F.E.R. I think Peter carried out the special charge that was laid upon him by the Lord, as given in John 21; it must have remained with him and given a character to all his service. "Feed my sheep"; "Shepherd my sheep"; would I suppose have special reference to the Jewish sheep. The Lord prepared Peter for His service; his weak point was discovered to him. It is an instance of the Lord's love. "As many as I love I convict and discipline"; he was convicted, and then there was discipline; it was shown to him what the end of his course would be. Morally, discipline follows conviction; the latter is the discovery of the defect, and discipline is the Lord's grace in some way to help the man. Peter, I suppose, gave himself credit for having more affection for Christ than any of the others.

The burden of the prophets had been the sufferings and the glory of Christ, but Peter was a witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker of the glory to follow. God has allowed an interval of testing to come in between the two, and Peter takes up that interval; as Paul puts it: "the testimony to be rendered in its own times, to which I have been appointed a herald". In reading the prophets, we could not have had much idea of an interval between the sufferings and the glory, but seeing an interval of testing intervening helps to the understanding of the character of Peter's writings. We get in Peter what comes in between the sufferings and the glory. In a scene from which Christ has suffered, there can be nothing for God except what is in the sanctification of the Spirit.

We get in Peter's writings what is more limited than in Paul's. We do not get the presentation of the grace of God in the same universal application as in Paul's -- the righteousness of God unto all. There is not the presentation of Christ in the same way that Paul presents Him, the grace of God bringing salvation to all men; what Peter presents is more limited, it is more to the Remnant. One side of the truth is the thought of God in regard of man as presented in Christ; the other side is the work of God in souls who are drawn and attached to Christ. It is Paul who presents the former. The tendency in Christendom has been to take up one side or the other unduly. The one must not be taken up to the exclusion of the other. No one writer even in the Old Testament presents the whole of the truth.

There is a striking contrast between the beginning of this epistle and that to the Ephesians. In the latter we are chosen in Christ to be holy and without blame before God in love, to be before Him in the divine nature, and all is connected with heavenly places and our place as sons. In Peter the election refers to our place of responsibility down here; we are elect unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. It is the greatest contrast possible: one is our place as sons and in connection with heaven, the other is our responsible place down here. There is a purpose of God with regard to us down here, as well as in regard to what we are to be in heaven: the value of the truth is got by seeing each part in its own proper setting. "Obedience and sprinkling of blood" have no connection with our place in heaven. New creation is what fits us for heaven. Obedience can only come in in connection with our place down here.

Ques. How does this epistle differ from Hebrews?

F.E.R. Hebrews was addressed to Jews at Jerusalem, calling them to go outside the camp; but the object of this epistle is to show that while suffering under

the government of God in being scattered abroad, still they could have in a spiritual way all the privileges that Israel had in a national way. They were a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. It is not Jehovah and national separation, but it is the light of Christianity which separates; the sanctification is moral -- of the Spirit, not a national separation kept up by a middle wall of partition. The real sanctifying power is within us. The epistle is just as true to Gentiles as to Jews, though perhaps it is somewhat more adapted to the Jewish mind.

It is an unvarying principle in the ways of God that what He has set up on earth can never be set aside. Take the kingdom and the truth of God's house: they must abide because God has established them here. Their character may change, things may be set aside in an outward material form, but the saints possessed all in a spiritual form. That is what Peter brings out. In reading the Old Testament it might appear that God was defeated. Certain things had been set up and they broke down; we want an answer to that, and the New Testament furnishes that answer. Whatever promises there are, in Him is the Yea. All that in which God has been apparently defeated will be established in Christ. Even in regard of the church, the very book which threatens the removal of the candlestick shows the church displayed in glory.

Peter writes to the elect, not as Paul to "all that be in Rome", nor yet, as James, to the twelve tribes. It is simply the elect he writes to.

Ques. Is the sanctification by the work of the Spirit in us?

F.E.R. I should say so.

Ques. Why is sanctification put before the sprinkling of blood?

F.E.R. It is not exactly the order of the thing, nor the fact in application to us that is given here, but its

character; not national sanctification, but by the Spirit. We are sanctified to the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. God can own nothing here now but Christ. If man is owned as such it is a falsification of the cross; there can be no man before God but Christ. It is by the fact of His being before God that God can go on with the world, it is because He is the propitiation for our sins. If only people could be impressed with that idea that there is no man before God but Christ! All else is flesh and has been condemned. I attach great importance to John's expression that He is the propitiation for the whole world; then what follows on that is that you are to be in Him, and you can only be in Him by the Spirit. There is a people under the eye of God characterised by the obedience of Jesus Christ, and who, through the sprinkling of His blood, are as clear as Christ can make them. We are elect unto the obedience of Jesus Christ, that is the end, but the way of it is by the sprinkling of the blood. One of the most difficult things for us to apprehend is grace. The pleasure of God is in helping a man, not in finding fault with him. It is not the thought of a parent to look for faults and then drop down upon them. If there be a defect, the parent points it out so that it may be removed.

The obedience is of Jesus Christ. The truth is, once Christ has been under the eye of God, nothing inferior can be acceptable to God; all must be of that character. There was no legality in Christ -- you could not conceive it. He walked in the light of love, and so it is too in regard of us. There is nothing now for God but the new man; the first man is gone for God though a good deal of it hangs about us. The moment the Spirit came and took possession of the vessel which Christ had prepared, there and then there was the sanctification of the Spirit. There was then a company set apart for God, and the great activity of

the Spirit is to put us in the reality of this sanctification. In Hebrews 10 the Spirit comes in as witness, and the sanctification is by the will of God. The Lord was here entirely for the will of God; so a Christian delights in His will. Commandments, to a Christian, are like sign-posts on the road; he is very glad to come to them; they confirm him; they are welcome guides to him for the road, though he may have been pretty sure he was right. If the will is not at work, and you are not quite sure, a commandment comes in very acceptably. I want to go that road, and all that comes in to help me I am thankful for, if my face is Zionward.

The first thing that came into the world was disobedience; the law came to command obedience, but it could not produce it. Then Christ came in with the law of God in His heart, and that brought in the principle of obedience. In the sprinkled blood, you have the value of His death upon you. We must have it in order to be free before God. It is evident that the passage here (verse 2) does not take us beyond the earth, since the sanctification is to obedience. In Hebrews 10 we are sanctified by our extinction. We are perfected for ever, but we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ -- that is, we are extinguished. The offering of the body of Jesus did not leave a bit of me, but being sanctified we are perfected for ever. In John 17 sanctification is more practical. The Lord has separated Himself from all here, as a heavenly Man, and that gives us the standard and measure of what our sanctification really is.

Ques. How is the sprinkling of blood connected with responsibility?

F.E.R. We could not be in the place of obedience until we are free -- justified before God. The order in Christ was obedience and sprinkling of blood. Obedience has no place in Christ now. He came into the place of man's disobedience and in that path He was

perfect in obedience, but He did not bring the obedience from heaven; it was incidental to His having taken the place as Man here. What He brought was heavenly grace, love, patience, and everything that was lovely and divine. It has been said: "Obedience was not manna". If we are not characterised by obedience, we are not here for God's will. The time past suffices to have lived for the will of man; now we are here for God's will. The sprinkling of blood is once for all, but the obedience is continuous. We could not be in the will of God unless we were justified -- that is, freed from the judgment of God. It is the same principle in Romans: a man must be in righteousness judicially before he can be righteous practically. The obedience must be the obedience of Christ; the motive must be, doing the will of God from the heart. Why does a Christian obey God? Because God has a claim upon him; we are here for His will. Our affections are acted on by the compassions of God, and so we obey (see Romans 12).

Verses 1 and 2 are an introduction; then the subject proper begins in verse 3, with a kind of doxology.

The apostle comes here to the positive work of God in them; God had begotten them to a living hope. It is the sovereignty of God's work in them, God acting on the ground of His mercy. He is rich in mercy, as we get in Ephesians. It applies to the Gentile equally with the Jew.

In connection with the resurrection of Christ God opened a new scene for men according to His own counsel. It was the purpose of God to set up an entirely new scene in connection with a Man risen from the dead. We are begotten again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: it is according to His abundant mercy.

It is not the faith of the Christian that is here spoken of, but the work of God in him -- He has begotten

us. It is to a living hope -- a hope that death cannot touch, it is quite beyond its reach. The resurrection is the beginning, the moral beginning of everything for God. All was in death, but on the first day of the week God raised Christ from the dead, and that was really the beginning of the creation of God. We look at life too much in a material way, as the life of a beast, but when man was created God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. There is no moral element in mere animal life; the beginning with man had the moral element -- God breathed into his nostrils. In the fall, ruin came in in the moral part of man, and then the material part came under it. When God begins to work in him, He begins in the moral part; so we are born again. There is a danger of making two lives. The essence of man's life is in the moral part. It is very poor to level down man's life to the mere animal part. People think that when they are born again they have another life. When a man dies, it is the animal part that dies, death is the separation of body and soul. "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" -- that is, death came on the actual condition. It is in the moral part God begins to work because there the ruin began; the sentence of death came upon Adam because he had fallen. He was liable to death from that moment; he was in the state that must end in death, and that is physical.

The glory of God is the conciliation of His nature with His attributes; then it is He has a free hand. If God had acted in righteousness and according to His holiness, there would have been nothing but destruction, but in Christ we see the conciliation of His nature with His attributes. In the death of Christ we get the declaration of His righteousness and the testimony of His love. We should not have known God's attributes had sin not come in. Righteousness is correlative to sin, but the attribute comes into

exercise by the fact of sin having come in. Glory is always intended, I believe, to convey a moral idea.

Christ was the Prince of life, He was the Son of the living God. The one who is begotten to a living hope may die, but it is a living hope still, it is not affected by death. It is in the resurrection of Christ we get it; the man after the flesh is gone and therefore the living hope is brought in. Those who are begotten to it, stand on an entirely new ground with God; all who have been brought on to it by believing the gospel, are regarded as the children, the offspring of the gospel. God had begotten them to a living hope by the testimony of the resurrection. The death of Christ revealed God Himself; the resurrection revealed His pleasure in regard of man, which was that man should be before Him apart from all reproach that attached to him as after the flesh -- absolutely clear in the eye of God. This is what is set forth in the resurrection of Christ; it was in His death that the veil of the temple was rent in twain. The extent of the justification is that you are clear before God of every reproach that attaches to you as after the flesh. It is in the light of resurrection that we know the value of the blood. Christ entering into death was entirely exceptional; He went into death for the glory of God and to accomplish redemption, and when that was completed He could not be holden of it. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; but what do we believe? The testimony to the resurrection of Christ.

Everything living connects itself as far as I can see with the world to come. There is the greatest possible interest connected with everything that is living. Those who have received God's testimony are the only ones who know anything about resurrection, and I fear the mass of people are infidel in regard of it. They may admit it as a creed. Resurrection is the peculiarity of Christianity and Christian testimony. People do not regard death as the moral judgment of

God, they do not take in its terrible character; it is a rude shock to the tenderest affections and nothing here can in any way relieve it. It is a comfort to me that people do not die to God; God is not the God of the dead but of the living. He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; they live for God, and hence they must come out in resurrection. It is a great thing to get your thoughts outside a world of death to a scene where all is living. There is a whole system of things in connection with a living God -- "a living hope", "living stones". When the living God comes out, He will set aside the power of death. Man does not like any interference on the part of God. God says virtually, I leave you alone for a time, but I have interfered, for the kingdom is here, and I shall interfere still more and shall remove all that exists, in order to bring in a scene that is beyond the domination of death.

On the ground of the "living hope" you come into the inheritance (verse 4). The inheritance is, you share the glory of Christ. Christ is Heir of all things and we are joint heirs with Him; it is reserved in heaven for us, for He is hid. The inheritance must take in all that is headed up in Christ as in Ephesians 1 -- things in heaven and things in earth. It has been acquired but has not yet been redeemed, and therefore it is reserved in heaven, and we are kept down here by the power of God; that is the peculiar position of things. We are kept by faith; that is, that in the midst of the utmost darkness down here, we have light in our souls. It is in this way faith is spoken of in connection with Christ personally in Hebrews 12. It is really the cross, the darkest moment when we get faith alluded to as regards the Lord; He is spoken of as the "Author and finisher of faith". Faith is the instrument by means of which we are kept. The mission of Peter was not to develop what has come to pass in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The effect of

his testimony and that of the twelve was to get saints to believe in a glorified Christ, really laying the foundation of the heavenly city. Peter bore testimony to the presence of the Holy Spirit here as the proof and consequence of Christ being exalted, but Paul develops what was consequent on that presence. John comes in to confirm Paul. John gives things that are more intensely essential, things more in connection with the nature of God. The loss would be irreparable if John's writings were taken away. Paul gives more the architecture, but John gives things in their own proper essential character. Paul teaches that God sent His Son that we might receive sonship, but John gives us all as to the truth of the Son.

We are "kept by the power of God through faith" (verse 5); if divine light illuminates your heart, you are kept. What people want is faith. The first ten chapters of Hebrews are objective, but the eleventh is subjective -- the heart is full of divine light. If a man's faith fails he gets into darkness. Faith is operative by love; it is not an intellectual acceptance of things, but a vital principle in man by which his conduct is determined. The power of God at this moment connects itself with the weakest things here; we continue in the faith and are not moved away, the sense of things does not fade away and that is not because of any stedfastness in us, but because we are kept by the power of God: thus His power connects itself with the weakest things here.

"Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time"; as in every other epistle, the Spirit of God has the "last time" in view; it is the day of Christ.

Ques. How is "salvation" looked at here?

F.E.R. It is the subjugation -- the putting down of everything that is contrary to God and to man. Christ is the salvation; it comes in by Him. It will be revealed in the day of Christ. We get salvation now,

morally, but it comes in eventually by power; it is ready to be revealed, but we get at it morally.

We possess nothing except that into which we have entered, else it would become material. Christianity is all moral and you cannot claim to possess salvation save as you have entered into it. I admit it is in Christ Jesus, and what is in Christ is in Him for every one. It is all free for every one to appropriate, but it is useless to claim possession if you have not entered into it; it falsifies the true character of Christianity. It was that that gave rise to the controversy as to eternal life. Many claimed to possess it who had not entered into it.

This epistle contemplates a people who are in expectation of something coming to them here; it is not the idea of a people going to heaven. The general expectation of Christians is going to heaven, but in Scripture the thought is much more what is to be brought to them here: it is "the grace to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ". Peter takes up the moral government of God and its bearing, and you could not conceive of that without an issue being brought about; the epistle contemplates that issue. We want to get hold more of the whole scheme and system which God has before Him, its breadth, and length, and depth, and height. When we get the great thought before us we shall soon get hold of our own part in it. What is all the moral government of God tending to? It is the final display in which God will be glorified. I do not think that is enough before the minds of people. They are too much taken up with the world. All prophetic scripture looks on to the salvation ready to be revealed.

Ques. Is it connected with Christ gone in?

F.E.R. Yes, but Christ has gone in to come out, and the end is that all will come forth manifestly from God. The church goes to heaven in order to come forth from there; she comes down from God out of

heaven having the glory of God and her light like unto a stone most precious. To "love his appearing" is the description of a Christian. It is a great thing to get an apprehension of the world of which Christ is the centre, Christ dwelling in the heart by faith. The mass of people are too indefinite in their thoughts. What was to be displayed at the coming of the Lord was before the mind of all the apostles. All the writers in Scripture had the coming of the Lord as the goal and end to which they looked. Christ has ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill all things; He is now to dwell in our hearts by faith. I should like to ask people, What is definitely before you? Many would be puzzled to answer. I should answer, I have before me what is before God. It is the whole system of which Christ is the Centre. "We are come unto Mount Sion"; if it is all before God it is what ought to be before us. It is by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the acknowledgment of Him that we get divine intelligence in these things.

Ques. What is the difference between entering into the kingdom and entering into the assembly?

F.E.R. The application of the kingdom is to us individually; in entering into the assembly we come into our relation to Christ and to one another.

It is not possible for anyone to get any intelligence in the Old Testament unless he reads it by Christ. He is the Spirit of it.

In verse 15 God has called us; in verse 17 we call on God as Father. Each has its own consequence. That we are called, involves purpose; Peter takes up the saints on that ground, as we get in verse 2, "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father". If we entertain the thought of being called of God, immediately the necessity for holiness comes in. Grace having come in, righteousness is incumbent, we come under the obligation to righteousness. So,

being called, the obligation is to holiness. Righteousness is your path; holiness is yourself. People do not much discern the distinction between righteousness and holiness. Righteousness is your way, holiness is yourself. It is so even in regard to God: holiness is Himself; righteousness marks His ways. We are created in holiness. Righteousness is that we travel in an appointed path -- within rule -- that is to me the idea of righteousness. Holiness is connected with what you are, and lies in nature. You cannot get holiness out of flesh nor can you put it into flesh, but holiness becomes an obligation on us, as having been called of God who is holy. Holiness is only possible to us as being in Christ, though you may get a kind of holiness from association: "else were your children unclean but now are they holy" -- that is holiness in a relative way.

Discipline comes in to the end that we may be partakers of God's holiness. Holiness is an idea entirely foreign to the best man ever born. The natural mind of man does not entertain the thought of holiness, which is the inward repulsion of evil. The natural conscience may reprove gross things, but the subtleties of flesh are not repellent to the mind of man. Even with people who are outwardly blameless, unworthy things sometimes have a kind of fascination. It proves that man is depraved. But from the fact of being called of God the obligation devolves upon us to be holy, and we have to see to it.

Then we come into the place of children (see verses 17 - 19). Invoking Him as Father, involves the relationship of children; we take that place in relation to God. He "judges", I believe, in the way of discipline; He takes account of people according to their works. If we take the place of being children we come under the discipline of the Father, and in that sense we pass the time of our sojourning here, in fear. We ought to take account of it that God judges

according to every man's work; we do not call upon One who has favourites.

Then another thing comes out here and that is you are taken up on the ground of being "redeemed" (verse 18), and for that reason we have to regard the right of the Redeemer. He redeemed that over which He had the right of inheritance. I do not know if we take in the seriousness of these things. We call on One who judges according to right and wrong, not simply according to the fact that we are Christians. Then again, God Himself is the Redeemer; Christ is, as it were, the redemption price. God is the Redeemer by Christ: "with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish". The One in whom the redemption has been carried out is Christ, as a lamb pre-ordained. You get the idea of inheritance in the fact of our being elect according to the foreknowledge of God. The inheritance came under liability, and God Himself comes in to take up the liability in order to redeem the inheritance, and so you get Christ as a lamb brought in. The burden which lay upon the elect people of God was really man -- flesh. Hence redemption is by the blood of Christ which is the witness that death had come in. Man's flesh is the burden, and they were redeemed from the vain conversation by getting rid of the man. Christ came into death in order that we might accept death and might live in His life. What marks this passage is an entirely new beginning with God who is holy. It is a striking thing that redemption, as spoken of here, is not from sin but from what is outwardly religious. It is not the idea we associate generally with redemption: it was from their "vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers". Nothing could be worse than the will of man in divine things. The mystery of iniquity already works -- that is, not only in the world but in that which is outwardly religious. The tendency in man is to bring everything down to

the human level so that it can be taken up by unconverted people without spiritual power. And people tolerate it, they tolerate everything that is within man's power. Popery, High Churchism are not beyond the power of man: what is hated is what is beyond man's power, but they tolerate all that lies within the range of man's power to achieve. We see in verse 18 what Judaism had come to in the thought of God -- "vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers".

Redemption in Scripture is always from something. "The angel which redeemed me from all evil". It is taking people out from a false position. Israel could not worship God in Egypt, so God redeemed them that they might be a worshipping people. Redemption also brings in the thought of purpose. God redeems those about whom He has a purpose of blessing, but God never redeems until the pressure of the bondage is felt. Redemption comes in as the witness of God's love; it is not merely a way of escape from bondage, but a redemption that would bring us to Himself, and that, as He has been pleased to reveal Himself in love. God makes known His love in the work by which we are redeemed. The real foundation of the gospel is, "God so loved the world".

God has provided Himself a Lamb in contrast to Israel providing themselves each a lamb for a house. The Lamb is a title which belongs to Christ in relation to the earth. The idea associated with it is redemption. Revelation 4 gives His creation title, and the fifth chapter His redemption title to open the book. The great point in John is that he claims the world for God. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; He is the bread of God, who gives His flesh for the life of the world.

The Lamb is spoken of here in connection with eternal purpose (see verse 20). It was the purpose of

God to put everything on the ground of redemption. It is the only secure ground; there is no security on the footing of man's responsibility. Evil has come into the responsible system, but it was ever in the purpose of God to put everything on the footing of redemption. Satan is opposed to man getting any light from God -- he is deadly opposed to it. He will allow man to be as religious as possible, he himself is transformed into an angel of light, but man must have no light from God. The God of this world blinds the minds of those who believe not; the consequence is that if there is a testimony to the rights and glory of Christ, he does not understand it, but he is conscious that it is light from God, and therefore raises a storm of opposition against it.

There are two sides to redemption. Redemption is complete on the part of God. He takes up His right in regard of man on the ground of redemption. The old-fashioned way of preaching the gospel was that every man was under the wrath of God, but that he could be free of it by faith in Christ. The truth is, that God is favourable to all men, His righteousness is "unto all". All has been secured on the part of God and redemption is in Christ Jesus. The other side of redemption is when we have it. The present time is a peculiar moment; it is an accepted time, a day of salvation -- that is the position of things. The casting off of the Jew is the reconciling of the world. It is as to the Jew that it says: "The wrath of God abideth on him"; they were not subject to the Son. The Jew had been tested by the coming of light into the world. It brought out that men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Wrath has come upon them to the uttermost; but Christ is God's salvation to the ends of the earth; He is set to be light to the Gentiles. The great point is to enlighten people as to the salvation. Death and whatever lay upon man is met by redemption, and now God proposes

to men that they may be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

Many people think that when they believe, the attitude of God is altered toward them, whereas there is no alteration at all in God's attitude, but they have apprehended the attitude and see things as they are. Wrath is stayed and Christ is the Head of every man. When man shows his hand and sets up the lawless one in place of Christ, then God can stay His hand no longer and that brings in the judgment of God. We do not want to falsify the thought of God in the minds of men; we shall do no good at all if we do.

We ought to be deeply impressed with what Christ will bring in at His appearing. The shining out of God in all that Christ will bring in with Him should be what is before our minds. It ought to be of interest to us for I believe the church will be the great vessel through which the grace and the glory of God will come out by and by. We ought for that reason to be well instructed in the ways of God down here. The church is instructed and intelligent in every way of God; she could not be the heavenly city if it were not so. You have only to go to Psalm 132 to see the close connection between the house and the city; they are identified.

It is quite impossible to realise the salvation that is in Christ Jesus save in the Christian circle. It is impossible to realise it in system, for system is part of the world and salvation is outside the world. There is no salvation outside the church, the Christian circle, that is, the circle to which Christ gives character. It is outside all the hatred of man; it is where love is the atmosphere. We are under obligation to "love one another with a pure heart fervently". The assembly, like Noah's ark, is the place of salvation. In system they are not on the ground of the Christian circle; if there were any apprehension of Christ, people could not continue in it.

Rem. People may know forgiveness in it.

F.E.R. In Christ there is forgiveness for all men, but to appropriate that, you must have the Spirit. By faith we apprehend the mind of God towards all men in Christ, but all appropriation is by the Spirit. What is set forth in Christ is true for all men, but to take it home to yourself is by the Spirit.

Ques. But if people have forgiveness of sins, have they not salvation?

F.E.R. No: they have righteousness; salvation for us, is in coming into the Christian circle. The Christian circle is a great point, it is the answer to Christ in heaven. We cannot attach too much importance to it. I believe what is quite common among us is consent to the truth and retaining as much of the world as possible.

The great thing that Scripture attaches importance to is not going to heaven, but coming out of heaven.

Verse 21 shows us what God can do in man; God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. It is the acting of God in regard of man. The purpose of God in the gospel is to gain the heart of man. It is not simply to rescue him from judgment but that his faith and hope might be in God, for if this is so, He has gained my heart. It is a wonderful thing to see that this is God's intent in the gospel, to reveal Himself to the heart of man so that He might win that heart. In raising Christ from the dead and giving Him glory God is showing us what He can do in a Man. It is the greatest contrast to the first man who dishonoured God and brought in death; but now, in redemption, God shows us what He can do in a Man. Now He raises a Man from the dead and gives Him glory, and this stands good not only for Christ but for every one who by Him believes in God. God has made the greatest possible sacrifice that He might make Himself known in the heart of man. The fact is, man by nature would trust anyone rather than

God. If our faith and hope are in God, it means that the living links of the soul are connected with God; it is not merely faith in a testimony. Until we have some appreciation of the love of God we cannot speak much of our faith and hope being in God. The Lamb is the One who comes out to make known the love of God, and the answer to it is that we trust Him. He is worthy to be trusted because He has raised up Christ from the dead and given Him glory. Who is going to fathom the love of God? It says, God is love, but immediately it goes on to say: In this has been manifested the love of God because that God sent His only begotten Son. We cannot fathom the spring, but in this way we know it, it is thus that it has been manifested to us.

We have become partakers of the divine nature. We are born of the word of God, and the word of God is God Himself. The soul is purified by obeying the truth. Whatever the work of grace in you, you are still the same person; though born again, the person is not changed. Being born again is a marvellous change; it is entirely beyond our powers to describe. Faith is its fruit. New birth was the sovereign action of God when there had been no faith at all. You cannot track or define this action. Repentance is the fruit of it. Thou "canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit". Testimony may be presented to us, but it is no good if there is not that upon which the testimony can anchor. God has to work there first.

The drawing of the Father to the Son is the special grace of Christianity so I should not like to confound that with new birth. There were saints in the Old Testament, and there will be such again of whom it could not be said they are drawn of the Father to the Son.

In Scripture, being born again -- begotten again, is usually spoken of a people who were previously regarded as standing in relation to God.

New birth cannot be separated, at the present time, from the testimony of God. We know nothing about people until they become enlightened by the testimony; the Lord knew and therefore could speak about them. He could say: We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen. All we can say is that if a person has accepted the testimony of God it is a proof that he has been born of God, but as to the thing itself no man living can say anything about it. What we do see is, God's testimony is in the world, and when people become enlightened by it it proves the reality of new birth having taken place. When Israel is revived in the latter day it is not in connection with any particular testimony, but it is all connected with the secret sovereign work of God. In John 3 the Lord is speaking with divine knowledge. We cannot say much about a person until he is enlightened by the testimony. A man may be anxious, but we cannot predicate from that that he is born again, for the anxiety may pass away. In the future in regard of Israel, they are born again without a testimony. In the history of the church I do not believe there ever was a moment when the testimony was not maintained. Verse 23 goes beyond John 3. In 1 Peter 1:23 you are born of the seed. In John 3 the Lord is not addressing Himself to Christians; He was speaking of what was necessary for the Jew that he might be in the kingdom, but here and in John's epistle "born of God" describes what takes place in Christians: "His seed abideth in him". He partakes of the divine nature and therefore he loves the brethren fervently. The "incorruptible seed" is the divine nature.

It is all connected: he had spoken of faith and hope and now love is what he presses, and these three are the elements of Christianity. "Born of God" is applied to Christians only; one who is "born again" is in the road to being a Christian, but John recognises

those to whom he wrote as having received the Spirit.

Here (verse 22) the apostle describes the process by which we arrive at unfeigned love of the brethren. It is by obeying the truth, getting the heart freed from all worldly motives, but then he goes on to show what is the real spring of the process, viz., being born again of incorruptible seed. In preaching the gospel the preacher does not know who is born again. Christ died for all. If the gospel were only for those born again, it would hamper; but we are conscious that the proclamation is for every creature. It is many a long day before people are in the good of the gospel.

In verse 24 there is a great sum up of man. It is quoted from Isaiah 40. All flesh is grass, the grass withereth and the flower thereof fadeth away, but the word of our God shall stand for ever. It is the gospel for Israel and I pity the man who does not delight in it! The glory of man is a dead failure, it is all tinsel; the glory of Jehovah is the only true glory. The point is, Israel needs to get rid of the man: they will receive forgiveness but will begin again in a new Head in whom the forgiveness is set out. They take the new covenant from Christ. God is not only revealed, but in that revelation Christ has become the gathering point for the universe. The glory of man will fade under the scorching influence of the judgments which will come in as we get in Revelation. All depends, even for Israel, upon a heavenly Christ.

These verses (23, 24) bring in the certainty of the divine purpose. "The word of the Lord" is strictly the purpose of God in regard to Israel (that is, His utterance). It endures for ever. The "word of God" is God in expression; God has expressed Himself, but the "word of the Lord" is the statement of His purpose, the fiat of His will; as, for instance, "Israel shall be saved ... with an everlasting salvation". This gives stability to our souls. How many dynasties and kingdoms have passed away, but the word of the

Lord -- what He utters -- endures for ever. No one is established unless he is in the sense of the stability and certainty of the divine purpose. "The word of the Lord" here, is not any particular statement, but in general whatever He purposes. The "word of God" is more moral; by it we become partakers of divine nature.

Ques. What is the thought of being "born of water" in John 3?

F.E.R. It gives the idea of cleansing. It is not the word of God in the sense of the Scriptures, we could not limit it to that. It might be the thought of God as a Judge. You can place no limit on the Spirit of God. If the Spirit of God works in a man He does bring home what is revealed in Scripture. Many a one has been born again through a dream or some providential thing which brought God home to him.

There are two great principles in God's way of recovery; the first thing is to bring us into attachment, the next is to bring us out of the world and the circle of hatred into the circle of love. These two principles are equally important. We are brought out of lawlessness into attachment -- that is righteousness and it is individual; but we have to be brought out of an atmosphere where hatred prevails into an atmosphere where love prevails. In virtue of redemption we are brought into attachment to Christ; by Him we believe in God; and then it goes on to speak of unfeigned love of the brethren, and that brings in the thought of another circle. The two great principles of departure are lawlessness in regard of God and hatred in regard of man. In Cain the principle of the world came in which is hatred; then the only way of escape from that is to get into another circle. The Christian circle is a new system of divine affections. What God provided from the very outset was a centre and a circle, and they were both provided before the gospel

was preached. There was a centre to which men could be attached, and a circle where they could escape the world. Christ was preached, and if attracted and attached to that Centre men would escape lawlessness. But not only that, there was also a circle, and the Holy Spirit came and gave character to it, and those who believed in Christ came into that circle. There could be no more perfect way for us. Only in that way could men escape from lawlessness and hatred. It remains true to the present day: the three measures of meal are leavened, but still the great principles of Christianity remain true and unaffected. God raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory. His glory is that He became the appointed Sun and Centre of an entirely new moral universe. We are brought out of darkness into His marvellous light, and God's marvellous light is Christ.

Ques. What is the attachment?

F.E.R. It is a bond, and the bond is the Spirit. The earth is in attachment to the sun, and the moon to the earth. "Married to another" is the bond. As with husband and wife, all true affections develop after the bond is formed.

Our affection to Christ is proved by the regard we have one for another, it will work out in love one to another.

The "brethren" are those who are born again; we have to recognise them as kindred to Christ. We are born again not 'by' but "out of". The issue is the divine nature. We are speaking in a moral way. The effect of being born again is, we become partakers of the divine nature. Every Christian is begotten of God directly -- no line of succession. As born of Adam there have been intervening generations, but every Christian is directly born again of God. If you know one who is begotten of God and loves God, you love him more than your own kindred. The distinctions of flesh disappear then. The word of

God is the revelation of God in a man's heart. We love Him because He first loved us. We have all been begotten by the revelation of God in our hearts.

Salvation belongs to the Christian circle. In early days the world got no admission into the Christian circle. It was the circle where divine affections were. We cannot return to that but we can see the great principles of it.

CHAPTER 2

In the first verse of this chapter we see all the things that are rife in the world -- malice, envy, hypocrisy, evil speaking; the world is full of these things. If a person is being led on, he begins by attachment to Christ, he believes in Christ, and then he is brought into the Christian circle and out of the worldly system. If people are simple and the truth reaches them that has been their history. In the great systems of Christendom people cannot grow up to salvation, the things in which they are entangled prevent it. They remain in the great worldly systems, and in that way are kept in attachment to the world, and the world is kept in contact with them.

The foundation of the exhortation in the first verse is in the preceding chapter. The apostle is looking at things from the divine side. He looks at the saints as an election of Jews, called, redeemed, and born again, and as new-born babes he urges them on that ground to desire the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow up to salvation. Salvation is the emancipation side. We are never fully in salvation until we are in the land. When we are in heavenly places, then it is that the reproach of Egypt is rolled away, and it is said, "By grace ye are saved". Israel was saved from the power of the enemy when brought through the Red Sea, but it was not realised until they got to Gilgal.

It is a remarkable expression that is used here. We are to grow to salvation. All are not prepared to be relieved from the reproach of Egypt; the bulk of Christians are attracted to things in Egypt. Israel, at the Red Sea, was delivered from the power of the enemy, but they were not saved from themselves. So too we are introduced into the kingdom by faith, but then we are tested. Are we going to yield ourselves to the Spirit, or to assert the flesh? Israel fell by the flesh in the wilderness. It is a great thing for us to come to the consciousness of what we get in Romans 7, that my greatest enemy is myself. But the point to come to is that by the Spirit I am prepared to put that man off, and this latter involves my preparedness to go on to the purpose of God.

The proof of vitality is desiring the sincere milk of the word, as naturally in a babe the proof of vitality is that it desires milk. You want food. It would not be a good sign if a newly converted soul did not crave for food -- not intelligence, but food.

By the Spirit, God has a living voice to us, and I want to hear that voice. We come into the kingdom, and the fact of being there brings us to the house, and then I am conscious that there is a living voice that speaks and that brings me to the assembly. Where there is natural vitality there is power to throw off humours, and so, spiritually, there is the power to throw off spiritual humours, malice, guile, hypocrisy, etc. We have to see to the building up of spiritual affections; then by the sincere milk of the word food becomes assimilated. The Holy Spirit came to establish the kingdom, i.e., the sway, the domination of grace, but as He did not become incarnate He must have a dwelling-place, and therefore He formed the house. Both Peter and Paul preached the kingdom. It began to be announced by the Lord. There is power down here to maintain the kingdom, because the Holy Spirit is here, and if He is here we have the

house and the living voice of the Holy Spirit. God is speaking, He is not silent now. We have the scripture, but we get also a living voice; so he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.

There would be no kingdom here if there were not a power here commensurate with the authority at the right hand of God. The kingdom is the education for the church. The saints in early days were taught of the Holy Spirit before they had the written word; the living voice of the Holy Spirit was here. Everything has to be tested by Scripture; your appeal has to be to the law and the testimony, and all that is not according to the scripture has to be refused, but I do maintain that there is the living voice of the Spirit to be heard. Think of the mighty voice of God in His house in the early days of Christianity! The power is there still, but the vessel is marred, and therefore the effect of that mighty voice is less apparent. A distinguished servant like Timothy had to learn how to behave himself in the house of God; great as he was, he had to order his conduct according to the house.

It is well to raise the question, Is the kingdom still here, is it a reality, or is it a mere statement of terms? It is a great point to get back to the kingdom. It is not in word but in power; it is of the greatest importance to come back to that. Until the presence of the Spirit is recognised you cannot get the truth of the church. It is a grievous thing to ignore the presence of the Spirit. The grandest day of the kingdom was when Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee". There was a wonderful witness to the power of Christ in raising up the lame man. He was a witness to the kingdom, he was walking and leaping; he had come manifestly under the sway of grace. The testimony and force of miracles was that there was a power here which was superior to all the power of evil. So there is a power

now present which is spiritually above all the power of evil.

Tasting that the Lord is gracious is the sense of coming under the sway of grace. Grace is reigning through righteousness unto eternal life. We never could touch righteousness till grace reigned. We could never have come to self-judgment save in the sense of grace. Our first sense of God is grace. Repentance, I admit, is in a sense righteousness, but we can touch righteousness as to the application of it when grace is known. Grace which brings salvation teaches us to live righteously. It is the obligation of a man who knows grace to walk in self-judgment. I wonder, is there any limit to the grace of the Lord? Of His fulness have all we received and grace upon grace; there is no limit! The grace of the Lord acts in this way, it exposes what is contrary to the will of God in order that we may judge ourselves in regard of it. People do not give themselves unreservedly to the Lord. If you did, His grace would expose in you whatever is contrary to the will of God, and if it is exposed it is to be judged.

It is mental milk, it is in contrast to the natural; it is food for the mind in contrast to milk. It is intelligent, that is the meaning of mental.

People want good food; children need good food and healthy conditions; people do not disregard these things for their children, but these are what we need spiritually. You get the best of food in John 6 -- bread which came down from heaven. We need, too, the healthy atmosphere which is found in the Christian circle; if people have these they will have good constitutions. The mental milk is the living bread which came down from heaven. It is a great thing to have tasted it. If grace has touched us, we want to taste it as food to build up the constitution. If a man is to be built up in grace he must eat the food. When a man is converted, he needs to be led on from believing

in the grace presented in Christ to be established in the reality of the covenant -- of God's disposition towards him. We have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and we need to be established in grace more and more. We want to get more and more into the light of the covenant, that leads us to coming to the Living Stone.

Many are puzzled by the expression, "grow up unto salvation". I do not enter into privilege, i.e., what is connected with Christ, unless I have grown up unto salvation, which refers to all that is connected with myself. When we come to Christ as the Living Stone we come to what is connected with Him. We have each individually to come to it -- "to whom coming" -- but in coming you come to what is collective -- a spiritual house, a priesthood.

Salvation is what has been effected for us, but growing up to salvation is our entering into what has been effected. All against us has been annulled in the death of Christ, but to come into the realisation of it is another matter. The Lord put things before His disciples as they were able to bear it; so we grow up to salvation, but we are supposed to have had a taste of it, we have tasted that the Lord is good. "Good" is in the sense of kind, it is not the ordinary word for 'good'. It is the same as in Ephesians 2, "His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus". "To whom coming" is pretty much the same as "All therefore that have heard and have learned of the Father come to me", John 6:45.

It is in the Lord that we learn the great salvation. He has ascended up on high. He went into death, exhausted and annulled it, and now has gone up on high, and He is good. We taste this to begin with. Here it is the newborn babes growing up to salvation. The full grown man grows up in Christ. Here, it is the getting out of the state of being a babe. You have to come. It is a great point, you are attracted; it is the apprehension of what He has effected for man that

draws you to Him; you see the retrieval He has effected for man, that He has actually come down to remove everything under which man lay, and now man is at the right hand of God. The ground of His claim is what He has effected. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathema maranatha". It is wonderful that He should come forth in the sovereignty of grace and retrieve man, and that in Him man should have such a place before God. He was rich, and for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. It is this which draws our hearts to Him. The figure in the apostle's mind (1 Peter 2) is Israel's salvation; they were delivered from Pharaoh and the Egyptian. I rejoice in the Lord because He is the One in whom man is retrieved. "Evil workers", "the concision", would set the first man up again. I was a long time converted before I had any idea of two men and the significance of it. The whole ground of Christ's Lordship is His rejection here. The One who was crucified was made Lord and Christ. There are four things; you believe in the Lord, you love Him, you rejoice in Him, and then you love His appearing.

Now (verse 4) we come to another point, the Living Stone. It is Christ dead and risen. The work of the Spirit in saints is to bring them into accord with Christ, as Christ now is, dead and risen. It is a great thing to apprehend Christ as the Living Stone, disallowed of men but chosen of God. When we are in accord with Christ we are led on by the Spirit to realise that we are dead and risen. Our ability as the holy priesthood, the worshipping company, depends upon our being in accord with Christ. We are dead and risen with Christ.

In testimony, Christ is presented as a point of attraction for all men, but as the Living Stone He is presented more as the centre of the priestly company. "To whom coming as unto a living stone". When we

apprehend Christ thus, we begin to apprehend Him according to divine purpose, and to understand what God is going to establish in Christ. We do not however begin there; we begin by seeing Christ as presenting the grace of God to man. What we get here is in advance of that.

"Disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God", is death and resurrection; in coming to Him as the Living Stone who is "disallowed", but "chosen", we are in association, in accord with Him. He is precious to us. It is the apprehension of Him as the Son of God; not as Son of Abraham or Son of David, but as of the divine nature. All who have heard and learned of the Father come to Him, that is, to the Son of God. Many Christians do not come at all. If we come to the Living Stone, we have to come to Him where He is. As to coming to the Saviour, the truth is, He comes to you where you are. Then you learn that the One who attracts your heart, your Saviour, the One who is good to you, is disallowed indeed of men.

That He was "chosen of God" was always marked, but it came out fully in resurrection.

It is a wonderful thing to come to Christ with the sense that He is of the nature of God morally. God is love, and Christ is of the nature of God. This is the Living Stone, the Son of the living God. It is a point at which the soul arrives when you reach the sense of privilege. You may lose the sense, but you have known it. There can be no real apprehension of Christ until we receive the Spirit. "Come unto me" in Matthew 11 is not to the Saviour but to the Son; you must look at the passage in its connection. "Take my yoke upon you", was spoken to those who laboured and were heavy laden, in bondage to the existing state of things. When Christ was rejected in His official character, He falls back upon the truth of His Person; He falls back upon the thought of Christianity. The point in connection with "a spiritual house" is love;

we come under the sense of His love, and we love Him because He first loved us. What marks the Son of the living God is love, and we come under the influence of His love, and we love Him, and we love the saints too. A bishop or church official is no good in this. We begin to be formed by the influence of love, and this is a great advance on the tasting that the Lord is good. The reason of the Lord's love to us is that we are drawn to Him of the Father, but when drawn to Him we begin to love. We are no good to the assembly unless we are under the influence of love. 1 Corinthians 13 proves this to me. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

It is a spiritual house that is being built up; everything about Christ was spirit. His words were spirit and life. It is a great thing to apprehend that everything in Christ was morally new; it was all from heaven. He took the form of a man, but we want to see the spirit that gave character to the form; that is what we want to apprehend in Christ.

I think the Lord said that His words were spirit and life in contrast to what the people were saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" They were so material. The point to apprehend in Christ is that all in Him was divine. Where was there ever a man before He came, who was meek and lowly in heart and superior to every influence here? It is only in Christ you can learn that what is essentially divine can adapt itself to the state of things here. That is what we learn in Him; but that One is disallowed indeed of man, who is proud and haughty in heart.

We never could have known God if Christ had not died. He came into the place of our judgment that God's righteousness might be vindicated, and that in the same place He might reveal the love of God. The love of God came out fully at the cross. The death of Christ is that which is appealed to as the great proof of divine love.

In this chapter Christ is presented in a different light from the previous one, where His sufferings, His resurrection, and His appearing are spoken of. Here it is as a Living Stone; it is connected with the revelation to Peter in Matthew 16. It brings to light this great truth, that in the ways of God, everything proceeds from God; the real source of everything is God Himself. Christ is the Son of the living God. The One who is to fill all things, who is the centre of the moral universe, has come forth from God, He has proceeded from God.

"Marvellous light", is the light of the full revelation of God. No truth came out after Christ, it all came out by Christ. Indeed, this is self evident, because Christ was the truth. There is no addition after Christ. We have been accustomed to think certain truths came out afterwards by Paul: but I do not think so now, otherwise the Spirit coming would have sealed an incomplete testimony. The Spirit sealed a complete testimony, and this is the force of what we get in John's epistles. "I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it". The testimony was complete. John writes to show that what came out in Paul's testimony had come out in Christ Himself. After the seal came upon the testimony, it could not be added to; Paul could not add anything to what had come out by Christ; had he done so, I think the twelve would have been warranted to reject it. Nothing was communicated to Paul that had not come out in Christ. Take eternal life: Paul was an apostle according to the hope of eternal life, but Christ was that. Paul was used to develop that life by the Spirit, but in the ministry of Christ it all came out. The Lord made known to Paul the bearing of facts, but you get no more facts; the twelve gave the facts (see Luke 1:1, 2), but Paul gave the bearing of these facts. Many things came out by Christ which were not ministered at first by

the apostles. Eternal life, for instance, did not at first come out in public testimony. You have to distinguish between what came out in Christ and what was presented in public testimony; the latter came out gradually. The twelve speak of the fact of the Spirit's presence, but Paul develops what was consequent upon His presence. That the Gentiles were fellow heirs, and the truth of the house were opened out by Paul, but all had, in principle, been set forth in Christ. Even the Lord had said, "Other sheep I have that are not of this fold". The truth of the body had been set forth in Christ, and the Spirit sealed a complete testimony. It is most important to see this. So John tells us to beware of anything being added to the testimony of Christ as presented by the apostles. The twelve had a place which Paul had not, they were eye-witnesses and attendants on the Word. They had been companions of Christ; they will have a special place in the heavenly city. We have been inclined to depreciate the ministry of the twelve to make much of Paul, but the more I go on, the more importance I attach to the place they had. But the twelve could not have developed all that was involved in the testimony of Christ; in public testimony Paul completed the word of God. Christ at the right hand of God was the testimony of the twelve by the Holy Spirit. Paul saw Him there. The gospels were written after Christ was risen and glorified, and were no doubt given as safeguards. You cannot find any truth which is special and peculiar to Paul, that did not come out in principle in Christ Himself.

Peter touches the truth of the church, the house. All hung upon a special revelation to Peter which he apprehended, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God". Where God is brought in as a living God, then all must proceed from Him, and the first thing is the Son of the living God; then we get the house which is the church of the living God. (As the

Son of promise, Christ was Son of Abraham and Son of David.) Then we get living stones. It all depends on the apprehension in our souls. We realise that we are the people of God, redeemed -- as the boards of the tabernacle were established on sockets of silver -- and then, in the apprehension of Christ as the Son of the living God we come to what is life. I am so conscious of being in a world of death -- no life in it at all. Death is upon the best and the worst! The idea of the living God is that God Himself has come out as the Prince of life. "As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself". "They that hear shall live". Life was not recognised in Old Testament times. There was a work of God in saints, and faith; but the Lord said, I am come that they might have life. As long as God was going on with man in the flesh, He did not come out as the Source of life. It is an unvarying principle in God's ways that He will preserve a remnant, He will have a tenth; "In it shall be a tenth", Isaiah 6:13. The Lord had the tenth leper.

"Them which were disobedient". Disobedience is marked when you are under command; so Adam was disobedient and Israel was disobedient, but from Adam to Moses it was lawlessness, people had broken away from rule.

Everything for every one hangs on Christ; He is the Head of every man. The moment Christ became man, He became the Head of every man, and thus He became the test for every one. Simeon said, "This child is set for the fall and rising up of many in Israel". "A light for the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel". Then again, in Romans 11 the fall of the Jew is the riches of the world, and the casting away of them the reconciling of the world. And how? Because God has introduced a new Head, and as a consequence everything was put on a different footing. Christ is Head of

every man for God; the point is, will you have the Head? Man says, No; the scientist, the philosopher, each wants to be head to himself and head for a few more, if possible.

The corner stone is the most conspicuous stone; it is called the head of the corner. In resurrection, Christ was proved to be elect, holy, and beloved; but He always was so. I do pity the man who does not accept Christ as Head. Men have great confidence in their own heads, and they are not prepared to adopt this new Head. Christ is the righteous One, and He has borne man's liabilities and has gone to the right hand of God. That is the new Head for man. If God does not allow lawlessness in the physical universe, how will He allow it in the moral universe? Righteousness, on the part of God, is the assertion of rights, but righteousness, on my part, is the admission of rights. God has rights over me, I admit them. Every relationship here has a claim upon me, and I admit those claims; that is righteousness as regards us. God has taken up man wholly on other ground. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. The introduction of a Head involves that the Head is placed in relation to men. That is the wisdom of God. In thus taking up things, God was enabled to take up man on an entirely new footing. He could have nothing to say to man but judgment, but Christ came in as a new Head, and He takes up the liabilities which lay upon man, and then God is enabled to present His righteousness to man; therefore it is by faith of Jesus Christ. If you bow to Him and then submit to God's righteousness He can then assert His right of mercy, but apart from Christ He could but assert His righteous judgment.

When offences and sins are spoken of, I think it is the transgression of those who stood in relation to God, but in the death of Christ you get the termination

of man in the flesh, and then Christ is a new Head for man. God allowed Christ to be presented to the Jew, but there was no thought that He would be accepted. Simeon said, "This child is set for the fall ... of many in Israel". There was a great effort on the part of Herod to cut Christ off even as a babe. Israel had been accustomed to sacrifices for sins, and therefore a testimony to them as to forgiveness of sins was welcomed, but the divine way in regard to the Gentile who had never stood in relation to God, is that God raised up a new Head for man, who has borne the liabilities which lay upon man, and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins are preached among all nations. This is the broad ground which applies to the Gentiles. We are not so much a people as children of God, but here (verse 10) Christians are spoken of as a people of God, that is, they had taken the place of Israel.

The thought of unity comes out in the thought of priesthood. It is not priests, but a priesthood. We have come into the place which was foreshadowed in Israel. Israel was to have been a holy priesthood. It was God's thought in regard to the nation that they should be a holy nation to show forth His praises. We have come into these things in the meantime, spiritually, we take up Israel's privileges in a spiritual way. We cannot at present enter into the purely heavenly things in actuality, but God calls us to be faithful in the things to which we are called as being down here, and that qualifies us for entering into what is purely heavenly by-and-by.

The Corner Stone is laid in Mount Zion. The only way in which you can get a true idea of Mount Zion is in a risen Christ. Men forfeited everything in regard of God when they crucified Christ, but resurrection brought Christ back to man in virtue of redemption. Everything is restored to man. Israel forfeited everything when the ark was carried captive,

but the ark was brought back to Mount Zion. It prefigured Christ brought again from the dead. We have come to Mount Zion in coming to a risen Christ. God brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ. He came out in the new covenant. It was in the blood of the everlasting covenant.

Mount Zion has bulwarks, and palaces, and towers, and we ought to be well instructed in these. Mount Zion is to be the joy of the whole earth; it is beautiful! It is the place which was the witness to the faithfulness of God when the people had lost all.

The holy priesthood is more that we appreciate the revelation. All the light and glory of God were in the house; so, coming to the Living Stone, we are built up a spiritual house. It is a great comfort to me that in such a day as this we can enter into privilege by the power of the Spirit. The danger and tendency with us is to set up something outward. In a day of ruin we do not want to set up anything, but to go on with what is spiritual and privilege, and leave Christendom to its responsibility. There is every encouragement to Christians to enter into the privilege to which we are called, and that without any outward pretension. People have a very poor idea of coming to the Living Stone and being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood; there is such a mockery of it in Christendom.

A sacrifice, as I understand it, is a sacrifice; it is that which costs you something. Sacrifices never went into the temple, and therefore I hesitate to connect the thought with the sanctuary. It is akin to the sacrifice of praise in Hebrews 13. Priesthood in verse 5 of this chapter, is an offering priesthood. I question if Peter carries us as far as the sanctuary. He prepares us for it. The priests had the charge of the sanctuary, but they also had the offering of the sacrifices, which were all outside the sanctuary. Sacrifice is connected with our individual path in the

wilderness. "Strange fire", in the present day, is whatever is not of the Holy Spirit.

There is no access to God except by Jesus Christ; there must be the acknowledgment of Jesus Christ.

The corner stone is the most conspicuous stone; it is not the crown.

It is most important to have the sense of having come to the Living Stone; it lands you outside of this world and its religion. It is strange that the same Person to some is precious and to others a stone of stumbling. It can only be explained by the work of God. Christ reveals God, and all that is of God is repugnant to the natural heart, and therefore He becomes a rock of offence.

Verses 9 and 10 give us the idea of the witness that Christians are called to be in the world; it is analogous to the teaching of Paul. On one side they are one body, and on the other they are Christ's body, the vessel in which Christ is displayed. We find first the idea of a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, and then a chosen generation and royal priesthood. I understand this latter to be the vessels in which His excellencies are to be displayed. We do not get the one without the other. If God does not get His part there will not be much in the presence of men. "Holy priesthood" is a question of approach. In "royal priesthood" the idea is taken from "a kingdom of priests"; He has made us kings and priests. What we get in verses 5 and 9 is what really belonged to Israel. In a way, they were a holy priesthood, and so too a peculiar people -- a vessel in which the character of God was displayed, not the idea of testimony or preaching, but what is moral -- His virtues coming out in us. We are to show them forth. The essence of God's call is that it is out of darkness into light. We are viewed Godward and manward -- inward and outward -- to God and from God; this is the holy priesthood and royal priesthood. It is analogous to

Paul saying, "Ye are Christ's body", the vessel in which the character of Christ was displayed. Christianity was not only to give us privilege, there is also what is to come out in us, a witness to the virtues of God. It is the conduct of Christians morally. We were chosen for the purpose of showing forth the virtues of Him who has called us. If we do not enter into privilege, we shall not get the witness side. One body, is what we are to God; Christ's body is the vessel in which He is displayed. It is just the difference between our being in Christ and Christ being in us. "We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world". This is the witness that is committed to the whole company. Christ had come to Israel according to promise; He was the Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers. Had He come to make good their fleshly hopes and anticipations they might have accepted Him, but in His coming God had other purposes to give effect to, and thus He became a test to the nation. The building of the church had to take precedence of the establishment of the promises to Israel. The lesson Israel had to learn was that God is sovereign, and can do as He pleases. Christ was the Messiah of Israel, and was presented as such to them, but there were deeper things to accomplish and this was a test. Even in Romans we find that the church took precedence of Israel. Romans 1 - 8 speaks of the church. Then, too, in John to we get that the Lord comes into the fold to lead out the sheep and then to form something quite new -- "one flock". In this chapter we get the same thing coming out, "a spiritual house". The quotation in the sixth verse is only to give the character of the Stone -- elect, precious -- it does not go into the question of what was to be built upon it.

The principle of divine sovereignty was what Israel's position as a nation depended on. There were deeper

purposes in connection with the coming of Christ into the world, but God will be faithful to His promises, though if He pleases He can give the first place to these purposes. This is the key to the Epistle to the Romans. The Living Stone was much more than the Son of Abraham or of David, He is a Man come in from God and of Him; then, all that is of man must go. The Living Stone indicated that God had other purposes than merely to establish the promises. Man is gone for God, but he has to go for me -- that is, I have to get the consciousness of it. The great difficulty for us is to arrive at having put off the old man; God removed him at the cross. The truth in Jesus is that the old man has been put off for God; then we have to come to it in mind, and then to be consistent with it. The conclusion we have come to is that we are of God and the whole world lieth in the wicked one. People may think that very uncharitable, but it is what you are compelled to come to if you come to Christianity; there is nothing for God here but Christ. The beginning of it was the Living Stone, but now the truth has gone a point further, and we are living stones, we are of God. What Christ quickens is after Himself, and is after God.

In the first part of the epistle, we have had before us the great elements of salvation, the first of which is being brought into attachment, and thus being delivered from lawlessness. The second is being brought out of the world into the Christian circle. It is in that way that we get the reality of salvation. We have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, who was fore-ordained for us. God has raised Him up from the dead and given Him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God. It is by Christ we believe in God, that is, we are brought into attachment. Then afterwards we get the other point, we are brought into the Christian circle, which delivers us from the world. Being brought into the circle of love is what

delivers from this world. The salvation is in that way complete. It is difficult to realise it in our days. Everything is so dimmed, we are greatly affected by the existing state of Christendom, and therefore it is difficult to realise these things, and to find the Christian circle. We are to follow righteousness, faith, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart, and that, when things have fallen into decay. We have a good deal of Adam and Cain about us, and we have to escape from both (i.e. from lawlessness and hatred); and how? We escape from Adam by being brought into attachment to Christ, and we escape from Cain by being brought into the Christian circle; we escape from hatred by love. It is difficult practically to get the Christian circle, but it is a great thing to get into the thought of it, for then you are not disposed to go on with that which is a denial of it. There is no idea of the Christian circle in the great systems around us. We are in danger of getting into brethrenism, of looking upon "Brethren" as the circle.

All that comes out in the early part of the second chapter is to strengthen the bond. You begin by loving the brethren, but then you are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood; then to you that believe is the preciousness. That is, as we get increasing light as to Christ, we become more knit together; the bond is increased as we get more light in regard of Christ. We thus not only get the Christian circle, but we get the spiritual house, the one priesthood, the one generation and one nation; the bond is strengthened.

Israel had been the house, but now it is a spiritual house. The more apprehension we get of Christ, the greater the effect in binding us together, and the more unity is promoted. When divisions come in among us and we are broken up, it has not indicated increasing light with regard to Christ, for light in

regard to Christ tends to build up and unite. These Jews had an apprehension of the Christian circle, they loved the brethren unfeignedly, and they were a spiritual house, a chosen generation; it tended in the direction of promoting unity. It is a very important principle that light does not tend to disintegration but to unity, and I believe that is the true way of unity. We all beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image (see 2 Corinthians 3:18). The effect is produced upon all of us; we all feel it. It brings us together, and nothing else will. There is only one house and one priesthood. The Spirit produces an apprehension of Christ, and it tends in the direction of unity, and the effect is that God shines out. We are a chosen nation to show forth the praises of Him who has called us. It was not God's thought that one Israelite should witness to God; it was that the nation should do so. So too in regard of the church, it was to be a witness to unity. The state of Christendom only proves how little Christ is known. We get in this the completeness of the salvation. Once we are instructed as to our links, then we are prepared for the individual path which is the subject in the next section of the epistle. Unless we are in the reality of our relation to Christ and of the Christian circle in unity, we cannot go out rightly in our individual path in this world.

A "virtue" is what has moral excellence; that is really what is of Christ. The source of virtue is not in oneself. The great point for a Christian is to know what the Lord was down here. We have all His course given to us, and we are called to walk as He walked. It takes a good deal of grace to follow in His steps. People do not care for obscurity. There was nothing about Him which sought prominence except the good He did. Imitating Christ is not the same as learning of Him. Walking as He walked is the effect of being under His testimony and hearing

His word. The testimony of Christ brings you under the influence of all that God is. Very few people know what it is to be in God's marvellous light, and yet they may have a great knowledge of the letter of Scripture. I think people make Scripture too much a text-book. Scripture is the record of the revelation rather than the revelation of God. The great point is not to be detained by the letter, but to get to that which the letter makes known. God's marvellous light is a great reality. It is being in the presence of all that God has been pleased to make known of Himself. I believe the cross is where the light of God comes out; He was fully revealed in the death of Christ; it came out, not in statements but in facts, in righteousness and in love, in all that He is. It is wonderful the way God has taken to make Himself known. Righteousness was met according to its measure and declared, but His love is immeasurable, and to be in the presence of these is to be in God's marvellous light. Man was under death, and the law brought home to him the sense that he was rightly under it. It is right for God to say, "Thou shalt not covet", and if a man does covet he must feel he is rightly under the sentence of death. Some people say that Christianity is a question of opinions, others of forms; but I say, it is light. God has revealed Himself in the death of Christ as love. He commends His love towards us. People are not consciously in God's marvellous light. If they were it would have a very wonderful effect upon them down here. The whole spirit and character of the world is just the opposite of the love of God, and if we are under the influence of the world we cannot keep ourselves in the love of God. It is difficult to get free of the contagion.

The tenth verse is quoted from Hosea. What the nation had lost, these Jews of the dispersion had come into, but in a spiritual way. They really were

not a people, and yet now had become the people of God. The truth is set forth in a Jewish light in connection with the government of God. Israel had lost their opportunity, they lost it in rejecting Christ, and I do not believe they ever regain what they have lost, i.e. the presence of Christ among the people. He was as a root out of a dry ground, but they did not appreciate Him. He will come again, but they will see Him only in the church. I do not believe they ever will have Christ among them again. In the church God will show forth the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. He will come to be glorified in His saints and admired in all them that believe. The kingdom now, is that we should be under divine sway here; it is what fits for the heavenly city. The point is, are we prepared to suffer now? We shall not defer to man here, nor accept his support, if we recognise the claims and rights of Christ at the right hand of God and the Holy Spirit here. The kingdom now is a very great test. Who is to rule me, Christ or man? Are we to have recourse to human expedients instead of the support of the Holy Spirit? The kingdom would be worth nothing if there was not power here to maintain it according to the authority at the right hand of God. Every kingdom upon earth has in itself the principle of decay, but I see a kingdom which because of its moral perfection will never decay.

The apostle is addressing Jews very particularly, "Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles" (see verse 12). It is important to remember that the special work of Peter was to serve the remnant. The Lord says to him, "Feed my sheep", and then He reveals to him his death. Peter was to pass off the scene. Gentiles were never as sheep going astray, they never were sheep. Israel were the sheep of His pasture. In the tenth of John, the "other sheep" were only sheep in purpose then; they are not viewed

as sheep till they are brought; "them also I must bring"; the Lord was gathering up everything for God. Now, there is one flock and one Shepherd; this is what is peculiar to Christianity. Peter passes off the scene -- that is, his ministry passed off. His mission was to the Jews specially. In John 21 we get Peter and John, but no mention of Paul. He comes in between. Peter's ministry was to the remnant. Paul carries the church up to heaven as Christ's body, and John brings in the Only begotten into the world again, and therefore he remains until the end.

"Lo-Ammi" was written upon Israel from the time of the Babylonish captivity. A remnant was brought back, to whom Christ was presented, and it is interesting to notice that Stephen says they would be carried away beyond Babylon; that refers to the present time. For a time, God specially concerned Himself about the Jews, but that came to an end. Paul knows no difference. He does not recognise any difference between Jew and Gentile. It is confirmatory to faith to see the Lord revealing to Peter and John their respective place, and then Paul coming in between. The keys of the kingdom were given to Peter to let the Gentiles in, and that was to maintain harmony, but the exception proves the rule. Peter's ministry came to an end when he passed off the scene, it was not put aside by Paul being taken up. They all fully recognised each other's apostleship.

We are to be in the reality of the Christian circle, and then we come out as strangers and pilgrims. The world is an uncongenial circle. You find fleshly lusts all around you in the world; they war against the soul, and we are to abstain from them. They may come out in dress, houses, tastes, but they war against the soul. We are all prone to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. They are in the world and we are very prone to them. We do

not want to encourage what wars against the soul; if you do, you encourage the enemy. The tendency is to sail as close to the wind as possible. What goes on amongst us is that where people have the means they go as close to the world as they can, and yet connect it with a certain consent to the truth. If that is allowed, no progress is being made in the soul.

Young people run after one thing and another, they go and see pictures and the like. They say there is no harm in them, but I say these things war against the soul, and people who go in for them are not going on. It is a grave question with all of us who have to do with young people. We have our responsibility in regard to it. They look up to us, and we have to seek to influence them. In natural things we do not give our children poison instead of good food, and so I think spiritually we ought to try and keep our children from poison. We have often been exercised as to how little we are able to influence them, but still I do not think we should be discouraged, but set the example. We ought to lead the van as a pattern of good works.

In verses 13 - 17 we get an idea of good works. Submit yourselves to every human ordinance. Kings and rulers are not looked at as divine appointment; it is a human ordinance. David and Solomon were God's anointed; now, kings are a human institution and it has to be submitted to. It is the times of the Gentiles, and so kingship is a human ordinance. When God recognised Jerusalem and David, it was divine appointment. God now gives divine support to these human institutions. It makes the path very simple -- you can accept a republic as easily as a kingdom. You submit yourself to it for the Lord's sake, namely for conscience towards the Lord. It is very important to see that government is maintained simply on account of the testimony. 1 Timothy 2 shows this. God has no real interest in the course of the world, it is the testimony which interests God.

Christ is Head of every man, and the testimony of that goes forth, and government is upheld in connection with the going forth of the testimony. I am quite sure God does not uphold government in connection with the glory of man.

In the day when Peter wrote, the state figured by the "mustard tree" had not set in; it has altered things on the face of the world, it has complicated matters and made them more difficult for us. A king reigning in this country, reigns "by the grace of God", and this is the mustard tree, it is the shape it takes. The consequence is that in the minds of most, human institutions get mixed up with the thought of divine authority. David was anointed with the holy oil and took the place of a king, but he could not take the ground of being a king by the grace of God. The great point for us is to disentangle the human institutions from the divine authority, so that we may be able to regulate our conduct in regard of them. Government is an institution recognised of God from Noah downwards; the only thing is, can a king take the ground of reigning by the grace of God?

Kings have authority to rule, but not in God's things. You do not get the combination of God and ruler till Christ comes, but we have not far to go to see the attempt that is made in Christendom to combine them. It is a great thing to disentangle in our minds the thought of God's kingdom and the recognition of human institutions down here.

The heavenly city combines the three great testimonies of God: ruling, for it has the throne of God; then, God dwells there, the Lord God is the light thereof; and then blessing, the river of the water of life proceeding out of the throne. It is exceedingly beautiful, and the one hangs on the other.

The real beginning of the mustard tree was when the church came under the power of the world, and it was sought to combine both. It is remarkable that in

Luke the only two similitudes of the kingdom of God are the mustard tree and the leaven; they set forth that things would become humanised; the kingdom is brought down to what suits man instead of being maintained in its own proper divine character, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Nothing can be more important than to recognise the good of government; even in the worst form of government, I suppose there must be at least a show of seeking good and repressing evil. Bad government, therefore, is better than no government at all; nothing can be worse than anarchy. Then it is important to see that this submission must be yielded for the Lord's sake. No part of a Christian's conduct should be unsuitable to the Lord. Whether in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus; that is very comprehensive. We should be much happier if we did it. We see in the second chapter of Philippians that the divine glory was secured in a Man at the cross, and now, as a moral consequence, the divine glory and universal rights are set forth in Him. Therefore the bearing of His Lordship is very great upon us; He represents to us all the rights and authority of God, and therefore whatever we do, we are to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Christ went down and became obedient unto death to secure and vindicate the glory of God, and therefore, what is morally suitable is His being highly exalted.

I think if I were a preacher going about I should preach nothing but the kingdom, and for this reason, that people need it, and that there is no possibility of entering the church apart from it. People can make no headway unless they know the kingdom. As being under the sway of grace, and no sin imputed, grace and support are ministered to you. The principle of the kingdom is not exaction but support. Christ is exalted to the right hand of God, and there is a power down here equivalent to that. It is a great comfort

that whatever man may make of things down here, the proper character of the kingdom has never been altered, and that is what we have to get back to in a day of ruin.

Ignorance in the things of God is not a commendable thing, at least not as Scripture speaks. "Doing good" is the way you put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, it is not by talking good; we are to be zealous of good works, rich in good works. A Christian should be beneficial to man according to the light of God, that is what I should call "good works". A man of vast resources may be beneficial to man, but what he did would not have the character of good works unless it was in the light of God. The first great thing for a Christian is to take care that he does not falsify the Lord. No matter what people think of me, my demeanour, and ways, and bearing in regard of everything must be that I do not falsify the Lord. We are to be here as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life. Lights are very important in a dark world. A Christian, without any assumption, may reflect the light of God. He has brought us into His marvellous light because He has revealed Himself, and it is in reflecting that light, that we are here as lights in the world.

At the present day the principle that animates dissent is radicalism, puffing down, and Christianity is used too to this end. "Honour all" is the disposition that is to be on the part of the Christian, he does not treat men with contempt or disdain. Take a poor man, you are not to treat him with disdain. "Honour the king", that is by obeying the laws.

Now, in verse 18 we get a word to household servants, not exactly slaves. Verse 19 reads, "this is grace" or "acceptable"; it is the same word as "this is acceptable with God" (verse 20). It is remarkable how much importance is attached to the conduct of slaves and servants. A very special exhortation is addressed

to slaves in Titus, and in connection with that there is a striking setting forth as to grace. The lower people are in the social grade, the more opportunity there is for testimony. When a man is wealthy he has to be divested of the thought that it is a mark of divine favour. It is not so, for often we see a very wicked man attain wealth. I think prosperity may be a mark of divine favour, but I question if it ever was the thought of God that man should amass wealth. The prayer of Agur was, "Give me neither poverty nor riches". The record of his prayer is inspired. Solomon was a man of the greatest powers of observation, and he had abundant opportunity of judging the end of things, and the Spirit of God gives the prayer as wisdom that it may be a help to us. The Lord is given as the example to servants; He came so low in this world that He became an example even to such. The Lord went to the lowest point, He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

The Lord did not take things into His own hands (verse 23). He committed Himself to Him who judges righteously. If you are aspersed and evil spoken of, you have to leave it. If Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree, it is very inconsistent for us to commit them. I think the expression "on the tree" has reference to the curse, "Cursed is every one who hangeth on a tree". It was the way He bore the curse. In order that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness. It is "dead to sins", not to sin. Peter does not teach Paul's doctrine. Christ has borne our sins, and therefore we are to have done with sins; righteousness is to mark us, and the first principle of righteousness has to do with God. Romans 6 is, that you are consistent with the position in which your baptism in figure places you.

Verse 25 could only apply to Jews. They were as sheep gone astray, but were now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls. The position

of the Gentiles is not that of coming in as sheep which had gone astray. The Jew had wandered, but the state of the Gentile was that they were lost in the distance.

CHAPTER 3

We get servants, wives, and husbands taken up in this epistle; not exactly the same classes that the Apostle Paul addresses. The great principle among saints is subjection, and it is the great principle to be maintained in Christianity. Wilfulness and insubjection bring in mischief, therefore servants and wives are to be subject. They are the two subject classes. Husbands are to dwell with their wives according to knowledge. On the other hand, the husband is not to tyrannise over the wife, he is to give honour to her. What a moral beauty and delicacy there is about these exhortations! It is great grace that the Lord has given them to us by one who was in the relationship. I think Paul spoke from a great elevation and from a knowledge of human nature, but Peter's touches are so extremely delicate. There are certain things with regard to which the mind of God never changes. What was suitable for God in woman at the time of the patriarchs is suitable now. The adorning is to be like the adorning of the holy women who trusted in God. Things have not changed morally; what Sarah was the wives are to be now. The great adornment is to be moral; external adornment will not commend a person to God, nor will it to any one accustomed to view things morally. The apostle is going back to what characterised holy women in the primitive days of society, thousands of years ago. It is curious to have to go back to that to see the character and the adorning of a holy woman.

It is that which is not corruptible, it is what is

formed by the word, the hidden man of the heart. It is remarkable how little advance the world has made. There is advance in the sciences and arts, but no advance morally. In some respects the advance has made life more agreeable, but it has not tended to happiness. The pace at which things are going, the facility for travelling, etc., has tended to produce restlessness. There is no happiness apart from contentment. A man may have a hundred thousand a year, but if he is not content, his position is spoiled to him. I can understand the apostle saying, godliness with contentment is great gain. Surrounded with many who are so much better off than oneself, the tendency is to be discontented, so piety with contentment is great gain. What marked these holy women was that they trusted God. It is the natural thought of man to do the best for himself, and this tends to leaving God out. The essence of piety on the other hand is to bring God into our circumstances.

The adorning is not to be external, it is in the hidden man of the heart. It is what the heart cherishes, the heart having a kind of ideal, and after all, what is hidden in the heart comes out; the ideal you cherish is what you practise, a person given to vanity is so because it is in the heart. Christ was the very expression of a meek and quiet spirit, He was meek and lowly in heart. A person has got the ideal in his own heart -- the hidden man -- not comparing himself with others, which means that the ideal is outside, not inside, and our tendency is to compare ourselves with people better off than ourselves.

A meek and quiet spirit is not much appreciated in this world. A person makes no mark in this world unless he has not only ability, but self-assertion. This raises the question whether we judge of things before the world or before God. It is a beautiful expression, "a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price". We might all covet this,

and it is not corruptible. It is that which is to be cultivated, and so cultivated that it becomes characteristic, and so in that sense it is put on. When it is first in the heart and cherished there, it becomes an ornament. It is no good if it does not come this way, it must begin in the heart.

Honour is to be given to the wife as to the weaker vessel. This is often forgotten; she ought to receive consideration. It is well known that where the light of truth has not reached, the women are not held in respect, they are really degraded. But the true standard is that they are heirs together of the grace of life. "The grace of life", is what is given in race. It is an important element in the treatment of a wife that they are heirs together of the grace of life. If there is friction between husband and wife, domestic prayer is hindered. The relationship will not last throughout eternity, but the opportunities the relationship affords bring that which goes on to eternity.

Scripture is perfectly aware of the difficulties even in natural things. God's knowledge is brought in for our benefit, and more than that, where God gives no particular judgment He gives the benefit of the judgment of a spiritual man. Most persons have found that the apostle's judgment in 1 Corinthians 7 was right, but it is not laid down as obligatory.

Rem. What a company we should be if all these injunctions were carried out!

F.E.R. Yes, "having compassion one of another", for instance. All these injunctions can only be carried out in the sense of grace, "knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing".

Ques. What is the blessing (verse 9)?

F.E.R. I think it is what one would call abstract. It is a great thing to be conscious of blessing. Man is under a curse. The blessing of God means the sense of His favour and nearness. The quotation is from

Psalm 37. It applies to the remnant in a world of evildoers; they are called to blessing, and therefore are not to fret themselves but to wait on the Lord.

It is a help to see the natural divisions in the epistle. The division into chapters is very artificial, but in the natural division we get things in a kind of moral sequence. We were seeing that, down to the twenty-first verse of the first chapter, the point is that we are brought into attachment to God; our faith and hope are to be in God. Then in the next section, down to the tenth verse of the second chapter, we get our relation one to another; we are a holy priesthood and a royal priesthood. Then, down to the seventh verse of the third chapter, we get our individual path in the world as pilgrims and strangers, while in the following portion now under consideration we get our relation to the moral government of God. The previous section refers to what you see; "Honour the king", "Love the brotherhood", these things are all seen. But the moral government of God is not now seen. It will not always be hid, it will have an issue, it will become manifest then that the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. The Psalm adds, "to blot out the remembrance of them from the earth". When all becomes manifest, the moral government of God will become manifest; it will no longer be hid. Those who believe are now the subjects of that government. People may prosper in the world as they please, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, and it is well for us to take into account that the moral government of God will have an issue. It will come out in the world to come. If Christians do evil they will have the moral government of God against them. It is in your favour if you do well. The great point is that in the midst of a world of sin and evil, Christians might know on the one hand what is agreeable to God, and on the other what is repugnant to Him. When all is brought to an issue, things will be manifest

enough, but while things are entangled and mixed up, it is not so easy to discern.

There never was a moment when the face of the Lord was not against them that do evil. This is no new principle. At the present moment, however, it needs faith to accept the fact that God's moral government prevails above all the confusion. When Christ was crucified, righteousness was divorced from judgment, but the time will come when righteousness will return to judgment. People attribute the crucifixion of Christ to the Jews, but Scripture attributes it to the princes of this world. The responsibility is extended beyond the Jew, though he was more guilty than all.

At times it does not look very much as if the eyes of the Lord were over the righteous, for they appear to go to the wall; but I do not believe they really go to the wall, for God turns it to discipline. The moral government of God must prevail in the long run, it must come to that issue.

One thing has to be avoided, that is, connecting the moral government of God with man's government of the world, save as permitting it. God has put authority into the hand of the Gentiles, but you cannot connect God with the detail. According to God, Gentile power is a "beast" (see Daniel 7).

This question of God's moral government is very important; I think Christians forget it. Christianity and the knowledge of grace do not take you out of it. You cannot use Christianity as a cover for evil. It remains ever true, as we get in Romans 2 that there is tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, but glory, and honour, and peace to every one that worketh good. If a man is righteous, whoever he is, the eyes of the Lord are over him; so, too, in regard of the evil, the face of the Lord is against the evildoer. The principle is unchanged, that whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap. God governs

according to certain immutable principles of right and wrong, and He never relaxes them. I do not think man's government is moral; I see expediency and the like, but I see nothing moral in it.

Who would not like to love life and see good days! (verses 10, 11). If he does, let him eschew evil and do good, let him seek peace and ensue it. The "life" is life in connection with God. Piety is life with God, practical life down here. We cannot be insensible to the state of things about us, but there is a delight in the fact of life with God, and that apart from eternal life. The Lord could say, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places". There is pleasure in a life with God down here.

All this is under government. The ways of God are severely retributive, and it is so with us as Christians. If you are hard and severe, it will return upon you some way or other. Those who are much under the government of God, prove that His ways are retributive. We do not escape government by becoming subjects of grace; it is by becoming subjects of grace that we come under the government. The people with whom the Lord is specially occupied are the righteous. The government of the wicked, which is judgment on them, is future. "The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous"; and again, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities"; Amos 3:2. But the wicked will yet be cut off, though God allows many things to pass in the world which He would deal with in the righteous. God's moral government is directly in connection with them, but then the blessed thing is that God turns it to account for us.

Ques. Is it those practically righteous?

F.E.R. Yes, I should say so, because it is put in contrast to doing evil. Those who practise righteousness are righteous, even as He is righteous. We are all put to the test down here. We have to refrain

our lips from evil. There is evil all around us, and we have to choose between the two, between good and evil. All this was verified in the life of Christ, and we have to walk as He walked.

Rem. The general effect of the moral government of God, as spoken of here, is to encourage us.

F.E.R. Yes, it is in favour of those who do good. Men of the world have no idea of it; they think the point is to do the best they can for themselves. Since God retired from the world His moral government became hid. David became the subject of it, and many others; properly speaking, it applies to individuals, though as to Israel God's ways were public and manifest. We do not want to be obnoxious to the moral government of God. The fact that many do not take account of it may involve us in suffering. We are likely enough in a world of sin to suffer for righteousness' sake, and I believe the time will come when men will suffer more. Many a workman has to suffer when he refuses to join the combinations of men. It will become full blown when nothing can be done but by the number of the beast. I am very sorry for those who are in the peculiar difficulty of standing apart from these combinations, and are not able to get work. It is a case when suffering for righteousness' sake becomes a very real thing indeed. People do not in a general way harm those who do good, but there is the possibility of having to suffer on account of righteousness. Verse 13 is the general principle, and verse 14 the possible exception to it. The primary principle of righteousness is always in reference to God, as with the two tables of stone -- one referred to God, the other to man; therefore the first principle of righteousness is to God.

"Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, etc". Suffering for righteousness is really suffering for Christ, and the great point is that you sanctify the Lord Christ, i.e., give Him the right place in your heart. Give due

place to Christ. He is the Sun and Centre of righteousness, and if you do not give place in your heart to Him, I do not see how you can suffer for righteousness. The practical working of it is, that you cannot cherish in the heart what is unsuitable to Him. It is a great thing that the Lord Christ should have His proper place in the affections of the saints. I believe He has His place in their faith, but not in their affections. A few years ago, we got very much into the way of thinking only of faith and standing, and the result was, pluming ourselves in orthodoxy. What I get in Scripture is not only faith, but faith working by love, which is really the Spirit's work in us, and love is really the divine nature. Faith and standing are ineffective if not accompanied by the Spirit's work in the believer.

Our knowledge is always in advance of what is made good in us; what a man apprehends mentally and intelligently is always ahead of his faith. Then faith works by love, and love becomes the great operative power in the believer, the effective principle in him. Someone has said, "The eyes see further than the feet go".

Righteousness in the Christian is really self-judgment. The cross is entirely exclusive of sin, so we are to sanctify the Lord Christ, so that every thing of lust and the flesh is disallowed. A man who does allow these cannot lift up his head. We must accept the cross and the teaching of the cross. The great subject of God's testimony is Christ; God has no other testimony. In the Old Testament we get it coming out in detail, and so we had several testimonies, but now all centres in Christ. People say, Christ is in the scripture; I think Christ is found in the heart of the church. The divine mind is Christ in the church. The testimonies all centred in Christ personally, but they are all accomplished in Christ and the church -- that is, Christ dwelling in the heart by faith.

We are to be strengthened by the Spirit of the Father in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, and the end of it is that the divine mind may be set forth in the church. Christ is to be known in the church in the coming ages. I do not believe that Christ personally is to be manifested again. He comes to be glorified in His saints and admired in all them that believe. The three great testimonies of God all centre in the heavenly city. It becomes in the future the source of living waters. This is what the church really is now.

Christ is the Man of God's purpose, and there is nothing for God outside of Christ. He takes precedence of Adam. Christ is second as to coming and order, but first as to purpose. Christ is the Man of God's purpose. The first covenant was not the covenant of purpose; it was connected with the responsibility of man. The new covenant is the covenant of purpose. The principle of recovery is in Christ, but at the same time He is the Man of God's purpose. The real principle and power of recovery is new creation. This is the substance of all the epistles, whether Peter's, James', John's or Paul's. It is not an uncommon idea with people that Christ has come in by way of remedy for sin; well, I admit recovery for man, but the first thing is, Christ is the Man of God's purpose, and nothing is owned of God save what is of that Man. Even such things as genius and acquirements are inadmissible since Christ has come in. Two things have come in in Christ, moral perfection in man, and the revelation of God. Everything that characterises the man which is suitable to God depends upon revelation. Without the knowledge of God there could be no righteousness, nor holiness, neither could you have life, for life is dependent upon light. Darkness and death go together, and light and life go together, and therefore, for righteousness or holiness or anything else, you must have the light of God.

Christ is the antitype of the tree of life. Whatever is set forth in Christ as Man is God's mind towards all men. The enemy, the god of this world, works to hide from men the glory of Christ, God's Man -- the Head. Christ is the anointed Man, the anointed Man is the Man. No one can deny Jesus, but what is denied is that He is the Christ, the anointed Man. The true origin of the Christ is, He is the Son of God, He is of God, though of the seed of David according to the flesh. Antichrist will deny that by and by. Then the same class of people who deny that Jesus is the Christ also deny the Father and the Son -- that is, the revelation of God.

The Man comes out in connection with the revelation of God. Man lost God and went into death and darkness, but when the Second Man comes in, we get the light of God -- we get the Man, and that Man Head of every man. You could not have the revelation of God apart from the Man. The two must of necessity go together. In Christ it was God coming into the world, all the fulness of God dwelt in Him.

The moment Christ came in there were the holy places, a place where God could walk. Where Christ was, God could walk. Now, we Christians are the holy places. You remember God said, "I will dwell in them and walk in them". The disciples were brought into the precincts of God from being in association with Christ, we could not quite say that they were brought into holy places. Things have come to this pass, that there is more of a ministry of Christianity (i.e., as a formal system) than of Christ. The testimony of grace and forgiveness may be adapted to man, and you may thus get a system of morality; but that is Christianity, not Christ. The ministry of Christ is the ministry of another Man. The real point of Christianity is that forgiveness of sins is announced so that we may live in the Man in whom we have the forgiveness. Christ does not live in this

world, and if we live in Christ we do not live in the world. There is a Christianity which I see adapted to man here, but it is not full Christianity; full Christianity is Christ.

Ques. Where does Proverbs come in, as it is neither law nor grace?

F.E.R. Proverbs comes in to help you to discern things here in the world. We are furnished with that by which we can be fortified against what we see at work, that is, with divine wisdom. There are two things we are warned against, the violent man and the strange woman. They represent self-will, and I suppose, folly. Man is not kept from the allurements of this world unless he has a good stand-by. The fact is, however, that even in the darkest days of this world wisdom lifted up her voice. Proverbs is specially written for the young. Solomon was given to write it, as he was a man of vast powers of observation and abundant opportunity for exercising them; the Spirit of God gives us the benefit of his experience.

If you were asked to put incense on an idol altar, if you sanctify the Lord Christ in your heart you could not do it, and probably you would have to suffer; it would be for righteousness. Righteousness is not simply paying twenty shillings in the pound, but giving to Christ what is due to Him. Daniel and his fellows suffered for righteousness. They sanctified the Lord God in their hearts. With us, the truth of Christ has come in, and so it is the Lord Christ, and He is the Sun of righteousness. The suffering contemplated is suffering religiously. In early days the Christians were continually tested as to whether they would acknowledge idols. They were exhorted to sanctify the Lord Christ in their hearts.

We are to be ready to give an answer to every one who asks us a reason of the hope that is in us. After all, Christ has reference to every man. He is Head of every man, not only of believers. He is Lord to those

who believe. If we were challenged, we should have to give out the truth, that Christ is Head of every man. He is One who has to say to every man, and it is for this reason that you are bound to be ready to give an answer to every man that asks. We forget sometimes that Christ has relation to all men -- all are the property of Christ, He has bought the field. We own Him as Lord, but the One whom we so confess is Head of every man. The answer has to be as to this.

There is always a danger of our being pushed into a kind of corner, as if we were some kind of exclusive sect. That kind of ground we ought to try and avoid. It is a great point to maintain that what is set forth in Christ is available for every man.

Ques. Does "That we may present every man perfect in Christ", go out to all?

F.E.R. The apostle is stating the breadth of his mission. He announced Christ, and the object was to present every man perfect in Christ. There are two ministries -- that of the gospel and that of the mystery. Even in regard of the mystery the apostle states it elsewhere very broadly, To make all men see what is the administration of the mystery, Ephesians 3:9.

"With meekness and fear" (verse 13); Scripture takes note not only of what we ought to do, but of the way and spirit in which we are to do it.

In verse 18 we get the thought of Christ coming out in a very remarkable way. He suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit. All testimony began from Christ -- quickened by the Spirit; you get then the new start. "In which also he went and preached", that is, in the Spirit in which He was quickened. It proves that all the testimony, even in the days of Noah, was on the ground of resurrection. "Put to death in the flesh" was the old order brought to an end, but "quickened

by the Spirit" gives you the new start. It is in order that He should take up the place of last Adam and second Man. It was in view of this that He went and preached to the spirits in prison. Christ could not take up the place of Head of every man, save as taking up the liabilities which lay upon man.

The point the apostle has before him in the end of the chapter is that there is an analogy between the time of Noah and the present time. There is a testimony, but it goes on the principle and ground of resurrection. God could not address Himself to man save on that ground. The preaching which was by Noah in that day was in the power of the Spirit by which Christ was quickened. It was not that Christ was then in resurrection. The Spirit of Christ really awaited the resurrection of Christ. The passage connects Noah and his testimony with a risen Christ, although Noah did not know anything about it; the allusion here to the Spirit of Christ proves it. He was made alive by the Spirit, in which also going He preached to the spirits in prison.

Noah was saved by water; baptism, as a figure, also saves us. We find the same position of things down here as in Noah's day. He was occupied with salvation, with preparation for it, but at the same time there was a testimony. We have the same things in Philippians 2 working out our own salvation and shining as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life. There is preparation for salvation and a testimony of righteousness. We are in the position of Noah in regard of what he was doing in view of the coming judgment. Noah was the witness; his testimony was the result of that with which he was occupied. The two things that mark Christians are testimony without and a good conscience within. Noah in his day could not go as far as this; there was no preaching when he was in the ark. It is remarkable that we should be in the good of God's salvation at the same

time that a testimony is going on and the judgment just at hand. The difference between Noah's time and ours is that the testimony is going on while we are in the good of the salvation. The gospel goes out in view of coming judgment, "the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel", Romans 2:16. The proof of judgment coming on this world is that the Christian judges -- he judges morally; he is not taken in by it. But God will do more than this, He will judge it and punish it, He will judge it actually. We do not get the judgment of the world till Christ was rejected. "Now is the judgment of this world". Then the presence of the Holy Spirit brought demonstration to the world of judgment. The world knows nothing of this, but the Christian does, and therefore he judges the world. The Christian gets all the light that the Spirit brings as to the world. How should we be able to judge were it not for the Spirit witnessing that all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life? We judge it morally, and God will judge it actually. The world as a system is very little judged by Christians; we are so affected by its principles, we are so acted upon by the pride of life. How few of us are free of the thought of being something in the world; well, that is "the pride of life". How greatly we are in danger of being affected by the spirit and character of the things by which we are surrounded.

Testimony is really to present Christ as the power of God's salvation: "I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth", Isaiah 49:6. This is what Christ is when rejected by His people Israel. He is a horn of salvation to the house of David, but He is also, being rejected, God's salvation unto the end of the earth. Christ is the One in whom God's salvation is set forth. The One who went into death is now ascended

up far above all heavens; death is robbed of its prey, captivity led captive, and gifts given to men. This is the mighty triumph effected in Christ. Psalm 68 goes on to say, "yea, for the rebellious also", that is, Israel.

There will not be much testimony from any one who is not rejoicing in the Lord. How can you set forth what is in Him if you are not rejoicing in Him? I wish I had a real apprehension of the greatness of what is set forth in the Lord! It is most wonderful to me that the One who went into death is now gone up to the right hand of God, captivity captive led, and He has received the Spirit to give to men. Every one who has received the Holy Spirit is a witness of the triumph; the presence of the Spirit is its proof.

The expression in verse 18, "that he might bring us to God" is sometimes used too flippantly. The full extent of it is when we are brought to God in God's place. We are brought to God in one way in virtue of having the Spirit. We get the two things in Exodus 15. Israel was to prepare Him a habitation; but then we get, "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in" (verse 17). People are too ready to jump to this conclusion, that souls when converted are brought to God. In principle they are, if they have received the Spirit, but we cannot exclude the experimental side. "Christ has once suffered for sins". Peter often speaks of the sufferings; in his thought they go on to death. Christ suffered under the judgment of God. The suffering refers to death, this is unmistakable, for it goes on to say, "being put to death in the flesh".

In one sense, the moral government of God has come to an issue. When you get into the Christian circle, into the house of God, you get what is really according to God. The moral government of God

came to an issue in the flood, but inside the ark all was according to God. The proper character of the house of God is, that all there is according to God. If it is the habitation of God by the Spirit, then we are exhorted to walk worthy of it in all lowliness and meekness. We are not merely in the light of God's moral government, but we are in the light of God Himself; that is the true character of the house of God. Christ is Son over God's house, and all there is according to God. If you can conceive the house of God in an abstract way (Christendom is like a great house), it is where all moral questions and considerations are brought to an issue. That is why Noah and the ark are brought in.

Ques. Would you say that all outside is under judgment?

F.E.R. I should not say so. The Jew is condemned already, but the Gentile has not yet come under condemnation. When apostasy takes place, when antichrist sets up and revelation is refused, then the Gentile will come under condemnation. The Jew has been tested, and he is condemned already; wrath has come upon him to the uttermost. The present moment is one in which God is favourable towards all men. What you want to unfold is that God in Christ, at the present time, is favourable to all men; Christ is presented on the part of God as light and salvation. It would be unwise to say that all men are under condemnation, indeed, it can hardly be said. It falsifies the position, the present situation.

Ques. Would you not say that the wrath of God is on those who refuse the gospel?

F.E.R. No, I could not. The words, "The wrath of God abideth on him" are in Scripture, but it refers to the Jew, he is under condemnation. The position of the Jew is like the swine into which the legion of devils entered, that went violently down a steep place and perished in the sea of the Gentiles.

It is public to all that the Jew has come under the wrath of God, governmentally, of course. It is a great pity to becloud the gracious character of God toward all. I think that all has to be on the ground of resurrection. Every appeal which God has ever made to man has been on that ground. Even the spirits preached to in prison were preached to in the spirit of resurrection. When we come to resurrection, what we are taught is that the flesh is completely gone. God's saving testimony to us is the resurrection of Christ; but then that is the end of the flesh, and if this is so, God is not going to sanction the flesh in me. All testimony is by Christ. "He went and preached". We again get the fact pointed out that the time then was analogous to the present, a testimony going out in the midst of a disobedient world.

What comes out in regard to Noah is very interesting. There is a spot here upon earth where the moral government of God has come to an issue. We could not conceive God dwelling, where it was not so, but it is wonderful that there is the spot, and there all is according to God. The effect, and meaning, and power of baptism is to separate people from the outward corruption in the world to be brought into pure associations, into Christian fellowship. We have a very poor conception of the house of God. By baptism people are purged from pollutions, and are brought into relation to the place where God dwells and where all is of Him. The true idea is lost sight of in Christendom. We cannot see the thing in any defined shape, for what is around is a travesty of the truth, and therefore we have to conceive of it in an abstract way in order to apprehend its true character. If we did thus apprehend the house of God, when we went forth we should be true to our baptism, and thus there would be nothing in us which would be obnoxious to the moral government of God, If a man reckons himself dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God,

then he is a servant to righteousness, his fruit is unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

The more Christ is promoted, the more you enter into salvation. Noah did not know about these things, yet as it was the Spirit of Christ that wrought in him, all is on the same principle both then and now.

You can only get a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. No man can have a good conscience save on that ground. If God comes out in grace, that the liability of death which lay on man should be taken up and borne, the testimony of resurrection is a witness to the great fact that death has been set aside. Therefore, man can only have a good conscience by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You cannot have to say to God save as having a good conscience. After the failure of the priesthood, the high priest could only draw near to God once a year, and that not without blood.

In Old Testament times you get men like Moses and Abraham who were apart from the world; they had the water, but they had not the blood. Abraham was outside the world and dead to the world. So was Moses. There were those who practically accepted death to the world. They had water but not expiation. Until you leave the world you are not entitled to a good conscience. You are not entitled to the benefits of God's testimony till you are baptised, that is, till you accept death to the world.

I should say there is not much difference between a good conscience and a purged conscience, because we get both by the testimony of the resurrection. Righteousness was fully vindicated and established in the death of Christ. Resurrection is the testimony, and glory is the celebration. The great supper in Luke 14 answers to the glory of Christ. Resurrection is the testimony of righteousness, and so we get the good conscience by the testimony, but the Supper is the celebration of righteousness. Therefore the great

subject of testimony is the resurrection, but the man who bears the testimony starts from the celebration. In dealing with people you must see to it that there is a good conscience; no one can come to the celebration of righteousness unless he has received the testimony of righteousness. The resurrection proves that death, the judgment of sin, is vanquished. All real knowledge we have of God is by the Holy Spirit, and our first acquaintance with God must be in righteousness, because man is a sinner. Man being what he is, a poor sinful creature, it must be so, and therefore the first testimony must be the cross.

Baptism has its place and importance here. The millennium will be a state of salvation; they will be saved from their enemies and from the hand of all that hated them, that they might serve the Lord in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life. This will be a state of salvation on the earth. Now, in Christianity you do not get that, but it is, "according to his mercy he saved us", and what is connected with the salvation is "the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit". Paul and Peter come very close to each other here. They both had the idea of a present state of salvation upon earth, that is, being brought into Christian fellowship. The place is the house, and baptism brings into that which is connected with it, into the place where they were entitled to a good conscience. Baptism in early days had a peculiar place, and was much more of a test than now. It brought people into the precincts of Christian fellowship where the Holy Spirit was; verse 21 of this chapter is very akin to Titus 3:5.

The "good conscience" here is in respect of God, not in regard to conduct. If a criminal were under sentence by the judge he could not have a good conscience in respect of the king, and he could not approach the king until he was free of the sentence of the judge. Until a man is free of the judgment of

God he is not entitled to a good conscience. Baptism brings you on to the ground where you can enjoy salvation. The good conscience is a "demand", because you could not have to say to God without it, and the resurrection of Christ is the "answer". It is the witness of what has been effected. What a wonderful thing it is that it was the Spirit of a risen Christ that preached in Noah, and so now it is in a risen Christ that God addresses Himself to man; it is toward all men unto justification of life.

Noah preached righteousness, i.e., the rights of God, but he himself was occupied with a place of safety, the ark. God made it a condition of salvation that people separated themselves from all that with which they were previously associated. So we get, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation", and to Saul, "Arise, and be baptised, and wash away thy sins". The great point is that we should enjoy a good conscience in regard to our responsibility. Sin is not imputed to you. I do not think it goes further than this. Here, it is not what is wrought in a person that is in question, but what a person is entitled to enjoy. God attached great importance to people dissociating themselves from that with which they had previously been connected. It was a test. "He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved". There is no virtue in baptism but in the faith; for it goes on to say, "He that believeth not shall be damned". Still the passage does say (and it is conclusive), "He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved". People who might refuse to be baptised were not entitled to a good conscience. The baptisms were most prompt in the Acts. They were baptised to the Lord. If you own the Lord you must go outside the world. He is not Lord to the world. The place where the Lord's authority is owned is the house of God, and that is where you have to come. Christ is constituted Lord on the ground of redemption. If He had enforced

His title as Lord apart from the footing of redemption, it would have been to enforce judgment. If you come to own Christ as Lord, you bring all you possess with you, not a hoof is to be left behind. The Lord claims not only myself but all that belongs to me.

The resurrection makes the salvation valid (read verse 21 omitting the parenthesis). Death is not annulled except by resurrection. Resurrection is the great triumph of God; "By man came also the resurrection of the dead". Death came by man; therefore, if there is to be good for man death must be annulled; but resurrection is the glory of God. "Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" (John 11:40).

There is a reference to the ceremonial washings of the Old Testament, in "Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh".

The principle of God's ways is wonderful. God had a reserve, a resource, all through. Neither Cain nor Seth could bruise the serpent's head, nor could David's throne be established in Solomon. It all awaited the Man. It is wonderful that recovery should be identified with the Man of God's purpose. All is entirely new, and yet there is the principle of recovery. Man was under liability, and Christ came and took up what lay on man, and yet at the same time He was the Man of God's purpose.

Verse 22 is Christ gone into heaven as Man -- all is put under Him. Think of a Man gone into heaven, and who is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to Him!

CHAPTER 4

In the previous chapter we have the idea of salvation and a good conscience in connection with a risen Christ. Now in the beginning of this chapter we get the other side of it. Christ suffered, the Just for the

unjust, that He might bring us to God. We are not yet actually brought to God, but we get the present practical good of it in getting salvation and a good conscience. There is a world of evil around us as it was in the days of Noah; it is going on to judgment, but you can be dissociated from that world, and get a good conscience, by the resurrection of Christ. A good conscience is really righteousness. Righteousness and salvation are always bound up together. We are not brought to God according to the height of His purpose until we get to heaven, but we get it morally now, and in that way we get salvation from the world system and a good conscience towards God. Being brought to God is really association with Christ in heaven. The children of Israel were brought into the wilderness and were brought to God morally in that way, but in its full meaning it refers to their being brought in and planted in the mountain of His inheritance. Sonship fulfils the idea. Practically what we have down here is salvation from the world and all that is against us, and a good conscience towards God, and that because we are righteous as He is righteous. Peter does not take up saints in the light of divine counsel, but more as in the wilderness. The epistle is addressed to the Jews of the dispersion. In the close of the previous chapter you apprehend where you are in regard of God. Now in chapter 4 you get what is the practical answer in us down here, to Christ having suffered for us in the flesh. We are exhorted to arm ourselves with the same mind, for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin -- it is suffering rather than gratification. Stress is laid upon the fact, not simply that Christ died, but that He suffered. Christ having suffered for us in the flesh, we are to be armed with the same mind. Christ came into the condition of flesh and blood that He might suffer in the flesh, and it is not a proper answer to that, that we should give licence to the flesh. The

only proper answer in the Christian to Christ having suffered is, that we arm ourselves with the same mind. The path of the Christian is suffering in the flesh, and that is, to cease from sinning. You suffer rather than sin. If you sin you gratify yourself. A man would not sin if there was no self-gratification in it. Man sins because he finds pleasure in it. It is a point of great practical moment that Christians should arm themselves with the same mind, that it should be a great reality to us that Christ suffered for sin; it is intended so to affect us that we should arm ourselves with the same mind. The divine idea is, that the fact of Christ having suffered in the flesh is not to be merely a doctrine, but that it should have a moral effect upon us. Each doctrine is intended to have a moral effect upon us, and in that way we get our loins girt about with truth. The resurrection of Christ may be accepted as a doctrine, but it is intended to have a moral effect, and the effect of resurrection is righteousness.

Suffering in the flesh is not fasting. "Fasting" comes in in the denial of things which are not sin, which are within our reach, and to which we are entitled; but arming ourselves with the same mind is not fasting -- it is practical and in regard of what is sin. I am so afraid of taking up things in a doctrinal way without their being effective in me. The point is, What effect is it going to have on me? The truth of James is extremely important to Christians, that "faith without works is dead, being alone".

The constant tendency is to gratify the flesh. This is perfectly natural to us. If we see a Babylonish garment or a bit of the world, the tendency is to covet it. Christ suffered in the flesh by being put to death in the flesh -- on our account, of course -- but there is no greater suffering than death. The effect of it is that we are to be here the rest of our time in the flesh for the will of God. The will of God is what is morally right -- it is not merely what you are called to,

but the will of God is the one and only thing that is right. The will of God is properly the rule of the moral universe; all who are not subject to it are lawless.

Ques. What is the difference between the law of God and the will of God?

F.E.R. The law of God is the expression of His will in regard to you and me. It is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God. The will of God is a beautiful thought. It is the purpose of God to be known by His creatures, and He has come out in such a way that He might be known, so that we might walk in the light of the revelation. Israel was called to fulfil obligations, but God was not revealed and they could not fulfil them. Now, God is revealed, and in the light of God we can fulfil our obligations; God has willed to reveal Himself, and the word of God is that in which He has revealed Himself. Properly speaking, the word of God is Christ: "The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him". In the light of God, man has confidence in Him, and in His light every obligation can be carried out. It is a great thing to be in the presence of divine goodness. People are legal because they want to indulge themselves -- to secrete something from God, but in the sense and presence of divine goodness you have no fear or torment, but you have liberty, and so can carry out all obligations.

Many in the world are here for the lusts of men, not always gross ones; it may be the pride of life. So it is a good thing to be here for the will of God. When Christ came here He stood apart from everything, He lived on account of the Father. If we cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart, He would direct us into the will of God. He Himself has been here for it. The more a person is attached to the Lord, and true to Him, the more he comes into the path of the will of God.

The end of the previous chapter unfolds that the footing on which we stand with God, and also our justification, are on the ground of resurrection. Everything is borne witness to in the resurrection of Christ: all God's grace is testified to in the resurrection. God has no thought towards His people but grace, they are on that ground. You can understand therefore the moral suitability of being according to His death. The only ground of a good conscience is the resurrection, because it is the testimony to the righteousness of God secured in the cross. It is not right to be in the benefit of His death, and yet not to be in accord with it: hence the exhortation "arm yourselves likewise with the same mind".

It was by the Spirit of Christ risen that the spirits in prison were preached to -- i.e., it was on the ground of resurrection that the testimony went in Noah's time to the spirits now in prison. In verse 19, chapter 3, "by which" is preceded by "but quickened by the Spirit", which refers to resurrection: "being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit"; then follows, "by which he went and preached", etc. "In prison" is in contrast to their corporeal state. This is brought forward to bring in the truth of the ark. The root from which "ark" is derived is the same word as "atonement", which means "covering". We are saved instrumentally through water, which refers to baptism, but we are covered in the resurrection of Christ. Mr. Stoney used to observe that at the time of the flood there was no flesh under the eye of God; it was either drowned in the flood or covered in the ark. Baptism is a figure; you pass through the water of death, to come out into a place where there is a good conscience and salvation. The practical effect of baptism comes out in the beginning of this chapter. The idea of dissociation is very strongly connected with baptism. The Lord says: "I have a baptism to be baptised with".

He referred to His death, and nothing could more completely sever Him from all previous associations than death. We get its true force and meaning in "Arise and be baptised, and wash away thy sins", and, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation". By some in Christendom it is held as being introductory into Christianity, which is so far right, but they do not see that dissociation is involved in it. Baptism is a figure of death, and nothing separates like death. In early days, those who came by baptism on to the new ground had to suffer persecution; we see this in 1 Corinthians 15, "Else what shall they do which are baptised for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptised for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?" A Jew converted and baptised would now be exposed to persecution. If we are baptised to His death, all should admit that it is an obligation to be consistent with that death, no longer to live the rest of our time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

God marks out the way in baptism, but it is a long time before we learn what it means. Israel was baptised to Moses in the cloud and in the sea, but they really did not know the meaning of it until they were over Jordan. What Israel did, is a picture of what Christendom has done in the absence of Christ: they sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play -- that is, they fell down to the level of the world.

The great mass of Christians drop down to piety and domestic life; they drop down morally; they seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. The time has not come for every man to sit under his vine and under his fig tree; it will come, but that is not the time we live in. The things of Jesus Christ were first with the apostle; and so it should be with us, and our own things, social ties and the like, should have the second place.

"For the time past of our life may suffice us to

have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you" (verses 3, 4). Peter always, like John, speaks from a Jewish point of view as to what was antecedent. He looks upon the Jew as walking in the will of the Gentiles, the Jew had been morally degraded to that. The Gentiles thought it strange that the Christians did not (as the Jew had done) run with them to the same excess of riot.

The kingdom, like the Lord Himself, came into the world almost unperceived. It is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, and men hardly knew that it was there nor what it was. The kingdom of God was among them when Christ was here, but it had come without observation. People only perceive it when they see the effect of it -- righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. They see people quite different from what they were before. When we come under the influence of the grace of God, it is an entirely new path for us. Titus takes it up. The grace of God teaches us that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. What has come in separates us from the present course of things.

"Speaking evil of you". It is a very common thing for people to speak evil of what they do not understand. They said of the Lord: "He casteth out devils by Beelzebub", and I think I have seen the same kind of thing.

The preparation of the ark by Noah was the proof that he himself was accepted of God. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Nine people out of ten take that to mean that he preached judgment. Enoch preached judgment: "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all" (Jude 15); but Noah preached righteousness, that is, the claims of God. Noah himself had accepted

them, and he testified to those rights in an age of lawlessness. Enoch, looking for translation, was outside the whole order, and the next thing was, the coming of the Lord in judgment.

The great subject of the testimony is Christ risen, and no man can preach effectively whose mind is not in accord with it. If a man is not in accord with the resurrection of Christ, and he attempts to preach Christ risen, there is a gap between what he preaches and his own state. When Paul preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified, his mind was in accord with it. He could say of himself: "I am crucified with Christ".

If I have salvation and a good conscience, which means that I stand in righteousness in relation to God, then I am free of the world and the world's influence, and free to live the rest of my time to the will of God. The will of God is: "Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good ... Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good". The will of God is good and perfect and acceptable. It is wonderful that a man who has been under the influence of sin and evil should become morally like God, abhorring evil and overcoming it in the power of good.

Ques. To whom does verse 5 apply?

F.E.R. To the Gentiles. The fact is, God has brought in what is provisional. The house of God anticipates the world to come. God is going to bring everything to a public issue, and the present moment is provisional. God is dwelling here by the Spirit, and it is "an accepted time". God is favourable to man, but antichrist will be set up, and God awaits that moment which will bring in His judgment, and all will be brought to a public issue in the man of sin. But it is a great thing that in the testimony of the gospel, we should not becloud the grace of the moment. The two things are brought together in 2 Peter 3.

Until the gospel had come in it could not have

been said that God is "ready to judge the quick and the dead". There is nothing between God and judgment now. God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son; He has given expression to His love; but now, consequent upon that, His Son being rejected, the position of things is entirely altered. God is now ready to judge the quick and the dead. "Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out", is consequent upon what came out as to the world after God had given expression to His love in giving His Son. The Christian will never come into judgment, but there are those who refuse the gospel. The final thing in regard of man was that he became a rejector of grace. Now, God is ready to judge; the ground of judgment is completed. The broken law and persecution of the prophets might have been a ground of judgment, but that was not a full ground; the rejection of grace completes the full ground of judgment. "Them that are dead", are those actually dead. They had had the gospel preached to them, and therefore the ground of judgment was complete. The epistle goes on the ground that the end of all things is at hand; judgment is imminent. There are two classes in those to whom the gospel had been preached -- those who shall be judged according to men in the flesh, and those who live according to God in the Spirit. "But" has the force of "or"; it is alternative. The preaching of the gospel really divides men into two classes; the one, obnoxious and liable to judgment; the other, who live according to God in the Spirit. It is important to connect verse 6 with the previous verse. The thought and sense of judgment after death is engrained in man; he may reason himself out of it, but it is there.

The effect of the light of grace is, that a man lives according to God in the Spirit -- not according to men in the flesh. What we are as down here does not define our relationship with God. It is all inward with the

Christian. The Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. If we live according to God, it must be according to God in the Spirit. On the other hand, the ground of judgment is according to men in the flesh, i.e., according to man's responsibility. The real object of the gospel is life: it is preparatory. God sent law and sent prophets, but in Christ God Himself came into presence of man, and the effect was, man hated Him. See what came out in the ministry of the Lord here! He was exercising patience and compassion, touching the leper, healing the sick; and yet man hated Him. God Himself had come in, and it only brought out the hatred of man's heart. The revelation of God must run athwart all that is of man. The "dead" are no longer on the footing of responsibility, and there is nothing left for them but judgment. The gospel had been presented to them, and they had not accepted the testimony by which they might have lived according to God in the Spirit, but now, being actually dead, their responsible life was ended, and there was nothing for them but judgment. The divine object in the gospel is life, and while you present the grace of God to men in the announcement of repentance and forgiveness, the object of it is to lead them to Christ that they may receive living water. Verse 6 refers to those in Christianity to whom the gospel had been preached.

Our life with God is all hidden; it is in the Spirit. We live to God in the Spirit. A man may eat and drink to God's glory, but that is not living to God; living to God is all in the Spirit.

The truth of the gospel will all come up as an element in the day of judgment, man will be judged according to that. The gospel is for the saving of the elect, but the testimony is for every man. God has never brought in judgment without a previous testimony. There was even in Sodom a testimony through Lot.

The end of all things is at hand (verse 7) refers to the present course of things.

We are deficient as to having fervent love among ourselves (see verse 8), the love that covers a multitude of sins. We have the tendency too much of taking account of one another's faults. We cannot go on in the reality of Christianity without love. Love is not blind, but it covers. It may be conscious of things, but it rises above them, above the pettiness we might find in each other. How could we reach: "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew -- Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free", except by love. Faith would not carry you. It is only spiritual affection that can carry you above these distinctions. I am convinced a man is only effective in the assembly as he has love. If we judge ourselves in regard of ourselves, God does not upbraid as to what we have judged. "Sarah obeyed Abraham". Scripture speaks of persons according to their general course. So with David -- a man after God's own heart; yet he had signal failures, but Godward he is not characterised by them. So we are told to put on the new man, and yet the flesh is there; but the Christian is characterised by the new man. The Spirit of God takes a far larger thought of things than man does. The Spirit's verdict of Barnabas is that, he was "a good man". It is not his failings that characterised him.

The great thing in verse 11 is that everything is to be traced to God. If a man speaks it is not to be of his own cleverness, but as the oracles of God. If he ministers, it is of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified. In verse 10 "the gift" refers to verse 9. It was the favour of God that gave them that by which they were enabled to exercise hospitality. The grace of God is various; one may speak as the oracles of God and another may minister, but the end is that God in all things may be glorified.

I believe it is the pleasure of God to enlighten men through men, and that is the true power of gift. An apostle was "to open their eyes", to enlighten all, "to make all men see". God alone can effect the work in man, though He is pleased to use man to enlighten man, but it is not man who is to be glorified. If a man minister, he cannot minister except as he has received light from God; then it is a question not of the minister but of God. In verse 11 "ministering" is a man being a steward of God's good things, and it is according to the ability that God gives.

Wherever you get "bread" in Scripture, it is a figure of grace. The feeling of the multitude gives a picture of the administration of grace when the Lord comes. So I believe the church will be active in the administration of grace, just as the twelve were used to be the ministers of Christ's bounty to the people. It is a beautiful picture of what Christ will bring into the world when He comes again, just as the raising up of the impotent man is a figure of the raising up of Israel. Christ will give life to the world when He brings in the light of grace. Death is on everything, and therefore nothing can meet the state of things here but the light of grace. It awaits the coming of the Lord. We await the public administration of grace. When He comes to give life to the world He has to put death aside. The world celebrates "Ascension day", but do you think the mass of people care for the victory -- death swallowed up in victory? No! because victory brings God in, and man does not want God.

The twelfth verse speaks of the fiery trial which was to try them. I suppose he speaks to them as to converted Jews; they had part in the trial which was coming on Israel; in that way it connects the past with the future. In early days, the world took but little account of Christianity, but on the ground of being Jews, those to whom Peter wrote could not escape entirely what befell the nation governmentally, consequent

on the rejection of Christ. I think it is a wonderful thing to be in the light of the glory of the Lord; it was an intense reality to the early Christians. Take Stephen as an instance. I believe we should be irresistible, in a sense, if we were strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. We have to remember, however, that now is the time of suffering. Christ is exalted to the right hand of God, and the Spirit has come down to report His glory, but He is not yet reigning; His place there is priestly, not kingly; He is not sitting in His own throne. When He comes out He will sit as Priest upon His throne. Now, He is in the priestly place. He has gone up on high, as we get in figure in John 6. Afterwards, He comes into the boat. Israel will need to know Christ as Priest, before they know Him as King. When they pass through the tribulation they will need His support and His intercession, and we need both these now. Every Christian has to be carried through as supported by Christ, if he is to be maintained in faith and hope. We get a beautiful picture of it in the parable of the good Samaritan. He set him on his own beast and took care of him. We could not face the pathway here if we were not under grace. The effect of Christ's sympathy is that our souls are maintained in the sense of the domination of grace -- that grace is enthroned and therefore we come boldly. This is pretty much the kingdom, but you cannot separate the thought of the Priest from that of the kingdom. It is through the grace of the Priest alone that anyone could be maintained here. It is the greatest miracle we could see, that a man should be maintained here in faith and hope to the end of a long course, so that his foot does not swell nor does he get weary, nor his garments wax old. I admit we are kept by faith, but we are supported by the grace of the Priest. It is an anomalous state of things down here. You may be under pressure and tribulation here, but the

measure of your joy is the glory at the right hand of God. Tribulation is but for a moment, and it is useful; it works patience, but we are entitled to rejoice in the glory of the Lord.

We ought to reckon that we are to be partakers of Christ's sufferings (verse 13). "If we suffer we shall also reign with him", 2 Timothy 2:12. Our natural tendency is to settle down here and take the world easy. We have to remember that we are in a world of evil, and we cannot go on in the reality of the truth and the power of the Holy Spirit without the suffering reaching us in some way. Suffering for Christ's sake only begins when we have suffered in the flesh. We do not suffer for Christ if we have not suffered in the flesh.

The last clause of verse 14 proves that there is a witness in Christians to the glory of Christ: "On your part he is glorified". Any witness to the glory of Christ is intolerable to man. If we were more faithful in witnessing to the glory of Christ we should suffer more. If there is any truth in the glory of Christ, it is the end of everything here. The devil knows that if the glory of Christ came in, it would be the end of his dominion here. The more we realise the glory of the Lord, the more conscious we are of the power of the devil. So we get: "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might", Ephesians 6:10. There are two classes of suffering contemplated; for righteousness and for Christ's sake. The former is because you will not go on with sin; but suffering for Christ's sake is more your testimony by the Spirit, to Christ in glory. That brings in the thought that if we suffer we shall reign. The character of the present moment is, having fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. It is well to understand what our position is here according to truth. Everything is falsified in the appearance of things in Christendom. It would not do to look at things externally when it is the time of

the sufferings of Christ. Things appear in Christendom as if Christ was in honour, but according to truth the position is one of suffering. "Partakers of the sufferings of Christ" really means fellowship in His sufferings. It fulfils what the Lord said, that in those days they would fast, when the Bridegroom would be taken away from them. The simple question is whether we have the truth. Christ is the truth, and in that way everything is determined by the position of Christ. There is the glory to follow, but until you get the glory you have fellowship in the sufferings. If we were more affected by it, and it were more real to us that it is the time of fellowship in the sufferings of Christ, it would have a great effect upon us. The great danger is that Christians should accept the world -- the Christian world -- as it is; that is the snare into which people have fallen. It will be all right when we get the revelation of His glory: "If we suffer we shall reign with him": "If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together". The professing church is a false witness, but to get the divine idea as to it, we have to get back to the fellowship of His sufferings. The great people of the world do not think anything of the sufferings of Christ; those sufferings are what go on till He gets His rights, i.e., until the revelation of His glory. It is not atoning suffering, of course. A special path of suffering was marked out for Paul, in connection no doubt with his work.

"Fellowship of his sufferings" is the sense of being identified with what is being rejected by the world, i.e., with the Christ who is rejected, the Head of every man. He is not accepted by the world, but I recognise that I live by Him. The world does not accept Christ. Suffering with Christ is the common lot of all Christians; suffering for His sake might come out more in connection with the testimony. The world no more accepts Christ or the principles of

Christ than it did two thousand years ago. The ruling powers of the world do not take into account that Christ is rejected here, but sitting at the right hand of God until His foes are made His footstool.

The mass of people -- professing Christians and real Christians too -- have no idea of Christ having rights in connection with the world, and that He will come out to assert those rights; it is not entertained by people at all. It is spoken of in this passage as the revelation of His glory.

In the present day we may find the true spirit of the world coming out in Popery. Religious officialism is against Christ. The great instrument of persecution in modern times is Popery, but the instrument in the time to come will be the false prophet and the beast. Christ is obnoxious to both. The beast and the false prophet will be more infidel in their profession, but what is of God is obnoxious both to religious officialism and infidelity. Officialism cannot tolerate what is of the Spirit of God. Popery would persecute now if she had the power. There is no such thing as officialism in Christianity; officialism always persecutes, and the only hindrance now is lack of power. The opposition to Christ on earth was from officialism -- the rulers and chief priests were the source of it. He had authority, and yet they were not capable of finding it out. Protestantism has been as guilty of persecuting as Popery. Officialism will not tolerate what is of the Spirit of God.

Baptism brings us into the external bond of Christian fellowship. It signifies that we are committed to the death of Christ. Every Christian has to come back to his baptism, morally. The real moment when we begin is the moment when we come back to our baptism; it is the moment when you come to the fellowship of His death; all before that is a gap with us as far as God is concerned. There is a measure of truth in the church of England idea;

the sponsors take up the vows for the child at baptism, but when he is confirmed he takes up his own responsibility in connection with the vows. It corresponds with what we are at first committed to by baptism, i.e., the death of Christ, and afterwards we are brought to the truth of our baptism. Very few of these things are absolutely false without a shred of truth in them. Many ideas that are scouted are true ideas, but they have dropped into formality, and the true idea is lost. The truth of the one body is set forth in a carnal way in Popery. Take the "real presence" too. It is in bringing before us that which records His death that we approach the "real presence"; but the Romanist has dropped into materialism.

The intense moral character of Scripture is what brings home to me the sense of its authority as the word of God. Even when material things are spoken of, such as the creation, it is as having a moral bearing; they are always related in that way.

In verse 15 we get what is characteristic of Peter; if you suffer, you are to suffer for good not for evil doing. Verse 16 is one of the places where the name "Christian" is recognised, and it is adopted. One of the hardest things that Christians had to bear in early days was the charge of impiety. They did not conform to idolatrous practices and they were regarded as impious and as the causes of national calamities.

Now in verse 17 we find that judgment must begin at the house of God. It signifies that God has now begun to take account of things. They had in a sense been allowed to go on, but now He takes account. In the Old Testament God had said, as it were, Am I going to take up the iniquities of Israel, and let the heathen go unpunished? So we find the judgment of the nations, but God began with those nearest in relation to Himself. I suppose the way in which the judgment began was by persecution. The persecutors

had their own ideas and motives in persecuting, but all the same it was God's hand on them, and so we get: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God". Peter's idea of the house of God never goes beyond the limits of real Christians. What was before the mind of Peter was not the professing body, but the house of God, the real thing. "If it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" And again: "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" The judgment here is wholly governmental, and refers to the present, not to the future. The "end" will be that the remembrance of them shall be blotted out from the earth. It goes right on to the coming of the Lord, but has nothing to do with sessional judgment. So in the Psalms, it is all governmental dealing and the issue of it. Governmental judgment is more in the way of discipline. Sessional judgment is when the Son of man will sit on the throne of His glory. Christ stands in relation to the house of God, and for this reason He stands in relation to the great professing body. He deals with those whom He loves, as we get in Laodicea; but He will eventually spue the professing thing out of His mouth.

God may allow persecution, but it is entirely contrary to the mind of God. Government should concern itself as to whether people are well-doers or evil-doers. When it goes outside the question of well-doing it goes beyond its province. One man is not justified in persecuting another. So we are to commit the keeping of our souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

The "spirit of glory" is that which rests on Christians. It rested on Stephen, and he was enabled to suffer. If we had the sense of the spirit of glory resting on us we should be more prepared to face suffering. The One who has been rejected on earth

is glorified in heaven, and Christians are the witness of it; and if so, how separate we ought to be from the glory of the world. England has part in Babylon, the glory of man. There is no "garden of God" now about which He concerns Himself. There is nothing before God now as to the nations, but a beast, and that in a suspended existence. If we are identified with the spirit of glory we should be apart from all that is Babylonish; it is all man and the glory of man. If you give up Christianity, by all means go in for the glory of the world; but if the church is the witness to the glory of Christ, she cannot be too separate from the glory of man, which is Babylon. I respect the authority as much as any, but I would not touch the glory of this world. Man is under death, but his Head is not under death. Christ the Head of every man has been into death and now lives, and if I live in Him, I live to God.

It is not natural for God to judge His house; conditions had come in which necessitated this, as with the temple: "There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down" (Matthew 24:2); but this was not natural to God. It is a great comfort to know that there is one light in which the church is viewed in which she cannot be judged: i.e., the living stones built up a spiritual house.

If Christians walked in self-judgment, there would be no need for God to come in; but if the lusts of the flesh are allowed, then God must judge. The fact is that the morality of Christians came down to the level of the world. No confidence can be placed in the external system of Christianity. When Paul speaks of the time when perverse men would come in, he says: "I commend you to God and the word of his grace".

The remarkable thing in Revelation is, the church is judged, the candlestick removed -- the church ceasing to be any light for God down here -- and yet at the end

she comes out of heaven with the glory of God, and her light like to a stone most precious. The church is all right when she comes out of heaven. Christians were taken out of the world by being put in relation to God and to one another; but at the same time we have an individual path to pursue through this world, and it is in this world that we come under the moral government of God, and in this world too that we may expect the "fiery trial". I connect it with 1 Corinthians 3. Every man's work shall be tried by fire. It would burn up what would not stand the test. The day would declare what sort of work every man's was.

Ques. What day?

F.E.R. When the Sun would arise.

Ques. Are there not siftings in the ways of God?

F.E.R. Yes; but we do not get tested by persecution. It is too late for persecution. Sifting would come in, but the fiery trial would hardly refer to that. In Smyrna they had tribulation ten days -- that was "fiery trial". There was a peculiar raging against the new testimony that had come out. It is not to be wondered at that there was an outcry. Then we read, "Then had the churches rest". In that case the Lord put a stop to the persecution by the conversion of Saul. The persecutor was converted and the persecution dropped.

I admit that persecution is the natural result of Christ being continued here in the church, but God allows it and turns it to account for His own purpose in view of His people. The house of God was the place of salvation, as we have been seeing. It was the place where the results of God's government had become manifest. It is the place of salvation because it is the sphere of righteousness. When God manifests His government you get the two things, judgment and salvation. The Spirit of God dwells in the church, and His government is brought to an issue there, and

so you get the two principles -- judgment and salvation.

We get three instances in Scripture where God brought His government to an issue, and in all three there was judgment and salvation. The flood is the first; there was salvation in the ark, and judgment on the ungodly. Then there was salvation for Lot and judgment on the cities of the plain. It was the same with Israel: what was salvation to the people was judgment to the Egyptians. It is so in the house of God. It was salvation to the Gentile but judgment to the Jew. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment. Water is the figure of both principles. In connection with the house of God the water of baptism is salvation, but it will be the ground of judgment. If righteousness is not maintained in the house of God, then God comes in in judgment. There is no subject that has been less understood than salvation. The house of God is the place of salvation. In popery they have the idea in a carnal way. There is no salvation outside the church, Christ's Name is there. Salvation is that you are in moral accord with God. When judgment comes, God comes in to deal with what is obnoxious to Himself. It was so with the people at the flood, with the Egyptians, with the Jew. It was the judgment of what was obnoxious to God, but there was salvation -- that is, there was that which was in accord with God. The only point of faith related of Israel was when they passed through the Red Sea. They were in accord with God. In the day when Israel's walls are Salvation, then all will be morally in accord with God. David's prayer was: "Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness", and the answer is, "I will also clothe her priests with salvation" (Psalm 132), that is, they would be in accord with God. The people of God departed from moral accord with God, i.e., the reality of salvation, and so judgment came in. If people want salvation, let them

seek to be in accord with Christ, and they will realise salvation; they will be clothed with it. People want salvation as a term only. The apostle wanted the Philippians to work it out into result. If you are in accord with God, then work it out. Be manifestly the children of God without reproach and you are in the realisation of salvation. "Holding forth the word of life" is holding forth the testimony.

It is a very inexpedient question to put to people, Are you saved? Salvation has not come in manifestly, we can only come into it morally.

Ques. How do you understand: "Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls"?

F.E.R. That is what the apostle wanted for those to whom he wrote.

Ques. Would you say that, saved, or lost, is the state of the case?

F.E.R. Nakedly, I would; but more properly, people are on the road to it. The prodigal was not in salvation until he had the best robe on: he was on the road to it. In the house of God all is in accord with God, and so salvation is there.

Rem. Things are absolute on God's side, but we only get a little at a time.

F.E.R. Yes, that is just it; the robe was there for the prodigal, but it has to be put on. So the salvation is there for us in the house of God; but we have to be brought into accord with God.

What people are called to believe is, not that they are forgiven, but that there is forgiveness of sins preached in Christ's Name; which is God's mind for all men. It is a proclamation. But it is by the Spirit that we appropriate it and know it. It is divine Persons who are presented for faith. We are never called upon to believe anything about ourselves. The nation, i.e., the Jew, must have been peculiarly obnoxious to God, for they had crowned their sin by crucifying Christ; yet Christ was their only way of

escape; there was salvation in no other name. "By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved"; it is "By me".

Ques. When people believed what was preached, did they not get forgiveness?

F.E.R. They received the Spirit, having believed (see Ephesians 1:13).

Ques. But surely they were forgiven then?

F.E.R. What we are speaking of is the appropriation of it for ourselves.

Ques. When you believe the testimony, do you not get what is in the testimony?

F.E.R. No; you get the Spirit. You must have the witness of the Spirit before you get the witness of the water and the blood, and in that way you appropriate what is in Christ.

Rem. While Peter yet spake, the Holy Spirit fell on all that heard the word; Acts 10:44.

F.E.R. That is exactly it, and then it is by the Spirit we appropriate. If we have believed the testimony we have the thing, but we want the witness of it.

Rem. The witness is by the blessedness of it, and so it is. "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven".

F.E.R. Exactly! That is just it. Then we get a purged conscience.

Ques. Have we any witness of anything, save by the Spirit?

F.E.R. Nothing at all. Following faith in God's testimony to every man, there is the seal of the Spirit, and then having the witness of the Spirit you appropriate for yourself what is presented in the testimony for every man.

Ques. How do you understand that the Holy Spirit is given "to them that ask him"?

F.E.R. God interprets a man's heart -- not merely what he asks for. We receive the Spirit in that way, though we may not ask for the Spirit intelligently.

Receiving remission of sins is relief to a man's conscience, not to his head. Forgiveness of sins is more than a term. Surely we have something that would answer to the scapegoat. God in that way gave something special and substantial as proof to Israel that their sins were gone. So with us we receive the Spirit that we may know that we have forgiveness. Israel will receive deliverance by the coming of the Lord. They will get salvation by deliverance from their enemies. And how do we get the knowledge of forgiveness? It is by the Spirit.

Ques. How was it that in Acts, some had believed the testimony who had not received the Spirit?

F.E.R. I could not tell you. God was owning the apostles, and so they did not receive the Spirit until the apostles came down. I maintain that you appropriate nothing save by the Spirit. Whatever is in Christ is for everybody. Simon Magus was discovered; he had not the Spirit.

Old Testament saints had promises and faith, but they had little power of appropriation; the Spirit was not given. God helped them greatly, and they were maintained in faith.

The point in the gift of the Spirit is to give us ability to approach God, to have a purged conscience so that we may have liberty in approaching. There are two things necessary; the two qualifications are, that you must be in the good of the covenant, which is Christ -- the appreciation of Christ; and the other is a purged conscience.

God saves the lost by bringing them into moral accord with Himself.

CHAPTER 5

The apostle appeals to them here on the ground that he was a witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker of His glory. The twelve were appointed witnesses. The only witness now, is the Holy Spirit in the church: there is no witness except that. The church is simply the vessel of the Holy Spirit. So we get: "And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him", Acts 5:32. The normal cry of the Spirit and the bride is "Come". It is very important to apprehend the place of the church as the witness of Christ by the Spirit. The church is the vessel of the witness -- not exactly the witness -- but you cannot think of the Spirit apart from the church, save of course as a divine Person: if you think of the Spirit as a witness down here, you are compelled to think of the vessel.

One sees the wisdom of God, that when the twelve witnesses were taken away, we get the Spirit as witness. It needs the witness of the Spirit today to give any power to preaching, and any preaching apart from that witness is very poor work. If Papists go to the heathen, with them the church is the witness. They have got the right idea, but that idea is a travesty of the truth.

We are not witnesses in the true sense; there is nothing of which we are witnesses. The Spirit is witness of what has taken place in heaven, for He did not come down till Christ was glorified, and hence the Spirit is an effective witness. But then the vessel of the Spirit is the church, and as such, witnesses to the glory of Christ. The moment she came under the influence of the world, she ceased to be a witness.

What an expression of grace it is, a witness of the sufferings, but a partner of the glory. The apostle had

had no experience of the sufferings. Christ took the sufferings, but he is a partaker of the glory.

It is no very exalted ground he takes: "Who am also an elder (i.e., an elder man) and a witness of the sufferings of Christ". There is nothing ecclesiastical about it -- no outward dignity, though there was what was moral. He exhorts the elders to be bishops, that is, to take the oversight, to shepherd the flock of God (not 'feed').

The first idea of elders, was elder men; they were to be men full of the Holy Spirit. Titus appointed only those who were morally qualified for it. "Taking the oversight", is oversight of saints. Saints very often lack in this way -- they need oversight and visiting. "Pastor and teacher", are one, I think: "Elder" has more the character of office: it is not perhaps so much teaching as taking oversight, shepherding people. The evangelist is a distinct gift, but pastor and teacher are one. Oversight, is a divine principle; without question, God intended that His people should have shepherding. The Lord had compassion on the people because they were as sheep not having a shepherd. Nothing could give greater evidence of the great weakness amongst us than that there is so little of this oversight. It is the thought of God that people should be looked after, and often those who are not going on well do not like it; it may be they are ashamed of associations and the like, but all the same it is the divine thought that people should have oversight. It is to be done "of a ready mind" and with no thought of selfish ends.

They were to be ensamples to the flock. You cannot exhort others to do what you do not do yourself.

A young man cannot exhort an elder. We cannot be too rigidly apart from anything that savours of officialism. I would not go to a funeral, even of my nearest relative, if a clergyman was officiating. To care for the saints "of a ready mind" will get its

reward in the day of glory; there will be a full recognition of all that has been carried out here for Christ. People are liable to get depressed in Christianity. A shepherd may encourage and lift them up a bit. A great many people try to live in connection with the things that brought them out of Egypt, i.e., the knowledge of forgiveness, justification, and so on. The truth is that in that case they grow old in the wilderness, they get jaded. People cannot live on these things. Life is the only means of continuance. Life brings in the thought of love and light. Grace has met my responsibility, but if I want to continue, I need other things -- the light of divine love and the purpose of God. The second part of Numbers contemplates that side -- life. If we want to be maintained in the freshness of what brought us out of Egypt we must go on to life. Arminians take up the first part of Numbers, Calvinists the second part. We want both, but if you have life you will be maintained fresh in the first also.

It is a great thing in our experience to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. It is necessary to be humbled. When God finds things in us which are not according to Him, He resists. God knows how to humble, but He knows too how to exalt in due time.

We all ought to be overcomers. "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good". We often get overcome of evil; we get offended, our pride gets hurt, but the whole principle of Christianity is to overcome evil with good. It is a great thing to be an overcomer; there is a strength and enjoyment in it. The Lord says of such: I will make him "a pillar in the temple of my God". The natural disposition of man is to deal with others as they deal with him. Retaliation is what is natural to us, but that is not overcoming evil in the power of good. If you retaliate you have not seized the moment, you have missed the

opportunity. Things are very difficult in the present day. Take debt; it is very hard to be defrauded; but then, if you go to law, you go to law against a professed Christian. It is this latter which makes the practical difficulty.

We have the care of God: "He careth for you" (verse 7), but then we have an adversary too -- the devil going about like a roaring lion. Subtlety acts much better than open opposition. The great effort of Satan is to dislodge Christians from the faith, and therefore it says: "Whom resist stedfast in the faith". The minds of men, nowadays, are filled with ideas of science and the like, and the effort is to undermine the faith. Greater importance is attached to science than to revelation which is of God. If you have an inspired revelation, it is unquestionable that, being what it is, it cannot be broken nor can it accommodate itself to what is of man. If anyone seeks to accommodate what is revelation to man's ideas, it is a practical denial that it is revelation. You cannot mix oil and water; you cannot reconcile revelation with what is of man and human deductions.

These saints were not alone in affliction -- others too came under it (verse 9).

"The God of all grace who hath called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus" -- or rather, in Christ Jesus. It is a great idea! The point is that you have eternal glory in view, and it is in Christ Jesus, it is in another Man. We have come to the beginning when we come to Christ. Christ is the beginning. We might think Genesis was the beginning -- it is not so. Christ is the beginning: He is the outset of God's ways for His glory. The great object of grace is to bring you to be partaker of His Spirit -- that you may get living water from Christ -- then you come to life. Grace operates to show how all that is connected with us in our responsible life has been fully met, and we come to Christ and receive from Him living water;

and then we live; we live in Him who is the beginning. John is very strong about "the beginning". All will disappear but the glory of God and Christ Jesus: all else but that will most surely disappear. Christendom has got the idea of benefits by Christ, and they leave out Christ Himself. Hymns often convey wrong ideas. "Our title to glory we read in thy blood" will not do. There is no title to glory in connection with the blood. The blood of Christ is purgation, we could not go to glory without the blood, but glory is calling and purpose and sovereign mercy. Blood is purgation, and we want it, of course, but title lies in the sovereign gift of God.

The effect of preaching should be to lead people to the Person who is the Head of every man. It has a great effect because you get the sense of being livingly connected with that Man, and as a consequence you are more separated from the man with whom you were connected. It is wonderful to contemplate the eternal glory of God and Christ Jesus, all the moral effulgence of God coming out in Christ Jesus. God coming out displayed in all that He is, and we in the presence of it and able to abide in it. It is possible for man to abide in the presence of God's glory.

The witness of the Spirit is not in what Christians say, but in what they are, and it comes out in their love one to another which is the moral reflection of Christ down here. The great point is that the Spirit's witness is a living witness. It is all living.

THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER

CHAPTER 1

The difference between Peter's first and second epistles is that the first connects itself with the truth of the church built by Christ according to Matthew 16, while in the second, what is prominent is the kingdom, which connects itself with Matthew 17. The first is the place of the church -- the saints -- in relation to God's moral government down here, but in the second epistle the apostle seeks to establish the hearts of the saints in the certainty of the kingdom. Scoffers would discredit this, and that on the ground of the stability of creation; but it is monstrous to refuse all save natural laws, as though God could be bound by His own works. I do not believe that death is due to natural laws, I believe it is the judgment of God on account of sin.

The kingdom will go on after Christianity is over. Christianity will be judged, but the kingdom will be purged. He will gather out of His kingdom all things that do offend. The kingdom is grace acting in power for the subjugation of every enemy. This is what is set forth in David; it is in him you get the first beginning of the kingdom. The kingdom will not tolerate evil, it will have righteousness. All that is hostile is put down. Grace will not allow evil; grace reigns through righteousness. Christ brings in the sway of grace, but not at the expense of righteousness, for righteousness will be maintained.

The "heavens do rule" does not refer to the kingdom of heaven, but to that which was and is always true. God may allow a man (as Nebuchadnezzar) to be lifted up, but when he transgresses he is brought down. God can set up one and put down

another; if He sees fit He can set up the basest of men.

Peter's two epistles are analogous to the two epistles to Timothy, but Peter speaks in his own peculiar way. When Christianity as a professing system has failed, there is nothing left but for the kingdom to be brought in in power, which is God's public assertion of Himself. The outward system of profession is that which fails. What Christ builds -- the church in its own proper character either as the house or the body -- never fails. The failure comes in in connection with the system where man builds. It is important to make a distinction between what the church is in its own proper character and what the professing system becomes. In the parable of the ten virgins it is evident that the mixture of wise and foolish began very early.

There is a remarkable expression here in verse 1. The apostle does not address himself to the Jews of the dispersion, but to those who "have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God" -- not through the grace of God. It is wonderful that we get the righteousness of God in favour of man. So it is in Romans 3. Man being what he is, you would have thought that the righteousness of God was antagonistic to him. The pivot upon which everything turns is the introduction of a Man, a new Head. God has asserted Himself in that Man, the Head, the righteous One. The effect of it is that He gets His own proper place in the affections of man. The Man, the new Head, is the expression of the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is God's rights; well, He has not these rights properly until man's heart recognises the supremacy and rights of God. It all hangs on the introduction of a Man, a Head. God has been justified in regard of the judgment that lay upon man, and by that Man, the new Head, God gets His own proper place in the hearts of men. That Man is the testimony of God, and all depends on how

that Man is received. The law witnessed the righteousness of God, but did not secure it. It is by that Man that God secures it. "What the law could not do ... God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh"; and the object was that man might be subdued to righteousness, and thus God might have His rights in man, the righteous requirements of the law being fulfilled in us. All is given by God on the ground of righteousness. The cross was all righteousness; the One who suffered there was the righteous One, and God's righteousness was declared. There was nothing of sin in it except the sin that was borne vicariously. The cross was the righteous One bearing the righteous judgment of God. God has found a way, in spite of things being what they are, by which He could approach man in testimony; He did it in the fact of that Man coming in and taking up the liabilities that lay upon man. We have obtained like precious faith through the righteousness of God. If God has brought in a Head, you may be quite sure He will take care to see that that Head is accepted.

"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord" (verse 2). People do not realise the gain of the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. We need to get the gain of it, and it is that grace and peace are multiplied. One single figure stands out through all Scripture, and that is Christ. In Genesis God said, "Let there be light", and then you get the appointed light. The two things run through Scripture. We get light, that is the revelation of God, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and then too the appointed Light -- light to rule. But light to rule is rather a different principle from God being revealed. Christ is the Light, the appointed Light. He is the Sun of righteousness, who will rule everything on earth according to the revelation of God. Christ will rule

the day, there will be public light then. Christ will be the Centre of all right affection, and in that way He will rule the day, and it will be a long day too, "for there shall be no night there". There will be a principle of attraction with Christ then just as with the sun now.

The passage in verses 3 and 4 is a difficult one, but if we have difficulties in Scripture, it is because we are not up to it; the difficulties are not in Scripture but in us, and if we were bigger and higher up the difficulties would vanish. "His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness". That is, everything has been given to us, and the way it works is through the knowledge of Him that hath called us. We begin with the clear knowledge of God. God has His own purpose in the gospel, and that is not merely to confer a benefit on us, but that we may know the Benefactor. The woman with the issue of blood was content to get the benefit, but the Lord was not satisfied with this.

Glory is the conciliation of divine attributes with God's nature. Virtue is the excellence of the thing. They go together. If you apprehend the glory you will soon come to the sense of the moral excellence of it. The disciples came in contact with glory and virtue when they were with the Lord. We see all now in the face of Jesus Christ. These promises never came out before. God has been glorified, and His glory is set forth in the face of Jesus Christ, and God is perfectly free to carry out all His pleasure. God is not compromised in giving exceeding great and precious promises.

There is a way in which grace and peace can be multiplied to us, and that is in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. We ought to be more occupied with it. It would be largely experimental. "Every one that loveth ... knoweth God", 1 John 4:7. You cannot know God as a mere question of intelligence;

you can only know God as you are akin to God in nature. The moment the question of the knowledge of God arises, it involves the work of God in us. I go with the presentation of the grace of God to every man, for Christ is the Head of every man, and yet when the question of knowing God comes in, the originating work of God comes in too. When you appreciate the moral excellencies in Christ you come to God. So we cannot separate the knowledge of God from the knowledge of Jesus our Lord. Man is responsible in respect of the testimony which God presents to him, but at the same time, if it is a question of capability for the knowledge of God, you must bring in the work of God. Man has responsibility to listen to what God has to say to him in testimony, yet the capability of knowing God depends upon the work of God in us.

God has called us by glory and virtue, and by the same calling, great and precious promises are given to us. The divine nature is bound up in the great and precious promises, and for this reason, that all the promises are expressions of divine love, and as we enter into the exceeding great and precious promises, we drink into the nature of God, and so we become partakers of the divine nature. The promises all centre in Christ, in the Person through whom God has brought in glory and virtue. We get the force of this passage explained in the prayer in Ephesians 3. All centres in Christ -- length, breadth, depth, height -- and in this way we are filled to all the fulness of God.

The divine nature is involved in every promise of God, and as we enter into this and see the spirit and spring of the promises, we become partakers of the divine nature. There could be no greater privilege than that we who have been slaves of lust should become partakers of the divine nature. It is a great change to come to pass in a man. I have been much interested in seeing, in John 5, 6 and 7, the three great

standing evidences of Christianity. The first is the work of God in a man (chapter 5); then there is bread (chapter 6); and then there is living water (chapter 7). There are those who have heard the voice of the Son of God and who live; there are those who are satisfied, and then, too, there are those who have rivers of living water flowing out from them. These things cannot be gainsaid. They are standing evidences of Christianity -- living evidences. We read books giving proof and evidence of Christianity; I do not care for them. I see evidences to Christ here which cannot be gainsaid. I see people who live, having heard the voice of the Son of God, and I see thousands of people who are in a wilderness with but little here, and yet they are satisfied, and more than that, there are rivers of living water flowing out. What Jerusalem will be in the last days the belly of the believer is to be now. Bread is what we appropriate continually, we get rivers of living water once for all. In the latter day, all the literature which is right and morally refreshing will go out from Jerusalem. All now centres in the inward parts of the believer. "Living water" is health-giving influence.

"Glory and virtue" stand in contrast to the pollution and corruption of the world. It is the effulgence of God coming out -- all moral excellence in it. The testimony of God has come in on that line, it has reached us by glory and virtue. "Glory and virtue" may be an allusion to the sufferings of Christ. Nowhere do glory and virtue shine out as in the death of Christ. The woman who anointed the Lord for His burial had apprehended glory and virtue in Christ. The world is filled with corruption through lust, and evil is painted up to appear fascinating. If they had a representation on the stage of what was morally right, it would not have any interest at all. People are not attracted by good. Recovery does not fascinate as does the fall.

Glory is effulgence, the shining out of what is there. In the garden of Eden you do not see glory. It was all there, but what was there was not effulgent. The circumstances of an innocent creature did not give occasion for the shining out of all that God is. When evil comes in, then God becomes effulgent, all that is there shines out. The glory of God is essentially that He triumphs over evil.

Peter's second epistle is rather a contrast to the first. In the first epistle he speaks of what is collective, a spiritual house, a chosen generation, and salvation is a prominent thought connected with the house of God. In the second epistle the sense of salvation had been largely lost, and the house of God had become obscured. Hence, what is pressed is what is individual. It is the same thing in the epistles to the seven churches; Revelation 2 and 3. "He that hath an ear, let him hear". Great stress is laid upon the kingdom in the second epistle, and of course that connects itself with what is individual. There has been a thought with us of setting up something, on a small scale, of what was the original, but it is not the divine way to establish again what has broken down.

Ques. Do we find the thought of a "remnant" in connection with this?

F.E.R. Well, it is a dangerous thought; you have to be careful as to it. In Israel the remnant came in as the nation. That principle will not apply in regard to the church. The thought of a remnant is that God maintains what is for Himself, but it is very difficult to apply that to the church.

When the thought of the house of God became obscured and the sense of salvation lost, then great importance is attached to what is individual. "An entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom", is all individual. The kingdom referred to is the great display.

Ques. Is the entrance into it a present one?

F.E.R. I should hardly think so.

Ques. Why is it the "everlasting" kingdom?

F.E.R. It is in contrast to what is temporal and has passed away. It is the fulfilment of what the prophets spoke of. They did not look on to the kingdom in mystery, but to its public glory and display. This chapter connects itself with Matthew 17, which certainly looks on to the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. If we become partakers of the divine nature then we shall be resplendent in glory when Christ appears.

I do not think we can attach too much importance to what is individual. We have been accustomed to talk a good deal of what is ecclesiastical -- "the ground of the one body" -- but it has not come to much. If you attach importance to what is individual (that is, what regards yourself), you will not be indifferent to your obligation to others. We are not to be drawn together ecclesiastically, but if we follow righteousness, piety, faith, love, then in that line we shall walk together. But to attempt to set up a little pattern of the church is the greatest mistake that could be. Righteousness is doing what is right morally. It is remarkable that righteousness is the great principle that runs through this epistle. The kingdom is the assertion of God's rights, and the thought of righteousness is carried on in this epistle to the new heavens and the new earth "wherein dwelleth righteousness". The second chapter is occupied with departure from the way of righteousness. There is no hope of the restoration of the house of God. The great thing then is to go on individually, to pay attention to what is individual, and to look forward to the kingdom. If you go on, you are sure to find others going on too. It has always been the case that when there is any recovery, the Spirit of God works in different people.

The movement is not confined to one individual, therefore we are sure to find others.

We have become a little big, and there is a great disposition to imitate what is going on around -- Sunday schools, prayer meetings and the like, and many come to a prepared service.

Ques. What would you arrange as to coming together for prayer?

F.E.R. I do not object to a few coming together for prayer.

Ques. If people were disposed to stay away, would you not encourage them to come?

F.E.R. Well, if they have the heart for it. But have you not heard people speak of "the assembly prayer meeting"? What does that mean? It is a bit of "brethrenism". God looks for fidelity in the individual. The house of God is obscured, and you cannot restore it; but if that is come to pass there is nothing left but fidelity individually. I repudiate all association with any company ecclesiastically.

Ques. But you must have a time fixed to come together?

F.E.R. That is secondary. If people wanted to pray they would come together with one accord. The point with me is, what is in the mind when people do come together.

Ques. You want to do away with formalism?

F.E.R. I want to do away with "brethrenism". If we have been made to drink into one Spirit, then it is not very likely we shall keep apart. People come to a meeting and seem to be casting about as to what to pray for; they have nothing to say. When we come together we ought to come prepared.

Ques. Do you not think that sometimes we have not courage to go away when the meeting is over?

F.E.R. Yes.

In the first part of this chapter we get God's ordering, "According as his divine power hath given

unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness", i.e., all that is brought to light of God. Then from verse 5 we get our side, where diligence has place. We get all things through the knowledge of Him who has called us, and then when we are on the line of diligence it is, "If these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ". On the divine side, all is put within your reach, and there is no stint. We get all through the knowledge of Him who has called us by glory and virtue. God has shone out in that way, but "besides this" we have our side where the line is all moral. We begin with faith and the chain terminates with love. The one line is from God to us, but the other is from faith to love -- it is from faith to God. One quality is to temper another. The Christian career is begun by faith, but we are to have along with it virtue, i.e., courage, in virtue knowledge, and so on. You do not begin with love, you come to it; you are put to school, and you have to learn the lessons in moral sequence; this schooling has to go on. "Love", is a more holy thing than "brotherly love". There may be brotherly love without much sense of the holy love of God. We want brotherly love tempered by the holy love of God.

I suppose many a one begins by faith, but does not go much farther. I think the way we go on in these things is through exercise; they are supplied to us through exercise. It is difficult to me to understand a Christian not going on with these things. It is really the test of vitality. The end of the Christian course is love, and you cannot go beyond that. Many stop at faith. God has done everything and given everything that we may be partakers of the divine nature, but we make our calling and election sure, on our side, by following up these things. It is a great thing to be in faith, but you want all these moral elements in you;

they tend to form the heart of the Christian. Christianity is not holding certain doctrines, but the heart being formed of God according to God.

Knowledge is to be tempered by temperance. The Corinthians needed temperance; knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Piety -- "godliness" is extremely important; you need it if you want to go on with divine things. I do not think you find in newspapers what is commendable in the eye of God.

What we get in this passage is enlargement of heart; the world does not tend in this direction. You could not exaggerate the importance of piety. I think it is just the opposite of worldly prudence. Circumstances test us, adversity tests us, prosperity tests us; the poor man wants piety as much as the rich, and the rich as much as the poor. Holding the truth does not test us; it is circumstances which test how far we trust God. Love will regulate all the other features; they are all permeated by what you come to, i.e., love.

The effect of these things is that we shall not be barren in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We begin with the knowledge of God, but the effect of learning these lessons is that we are not unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We begin by faith, and end with being in accord with God's own order. We could not have known any of these qualities except in Christianity; they came to light then. In heathendom there was no light of such qualities. You may get the names, but the qualities themselves belong to Christianity. What would "piety" mean to a poor heathen? Christianity has brought to light things which we never could have had but by the knowledge of God. We need to confirm our calling and election to ourselves. If we are going on with these things we confirm our own election, both to ourselves and to every one else who has eyes to see it. The absence of these things means that the man is blind, and forgets that he was purged from his old

sins. It indicates to me that all had passed away from him. It really contemplates a mere professor, an extreme case. He might have been purged from his sins in the sense that he had been baptised. See the prominence that is given to the individual; it is "he that lacketh" (verse 9). It speaks of one who had come to the place where purgation was, but was never really purged; it was outward purgation merely. Individual fidelity will have its answer in the kingdom; our place in the kingdom will be in accord with our diligence here. It is a great thing to have the kingdom in view. It is true that God has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, but we still have the display of the kingdom to look forward to.

"Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things" (verse 12). The apostle had a keen sense of his responsibility, and he had the consciousness that his time was limited; he expected shortly to put off his tabernacle, and meanwhile he was diligent in the interests of the saints. It is quite possible to know certain things, but we have to be kept in mind of them; it is a great thing to have the reality of things maintained in divine power in the mind. The same things may be presented in a little different light; we can never wear divine things out. The more we go on the more we find they can be looked at in different lights. Peter was going on in the consciousness of having a cruel death before him; it had been made known to him. He had nothing to gain in this world, and yet divine things were so real to him that we see him going on with the utmost diligence that the saints might have these things always in remembrance. I think all this is morally excellent. The truth makes qualities known that never could have been known otherwise: righteousness, peace, truth, holiness, grace, love. Philosophy never could bring these things to light, for it did not possess them. Patriotism and stoicism might be found

in it, but not the qualities that are morally excellent. I would rather have philanthropy than patriotism; the latter is indefinite, it is love of your country. Philanthropy is love of the species, but loving God is better than all. It is well known that philosophy produced no effect morally. The "present truth" is the truth of Christianity.

Peter kept to his own special ministry, which was the kingdom. The church was not properly his; he recognises it, but the kingdom is what was given to him to minister.

It is "the everlasting kingdom" because there is nothing to succeed it.

The heavenly kingdom will be a kind of sway of God even in heaven. The "world to come" is the habitable world to come; it is put under the Son of man. A great deal is connected with the world to come; it embraces more than the thought of the kingdom. The system of worship, the service of God, what was prefigured in the tabernacle, is connected with the world to come. The first tabernacle has no standing now, but what was shadowed by the table of shewbread and the candlestick has to be fulfilled, for Israel has never yet been connected with Christ. They have been under law and Christ has been presented to them, but what was prefigured in the first tabernacle is Israel in connection with Christ. The first tabernacle is the holy place.

In connection with the kingdom, the church will come down from God out of heaven; it will bear the glory of God and the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.

The kingdom is connected with the wilderness, but the idea of the wilderness is that there is no water and no way, and you have to learn dependence upon God, and the Holy Spirit is given to conduct you through, and to be in you a well of water springing up. The coming of the Holy Spirit is all connected with the

kingdom. The great point in Acts is the kingdom, though the existence of the church is recognised. The kingdom of God is made good down here in the present power of the Holy Spirit, while as to actual circumstances we are in the wilderness. "Mystery" is something set forth here in testimony before it is displayed in power; therefore we get the "mysteries of the kingdom", the "mystery" of the church.

Paul's ministry was to develop all that was consequent upon the presence of the Holy Spirit here, i.e., the house of God and the body of Christ. We are here in a wilderness where there is no way and no water, but that does not alter the fact that we are in our hearts under the sway of God.

The church is reached through the kingdom. If a man who has been away from God is converted, it becomes necessary that the moral sway of God should be established in his heart. God is first made known to him in grace, and then he comes under the teaching of grace. God has tried man under law and under the prophets, but it did not answer, so he is now put under the sway of grace. It is being in the kingdom that gives man an opportunity of learning his contrariety. The old man wants to connect the light and blessing of Christianity with divine institutions -- the old order. It is what the Galatians did. But God's way is that they are not to be connected with the old order. Even as to justification, a man is justified for a dispensation in view, that is, of the world to come. Now, we are justified by faith. Nothing is more important than to see that if a man is justified, he has to leave the world, that is, he must leave the dispensation in which he sinned.

The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God have both their own proper moral character. To enter the kingdom of heaven, a man must be converted and become as a little child; to enter the kingdom of God, a man must be born of water and of the Spirit.

They are the two sides of the same thing. What is true on the one side is true on the other. The kingdom of heaven presents more what is external; it represents authority in heaven. The kingdom of God represents the internal, and is connected with the power of the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of heaven is connected with the authority of the Lord; the kingdom of God, with the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is one kingdom, but there are two phases of it, and each is spoken of in Scripture according to its own proper character, and also as to the character it assumes in connection with profession and in the hand of man. The kingdom is set up here to be a restraint on evil.

People nowadays are selling their birthright for a mess of pottage. Christianity is the birthright, but the apostate gives it up, and he does so because he has something else in view, something to gratify the flesh. People who turn infidel are not honest; the infidel does not like restraint, so he gives Christianity up. God foresaw all as far back as Esau. Look at Jacob at the end of his path; he blesses both the sons of Joseph, and worships, leaning on the top of his staff. People deceive themselves, and they think they deceive others; they are not honest, and that is what stirs me!

Ishmael is another feature of the flesh; he sets forth rebellion against the sovereignty of God, he has to be cast out, for Isaac is the man of promise. It is most beautiful to see the unvarying principle through Scripture -- the one man rejected, and the man whom God approves coming forth, bearing some feature of Christ. We get the same in Cain and Abel. Do you think God will not be sovereign? He will be sovereign, and that is all about it!

We see that in God's kingdom, all the honour and glory come from above. To be eye-witnesses of His majesty, the disciples had to be above and outside all

here. The scene on the mount of Transfiguration was a confirmation of the voice of the prophets who had witnessed to the kingdom. No one understands the law and the prophets unless he knows Christ; Christ is the key to it all. If you knew Christ you would be an expert in the law and the prophets.

It is striking that the only one of the four evangelists who witnessed the Transfiguration, John, is the only one who does not record it. John takes up His personal glory, not the kingdom glory which was conferred. The only glory that could be conferred upon Christ was the public recognition of who He was. The three disciples got on the mount the opportunity of witnessing His glory; they were eye-witnesses of His majesty. It is a great point to get honour and glory from above. David received his from above.

For us the day has dawned, and the Day-star has arisen in our hearts. All became dark for man when he was turned out of Paradise, the scene which God frequented. Man went into darkness, he lost God and went into complete night, at least so far as the Gentiles were concerned. God allowed streaks of light to come in to special ones from time to time, but man as man was in the night. The Christian is now light in the Lord.

Prophecy is referred to in a very interesting way. It is spoken of as a light shining in a dark place. Until the day dawn and the Day-star arise in the heart, we do well to take heed to prophecy. The Day-star ushers in the day; hence prophecy has not quite the same place after the Day-star has arisen. Christ in the heart is the key by which to understand prophecy. It is true the prophets sought to bring the people back to allegiance to God, but the great thought in prophecy was the kingdom, and that thought was confirmed to the apostles by the vision on the holy mount. Christians have got the light of the glory above -- the glory of Christ ascended far above all heavens. We have the

witness of all that by the Holy Spirit. The kingdom is very small in the light of all that. The Day-star includes it all. The apostles had the recollection of Christ here, I admit, but as to the light of His glory they had no more than we have; they had it by the Spirit, and so have we. Christ is the light; the Spirit of God has brought us the report of Christ. He has ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill all things. If that is so, then He must come out in power and glory. The Day-star in that way is the pledge of the day.

Redemption has come in, and as a result the darkness is passing and the true light now shines. When Christ comes again, then all the darkness will go. The light shining is God having come out in redemption light. The darkness is passing, it is not yet past, but it will be, and must be entirely dispersed, and then all will come into the light of God. The light now comes out to us in the way of testimony, and so Christians have the light, but the darkness will have to disappear entirely in order that Christ may fill all things; all the moral darkness will have to disappear, and He, like the sun, will fill all with light and warmth. The Day-star in our hearts is the pledge that all the darkness will disappear.

Ques. What is the difference between the revelation of God and the light of redemption?

F.E.R. The former is what God is, and redemption is God come in to assert His rights, and in doing so He comes out in grace.

Ques. In John's epistle, is not light the revelation of God?

F.E.R. Yes, it is, but it is the revelation of God in its application to man; it is the assertion of His redemption right, and that is grace. God has come out in revelation, and that in a way adapted to our state. That brings in of course the thought of redemption and grace. Grace is the adaptation of what God

is to my state. If there had been sinless beings, there would have been no opportunity for man to learn grace. I do not see how God could reveal Himself to an innocent being. The way in which God presented Himself to Adam innocent was suited to his condition, and it could go no further. Sin and liability having come in, necessitate God coming out as a Redeemer. We never know God strictly in His being, apart from what has come in. The way in which we know Him is in His adaptation to our state, and that is grace, and therefore grace tempers all our knowledge of God.

Rem. It is affecting to our hearts that God should so adapt Himself to our state.

F.E.R. Christ came, and He was full of grace and truth.

Ques. Has what God is in His nature not been declared?

F.E.R. No created being ever knew God strictly and purely in Himself. God has revealed Himself in suitability to the creature. It is not a revelation absolutely of what God is, but a revelation suitable and adapted to man as fallen. So we know God through redemption, and all our knowledge of Him is thus tempered with grace. When Christ was here upon earth He expressed God, but how did He do it? In suitability to man's state of misery.

Rem. Even the apostles did not comprehend all that He presented to them.

F.E.R. The apostles saw One who was entirely exceptional, "As an only begotten with the Father". We see the Father as Christ has revealed Him.

We are only fit for grace and mercy, and our knowledge of God is all tempered in that way.

We have the kingdom now in a moral sense; we have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love; that is all true, but the kingdom is to come in power. What comes out in the third chapter is that you can look on through the kingdom and all

dispensations to the great end which is before God, new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells. It will not then be a state of things like the millennium, when all will be held in check by the presence and power of Christ. The kingdom is a means to an end, to bring about a final solution of the great question of righteousness and lawlessness. Right is going to gain the day, for God is God; so the final issue is that righteousness will dwell. It will bring in the triumph of God; all evil will be put down. There will be no lawlessness in the lake of fire; that is why it is a "lake". Man's will will not have any scope. The great question ever since sin came in is whether righteousness or lawlessness shall prevail. Righteousness will prevail, for God is God.

Verse 20 is a very strong statement. In order to understand each prophecy, you have to view it as part of one complete scheme. Even the prophets who were contemporary do not seem to have had any knowledge of one another.

Prophecy was not an intelligent man giving a forecast as the result of his observations, but he received it from God. A piece of diabolical wickedness attempted in the present day is to shut out the prophetic element from Scripture, and to accept only the historical. It is to shut God out of His own word.

CHAPTER 2

We are told that there were false prophets among the people; they were probably those who said that Israel would not be carried away captive, but they were carried away.

To deny the Lord is to deny His authority. Unitarians go further, they deny His Person, but the class here spoken of deny His authority.

People speak of free will, but free will is an absolute impossibility. It is not true even of God, much less of man. God's will is the expression of His love; His will is the answer to His nature. It is not possible for God to do an act of evil, therefore there is no such thing as free will. All moral foundations exist because of what God is. The armour in which Satan trusted was man's ignorance of God.

This epistle gives a remarkable sketch of the decay and ruin of Christianity. It is all prophetic: "there will be". It is a dark picture, because the apostle gives no hope of any amendment. This chapter speaks from beginning to end of the corruption of the truth. It is getting away from government to lawlessness. It is true spiritually that if people get away from government they get to unrighteousness, and become lawless and self-willed. Defection set in by turning away from the kingdom; they turned to law, that is, to a previous state of things; they turned away from the Spirit and they turned to the flesh. Of necessity they go back to the flesh; it is just where Christendom has got back to. When people turn away from the kingdom they turn away from government. If you turn away from one thing you always turn to another, and so if people turn away from the Lord they are sure to turn to man. This accounts for the present state of things, the existence of the clergy, and so on. That kind of thing does not enter into Scripture, it is the result of turning away from the Lord for light and guidance. Depend upon it, if people turn from the Lord they must turn to man, and if from the Spirit they must turn to the flesh, of which the ruling principle is self-pleasing. A man who is spiritual makes God the object, and refers everything to Him. The only safe thing for the Christian is to submit to government. The moral government of God, which was always true and is universal, is what comes out in the first epistle, but in the second we get something more

definite, that is the kingdom -- subjection to the Lord. In this chapter we find people denying the kingdom in its present form, and in the third chapter they are sceptical in regard to the kingdom in its future form; they scoff and say, "Where is the promise of his coming?" But what is denied now is Christ's place as Lord at the right hand of God. All the arrangements of Christendom have the effect of coming in between the soul and the Lord. The denial of the presence of the Spirit would involve this, for no one can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.

All that God is is presented to us in the Lord. All divine authority is vested in Him, and therefore I submit myself to Him; in going to the Lord I go to God. There is more semi-Arianism in the public creeds of Christendom than people are aware of; there is very little sense indeed in them of the true deity of Christ. The statement of Scripture in regard of Christ is, "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily".

The way in which the apostle deals with moral principles is very interesting. He speaks of the angels that sinned; of the old world that perished; of Sodom and Gomorrah that were destroyed. These were dealings of God which expressed great moral principles. It gives us the true object of Scripture, which is not to give history, it is the revelation of God and of His will. Its character is that it contains great moral principles. Take out of Scripture all that is supernatural, and see how much is left! There would be scarcely anything left. Scripture makes known to us what we never could have known if it had not been made known. We not only get the record of the catastrophe, but also the revelation of the thought and mind of God with regard to it; we find in this epistle what God thought of the old world.

In verse 9 what the apostle deduces from the cases cited is that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly

out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment. We see deliverance on the one hand in Noah and Lot, and on the other hand the reservation of the wicked for punishment; these are the two principles brought forward. We are here in a scene of moral confusion, and it is important in such a world to realise these two principles -- that the godly are delivered out of temptation, but the wicked are reserved to judgment. Godly men are often exposed to temptation, and it is a great mercy to see how God can keep them from evil influences. God keeps His hold upon a man through his soul, not through his mind; otherwise, under the influence of a stronger mind than my own, I might not be able to resist. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly; God keeps a hold upon the soul of the righteous, but the wicked are reserved for judgment.

There is really no greater wickedness than to set to work to turn people away from the God who is revealed, for they have no God to turn them to.

I do not want to know the letter of Scripture apart from the spirit of it; I want to know what Scripture speaks of. I believe all the knowledge of God is at the cross; it is there we get it. We may get a knowledge of divine principles elsewhere, but it is at the cross that we learn the glory of God. People may conjure up difficulties in regard of Scripture, but the true answer to all such things is, I am in the light of the cross.

One thing strikes me about Scripture: there is no uncertainty in its statements, there is no margin left for possible discrepancies. People who give forecasts leave margins for contingencies, but in the prophetic utterances there is no uncertainty; they speak in the most decided, positive way.

How could we have known that Lot vexed his righteous soul from day to day with the wickedness of Sodom, if we had not been told it, for it looked as

if he rather acquiesced in it. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, but Lot was in a false position, and I believe there is no more pitiable sight than that of a Christian in a false position, as for example, that of a magistrate, for he is obliged to condemn a man, contrary to the very principles upon which God has acted towards him.

Nothing could be more humiliating than the corruption of the best thing that was ever set up on earth. The true character of the house of God is brought out to us, yet here (verses 10, etc.) we get pictured the worst state possible. The church has become a profession now as much as medicine or the law. The clergy, in most cases, go into the position not with a desire to serve the Lord, but probably put into it by their parents. It is what is set forth in Balaam, it is teaching for reward.

The dumb ass speaking (verse 16) was a great reality to Peter; and then he adds, "forbad the madness of the prophet". It is very interesting to me the way in which the moral element is recognised when Scripture is quoted.

"Corruption" probably goes deeper than "pollution". The latter is a reference to baptism; but those spoken of (verse 20) came into the profession with an unchanged nature. They were still "the dog" and "the sow".

The consistent effort of false teachers was to lead saints back to a previous dispensation. The effort was subtle because what had gone before had the sanction of God; but if God had introduced another dispensation, the previous became a false one if adhered to.

CHAPTER 3

In the second chapter we get the corruption of Christianity, and we see that the principle of that corruption is the spirit of lawlessness. It came into

the church very early, and it practically set aside the Spirit of God. They despised governments. The spirit of clericalism came in, teaching error for reward like Balaam. In result, it happens to them according to the proverb: "The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire". It is the moral end of Christianity on the earth looked at as a system in the world; it returns to that which it had left. Christianity, as a system, is ineffective for the moral improvement of man. What is unclean is externally washed, the outward corruption is modified, but in the end it goes back to first principles.

Peter develops the ruin of Christianity more as the outcome of the principle of corruption brought about by lawlessness and unrighteousness. Jude speaks of it more as apostasy -- losing their first estate. Christianity as a system is the development of unrighteousness and lawlessness, but it is also the development of apostasy; it may be viewed in either light. People have indulged the idea that Christianity was to renovate the world, but what has to be anticipated is the dog returning to his vomit. But notwithstanding this, God effects His purpose. In the beginning of the Lord's ministry He goes into the synagogue, and all bear Him witness and wonder at His gracious words, but afterwards they want to cast Him down headlong from the brow of the hill. Then later on the Lord leaves Nazareth and goes to Capernaum, and enters into the synagogue and finds there a man with an unclean spirit -- possessed of a demon. Thus it comes out that the real question was between God and Satan. God must deliver out of the hand of the enemy. Man rejects the grace, but nevertheless God effects His own purpose in delivering from the hand of the enemy.

I think that through the system of Christianity men became outwardly cleansed from the pollutions in which they were, but I believe when once the

authority of the word of God is refused, there will be no security for the maintenance of social relationships, and thus there will be a return to the moral pollution from which they had been washed.

Now in the third chapter we get another principle of evil, not the corruption of Christianity, but what is more Jewish in character. It is not what marked the beginning of Christianity, but rather the last days in which we live. "Since the fathers fell asleep" sounds Jewish. The pious people in ancient times believed the very things which are now denied, as, for example, the flood. The apostle is addressing himself to Jewish Christians. I believe the Jewish mind is infidel, for the Rabbis have given up the promise of His coming, both the first and the second. The result is, they get into materialism, and seek to make wealth here. The same thing has come in among ourselves; the coming of the Lord has not much place with us. I suppose no two facts affected us more to begin with than the coming of the Lord and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The apostle reminds them here of "the words spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour" (verse 2). What they said was all to one end. All the Scriptures had the coming of the Lord in view. Eve had the promise of His coming, Enoch prophesied of it. These scoffers are marked by one thing; they walk after their own lusts. You will find that whenever a man attacks or opposes the truth of Christianity, he has the world before him. He is covetous, though perhaps not for money, and such people are not superior to the lusts of the flesh. They are governed by their own lusts. The Christian, on the other hand, sees that light has come in, so that he can be free of the domination of the flesh and its lusts. It is through the decay of Christianity in its power that infidelity has reared its head again. When Christians walked

in the power of divine love, nothing stood against the testimony.

The scoffers shut their eyes to the great fact that there has been one terrible catastrophe (verse 5). There were heavens of old, and an earth standing out of the water and through water, i.e., subject to water, and thus might be overflowed, and through these waters the whole system called "the world" (not the earth) being overflowed was destroyed. The condition of things was so ordered that it was possible for it to be destroyed by water, and that by the word of God. That it was "by the word of God" is the recognition of the moral element. Now, the constitution of things is different, the earth that now is is reserved unto fire. Note that it is by the same word of God (verse 7).

People speak of "other worlds", but they know nothing at all about it. There are planets, but as to what is transpiring upon their surface, they only indulge their own thoughts and imaginations as to that of which they know nothing.

That which is to take place in the future is even more serious than what has already taken place. Both the heavens and the earth are to be subjected to fire. The idea of "fire" is purgation, and purgation by leaving no trace of it.

In verse 8 is a very important principle. The condition of our existence is marked by day and night and by time, but the Lord is not bound by these conditions. One day with Him is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

He is not willing that any should perish (verse 9). He does not counsel that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The "all" refers to man. God's mind is that He would have all men to be saved, but He has also His counsel. It appears to me that if God saved everybody it would seem as if man and Satan had gained the day. When the fall came in, the only hope was in the sovereignty of God's mercy, but

I believe the moral effect on man would not be good if all were saved, for it would not leave God His own proper place as God; that at least, is my impression.

The day of the Lord in verse 10 means a period. I doubt if purgation by fire means annihilation. I think the new heavens and the new earth are evolved out of the old, but they are an entirely new order. The heavens have been defiled by the presence of Satan and of wicked spirits, the earth also has been the scene of all sorts of evil, and all must therefore be purged. I think we have to look at things in a moral light; it will be an entirely new order and constitution; the conditions of existence will be entirely altered. It is so important to look at things in a moral light, not in a physical way. The point is the perfect purgation of every scene that has been defiled by sin.

The "day of God" is not a dispensational idea; it is that God permeates everything. Divest your mind of all thought of dispensations, and you will get the "day of God". We need to get into the largeness of God; in His thoughts what a small place dispensations have. The day of God is not a dispensation. Get into your mind what is morally suitable to the day of God, and you will understand the moral necessity for that day. That we are told to hasten thereunto, proves that it is not a dispensation; if it were, you could not hasten it, but if the idea is moral, you can come nearer to it.

Fire is used to purge material things, but in regard of man the only purging principle is the knowledge of God; nothing can be effective in man but the knowledge of God. If we know what is coming, the effect of it must be to promote all holy conversation and godliness; such are exercised in regard of God (verses 11, 12), and then comes in an additional thought: "Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God". No Christian could be fully satisfied with the millennium; it is not a perfect state.

I should be much more disposed to listen to Peter than to scientific men. I do not suppose that Peter knew much about astronomy, but he had the light of God, and he looks at things morally. The new heavens and the new earth are not absolutely new, they are new in character. There will be no more sea; I think that will be literally true, but there is a moral idea underlying it. J.N.D.'s thought was that of no separation.

I believe that in the ways of God all is ordered beforehand, so that such a catastrophe as the earth being burned up can take place. And note, it is subject to moral conditions (i.e., when physically the conflagration of all things takes place, morally the time will be ripe for such a dealing of God). There will be entirely new conditions of existence in the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

I believe there must be an eternal witness to the presence of sin having been here; the lake of fire is God's eternal witness to His righteous judgment of sin. The "lake of fire" is eternal separation from God, with, I believe, inflicted punishment.

We find in verse 14 what the effect of these things was to be on the saints: "Be diligent, that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless". Then, the apostle seems to hand them over to Paul, and in that way we get a recognition of his epistles. Paul was the apostle who explained what was consequent on the presence of the Holy Spirit here. It is in the light of that, that we can understand how the long-suffering of God is salvation. It is evident that Peter puts Paul's epistles on the same level as other scripture (verse 16).

Ques. What is "the error of the wicked"?

F.E.R. The various forms of evil which are spoken of in the epistle.

We are not to fall from our own steadfastness, but to grow in grace; that is the sway of the kingdom.

We are under grace, and grace leads to eternal life. When the moral government of God comes to an issue, grace will reign in a public way, that is, when He takes up the kingdom. The reign of grace is the millennium; we get it in anticipation in the power of the Holy Spirit. When the kingdom of God is set up, it is not to be law but grace; grace will reign.

Grace would not do in the present condition of things. If a king reigned by grace, people would not pay their debts. The sovereigns of Europe for the most part are said to reign by the grace of God, and yet the principle of their kingdom is law, and must be so.

ONE BODY

(1) "ONE BODY IN CHRIST"

Romans 12

The truth of the one body is of all moment as affecting our conduct here as individuals. We cannot possibly be intelligent as to our conduct as individuals unless we recognise that we are one body in Christ and members of one another. In Romans we have the simple fundamental principle of Christianity, and to a very large extent that which is individual in Christian life.

It is important to remember that each one has an individual path; but on the other hand there comes in this truth, which to a certain extent affects that, namely, that "we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another". This is the first presentation of the truth of the body. Then we have an advance in light upon it in Corinthians, Colossians, and Ephesians.

In this chapter we have two thoughts as to the Christian: we are here for the will of God, and we are members of one body. Both act as a check upon independence. Man naturally does not like being fettered by such bonds; he would prefer to be a kind of Ishmaelite, independent and free of everything. The Christian has to recognise that he is here for God's will, not his own, and that he is a member of the body.

I want you to notice the expression, "one body in Christ". It is not that which could be effected by the association of men, it is in Christ. We all have our individual path in the flesh, as the apostle said, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me", Galatians 2:20. That was his own path, and his individual faith; he does not there look upon

himself in the light of a member of the body. So we all have to do with the concerns of daily life, and have to take up a variety of things here, one being a servant, another a master, but all this has nothing to do with our being one body in Christ.

The body is not a religious or outward organisation. There are such organisations, as Popery, the Church of England, Wesleyans, Good Templars, and the like, but they are in the flesh, they are not "one body in Christ".

The truth of our being members of one body does not add to our privileges, but really depends upon the privileges which are ours, It hangs upon two thoughts, which go together, that is, that Christ is in the saints, and that the saints are in Christ. If you apprehend these two points you have the basis of the truth of the body.

I will turn to two or three passages in Romans: first, the end of chapter 4, "Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification". This verse is fundamental, for the great idea is presented to us of One having been raised from the dead representatively; that is, He has been raised for our justification. No one can understand the truth of being in Christ who does not first understand this. Just as He was delivered for our offences, so has He been raised for our justification. The first thing is "faith in his blood"; I can actually meet God by His blood. The next ray of light is that He was raised again for our justification; I am justified in Him. He represented His people upon the cross, and He represents His people in resurrection. I am completely cleared from everything which lay upon me, cleared according to the truth of Christ. God has not yet liberated me from every effect of sin, but Christ has been liberated. He was made sin, and died, and God has freed Him from every consequence of sin. I am not so liberated in my own person, for if

the Lord tarries I shall die, but I am liberated in Christ, I am justified in Him. The measure of my justification is Christ. This brings the light of Christ into my soul. I have got a link with Him which cannot possibly be broken. When it says, "our justification", I think the word includes the whole Christian company.

Now I go on to chapter 6: 9 - 11, where we have a further point, we pass out of death into life. We reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus. In these verses it is not simply the fact that He is raised, but He lives unto God, and we reckon ourselves alive unto God in Him. Christ describes what we are in the presence of God. We cannot know what a believer is in the presence of God except as we find it out in Christ. If we could suppose that Adam had not failed, a man might have said that he was alive unto God in Adam. The truth is, "In Adam all die". We reckon ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus. What Christ is describes what the Christian is, and you cannot learn the place and privilege of the Christian except as you learn it in Christ. He lives unto God for God's eternal satisfaction. God has found His perfect rest in a Man now. We learn what we are to God as we see it in Him. And this is the description of what all Christians are in the eye of God. I wish you to notice this because I am leading on to the truth of the body. We are all justified in Him, and we are all alive in Him. One Man, that is Christ, describes what all are in the eye of God.

In chapter 8 we reach the other side of the truth, the subjective, that is our side of the truth. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you ..". (verses 9, 10). When it is said "alive unto God in Christ Jesus", it is position. Christ's position before God belongs to the Christian. The other side of the truth is that Christ lives in the believer by the Spirit. He could not live in us except

by the Spirit. The two thoughts are brought together in these verses, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his", then, "if Christ be in you". Christ lives in us. "Not I, but Christ liveth in me". Christ lives in principle in all Christians. It is only one Christ for our position before God, and one Christ living in all Christians by the Spirit. There may be thousands of Christians who have part in the Spirit, but there is only one Christ. This leads up to the great truth in chapter 12, "We, being many, are one body in Christ". Our being one body does not add anything to the privilege or dignity of the Christian; it is a necessary consequence of our being alive unto God in Christ Jesus, and of Christ living in all Christians.

People take up the body as a distinct truth, but no truth in that sense is distinct or separate in Scripture, because truth is one complete whole, all parts being interdependent. I am convinced that you must learn the truth of the body on the line I have indicated. You must first learn that Christ was raised from the dead for our justification; then that we have passed out of death into life, for we have a new position in Him in the presence of God; then that He lives in us in that position. "The Spirit is life". What is that for? For the position we have in the presence of God. I see that there is a Man there to the perfect satisfaction of God; we are in Him and He lives in us.

I think that we individualise Scripture too much. For example, we talk about a Christian being a child of God, but Scripture speaks of the children of God; it is always plural. The apostle does not say, "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon the Christian", but, "upon us, that we should be called the sons [children] of God".

Our life and pilgrimage in the wilderness is all individual, in which each one has to be faithful, but

when we come to our being alive in Christ, and Christ living in us, it is what we have in common. When I come to take up my daily duties down here I do so in my natural life, and according to the ability which God has given me. That is my life in flesh, it is not a question of Christ living in me; I live by faith of the Son of God. If Christ lives in me it is for the position which I have in Him before God; and this is true of the whole company of Christians. Thus are we one body in Christ. And then another thing comes out, we are members one of another.

Now in chapter 12 I want you to notice two things, the first of which is that the Christian is to be here for God both in body and mind. He is to present his body a living sacrifice, and he is transformed by the renewing of his mind. The body is the material part of man, the mind is the intelligent part. The body is not renewed, it is yielded up, it is devoted, for that is the idea of sacrifice in Scripture, something devoted which cannot be recalled. The Christian's body is to be offered up as a living sacrifice that cannot be recalled. Then the apostle speaks of the renewing of the mind, though he could not speak of the renewing of the body. It flows from this, that God has become a factor, and the most important factor in the Christian's existence. An unconverted man lives entirely without God. He may acknowledge God in a formal way, but his soul does not know what it is to have to do with God. When a man is converted the practical effect of it is that God becomes a great reality to that man. He comes to know God, not as Adam knew Him before man had departed from Him, but as He has been pleased to reveal Himself in Christ. He turns to a living God.

The Thessalonians turned from idols to serve a living and true God; that is, One who had proved Himself to be living and true, for He had revealed Himself. I delight in a thought that has been present

to me lately, namely, that God's great answer to the ruin of man by Satan is that He has displayed Himself in a man. In Christ, who took the form of a man, dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. If you want to know all the thought of God toward man, you see the full display of it in the Lord Jesus. Now that is the God to whom we turn. We are made acquainted with what He is, we live in divine light, in the light as He is, and our hearts are made acquainted with His love; it is made personal to us by the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us. That produces the mightiest revolution possible in man's mind. I have no doubt at all it is the work of God, but that, I judge, is how the renewing of the mind is brought about.

A man lives for his own will until he is converted, now he is here to prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God, and to be here for that will by the renewing of his mind. An unconverted man thinks he is doing his own will, but he is really doing the will of Satan. No man has free will. The fact is that man is dominated by sin and that subjects him to Satan. When he is delivered there is the renewing of the mind, and he recognises that a great check has come upon his will, he is here for God's will. It is a very great thing to apprehend that your place before God is what He has given you for His own pleasure. If you have the place of a son, He has given you that place for His own pleasure. Well then, we are down here for His pleasure, to prove His good and perfect and acceptable will.

Now I come to the second great point in this chapter: we are to recognise that we, being many, are one body in Christ. I cannot therefore take an independent course, for it must be shaped with regard to this truth. I must think soberly. In our unconverted days we thought something of ourselves, and had an idea of independence; now all that must be dropped, for we are members one of another. We are

divested of the thought of independence, because we did not put ourselves in the body; God has put each into the place which He has seen fit. What we have to do is simply to exercise the particular function which we have in the body. A man may say, I would like to be a leader; but whether he is to be a leader or not depends on the place which God has given him. We have gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, and each one has to wait on the gift. If I have the gift of teaching, I have to wait on it; and so with ministry, exhortation, etc. I have to concern myself to carry out the function which is allotted to me in the body in the very best way I possibly can. I think no one can fail to see what an immense difference it makes when I recognise the fact that we are one body in Christ, and that God has given to each a place and function in this great scheme.

So we have these two great checks upon the Christian; first, he is devoted to God, body and mind; he is given up to Him, and is here for His good and perfect and acceptable will; and then, secondly, he is to think soberly of himself because he can only think of himself according to the measure of faith. I believe the measure of faith to be the light which God has given me as in the body and as to the function each has to exercise. If every member of my own body thought something of itself, there would be a good deal of schism; it is because every member naturally keeps its place and does its own work that the body goes on harmoniously. The truth of the body is intended to have the very greatest influence upon saints down here. Another time, if the Lord enable me, I will show the place which it has in regard to the saints gathered together; I only speak of it now in regard to the Christian in his individual path in this world. It is a great thing to know that I have a function in the body, even if it be a very unimportant one. I have to wait on it and to carry out diligently

that which God has been pleased to assign to me in connection with the place which He has given me in the body.

The two great principles here are faith and grace. Faith is light, and grace enables me to act on the light which I have got by faith. May God give to us to see the truth that leads up to the body. It is in Christ we are justified, so that He becomes a great living reality to our hearts. Then His position is ours, and He is in us for the position which God has given to us. When this is understood it becomes clear that we are here, body and mind, for God's will, and that we are one body in Christ.

(2) "BY ONE SPIRIT BAPTISED INTO ONE BODY"

1 Corinthians 12

It is important to remember that all the teaching in this epistle is of an elementary character. The apostle does not unfold to the Corinthians the wisdom of God, but confines his instruction to first principles. In this chapter the divine thought in the body is not given. There are only two verses in it which speak of the body: verse 13, "For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body"; and the statement in verse 27, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular". The intervening verses introduce the natural body in the way of illustration.

In Colossians the important point is the revelation of the mystery, which is God's mind in regard of the body. That is a great advance upon the mere statement that the saints are the body. The apostle says there, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory". That is the divine idea in the body. You will never understand the body if you do not get to that point. The idea in the body is not ecclesiastical, if you understand me, but moral. It is Christ's body, and in every place in which it is mentioned in Scripture the truth is brought in as light to bear upon the saints. They had their church formation before the truth of the body was revealed. They were gathered in fellowship, and had the Lord's supper before they knew anything at all of the body. They were in fellowship in a sense before the Spirit descended. There were those in Jerusalem who had been gathered by the testimony of the resurrection of Christ, and the Spirit descended and constituted them the house of God;

that was the beginning of the church. A long time after that the truth came out that they were Christ's body. I believe no more serious mistake can be made than to look upon the body as giving the idea of ecclesiastical formation. The great thought of the body is that it is Christ's body, and so it comes in as light for the saints.

In Romans 12 we are just brought up to the point of the one body. All the epistle tends in that direction. God is revealed in grace and righteousness; then there is the great truth of the resurrection of Christ and the gift of the Spirit. So you reach the point that Christ is in the saints, and the instant you reach that you have got the one body. We are all one, because we are partakers of one Spirit. If the love of God is shed abroad in my heart, it is shed abroad in the heart of every saint. In Romans we are looked at very much individually, but all the instruction leads up in this way to the idea of the one body. In chapter 12 the body is spoken of, and in chapter 16 the revelation of the mystery is mentioned.

Now in Corinthians the great idea from the outset is the company. In the beginning of the epistle the apostle says God has called us into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. That is what we have in common. God's Son Jesus Christ is Lord to us. Then in chapter 10 it is the fellowship of Christ's death. It is the same fellowship, but there are two sides to it. We do not look on God's Son as if He were reigning in this world, but as having died to all that is here, and we are in the fellowship of His death. That shuts us off in a way from all that is going on here.

The Lord has not, I doubt, place enough in our hearts. We need to be filled with a sense of the greatness of His glory. There is the revelation of it in John 11 and 12. Chapter 10 brings us to the one flock and one Shepherd, which is almost equivalent

to the one body and the Head. Then there is witness given to Christ's glory as Son of God, Son of David, and Son of man. As Son of God He annuls death and raises man out of it; this was witnessed in the resurrection of Lazarus. As Son of David He secures the sure mercies of David, and as Son of man He is the desire of all nations. Then on the ground of redemption He becomes the gathering point for saints. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me". The Lord is the bond of fellowship of all saints here upon the earth. What marked off the early saints from the world was that they called on the Lord. They were called to the fellowship of One who had been rejected by the world, but who was light to the saints. They were illuminated with His glory, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians: "We all ... beholding ... the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image", We are assimilated, and thus become "light in the Lord". "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord", Ephesians 5:8. All these things are very important for us practically as to the state of our hearts. It is a great thing to be light in the Lord, to rejoice in the Lord, to have the consciousness of the glory which belongs to Him. He has the highest place and the greatest power, for He sits as man at God's right hand. He is Lord, and He has sent down the Holy Spirit. We are to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Now having been called to the fellowship of the Lord, the truth of the body is brought in as light to those who were thus gathered. Their ecclesiastical order depended upon the fact that they were called to that fellowship and that the Holy Spirit had constituted those who were in that fellowship the house of God. In the present day, when the church has become corrupt, there is this modification, that we have to follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Two things are unfolded to the Corinthians as to their privilege, and both these are connected with the Spirit. They were God's temple and Christ's body. In the one the Spirit is looked at as on God's side, and in the other on the side of the saints. It is similar in Romans. In chapter 5 the Spirit acts on God's side, shedding abroad His love in our hearts. In chapter 8 He is on the believer's side: the Spirit is life because of righteousness; He is the Spirit of sonship; He helps our infirmities. The Spirit has come here for God, and He has come for the saints. The same Spirit who sheds abroad God's love in our hearts, enables us to cry, Abba, Father.

Similarly in this epistle: in chapter 3 the Spirit is on God's side, in chapter 12 on the side of the saints. I do not think the terms "temple" and "house" are equivalent. They were distinguished in Jerusalem. There the temple was properly the building, and the house included all the precincts. In Christianity there is the "spiritual house", composed of living stones, and there is the house of God made up of Christian profession. What the apostle would teach the Corinthians in speaking of the temple is that in the church all light came from God. Some among them were setting up to be lights, but he shows them by the very fact of the presence of God in the temple that any light from man only tended to defile. The Holy Spirit of God must be the source of all light in the temple of God, and man cannot contribute to it one single bit.

Everything of God and of heaven comes to light by the Spirit. Man knows nothing of heaven nor the glory of Christ. These things are altogether beyond the reach of man. The Spirit has come to report the glory of the Lord, and these things are found in the temple, but it is only in the measure in which a man is spiritual that he enters into them. A great deal may be learned doctrinally which is not reached spiritually.

I admit that we are in the light, but it is another thing for the soul to be filled with the light so that there is no part dark. If we behold the glory of the Lord, and that is really light in the soul, we have no need to recall doctrines in order to be happy, because we are then actually happy in the Lord.

The twelve disciples may be taken as an example: they knew a great deal about what Christ was on earth by their own personal knowledge, but they knew nothing about heaven and the place which He has there. They knew nothing of all that glory which Scripture calls the glory of the Lord. The Spirit came to them and brought to them heavenly light. That was then God's assembly, for the Spirit of God was there. God dwelt there by the Spirit.

In chapter 12 we come to the other side. The saints are viewed as together. There is no proper convening of the assembly until chapter 11. The Lord's table in chapter 10 is not a meeting, but fellowship; we are in the fellowship of Christ's death, and this is a continuous thing. The Lord's supper is that of which we partake together. It is the beginning of the service in the assembly. The remembrance of the Lord's death puts us properly in touch with Christ and with one another. All these chapters from 11 to 14 contemplate the assembly as convened, and certain truths are brought in to regulate the conduct of saints there. In this chapter it is the truth of the one Spirit and one body, and in the next we are shown that there is that which is greater than all gift, and that is love, for it is the divine nature.

A man may have all gift, but if he has not love he is as sounding brass; there is no music in the gift. The one who speaks is the vessel of the Spirit, but not a mere vessel, for he himself is to be in it, and his measure in the assembly is love. I do not doubt at all that it is possible that a man may have partaken of the power of the Spirit, and he himself have had no

part in it. Very strong language is here used; if a man has not love he is nothing.

The light of the one body is brought in here to regulate the assembly and as a check upon clericalism. I do not think you can get clear of clericalism unless you understand the constitution of the body. The saints are the body of Christ, and being such they are the vessel of the Spirit. Ever since Christ became man His body has been the vessel of the Spirit. Now the church has that place in the world from which Christ has been rejected. It is the vessel of the Spirit: "By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body ... and have been all made to drink into one Spirit". Then in the end of the chapter it is said that ye are Christ's body.

The manifestations of the Spirit are in the body. It is not simply gift, for the word of wisdom or of knowledge might come by a person not highly gifted; but they are manifestations of the Spirit, for everything that comes out in the assembly for edification is from one Spirit. They are given for profit, not for self-exaltation or vain display. Now, the practical effect of this is that no one is so great as to be independent of the Spirit. A very strong case is put in taking up the analogy of the human body; the head (which is at the top) cannot say to the feet, I have no need of you. It is what clericalism would be. You might have a man of overpowering gift, who assumes such a place in the assembly as to say to those at the bottom, I have no need of you. Such a man is not in the truth of the body, for if he were he would recognise that the manifestation of the Spirit may be given to one as well as to another, the Spirit distributing to each as He will. I think it refers to the assembly when convened. One who understands the constitution of the assembly will wait on the Lord to see if He will use him in manifestation of the Spirit, but he may be a very insignificant member.

No member is so exalted as that he can be independent of the Spirit, and no one is so small that he cannot be used of Him. In taking up the analogy of the human body the apostle shows that the members we think to be less necessary are indispensable, and we bestow more abundant honour upon them. There may be in the assembly a very uneducated man, and the Spirit uses him. You would not take him to task about his bad grammar, but you would bestow more abundant honour upon him. In human arrangement men go to college for the church. I quite grant that men should go to God's college, but I do not say that human education is indispensable to the church. Peter and John were perceived to be unlearned men, yet no one can deny that they were the vessels of the Spirit, for they were the first apostles. A man highly gifted of the Spirit would most readily welcome the manifestation of the Spirit through the most insignificant member, though we have to judge that it is a manifestation of the Spirit. However uneducated a man might be, if he were a vessel of the Spirit in the assembly and could speak five words to edification, I would be in sympathy with him and simply anxious that he might be enabled so to express himself that the assembly might get the mind of the Spirit through him.

Clericalism is perfectly suited to men. Many cannot see how we can possibly get on without it, and say, Your meeting must come to utter confusion. It does not come to utter confusion, and it will not, for the truth of the body is that it is the vessel of the Spirit, and the restraint of the Lord will be on those who should not take part, and the Lord's presence will enable those to act whom He uses to the manifestations of the Spirit. One man alone is not the vessel of the Spirit, though he has part in it. The body of Christ is the vessel of the Spirit, and the apostle could say to the saints locally, "Ye are Christ's body,

and members in particular". They had that privilege locally.

Thus we have in this epistle two great thoughts as to the presence of the Spirit. He brings heavenly light into the temple, and the saints are the vessel of the Spirit. Nothing except that which comes by the Spirit is worth anything at all for the edification of the assembly. The saints may be edified by five words, and receive what they could not from the most learned discourse from an appointed minister. If you are in the truth of the body, you will not accept anything which is contrary to it. You will recognise that we are members of Christ, and that the body is for the manifestation of the Spirit. The Spirit is perfectly sovereign and distributes as He will, and therefore even in the present broken state of things we may have edification and blessing in the assembly.

(3) "THE BODY IS OF CHRIST"

Colossians 1:24 - 29

In Romans and Corinthians the truth of the one body is introduced as a check on tendencies to which saints are liable. In Romans 12 it meets the thought of independency, for we have to recognise that we are members one of another, and a man is to think soberly of himself, as God has given to each the measure of faith. In 1 Corinthians the truth of the body is introduced as a check upon clericalism, for the manifestations of the Spirit are in the body, and hence the least member may be necessary. In neither case is it exactly the teaching of the truth of the body, but the introduction of a little light in regard to it with a view to the principal point in hand. The subject in Romans is our individual conduct in the world; in 1 Corinthians 11 to 14 the saints are contemplated as in assembly. The light of the body is brought in to regulate these things.

In Ephesians and Colossians the divine thought in the body is presented. A full statement of the counsel of God in regard of the body is found in Ephesians 1:22, 23, "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all". Colossians leads up to that. "Whom we preach ... that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus". The great idea of the church is that it should be the vessel for the perfect expression of Christ, a full delineation, not one feature lacking. If you could by the apostle's ministry have every saint perfect, or full-grown in Christ, there would be a perfect delineation of Christ in this world. That is what I understand by "the fulness", or completeness; there is no feature of Christ lacking. I cannot doubt that the church will come out as the completeness of Christ in glory, and I believe, what has been usually

held, that it will be found to include every saint from Pentecost downwards.

The great point in Colossians is Christ in the Gentiles the hope of glory. The mystery of God is a wonderful thing, and He has now made it manifest to the saints. What a conception it was on God's part, that Christ who had been rejected by His people here upon earth should be found among the Gentiles! I want to show you how it is brought about.

There are two statements in regard to the believer with which we are familiar; we are in Christ, and He is in us. We have to learn the bearing of this individually, but it really involves the truth of the one body. I cannot see that our being one body adds anything to us. What we do get by it is that the body is subjected to Christ as Head, as the wife is to the husband. All that we can receive from God we get by the gospel. We may afterwards learn the truth of the mystery, but it adds nothing to us. We find that the body is subjected to Christ, and He takes the direction of it as its Head. In Colossians 2 there are those who do not hold the Head. They were not, I judge, Christians at all, but those who had come in to corrupt Christians.

There are two main thoughts in connection with our being in Christ; we are justified in Him, and have a new position revealed in Him. God has not displayed my justification in myself, for I am not much different from other people down here. I am not risen, but Christ is. But I am clear of judgment, and the witness of it is that Christ, who died for my sins, is risen. He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. The believer has to refer to Christ as his righteousness in the presence of God.

Then there is another thing, which is more important, because it refers to more positive blessing; that is, we are all sons of God in Christ Jesus. We have

a new position in Him, which cannot be understood apart from Him. He has entered upon it in resurrection, so that we can be with Him in it. This is an entirely new position for man in the presence of God, revealed in Christ, and we are in the light of it. It never was available for man until Christ was risen. Then He says, "Go to my brethren". Now that side of the truth involves unity. We have it in the hymn:

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

It is one common position in which we all stand as being in Christ. It is true in Him, and we have the light of it.

We must learn this individually, because sonship is individual relationship to God, as having been brought to Him. The gospel confers it upon us. The very fact of our having this place of sonship in Christ necessitates our being one body in Him.

Now I come to the other side, and that brings in the truth of life. Christ is in us by the Spirit. This is the mystery. The truth of our being in Christ is not exactly the mystery because that marks our position before God, but Christ in the saints is the mystery. The first time the expression Christ in you occurs is in Romans 8, where it is said, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you...". So Christ being in us is evidently consequent upon the Spirit of Christ being in us. Christ has been here under the eye of God, and nothing short of Christ can now be according to His mind. Therefore it must be Christ in the saints.

There are two functions which the Spirit fulfils in the saints. He is in them as life, and also as the Spirit of sonship. If the Spirit is life in us, the connection between the saints and the Spirit is evidently very intimate. My conviction is that life is essentially individual, for no one can share the life of another.

Life in the creature is the effect of the work of God. But while individuality is maintained, yet we all live by the same power. The Spirit connects Himself with the work of God in the believer, so that that work is identified with Him, and the believer lives in the Spirit. My life is the effect of God's work in me, and your life is the effect of God's work in you, yet we both live in the Spirit.

When the Spirit is viewed as the Spirit of sonship He is not connected with us quite in the same intimate way; He is more of a witness in us, and so can be distinguished from our spirit. By Him each one of us cries, Abba, Father. So far I have not gone beyond the gospel. It is by the gospel we are brought into blessing individually, and we cannot touch the truth of the mystery until we are established in the knowledge of individual blessing.

I believe the great lack with us is that we have not a sufficient sense of what Christ is as Lord. There are two things which attach to Him as Lord: He announces peace and confers the Holy Spirit. God preaches peace by Jesus Christ, and all the opposition of Satan and man cannot prevent His preaching peace. Then He has sent down from on high divine power, so that the believer is superior to all the power of evil.

There are two testimonies in the beginning of Acts to the glory of Christ: the confusion of tongues was in a certain sense set aside by the gift of the Spirit, and man was raised up from the extremity of human weakness by the name of Jesus. The apostle had none of this world's means -- silver and gold -- but the name of Jesus of Nazareth enabled the man to walk. I refer to this because it illustrates the power and glory of Christ. There is no power or glory equal to that of Christ, and if we had a sufficient sense of it we should be continually rejoicing in Him. This is connected with the truth of the gospel and the place into which we are brought.

Now Christ in us involves one body. He is in us by the Spirit, who is the Spirit of life and the Spirit of sonship. He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, not in Adam, and the Spirit of sonship is the Spirit of God's Son. There is only one such; it is impossible that there should be another. Every saint partakes in that Spirit. No one now could have the Spirit in the same way as Christ had it, for when He received the Holy Spirit He was alone; no one could share it with Him. Now we all have part in the Spirit. The apostle speaks in the plural -- "Because ye are sons". Thus the very fact of Christ being in us involves one body, because it is by one Spirit. Christ lives in the saints by the Spirit, and they cry Abba, Father, by the Spirit of God's Son. It is a wonderful thing that there should be thus a presentation of Christ down here; a body of saints down here, righteous as He is righteous, and all crying, Abba, Father -- a heavenly Christ delineated in the saints.

Righteousness is individual, and the cry of sonship is individual, but the very fact of participating in one Spirit binds us all together as members one of another. The formation of the body was not any distinct action or operation of the Spirit, but it followed upon the reception of the Spirit by each and all. The purpose was that there should be a delineation of Christ here in the whole company of the saints. Then when the body was formed Christ was given to be Head of it, that He might direct it. The body is subjected to Christ, and He takes the ordering of it, that He may be displayed in it. The body is for the display of Christ.

Then how is this brought about? I believe the more really we enter into the blessed truth of our individual relationship with God, the more sensible shall we be by the Spirit that we are one body in Christ and members one of another. I do not think the fact of our being one body is a thought to be

occupied with. What is presented to us objectively in Scripture is the blessed revelation of God, and the more we are formed by the Spirit in the sense of our individual relation to God the more shall we be sensible that we are one body here, and that for the delineation of Christ.

Evidently the great thought in it is testimony in the world. It is the fulfilling of the prayer in John 17:21, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me". The affection formed in the saints one toward another, by the consciousness of the love of Christ, was to be testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another". What a wonderful thing for every one of us to be under the influence of the love of Christ, and so loving one another! This is the great testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son.

"Christ in you, the hope of glory"; that is, the pledge of glory. If there is among the Gentiles this wonderful delineation of the Christ who has been rejected by the world, you have the greatest pledge that could be given that God will accomplish all the purpose of His will. It is a certainty that Christ will be in this world in glory, and the pledge of that is already in the Gentiles. If we have the hope of glory we shall assuredly have the glory itself.

The saints were slow to rise to this. The apostle says to the Galatians that he travailed in birth again until Christ was formed in them. Until Christ was formed in them as a company there was but little testimony from them. They had the Spirit, but did not know the power of the Spirit, and were not in the light of sonship. The Colossians had entered into this; they were holy and faithful brethren, and were

enjoying their individual relation to the Father, therefore the apostle could say, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory". It is the pledge of the complete accomplishment of the purpose of God, that Christ will be displayed in the scene in which He was rejected. He will be displayed in glory in the saints. It is a moral display now, but when He comes it will be to be glorified in His saints; the heavenly city, new Jerusalem, will be the vessel of His glory in that day.

I have tried to show the divine thought in the body, and it is an amazing one to me. I can understand the conflict of the apostle that the saints might answer to it. In the light of it we can see the terrible defection of the church. I thank God for the light of it, not that the church will ever be restored down here. It will come out right in glory, but the effect of getting the divine thought is that I refuse to countenance anything that is contrary to it. So far as I am able individually I seek to walk in the reality of the truth of the place and relationship into which I am brought with God in Christ, and the more I do so the more I realise that we are one body in Christ. The idea of the body is, not that something additional is conferred upon the saints, but that they are subjected to Christ, and that they are a vessel in which He is displayed.

(4) "THE CHURCH WHICH IS HIS BODY"

Ephesians 1:22, 23; 5: 22 - 33

The important point to remember in connection with the body is that it is Christ's body. It is often spoken of as one body in contrast to two. Previously there were, in a sense, two bodies -- Jews and Gentiles; now there is one body. "By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body". "There is one body and one Spirit". But then there is a further truth taught, especially in Colossians and Ephesians, that is, that the one body is Christ's body, and until we apprehend that, we do not get the divine thought of it. When we do get this, it has a great effect upon us, greatly helping us in carrying out our responsibilities, and accentuating our fellowship. The basis of Christian fellowship is that we call on the Lord, but the light we get in regard to the body, and the divine thought in it, greatly colours our fellowship.

There are three principal passages in which we have already seen the body referred to. The first is Romans 12, where we simply get the statement, "We, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another". Then in 1 Corinthians 12 we have, "By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body ... and have been all made to drink into one Spirit", and later in the same chapter, "Ye are Christ's body". Then in Colossians we have the divine thought of it in the unfolding of the mystery. I do not see any unfolding of the mystery either in Romans or Corinthians; nor is there any allusion to the Head. You cannot really understand the truth of the body, except in connection with the Head. In Colossians 1 it is said, "He is the head of the body, the church". What we want is the Head, and when we understand the Head we understand a great deal better the thought of the body.

We must not separate the truth of the body from the gospel, for it is the mystery of the gospel. I quite admit that the apostle speaks of two ministries, that of the gospel and that of the church. Yet he speaks of the mystery of the gospel, and asks the prayers of the saints that he may be enabled to make it known, speaking boldly as he ought to speak. What I understand by the expression is that the truth of the church as Christ's body is involved in the gospel. It is a distinct ministry, and the apostle so speaks of it, but the thing itself is certainly involved in the gospel. This makes the truth of the church very much simpler.

When the gospel is rightly apprehended it leads to the gift of the Holy Spirit. Its end and purpose is that God may be revealed in man's heart, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us". The gospel is God's approach to man. Other ministry comes in with regard to man's approach to God. God's great purpose in the gospel is the revelation of Himself, according to what He is, in the heart of man, and that does not come to pass until the Holy Spirit is received, for no one knows the love of God except by the Holy Spirit. The gospel brings us to that point.

Then this involves the truth of the body, because it is one Spirit that we receive, we do not each receive a different Spirit. There was but one baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that at Pentecost. The Lord told His disciples that they should be baptised with the Holy Spirit "not many days hence", and on the day of Pentecost they received the gift of the Spirit. He had said to them, "He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you", and the Spirit came and was in them. That was the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and there was not another. The reception of the Gentiles, and all that has taken place since, is simply an extension of what took place on that day.

Everyone must allow that it was one Spirit that

came. Scripture is careful to speak of one Spirit, and in this is involved the truth of one body. The gospel addresses us as individuals, deals with us individually, and brings us into individual privilege; but the mystery of the body lies hidden in it, and the apostle's effort was to make it manifest. What he unfolded was what hung upon the fact that all believers received one Spirit, that consequently they were one body, and that body was Christ's body. The thought of the body is rather that of unity than of union. The body is formed by the Holy Spirit, and Christ is given as Head to it. It is on the principle of Ephesians 5:31, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh". Christ is cut off from what I might call all natural connections, His connections with Israel after the flesh, and when cut off in that way He is joined in that sense to the church. The church is His body, and it is a new point of departure and involves for Him a new name.

Though we have the body mentioned in Romans and Corinthians, we do not get the Head. I think the saints in those places needed to know Christ as Lord, and no one can know Him as Head who does not know Him as Lord. In Corinthians He is spoken of as Lord, even in connection with the assembly. So we have the Lord's table, the Lord's supper, and other similar expressions. The gospel presents Him to us as Lord, not as Head. My conviction is that Christians generally have not sufficient apprehension of Him as Lord; their souls are not sufficiently imbued with a sense of His glory and power. When we are so, we are conscious that His glory and power are superior to all other, and we are brought into the light of the day. The day connects itself with the Lord. He has power to subdue all things to Himself, and if we are in the light of His power and glory we shall not have fellowship with the unfruitful works of

darkness, and whatever we do in word or deed we shall do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.

The body is only introduced in Romans and Corinthians incidentally; in the one as a check upon independency, and in the other as a check upon clericalism. In Colossians we have the relation of the body to the Head. It is the proper vessel of witness to the Head. All the qualities of the Head in heaven are to come out in the body in suitability to the scene in which it is. The princes of this world crucified the Lord of glory; now God's thought is that every quality of Christ shall be expressed in the body; Christ is in the Gentiles, and this is the hope of glory. And all comes out in suitability to the scene in which the body is; therefore we have "bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another"; nothing of this will be requisite in heaven. It is not anything of the flesh, because we have not known Christ after the flesh. The Christian properly lives in heaven, his life is hid with Christ in God; but the body is the vessel in which the character of Christ is to be displayed in the scene where it actually is.

It is impossible for men or devils to put out of the world anything that God has established here. God set up His temple here, and it cannot be dislodged; it may take a different character, ceasing to be a material house and composed of living stones, but it cannot be dislodged. So it is in regard to Christ. He was rejected and crucified, but He is still to be here, for God establishes a body in which He is expressed. And this is the hope of glory, for it is the pledge which God has given of the establishment of all His purpose.

Let me direct attention to 1 John 5:9 - 11, which speaks of the witness of God. What is the witness? "This is the record [witness], that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son". His Son

has been rejected, but the witness which God has been pleased to give concerning His Son is that He has given eternal life to Christians. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. The Christian circle, composed of those to whom eternal life is given and who are in the love of the brethren, is God's witness concerning His Son.

In Ephesians we do not find a great deal about the body, but we have the bride, and the idea which comes out in that thought is that she is to share the portion of the Bridegroom. What is presented in regard to the body is Christ's headship to it. When He is exalted far above all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, then it is He is given as Head to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. The church has its proper place in relation to Christ as the vessel in which He is described when everything is put under Him. It is not so at the present time, for "we see not yet all things put under him"; but when it is so the body is His fulness. There will not be a single feature or trait of Christ lacking in the church. Every quality of Christ will be expressed in the church, which is His body. This is what is meant by His fulness.

The thought of the bride is intimately connected with the truth of the body. At the beginning we get the two thoughts. There was to be a helpmeet for Adam, and nothing in the inferior creation was fitting, therefore God took a rib out of the man and made it a woman. Thus there are the two thoughts; she was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, and she became his companion, suitable to him, to share his honour and his dominion. Adam was set in dominion over everything, but not properly in dominion over his wife, for she was his companion. This is the divine idea of the church.

The church is subjected (not exactly subject) to Christ. Why? Because He is its Head. The church was formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and Christ was given to be Head of it, and therefore it is subjected to Him.

The bride is the prominent idea in Ephesians. When we read in chapter 2 of what God has effected it brings in the thought of the bride. Jew and Gentile are set together in companionship with Christ in the heavenly places to satisfy the love of God. It has all been effected because of the great love wherewith God loved us. He gave Christ to be Head of the church, and therefore the church must be where the Head is, to share His portion and inheritance.

In chapter 5 the ideas of body and bride are found together, though the latter is the prominent one. No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Christ the church. And again, "We are members of his body"; then afterwards you return to the idea of the bride, "... shall be joined unto his wife ... I speak concerning Christ and the church".

It appears to me that the body is always looked at as complete in a sense, because in relation to the Head, as the vessel of witness for the Head here. Having entered into this we must take up the other thought, the body must be the bride. According to the counsels of God, Christ cannot be alone in the position in which He is as Man; He must have a helpmeet. The church, which is the vessel of witness here, is to be the companion of Christ in glory, and all is for the satisfaction of the love of God.

The effect of this should be that we are exercised as to whether we are in suitability for presentation. Presentation refers to completeness. So we have on the one hand the church subjected to Christ, and on the other the church as the object of His love. He

loved the church, and gave Himself for it, that He might present it to Himself glorious.

It is a great thing to be here in the sense of the love of Christ, and awaiting the moment of presentation, seeking to be morally suitable. May God help us, and give us light in regard to it!

THE HEADSHIP AND LORDSHIP OF CHRIST

THE HEADSHIP OF CHRIST

1 John 2

I want to speak about a very old truth, one that is generally recognised -- that is, Christ as Head. There is so much of vital importance connected with it that I feel justified in bringing it under attention. When I speak of Christ as Head, I do not mean Head of the church, His body. There are three senses in which we find Christ spoken of as Head in Scripture: He is Head of the body, as the husband is head of the wife; He is Head of all principality and power; but then, He is Head of every man, in the same sense in which Adam was head of every man. Adam brought in sin and death, and their application is universal; Christ, in that sense, is the antitype of Adam. He fills the place of Adam in a much greater way; and now, towards all men, in connection with His being the Head of every man, there is the grace of God unto justification of life. I think people have better understood the thought of headship in connection with the body than the bearing of Christ's headship in connection with every man. The testimony of grace to man is founded on that. The one important point was the introduction of the Head, and there is not forgiveness of sins or repentance apart from the Head. Whatever God witnesses to man is witnessed in the name of one Man. The grace of God, and the gift by grace, is by one Man, Jesus Christ. In the commission at the close of the Gospel of Luke, repentance and remission of sins were to be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem: in the name of one Man, in contrast to Adam. The Son of God has become Man and has taken the place of head of every man according to God's will. Another time I may speak about Christ as Lord, which involves the kingdom and the authority of God. A kingdom must convey the thought of sway or authority, and

Lord is a title connected with the kingdom. But you could not get "Lord" without "Head": you must have a head in order to have a kingdom. There could be no kingdom of God without a head; it is part of the ways of God. All the human race descended from Adam; he was the head of every man; the world stood or fell in connection with a man. When that man fell, it meant the fall of the world. The statement in Romans 5:12 recognises that all have sinned; but sin entered into the world by one man, and death by sin. Now the principle of restoration is by one Man, and the reason is that one Man becomes the fountain of life for men, having died for all. Without a Head who could be a fountain of life for man the kingdom would be fruitless: there would be no meaning in it. There might be the authority of God in Christ, but there would be nobody in regard to whom that authority could be exercised. The kingdom is connected with the living God. The world as it is could not be a kingdom for the living God, because it is under death. The kingdom all depends on the introduction of one Man who could be a life-giving spirit to man, so that man might live to God. The thought of Christ as Head is essential to the thought of Christ as Lord. But the idea of the Head is much less familiar to people than that of Lord.

I will just read again 1 John 2:21 - 23. I was saying a moment ago that the idea connected with Christ as Head is that He should be a fountain of life. Now I am going to state a very important principle in connection with that, and that is, that life can only be in the presence of light. Christ was Himself the light of men, and in Him was life; but in the application of these things to men, as men, life must be in the presence of light. If you go back to the beginning of Genesis you will see how the principle comes out there; Genesis 1:16 - 20. In connection with the earth, in the ways of God, life came in consequent upon light.

Light had been brought in at the outset; there was the "fiat" of God, and light came out of darkness; but the idea of light in Scripture is more generally of a constituted light. God appointed the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. The Lord said, "I am the light of the world"; He was the appointed light of the world. I think the church has now that place. The Lord said to the disciples, You are the light of the world; they were the appointed, constituted light of the world. Consequent upon Christ having come out in that way, you get life. I am sure of the rightness of the principle; what it means is that life must be in the light of God. You will see how that works out in connection with the Head. Light is the revelation of God; He is in the light now, and life is in the light of God. When you get the light of God in Christ, then it is that you get life. Christ was the light of the world when in it; He is light still, and at the same time He is Head, because He is the light, and from the Head you get the communication of life. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit.

I desire to bring before you the importance of Christ in that connection, and to speak about His qualifications as Head. All comes out in the chapter before us; but the first point is, God is revealed, His love is declared, and life now is in the presence of the love of God. That is where the believer lives. Morally I do not think that any Christian lives in this world. If I live at all, it is in the light of divine love. If one lives in this world, he lives in confusion and darkness; the world where man seeks his own will, and his glory is all confusion. God has brought us out of darkness into His marvellous light, and it is there that we live. No man of the world can understand a Christian, because he is not privy to the moral atmosphere in which the Christian lives. An unconverted man can know

nothing whatever about the love of God. It is only when the light has shone into man that he can know anything at all about divine love in which the Christian lives. If he does not live there, he does not live at all, because there is no other scene in which he can really live. If you were carried up to heaven, you might live in heaven, but you are not in heaven. If I cannot live in the confusion and darkness of the world, where am I to live? In the presence of divine light. Light has come in, a constituted light in Christ; God has brought us into His marvellous light, and there it is that we live. That is in connection with the Head, and I want to make the point of the Head clear.

In the first two verses of 1 John 2 and in Romans 5:18, 19, we have the thought of the righteous One. You see the Head must of necessity be the righteous One. You could scarcely have said as much in regard to Adam; he was not the righteous one; had he been the righteous one, he would have maintained righteousness, but Adam failed of righteousness. He failed to maintain the relationships in which God had set him. Righteousness is the maintenance of the relationships which God has appointed, and is very intimately connected with faithfulness. Adam failed in the first of all relationships -- that to God. Eve failed in faithfulness to her husband; she failed of righteousness. Adam brought sin into the world. When God in grace introduced a new Head, you can see that, of necessity, that Head must be in contrast to the first man, and what must characterise the Head thus brought in is righteousness. The expression, "the righteous One", is frequently applied to the Lord. Peter testified to the Jews that He was the righteous One. John continually speaks of Christ as the righteous One. That came out in the pathway of Christ here. He glorified God on the earth; He was the true meat-offering. God was glorified in a Man: a Man in the midst of a scene of sin, maintained in

integrity and who glorified God in regard to every relationship in which man was set. The Son of God took the place of man down here and revealed God; the very nature of God came out in Christ, for the testimony of Christ down here was not simply in what He said, but in what He was. The life was the light of men; but distinct from that He took the place of man down here, and having done so, glorified God in every relationship in which man was set. Therefore the apostle Paul in Romans 5 speaks of one righteousness and one obedience. Righteousness involves obedience; the two are intimately connected. Adam disobeyed and thus failed of righteousness; Christ maintained in integrity every relationship, glorifying God in all in a perfect obedience. He could not be holden of death, as we see in Psalm 16. That psalm is the most beautiful description by the Spirit of God of the righteous One. He could plead with God to preserve Him, for He had taken the place of man; He puts His trust in Jehovah, and finds His delight in the saints. Then in the latter part of the psalm we see that though He might enter into death He could not be holden of it. Peter quotes that psalm in preaching to the Jews, to prove that Christ could not remain in death. He must come forth by the power of God in resurrection. The Lord speaks in the same way: He lays down His life that He might take it again. I think all ought to be able to apprehend that if the righteous One enter into death it is a moral necessity that He should come forth in resurrection to life.

Now that is the first point in connection with the Head, that He should maintain in integrity every relationship in which man had failed, so that God might be glorified on the earth; the Lord could say in John 17, "I have glorified Thee on the earth". When God gave the order of the offerings, we first get the burnt-offering, setting forth the devotion of Christ to

the glory of God in death, but immediately after the meat-offering, showing the perfect, sinless humanity of Christ. This came into view in connection with the offering of Christ.

Now the next point is that the righteous One must bear the liabilities under which men were if He were to be the Head of every man. The moment He was born He was in a sense the Head of every man; but to take up that position so as to be a life-giving spirit to men must involve that He should bear the liabilities under which men were. How could He communicate life to men here under liabilities? He must bear the liabilities before He can communicate life to men. "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the whole world". There were the liabilities. The apostle says, "not for ours only" -- the Jew -- "but for the whole world". I believe that in the accomplishment of propitiation there was in a sense an end of all men in the eye of God. Christ terminated the whole world as after the flesh that God might begin again in Him. I have said sometimes that the moment a man receives forgiveness of sins in the name of the Head it is the termination of that man. God communicates to a man the knowledge of forgiveness of sins; the liabilities, in regard to which he would have come into judgment, are remitted; but there is an end of that man before God as after the flesh. There was his end, in one sense, in the death of Christ, but now he has come to it himself. He is not going to live for God in Adam; he is terminated in order to begin in Christ. That is a point of moment which ought to be made very plain in connection with the testimony of the gospel, to avoid the idea that man is going to be restored, or a new lease of life given to him; propitiation was the termination of the man for God. Christ was the righteous One who could not be morally of the order of Adam, the man that sinned; the righteous One

was another order -- must be, in the very nature of things. One who could take the place of man and glorify God where man had failed. Then Christ puts Himself, as He could do, under the liabilities of man, but in bearing these liabilities he terminates vicariously the man to whom these liabilities belonged. He died for all, that they which live might live to Him who died for them and rose again.

Now we see that, risen from the dead, Christ takes up the position of Head of every man. He is the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The end of the gospel is not even forgiveness of sins, but to bring souls to Christ, that they may get living water. No one can get living water without forgiveness of sins; but you may depend upon it, the object of God in the gospel is not simply forgiveness of sins -- that is His announcement -- but the gift of living water from Christ (John 4:10 - 14; Revelation 21:6). I think that all this is in connection with Christ as Head. There is the announcement of repentance and remission of sins in the name of the Head; but the presentation of Christ is in order that man may receive from Him what is the indispensable need of man, and that is living water. Man is under death; what he wants is the water of life, and it is that which Christ gives. He has become the Head that He may be the fountain of life for men. "I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely". I do not suppose that anyone has an idea that water of life is forgiveness. Forgiveness is a means to an end; there is the announcement of forgiveness in the name of the Head in order that souls, receiving forgiveness, may get the water of life, that is, from the Head, and it is a well of water in the believer, springing up into everlasting life. The expression of divine love is in the gift of God's only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but have everlasting life. Of course no one could have everlasting life if he had not

forgiveness; but forgiveness is one thing, and eternal life is another.

I will just refer again to 1 John 2:5. That passage depends on one thing, viz., that the One who is the Head of man has brought the light of God. Hence whoso keepeth His word, in him is the love of God perfected. The word of Christ is really the revelation of God, and whosoever abides in that, in him the love of God is perfected, that is, by the Spirit. In the death of Christ we get the revelation of God in love, and the Spirit has sealed the testimony. The great voice of God was in the death of Christ: there it was that divine love was declared, and in the one who has accepted the testimony of the death of Christ the love of God is perfected by the Spirit.

I just repeat what I have said, that the declaration or testimony of divine love was in the death of Christ. God was there declared; the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; God was in the light; He was there in the presentation of Himself, in love and righteousness. God has come out, His nature is known; He is revealed in self-sacrificing love. That is the testimony of the death of Christ. When the testimony of God has been received in the soul, the Holy Spirit is given, and the love of God is shed abroad in the heart. The Spirit of God came to seal the testimony that Christ had given. Christ left nothing to be witnessed: the Spirit sealed a complete testimony. Now the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto us.

But another point comes out in connection with the Spirit. The same Spirit who sealed the testimony, and by whom the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, connects us livingly with the Head. It was the Head who communicated the Spirit; the Spirit never came until Christ went into heaven. Now, it is not simply that Christ is Head to men, but believers are

in Him. No one can be in Christ except by the Spirit. Christ has proved Himself to us to be the Head; He is the fountain of life, and He has made us to live in the Spirit. The grace of God is towards every man, not simply towards the elect. But men do not believe it; they turn from it. On the other hand, where sovereign mercy works, there the testimony of the death of Christ is accepted; souls come into the light, and that light is sealed in them by the Spirit. The declaration of the love of God was in the death of Christ, and the love of God is shed abroad in the heart of the believer by the Holy Spirit; but the Spirit having been given by Christ connects the believer livingly with Christ.

Now what comes to pass? We know that we are in Him, and the effect is, we come into righteousness. To begin with, we live in the light of love; there is the beginning of righteousness. Everyone who lives in the light of love lives to God, and everyone who lives to God lives in righteousness. Evidently God has the first claim upon my affections, and if I live to Him in the light of His love, righteousness is fulfilled. There is not only love, and myself in the enjoyment of love, but righteousness too, because I admit God's rights, and I am myself righteous and live to Him.

Having accepted the testimony of God, we find ourselves in relationship with the Head. We are in Him. And now we love Christ. I do not think it is possible to love God without loving Christ. I have no doubt the idea is distinct, for Christ has a peculiar claim upon His people; but I think all can understand that if you love God you must love Christ. It is an impossibility to love without loving the One in whom love has become manifest; if we live in the life of God, we must love Christ.

And if I love Christ I love the saints. It is impossible to love God without loving those that are begotten of Him. If you do not love those who are of Christ,

it is a proof that you do not love Christ, because you cannot separate between Christ and those who are Christ's; the loving of Christ's is really the test of life down here. If you were to ask me how I prove myself to love Christ I should say I love Christians, and if I love Christ I love God. All hangs together. The effect is to bring us into the way of righteousness, so that we are faithful in every relationship and under every obligation in which it has pleased God to place us. God has placed us under obligation to Himself, to Christ, and to one another. If by the grace of God we are enabled to walk in the reality of these things, in divine love, then we are in the path of righteousness; and what has brought me into it? The apprehension that God has constituted a Head, who has become to us a life-giving spirit.

In verses 22 and 23 you see the effort of antichrist. The liar does not deny the existence of Jesus; you see this admitted in Unitarianism. There is hardly anyone who denies the existence of Jesus. The denial is that Jesus is the Christ; and it is the Christ who is the Head of every man. A Unitarian would not admit that Christ is the Head of every man; he does not apprehend, to begin with, the idea of the righteous One, nor that He has borne the liabilities of man, nor that He is a life-giving spirit to man. The evil which began in the apostle's day is the evil which is working now, and which will find its climax in the man of sin. Antichrist is the one who denies the Father and the Son. I have no doubt the liar and the antichrist are intimately connected. The Father and the Son imply the revelation of God; the liar denies the Head. If you study the passage you can see the intimate connection between the revelation of God and the Head -- the Christ.

Life must come out in the presence of light, so that man may live in the light of God. If the sun were veiled and there were no light I think life would not

thrive much on the earth; probably all men would expire but for the beneficent effects of the sun. Life could not thrive in darkness; and so it is morally. Men cannot thrive without the light of God. The philosopher and the scientific man come to a miserable end, they do not know where they are going, they cannot thrive except in the light, hence light is essential. The revelation of God is essential to the introduction of life, and life has come in in connection with the Head. We have become identified with the righteous One, "He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous".

THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST

Matthew 16:13 - 20; 28: 16 - 20

What I am going to speak about now connects itself with what has been previously before us. I was speaking about Christ as "Head", and now I want to speak about Christ as "Lord".

The terms "Head" and "Lord" are centred in one Person, but they evidently convey two distinct ideas; the two ideas were not realised at the beginning in Adam. I think Adam had dominion, but I could not talk of him as Lord; but undoubtedly we get the idea of Head in Adam. In that way he is the figure of Christ, and is employed in that light in Romans 5. One important point connected with "Lord" is that it represents in a man the authority of God. We have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; the authority of God presented in a Man. You get this thought at the close of the gospel of Matthew; Christ is speaking to His disciples as a Man yet on earth (verses 18 - 20). So far as I can judge, it presents the authority of God in a Man when God is fully revealed. I do not think you properly get the idea of Lord until that point: God was fully revealed. The injunction was, "Baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit", and in that connection the thought of authority comes in; all authority was given to Christ in heaven and upon earth.

I said last time that in the ways of God it was impossible for the kingdom to come in until there was the Head. The reason was that apart from the Head there was no quickening power. Man was under sin and death, and hence quickening power needed to come in; but quickening power could only come in by One who could take up the liabilities under

which man was, and that One was Christ, in the light of Head. He took up the liabilities under which man was -- death and the curse of a broken law -- that He might become a life-giving spirit to men. I suppose no one would have any difficulty in seeing that apart from such a Head it was impossible for the kingdom of God to come in. The kingdom of God would have been fruitless otherwise. You could not get the kingdom of God in Old Testament times; everything looked on to the kingdom, but the kingdom waited until the Man came.

Hence you see that the place of Christ as Lord, which is connected with the kingdom, is dependent on the fact of His being the Head. I look upon Christ as the Head of every man, the pillar of the moral universe. The whole universe of God is to be filled with Christ; it is upheld by Him, and He fills all. It has often been said that while He came to remove what was contrary to God, He Himself occupies the ground which he has cleared; He supports all and fills all, "That he might fill all things". We have to face the great truth of our displacement in the death of Christ that He may fill all. The displacement is a fact for God; the great thing is when it becomes a fact for us, when we are prepared to let Christ fill all. We may take up the phraseology, but that is a very different thing from the reality. The apostle says, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me". Christ filled the apostle.

But to speak of Christ as Lord. It is simple enough to see that the title "Lord" connects itself with the kingdom; it is that which led me to turn to the passages I have read. I want to give you a thought or two as to the bearing and importance of it. The first thought connected with the Lord is that He presents to us the authority of God. The authority of God at the present time is connected with grace; grace has come out in power; that is what marks the kingdom

of God. When the kingdom of God is set up in the world publicly it will be grace acting in power. This was seen in measure in David in regard to Israel; grace was acting in power for the deliverance of the people. So in the present time grace has asserted itself in power, and by-and-by this will be in a public way. Another thing will come in, beyond all manner of question: there will be the puffing down of proved lawlessness, when it has reached its climax in the man of sin. But at the same time, that is not exactly the kingdom; it is preparatory to the kingdom, and when the kingdom comes in, its character is grace asserting itself in power. That represents the authority of God. It is only by the authority of God that grace can assert itself. Where can grace come from except from God? Who can be the fountain of grace except God Himself? If grace asserts itself it is the kingdom of God; hence the present effect of the kingdom is "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit".

Now the Lord foreshadowed this when He was here upon earth. In John 1 it is said of Him that He declared God. How? He came full of grace and truth. The law was given by Moses; that was not the kingdom. "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ"; then it adds, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him". The One who came full of grace and truth declared God. The cross held the same character; it was the declaration of God. Moses' ministry was law; Christ came full of grace and truth.

But in connection with the ministry of Christ upon earth there was power; it was not simply grace. They who heard Him wondered at His words of grace; but it was not only words of grace proceeding from His mouth: there was power. At the very outset of His ministry Christ bound the strong man, and

then He set to work to spoil his goods. The strong man kept his house, and his goods were in peace, but then a stronger had come. It would be a poor thing to think only of gracious words in the mouth of Christ down here: there was authority and power to command the unclean spirits, and they came out. That marked His ministry. He was presenting the authority of God; grace had seen fit to assert itself in power, and authority was there for the deliverance of man. The gracious words made God known in His gracious thoughts toward man; but there was authority and power which commanded the unclean spirits, and they came out.

Now a point in connection with that is, that authority and power were not against man; they were against the power of evil, against demons. You cannot, I think, find an instance in which the Lord used power and authority against man: He used it against that which held man in bondage. Men and women were bound under the power of evil; Christ cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene, a legion of demons out of the demoniacs of Gadara. The unclean spirits obeyed Him; they never resisted. He commanded, and they came out.

This shows you how that in the ministry of the Lord Jesus here upon earth He was making clear the lines of the kingdom. The kingdom did not really come in, so long as Christ was upon earth, but at all events the character of it was foreshadowed. The principle was grace asserting itself in power, and that marks this moment. The gospel abounds in words of grace; but the gospel is not here simply in words of grace, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. It would be but a poor thing for man to be affected by words of grace. He is to be enlightened by words of grace, but that is not all; the gospel is accompanied by divine power, in order that man may be brought into salvation. You could not have salvation without power;

you could not entertain such an idea for a moment. Grace may, in a certain sense, be conveyed in words; but salvation, though through faith, involves power, and it is impossible for anyone to be brought into salvation except by power. Salvation is properly connected with the coming of the Lord, with the power in which the Lord comes in the future. "Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation". In the eye of God man is in bondage to the power of evil, and Christ has come in to make God known to man, so that man may be brought by the power of God into the enjoyment of salvation. This power is now in the Holy Spirit.

I refer to Matthew 16 again in connection with the commission at the close of the gospel of Luke. Jesus says to Peter, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven". There is no doubt whatever that the keys are used in Scripture as a symbol of administration. The Lord had the keys, and He gives them to Peter: He conferred upon Peter the privilege of opening the door into the kingdom of heaven.

But in verse 18 Christ had said, "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it". The kingdom could not be brought in until the church existed, because whoever went out to preach must have behind him a living witness of the grace of God. The Lord speaks of forming the church first; then He commits to Peter the keys of the kingdom. When Peter went forth to preach, he preached the kingdom of heaven -- not in words, but in fact -- and in preaching the kingdom of heaven, Peter knew that he could appeal to the living witness of the grace of God upon earth. The church which Christ had built was the living witness here upon earth of the grace of God. The kingdom of heaven was not preached until the living witness was

here. Hence I judge that you could not get the administration of the kingdom until the church existed; it was not according to God that it should be so. I believe the support of the truth is the living witness of the grace of God down here, and you may be sure that power as connected with the gospel depends on the state of the witness. If the witness is obscured, you will not see very much power in connection with the gospel. I see the immense importance of the church to the gospel, and that the gospel cannot be maintained in power apart from the church. If men go forth regardless of the living witness and display great energy in the gospel, I am confident that they are not in the mind of Christ. I do not say they may not have gift or ability, or be acquainted with truth and able to preach, but they are not in the mind of Christ. On the day of Pentecost the church was built. There never was any other building; the building has been extended since, but there is no other building, and there will be no other until the Lord comes. The purpose of the Lord's ministry here was to build His assembly, to gather a little company together of which He was the centre; and the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost and the church was presented to God in the sanctification of the Spirit. Thus in preaching the kingdom not only was the servant testifying what he knew, but he had behind him all the moral strength of what Christ had built; there was the living witness, down here, of the grace of God. Peter had nothing to do with the building of the church; what was committed to him were the keys of the kingdom.

In Acts 2:30 - 39 we find Peter acting on the authority of the Lord and under the Lord's administration. Heaven was asserting itself here upon earth -- that is what the kingdom of heaven meant; and when I speak of heaven, I mean the light which God had set in heaven, which was asserting itself here upon

earth. If you get up early in the morning, you will find the sun asserting itself: the sun rises above the horizon, and asserts itself in light and warmth. That conveys to me the idea of the kingdom of heaven. It is the light which God has set in heaven, asserting itself in the way of testimony upon earth. Peter testified by the Holy Spirit what God had done in heaven; Jesus was exalted to the right hand of God, and made Lord and Christ; and there is the appeal to the people to repent and be baptised in His name for the remission of sins. They might have spoken of the gracious words which proceeded out of the mouth of Peter: they were words of grace, because they were witness of the gracious administration of Christ. Christ asserted Himself in the administration of grace on earth; that marked the day of Pentecost. The Lord might have asserted Himself in the execution of judgment; but instead of that He asserted Himself in the administration of grace by Peter here upon earth, and therefore Peter could speak to people about remission of sins. Remission of sins was a means to an end, and the end was that they might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The grace of God which brings salvation to all men had appeared; it appeared here to the Jew, and would appear in due season to the Gentile. Peter was using the keys which Christ had entrusted to him; he was acting in the administration of the kingdom, and the kingdom asserted itself in the way of testimony by gracious words at the mouth of Peter. Those who believed received the gift of the Holy Spirit, the effect of which was to bring them into salvation. The Jews were not going to be delivered at that moment from the Roman power, restored to their place in the world or to the promises of God, but there was deliverance from the power of evil by the Holy Spirit. The testimony of Peter was sealed in them by the gift of the Holy Spirit. But whilst Peter was preaching in that way,

there was the living witness, the building of Christ. Peter could have said to them, If you want an expression and witness of the grace of God here, it is upon earth in the company of people to whom the Holy Spirit has come.

I refer to this in connection with the ministry of Peter under the administration of Christ; it was not Peter acting according to his own intelligence; it was Peter taking up the keys which Christ had entrusted to him. In the present day, anyone who would go out in the testimony of Christ, cannot go unless sent: "How shall they preach except they be sent?" A man has to be sent. Paul said to Archippus, "Take heed to the ministry that thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it". It does not want a Paul to preach the glad tidings of the grace of God now; but any evangelist who goes out does so under the Lord's administration down here.

I come now to the question of power and authority, and that is an extremely important point as connected with the Lord. I think the kingdom means security for man; there is no doubt that the kingdom will be set up in the future for that end. The kingdom means to us "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit". How is that going to be brought about now, except by the power of the Holy Spirit? The Lord, when here, was acting by the power of the Holy Spirit. He said, "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God", etc. Now, how do you think you and I are to have liberty from the power of evil? One point in connection with Christ is that He came, not only in grace but "full of grace and truth". As Christians we begin with truth. I understand truth to be the expression of things as they are, not as they appear to be. A great deal in this world is very artificial: men cover up what they are with a great deal of appearance, leaven, honey, and so on, and things are not what they appear. Now, in the idea of truth, all is seen as it is. Truth

acts in that way from the top to the bottom; man's eyes are opened, and he gets the apprehension of God as He is -- Christ is seen as He is, man, idolatry, everything. When the gospel went out to the Gentiles they were idolaters; they did not know what was behind their dumb idols, but the effect of the gospel being proclaimed among them was that idolatry came out in its own nakedness. They learnt that behind idolatry was the power of evil. Truth had come in, and everything was seen as it was. And how were they delivered from the power of evil? By the power and authority of Christ. That is what the Holy Spirit brings into the believer. It is not power and authority against man; it is power and authority against that by which man is oppressed. Suppose India were in rebellion, and the Prince of Wales went there on behalf of the King to put it down; he could not go in his own power and authority, because he has none; but the power and authority of the King would not be against the Prince of Wales. I have no doubt he would be affected by it; but, at the same time, the power and authority would be that of the King against what was evil and contrary to the authority of the King. It is in that way that the power and authority of Christ works in the believer, and maintains the believer as against the power of evil. The power of evil is very real; there are many things to which we are exposed, and which might very readily hold us in bondage. Sometimes we have to withstand the wiles of the enemy, the allurements of the world, or to meet open hostility and opposition to the truth. You do not suppose you are going to get through the world without meeting evil; we have to meet evil influences here, and it is no small matter to stand against them. How are you going to stand in the evil day? I only know one way, and that is the way spoken of in Scripture: "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might". The fact is that the

power and authority of the Lord are maintained in the soul, not as against man, but as against all that which is contrary to God and to the believer. In the power and authority of Christ, the believer can stand here against all evil, by the same power and authority with which Christ cast out devils when He was here. You are not terrified by your adversaries, nor overawed by evil; you stand in the power and authority of the Lord as against the power of evil. You are not strong in the power of your might -- you have none -- but in the power of His might, against all the influences of evil which govern man. When you see men under all kinds of influences, some under the power of the world, some infidel, some superstitious, they are in bondage; they have not got the truth. We cannot stand in the power and authority of the Lord unless our loins are girt about with truth. We are thus exposed, and everything is exposed. It is a great thing to see the world as it is -- all that is artificial stripped away: that is what truth gives you -- and above all, to see God as He is, and Christ as He is; then you can stand here in the power and authority of Christ. But the first piece of the armour of God is, "loins girt about with truth"; then you have on the breastplate of righteousness.

One word more. You get another thought in connection with the Lord: in special emergencies He can stand by His servants. This comes out in a very special way in connection with the ministry of Paul. There were certain moments in the career of Paul when he was under great pressure; but what do you find in those crises? When He was liable to be cast down, the Lord stood with him. You get a touching instance of it in 2 Timothy; in his first answer all men had forsaken him, but the Lord stood with him, and strengthened him. He needed special strength, in a way, that by him the preaching might be fully known, etc. (verses 16 - 18). And the Lord would preserve

him from every evil work. That was Paul's experience of the Lord.

There are thus two things connected with the Lord -- the administration of grace, and the interest of the Lord in connection with the testimony down here. But there is the other principle, that the power and authority of the Lord works through His people, in order that they may be able to withstand all the power of evil down here upon earth. Every form of evil which Satan can array against you, you can withstand in the evil day, only "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might". Nothing interests me so much as the apprehension of the great moral elements of Christianity in which its strength lies.

People have taken up Christianity too dogmatically. The point in Christianity is the moral elements which it has brought to light, consequent on the revelation of God: light, righteousness, holiness, truth, peace, wisdom, and a great many other things. Christianity takes up these words and gives its own peculiar meaning and light to them, for they are apprehended in connection with the light of the revelation of God.

GRACE REIGNING THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS UNTO ETERNAL LIFE

RIGHTEOUSNESS AND THE SEAL OF IT

Romans 4

There are two points before me in connection with this scripture. One is righteousness, and the other, the seal of righteousness. We read, "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works". Then afterwards it says, in verse 11, speaking of Abraham, "he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised". We have here what we might call the first principles of Christianity. What follows upon righteousness is the seal of righteousness. The idea of seal is the confirmation of a thing, like the seal to a deed: it is a kind of attestation. The thought was first brought in in regard to Abraham -- he had righteousness and also the seal of righteousness. I want to come to the latter point because it is very important to apprehend that God has nothing here in the world for Himself outside of the Spirit of God. There may be a great deal that professes to be for God which will come under the judgment of God. I admit all that. People like the ground of Christianity, and will come under judgment on that ground; but if you look at things morally, there is nothing that is for God, or that God can own, outside of the Spirit of God. I think the special and peculiar ministry of the apostle Paul was to unfold all that was here consequent upon the presence of the Spirit of God. You get things brought out in connection with the ministry of Paul that are not found in that of the twelve. You get the body of Christ and sonship; and for the reason that the special ministry of Paul was the unfolding of all here consequent upon or involved in the presence of the Spirit. In that connection I

want to speak of righteousness. In Abraham the seal of righteousness was circumcision -- the same holds good in regard to us, circumcision is to us the seal of righteousness. Righteousness is by faith, but the seal of righteousness is not by faith. It is circumcision. Circumcision is not directly connected with faith, it follows upon righteousness, and is the seal, the confirmation of righteousness.

There is a great deal into which we can now enter by the fact of everything having been in principle established in Christ for God. I want to touch upon that point for a moment. It is a great point that in Christ everything is established for God. You cannot understand Christianity, or the presence of the Spirit apart from "All the promises of God in him are yea and in him amen". The Spirit has come down consequent upon the ascension of Christ, to make known to us that everything of God is established in Christ. We get this brought out in the first two chapters of Hebrews. In the first you have God's throne, in connection with God's kingdom. It is that of which the prophets and the Old Testament writers gave witness. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness", etc. It is God's throne established in a man, and established on the foundation of the perfect discrimination of righteousness and lawlessness. I suppose it was needful in the ways of God that testimony should be given here of the principles upon which the throne would be established, and hence the Lord Jesus came here to this end. There has thus been perfect testimony of what is according to God and what is contrary to God. Christ loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Everything here was discerned in the presence of the Lord Jesus in its true character, and that has become the moral foundation of the throne of God, but the throne of God

established in a Man. I need hardly say that that Man is God's Son.

Righteousness is the assertion of God's rights -- lawlessness refuses God's rights. Lawlessness virtually says, we will not let God in. Righteousness on the part of man involves the admission of God's rights. Man's righteousness is in submitting to God's righteousness. In Christ God came out in grace to assert His rights. All this was marked in the pathway of the Lord Jesus. He loved righteousness -- His ministry was in principle the assertion of God's rights, in opposition to Satan, to control the affection of man. He "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him". He did not come to condemn, but in grace and goodness ministered in a way which would tend to gain an entrance into the heart of man. He loved righteousness, but, on the other hand, He hated lawlessness. You find the Lord continually in contact with lawlessness. Lawlessness came out in all kinds of people -- in lawyers, scribes -- all the different classes of people with whom the Lord came into contact -- they virtually said, we will not let God in. There might be a formal acknowledgment of God by man, but men were perfectly determined to keep out the testimony of God. Now the Lord hated lawlessness; Hebrews 1. And you may be confident that when the kingdom is displayed there will be the dealing with lawlessness by a strong hand. On the other hand, there will be the assertion of God's righteousness, that is, that God will have His own rights in the affections of His intelligent creatures.

Now we see that the throne exists. The throne had to be based on redemption, and righteousness and lawlessness came to an issue in redemption. And hence the throne had to be established in a Man. But then that involves another principle, that man is in the place of highest acceptance with God. The very

fact of it being needful on the part of God, that, in the place where good and evil were confounded, there should be perfect discernment as between righteousness and lawlessness, brought the Son of God into this scene as a Man; but as the consequence of His having become man, and tasted death for everything, we get man crowned with glory and honour. That is in the very highest acceptance with God. We can talk about the throne, we know its basis and its principles. We know also the place which man has now with God. The Holy Spirit has come down to report this. These are unseen things, but very important things for us to enter into. They are enduring and eternal things. All that we see around us which tends to connect greatness with man will surely pass away -- the world and its fashion, that is, its form, passes away. There are not in it elements of permanence; all will have to give place to the throne of God and to Christ. The throne of God and Christ go together. Now we should apprehend that, and our hearts be in the light of it -- we are privileged to walk in the light as God is in the light, for God has come out in the kingdom, and has made Himself known in the gospel. It is that which belongs to every Christian, and I should be inclined to question the Christianity of any person who is not conscious of walking in the light. It is not a question of conduct, but of where we walk and must walk, because God has been pleased to come out in that way. First in grace and in the ministry of Christ here upon earth, and now in the truth of the gospel.

Now the next point I want to touch on is the necessity of our acceptance of redemption. What I understand by redemption is the taking up of an encumbered right. You can understand this from common things. One might come into an inheritance with mortgages and liabilities upon it, and to redeem it involves taking up the liabilities. I believe that to be the idea of

redemption, and it covers another important point, and that is the principle of divine sovereignty. We get an illustration of redemption in the case of the children of Israel; when they were sheltered by the blood they ate the lamb roast with fire -- they entered in that sense into redemption, and it was preparatory to their being led forth from Egypt; and what was true of the children of Israel is become true of the individual Christian. God has redeemed His inheritance. In times gone by, the children of Israel were God's inheritance, and it is equally true at the present time that God has an inheritance down here, and His inheritance is His people, and that involves the sovereignty of God. God has set to work to take a people out of the Gentiles. We read that "as many as were ordained unto eternal life, believed". There is an election from among the Gentiles. Christianity began with an election from the Jews, and it has gone on to an election from among the Gentiles. God has an inheritance, a people here upon earth. I do not want you to confound this with the idea of the gospel. The gospel is on another ground, namely, that of God's approach to man, and when God approaches man, He approaches every man; the gospel brings in the light of God to every man upon the earth, giving to man the opportunity of being here for God's will. At the same time we have to accept the truth that God has a people here upon the earth, a people of His choice -- and God's people are His inheritance.

Now if God takes up an inheritance, of necessity He takes up the liabilities on the inheritance. You get the idea of this in the case of Boaz -- he took up the liabilities on the inheritance of Elimelech; and that is what God has been pleased to do in grace at the present time. God has now seen fit to take up an inheritance, and He has taken up the liabilities on the inheritance, and all have been met by Himself in the death of Christ -- Christ is the Lamb of God -- and that

is what I understand to be the redemption. It speaks in Romans 3 of "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". Redemption is effective in Christ, and God can lead His people out and bring them into the promised land. If you accept that, you will see how important it is for us to enter into the great reality of redemption. You have to accept that you are of God's inheritance -- you have no longer right and title in regard to the disposal of yourself -- every liability under which you were has been taken up and met in grace on the part of God in Christ. A moment comes in the history of a Christian when he has to accept the sovereignty of God's mercy, and it is an extremely important moment, for it means that God has entire and absolute right over me. Redemption has been accomplished, the inheritance in that sense is free in regard to God, and we have to admit God's right to do as He likes with His inheritance. I do not think I am much more of a Calvinist than other people, but I see the sovereignty of God's mercy. For instance in a family, one may be saved in the midst of a number; the question may come up, Why should God have taken one up and not others? I cannot tell, it is a question of the sovereignty of God's mercy, God has been pleased to act in that way, and it may be the case in almost any family. But if God has been pleased to act thus in the sovereignty of His mercy in regard to me, I have to recognise that I am part of His inheritance, and that God has title to do with me what He will. I do not see how that can be contested.

Thus we see that God's people are His inheritance, and His people are for Himself and for the world to come. And our righteousness is for God and for the world to come. I think that is the point that is seen in this chapter; the soul is entering into the reality of redemption. What we come to is that Christ is our righteousness -- the One who on the part of God took up our liabilities is the righteousness of His people;

and I think that is intelligible, because it is in Christ that God has been pleased to give witness of righteousness. You get at the end of the chapter, "who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification". It was in Him that the liabilities were taken up, and in resurrection God has given witness that these liabilities have been discharged. God has broken the bonds of death, hence it is that the witness of righteousness is given in Christ risen; and Christ risen is the righteousness of His people. Now we are justified in Christ. If any one were to appeal to me as to my righteousness before God, I could only point to the One who met my liabilities, because He alone is out of death. God has not yet given witness of righteousness in me, I am still subject to death; the Christian is not yet in resurrection, but Christ is in resurrection; and Christ is our righteousness in the presence of God, also in regard to the world to come. I think you will see the importance of that; in that it is the beginning of the soul's appropriation of Christ. We then thank God for what He has made Him to us, "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption". There are many relationships in which Christ stands to us, but we have to begin with Christ as righteousness. God has made Him so for the reason that Christ is the One in whom God has given testimony of our liabilities having been met; that is in the fact that God raised Him from the dead. You cannot press a more important point than the resurrection of Christ, and that the Christian is justified in Christ. Inconsistencies may be pointed out in the ways of the Christian; but he can ever point to Christ, and say that all his liabilities have been met in Christ. The purpose of God was to take up His inheritance in His people, and the liabilities were discharged in Christ. I think the effect of the apprehension of that is the beginning of all attachment to Christ -- Christ is inseparable now from us, and we from Christ.

I am thankful to be able to refer to Christ as to righteousness. If any one were to ask me, how I am justified, I would point to Christ risen, and say that He is the witness from God that every liability has been met, and is therefore my righteousness. Now I come to the seal of righteousness. Look at Genesis 15:6 for a moment, "He believed in the Lord, and he counted it for righteousness". And in chapter 17: 9 - 13 we get the seal. It is alluded to in Romans 4, "He received the sign of circumcision", it was not the thing signified, but the sign of it. "He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised". Now in the ways of God circumcision must hang upon righteousness. As we have seen, righteousness is in this, that in Christ all our liabilities have been met; and in the meeting of those liabilities there was the end before God of the flesh. I want everyone to enter into that. Our liability in the presence of God was death, and for the meeting of that liability, death was essential. But death was the end of the flesh, therefore it follows of necessity that circumcision, the putting off of the flesh, must follow upon righteousness. Righteousness was accomplished in the death of Christ, when our liabilities were met; but circumcision necessarily took place there, that is, the cutting off of the flesh. And the same thing must become true in the Christian. When we come to application, the one is really the seal of the other. I think it is most remarkable that it should have been set forth in the case of Abraham -- he was justified, accounted righteous in anticipation of the death of Christ, and he received circumcision, not perhaps in the reality of it, but as a sign; you could not get the reality of it in those days. Both his righteousness and the seal of it pointed on to what was yet to come to pass; still, Abraham was justified in God's mind. We now have Christ for righteousness. And we get circumcision not simply

as a sign, but as a seal. Circumcision could not be brought about except by the Spirit of God. It means that following upon righteousness there is the putting aside of the rule of the flesh, seeing that in the death of Christ, where righteousness was established, the flesh was cut off. In the epistle to the Colossians, we get the expression "circumcision of Christ", that is in regard to Christians. We enter into redemption by faith -- Christ is our righteousness. But though circumcision be accepted, it can only be effectual in the power of the Holy Spirit. Hence you may speak of the Spirit being the seal in our case. But the seal of righteousness is not so much the Spirit as the effect of the Spirit; and the effect of the Spirit is to set aside the rule of the flesh. The flesh never could come into the righteousness of God, I may come into the righteousness of God, but the flesh never could, it never could come within the rule of God -- "they that are in the flesh cannot please God"; but I come under the rule of God. How can I come within the rule of God? By the setting aside of the flesh, and the flesh is set aside in the power of the Holy Spirit. We read, "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh". And I believe that the first sense which follows the reception of the Spirit in the believer is that the flesh is no longer to rule -- thus circumcision comes in by the power of the Holy Spirit. You can understand the reality of this, for how can we be near Christ and give licence to the flesh? There is no doubt that the allowance of the flesh comes in very much between Christians and Christ. But I do not think it is possible to be practically near Christ and to allow the flesh, the very condition of nearness to Christ being that the flesh has no place. If Christ is our righteousness, and you want to enjoy your righteousness, it is evident you need to be near to Christ, and the Spirit of God will keep us near to Christ, but on the other hand will not

tolerate the flesh. The flesh may come in in a very subtle way, it is not always in great things that the flesh will show itself, it is the little foxes that spoil the vines. The flesh will intrude in a thousand ways in regard to the Christian, working to draw us aside in the way of conformity to man and the world by self-pleasing. Many a person believes in Christ who is not practically near to Christ.

We surely want to be near to Christ, for all spiritual progress depends upon the soul's appropriation of Christ. God has been pleased to place Him within the reach of our appropriation, but appropriation is conditional on the truth of circumcision. Circumcision follows upon righteousness, and it is practicable now to the people of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Had it not been for the place which the Spirit of God has taken up in the people of God, circumcision would not have been practicable to us. If you are prepared to accept the rule of the Spirit of God, you will see great gain to be got from it, and that is, that the Spirit will make you conscious of nearness to Christ; and if in nearness to Christ, then you enter into the great reality of Christ being your righteousness in the presence of God, so that you have acceptance with God and for the world to come. We are in the habit of taking things up too dogmatically, simply resting upon statements in Scripture, which is hardly faith. So far as I understand faith, it connects itself with divine living Persons. The Lord Jesus said: "Ye believe in God, believe also in me". And we want not only to be in the faith of Christ, but in the appropriation of Christ. He is our righteousness, and if so, we are entitled to be near to Him, and this really involves circumcision. You have got the power to carry this out, it is practicable since the Spirit came. I give you one word more, from the epistle to Titus, which will express the idea of nearness to Christ. "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us"

(He has taken up the liabilities) "from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works", Titus 2:11 - 14. If He has a peculiar people they are to be near to Him, they are a people for a possession -- "zealous of good works" -- walking practically in circumcision down here in the power of the Spirit of God, nothing allowed to come between Christ and them. This is a remarkable passage, for in the beginning of it we get "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men"; then in the latter part, it is, "Who gave himself for us" -- not exactly for all -- "that he might redeem us from all iniquity". That evidently involves the sovereign mercy of God. If we are a peculiar people to Him, then do not let anything intrude between us and Him. The practical result will be that we "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free". That is, we are drawn by the Spirit of God closer to Christ, and are conscious that we are a peculiar people to Himself.

SALVATION IN BEHOLDING THE GLORY OF THE LORD

Hebrews 3:1 - 6; 1 Peter 3:8 - 22

I might at the outset refer to a verse in Exodus 14:30: "Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore. And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses". I have read this to bring under your attention the thought of salvation. It is a simple thing to speak about, but, at the same time, a very important one. A great number of people have their own thoughts about salvation, but those thoughts are often very indefinite. The fact is, that we want not only to talk about it, but to be in that about which we talk. Salvation is not a doctrine, but a reality. If it were simply a doctrine there would be nothing much in it. If there is no reality in salvation, Christianity has not brought us to any end. The end to which we must be brought down here in the ways of God, if God has intervened in grace in regard to man, must be salvation; and we are brought to that point in Christianity, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men". Now, my wish is to give you, if I can, a definite idea in connection with salvation, and to point out how and where salvation is now found. It is certain it is not to be found in the world; Christianity has left the outward state of things in the world unchanged; and hence it becomes a question of how salvation is brought in. I think I can understand salvation in connection with the coming of the Lord, that does not present much difficulty. There will be a people looking for His coming, and He will bring salvation to them. I

can understand salvation in that sense, but that has not come to pass yet; salvation has come, but the Lord has not come. The wonderful thing is, that salvation can be in the absence of the Lord; for salvation, properly speaking, is not connected with His absence, but with His presence. In Hebrews 9:27, 28, it is plain enough that salvation is connected with the coming of the Lord -- "unto them that look for him" -- that is, I suppose, the expectant Jew -- "shall he appear the second time, apart from sin unto salvation". That thought is intelligible in connection with the coming of the Lord, because the coming of the Lord will undoubtedly change everything here upon the earth -- the glory and power of man will be completely cast down at the coming of the Lord, and the Lord will come to bring salvation to His people -- "to them that look for him". But that is not what marks the present time. The Lord has not yet come in glory. He came once in order that He might offer Himself in sacrifice; but He has not yet put away sin in this world. Hence in a public way salvation has not yet come in. The point then is, how has it come? How is it we enjoy salvation in the present time? I believe it to be in the house of God, and therefore I want to touch upon what marks the house of God. If I can give you any distinct idea of the house of God, you will see how salvation is necessarily connected with it; but apart from the house of God we cannot apprehend salvation in the present time. The house of God is difficult to define, for things have become so terribly mixed up in the world. The church has come under the power of the world. That being the state of things, it is very important that we should have the truth of the house of God practically in our souls. That is the only way in which we can meet the state of things. When the truth is practically known in the soul, we come more or less into the benefits and blessings that are connected with God's house, and

God's house is the place of salvation. That point comes out in the passage that I read in Peter: "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him". I suppose that the house of God down here is the answer to Christ being at the right hand of God. There is a spot on earth where there is the testimony of the glory of the Lord. The Holy Spirit came down as Witness to the glory of the Lord; and in the knowledge of the glory of the Lord we get salvation. Baptism has introduced us into connection, by profession, with the place where the Spirit of God is -- into Christian fellowship.

I was speaking last week upon righteousness and the Holy Spirit being the seal of righteousness. In view of circumcision, God has brought us to righteousness, we are accounted righteous -- Christ is the righteousness of His people, and the Holy Spirit is the seal of righteousness. I spoke of that in connection with Abraham, who was accounted righteous, and who received the sign of circumcision, the seal of his righteousness. We have circumcision by the presence of the Holy Spirit; and circumcision -- that is, the cutting off of the flesh in the power of the Spirit, is the seal of our righteousness. The Christian is said to have put off the old man, and I think putting off the "old man" is a reality in spiritual power. My point now is not righteousness, but salvation. I went last time only as far as righteousness and the seal of it. Salvation could not be without righteousness, but is distinct from it. I will illustrate it in this way: The Israelites, in a sense, had righteousness in Egypt, the blood was to them righteousness, but they did not get salvation until they were through the Red

Sea. That is what led me to read the passage in Exodus 14:29, 30. The hand of God was in favour of the people in order that He might deliver them from the Egyptians; and salvation was that they were delivered from the Egyptians -- they "saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore". I might put it in this way: They wanted righteousness for God, but salvation from the Egyptians, and the purpose of God was to give them salvation from the Egyptians. The blood in Egypt was for the eye of God, and a witness to them that God had provided in His own way for their liabilities; and then God set to work, according to His own purpose, to give them salvation from the enemy.

If you will look again at the verse in Hebrews 9 you will see the same distinction. "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation". It was one thing for Christ to bear the sins of many, and in consequence of that there is forgiveness of sins, but it is another thing for Christ to "appear the second time apart from sin unto salvation", which He will do for His people. The people of God -- Israel -- will come into trouble, there will be the time of Jacob's trouble, but he will be saved out of it, for the Lord will appear for the salvation of His people. I quite admit the application of this to ourselves, as Christians we are looking for the Lord, and He will "appear to us unto salvation". This is quite true in regard to us, but as to the literal application, I have no doubt the passage refers to Israel. There is another point of distinction between righteousness and salvation. Righteousness is connected with Christ's resurrection, while salvation is connected with the Lord in glory. Look at Romans 10:8, "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord

Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved". It is very plain in verse 10: "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation". Salvation and righteousness are very clearly distinct in that passage -- righteousness hangs on the testimony of resurrection, salvation on the confession of Christ as Lord; and that at once brings us to the thought of the house of God. Now the distinction ought to be quite plain to all, because the resurrection is God's testimony to man of the accomplishment of righteousness on behalf of man; righteousness was fully accomplished in the death of Christ, and the resurrection is the witness of it on the part of God, hence no one can be said to be justified who fails to believe in the resurrection of Christ, because he has not yet believed God's testimony. Then it follows that "with the mouth confession is made unto salvation". It is plain from this passage, and from the case of the Israelites, and from the last verse of Hebrews 9, that righteousness is one thing and salvation another. Righteousness hangs upon redemption, that is, our liabilities have been met in the death of Christ, and the resurrection is the witness of it on the part of God.

But Christ has also been exalted, and the answer to that is, the house of God down here. This was brought to pass on the day of Pentecost, in that the Holy Spirit descended; there was a company prepared and waiting, they had been prepared by the ministry of the Lord Himself, and the Holy Spirit descended upon them, and the house of God was formed; and the house of God is thus the witness down here of the glory of the Lord. Nothing whatever can be known of the glory of the Lord except by the report of the Holy Spirit. The last that was seen of Christ was when the cloud received Him out of the sight of His disciples. The Lord in Luke 24 commissioned His

disciples, and bade them tarry in the city of Jerusalem, "until ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany; and he lifted up his hands and blessed them", and in blessing them, "he was parted from them and carried up into heaven" -- a cloud received Him out of their sight; He "has gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him"; and the Holy Spirit has come down to report this. The glory of the Lord can only be known by the report of the Holy Spirit. Scripture is very definite as to this, it says, no one can say Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit, hence it is only by the Holy Spirit that we can confess Him as Lord. A man may receive God's testimony, and believe on the Lord, but to confess Him as Lord is a different thing. It implies an habitual activity of soul, and that can only be in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We have in Hebrews 3 the place of Christ in regard to God's house. It says, "Christ as Son over his house" (not, 'his own house') "whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end". Then in verse 14, "For we are made companions of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end". It is very plain that this passage presents Christ in contrast to Moses. Moses was faithful as a servant in God's house, but Christ is Son over God's house, and He, too, is the builder, "he that built all things is God". Christ as the builder of God's house, proved Himself to be God. Thus the place which He has in connection with the house of God is that He is Son over God's house, that is, He has the first place. That is what Christ is in regard to the house of God, the Holy Spirit having brought report that He is at "the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him". He is Son over God's house. Then we get the present idea of

the house of God in the next part of the verse, we (Christians) are it, but it is conditional, "if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end". I want to come to that point; the house of God is a difficult subject to present to people because the minds of so many have material ideas in connection with God's house. Many Christians connect the house of God with a building; there was a time when the temple was the house of God, but God dwelleth not in temples made with hands, that was the definite statement of Stephen to the Jews. God dwells in His people -- "whose house are we" -- and only in His people. God has a house, and that is His household, and in His household God dwells. The same thing is true of myself. I do not think very much of the building which I inhabit, or its surroundings; my household is properly my house; you get the idea of a house in the apostle's reference to the house of Onesiphorus, the expression meant Onesiphorus and his household. God's house is His people, and Christ is Son over that house, and the Holy Spirit is residing there, in witness to us of the glory of the Lord. I have no doubt that salvation for us now upon earth depends upon the apprehension of the glory of the Lord, and I do not believe that any person can have the reality of present salvation who does not apprehend that glory. It is a wonderful thing for the soul to lay hold of the truth that the Lord has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels, authorities, and powers being made subject unto Him.

If you look at the passage in Peter it says, "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us". I think all will understand that baptism can never be more than a figure, it is not the substance, no one could make baptism the substance; the substance of everything in Christianity is in the Holy Spirit. You may get forms and letter and ordinances, but these

are not the substance of Christianity; if these were the substance, Christianity would be nothing much in advance of Judaism. In Christianity there is substance, namely, that which is in the power of the Holy Spirit -- the presence and work of the Holy Spirit have brought in substance in contrast to shadow. But baptism has its place as a figure; and what is set forth in baptism is the thought of dissociation. Those who came under baptism were dissociated from that in which they had been previously. You can understand this in regard to the Jew -- the Jew was dissociated from Judaism, and the heathen from heathenism, and through baptism they came into a certain association here upon earth, and that was Christianity. You may remember the appeal of Peter to the Jews, where he urged, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation"; the effect was, "They that gladly received his word were baptised". That is, they dissociated themselves from that with which they were connected, and the practical result was that they were figuratively cleansed from that in which they had been, and were brought in to the place where the Holy Spirit was, and there it was they found a good conscience by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This marks the house of God; the Christian can be in peace in the presence of God. I should say that is the foundation of salvation. I cannot understand salvation apart from that. The idea of a good conscience is, that you can lift up your heads in the presence of God without fear. We begin by believing: "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness"; then that same resurrection becomes the ground of a good conscience. I cannot speak of anything more important than the recognition of the Spirit of God here. The apostle appeals to the Corinthians. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" And the Spirit of God has never been withdrawn from that day to this; the household of God is upon the earth, and it is in

that household we are entitled to a good conscience. It is impossible that sin can be imputed to us, "We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins", according to His grace. It is important to keep a good conscience in regard to the details of life down here; but this is not the thought in Peter, there it is in regard to the presence of God. That is the idea of the house of God. It was realised in early days; those who were brought into the Christian company enjoyed a good conscience by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now I want to come to the real meaning and power of the glory of the Lord. I will call your attention to a verse or two in Luke 14:21 - 24. I refer to that passage because it brings in the thought of God's house. I have no doubt that God's house is the correspondence down here to the glory of the Lord in heaven. We have to remember that Christ has been received into heaven with acclamation, that is, He has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels, authorities and powers being made subject to Him. He has been received in heaven, as He will be received in Jerusalem hereafter; and the Holy Spirit has come down to bring tidings of the rejoicing in heaven, and it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that has established the house of God down here, and God will have His house to be filled, if the Jew will not come in, God will have the Gentile; but in any case He will have His house filled; therefore in the house, that is, in the sense of the presence of the Spirit, we ought to have an idea of the joy with which Christ has been received in heaven. That is what is proper to the house of God, that we should behold the glory of the Lord. Now a word or two about the latter. I think the Lord ought to be the first object of the affection of every Christian, because He has been pleased to bring to us not simply the authority but the love of God. The apostle Paul says,

"If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha".

All authority, all administration belongs to Christ; but at the same time He brings to us the authority of love, and we bow the knee to Him, we bow the knee to the One who came forth that He might express to us the love of God; all that you can know of God, you must learn in the Lord Jesus Christ. "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich". Now, I want all to take that home, for nothing can be more important than that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Son over God's house, should have His own proper place in the affections of His people.

And He is supreme in authority. There are authorities in this world, kings and great people, and there are authorities, too, in heaven, angels and principalities. But mark, angels and authorities and powers are made subject to the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, He is above them; the One in whom the Christian believes, and who is the Object of the Christian's affections, is above all principalities and powers. I do not care whether it be Pharaoh and the Egyptians, or the devil, or what not; the great point is this, that angels, authorities and powers are subject to the One whom the Christian loves. If he does not love our Lord Jesus, he is under a curse; if, on the other hand, he does love our Lord Jesus Christ, He loves One to whom all is made subject. Now, think how great that is. Most of us would be awed by the presence of some one of the great potentates of the world; and if I had to come into contact with such, I would treat them with all due respect. Well, there is no power in the world, or in heaven, so great as Christ, who is at the right hand of God. Who can be so great? Who can pretend for a moment to such greatness as that? But the One who is there is entitled to be there; He is the One

who came down from heaven to make God known to us. Now He has gone back as man crowned with glory and honour. The application is this: supposing we have to come into conflict with the powers of evil, what is the position? Well, the Lord stands by us, the One to whom angels, authorities and powers are made subject, One who is greater than all. When Paul was brought into the presence of the Roman emperor (and he was a great potentate in that day), he could say, "No man stood with me, but all forsook me ... Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me".

Now, if you want to come into the enjoyment of present salvation, the way of it is in beholding the glory of the Lord; and every one who has part in the house of God, properly speaking, beholds the glory of the Lord, because you have the witness of it in the Holy Spirit who dwells in the house; and our souls ought to be stirred by the witness of the glory of the Lord, and our hearts attached to the Lord. Well, then, we are here in the presence of evil, we do not know what we may have to encounter, or what another year may bring forth; but the Lord will stand by us in every trial and exigency. I think one of the sweetest words that can be found in Scripture was when, in regard to the darkest moment which the apostle had to meet here upon earth, he could say: "The Lord stood with me and strengthened me". Salvation to us means that you can lift up your head in the presence of anything and everything here. We want righteousness to enable us to be in peace in the presence of God -- and we have it; but we want salvation from the power of the enemy -- and having salvation, we are not afraid of anything we may have to meet. That is the power of salvation in the soul of the Christian at the present time. I do not think the Lord concerns Himself with what is passing in the world: the time will come when He will concern Himself very much

with the world, but that does not mark the present time. He stands by His people in their need and weakness; and hence the Christian need not fear, for the One who stands by him, and whose glory he can behold, is greater than all.

I pray that the glory of the Lord may have a much greater place in every one of our hearts.

THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT

John 1:29 - 34; Acts 11:15 - 19; 1 Corinthians 12:12, 13, 27

What has been much before me is the thought that there is nothing now on earth for God outside of the Holy Spirit. I should take small account, except as to responsibility, of that which has been built up by man in the name of Christ. I think it is a mistake to confound what has been built up by man in his use of God's testimony, with what is really of God here. These things may work together, for God has been pleased to send various testimonies into the world, and every testimony which God has sent has been committed into the hands of man. Israel was the depository of a testimony, afterwards God sent prophets, and the prophets were men; then Christ came, the crown of all testimony, and now we get the witness to Him of the Holy Spirit, still, through men. Christ is now the testimony; and God's testimony has been entrusted to man and is presented by man. A great system has thus been built up here upon the earth, but it is a mistake to confound that with what is really of God. I used to have the idea that the house of God had become the "great house". I do not think so now. What man has built up here has become the great house, but I do not confound the great house with the house of God, because, in regard to the house of God, nothing goes beyond the Holy Spirit; God's house is a spiritual house. I do not think that God would own what men have built up as being His house, though men have their responsibility in having taken the ground of Christianity, and in dealing in the things of it, and undoubtedly will be judged on that ground. There are many saints -- true people of God -- mixed up in the great system which has been built by

man, but that does not make it the house of God. The house of God is His household. All those who compose the house of God are "living", it is a house built up of living stones -- "a spiritual house, an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ". I refer to that because it is explanatory of what is before my mind at this time. I seek to pursue what I might call the line of the Spirit. My first subject was righteousness, and the seal of righteousness, which is circumcision, and circumcision is now spiritual, not an outward rite; it is in the spirit not in the letter, and is impossible apart from the Spirit of God. No man could put off the body of the flesh, the only power for it is the Spirit, hence circumcision lies in the Spirit.

Last time we had the subject of salvation, and salvation cannot now go beyond the Spirit. Salvation, as I pointed out, is connected with the glory of the Lord, and the testimony of that glory is in God's house down here. I sought to bring two things before you: one was, that we have a good conscience toward God by Christ's resurrection, and the other that we see the glory of the Lord. He has "gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him". I have no doubt that salvation is realised at the present time in beholding the glory of the Lord, and we do not behold the glory of the Lord but by the Spirit. When the Lord comes He will bring salvation to His people.

Now I come to another very important point, and that is the baptism of the Spirit. I daresay I shall not do much justice to it, but of the importance of the fact I have no doubt. The baptism of the Spirit brings us to the truth of the "one body". We can see the progress of the truth in regard to it. In John 1 John the baptist hails Jesus as the One who baptises with the Holy Spirit; and on the day of Pentecost the baptism of the Holy Spirit took place according to

the word which the Lord spoke to the disciples, "Ye shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days hence". And then in the chapter I have read the baptism of the Holy Spirit was extended to the Gentiles in the case of Cornelius. Then in 1 Corinthians 12 we get the doctrine, "For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body", etc., and afterwards in the same chapter is the statement that the saints were Christ's body; in fact, in the early part of the chapter we read, "so also is the Christ".

My first point is to give you an idea of the meaning of the baptism of the Spirit. I think this will enable you to see the force of the succeeding passages, where we get the same thing spoken of. Jesus Himself drew the contrast between John's baptism with water, and His own with the Holy Spirit; and undoubtedly in Christianity the baptism of the Spirit is very distinct from baptism with water. The baptism with water connects itself with God's testimony down here, and is administered by man, and a great many people are baptised who have no part in the baptism of the Spirit. Baptism with water connects itself with one order of things, and the baptism of the Spirit with another. That the baptism of water was incumbent on those who received the testimony is evident from the Lord's word in the last chapter of Mark: the apostles were to preach the gospel to every creature, and "He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved". Baptism was incumbent on those who received the testimony, and it was administered by man.

It has often been said, however, that we have no record of the baptism of the first 120. There was no one to baptise them. They were baptised with the Holy Spirit; and the testimony went forth from them, and all who received the testimony were baptised with water and brought in that way into Christian fellowship. It was a work which God was doing down here by means of His testimony, but you must distinguish

that from the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now if you will just refer to John 1:29 - 34, you will see two things which John the baptist predicated in regard to Christ. One was, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world", and the other, "the same is he which baptiseth with the Holy Spirit". In connection with the Lord Himself you first get the descent of the Holy Spirit. There had been types of this in the Old Testament, the meat-offering was invariably mingled and anointed with oil. You get there a figure of the Holy Spirit connected with perfect humanity, for I suppose that the fine wheat set forth pure humanity, untainted by anything which is of man. It prefigured Christ in that sense, and Christ was anointed with the Holy Spirit. It was a new departure on the part of God that the Spirit of God should descend upon a man. It has been pointed out that in our case there is no type of the baptism of the Holy Spirit until the blood is there; but in the case of the Lord it was different. But there was something almost more wonderful, that there should be One here who could baptise others with the Holy Spirit. In a sense, it was not wonderful that the Holy Spirit should descend upon Christ when you consider who Christ was, but it was very wonderful that others could be baptised with the Holy Spirit.

But there is a previous thought in connection with Christ, and that is, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world". You want to put the two thoughts together, that is, the removing the sin of the world, and baptising with the Holy Spirit. It has been said that the sin of the world is not yet taken away; but the Lamb of God has been here, "once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin". The sacrifice has taken place, but the sin of the world is not yet taken away. The taking away the sin of the world is an act of power, and will be brought to pass by the coming of God into the

world. The instant God comes into the world sin will be taken away. The sin of the world is lawlessness, the spirit that will not have God, it finds its head and development in antichrist, who in the absence of God usurps the place of God; but the moment that God comes in (as He surely will) the sin of the world is taken away. Lawlessness can no longer be when God sees fit to come in, as He will, in righteous judgment. I do not think that people quite understand what the sin of the world is. I believe it to be the working of the principle of antichrist, the principle that shuts God out. It is the principle of the world at the present moment. Men will name the name of God and talk about God, but practically they will not have God. Because the very first principle connected with God is what I might call the law of the moral universe, namely, righteousness, and men prefer lawlessness. But when God comes in, and takes up His abode, another principle must come in, and that is holiness. Holiness becometh God's house. When the Israelites had been brought out of Egypt, they sang, "Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto the abode of thy holiness". Now holiness is what man's mind is entirely unaccustomed to. Man's mind may entertain the idea of righteousness, as between man and man, but it has no idea of the righteousness of God. Hence it must be quite unaccustomed to the idea of holiness, and when God comes in He brings in holiness. This is what the apostle Paul had to impress upon the minds of the Corinthians: "The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are". How is it holy? On account of the One who dwells there. The One who dwells gives character to the house of God. My point is that the moment God comes in, there must be an end to sin as an active principle in the world. Infidelity will necessarily be proved in that day to be perfect folly,

and so, lawlessness will be proved to be what it is, and it will be dealt with as that. Do you think God will be trifled with? People act as if they did think so, but they will be undeceived. Lawlessness will be declared to be lawlessness, and dealt with as such, for the moment God comes in, He brings all under what I may call the law of the moral universe, that is righteousness and lawlessness will find its own place. It is said in regard to the throne: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom". I say all this in connection with the point that when God takes His place in the world there is an end to sin; by the very fact of God having come in, lawlessness is at an end. The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world because He can bring God into it. We read at the close of Revelation of the coming in of the Word of God. All the boasting and arrogance of man will be laid low in that day. Men will not be lifted up in that day, all that kind of thing will be broken down. If you read the beginning of Isaiah you will see what the day of the Lord means. Man may boast in the absence of God -- but the moment God is present, the haughtiness of men is brought low. Pride is proved to be folly, and lawlessness no longer prevails.

Now I come to the second point. He baptises with the Holy Spirit. Baptising with the Holy Spirit really means a subjective work in regard to man, and the practical result of it is, that man becomes the vessel of the life of God, that is, in a moral sense. I think that is the idea connected with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is certain that the life of God cannot go one bit beyond the Spirit of God and His work. And when I talk that way, I do not mean to exalt man to deity, but it is the way of God by the Holy Spirit that man should be made the vessel of the divine life morally. That is the answer that God has given to the power of evil -- the sin of the world. The sin

of the world has been the work of the devil. Man is alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in him. Do you remember, on the other hand, the description of the new man? Christians are said to have "put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness". That is what I understand, and desire to convey, by the life of God. Nothing short of that is the new man. It is after God.

Now, do you think the mind of man ever entertained such an idea as that? I do not know much about other systems, religious or philosophical, Buddhism and the like, but I have heard the idea of the absorption of man into deity. That kind of idea has been entertained. I do not think the authors understood what they meant, because they were so profoundly ignorant of deity. They did not know much about their own deities, or they would have found them to be devils; much less did they know anything about the true Deity. Men may talk about the absorption of man into deity, but the truth as we have it here, the way of God, is in perfect contrast to that, because the point of God's way is to bring the life of God into man down here. The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, but He baptises with the Holy Spirit so that man may be the vessel of the life of God. It does not matter how degraded man may have been. Take either Jew or Gentile. Nothing could be more degraded than the condition of the Gentile, as the result of idolatry, when the Apostle Paul preached to them. No matter how degraded, man was to become the vessel of the life of God. You get that thought brought out in what the Lord said to the woman of Samaria in chapter 4 of John's gospel. The Lord does not say a word about her going to heaven; He says, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee

living water". In speaking of the virtue of the living water, the Lord says, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life". It is beyond question the life of God morally, springing up in the believer into eternal life. It is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and life in Christ Jesus means nothing less than the life of God in a man. It is that which came out in Christ. If you do not apprehend that, you do not know what Christ was. One loves to look at what Christ was morally. He was a true man, but there was the life of God in a man down here; and it is that which is reproduced in Christians -- the new man is created after God in righteousness and true holiness.

Now think what a contrast that is to every thought of man. Do you think any philosopher entertained the idea of men -- sinful men down here -- being made the vessels of the life of God at the present time? Absorption and all such ideas refer to what may take place after death; but the passage I read has nothing to do with death, it is what Christ would do down here upon earth, that is, baptise with the Holy Spirit. The fact is, John, by the Spirit of God, discerned in Christ a new point of departure. The Holy Spirit descended and abode upon Him, there never was the like before. Christ was exceptional to anything that had taken place. John apprehended this by the Spirit of God, and said, "I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God". Now all this is in contrast to anything that ever entered into man's conception. In the scene of man's sin and ruin and shame, in a person who had been a slave to sin and lust, there, by the Spirit of God, the life of God was to come out, and that was the effect of baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Now pass on to the passage in Acts 11:15 - 17. Here was an important crisis in connection with the church, the point was the introduction of the Gentiles. The Jews could have understood it better if Cornelius

had become a Jewish proselyte. That was not God's way. He intended having the Gentile without his becoming a Jewish proselyte, and hence the Holy Spirit was given to the Gentiles. This comes home to Peter, and he testifies, "God gave them the like gift as he did unto us". The Gentile was brought into the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it was a very important point in the history of the church, for the tendency was still to allow a special place to the Jews. You can understand that such a thing was impossible in connection with the baptism of the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit meant the complete setting aside of all that was after the flesh. The Spirit was not coming here, as it were, in partnership with the flesh; and if not, there was necessarily the setting aside of the flesh whether in Jew or Gentile, because the Spirit was bringing in the life of God as that life had been set forth in Christ. What was there of Jew or Gentile in Christ? He was the living bread from heaven. The Lord was connected with the Jew outwardly. He became subject to the law; but there was nothing of Jew or Gentile morally in Christ. What was in Christ was of God. What was in Jew or Gentile was of the flesh. It might be Gentile or it might be Jewish flesh. Gentiles were affected by idolatrous associations, and Jews by Jewish. Christ was of God, nothing of man morally was there. That was the beginning. And the Spirit bade Peter go to Gentiles, and the Holy Spirit fell on them in order that the same thing might be brought to pass both in the Jew and Gentile. That was what Peter had to learn. He says, what was I that I could withstand God? They could not withhold baptism from them. God had overridden every hindrance and prejudice in communicating the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Gentile as to the Jew.

Now if we pass on to 1 Corinthians 12:12, 13 and 27, we shall see this truth further. In that passage

we are brought to a more definite and important point. We see what the baptism of the Spirit tends to. The baptism of water has in a sense built up Christianity as we see it in the world. I am not at all attempting to underrate the importance of baptism in its true meaning. The baptism of the Spirit had another end in view, and that was the introduction of the body here which was to be for God. You will find nothing at all about heaven in the chapter I read, the whole chapter is taken up with that which God had brought to pass here upon earth. The occasion of the chapter is the manifestation of the Spirit, and in order to enforce what he has to say, the apostle brings in the thought that "by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentile", etc. Now in regard to that, all national distinction is gone in the body. It is clear that in the baptism of the Holy Spirit we cannot talk about ourselves according to fleshly distinctions because "by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body". We have to think of ourselves as in the eye of God; and if I realise that I am neither Jew nor Gentile in the eye of God, I shall not claim to be Jew or Gentile on earth. But there is another point connected with it, and that is, "So also is the Christ". It is as the Christ under the eye of God. We are all baptised into one body, and that one body is "the Christ". That is what the baptism of the Spirit was intended to bring about -- the expression of Christ here. I do not think the baptism of the Spirit was intended to take us to heaven, but that there might be one body on earth which should be morally a reproduction of Christ. When the Lord was here you can understand that He was as Man under the eye of God, and for God's glory -- He was God; in Him was all the fulness pleased to dwell. The grace of God and the mercy of God toward man came out in Him; He presented God perfectly to man. But on the other hand, in Him man was presented

perfectly to God, and that was the proper place of the church by the baptism of the Spirit; after Christ left this scene personally, the life of Christ by the Spirit was set forth in the body -- "so also is the Christ". It says, "and have all been made to drink into one Spirit". Mark that expression -- not many spirits, but "into one Spirit". We have a further word in the latter part of the chapter, "Now ye are the body of Christ", etc. The one body is Christ's body. It stands in regard to Christ as my body stands in reference to myself. I may have to put off this, my tabernacle, but I do not come to an end if my tabernacle is dissolved. Peter did not come to an end, though his tabernacle was dissolved; and so, too, Paul's tabernacle, his earthly house, was dissolved, but Paul is able to distinguish between himself and his body. My spirit is the life of my body. What I am to my body Christ is to His body. It is the body here on earth which is animated by Christ, Christ is the principle of this life by the Holy Spirit; and the baptism of the Spirit was intended to bring about the wonderful reality that the life of God morally should be reproduced in one body composed of Jew and Gentile. It is spoken of as the mystery because it is something which could not come to pass in the public ways of God -- Jew and Gentile never could be one on earth, in the public ways of God, but they are one in the body of Christ. Nothing of that can go beyond the Holy Spirit. You can see the contrast of this to the Christianity which has been built by man. The latter is almost all outside the Spirit of God, and we have to withdraw in spirit from it to what is of the Spirit of God. Christ was the One who baptised with the Holy Spirit, He Himself had received the Holy Spirit in testimony to His Person, and the One upon whom the Spirit remained was the One who baptised with the Holy Spirit.

One word more, and that is this, the Lord prayed

in regard to those who should believe on Him, that they all might be one in the Father and the Son. Evidently God intended the unity of the saints by the baptism of the Spirit; and the unity of the saints was the testimony here that the Father sent the Son. It was a wonderful thing that God should have brought about unity. The baptism of the Spirit is wonderful, not only as a fact, but in the moral bearing of it. It was in the divine purpose that there should be brought about here, upon earth, in unity the life of Christ, or rather, to take it in its true light -- the life of God morally should be expressed as it had been expressed in Christ Himself as a Man here. I think we have to look to what has been brought about by the cross, the complete setting aside of the flesh -- we "have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new". But then the practical meaning of that is, that, having brought us to the abode of His holiness, God is the standard of our practice, properly speaking, down here. It would be painful to hear talk about having put on the new man, and not see the practice that is suitable to God, We have to look to it that having put on the new man our practice should be in accordance with the truth.

A WELL OF WATER IN THE BELIEVER

John 4:10 - 14; 7: 37 - 39; Romans 8:9 - 11

There was in the ministry of Christ down here a peculiar suitability to the persons to whom the things spoken were addressed. He always said and did, what is not common with us, the right thing in the right place. We may often have a good word, but we sometimes put that good word in the wrong place. Hence it is not only the goodness of the things spoken that marked Christ's ministry, but their appropriateness to the case. We may not always be able to discern this at first sight, but the more you become acquainted with divine things the more you see it.

One may often find a difficulty in the discernment of Scripture, but I have come to the conclusion that such a difficulty only proves that I am not up to the scripture. People want every difficulty removed, but much depends upon our spiritual state. As we have spiritual understanding we not only apprehend the perfectness and goodness of all that the Lord spoke, but the appropriateness of what He said in point of time and person. When He spoke to the woman of Samaria, what He said was appropriate to the time and the person. The same thing would not perhaps have been appropriate to Nicodemus. The appropriateness is in this, that in speaking as He did to such a woman, the Lord indicated that in the grace of God everything in man was to be completely new. On the other hand, Nicodemus was a teacher in Israel, and had the same things been said to him they might have conveyed the idea of patching up man; but much could not be made out of the woman of Samaria, and if she was taken up in the grace of God, everything must be new. The Lord brings in the idea of a well of water, you have a new spring, and hence a new person. If there

is a new spring morally, you have a new person, you could not have a new man without a new spring; and the new man is said to be "created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth". Now you have a different man because the spring is different. So in regard to the woman, there was no idea of improving the woman, but she was to be completely new because the spring in her was new. It is a wonderful thing that God can so work as that there should be a completely new spring in man. You get the idea in Romans 8"And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness", "the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life". It is the water that Christ gives, but the water is a spring in us. There is a spring in every man, which regulates his conduct, bearing and speech. If a new spring can be communicated to any man, you must of necessity have a new man.

My purpose is to speak a little bit about the Spirit as spring in the believer. A thought somewhat akin is found in John 7"If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water". Evidently the thought in that passage is of a spring in the believer, because you could not otherwise have rivers of living water flowing out. It is a different thought from that in chapter 4, and the difference I will try and make plain presently. I only refer to it because it indicates the existence of a new spring.

I have tried in the previous lectures to follow on the line of the Spirit. We had the Spirit as the seal of righteousness; then as the power of salvation; and in the last we had the baptism of the Spirit. It is certain that the Spirit is the seal of righteousness, because circumcision is involved in the Spirit, there is the putting off the body of the flesh. Hence the

Spirit is the seal of righteousness as being the power that sets itself against the flesh. It is evident also that salvation, which is in the confession of Christ as Lord, to be effective must be in the Holy Spirit. There can be no salvation now outside the sphere of the Holy Spirit, salvation is in the Spirit, in anticipation of the coming of the Lord. Then I spoke last time of what was involved in the Lamb of God. Christ was recognised in that way by John the baptist; and the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, that is, by the introduction of God into it; and on the other hand, He baptises with the Holy Spirit, to bring to pass here on earth the life of God in man. That is, man is taken possession of by the Spirit, and the effect is, to bring to pass in man morally the life of God; at the same time, believers are baptised by one Spirit into one body.

I want now to speak of the Spirit as a spring in the believer. You will find very commonly through John's gospel two symbols presented: one is bread, and the other, water -- what you may call the necessaries of life. No man can live without the two, except perhaps in an artificial kind of way. I think you will find that Scripture connects the thought of bread with Christ, and water with the Spirit. The Lord says in John 6, "I am that bread of life". He does not, that I remember, speak of Himself as the water of life. I have no doubt that the idea of bread as food is connected with Christ; and on the other hand, that of water with the Spirit. The Spirit is the water of life, and Christ the bread of life. The difference is simple. Bread in Scripture is emblematical of grace, and all grace is presented to us in Christ. Grace is not presented in the Spirit. You would not speak about the Spirit being manna. The children of Israel had manna, and water from the smitten rock. The water was, I suppose, a type of the Spirit, and the manna, of Christ. The Spirit has not become incarnate;

the Son became incarnate, and was the witness and expression of divine grace down here. Divine grace is presented to us in Christ, the manna has that character. I look upon the manna as typifying daily grace for daily need. Now in connection with that you get appropriation, because, looked at in that light, Christ is an Object to us. All the grace of God is presented to us in Him. He is "the living bread which came down from heaven"; and you appropriate bread. We all appropriate the bread of this life, and if we did not we should die; we want bread for the sustenance of life, bread is within our reach; and so it is in regard to Christ. As bread He does not dwell within us, but God has been pleased to place the bread within our reach. We practically live by the grace which has been expressed to us in Christ. All our knowledge of God has been formed in that way. If we did not enter into the grace which has been presented to us in Christ, we could never have a thought of praise. In the case of the lepers who met the Lord, there were ten healed, but only one came back to Jesus and glorified God. He was affected by the grace which had been presented to him in Christ. The same is true with all who appreciate the grace that has been presented to us. Through the glad tidings that are presented to us by the grace of God we are "justified freely ... through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". "Repentance and remission of sins" are preached to us in Christ's name. If we appropriate what is presented to us in Christ, we return and glorify God, like the leper. The bread is symbolic of the grace presented in the Son of God; and the Spirit is the living spring of water in the believer. I will take up the latter thought in John 4 for a moment.

You will notice that the water in John 4 is connected with the Son of God come down; while the Spirit in John 7 is connected with Jesus gone up. You cannot

understand the various ways in which the Spirit is spoken of, if you do not see each in its proper connection. I will say a word or two in connection with the first thought. You will observe how the Lord addresses the woman of Samaria. He says, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water". It was God come down in love to man. Then the Lord says further to her, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst", etc. He first spoke of the gift of God; and then about Himself giving. It was none other than God come down to give. All hangs upon what we get in the preceding chapter, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son". The woman thought no more of the Lord than as of a Jew, and was surprised at His asking drink of her; but the Lord, conscious of who He was, says, "If thou knewest the gift of God". He would give the living water. The living water depends on the apprehension of the Son. If people are indifferent to the testimony of God's love, they will not get living water. I cannot conceive anybody having living water from God if indifferent to the love of God. The living water is given to those who have received the testimony of God's love. You cannot separate the fourth from the third chapter; the third is God's testimony, and the fourth is the gift of the Spirit to those who have received that testimony; and therefore the Lord says, "If thou knewest the gift of God". The object of it is to place us in correspondence to the Son of God. There is such a thing as the springing up of the well. I believe there are three steps in the springing up of the Spirit in the believer, bringing us into accord practically with Christ. The first is in righteousness, the second in holiness, and the third unto eternal life. There is a certain way which leads

to everlasting life, and the Spirit conducts us along that road.

I refer to Romans 6 because it tends to impress this. In verse 18 we have, "Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness". Then in the following verse, "Yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness". Mark the word 'holiness'. Then in verse 22, "But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life". I think it is clear from that passage that there are three steps. The Spirit of God does not refer there to heaven, but to saints here upon the earth. It is an end to which the Spirit of God is springing up in the believer -- "the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life". Romans puts it, "the end eternal life". I begin with the first of the three steps. The beginning of the Spirit springing up in the believer is in righteousness. The idea to me is this, that the well of water is the Spirit of Christ in the believer, and the object is to form him in correspondence to Christ, so that he may never thirst. In speaking about correspondence to Christ in righteousness, it is because He is "the righteous one". In the New Testament Christ is spoken of as the righteous One a number of times. The apostle Paul speaks about Him as righteous, and John and Peter speak of Him as the righteous One. You will recall a passage or two in the epistle of John -- "Jesus Christ the righteous". When the well of water springs up, it is in the first instance to place us in correspondence in righteousness to the righteous One. "He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous". The well of water is springing up, and we practise righteousness, and are in that sense placed in correspondence to the righteous One. It is the proof and evidence that the Spirit is springing up. Do you understand what righteousness means?

Righteousness is the maintenance in integrity of every established relationship. That has come out in Christ, and is brought to pass in us by the springing up of the Spirit. That will enable you to understand Romans 8:10: "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness". It brings us to practical righteousness, that is, to correspondence to Christ. We are righteous even as Christ is righteous. It is a remarkable result to be brought to pass in one who has been sinful and lawless in this world. There are many ordered relationships in which the Christian is placed, and first of all is his relationship to God; then there is relationship to Christ, and to one another as Christians; all are established relationships, and have their place for us as children of God -- "Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him". We have also many established relationships in the world, ordered by God, and every relationship in which a Christian is set has to be maintained in its integrity; and I think, too, there are providential relationships which God has allowed, and we have to maintain in them practical righteousness. That is the effect of the springing up of the Spirit; and there it is you get a contrast between an unconverted and a converted man. An unconverted man may seek to maintain the natural relationships down here, as of husband or son, but he ignores the first of all relationships, that is, relationship to God. Many a man would be content with carrying out in a way the second table of the law, and ignore the first. A Unitarian might carry out the second table of the law, but that he disregards the first is certain. I only speak of this because it is the first principle of the springing up of the Spirit. "If Christ be in you". The first principle of correspondence to Christ is righteousness.

But if you are seeking by the Spirit to maintain

righteousness you go a point further, and that is, "You have your fruit unto holiness". Holiness is the second point of correspondence to Christ. Christ is the Holy One. Peter said to the Jews, "But ye denied the Holy One and the Just". The springing up of the Spirit in the believer is to bring him into correspondence to the holy One. And this is brought about by the Spirit making us acquainted with the love of God. Holiness can only be reached in the knowledge of the love of God. Many Christians are occupied with pursuing holiness, but the more impressed I am with the love of God, the more holiness is promoted in me. Christ is the expression of that love. There is no other legitimate way of reaching holiness. "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us". I think the Holy Spirit is bent upon forming our hearts in the holy love of God. I believe that to be the true office of the Holy Spirit in the believer. The well of water springing up into everlasting life thus brings about correspondence to Christ in righteousness and holiness. That is, you are able not only to discern the bearing of outward acts and conduct, but to discern spirits. Having come to righteousness, we can judge external things in the world, but righteousness does not enable you to judge spirits. But by holiness you can form a judgment of spirits, which is a much deeper thing; there would be then no hankering after things here, but a shrinking from things that are impure and unclean.

The practical result of correspondence to Christ in holiness is that there is a shrinking from what you could not perceive as a mere question of righteousness. That is a great point. The pathway through this world must have been very painful to Christ, because He not simply had to judge of external conduct, but His spirit must have recoiled from a great many things that He had to meet; for the holiness of God was

there. I do not doubt that for the Christian who is instructed in the knowledge of God and pursuing holiness, the same is the practical working of holiness. It is a quality that cannot be imitated, and which can only be brought about in us by the knowledge of God in His own blessed nature; and I defy any one really to reach holiness in any other way. I quite admit you get the injunction to be holy because God is holy, but the point is how are we to carry out the injunction? When we become partakers of the nature of God, a great many things are refused which at one time might have passed muster. It makes a vast difference in us as to the things we are prepared to accept or refuse. You prove things which are more excellent, as in Philippians 1:10, "That ye may prove things that are excellent", that is, things which differ.

Now, I will say one word about the third step -- the well of water springs up into everlasting life, which is the climax. It brings us to eternal life because Christ is eternal life. It is not the Spirit's office to take us to heaven; Christ does that. To put it in very simple language, the Spirit is to conduct us to Christ as and where Christ is. I think Christ can, in a sense, come in sympathy and care to us where we are. The apostle Paul entered into a variety of difficulties down here, and the Lord came to him; and the Lord can come to us in the way of sympathy. But the work of the Spirit is to conduct us to Christ -- through the fellowship of His death -- that we may reach Christ as He is on the other side of death. He can make us conscious that we are risen with Him, so as to fulfil, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee".

I do not want to say more in connection with the springing up of the Spirit in the believer. The first point is righteousness, then holiness, and finally eternal life. So the apostle puts it, "Ye have your

fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life". It is as clear as anything can be, that if you want to reach eternal life you must be conducted to Christ. To put it in the language of the apostle John, "... We are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life". We are conscious of having reached Him by the Spirit.

I would like you to ponder over the line by which the Spirit leads us into practical correspondence to Christ -- the righteous One, the holy One and eternal life.

I will just say a few words on chapter 7: 37. My idea, as I said, is this, that the living water in John 4 is connected with the Son of God, that is, the One who has come down to reveal divine love. The Spirit in John 7 is connected with Jesus gone up. The point in chapter 7 is this, that God has been pleased to bring in a new Head for man -- that, I suppose, is the idea of Jesus glorified. The grace of God and the free gift in grace are by one Man, Jesus Christ. Man lost a head, and God has brought in a Head for man. I may say -- for every man. That is presented in God's testimony to man here. God has placed Christ in that relation to every man -- as the Head of every man. The free gift in grace is by Him. The Christian is conscious of the meaning of Jesus glorified, and out of his belly flow rivers of living water. Knowing Him as the second Man, and His relation to all men by the Spirit results in the living water flowing out. I could not tell men a more profound truth than that God has found a Head for man; and in that Head is presented the free gift of God to all men. Everybody ought to be delighted with the thought of the Head. Man's natural head died in sin, but God has provided another Head, and in that Head is presented God's grace. The Spirit is here and speaks through men. He makes us delighted with the Head, and out of our belly flow rivers of living water. Most will remember

the commission in the last chapter of the Gospel of Luke. All was in the name of the risen Christ, the last Adam and the second man. God has provided a Head for every man, and the Spirit in the believer is the witness of it.

THE INHERITANCE

THE INHERITANCE

Acts 26:16 - 18; Ephesians 1:7 - 23

My thought is to dwell for a moment on what it is the purpose of God to communicate by the gospel. I am not now speaking of God's revelation of Himself in the gospel; that is properly what the gospel brings; it brings to the soul the light of God. I do not think that anybody has really believed the gospel who is not conscious that it has brought him into the light of God. The gospel presents God in the way in which He is pleased to make Himself known to us. But I want now to dwell upon what God proposes to give to us by the gospel, and I find this brought out in the commission which was given to Paul. There are two things -- forgiveness of sins, and inheritance. Now a great many people who preach the gospel speak a great deal about the forgiveness of sins, but they do not say so much about the inheritance, and yet the two things are bound up together. The apostle's commission was to go to the Gentiles to open their eyes. That is the one thing that he had to do; no more. It was not for him to turn them from darkness to light; he could not do that; but he was to open their eyes, that they might turn from darkness to light, from Satan's power to God. I have no doubt that the Lord had in view here Gentiles, who were completely under the power of idolatry; they were to turn to God in order that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance. I wonder if we all have thought as much of the inheritance as of forgiveness. I suppose there is no Christian but has the knowledge of forgiveness; but what about the inheritance? And yet the one is as much part of the gospel as the other. I think that any one can in a sense understand the idea of forgiveness

of sins, but it is the inheritance that I dwell upon now.

Now in Ephesians 1 you get exactly the same two thoughts presenting themselves, and thus the chapter shows how really the apostle kept in view the commission with which he had started. The two things credited to saints in that chapter are forgiveness and inheritance. Then another thing comes out, and that is the Spirit given as the earnest of the inheritance. Forgiveness is in verse 7; then in verse 11, "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance"; afterwards, in verse 14, the Spirit is the earnest of the inheritance. So that you get the appropriation to the saints of forgiveness and inheritance, and the additional thought, which does not appear in the commission, of the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance.

I will try now to show you what the nature of the inheritance is, and then say a word or two as to the earnest of the inheritance. It is most wonderful to see God's pleasure in giving; it is one of the most striking things I know. There is not a single person in all the world but gets the benefits of God and tastes His good things. The wickedest man in the world enjoys God's sunshine and God's rain. What a sad thing it is that men have so little appreciation of the benefits they enjoy from God! They enjoy the benefits, but take no account whatever of the One from whom they derive them. If you could reckon up the immense mass of wickedness which this world contains and which passes under the eye of God, and think that in spite of all, men are enjoying good things from God, and yet they do not thank Him for them! God gives rain and fruitful seasons, filling men's hearts with food and gladness, but they do not give thanks. They are accepted with thanksgiving by the Christian, who sees that God has created all these things to be received with thanksgiving of those who believe and know the truth; 1 Timothy 4:4.

Now God has secured, it I may use the expression, an inheritance for Himself; and it is to be enjoyed in those who believe. He first secures the inheritance, and then gives it to be enjoyed by those who believe. Then He gives the earnest of the inheritance, and the apostle prays that the saints might know what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance. It is a great thing to get hold of the idea of inheritance. We do not get the present possession. God communicates two things to every believer, forgiveness and the Spirit; but the Spirit is but the earnest of the inheritance, and you cannot have any enjoyment of the inheritance until you first learn what the inheritance is, and that is what is unfolded to us here. I fear there are many who have but a poor idea of the inheritance. With the great mass of Christians their thought is that they have their sins forgiven and are going to heaven. But Scripture does not speak of forgiveness of sins and going to heaven; it speaks of forgiveness of sins and inheritance, and the inheritance has a great deal to do with the earth, as we shall see presently. It was the gain which the Gentiles were to get by the gospel. Forgiveness of sins means that the whole question of our responsibility has been for ever and completely settled. It is not simply forgiveness of past sins, but forgiveness of sins absolutely. Sin is not imputed to the believer. Instead of sin being reckoned to me I have forgiveness of sins, redemption. The great point of it is that the believer will not come into judgment. He is justified. Of course, in a general way, when we speak about forgiveness of sins, we refer to what we have committed; but the statement here is more abstract in its nature. Sins are not imputed to the believer, so that he can never come into judgment.

Now the next thing is that God has "made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself". God has provided for His own pleasure. It is what God

is entitled to do and will do. I may get a very great deal of blessing in the fulfilment of His pleasure; but God will provide for His own pleasure, and He has made known to us the mystery of His will. A mystery in Scripture is something which is known to faith, not something mysterious. God has made known to us the mystery of His will. Mark what it is for; it is in view of the dispensation of the fulness of times. If you ask what point of time that is, I have no doubt that it refers to the millennium. It is not exactly eternity. Inheritance does not, I think, connect itself with eternity; it is connected with the kingdom, the time to come. God is going to gather together in one all things in Christ. The expression is sometimes rendered, to head up in one all things in Christ. Everything which God has put forward dispensationally, and which has been placed provisionally in the hands of man, God has secured for Himself in Christ. If we have any sense at all of what has taken place here upon earth, how man has invariably forfeited everything which God has put into his hands, it is a wonderful thing to see that everything for God is secured in Christ. Nothing will fail. There is no single thought or purpose presented in the Old Testament in which God will not be glorified, because everything is headed up in Christ.

The first man was not the man of God's purpose. God saw fit to test the first man in a variety of positions; but God had Christ in reserve. He was God's resource, that is, God's wisdom, and now God has made known to us the mystery of His will to head up everything in Christ. I want to give you an idea of that if I can, for you cannot understand what the inheritance is without it. You will find if you go through the Old Testament that a vast number of responsibilities have at one time and another been committed to man. Man has been put in a variety of positions in relation to God. Going back to the

beginning, everything was put under Adam. So far as the earth and the lower creation were concerned Adam was put over all the works of God's hands; there was nothing in the lower creation that was not put under him. We know what came to pass. Adam virtually surrendered his dominion to Satan. He listened to his wife and came under the power of evil. The temptation to Adam was to be a rival of God; that is what Satan proposed. And when man becomes a rival of God he wants to be more than a rival, he would put God out of the field. That is the thought which comes out in antichrist. He is not content to be a rival of God, but he would displace God; he sits in God's temple and shows himself that he is God. That is how sin works out. There you get what I might call the logical result of the fall; God is completely displaced. And who do you think supports all that? If you read the book of Revelation you will see that it is Satan who supports it all. It only shows what an extraordinary place and footing Satan has contrived to get in this world as the result of the fall.

But I go on through Scripture. In Noah we see the principle of government brought in. But Noah in dishonouring himself became unfitted for the responsibilities which God had entrusted to him. When we go on to Abraham, he had promises; but he died -- could not wait here for them. You will find if you read Acts 7 attentively that nothing here ever answered the mind of God. Stephen takes up one thing after another from the outset of God's purpose and proves through what he said that nothing has ever met the mind of God. The men that had the promises died; the law was broken; the tabernacle was superseded by the temple; God does not dwell in temples made with hands: but the wonderful divine answer to it all was revealed to Stephen in Christ in glory. Stephen looked up stedfastly into

heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus. His mind had passed in review everything that God had set up in connection with Israel; he had seen that nothing ever met the mind of God. He propounds to the Jews the weakness of everything here; and what was the secret of this weakness? That death was upon man. But after all nothing was lost. Nothing had really failed in the purpose of God; everything had failed in the hands of man; but what was in reserve was the glory of God and Jesus.

Now I pass on to another point, namely, the kingdom. If you remember, the kingdom was given to David. Saul was set up, the man after the flesh, in a sense; then David, the man after God's heart. David was not allowed to build the temple because he had shed much blood, but the temple was built by Solomon. Solomon, however, followed after evil, had many strange wives, and sanctioned idolatry, and God warned him that the kingdom would be divided in the time of his son. For a moment there was a glimpse of the glorious kingdom. Scripture gives us a striking picture of the magnificence of his kingdom; and yet, after all, Solomon had to hear the solemn word that the kingdom would be divided.

I only refer to one more point, and that is to Nebuchadnezzar, the first head of the Gentile power. People in this day think that nothing can surpass the present glory of kingdoms; that there is a magnificence about royalty in the present day which has never been equalled. I do not think that is really so. I see that every kingdom which has succeeded the first kingdom has been marked by deterioration, and that there has not been any kingdom equal in majesty to that of Nebuchadnezzar. It was there that the imperial system really began; he was the head of gold. This was succeeded by other kingdoms more extensive and more tyrannical in character; but for majesty none came up to the first. I have often been struck

by the fact -- it is not an original thought of mine -- that when God showed the succession of kingdoms to Nebuchadnezzar it was a great image with the head of gold. When God showed the same kingdoms to Daniel, the representative of God's people, they were like four wild beasts. And what does Nebuchadnezzar do? He sets up an image all of gold; he does not rightly represent the image shown to him in the vision. He sets to work, too, to systematise idolatry in the empire by making the kingdom the object of worship.

I refer to these things to show how completely man has failed in all that God has been pleased to place from time to time provisionally in his hands. Time after time, one way after another, the practical result has been that an opening has been given to the power of evil. The times of the Gentiles are still going on; we have not yet come to the feet of the image; there is a phase of the fourth kingdom which has not yet come to pass. It is that of which the Lord speaks in the gospel of Luke; the times of the Gentiles had to be fulfilled. Now that some of these things have happened you can understand that to us they are history; but in one sense they are not past. Do you think God is going to allow those things to drop? The stone cut out of the mountain is to break in pieces the whole image. But God will have everything to His own praise and glory. Everything is to be headed up in Christ. If the first Adam failed, Christ is the last Adam. If government failed in Noah, a king will reign in righteousness. If Abraham and the patriarchs died not having received the promises, all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ. He is risen again from the dead. The promises were made to Abraham, but confirmed to Isaac when in figure Isaac was raised from the dead. God indicated that resurrection must come in so that the promises might be set beyond death. Christ is the true vessel

and heir of promise. Then as to the kingdom, He is the true seed of David. Solomon was the immediate seed of David after the flesh, Christ is the true seed. Then He is the Head of the Gentiles. He says, "Thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me". Psalm 18 shows us the way in which Christ is identified with the history of Israel from the outset, and in that psalm it comes out too that He is the Head of the Gentiles. Nothing has failed. We are here in the ruin of the church; everything has failed in the hand of man, to whom God has provisionally committed these things, but nothing has failed for God, for He is going to head up everything in Christ. God has a vessel for His pleasure. In the gospel of Matthew we see the blessed vessel of promise; everything is established for God there. The heading up of all things in Christ is presented to us in order to give us an idea of the inheritance. Christ is the heir of all things, and we have obtained an inheritance in Him. Your inheritance and mine is not short of Christ's. It is God's inheritance; God has vested it in Christ, and it is in Him that we have obtained it. Do you believe that you are going to share it with Him? Look for a moment at the two epistles to the Thessalonians. The rapture is brought in in the first epistle in order that we may know how we are going to be for ever with the Lord. But the second epistle tells us how we are to come out with Him that we may share His inheritance. It is an inheritance which we have of God, and we have it by Christ. If Christ in His solitary path here upon earth maintained everything for the glory of God, was made sin to put sin away and in death completely glorified God in the place of man's distance, then He is suited to take the inheritance. It belongs to Him; He is the blessed vessel of promise; He takes the inheritance, and we have obtained it in Him. I cannot lay too much stress upon this point because we are

all in danger of being dazzled by the glory of the world. Think of what it will be when Christ gets His rights as Son of man -- universal dominion, perfect government, princes judging in equity, and think too of the glory in connection with God's people. When Simeon took the child Jesus in his arms he said -- "A light for the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel". That is what Simeon saw in the Babe by the Holy Spirit. He was to bring the Gentiles out of their darkness and to be the glory of God's people Israel. That has not yet come to pass. I would to God that we had more of the light of the inheritance in our souls.

It is important to see that nothing can baffle God. What really comes out is the patience and long suffering of God, bearing as He does with evil whilst He works out His purposes. But everything is firm and established in Christ. Every item of God's purposes that is foreshadowed in the Old Testament is headed up in Christ. God has bid us walk through the length and breadth of the land to survey the inheritance, having told us that we have obtained an inheritance in Christ. Now the apostle says here that we have believed in Him, that is, in Christ. Believing in a person means that you have committed yourself to that person. There is a great difference between believing a fact and believing a person. A fact may be presented to me on sufficient evidence and I believe it, but if I talk about believing in a person I commit myself to that person, and I do not believe in a person unless I see that person is worthy of faith. I have committed myself to Christ. I have nothing in Adam, that is a clear case, but now in Christ I have forgiveness of sins. And further, "In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory". Now we

have to wait a little, but we have the earnest of the inheritance, and that is in view of the redemption of the purchased possession. Christ has tasted death for everything; Hebrews 2. He has purchased the possession, paid the price, but the possession is not yet redeemed. Redemption in Scripture often conveys the idea of deliverance, and that is what is yet needed in regard to the inheritance.

Now if we have the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance we ought to be able to give some account of what the inheritance is. You see what the apostle prays for at the close of the chapter -- "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him", that is of God, "the eyes of your heart being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling" -- that refers, I imagine, to sonship -- "and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints". Do you believe in the goodness of God? God has attained His purpose in Christ; and having secured the inheritance He does not reserve it for Himself, but He will have it enjoyed by those who believe. God is good, He loves to communicate. God does not need to receive, but God can give; He has secured everything for Himself in Christ, but secured it there in order that we might enjoy the inheritance. You can see the principle in regard to Israel. He will secure the land for Himself, and Israel will come into the promises made to Abraham, because the promises of God cannot fail. In Him (Christ) is the yea and in Him the amen, for glory to God by us. That is now. If we can give an account of the promises, it is glory to God by us.

It is a wonderful thing to think of what we have got; an inheritance, and the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance. "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom"; it is not that He gives it

to you grudgingly. God is good, and it is His pleasure that whatever He has secured should be enjoyed by His saints. There is nothing more wonderful than the goodness of God. After all, in the consciousness of one's own failure, in having to do with God we have to do with One who is absolutely good. When we have to do with Satan, it is with one who is absolutely evil. People think there may be some soft point about Satan; there is no such thing. On the other hand, God is good, and no one can be spoken of as absolutely good save God, and He has been pleased to make Himself known thus where man has failed.

I have not said a word in regard to proper Christian privilege, I have simply spoken of the benefits conferred by the gospel. I think anyone can take in the idea of forgiveness of sins and inheritance. Now those are what belong to the Christian. "God has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence". Are you not interested in the wisdom and prudence of God? The idea of wisdom in Scripture is resource. A man that is marked by wisdom is a man of resource. Whatever combination of circumstances a wise man has to meet he always has a resource. God cannot be baffled, because He has a resource; Christ is the wisdom of God, He is God's resource.

When I run my eye over the Old Testament it is a picture of terrible failure. Beautiful things are brought into view, but all ends in terrible failure on account of man. But my comfort is that nothing has failed for God, and I cannot conceive any greater privilege than that we should be brought into the light of what God has been pleased to effect for Himself. God is to have glory in these things.

I do not add more. I have just brought these things before you, trusting that they may tend to increase our interest in the study of Scripture. We see in the light of the New Testament that everything presented is to be established in the Man of God's

purpose. Christ is the Man for us, He is the Man for God. May God give us to know what is the hope of His calling, association with Christ in heavenly glory, and the exceeding greatness of His power, which will put us in complete possession of the inheritance, when the inheritance is redeemed.

WISDOM'S WAY

WISDOM

1 Corinthians 1:17 - 31

There are brought under our attention in Christianity a variety of thoughts, or principles, very intimately connected, and yet each of which has its own peculiar force and significance. I may mention righteousness, peace, holiness, truth and light, and any intelligent Christian can at once see how intimately all these are bound together. They are all bound up with the revelation of God, and it is that which leads me to take them up. They are great moral principles, in which God has made Himself known, and they convince one of the truth of Christianity because of a power in them not to be found elsewhere.

It is only in Christianity that you get any adequate idea of righteousness, or of any other moral quality. You could not get the idea from the philosopher. In the present day men who reject Christianity assume to set up a kind of exalted moral standard, but where have they got their thoughts from? It is impossible for them to go back into the darkness into which Christianity came, and therefore any moral light they have is light which they have gained in Christianity. I see that to be the case, and therefore am not inclined to listen to them.

Now what is before me at this time is the subject of wisdom. Wisdom is an attribute of God, and outside of the revelation of God in Christianity I do not believe you can get any adequate idea of wisdom. The reason of this is simple, because if wisdom be an attribute of God, to get any adequate idea of it you must have the knowledge of God.

I could not recommend, to young believers especially, a better study than the first eight chapters of Proverbs. They give you an idea of wisdom, not of

human wisdom, for there is no such thing really, but of divine wisdom, of that which is undoubtedly of God.

We find in 1 Corinthians wisdom personified. You may say it is personified in Proverbs 8, and I think it is. Here we find it distinctly personified: Christ is the wisdom and power of God. At the close of the chapter He is said to be made to us wisdom from God and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. The One who is the wisdom of God is become wisdom to us. I want to show the application of this: the indispensability of wisdom. It is indispensable to God if God were not to be baffled, and apart from wisdom, divine wisdom, it is entirely impossible for man to find a path down here. There are so many by-ways in the world all tending to allure the heart and mind of man, and to carry him in a wrong direction, that nothing but Christ -- divine wisdom -- could really lead man in the path of rectitude. In Proverbs 8 it is said of wisdom, "I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment, that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures".

Now wisdom is necessarily inherent in God, but not so in man. It is objective as regards man. The man who trusts his own heart is a fool in regard to moral things and eternity. A man may trust himself in regard to the things of this life, although his wit does not always bring about the things he wants. He may trust himself in regard to his business and the like, but in regard to the interest of man's soul, that is as to moral things and eternity, the man who trusts his own heart is a fool undoubtedly. He is going on in a path, but does not know what lies at the end of it. What I have seen in the wise men of the world is that they themselves are more or less under the power and influence of corrupt principles, they have nothing to carry them above the influences of earth. It has been said that a celebrated philosopher spoke of death as

being a leap in the dark, and that is what it must be to man spite of all his ability and worldly wisdom. That man certainly had not found a way.

Wisdom and every other possible moral quality are inherent in God, and man only has what God has given to him, and cannot have more than God has given to him. God has now made known His nature, and that is love; there are many qualities which are inherent in God, which have their source in love. My reason for saying this is because love is the nature of God. It is the one thing which God is said to be absolutely.

There is this idea in wisdom, it is resource. You may use the word in a different sense, but what brings out wisdom -- resource -- is difficulties: that is the case in human things, and it is so in regard to God. Whatever moral difficulty may present itself, with God there is resource. It is absolutely impossible that God could be baffled by any difficulty, for with God there is inexhaustible resource.

As a foundation for what I am going to say, I may remark that it was ever God's intention to reveal Himself: that was one great point in regard to man, and another was that God intended to bless man. Apart from that you will not enter into what I am about to bring before you. Now you find all through Scripture that as the purpose and mind of God came to light there were always difficulties to be encountered, and man was no help to God. There was no assistance to be found in him, and God had to act in every crisis entirely independent of him; and yet in spite of the contrariety of man, evident at every crisis, God carries out His purpose, reveals Himself to and blesses man. I have no doubt whatever that wisdom means the resource by which God could carry that out, and Christ is thus the wisdom of God.

In the fact of man's fall there was a grave difficulty.

The man whom God had created turned away and hid himself from God. "Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden". There was a most grave difficulty, and yet it was God's purpose to reveal Himself, and to bless man. Man and his wife hid themselves, and what was to be done? Well, God pronounces upon the serpent that the seed of the woman should bruise his head; but who could tell at that moment what that meant? The immediate seed of the woman was Cain and Abel. We know what Cain turned out to be, and Abel died, and what was to come out of the seed of the woman? The seed of the woman was not likely to be anything different from the woman: man was no help, and yet the seed of the woman was to bruise the head of the serpent. Thus we see the need of resource.

The same need of resource is seen in the case of Abram. What had come to pass in the world was confusion. The word "Babel" means confusion. Men's tongues were confounded. Man was bent on his own glory, defiant of God, and God met this by bringing in confusion of language. But how does God really come in? He intended to bless, and He makes known the purpose of His mind to Abram, saying to him, "In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed". But how was that to be carried out? Man did not help. Abram was a man in whom the fear God was, but the families of the earth did not want blessing. When men built the tower of Babel they did not want the light of God: they preferred a tower to reach to heaven, a city, and a name. But the blessing of God was to be in Abram's seed, for Abram was himself a dying man. The purpose could not be carried out in Abram, nor in his seed according to flesh, and therefore it must be in the resource of God, which was in the seed of the woman.

The time afterwards came when God had brought the seed of Abraham, according to flesh, out of Egypt through redemption, and another thought came out in connection with this, namely, that God would dwell here, and He took from the children of Israel the materials to make a dwelling-place among them; but the children of Israel did not want God to dwell, they made a golden calf. They neither wanted the revelation of God nor the dwelling of God. The natural heart and perverseness of man came out in them; and yet God intended to dwell among them. He dwelt in a material tabernacle, but how long was that to last? It could not last for ever; the tabernacle must perish with material things, and no provision was made for the renewal of the tabernacle, nor was there for the temple. God's purpose of dwelling could not be carried out according to His mind in that way, and this brings before us again that in God's mind there was resource. The purpose was to be carried out in man, but the wisdom which was with God had not yet come to light.

To go on further, a promise was made to David that God would set his seed upon his throne for ever. The throne of David was to endure for ever; but do you think that the natural seed of David cared for an eternal throne? Solomon turned the throne to his own account, and for the sin of Solomon the kingdom was divided; but God had committed Himself to a promise that the throne of David was to endure for ever, and the seed of David was to sit upon it, and it is only too evident that the seed of David after the flesh was no help to God to carry out His purpose. The fact is, that God had His resource in Himself. There was wisdom with Him, in which He would be enabled to carry out His purpose.

I come now to the point that everything came to an issue in the presence of Christ here. There was never any expectation with God that the world would receive

Christ. We have a common idea that Christ was presented to the responsibility of man, and I admit this; but there never was any expectation or thought that He would be accepted by the world. God had tested man all along, and the last and greatest test of all was the presence of Christ -- I may say, the presence of God here in Christ. But, so far as God was concerned, it is clear that there was never any anticipation of Christ being accepted by man. You will remember what Simeon said in Luke 2:34: "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed". Simeon had no anticipation of Christ being accepted by Israel. It was vain for God to look for assistance from Israel. All He could look for was the rejection of Christ and the fall of the people.

But now God was on the point of accomplishing His purpose, wisdom was here: Christ was here. There was One here in whom God was revealed on the one hand -- and that was God's purpose -- and in whom every purpose of God could be accomplished on the other. There was a Man here who could accomplish redemption and reveal God in the accomplishment of it. In the accomplishment of redemption God was fully revealed, and in the righteous One every purpose of God could be accomplished. He was the seed of the woman, to bruise the head of the serpent; He was the seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed; He was the true tabernacle in which God dwelt; He was the seed of David, in whom the throne of David could be established for ever. Now you have the wisdom of God revealed. All along the way down here, in things in which difficulties presented themselves, there was wisdom with God. There was a resource in His mind, and now it has come to light; every purpose

of God is established in Christ, whether of blessing, ruling or dwelling.

We have no excuse now for unbelief, because we can see that in great and grave difficulties, and in view of the impossibility of God's purpose ever being fulfilled in man, there was resource in God. "For whatever promises there are of God, in him [Christ] is the yea and in him the amen, for glory to God by us". Christ is the wisdom and the power of God. There was a way with God, which man did not know, in every difficulty, and that way has come to light in Christ. He is revealed now as the wisdom of God. That is one side of the truth, and a very great side too; it is a great thing to get a true idea of wisdom, which lay in and was inherent in God, so that, whatever moral confusion might come in, God was above it and ever had His way before Him.

It was not that God was unaffected by what came in by man, God was distressed by it and repented that He had made man; but all the way of God was clear before Him, and that way has now come to light, and we see that wisdom is inherent in God, and it could not but be that He should have His way before Him whatever might come in. In the very nature of things there must be a way before Him, but man could not see that way, and now God had brought it to light. He had a Man in reserve, the Man of His right hand, who has accomplished redemption, revealed God in love, and in whom every promise and purpose of God is centred.

I add a few words as to the other side, as to Christ being wisdom to us. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who has been made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption; that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord".

We have seen so far what Christ is as divine wisdom, now I want to show what He is for man by the appointment

of God. Man wants a way, but has not wisdom inherently to find a way. The prodigal in Luke 15 found a way according to his lust, which led him from his father's house into the far country where he began to be in want. It was a very bad way, and there are many such ways in the world and many find them; but it is not the way of life or righteousness, it is a way which ends in misery in this world, and ruin for eternity. That is man's way, "It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps". Wisdom being an attribute of God, He had a way; but man has no way, and the point of grace has been to furnish man with a way. Christ is made wisdom to us so that we may have a way. It is extremely important to us that we should have a way.

What lies at the root of grace is this, that God has provided for man a Head. God has set Christ in relation to every man. He is Head of every man. The result of that is, that man finds a way; the one who does find a way is the one who has accepted the Head. The Head has come in, but if you have not accepted Him He is of no use to you. If you do accept Him then He becomes wisdom to you, and you find a way, and a way which leads to God, it ends with God. You will remember the words of the Lord Jesus, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me". Christ is the way which leads morally to God. You approach God practically just in proportion as you are in accord with Christ. It is in that sense that He is the way. I admit the title of the Christian to approach God, but I am speaking of approaching Him practically, and that is as we are in accord with Christ. He is the Head, and being Head, He is wisdom to us so that we find a way.

The great point for man is attraction to Christ. You are not entitled to live to any one except Christ. "If one died for all, then were all dead; and he

died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again". Do you believe that Christ died for you: that He undertook the liability of death under which you were? If He died for you, you have no shadow of a title to live to yourself. You have to accept death and live to Him. Do you think Christ is content without having the supreme place in the affection of those for whom He died? He died to reveal God's love in taking up the liabilities under which man was, and is it reasonable that He should be content without having a place in the hearts of His people? Do you allow the claim of Christ? If you allow His claim -- and you cannot disallow His claim -- the effect can only be that you live to the One who died for you and rose again. The first principle of finding Christ as the way is the admission of His claim. It may be that this is the point where Christians are defective, there is not the admission of His claim. He died for you in order that, if you live, you should live to Him and not to yourself.

If you are prepared for that, the power of the Spirit will be shown in that you are drawn closer and closer to Christ, and He will become indispensable to you, and you will find increasing delight in the thought that Christ satisfies every desire which is awakened in your hearts by the Spirit of Christ. The work of the Spirit in the saints is to awaken desires after Christ; but then He would not be content with that -- it does not do to be content with desires only -- He would give us to delight in the knowledge that Christ satisfies every desire. You find in the Song of Solomon desires awakened in saints by the Spirit of Christ, and Christ is the answer to them. We have in Him the perfect answer to every desire which the Spirit of God can awaken, and He works that there may be in us the appreciation of Christ, that we may allow His claim, the claim of love.

One delights to think of the moral excellence of Christ. There is everything in Him both in regard to God and man. Psalm 16 presents this, that there is in Him the moral perfection which must go to the right hand of God. It cannot remain upon earth. That is what Christ was on earth. He was the righteous One who maintained in integrity down here every divinely-appointed relationship for man, and He was the Holy One. There lay nothing between Him and the Father. He was here in the appreciation of the Father's love. Having to come into contact with evil here, no one can tell what the repulsiveness of it was to Christ as the Holy One. He is the righteous One and the Holy One and eternal life; and He is the way to us; but the point is, how do we realise this? It is by the Spirit of God increasing in us the appreciation of Christ.

There is another thing to be said, and that is this, the world is passing away, and there is One who is going to fill all things. "He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things". Generation after generation passes away, and God will bring the condition of things here in the world -- its fashion -- to an end. Things will culminate, eventually, in open rebellion against God, and there will be nothing left for God but to interfere and crush the lawlessness which will then have reached its climax; and there is One who alone is to fill the universe, and that is Christ, and this not simply personally, but in His people. When God's purpose is worked out there will be nothing left in us, morally, but what is of Christ. In the meantime, I have no doubt, the Spirit of God is working in the people of God, increasing in them appreciation of Christ.

You will remember the expression of the apostle Paul in Philippians 3:7: "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless,

and I count all things loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ". That is what the Spirit of God would bring us to: the appreciation of Christ, and we have thus a way. The more you appreciate Christ, the more you are preserved from the danger of by-ways, from the temptations and allurements that beset Christians here in the world. "In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird". We are not always on the look-out, and there are many snares in the world, things which appear right in a way and are attractive to the active mind and to the senses, which not being distinctly evil in themselves are attractive to man; all these things are by-ways, and not the path in which wisdom would lead you.

Christ is made wisdom to us to conduct us in the way of righteousness and holiness: in what is morally excellent, not in what is attractive to the mind and senses. Christ is made the way to us because we have no way in ourselves, and the point is to get close to Christ. The Spirit of God gives you increasing appreciation of Christ, and as you appreciate Christ you keep close to Him.

It is a great thing to discover the moral beauty and perfectness of the One who claims the supreme place in the affections of His people. The Lord said, "Except a man forsake all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple". Man has to account everything here as nothing in comparison with Christ.

May God be pleased to give to us to understand better what Christ is to us as wisdom.

RIGHTEOUSNESS

Matthew 5:1 - 48; Proverbs 8:20, 21

It seems to me of the greatest importance to apprehend Christianity in its moral aspect. From the fact of its being the fruit of the revelation of God, whose nature is the spring and source of all morally, you can understand that you must be impressed strongly with the moral element, and not satisfied with what is merely dogmatic. The apostle desired that the saints might be knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God. Thus he wanted them to be kept from dogma. Dogma in general calls for unintelligent submission. Certain things are laid down to be accepted unintelligently; but that is not the character of true Christianity. The more one knows about it, the more one is impressed with the moral aspect of Christianity.

One element in Christianity, and evidently the first, is righteousness. I want to show you that righteousness must be the first principle in any system which is of God. God is the righteous God, and any system that stands in relation to God must have righteousness for its first principle; and what flows from that is the way of righteousness. It was that which led me to the verse in Proverbs 8, where wisdom says: "I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment".

The principle of wisdom is personified, and this verse shows plainly the connection of things. Wisdom leads in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment.

My object is first to show you the divine way of bringing us into the way of righteousness; and I

would like to impress you with this, that righteousness must be the first principle, or law, in any system which is of God. This is the case even in human things. In a country which is well governed under a code of laws, the principle which lies underneath that code of laws is righteousness. Righteousness is the maintenance of rights, and any code of laws which may exist in this or in any other country has that end in view. There are certain rights connected with life and property in society, and there is a system of laws, enforced by penalties, to maintain such rights, so that even in human things the first principle is righteousness.

Now there are two things spoken of continually in Scripture, namely, law and lawlessness. These two expressions are common, but I think people have been defective in the apprehension of both.

The current idea is this, that because Christians are not under law, that is, the Ten Commandments, they have escaped law altogether. This arises, let me say, from an imperfect apprehension of the idea of law. It seems to me that, in the way in which God has constituted things, everything is dependent on the operation of law. How do we keep upon the earth? It is by the operation of law. How does the earth move in its appointed orbit in relation to the sun? It is by the operation of law. Everything is regulated by laws or principles of government. We have it all around.

Now the contrast to law is very simple to understand. There would be utter confusion if it were possible for things to escape from the operation of natural laws, we have no doubt that law binds, and keeps things in their appointed places, and points to the wisdom of the Creator. Everybody would accept that as to natural things, but the same principle must prevail in moral things. It seems to me monstrous and illogical that natural things should come under law and rule, while there should be, in moral things, utter confusion.

In the moral system or universe things are out of gear. If you look at the heavens, you see the most perfect order. Everything is regulated by law, and so it is in regard to physical things on earth. I only refer to this in order that you should get a right apprehension of law. You may get a specific law like the Ten Commandments, but underneath the outward system there were the great moral principles which are properly the rule of the moral universe. As, for instance, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God ... and thy neighbour as thyself". These are great moral principles. The point is that everyone may be maintained in relation to God and to his neighbour. Love was to bring happiness, and that has never been abrogated and never can be. It is not simply dogma, but the law of righteousness in the moral universe.

Righteousness is what is right. You get the expression in the prophet Isaiah, "I declare righteousness, I speak things which are right". You can understand that what is right must come from God. As the sun is the centre of the solar system, so must God be the centre of the moral universe. What is right proceeds from God being love, and everything must be according to that, and what is not according to that is not morally right. The nature of God should rule or regulate all in the moral universe.

I have said that much to give a wider bearing to law than is sometimes attached to it. But now a word in regard to lawlessness. Supposing that such a thing could occur -- thank God, it cannot -- as that there should be a suspension of the law of gravity, we should all go to destruction, and that would mean, that things on the earth had got into lawlessness. Lawlessness is in contrast to being under rule, and describes anything which has escaped from the appointed rule of law. Man has escaped from the law of the moral universe, and the result is that he has gone morally to destruction -- he is lost. The secret of his being lost is that

he has become lawless. It is well to understand the force of these expressions which occur often in the Scriptures.

The first principle of law in the moral universe is evidently righteousness, and this stands in contrast to lawlessness. One striking passage which confirms this is found in Psalm 45. Speaking of the Lord, it says, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness: therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy companions". That is what marked Christ as man here. He abode in relation to God and to all other. He could not move away from the orbit of God's will for man. He was more than man, but having taken the place of man He remained in the appointed orbit. He also accomplished righteousness on the cross.

The passage I quoted brings the two principles into contrast. "Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness". I look at Christ coming here as a new departure in the ways of God. Up to that point the world had been lost. The Gentiles had gone out of the way, they were idolatrous and away from God. They had gone to moral destruction, and the Jew was no better. He attempted to imitate the Gentile, and was morally as far away from God as the Gentile. Then it was that the Son of God came upon the scene, made of a woman, made under law, and that was a new departure on the part of God. Christ came here, the righteous One. He is spoken of as the beginning -- there was the beginning of righteousness in the righteous One. God had maintained men of faith in measure in righteousness, but with them there had often been great failure. Even with Abraham there were defects, but the Lord as Man upon earth could appeal to the Father as the righteous Father, for He was the righteous One. He abode in the orbit

which God had marked out for man down here. He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

I read Matthew 5 because the Lord lays stress there on righteousness, and says He had not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it. In Christ, law was to be fulfilled. I do not now speak of the way in which He did it, but the law was fulfilled in the fact that He was the righteous One, and accomplished righteousness. The accomplishment of righteousness was this, that Christ vindicated the judgment of God which lay upon man here. The judgment was right. It was not arbitrary. If man became lawless, it was right for God to terminate his life upon earth. The sentence of death was a just judgment. If God gave a specific rule of duty and man infringed it, it was right that that man should come under curse. Hence you get two things -- man under death and, at the same time, Israel under curse.

Christ vindicated God in regard to His righteous judgment. He took upon Himself man's liabilities, and glorified God in the bearing of those liabilities. That is what I mean by the accomplishment of righteousness. He was the righteous One, and He hated lawlessness. He took up that which lay upon man and glorified God in the bearing of it. He was made sin, and entered into death; He was made a curse in being hanged on a tree. He took up every liability under which man was by the righteous judgment of God and glorified God; hence the accomplishment of righteousness in the righteous One. Death and the curse no longer stand between God and man.

Now it is immensely important to us to apprehend that Christ is the beginning of the ways of God for the bringing about of what is right. New heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells is right, and the beginning of it was in Christ becoming man. Righteousness is in the righteous One, and also the

vindication of God's judgment that lay upon man here. It behoved God to give testimony of the accomplishment of righteousness, and He has given testimony that every liability of man has been met, and that testimony is in the resurrection of Christ. That is the great testimony to what was accomplished in Christ's death. The testimony of Christ risen God presents for universal acceptance. It is a universal testimony, as the sun in heaven. Christ risen is the testimony that all that under which man was by the righteous judgment of God has been met, and God glorified in the meeting of it, and hence the grace of God goes out in Christ to every man upon earth.

I come now to the place which Christ in resurrection occupies in regard to every man. Evidently, the way which God has taken to retrieve things has been by the raising up of a Head for man. That point has been too much lost sight of by many. As everything was lost in a head who brought in sin and death, so the divine way to retrieve was by raising up a Head, and the grace of God is presented to man in Him in order that man may recognise the Head whom God has raised up.

In the preaching of the gospel there is the presentation of divine grace. Repentance and forgiveness of sins are preached in the name of a Man. "Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins". The object of God's testimony is that souls may be brought to recognise the Man whom God has raised up. In the recognition and faith of that Man men get living water; they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in order that they might be attached to that Man. I want every one here to apprehend that God has taken His own way of recovery in raising up One who is Head of every man, and God presents the testimony of grace in the name of that Man in order that He may be recognised by men, so that they may receive living water. Most will recall what the Lord

said to the woman of Samaria in John 4, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life". In the end of Luke the Lord said, "Thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem". That is in the name of a living risen Man. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke there, and at the same time said that He was going to send the promise of the Father upon them. The disciples were to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. And at the end of Scripture we get "Let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely". Christ is the Head of every man in order that man may receive from Him the gift of living water.

I have attempted sometimes to show the distinction between Christ as Lord and as Head. As Lord, He, like Moses, presents to man the authority of God. Christ presents the authority of God because in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. As "Head" He is pre-eminent of men like Adam was to all the human race. Christ is the Head of every man, and He occupies that place that He may give to every man who recognises Him the living water. He does not have to say to those who do not recognise Him, but to every one who receives the testimony in His name He gives living water, in order that the Head may be law to us, that we may come under the influence of moral rule. This is the way in which God has recovered man, bringing him back to righteousness, which is the rule of the moral universe.

I would like you to turn for a moment to Romans 7:4, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should

be married to another, to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God". Mark the last clause. Again, "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, being dead in that wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter". That passage shows that we have by death got away from the law, that is the specific law, by the body of Christ, to be married to another, and now Christ has become law to us. We get into the influence of rule by being attached to another, to one who has been raised up from the dead. Then there is a passage in 1 Corinthians 6:17, "He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit". I have no doubt that both these passages hang on the fact that Christ has communicated to us the living water, the object of which is to attach us to Himself. In both passages the figure employed is that of a husband, and we have become joined to Christ as husband. He is husband to us. We are married to Him that we might bring forth fruit unto God. We have been brought thus into the way of righteousness, and fruit is the fruit of righteousness. You have been brought into man's orbit in relation to God and his neighbour, and all by being attached to the Lord. You bring forth fruit unto God.

Now as to Proverbs 8. I have no doubt that the chapter is prophetical and looks forward to the New Creation. What I understand by wisdom is resource. A man of wisdom is a man of resource, one who is not baffled by a difficulty or in an emergency. So Christ is spoken of as the wisdom of God, and in emergencies in things moral the resource of God is Christ. In the recovery of things God has effected everything by Christ. If it were a question of setting forth righteousness here upon earth in the path of a

Man, this was in Christ. If it were the accomplishment of righteousness in the bearing of judgment, this too was in Christ. If it were a question of raising up a Head who could communicate living water to man, this was in Christ. He is the expression of divine wisdom. Wisdom has become our Head, and what is important for us is that we have become children of wisdom. That is the divine way for us. By the living water we are attached to the Head; we are joined to Him. And it is but right that you should be attached to the One who bore your liabilities, the righteous One. You are joined to Him to bring forth fruit unto God. He is wisdom to us, He leads in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment; that He may cause those that love Him to inherit substance.

The more you enter into Christianity the more you see that it is morally right. It declares God. The divine and only possible way of grace has been to raise up a Head. Himself the righteous One, who has taken up man's liabilities in order that man, by the Spirit which Christ gives, may be attached to Christ; that He may lead us in the way of righteousness that we may bring forth fruit unto God. It says in Philippians, "Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God". The fruits were by Jesus Christ and not by the Philippians.

The righteousness of God expresses the rights of God. God has rights. He is love, and love is of God, and there are rights which thus belong to God. God is entitled to the supreme place in the affections of every intelligent creature. Christ bore the righteous judgment of God which lay upon man that these rights of God might have place.

I hope I have made things plain. I speak of these things because many amongst us are young, and I feel much for them. I see the enormous importance

of their apprehending Christianity as the declaration of what is right, and God's way is right and according to divine wisdom; and His way has been, not to attempt to reform man by eradicating the evil from man here, but in the raising up of a Head, to communicate living water that He may lead men in the way of righteousness.

The point for us is, have we accepted the drawing of Christ? The woman in John 4 was greatly drawn to Christ. The time had not come then for the communication of the living water, but she was greatly attracted by Christ. She had been in lawlessness, outside of moral rule, but she was drawn to Him, and she got into the way of righteousness by being drawn to the One who gave living water.

And it is the same with us. The gift of living water attaches us to the Head of every man. He leads us in the way of righteousness, you bring forth fruit unto God and you serve God, and He is entitled to be served in holiness and righteousness. Instead of being in lawlessness we are led in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment, we are caused to inherit substance instead of wind.

PEACE

Colossians 1:19, 20; Ephesians 2:13 - 18

My desire has been to present subjects with which we are all more or less familiar, from a moral rather than a dogmatic standpoint. I have spoken of righteousness, and now I come to another element in Christianity, and that is peace. I want to show what peace is, for like many Scripture terms, it is more or less relative, and it must be so, because it has come in consequent upon sin being here. Had sin and confusion not come into the world, there would not have been the same occasion for the light of grace to come in; and if grace has come in to meet certain things existing in the world, many terms must, of necessity, be relative. They must refer to something which is opposed and contrary to them here.

The term "righteousness" stands largely in contrast to sin, and "holiness" in contrast to defilement, impurity and uncleanness. Peace has come in in contrast to confusion and disturbance existing here.

The Lord spoke of peace, contrasting it with tribulation. "In the world ye have tribulation, but in me ye have peace". It has come in in contrast to confusion of which God is not author. "God is not the author of confusion, but of peace". We are in the midst of a world of confusion. Men may try to cover things up: they do this to the best of their ability, but confusion is there in spite of all they do, and will come out. In spite of legislation and political arrangements all the time confusion is in the world.

I speak of these things, because undoubtedly peace is a blessing which we are entitled to enjoy down here. Peace is the heritage of the people of God and the proper portion of the church at the present time.

You get the true idea of peace in "Let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to the which also you are called in one body". It is our blessed privilege to know God as dwelling here, Jew and Gentile having been builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit; and I am sure that everybody will allow that one element which must characterise God's dwelling is peace. I would not like my own house to be all confusion. I would like my household to be characterised by peace; and if my house should be marked by peace, what about the house of God? If my servants or my children were to take control of my household, it would bring in confusion, and the same is true in regard to God's house. The Lord said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you".

Now before I go further I may say that, of necessity, peace must follow upon righteousness. I made the remark on a previous occasion that righteousness is the law or rule of the moral universe, and the secret of righteousness is, that God is love. You cannot understand righteousness except you see that God is love and that love is of God, and it is intelligible that love gives its character to the rights of God. The rights of God are derived from what He is, and therefore I can very well understand that righteousness -- the rights of God -- is the necessary rule of the moral universe. An evidence of that is, that we are told of new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells. Peace is the effect of righteousness, and cannot be without righteousness. It is vain to look for peace unless God has His own proper place in the affections of every intelligent creature, and every subordinate relationship is maintained in its integrity according to God. The effect of righteousness is peace -- and I do not simply accept the statement, but can see that you could not have peace except there were righteousness, and the first principle of righteousness

is, that God has His rights: the supreme place in the affections of every intelligent creature.

Now just a word as to confusion. I have no doubt whatever that peace prevailed in Eden, God could look on His work and pronounce it all very good: there was no confusion when God had created all things and placed man in the midst according to His mind. And when He made the woman and brought her to the man, there was no confusion, such an element was not there. What brought the disturbance in was sin, the act of will; there was the breach of peace, and confusion became connected, from that moment, with alienation of man from God. God turned him out of the garden of Eden, and then everything was out of course; righteousness had been broken through and lawlessness was there. Then there was confusion, for wherever man seeks his own glory there must be confusion. Man makes himself an object and a centre, and that adds to the confusion: there can be no peace in that. If the creature gets out of the place of the creature, there cannot be peace. We can understand that in natural things. If a servant undertakes the control of a house there is confusion, things are upside down. If man exalts himself, and pride and arrogance thus come in, he has got out of the place of the creature. He does not look for the glory that comes only from God, but seeks His own, and there is confusion, the beginning of it being in man departed from God at the outset. Man was bent on building the tower of Babel. The meaning of the word 'Babel' is confusion, for there God brought in confusion of language. Man brought moral confusion in at the beginning, and was adding to it in his purpose to build a city and a tower to make a name for himself, and God came in, confounding their speech. In result there came into the world national antipathy and all that kind of thing, which has filled the earth with confusion. God allowed that to come in as a

check upon the development of evil on earth; but the confusion was not of God, it was on the part of man. When man arrogates to himself glory which belongs to God, it seems to me that there must be confusion. There can be no true glory of which God is not the fountain.

Now the climax of confusion is found in the man of sin. What will mark his time will be that men say "Peace and safety" when there is no peace, for God will have no peace in that order of things. We read in 2 Thessalonians of the apostasy, and of the man of sin being revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he himself sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God; there is the climax of confusion. There is every possible element of disturbance, and if men say "Peace and safety", God will not allow peace, the whole thing will be blown upon, and it will be a moment of persecution undoubtedly for the people of God, and, as far as man is concerned, it will result in sudden destruction, which will come upon the world as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.

So far I have touched on two or three salient points in connection with moral confusion in the world. It came in through man becoming alienated from God: it brought trouble into every relationship of life down here. You get the progress of it in Babel, and the climax in the man of sin. Not only will God be refused, but there will be a grave breach of the relationships which God has established in the world. We get striking thoughts of that in the book of Revelation.

Now we have the contrast to that in what is proper to Christians. God is the God of peace, and the God of peace will bruise Satan under our feet shortly. God is not the author of confusion but of peace. He is spoken of many times as the God of peace, and also

as the author of peace. If God is the God of peace, surely peace belongs properly to God's house, and I want to bring before you how peace can be enjoyed by us in the midst of a scene of moral confusion. I do not expect, in the present time, to see any improvement in the scene: if men refuse what is of God they must have confusion. But it is a great thing to apprehend that God's mind, in regard to His people, is peace.

If you refer to the verses in Colossians 1 again (Colossians 1:19, 20), you read, "For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven". That passage makes it plain that the object in making peace was to bring about reconciliation, and reconciliation was to be brought about by Him. These two little words are often overlooked in the passage.

In Ephesians 2:13 we get, "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace" -- it does not say He made peace, but He is our peace -- "who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace". That is not the thought of making peace by the blood of His cross, it is making peace in Himself.

In connection with Christ there are evidently three thoughts as to peace. The first is, that He made peace; the second, that He is peace; and the third, He gives His own peace. "My peace I give unto you", He said to His disciples.

In regard to the first, I suppose the reference is to the peace-offering. There were three offerings which went together -- the burnt-offering, the meat-offering,

and the peace-offering. I leave aside for the moment offerings which were connected with restoration: offerings for sin; they were of a different character; the normal offerings were the three I have named.

The meaning and value of the burnt-offering was acceptance with God. Man by it obtained acceptance with God. The burnt-offering took account of sin in its consequence of death. Sin was met, and righteousness established by the offering, and man found acceptance with God in righteousness. In the meat-offering the point is of pure humanity in the righteous One. In order to have the series completed, we get the peace-offering, and that sets forth that peace is made, the source of disturbance having been removed. In the death of Christ, not simply has God been glorified in regard to righteousness, but confusion has been removed, and there is peace both for God and for man.

Most will remember that the burnt-offering was never eaten: it was all, save the skin, burnt upon the altar; it was a question of the establishing and witnessing the righteousness of God. As to the peace-offering, it was eaten partly by the offerer and partly by the priest. The offerer came into communion with God in the peace-offering, and there you get the beginning of peace; and, it seems to me, a blessed thought that, whatever we see in the world, the removal of the cause of the existing confusion has been effected before God in the death of Christ.

What do you think is the cause of disturbance in the world? It is man after the flesh, and man has been removed in the death of Christ. He has made peace by the blood of His cross, for sin in the flesh has been condemned before God and for God. Peace subsists for God and for those who eat the offering.

If I look at things with the sight of my eyes, I see plenty of confusion; but, at the same time, if I withdraw my attention from things around, and have regard to what has been effected for God, I see that

the source and cause have been removed sacrificially from under the eye of God: that man is gone. Sin has been put away by the sacrifice of Christ; and not only that, but the man who sought his own glory has been removed in the death of Christ.

But after all there is a weak point in every type. No type can come up to the reality. You never could get in any type the priest and the victim consisting in one. Under the law such a thing was an impossibility. In Christ it is essential that they are One. He offered Himself without spot to God by the eternal Spirit, and this is a point of the last moment, for though you could not get the revival of the victim, you do of the priest.

You do not get a type of resurrection in the offerings, and resurrection is not in the victim, for even Christ, as Victim, was not revived. Sin was condemned in the flesh, and it is in that connection that Christ stood as Victim. He is revived as Priest in the power of an endless life. The Victim has gone, and in the Victim is the end of all the moral confusion. The One who offered Himself without spot to God is revived, not as victim, but as Priest, and that One is our peace. Peace is made by the blood of His cross -- the disturbance has gone. It is a great thing to eat the offering and to enjoy it with God, for our souls delight in the way which God has taken to remove the confusion, we can enjoy that even in the midst of this world. I can retire into communion with God, and feed upon the offering of Christ; and the One who offered Himself by the eternal Spirit without spot to God, is revived from the dead, and is our peace.

We come now to Ephesians 2, "He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition ... For through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father". The One who is revived from the dead has communicated of His Spirit to all who believe in the testimony of

God. Jew and Gentile have received the Spirit to set aside practically in them the flesh. Do you think that Christ, raised again from the dead, can tolerate that which He has died to set aside? It is a moral impossibility. If we allow the will of the flesh to intrude, we bring about distance between Christ and ourselves practically, because Christ has given to us of His Spirit that we might participate in Himself; that we might be attracted and drawn to Himself, to be led by Him in the way of righteousness. That is what Christ has wrought to do.

We ought to have the most profound delight in the One who offered Himself for us without spot to God. All that was represented in the Victim has been removed for God, and the One who offered Himself has been revived as Priest; and all that He did, before He went back to God and since, has been to attach the hearts of His people to Himself that they may be led in the way of righteousness, and the effect of that is peace. Peace is God-ward, but there is also peace between Jew and Gentile, and that could only be brought about in one way -- by Christ.

Christ came preaching peace. He virtually preached Himself. It is the bringing in of another Man. He came preaching peace to them who were far off -- that was the Gentile; and to them who were nigh -- the Jew; and now we both have access to the Father through Him. We enjoy access to the Father as we are attached to Christ. The closer we are to Him the more we enjoy it. You will remember the words of the Lord Jesus in John 16:27, "For the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God". What we want in order to enjoy access to the Father, and what ought to mark us, is faith and love. This is the effect of Christ having His proper place in the hearts of His people.

We are not to judge of things in the world by the

sight of the eyes. If we do we are in danger of being affected by that which is passing around us. There is an element in man which answers to any kind of excitement abroad, and man, at the bottom of his heart, does not care much for peace: he is more at home in disturbance. Men may talk about peace, but it really is not wholly congenial. I think that men would almost prefer to live in the atmosphere of disturbance and excitement. When the Lord cast the legion of devils out of the demoniac, the Gadarenes desired Him to depart out of their coasts. He brought about peace, but they were more content with the demoniac and the swine than with the presence of Christ. I do not think people want peace in a general way, and for the reason that man is lawless, and has too much concern for his own will.

We want to stand apart from all that is passing in the world, taking care that our spirits are not affected by it; to watch and be before God that we may be kept free in spirit from the things about us, whatever they are, for no influence in the world tends in the direction of peace. And we eat the peace-offering: so as to be in the sense of that which has been effected for God and for man in the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not only that we have acceptance with God, but that the cause of disturbance and confusion has been removed in the death of Christ from under the eye of God to make room for Christ, who is our peace. If God removed the old man in the death of Christ, it was in order to make room for Christ, that He might occupy the place where the old man had been. If our old man is crucified with Christ, Christ is to get the place with us. Unless we are in the light of divine love I am sure that we shall not walk in peace with one another. If we walk in the presence and light of God as He has revealed Himself then we can, in the Spirit, be in peace with one another. Disturbance may come in between saints, and then

we have to judge ourselves in regard of righteousness. But there is no disturbance in the Spirit of Christ. There is peace in Christ, and He is our peace, and there is not the possibility there of confusion and disturbance coming in. These can only come in from the man who is alienated from God; and if, on the one hand, we accept that the cause of confusion and disturbance has been removed, on the other, it is for us to give place to the Spirit of Christ, to walk in the light which Christ has brought, and, in the Spirit, so to order our conduct toward one another.

Supposing you find two saints alienated from one another, it is a practical denial of what we get here. Christ has made both one, and there must be something there which is not of Christ. We shall never get at peace in regard to one another except by the practical exclusion of the old man in the introduction of the Spirit of Christ. There is nothing more important to impress upon saints than that, righteousness being established, they are entitled to walk in the light of divine love, and the effect of that is peace, not only in regard of God, but in regard of one another. There is nothing which practically excludes the flesh except the light of divine love. You may depend upon it, if there are differences between one and another down here they never come from divine love. Those under its influence would not be content to nourish differences.

Just a word now in regard to Christ's peace. In Colossians 3:15 it says, "Let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful". What I understand by the peace of Christ is what must, of necessity, be within, that is, perfect complacency in the will of God. I am speaking now of Christ as Man who could say, "Thy law is within my heart". Another element of it is knowledge of divine power to give effect to that will. Those two things must, I judge, go together to

make up the peace of Christ. The will of God is good and perfect and acceptable, and there is complacency in that will; it could not be otherwise with Christ. He was in that will, having become man to give effect to it. Then there is not simply intelligence in the will but complacency, and the consciousness of divine power to give effect to it. That is the secret of the peace of Christ. If I had the idea that the will of God is good, perfect and acceptable, but had not the consciousness of the power which can give effect to that will, I would not have peace. We want confidence in the power of God to give effect to His will; and that is what governed in the mind of Christ in His pathway through this scene.

We are to stand complete in all the will of God, and in assurance of heart that God has power to give effect to His will, and the result will be that we shall be without disturbance, the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts to the which also we are called in one body. Christ gave that peace to His disciples. "My peace I give unto you", He said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in me ye have peace".

Peace is a moral element in Christianity, and it must be the effect of righteousness. If there be not righteousness, the maintenance of divinely-appointed relationships in integrity, God will not tolerate peace. "There is no peace for the wicked". If there be righteousness, then I can understand that peace follows upon it, "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit".

It is most important to see the place that Christ has in relation to peace; how He has come in, in the cross, to remove the cause of confusion, and there is now peace by Him between those who were by nature very far separated, Jew and Gentile. We were all very far separated from one another, we were not of the same kindred, but Christ has come in to displace practically in us what He removed in the cross. The

old man was removed in the cross, and the Spirit of Christ is come in to effect the setting aside of the old man in us, that there may be no room for anything but Christ. If there is distance between saints there is a defect on the point of righteousness, not simply on the point of love. There is the allowance of the flesh, that which has been removed in Christ's death, and that is not righteousness. The great part of our difficulties is not as regards affection, but as regards righteousness, practical righteousness, the fruit of which is peace.

Christ has made peace, He is our peace, and He gives to us His peace that we may walk in quietness and sobriety down here, having complacency in the will of God, and, at the same time, confidence in God that He is able, in due season, to give effect to His will. Thus will the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.

TRUTH

John 1:17, 18; 8: 31, 32; 1 John 2:18 - 25; 5: 6

The subject before me is Truth. And it is in the line of what I have taken up on previous occasions. It is of the greatest importance to get at the moral elements of Christianity. The tendency has always been to cast the truth in a kind of mould, and thus it becomes stereotyped, and is set forth too dogmatically. And when taken up in that way there is danger of losing the moral character of Christianity.

I have on previous occasions spoken of righteousness and peace. Perhaps truth is the most important element of all. If there is a revelation from God it is truth, and if there is not truth there is no revelation of God, and God is unknown.

The simplest person must see the necessity of every principle to which I have referred. Righteousness means that there is an orbit appointed for man in which he can travel according to God. It is in contrast to lawlessness. Lawlessness cannot be right. Such a thing does not exist in natural things, and how can it be right in moral things. No one can pretend that for a creature to be outside the law or rule of God is anything else but lawlessness. In this universe every planet is governed by natural laws or rule, and so in the moral universe, there must be rule. Grace has come in that man may be brought into the appointed path. Wisdom has brought us into the way of righteousness, and righteousness is what is morally right. God may allow evil things to go on for a time, but in the long run there can be but one result; there is nothing possible but righteousness, unless God is wicked or weak, and no one could believe that; but if God is good, in result righteousness must be brought in. The Christian is looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Last time I spoke of peace. Peace is the consequence of righteousness. When righteousness is brought in there is an end to moral confusion, and peace subsists because the cause of disturbance has been removed from under the eye of God. It is the privilege of Christians to eat the peace-offering, that is, to be in communion with the death of Christ in which the cause of disturbance has been removed from before the eye of God.

Now I come to truth. There are many people in the world who echo the words of Pilate, "What is truth?" and some who would make you believe that, while disregarding revelation, they are searching after truth. And what competency has man to search after truth? It is a very long search, and without result, because it is not possible for man to find out God. Man cannot be certain that any conclusion of his mind in moral things can be absolutely right, and so no man can be absolutely certain that he has arrived at truth. Men may say plenty of true things, but that is not truth. The greatest philosopher cannot unveil to you what God is. God is hid behind a veil, and man cannot tear that veil away; and if he could come to certainty in regard to that which lies within the range of scientific knowledge he would not be a bit nearer knowing God. He would only be brought to more perplexity in regard of this.

Now in natural things there are certain laws in operation which are unvarying and there is no confusion; but in things moral I see confusion enough. The reconciliation of all this I must leave to others. Whatever insight I might have into the works of God in creation, and as to the operation of natural laws, could not possibly unveil to me the nature of God: and can never make known to me what the relations of man are to God. There is a good deal of pretension in the present day on the part of man to knowledge, but it is futile and not likely to lead to any good result.

Truth is not to be found by the searching of man. Man has lost God and got into lawlessness and sin, and hence all the searching in the universe can never find out God! It is impossible.

I can speak of truth in contrast to that. We read in John 1 that "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ", and "No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him". The declaration of God is truth. If I were to give a definition of truth, I should say that truth is the expression of right things as they are. If you want to get at truth you must get at things expressed as they are. In that light you can understand very simply that truth came by Jesus Christ, that He is the truth. He is the way, the truth and the life. It is not simply that He is true; He is true, God is true, but Christ is the truth. He is the expression of things as they are, whether as to God or man.