Would it not spoil you?
J.McK. I suppose the Prayer Book has spoiled many Christians?
F.E.R. It has given them very low thoughts of God. It gives a general idea that God is unfavourable.
W.B. Do you limit that "complete in him" to intelligence?
F.E.R. That is the idea of it. You have everything in Him. The object of the apostle was to prevent their being diverted by what he speaks of as "philosophy and vain deceit" -- nothing outside of Christ would be any gain to them. I see that God has acted for Himself in Christ apart from all human intelligence and therefore human intelligence can have no place in the things of God. You have to get at the clear knowledge of the mystery of God. What does a philosopher know about it? -- or the Greek or the Jew? Man knows nothing about it and we have come to the clear knowledge of the mystery of God in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That is only in Christ; it is not made public or manifest. It is only known to the initiated. "Complete in him" has reference to that, you are entirely independent of man.
D.L.H. That is very important for our souls.
F.E.R. I remember a remark of Mr. Darby once that if you want the evidence of Scripture go to Scripture, any other evidence may be invalidated but you cannot invalidate Scripture. Scripture is its own evidence.
D.L.H. Scripture carries its own evidence.
F.E.R. There is a power of moral force about Scripture which is incontestable. If I read Scripture it brings me to know that I have to do with a moral Being. It has the strongest possible force and brings me to a living God.
Colossians 2:20 to 3: 17
D.L.H. With regard to a remark last time, that if God touches a man it is not to leave him in the dispensation in which he was, what had you in your mind?
F.E.R. A man is justified, but he is not justified in the order of things in which he offended. God justifies a man in respect of the things in which he offended, but He also justifies him for something else. For instance, a Jew was not justified to remain in Judaism.
D.L.H. What would be the present application in regard to a person believing in Christendom?
F.E.R. If a man is justified in the present time, it is that he may come into the Church. A man is justified by faith in Christ in order that he may come into the Church. I spoke of it before in connection with being risen with Christ. It is by faith of the operation of God that you are risen; that puts you on another platform; dead from the elements of the world.
H.C.A. Would you say you are justified for the world to come?
Ques. Is that justification of life?
F.E.R. Justification of life is that you put it the other way about. A Jew, in the future, will not be justified for the dispensation in which he is, but in view of the kingdom. The dispensation in which he is, is to pass away and give place to what he is justified for.
D.L.H. With regard to the kingdom and the Jew, would the writing of the law on the fleshy tables of the heart be to fit him for the kingdom?
F.E.R. That describes the terms on which God is with him when the kingdom is established. The kingdom is what is now -- the present time as to what is outward is still the dispensation of law; we are still in the dispensation of law; the public dispensation has not been set aside, we have not yet come to the kingdom, faith has to receive it now, not in the public ways of God, but the kingdom is in mystery.
Ques. How is it the public dispensation of law?
F.E.R. You get it in Matthew; the scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, and the Lord did not touch the public outward thing; He left them in Moses'
seat. Christendom has gone back to the law. The gospel came in but it was carried out in spiritual power by the Holy Spirit. I do not think that the apostle had anything but in the power of the Holy Spirit. Evidently the Spirit of God was outside the course of things here; because the world would not receive Christ, therefore, everything was carried out in the Spirit's power. The kingdom has been set up in a peculiar way in connection with Christ being hid at God's right hand, and the power of the Holy Spirit down here; but that is not public.
W.B. I do not catch the thought of the dispensation of law.
F.E.R. The kingdom came in but it suffered violence, and the violent took it by force. It was not set up in power; it was preached and they took it by force. It was not a public change of dispensation that came in. If you look at the law and the prophets they really carry you to the kingdom. Christianity comes in as a parenthesis. The kingdom is an outside public dispensation of God.
D.L.H. When it is a question of government, you cannot rule or govern the world on gospel principles.
F.E.R. No, you do not. The world has made a mustard tree of the kingdom although they maintain Christianity in name; the real kingdom is wanting. It is the dispensation of law, but the principle of the kingdom is grace, and must be. For instance, if you take the Queen, she is Queen Victoria by the grace of God, and yet she is compelled to rule on the principle of law; she cannot rule by grace.
W.B. What about the government of God, that is not grace?
F.E.R. You must distinguish between the kingdom and the moral government of God. You may get a saint really suffering under the moral government of God, and yet that saint may be in the kingdom; but he is reaping what he has sown. When the kingdom
is set up in power the moral government will be on the same lines. In the Psalms you find continually "Rest in the Lord" in the issue of His moral government which will be in the kingdom.
D.L.H. Wickedness will be put down and the righteous blessed.
F.E.R. Yes, "rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him". When God comes in the wicked will not prosper. If you take people, today, converted in system, they accept what comes to pass and remain where they are. Even when we were converted we were not exercised as to whether we should remain where we were.
D.L.H. Many remain where they are because they were converted there, they say.
F.E.R. An indication of the lack of understanding the thoughts of God. If a man is converted, God has a purpose about that man, and that man should be exercised and find out what the purpose of God is about him.
Ques. Will you help us as to chapter 2: 16 and 3: 1.
F.E.R. The effort of man is to bring something in to keep you in bondage to the earth -- to attach you to the earth. "Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink", etc., and why as "though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances; touch not, taste not, handle not". All these things have reference to people living in the world -- mere dogmas.
H.C.A. That is why he says: "If ye then be risen with Christ", He is not on earth.
F.E.R. Exactly; God has set you outside of everything down here. You are circumcised, risen and quickened; all to put you outside of man down here.
A.M. Are all these things true of every Christian?
F.E.R. They are true if they are true. The Christian has to accept the mind of God. Unless he has I could not say he is risen with Christ. You are risen through faith of the operation of God. I say, is there faith of
the operation of God? If there is you are risen with Him.
A.M. But that goes a long way.
F.E.R. I think so; it goes further than being raised again for our justification. It is just as much the pleasure of God that you should be risen with Christ as it is that you should be justified. Risen with Christ gives you a footing in the land of purpose; justification does not give you a footing there. Justification is positive; what a man is justified from.
A.M. Is "Quickened together with him" association?
F.E.R. Yes, you are to become a priest; that is the object of it.
W.J. Is that "the new and living way"?
F.E.R. It is in order that you may take that way; you enter that way.
A.M. It has been said that "The new and living way" was from the cross to the heart of God.
F.E.R. I think so, but for us we go the other way; from the heart of God to the cross. The utmost you get in Romans is "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts", but that is not brought to God. Brought to God is in His own habitation according to His purpose. Colossians does not go so far as that; it is on the way. We get in Ephesians, "Who hath raised us up together", etc. The point in Romans is the kingdom.
A.M. Is that why the title "Lord" is used so often?
F.E.R. Quite so, and you have the introduction of the reign of grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans never takes you beyond the wilderness. Quickened with Christ places you in association with Christ and with the saints, and, therefore, you have "the elect of God, holy and beloved". You are now put in connection with the priestly company; that is the effect of being risen with Christ.
R.C.A. What is reconciliation in Romans?
F.E.R. He just brings you to the point and no further, because he leaves off and goes back to the contrast between Christ and Adam. In Colossians 1 reconciliation is the basis of everything.
H.C.A. Is reconciliation the purpose?
F.E.R. I think so; the idea in the death of Christ is that every man is gone and only one remains. In Romans 5 you have only one Man -- not two. The man by whom sin came into the world is put out of the way. Christ came in to remove all that came in by that one man, and Christ alone remains. Every kind and order of man is gone in the death of Christ, and He abides.
A.M. When it says, "Your life is hid with Christ in God", is that experimental?
F.E.R. I think so; it refers to everything which is governed by the term 'life'. It is set forth in Him; it is hid with Christ. You know nothing about that life except in Christ. "He is the true God and eternal life". It is set forth in Him; you cannot see it elsewhere. 'Hid' is in contrast to the public display. The great thing is to know what the life is, and that brings you to what is priestly -- you cannot get out of the priesthood, everything to us is priestly; you are not reigning, you life is hid and has all to do with God. It is the outcome of the appreciation of all that God has revealed Himself to be; it is boldness to enter into the Holiest. You are in the presence of divine light, and now are conscious of it.
A.M. We have limited priesthood in the past?
F.E.R. We have it in a hymn, 'In Him we stand a heavenly band;' (Hymn 12) that is priestly.
A.M. That is better than standing.
H.C.A. Has not standing to be entered into experimentally?
F.E.R. Standing always gives me the idea of unreality.
W.J. Is not Colossians like Hebrews?
F.E.R. It runs remarkably with Hebrews. Of course you get things stated in Colossians which would not suit the Jewish mind, but they are substantially the same thing. Colossians is to bring you into the assembly and the moment you come into the truth of the assembly you come into what is priestly. Hebrews leads you to the same point, "By the which will we are sanctified", etc. It is that they might apprehend their sanctification for priestly service. Colossians is the same; risen and quickened with Christ.
D.L.H. What is the difference between risen and quickened with Christ?
F.E.R. Quickened with Christ is just the work of God in the saint. You are really made to live in the presence of His love. Raised with Christ is simply the expression of His pleasure -- the setting forth of the mind of God as the ground on which you are with Him. It gives you a platform in the land of promise in connection with another Man, and by that fact I am outside of every other man here.
D.L.H. Faith apprehends what is before God in raising Him from among the dead.
F.E.R. You see what God was about when He raised Him from among the dead.
D.L.H. Quickened is not a question of faith but of divine power.
F.E.R. Yes, God has made you to live in the presence of His love. Risen together with Christ is objective, in a sense. Quickened with Christ is more objective; it is moral.
F.E.R. The Spirit of God says that you are quickened with Christ.
D.L.H. It was to a special company he said that.
F.E.R. Because it would not have been advisable to say it to others. The great point now is that you are responsive to the love of God; you are beside yourself. The practical effect is that you do not care about the
life on earth; God uses it for discipline, but as regards the life here I do not care for it.
D.L.H. That shows that there is a good bit in quickening.
F.E.R. Yes, my life is gone; I accept the will of God, but I am not living here for the life on earth. I have natural affection, and all that, but I am not living here for natural affections. It is well to see what the power and reality of the thing is, even though people may decline from it.
H.C.A. Is that why he brings in, "Your life is hid with Christ in God"?
F.E.R. Yes, you know what He is, even though the thing has not come out publicly. The world will know us as kings, not as priests, reigning with Him in glory.
D.L.H. What is hidden cannot be manifested, and therefore we must be content to be misunderstood.
F.E.R. Take the heavenly city, you will only see one side of it. It is all God's work and is connected with the work of the twelve. All the interior, Paul's work, is not seen at all; all you see is the saints reigning with Christ. The moral effect of the priestly side fits you for reigning according to God.
W.J. The manifestation is the result of what is inside even now?
F.E.R. I think so; there is a sort of dignity about a person in the priestly function. I can understand Paul's word to Timothy as a man of God, "Flee these things". You do not want to be on the line of things that are suitable in the world. Paul speaks of a moral priesthood before a royal one. You must go in before you come out. The beginning of Colossians 3 is leading you in; Ephesians is the contrast, you come out. You cannot come out in power for God in the world unless you have gone in. You must know the priestly power, and you come out as a warrior. In Ephesians you are carried in in chapter 2, and in the
end of chapter 2 and 3 you come out. You are filled to all the fulness of God; that is coming out. In the house of God there is the adequate expression of God. In chapter 6 we come out as warriors.
W.J. Do you get the armour in Ephesians or Romans?
F.E.R. In Ephesians, because there you find the power of evil. The fact is this, it is only when a man has been with God that he gets a true estimate of what is working here; we only know evil, in a sense, relatively, I take it. If you have gone into God you soon know the character of things here, but not otherwise. Colossians is to lead you into the assembly, your priestly place. In Ephesians you get the purpose of God about you; raised and seated in heavenly places. You have gone in -- you go in to come out; not to remain in. If you were not quickened with Christ you would not have a spiritual qualification for priests; you would have a priest after the flesh. Priesthood must be on the ground of resurrection. It is only in resurrection that Christ has a priestly place. You get it set forth in Aaron's rod. Resurrection is the qualification for the priesthood. God could not be served by men after the flesh.
Ques. "In the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises" is that priestly?
F.E.R. Yes, quite so. Really, what an awful travesty of the truth Christendom is. It is the apostasy, not the truth. How Christians can be content to remain in it is, to me, astounding.
D.L.H. We managed ourselves one time.
F.E.R. But the light had not come in as it has today.
A.E.W. What is quickened in Ephesians 2?
F.E.R. It is, "Quickened us together with Christ;" that is the company to whom the apostle Paul was addressing himself. In chapter 1 Christ is raised and chapter 2 brings in God's work in the saints. The apostle is writing to the Ephesians.
Rem. I always thought that this had a special application in the mind of God to the whole church.
F.E.R. Why do you give it that application -- why should you not read verse 1 as it is written?
D.L.H. Who is it representative of, this epistle then?
F.E.R. Of all who were in the condition to take it up. I wish every Christian in the world were in a condition to take it up and enjoy it.
Rem. It has been said that Ephesians is a general epistle.
F.E.R. It was addressed to the Ephesians and what is written I expect was true of them. It shows the divine wisdom of the Spirit of God which does not bring before the minds of the saints truth which would not help them.
It is not a little striking to see how simply you can read in the Old Testament the history of Christ. I quite admit that if we had not the light of the New Testament we should not have seen this; but having it, we can enter very simply into the way in which the Spirit of God has developed in the Old Testament the truth in regard to Christ.
I do not know anything more interesting in the study of the Psalms than the apprehension of Christ in them, and indeed, as has been said, this is the great interest in the whole of Scripture. We read in 2 Corinthians 3, "the Lord is that Spirit", that is, of Scripture, and the consequence is that we have now in that way the key to all Scripture. I think the writers of the Old Testament Scriptures had not that key; though holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, they scarcely had the key to the understanding of them. But when you have the key, then Scripture becomes a completely new book. That is true of Scripture from beginning to end. When you apprehend that the Lord is the spirit of Scripture, you learn to draw in your mind a distinction between the spirit and the letter, though the letter is perfect and cannot be infringed in any way; but the one great point in reading any part of Scripture, the Old Testament as well as the New, is to apprehend that the Lord is the Spirit of the word. It would not be at all difficult to make plain, and in whatever part of Scripture you like to read, from beginning to end, you will find it is so; the Psalms, the Prophets, all are full of Christ, all prove that He is the Spirit of the word. The book of Leviticus would be a dull book in itself without interest, but when you really apprehend the Spirit of Scripture, then Leviticus becomes a book of the deepest interest. And in this connection I will allude to one
point; when God set to work to lay down injunctions in regard to the system of sacrifices, He began with the burnt-offering, not with the sin-offering. It is a great point to see that God speaks of things from His height. He speaks from the height of the burnt-offering, and then comes down to the other offerings, until eventually He reaches the sin and trespass-offerings. In the presentation of the offerings all spoke of Christ, and all showed that God would be completely glorified in the place of death by His offering.
There are other things to which I might refer if necessary to prove the point that the Lord is the Spirit of all Scripture.
Now, my object in speaking to you is, that you should be able to get a true judgment of things; and I am perfectly confident of this, that we can only get a true judgment as the eye is attracted to the right hand of God; and, further, to the One who is at the right hand of God. It has often been said, that the right hand of God is the point of interest for the saints, because everything for God, and that is according to God, will surely come forth from the right hand of God; Christ is sitting there; and will sit there only till His enemies are made His footstool. And therefore the right hand of God must of necessity be the point of interest for the minds of the saints.
I cannot tell what is going to happen from looking at events in the world. It is impossible to forecast in that way, for when everything is to take place according to God, the first movement will be from the right hand of God. It will be a great moment for this world when Christ rises from the right hand of God. He does not sit there for ever. He sits now on the Father's throne, but the day will come when He will rise and sit on His own throne. We learn that from the book of Revelation, and there we may see the tremendous changes that will take place when He rises from the right hand of God.
Now, I take up these three psalms. First, Psalm 102, as presenting to us remarkably the sufferings of the One now at the right hand of God. There you will find that He particularly refers everything to Jehovah. He says, "He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days". The Lord does not take up what He passes through as the act of men, He receives all as from God. It came to pass in the government of God, in connection with His ways as to Messiah and Israel. The fact is very simple to understand; it was impossible for God to bring in blessing for Israel in connection with Christ after the flesh. When brought in for Israel it must be in life with Christ; and though cut off as Messiah, God gave Him in resurrection length of days even for evermore. So that now He is a priest for ever after the power of an endless life. That is the great thought in Psalm 102, and it stands good for Israel.
Another point is that He gets compensation. The answer of Jehovah is the full recognition of Him as Creator. "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands". We should never have known that it was Christ who was referred to but for the light of Hebrews 1. It was really Jehovah's answer, the full recognition that the One cut off down here was the Creator of all things; and while everything created will pass away, He remains. "Thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail".
Now, it is an immense point if we apprehend that the One who suffered here on earth is really the Creator of all things. It would alter our sense of everything here if we were conscious that all things were created by Christ, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Thus, "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not".
The Creator came here, came into man's condition, and His strength was weakened, and His days shortened. I believe we have to bear in mind, and the fact still stands good, that the Creator has been here in the midst of the world, that Christ has suffered here, His strength was weakened and His days shortened; and when all that has come to pass in this world, what can be the moral value of the world in the eye of God? And if we understand this, if it comes home to us at all by the grace of God, it must have a profound effect upon us.
Now we pass on to Psalm 110, and here we have another side, the Jehovah side: here Christ's enemies are to be made His footstool; a very different thought. It is no longer Christ suffering here, and His days shortened, but it is the One who has been received with acclamation at the right hand of God. That is the thought that comes out there, a thought of the greatest import to us.
We pass on now to Psalm 118 before dwelling in detail on Psalm 102. Here we find Christ received in the very city where He was once rejected. There the stone which the builders rejected is become the head stone of the corner. The time has come when they say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord". The Lord took up that expression when He came to Jerusalem for the last time, and said, "Ye shall not see my face until ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord". That completes the history of Christ as Messiah. He will come again to Jerusalem as Man, as Priest after the order of Melchisedec, and then will they say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord". He will be a Priest upon His throne.
I may mention one more point in that connection; the Psalms really close with Psalm 119. All those that follow are supplementary, songs of degrees and praise psalms; but the five books of Psalms close with Psalm
119. And you will find this a point of interest, for while Psalm 118 gives you the answer to Psalm 2, Psalm 119 gives the answer to Psalm 1. Psalm 1 looks for the godly man, and in Psalm 119 you find him, the law being written on his heart. Psalm 2 views Christ as rejected in Zion, and Psalm 118 shows that He is received gladly in the very place where He was rejected. It is no longer the kings standing up, and the rulers rejecting Him, but they say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord". A mighty change has come to pass, and that brings home to us the completeness of the Psalms. The picture is dark enough in the beginning, but the close is very bright indeed. In Psalm 119 you have a godly company in whose heart the law is written, a people in that sense completely prepared for the Lord. Then you have also the question raised in Psalm 2 answered in Christ being welcomed in the place where He was once rejected, and thus you see how you may read the history of Christ in the Psalms.
Now, the point on our part is to share in the rejection of Christ. We often use Scripture expressions lightly, and without much understanding of their import. Take, for instance, such an expression as 'crucified and dead with Christ', do you understand the import of that expression? We are said to be crucified with Christ, but they will not have to be crucified in millennial times. There will be no reproach to bear then; Christ will have come again in glory; no going forth to meet Him then without the camp, bearing His reproach. Many expressions which are suitable to us will have no application to them; there will be no such thing as the fellowship of His death, dead with Him, and crucified with Him. These expressions are all right as to us now, but will have no place when Christ is here in glory. But the question I raise, and it is one proper to be raised, is how far are they real with us? We take up these expressions, but do they state what is really true in your souls? If you say, "I am crucified
with Christ", does that express in your mind a sense of identification with Christ in His crucifixion? This is a point of great moment. If we go back to our baptism, we see there God setting forth His mind as to us, we are buried with Christ. A very long time commonly elapses between the baptism of people and their minds coming to the import of baptism. The import of baptism is that we are buried with Christ, but you have to come in mind to the reality that you are dead with Christ. If you have come to this, you discern the character of the scene in which Christ has been rejected. Christ came here in the perfect grace of God, and the world rejected Him, and the world thus manifested that they preferred Satan as its god and prince because he ministered to the lusts of men, and they had no room for the goodness and grace of God. Hence the true place of the Christian is crucified, dead, and buried with Christ.
But then there is another side. If we have died with Him we shall also live with Him; we must look at the other side as well. There is the suffering side, but that means that you will have part with Him in glory when He comes again. In the place where He was rejected, the Church will come with Him, and participate in His glory when He comes to be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe.
Remember that Christ will never come again in humiliation, never again be known as He was once known when here on earth; He will come again in glory to be glorified in His saints. The Church will be the vessel in which He will be admired; but at the present time He sits at the right hand of God, waiting until His enemies are made His footstool.
Now, as thus exalted, He is saluted as High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, and my object is to show the import of that in connection with His presence at the right hand of God, and that His being made a priest thus is of the deepest import to us as Christians.
I will refer to two or three passages in the epistle to the Hebrews. (See chapter 4: 14 - 16.) "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For 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, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need". I quite admit you do not get the actual expression here, 'the right hand of God', but the High Priest has passed through the heavens, like the high priest in Israel went through the holy place into the holiest of all. Thus we have a great High Priest passed through the heavens, gone to the right hand of God, I do not doubt at all, to establish there the throne of grace. That was the effect of His going to the right hand of God. Then He is also Priest; you get the thought of the throne of grace in the fact of Jesus being crowned with glory and honour, and this is the basis of the world to come. The principle of the world to come will be the rule of grace, and Christ is gone to the right hand of God to establish the rule of grace. He is a Priest there, and what hangs on that is, He is our representative. The instant you have the idea of a priest, He is representative, and if He is not representative, He is not a priest. Christ is thus very much like Aaron was on the behalf of the children of Israel. God took a distinguished man, the next to Moses, and made him the representative of the people. Moses was hardly the representative of the people He was much more the representative of God, as Aaron was the representative of the people with God.
Another thought connected with the priesthood is that Christ, as representative of the people, is sympathetic; "we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities". As representative of us at the right hand of God, He is
sympathetic with us down here. Now, saints enter into that thought but poorly. In the various pressures under which people suffer from various causes, such as sickness, bereavement, and other trying circumstances, there is a sense of need of sympathy, and therefore it is a great thing to see that the High Priest is sympathetic; and if you understand the force and meaning of that, if you have a sense of what the High Priest is, as representative at the right hand of God, but also sympathetic here, you will find that it bridges entirely the distance between you and God; and in consequence of it you are admonished to "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need". Mercy and grace are very great realities to faith. We not only obtain mercy, but find grace. Mercy is a less important thing than grace, but we obtain both. It is mercy as to the without, and grace as to the within. You avail yourself of the dominion of grace, to obtain mercy, and grace for the time of need. The kingdom is established in the Person of Christ, at the right hand of God, crowned with glory and honour, and the Priest who is ordained to be our representative is sympathetic, and the reign of grace stands good to you and me. It is blessed to think that not simply the throne of grace subsists, but that you are encouraged by the Spirit of God to come boldly to that throne.
In the sense of this we should never faint under difficulties here. They may be very real, and appear overwhelming, but the throne of grace subsists, and you are encouraged to come boldly in every time of need.
We will turn now for a moment to the next chapter. (Hebrews 5:9, 10.) "And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec". Christ has become the Author of eternal salvation, and that is in virtue of His work. It
is not a question here of temporal deliverance, but of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him. Salvation is brought to pass, I do not doubt accomplished in the death of Christ. I believe that every enemy was vanquished in the death of Christ, and He has become thus the Author of eternal salvation to all that obey Him.
Thus we may stand here in this world in the blessed reality of salvation, with the helmet of salvation on our head because salvation is accomplished. There is no reason that I know of why a saint should not stand here at liberty from the power of the world, and sin, and Satan, because Christ has become to him the Author of eternal salvation. He has vanquished every foe, there is not a power left, for He has vanquished all in His death. The first point is, you are brought into the kingdom, under the sway of His grace; but the deliverance is, that you are set free from the authority of all against God. Christians who are worldly really do not understand grace. If they understood the sway of grace, they would not be overcome by the world, Satan, or sin. If they are overcome there is not a real enjoyment of the good of grace, they are not in the benefit and blessing of the grace of God. The very teaching of grace is that, having denied "ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ". That is the attitude of the Christian under the influence and power of grace; he is delivered from the present course of things, and learns how to live soberly in this age.
I turn now to Hebrews 6:19, "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec".
Also Hebrews 7:17 - 19, "For he testifieth, Thou art
a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof; for the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God".
Also Hebrews 8:1, 2, "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man".
Now, just group these three passages together. I do not say that the presence of Christ at the right hand of God brings in the idea of a forerunner, but the presence of Christ in heaven does. You and I are not to sit at the right hand of God, but we are going to be in heaven. Christ has entered as Forerunner and we follow. If He is Forerunner, He is the first of a company going to have a place in heaven, and the practical result is that we have a hope in heaven, for Christ is our hope. I can contemplate Christ at the right hand of God with the consciousness that I have a hope in heaven. My hope is not of blessing on earth, but that He is going to receive us to Himself, that where He is we may be also; and the practical working of that you get in the next chapter. By the which "we draw nigh unto God". The whole legal system is set aside, a better hope has been introduced, and the working of that hope is in our drawing nigh to God. If conscious of having a place in heaven, and you have, if Christ is gone there as Forerunner, by that hope you draw nigh to God; and the more conscious you are of that place in heaven the more readily you draw nigh to God. You have every confidence in God, and are going to spend eternity there with Him, in this love, and it must be by that hope that we draw nigh to God. With the levitical system people could never draw nigh to
God. They were, on the contrary, made to feel the distance between God and themselves because God was not then revealed. When God has come out in the fulness of His love and made known to us what that love will do for us, in drawing nigh you come near the One who has been made known to you. You could not draw nigh to God if He had not first made Himself perfectly known to you in the greatness of His love.
One point more, Christ is the "minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man". He takes up the position typified by Aaron in his charge of the holy places. And He has something to offer, He offers the two wave-loaves, the consecrated company as presented by Him to God on the day of Pentecost. The wave-sheaf was offered on one day, and fifty days after was the presentation of the two wave-loaves, that is the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit. He has something to offer as being Minister of the sanctuary. If you asked me to define it I should have some difficulty, but Christ is Minister of it. There is a real and true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. The fact is this, all difficulties in regard to the work and service of God disappear as you enter into the blessed fact of God revealed in the death of Christ; and our approach to God is the necessary result of the sense in our souls of what God has revealed of Himself in that death. I turn to Hebrews 10:11, "And every priest standeth daily ministering and. offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool". That brings out a very important thought of the grace of Christ. He would not go up on high until every jot and tittle of the work was done; and now He sits at the right hand of God, the proof that all is done. "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are
sanctified". The presence of Christ sitting at the right hand of God is the proof that there is no more offering work to be done. There is a sanctified company, not merely of believers as such, but a priestly company called to serve the living God. They are perfected for ever; having no more conscience of sins. And hence all that follows. We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which He hath consecrated for us through the veil; that is to say, His flesh. It hangs on the blessed revelation of God in righteousness and love. And if you approach it is to a God who has made Himself known in the perfect conciliation of righteousness and love. We can see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, because we see in the cross the perfect conciliation of righteousness and love. God was so glorified there in the death of Christ, and His love so expressed that we might be without fear in the presence of the glory of God. And the more familiar you are with the death of Christ the more familiar you are with the glory of God. In the death of Christ God has made Himself known, and in the resurrection of Christ all His pleasure in regard to man is displayed. And as you learn what it is to be risen together with Christ, you find that you have a priestly place in the presence of God, that you are sanctified, and that the presence of Christ there is the witness that you are perfected for ever.
What is the effect? You approach God not simply as believers but according to the truth of the calling, so really affected by the love of God, that you love God, and approach Him in the consciousness that He has delight in your being before Him in the sense of His love. You approach with full confidence because you are in the light of that love which has been expressed in the death of Christ, and in the sense that it is His pleasure that you should be there before Him in association with Christ, a company of priests in the midst of whom He can sing praise to God.
Now, one word more. You must remember the present is the time of our education. We are formed now by the revelation of the love of God. We are educated in the truth of the calling; therefore the present moment is of the greatest importance, for there are lessons to be learned now never to be learned again. There will be a perfect answer in us to all we are learning down here. All will come out in the holy Jerusalem which comes down from God out of heaven. Everything must come forth from God. Christ comes from the right hand of God, and the holy Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven. So at present if we are to be a testimony for the kingdom and grace of God here upon earth, we can only be it in proportion as we have gone in to His presence, so as effectually to represent God, and His glory, and His grace here in this world.
In the first part of the epistle to the Ephesians you go into God, and in the latter part you come forth from God, and in the power of the Lord's might do battle down here upon earth against the influences of the evil in the heavenlies. You stand in the reality of the kingdom, seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and are prepared to do battle with the power of the enemy.
One more word. Christ has been received in heaven with acclamation for the establishment of the kingdom. It is established in heaven; but remember that when Christ comes, and is welcomed here on earth, He will be set forth in the saints, for "He will come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe". He will come with ten thousands of His saints and be set forth in the holy Jerusalem which comes down from God out of heaven.
May God in His great grace be pleased to divert our attention from the earth and the man here. We shall never get a right thought of God while we look at things here. May He give us to apprehend the greatness and the glory of the Man up there, and the place
there, and how important all is in regard to us. He is the Forerunner, the Priest after the order of Melchisedec. He is the Minister of the sanctuary; and at the same time His very presence at the right hand of God is the witness that the offering work is done, the sanctified company is perfected for ever, and have no more conscience of sins. So that they can properly enter into the service of the living God.
1 John 2:29; 1 John 3:9; 1 John 4:7; 1 John 5:1, 4 - 15
It is a great thing to apprehend that there is on the earth the family, or the offspring, I might say, of God: that is, in a moral sense. There is a race here which has derived its moral being from God and the description of it is exceedingly simple: it occurs in the expression, "Which were ... born of God". What marks them we shall see further on. I am going to take up the marks of this family or offspring of God; but first of all I want you to get the idea of their having derived, one and all of them, their moral being directly from God.
It is not as in the case of descendants of Adam. No one of us came directly from Adam. He begat a son in his own likeness, but there has been a good number of generations between Adam and ourselves, and therefore it is impossible for any one to claim descent directly from him.
In the offspring of God every member of that family has derived his moral being directly from God; and as I said the Scriptural description of them is, "Born of God". I purpose to dwell a little upon that now and to show how it has come to pass, and to point out the characteristics of this family who are born of God; and another point comes out in the closing chapter, namely, the witness of God. The witness is that God has given to us eternal life in His Son; thus God has given distinct witness concerning His Son, and it lies in that we are brought into the reality of eternal life. We have believed the witness that God has given of His Son and He that hath the Son hath life; we have come to the point, "These things have I written to you that ye may know that ye have eternal life who believe on the name of the Son of God".
My first point in regard of the race or family spoken of in Scripture as born of God, who partake morally of God's nature, is this: that all is entirely dependent on the truth; that is, that it has pleased God to reveal Himself. Christianity is entirely based on the revelation of God. It has been said that really everything hangs on the Word having become flesh, so that God might be declared. All that you get here is necessarily consequent upon God being perfectly and fully revealed.
Now that you have the full light of God coming out in the death of Christ you have the expression, "born of God;" but there was not, nor could be, any such expression until God was revealed.
If we look at natural things for a moment, they furnish an illustration of divine things. When a child is born, it has derived its physical being from its parents, but as yet it has not derived any moral being from them. Where it derives its moral being from its parents is in growing up in the enjoyment of the affection of its parents. As it grows up it becomes acquainted with the tenderness and affection of its parents; it is brought consciously into the scene and system of natural affections, and by-and-by it becomes intelligent as to things, and the effect is, that it has become partaker of a moral being from its parents. Like parent like child, in a sense. If there were nothing to hinder, and the child brought up in that way in the light of love, I have no doubt but that the child would grow up responsive to the thought of love. It would grow up intelligent, entering into the thought of the parents, and into the affection which had been lavished upon it from its birth. I am speaking for the moment apart from the question of sin.
When we come to divine things it is very important that we should get away from material ideas. You must remember that many terms which are employed in Scripture are really used as figures. Born again, and
so on, are figures which are employed by the Spirit of God to convey to our minds a moral idea. The moral idea connected with being born is, that you have derived a moral being directly from God; as a child when it has become intelligent, when its mind is expanded, understands that it has a moral being as well as a physical one.
If everything went right in natural things a child should be like its parents morally and not simply physically. There are often defects in dealing with a child; it takes a good deal of patience if the child is to answer to the affections of the parents, and to partake morally of the being of its parents. Of course we have to remember that man is fallen, and there is likely to be a great deal of difficulty and defect in dealing with children.
Animals derive instinct from their parents, but with man there is the great point of intelligent affection. There is the intelligence which can take in the mind and thought of another, there is the power of intellect and at the same time there is an answer to the affection of the parents. So it is with us. The moment you got your moral being from God was when you were brought into the light of God.
"Born again", is an expression used to show that you cannot touch the kingdom of God without it. But never could a person be born of God unless that person had touched the reality of divine love. You must appreciate the testimony of the death of Christ, that it is on the part of God the setting forth of the greatness of His love to man. "God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us". When that comes home to the heart of the Christian, then it is that the love of God is shed abroad in the heart.
Thus it is that our hearts are brought into the presence of divine love, and there we touch the divine nature and become responsive to it. We love God because He
first loved us. That is the effect and result to us of God having been fully revealed. When man first comes to know about God, the great thing is His attitude. That is the first point apprehended as the fruit of receiving the gospel, and consequent on it the Holy Spirit is received. Then you begin to see what is behind the attitude of God; you get an insight into the heart of God; and being thus brought into the presence of God's love you respond to it. If you say you love God, then I say you are born of God. One proof of being born of God, is that we love God.
It is a wonderful thing for a man to be brought into the light of the love of God. The death of Christ is to the Christian full of light. The veil of the temple was rent in twain at His death, and it is the death of Christ that makes known the love of God. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". I know no lesson, for the believer, like this, to be learned in the cross of Christ. Get your eye there, and learn there the lesson of the love of God. The moment you touch His love you are responsive to it, and can say that you are born of God. You have derived your moral being from the blessed God as revealed. Had He not revealed Himself, it could not have been the case; but He is now the source of your moral being, so that you are of the offspring, the family of God.
I want now to look at the marks of one who is born of God. The first is, "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him". And again, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God". Now put these two verses together. On the one hand there is the practising of righteousness, and on the other, one does not commit sin. Read further chapter 4: 7, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of
God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God". The one born of God loves. In chapter 5: 1 we have, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him". Here we have the heart going out and recognising those who are born of God. Still further in verse 4, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world".
The first two expressions are essentially moral. One who is born of God practises righteousness and does not practise sin. Sin is lawlessness. One born of God walks here in self-judgment. No only does the Christian carry out the practice of righteousness, but he refuses to admit, or sanction, in himself that which God has condemned in the death of Christ. The evidence of a Christian is that he carries out practical righteousness. If you find a professed Christian allowing the flesh and other things in his practice and ways down here, which God has condemned, you have very little practical proof that he is a Christian. It is difficult in these days to trust profession; you want practice to witness to such, and this comes out in the way of practical righteousness on the one hand and the disallowance of lawlessness on the other.
It is impossible for one born of God to practise lawlessness; he cannot sin because he is born of God. These verses do not speak of isolated acts, but of the practice which characterises the Christian. They indicate marks important for us to bear here in the midst of a world full of lawlessness and unrighteousness. It is the first principle of one born of God that he walks in righteousness.
There is obligation to God, and you begin to carry that out in the practice of righteousness. You find that things here are inconsistent with the love of God as He has revealed Himself. You discover by the light into which God has brought you many things which
in the light have to be disallowed. We are enjoined to "Speak every man truth with his neighbour". Do we love to speak every man truth with his neighbour? We should, "for we are members one of another".
I come now to the next evidence of being born of God, and that is "love". Every one can say that he partakes of the divine nature if he loves. You cannot know the love of God without being responsive to it. It is not simply by doctrine that love is revealed to us. God has sent His Son who has died, and that is the witness of the love of God; and the word to us is, "Let us not love in word ... but in deed and in truth". God has proved His love in deed and truth towards us.
If I may use the expression, the Christian first touches the spring of love by the power of the Holy Spirit, and now he loves God and knows God. Then another point comes out, he discerns those who are born of God. Every one who believes Jesus to be the Christ is born of God. I think that love brings very great enlargement, and that is the point; it brings discernment and enlargement to comprehend all those who are God's children, and there is the desire to take in all, and that is a great point for us.
There may be many in London, many in the world, who believe Jesus to be the Christ, who have a reverence for the word of God, and does your heart take them all in? You may not compass them in knowledge, but, at all events, your heart may take them in because the great principle is, "him that loveth every one that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him". Practically things work as you get them put in this epistle. You come into the full light of divine love and you love God, then you love all those who are begotten of God. Then we come to another point; you overcome the world. If you love God love will not tolerate lust; they do not go together. In natural things you cannot mix oil with water, and lust does not tolerate love. All that is in
the world is "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life", and that cannot mix with holy love. If you are acquainted with the holy love, and you are of it, you overcome the world. You overcome the world by the principle of the being which you have derived from God. Lust and love are mutually exclusive.
Do you mean to tell me that a man who loves his family can be a drunkard? It is poor love where a man, to gratify his own lust, brings his family to poverty. You would not commend that man to me for natural love. If that man loved his family as he should he would not bring them to poverty and ruin in order to satisfy his own lusts. Lust is intolerable to love, and a man does not overcome the world in any other way than by love. A man might retire from the world and become a monk or an ascetic, or something of the sort, but he would carry the world into his retreat, he could not be free from it.
Then the one who overcomes the world is born of God, one who loves God and in virtue of being partaker of the divine nature he follows in the path of Christ Himself. I do not believe it to be possible for the world to be overcome in any other way.
Now we come to the witness in chapter 5, "This is he that came by water and blood".
There are three that bear witness, the Spirit, the water, and the blood.+ Jesus Christ came by water and blood. That has reference to what took place when Christ died. A soldier pierced His side with a spear and there came out blood and water. I understand it to mean, that He came in full testimony to the holy love of God. In the death of Christ there was that which expiated and that which cleansed, but the blood and water were testimony to the love of God.
Christ came forth as it were from the holy love of
+1 John 5:8.
God, and the blood and water were the witness of this: the witness of God's heart towards men, the witness of holy love. Sin was perfectly intolerable to love.
Everything will have to give way in the presence of holy love. God will be all in all, and in the presence of God's love everything contrary will have to give way. The water and the blood was the expression of the holy love of God; I speak of them as witness.
The Son of God came here. He had known and had part in the holy love of God. He became Man that the love of God might be expressed in His death. The Spirit has now come on the same line, therefore there are three that bear witness. They all combine in one common witness, and that witness is the holy love of God expressed in the Son. All bear witness to the blessed Source from which the Son of God came. He came out from the Father and came into the world. That is from the source of holy love, and the blood and water are the witness and expression of that love. The object is that our hearts might be made acquainted by the three witnesses with the love in which the Son of God came.
There is another thing; they bore witness incidentally, not primarily, that Christ is apart from man after the flesh. That is very important. They bear witness to Him as, "the last Adam" and "second man". He came in flesh in order to bring cleansing and expiation, but I believe the positive witness of the water and blood to be to the holy love of God.
Now what does that mean for us? "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself". God has given you the witness in yourself. The love of God is shed abroad in the heart and you have come to this, that the love of God has been expressed in the Son of God. No created being could have done this. Prophets might have spoken of it, but they could not have expressed it; we have it in the Son.
He first declared God on earth in His ministry, and
then He died to express God's love, and the water and the blood are thus the expression of the holy love of God, and the Spirit has come down on the same line to be the witness in the Christian. The Spirit is the truth, so that the truth may be, not only objective, as in Christ, but subjective in the Christian. Christ is the truth as to the declaration and setting forth of it, but the Spirit is the truth in the Christian.
Christ now abides after the fashion and order we have illustrated in John. There are three points in that gospel: (1) Christ set forth in the company of His own; (2) as the risen Man in the company of His own; (3) as coming again to receive His own, that where He is they may be also. I want you to put these three points together. They bring before us the thought of Christ in different conditions or positions, but of One whose heart is still unchanged; that is a great point to take in.
I think there is nothing more blessed than to see the changelessness of the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. His disciples dwelt under His shadow with great delight. They contemplated His glory as of an only-begotten One with the Father. You never could understand the truth of the Church if you did not appreciate what Christ was here in the midst of His own upon earth. Then He comes into their midst in resurrection, and makes known to them that they were His brethren; then He marks their association with Him as after the Spirit not after the flesh; He breathes on them the Holy Spirit. In chapter 17 He had demanded for them "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory". His disciples had beheld His glory here, and now He prays for them to be with Him above, that they might behold His glory. We see here a heart which knows no change, the changeless heart of Christ.
"God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in
his Son". The Son now is entirely apart from man after the flesh. We know Christ no longer after the flesh. I want you to be apart morally from man in the flesh, to know more of Him with whom we are associated in the power of the Holy Spirit. His heart is unchanged and we are associated with Him after the Spirit, so that He could say, "Go tell my brethren that I ascend to my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God".
The form in which it has pleased God to give us eternal life, is by bringing us into the full light of holy love and giving us grace to respond to it. Do you appreciate the love of God? Do you appreciate the witness of it?
Christ came from the Father alone, but He takes us back with Him. "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God". The Son of God came forth to express God and He came alone, but He returns to God with the Church, the trophy of His love. You have the Son of God, and in having the Son you have eternal life.
I want you to get the reality of these things; to know in the power of the Holy Spirit the great reality of the love of God. Many know grace, but have little apprehension of divine love. If we know and appreciate God's nature then we can understand that we are made partakers of that nature. You have derived your moral being from the blessed God Himself, and love God because He loved you.
May He give us to know the blessedness of being born of Him. It is wonderful that the affections of divine Beings should rest upon man on earth.
Isaiah 49:1 - 13; Luke 1:68 - 80, Acts 13:46 - 48
There is a class of people in the present day (I think they are contemplated in Scripture) unwilling, in a certain sense, to give up the truth of Christianity, but who at the same time subject Scripture to a treatment which is entirely unwarrantable, and practically a denial of its being the word of God. It is all very well to accept simply the facts which are related in Scripture, but the facts related form a very small part of Scripture. We get a great many things related, and the relation of facts may be called in a sense history, but history forms a very small part indeed of Scripture. The bulk of Scripture is the revelation of the thought and feeling of God in regard to things down here. The impression Scripture makes upon any one accustomed to study it is, that it speaks of a living God. And when I refer to a living God, what I mean is this: a God who has His mind and feeling in regard to everything that is transpiring down here. If I might use the expression, He is affected by it. I do not mean affected in the way in which we are, but He is affected by things here. You get the expression in Genesis that He repented that He had made man; and such a thought is presented in Scripture as that He is afflicted in the afflictions of His people; and many another thought of the same description, all of which bring before your minds the idea of a living God -- that is, a God of feeling, and of purpose too. It is this idea which Scripture forms in you in regard to God. I feel it more and more for myself; as I go to Scripture I become increasingly conscious in my soul of being brought into the presence of a living God, while conscious also that it describes a succession of generations of dying men down here; one generation passes off the scene and another appears,
but Scripture presents to you in contrast to that a living God, One who has His own mind from beginning to end; who has never been diverted from that mind; but is at the same time affected by that which passes down here upon earth. I think that is a most important thought to get of God; and you will find that Scripture is taken up with making known the thought and mind of God. We are told what the Spirit of Scripture is: the Lord is that Spirit. Paul speaks of the apostles being made competent ministers of the new covenant; not of letter but of spirit, and later on he says, "Now the Lord is that Spirit". I think you get the idea of Scripture fulfilled in Christians. I have thought there is an analogy in Scripture to the prayer of Ephesians 3, the idea there is that the Church was to be a kind of living Scripture; not Scripture, but a living expression of the mind of God. I think that is the idea that comes out in the prayer; they were "to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man ..". that they might "comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge", This presents the great idea of a living expression of the mind and character of God in the Church down here. While you have the Scripture, that which is written, at the same time there is the living expression of God in the Church by Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith. If you were to ask me what the spirit of Scripture is, I would get a definition of it from this passage; it is the counsel of the Father made known by the Spirit, the object and centre of which is His Son.
There are people who would tell us in the present day (and they profess to be Christians) that there is no such thing as prophecy. Well, this begs the question to begin with. They cannot prove that it is impossible there should be prophecy. Supposing this part of Isaiah was never written by the prophet Isaiah, as some would tell us; supposing it was written at some
later date than it was assumed to have been written, no one can contend for a moment but that it was written before Christ; and yet you get prophetically a most remarkable revelation of Christ. I could not say you get a history of Christ, but you get a revelation of Christ in a way that would never have entered into man's mind. A Jewish mind would never have dreamed of Messiah being rejected by the people, but that is the way in which He is presented here; He has laboured in vain, and spent His strength for nought, and in vain. That was the result of the Lord's ministry here upon the earth. It is the first thought so far as Israel's Messiah is concerned. What Jewish mind would have conceived such a passage as that in anticipation of the Messiah? But it was written, and the ablest critic cannot contend otherwise for a moment, some time before Christ. I do not care if it were ten or one hundred years before Christ, the point is we get brought out here what no Jew as such would have penned, the rejection of Messiah when He was presented to the people. This is the beginning of a section, which section includes some eight or nine chapters, and brings before us God's controversy with the people on this ground. That is prophetic, it brings before us the truth that Christ was to be presented to the people who were to return from the Babylonish captivity; and being presented, He had to say, "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain;" and, after, He says, "yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God". I refer to that in an introductory way.
There are three thoughts in the passage I want to dwell upon -- all of them spoken of prophetically; when you come to the New Testament, you find these thoughts fulfilled.
Many very blessed and glorious thoughts are presented to us in the Old Testament, but they could not be fulfilled at the time: they had to wait for the Man of God's counsels before they could be fulfilled. What
is lacking in the Old Testament is the Man. God was testing man in a variety of ways, but the Man of God's counsels was not here; so whatever might be the thoughts presented in the Old Testament, they had to wait for the Man in whom those counsels and thoughts could have their fulfilment. In the New Testament, the change is this; you have the Man. You will remember what the angels announced to the shepherds at the birth of Christ, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men".
There are just three thoughts that I will refer to in the passage. The first is in verse 5: "And now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength"; that is one thought. The next is in verse 6: "And [Jehovah] said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth". Now I read the verse in Acts 13 to show that Paul takes up that thought, and connects it with his testimony. That is, he turns away there from the Jew, and quotes this passage to show that God had accomplished the thought in it. That is, that Christ who had been rejected on the part of the Jew was set for a light to the Gentiles.
There is still a third thought, and that comes out in verse 8: "Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee:" that is quoted in 2 Corinthians 6 as having its application to the present time. The apostle says there, "Now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation". I do not doubt that the strict application of the passage is yet future, but a present application is given by the apostle Paul in writing to the Corinthians.
It is those thoughts that I want to dwell upon. To enlarge a little upon the thought of Christ being set a light to the Gentiles; I want to make plain to you what that means. In Luke 1 we see what, properly speaking, Christ is to His people; that is, God had raised up among His people a "horn of salvation", and John the Baptist was to give the knowledge of salvation to His people by the forgiveness of sins. That is what Christ has now brought to the Gentiles; He has brought the salvation of God to the Gentiles. The word was turned away from by the Jew and was addressed to the Gentiles, and they heard it. I shall go a little further to show you what the object of the salvation was. The object was that they might come into the divine thought, and that was eternal life: "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed". They were to be brought into the thought of God about them. Salvation was sent to them to that end. The salvation which properly belonged to the Jew, according to the song of Zacharias, went out, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, to the Gentiles -- "It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth". The point is this, that Christ takes the place of the servant of Jehovah here; He in that sense supersedes Israel. Israel had that place in regard to Jehovah, they were His witness and His servants. Christ comes in and takes that place. You will find that principle prevailing through Matthew; Christ takes the place of Jehovah's servant, so that eventually the remnant of Israel may come again into the place of Jehovah's servant. Properly speaking His service was to bring back to God the tribes of Israel. The tribes of Israel were lost, but Christ came to restore them; but instead of being received and welcomed here, He was rejected on the part of His people; and therefore Christ has to accomplish Jehovah's will.
Christ retires into the pleasure of Jehovah. He says (although the purpose of God in regard to Israel was not accomplished) "yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God shall be my strength". He takes up the position which we see brought out elsewhere: "Behold I and the children which God hath given me". "I will wait upon the Lord". That is the position which comes out here. It was a very wonderful place for the Lord to take -- for the One who was Jehovah to take the place of Jehovah's servant; and having once come into the place of a servant, He never leaves that place, and I am sure of this, that if ever the tribes of Israel are to be brought back to Jehovah (which they will in due time), it will be Christ, Jehovah's servant, who will bring them back; they will be placed in connection with Christ their Saviour.
What marks the present time is this, He says, "yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God shall be my strength". He is glorious in the eyes of Jehovah. The Lord says, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him". Christ might be despised (as He was despised in the eyes of the people), but He is now glorious in the eyes of Jehovah. Do you think there was ever a moment when Christ was so glorious in the eyes of Jehovah as when He suffered on the cross? That was the moment of glory, though put to shame on the part of man here. He was glorious in the eyes of Jehovah, and His God would be His strength; and the supreme moment of that was the cross. You have to estimate things morally. If you look at things outwardly, it was the moment of His shame and reproach; but if you look at things morally it was the moment of His glory. He was glorious in the eyes of Jehovah at the moment of His shame and ignominy. He glorified God in the place of man's dishonour. That same language ought to have its
application to us; you may be in reproach on the part of man, if you go forth unto Christ, but I think we ought to understand that the Church is glorious in the eyes of Jehovah, and God is their strength. But Christians have evaded the reproach. They attempt to make out in the present day that Christ is in honour. Christ is not in honour, He is in reproach. He has never been in honour here since He suffered on the cross; the reproach has never been set aside. The proper place of the Church is to be in His reproach here, but at the same time glorious as partaking of the Spirit of glory, as the apostle Peter says, "The spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you".
Now, the next point is, God says to Him, "It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth".
What I see is this (may God give me to make it plain), Christ is salvation to the Gentiles because the kingdom is established in His hands. The moment the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ is presented to man, the kingdom is presented because the kingdom has its expression and seat in the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God; and the kingdom is preached that men may come under the sway of grace; and that being under the sway of grace, they may be brought into the knowledge of salvation. No one ever came to the knowledge of salvation in any other way. I am confident that it is in being brought under the moral sway of God as presented in the Lord Jesus Christ that you and I get salvation. It is a great thing to be brought under the moral sway of God; to know that God has pleasure in grace; that He has pleasure in accounting us righteous. His attitude toward man is grace, and nought else. "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men". It is the one important point for us
here upon earth that our souls should be sensibly and consciously under the sway of divine grace, and that we should be maintained in the sense of what the mind and attitude of God is towards man; we are brought into the light of a Saviour God, who has pleasure in salvation, who would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. With such a God as that we have to do. I trust that we all have full confidence in the grace of God, and are pleased to be under His sway.
The sway of God means the greatest blessing to you and to me. We are maintained in His favour, God imputes nothing to us; and in effect we look for the glory of God: "we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God". We do not expect to be down here for eternity standing in the grace of God, but we "rejoice in hope of the glory of God". The present is a time of great weakness, although you stand in grace -- you have the throne of grace whereby to find grace to help in time of need; but you will not always have a time of need, and will not always need mercy and grace. The time will come when the glory will be displayed, and then you will rejoice with exceeding joy. It will no longer be a time of weakness, when you will need the service of the Priest. It is a moment of weakness now, and you need to be sustained by the Priest; that is, Christ touches you, and the place where He touches you is your weakness. If you had not a weak point, you would scarcely have a point where Christ could touch you. His sympathy can touch you because you have a weak point. But you will not always have that; the glory will come. We wait for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory, and when that comes we shall be glad with exceeding joy.
Now, the fact of being under the sway of God brings in another thought, that you are delivered from the sway of the enemy. No man was ever delivered
from the sway of the enemy but by being brought under the sway of God. No man can stand in independence; you are under the sway of Satan, if you are not under the sway of God. If, on the other hand, you are brought under the sway of grace, you are delivered from the sway of evil. God has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. The transfer has taken place by our hearts being brought under the sway of grace; and we have forgiveness of sins -- all in the Son of His love. You have a change of lord; by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ you come under the law of the grace of God, you have forgiveness of sins, and at the same time are delivered from the god of this world -- that is, delivered from the power of darkness. That is salvation. I say, to be delivered from the great world system, and sin, and the god of this world, means salvation to man. We have it in figure in the history of the children of Israel: they were brought to God in the wilderness, but at the same time in being brought to God they were delivered from Pharaoh and his hosts. This is celebrated in the song in Exodus 15. So we are brought into the kingdom of God and under the blessed sway of grace, and "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us". The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; and our hearts being under the sway of grace, and subject to the Lord Jesus Christ, are delivered from the power of evil.
It is thus you get the real knowledge of salvation and the forgiveness of sins, the object being that you may be brought into the divine thought. Christ is God's salvation to the end of the earth, and a light to the Gentile. This was not a new thought consequent upon Christ's rejection by the Jews, it fulfilled a very old thought; certain things had come to pass consequent upon certain circumstances, but these things had ever been in the counsels of God. Do you think it was
possible for a moment that the grace of God could be limited to the Jews? One of the first things that comes out in Christ's ministry is that the grace of God could not be limited to the Jews; you get mercy for the Gentile in the case of the centurion. The sovereign power of God was working in the Gentiles as well as in the Jew. You will remember the case of the Syrophenician woman, the Lord reaches her in grace; He answers and fully commends her faith. All this is clear proof that the sovereign power of the Spirit of God was working outside the Jew.
Now the thought of God has come out, Christ is set for a light to the Gentiles. Salvation has come to the Gentiles in the testimony of the kingdom of God, in order that they may come into the thought of God, and that is, eternal life. Just one word as to the way of it. I think it comes to us through righteousness. The last verse in Romans 5 is important -- "grace reigns through righteousness". The effect of the rule of grace is that you can touch the question of righteousness; you never could touch that until you were under the sway of grace. As long as a man has any kind of doubt in regard to his position as to God, that man can never bear to face the question of righteousness. Many a person goes on in sin because he does not know the grace of God; but being brought into the light and under the sway of grace, the practical result will be that you will carry out righteousness. Grace reigns through righteousness.
The reign of grace will not tolerate sin. It will be true in the millennium when the reign of grace is established publicly. Christ takes away the sin of the world, and grace will reign through righteousness; and so, in regard to the Christian, grace reigns through righteousness now. If you profess to stand in the kingdom the proof and evidence is that righteousness is maintained in you down here; it will work out in the way of self-judgment. You will walk in the light of the
altar (if I may so speak) in the light of the holy judgment of God; and disallow in yourself that which has been already judged in the death of Christ. God has delivered you by bringing you under the sway of grace; and now you seek to walk soberly, righteously and piously in this present age. The result is that you are drawn very much more fully into the light of God, the Spirit of God is free to work in you, to help and to instruct you, and you begin to reap a great deal in the power of the Holy Spirit. Many a person has the Holy Spirit who does not reap much from the Holy Spirit. You may find people in the condition of the Galatians giving licence to the flesh; they are not carrying out righteousness, and therefore the Spirit of God is hindered. The Spirit of God will not tolerate the flesh, the Spirit and the flesh are entirely irreconcilable. If you give place to the flesh, then the Spirit of God will set Himself against the flesh. On the other hand, if you give place to the Spirit, the flesh is not tolerated. The two are irreconcilable -- "the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these things are opposed the one to the other, that ye should not do those things which ye desire". The presence of the Spirit in the believer involves the obligation to righteousness, the disallowance in himself of that which has been judged and ended in the death of Christ. You have come into the light of the cross of Christ, where sin was condemned in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Supposing the Spirit is free, what then? You will find that the Spirit will spring up as a well of water in you, and you will get more and more liberated in spirit, and your heart brought more and more in contact with the holy love of God. "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us". The effect is that you respond to that love; you are so affected by it as to produce response.
It is not simply that you are brought into the love of God, but in the light of what God is as revealed in the Person of His Son, you become acquainted with divine Persons and learn to discriminate between Them. You learn how to address yourself to the Father and to the Son -- you become intimate, and sensible of what is suitable to the Father and to the Son. You love the Son, and the Father loves you because you love the Son; and the Son loves you because the Father gave you to Him. You are brought into the light of all that by the power of the Holy Spirit. You get the value of the witnesses in John's first epistle -- the Spirit, the water, and the blood; not only their efficacy but their value as witness. Many a person may know their efficacy who knows very little about them as witness. You may have faith in the blood, may be cleansed by the water, and may have the consciousness of the Spirit as a seal, but you want to have them as witnesses; they are witnesses that God has given to us eternal life, and that life is in His Son. You are thus brought to the reality of eternal life in the power of the Holy Spirit. You advance in holiness in becoming acquainted with love. The nearer you come to God, the more your heart is in the light of His love, the more holiness is promoted; and as you become a partaker of the divine nature, you are able to say God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
That is the great thing which God has in view in regard to every saint; and if the testimony is given in the Person of the Son of God, if God has set Him a light to the Gentiles, it is to make His mind known to the Gentiles, that He may be God's salvation to the end of the earth. God has pleasure in salvation; but God has also His own blessed end to serve in that salvation; and that end is that He might be known in all that He is in His own blessed nature in the heart of man, so that the heart of man may be filled with confidence in God. You know what the effect of the fall
was! To destroy man's confidence in God. I do not doubt that before the fall man had confidence in God. The effect of the fall was the sowing of distrust in the heart of man. The next step was that man set himself up as a rival to God. "The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil". God has set Himself to undo the works of the devil; and this He has achieved in the most blessed way by making Himself known in the heart of man. Allow me to say, that you do not confide in a person unless you are conscious of that person's love. Confidence is not exactly the fruit of faith; many a person believes who has but a very small measure of confidence. Scripture puts confidence in another way. "We love him, because he first loved us;" and in the knowledge of divine love you get confidence. The first great witnesses of love are the water and the blood which flowed from the side of Christ. The next is the Holy Spirit; and these three agree in one common and consistent testimony; and it is the pleasure of God to bring you into the light of His holy love, and to build up your hearts in confidence of that love.
One word more. "In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages". I will say a word as to the bearing of that. You have to turn the grace of God to account so that as the apostle puts it, "ye receive not the grace of God in vain". If you know the grace of God do not bury your light under a bushel; turn the grace of God to account. Turn it to your own account; do the best you can with it in regard to yourself, but at the same time if you have salvation make manifest that you have it. Do not let people think that you are still a wretched slave to the course and system of this world. Rather make manifest that by the grace of God you are in the blessed reality of salvation, delivered
from the great world system which exists here, and from the god of this world; let this become manifest. I would like people to be simple in turning the grace of God to account, going on in the practice of righteousness, looking for the hope of glory; going on, in that sense, in light of eternal life, though they actually have not come to it. We know where it lies, and it does not lie very far off, it lies in the region of the holy love of God; and this love has been witnessed to in this world. You have not to go to heaven to find expression of the love of God; God has been pleased to give expression to it in the three witnesses here upon the earth. The Holy Spirit Himself has come in that line.
One word more. The Christian has the witness in himself: "He that believeth on the Son of God has the witness in himself". "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us;" and it is the pleasure of God to welcome believers into the most blessed circle. "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed". They were ordained to it, and the apostle Paul brought salvation to them, that they might be led by the Spirit of God into the thought of God about the poor dogs of Gentiles; that they should be brought into the most blessed circle in the universe -- into the circle of holy love where the Son of God is, and into which the Spirit of God has been sent to conduct them. That is the thought of God with regard to the Gentiles. As I said before, it is an acceptable time, a day of salvation. It is a time when opportunity is given to us to be witnesses to the grace of God. He first gives us to be witnesses to the reality of His salvation; and then He gives us grace to carry the testimony of His kingdom to others. But in order that your testimony may be effective, you need to be in the sense and power of His great salvation.
Now I have only to say one word more, and that is, if you are content to walk in the light of God's salvation and to accept reproach, when the kingdom is displayed,
then it will be God's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Instead of being a subject of the kingdom in that day, your part will be to sit with Christ on His throne and to have part in His glory; and whatever God has given to Him, He gives to you, that you may share in His glory, just as, while in this world, you share His reproach.
It was proposed to read Mark's gospel. We might consider the first three chapters this morning.
The beginning of this gospel does not take any dispensational character, but is occupied with the moral condition of the people in which the testimony of God was rendered. That is, what it opens with is the wilderness condition of things with the people of God. John's testimony is the "Voice of one crying in the wilderness", and the Lord was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit, where He met the power of Satan before He began His ministry. There was the power of Satan to be met, and the moral state of things in regard to the people. Then you have the testimony of God in the vessel which was suitable in the midst of that state of things. It is of all importance for us to apprehend the state of things in which the testimony of God is rendered.
In John's baptism, God opened a door out of this state of things. Through repentance He opened a door for the escape of the people from the condition of things into which they had got. Repentance was the testimony of God by John, with a view to their deliverance from this wilderness condition, and from the power of Satan through believing the testimony of the Son of God. He alone could be the competent vessel of the testimony of God's gospel in the midst of evil.
The preaching of the baptism of repentance was God opening the door for the people that were in this wilderness condition.
What is the wilderness condition?
The people were not enjoying the goodness of God in His land, and they had gone back in heart from the Lord. In a sense Israel had never left the wilderness
into which they entered when they came out of Egypt, for they never entered into the rest of God. "If Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day".
Is a door out the door in too?
Yes. John's preaching was more the door out, and that was the real difficulty with them. What is very remarkable, is that all had to go down to Jordan to be baptised. John did not go to one place to preach and baptise, then to another place to preach and baptise, but all had to go out to Jordan to him. It is going out that tests us.
It was the mercy of God that opened the way out. So John's testimony was the first work in the remnant.
No one was fully competent to be the servant but the Son of God. Nobody could really come into a world of sin and evil and be competent for God, either in the testimony of the gospel, or in power, but the Son of God. He was the only One who could bring in the light of God.
With regard to the wilderness condition, you get the nominal people of God really in that state. As to the Gentiles, there can be no question as to their state of alienation, but here you get the people of God not enjoying the promises and good things of God, that is morally a wilderness condition; and they had to go out to John in the wilderness to be baptised in Jordan. The great point was for them to admit their complete failure, and that they must go out. There was a new testimony coming in in the Son, not by Moses or the ministry of angels, but in the Son, the gospel of the kingdom of God, and if any in Israel, who had failed entirely to inherit the land, were to get a place in the kingdom they must go out. In fact, the remnant had been brought back from Babylon in order that Messiah might be presented to them. The poor understood it very well, they went out and were baptised of John. The poor were those who felt their need and the misery of the state of things around them.
Is the thought that the people were called upon to recognise that they had not got the blessing?
Yes. There is something very striking with regard to the wilderness. It is where you are exposed to things which defile, as in Numbers 19. If you are not in the good of the promises of God, you are exposed to things which otherwise you would not be. A people abiding in the secret of God is very different to wandering about in the wilderness where defiling things abound.
The first thing here is that the Lord is baptised, and the Spirit descends upon Him, and a voice from heaven declares the secret of His Person; "Thou art my beloved Son" is what He was to the Father. Then as Man anointed by the Holy Spirit He is forty days in the wilderness, driven there by the Spirit, tempted of Satan; a very different thing to Moses who was forty days in the mount with God.
What is the force of "driveth" Him into the wilderness?
It was a necessity that He should meet Satan's power, for man was under it. There is first His own relationship with the Father, and then His going into the place where man was.
In those who went out to John's baptism, do we get the moral condition which is necessary in order to receive the testimony of God?
In John's baptism the door of repentance was opened for them, and the way of the Lord prepared. They confessed their sins, and on the other side of John's baptism they found the Lord. The Lord Himself met them there.
Was their taking that place the effect of John's testimony?
Why does the Spirit of God take up Mark and cause him to record things in this way?
Because it is the testimony of God in the state of things then prevailing in Israel. The first three
chapters give us the ministry of the Lord in connection with the state of things in Israel. In chapter 4 the Lord goes out by the seashore, that is, the testimony goes out wider. He had preached in their towns, as He said "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also; for therefore came I forth". He was really sowing, but in their synagogues. Then in chapter 4 He goes out by the seaside -- an intimation that the word of the kingdom would go out wider. In the working of miracles He brings in the power of the kingdom, but it was in connection with Israel especially. What comes out too in these three chapters is, that the mission of the Lord is not at all favoured by the rulers and heads of Israel. When He speaks of forgiving sins, they question it at once. There was no reception of the Lord at all with them, but He goes on nevertheless. He cures the leper and tells him to go and show himself to the priest. It was a testimony to them that their God was there; also the palsied man He forgives and heals, and tells him to go to his house; thus showing that Jehovah their Healer was among them. Then He sovereignly called Levi, and this brings out the fact that He was calling sinners. The scribes and Pharisees would not own these ways of grace to sinners. They had no heart for Him who came here in grace; they said, "Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?" and, finally, they attributed the power by which He wrought the miracles to Beelzebub, whereupon the Lord disowns His connection with Israel.
We first find in this gospel the Lord in relation to the Father, then He goes into the wilderness and there binds the strong man, and then spoils his goods.
Is your thought that we have here a moral wilderness?
Yes. But His place with the Father is declared, and consequently the light of God revealed in Him was here in the scene of man's sin and misery. A voice out of heaven came to Him. Heaven could look down
upon earth, and He could look up into heaven; this we see in chapter 6: 41. The Lord looked up to heaven, and then distributed its bounty. It was the light and testimony of heaven, and of what God was, come into the world.
Then further, what you get here is that in the world there is Satan to be met, and in two ways. It is noted here that Christ was with the wild beasts which represent the ravening power of evil; this we see in Herod killing John. Herod represents the power of the Roman beast, but the first thing is, not his raging power, but the awful temptation of Satan. The Lord was tempted of Satan forty days. It was necessary that we should know the power of Satan, and that man is under it. The Lord had to meet it and overcome it for us. John said, "There cometh one mightier than I", and now the mightier is come and Satan bound; but besides this, John's testimony is, that He baptises with the Holy Spirit.
That goes beyond His ministry here.
It shows the power that had come in and it was in that power that He bound Satan. His bringing in the light of heaven and the testimony of God's love and goodness all depended upon His being the Son.
The Christian dispensation began with the Holy Spirit and the Lord Himself. We get the Holy Spirit in connection with the Lord's Person as Man characterising the new order of things.
Why have we so little of John's ministry recorded in this gospel?
It was the introduction of the Mightier One, and then John retires: he prepares the way of the Lord, a voice crying in the wilderness, but then he retires; he must decrease, but Christ must increase. The Lord Himself is the One who brings in the testimony of God.
The testimony for the time was the testimony of the Son of God, and for us to be in the good of it the Holy Spirit must be received.
John opened the door and they went out and were baptised, but there Christ joins them.
The Holy Spirit is connected with the full presentation of God, so that you have here, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
How is that connected with the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Is it that the full presentation of God was given to them, but they blasphemed the power of it?
Quite so. It is the glad tidings, and that must be based on the full presentation of God. The glad tidings were the glad tidings of the kingdom. The miracles are the powers of the kingdom. You could not understand the kingdom without the miracles.
Is that why we have in the last verses of Matthew's gospel, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit"?
Yes; it is all connected with the complete presentation of God.
The idea is that God has stepped in to relieve man of his misery; the Son of God comes in and presents the kingdom, and consequently you have the powers of the kingdom displayed. If the kingdom is set up, you have the powers of it here.
The first display of the power relieves man from Satan without and sickness within. You have Satan's power, and sickness in the house, but the Lord relieves man from both.
What is the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom of God here?
The moral sway of God in grace. Christ's presence was the witness of it. Man comes into the understanding of what the attitude of God is towards him.
The idea of the gospel of the kingdom of God runs right through the Acts. The very last verse is, "Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ".
The great point in Romans is the kingdom, on our side of it.
The preaching of the kingdom of God is presenting the attitude of God toward man in grace; grace reigning through righteousness.
Is that in the Person of the Son of God?
It must be, because the moral sway of God could only be presented in a divine Person.
Now it is connected with the Holy Spirit. The authority of the kingdom is in heaven, but the power is on earth. The authority does not reside in the Holy Spirit but in the Lord. The power that maintains the kingdom in us -- the Holy Spirit -- is here on earth, and therefore the kingdom is a moral thing, but man has made a mustard tree of it. In the millennium it will be in full display.
Is the idea of the kingdom the moral force put forth in order to make way for the counsels of God and for higher things?
The first thing which must be effected for man is really to deliver him, and the only possible way for that is by his being brought under the moral sway of God. That is the secret and spring of all deliverance.
Therefore to enter into the kingdom of God is salvation.
Here we get the powers of the kingdom.
It was really set out in the Lord's Person.
It is in the kingdom that grace is established. You cannot have the grace without having the expression of power. Mr. Darby used to speak of the kingdom as grace acting in power.
Does that same definition hold good when power is put forth for the crushing of the enemy?
Yes, but in a certain sense the enemy is crushed for us.
Every one will, in a sense, learn the reality of God's kingdom before the power is put forth in a public way.
You cannot be delivered from the power and the
authority of the god of this world except by the power of the grace of God. There cannot be any other possible way of deliverance for man. The time had come to an end when God was dealing with man on the ground of probation, and the time was fulfilled for God to establish the kingdom.
The sway of the wild beasts will be set aside, though it continues now for an object, but the power of the god of this world is broken, this is set forth in the casting out of the devil in the synagogue.
The devil is the prince and god of the vast system of this world, but the truth is that the mainspring of the world is its god, and his power is broken. We get more detail developed in Luke as to what the kingdom is than we do in Mark.
The prominent thought here, is the servant and service which brings about the kingdom.
It is the service of the Son of God. The service of the Son of God was altogether peculiar to Himself, though we might get a great deal of light from it.
There are two classes of evil to which men are exposed. One is connected with Satan and the power of the world, and the other is infirmity which is the fruit of sin, the latter is set forth in Peter's wife's mother.
After that, the leper and palsied man come in in connection with the testimony. In the casting out of the demon in the synagogue, and the raising up of Peter's wife's mother you see the power, afterwards in the leper you have the testimony. The leper shows defilement and the paralytic weakness. They represent the things under which man labours in regard of God. The leper was shut out by defilement, both from God and from man, he is healed and sent in testimony to the priests, and the paralytic was raised up in testimony to those in the house. They both come in that man may enjoy what is for him.
Two great things go together, (1) the testimony of
God, and then (2) deliverance, as the effect of the testimony. Man is first delivered from the power of Satan, and then he finds everything under which he laboured in regard to God is removed; that is how the truth of the kingdom comes in.
As to the call of the fisherman, if the Lord calls a man to serve, the service, or rather the obligation of the service, is greater than any natural obligation. That is the salient point.
In chapter 3, Jesus chooses twelve that they might be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach; what we have here is the right of God to call them, and the coming in of something entirely new. This is really the paramount claim of the Lord. It takes precedence with the one called over any other obligation.
The point here is really the call. In John's gospel you do not get the call into the new order of testimony. It is more internal relationships there.
Does the gospel of the glory of Christ give us the kingdom?
The glory of Christ is the kingdom. The first testimony connected with the kingdom must be power (verse 22). There must be a power superior to every other power that affected man. You could not have the kingdom without it.
There was no gainsaying His words.
The authority was felt by the demons. There was an authority which was really greater than satanic power, and no power could resist it. In the presentation of the kingdom there must be the expression of power, else it would not be the kingdom of God at all. Then you get other elements coming in for the removal of everything under which man lay with regard to God.
The testimony of the leper was to the priests, the religious heads of the nation, that God was there, and there in grace. "I will, be thou clean", was the expression of divine power acting in compassion.
The principle and the power of the kingdom is the deliverance of man, and the removal of everything under which man lay comes in as well. If a man is defiled he cannot approach God, and as weak he is hindered from having to say to God. Christ removes the defilement and the weakness which, consequent upon sin, hinders a man from keeping the law. The leper is cleansed and can go to the priest, not for them to pronounce upon him, but as a testimony, and the paralytic takes up his bed and walks at the word of the Lord.
Does that apply now in the gospel?
It must do, it is the effect and power of the kingdom. You are made conscious that defilement is gone and the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in you. The leper was to approach to God. If the kingdom comes in, there must be something for God; and the first principle of blessing for man must be approach to God, but he cannot approach if he is a leper.
The present effect of the establishment of the kingdom in the heart of man is, that he is delivered from the power of evil, he is conscious that defilement has gone in regard to God.
In the early part of chapter 2 we see that the Lord would not conform to the ideas of man. He came in the power of divine righteousness, and could not, would not conform to their ideas.
You see in the end of chapter 1 and beginning of chapter 2, the Lord met the actual state of things in Israel, but then in verses 13 and 14, He goes to the seaside and passes beyond the mere need of men, and calls a man to follow Him. He heals a leper and sends him to the priest, and He sends the palsied man home after forgiving and raising him up. Then He calls Levi clean away from everything in Israel to follow Him.
The last clause of verse 44, shows that the Lord still acknowledged the system of Israel, but now in the power of the kingdom He calls out of Israel to Himself.
Was not the testimony to Israel that their Jehovah was there in His Person?
Yes; but they were not at all prepared to receive Him, they said, "Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies?" It is important to see in the service of the Lord that He brought in what was absolutely new. We get an important lesson out of it; that when the new comes in you cannot go back to what is old. That is just what Christendom has done. There is the acknowledgment of what is new, but at the same time they have gone back to what is old.
The old garment was the threadbare forms which would not hear the knowledge of forgiveness and divine righteousness.
Everything has to begin anew in Christ.
He came in the power of what was wholly new.
Why does this incident of passing through the cornfields come in here?
It comes in as the witness that the covenant between God and Israel was about to be broken up. The sabbath was the sign of the covenant, and the Lord shows that it was about to be broken up.
In the next chapter, the Lord takes His own course. They seek to destroy Him, and then He takes His own course and separates Himself from His kindred after the flesh, and then the point is, hearing the word of God and doing it. Everything is now put on a moral footing.
The teaching of verse 28 is that the grace in the Lord superseded the covenant with Israel. Then the Lord goes up into a mountain and chooses twelve that they might be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach. The Jews sought to kill the Lord, and consequent upon that He takes His own course. It is a wonderful thing to think that He should choose twelve to be with Him and send them forth to preach. Many of us go forth to preach without having been with Him very much. They were with Him some time before He sent them forth.
What is the force of "The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath"?
The sabbath was made for man, therefore God was not bound by it. The Jews seemed to think it was made for God and that He was as much bound by it as man.
What is the thought in the two sabbaths here?
The one is on the Lord's side, they refused His rights and preferred their own legal observance to the Lord's claims, but He asserts His title of supremacy, that is His side. Then there is man's side, they would not have this poor man healed on the sabbath and so enjoy the blessing of grace.
Everything which is for man is put under the Son of man, and hence the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath.
Jesus maintains in chapter 3 His right to act in grace, but more, He clears Himself from those who opposed. In chapter 2 there was a certain recognition of Israel, here He withdrew Himself with His disciples to the sea. The more He gets clear from them, the more you see Him coming out in His own proper place. In the end of chapter 3, everything is put on a new footing. The foundation of association with Him now is, hearing the word of God and doing it.
Is the sabbath connected with God's rest?
It comes in as a mercy for man. Wherever men hare tried to give it up it has been a poor affair.
Children of the bride-chamber implies the recognition of Him as Bridegroom.
What is the distinctive character of Mark's gospel? It is distinctly the testimony of the kingdom, the introduction of it.
The great point we have now arrived at is, that they seek to destroy Him (chapter 3: 6.) He then withdrew Himself with His disciples, and afterwards ordained twelve to be with Him, and to send them forth to preach. Then He recognises as in relationship with God those who do the will of God.
He severs morally the connection after the flesh and the ground of association is in doing the will of God. You get things now put on moral ground. Any ground after the flesh is ignored.
Mark gives us the Son of God; the perfect Servant; the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. It is emphatically the servant gospel, but it takes character from the Son of God.
You could not get the kingdom of God presented except in the Son of God. What we come to in this chapter is the mystery of the kingdom of God.
The Lord presented the kingdom, not only spoke of it, but presented it; that is the salient feature of this gospel.
It is presentation of the glad tidings of the kingdom: but it was set forth in His Person.
He represented grace acting in power; He was the living expression of it in His Person.
Is the sowing the seed the way the kingdom is established now?
The kingdom was not set up in manifested display, but it took the form of a mystery. The kingdom could only be brought about by the work of God underneath.
It is not looked at in that way in this chapter. This chapter stops short of Matthew 13, it does not go beyond the present time.
What is the gathering of the harvest?
That is the mind and thought of God in the kingdom. When the harvest is ripe then the sickle is put in.
God has established the kingdom, in order that He might gather the harvest. In order to get a harvest He must prepare the ground for the seed. The word is sown broadcast, but the ground has to be prepared.
The ground prepared is good ground; but man's mind is entirely incapable of compassing the operation of God.
The great point in the chapter is, the mystery of the kingdom of God; underneath everything that had been presented to man there was always the hidden work of God. It is a striking thing that underneath every dispensation or dealing of God with man, God has carried out His own work to bring about what is for Himself.
The true character of the Lord's work comes out in the chapter. He had been publicly preaching from the first, but the character of His work comes out very distinctly here, He is a Sower, and the heart of man the seed plot.
The position of things was that Israel were blind morally, and therefore the Lord speaks in parables, He hides the truth in parables. Verse 12 is the declaration of the condition of the people. The Lord becomes the Expositor. The position of things was such that the work of God was a necessity underneath.
The sovereignty of the call of God had been already indicated in the call of Levi. The Lord came to call not the righteous but sinners. It is the sovereignty of the call which is the point there.
In regard to gospel preaching we get a lesson from these chapters. In gospel preaching the question may be raised as to whether you are preaching law or gospel. I have a strong impression that a good deal of preaching is the preaching of law. Any kind of preaching which makes benefits from God contingent upon a change in man is really the preaching of law. If you present to people the idea that on condition of a certain change in them, that will secure to them certain benefits from God, it is the principle of law.
Where then does repentance come in? There is the demand of it, and God grants it.
If you are preaching repentance simply as repentance,
you are preaching demand. But demand is not the gospel.
Is it preparatory to the gospel?
It is quite a distinct testimony, and a very right testimony, but it is not the gospel.
Is there a difference between the preaching of repentance and what produces it?
You may preach what produces it, and you can demand it as due on the part of God; that is all quite right, but it is not gospel. Law comes in on that line. When Paul reasoned with Felix of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, it was right, yet it was not gospel. It is very important in the way of maintaining the rights of God in regard to man.
Gospel is good news, yet you may have to preach that which is not in itself good news. There are certain obligations which must be insisted upon, but that is not preaching the gospel.
The ground taken in Acts 17:31, is that God is going to judge the world: that is not gospel.
How do you get the ground prepared?
When you come to the question of preaching, you are wholly and entirely dependent on the work of God underneath. It is not in the power of man to receive the gospel.
You have to present to people what they may believe.
"In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel". What is that?
The gospel brings everything to light. You get the same in Timothy; everything which is condemned by law is contrary to sound doctrine. The gospel is the full light of God as to everything, and hence there is full light on the question of responsibility.
Judgment is according to the light of Paul's gospel, but it is not gospel.
Is not repentance the ploughing up of the ground?
There are certain obligations on the part of man which God maintains, but they are distinct from the gospel. God will judge every man according to his works, but we must be careful not to mix repentance up in our minds with the gospel.
Then what about Acts 20:21?
The door was opened. Man had responsibility to God, and he has failed. God calls him to repentance, but it would be useless to call him to repentance if there were no forgiveness. Repentance is in view of grace. God is perfectly justified in calling upon man to repent.
The word here is the word of the kingdom.
All the repentance in the world would not bring about the reception of the kingdom.
The seed does not bring forth fruit apart from God, though it may enter the ground. There must be the work of God in the subject.
At all events before he receives the word.
Repentance is viewed as an obligation on the part of man, for God commands men to repent.
Is it not the result of the work of God?
I would rather say it is the work of God to bring forth fruit.
Does the case of the men of Nineveh describe it? It seems there, that repentance is the result in the soul of the reception of the word of God.
The obligation to repent is what I maintain. I should have a difficulty in connecting repentance with the work of God, because it is really an obligation on the part of man.
Does not Isaiah 55 throw some light upon it, God's ways are not our ways, etc.?
You get two things there, God is dealing with man on the footing of law, and at the same time introducing a measure of gospel light.
The preparation of the ground is beyond the will of man.
You could not conceive that man could prepare the ground, it is the work of God. The sower sows everywhere, but God prepares the ground. He works in sovereignty and people are born again.
The new birth is undoubtedly the work of God, but might not God use the preacher, or rather the preaching in order to produce the new birth? Otherwise, you are limiting the sovereignty of God.
The point in new birth is that a person may receive the word.
The subject of new birth is to receive the word. The word is presented to him, but the point is, how is he to receive it?
New birth cannot be produced by the preacher, because man has to receive the word, and how is he going to receive it?
Because of something wrought in his soul.
Exactly, God has worked in order that he may receive it.
What about John 1, "Born, not ... of the will of the flesh ... but of God"?
There the origin of their being was from God.
Does sowing the seed test the ground?
Exactly. When the Lord was here even, there was a variety of grounds, but the seed only produced fruit in good ground.
An honest and good heart is something man cannot bring about himself.
As regards 1 Peter 1 "Being born again, not of corruptible seed", etc. What is that?
Every converted person is begotten of the gospel, of the testimony; they are counted in that sense the children of the gospel. As Paul could say, "I have
begotten you through the gospel", but at the time when you really come to the principle of things, like we have in John 3, it is "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God". Peter's statement involves new birth.
In John we have a second statement with regard to it, a man cannot enter the kingdom of God except he is born of water and of the Spirit. This is a distinct statement. The first statement is as to seeing the kingdom, and then the second entering. A man is born again by an act of God. The ground is prepared, the word is received, springs up and produces fruit, but the ground is an honest and good heart.
How do you understand the passage in James, "Of his own will, begat he us by the word of truth"?
Every Christian is begotten of the word. James looks at them as Christians. You cannot put that as a parallel with John 3.
If we distinguish between the ground and the seed we should not have any difficulty. There is the ground, and there is the seed.
We have everything to do with the sowing the seed, but not with the preparation of the ground.
It helps very much as to the question of new birth to see on the one hand the ground, and on the other the seed.
Apart from the work of God in a person, no one can have any apprehension whatever of anything which is of God's grace.
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God". A man has to receive the seed.
With regard to that passage quoted from Peter, is there a difference between being born again in John, and being born by the word of God in Peter? Are we not born by the word of God?
As a Christian, you have been begotten by the gospel. But Peter speaks of those who were Christians as having been born again of incorruptible seed.
Of every one here it could be said, you have been begotten by the gospel, but how came you to receive it?
Very well, then you must have been born again.
If there is a moral work in man, it is by divine power. If a man receives the gospel it is the fruit and effect of a divine work in him. He receives the word as the result of it.
That work in him will be by the Holy Spirit?
Will not the Holy Spirit use the word of God in producing that work?
But he has to receive the word.
You must make a distinction between what is brought forth, and being born anew. Peter says, "Being born again". In John it is a different word, you must be born anew; in reality Peter contrasts their birth as children of Abraham, corruptible seed, with having been begotten of God. This made them of another order, Christians not Jews. James uses a different word from John or Peter, he speaks of what is "brought forth". In John 3 it is something totally new to begin with. The Christian according to James has been brought forth, you can see God's creation in him.
The power of the Holy Spirit is antecedent to receiving the word. If you have received the word you must have been born of God. As regards the gospel, there is a work of God which no one can describe, a work of the Spirit of God in the sovereignty of God, through which one receives the gospel. If you study the next chapter you will find the Lord is acting in regard of faith which was there. Not faith which He produced, but which was there. If you take, for instance, the woman with the issue of blood, faith was there. And it is the same in the case of the ruler of the synagogue. The Lord did not produce the faith that brought the ruler to Him,
but, as I said, He acts in regard of the faith which was there.THE LORD'S TABLE AND SUPPER
THE GAIN OF LEARNING OF CHRIST
THE NEW COVENANT IN ITS APPLICATION TO CHRISTIANS
'We bless our Saviour's name,
Our sins are all forgiven'. READINGS ON COLOSSIANS
CHRIST AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD
BORN OF GOD
CHRIST A LIGHT OF THE GENTILES
READINGS ON MARK'S GOSPEL
CHAPTERS 1 - 3
CHAPTERS 4, 5